Management Information System in

Essential
Drugs
Company
Limited

i 
 
Management Information System in
Essential Drugs Company
Limited

Prepared For
Dr. B M Mainul Hossain, Associate Professor
IIT, University of Dhaka
Course Instructor, Management Information System

Prepared By
Group 04 (MBA 58D)
Raihan Ul Islam Shezan Roll – 11
Olid Bin Islam Roll – 20
Abir Mohammad Roll – 23
Md. Mubassir Rahman Roll – 37

15 November, 2018
Institute of Business Administration
University of Dhaka

ii 
 
 Letter of Transmittal

November 15, 2018

Dr. B. M. Mainul Hossain
Associate Professor
Institute of Information Technology (IIT)
University of Dhaka

Subject: Submission of Term Paper on MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM IN

ESSENTIAL DRUGS COMPANY LIMITED

Dear Sir,
It gives us an immense pleasure in presenting this term paper, which was assigned to us in the
Management Information System course. In this paper, we have tried our level best to present
a detailed outcome of the management information system of Essential Drugs Company
Limited, which is the only government pharmaceutical company of Bangladesh.
We consider ourselves very privileged to prepare this paper under your guidance. This has been
an enormous opportunity for us to learn about how the management information system helps
to synthesize and process the large amount of data generated by a pharmaceutical company,
and how this processed data helps in planning activities, estimating demand, allocating
resources, and monitoring and evaluating pharmaceutical management operations. It has
provided us with a great scope of applying the gathered knowledge in the practical field. We
must mention here that we are extremely thankful to you for your valuable guidance, tiresome
effort and constant attention whenever required.
We will be pleased to answer any sort of query you think is necessary, as now and when needed.
Thank you.
Sincerely yours,
1. Raihan Ul Islam Shezan, ID: 011 (58D)
2. Olid Bin Islam, ID: 020 (58D)
3. Abir Mohammad, ID: 023 (58D)
4. Mubassir Rahman, ID: 037 (58D)

iii 
 
 Acknowledgement

In the process of conducting our term paper, it became quite clear to us that anyone can hardly
complete a paper alone. Some people and institutions deserve thanks and appreciation for their
valued contribution. As the list of individuals and institutions we wish to thank all but it cannot
be accommodated in this limited space, we therefore would like to thank some specific ones
for their dedicated support.

First, we must express my gratitude to The Almighty Allah. Without His grace, we could have
never finished the term paper.

Then we must thank Mr. B. M. Mainul Hossain, our faculty, who helped us to choose a brand
that was of interest. His guidance in helping us to separate the important and necessary details
from the unnecessary certainly helped us to stay on the correct track.

Our special gratitude goes out to A.R.M. Hassan, Head of IT Department & Senior
Programmer, Essential Drugs Company Limited, for his immense pleasure and valuable
feedbacks.

Finally, we like to say that, we have prepared this report with our own effort. We are ready to
accept our unwilling errors and omission which belong to us.

iv 
 
 Table of Contents

Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................... vi 
Chapter 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1  
1.1 Management Information System ................................................................................................. 1 
1.2 The need for MIS .......................................................................................................................... 1 
1.3 Pharmaceutical Industry in Bangladesh: ....................................................................................... 2 
1.4 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical local market: .................................................................................... 2 
1.5 Pharmaceutical companies and MIS ............................................................................................. 3 
Chapter 2. EDCL Overview .................................................................................................................... 5 
2.1 History........................................................................................................................................... 5 
2.2 Objectives of EDCL ...................................................................................................................... 5 
2.3 Manufacturing Plants .................................................................................................................... 5 
2.4 Mission & Vision .......................................................................................................................... 6 
2.5 Goals ............................................................................................................................................. 6 
2.6 Organization Chart ........................................................................................................................ 7 
Chapter 3. MIS Around the World .......................................................................................................... 9 
3.1 History of MIS .............................................................................................................................. 9 
3.2 The Need for MIS in Today’s World .......................................................................................... 10 
3.3 MIS & Business Processes .......................................................................................................... 12 
3.4 Security issues of MIS ................................................................................................................ 15 
Chapter 4. Information System in EDCL .............................................................................................. 17 
4.1 Overview of MIS in EDCL ......................................................................................................... 17 
4.2 Human Resource ......................................................................................................................... 18 
4.3 Inventory Management, Planning and Production ...................................................................... 19 
4.4 Accounts ..................................................................................................................................... 21 
4.5 Top and Mid-level decision making ........................................................................................... 22 
4.6 Implementing MIS ...................................................................................................................... 24 
Chapter 5. Security ................................................................................................................................ 25 
5.1 MIS Security ............................................................................................................................... 25 
5.2 Physical Security ......................................................................................................................... 27 
Chapter 6. Competitive Advantage Analysis ........................................................................................ 30 
Chapter 7. Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 34 
Chapter 8. Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 38 
Chapter 9. References ........................................................................................................................... 39 
Chapter 10. Answer index for Questionnaire ........................................................................................ 40 

v 
 
 Executive Summary

Bangladesh has been shifting its focus from being an agricultural country to an industry based
country. The pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh is one of the most developed technology
sectors within Bangladesh. Pharmaceutical companies are expanding their business with the
aim to expand the export market. Among the various pharmaceutical companies of our country,
Essential Drugs Company Limited (EDCL) is a special one, as it is the only state owned
pharmaceutical company, established to produce all types of essential and lifesaving drugs and
supply it to the government owned hospitals and medical centers.

This report is contemplation on the information system of EDCL and the empirical
investigation on the overall condition of use of information system of the pharmaceutical
industry around the country. EDCL has used their information system on nine of their modules,
where mainly sales, purchase, HRM, inventory and accounts are the mostly developed. We
have also found out that EDCL employs password protected access, limited data access, data
backup as security protocols, alongside physical security equipment such as CCTV camera and
fingerprint access to maintain security to protect their information.

