Features and functions of an information system for blackber

Data

People

Telecommunications

Hardware

People are involved both in capturing the blackberry data and in exploiting the blackberry information. It is important to motivate those who capture the data by highlighting the value that the exploited blackberry data brings to blackberry.

An management information system may be delivered across the Internet, though this sometimes brings difficult security questions to blackberry. Many management information system are delivered across an intranet within blackberry’s firewall for protection from competitors and others seeking this valuable management information. Occasionally, a dedicated telecommunications network is used to provide the utmost security.

The data input to the blackberry system must be as accurate as it can be, subject to its cost and timescales for capture. It should then be stored in the most logical way. This often differs from how the data is input. The data then needs to be summarized to create information in a way that best meets the needs of the system’s users – this may not necessarily be the most logical way or the easiest or cheapest for blackberry.

In a business like blackberry, the management information system may run on just the sales or finance director’s PC. In larger businesses, it usually runs on a server, either shared or dedicated, with Internet or intranet access for those who need it. It is unusual to require specialized hardware.

D) Information Flows

Blackberry phone is sold

Data is stored on Blackberry's server

Input

A) Features and functions of an information system for blackberry

There is the detailed data which is stored and processed and forms the basis for the output from the blackberry system.

Then blackberry must also tell the system what sort of analysis they want from the system. Sometimes this is hidden from blackberry and the IT department sets this up in advance of users using the system.

Blackberry takes decisions based on information and reports.

Information and reports are created by Blackberry.

Data is processed by Blackberry.

Storage

Staffing

Investment returns

Professional development

The data should be stored at the most detailed level possible. The IT department at blackberry may also choose to store various summaries of data for ease of use and consistency. The IT department of blackberry should take regular backups of the data. Some of these should be kept in a different location in case of a disaster.

Blackberry & information systems

Blackberry needs to know it's portfolio of investments, this will allow Blackberry to make important investment decisions. Some investments in blackberry could have a high risk with a high reward. Some are low risk with a low return. Some may even offer no return at all, but to increase the capital value of the investment.

Blackberry must have the right

amount of people doing the right work with the right skills. An information system can identify staff and skill shortages excesses. It can also identify staff turnover, age ,gender and experienced profiles. This will allow blackberry to easily manage their employees.

This cover's Blackberry's needs, staff training, skills and experience for professional development. An analysis of this can identify suitable candidates for jobs and potential training opportunities for staff within Blackberry.

Feedback loop

c) Business Functional areas

Processing

Financial costs

Competitors

Sales performance

Presentation

Processing is what turns data into information. At its simplest, it may just be adding up all of the individual items sold by blackberry and producing totals by store, by product, by time of day or by any other classification. At its most complex, a computer program or the user will perform complex calculations, make assumptions about missing data and select criteria to include or exclude. For example, a complex mathematical model might be useful for blackberry as part of a stock control system – as well as looking at sales, this might consider lead times, cost of being out of stock, the effect of the weather and expected future demands.

Blackberry could use spreadsheets to manage regular costs. However, information systems will more easily find trends and unusual patterns. For example blackberry would be able to calculate their over spends if blackberry had continuously began to over spend on investing on a particular model of a phone then the information system will identify this pattern.

Blackberry is likely to be selling competing products, opening competing stores and reducing prices. As competitors introduce these changes, an information system can show what affect these changes have. Blackberry can also make similar changes to compete and the system could identify the effect of the changes.

If blackberry identifies where d why their sales are increasing then it could apply those conditions elsewhere with the same effect. For example if blackberry take in broken phones and refurbish them and then sell them to attempt to make profit an information system would show how successful this method is increasing Blackberry's profits.

The information is output or presented in the way in which blackberry wants to see it. It could be graphical or text or could contain both. It will most likely to be printed or presented on a screen monitor and maybe another output device. When information is represented to blackberry it could be time for decision making with this information or for blackberry to hold onto the information until it is more useful.

Control and feedback loops

Closed and open system

Output

Collection

Storage

Retrieval

Processing and manipulation

In a closed system, the user may have some choice about what to report on, but they are limited to predefined output formats. These are often easy to use. They mainly use graphical formats and are often aimed at management. In an open system, there is often great flexibility on what to report on and the format in which the information is output. This powerfulness may mean that significant training is needed before the systems can be effectively used. Open systems are aimed more at analysts. They typically use both graphical and textual formats.

Output can be in two formats: graphical and textual. Graphical output is often the best for seeing the big picture, understanding trends and presenting the information to management. Textual output is best where it is important to analyze the detail and to know exact values. A common way of using both formats is to use graphical output to identify areas of interest, then to use graphical again to focus in on the details and to switch to textual output to see the lowest level of detail.

A control or feedback loop is what happens in blackberry as a result of the output from an information system. It should have some effect, direct or not, on future inputs to the information system. An automated example is a data feed of actual sales data to a computerized stock control system. This could note which products have increasing sales and reorder these products from suppliers in order to reduce the likelihood of being out of stock. A similar example is management looking at the sales reports to see which products are selling well and which are not for blackberry. To maximise profit for blackberry, they might choose to increase the price of the products that are selling well and reduce the price or offer a promotion on those that are not selling well.

Blackberry will collect information from where it is generated or available and is checked or validated to make sure that the data is accurate and consistent and complete as it needs to be. For example if you are signing up to blackberry then you will be required to enter data of your data of birth. Blackberry may convert this data into information like this:

At this stage the data inputted from blackberry is turned into information and ready for output. This may involve producing totals or averages. For example Blackberry may want to work out the total profit a phone model had.

Output can be in two formats: graphical and textual. Graphical output is often the best for seeing the big picture, understanding trends and presenting the information to management. Textual output is best where it is important to analyze the detail and to know exact values. A common way of using both formats is to use graphical output to identify areas of interest, then to use graphical again to focus in on the details and to switch to textual output to see the lowest level of detail. Blackberry could use graphical output to advertise their products.

The required information from processing and manipulation stage, with support from the input, is brought back into the computer from the storage which could be blackberry's server(s).

The data and/or information is kept for the long term on blackberry's server. This could be useful for blackberry, for example blackberry may want to see a correlation with age and a phone model. This information would allow Blackberry to make good investment decisions, for example if their latest phone had many sales on adults and not many on teenagers the next phone they produce could be targeted for teenagers.

B) Types of information systems used for Blackberry

Task 4-Information systems