Management Information System in Emirates National Oil Company
Assessment Objective:
This group project assessment should demonstrate students’ abilities to study and document an
understanding of the organizational information systems. Students may select one of the
following topics:
1. Management Information Systems (MIS)
Your project must contain the following information aspects about your selected IS:
● Information System (IS) Definition and importance
● Characteristics and features of the chosen IS
● Functionalities: functions and business process support
● Limitations
● Assess the IS by suggesting improvements and developments in order to achieve either
operational excellence, customer and supplier intimacy, cutting costs, or achieving
competitive advantage.
For answering below tasks, students may either approach any organization within UAE or
conduct online research. Select any organizations (governmental, private, profit, nonprofit)
within any industry (education, aviation, oil, trade, tourism, etc.), and then target the selected
information system and write about it by fulfilling the requirements below. (You may need to
interview one or more of the personnel who is/are responsible of running the system or have
deep knowledge about it and ask about some relating IS points as below).
● Introduction about the organization
● Vendor (IS provider), resources required and associated cost (if available)
● Information system users (departments and positions)
– Report Format:
● The report should include a cover page, a table of contents page, organized in titles and
subtitles and ends with a page containing a list of references
● The main body of the report must consist of at least 8 pages with a font size of 12 pts.
● Please note that you need to submit your document on black board by the group leader,
Solution
Introduction
Technological growth around the world has led to the business market venturing in
technological ideas to borrow some business operation techniques. For example, the Balanced
Scorecard and Business Intelligence is the most common innovative technological business
platform being used. Management Information Systems (MIS) are used in business to increase
the profit margin by reducing the cost of production, reduce business risks that may interfere
with the operations and normal running of the company, and help the company gain a
competitive advantage against its competitors in the business market. To gain control of the full
efficiency of management and marketing in MIS, implementing all the principles surrounding
the MIS operation procedures is very important for the growth of the company. However, the use
of MIS has limitations that hinder effective operations in a business environment. Before
implementing an MIS program in a company, the company needs to analyze how effective the
system is to carry out the activities in the company (Quick Report, 2018). This paper looks into
the use of MIS in the Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC) and the benefits and limitations
of the company.
The Business Environment of ENOC
ENOC is an Emirati based oil company that conducts its operations to any similar oil
companies around the world. The UAE boasts of the biggest oil reserves in the world and
manufactures most of the oil barrels that are traded around the world. Being a national company
and one that’s trades in the global market, ENOC runs several business operations ranging from
information technology, development of oil and gas, liquid storage, chemicals, vitiation,
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EMIRATES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY4
shipping, and retail. However, the main business dealings of ENOC are marketing, terminals,
trading, processing, and retail. As an organization, EPOC is owned by the Government of Dubai,
and most of the revenue generated from the company is used to improve the economic
infrastructure of the Emirati state. EPOC is built under modern technology innovative ideas and
strives to gather the best technological approaches that can be incorporated in the company to
improve the business operations of the company through MIS (Emirates National Oil Company,
2019).
The incorporation of the modern technological ideas aims at increasing the development
of oil by 70% using techniques like the Balanced Scorecard and Business Intelligence. Being a
government-owned company, the company is surrounded by demographic, technological,
political, sociocultural, and economic issues. ENOC faces such issues because the company
spends a lot of additional cost in trying to expand its business territories in new locations and
venture into more new products and developing new company strategies. With such activities
within ENOC's business environment, this is where the use of MIS comes in as it facilitates the
ease of carrying out operations in the company. As time moves, innovative ideas are developed,
and ENOC needs to implement the use of MIS to keep up with the pace of change in technology.
The research and development strategy, as used by ENOC, is responsible for the idea of
implementing the innovative processes in the company (MIS Marine, 2020).
The Choice of the MIS in ENOC
Having used MIS, ENOC understands how important MIS is to the operations of the
company. The management of the company has investigated the choice of using MIS in the
company because the adoption of MIS technology in the company requires monetary investment
in the implementation of the system. The financial investment raises concerns for IT skills in the
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EMIRATES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY5
company and creates a path for more hardware equipment to be purchased in the company. New
system changes ask for the training of the employees to be able to use the system, and therefore,
more time would have been wasted in training the many employees working in the company.
Changes in working systems that interfere with the regular running of the company's operations
seek time, money, and a lot of individual effort for the success of the order (Emirates National
Oil Company, 2018).
