Technology

Executive Summary
An Agreement on the best mix of restaurant information system has been very hard to establish in McDonald restaurants despite the fact that many other businesses are already running their websites efficiently. The best model has been very hard to establish since the food industry is very delicate and cannot be handled like the commercial venture which do not deal with foodstuffs. Nonetheless, this does not mean that MIS is inappropriate for restaurants. The food industry needs a very efficient management approach that will ensure that incase of a problem, appropriate corrective measures are executed as a result of timely detection of the problem. For this to be done effectively, McDonald will have to set in place a systematic monitoring and evaluation program. The MIS will offer a very important framework for managing the restaurant operations.

Developing MIS the management team will establish a team of 15 members to spearhead the project about setting up a management system. The aim of this committee is to establish what technology the company has and the current technology that could be relevant in the integration of the MIS in the management of the firm, and then determine how the firm will acquire the most appropriate technology. The committee is very important in decision making. Some of the existing systems include miscellaneous formats of monitoring, project level monitoring, auditor controller and physical monitoring progress. Efficient implementation of the MIS can communicate competiveness of the business. For this reason, this research was intended to identify the current IT developments in the company, find out the better value trainings and then implement the best restaurant MIS model for success of the firm.

Management information System denoted as MIS is a set of the general controls from the inside of the business venture or any other organization that covers the application of documents, personnel, technology and process by managers, accountants for problems solving like service, product costing or implementing a business wide approach. The management information is very different from other normal information systems since they are applied in the analysis of other information systems in the operation of the organization.  Sometimes they are also referred to as information management systems (Post  Anderson 2005).

Rationally, information systems management can be used to describe a group of information management techniques that are connected to the automation or back up the process of decision making. Like the support systems for decision making, information system for executives, and expert systems (Schultheis 1999).  The normal information systems are not basically designed or intended for decision making process. However, the information management systems are basically for the decision process and are identified as information technology management systems (Ibrahim et al 2008). The IT services are basically user focused and are also different from the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as it incorporates some aspects that do not support decision making process (Lederer  Salmeal 2006).

McDonald Corporation Overview
The company was established in 1940 by Mac and Dick who decided to operate a restaurant in San Bernardino. The company obtains its revenue from the rent fee and also franchise fees. The sales done by the firm consist of the larger percentage of the revenue these are from the restaurants operated by the corporation itself. Other sources of revenue include royalties.  It is estimated that the companys revenue increased by 27 over a period of three years. It is currently at about 22.8 billion and the increase in operating income increased by 9 to reach  3.9 billion (Blumenthal  Haspeslagh 2004). Currently McDonald restaurants are operating in about 120 nations worldwide and they feed close to 50 million people on daily basis. McDonalds has about 31,000 restaurants with a workforce of about one and a half million people (Vaman 2009).

McDonalds Vision  the corporation operates on a vision that it becomes the dominant company in the international food industry. By being dominant actually means that the standards of performance for the consumer satisfaction will be exceptional while at the same time aim at increasing the market share and the effectiveness via the well-situated value and implementation tactics (Burlaud et al 2007).

McDonalds Mission- to serve a very limited type of menu of tasty foodstuffs, faster under a hygienic and welcoming restaurant at a reasonable value to a broad base of clients.  The mission is derived from a well thought strategic plan and vision. The concepts that underlie the mission are as follows very tasty food, a narrow menu, consistent quality, value for money prices, faster services, outstanding consumer care, well-located locations, and international market coverage (Burlaud et al 2007).

Objectives of McDonalds
These objectives are very important because they provide a focus on which several brains can work on to bring out different issues and views. By setting up objectives, the corporation focuses the brains on the particular course and this guides fruitful thinking. Other than acting as guidelines, the objectives of an organization are able to grow into a strategic plan, describing where the company is headed and the resources to take it there.

