CHAPTER FOUR

Human Resource Information Systems

FUNCTIONAL AREAS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

1. Human Resource Information Systems

2. Financial Information Systems

3. Marketing Information Systems

4. Manufacturing and Production Information Systems

 CHAPTER THREE: FUNCTIONAL AREA OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

What is organization functional Area/unit?

 It is Individual operating entity, which can include departments,

centres, and divisions

President

Accounting Human
Operation/
Marketing Resources (HR)
And Finance Manufacturing
 Human Resources IS

Information System: is a system, whether automated or manual, that

comprises people, machines, and/or methods organized to collect,
process, transmit, and disseminate data that represent user
information

 Human Resources IS is a systematic way of collecting and storing

data & information for each individual employee to aid planning,
decision making & submitting of returns and reports to the external
agencies.
Human Resources IS

 A method by which an organization collects, analyses & reports

information about people and job.

 HRIS manages human resources functions.

 It merges HRM as a discipline and its basic HR activities &

processes with the information technology through HR software
Human Resources IS …CONT’D

Attributes of HRIS

 It is a part of the organization's larger management information

system

 Helps HR managers to perform the functions in an effective and

systematic way using information technology software

 The system used to acquire, store, manipulate, analyze, retrieve, and

distribute pertinent information regarding human resources

 To make decisions, HR managers and line managers require

accurate human resource information
Human Resources IS …CONT’D

BENEFITS OF HRIS
 Store data and information for each individual employee
 Higher speed of retrieval and processing of data
 Reduction in duplication of efforts leading to reduced cost
 Ease in classifying and reclassifying data
 Better analysis leading to more effective decision making
 Higher accuracy of information/report generated
 Fast response to answer queries
 Better work culture
 Provides a basis for planning, decision making, controlling
other human resource functions.
Human Resources IS …CONT’D

Objective of HR Information System

 To provide accurate information about human resource, their

functioning and relevant environmental factors

 To provide timely information

 To supply the desired information at a reasonable cost

 To use the most efficient method of processing data

 Human Resources IS …CONT’D

Most HRIS Contain

 Personal Data - Name, date of birth, sex, family members

 Work history - Salary, contracts, employment status, positions in the
organization, appraisal data, previous company that an employee
worked with etc..

 Skills inventory - Skills, education, competencies

 Training and development completed, both internally and externally
 Career plans
 APPLICATIONS OF HRIS…CONT’D

Job Description Module: Produce printouts that describes jobs according

to user specifications and information input into the system. As a minimum
job description includes job title, Purpose, duties and responsibilities
HR Planning Module : Forecast demands for key jobs as well as
employees turnover and patterns of inter-organizational mobility.
Recruitment Module: This software handles all the company’s recruiting
needs. It tracks candidate information and resumes, enables recruiters to
match job openings to suitable candidates from the company’s application
pool, and helps in guiding the hiring process.
 Expedition of recurring tasks through automation and quickly
apply higher selection standards to a number of applications
Performance Appraisal/ Performance assessments Module: The system
should record individual employee performance, appraisal data, such as due
date of appraisal, scores etc
APPLICATIONS OF HRIS…CONT’D

Payroll Module: automates the pay process by gathering data on

employee time and attendance, calculating various deductions and taxes,
and generating periodic pay cheques and employee tax reports

 Payroll automates the pay process of employees. Contractual data

is often entered into this system – sometimes combined with time
& attendance data – and at the end of the month, payments orders
are created

Time and Labour Management Module: is designed to collect and

analyse employee timekeeping information for the purposes of
organizational cost accounting. The module gathers time and attendance
data from employees
Employee self-service Module. Requests like holidays can be asked
for by the employee him/herself. After approval, these are then
immediately saved into the system (and registered to track for payroll
and benefits purposes).
• The system helps employees and supervisors manage their own
data.
Compensation and Benefits Administration Module: provides a
system for organizations to administer and track employee
participation in benefits programs. These programs can range from
programs such as health insurance and pension schemes, stock option
plans, and profit sharing.
• It also Monitor Wages & Salaries.
Succession Planning : Report information on the availability of
competent candidates for key positions. It can help in identifying
candidates for each key positions and the development needs of
candidates where they fall short of the requirements for a target job.

