The vice president looked at the open computer screen and said, "Look, what's the matter?" . Yesterday, Yang Jingli reported to me the company's sales situation this year, saying that the sales situation in the first half of this year was not good, and it could not reach 50% of the annual target. But today, from the daily newspaper of the system, the cumulative sales have exceeded 50% of the annual target. In the afternoon, I will report to the president about the sales in the first half of the year. Which number should I use? What's the difference between these two figures? "
Yang Jingli said: "Our figures are directly counted by various sales departments. They all reflect the real sales situation and can't be wrong. Moreover, the sales situation this year is not very good, and they will not delay or hide it. The data in the computer is useless and has not been audited by us. I'm not sure what the problem is. " The implication is that there is something wrong with the data in the computer system, and the responsibility is not his own.
Manager Xiao is really not very clear about the figures. He doesn't assign tasks, only knows the approximate sales figures. He looked at the computer screen and Yang Jingli and explained to the vice president: "At present, the figures in the system are directly calculated according to the commercial invoices entered into the system by the transportation department. The system has also been tested, and there is no problem with the logical relationship. If there is a problem with the statistical results, it may be that the commercial invoice entered by the transportation department is wrong, or for other reasons. "
I thought for a long time and it was ideal: "I remember that at the beginning of the year, because the sales task was completed well last year, the sales department did not send the sales documents of 65438+February last year to the Ministry of Transport in time, and it was not until the end of 65438+ 10 this year that it was brought in again, in time for the New Year. It seems that it was only entered into the system in mid-February. But this part of the sales should be counted last year, not this year. You can ask Manager Wan of the Finance Department. "
Manager Xiao replied: "I see, this is mainly because the current financial general ledger system does not match the sales system, the financial system is outdated and backward, and some figures are inaccurate."
Manager Wan said: "The original sales situation should be based on the financial statements. Many invoices entered by the transportation department are lagging behind and sometimes inaccurate. If these figures are based on transportation figures, the accuracy is of course much worse. Leaders should look at the financial statements and understand the sales situation. "
The vice president shook his head: "your's financial statements only come out once a month, and I need to know the sales figures every day. This is why I asked the information center to develop the daily sales report in the president's inquiry system, but now the figures are qualitatively different. Whether you have achieved your goal for half a year is stuck here. It's only the 7th today, and your financial statements won't come out until 10 every month. How to report to the board of directors in the afternoon? "
Manager Wan said, "Why don't I ask the accountant to give you a rough idea first, and the figures won't be too different."
The vice principal is helpless: "That's it. But why are the numbers in our information system always unreliable? How can we make the computer system truly have the ability of decision support? Also, e-commerce is very popular in the industry now. What impact will it have on our current business form? Today, your managers responsible for trade, finance and information are all here. I will give you this topic, and I will report to the President. Now the competition is so fierce that if we lose our competitive advantage in one aspect, we are likely to be passive. "
1 overview. NRC company
NRC is a large state-owned foreign trade company with an annual turnover of over 654.38+0 billion yuan, which occupies a considerable position in the industry. Founded in the late 1970s, the company is the product of the first economic system reform in China. At the beginning of the company, it only engaged in international trade. With the development of the enterprise, it gradually expanded to domestic trade, financial investment, service trade and other business areas. At the same time, 10 domestic subsidiaries were established in the 1980s and 1990s, and their business models were basically the same as those of the head office.
After nearly 20 years of operation, due to the influence of subjective and objective factors, except for the main business of the head office, international trade, the operating performance of other businesses is not satisfactory. The management concept and system of enterprises need to be adjusted and a new modern enterprise system needs to be established. At the same time, the application level of modern management means is also one of the aspects that enterprises need to improve urgently.
With the reform of China's economic system and the change of macroeconomic situation, foreign trade enterprises have basically experienced four periods of change: the early 1980s, the period of opening to the outside world; In the late 1980s, the economy contracted; In the early 1990s, economic expansion; In the middle and late 1990s, the economy achieved a soft landing. Each period put forward different topics for the management of foreign trade enterprises, which also led to different changes in the internal organization and management mode of enterprises. However, the enterprise's understanding and attitude towards management information system, as well as its investment and construction, are constantly changing.
In these four historical periods, NRC has also experienced the history of establishing enterprise management information system four times.
