Best Practices in IT/IS at EMCOR

♥♥♥Identify local organization(s) and discuss some of their best practices in IT/IS...This should be well-supported with any evidences. ♥♥♥

This instruction was our first assignment in MIS given by our facilitator, Dr. Gamboa. The next few days after its announcement, my brain really twisted with different understanding and thoughts. I started to have a pessimistic view in accomplishing the assignment. I don’t know why but in the other side, I’m thinking of the truth saying that “Why should I think negatively where in fact I’m not still trying my best.” This somehow, makes me motivated. By the way, the times when I think of many questions like what if? And how? That makes me puzzled even more. And that’s the main reason why up to the day of the due date, I still don’t identify the local organization/companies with IT. And even if I already have identified a little or have at least an idea, I didn’t even try to understand because of my misinterpretation of such assignment.

Fortunately, I’m not alone one thinking the same way as I am. Because of that, I and some of my classmates decided to approach Dr. Gamboa for the clarifications. Fro him, I’ve learned a very important lesson. Actually, I already learn it but it inculcate in my mind even deeper. That’s the value of TIME MANAGEMENT. He said that part of our course revolves on Management. He said that Management should really start on our selves. So here goes, proper time management. By the way, he did clarify our assignment. And he said that we have to send him an email regarding the companies and their profiles. So, I made a move. But, another problem rose into me. How can I send him an email in the MIS yahoo group when I’m not yet invited to join the group? I’ve got an idea to just post my searched companies in the IC forum thinking that he would consider but unfortunately, he wouldn’t saying that only approved companies would just be posted. But because of God’s grace, I was guided that he would not allow problems without solutions and the thought, “Look into the bright side of things.” Because of that, I’m able to accomplish the assignment.

There are six companies that I’ve proposed for his approval and these are the LBC Express, Inc. (Bajada) , JRS Express (CM Recto), Davao Light & Power Company, Carnation Travel and Tours, Eagle Express Lines, Inc. and Exel Logistics Management Philippines. Among the companies I’ve proposed, only two are being approved avia email and these are the first two companies mentioned. But as the days passed, they were also changes regarding the assignment and one of those major changes is the approval of my companies neing proposed, those six mentioned above are no longer accepted, so I have to look for another one. And I ended up withEMCOR.

COMPANY PROFILE:

Mr. Nilo Ricafort
EDP/MIS Department Manager
Emcor Incorporated - Head Office
JVR Bldg., J.P. Laurel Ave., Bajada,
Davao City, Philippines 8000
P.O Box No. 158
Tel. No. +63 (82) 222-1125 to 32
(Connecting All Departments)
Direct Line +63 (82) 300-3161
Fax No.: +63 (82) 221-1863
E-mail: customercare@emcor.com.ph

EMCOR Davao (Engineering Machinery Corporation) is the leading company of and market leader in the field of appliances, electronics and motorcycles. EMCOR is a 100% Filipino company whose primary business activity is the retailing of household appliances and motorcycles through the operation of retail stores in the islands of the Visayas and Mindanao, Philippines. The household appliance product lines consists of popular brands like National/Panasonic, JVC, Philips, Sony, Goldstar, Sharp and Samsung . The motorcycle product group comprises the leading brand in the market like Kawasaki, Yamaha, Honda and Suzuki.

THE INTERVIEW

On July 6, 2009, we visited EMCOR to conduct a study or interview regarding their MIS Department. After the letter’s approval, we set an appointment with the EDP/MIS Department Manager, Mr. Nilo Ricafort. Upon entering the room, I noticed its mission, Vision and the Seven Creeds. I also found out that the company’s founder and Chairman Emeritus was Mr. J.V. del Rosario. Even if I want to, I wasn’t able to copy the background of the company. However, I was indeed, able to copy their seven Creeds. It is stated that on Monday, they emphasizes.

In an interview, the group which purpose is to gather information regarding their module asked some questions first. We, on the individual purpose, jot down some notes.

