Customer Integrated System

A Customer Integrated System (CIS) is an extension or hybrid of the Transaction Processing System (TPS) that places technology in the hands of the customer and allows them to process their own transactions (Hagg et al., 2006).

To both the customer and the organization, CISs represent a new way of doing business at substantial savings. The customer savings take the form of convenience and for the organization the savings take the form of lower human resources expenditures (Hagg et al., 2006). Customers have the ability to make a variety of transactions anywhere at anytime without having to physically visit the place of business. As a result, an organization can reduce its staffing requirements since it will now be servicing fewer customers in person or face to face (F2F).

In 1992, Bergen Brunswig, a distributor of diversified drug and health care products, unintentionally created a CIS. According to the story, Bergen Brunswig decided to equip its sales representatives with a portable computer which included a multimedia product encyclopedia and customers' account information (McGraw-Hill Online). The clients became increasingly interested in this system and in some cases even requested to borrow it from the sales representatives for their own use. As a result, the head of Research and Development at Bergen Brunswig, Jim McLaughlin, came up with the idea to modify the system so that it included order-entry software and to provide this new system to the pharmacist free of charge (McGraw-Hill Online).

Examples

*Online Shopping – browse or purchase a broad array of products anywhere any time
*ATMs and Online Banking – permits banking anywhere any time
*Universities or Colleges Online Services – register for classes, make tuition payments and purchase books anywhere any time
*Vending Machines – purchase anything from assorted snack foods to iPods

Functions (Yuan Ze University)

*Capturing information
*Creating information
*Cradling or storing information
*Communicating information
*Conveying information (secondary)

Characteristics of CISs (Yuan Ze University)

*Streamline organization’s business processes
*Are at the very heart of every organization
*Are the new primary interface to customers
*Further decentralization of computing power in an organization by placing that power in the hands of the customers
*Empower the customers to process their own transactions anywhere at anytime
*Can reduce waiting line time and therefore improve overall customer satisfaction
*Allow for an organization to cut costs by reducing human resources expenditures

ee also

*Transaction Processing System (TPS)
*Transaction processing
*Online transaction processing (OLTP)
*Online analytical processing (OLAP)
*Executive Information Systems (EIS)
*Artificial Intelligence
*Neural Network
*Workgroup Support System (WSS)
*Groupware
*Spyware

References

#Yuan Ze University - Department of Information Management (n.d.). Chapter 2 – Information Technology Systems. Retrieved June 7th, 2006, from [http://www.mis.yzu.edu.tw/faculty/chiu/Mis_ch2.ppt]
#McGraw-Hill Online (n.d.). Levi Strauss Case Study. Retrieved June 7th, 2006, from [http://www.mcgrawhill.ca/college/haag/graphics/haag1mih_information/1mih_sample.pdf]
#Hagg, S., & Cummings, M., & McCubbrey, D. J., Pinsonnealut, A., Donovan, R. (2006). Management Information Systems for the Information Age (Third Canadian Edition). Toronto: McGraw-Hill.