Job Evaluation- Computer assisted job evaluation system helps

managers determine job evaluation points or classification levels and job
hierarchies.

Employee relationship management (ERM) system: facilitates

communication with employees
 Human Resources Management IS …CONT’D

HRIS model
Barriers to HRIS

Barriers to the success of HRIS

 Lack of management commitment
 Satisfaction with the status quo
 No or poorly done needs analysis
 Failure to include key people
 Failure to keep project team intact
 Politics / hidden agendas
 Failure to involve / consult significant groups
 Lack of communication
 FUNCTIONAL AREA INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Chapter Five

Marketing Information System (MKIS)

 "A marketing information system is a continuing and interacting

structure of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort,
analyse, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate
information for use by marketing decision makers to improve their
marketing planning, implementation, and control".

 Jobber (2007) defines it as a "system in which marketing data is

formally gathered, stored, analysed and distributed to managers in
accordance with their informational needs on a regular basis."
*Marketing Information System (MKIS) …CONT’D

 Kotler, et al. (2006) defined it more broadly as "people, equipment,

and procedures to gather, sort, analyse, evaluate, and distribute
needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision
makers."

 A formal MKIS can be of great benefit to any organization whether

profit making or non- profit making, no matter what its size or the
level of managerial finesse.

 A marketing information system (MKIS) is intended to bring

together disparate items of data into a coherent body of information.
 Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

FEATURES OF MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM (MKIS)

1. Continuous system : MKIS is a permanent and continuous system

of collecting information. It collects information continuously.

2. Basic objective: The basic objective of MKIS is to provide the

right-information at the right-time to the right-people to help
them take right decisions.

3. Computer based system : It uses computers for storing, analysing

and supplying information. It also uses micro-films for storing
information. Therefore, it is very quick and accurate.
Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

4. Future-oriented: MKIS is future-oriented. It provides information

for solving future problems.

5. Used by all levels: MKIS is used by all three levels of

management, i.e. top, middle and lower. It is used for making
marketing plans, policies and strategies. This is used to solve
marketing problems and to take advantage of business opportunities.

6. Sources: MKIS collects information from both internal and external

sources.
Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

7. Collects marketing information: It collects information about the

consumer, competition, marketing environment, government policies,
etc. It supplies this information to the marketing managers.

8. Helps in decision making: MKIS supplies up-to-date and accurate

information. It helps marketing managers to take quick and right
decisions.
Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Role Of Marketing Information System In Decision-making

 The existence of an adequate information system which would
secure data acquisition and analyses, as well as the
transformation of data into useful information is an essential
condition for a company to function effectively.
 Marketing information system is the fundamental precondition
for the successful realization of the research project, i.e. the
means used by producers in order to collect information about the
needs of the consumers.
 Marketing information system represents efforts of the
companies to provide pertinent decision-making information to
marketing managers on regular basis.
Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Components of Marketing Information System (MKIS)

The explanation of this model on MKIS begins with a description of

each of its four main constituent parts:

 The internal reporting systems,

 Marketing research system,

 Marketing intelligence system and

 Marketing models
 Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Internal Reporting Systems

 The internal reporting systems enable a company to be aware of how
they are performing as a team and what issues may need addressing.
 Marketing managers get lots of information from the internal-records
of the company.
 These records provide current information about sales, costs,
inventories, cash flows and account receivable and payable.
 Many companies maintain their computerized internal records.
Inside records help marketing managers to gain faster access to
reliable information.
 Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

 The internal records that are of immediate value to marketing

decisions are: orders received, stockholdings and sales invoices.

 These are information gathered from sources within the company to

evaluate marketing performances and to detect marketing problems
and opportunities.

 Most marketing managers use internal records and reports

regularly, especially for making day-to-day planning,
implementation and control decisions.
 Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Marketing Intelligence Systems

 The marketing intelligence systems collects information from

external sources. It provides information about current
marketing-environment and changing conditions in the market.

 This information can be easily gathered from external sources

like magazines, trade journals, commercial press, trade press,
census, so on.
 Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Marketing Intelligence Systems

 The salesmen’s report also contains information about market

trends. It can also gather information from Sales force, Dealers
and Distributors, and suppliers.

 The company can also watch what competitors do - buying and

analysing competitors' products, monitoring their sales and
checking for new patents.

