Magical Toys is a South African toy store chain. The toys are sold in their five stores and from their own Web shop. Each Tuesday, management needs sales reports from last week's activities. Work at the stores is hectic, so usually at least one store fails to deliver the report, making it impossible to sum up the previous week's sales. The reports, sent by email as spreadsheets, sometimes have inconclusive or erroneous data, and following up means that employees are unable to give their full focus to the customers. Some errors in the spreadsheets may also cause the purchasing manager to place unnecessary purchase orders. (a) What are the main issues that Magical Toys faces in the absence of an information system? (b) How could an information system be of help, and what issues can an information system not solve?
Magical Toys is a South African toy store chain. The toys are sold in their five stores and from their own Web shop. Each Tuesday, management needs sales reports from last week's activities. Work at the stores is hectic, so usually at least one store fails to deliver the report, making it impossible to sum up the previous week's sales. The reports, sent by email as spreadsheets, sometimes have inconclusive or erroneous data, and following up means that employees are unable to give their full focus to the customers. Some errors in the spreadsheets may also cause the purchasing manager to place unnecessary purchase orders.
(a) What are the main issues that Magical Toys faces in the absence of an information system?
(b) How could an information system be of help, and what issues can an information system not solve?
Step by step
Solved in 2 steps
