Acer Incorporated - Management Information System - Case Study Example

Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: Date: Title: Management Information System Acer Inc. Acer Incorporated is a multinational electronics manufacturer based in Taiwan. Its product includes desktops, laptops, servers and storage, peripherals, personal digital assistance (PDA), peripherals and e-business services for business, government, education, and home users. Acer Inc is the third largest computer manufacturer in the world after HP and Dell. Acer Company owns the largest franchised computer retail chain in Taiwan, Taipei. Acer has since been the third largest computer manufacturing company in the world holding 9.5% of the market share, with its growth being experienced outside USA mature market, largely in emerging nations. The peripherals and PC industry is very competitive and Acer has maintained growth since 1999 with significant growth in revenues. The key competitors in the market include Dell, HP and Lenovo. Acer Inc. competes in its functional environment within the industry of PC and peripherals offering personal computer solutions for businesses and consumers. In contrary to its competitors, Acer Inc. provides alternative brands for various segments of customers instead of just one brand wit different variables (Burke, van Stel & Thurik, 21). Organization structure Division Main functions Holding &investment Manage the company’s holding and invested companies Chief Financial Officer Manage Acer’s finance and investments General Auditor Evaluate and execute plans to improve Acer’s internal operations Service value lab & product value lab Develop innovative, customer-oriented products and services Key account business development Develop new and feasible business models and integrate the company’s IT products and services to target the corporate market IT products business Responsible for development and management of the company’s brand name IT products and services e-Enabling services Responsible for development and management of the company’s MegaMicro e-Enabling services, sales, marketing and after-sales services. Channel Business Its main function is to market and service several brands of IT products via non-Acer branded channels. Greater China operations Marketing the company’s products in the greater China region International operations Responsible for marketing the company’s brand name and IT products in the international scene. Legal Responsible for legal matters of the company including; the patent right, trademark, licensing and copyright rights General affairs Responsible for the management of public administration, safety and service related matters Human resources Management of human resources Finance and accounting Investment management, financial planning, monitoring budgets, accounting issues and cost control Branding Promotion of the brand name IT Planning and integration of sales, inventory, accounting, asset management. Maintenance of the company’s internet and intranet infrastructure. Management information system Instead of a series of centrally controlled foreign subsidiaries, the company established a network of virtually autonomous affiliates just like a franchise system (Gupta, 22). The affiliates are managed by locals who are responsible for determination of product configurations, promotional programs and pricing strategies considering the national and regional preferences (Coleman, 118). The affiliates (branches) have one professional to facilitate interorganization communications. The management information system of Acer Inc. is characterized by sales and marketing which is a revolutionary departure from the traditional hierarchical model of global branches and subsidiaries reporting to a head office. The subsidiaries are however committed to a common name and logo. Modern firms rely on database systems to store information and make it accessible to the right people throughout the firm. Acer Inc. has gone for the best to ensure a good and effective database. The database systems developed by the IT department of the company provide the firm a central repository of information that can be easily searched or used to generate reports (Coleman, 90). The most common used by Acer Inc. are: MS SQL Server, Oracle and MySQL. Acer Inc. has used all three of these database systems. These have made it easier for the company to undertake business analysis activities. Porter’s Five Forces model (Porter, 31) In an external environmental analysis, we will focus on Porter’s Five Forces. This is a tool of organizational external analysis used to understand where power lies in the situation of business (Porter, 11). The forces that we consider for Acer Inc include: the bargaining power of customers, the threat of substitute products, and the threat of new competitors entering the market, the bargaining power of suppliers, and the intensity of competitive rivalry. The customer bargaining power is the ability of such customers to put under pressure the firm to alter the prices and affect the sensitivity of price changes to the customers (Porter, 71). The substitutes of Acer Inc. are HP, Lenovo and Dell since they manufacture same products, desktop and laptops. However, Acer has come out with a line of unique products, Acer Timeline Series offering screen sizes from 13.3 inch to 15.6 inch. Customer loyalty according to Porter means customers prefer to stay with the brand at the moment mostly because may be a company is offering well after sale services. Acer offers a warranty of 3 years for its brands while its competitors do not offer such service to their products. Acer has the trendiest laptop that is long lifetime for battery of up to 8 hours (Gupta, 72). The products are also ultra thin, less than 1 inch and portable. Acer also has a multi gesture touch pad used like a mouse, with a high definition 16:9. Acer sustains itself in the market through improving its products and considering environmental measures. This will increase barrier to exit. Acer has done this via the Acer Timeline Series manufacture (Porter, 67). The bargaining power of supplier is high when the market is monopolized and the supplier refuses to supply goods. For example, the main supplier of processor to Acer is AMD and Intel. If they both increase their prices and Acer has no choice of buying from them the processors, the Acer products will also have their prices increased and the consumers may buy other brands from the market (Coleman, 18). Importance of MIS to achieve its competitive advantage The development of good information management system has enabled the company to change the dynamics of running business efficiently. MIS has enabled the company to decentralize its operations. As a result, the top management is able to monitor operations of at low levels and free up resources for departmental managers to devote time to strategic activities. With a good communication system, the information overload will be minimized. Proper MIS has also enabled effective provision of data and information to senior levels hence helping them in making management and strategic decisions (Coleman, 18). Airbus Company Airbus is a leading manufacturer of aircrafts in the world and is headquartered in Toulouse, France. Its commercial know-how, customer support, efficiency in manufacturing, and technological leadership has impelled it to the front position of the industries of air