Management Information System Objectives
The basic model is targeting creation of more profits and it is very simple to put in practice. It is also a characteristic type of website model for doing business online. McDonald restaurants can establish the business by creating an E-Business whereby people can take orders, make charges on the credit cards and purchase raw materials. This type of business model targets clients and are easy to use (B2C). The Management Information System is very important in management of the business especially the food industry. For this reason, the McDonalds management has to adopt restaurant MIS for successful operation of the business (Ansel  Dyer 1999)

Food industry is very dynamic and keeps on varying in terms of clientele preference, prices and is also affected by recession. For this reason, there is need to devise a method that would be very easy to manipulate in case of the changes. The food industry and especially operating a restaurant is very competitive. Given this type of dealing, McDonald has constantly been seeking means of improving their sales and hence to increase profitability of the business. MIS will improve companys efficiency.

The food industry has some equipment that can be integrated in technology so that ovens and fryers are automatic in terms of specified time, temperature and quantity. The process of decision making like making forecasts or making orders can be made automatic by the use of information technology. The restaurant management information systems are specific for supporting the decision process and finance reporting in the management of restaurants (Stair  Reynolds 2007). This Restaurant MIS objectives are to be successful in several aspects of operation including
Automation of the initial manual procedures.
Production or making reports that enhance decision making in the managerial position.
Reducing repetition via integration of the system.
Enhancing communication across the industry from managers, individual restaurants and to the headquarters.
Cutting down the time for food delivery.
Making of reports that would assist the management in making sales, finding labor managing the cost of food.
And for production of forecasts that help the management to order, plan food production and schedule labor .
It is important to note that the MIS focus on the management yet in the restaurant business profits or losses are made at the restaurant level and not the executives. By efficiently deploying Management Information Systems at the operational level, Mc Donalds might be able to expand and control its exceptional operational resources and capabilities (Morrison  Laffin 2009).

Sales  the Company aims to increase the revenue obtained from the direct sale from the restaurants it operates plus other sources like royalties and rent (Burlaud et al 2007).
Growth  the company also targets to grow and spread to new markets as it has set the trend for globalization and venturing to the international market.
Profit  the corporation aims at increasing the amount of profits it gets by ensuring that it offers its services to a wider base of customers (Clemons  Row 1999).
Customer satisfaction  the firms aim at providing exceptional services to customers to satisfy them in terms of hygiene and good quality of food.
Plan  the basic plan on which the firm operates is to offer great service to its clients and an outstanding experience in every restaurant across the globe every time. The Corporation also strives to create good relationships with their clients by using different activities like children play grounds (Clemons  Row 1999) .

Corporate Strategy
Long-Term Strategy The strategy at McDonald focuses mostly on the customers and even in their daily operations, customers service comes first. For that reason, the customers still form the basis of long term strategies (Haag  Phillips 2007). The corporation understands that to remain on top of the business it has to attend to customers in a special way. By this, the company understands that it has to perceive the need of the customers and work towards giving them exactly what they want in an ethical manner. So, the long-term strategy is to maximizing profit and customer satisfaction by implementation of Management Information Systems and Information Technology.

Management Information Systems Strategy - Bearing in mind the dynamic nature business ventures are taking today. There is dire need for satisfaction in terms of information any time and everywhere. There are several necessary components for the effective functioning of IT in the business that the firm can choose from and they are highlighted below.

The enterprise management systems (Fombrun 2003).
Application Technology customer-server website facilitated function.
Security -- proxy servers and firewall servers, (The Financial Express 2009).
Network  intranet, internet, extranet, Local area network (Vaman 2009).
Application solutions- oracle financials, oracle 81 etc
The use of ERP- Enterprise Resource planning, (The Financial Express 2009).

Business Model The Franchise Model- the business operates about 85 of its total capacity as rented out franchisees. The remainder (15) is what the company itself runs directly as McDonald Corporation. The company has in place a very inclusive structure of training and scrutinizing the franchises. This makes sure that they follow the quality services that are set by the companys standards, adhere to cleanliness level and appreciate the propositions offered by the firm to its clients (Clemons  Row 1999).  MIS and IT implementation will be elaborated in these processes. It should improve communications among managers, headquarters, restaurants and decrease duplication of efforts through system integration.