The managing board of the company raised concerns on why the incorporation of the
MIS system is important because, by their understanding, the use of technology in the company
will reduce human effort, and it is risky in demand. However, the issue of ensuring maximum
efforts by the employees was solved as ENOC employs creative employees, and they can quickly
learn the use of MIS in benefiting the company. Aiming at achieving economic gains and
maximizing profits, the company ought to use the new technology that improves business
operations. Based on a report by IBM Corporation (2016), venturing into the economic standard
of the global market, keeping up with the modern technological trends is a crucial change for the
company, and using MIS, the transition becomes easy for the company's operation. A big
company like ENOC is obliged to employ more IT personnel who are well experienced in the
world of technology and who can help the company use MIS. The IT personnel obstacle is easy
to solve for such a company as it is easy for them to attract well-experienced employees. Another
obstacle affecting the company's transition to adopting MIS is the training of the current
employees to use the MIS system. Implementation of MIS encourages employees to make better
business decisions, and MIS helps in the storage and analysis of the company data. Therefore,
the choice of using MIS has had a shallow investigation with the company.
The Feature of MIS in ENOC
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EMIRATES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY6
According to Quintica (2010), the use of MIS in ENOC is characterized by the
improvement of competitive advantage of the company to its rivals, reducing the cost of
production, and the collecting of data and analyzing the data. The database efficiency of the MIS
database has facilitated the easy transfer and retrieval of company data within the company's
environs and employees (Aristotle Consultancy, 2018). The feature of MIS in ENOC is
concerned with ease of access, quickness, proper use of information, availability, innovation, and
efficiency in the company's operations. The architecture behind the use of the system is
concerned with the internal processes of the company, innovation, financial operations,
development, and the customers who rely on the products manufactured by the company.
MIS software is obliged to provide the company with analysis, calculations, collection,
and reporting of the collected data within the company’s business operations. The networking
structure of the system in the company relies on the relationship of the company with its
employees and the customers. The information that is stored in the MIS database includes sales
and revenues, customers, and logistics. Those who are entitled to use MIS in the company should
have IT skills to ensure the smooth running of the system in the company. The Choice of using
MIS in ENOC raised concerns, and ENOC took the obligation of addressing two of the concerns.
The first concern was increasing the sales of their new products to customers and compared thee
activities conducted by customers based on the type of the company, size of the company, and
the geography. The second concern questioned the loss of customers in the company. However,
ENOC implemented the use of MIS to increase the number of customers in the company and
find solutions to satisfy and please their clients.
The IT-Enabled Business Processes
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EMIRATES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY7
The extensive use of MIS in ENOC has improved some business processes in the
company like decision-making processes, inputs, and outputs within the company. It is easy for a
company to lose some of its customers because a competitor has better products than those
traded within the company. Therefore, for ENOC, the company needs to fulfill all the inputs and
outputs in the company as the organization implements the use of MIS to facilitate comfort in
conducting the business operations within the company. ENOC can display how MIS has helped
solve some specific issues that affect the regular running of the company. The implementation of
IT techniques in a company has exposed the strong side of the company (Wagner et al., 2014).
The strength associated with by the implementation of MIS in ENOC has given the company a
competitive advantage among its competitors in the global market, reduced the cost of
production in producing the company’s products, encouraged the employees to make better
decisions that are of great value to the company, has helped the company collect, analyze and
store data in a more simplified way.
The implementation of MIS has benefited ENOC by motivating, measuring, and
evaluating the performance of the company. The performance of the company is influenced by
the productivity, market share, employee attitudes, personnel development, the balance between
short- and long-range objectives, profitability, and the public responsibility towards the
company. The critical importance of MIS implementation in ENOC is the increase in the total
number of sales and marketing. According to research, the application of MIS has been
misinterpreted as most companies using MIS have relied on MIS to control the performance of
the company. For ENOC, MIS has been used as a strategy to measure and improve the
production of goods and services offered by the company.
Problems and Opportunities of the Current MIS
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EMIRATES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY8
The use of MIS has created paths for many business opportunities for ENOC, including
online analytical processing and data mining, which is a flexible system. The use of Data Mining
systems has made it easy for the company to detect concealed threats and problems, particularly
with financial processes. Consequently, the corporate competitive performance has been
improved. ENOC's Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) range from avoidance of possible threats,
the economy of costs, and analysis of company data. MIS gives the possibility of reporting about
the multiple systems and the storing of structural company data and allows the collection of data
from different sources, both internal and external sources. The analysis of the reports is
fundamental as MIS will enable employees to make decisions that are of benefit for the company
by reducing their workload as the system collect and analyses company data. Such KPIs are
visible through the performance of the company and through savings, which amount up to
millions of dollars annually and guarantees substantial company revenue (Sumner and Yager,
2008).
