i

Table of Contents

1. Title Page………………………………………………………… i
2. Contents…………………………………………………………. 2
3. Executive Summary…………………………………………… 3
4. Introduction……………………………………………………… 3
5. Wide Range of Services……………………………………………… 4
6. Information System of TCS………………………………………….. 5
i. Financial MIS of TCS…………………………………………. 5
ii. Marketing MIS of TCS………………………………………… 5
7. Supply Chain of TCS…………………………………………………... 6
i. Supply Chain Advisory………………………………………… 6
ii. Warehousing & Distribution…………………………………… 7
8. Advantages of Information System in TCS………………………….. 8
9. Challenges of using IS in TCS………………………………………… 8
1. Operational Challenges……………………………………………. 9
2. Technical Challenges…………………………………………….... 10
10. Limitations……………………………………………………………….. 11
11. References………………………………………………………… 12

2
1. EXECTIVE SUMMARY:

Now in its 30th celebratory year of successful operations, the TCS brand has
evolved into a symbol of trust and reliability. TCS provides domestic and
international express services to consumers, corporate, SMEs and households
alike with pickups and deliveries crossing over 100 million shipments annually.
This it does, through a nationwide network of 250+ offices, making TCS the
biggest such network in Pakistan. TCS operates with over 8,000 professionals,
24/7 state-of-the art call center, 650 plus conveniently located Express Centers,
dedicated chartered Being 737 aircraft, 2000+ on-line and offline locations, 375
plus satellite tracked delivery vehicles and a proficient team of 4000 couriers
dedicated to providing you the best of service and reliability in the industry. With
a view to enlarging its presence in the global village, TCS operates in
international territories through its business partners in Dubai and London,
providing access to its customers in over 3,500+ destinations worldwide. TCS
Visatronix, a division of Intiana Private Limited, extends booking facilities for visa
applicants in the non-immigrant (work, visit, study) categories for applicants all
over Pakistan for Canada, India, Spain, Malaysia, Egypt, Tunisia, Italy, Malta
and South Africa, and UAE. Applications are booked on a "Return Service
Basis" at selected TCS Express Centers in all major cities. TCS has achieved
many milestones by investing into its business model that continues to grow
stronger. Realizing the customer needs and expectations have always been the
driving principles in the milestones that TCS has achieved over the years. This
has resulted in setting benchmarks to improve the overall quality and standards
of the express courier industry.TCS achievements have led to a case study,
undertaken by Harvard Business School in 2003 for 'International
Entrepreneurship' course of MBA. TCS has been mentioned in the textbooks
used by Harvard Business School as a model of highly effective company from
the developing world.

2. Introduction:
The amount of competition faced by organizations today is more intensive than it
was ever before. With the ever-expanding number of organizations and products,
customers have a wide array of choices available. As a consequence the
manufacturers and service providers now have to view their products and
services from the customers point of view not only to maintain a high quality but
also toing corporate the customer-defined improvements whenever needed. In
order tore main in business for long term and ensure their survival they have to in
corporate techniques that would force the customer to choose them from the
rest.
The change in paradigms has forced many organizations to redefine their
mission and strategies. Earlier the focus was merely on price and quality but now
because of intensive competition, organizations have to come up with unique

3
 strategies that would give them competitive edge in the eyes of the customer, so
that he prefers them in the long run.
Now a days organizations are gaining advantage through quick response aspect
that is continuously in focus in developed countries. Quick Response mainly
came into being from the manufacturing point of view i.e. in order to determine
the time of replenishment in the supply chain etc. Hence quick response in the
beginning was used for the betterment of the manufacturing industry. But with the
rise in service organizations, quick response has become equally imperative.
Customers judge services by focusing on service quality dimensions, which are
reliability, assurance, empathy, responsiveness and tangibles.
Two dimensions are important to cater to in order to get good leverage from
customers .Quick response covers all these dimensions in one way or the other
depending on the organizations mode of operations.
The markets of today have gone global, hence organizations are competing
across boundaries as distances have reduced, communication costs are low and
one does not need to be in a geographical region to be able to service
customers. The mergence of technologies like the Internet has enabled
organizations to communicate with and support customers all over the world. The
power of communication is directly related to the rapidly advancing field of
technology. With the dawning of every new day, these advancements notch up a
gear, hence as we open our eyes to every passing day, we are hypothetically
stepping into amore technologically advanced world. Technology can help an
organization achieve a lot for example.
In today competing environment technology has become the key for success, but
only if it creates a unique advantage over competitors. There fore organizations
need to make sure that: The change in paradigms from mass production to mass
customization has also given way to the multiplication of communication
mediums. Internet, mobile and short messaging services are the modern
methods that provide round the clock availability and global connectivity.
Thousands of brands of products and services are created everyday,
transmission of information through media has reach edenormous proportions,
and thus battle for the market share has become a lotto gher.