Enterprise Management System
An enterprise can be defined as a large business organization that includes all the players or the stakeholders. It is also a terminology used for corporate entity. They range from a small coffee house to multinational corporations like TATA. A group of people with common objectives can also fit in the definition of the enterprise (Laudon  Laudon 2001). McDonald corporation enterprise is a multinational food dealer that retails foodstuffs directly in restaurants and also offers franchise from some of the restaurants. Since technology is spreading all over, the firm has to move with time and also make its arrangements of getting the management information systems so that it is able to manage its issues properly (Thompson  Strickland 2008).

The ERP System. ERP is part of software modules that support and maintain the business activities that are being undertaken in the critical back office processes. For instance, in a manufacturing plant, the firm will need to track the sales progression, statutes of inventory invoicing and so on (Coyle et al 2009). There are applications that will enable several functions to be performed. Packages, suites, enterprise applications and systems will be connected on a single integrated type of system. Implementation of such underlying theory is via modules which can be integrated. The main objective of ERP is to integrate all aspects of the Company and do away with complicated connections between the computer systems. The architecture or design is customer - server and makes use of incorporated design of OO method in designing and developing the entire system (Davenport 1994). 

The major advantage of the ERP system is that it offers an integrated solution for every requirement of the business. The systems also take into account the hierarchical powers of the organization. Essentially, the ERP solutions are founded on the Windows NT and UNIX stage (Thompson  Strickland 2008).

McDonald will be able to integrate the following modules into its systems as they form the major aspects of the ERP finance and accounting marketing and distribution personnel management inventory and purchases, control and planning (Laudon  Laudon 2001). These modules will in turn offer solutions to the following functions analyses data capturing from business transactions validating the data transactions and updating accounts and making reports.

Benefits McDonalds will gain the following benefits from the ERP implementation the management will have an easy time in reaching decisions of the entire organization or even at the lowest level. This is because the information presented is from every part of the organization all broken down in a simple way to understand whatever is happening at every level. It hence saves on time. The system makes it possible for the whole organization to share information (same information), and the interpretation is likely to be the same (Coyle et al 2009).

Risks despite the pupated risks, the module also presents some risks. They include being tied up to a single vendor very limited in terms of flexibility as there are few options it may improperly instigate use of generic processes may improperly cause the organizational structure to change and it is also complicated with regard to mapping and standardization processes across the venture (Laudon  Laudon 2000).


Management Information System and IT at McDonalds
It is very critical for McDonald to apply the MIS on its operations bearing in mind that the business will keep on changing and adapting to newer technologies every time in order to remain competitive. Sophisticated means of management should be adapted so that the decision making is based on accurate facts and logic with evidence for back up. There is software that can be installed on personal computers for this purpose (Laudon  Laudon 2000). It is important for every manager to be able to find out price and access schedules, do auditing of inventories and company assets and carry out forecasts as well as monitoring the organizations performance while in hisher office. Many other companies are employing such tactics and allow their managers to access information on the computer just on timely basis (OBrien 1999).  

Conventionally, food service industry has had a very weak in house system especially the accounting programs as seen by the wearisome manual procedures. The outcomes of such processes have always been that the companies end up desperate with poor cost management (controls). It happens that the cost information is large and out-of-date before manual computations are complete (OBrien 1999). The MIS for food industry will get rid of such problems. MIS provides the following Modules inventory control, general ledger, sales analysis, bank reconciliation, recipe control and sales analyses.