2. 1987 Establish the first generation management information system.
The import and export business has brought the company into contact with many developed countries, influenced by some advanced management ideas, and understood the application of computers in management. In the mid-1980s, NRC was transferred to the new general manager, which opened the prelude for NRC to build an enterprise internal management information system.
At that time, NRC was only engaged in foreign trade import and export business, and it was mainly export business. All foreign trade business is operated by the head office, and domestic subsidiaries are only responsible for the delivery of products. The business of the head office is relatively simple, the business process is complex but clear, and the business volume is very large (see figure 1).
general manager
Deputy general manager
(responsible for management)
Deputy general manager
(Responsible for operation)
Deputy general manager
(Director-General)
Deputy general manager
(in charge of finance)
1. Office
2. Planning department
3. Personnel Department
4. Information Center
5. Logistics Office
1. 1
2.2 exit
3. Three exits
Step 4 quit everywhere
5. Import Office
1. Material Supply Office
2. Transport Department
3. Warehouse
4. Technical security services
1. General Finance Office
2. Operational Finance Branch
Figure11980-1990 organizational chart of NRC company
The business contract execution cycle of NRC company is very long, and some of them are as long as several years. Many complicated business links, such as new product research and development, marketing, business negotiation, product ordering, product storage and transportation, payment recovery, after-sales service, old product transformation, etc., require a lot of file management. Manual management separates the file management department and business department of NRC, so it is difficult to accurately grasp the business development and do a good job of business analysis. The general manager is determined to manage these confusing data well.
1987 the company manager's office meeting decided to establish a management system in the head office for the company's financial management, inventory management, sales management, transportation management and other business management. The general manager hopes to establish the company's management system based on computer system within 1~2 years. In order to achieve this goal, the company set up an information center, and the source of talents is other units in the industry. The project has been approved by the superior and the required investment has been obtained. The scale of system construction funds shall be within 1 10,000 yuan.
The company transferred two experts in computer software and hardware from computer technology institutions in the industry as the leaders of the newly established information center, responsible for the development of this project. Software developers are computer technology research institutes in the industry. The general manager entrusts the project to the deputy general manager in charge of comprehensive management, and the company planning department is responsible for coordinating the business relations of various departments. Under the planned economy system, the planning department has great power. The planning department is almost entirely responsible for the planning and distribution of internal resources, business tasks and work progress. It should be said that it is very appropriate for the planning department to coordinate the relationship in the process of system development, and the director of the planning department is also very interested in this management method.
After entering the system development for half a year, the management of the company adjusted the division of work. The former deputy general manager in charge of comprehensive management of the company was transferred to other enterprises, and the leadership of information system development was transferred to another deputy general manager. At the same time, the director of the planning department was sent abroad for a long time and a newly transferred director took over. The new leader in charge and the new director of the planning department have different views on the management information system from the previous leader, and they do not support or oppose it.
Because it is the first time for an enterprise to use the management information system, the developer, as a computer research department, does not understand the specific requirements of the user information system. In order to be prudent, the development team adopted the method of using while developing. Because the use of the system has greatly changed the working habits, during the trial of the system, users have reflected many opinions and need a lot of modifications. In the process of software development, the computer research institute of ministries and commissions strictly follows the industry requirements, and the source program of the developed software is not provided to the user units. If users want to adjust their functions during use, they must find a development company to modify them, which makes the function modification of NRC company very complicated, and it often takes a long time to adjust some small functions. After extensively listening to users' opinions, the deputy general manager in charge and the director of the planning department agreed that "the system is not suitable for the company's business".
The whole development work started at 1988 and was put into full use at 1990. In use, the business department reported that it was too troublesome to use, and the information that could be input into the system was only a small part of the contract, which the salesman could remember clearly in his mind. In addition, the system is very slow to use, terminals are concentrated in the computer room on the second floor, and salesmen have to go up and down to the second floor to input query information when using it. In terms of hardware, the application of personal computers is more and more extensive, and the application of minicomputers is strongly challenged. Because Wang An Computer Company insists on not turning to personal computers and thinks minicomputers are the direction of computer development, enterprises have been greatly impacted in the market and their business development is facing a great crisis.