3. Wide range of services include:

 Overnight Express Delivery
 Second Day Delivery
 Same Day Express Delivery
 Fragile & Special Handling
 Out-of-Service Area Deliveries
 Holiday Deliveries
 2, 5, 10 & 25 Kg Economical Red Boxes

4
 4. Information System of TCS:
TCS Pakistan has using the operating management system ( OMS) For
sharing the information, communicating the departments and their all branches.

TCS PAKISTAN are structured based on functional areas. This is often reflected
in an organizational chart. Typically, functional areas include finances, human
resources, marketing, etc. Many of these functional areas have their own
Management Information System.
i. Financial MIS OF TCS:
A financial MIS provides financial information for managers to make daily
decisions on operations within the organization. Most systems provide these
functions:
 Integrate financial information from multiple sources
 Provide easy access to financial information in summarized form
 Enable financial analysis using easy-to-use tools
 Compare historic and current financial activity

A financial MIS often has a number of sub-systems, depending on the type of

organization. These include systems to analyze revenues, costs and profits,
auditing systems for both internal and external purposes and systems to manage
funds. A financial MIS can also be used to prepare reports for third parties, such
as external auditors or shareholders.

ii. Marketing MIS of TCS:

A marketing MIS supports activities throughout the many activities of marketing
departments. Some of the typical subsystems of a marketing MIS are marketing
research, service development and delivery, promotion and advertising, service
pricing and sales analysis.

One of the most common uses of a marketing MIS is to produce sales reports.
These are typically produced on a regular schedule, such as by week, month and
quarter. Reports can be organized by sales representative, product, customer or
geographic area. Such reports allow managers to see which aspects of sales are
doing well and which ones need attention.

Perhaps one sales representative has suddenly experienced a drop in sales by

losing one major customer and needs some support to develop some new leads.
If there are only a handful of sales reps sharing one office, a manager might be
able to pick up on this just by talking to everyone. However, what if a manager

5
 has to oversee more than 100 sales reps in 12 different offices around the
nation? A specialized information system that provides regular updates in a
meaningful format will make it a lot easier for the manager to make effective
decisions.

5. Supply Chain of TCS:

i. Supply Chain Advisory

The TCS Supply Chain is a well-rounded assortment of services, carefully
developed to cater to a wide range of logistical requirements of corporate
customers. One of the services we’re most proud of is our warehousing
facility. Specializing in providing various industries with secure storage
and warehouse management system, TCS Supply Chain facilitates a
convenient and seamless pick and drop mechanism - completely
monitored by TCS as well as our clientele. Our services for the telecom
industry are especially unique and beneficial for our clientele. TCS
provides one of Pakistan’s leading telecom operators with an innovative,
indigenous semi-automated SIM packing solution resulting in reduced
cost, flexibility and reduced time to market. Apart from this our technical
warehousing and distribution of Cell site equipment to any corner of
Pakistan makes a unique partner in the telecom world.

Our portfolio includes some of the biggest names across all industries,
with the banking sector contributing to70% of the share, telecom & hand
sets being 90 & 25respectively, fashion being 70% and Auto-engineering
being 75%, to name a few. Some of our major clients include Mobilink,
Nadra, PTCL, Indus Pakistan, Atlas Honda, Unilever & P&G. In the
banking sector, we are proud to be the chosen company for HBL, MCB,
UBL,NBP, BAF, ABL, Meezan Bank, Habib Metropolitan Bank& Silk Bank.
Digital Printing and Bulk Mail Solution.

