welcome

we are group of four student studying at UAEU we would like to welcome you to our blog which made specially for our project of Mercedes Benz company information system in this blog we are going to post a lot of information which talk about the IS used on the Mercedes Benz company at UAE , also we are going to give you information about the crucial role that the information system play at the company and how it help the manger in making  a lot of Decision related to the company and how it helps reducing the cost and the error for the company , also we are going to describe the  processing of data into information and then to knowledge . 

Introduction to Mercedes company

Mercedes Benz is a well known brand name company that originated in German and it’s specialized in producing automobiles, buses, coaches, and trucks and is a division of its parent company, Daimler AG. Mercedes as a brand is equivalent with quality and elegance, and also it consider as one of the oldest automotive brand still existence until today. 

In this project we are going to explore the information system used in the Mercedes Benz Company at the Eastern Motors branch At Emirates Motor Company, also we are going to know the Type of the different information systems used at Mercedes like the TPS, MIS, DSS, EIS and understand the crucial role that the information system play at the company by helping the manger making Decision and how it helps reducing the cost and the error for the company , furthermore we are going to describe how the data is processing into information and then to knowledge . 

Finally we are going to compare the Advantages of using the different information systems and the Disadvantages of using the different information systems and we going to discuses some of the issues that we think it are important.

History of Mercedes Benz

Mercedes Benz has been recognized as the most popular company in producing cars with different designs. It’s found by Mr. Karl Benz who established the company in 1871 then Mr.Gottlieb Daimler, Mr. Wilhelm May Bach where involved on establishing the division of Mercedes Benz. It has been making achievement since its begging. During the year 1886 the company succeeded in producing or making “first true internal combustion engine powered three wheeler automobile vehicles”.( wikipedia , 2011) .As well in 1894 it became known as the first company in producing “single cylinder four stroke engine powered four wheeler vehicle” (Mercedes-Benz, 2011).Finally in the 1899 Mr. Emil jellinek succeed in entering the “Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG) vehicles” (Mercedes-Benz, 2011) or cars through putting his daughter name Mercedes on the test vehicles produced that time since then it became the brand name of all DMG vehicles produced. 

Mercedes Benz is known with producing different kinds of vehicles. Firstly, when the company was putting their intention on producing land vehicles. They were produced along with it various kinds of boats like civil, military boat and aircraft engines. In the year 1920, Mercedes Benz started making different deigns of limousine vehicle. Along with it, it began in making sport cars with different models. During the year of 1950s American market Mercedes Benz begin in producing vehicles. Besides that, the first Iconic 300SL sports car model was offered in New York automobile show in 1954 which was specially produced for American market. At that time, Mercedes Benz involved in making rear engine cars which was unfortunately a failure attempt. After that, it succeeds in producing cars that were similar to the previous one but less expensive and have a higher quality. During and after the year 1994, Mercedes Benz considered a successful company in producing compact city cars and in-expensive A-class range cars.

Products/Services offered

Mercedes Benz has different products and services that associated with features that make it special, different and distinct from others. 

Products: 

“Sedans & Coupes: 

· C-Class Sedan: 

201 Horsepower, 21/31 MPG (city/hwy), 1.8L Turbo-4 Engine” (Mercedes-Benz Showroom, 2011) 

“The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is a compact executive car produced by the Mercedes-Benz division of Daimler AG. First introduced in 1993 as a replacement for the 190range (W201, also nicknamed “Baby-Benz”), the C-Class was the smallest model in the marque's lineup until the 1997 arrival of the A-Class” (Mercedes-Benz, 2011). 

SUVs: 

· GLK-Class SUV: 

“268 Horsepower, 3500 lbs‡ Towing Capacity (max), 3.5L V6 Engine” (Mercedes-Benz Showroom, 2011), “Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class a compact luxury crossover released as a 2009 model elsewhere. The GLK-Class was launched in 2008 and is built in Bremen (Germany), the first Mercedes SUV to be built there. Its design is heavily influenced by the C-Class” (Mercedes-Benz, 2011). 

Services: 

Dealer financing: 

· Vehicle Inventory Financing 

“Known in the automotive industry as "floor planning," this allows dealers to finance their inventory of new or used vehicles until the vehicles can be sold to customers. 

Consumer programs: 

· Retail financing: 

For customers who prefer traditional vehicle ownership, they provide a variety of financing plans that allow them to purchase new or used vehicles at competitive rates. Retail financing can be arranged easily and quickly through the selling Mercedes-Benz dealership” (Mercedes-Benz, 2011).

Size of the company

Mercedes Benz is a German company that manufactures vehicles and it is popular around the world. It run its business and has various factories in different places in the world. Along with its native Germany, Mercedes-Benz vehicles are also produced or manufacture in various countries.