199 1 At the end of the year, under the strong protests of users and the denial of leaders, the application of the system has all stopped, and the results of project implementation have not been officially announced, but the actual project application has completely failed, and the equipment used has become a pile of "scrap iron" with the decline of "Wang An" computer company. Coincidentally, after the system failure, the general manager was transferred from the company for reasons unrelated to the system, and the company transferred a new general manager. Because the management information system is not important to an enterprise, just like the financial department, it is impossible to get a business license without an accountant and cashier, and there is no source of profit without a business department. No matter how important or contemptuous the attitude of a business leader is, you can't tell what's wrong with him. Although the management information system has been paid more and more attention in domestic enterprises in the 1990s, the new general manager of NRC Company is completely uninterested in MIS, so the information center of NRC Company has embarked on a difficult road.
3. 1992 Establish the second generation management information system.
199 1 the information center was revoked and merged into the planning department, and the director of the information center was appointed as the deputy director of the planning department, responsible for information work. The planning department reorganized the information work into an information group. Business has nothing to do with other business of the department, and the office is not in the planning department. Planning plays an important role in the company, but information work is considered irrelevant.
65438-0992 With the chain reaction of the "southern tour" craze all over the country, the economic benefits and investment boom of enterprises have risen, and the establishment of enterprise management information system has become hot with the use of PC.
At this time, NRC has made major adjustments in its enterprise structure, and the head office has opened up new export business areas and international engineering contracting business areas, and established corresponding business departments. After adjustment, the company called the traditional export business as the first business port, the new export business as the second business port, the import business as the third business port and the engineering contracting business as the fourth business port. Each business office implements simulated independent accounting and has its own financial office and management office. The Financial Office of the Head Office was changed into a comprehensive financial office to coordinate the relationship between financial offices, and the Planning Office of the Head Office was responsible for coordinating the business of each business outlet and the management of each management office (see Figure 2).
1. General Finance Office
2. Operational Finance Branch
1. Material Supply Office
2. Transport Department
3. Warehouse
4. Technical security services
Exit 2
1. 1
2.2 exit
3. Three exits
Step 4 quit everywhere
5. Import Office
Miyaguchi
1. Project 1
2. Item 2
Domestic and foreign branches
1
1. 1
2.2 exit
3. Three exits
Step 4 quit everywhere
5. Import Office
1. Office
2. Planning department
3. Personnel Department
4. Information Center
5. Logistics Office
Deputy general manager
(in charge of finance)
Deputy general manager
(Director-General)
Deputy general manager
(Responsible for operation)
Deputy general manager
(responsible for management)
general manager
Fig. 21991-1995 organizational chart of NRC company
NRC already has a large number of desktop computers. When the government put forward the requirement for enterprises to use computerized accounting, the concept of computerized accounting was quickly pushed away. Because each "commercial port" requires its own autonomy and has different channels and habits, these four "commercial ports" have formed a financial system in three ways:
L "No.1 Business Hall" has found someone to develop a financial system that meets its own requirements.
L "second business outlet" purchases "ezsafe financial system"
L "The third business outlet" purchased "UFIDA Financial Software"
L "the fourth business port" is an engineering business, which can't be satisfied by general software. After negotiation, it uses the same financial system as the first business port.
Each scheme has its own reasons and has been recognized by the leaders. At that time, the information group put forward the idea of "unified model" from the perspective of information technology, but it was not taken seriously. The financial system has formed a fragmented pattern, and the information group can only hope to unify its business management to the new information system.
1in the middle of 992, the information group of the planning department of NRC company initiated a project to establish a new management information system. The new system has completely got rid of the structure of the first generation system and adopted a new way, but the business scope involved is very small compared with the current enterprise.
The scheme development of the second generation system construction is limited to the management of procurement, sales orders and transportation documents. The system prototype adopts the system developed by the information department of a subsidiary company according to its own needs. The system has been used in subsidiaries for two years. Although the scope of use is small, it is well used.
