Types of Business Information Systems

Accounting Information Systems (AIS)

Business Intelligence (BI)

Business-to-Business eCommerce (B2B)

Business-to-Consumer eCommerce (B2C)

Cloud-Based Database Management Systems (Cloud DBMS)

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Decision Support Systems (DSS)

Electronic Medical Records (EMR)

Enterprise Collaboration Systems (ECS)

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Human Capital Management (HCM)

Knowledge Management (KM)

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

Transportation Management Systems (TMS)

Warehouse Management (WM)

Other: ______________

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Categories may be used more than once. Not all categories have to be used. You may identify another type of information system if you choose.

Scenarios

These scenarios are based on real case studies. The organization names and details have been changed to prevent easy searching for “answers.”

CMBA SP001 Scenarios

1. Regional Bank

Regional Bank, a 110-year-old banking company, has grown to more than 25 branches by focusing on serving its customers and their communities. The bank has been using an outsourced payroll and employee time-tracking service for many years, which has served them well, but has made it difficult to gather consolidated employee data and metrics. In addition, the HR department has several unmet needs for workforce reporting and analytics to allow executives to assess the overall performance of the bank.

2. Amusement Parks, Inc.

In the early 2000s, an amusement park company was facing declining attendance and unhappy customers. Those who were coming to the parks were frustrated with long lines for tickets, rides, and food. To improve the overall customer experience, the company wanted to provide location-specific updates within the parks, advising customers of a shorter wait nearby or an upcoming event about to start. In addition, the company wanted to track and analyze customers’ purchases within the parks to be able to offer special discounts and coupons to encourage future visits. Finally, the company wanted to implement a special reservation-like system, allowing customers to schedule specific ride and meal times so they would not have to wait.

3. Healthy Eating Grocery

Healthy Eating Grocery is Central Florida’s leader in home delivery groceries. Founded by three sisters who understood how difficult grocery shopping is for busy executives and many elderly people, Healthy Eating started out with four employees and two rental trucks. Healthy Eating Grocery has grown tremendously over the past 4 years and now has more than 50,000 registered customers in Central Florida alone.

What is attractive to customers is that the online grocery store is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Although Healthy Eating Grocery prices are competitive, the primary interest for the consumer is the convenience and time savings.

Because the shopping experience is totally online, the website must provide a “getting started” tutorial, e-mail capabilities, and an online shopping demo. The website must have pictures, descriptions, and prices of all products. Customers must be able to search, order, make electronic payments, and schedule delivery.

Healthy Eating understands the importance of providing timely deliveries and fresh products. Products are delivered within 2 hours of each order. Delivery routes should be carefully organized efficiently to save gas and time. With thousands of active customers, Healthy Eating Grocery delivery trucks make more than 400 stops a day. Coordinating the delivery of groceries is extremely complex. The company is looking for ways to streamline deliveries and help drivers make the best decisions on delivery routes.

4. Crabby Cabs, Inc.

Crabby Cabs has hundreds of cabs that must be dispatched each day as efficiently as possible. Weather, traffic patterns, driver locations, and customer pickup location must all be taken into consideration when selecting which cab to dispatch. They are looking for a system to help maximize efficiency and profits. Being able to quickly analyze and compare the advantages between several different options is critical for the informed decision-making process.

5. Eastern Healthcare Network

Eastern Healthcare Network was founded in the late 1800s as a regional provider of health care services. Since then, it has grown to several dozen care facilities including hospitals, rehabilitation and outpatient care centers, and assisted living centers. Their network also includes several hundred primary care and specialty physicians.

Recently, Eastern Healthcare Network has been challenged with managing health records effectively. Patients have come to expect doctors and other medical staff to have access to their updated records immediately, regardless of where they are being treated. Patients have also been requesting access to their health care records so they can be active participants in their own care.

6. Major Military Base

The operational leadership of a large military base encompassing several thousand acres of combat simulation and training facilities needs to be able to assess the status of critical operations resources in real time. They also need to be able to use key performance indicators to drive effective decision making and model the risks associated with IT infrastructure upgrades and deployments. They need these capabilities available on multiple platforms and devices, updated in real time, with secure wireless communications capability.

7. Building Products Manufacturer

A 90-year-old building products manufacturer has expanded to more than 50 locations including manufacturing facilities, branch offices, and customer showrooms. During a recent period of rapid growth, the IT team deployed several technologies to facilitate communications between locations, including conference calling, web conferencing, videoconferencing, and instant messaging. These technologies have multiplied to the point where they create more distractions than benefits. The firm needs to improve its ability to manage virtual teams on projects, speed up the resolution of customer requests and complaints, and reduce the need for frequent travel.

8. Medical Device Manufacturer

A manufacturer of medical diagnostic equipment has experienced rapid growth. It is considering developing a new product line and needs to be able to better manage operations to accommodate the expected volume. The firm needs to integrate its engineering, inventory management, production planning, purchasing, order processing, and shipping and receiving capabilities.

9. Cycling Products Distributor

A large cycling products distributor is facing limits to its growth caused by its inability to respond quickly enough to customer inquiries and orders. Most of their customers run independent businesses and need to be able to get answers to product specification and availability questions quickly as well as place orders during evening hours when their shops are not as busy. The cycling products distributor also wants to be able to expose its inventory levels to its customers and provide online updates of order status so that its phone agents can focus on more complicated service issues.

10. Drop Shipping Outsourcer

An outsourcer of eCommerce drop shipping services handles several million transactions a year between eCommerce retailers and suppliers. They already have inventory management and order management systems, but are finding the cost of maintaining and operating their underlying database software and servers is becoming prohibitive. They need a way to offload the provisioning and management of database servers so their in-house IT shop can focus on more value-added activities and services that will maintain their competitive advantage.

Types of Business Information Systems