EMC
EMC was first created in 1979 before starting as an information systems infrastructure, dealing in both software and hardware in 1981. With several partnerships, acquisitions, and a series of new research and development projects in various countries including Singapore, and tapping on cheap Chinese labor, the company grew further until 1999 when it became one of the biggest data storage companies in the world (Centera Family 1). In 2002, the company ingenuously developed multiplatform capabilities while competing fiercely with Dell and other IT infrastructure companies. Innovation, acquisitions, strategic alliances, pricing mechanisms, Data Domain controls, compliance models, and effective management had been integrated into managing the company to its advantage in better quality service provisions and competitive advantage (Products 1).
Findings indicate that EMC’s products span those that are used to capture, manage, store, and protect enterprise data in a central repository for organizational use. EMC is widely experienced in a variety of software products design, development, and implementation on various hardware platforms (Kimmel and Gerke 1). Data Sheet article argues that the company emphasizes operational and performance issues, core factors for any management information system (3). According to the Business and Industry Solutions report, the Company competitively prices its products and services to stay afloat in a competitive environment (1). Physical aspects of weight, power usage, and size, and security issues are satisfactorily integrated into its products, considering the aspect of space and other organizational requirements (Data Sheet 1).
Financial Health
Since its inception, EMC has financially grown through periods of economic recession eventually coming out strong. Recent reports indicate its net income to have doubled on a year-over-year basis. According to the July 2010 report, a drastic expansion on gross and operating margins has been experienced, with a drastic growth in free cash and operating cash flows, as the first financial year quarter was completed with $10.3 billion investments cash (Finance 1).
Finance argues that a healthy financial position is attributed to the intrinsic value of the company’s products and services, excellent information infrastructure, strategic ability to exploit available opportunities in the industry, a strong team, and innovative technologies (1). Further still, the company projects to more than double its profits in the coming years due to its innovativeness and excellent service provisions (Managing Compliance and Risk with Call Recording 1).
Systems in Use Today
At tactical, strategic, and operational levels, various management information systems used include websites for data capture and submission of information, educational, financial, banking, online bill pay systems, decision support systems, conference management systems among a host of other products in use today. These include excel spreadsheets, Microsoft presentation applications, as some of the tools for data entry, manipulation, and presentation purposes. Data on an excel sheet can be manipulated and presented graphically for ease of understanding and decision making (Products 1).
EMC Customer Services
Further research indicated that EMC offers a range of services including IT services, consultancy services, and managed services. IT services cover performance evaluation activities, software and hardware implementation, security implementation on organizational information systems, and migrations to other platforms (IT Professional 1). Migration activities include moving from thin image to thick image capture. Managed services include data storage, remote services including software installations and security enhancements, and system availability (EMC Centera Compliance Models Governance Edition and Compliance Edition Plus 5). EMC provides consultancy services that span applications, virtualization, and provision of infrastructure in businesses and industries. The research emphasized the use of Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Captiva, an information management system used in many public sector organizations (Technology Brief 1).
Tagged as one of the best IT infrastructure providers in the world and relentlessly endeavoring to maintain its position in the market, the company has won several prestigious prizes from prestigious industry organizations. Among them include the “Service & Support Professionals Association (SSPA), the Association of Support Professionals (ASP), and the Technology Professional Services Association (TPSA)” (Hopkinton 1). In addition to that, EMC has been tagged the best in innovation, excellent leadership, offering the best online technical support including customer self-help tools, readily available online technical support, real-time customer support services, better support staff, staff retention, and staff motivation uniqueness integrated into its best business practices. Hopkins argues that these practices, product and service quality create customer loyalty to the company adding value to the company and customers while efficiently utilizing returns on investment (1).
Hopkins notes that the SSPA STAR award was a result of the company’s best practices, TPSA for recognizing outstanding professional services by its staff, and ASP for outstanding customer support. In addition to that, EMC provides among the best ten websites for technical support through live chat and other support services (Accenture 1). EMC has had several corporate responsibilities spanning many countries as part of its policies. In 2004, EMC extensively invested in an improved image, before launching quick deployments solutions (Hopkinton 1). In 2005 the company was involved in humanitarian activities and over the years has innovatively launched new technologies, to 2010 when it joined hands with the London Internet Exchange, as a member (Hopkinton 1). The company specializes in a variety of information systems depending on their level of usage and organizational and individual needs. These include image quality assurance modules, RescanPlus modules, Auto Annotation, Image divider, and Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Captiva among many other products (Hopkinton, 1)
How the System Works
According to Hopkinton, less costly and operationally efficient, the system captures and digitalizes public sector records across a host agency and government departments (1). A lot of this information is submitted through EMC’s enterprise capture technology to capture, process, store, and automate the storage and retrieval of data and information in a centralized repository (Centera Virtual Archive 1). Processing takes place on a single server or multiple servers. The technology uses the Symmetrix 8830 storage system with a multiserver capability with 69.5 terabytes database storage capacity in a centralized location with virtualization capabilities. This is connected to a mainframe and high-end servers. The Symmetrix 8830 technology integrates faster CPUs with a 96 concurrent ability and cache speeds of 64 GBs range on 16 partitions (Cnet News 1).