The business of the head office is much more complicated than that of its subsidiaries, so it can't directly copy the imported software, and it needs to be redeveloped according to the needs of the head office, because the needs of the head office are based on the research results of the first system development. The workload of secondary development is quite large. Fortunately, this purchase contains source code, which can be modified in time according to the needs of business personnel. However, the company's own development strength is insufficient, and the company's personnel department simply does not consider supplementing it. The development progress is slow, which has a great influence on the system's operation. After preliminary modification, the system began to be popularized and applied, and it is hoped that it will be gradually adjusted in place during use. However, the failure of the first system development determines that the second promotion is more difficult. The salesmen of the first, third and fourth "business outlets" strongly resisted the use of the new system, and the corresponding management offices did not have the energy to promote it. Finally, only when the leaders of the management office of "Second Commercial Port" pay more attention can it be popularized and used in its four commercial offices and transportation offices, and can be modified while using it. Fortunately, with the support of the "second business port" management department, the system can only be used hard, but the function of the system is limited to the salesman making contracts and the transportation department making documents, and the business system has not realized the data exchange with the financial system in the end. Moreover, because the statistical data are inconsistent with the statistical data of the planning department, the company is ordered not to use the system to provide data, and the system data can only be used in the "second business port".
The second generation management information system of NRC Company is only a short transitional stage. 1992 initiated, 1993 put into use, 1995 terminated the application due to the change of business premises.
The launch of the third generation system of NRC is entirely due to the relocation of business premises, and it is this reason that determines the final result of the third generation system. Although it has already possessed quite high technical means, it cannot really complete the construction of enterprise informatization.
4. 1995 Establish the third generation management information system.
By 1994, the economic boom for three consecutive years made China's state-owned foreign trade companies the most profitable enterprises at that time. 1992 to 1994 In recent years, foreign trade companies have indeed accumulated a lot of money, but the money of many enterprises was quickly consumed by the "real estate fever" and "import fever". According to incomplete statistics, almost all foreign trade companies invest in real estate, almost all of which are trapped, and almost all foreign trade companies have been cheated of a lot of money by illegal imports intentionally or unintentionally.
From 1992 to 1994, the economic benefits of NRC company have also increased all the way under the impetus of the big environment. The company decided to invest a sum of money in a real estate project, and the immediate need was to improve the business premises. 1994 finally decided to relocate and build its own unique office building-NRC building, 1994 started construction, 1995 was completed in February. 1996 moved into the new office building on New Year's Day.
In the process of architectural design, according to the popular mode of high-grade office buildings at that time, the company decided to build the building into an intelligent building with modern integrated wiring system, which can be used for communication, monitoring and computer systems. This modern architectural concept has given the company information group a new development environment, and also brought the biggest information investment since its establishment.
1995, the organizational structure of NRC company was greatly adjusted. At that time, in order to meet the challenge of China's entry into WTO, the state-owned foreign trade company proposed to establish an international, industrialized and collectivized comprehensive trading company, and its representative enterprise was Sinochem Trading Company. Other foreign trade companies have followed suit, and the state authorities have also created public opinion. In an instant, domestic foreign trade firms are everywhere. According to the instructions of the superior, NRC merged a domestic trade company, a logistics company, a design institute and two factories, and hung up the brand of "NRC Trading Company". Through this adjustment, the total assets of the enterprise doubled, the number of employees quadrupled and the number of subordinate enterprises quadrupled. The span of management has greatly increased, and the original management has obviously failed to meet the needs of the new pattern. The company has to improve its management level and implement the division system. The original "Shangkou" was reorganized into a corresponding business division, with complete internal management institutions and responsibilities. The two merged large companies were reorganized into two departments and six departments. The management department adds a functional office, which is set up under the functional department, and is fully equipped with the internal organizational structure and responsibilities of the functional office to ensure that the management functions of the functional office can completely cover all business fields and operating institutions of the company. In addition, the information center has been restored as an independent institution. As a subordinate institution of the Economic Management Department adapted from the original planning department, it does not report directly to the company-level leaders (see Figure 3).
