Advanced Mobile Communications

“What advantages would the proposed Advanced Mobile Communications and Information System provide for Whitman Price Consulting? What problems might it assist in eliminating?”

Several advantages to an information system would respond directly to what Whitmann Price Consulting help their clients with. Such as creating a sustainable business, managing assets, operating globally, and most importantly responding to change. Management Information Systems (MIS) are used by organizations to track, store, manipulate and distribute information to the appropriate people when necessary. Using a management information system would enable a business to streamline their operations into a cohesive functioning unit. MIS support business decision making by providing management with critical data. They serve to enhance the organization’s communication, reduce human labor, support short- and long-term business goals and distribute complex information.

The advantages to an information system are essentially strengthening what Whittmann Price Consulting strives to do for its clients. One important advantage is globalization. Information technology has not only brought the world closer together, but it has allowed the world’s economy to become a single interdependent system. Meaning, that we can not only share information quickly and efficiently, but we can also bring down barriers of linguistic and geographic boundaries. The world has developed into a global village due to the help of information technology allowing countries like France and India who are not only separated by distance but also by language to shares ideas and information with each other.

“Why do you think Josh and Sandra have been asked to interview the managers of the six business units within WPC as a first step? As IT professionals, Josh, Sandra, and their boss Matt know much more about technology and information systems than the heads of the business units. Shouldn’t they be able to design the system without suggestions from amateurs? Including more people in the planning stage is sure to complicate the process.”

People are the most important piece in computer-based information systems. While Matt, Josh, and Sandra are IT professionals, it’s important that they listen to what the end user may like because these are the people who will be working with the systems to get end results. The people that Josh and Sandra will be interviewing will be people such as financial executives. Josh and Sandra will need to take the feedback from the people they interview and develop a system with those people in mind to make an effective information system for the company.

If you were Josh or Sandra, what questions would you ask the heads of the six business units?

I would ask things such as, “what sort of things are you wanting to see your department grow in?” and “where do you want to see your unit in 2 years, 5 years, etc.” While those questions may seem very general and job interview-ish I don’t want to overload them with technical terms that they don’t understand. Based on their answers I would target specific things to get them to elaborate and expand on what they want, with that non-technical answer and the skills I have as an IT professional I translate that into something I could work with when developing the information system. If you were Josh or Sandra, what additional research might you request of your IT staff at this point?

I would request research on how to best implement the information system and roll it out. Their options to rolling out would be: Direct cut – The new system replaces the old at an appointed time. Pilot study – Introducing the new system to a small portion of the company to see how it fares. If it’s good then the new system expands to the rest of the company. Phased approach – New system is introduced in stages.

Based on their findings I could best assess how to implement the new system.