According to Ong (2016), the implementation of MIS requires a lot of capital investment
for both hardware and software, which are very expensive. The application of the system also
requires the company to employ more workers, especially IT experts, who generally ask for more
salaries. Also, the company expects to train the current workers and equip them well to be able to
use the MIS system. A lot of time is wasted during the transition to MIS. It is easy for MIS to
collect data and analyze the data collected; however, it is easy for the software to analyze
structured data and takes a lot of time to analyze unstructured data. Some companies cannot
afford the implementation of MIS. On top of spending a lot of money in implementing MIS,
more money is also required to hire IT, knowledgeable consultants. The money issue is a
problem for all companies as it affects the profit maximization in the company. For instance, to
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EMIRATES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY9
incorporate the use of Business Intelligence (BI) in a company, the company requires up to one
million dollars which, cannot be afforded by most of the companies. Consequently, 20% of the
companies using BI have given positive feedback about the success of the system. While
collecting and analyzing the data, the system might require an IT expert to monitor the process,
and if there is no one monitoring the process, fake or ineffective results may be produced by the
system resulting in errors in the performance of the company.
Recommendation
Automating company performance is very important, and the company should be able to
control the increase and decrease of the sales. ENOC should come up with the custom MIS that
will allow them to monitor the performance of the company efficiently. The monitoring of the
company data will enable the company to increase sales and marketing structures, thus
increasing the profit margin in the company. The current pace of technological growth should
influence the development of the new MIS system by ENOC. ENOC should also improve the
quality and quantity of products produced to stay significant and competitive in the business
market. The development of technology minimizes the demand for oil, and oil companies lose
some of their clients. Consequently, ENOC should venture into alternative programs that ensure
the maintenance of their clients. The implementation of MIS should be in full accordance with
the objectives of the company and should be conducted within a short period.
Conclusion
It is evident that ENOC is significant in the global competition of oil markets, and it
relies upon the working environment of MIS, which gives it an added advantage. MIS is an
essential software for the business operations in ENOC. ENOC aims at maximizing profits by
reducing the cost of production and maintaining their customers as well as attracting more
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EMIRATES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY10
customers and investors. The business operations by ENOC determines the target market and the
quality of the products produced. The profit margin of ENOC is subject to improvement and
reduction in losses within the company’s business operations. MIS can solve most of the
business problems for a company; however, the employees and the management of the company
need to help the system be able to conduct smooth processes that are beneficial to the operations
in the company. MIS will be a good move for ENOC as it aims for future business priorities, and
the implementation of BI will help in analyzing and help solve some company problems.
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EMIRATES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY11
References
Aristotle Consultancy. (2018, November 22). Why MIS is important for business – Advantages
of MIS & reporting. https://aristotleconsultancy.com/blog/mis-important-businesses/
Emirates National Oil Company. (2018). ENOC Sustainability Report-2017.
ENOC. https://www.enoc.com/portals/0/ModuleContent/PDF/ENOC%20Sustainability%20Rep
ort%202017%20-%20Final%20for%20Digital%20in%20Spreads.pdf
Emirates National Oil Company. (2019). Code of Business Conduct. Emirates National Oil
Company:
Ethics. https://www.enoc.com/portals/0/ModuleContent/CorporateGovernance/PDF/EN
OC%20Code%20of%20Business%20Conduct%20-%20ENOC%20Group.pdf
IBM Corporation. (2016). Emirates National Oil Company: Fueling more in-depth financial
insight with analytics. IBM – United
States. https://www.ibm.com/downloads/cas/6AQZAY1D
MIS Marine. (2020, April 8). MIS to work with ENOC in the latest effort to improve marine
assurance. Marine Information Solutions. https://mismarine.com/mis-enoc-2017/
Ong, D. (2016, July 15). Limitations of management information systems. PC
Dreams. https://pcdreams.com.sg/limitations-of-management-information-systems/
Quick Report. (2018, September 10). Need and importance of management information system
(MIS). https://www.quickreport.in/need-and-importance-of-management-information-
system-mis/
Quintica. (2010, August 27). Emirates national oil company.
ITWeb. https://www.itweb.co.za/content/P3gQ2MGr2Py7nRD1
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EMIRATES NATIONAL OIL COMPANY12
Sumner, M., & Yager, S. E. (2008, April 3). An investigation of preparedness and importance
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