About Customers and Suppliers Intimacy at Ford

Can You Customize a Mustang? Do It, then Let the People Vote.

Ford Mustang is an exceptionally cool car. The engineers and designers knew exactly how to build something incredibly awesome and satisfying on so many levels – including its performance and looks – it’s like every great idea you could have had already exists.

That’s why Ford has launched the new Ford Mustang Customizer website, allowing you to create a Mustang, right down to color, accessories, decals and even how big of a burnout it makes. Pick the Mustang V6, GT, Boss 302 or Shelby GT500 and get to work by creating a setting, such as the dragway, and adding body kits, wheels, grilles and parts from Ford Racing Performance Parts and Ford Vehicle Personalization.

You can also log in through your Facebook account and share all the Mustangs you have designed. To boot, there’s a “battle mode” within Facebook to allow you to go head-to-head with other users for best-looking car. You’ll be able to accumulate votes that will be tallied on a leaderboard for others to view, and also identify a nemesis to go after in battle.

If you’d like what you built in the virtual world to become something you can build in the real world, there’s a downloadable PDF option offering a detailed list of all the actual parts you used for your

VIDEO : WAL-MART THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE PART1-10

WAL-MART THE HIGH COST OF THE LOW PRICE

This documentary video begins with footage of Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott who praised the corporation at large employee convention. Generally, these videos contain interviews with people who are directly involved in the Wal-Mart as a former employee, wal-mart executives and small business owners.

In Part1-10 video documentary WAL-MART, told of how early Wal-Mart was founded in the USA to become largest supermarket chain in the USA. Wal-mart did not only bring positive impact on American society, but also have a negative impact. From its founding Wal-Mart, many small businesses that go bankrupt as a result can not compete with Wal-Mart, Besides  Wal-mart did not care about the environment and the frequent destruction of the environment.

Part2 of the video documentary contains complaints from workers who had been proud to work at Wal-Mart to complain because they do not get insurance or health insurance for their families. Walamart also lowered retail wages by $ 3 million per year. Most of the Walmart workers spent most of his time transform and work so they do not have enough time for family. Walmart also does not permit the existence of trade unions. These workers do not get workers' rights as stated in the labor laws in the United States. Walmart forcing its workers to work hard full time, if they can not do that then the Walmart will find a replacement to work there Walmart also employs illegal immigrants as janitors who work starts at 9 pm until 7.30 am, they were locked in the store until the manager comes in the morning.

In this documentary video part5, give examples of family businesses are successful before Wal-mart and bankrupt when it opened. Examples are Esry Groceries. Marah Esry who started his business in 1959 with a quick exit from the business when walmart known to the public. Discrimination against women and skin color (black) also occurred at Walmart which gave rise to protests from the workers. In addition, Walmart has polluted the surrounding residential population, this is a river in ha. Lots of plastic waste and chemical waste are dumped into the creek. 

Overall, Walmart which is the largest retail company in the United States, the company that became shopping centers scattered throughout the United States and even abroad, and who has the slogan "Save money, better life" is proved to have considerable negative side.

Review Chapter 1 Management Information System

Chapter 1

Business Information System in Your Career

1.1         The Role of  Information Systems in Business Today

HOW INFORMATION SYSTEMS ARE TRANSFORMING BUSINESS

You can see the result of this massive spending around you every day by observing  how people conduct business. More wireless cell phone accounts were opened in 2008 than telephon  linelines installed. Cell phones, BlackBerrys,wireless handhelds, e-mail, and online conferencing over the internet have all become essential tools of business. What this means is  that if you and your business aren’t connected to the internet and wireless networks, chances are you are not being as effective as you could be ( Pew Internet and American Life,2009).

Companies  Today manage their inventories in near real time in order to reduce their overhead cost and get to market faster. If you are not part of this new supply chain management economy, chances are your business is not as efficient as it could be. It’s a new world of doing business, one that will greatly effect  your future business career.

WHAT’S NEW IN MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS?

New businesses and industries appear, old one decline, and succesfull firm are those that learn how to use the new technologies. In the technologi area there are three interrelated changes: 1) the emerging mobile digital platform, 2) the growth of online software as a service, and 3) the growth in “ could computing” where more and more business software runs over the internet.

GLOBALIZATION CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES: A FLATTENED WORLD

In 1492, Columbus reaffirmed what astronomers were long  saying : the world was round and the seas could be safely sailed. By 2005, journalist Thomas Friedman wrote and influential book declaring the world was now “flat”, by which he meant that the internet and global communications had greatly reduced the economic and cultural advantages of developed countries. This “globalization” presents you and your business with both challenges and opportunities.