They came up with the following questions with the corresponding answers:

1.) How and when did the MIS implemented?

EMCOR started its service along 1985. On 1987, they only have one computer. Mr. Ricafort was trained about it. They contracted with the digital interface. They hired programmers, etc
2.) How does the company’s system developed?

The system was developed along 1998 and 1999 in the preparation of the problem met in 2000. The Y2K problem means on how to input the years 2000 and the succeeding ones.

Along 1998, EMCOR is already internet connected. However, their system is not yet online and decentralized but they are planning to materialize the centralized on. In a centralized system, one branch can view the business transaction of the other. The customer can also pay their account in the other branches without the tedious process and hassles in part of the accounting personnel. He also said that the number of stores is equivalent to the number of databases

3.) What is the company’s approach in Systems building?

The company is developing its system in in-hours or source out.
MIS Department consists of help desk, research and development and the technical. Help desk answers queries, checks transactions, etc. Research and development is responsible for the systems development. Technical is for the hardware failures.
4.) How is it maintained?

There are maintained by their programmers and systems analyst through users, manger’s approval, reports, encoding and debugging processes and others

He mentioned about the SAP program. It’s a ready-made program that is installed and only developed by the company. He added that they are the ones responsible for its maintenance but the outsiders are for its improvement. He also talked about their data center; which is powered by the IBM.

In Mindanao, EMCOR branches and stores are connected via internet except Tandag and the other one. However, the two have their own servers and back- up systems.

5.) What are the best practices in IT/IS in your company?

Primary are the Security of data, implementing rules and regulations, daily back-ups and religious recovery

6.) What are the risks in IT/IS change?

The risks to be considered are the possible data loss, disaster and back down, preparation on the errors of the system, the establishment of the accuracy, and the users acceptance on the system. Also some of the difficulties at risk are the possible discrepancies, training time and etc.

7.) What are the advantages of having a system?

Some of theses are being fast, more accurate, cost and time advantages.
In terms of data security, the company is using the PVN or Private Virtual Network, as separate to the internet. It is to avoid hacking data.
8.) What are the disadvantages?

If the systems back down and the company met disasters, that’s the main disadvantage.

However, they have disaster recovery procedures which automatically back up the servers and the systems. Also they have the contact with IBM. Another is that they are planning to have a swapping and backing up witheir sister company in Luzon.

References:

http://davaochamber.com/member-profiles/emcor-inc/
http://emcor.com.ph/about.php

Photos:

Six IS Leadership Roles

Six IS Leadership Roles
(Computer Science Corporation, 1996)

1. Chief architect. The chief architect designs future possibilities for the business. The primary work of the chief architect is to design and evolve the IT infrastructure so that it will expand the range of future possibilities for the business. The infrastructure should provide not just today's technical services, such as networking, databases and desktop operating systems, but an increasing range of business-level services, such as workflow, portfolio management, scheduling, and specific business components or objects.
2. Change leader. The change leader orchestrates resources to achieve optimal implementation of the future. The essential role of the change leader is to orchestrate all those resources that will be needed to execute the change program. This includes providing new IT tools, but it also involves putting in place teams of people who can redesign roles, jobs and workflow, who can change beliefs about the company and the work people do, and who understand human nature and can develop incentive systems to coax people into new and different behaviors.
3. Product developer. The product developer helps define the company’s place in the emerging digital economy. For example, a product developer might recognize the potential for performing key business processes over electronic linkages. The product developer must "sell" the idea to a business partner, and together they can set up and evaluate business experiments, which are initially operated out of IS. Whether the new methods are adopted or not, the company will learn from the experiments and so move closer to commercial success in emerging digital markets.
4. Technology provocateur. The technology provocateur embeds IT into the business strategy. The technology provocateur works with senior business executives to bring IT and realities of the IT marketplace to bear on the formation of strategy for the business. The technology provocateur is a senior business executive who understands both the business and IT at a deep enough level to integrate the two perspectives in discussions about the future course of the business. Technology provocateurs have a wealth of experience in IS disciplines, so they understand at a fundamental level the capabilities of IT and how IT impacts the business.
5. Coach. The coach teaches people to acquire the skill sets they will need for the future. Coaches have two basic responsibilities: teaching people how to learn, so that they can become self-sufficient, and providing team leaders with staff able to do the IT-related
work of the business. A mechanism that assists both is the centre of excellence - a small group of people with a particular competence or skill, with a coach responsible for their growth and development. Coaches are solid practitioners of the competence that they will be coaching, but need not be the best at it in the company.
6. Chief operating strategist. The chief operating strategist invents the future with senior management. The chief operating strategist is the top IS executive who is focused on the future agenda of the IS organization. The strategist has parallel responsibilities related to helping the business design the future, and then delivering it. The most important, and least understood, parts of the role have to do with the interpretation of new technologies and the IT marketplace, and the bringing of this understanding into the development of the digital business strategy for the organization.

