Assignment 3 (MIS2)

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan? Note: you are required to interview an IS professional/s for your answer ... (at least 3000 words)



The adopted company we have been interviewed is the Rhine Marketing. During the interview our group discover that the RMC-CD branch in Davao City has adopted an in-house programmer. The Rhine System, (name of their IS) was developed by their self-employed personnel. We interviewed Mr. Cris, the MIS head of RMC-CD and fortunately he gives us information about their company and the causes of frustration of the IS professional.
Rhine - A Filipino Success Story

People from all walks of life have associated Rhine Marketing Corporation with sewing machines. Rhine started its operation in Cebu by selling sewing machines on the installment plans. Today, there are more than 64,000 homes in the country with a Rhine sewing machine. Rhine, known for its low cost appliance installment schemes, has been improving the quality of life for thousands of Filipinos by making available all types of appliances, computers and small industrial equipment: sewing machines, TV's, refrigerators, pianos, sing-along systems, stereos, VCD & DVD players and components, electric fans, furniture, spring beds, gas ranges, washing machines, and many more consumer items, on affordable terms.

PROGRESSIVE

Rhine has been actively involved in various socio-economic and civic projects of such institution as the Boy Scouts of the Philippines and the Philippine Business for Social Progress. Personal involvement of the Chairman of the Board Mrs. Isabel Caro Wilson and Mr. Hernando Streegan ensure the company's support and active participation in worthwhile community undertakings.

In 1980 Rhine started granting college scholarships under the Claude M. Wilson Scholarship Program. An average of eight deserving students is selected per year. At present, there are now 80 students who have fully availed of the program.

Internally, Rhine's close to 1,000 employees throughout the country enjoy substantial social benefits: a company retirement plan, group hospitalization, plan emergency loan plan, group life insurance and employees discount/terms on appliance purchases.

For 39 years, the company has served more than 700,000 families by granting them credit through installment sales of more than 1.1 billion pesos. Rhine also gives P30,000.00 death cash benefit to the beneficiary of any Rhine customer who at the time of death due to an accident still has an up to date account of Rhine Marketing Corporation. Consequently, the remaining balance shall be waived and the unit purchased by the deceased customer shall be considered fully paid.

Rhine Marketing Corporation also honors the people who for a number of years have rendered their loyal and faithful service to the company. The company believes that to these individuals, recognition for their hardwork is what they all truly deserve. Every year, service awards are given to its employees who have reached five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty five years in the company. Awardees are distinctively awarded with plaques and cash incentives for their respective number of years.

STRATEGIES

Inspite of adversities faced by the appliance retailing industry in the form of stiff competition and government regulations. Rhine has devised innovative schemes and incentive programs to boost the company's installment sales and capture a large segment of the market.

These efforts have resulted in high efficiency ratings, and improved net earnings vis-a-vis owner's equity. The company's credit lines, while available, are used minimally, a good standard achievement since Rhine finances its installment sales.

SALES TOOL

Through the years, Rhine has consistently identified itself with low installment plans. White other appliance firms accept installment sales, few concentrate on it as much as Rhine, which gears its entire marketing stategy to the cultivation of long-term customers who are possible sources of repeat sales. Supporting this strategy are carefully calibrated ranges of installment terms among which a customer is sure to find one perfectly suited for his earning power and budget priorities. Other companies treat installments as subsidiary sales mechanisms: for Rhine, it is a major sales tool.

Rhine is a self-financing installment house. Unlike other appliance outlets, Rhine does not channel receivables to independent finance companies whose collectors and agents deal directly with the customer. At Rhine, the company maintains and trains in-house personnel to adequately service a customer's account. This set up is advantageous to the customer as well as to the company since it helps establish rapport and trust which consequently improves collections and after-sales service.

Before i’ve been tackle the different frustration of the said company i will define first what is Frustration???
PROVIDING CUSTOMER SUPPORT
• On-Site Servicing. Rhine professionalism is extended to help you maintain your computer system right in your home of office. This process gets rid of the hassles of bringing your PC's to service centers.


• Repair and Maintenance Center. Apart from the warehouse that promises ready inventory, the RMA team at the Plant Site caters to PC problems that may not be solved at the Service Center level. Thus, this fully guarantees customers a continued servicing of their PCs.


• Nationwide Network of Sales and Service Center. To provide you with utmost service satisfaction, Rhine has extended its reach and set up a total of 19 Branches and Sub-branches nationwide, making it one of the largest distributor of computer products and peripherals.


• Business Areas. Personal Computer manufacturing * Systems Integration (provides local area networking) * PC consultancy and business solutions * Service and Maintenance.

 Frustration

Frustration is a common emotional response to opposition. Related to anger and disappointment, it arises from the perceived resistance to the fulfillment of individual will. The greater the obstruction, and the greater the will, the more the frustration is likely to be. Causes of frustration may be internal or external. In people, internal frustration may arise from challenges in fulfilling personal goals and desires, instinctual drives and needs, or dealing with perceived deficiencies, such as a lack of confidence or fear of social situations. Conflict can also be an internal source of frustration; when one has competing goals that interfere with one another, it can create cognitive dissonance. External causes of frustration involve conditions outside an individual, such as a blocked road or a difficult task. While coping with frustration, some individuals may engage in passive-aggressive behavior, making it difficult to identify the original cause(s) of their frustration, as the responses are indirect. A more direct, and common response, is a propensity towards aggression.

Different frustrations that he encountered in working with the Information System Plan:

1. Cost – see to that the system costing would depend on the quality of a project. Making a system is impossible without financial support. From the hardware to software, all of this has a cost. That's the reason why a company must have good financial capacity to cater expense of systems.

2. Mood- it refers to the behavioral condition of a programmer. Moods might influence the quality and performance of programmers while programming. It is evident from literature that positive and negative moods influence divergent thinking, quantity/quality of ideas and creative problem solving. The programmers' performance and the quality of their work could be affected by their moods when they develop or test an application.

3 Limitation (restriction) – it refers to the time allocated for the system to be finished.

4. System flow or manual procedure- see to it that whatever the customer wants, it is pertinent that he/she must prepare the important things or data needed in a particular project. For an instance, customer wishes for a quality and easy system, it is important to consider the following like manual procedure had been set, there is legal contract between you (programmer) and customer and finalize first the data and reports needed.

A process for developing a strategy and plans for aligning information systems with the
business strategies of an organization.

Characteristics:
-*Timely. The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is
useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work
than to perform the work planned.

-*Useable. The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for
each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be
parceled out to project managers and immediately started.
-*Maintainable. The ISP should be maintainable. New business opportunities, new
computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support
quick changes to the estimates, technologies employed, and possibly even
to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are
accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program
executions away.
-*Quality. While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first


References:
http://www.rhine.com.ph/about-us/rhine-computer-division.html
Wikipedia.com