TAPIWA IGNATIOUS CHIRWA

COMPUTER INFORMATION SYSTEM

PROJECT 1 - MIS

Apple Inc. has a hierarchical organizational structure, and use Enterprise System (Customer
Relationship Management) with notable divisional characteristics and a weak functional matrix.
The hierarchy is a traditional structural feature in business organizations. The divisional
characteristics refer to the product-based grouping within Apple, such as for iOS and macOS.
The weak functional matrix involves inter-divisional collaboration, while the hierarchy is
preserved. The following are the main characteristics of Apple’s corporate structure:

Apple Inc. is an American International Technology company which designs, develops and sells
computer software, customer electronics and online services. Apple is a world famous brand
and it has loyal and competitive customer base. The company was established at California,
United Status. When consider about the company hardware portfolio, it consisted with iPhone
smartphones, tablet computer iPad, personal computer Mac, portable media player iPod, Apple
watches and Apple TV. Customer software from Apple includes macOS and iOS, Safari web
browser, iTunes, iWork, iLife and productivity suites. Online services include iOS App store,
Apple music, iCloud and iTunes store (Mata, 2016).

When discuss about the Apple Inc., it requires to have well- structured information system to
provide information at right time, right people and right information. The key objective of Apple
is to be the leader of innovation. Also, company has highly established internal communication
process. Most of the processes are virtualized and company believes that virtualization is the
most important thing to achieve competitive advantage and make it sustainable. Company 7
intranet provides the opportunities to access all required data for employees through their
desktop. Further, company extranet helps them to have strong relationship with suppliers and
developers of Mac based applications. This supports company to build value chain between
organization, suppliers, production and retail stores. Information from the retail stores
communicates to the customer service department (Ramey, 2012).

Apple information systems can be listed as follows:

 Transaction Processing System

 Knowledge Work Systems
 Management Information System
 Decision Support Systems
 Office Automation System
 Expert Support/ Information Systems
 Expert Systems
Knowledge management system is associated with decision support system, transaction
processing system and office automation system. Cashiers of the Power Mac Store can be
identified as an example of transaction processing systems. ITunes application is another
example and it allows customers to purchase online products through an invoices and online
receipts.

The decision support system (DSS) can be identified as computer application which analyzes the
organizational data and convert them as an effective information to make better decisions. They
use both qualitative management and quantitative management in their decision making
process. When company develops their management information system, they analyze about
the human thinking patterns and human behaviors in order to develop best and effective
system. Company uses “NEXPERT” as leading solution provider of mobile contactless
technologies for making payments, ticketing facilities, customer loyalty and access and security.
Further, company highly values customs, qualities, principles and standards in their operational
processes to be a unique among the competitors (Ramey, 2012).

Apple Inc. is one of world’s leading digital product manufacturing organization which has
achieved the competitive advantage through information technology. Through producing
innovative information technologies, company has achieved the distinctive manner of customer
satisfaction and brand loyalty. Management Information System has given the competitive
advantage for Apple Inc. (Ramey, 2012).

Competitive advantage of Apple Inc.

Apple has become a world’s highly recognized digital products manufacturing organization and
it has achieved the competitive advantage through different perspectives. It has become an
unstoppable product with higher customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. They have protected
their competitive position of the industry through strategic market approach.

 Hardware and Software

Entire PC industry is struggling to make differentiation on their products. Apple has approached
the PC industry with very competitive differentiation strategy. Apple develops extremely
competitive hardware as well as software. Company makes specific hardware decisions in order
to enhance the value of software. Rather than OS, Apple creates the good core software call
iLife. It focuses on entertainment and creativity. The success story of apple related with the
similar priorities between both hardware and software manufacturing of the organization. As
explained in above chapter, Apple Inc. has gained top position of ACSI through their PC
manufacturing. This is how company achieves the competitive advantage through its hardware
and software developing competencies (Bajarin, 2016).

 iTunes and Digital Asset Management

iTune can be identified as one of most strategic element of Apple Inc. Apple is a digital asset
management organization and it announced in 2009 about their event for credit card account
information of more than 100 million customers through iTunes. They have become one of
largest digital retailer (Bajarin, 2016).
 Apple’s retail strategy
Several companies were failed to develop their own retail stores. Once the Apple identifies the
importance of handling own retail sector, they invested in developing retail chain for the
company. Location design plays an important part in retail business. Apple has implemented
perfect retail business which has ability to achieve customer satisfaction (Bajarin, 2016).

 Information System
As explained above, information system can make significant impact for any organization in
today’s business world. When discuss about Apple information technology, they keep their
secret because they want to protect their competitive position of the industry. Due to following
services, Apple was able to achieve competitive advantage through loyal customer base (Apple
Information Systems, 2016).

iCloud is one of competitive feature from Apple products and it allows users to back up the data
through multiple Apple product online. If the product was stolen or misplaces, iCloud allows
customers to locate any iDevice which connected to internet. It increases the customer values
and helps company to differentiate their products from the competitors.

Apple’s website offers their customers the feature calls “Apple Support Communities” and it
allows customers to join conversation between Apple device users on specific topics. They can
ask questions and get answers for those questions. Middle management can use this feature to
analyze customer issues. Engineers and Scientists from middle management of the Apple Inc
can learn about different problems through Apple Support Communities and fix technical issues
by increasing customer satisfaction.

Educational level and training Employees’ education level has significant influence in usage of IT
at organizational context. People should be aware about the ways of using information
technology in their day to day office works. For an example when a company implements new
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software for the organization, company management should
provide training for employees on how they can work with it and what are the advantages
employees can achieve through the system. ERP systems may include high cost structure since it
covers most of the business processes. It increases the process effectiveness and
communication efficiency. Therefore, it is very important for employees to be aware about the
ways of working with software. Further, company management should provide end- user
training in order to increase the IT usage utilization from the individual level (Gibson, 1997) 
Strategic planning Organizations should have well- structured strategic planning process in
order to achieve the information technology utilization. Information technology is rapidly
changing and it requires high cost to integrate latest technology in business processes.
Company’s strategic planning process should be IT- oriented. It explains how organization
should use information technology advancements in different organizational perspectives. It
aligns with the IT related decision making. When company plans the IT requirement and its
usage, management should highly focuses to identify the ways to increase IT usage. It is a
direction and guideline for employees and middle management to use IT in a strategic way to
achieve competitive market position (TechTarget, 2017). 17

 Change management
There is an information technology driven business context and each and organizations tries to
achieve the competitive advantage through information technology. Traditional business
approach is modernizing through the information technology advancements. When companies
convert their traditional business approach into IT driven business approach, change
management process is very important. When the company has well- structured change
management process, it enables company to implement better change while achieving expected
objectives. Change process has different steps and all the steps should be well- prepared.
Through an effective change management process, organizations can increase the IT utilization
at the company (Gibson, 1997)

Also they need to decrease their price and have a user friendly user interface.