MANAGERIAL ROLES
(Mintzberg,Henry)

Managers undertake activities to achieve the objectives of the organization. Mintzberg (1994) notes a number of different and sometimes conflicting views of the manager's role. He finds that it is a curiosity of the management literature that its best-known writers all seem to emphasize one particular part of the manager’s job to the exclusion of the others.
Describing the manager's work has been an ongoing pursuit of researchers and practitioners. The manager's work is characterized by brevity, variety, fragmentation of tasks, a preference for action (as opposed to reflection), and a preference for oral communication over formal reports (Mintzberg, 1994). Kotter (1999) identified two main roles for executives: agenda setting and network building.
A number of models describing the manager's work have been proposed including functional descriptions such as planning, organizing, directing, controlling, co-ordinating, and innovating. According to Mintzberg (1990), the manager's job can be described in terms of various roles:

1. Informational Roles.By virtue of interpersonal contacts, both with subordinates and with a network of contacts, the manager emerges as the nerve centre of the organizational
unit. The manager may not know everything but typically knows more than subordinates do. Processing information is a key part of the manager's job. As monitor, the manager is perpetually scanning the environment for information, interrogating liaison contacts and subordinates, and receiving unsolicited information, much of it as a result of the network of personal contacts. As a disseminator, the manager passes some privileged information
directly to subordinates, who would otherwise have no access to it. As spokesperson, the manager sends some information to people outside the unit.
2. Decisional Roles. Information is not an end in itself; it is the basic input to decision making. The manager plays the major role in a unit's decision-making system. As its formal authority, only the manager can commit the unit to important new courses of action; and as its nerve centre, only the manager has full and current information to make the set of decisions that determines the unit's strategy. As entrepreneur, the manager seeks to improve the unit, to adapt it to changing conditions in the environment. As disturbance handler, the manager responds to pressures from situations. As resource allocater, the manager is responsible for deciding who will get what. As negotiator, the manager commits organizational resources in real time.

3. Interpersonal Roles. As figurehead, every manager must perform some ceremonial duties. As leader, managers are responsible for the work of the people of their unit. As liaison, the manager makes contacts outside the vertical chain of command. Changes in both information technology and competition continue to change the role of the information systems executive.

References:

(http://inform.nu/Articles/Vol3/v3n2p31-39.pdf)

Management Information Systems

MIS

MIS short for Management Information System is one of our courses that must be completed and passed this school year, 2009-2010. On the 18th of June 2009, this was introduced by our facilitator, Dr. Randy S. Gamboa who happened to be our facilitator in the college previous years specifically in the courses Analytic Geometry and Probability & Statistics respectively. Upon realizing that he is our facilitator, I was thankful because I already have an idea on what he really is in school. So, I don’t have to really adjust in his strategy. However, he told us some changes in our class. He said that we don’t have to have quizzes, lon quizzes and exams. We only have to post a blg throughout the semester.