The research methodology used is mainly qualitative, as we have done discussions with the
head of IT department and top level management to understand how management information
system is shaping up the company strategy and objectives, and what the future potential of
growth of this information system within the company is. We mainly enquired using the
questionnaire provided by our dear sir to perceive a clear look on EDCL, and then used the
enquiry of our peers on other pharmaceutical companies to gain knowledge on competitive
advantages EDCL possesses due to their management information system.

vi 
 
 Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 Management Information System

Management information system, or MIS, broadly refers to a computer-based system that
provides managers with the tools to organize, evaluate and efficiently manage departments
within an organization. In order to provide past, present and prediction information, a
management information system can include software that helps in decision making, data
resources such as databases, the hardware resources of a system, decision support systems,
people management and project management applications, and any computerized processes
that enable the department to run efficiently. MIS is very important in operation, innovation,
competitive advantage etc.

1.2 The need for MIS

Information system and Information technology have become a vital component of any
successful business and are regarded as major functional areas just like any other functional
area of a business organization like marketing, finance, production and HR. Thus it is important
to understand the area of information system just like any other functional area in the business.
MIS is important because all businesses have a need for information about the tasks which are
to be performed. Information and technology is used as a tool for solving problems and
providing opportunities for increasing productivity and quality.

Information has always been important but it has never been so available, so current and so
overwhelming. Efforts have been made for collection and retrieval of information, however,
challenges still remain in the selection analysis and interpretation of the information that will
further improve decision making and productivity. MIS is necessary for following reasons:

To Support the Business Process: Treats inputs as a request from the customer and outputs as
services to customer. Supports current operations and use the system to influence further way
of working.

To Support Operation of a Business Organization: MIS supports operations of a business

organization by giving timely information, maintenance and enhancement which provides
flexibility in the operation of an organizations.

To Support Decision Making: MIS supports the decision making by employee in their daily
operations. MIS also supports managers in decision making to meet the goals and objectives
of the organization. Different mathematical models and IT tools are used for the purpose
evolving strategies to meet competitive needs.

1 
 
Strategies for an Organization: Today each business is running in a competitive market. MIS
supports the organization to evolve appropriate strategies for the business to assent in a
competitive environment.

1.3 Pharmaceutical Industry in Bangladesh:

The pharmaceutical industry in Bangladesh is one of the most developed hi-tech sectors within
the country's economy. In 2000, there were 210 licensed allopathic drug-manufacturing units
in the country, out of which only 173 were in active production; others were either closed down
on their own or suspended by the licensing authority for drugs due to non-compliance to good
manufacturing practices or drug laws. Now about 300 pharmaceutical companies are operating
at the moment. The industry manufactured about 5,600 brands of medicines in different dosage
forms. There were, however, 1,495 wholesale drug license holders and about 37,700 retail drug
license holders in Bangladesh.

After the promulgation of Drug Control Ordinance - 1982, the development of this sector was
accelerated. The professional knowledge, thoughts and innovative ideas of the pharmaceutical
professionals working in this sector are the key factors for this development. Due to recent
development of this sector, the industry is exporting medicines to global markets, including the
European market. This sector is also providing 97% of the total medicine requirement of the
local market. Some of the companies produce insulin, hormones, and anticancer drugs, which
were not previously produced in Bangladesh. Leading pharmaceutical companies are
expanding their business with the aim to expand into the export market. Recently, a few new
industries have been established with high tech equipment and professionals to enhance the
strength of this sector.

1.4 Bangladesh Pharmaceutical local market:

The Bangladesh pharmaceutical marketplace is predominantly a branded generic marketplace.
Pharmaceutical firms in Bangladesh can either sell to the private sector pharmacies, to the
government and its public health care facilities, or to international organizations operating in
Bangladesh (e.g. UNICEF).
Bangladesh pharmaceutical industry is mainly dominated by domestic manufacturers. Of the
total pharmaceutical market of Bangladesh, the local companies are enjoying a market share
reaching around 97%, while the MNCs are having a poor market share. Out of the top ten
pharmaceutical companies in Bangladesh, all are local pharmaceutical companies. The top two
domestic manufacturers, namely Square and Incepta Pharma are having a combined market
share of more than 30% of the total pharmaceutical market of the country.
Bangladesh Association of Pharmaceutical Industries (BAPI) was instituted in 1972, since then
BAPI playing a pivotal role in shaping up the industry. Association's member include large,

2 
 
medium, small, national and foreign companies who together are responsible for manufacturing
97% of the country's pharmaceutical production.

Here are the names of the pharmaceutical companies of Bangladesh:

 Incepta Pharmaceuticals  Globe Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 Square Pharmaceuticals  BIOPHARMA Ltd
 Beximco Pharmaceuticals  Roche Bangladesh Ltd
 Opsonin Pharma  Radiant Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 Renata  Pacific Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 Eskayef Bangladesh  Jayson Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 ACI  BEACON Pharmaceutical Limited
 Acme Pharmaceutical  Social Marketing Company (SMC)
 Aristopharma  Orion Infusion Ltd
 Drug International  Kemiko Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 Sanofi-Aventis Bangladesh Ltd  NAVANA Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 GlaxoSmithKline(GSK) Bangladesh  Delta Pharma Ltd
Limited  Servier Bangladesh
 Orion Pharma Ltd  SOMATEC Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 Novo Nordisk  Rangs Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 Healthcare Pharmaceuticals Limited  Libra Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 General Pharmaceuticals Ltd  ALCO Pharma Ltd
 Sandoz (generic pharmaceuticals  Apex Pharma Ltd
division of Novartis)  Pharmadesh Laboratories Ltd
 Popular Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (PPL)  Silva Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 Novartis (Bangladesh) Limited  Medimpex Bangladesh
 IBN SINA Pharmaceutical  Edruc Limited
Industry Ltd. (IPI)  Ziska Pharmaceuticals Ltd
 Nuvista Pharma Limited  White Horse Pharmaceuticals
 UniMed UniHealth Pharma Ltd  RAK Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd
 Sun Pharmaceutical (Bangladesh)  Asiatic Laboratories Ltd
Ltd

1.5 Pharmaceutical companies and MIS

In any business organization management information system is very important. In Bangladesh
the pharmaceutical industry is very developed. So MIS is of prime importance here. In order
to have effective and efficient operation, MIS is a must for any company. MIS provides
competitive advantage also. So it is desirable for any company which wants to become market
leader.