 Companies also buy intelligence information from outside

suppliers.
 Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Marketing Research Systems

 The marketing research systems allow a company to really find out what
their customers/potential customers think of the current trends and their
views on certain items, or polices.

 MR is conducted to solve specific marketing problems of the company. It

collects data about the problem. This data is tabulated, analysed and
conclusions are drawn. Then the recommendations are given for solving the
problem. Marketing research also provides information to the marketing
managers.

 However, this information is specific information. It can be used only for

a particular purpose.

 MKIS and MR are not substitutes of each other. The scope of MKIS is
very wide. It includes ‘MR’. However, the scope of MR is very narrow.
 Marketing INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Marketing Research Systems

 Marketing research is a proactive search for information. In many
cases, data is collected in a purposeful way to address a well-defined
problem (or a problem which can be defined and solved within the
course of the study).

 The other form of marketing research focuses not on a specific

marketing problem but is an attempt to continuously monitor the
marketing environment.
 These monitoring or tracking exercises are continuous marketing
research studies, often involving panels of farmers, consumers or
distributors from which the same data is collected at regular
intervals.
 FUNCTIONAL AREA INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Marketing Models
 are the tools which help the marketing managers to analyze data and to take
better marketing decisions.
 They include hardware and software programs. Computer helps the
marketing manager to analyze the marketing information. It also helps them
to take better decisions.
 There are many software programs, which help the marketing manager to
do market segmentation, price fixing, advertising budgets, etc.
 Typical tools are: Regression and correlation models, Time series sales
models , Brand switching models , Linear programming , Elasticity models
(price, incomes, demand, supply, etc.), Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
models , Sensitivity analysis, Discounted cash flow , Spread sheet 'what if
models.
 These and similar mathematical, statistical, econometric and financial
models are the analytical subsystem of the MKIS.
 FUNCTIONAL AREA INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

Advantages of MKIS

• Market Monitoring: MKIS helps managers to recognize marketing trends. The

changing trends may be in respect of prices, product design, packaging,
promotion schemes, etc. managers can take effective decisions in respect of
prices, product designs, etc., in response to changing trends in the environment.

• Strategy Development: The MKIS provides the information necessary to

develop marketing strategy. It supports strategy development for new products,
product positioning, marketing communications (advertising, public relations, and
sales promotion), pricing, personal selling, distribution, customer service and
partnerships and alliances.

• The MKIS provides the foundation for the development of information system-
dependent e-commerce strategies.
 FUNCTIONAL AREA INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

ADVANTAGES OF MKIS ….Cont’d

• Facilitates Marketing Planning and Control: Effective market

planning is required in terms of product planning, pricing, promotion and
distribution. Such planning will be possible only if the company is
possessing adequate and relevant information.

• Quick supply of information: A firm has to take quick decision for this
purpose; it requires fast flow of information which is facilitated by a
properly designed MKIS. Due to timely supply of marketing information,
the marketing managers can make quick and effective decisions.

• Quality of decision-making: A properly designed marketing

information system promptly supplies reliable and relevant information.
With the help of computers and other data processing equipment, the
marketing managers can make the right decisions at the right time
 ADVANTAGES OF MKIS …CONT’D

 Tapping of business opportunities: There are number of business

opportunities which have remained untapped due to unavailability of
sufficient information. MKIS makes it possible to tap business
opportunities as it can supply required and reliable data.

 Provides Marketing Intelligence: Marketing intelligence refers to

information of the events that are happening in the external
environment, i.e., changes in customer tastes, expectations, competitors’
strategies, government policies, international environment, etc.
 with the help of MKIS, it is possible to collect marketing intelligence which is
vital to make effective marketing decisions.

 Help managers to recognize change: A business firm may be handling

or marketing a wrong line of products. A firm which is well equipped
with MKIS will be able to realize the need to change the line of business.
 ADVANTAGES OF MKIS …CONT’D

 Integration of Information and Functional Integration: Firms,

which are largely decentralized can gather information which is
scattered at many canters or departments and integrate it for effective
decision making.