Our digital printing services gives clients unique flexibility and convenience
by offering a printing facility using top of the line machinery with a capacity
to print more than2.0 million impressions and 600K stuffing of envelopes
in less than 24 hours. We offer a complete printing solution from data
receiving, to designing and formatting as per customer requirement. Our
printing facility also allows duplex printing - enabling quick and effective
printing on both sides of the paper, effectively reducing costs.

6
 With digitized optical mark readers, our stuffing machines simplify the
entire printing process, resulting in maximum efficiency and quantity. This
technology enables TCS to print any sort of document, irrespective of the
requirement.

ii. Warehousing & Distribution

W&D (Warehousing & Distribution), a division of TCS Logistics was

established in 2004. W&D specializes in the 3PL setup and is setting new
benchmarks by providing Total Logistics and Supply Chain solutions in
Pakistan. In this relatively short time span, it has already had its presence
felt on the supply chain canvas of the country. W&D has an envious
clientele in Telecom, FMCG, Pharma, I.T. and other sectors. W&D is all
set to providing its customers extra-ordinary services in their respective
industry segments anywhere in the country. The state of the art W&D
already is spread over 650,000 square feet in, Karachi, Lahore,
Faisalabad and Islamabad offering efficient and economical warehousing
services by employing carefully thought out material storage and handling
equipment.

With the most modern and efficient tools in warehouse management and
out-of-the-box distribution models, W&D division is continuously achieving
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) set by its customers. TCS Logistics
ensures quality of service provided to its customers. W&D is not rigid in its
approach and believes fully in offering customized solutions to its
customers that best fit their specific logistics and supply chain needs. The
Inventory Management & Warehousing process has been automated with
an in-house web-based management system “WMS” that provides online
access and real-time information to customers for ordering, monitoring
and managing their stocks.

The current range of specialized services includes:

 Warehousing
 Transportation and Distribution
 Value addition and Stock Repacking
 Bar-coding & labeling Warranty Management
 Reverse Logistics
 Project Management
 Customs Clearance

7
6. Advantages of Information Systems in TCS:

I. It Facilitates planning:
MIS improves the quality of plants by providing relevant information for sound
decision – making . Due to increase in the size and complexity of
organizations, managers have lost personal contact with the scene of
operations.

II. Minimizes information overload:

MIS change the larger amount of data in to summarized form and there by
avoids the confusion which may arise when managers are flooded with
detailed facts.

III. MIS Encourages Decentralization:

Decentralization of authority is possibly when there is a system for monitoring
operations at lower levels. MIS is successfully used for measuring
performance and making necessary change in the organizational plans and
procedures.

IV. It brings Co ordination:

MIS facilities integration of specialized activities by keeping each department
aware of the problem and requirements of other departments. It connects all
decision centers in the organization .

V. It makes control easier:

MIS serves as a link between managerial planning and control. It improves
the ability of management to evaluate and improve performance . The used
computers has increased the data processing and storage capabilities and
reduced the cost .

7. Challenges of using the MIS

The world today runs on various information systems. Information Systems
functionality is increasingly becoming a necessity and not an option. Imagine a
company that relies on e-commerce that has its website taken down due to
software failure and security issue. This fault in the software can make the
company lose thousands if not millions of dollars in revenue. Thus, robustness
and security of the system are equally important to ensure system confidentiality,
integrity and availability (CIA). The two main challenges facing today’s
information systems are operational and technical challenges. These challenges

8
 must be addressed from the very beginning to ensure software projects do not
fail.

1. Operational Challenges:
Perhaps designing information systems software may have become easier than
what it was in the past, however, operational challenges have become even
more demanding. Some of the key operational challenges facing today’s
information system’s development include:

a) Bad Communication:
Lack of understanding/planning for customer, organization and other
stakeholders requirements/needs for the project.
b) Unclear Requirements:
When requirements are not clearly identified, this will lead to change of
requirements during middle of the project which will increase project delivery time
and anger many customers.
c) Increasing Cost:
All of this will lead to added labor and project cost. Thus making the project less
profitable and takes away interest from stakeholders.
d) Delayed Project Delivery:
The result of what mentioned above will cause project milestones to be pushed
back and a potential software with less functionality than what agreed upon in the
beginning agreement with the client.
e) Market Pressure:
Another important aspect is the rapid development of software to meet the ever-
changing market demands.
f) ELECTRICITY PROBLEM:
In order for the project to succeed from an operational perspective all
stakeholders including the end-user (customers), managers who influence
direction and budget, and software developers must be in full collaboration to
ensure successful delivery of the new information system.