In Bangladesh as the pharmaceutical companies have high growth rate, they have incorporated
MIS system strongly. All standard pharmaceutical companies have implemented MIS to all of
their departments. From production to sales in all activities MIS has been incorporated. As

3 
 
there are so many pharmaceutical companies competitive advantage is an issue. Drug
manufacturing is very costly as precision is vital here. And all the companies produce same
types of drugs. So cost leadership strategy is only strategy to go for in the pharmaceutical
company, as there is no scope for differential strategy. So expense minimization is important
for the companies. If heavy MIS is incorporated, it tremendously increases company efficiency
and cut expenses. For this reason, these companies are giving heavy importance to MIS.

Some important features of MIS in these Pharmaceutical companies are:

 Enterprise Resource Planning.

 Decision Support System.
 Executive Support System.
 Cloud System.
 Intranet and Extranet. etc.

4 
 
 Chapter 2. EDCL Overview

2.1 History
Essential Drugs Company Limited is a state owned pharmaceutical company based in Dhaka,
Bangladesh. It functions under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.
The company was founded in 1962 as the Government Pharmaceuticals Laboratory under the
national government of Pakistan. In 1979 the company was renamed to Pharmaceuticals
Production Unit. In the interest of Public Health & smooth running of the organization, it was
registered as a Public Limited Company under the Company’s Act-1994. Essential Drugs
Company was established in 1983. With the main objective of setting up an advanced
pharmaceuticals industry in the Country for the local production of medicines and to supply
these products inside the Country for public health and for Export.

2.2 Objectives of EDCL

The main objectives of EDCL are as follows:
a) To produce all types of essential and lifesaving drugs as per Government demand to
strengthen the health services to the people s of the country by the Govt. of Bangladesh.
b) To produce contraceptive pills and inject able products to support Government's Family
planning Programmed and to save hard earning foreign currency.
c) To produce quality drugs by implementing modern technology.
d) To achieve approval on Current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) from world famous
organization like WHO, UNICEF, MHRA, EMEA on producing medicine.
e) To earn foreign money by exporting medicine.
f) To establish actual price of medicine by producing and supplying all modern Medicine of
Govt.

2.3 Manufacturing Plants

EDCL has four manufacturing plants in operation. One of them is for medical device
manufacturing (condom) which is situated in Khulna, and another one is for field latex
processing which is in Modhupur of Tangail. On the other hand, the other two plants are
equipped with modern manufacturing, quality control and quality assurance facilities. One is
established in Tejgaon Industrial Area of the capital city Dhaka and another one is at Bogra
which is in the northern part of Bangladesh. In the Dhaka Plant, all type of dosage forms i.e.
solid, liquid, sterile both SVP & LVP powder for solution, ointment and cream are produced.
In the Bogra Plant however, only the solid dosage forms are produced.
5 
 
EDCL has plans for three more manufacturing plants in near future. The establishment of
Cephalosporin Plant at Bogra will be completed within short time and production will be
started within short possible time. A formulation/Basic Bulk Drugs Project at Tongi Industrial
Area, Gazipur is under process. The proposed Essential Drugs Co. Ltd. (3rd Plant), Gopalganj
will consist of a new manufacturing unit of Oral Contraceptive Pills and Injectable products, a
manufacturing unit of I.V Fluid and a manufacturing unit of Penicillin Production. The
proposed Project will adequately support in the existing Family Planning Programmed in the
country. EDCL also has plans to shift the present Dhaka Plant to Gazipur Industrial Area with
the concept of latest art of pharmaceutical technology.

In all the plants, the production area is serviced with Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning
(HVAC) system comprising of multiple Air Handling Units (AHU) that virtually divides the
production area in different zones to effectively implement the latest concept of cGMP. All
production activities including primary packaging are operated in the controlled area where as
operations like secondary packaging are conducted in the optical clean area. To avoid cross
contamination, active ventilation and negative pressure are maintained in all the rooms.
Sophisticated automatic purified water & WFI plant of European origin ensure high quality
BP/UPS standard purified water and WFI. Captive electricity generation is available to
guarantee uninterrupted power supply to the plant.

2.4 Mission & Vision

EDCL envisages to rank among the top performers locally & strengthen its network of global
operations to export. Its mission is to commit to provide high quality pharmaceuticals products
of international standards that earn the confident of the nation through internal development
and strategic alliances to benefit its employees, the society and the nation as a whole. Finally,
the Company wants to improve the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel
better and live longer.

2.5 Goals
To attain maximum efficiency, the company has some goals set for them.

Employees Empowerment & Development

EDCL acknowledges its employees and their role in accomplishing its goal and in its growth,
therefore, it is committed to recruit and appoint individuals as per Service Rules, Recruitment,
Promotion Criteria and Revised Organogram with high qualifications. It is committed to
motivate and train its staff to improve their knowledge, skills, and abilities and empower them

6 
 
to provide outstanding services to the Company and the nation. In return, it expects employees
to perform effectively with outstanding professionalism and loyalty for the betterment of the
company and the national health.

