Smith Systems Consulting Information Systems

Smith Systems Consulting Information Systems

Blair Smith had a vision in the late Seventies, because of the explosive growth of the personal computer, to merge the structure and flow of business processing with the demand for computers and database management. These visions lead Blair Smith with three associates from his old firm and a handful of business clients to form Smith Consulting in June 1984. Developing innovative business solutions Smith Systems Consulting has grown from five to 350 employees and has become a leader in process management solutions. The company's most critical and highly used information system is an enterprise database management system (DBMS).

Smith Systems Consulting has created applications with the use of DBMS to increase efficiency. DBMS defines the structure of gathering data, provides mechanisms to manipulate the information (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.), and creates an environment for the end user. This is primarily used within the following functional departments:

* Accounting

* Customer Service

* Marketing

Accounting

Within the accounting department at Smith Consulting a set of programs are used for defining, controlling, and accessing the database. The National/International DMS Enterprise Software is the primary application used by the organization. This application gives the Financial and Accounting Department modules to manage the process for: General Ledger, Accounts Payable, Cash Management, Budgeting, Cost Accounting, Taxes, Payroll, and Financial Reporting. The personnel enter data in a module from a web base interface; the data is automatically entered in the database where it can be manipulated by creating reports for management decision making.

The DBMS enhances security limiting the number of employees' access ensuring that important information is adjusted by a qualified manager. This allows Smith Systems Consulting employees' to process large amounts of financial information with speed and accuracy through the accounting system. Also, shortens the period on month- or year-end closing periods helping the company in cost control, which increases efficiency.

Customer Service

The mission for Smith Systems Consulting states "We will provide the absolute best to our customers in all aspects of services and technology at reasonable prices to assist them in obtaining and maintaining solutions to business problems". With customer service as a high priority of the organization, using a database management system helps to improve customer service and enhance employee skills. Smith System Consulting started using applications to standardize documents, maintain different versions, and track changes that have been made to any document in a system. The search environment created has given the employees the ability to help customers on the fly when there are issues within a client's database, customs forms, or user interface.

With an integrated system customer service can monitor previous maintenance issues from clients; this allows supervisors to analyze possible bugs in the system and gives the employees within

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