Managing information system for a better banking services

3.6. CHAPTER 3: SUB CONCLUSION

The third chapter analyzes benefits and contribution of MIS components to the FINABANK's better banking services. To do so, a qualitative and quantitative analysis have been made and show that FINABANK hardware, software, information, procedures and people have contributed significantly to the bank better banking services by enabling to collect, process, storing and communicating information for intention of a good decision making. From that information the researcher proved the second hypothesis.

GENERAL CONCLUSION

For this study, with title «Managing Information Systems for batter banking services,» two objectives were sated out: The fist one was to investigate the Management of Information System within FINABANK, while the second one was to investigate upon the contribution of Information Systems upon FINABANK's performance, both for the 2004-2008 time frame.

To reach on these objectives and based on problem statement of our study, two questions were formulated:

1. How does FINABANK SA manage its Information Systems?

2. Does Management Information System contribute to the FINA better banking services? For answering these questions, again two responses have been anticipatively formulated:

a) FINABANK SA manages effectively its Information Systems, means, in relation to the scientific theoretical presented framework.

b) FINABANK SA's Information System contributes to its better banking services.

In order to verify these hypotheses, the researcher has collected data through interview, observation, questionnaire and documentary techniques as well as website browsing. The researcher has analyzed this data from side to side various methods like historical, quantitative, analytical, synthetically and comparative methods.

This study has been subdivided into three chapters apart from general introduction and general conclusion and these chapters have been analyzed and concluded as follows:

Table10: General conclusion

Management Information Systems (MIS)		MIS LITERATURE REVIEW (Chapter 1)			MIS IN FINABANK (Chapter 2)	MIS BENEFITS (Chapter 3)
H A R D W A R E		A computer is a machine that can be programmed to accept data (input), process it into useful information (output), and store it away (in secondary storage devise) for safekeeping or later reuse. Equipment associated to that computer is called hardware and consist of the central processing unit, primary storage, secondary storage, input devices, output devices, and communications devices Technical Capacities to judge a PC are: *The speed of CPU processing: more or equal to 1GHZ *The had disc storing capacity: more or equal to 10GB *The temporally Memory (essentially RAM): more or equal to 100MB			(1) Equinox Banking Hardware: 6 HP File server, 3 DELL Database Servers, 120 HP & DELL PCs Client, Workstations, 54HP & DELL Laptops, 42KYOTERA KM1650 Printers, 30KYOTERA Copy Machine, 2DIEBOLD ATM, 40 Counter Machine, 5 Check verifier, 1 SIMBOL Bar Code Leader, 20 HP Scan jet G2710 Scanners, 5NSI Check Certifier, 1SDMO Generator (2) Video Surveillance Hardware: 15 SOME Cameras, 1 IRIS Frat screen monitor, CAT6 Cables, 1 IRS Disc Video Recorder (3) THE Queue Management Hardware: 5QM Queue Management, machine, 40QM Black Screen, CAT6 Cables, 40 QM Number caller button, 40 Satisfaction test button (4) Network Communication hardware: 6 SISCO Routers, 14 SISCO Switchers, CAT6 Cables (5) Fire Safety Hardware: One Card reader Machine and 6 accesses scanner machines (6) Access Control Hardware: 30 Fire extinguishes , 80 Smoke Detector, 6 Fire alarm and 20 Speaker	All of this hardware enables FINABANK to process massively and rapidly data and transform them into information on which decision making will base.
S O F T W A R E
The software is the set of instructions that cause a computer to perform one or more tasks. In Management Information Systems we have two major types of software: «system software» and «application software»
Application software: EQUINOX Banking System, CRI System, LEASEPAC, BNR System ASETWARE, MEGA System, Internet Explorer MICROBANKER, SWIFT System, Microsoft Office 2003 & 2007. System software: UNIX, Windows saver Windows XP Professional
						routine tasks *Improving customer service levels, perhaps by using ATM that customers can access some financial services- eg allowing customers to withdraw money without needing to contact any member of staff directly
D A T A & I N F O S		Data are facts and figures that are not currently being used in a decision process while Information consists of data that have been retrieved, processed for inference purposes of decision making. In MIS, information has to march to following dimensions: What? (Content), When? (Time), How? (Form).			Within FINABANK, data are raw facts or observations that describe money deposed or withdrawn, given as loan, gotten as loan repayment to or from customers, disbursed as salary to employees or as the cost of bank's assets. Data are processed in two ways: sequential and parallel and storage at the same time used in the Storage Network Area	Data help to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of FINABANK. The information is the core of FINABANK and without it, it can't operate. If a criminal is able to access this data, there is no limit to the damage they can inflict Losing sensitive data by way of natural disasters or physical robbery can have severe consequences on FINABANK, possibly demolishing entire organization
P R O C E D U R E S		A procedure is a specified s eries o f actions or operations which have to be executed in the same manner in order to always obtain the same result under the same circumstances			Account opening procedure, employee recruitment procedure, credit analysis procedure and the fire safety procedure are main procedures used in FINABANK	Procedures help guide FINABANK's employees when decisions need to be made without involving upper management. They help add an element of scalability to FINABANK. Especially in this type of industry - where they basically sell «services» - structure and having a clear understanding of the «steps (procedures)» that help arrive at the performance, is very much needed.
P E O P L E		Human Resources may be the most misunderstood of all corporate departments, but it's also the most necessary. Those who work in Human Resources are not only responsible for hiring and firing, they also handle contacting job references and administering employee benefits. In MIS, employees must be Information-literate knowledge workers, social responsible at the same time being motivated.			FINABANK had 135, 140, 136, 151, 174 employees-respectively for years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008-motivated, socially responsible, and considerable as veritable Information-literate knowledge workers FINABANK implements Maslow's Needs Hierarchy to motivate its employees: Physiological Motivation: FINABANK provides ample breaks for lunch and recuperation and pay salaries that allow workers to buy life's essentials. Safety Needs: FINABANK provides a working environment which is safe, relative job security, and freedom from threats. Social Needs: FINABANK generates a feeling of acceptance, belonging, and community by reinforcing team dynamics. Esteem Motivators: FINABANK recognizes achievements, assigns important projects, and provides status to make employees feel valued and appreciated. Self-Actualization: FINABANK offers challenging and meaningful work assignments which enable innovation, creativity, and progress according to long-term goals.	. Employees are looking for more responsibility and more involvement in decisions - particularly those which directly affect them The only competitive advantage many organizations have is the ability to improve the performance of their people at all levels Therefore HR management has to take on a whole new meaning and be regarded by senior management as a key component of the organization's activities and be given the requisite high profile in the development of its long term strategies. No matter how wise the CEO, or how great the product or service, the battle for customer loyalty is fought by the front-line troops - ^thoseemployees at the lower levels of the organization structure. Hence it is critical that due care and consideration be given those employees when developing HR policies and training programs
C		Managers who do not			The first hypothesis related to the	The second hypothesis
O		have the ability to use			implementation of MIS in	related to the benefits
		computers will become, in			FINABANK, has been verified and	and contribution of MIS to
N C		few coming days, organizationally			confirmed.	the FINA better banking services, has been
L U S		dysfunctional or worse, useless as decision makers				verified and confirmed.
I
O
N

Source: Primary data (2004-2008)

Observations and suggestions from the researcher are also given below: OBSERVATIONS:

1. All devices up and down are permanently visible on a widescreen, so as the IT team should monitor the network and servers status and intervene promptly in case of failure.

2. As far as the power is somehow mixed with the Data Centers, the last ones are highly riskier because the power always increases the threats to data as the risk of fire increases.

3. Regardless the importance of people in MIS job, in FINABANK's IT department, is not easy to discern who is in charge of this or that task.