 It also enables the coordination of activities within the marketing

department and between marketing and other organizational
functions such as engineering, production, product management,

 Finance, manufacturing, logistics, and customer service. Such

integration is possible if there is a centralized MKIS.
ADVANTAGES OF MKIS …CONT’D

 Strategy Implementation: The MKIS provides support for

product launches, enables the coordination of marketing strategies,
and is an integral part of sales force automation (SFA), customer
relationship management (CRM), and customer service systems
implementations.

 Builds relationships within the organization: MKIS brings

together many different kinds of data, people, equipment, and
procedures to help an organization make better decisions.

 Convenient Storage: MKIS can organize data collection and store

these important data for over several time periods
 FUNCTIONAL AREA INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

ESSENTIAL REQUISITES OF A GOOD MKIS

Unified and centralized: all the marketing information must be
brought together (unified) and kept at one central place (centralized).
This will result in easy access and quick reference.
Facilitate decision making: It must provide required information to
the managers to help in taking decisions. This information must be
relevant, reliable, and up-to-date. This will result in an accurate
decision-making process
 Quick and accurate information: MKIS must provide quick and
accurate information.
Economical: It must not be very costly. The expenditure on it must be
minimum. It must not exceed its value.
 FUNCTIONAL AREA INFORMATION SYSTEMS …CONT’D

ESSENTIAL REQUISITES OF A GOOD MKIS ….Cont’d

Selective: MKIS must not collect all the market information. It must
only collect relevant information.

 Future-oriented: MKIS must be forward looking i.e. future-oriented.

It must not be a past-oriented one. The company will be successful if
their marketing managers are future-oriented.

 Supply information regularly: MKIS must supply information

regularly. The business environment is changing constantly. So, the
marketing managers have to take marketing decisions continuously.
 Chapter Six

Manufacturing and Financial

Information Systems
 Manufacturing Information System
 Manufacturing Information Systems support the
production/operations function, which includes all activities
concerned with the planning and control of the processes that
produce goods and services
Manufacturing Information Systems…CONT’D

These Manufacturing /operational systems can be divided into the

following categories:

Process Control. Process control is the use of computers to control an on-

going physical process. Process control software uses mathematical
models to analyse the on-going process and compare it to standards or
forecasts of required results.

Machine-Control, also called numerical control. uses computer

programs for machine tools to convert geometric data from engineering
drawings and machining instructions from process planning into
commands that control the machines. Control actions of equipment

Robotics. Robotics is the technology of building and using machines

(robots) with computer intelligence and computer-controlled human like
physical capabilities.
Manufacturing Information Systems…CONT’D

Computer-Aided Engineering. Manufacturing engineers use powerful

workstations with enhanced graphics and computational capabilities to
simulate, analyze, and evaluate models of product design in less time
and at lower cost than constructing physical prototypes.

Computer-Integrated Manufacturing(CIM). Automate production

processes and the business functions that support them with computers.
Integrate all production and support processes using computers and
telecommunications networks

Material requirements planning (MRP). Determine when finished

products are needed, determine deadlines accordingly

Just in time (JIT) inventory system. Controls Inventory and materials

delivery right before usage
 A financial information system

 A financial information system is a type of business software used

to input, store, and analyze financial and accounting data.
 It produces reports such as accounting reports, cash flow statements,
and financial statement. The output produced helps in making good
financial management decisions thus helping the managers run the
business effectively.
 Financial Management system Provides financial information to all
financial managers within an organization.
 Financial management system is a process and procedures that is
used by an organization's management to exercise financial control
and accountability.
A financial information system
 Financial management systems support financial managers in
decisions concerning:
 Keeping all payments and receivables transaction.
 Amortizing prepaid expenses.
 Depreciating assets according to accepted schedules.
 Keeping track of liabilities.
 Maintain income and expenditure statements, and balance sheets.
 Keeping all records up to date.
 Maintain complete and accurate accounts.
 Minimizing overall paperwork. Cash Management. Investment
management. Capital budgeting.
 Financial planning
 A financial information system …CONT’D

 Cash management system collects information on all cash receipts

and payments of a company on a real time or periodic basis. Such as
daily, weekly or monthly .
 Online investment management services help a financial manager
make buying , selling , or holding decisions for each type of security
so that an optimum mix of securities is developed that minimizes risk
and maximizes investment income for the business.
 The capital budgeting process involves evaluating the profitability
and financial impact of proposed capital expenditures. Long term
expenditure proposals for plants and equipment .
Thank you