As an overview, Dr. Gamboa taught that the word “management” implies that someone has to be managed and it has the following components which are the panning, directing, organizing and controlling. Also, he discussed the main equation of Information System which goes like this: IS=HW+SW+PW, where IS stands for Information System, HW for Hardware, SW for software and PW for Peopleware, respectively. In the flow of our first class, he also gave our first blog assignment which comprises this reflection in MIS, IS Leadership Roles according to Computer Science Corporation and the Managerial Roles according to Henry Metzberg.

Upon reflecting about MIS, I came with this blog entry. From the words Management Information System (MIS), I can simply understand it as system for the information needed in a management. When I searched in the internet, I found these following definitions. In Wikipedia, An 'MIS' is a planned system of the collecting, processing, storing and disseminating data in the form of information needed to carry out the functions of management. Another meaning states that MIS is an information system, typically computer based that is used within an organization. According to Philip Kotler “A marketing information system consists of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers.” Another says MIS is a computer system, usually based on a {mainframe} or {minicomputer}, designed to provide management personnel with up-to-date information on an organization's performance, e.g. inventory and sales. These systems output information in a form that is useable by managers at all levels of the organisation: strategic, tactical, and operational. A good example of an MIS report is an annual report for a stockholder ( scheduled report). [Que's Computer User's Dictionary Second Edition, 1992]. (2001-04-01). Professor Allen S. Lee states that "...research in the information systems field examines more than the technological system, or just the social system, or even the two side by side; in addition, it investigates the phenomena that emerge when the two interact." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_systems)

Upon examining the term MIS, I observed many important things. One of these is that you should not rearrange the letters in the acronym MIS nor rearrange the words in Management Information System such as “Information Management System” for surely it affects its meaning. When you say Information Management System, it means the IBM's premier transaction & hierarchical database management system. The term system in MIS implies order, arrangement and purpose. In a common sense, these really have different senses. Another is that you should not use data in place of the word information because these two are also different in a restricted manner. Data merely means symbols or unprocessed instructions while information is the processed data in order to be useful. The information can be used for various purposes: strategic planning, delivering increased, productivity, reducing service cycles, reducing product development cycles, reducing marketing life cycles, increasing the understanding of customers' needs, facilitating business and process re-engineering. Also, you should not confuse the terms MIS and IS or information system for the latter includes system that aren’t intended for decision making which the former doesn’t. In addition, MIS is sometimes referred to as Information Technology Management which is again, shouldn’t be confused with Computer Science because IT and CS distinguishes each other.

Going deeper with MIS, you could learn its application, benefits, core competencies and others. The development and management of information technology tools assists executives and the general workforce in performing any tasks related to the processing of information. As mentioned, MIS is especially useful in the collation of business data and the production of reports to be used as tools for decision making. Some of the important applications of MIS are in the fields of strategy support and data processing. MIS systems can be used to transform data into information useful for decision making, provide a valuable function in that they can collate into coherent reports unmanageable volumes of data that would otherwise be broadly useless to decision makers and can also use these raw data to run simulations – hypothetical scenarios that answer a range of ‘what if’ questions regarding alterations in strategy. Not only do MIS systems allow for the collation of vast amounts of business data, but they also provide a valuable time saving benefit to the workforce. The field of MIS can deliver a great many benefits to enterprises in every industry. Expert organizations such as the Institute of MIS along with peer reviewed journals such as MIS Quarterly continue to find and report new ways to use MIS to achieve business objectives. Every market leading enterprise will have at least one core competency. MIS systems provide the tools necessary to gain a better understanding of the market as well as a better understanding of the enterprise itself. Within companies and large organizations, the department responsible for computer systems is sometimes called the MIS department.


MIS can also be used across the organization as an information utility to support policy making, meet regulatory and legislative requirements, support research and development, support consistent and rapid decision making, enable effective and efficient utilization of resources, provide evidence of business transactions, identify and manage risks, and evaluate and document quality, performance and achievements.

References:
(http://en.allexperts.com/q/Managing-Business-1088/management-information-system.htm)(http://www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk/glossary/management-information-system.htm)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_information_systems)