4. Neither MIS department nor IT department none has a tool helping to track all problems occur. That's why the IT Team sometimes seems to be in the dark in regards to work to be done as users would confuse them with requests that could rather be tacked in a wider perspective. In addition, it's hard to establish resources required as they cannot quantify based on facts like volume or complexity of work. Some issues are handled on friendly basis instead of bank's priority. There isn't a log file to inform colleagues in IT Team about issues fixed during their absence.

5. FINABANK SA is well equipped with a good and modern IT infrastructure but data room, Video Surveillance equipment as well as the server room are not well secured as far as every one in the organization can enter the place.

SUGGESTIONS:

1. According to tools monitoring, MIS can go advance to make the monitoring tool more efficient at the level of sending an automatic alert SMS to IT Team to be informed in case of failure of one of technological infrastructures. This can help them anticipate and keep their network infrastructure up and running all the time.

2. As the power mixed with the data center is concerned, UPS is centralized and can be relocated at another secure location because technicians maintaining UPS or PABX should not necessary have an access to Data Center Room.

3. According to the task assignment in IT Department, they need to review staff profiles, roles and responsibilities. So, they can know whether they've sufficient resources and how to organize them to give the best services to the bank.

4. About the management tool issue, users may log all their problems on the web. If done, the response will be quicker and efficient than going physically in IT room, secondary, the issue will be public to all IT staff instead of being known by only one the user reported to. Benefits of this system are both different and tremendous:

v' They can establish statistics based on issues handled about subjects, branches, departments, resources, etc.

v' Based on those statistics, they can establish where to put more emphasis, like if a problem is recurrent, how to tackle it differently

v' Users can follow online and real-time the issues they handed-over to IT, without going physically to check by themselves.

v' Issues already fixed are in records and can be retrieved later to fix similar cases.

v' It's easier to streamline resources available and determine profiles required. v' It's easier for user and managers to follow up and plan accordingly.

5. According to the Sever Room and the IT room in general, Data server room should only contain the Racks, Servers, Routers, Switchers, Firewalls, or other equipment with direct connection to these. Even for IT Team, remote access from their workstations should be privileged over physical presence in the room. Frequent accesses don't help anymore.

By here, I come to the end of my dissertation and offering the perspective researchers the chance of carrying on this study and provide their contribution about «Managing Information Systems for better banking services.»

BUBLIOGRAPHY

TEXTE BOOKS

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JOURNALS

BARLEY, D., «Groupware and Your Health,» Health Management Technology, Forbes, September 1995.

BAXTER, ANDREW, «Smart Response to a Changing Market», Financial Times, March 1, 1995

KEOHAN, M. «The Virtual Office: Impact and Implementation,» Business week, September 11, 1995

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STEWART, THOMAS, «What Information Costs,» Fortune, July 10,2006

STODGHILL, R. «One Company, Two Cultures,» Business Week, January 22, 2004. REPORTS

FINABANK, «Annual Report,» Kigali, 2004 FINABANK, «Annual Report,» Kigali, 2005 FINABANK, «Annual Report,» Kigali, 2006 FINABANK, «Annual Report,» Kigali, 2007 FINABANK, «Annual Report,» Kigali, 2008

FINABANK, «Equinox Banking System: The back Office Processing,» Kigali, 2008. FINABANK, «Equinox Banking System: The back Office Processing,» Kigali, 2008.

ANNEXURE
STRUCTURED INTERVIEW'S QUESTIONNAIRE

1. What kind of Management Information Systems components (information, software, hardware, people and procedures) do you use to run your business (FINABANK) and based on what criteria to select them?

2. What are the major types of systems in your business (FINABANK)? What role do they play?

3. How do Information Systems support the major business functions of yours?

4. Is there any benefit of using Information System for customer relationship management within your business?

5. What kind of computer processing and storage capabilities does FINABANK use to handle its information and transaction?

6. What arrangement of computer and computer processing (online processing or batch processing) has best benefit FINABANK?

7. Considering these 5 years ago, what impact had the Information System Components (information, software, hardware, people and procedures) on FINABANK's performance?