The challenge for a business student  is to develop hight level skills through education and on the job experience that cannot be outsourced. The challenge for you business is to avoid markets for goods and services that can be produced offshore muchless expensively. The opportunities, you can learn how to profit from the lower cost available in world markets and the chance to serve a marketplace with billions of customers

BUSINESS DRIVERS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

There are six important business objectives :

a.       Operational Excellence

Information systems and technologies are some of  the most important  tools available to managers for achieving higher levels of efficiency and productivity in business operations, especially when coupled with changesin business practices and management behavior.

b.      New Products, services, and Business Models

Information systems and technologies are a major enabling  tool for firms to create new products and services, as well as entirely new business models. A business model describes how the company produces, delivers,  and sells a product or service to create wealth.

c.       Customers and Suppliers Intimacy

When a business really knows its customers and serves them well, the way they when to be served, the customers generally respond by returning and purchasing more. Likewise with suppliers : the more a business  engages its suppliers, the better the suppliers can provide vital inputs

d.      Improved Decision Making

Many business managers operate in information fog bank, never really having the right information at the right time to making informed decision.

e.       Competitive Adventage

When firma achieve one or more of these business objectives operational excellence, new products, services, and business models, customers/suppliers intimacy and improved decision making-chances are they have already achieve a competitive advantage.

f.       Survival

Business firms also invest in information systems and technologies because they are necessities of doing business.

1.2  Perspectives on Information Systems and Information Technology

Information Technology (IT) consist of all the hardwere and softwere that a firm needs to use in order to achives its business objectives.

WHAT IS AN INFORMATION SYSTEM ?

An information system (IS) can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect ( or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making, coordinating , and control in an organization. Information systems contain information about significant people, places and things within the organization or in the environment surrounding it.  By information  we mean data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings.

IT ISN’T SIMPLY TECHNOLOGY: THE ROLE OF PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS

To fully understand information systems, you will need to be aware of the broader organization, people, and information technology dimensions of system and their power to provide solutions  to challenges and problems in the business environment.

DIMENTIONS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

a.       Organization

Information system are an integral part of organizations. And although we tend to think about information technology changing organization and business firms, it is, in fact, a two-way street: The history and culture of business firms also affects how the technology  is used and how it should be used. Organization have a structure that is composed of different levels and specialties. An organization accomplishes and coordinates work through this structured hierarchy and through  its business process which are logically related tasks and behavior for accomplishing work.

Most organizations’ business processs include formal rules  that heve been developed over a long time for accomplishing tasks. These rules guide employees  in a variety of a procedures, from writing  an invoice to responding to customer complaints.

b.      People

A business is only as good as  the people who work there and run it. Likewise  with information systems- they are useless without skilled people to build and maintain them, and without people  who can understand how to use  the information in a system  to achieve business objectives.

c.       Technology

Information technology is one of many tools managers use to cope with change and complexity. Computer hardwere is the physical equipment used for input, processing, and output activities in an information system. Computer softwere consist of the detailed, preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardwere components in an information system. Data Management Technology  consists of the softwere governing  the organization  of data on physical strorage media. Networking and telecommunication technology. Consisting of both physical devices and softwere, links the various pieces of hardwere and transfers data from one physical  location to another. The World wide web  is a service provided by the Internet that uses universally accepted standard for storing ,retrieving,formatting, and displaying information in a page format on the internet. All of these technologies, along with the people required  to run and manage them, represent resources that can be shared  throughout the organization and constitute the firm’s information technology (IT) Infrastructure.

1.3  Understanding  Information Systems : A Business  Problem-Solving Approach

THE PROBLEM SOLVING APPROACH

The business problem solving as a four-step process.

§  Problem Identification

The first step  in the problem solving process is to understand what kind of problem exists. Before problems can be solved, there must be agreement in a business that a problem exist, about what the problem is, about what is causes are, and about what can be done about the problem given the limited resources of the organization.

§  Solution Design

The second step is to design solution to the problems you have identified. You should consider as many different solution  as possible so that you can understand the range of possible solutions.

§  Solution Evaluation  and Choice

Choosing the best solution for your business firm is the next step in the process.

§  Implementation

The best solution is one that can be implemented. Implementation of an information system solution involves building the solution and introducing it into the organization

§  Problem Solving : A Process, Not an Event

It is often assumed that once a problem is “solved”. It goes away  and can be forgotten about. And it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking about problem solving as an event that is “over” at some point, like a relay race or a baseballgame.