Customer Satisfaction
EDCL values customers and cares for their needs, therefore, it is committed to work with its
customers directly to understand consumers’ needs and requirements. Customer satisfaction is
one of its top priorities.

Continuous Quality Improvement

EDCL believes in its responsibilities towards patients, health care providers, and the society
where it operates. It is committed to apply highest quality standards on its products during all
phases of development, production, warehousing, and marketing and always takes initiative to
exceed the standards.

Team Spirit
EDCL realizes the importance of teamwork for the growth of the company. It works
continuously to improve organizational performances. EDCL's strategy was based on
developing business relationship with most of the existing players in the pharmaceuticals
market. This is aimed at capitalizing their strengths, and specialization.

Distribution
EDCL caters the requirement of even remote areas very effectively through Govt. Hospitals,
Civil Surgeon offices and Community Clinics.

2.6 Organization Chart

There are 2767 employees of Essential Drugs Company Limited working in Bangladesh. The
total number of the employees in all the plants are shown below:

ELPP,
EDCL Dhaka EDCL Bogra KELP Khulna
Modhupur
Plant Plant Plant Total
Plant

1583 619 479 86 2767

7 
 
 Figure: Official Organogram of EDCL

8 
 
 Chapter 3. MIS Around the World

A management information system (MIS) is an information system used for decision-making,

and for the coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of information in an organization;
especially in a company. It is the use of information technology, people, and business processes
to record, store and process data to produce information that decision makers can use to make
day to day decisions. In a nutshell, MIS is a collection of systems, hardware, procedures and
people that all work together to process, store, and produce information that is useful to the
organization.

3.1 History of MIS

While it can be contested that the history of management information systems date as far back
as companies using ledgers to keep track of accounting, the modern history of MIS can be
divided into five eras originally identified by Kenneth C. Laudon and Jane Laudon in their
seminal textbook Management Information Systems.
First Era Mainframe and minicomputer computing

Second Era Personal computers

Third Era Client/server networks

Fourth Era Enterprise computing

Fifth Era Cloud computing

The first era (mainframe and minicomputer computing) was ruled by IBM and their mainframe
computers for which they supplied both the hardware and software. These computers would
often take up whole rooms and require teams to run them. As technology advanced, these
computers were able to handle greater capacities and therefore reduce their cost. Smaller, more
affordable minicomputers allowed larger businesses to run their own computing centers in-
house / on-site / on-premises.

The second era (personal computers) began in 1965 as microprocessors started to compete with
mainframes and minicomputers and accelerated the process of decentralizing computing power
from large data centers to smaller offices. In the late 1970s, minicomputer technology gave
way to personal computers and relatively low-cost computers were becoming mass market
commodities, allowing businesses to provide their employees access to computing power that
ten years before would have cost tens of thousands of dollars. This proliferation of computers
created a ready market for interconnecting networks and the popularization of the Internet.

9 
 
(The first microprocessor — a four-bit device intended for a programmable calculator — was
introduced in 1971 and microprocessor-based systems were not readily available for several
years. The MITS Altair 8800 was the first commonly known microprocessor-based system,
followed closely by the Apple I and II. It is arguable that the microprocessor-based system did
not make significant inroads into minicomputer use until 1979, when VisiCalc prompted record
sales of the Apple II on which it ran. The IBM PC introduced in 1981 was more broadly
palatable to business, but its limitations gated its ability to challenge minicomputer systems
until perhaps the late 1980s to early 1990s.)

The third era (client/server networks) arose as technological complexity increased, costs
decreased, and the end-user (now the ordinary employee) required a system to share
information with other employees within an enterprise. Computers on a common network
shared information on a server. This lets thousands and even millions of people access data
simultaneously on networks referred to as Intranets.

The fourth era (enterprise computing) enabled by high speed networks, consolidated the
original department specific software applications into integrated software platforms referred
to as enterprise software. This new platform tied all aspects of the business enterprise together
offering rich information access encompassing the complete management structure.

The fifth era (cloud computing) is the latest and employs networking technology to deliver
applications as well as data storage independent of the configuration, location, or nature of the
hardware. This, along with high speed cellphone and Wi-Fi networks, has led to new levels of
mobility in which managers may access the MIS remotely with laptops, tablet computers and
smartphones.

3.2 The Need for MIS in Today’s World

Changes in technology and new, innovative business models have transformed social life and
business practices. Some 2.8 billion people worldwide have smartphones (50 percent of the
world’s population), and an estimated 1.26 billion use their smartphones for Internet access.
An estimated 2.34 billion people now use social networks, with Facebook accounting for 1.7
billion people alone. Messaging services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Twitter
collectively have over 2 billion monthly users. Smartphones, social networking, texting, e-
mailing, and webinars have all become essential tools of business because that’s where your
customers, suppliers, and colleagues can be found.

10 
 
 Figure: Expansion of Global Investment in Information Technology

With such a huge growth of information technology, management information system has
become incredibly essential for conducting day-to-day business in most advanced countries as
well as achieving strategic business objectives. The following are some of the justifications for
having an MIS system implemented in a firm/organization:

Operational Excellence
Businesses continuously seek to improve the efficiency of their operations in order to achieve
higher profitability. Information systems and technologies are some of the most important tools
available to managers for achieving higher levels of efficiency and productivity in business
operations, especially when coupled with changes in business practices and management
behavior.

New Products, Services, and Business Models

Information systems and technologies are a major enabling tool for firms to create new
products and services as well as entirely new business models. A business model describes how
a company produces, delivers, and sells a product or service to create wealth. Today’s music
industry is vastly different from the industry a decade ago.

