For any business, especially the one that has attained global recognition like McDonald’s, maintaining market leadership is a huge task. Other brands are working hard to achieve that status by utilizing technology to pursue customers in diverse niches. To stay on top, managers need to be consistent in their hard work to enhance their brand’s reputation. Conversely, businesses operate within the information age, characterized by widespread knowledge regarding diverse products and other important aspects. Infinite quantities of facts are widely available to anyone who can conveniently use a computer. This perspective has increased the competitive nature of the corporate setting because it is increasingly challenging to convince a customer about a product since he or she has concrete information regarding that commodity. The core drivers of the information age entail data, information, business aptitude, and acquaintance (Lee & Coughlin, 2015). Data represent the raw facts that offer a concrete description of the characteristics of a particular product or event. People utilize the internet to gather raw facts about the products or services they desire to purchase.
Like data, information is an important element in the information age. It represents the data that has been converted into a meaningful and useful context that users can use to make resolutions. On the other hand, business intelligence pertains to the information that a business entity or an individual has collected from various sources such as customers, competitors, and industries. This approach aims to evaluate patterns, trends, and relationships to make well-articulated strategic decisions. For example, through the research and development team, the management can gather information regarding the current trends in consumption. The company can use the material to make production decisions by tailoring the next product portfolio directly to consumers’ current tastes and preferences. Knowledge includes the skills, abilities, experience, and expertise that an investor or manager uses to run a business (Chen et al., 2017). When combined with information and intelligence, a person can develop intellectual resources to govern organizational operations. Data knowledge and the ability to configure information from the internet result in better, more precise support for business decision-making and problem-solving.
System thinking refers to the process of monitoring the entire system of an organization by viewing the multiple inputs being processed. The transformation procedure geared towards producing outputs must be scrutinized closely to enhance efficiency. For example, feedback is a type of information that necessitates systems thinking because it entails returning to the original transmitter (input, transform, or output) and modifying the actions of the transmitter actions. For any business, feedback is crucial because it assists the system in enhancing performance and maintaining stability. The purpose of system thinking is to help businesses be clear about all the assumptions they make. A management information system (MIS) is a type of system that performs business functions like human resources, and accounting. It plays a significant role in facilitating decision-making (Chen et al., 2017). Through it, a company manages to move people, products, and processes across the board to make sure that the process forms one continuous portion. Considering that today’s businesses rely on information technology to enhance and bolster their production processes, an effective MIS simplifies the process of collecting, processing, storing, and conveying pertinent and indispensable information. MIS also streamlines decision-making since it operates as automated human decision-making. As such, companies can convey the right information to the appropriate departments and people with minimal wastage of time and other resources.
Consequently, MIS solves problems related to information silos for McDonald’s whole global organization in different ways. The current operational framework of this organization pertains only to vertical correspondence, making it face information silos. Conversely, the company’s management has developed the habit of utilizing customary frameworks of correspondence and inner databases that are limited to vertical communication. For this reason, McDonald’s has diminished its chances of overseeing all the business functionalities through a single department (Lin et al., 2020). MIS can help solve this problem because it will help the company make timely and effective resolutions that align with its vision and mission. With this type of data technology, McDonald’s can simply assemble the whole business chain by replacing the information contained in the remote IT servers with the current decision-making support system. Moreover, the MIS tool helps solve issues related to information silos in McDonald’s by leveraging the talents of the workforce who know how to use and manage the tool effectively. By integrating MIS into the system, McDonald’s will be in a great position to coordinate and bring together the basic leadership forms in the fundamental areas.
The utilization of the MIS tool in organizations helps them boost their profitability levels by simplifying the decision-making process. It serves as the best instrument for supporting business success and innovation. At McDonald’s, MIS enables business communications by motivating supervisors and other staff members to comprehend the business execution plans and future directions. Normally, MIS moves information about people, products, and processes across the company to assist the management in making effective decisions and solving problems that arise in the different sectors of the business (Lee & Coughlin, 2015). The whole procedure cannot be complete without the input of all the staff members who constitute top management. Since critical decision-making and problem-solving requires consultations, McDonald’s must utilize business communication to execute key tasks. MIS will also help McDonald’s create a healthy communication environment, where staff members can comfortably consult and discuss with their superiors regarding everything affecting them and the business.
The communication strategy outlined in the MIS tool is not limited to the employees or the employer, but it also considers other stakeholders to understand insights. In this case, it is evident that McDonald’s has expanded its span of communication through the MIS, making it possible to share information with other key stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, investors, and the government (Shen & Xiao, 2014). McDonald’s uses MIS to examine a wide variety of data to anticipate the patterns and examples of things to expect in the future. Being a global chain, the organization is responsible for building connections into every location and sharing information between them. The MIS tool will help the company achieve this objective by connecting people to products and processes (MENA Report, 2016). For example, when the company wishes to fulfill product orders, it will be required to utilize the MIS during the sales process to convey an individual customer order across all the functional areas of the organization. These areas include order fulfillment, shipment, billing, and customer service. For effective execution of this process, communication among the departments involved is critical to bolstering customer satisfaction. In short, communication ensures that the process is efficient.
References
Applications for development of web-enabled management information system (MIS) under [tender documents: T33767179]. (2016). MENA Report,
Chen, Y., Le, D., Yumak, Z., & Pu, P. (2017). EHR: A sensing technology readiness model for lifestyle changes. Mobile Networks and Applications, 22(3), 478-492.
Lee, C., & Coughlin, J. F. (2015). PERSPECTIVE: Older adults’ adoption of technology: an integrated approach to identifying determinants and barriers. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 32(5), 747-759.
Lin, H., Jung, C., Huang, T., Hendrick, H., & Wang, Z. (2020). NB-IoT application on decision support system of building information management. Wireless Personal Communications, 114(1), 711-729. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-020-07389-w
Shen, Q., & Xiao, P. (2014). McDonald’s and KFC in china: Competitors or companions? Marketing Science (Providence, R.I.), 33(2), 287-307. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2013.0824
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