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64 Part One Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise

Discussion Questions

1. Information systems are too important to be left 3. What are some of the organizational, managerial,
to computer specialists. Do you agree? Why or and social complementary assets that help make
why not? UPS’s information systems so successful?
2. If you were setting up the Web site for Disney
World visitors, what management, organization,
and technology issues might you encounter?

Hands-On MIS Projects
The projects in this section give you hands-on experience in analyzing financial reporting and inventory
management problems, using data management software to improve management decision making about
increasing sales, and using Internet software for researching job requirements.
Management Decision Problems

1. Snyders of Hanover, which sells about 80 million bags of pretzels, snack chips, and organic snack items each
year, had its financial department use spreadsheets and manual processes for much of its data gathering and
reporting. Hanover’s financial analyst would spend the entire final week of every month collecting
spreadsheets from the heads of more than 50 departments worldwide. She would then consolidate and
re-enter all the data into another spreadsheet, which would serve as the company’s monthly profit-and-loss
statement. If a department needed to update its data after submitting the spreadsheet to the main office, the
analyst had to return the original spreadsheet, then wait for the department to re-submit its data before
finally submitting the updated data in the consolidated document. Assess the impact of this situation on
business performance and management decision making.
2. Dollar General Corporation operates deep-discount stores offering housewares, cleaning supplies, clothing,
health and beauty aids, and packaged food, with most items selling for $1. Its business model calls for
keeping costs as low as possible. The company has no automated method for keeping track of inventory at
each store. Managers know approximately how many cases of a particular product the store is supposed to
receive when a delivery truck arrives, but the stores lack technology for scanning the cases or verifying the
item count inside the cases. Merchandise losses from theft or other mishaps have been rising and now
represent over 3 percent of total sales. What decisions have to be made before investing in an information
system solution?

Improving Decision Making: Using Databases to Analyze Sales Trends
Software skills: Database querying and reporting
Business skills: Sales trend analysis
In this project, you will start out with raw transactional sales data and use Microsoft Access database
software to develop queries and reports that help managers make better decisions about product pricing,
sales promotions, and inventory replenishment. In MyMISLab, you can find a Store and Regional
Sales Database developed in Microsoft Access. The database contains raw data on weekly store sales
of computer equipment in various sales regions. The database includes fields for store identification
number, sales region, item number, item description, unit price, units sold, and the weekly sales period
when the sales were made. Use Access to develop some reports and queries to make this information
more useful for running the business. Sales and production managers want answers to the following
questions:

• Which products should be restocked?
• Which stores and sales regions would benefit from a promotional campaign and additional marketing?
• When (what time of year) should products be offered at full price, and when should discounts be used?

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