The IT Infrastructure
IT Manager As identified earlier, the business shall have a project or rather the IT manager who will be the overall executive officer. Other sub-sections will be reporting to several main departments all taking the umbrella design (Haag  Phillips 2007). 
The Service Management Team  The team will be comprised of the previous parties who took part in the initial research of the ITIL framework plus other staff who will be approved by the IT department to offer neutral inputs. They will include director human resource, director operations, finance director and marketing director. Since the business is at its initial stages, the team shall not take more than five people as this would jeopardize flexibility, movement and further progress. The team will have members who are qualified with the relevant skills to execute their job (Haag  Phillips 2007).
The Performance Teams There will be implementation teams for each of the specified procedures in the ITIL approach and this will include selected individuals of the management team and the chief personnel in each section. Management and leaders from areas concerned will have to be included as the decisions and changes proposed will have an impact on the workforce under their jurisdiction (Haag  Phillips 2007).

The Steering Committee This committee will comprise of the information technology managers who will work to bring in different parties as required and to reach rational decisions (Ansel  Dyer 1999)
The Design Team This team will provide information on critical matters that may arise and they will include some staff members from sections affected by implementation forming the internal reference team while academicians and general staff with habitual contact with the IT section will form external reference team (Stair  Reynolds 2007).
The Reporting Outline The implementation team will report to the management team at definite intervals. Gathered progress information, concerns arising and other issues will be reported on monthly basis via the Director of IT services.  Any concerns will be addressed by IT managers for strategic conclusion and policy formulation otherwise the daily issues that may affect performance will be addressed by the director of information technology (Haag  Phillips 2007).

Internet Presence
With increased use of IT in the western world, there is dire need to implement the use of ITIL framework in the provision of IT services in McDonald restaurants. This is mainly because the users do not concern themselves with the infrastructure aspect of the services rather the services themselves, while the business owners also dont bother about the maintenance of the components of the IT infrastructure. Due to these kinds of negligence, there has been series of problems in the provision of IT services which include cases of miscommunication and misunderstanding which results to the poor service provision by some restaurants (Burlaud et al 2007). Presentation of the services on the internet is very important ands since the business is a chain, the website will have to be the same for all the branches involved. However there will also be direction to specific location through the country of operation. Any alterations to the normal flow or different way of operation will be communicated.

Another major concern is the fact that due to the increased number of people using the IT services and those who would like to eat out, there has not been a corresponding realignment of the clients need of IT and very small extent of service integration and support services have been provided. If the IT services are provided in a way that would be as consistent, commonsensical, synchronized business would to a great extent enhance confidence of consumers who are IT services (Burlaud et al 2007).

The adoption of the ITIL approach means that the services provided will be supported but ITIL and ensure they are tailored towards the consumers needs and design or develop services that are consistent with the customers needs as well as ensure that the business objectives are met (Edwards et al 2005).  Professional personnel will be used to make sure that the ITIL framework principles are effectively and appropriately provided as this would enhance and develop customers initiatives rather than functioning mainly as a support function.

From the diagram above, the Business viewpoint is close to the company. The IT infrastructure which includes deployment, operations, technical support, design and planning are close to technology (software and hardware and networking). Planning, implementation, and service management tackles challenges in those specific jurisdictions. Service management involves service support and delivery (it contains the incident management problem management, service level, change management, release management, financial management, capacity management and configuration management. Security management is concerned about cross cuts. Applications management takes care of designing, operations, optimization and deployment.

Converting to the New Model
The first step is to find out what the company has and what is applicable to the market. This will enable the firm determine the type of technology it is lacking. After finding out, the workers compliance is accessed. Many workers are usually not oriented to the new technology and some would resist. Training would be offered to train them on how to use the new technology. The components to be changed include the software, the human resource hardware data and procedures (Burlaud et al 2007).

The information system management requirements will endure that the systems meet customer specifications and needs. The user management obligations on the other hand will ensure that the customers will be involved in the process and still remain dedicated to the use of the new systems. The critical factors for implementation will include open communication, organization trust, consumeruser dedications, financial support and common view of the new strategy (Blumenthal  Haspeslagh 2004).

