Overview Of the Company

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications, known as du, is the UAE’s second telecoms operator. It was established in December 2005, and aims to have a 30 percent market share of mobile subscribers before the end of 2009, up from last year’s 22 percent.

Du launched mobile telecommunication services in February 2007 across the UAE and is 40 percent owned by the UAE Federal Government, 20 percent by Mubadala Development Company, 20 percent by TECOM Investments and 20 percent by public shareholders. The telecom is listed on the Dubai Financial Market (DFM).

The company reported its 2008 full year results in February, revealing it had added 1.88 million mobile customers over the 12 months. Revenue of $1.08bn was 157 percent up on the previous year.

In January, UK telecoms giant Vodafone signed du up to its Partner Market programme, allowing the UAE carrier access to its products and services. In exchange, Vodafone will give du improved voice and data roaming access across 67 countries, while Vodafone customers visiting the UAE will be given extended network coverage and access to du’s advanced 3G network..

How Information systems are helping DU

1. This system permits managers to get more work done in less time.
2. When the MIS is used  properly it can make an organization incredible more productive
3. Top management can monitor the company as a whole

Three Levels Managers

The MIS must produce information for managers on three levels:

·         Operational – day-to-day decisions such as ordering in more stock

·         Tactical – decisions that have a short to medium term effect, e.g. introducing a new product to a particular retail outlet;

·         Strategic – long term decisions that will affect the future of the organisation, e.g. whether to open a new store, or take over a rival concern.

a study showed the following about the time taken by a manager on various different tasks:

·         Desk work – 22 %

·         Travel – 3 %

·         Unscheduled meetings – 10 %

·         Scheduled meetings (the practical alternative to work) – 59 %

·         Telephone calls – 6 %.

Some chief executives have to change their attention rapidly form one task to another.  In some cases, half their activities last less than nine minutes.

Desirable features of an MIS

·         Be flexible - allowing for different ways of analysing data and evaluating information

·         Be able to support a range of skills and knowledge

·         Provide interpersonal communication with other people

in the organisation

·         Not require extensive periods of concentration as managers switch between different tasks.

·         Make it easy to interrupt the work and return to it at a later time

·        Protect a manager, from information overload

Formal and informal flows MIS

 The MIS can be used to gather information from both formal and informal flows of information

·    A formal flow of information is one in which a procedure is adopted, e.g. the downloading of sales figures from several branches first thing on a Monday morning.  External data can be collected using specialised data collection agencies such as Dun and Bradstreet who produce economic data for academic and commercial organisations.  Formal flows can also come from people working on the same document at several locations, or by use of e-mail, or by use of company intranets.

·    Informal information flows come from chance meetings, reading magazines or newspapers, or watching the news on TV.

Analyze MIS

 The MIS will analyse the sales data to highlight sales trends of different product lines, to enable decisions to be made as to whether the product needs special promotion, or whether it should be discontinued.

The MIS deals with internal and external information.  The internal information can be got quite easily from the various systems on the company network, e.g. sales figures for each product line.  The external information is gathered from

·         Intelligence about competitors’ activities.  This can come through reading articles in the press, leaks, or even industrial espionage.

·         Information about population shifts.  As the population gets older, the less likely they are to be interested in pop-music or customising cars, but are more likely to be interested in weight-loss products or holidays for the over 50s.

·         Economic and social factors.  Sales of cars would go down in an area where a major employer had just closed down a plant.

·         Government Legislation.  Financial forecasts would change if the minimum wage rose.

Du Information System

The management unit of the business relies profoundly on the management information system (MIS). This system permits managers to get more work done in less time. When the MIS is used properly it can make an organization incredible more productive. The MIS collects, processes, stores and disseminates data in the form of information needed to carry out the functions of management.The MIS receives data from company units and functions.Some of the data are collected automatically from computer-linked check-out counters; others are keyed in at periodic intervals.

The best definition of an MIS is :The role of a management information system is to convert data from internal and external sources into information that can be used to aid in making effective decisions for planning, directing and controlling.

The role of a management information system (MIS) is to provide a manager with sufficient information to make informed decisions to help him to carry out the above functions.