9
 2. Technical Challenges:
The other main and important part of information system’s development
challenges are the technical challenges. Technical challenges determine the
true system functionality, reliability and availability. Today’s information
systems challenges include:
Knowing the Technical needs: This is about understanding programming
languages, the frameworks, the systems and the algorithms needed for a
particular information system to be successful. An important factor today is
making sure that your web based information system works on all browsers
and devices. It is also about knowing your developers programming expertise
and using that to your advantage.

i. Right Design Patterns:

Identifying the right design patterns for your information system software and
establishing an actual design review, quality evaluation criteria and design
management is something highly neglected today because of the time and effort
it takes.
ii. Quality Control:
Sometimes codes are not built with a "sanity in mind" which can lead to
significant challenges in the future. Building quality and maintainable code that
can scale to multiple systems to serve millions and millions of customers is a key
challenge today if addressed can save the company from catastrophes and put
them ahead of their competition.
iii. Security:
Security is highly important especially with today’s cyber warfare and attacks.
Ensuring no leaks are open during information system development is key in
safeguarding your customer and employee private data. Educating your
employees about reverse engineering is also another key important thing that
developers and technical staff overlook.
iv. Always Debugging:
You're always on the lookout in fixing logical errors, debugging those infinite
loops or divide by zero bugs in the code. According to Linu’s law, always have
enough eyeballs to lookout for bugs in the system.
These challenges and many more should be properly addressed and defined
way before programmers even start coding. The key takeaway in production
quality is to have a polished/optimized/efficient program with strong business
logic and always tested and documented information system development
project.

10
8. Limitations:
Limitation of Liability:
The Shipper/Sender/Client agrees that incase of any damage or loss to the
shipment or any part thereof, the maximum liability of TCS to pay any
compensation for damage or loss or failure to deliver the consignment shall be
limited to the lowest of the following:

 PKR. 100/- (Rupee One Hundred only) in case of document shipments

with origin destination within Pakistan.
 PKR. 100/- (Rupee One Hundred only) per kilogram in case of parcel
shipments with origin destination within Pakistan.
 USD 10/- (US Dollar Ten only) in case of document shipments with
destination outside Pakistan.
 USD 20/- (US Dollar Twenty only) per kilogram in case of parcel
shipments with destination outside Pakistan.
 The actual value of the document or parcel (lost or damaged), as defined
in clause 6 below, without regard to its commercial utility or special value
to the Shipper/Sender/Client, provided the said loss or damage is suffered
solely due to negligence and willful act of TCS(proof of negligence and
willful act of default on part of TCS will be required.
 The Shipper/Sender/Client will indemnify and keep TCS fully indemnified
from and against all claims, proceedings, costs, expenses, liability, injury,
duties, taxes, import duties, loss or damage in respect of:
 Any breach of this agreement by the shipper/Sender/Client.
 Any injury or death of any person or damage to any property arising
directly or indirectly from any act, omission, default, negligence of the
Shipper/Sender/Client or its agents
 Any claim, cost or demand whatsoever by whomsoever made in excess of
the liability of TCS under these conditions in respect of loss, damage or
injury howsoever caused, whether or not by the negligent act of TCS, its
servants, agents, franchisee or sub-contractors
 The Shipper/Sender/Client undertakes that no claim shall be made against
any Director, Servant, Employee, Agent, Franchisee, or Sub-Contractors
of TCS which imposes or attempts to impose upon them any liability in
connection with any services which are subject to these conditions, and
without prejudice to the foregoing, if any such claim is made, to indemnify
TCS against all consequences of such a claim.

11
9. References:
1. Kenneth C. Laudon, Jane P. Laudon, Ahmed A. Elragal, Management
Information System, Arab World Edition.
2. www.pearsonmiddleeastawe.com/laudon
3. Managing and Digital Firms, 12th Edition
4. www.myMISlab.com

12