Assignment Submitted By: BMIT 5103 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR MANAGERS NOVEMBER 2016 PART 1: CENTRAL EXCHANGE LIMITED - (THE ORGANISATION) Central Exchange Limited (CXL) was incorporated in Western Australia in 2007 with Liaison/Commercial Office in Islamabad. Central Exchange Limited (CXL) is a private company owned by Pakistan based Invertors with focus on projects in remote areas of Pakistan for social and economic uplifting of these areas. CXL welcomes and prefer the native peoples of those areas to work for its projects. CXL is involved in Exploration of Coal & Metallic Minerals in Pakistan. In addition to own exploration project, company also provides exploration services (i.e. Geological Studies, Geophysical Studies & Exploratory Drilling etc.) to other junior exploration and mining companies in Pakistan. CXL is a matrix type organization and have following departments: 1. Exploration Department a. Mineral Exploration Unit b. Coal Exploration Unit 2. Drilling Department 3. Geophysics Department 4. Business Development Department 5. Project Management Department Following are the active projects of Central Exchange Limited (CXL): 1. Exploration of Metallic Minerals in District Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Project is at Execution Stage) 2. Exploration of copper in Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) (Project is at pre-feasibility stage) 3. Exploration of Coal in District Sahiwal, Punjab Province (Project is at Execution Stage) CXL is making a significant investment in mineral & coal sector of Pakistan and has a dynamic team and field staff having professional exposure and expertise in coal and minerals' exploration. In addition to regular team members, a number of reputable local and international technical consultants / subject matter experts (SMEs) are also part of CXL's projects. CXL has following project offices in different areas of Pakistan to run and manage different mineral exploration related projects.  Project Office Drosh(District Chitral, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province)  Project Office Upper Dir (District Upper Dir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province)  Project Office Sahiwal(District Shaiwal, Punjab Province)  Project Office Gilgit (District Gilgit, Gilgit Baltistan Province) CXL also represents Pakistan Mineral Industry at International Exhibition & Forums such like 'China Mining Congress & Expo', 'Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) Annual International Convention and Exhibition', 'Mines & Money Conference' and 'Mining Partnering Conference' etc. The Organization ideology is to progress as per International Best Practices with mutual benefits of company as well as employees. As per the new vision provided by top management of the company, CXL now always encourages and provides chances to fresh and inexperience youth to learn and lead, as CXL would like to train the young generation from experience of seasoned experienced personnel and equally want to equip the company with modern state of art technologies. Organizational Structure of Central Exchange Limited PART 2: EVOLUTION OF INFORMATION SYSTEM If we look back into the history and the development of the Information Systems (IS) over the past many years discloses from where the field took its start and how far it has arrived. We can see that during this time, a new field has emerged with innovation in handling and manipulating data digitally (i.e. data storage, data analysis, data manipulation, data transmission, data conversions into information and reports etc.) to help in decision making and building systems to link people, businesses, processes, companies, industries and markets. DEFINITION: COMPONENTS OF INFORMATION SYSTEM Peppard (2016) stated that both information technology and information system are compulsory for growth of any organization and country. Information system refers to the utilization of Information technology in a best manner by human and organizations, human and organizations also collect the information, store, use and transfer it for better use. It was further been stated that information system was already in the market before then invention of Information technology that Corley deals with software and hardware. Information system is also deals with human languages, interactions and continuous changes in technology. Information system is an academic study of systems with a specific reference to information and the complementary networks of hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create and also distribute data. (As per Wikipedia) A combination of hardware, software, infrastructure and trained personnel organized to facilitate planning, control, coordination, and decision making in an organization. (As per Businessdirectory.com) Information is derived from meaningful interpretation of data. Data consists of the raw facts representing events occurring in the organization before they are organized into an understandable and useful form for humans. An Information System can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. Another definition of an Information system (by Buckingham et al (1987b) is : A system which assembles, stores, processes, and delivers information relevant to an organization (or to a society), in such a way that the information is accessible and useful to those who wish to use it, including managers, staff, clients and citizens." HISTORY OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS The history of information systems (IS) only span five decades. Yet from its inception, IS has done more to expand business and industry into global markets than any other convention in history. Today the backbone of IS is known as the World Wide Web, Internet, or with a business a Local Area Network (LAN), along with lists of acronym buzz word; EDI, EIS, ERP, SCM and host of others to describe new ways in which IS can be employed to grow business. Contrary to the speed of information today, just over forty years ago, the business climate in United States was experiencing post-war growth much like it had never seen. Much of the experience that grew the economy had been learned during World War Two in tooling up the nations industries into producing an effective war machine. The field that developed out of this push to win the war was Operations Research (OR). When the war end those involved with OR were released from government work, thus unleashing an experienced and highly skilled field, like no other in history, into business and industry, which launched the US into a era of