Location of Mercedes-Benz manufacturer

The earliest Mercedes-Benz cars manufacturer came from the Stuttgart area of Germany in a town called Sindelfingen, where the central offices are still located today. Moreover Mercedes-Benz vehicles are also manufactured in a lot of country like : like “Argentina (buses, trucks and the Sprinter van. The first Mercedes-Benz factory outside of Germany) 

- Austria (G-Class) 

- Bosnia and Herzegovina 

- Brazil, Manufacture the trucks, buses and the C-Class. Established in 1956. The A-Class (W168) was produced from 1999 to 2005 as well. 

- Canada 

- Egypt via Egyptian German Automotive Company 

- Hungary (construction of a new plant in the country announced on 18 June 2008, for the next generation A- and B-Class) 

- India 

- Indonesia 

- Iran (Not since 2010) 

- Malaysia 

- Mexico 

- Nigeria (buses, trucks, utility motors and the Sprinter van) 

- Philippines” (Mercedes-Benz, 2011)

Suppliers/Partner demographics of Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes-Benz had maintained a reputation for its quality and durability by make excellent business relationship with Supplier Company’s .Benz has many suppliers. This table shows the suppliers companies and what they produce: 

Benz tried to identify or develop a "core competence," a unique combination of experience and expertise that would provide a source of competitive advantage in a given industry. Because it's easier and cheaper to use a specialist with more experience and better products. The company will either buy off-the-shelf components built by the suppliers or they will go to the supplier, specify what they're looking for, and the supplier will make a part according to the manufacturer's specifications.

Customer base of Mercedes-Benz

Every company have a customer base that is defined as a group of customers that generally form the prime source of consumer spending and it's an important factor that companies take in consideration when they run their businesses. It is actually regarded as a business’s target market and they specifically study the customer behaviors, responses by using tools like market research, past experience. Any action or step the company take or undertaken will be fully dependable on its customer base. The name of Mercedes-Benz is an Appropriate expression that will give a chance for people to express their imagination about luxury in their mind. From our point of view, people are naturally attracted by the luxury. This specific thing make the company obligated to make or to implement some restriction on Releasing “ low-end car under Mercedes-Benz brand in America” (Mercedes Benz Brand Attitude, 2011).But considering the remaining parts on the world Mercedes-Benz has widely expand its customer base by releasing cars that particularly are comparative and cheap under its brand name. 

The dealer of Mercedes-Benz say that prime standards of Mercedes-Benz brand including the luxury, quality and the other things it does. New country Motor cars achieved success in its business by its ability to exceed the expectation of customers through its Mercedes-Benz dealer ,the ability to make incredible service for new cars that didn't used yet and for the cars that already used in Mercedes-Benz sales, leases and service Available. According to all these facts Mercedes-Benz have a great ability to make its customer satisfied over any automobile brand. This is supported by an Extensive survey done through the world-famous “J.D. Power and Associates Index on the satisfaction of car buyers” (JClark, 2010). Mercedes-Benz ranked the first place over the other car brands in this study. 

In the end we see that Mercedes enjoy a high level of customer base, superior quality and have international brand recognition. This makes the company able to think that if it catches the Mercedes customer earlier. As a result, it will able to retain its customer for the rest of the life.

Size of different information system(s): Departmental/Organizational/Inter- organizational

Mercedes-Benz Company use the three categories of the information system the Departmental information system which connect between the different department of the Mercedes-Benz Company like the supply department ,human resources department and finance and accounting department also all other department its Combine all under the enterprise resources planning system (ERP) which include all internal and external management information across an entire organization and it work to make the business and planning inside the organization become easier and more efficient using the network that make the flow of information inside the company more effective , and make working with business activity more faster and reliable because the operating works at the real time like for example dealing with customer car order , also bill of the material used of producing the cars ,supply chain planning and the company receivable . Whereas for Organizational information system the company use a lot of information system like the Decision Support Systems (DSS) this system use to support the organizational Decision making and using the what if analysis for future planning, moreover the Mercedes company use the Office Automation Systems (OAS) to support the data workers who share information by using different software like spreadsheets, desktop publishing, communication through voice mail, email, teleconferencing. Finally the Inter- organizational system for Mercedes its system allows the flow of information to be controlled by more than one organization in order to reach a desired supply-chain management system and to have more advantages of having exchange of technologies between organizations, Mercedes did that by having the IPhone Interface Plus information system that enable Mercedes company to using Smartphone’s as a media Center once the iPhone connect to the vehicle electronics it well become easy to use the hardware controls , and it become easy to larger the display on the vehicle’s dashboard to control and view content while driving and enjoy iphone feature. ,The Mercedes-Benz app have been designed specifically for the in-car use, making it easy to interact with social networks like email, GPS services, Twitter, and Face book , furthermore its use to Tracking the service progress of your vehicle and any problem the system find in the car for faster checking of any errors face the car and this provide better service for the Mercedes –Benz customers . 