transport and aviation. The mission of the Airbus firm is to provide the best suited aircraft to the needs of the market and to provide support for those aircraft with the highest service quality (Bond, 22). The comprehensive and modern line of product of the Airbus firm entails great families of successful aircraft that ranges between 107 and 525 seats: the wide body long ranges A340/A330 and the following generation A350 XWB Family; the single aisle Family of A320; and the double deck Family of A380 (Bond, 77). Airbus captures almost half of all the agreements of airline orders consistently in the commercial market place. The firm’s customers all over the world have more than 11000 orders of Airbus jetliners, and the deliveries as at 12 December 2011 totaled up to 7000. The Airbus operates as a manufacturer of the aircraft. It offers products of jetliner such as military transport aircraft, and civil airline aircraft (Bond, 177). The company’s line of services include military airlifting, maritime patrol, search and rescue, surveillance operations, applications of medical evacuation, and enforcement of the economic exclusion zone. In the process of delivering its products and services, the company faces competition from its major competitors in the market. Some of its major competitors include Etihad Airways, EasyJet plc, Qatar Airways, JetBlue, IndiGo, Spirit Airlines, Republic Airways Holding, and the Boeing Company. Organization structure Management Management information system Modern technology in regard to airline transport is a complex process. Despite the normal airline activities, Airbus Company performs the operational management of the sales process, revenue accounting and analysis of results. Effective information and communication system is therefore inevitable only when there is interconnection between the Airline and other participants of the aviation market (Dock, Vincent and William, 89). As competition increase in the Airline industry, Airbus uses several incentives to encourage return business. These include flyer programs, fewer baggage restriction in business and first class and airport lounge. These have been made possible by proper development of Management Information System in the company. Airbus Company uses customer feedback and data management solutions to manage customer relations and comprehensive customer feedback program (Dock, Vincent and William, 19). Customer feedback analytics gives a cutting edge to Airbus Company hence helping the company in minimizing costs and maximizing customers. Airbus Company has integrated the Transport Systems Consulting Corporation’s (TSC) Aviation Management Information system to manage the technical operations activities of airline operations. This system runs micros to mainframes under the Unix/Linux operating system and various relational Database Management systems. This has enabled the information system to operate 24/7 and no software limits imposed by the system. The information system can be accessed through windows-based Graphical User Interface (Dock, Vincent and William, 75). The MIS used by Airbus Company comprise of ten modules as shown below. PORTERS FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS (Porter, 142) Bargaining power of buyers There is a low switching costs between firms. This is attributed to the fact that passengers choose the flight based on where they are going and the cost at the time. To ensure customer loyalty, Airbus has ensured good timing of the flight and proper safety aspects of flying. This has ensured low threat by the bargaining power of buyers. Bargaining power of suppliers Airbus Company has limited the effect of bargaining power of suppliers buy engaging in long term loan agreements and credits terms with the suppliers. Threat of new entrants Consumers’ tastes tend to focus on the well known airlines despite the fact that there might be low switching costs between the Airlines. Trust is a very aspect hence passengers do not want to give their money away to Airlines they don’t trust. However, with cost, legal and flying experience requirements; there is low threat of new entry into the market. Threat of substitute Airbus faces stiff competition from other means of transport such as car, bus, train or boats. Some means of transport are expensive than air tickets while others are relatively cheaper. But generally, air tickets are expensive and this makes the substitute have upper hand in pricing strategy. However, these substitutes can be costly when it comes to time. Airbus Company surpasses its substitutes when it comes to cost, service delivery and convenience. Rivalry among existing players There is stiff competition from other Airline companies. However, the company uses various strategies to curb this threat. In relation to the market share performance, Airbus has continually made strong performance of sales in 2011. This has brought milestone commercially and the company has continually met the demand of the robust industry for the modern jetliners product line. Its new choices of engine such as the LEAP-X from the CFM International and the PW1100G Pure Power from Whitney and Pratt delivers a wide range of play load capabilities and saves fuel. This leads to an efficient line of product which gives it a competitive advantage over its competitors. Conclusion and recommendation The report has detailed the strategic analysis of Acer Inc. through environment analysis of Acer, capabilities and resources of Acer and the extent to which Acer match its environment. I would therefore recommend that Acer to find Blue Ocean within the industry of PC and peripherals, to use sustainability as the major innovation driver, to adopt balance scorecard with its alliances, and to finally assist the distributors in developing a system of sales in order to support its product. The Airbus Company already benefits from good MIS system and standard costs and is likely to have more benefits from the other mentioned costing systems due to the various advantages mentioned in the relevant sections of the paper. Hence I would recommend that the Airbus Company employs and/ or put more emphasis on the mentioned costing systems. In fact the firm should put more emphasis on the MIS and standard costing to allow it improve its efficiency and effectiveness in the manufacturing of the aircrafts. It can therefore be deduced that the Airbus Company is a leading aircraft manufacturing firm in the world and would do extremely better if the above recommendations are implemented effectively. Work Cited Anthony, SD. Major League Innovation: Harvard Business Review, October, 2009. Aviation Week & Space Technology. London: International House, 1991. Banks, H. Airbus Comes of Age. Forbes: 1988. Bond, F. Airbus Subsidy Dispute Highlights Clash of U.S.-EC Industrial Cultures Burke, A, van Stel, A & Thurik, R. Blue Ocean vs. Five Forces: Harvard Business Coleman, Kevin G. Reengineering Mis: Aligning Information Technology and Business Operations. Harrisburg, Pa., USA: Idea Group Pub, 1996. Print. Dock, V T, Vincent P. Luchsinger, and William R. Cornette. M.i.s: A Managerial Perspective. Palo Alto, Calif: Science Research Associates, 1977. Print. Gupta, Hitesh. Management Information System: (an Insight). New Delhi: International Book House, 2011. Print. Porter, ME. Strategy and the Internet .Harvard Business Review: London, 2001. Print. Review, May, as viewed 29 April, 2010. Read More