Socio-Technical Systems Change Model
When complex human organization such as McDonalds makes the decision to pursue redesigning itself, it must first choose the type of change model it is going to use to do the redesign. If the organization chooses to use socio-technical systems methodology redesign, it must have careful planning, widespread involvement, adequate resources, strong management support, and skillful facilitation (Pasmore 1988 pg109). An organization that achieves these items can pursue its redesign with confidence that it can reinvent itself into a more competitive and successful organization. This model of change is suitable for McDonalds as socio-technicalorganization.

The organization that uses a socio-technical systems methodology model needs to realize that the process will not be a quick fix to organizational woes. The redesign can take anywhere from six months to three years to complete (Pasmore 1988 pg110). Based upon this understanding, the organization can achieve desired change by approaching the redesign with a realistic timetable. Organizations need to understand that the process cannot be rushed, but the organizations must invest the time needed to produce the desired change that they want to achieve. The following is a diagram of the socio-technical systems methodology model.

This change model represents the lens that is used to examine McDonalds MIS and IT change model. The examination will consist of looking for evidence from McDonalds IT change methodology that is consistent with the socio-technical systems methodology change model. An organization that understands the assumptions will be in a better position to use the socio-technical systems methodology to redesign itself successfully. Pasmores redesign and implementation  model does contain a weakness based upon the models rigid linear appearance. The model appears to be a linear systematic model and not a systemic model. When viewing McDonalds change model through this lens, we have corrected for this heavily systematic linear orientation by realizing that an open system must be viewed systemically and not by a rigid step-by-step process. The following explains the socio-technical systems methodology change model that is used for McDonalds MIS implementation and change.

The Phases of MIS Change Model for McDonalds
Phase 1 Define the Scope of the MIS to be implemented
Phase 2 Determine Environmental MIS and IT Demands
Identify Key External Stakeholders
Determine Current and Future IT Demands
Decide on Appropriate Responses to Demands
Derive Organizational Goals
Phase 3 Create the Vision Statement and Charter
Clarify Values and Outcomes, Draft Statement
Charter the Change Effort
Phase 4 Educate Company Members
MIS Education
Skill Training
Phase 5 Create the Change Structure
Create the Design Team
Intergroup Meeting Between Design Team and Steering Committee
Develop Communication Strategy
Educate the Design Team and Steering Committee
Develop Involvement Strategy
Develop Resourcing Strategy
Develop Change Strategy
Phase 6 Conduct the MIS Implementation Analysis
Identify Resources to Assist in the Analyses
Provide Training in Analytical Methods
Analyze Systems
Review With the Steering Committee
Share With the Rest of Company
Phase 7 Formulate MIS Design Proposals
Review IT Design Inputs
Clarify Desired Outcomes
Formulate Specific Proposals
Examine Systemic Impact
Perform Cost-Benefit Analysis
Select Most Viable Proposals
Review With Steering Committee
Phase 8 Implement Recommended Changes
Communication and Review Proposals With the Rest of the Company
Communicate and Review Proposals with the Upper Management
Create Implementation Plan
Train Employees and Supervisors
Execute Implementation Plan
Phase 9 Evaluate Changes and Redesign as Necessary
Develop Evaluation Methodology
Collect and Review Data Against Goals
Redesign if Needed

Timeframe and Costs of Implementation
The implementation and adoption of new IT and MIS infrastructure is very confident and complex process, especially in such a global company as McDonalds. It should elaborate efforts at all corporate levels of the company including the lower staff. Substantial resources would be elaborated in this process. It can be estimated that about 8-10 of current companys budget should be directed on MIS implementation. The timeframe for MIS implementation can be estimated as one year. Below is the approximate timeframes and costs of MIS implementation at McDonalds.

