Analyzing Value of an IS

"Choose any specific IS products sold on the market or developed in-house. Then describe its value for the coompany and describe what parts/processes cosntitute main systems components."

In my current job at Fuji Film there is a fantastic system called Channel Metrix which allows employees from across the nation to interact with each other, schedule their work hours, report data gathered during work, and learn about new technology and products all by visiting a simple website that sends all this data back to the managers. This system also provides payroll information based on what employees enter in to the system.

The nature of our job is to collect qualitative and quantitative data by visiting various retail locations and to increase brand awareness across these locations. We have the flexibility to schedule our visits in a given month time frame on the system. The managers have the ability to view this information directly from their computers so they can see when and where our visits are taking place. Once our visits are completed we have to submit a detailed report on the system of everything we encountered at retail. This data serves as valuable market research that the managers and executives can use to tailor our products and technology. Once we have reported this data our visits are immediately added to payroll automatically.

Additionally this system also has a file manager, which has numerous documents and training material regarding company information and product information including an interactive training interface. This allows the company to constantly update its employees on new technology and changes that are taking place in the company.

This system is greatly valuable to Fuji Film as it basically allows the company’s marketing department to function. Without the system, it would be impossible for the department and executives to interact with employees all over the nation. This system allows everything to be automated and simple. The employees simply put information in to the system and the managers are able to view it and vice versa.

Input: There are various different forms of input on part of the employee. The employee feeds in visit schedule data which in turn automatically produces payroll. Additionally, we also provide primary qualitative market research data gathered from the retail environment which the company can extract and use to change/tailor the products.

Processing: An example of processing is when the visit data that we have inputted in the system is automatically extracted every two weeks and directly deposited in to our bank accounts. This data is also verified by physical check in procedures at the retail level.

Output: An example of output are the paychecks we get, and the reported data that the managers use to forward to executives for product R&D.

Feedback: An example of feedback is how it is impossible to enter more than 8 hours per visit. If you try to enter more than 8 hours the system will automatically catch this and it won’t let you submit it. There is also feedback regarding store inventory levels and compliance based on the data that we report in the system. There is also the option for employees to provide feedback on the system to the managers so it can be improved to work more efficiently.