After data and information have been captured, each document is automatically identified and classified. The system incorporates features and drop-down menus such as Home, Document Center, and MyDocumentum among several others to enable users to interact with the system effectively. The information is extracted and validated against available data and information. Manual data entries are not done, saving time and cost. Microsoft SharePoint and EMC technology incorporate content manipulation, data processing, and management capabilities for system users.
Current Systems User’s Views
A survey on the usage of this system revealed that users had a lot of ease in interacting with the system. A particular survey on Tax and Revenue departments indicated that 95% of users were satisfied with this system as it saved them time and space in data entry and paper storage. According to Laura, Coles, and Harris, users argued that they could effectively deliver services online and commended the system’s customer support services readily available online, a value addition strategy (1). This, they argued speeds resolution of various cases at a less cost, and typically within a short period (Laura, Coles & Harris 1). However, users noted that a more user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) be innovatively incorporated with user contributions at the design and implementation stages (Centera Family 1).
Strengths and Weaknesses
The system provides services compliant to expertise in different fields, easy navigational capabilities, intelligent data and information capture and seamless data integration across organizations, and secure information and data storage on a centralized repository from where it can be efficiently managed (Centera Retention and Disposition Functionality 1). End-user support, navigational capabilities, and productivity are key elements characteristic of the system. In addition to these, data and information are securely managed with the real-time generation of error messages guaranteeing data and information integrity (Centera virtual archive 1).
However system weaknesses reveal themselves in portals, sometimes searches for certain documents and data takes a lot of time, require business management skills to use the system, overdependence on other products as platforms for the system, deficient of global centralized management repositories, limited system development, and management staff, deficiency in offline support functionalities, and poorly selected and integrated social networking tools (Archives 1).
Evaluation scale for EMC.
Recommendations
Based on the research on various management information systems and tools, companies, and products in the market, a critical review of the weaknesses and strengths of the usage of Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Captiva led the researcher to strongly recommend the adoption, integration, and use of Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Captiva information system. Other supporting factors included an analysis of EMC’s customer service history, customer views, and sales and after-sales services, the company’s financial health, product costs, and other performance issues that inspired strong confidence in the company.
Works Cited
Archive. EMC. 2008. Web.
Accenture. High performance Delivered. 1996-2010. Web.
Business and Industry Solutions. Products and services combined for your business. Web.
Cnet News. EMC, NetApp unveil new top-end products. 2001.
Center Family. 2010. Web.
Center Retention and Disposition Functionality. 2010. Web.
Center virtual archive. Federated, enterprisewide information archive 201. 2010. Web.
Data Sheet. EMC Centera Governance Edition and Compliance Edition Plus. 2003-2008. Web.
EMC Centera Compliance Models Governance Edition and Compliance Edition Plus. A Detailed Review. 2008. Web.
Finance. EMC Reports Record Second-Quarter Revenue; Quarterly Profit More Than Doubles. 2010. Web.
Hopkinton, Mass. EMC Expands Centera Archiving Capabilities to Address ‘Exploding Digital Universe’. 20018. Web.
Hopkinton, Mass. EMC Press Release. 2010. Web.
Hopkinton, Mass. EMC Press Release. 2009. Web.
IT professionals. Touch Systems Ltd – Management Information Systems. 2010. Web.
Kimmel, William, D. & Gerke, Darly, D. 2006. Web.
Laura, Spencer, Coles, Anne-Marie, & Harris, Lisa. The Forgotten Stakeholder? Ethics and Social Responsibility about Competitors. 2001. Web.
Managing Compliance and Risk with Call Recording. Web.
Products. EMC Corporation. 2010. Web.
Products. Enterprise Content Management. 2010. Web.
Technology Brief. Archiving Beyond File Systems: Object Storage EMC Centera and Disk Archival. 2009. Web.
Footnotes
- An example of a graphical representation of an Excel spreadsheet.
- Screen short for the capture and manipulation of data and information.
- Screen short showing validation of documents.