Customer and Supplier Intimacy

When a business really knows its customers and serves them well, the customers generally
respond by returning and purchasing more. This raises revenues and profits. Likewise, with
suppliers, the more a business engages its suppliers, the better the suppliers can provide vital
inputs. This lowers costs. How to really know the customers or suppliers is a central problem
for businesses with millions of offline and online customers.

11 
 
Improved Decision Making
MIS IN PROJECT 
Many business managers operate in an information fog bank, never MANAGEMENT 
really having the right information at the right time to make an informed
decision. Instead, managers rely on forecasts, best guesses, and luck. In
the past decade, information systems and technologies have made it 1. Project management
possible for managers to use real-time data from the marketplace when information systems
making decisions. improve collaboration.
This reduces the
incidence of delays and
Competitive Advantage unnecessary costs by
promoting a more
When firms achieve one or more of these business objectives—
cohesive plan to
operational excellence; new products, services, and business models;
complete a project.
customer/supplier intimacy; and improved decision making—chances
are they have already achieved a competitive advantage. Doing things 2. Project management
better than your competitors, charging less for superior products, and information systems
responding to customers and suppliers in real time all add up to higher enable agile process.
sales and higher profits that your competitors cannot match. Project team members
will be better prepared to
manage risk and change
Survival plans to keep the project
from failing.
Business firms also invest in information systems and technologies
because they are necessities of doing business. Sometimes these 3. Dedicated MIS in
“necessities” are driven by industry-level changes. Today, most national project management can
banks in the world have ATMs and link to national and international help the team to stay on
ATM networks, such as CIRRUS. Providing ATM services to retail schedule. It can enable
banking customers is simply a requirement of being in and surviving in the project leader to tract
the retail banking business. Firms turn to information systems and the project in detail. The
technologies to provide the capability to respond to these record project members can
management requirements. report real-time insights
through project dash
boarding tools, which
3.3 MIS & Business Processes enhance communication
and saves time. By saving
Business processes also refer to the unique ways in which organizations
time, the project team can
coordinate work, information, and knowledge and the ways in which
focus their attention onto
management chooses to coordinate work. Every business can be seen as
more crucial activities.
a collection of business processes, some of which are part of larger
encompassing processes. Other business processes cross many different  
functional areas and require coordination across departments. For
instance, consider the seemingly simple Business process of fulfilling a
customer order.

12 
 
 Fig: The Order Fulfillment Process

Initially, the sales department receives a sales order. The order passes first to accounting to
ensure the customer can pay for the order either by a credit verification or request for immediate
payment prior to shipping. Once the customer credit is established, the production department
pulls the product from inventory or produces the product. Then the product is shipped (and this
may require working with a logistics firm, such as UPS or FedEx). A bill or invoice is generated
by the accounting department, and a notice is sent to the customer indicating that the product
has shipped. The sales department is notified of the shipment and prepares to support the
customer by answering calls or fulfilling warranty claims. What at first appears to be a simple
process, fulfilling an order, turns out to be a very complicated series of business processes that
require the close coordination of major functional groups in a firm. Moreover, to efficiently
perform all these steps in the order fulfillment process requires a great deal of information.

Now, new technology can actually change the flow of information, making it possible for many
more people to access and share information, replacing sequential steps with tasks that can be
performed simultaneously, and eliminating delays in decision making. So it’s really important
to understand the relationship between management information system and business
processes. A business firm has systems to support different groups or levels of management.
These systems include transaction processing systems and systems for business intelligence.

Transaction Processing System

Operational managers need systems that keep track of the elementary activities and transactions
of the organization, such as sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions, and the flow
of materials in a factory. Transaction processing systems (TPS) provide this kind of
information. A transaction processing system is a computerized system that performs and
records the daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business, such as sales order entry,

13 
 
hotel reservations, payroll, employee record keeping, and shipping. The principal purpose of
this system at this level is to answer routine questions and to track the flow of transactions
through the organization.

FIG: A TPS for payroll processing captures employee payment transaction data

Management Information System

The term management information systems (MIS) also designates a specific category of
information systems serving middle management. MIS provide middle managers with reports
on the organization’s current performance. This information is used to monitor and control the
business and predict future performance. MIS summarize and report on the company’s basic
operations using data supplied by transaction processing systems. The basic transaction data
from TPS are compressed and usually presented in reports that are produced on a regular
schedule. MIS typically provide answers to routine questions that have been specified in
advance and have a predefined procedure for answering them. For instance, MIS reports might
list the total pounds of lettuce used this quarter by a fast food chain.

14 
 
 FIG: How MIS obtain data from TPS of an organization

Decision-support system
Decision-support systems (DSS) focus on problems that are unique and rapidly changing, for
which the procedure for arriving at a solution may not be fully predefined in advance. Although
DSS use internal information from TPS and MIS, they often bring in information from external
sources, such as current stock prices or product prices of competitors. These systems are
employed by “super-user” managers and business analysts who want to use sophisticated
analytics and models to analyze data.

Executive support system

Executive support systems (ESS) help senior management make these decisions. They address
non-routine decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight because there is no agreed-
on procedure for arriving at a solution. ESS present graphs and data from many sources through
an interface that is easy for senior managers to use.

3.4 Security issues of MIS

Computer crime is defined as any violations of criminal law that involve a knowledge of
computer technology for their perpetration, investigation, or prosecution. This computer crime
can occur in the form of identity theft, phishing, evil twins, pharming, click fraud, copyright
infringement, advance fee fraud, malware, hacking etc. Even the commercial software used as
means of MIS can cause security breach in its system. This may happen due to hidden bugs
and irregular patches.