Type of different information system(s): TPS, MIS, DSS, EIS

Information system (IS) is a term used to describe the interaction between people, processes, data, and technology to achieve organization goal also its way in which people interact with this technology to support business processes , (IS) is categorized in different parts like TPS, MIS ,DSS . Mr. Mohammed Sayed the Administration Supervisor of Eastern Motors At Emirates Motor company explain for us the different kind of information system used on the Emirates Motor company the owner of Mercedes Benz company on UAE and he said that “At Emirates Motor company, we use different type of system to improve business efficiency, productivity and customer satisfaction” (Mr. Mohammed Sayed,2011).the TPS is used to do routine and they process large amount of data among the automobile activity and they work under the operational level on the company ,like the Payroll Processing and inventory management, will both MIS and DSS work under the Higher Level the MIS worker Supports a broad spectrum of organizational tasks including decision analysis and decision making like expenses vs. budgets , DSS works on making decisions like for example financial planning with what-if analysis, budgeting with modeling , The dealer Management system “Auto line” is considered as a tailored made ERP system; with a strong integration and support for CRM module/function to inculcate the culture of Customer Relationship Management. They also use DSS system that is integrated with BI (Business Intelligence) system to provide visibility on MIS, Business Performance Management (BPM) and planning process.

Type of data

Data is the raw material such as (alphabets, numbers, or symbols) and description of activities, and transactions that are recorded, classified, and stored and needs to be processed to obtain meaningful value, in Mercedes there is a huge data inter the company in it’s basically divided into numerical data such as new and current model code , engine power, VIN numbers of the cars entering the warehouse ,customer database and qualitative data like color data , type data , customer data ,model data. this data are gather from a lot of resources like Questionnaire , Interview and Observation . after data being collect the role of storage appear and this happen by organizing the date and store them in file and specially electronic file which make it easy to use the data and protected and make buck up copies, Mercedes believe that data is the base of the company and they concern in protecting the data to make them able to use them in future also because the process of gathering data is more complex than its appear for people and it cost the company time and many to gather it.

Type of information

Mercedes-Benz information is the data that have been organized, classified and processed so that it has meaning, after that data being manipulated and processed into information using software’s like the spreadsheet, statistical process control and electronic scheduling. in Mercedes the process of converting the data into information is by coupling the data with the type of car, production year, and color of the car and then the Meaningless data become meaningful, the systems analysts can use the information in two main role first they send the information into the manger and he use the information they get form the data that been gather and processed like new car model to make Decision and to make planning with the financial manger , and the second way is to use this information and processed it into knowledge . 

Type of knowledge

“Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, expert insight and grounded intuition that provides an environment and framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knower’s. In organizations it often becomes embedded not only in documents and repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices and norms.” (DIKW Hierarchy, 2011 December 15) As mention above in Mercedes the systems analysts can use this information and processed it into knowledge and the knowledge accumulated learning and expertise when they are applied for any problem like for example the number of buyer of Cls 65 model to another model like G55 model this can provide the CEO with knowledge of the buyer demand of the Mercedes models, furthermore this can provide the CEO with knowledge the current stock of cars and the current demand and when a new stock will be required knowledge consider as an important resources for the enterprise and it needs to be managed correctly.

How information systems are helping the company

IS can support the business process and operations in a lot of industries it also helps manager to hold their daily activities and functions properly moreover it helps on support decision making, Information Systems play a crucial role in the decision making process by a combination of decision support systems and expert systems. This has got a competitive advantage in today’s market by keeping real time information at the fingertips which is crucial to fight competition. Secondly reviewing customer spending pattern has created new avenues in which they have been doing business. In short it is the customer who drives the actual demand that is created in the market. Any firm striving to meet this demand will gain an edge over others in this industry. “We have realized how important data accuracy and consistency is and have developed company systems and data architectures to reduce daily errors and capture relevant information very quickly and efficiently” (Mr. Mohammed Sayed, 2011). 

During the initial days, complexity in running networked computers had limitations like having access to real time information was a luxury and involved many lengthy process. With the computing power scaled down to cost effective solutions as well as mobile platforms, “Mercedes Benz has been able to achieve breakthrough in information systems like for example: IPhone application provides the customer a comprehensive lookup on the latest models of new/used cars as well as other detailed information in addition to gathering interested leads” (Mr. Mohammed Sayed,2011) IS bringing a lot of advantages for the Mercedes Benz Company because it develops the company systems and their data to reduce daily errors and to get relevant information very quickly and more efficiently.