vice-president
(Responsible for Action 2)
chief accountant
(in charge of finance)
vice-president
(Responsible for the first operation)
vice-president
(responsible for management)
Domestic and foreign branches
Sixth business division
Fifth division
Fourth business division
Third business division
Second business division
First business division
Party and government work department 1. Party Committee Office
2. Trade unions
3. Communist Youth League Committee
4. Office of Veteran Cadres
ministry of personnel
1. Personnel Department
2. Education sector
3. Talent Training Center
Finance Department
1. Integrated Finance
2. Financing
3. Audit Bureau
Enterprise management department 1. Trade management II. Industry management. Industry management. information center
Enterprise planning department
1. Planning department
2. Investment management
3. Publicity Office
office
1. Secretariat
2. Public Relations Office
3. Archives
president
Fig. 3 organizational chart of NRC company 1995 —— 1997
The information center chose STG Computer Research Institute as a new system software developer. The two parties signed a software development contract, with a software investment of 654.38+0 million yuan, which will be paid in installments. The development covers all NRC businesses, mainly including import and export management, project contracting management, financial management, personnel management, property management, office automation and manager inquiry. The development cycle is set at 1 year. NRC Company assists STG Research Institute in business research and system analysis. After the system analysis, the institute designed the system, which was approved by the information center. After the initial development, it was put into trial use, and appropriate modifications were made according to the requirements of users, and finally it was officially put into use.
STG Research Institute is a professional computer research institute, which has strong research and development capabilities and undertakes the research of computer frontier technology in a certain field in China. Driven by the market economy, STG Research Institute set up its own computer company, relying on its own scientific research and development strength to undertake computer projects contracted by foreign countries. Before signing the contract with NRC, STG had completed many computer projects, but most of them focused on hardware system integration, and there was little experience in truly completing large enterprise information systems. However, judging from the project team members provided by STG to NRC, the ability to undertake software production is beyond doubt. The project is in the charge of a well-known researcher-level senior engineer in the computer field, and several project teams composed of the main backbone of the software room of the research institute are responsible for the development of several modules respectively. Members are mainly graduate students majoring in computer science, all of whom are key universities with high academic qualifications in high flyers.
The project was officially launched in September, 1995. STG sent a project team to NRC Company for business research, and completed the research, analysis and design of the system at the end of the year. At the same time, NRC promises to hand over the procurement of hardware equipment to STG agent, and the arrival and installation of equipment cannot affect the development requirements of the system. It is expected that the hardware equipment will arrive, install and debug in June 1996+ 10, and the system platform construction and software development will start in February 1996. 1996 completed the basic functions of all modules in September, and tried them out, and the debugging was normal. The whole system was completed at the end of June and put into use in 1997 and 10.
The project went as planned. From September 65438 to September 0995, the research work began in the company. A technician from the Information Center and STG teams formed several research groups, which called the business personnel and management personnel of the relevant business departments of the module respectively, and conducted research by means of discussion, introduction, explanation and feedback. This work is carried out separately. The biggest problem encountered in the investigation is that for many businesses, there is a requirement of a management functional department and a standard of the management office of the business department, and the salesmen who use it put forward different ideas, so there are a lot of differences of opinion. In the face of differences of opinion, there must be a higher level leader to coordinate the relationship, but needless to say, no company leader, even the leader of the division, took the time to ask about the establishment of the system. In their minds, the construction of computer system is the business of information center.
At the end of 1995, the investigation came to an end in chaos, and the system analysis and design were basically completed on the basis of the investigation. Hardware equipment is also delivered on schedule, so it is not very difficult to build a development platform. 1996 After the Spring Festival, software development began. Because the research work adopts a bottom-up approach, all functional requirements are put forward by actual users, and the specific details change frequently. In addition, STG's business processes and rules for enterprises are from scratch, and many problems inevitably appear in software development, so many rework phenomena are added in the development process. Often when a module is developed to a certain stage, relevant personnel have to sit down and discuss some implementation methods. This kind of repetition runs through the development process, and some methods can't reach an agreement in the end, and some compromise with each other and become lame forms.
The development work was not completed as expected. Some modules were put into use at the end of 1996, while others are still in the state of mutual negotiation. Once there is disagreement, because the information center has no authority over the company's business process, it is unable to establish a reasonable way, while the user departments hold their own opinions, the authoritative management department of the company does not participate in the project, and the company leaders do not understand the situation, which delays a lot of work.
The export module is divided into two parts. The second department is the second "business interface" of using management information system in the second phase of system construction. The leaders of the division can give some support, and the internal management department has also invested some manpower. The system basically went online at the beginning of 1997. Because of the special business, the company's main business link, the first division, will be strongly opposed if the system is a little cumbersome. The leaders of the division are busy with market development and have little investment in the use of the system, so the plan of system trial has not been implemented.
The import module is used by the Third Division. The long-term business operation is not standardized, the business control ability is poor, the business process is not perfect, the system functions change repeatedly, the trial operation is intermittent, and the salesmen use it according to their interests.