Guaranteeing effective information security has the following key aspects:

15 
 
  Keeping proper evidence for crimes in digital form, in computer, e-mail, instant
messages, and e-commerce transactions.
 Possessing a proper risk assessment system which determines the level of risk to firm
if specific activity or process is not properly controlled.
 Preventing the unauthorized individuals or systems from accessing the information.
 Maintaining and assuring the accuracy and consistency of data over its entire life-cycle.
 Ensuring that the computing systems, the security controls used to protect it and the
communication channels used to access it, functioning correctly all the time, thus
making information available in all situations.
 Ensuring that the data, transactions, communications or documents are genuine.
 Following a proper security policy that rank information risk, identify acceptable
security goals and detect mechanisms to achieve these goals.
 Safeguarding data and communications stored and shared in network systems. Having
both disaster recovery planning and business continuity planning to ensure smooth
business process even in the face of danger.

16 
 
 Chapter 4. Information System in EDCL

4.1 Overview of MIS in EDCL

From the previous discussions it is clear that Essential Drugs
Company Limited is a major player in supplying drugs and
therapeutic chemicals to government hospitals and medical
centers. Essential Drugs Company Limited is a highly active
company with various divisions that work independently and
in coordination with other divisions. With the expansion of the
How using MIS reduces the 
company Information systems have become a major part of its
operations. The IT department is responsible for
cost of EDCL? 
implementing, monitoring and improving the Information Use of MIS changes both the relative
systems at Essential Drugs Company Limited. costs of capital and the costs of
information. By using MIS, the use of
Currently there are nine modules the information system
information technology increases,
covers and these somewhat encompasses all the activities of
which it is substituted for labor that
the company. The modules are: has been a rising cost. Hence,
1. Accounts information technology should result
in a relative decline in the number of
2. Sales
middle managers and clerical workers
3. Purchase
as information technology substitutes
4. Inventory
for their labor. As the cost of
5. Human resource and management information technology decreases, it
6. Budget also substitutes for other forms of
7. Costing capital such as buildings and
8. Production and machinery, which remain relatively
9. Quality control/assurance expensive. Use of ERP leads to
10. organizational change
implementing new ways to
Among all these modules the most defined and active ones are
process and disseminate
Sales, purchase, HRM, inventory and accounts. The rest are
information between different
functional but not fully completed. These under construction
departments and between
parts of the MIS are being improved at the moment. Soon the
individuals. The use of the ERP
whole company will be equipped with MIS.
system to disseminate information
can create a flow of internal
information, accessible at every
All the different processes of the company are now connected
level and to everyone in the
to MIS one way or the other. Let’s start with HRM.
organization.

17 
 
4.2 Human Resource Enterprise Resource Planning
All the employee data: name, id, job position,
ERP  software  is  considered  to  be  a  type  of 
address, background information, age, blood group, enterprise  application,  that  is  software 
emergency contact person info, experience, job designed  to  be  used  by  larger  businesses  and 
description etc. are kept in the company’s database. often  requires  dedicated  teams  to  customize 
Apart from these, day to day, monthly and long and  analyze  the  data  and  to  handle  upgrades 
term HRM functions are also managed with the and  deployment.  Some  of  the  most  common 
help of MIS. ERP modules cover those for product planning, 
material  purchasing,  inventory  control, 
Everyday attendances are kept recorded using ERP distribution, accounting, marketing, finance and 
software. All employees are supposed to enter with hr. A business will typically use a combination of 
finger print recognition. This will automatically different  modules  to  manage  back‐office 
enter the time of arrival of the employee. Similarly, activities and tasks. 
late arrivals, absence etc. are all recorded
automatically. For factory workers and employees, shifting is a major part of task management.
ERP system automatically disseminates and arranges shifts for each employees. So each
employee knows which shift to work in and that data is already updated in the database. So no
extra bureaucratic documentation is needed. For overtime, the same rule applies. But in this
case, the employees who are working overtime would have to enter a requisition for over time
in the ERP system. The rest will be done by the system itself. The system also cross checks if
all the requirements are met or not. For example, overtime will not be counted if total overtime
is not more than four hours. Another important issue is meal records. That is also done in
similar fashion with the kitchen unit sending reports of meal type, amount and price to accounts
dept. every day.
At the end of the month, all the data of the employees will be accumulated to prepare a monthly
report of each individual. All of these are done manually. This data is used to take decisions of
salary disbursement. For example, if an employee is late for three days, his/her salary of one
day will be deducted from the monthly salary. All the monthly data first comes to the HRM
and after approval of HRM the data is sent to the accounts department and accounts disburse
the salary accordingly.
On a longer time frame, the performance metrics and evaluations are also recorded in a
structured way in the information system or ERP. After a certain time period, for instance, half
a year or a quarter, all the information and metrics are used for performance appraisals and
promotion decisions. After promotions and performance results, all the new information are
updated. Then comes inventory management.