prosperity and growth that lasted over twenty-years. World War Two also saw the birth of the first practical computers or Turing Machines, which were responsible for cracking the German codes and giving the allies advanced warning of enemy movements. By today's standards these first practical computers were not that practical, half a million dollars and far less powerful than a pocket calculator which today purchased for under ten dollars. However these first computers gave Operations Researchers the power they needed to begin simulate larger and more complicated systems which in business and industry help greatly to hone uses capital expenditures into profitable ventures. This background from the early days of simulation, OR, and new technologies birthed studies into the areas of what became known as Information Systems. The History of Information Systems in Business Year Main activities Skills required 1970s Mainframe computers were used Computers and data were centralized Systems were tied to a few business functions: payroll, inventory, billing Main focus was to automate existing processes Programming in COBOL 1980s PCs and LANs are installed Departments set up own computer systems End-user computing with Word Processors and Spreadsheets makes departments less dependent on the IT department Main focus is automating existing processes PC support, basic networking 1990s Wide Area Networks (WANs) become corporate standards Senior management looks for system integration and data integration. No more stand-alone systems. Main focus is central control and corporate learning Network support, systems integration, database administration 2000s Wide Area Networks expand via the Internet to include global enterprises and business partners – supply chain and distribution Senior management looks for data sharing across systems. Main focus is efficiencies and speed in inventory, manufacturing, distribution Network support, systems integration PART 3: KEY PROBLEMS Following are some of the key problems being faced by CXL in their exploration programs; we will discuss each of them one by one by analyzing them in connection to their impact on company's objectives and goals: 1) Disorganized Exploration Data 2) Breakdown due to consumable and spare unavailability / shortage 3) Resource Wastage & Poor Inventory Management 4) Poor Planning, Monitoring and Control Process 1) DISORGANIZED DATA During different exploration activities, huge data is being collected in shape of topographic, geological, geochemical, structural, geophysical, drilling data about the potential areas under investigation / exploration. Management's decisions whether to proceed with detailed exploration or not are based on all collected exploration data. Data analysis and extraction of useful information/reports out of explored data is always a great challenge and time consuming task for middle management & relevant team. Top management wants to see the information and reports based on different criteria to make strategic decisions. The responsible team always has to repeat their work and analysis to fulfill every new criteria defined by top management due to manual working system. As per desires of executives, the data is plotted on maps manually and to meet each of the requirements, sometimes they have to start from scratch to build a map or to summarized results / outcomes. This problem is badly affecting CXL's projects and has very bad impact on the company as it is adding to resource and time wastage, re-work and delays, wrong decision, which are ultimately affecting CXL's objectives and goals. 2) BREAKDOWN DUE TO UNAVAILABILITY/SHORTAGE OF CONSUMABLES AND SPARES CXL often faces problem of breakdown during Exploratory Drilling for their projects as well for their client's due to shortage/unavailability of spares and consumables at remote drill sites. This problem always enhances the cost of drilling a hole as this idle time adds to site expenses without giving any benefit in shape of drilling holes and recovering core. When we analyze the reason, we came to know that the poor supply chain management is in place in CXL. Most of the times, the drilling crew communicate their requirements verbally on telephonic conversations. Also there is manual inventory management system is in place, which has errors and poor control. Again this key problem is a reason for additional cost and time wastage, which is ultimately affecting the targets and goals. 3) RESOURCE WASTAGE & POOR INVENTORY MANAGEMENT As already discussed, Poor Inventory Management is in place and everything is being handled manually without having any centralized control and monitoring. Due to poor check and balance, every project has a major portion of cost due to resource wastage. Resource wastage and poor inventory management has also become reason for delay in completion of projects in addition to adding cost. Two of CXL's projects had been closed without completion due to long delay. One of the reasons was non-availability of right items at right time. This is also one of the major problems which need attention and CXL has to manage it to complete its projects in time and on budget. 4) POOR PLANNING, MONITORING AND CONTROL PROCESS Most of the times, project planning is carried out verbally and recorded manually. Due to paper based plans only, it is very difficult to track the changes and follow the plan. The assignment of responsibilities and resources is also carried out verbally so performance evaluation and monitoring is also difficult. The poor project planning, work assignments and resource allocation leads the projects to delay and over budget. CXL also faces problems in individual's performance appraisals. PART 4: THREE TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEM I suggest following three systems as solution for the above mentioned key problems as CXL: 1. Geographical Information System (GIS) 2. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System 3. Project Management Information System (PMIS) 1) GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM (GIS): Geographical Information System is the solution for handling large amount of exploration data. It can easily handles & integrates different type of Exploration Data (i.e. Geological Data, Satellite Imageries, Geological Maps, Geochemical Data in shape of excel sheets, Geochemical Maps, Geophysical Data as well as images, Drilling data and mineral deposit information etc.) and can also digitize and generate various types of maps (i.e. Geological Maps, Topographic Maps, Geophysical Maps, Topographic Maps, Geochemical Samples Location Maps etc.). GIS also helps in superimposing all data to determine the drill-hole positions based on Geological, Geochemical and Geophysical Studies. GIS will also help top management to see the data in the shape of their required information, maps and reports. GIS organizes the data in such a way that top management can read a map with their required parameters to make decisions about further exploration strategies. GIS maps also has table of contents that will allow responsible team to add information to a base-map of real-world locations as per requirements from top management. Maps digitized or generated in GIS are interactive and are very useful in presentations to management. It has all customized settings like zoom in or out, different directions and rotation of map. We can also change the type of the information contained in the map. GIS will 100% resolve many problems at CXL during handling, processing, analyzing the data and presenting information / reports to top management for strategic planning and decision making. 2) ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP) SYSTEM ERP System consists of automated supply chain and procurement processes using Internet or intranet based technologies and applications can be used at CXL to overcome and solve the problems like Resource Wastage, Poor Inventory Management, shortage / unavailability of consumables and spare. It will also help in planning, monitoring & control. It allows for the automation of internal business processes to provide a platform that supports procurement people globally to exchange information easily and efficiently, streamline the global sourcing process; reduce time and cost without compromising standards and quality. CXL can have following benefits from this system:  High Productivity  Increased Efficiency  Reduced downtime  Reduced Cost & Transaction Time  Minimum Inventory Costs  Efficient Inventory System  Easy Product Selection & Order Placing 3) PROJECT MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS (PMIS) The Project Management Information System (PMIS) is an application / tool that can help CXL project teams to plan, schedule, monitor and report on their projects efficiently. CXL can choose Microsoft Project or Oracle Primavera as a computer based PMIS to aid their project managers in the planning and development of the projects at CXL. It will help project managers at CXL to plan and schedule their projects and then during execution it will help in tracking, monitoring and control. It will help in calculation of schedules, costs, expectations, and likely results. Any PMIS tool cannot replace the expert judgment of the project manager and project team; however, it will automate the planning process, which will organize the planning & monitoring and provide better control on the processes. Using PMIS at CXL, the project managers can better do the assignment of responsibilities and resource allocation. It will enhance the project planning, work assignments and resource allocation which will leads to in-time and on-budget completion of projects. It will also help in team performance appraisals. PART 5: CONCLUSION In fact the entire concept of Information systems development revolves around the users - their needs, performance expectations, requirements and other specifications. If we review business needs, project performance expectations and other requirements of CXL to match their strategic business objectives and goals, we can conclude that there is an urgent need of existence of proposed information systems i.e. Geographical Information System (GIS), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System and Project Information Management System (PIMS), to meet CXL's business strategies and objectives. These proposed systems will increase the chances of project completion successfully. It is very essential for CXL that the databases satisfy the requirements of the different users; otherwise they will continue with their own approach and CXL could not get the real essence & benefits of information systems and thereby the purpose of the central database could become useless. The key element in this concept of introducing three information systems is that each subsystem utilizes the same database in the satisfaction of its information needs. This will yield an additional significant advantage - the integration of departments and functions. Thus each department, through its access and interface with the total information resources of the company, gains a greater understanding and appreciation of how its actions and plans affect others throughout the organization. An important question that can be raised is why it is important to analyze and design information systems before you build them. Why can't you build the information systems directly? The main reasons are: 1. It is important to build the information systems that the users really need. You don't know what they really need if you don't start with some kind of analysis and design. 2. It is a waste of resources to build information systems without sufficiently good "blueprints" because it takes more time and yields worse results if you don't have blueprints. Analysis and design is performed to meet information needs. If it is required to arrive at models that describe information systems that the users really need, then interest groups (or user groups) generally have to participate in the work. Another reason for performing analysis and design is that those who participate in such work learn much about the new information systems. To be able to use information systems requires knowledge about how these systems work. Participating in the analysis and design work is one way of obtaining such knowledge. These proposed systems will improve the overall business productivity meeting the strategic objectives and coals; saving costs and resources with better decision making. REFERENCES - History of Information Systems in Business, Retrieved from http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/wresch/311IShistory.htm http://www.uh.edu/~mrana/try.htm#HIS - Rajiv D. Banker & Robert J. Kauffman The Evolution of Research on Information Systems: A Fiftieth-Year Survey of the Literature in Management Science Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.197.8403&rep=rep1&type=pdf - Wikipedia. (2015). Information System. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Information_system - Business Directory. Information System. Retrieved from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/information-system.html P. (16, July 01). Retrieved November 25, 16, from https://www.esmt.org