Spreadsheets and Manual Processes for Data Gathering and Reporting

1. The Snyder of Hanover's finical department used spreadsheets and manual processes for data gathering and reporting. But when a department needed to update its data after submitting, the analyst had to return the original spreadsheet and waited for the department to resubmit its data before finally submitting. Because of the data update, the company can't use the original data which was collected. It's harmful for the company' operation. Without a management information system, the Snyder of Hanover will lose that month's data in the period of waiting.

For the business performance, one of the responsibilities of the financial department is using the data to assess the performance of company. Because of the period of waiting, the Snyder of Hanover's financial department will lose their efficiency. The lack of a month's data will also bring inconvenience for the whole year data collection. The situation will also cause some impact on the management decision making, too. Without the data of profit and loss, it's hard for the company to analysis their business performance, which will result in harder decision making. They will also lose some chance to make profit.

2. The decisions which Dollar General Corporation has to be made before investing in an information system solution are calculating the profit and loss of the inventory. They need to know their costs of investing so that they can make good solution. Though they are willing to use an information system, they still need to hire some employees to scan the inventory into spreadsheets, which will spend much more money for the whole company and suddenly increase their cost. They need to measure the cost and benefit before making the decision of using an information system. They need to decide what marketing strategy should be made to make more profit base on the data.

Most of the 1 dollar shops do not have a long term strategy, which means they will not choose the information system. The information system is expensive, the shops need to consider its cost and keep a low quantity of inventory. If Dollar General Corporation decides to have a long term strategy, they should choose the information system because it can help them to reduce the lost which is about 3% now. The company should to choice the most suitable system for them base