Efficiency and Collaboration Proposal

Efficiency and Collaboration Proposal

Vanessa Harris, Pamela Jordan, Bruce Wiley, LaToya Middleton, and Gwendolyn Ardis

BIS/220

March 21, 2013

Freya Sullivan

Efficiency and Collaboration Proposal

Introduction

This proposal will explain the necessity of, Party Plates converting their data stored in an Excel spreadsheet to Microsoft Access. Although Microsoft Excel has worked for Party Plates thus far, the benefits of changing to Microsoft Access are numerous. We will show in this proposal why Microsoft Access best meets the need of the company and identify potential collaborative software that may improve internal communications and help streamline some of the work processes for the sales department.

Description of Information Systems

A description of information systems is a collection of hardware, software, data, and people. Use these attributes to gather data the run the business on a day-to-day basis and long term. Using information systems will help us run our business effectively and stay competitive. It will also help us stay connected with our competitors. Types of organizational information systems that will work well for the business are, transaction processing system, office automation system, decision support system, expert system, and supply chain management.

Transaction processing system processes transaction data from business events. Office automation system supports daily work activities of individuals and groups. Decision support system provides access to data and analysis tools. Expert system mimics human expertise in a particular area and makes a decision. Supply chain management manages flow of products, services, and information among organizations (Rainer, Jr. & Cegielski, "Chapter 2, Information Systems: Concepts and Management," 2011).

Converstion of Data from from Excel to Access

We would convert our information into the Access system if we had multiple worksheets and we want to manage one. If we have large amounts of data to store, we would also change to Access when we need to group, categorize, and total data based on a various parameters. If we all wanted to access the same data at the same time, this would be another reason why we would switch to Access. On Excel, this would be impossible especially if each person was trying to change data. Once a person has Excel open, everyone else can only view it, not able to make changes while it is open by another employee. Our group would use Access if we all knew how to operate the program. Using Access would