Apple Inc Management Information System Project free essay sample

Therefore, in order to apple MIS knowledge and skill into the reality, Apple is supposed to be an appropriate firm to analyze MIS issues. These issues will be represented in following order: 1. Understanding business and information system requirements. 2. Analyzing financial performance. 3. Achieve operational excellence: analyzing competitive strategy. 4. Improving decision making: developing a Website privacy policy. 5. Improving decision marking: Designing the customer database 6. Improving operational excellence: Identifying supply chain management solutions 7. Achieving operational excellence: Developing an E-Commerce strategy 8. Achieving operational excellence: Identifying opportunities for knowledge management. Finally, our report still have numerous mistakes, we expect Professor. Ngoc may contribute, comment and criticism to make our report more perfect. General information: Apple Inc. ,  formerly  Apple Computer, Inc. ,  is an American  multinational corporation headquartered in  Cupertino,  California[2]  that designs, develops, and sells  consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. Its best-known hardware products are the  Mac  line of computers, the  iPod  music player, the  iPhone  smartphone, and the  iPad  tablet computer. We will write a custom essay sample on Apple Inc Management Information System Project or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Its software includes the  OS X  and  iOS  operating systems, the  iTunes  media browser, the  Safari  web browser, and the  iLife  and  iWork  creativity and production suites. The company was founded on April 1, 1976, and incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. on January 3, 1977. [6]  The word Computer was removed from its name on January 9, 2007, reflecting its shifted focus towards  consumer electronics  after the introduction of the iPhone. Topic 1: Understanding business and information systems requirement. Preparing management analysis plays an essential role to approach the firm’s current and future plans. * Goal: Identifying goals is one of steps, which create the success of any company. For Apple, their goal is obtaining stellar products and services within tight timeframes, at a cost that represents the best possible value to our customers and shareholders and building a strong relationship with their customers and suppliers. * Culture: Apple was one of several highly successful companies founded in the 1970s that bucked the traditional notions of what a  corporate culture  should look like in organizational hierarchy (flat versus tall, casual versus formal attire, etc. ). Apple is also known for strictly enforcing accountability. Each project has a directly responsible individual, or DRI in Apple jargon. Another Apple feature is attempting to differentiate itself from its competitors. This has resulted in a corporate culture more akin to a startup rather than a multinational corporation. Furthermore, Apple still has a reputation for fostering individuality and excellence that reliably draws talented people into its employ. To recognize the best of its employees, Apple created the Apple Fellows program, awarding individuals who made extraordinary technical or leadership contributions to  personal computing  while at the company. * Products: Apple manufactures many kind of information technology such as personal computer, software, hardware, music player, and several other multimedia devices. To be more detail. Apple is famous for Mac, iPop, iPad, iPhone, Apple TV. Apple sells its products all over the world. Its main market share is US, Canada; Japan an England, through its retail stores, online stores, and direct sales force, as well as through third-party cellular network carriers, wholesalers, retailers, and value-added resellers. Product contribution. We can conclude that Apple’s success has built up by each product’s success. As can be seen on this chart, each product had a huge sale, contributing to Apple Sale. * Organizational chart: According to Apples 2010 Form 10-K , they had 49,400 production workers, administered by code managers as following. Standing behind Board of Director, like other companies, Apple has CFO, COO, Legal, Operations, Retails, Product Marketing and Global Communication. Besides, Apple is also structured by specialized departments such as Design, Hardware, iOS Software, Software Engineering. Apple is considered as an organizational hierarchy. To illustrate how Apple works through operating apparatus, from input to output, let’s take a look at the chart below. In this chart, Apple invents or products its products through primary activities as following order: Research and Develop; Production; Marketing and Sales and finally Customer service. These activities are supported by company infrastructure, Materials management, Human resources and especially Information Systems. * The most important information systems and technologies for Apple: Apple’s main objective has always been to be the innovation leader. The same philosophy extends even to the manner in which they manage their internal communication which showcases their superiority. In accordance with this concept they have most of the processes which are virtualization is the factor which will provide the company with a competitive advantage in the market place. Apple Inc uses the intranet to provide the required platform for undertaking this process and this intranet in company enables the employees to access all required information from the comfort of desktop. From an external linkage point of view, Apple Inc also use extranet which enables the company to interact with the key suppliers and developers of Mac based applications. This enables the organization to build a seemingly unlimited â€Å"value chain† in the information domain by creating a virtual link between the suppliers and the production units which are in term linked to the retail stores. The information from retail stores is communicated to the customers service department with already has access to other information about the supplier and production details. Therefore, there exists a vast amount of information to enable the company to offer services at the click. The company actually undertake a tie-up with Utility Computing whereby they are reducing the amount of computer assets that the company owns and offering payment for the services undertaken this concept is gaining momentum and is called as Software as a Service. This has enable the company to achieve the differential with other competitors in the market places and made the overall information management system leaner and effective. Topic 2: Analyzing financial performance. One of indispensable parts in business to analyze company’s management is its financial performance, which is illustrated by financial stamen and financial ratios. First of all, we come with financial statement from 2009 to 2012. 1. Financial Statements for Apple Inc (AAPL) from 2009 to 2012: Year over year, Apple Inc. has been able to grow revenues from $108.