THE ROLE OF CRITICAL THINKING IN PROBLEM SOLVING

Critical thinking can be briefly defined a the sustained suspension of judgment with an aawareness of m,ultiple perspectives and alternatives. It Involves at least four elements:

§  Maintaining doubt and suspending judgment

§  Being aware of different perspectives

§  Testing alternatives and letting experience guide

§  Being aware of organizational and personal limitations

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN BUSINESS OBJECTIVES,PROBLEMS, AND SOLUTIONS

At the beginning the chapter  we talked about the six reasons business firm invest in information systems and technologies. We identified six business objectives of information systems : operational excellence,  new product, services, ect. When firms cannot achieve these objectives, they become “challenges” or problems that receive attention.

1.4 Informations Systems and Your Career 

Regardless of your business school major, or your future occupation, information systems and technologies will play a major and spending role in your day-to-day work and your career. Your career opportunities and your compensation, will in part depend on your ability to help business firms use information systems to achieve their objectives.

HOW INFORMATION SYSTEMS WILL AFFECT BUSINESS CAREERS

1.      Accounting

            What kinds of informations system skills are really important  for accounting major given these changes in the accounting profession?

§  Knowledge of current and likely future changes in informations technology, including hardware, software and telecommunications with will be use by public and private firms, government agencies, and financial advisor as they perform auditing and accounting function. Accounting professional require knowledge of accounting and financial application and design factors to ensure firms are able to maintain accounting records and perform auditing functions.

§  Because so manyu transactions are occurring over the internet, accountants ed to understand online transaction and reporting systems, and how systems are used to achieve management accounting functions in an online, wireless, and mobile business environment.

2.      Finance

What kinds of information system skill sould finance major develop?

§  An understanding of likely future changes in information technology including, hardware, software, and telecommunication that will be used by financial managers and financial service firms.

§  Knowledge of the new role  played  by enterprice-wide financial  reporting  systems  an a global and national scale.

3.      Marketing

Here are some of the general information systems skills on which marketing  majors should focus :

§  An ability to understand  internet and marketing database systems and how they impact traditional marketing activities.

§  An understanding of how enterprise wide systems for product management, sales force management, and costumer relationship management are used to develop products that costumer want, to managed the costumer relationship, and managed an increasingly  mobile sales force.

4.      Operations Management in Services and Manufacturing

General information systems skill on with operations management majors should focus:

§  Knowledge of the changing hardware and software platforms that will be used in operations management.

§  An in depth understanding of how enterprise wide information system for production management, supplier management, sales force management, and customer relationship management are used to achieve efficient operations and meet other firm objectives.

5.      Management

The general information system skills on which management majors should focus:

§  Knowledge of new hardware and software that can make management more efficient and effective, enhance leadership and coordination capabilities, and improve the achievement of corporate business objectives in the broadest sense.

§   An in depth understanding of how enterprise wide information systems for production management, supplier management, sales force management and customer relationship management are used to achieve efficient operations and help managers make better decisions for improving firm performance.

6.      Information Systems

The information systems field is arguably one of the most fast changing and dynamic of all the business professions because information technologies are among th most important tools for achieving business firms key objectives.

INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND YOUR CAREER: WRAP-UP

            Following is a list of these common requirements for information system skill and knowledge:

§  All business students, regardless of major, should understand how information systems and technologies can help firms achieve objectives such as achieving operational efficiency, developing new products and services, and maintaining customer intimacy.

§  Perhaps the most dominant theme that pervades this review of necessary job skills is the central role of natabases in a modern firm. Each of the careers we have just described relies heavily in practice on databases.

§  Regardless of major, business students need to develop skills in analysis of information and helping firms understanding and make sense out of their environment.

HOW THIS BOOK PREPARES YOU FOR THE FUTURE

            You will be able to use this knowledge to identify opportunities for increasing the effectiveness of your business. You will learn how to use information systems to improve operations, create new products and services improve decision making, increase customer intimacy, and promote competitive advantage.

1.      A framework for Describing and Analyzing Information Systems

This framework is used repeatedly throughout the text to help you understanding information systems in business and analyze information systems problems.

2.      A Four-Step Model for Problem Solving

You will learn how to identify a business problem, design alternative solutions, choose the correct solution, and implement the solution. You will be asked to use this problem solving method to solve the case studies in each chapter.

3.      Hands-On MIS Projects for Stimulating Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

These projects include two management decision problems, hands on application software problems, and projects for building internet skills. For each of these projects, we identify both the business skills and the software skills required for the solution.

4.      Career Resources

To make sure you know how the text is directly useful in your future business career, we’ve added a full set of career resources to help you with career development and job hunting.