Size of information system
The information systems being deployed at Daman National Insurance System is well implemented for the different hierarchy of the organization:
· Lower Level Employees: For lower level of the organizational pyramid, the information system deployed the most is Transaction Processing System (TPS). Further, company is also implementing the decision support system (DSS) for supporting the employees with less knowledge and skills to take instant and appropriate decisions.
· Middle Level Employees: At middle level of the organizational pyramid, the management information system (MIS) is the most widely used information system which allows easy and effective access to all the necessary information required. Again, Decision Support System (DSS) is also getting important for middle level management.
· Senior Level Employees: At this level, Decision Support System (DSS) is most considerably implemented information system which shows only the requisite information for this level and hides the other information to allow less wastage of time.
· Executive Level Management: At the top-most level of the organization, Executive Information System (EIS) is the most importantly deployed information system. This system allows the executive level managers to take the overall glance of the organization with the reports generated by EIS and take the note of strategic information to take necessary decisions.
Type of different information system
Following are the main information systems that are deployed at Daman National Insurance Company:
· Transaction Processing System (TPS): This system is used in the company with the aim of processing the routine transactions more accurately and efficiently. The TPS is widely used as the billing system to send the invoices to the customers, calculating the monthly or weekly payrolls and tax payments, production and purchasing the calculated raw material requirements, and sometimes as a stock control system to process the movement of the stocks into, within and outside the business.
· Management Information System (MIS): The management information system is used in the organization with the purpose of internal sourcing, processing and production of informational data. At Daman Insurance Company, MIS take the data from transactional processing system and further process it for the generation of series of management reports. This system is tend to be used only by the operational supervisors and middle level management.
· Decision Support System (DSS): The Decision Support System (DSS) are used for the purpose of helping the senior level management in making the required decisions especially in the situations where there is uncertainty about some possible outcomes of the decisions made. This system comprise of the all the needed tools and techniques which help to gather the relevant data and information for analyzing the options and alternatives. The complex spreadsheets and databases are also facilitated by the use of DSS.
· Executive Information System (EIS): The executive information system (EIS) is mainly used by the top or executive level managers to make the key strategic decisions. The function of this system is to gather, summarize and analyze the key internal and external information used in the business. It presents the most abstracted form of information that is easily used by the top level managers under the limitations of time and space for making the quick and effective decisions.
Type of data
Following are the types of data needed for carrying out the different processes at Daman Insurance Company (Dicken, 2010):
· Basic data related to customer needed for operations such as customer’s name, address, income, etc.
· Collective data of the customers such as number of entries of the customers, related demography, etc.
· Financial and accounting data.
· Annual performance data.
· Data related to marketing and sales.
Type of information
Following are some of the types of information required for the company (Dicken, 2010):
· Customer related statistics such as number of policies sold, track of current status of the customers’ requests, total amount of amount taken, total amount given, etc.
· Market and sales statistics such as growth of the operations of company, effectiveness of the promotional schemes, etc.
· Financial information regarding the profits and loss, financial ratios, information required for further strategy building, etc.
· Annual reports regarding the operations of company, performance related information, etc.
Type of knowledge
Since Daman Insurance Company is a prospering non-life insurance health insurance company owned by government in the capital United Arab Emirates (UAE), Abu Dhabi. The type of knowledge needed for Daman Insurance Company is personal information which insures the successful competition of the health insurance. Since the company gives health insurance the basic information about the client is required like its name, address, the present health status of the person, its nationality. The Daman National Health Insurance Company also offers some technical products having some extra benefits like wide geographical coverage and extended policy limits. Daman has now also launched its online portal, which is also called as the e-Daman, it aims at providing all the health insurance services which are related online including paper-less claims submission, online endorsements, online quote request, online policy renewals and an online tool where users can search, receive driving directions for and rate different providers (Dicken, 2010).
Conversion of Data into information and knowledge
Firstly, data is collected from the various portals and resource centers in its raw form after which it is processed through some of the screening to convert it into a meaningful data which can be recognized by the available information systems. After this, depending upon the type of data collected and type of information required, data is further processed through different tools and techniques of transformations. The information systems help in quickly and efficiently transforming and managing the data for such transformations. Also, the information systems are directly used for collecting the data. For example, the transaction processing system help in the quick transactions of the data collected directly from the customers. Now, as move upward in the hierarchy of organization, the information needed keeps on becoming more managed, intelligent, and strategic in nature. Thus, programmed with some of the efficient algorithms, the different information systems helps in the production of such meaningful information to be used by the managers and executives. The information, when presented with all the senses and connotations becomes the knowledge which can be further utilized in various ways. In the sense that each and every aspect of the presented information may not be applicable for every element of the organization, we need to have the techniques which can present the information in the form of knowledge. All these knowledge required for the completion of different tasks and activities are extremely well facilitated by the use of information systems again.
Advantages of using the different information systems
Following are the advantages of using the different information systems covered one by one for each of the information systems being implemented at Daman Insurance Company (Rada, 2008):
TPS:
· This system provides the needed simplicity and efficiency.
· The paper work is reduced to a considerable extent.
· It makes the work faster as well.
· More accurate forecasts for revenues and expenses are achieved
MIS:
· MIS facilitates the planning.
· MIS minimizes the information overload.
· It also encourages the decentralization of information in the organization possible as the systems are available to monitor the jobs for even the lower levels.
· The system also makes the measurement of performance and other necessary changes in the procedures and plans easier.
· The system also forms the considerable link between the planning and control which improves the ability of management to improve performance and productivity more easily and more effectively.