Attendence,  Evaluation and  Salary and 

shifting, overtime  permission by  performance  Accounts 
records HRM evaluation

Figure: MIS in HRM at EDCL

18 
 
4.3 Inventory Management, Planning and Production
Inventory consists of three types of goods: raw material, finished
goods, packaged goods. Raw materials are the materials brought
from suppliers. Finished goods are the result of production
process. Raw materials turn into finished goods after production.
Finally, finished goods when packed and sealed are called Supply Chain
packaged materials. All these three types of goods make up the
inventory. However, the inventory management is related to processes Management
in the store.
A management information system
organizes all company data in a
computerized database. As a business
At first, raw materials are brought into the store, then their owner, you can retrieve data from all
sections of your company including
quality is checked by the QC department. Then they are moved
sales, manufacturing and inventory to
into the production process and then after another QC step are see how efficiently each department is
packaged. Then these are kept in the store and sent to distribution operating. This can tell you how well
as needed. The inventory size and type at every step is your inventory system works with
manufacturing and sales.
orchestrated by the ERP software. Each process is run only to an
extent to match the ERP set quantities. The planning department Supply Chain Management is now
is behind all the set quantities. defined as − Design, planning,
execution, control, and monitoring of
supply chain activities with the
objective of creating net value, building
Different hospitals and medical centers request a certain amount a competitive infrastructure, leveraging
of all medications. All those reports reach the planning worldwide logistics, synchronizing
department by e mails or hard copy documents. The planning supply with demand and measuring
performance globally. By incorporating
dept. sets production targets accordingly and inputs the numeric an organization’s management
into the ERP software. The production department thus gets their information system with supply chain
target of each step and manages the inventory accordingly. management, following objectives can
When production is complete or inventory requirements are be fulfilled:
achieved the ERP software sends the report to planning dept.  Decrease inventory cost by
Sales dept. and accounts. more accurately predicting
demand and scheduling
production to match it.

 Reduce overall production

cost by streamlining
production and by improving
information flow.

 Improve customer
satisfaction.

19 
 
 raw  Finished  Packaged 
purchase QC Production QC Packaging QC
materials goods goods

Figure: Generalized Production process at EDCL

After production the goods are sent for distribution all over the country. Before distribution,
the ERP software is used to issue invoices for each transaction. Simultaneously, the issue is
also recorded in the accounts dept. But after release from the factory the next distribution to
hospitals is done not on devices or online networks but with hard copy of invoices. So, modern
MIS is not available after the product is released from the factory.

planning production sales and

distribution

• Hard copy data • inventory • invoices are

from hospitals managed issued and ERP
all over the according to software records
country ERP targets that with an ID
• planning dept. • ERP software and other
sets targets sends reports to details.
• ERP sends data planning and • A copy of the
to production accoounts dept. invoice is sent
dept. • after production with the goods
packaged goods for verification.
are sent to • MIS stops after
distribution the products
leave the
factory.

Figure: Integrated coverage of MIS at EDCL

So this should be noted that, whatever planning, production and distribution steps are done
inside the Essential Drugs Company Limited is done with the help of ERP software. But
whatever reports and documents come from and go to outside the company is not under the
ERP network. So, the planning dept. gets hard copies but sends other dept. the data through
ERP and sales issue invoices through ERP but sends a hard copy with the delivery.

Although planning has been discussed in the last paragraph, purchase needs a separate
discourse. Purchases are done by all departments and through ERP as well. The general idea is

20 
 
to form a committee from the relevant departments for requisition. Then the committee will
decide on a purchase application and a team leader. The application is sent to other related
departments for verification and notification. Then after approval of the committee and other
heads of departments the permitted purchase order is sent to the accounts dept. The accounts
department then, issues an amount of money in advance to the leader and then the committee
goes to the market or suppliers for purchase. This is called Cash Purchase Team system or
CPT. this is only done for materials worth under 50,000 BDT. For one lakh to five lakhs worth
of materials a limit tender is announced and for more than five lakhs worth of material press
tender is announced. The limit tender is usually announced in internal circles and the press
tender is published in any newspaper. No matter what, the tender applications are manually
evaluated and then subsequent purchases are duly inputted into ERP software.

4.4 Accounts
All the activities in some way brush through the accounts dept. This dept. in Essential Drugs
Company Limited is divided in four sets of task: billing, payroll, cost and budgeting. Billing is
concerned with all sorts of purchases and side expenses; pay roll is concerned with employee
payments. Cost and budgeting are more about planning, cost cutting and budget allocation.

Although the payments and fund distribution are finally done with a human contact, all the rest:
issue, recording and presentation is done based on ERP software. Another part of accounts is
the provident fund. Employee provident funds are not managed or documented with huge
record books but with ERP database.

Accounts has different divisions and different departments all continuously requisite and
deposit monetary resources from accounts. So, from all the peripheral units data comes to
accounts and within accounts all these data gets directed to the right section and that section
takes proper action.

In similar fashion, all the data comes to the accounts and accounts prepare trail balance, ledger
and other analyzed documents.

21 
 
 Cooperative IT

QC planning

Sales PR

Accounts: 
Costing, Budget, 
Production Billing, Pay roll, 
maintenance
Provident funds

Figure: Data and Information flow to Accounts

4.5 Top and Mid-level decision making

Accounts is thus responsible for providing all the documents needed for business analysis.
These documents are then sent to mid and top management for decision making. This is called
Management Information system. This is a crucial part of the ERP software. All the dept. have
the ability to generate aggregated data based documents for mid management. For example:

MIS in Decision Making: Top level consists of the board of directors, general manager and
other senior executives. This level uses Enterprise resource planning, which is a method to add
the information and processes of an organization into one single system. They also use
Executive Information System (EIS) which is a type of management information system planned
to assist and support the information and decision making needs of senior executives by given
that simple access to both internal and external information related to meeting the strategic
goals of the organization.
Mid Management: This level is concerned with organization and direction function of
management. They mainly use Management information and reporting systems (MIS), with
which they can get summarized information periodically that can help them to determine
performance of a particular part and to create right decisions based on that information.

22 
 
 Table: MIS output types for mid and top management

Dept. MIS output

Accounts Trial balance, ledger, balance sheet, income
statement etc.
Production Efficiency report, materials depreciation
report, production output, inventory
analyses and bottlenecks
HRM Recruitment reports, employee performance
report, shifting and meal reports
Sales Sales lead time, distribution time, revenue
report, revenue analyses, sales forecast
Planning Yearly to quarterly demand forecast,
resource demand forecast, inventory targets
etc.

