(i) Sales and marketing.
Sales Management Information Systems
A major objective of sales managers is to reach the sales goals set by top management. To
accomplish this objective, sales managers must make many tactical decisions. To make these
decisions effectively, sales managers should have at their disposal a great deal of data about the
sales histories of each salesperson, territory product, and market segment. Sales Management
information Systems provide the managers with this data. Managers can use these data to
develop reports analysing sales activities that help them make decisions about salespeople,
territories, products and customers and to control current campaigns.
Advertising and Promotion Information Systems
Advertising and promotional tactics also need to be developed by marketing managers to
implement strategic sales goals set by top management. Managers must decide which advertising
media and promotional devices to use to reach the selected market segments, when these media
and devices should be used, and what overall mix of promotional activities should be deployed to
achieve sales goals. Advertising and promotion information systems assist managers in these
tasks.
Product pricing Information Systems
These provide information to managers that help them set prices for their products and services.
The marketing manager usually selects a price that will at least recover production costs, but the
price chosen is constrained by the prices of competitors for similar products or services and for
alternative products or services.
Distribution Channel Decision Support Systems
A distribution channel decision support system should provide information on the costs of using
the various distribution channels, the time lags caused by the various channels, the reliability of
the various channels in delivering the products and services, and the market segment saturation
provided by the channels. it should also track the demand and inventory at all levels of the
distribution channels so that the manager may anticipate excess inventories or shortfalls.
(ii) Personnel management.
Employee Information Systems
The human resource department must maintain information on each of the organisation's
employees for a variety of decision making and reporting purposes
Position Control Systems
A job is usually defined as a group of identical positions. A position, on the other hand, consists
of tasks performed by one worker. The purpose of a position control system is to identify each
position in the organization, the job title within which the position is classified, and the employee
currently assigned to the position. Reference to the position control system allows a human
resource manager to identify the details about unfilled positions.
Applicant Selection and Placement Information Systems
After jobs and the employee requirements for those jobs have been identified and after a suitable
pool of job candidates has been recruited, the candidates must be screened, evaluated, selected,
and placed in the positions that are open: The primary purpose of the applicants' selection and
placement information system is to assist human resource staff in these tasks.
Perforniance Management information Systems
These include performance appraisal data and productivity information data. Data is frequently
used as evidence in employee grievance matters.. Careful documentation of employee
perfonnance,and of how the performance was measured and reported is critical to acceptance of
appraisal information in grievance hearings. Performance management information can lead to a
number of decisions beyond merely supporting the operational decision to retain, promote,
transfer or terminate a single employee.
Job Analysis and Design Information Systems-
The information inputs to the job analySis and design information system include data from
interviews with supervisors and workers and affirmative action guidelines. Inputs also include
information from sources external to the firm, such as labour unions, competitors and
government from sources external to the firm, such as labour unions, competitors, and
government agencies. The outputs of the job analysis information system are job descriptions
and job specifications. These outputs provide managers with the basis for many tactical human
resource decisions.
Recruiting Information Systems
To direct the recruiting function, the organisation needs to develop a recruiting plan. The plan
specifies the positions to be filled and the skills required of the employees for these positions. To
develop the plan and to monitor its success, a recruiting information system is necessary to
collect and process the many different types of information needed to construct the plan,
including a list of unfilled positions; the duties and requirements of these positions; lists of
planned employee retirements, transfers, or terminations; information about the skills and
preferences of current employees; and summaries of employee appraisals.
(iii) Management accounting
Forecasting and Statistical Software
Many financial analysis tasks involve forecasting future events and require that you use
statistical tools. Selecting statistical or forecasting software to aid you in tactical-level decisions
and long range planning require that you carefully analyse what your applications require.
Quality Control Software
Quality Control Software typically includes statistical software tailored to the needs of quality
control tasks. For example, quality control software may produce control charts and Pareto
diagrams.
Spread sheet Software
Spread sheet software allows the manager to design partially completed tables or forms called
templates, which contain the headings and names of the items in the spread sheet. The templates
also contain the formulas used to calculate column or row totals, column or row averages and
other statistical quantities on the values entered into the template.
Materials Requirements Planning Systems
Inventory management can be taken a step further so that the system automatically produces
purchase orders for stock that needs to be reordered. The processes of identifying stock that
planned production calls for, determining the lead time to get the stock from suppliers,
calculating safety stock levels, calculating the most cost-effective order quantities, and then
producing purchase orders for those stock items in the right amounts at the right times to ensure
that the stock will be on hand when it is needed is known as materials requirements planning
(MRP).
Kavungya answered the question on May 18, 2019 at 08:15