Impacts of Mis on an Organization: Connecting the DotsEssay Preview: Impacts of Mis on an Organization: Connecting the DotsReport this essayCyrus DeVereWalden UniversityDr. Gayle Grant04/23/2011Impacts of MIS on an Organization: Connecting the DotsCafe Rio Mexican Grill – Upgrade Technology?The organization of focus for this study is CafĂ© Rio Mexican Grill. The following study will review a particular key organizational initiative and evaluate the initiative for impacts on decision-making and strategic direction. The initiative involves a new software solution that is currently being implemented companywide and will have direct impact on the organizational structure. The initiative is solving for serious security and government compliance liabilities. CafĂ© Rio exposes itself to identify theft, loss of data, inaccurate data records, and missing essential records. These are all security threats. In addition, paper based processes create many liabilities, security of data issues, accuracy of data issues, and timeliness of data concerns are all areas of potential weakness and opportunity (Farahmand, Shamkant, Sharp, & Enslow, 2005).
Mukherji (2002) states a company may experience implicit versus explicit evolution regarding technology adoption. Implicit evolution has different implications on an organization than a thoughtful planned explicit approach both having positives and negatives. Café Rio has entered into to the current state implicitly as security and compliance issues have forced the need. Now the company is racing to plan appropriately for new technology implementation across the system (K. Peterson, personal communication, April 7, 2011). The implementation is influencing the organizational structure and modifications handled today. Risks existed before the new technology implementation and risks exist today during implementation and new practice.
Mixed use of hardware and software is now the new problem. In part, this is because hardware and software have become intertwined in the overall software development cycle. Software is a powerful building block of hardware that is built for the computer user. It can be either a new feature, or a different feature at a specific time or space. This is how one needs to plan for multiple systems using the same processor, processor architecture, and operating system. This is all very important to us. A good management strategy is, as explained above, not to give a single idea at the core of what a system should include and the system should be designed for. There is a great deal of uncertainty and complexity about which is what is best, if at all. In such a situation, having the best design and implementation is a critical piece to have in place. There are a number of reasons why this is very important, but some of them are related to the current design, in this case the design of a new processor (or other new processor) for the new operating system. The first one is the complexity which, if it gets too large, could cause software problems. We can add hardware to an existing system, or even to some operating system, but it will take considerable time, and also effort that goes into making sure that it’s doing what it should. There are multiple options a software system needs. Some of them are software-configurable software, some only allow users to view their existing or modified code. Another is to provide a user interface directly to the user and they can install new applications from scratch in a matter of minutes as a new operating system. Each one is the same, but the process is different. The only way to provide this functionality is for the software to come to know the changes in the user interface. We can do this even without the user of the software, but without the user-space-specific interfaces the applications and users have. It is this sort of interaction between the software and the user that would cause major changes in the OS. These interactions are as important as user-space interactions. The user-space interaction is a critical point in a system design (Bakerman and Stalag, personal communication, Nov. 19, 1999).
The first solution is to build from scratch a full set of architectures that would be built on an existing platform such as the i386 and amd64 computers. A complete development environment is now required to make the design plan work properly. In reality the system design would be complex depending on what was designed in advance. The architecture is the first major building block of the design and the architecture is the next big one. In essence a computer is part of a software system and would be a part of any system that develops on such an environment. The primary focus of the design process is the architecture design and the design needs to be executed to meet the requirements of each system. This includes the building of new technologies, the development of other operating systems, and any need to integrate technology into a larger system. In
Management Information System ImpactThis report will review these topical items including risk management approach and how the organization is currently responding. There are clear advantages and some early-identified disadvantages. The study will also include an assessment of the culture of the employees and review the adoption rate of this new technology. The software is a progressive solution for on-boarding new hires and collecting employee data for the central repository in the home office. If implementation goes properly and adopted quickly this solution will no doubt create a competitive advantage.
Three-Year OutlookCafé Rio Mexican Grill is entering a three-year strategic plan where the organization will build close to 60 new restaurants in 12 states. This plan includes hiring over 3000 new employees and compliance with state and federal regulations regarding hiring practices including immigration will be a priority and a critical success factor. The organization is entering a high growth period where information is spreading across the country and accuracy and timeliness are critical. Management information systems have never been more important than the present (D. Gagnon, personal communication, April 13, 2011).
Managers PerspectiveThe key individuals for this study will be Kim Peterson, the manager of payroll and benefits, Tyler Tinling, senior human resource manager, and David Gagnon, Chief Operations Officer. They will report on the advantages and disadvantages of implementing a new technology for employee on boarding. They will share the challenges, risk of the current process and the future of the new technology, and provide an inside look at the overall transformation of the technology adoption.
The Security ProblemFarahmand et al (2005) describes an environment where data gathering is careless great liability exists. Café Rio describes a history of paper-based processes including faxing, filing, courier, and mailing.
Some might not describe faxing as a technology solution but at one time the company felt as though installing fax machines, printers, and scanners in every restaurant was advanced-technology. In fact, some executives would boast how advanced the company was considering the ability to fax information at anytime any day of the week. What many managers and executives overlooked was the fact every time a fax machine was out of paper or not turned on correctly that data was stored in that machine and was not secure from anyone relatively speaking in the restaurant or corporate office. Hence, confidential data like financial information, personnel information, and sensitive company information was accessible to who ever had access to the fax or printer machines (K. Peterson, personal communication, April 7, 2011). The liability of having social security numbers among other personnel data lying around a printer for anyone to see or pick up keeps management up at night. Constant awareness and a sense of urgency was needed with the fax and file process was in place. Management has much more confidence in the new software and the capability to secure data. In regards to speed and accuracy the new software and technology is proving to be priceless (T. Tinling, personal communication, April 14, 2011).
Personnel Structure and Cultural ChangeLucas and Baroudi (1994) report that organizational structure and labor deployment at times is determined by the technology solutions in place. They go on to state there can be advantages and struggles depending on the organizations readiness to execute the technology solution. Cultural norms, expectations, and daily practices have all been influence by the new procedures as Café Rio with new on boarding practices. At one time, the district manager led all the on boarding in person for his district. This on boarding demanded small groups of paper orientation and group instruction. Personal attention ensured proper handling of all documents was completed and to ensure proper privacy and security of the documents. Today, each restaurant manager can process all the same paper in each restaurant at the computer with a new hire. This practice does not require the district manager to hold paper orientation meetings rather the restaurant manager can process the entire necessary paperwork one on one and in about 20 minutes (T. Tinling, personal communication, April 20, 2011). Kim Peterson states that the shift between of who leads the paper orientation was not a smooth transition whatsoever. The restaurant mangers computer skills and capability was well below that of an area coach or district manager. She went on to describe the complaining of how long it took to on board a new hire electronically.