How is data being converted to: Information, and then knowledge?

Date is the raw fact that it don’t have meaning it convert into information by organize the data so that they have meaning and value to the receiver , then the Information that has been organized and processed to transmit understanding, experience and expertise are apply to a current problem or activity , each company have different type of data , information and knowledge , also Mercedes Benz Company have their data , information and knowledge on Mercedes company The base line of sensible data is the ability to capture meaningful piece of information at the source. Data is classified to a user based on his roles and responsibilities and captured during the transaction process. This information is consolidated into two main categories – finance related and operations related. The Business Manager will be interested in both the financial aspects as well as the operations statistics primarily to understand the demand and supply capabilities and he is able to meet them. The operations manager whose focus is only on the floor will be interested only in the transactional achievements as well as statistics. “The authority matrix helps us in determining who would be interested in which kind of reports as well as their roles. Providing a secure and credible piece of information to the right user is the greater function of the IT. Consolidated dashboards are also provided to the Steering committee to meet questions like what If analysis” (Mr. Mohammed Sayed, 2011).

How is the information system reducing time/cost/errors.

IS bring a lot of value to the Mercedes Benz Company As mentioned earlier this happen by Applying the IS to reduce a lot of disadvantages and the error that may face the company, Mrs Mohammed Sayed the Administration Supervisor of Eastern Motors At Emirates Motor company describe some of the advantages that the company gain from using IS and how the cost and error been reduce for the benefit of the company, As mentioned earlier, the importance of an accurate and relevant piece of information is very crucial in achieving this business. during the age old days when data was captured on paper and then converted to information format – which gave a reasonably good chance of error. In order to overcome this, functions are completely automated – like for example: the Oil Dispensing Unit – during manual capture, there were chances of wastage as well as discrepancy in the data captured as well as the actual oil utilized. ” By integrating this to our Information Systems Backbone, efficiency of 99% was achieved and the chance of wastage and error was greatly reduced” (Mr. Mohammed Sayed, 2011). 

The other significant breakthrough which brings Emirates Motor Company as one of the most advanced dealership in the Middle East is the RFID Vehicle tracking System. When a vehicle drives into the facility, it took very long time to track the actual vehicle which decreased productivity. But after implementing this system, online real time vehicle tracking was achieved with increase in technician productivity Mercedes Benz Company get significant advantages from the IS as Mr. Mohammed Sayed mention they reduce the cost of the oil wastage as well they track the real time online using the RFID Vehicle tracking System which make their productivity increase .

What you like/do-not-like about the company’s use of information systems.

Information system in each company helps to provide the best information for their user who needs to do their task and works more effectively and easily .for the Mercedes company the use of the information system is Extremely important because the information system open the business for them to be more effective and it solve the problem that accrue at any business specially the automobile business because of the constant competition between the company’s and the constant Development of new information system that make each company want to own it , The benefits of an information system happen when the company train their employee for the new information system they want to implement to make sure that their employee can quickly access, understand and respond correctly to that new system , because there is Money at stake and also Reputation depend on the information system . so that we can say that the benefit of the information system Summarized on the making the communication between the departments easy and reduce the boundaries using the ERP system which connect in Mercedes all the different department on different place like for example its making it easy to connect with the production department and warehouse to inform the production department of the Stock status, which helps on making decision and future planning also reducing the cost. 

On the other hand there is some Disadvantages of using the different information systems , one of the disadvantages is the cost of implementing and upgrading the system also the security of the information system is really important moreover their Might get problems of using different information system and making it hard to mange for all of them which cause unreliable data source and this need for good management and high quality IT and IS experts , which they cost the company high for their salary and that’s lead us for the first point the cost , which consider as the primary disadvantages of using and implementing the information system . 

In future the information systems will enhanced to be more beneficial by constant development and by using the right information system in the right place, also using the right information system to solve the problem facing the company like oil wastage for example that use to face Mercedes and they fix it by implementing the oil information system which make them reduce the problem by 99%.

Any other issues you think are interesting/important.

Each company has their concern and problem that solve with time and financial contribution, and constant seeking of better information system and new knowledge, Mercedes also aims to add new information system to their company and their product they aim to add new cars repair information system which help the company information about any cars that have technical problem, also there is new Blind Spot Information System (BLIS), cross-traffic alert warns the driver of impending traffic.Whereas for the company Mercedes well add new warehouse information system for immediate stock checking and stock availability.