DSS:
· The DSS helps to improve the personal efficiency and also accelerate the problem solving capabilities.
· System is also used for facilitating the interpersonal communication in the Daman Insurance Company.
· It also helps to promote learning and training for generating new evidences for supporting in decision making process.
· It also assists in the automation of managerial processes in company’s internal and external processes.
EIS:
· It makes it easier for the executives to use their experiences in the information world.
· EIS also helps to generate timely delivery of description of complex processes instantly.
· Also, it helps to produce easy to understand information that typically improves the efficiencies for making decisions.
· Filtering data for management is also easy with EIS.
Disadvantages of using the different information systems
Following are the disadvantages of using the different information systems covered one by one for each of the information systems being implemented at Daman Insurance Company (Rada, 2008):
TIPS:
· At some instances, processing inefficiency becomes a trouble for TPS.
· Data redundancy and temporal integrity problems also become trouble for some instances.
MIS:
· MIS requires constant monitoring which makes it highly sensitive to suspected errors.
· The lack of flexibility to update the system also poses considerable difficulty for the company.
DSS:
· For DSS, the biggest problem is with the transfer of powers to the lower level management which involves considerable transfer of authority to the software program.
· Sometimes, DSS also leads to unanticipated consequences. These notable consequences were witnessed in the form of reduced skills to perform the decision making tasks at lower level management.
EIS:
· The current EIS has been found to be incompetent in performing the complex calculations.
· The difficulties with the arrangement of system, falling short of information needed for senior management, etc are additional troubles associated with the system.
Enhancements in information systems
Following are some of the enhancements suggested for the existing information systems:
· TPS: The components and elements are required to be added which can reduce the waiting time for the TPS. Thus, the turnaround time for the conversion of inputs to the required outputs would be reduced to few seconds. Further, the reliability of the TPS may be improved to reduce the probability of failures (Rada, 2008).
· MIS: The functionalities of MIS should be extended for further involvement of specialized activities carried by the each and every department so that the system may be able to bring more co-ordination. The used computers may also be involved to increase the speed of data processing with extended storage capabilities at reduced costs (Karen A. Wager, 2009).
· DSS: The existing DSS may be enhanced to have more reliability for the senior level management. The delegacy of authorities must be accompanied with considerable monitoring at the higher level of the system. The system should also be enhanced with significant abstraction for lower level management so that confidential information may remain hidden from the lower level employees (Karen A. Wager, 2009).
· EIS: The system should be enhanced to cover more investigation of the smaller processes in the organization and producing the short but useful information covering all the utilizable aspects for the executive level management. The system should also be enhanced to generate the information for each level differently. For example, the system should be able to produce the information with exact requirements needed for senior level managers, departmental heads, executive level management, etc (Karen A. Wager, 2009).
Uses of information system in Daman
Following are some of the uses of information system that are widely being deployed at Daman Insurance System:
· The information systems implemented at different levels of the organizational pyramid helps to quick extraction and presentation of the required information. This information may be directly or indirectly used by the organization to come over its routine needs. This further reduces the errors which generally creep in while doing the same tasks manually.
· The time taken for the completion of tasks is also reduced to a considerable extent with the relevant information being extracted from the raw data within few seconds. This further reduces the intensive labor required which also involves the probabilities of errors, failure in meeting the deadlines, etc.
· The cost reduction is another prospect of the information systems being used at Daman Insurance Company. The preparation, processing and presentation of the pertinent information are extremely a labor intensive job if done manually. But, with efficient information policies and effective information management tools, the work not only gets easier but also cost-effective with the conservation of expenditure for recruiting the employees who could handle such a huge bulk of raw data and produce error-free reports whenever needed.
The uses of information system which are affable to me include the effective exploitation of the available technologies in the world of ICT to manage the huge data that are needed for supervising an insurance company. The company has very well deployed the information management systems for reducing the time and cost which has improved the productivity and profitability of the firm to a great extent. The company has also been successful in creating an environment that has considerable touch of digitized expertise that helps to uplift the morale of people working in the organization.
Some of the obnoxious aspects associated with the use of information systems at Daman National Insurance include the existing shortcomings due to the security issues, troubles and threats associating with completely relying on these systems. The company still needs to develop the back-up strategies and plans in case of the failure of the information systems being in use.
Additional information system for future
Following are some of the additional information systems which are suggested for the implementation at Daman Insurance Company (Rada, 2008):
· Experts System: The expert system may be defined as the computer system which imitates the decision making capabilities of the human experts. This system may be applied for solving the complex problems by making the extensive use of the reasoning which is based on knowledge, skills and abilities trained to the system. The decisions given by the system may be deployed as a baseline before arriving at the final decisions. It can be applicable in several of the cases such as analyzing the case of the customers and deciding the amount needed to be paid in case of accidents, etc.
· Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): An integrated enterprise resource planning system may also be extremely viable for Daman Insurance Company by integrating the external and internal management of information across the entire organization. This system could be completely relied upon for the accounting or financing information, manufacturing, customer relationship management, sales and services, etc. This system would also be improving the flow of information between the different business functions that would in turn improve the efficiency and efficacy of the organization not only within the boundaries of organization but also maintaining the connections to outside customers and stakeholders.
· Human Resource Information System (HRIS): The human resource information system (HRIS) is the application or online solutions required for data entry, data keeping, and other data information needs for the human resource’s payroll management, accounting functions, etc. Although there are systems available for managing the human resource in the company yet integrating the global human resource information needs, an incorporated HRIS may be developed to increase the efficiency in human resource management as well.