Recommendations for Improvement
For a business to thrive it has to address the deficient areas in the market and this would ensure that venture gains competitive advantage over the existing competitors. Research has indicated that most internal processes comply with the best practice requirements as presented by the ITIL and as such would not require so much modification. However, there are some areas that require immediate transformation in order to execute better services and also make sure that the clients expectations are met. The business will also have to address the concerns of the providers of the services and other players implying that the issues to be addressed should not be exhaustive as other concerns are likely to be identified as time goes by or other concerns which require urgent implementation may come up (Haag  Phillips 2007).

The already existing concerns include- dependence on one support staff this is a situation where staff turnover and absenteeism greatly affect the delivery services and also the level of the same services is reduced some problems include logging of small percentage of incidences there is also limited call categorization systems and prioritization procedures and this usually results in reduced meaningful management of the information that can be obtained from the database software used for configuration management deficient description of the services customers expect there is lack of standardized procedure of documentation and this has led to fragments of information, held in several locations and some are even in accessible to the users and insufficient identity of the internal requirements for services hence leading to decreased level of services and confusion in the department (Stair  Reynolds 2007). These are just some of the issues that need to be addressed. Their prioritization will take place when the business is initiated.

The project will strive to improve the Quality of Information Technology support for use in the restaurants among other uses by putting into operation the components of the ITIL approach whenever suitable and putting them in line, in agreement with the calculated objectives of the business to be started. The firm will be a pace setter in IT services, IT training and consultation services in management of IT services and information safety.

This will address what is initially purposed to be accomplished during the implementation of the project. Each aspect of the objectives will out of necessity cover its own capacity, aims and deliverables To provide quality and efficient IT services that meet the ITIL standardized requirements to the clients The first aim to attain a unified client service culture across the entire IT industry in the McDonald restaurants Identify the critical components of ITIL approach which are relevant to the businesses in the market and ensure they are enhanced and available Make priorities of the components and implement them in the preset time limit ensuring that the quality of services is measurable Provide the standardized best Information Technology practices in all areas of the information and communication technology industry The business will also initiate a tradition of a cycle of sustained improvement of quality or services delivered The business will help to alleviate the inefficiencies in IT departments of other branches by insuring the effective use of existing services and resources while embracing the best changes and alternatives that may arise The business will aim to effect transformations that will align with the ITIL performances without any big impact on the services in existence or the level of service provision (Vaman 2009). 

It would be also recommended the following to change professionals and organizational designers. To be successful in implementing the technological change across a global organization such as McDonalds they need to do the following
1. The change initiative can move forward if, and only if, the senior executive officer sponsors the change. If the executive officer does not back the change initiative, then the change should be abandoned.
2. Training should be made mandatory to ensure that everyone in the organization understands how to interface with the new technological system.
3. When implementing the new technology, the old technology should be taken away and removed. This leaves no alternative for the employees of the organization to fall back upon.
4. A push strategy should be employed for the implementation strategy until more than 50 of the organization has received the new technology. After a majority of the organization has been implemented a decision to shift to a pull strategy can occur. This will force the remaining portion of the organization to need to have the new technology in order to be in synch with the rest of the organization.
5. MIS will support the change while more social departments such as Marketing and Sales will be against it. With this being the case, it is vital to obtain senior level Market and Sales personnel to put their support behind the change initiative.
6. It would be better to make communication a top priority of the change methodology to explain to all the employees of the organization what is coming, why it is coming, how it is coming, and when it is coming.
7. It would be better to ensure that non-IT personnel are heavily involved in the design of the MIS change initiative. With the MIS department supporting the initiative for the value added benefits, asking the departments that may resist the change initiative will contribute to the success of the design.

Summary
This paper identified key MIS points that should be redesigned and implemented in McDonalds. The MIS Objectives and Strategy are identified and assessed. Organizational structure and IT infrastructure along with workflows identified and analyzed. Summary of major IT processes is presented. Enterprise Management System of McDonalds are described in detail. The MIS Change and Implementation plan and methodology are also specified. The reasonable timeframe and cost estimations are designed. Finally, the list of recommendations for improvement of implementation process is presented as well.