After the software development of the project contracting management module is completed, the user's feedback function is too poor, which is not what they think, but the development of the system is completely based on the requirements put forward by the comprehensive management personnel of the Division. During the system investigation, almost all personnel in the management department of the Division were brand-new in the system development process, and the original requirements were completely overturned by the latecomers.
The biggest problem is the financial system. After the company adopted computerized accounting, various business departments used different financial software. By this time, it has been used for 2-3 years, and the financial personnel are familiar with the system they use. Although the function can not meet the actual needs, it has formed a relatively stable mode in the semi-automatic and semi-manual state. Due to the existence of several financial systems, report consolidation is done manually, and internal accounting treatment is also inseparable from manual work. But even so, people in the financial department strongly resist the new system. The fundamental reason is to change what they are just familiar with, and at the same time it will have a great impact on the personnel structure. Because the financial software must be approved by the internal financial supervisor, the problem has entered an infinite loop. The guiding ideology of the newly developed financial system is that it can be integrated with their respective business systems. The salesman's cost can directly enter the financial system through the operation of the business system, the financial personnel can directly handle the accounts through the data investigation of the business system, and the business personnel can also grasp the financial information related to their own business through the data call of the business system to the financial system. But all the functions can only be realized when the business system and the financial system are used at the same time. Finance is the core of the whole system. If this part fails, the whole system will face failure.
Before the development of the personnel management module was completed, the company received a document from the national personnel management department, suggesting that state-owned enterprises use a unified personnel management system. The personnel management department also doesn't want to bother to report statements, since the state requires the company's personnel department to implement them. The development work is meaningless and must be stopped.
The promotion, application, development and maintenance of the system are intertwined, a large number of functions are constantly modified, new functions are constantly added, and even research work is interspersed in the development work, and new needs and ideas are learned from the new office and department leaders from time to time. However, until the end of 1997, the application of the system remained basically unchanged, and the used parts became more and more perfect, while the unused parts were shelved.
At the beginning of 1998, STG realized that it was impossible to complete the system, and proposed that the development work had come to an end. If it was necessary to continue, a new development contract must be signed. In the middle of 1998, NRC Company and STG Research Institute reached a mutual understanding agreement on "NRC Company Enterprise Management Information System Construction Project": "In view of various factors encountered in the system development process, both parties cannot control the development of the project. Considering the new situation of NRC company, both parties agree that the project work has come to an end, the preliminary work is the first stage of system construction, NRC pays all the money signed with STG, STG promises to provide long-term maintenance for the modules currently used, and NRC pays a certain maintenance fee. For modules that have not yet been put into use, if NRC needs to use them, both parties can renegotiate the project cooperation mode and cost as the second phase of the project. "
At this point, the construction of the third information system of NRC Company has come to an end. The scene at the beginning of this paper is a scene that happened in this state.
5. The fourth exploration of establishing management information system.
In just a few years, NRC has also undergone many changes. The general manager retired and the new general manager took office. After more than a year's practical operation, it shows that the "business cooperation" model can't be based on the competitiveness of enterprises in internal promotion, and the austerity policy of the national economy has exposed a large number of insurmountable problems among enterprises, resulting in "complications" among joint enterprises. So it was decided to dissolve the "trading company" and the enterprise resumed its original model.
At the end of 1997, NRC began to adjust the internal structure of the enterprise and cancelled the organizational system of the division. Some of the original business divisions were gradually changed into subsidiaries of independent legal persons, and the management was changed from two-tier management to one-tier management, and the offices under functional departments were cancelled. 1998, the information center was changed to the information department and reappeared as an independent management department (see Figure 4). The business philosophy of enterprises has begun to change. How to improve the competitiveness of enterprises and meet the WTO has become a major issue for enterprises.
vice-president
(Responsible for Action 2)
vice-president
(Responsible for the first operation)
vice-president
(responsible for management)
Domestic and foreign branches
manufacturing firm
Hotel professional affiliated series
Affiliated series of materials specialty
Service professional subsidiary series
Trade professional subsidiary series
Headquarters business
Finance Department
ministry of personnel
sales department
Zhenggongbu
department of Transport
Ministry of information
Planning room
office
chief accountant
(in charge of finance)
president