These data are crucial for top management decisions and are regularly sought. This MIS
module will be made more comprehensive and powerful in the future.

sales data, 
production 
HRM data,  data, QC 
external  data
data

planning 
data, 
accounts 
data

Summary and Gist for mid

and top management

Figure: Top and mid management are only given the filtered and analyzed information
for decision making.

23 
 
 4.6 Implementing MIS
Essential Drugs Company Limited started using ERP back in 2012 and developed and
customized the ERP solution according to their need. The software firm that was contracted
for the process was EATL or Ethics Advanced Technologies Limited. They are still working
with Essential Drugs Company Limited and currently developing the internet security
infrastructure. It took them quite some time to develop the ERP software. But still some parts
of the production and QC and other departments needs work. It took almost two years to
complete the production and QC section of the ERP due to complexity of the operations
processes. Customization and process delineation took up most of the time rather than
development.

Essential Drugs Company Limited has their own server facility and does not subscribe to any
cloud server services. This is basically due to the trend of having in house servers in
Bangladeshi companies. Each server costs around 4 lakhs BDT and Essential Drugs Company
Limited has four of them with back up servers. The servers run on Linux, application is based
on dot net infrastructure and Oracle database management is used.

A database management system stores data in such a way that it becomes easier to retrieve,
manipulate, and produce information. It provides more security, make huge amount of data
handling very easy, avoid duplication of data and can show relationship between record using
primary key and foreign key unlike traditional file system.

Software: DBMS software itself, the Operating System, the network software being used to
share the data among users, and the application programs used to access data in the DBMS.

Hardware consists of a set of physical electronic devices such as computers, I/O devices,
storage devices, etc., this provides the interface between computers and the real world systems.

24 
 
 Chapter 5. Security

Information is one of the most important organization assets. For an organization, information
is valuable and should be appropriately protected. Security is to combine systems, operations
and internal controls to ensure integrity and confidentiality of data and operation procedures in
an organization. Information security history begins with the history of computer security. It
started around year 1980. In 1980, the use of computers has concentrated on computer centers,
where the implementation of a computer security focuses on securing physical computing
infrastructure that is highly effective organization. Although the openness of the Internet
enabled businesses to quickly adopt its technology ecosystem, it also proved to be a great
weakness from an information security perspective. The system’s original purpose as a means
of collaboration between groups of trusted colleagues is no longer practical because the usage
has expanded into millions of frequently anonymous users. Numerous security incidents related
to viruses, worms, and other malicious software have occurred since the Morris Worm, which
was the first and shut down 10% of the systems on the Internet in 1988. These incidents have
become increasingly complex and costly. However, the information security awareness has
increased in recent years. Many organizations have implemented the information security to
protect their data.

This security comes in two broad perspectives. Protecting information hacks through software
upgrade, firewall, rules and regulations and then protecting the physical infrastructures that
serve as the container of the information system.

5.1 MIS Security

MIS security means protecting information system with specific rules and strategy based policy
applied in data warehouse. With managing all functional department data security is the
important concern of entire database. Complete responsibility of data protection on network of
interdepartmental and from public network. Amount of process involved within organization
and with vendor and client who are business contacts for communication all such interference
need to monitor and its logs has to be recorded for further reference. Security maintained on
each level of communication support the privacy policy of organization. Essential Drugs
Company Limited involves some techniques to protect the digital data of the organization.
These are as follows -

Password Protected Access

The MIS system requires valid user id and password to access the database. This is the primary
security of the system.

25 
 
Limited Data Access
The data stored in the Management Information System of EDCL is not all accessible to
everyone in the organization. The company segregates data accessible rights based on
employee position in the organizational hierarchy and employee roles in the organization. The
top management and the head of IT department decides how much information can an
employee access, input or modify and then the head of IT department himself grants access to
that amount of information to that particular employee. This process ensures that the vital
information does not fall into the hands of employees who can leak the data to competitors or
use it for financial gains.

This method called the Limited Data Access Mechanism has other advantages too. For
example, if a human resource manager is presented with all the information about accounts or
production departments in his/her MIS dashboard along with the employee related data that
he/she needs, those unnecessary information can be in the manager’s way of finding the
necessary data easily. In a word, this mechanism creates targeted information dashboard which
saves time and improves efficiency.

Figure: MIS Dashboard of HR Manager

Data Backup
Every day the MIS system receives numerous information from various data points within the
organization which is crucial to the operation of the company. These information, if remains
in one place only, can create risk of organization shut down if there’s a hack or deletion of data
in any way. So, the head of the IT department, on a day to day basis, goes to the server room
with a portable hard drive and backs up all the data.

26 
 
Limited Internet Access
Along with the Limited Data Access Mechanism, EDCL also limits its employees from
accessing random websites on the internet inside the compound. Thus the employees are less
prone to a phishing attacks. Phishing is a type of social engineering attack often used to steal
user data, including login credentials and credit card numbers. It occurs when an attacker,
masquerading as a trusted entity, dupes a victim into opening an email, instant message, or text
message.

Using the Limited Internet Access Mechanism EDCL can reduce these types of hacks and also
keep viruses from untrusted websites away from the digital infrastructure of the company.
EDCL uses “Mikrotik RB1100AHx4 Dude Edition” device for this purpose.

Figure: Mikrotik Dude Edition for Internet access control

5.2 Physical Security

For any organization physical security of assets is a vital part. Management Information System
being one of the essential assets of an organization requires protection from external threats,
theft or hacking. In this regard, the protection of the MIS framework using digital tools is not
enough. Ensuring a secured hardware system that contains the MIS framework is equally
important. The Essential Drugs Company Limited uses the following techniques to protect the
organizational compound and its hardware assets containing MIS framework.

CCTV Camera
The whole compound including the entrance, exit, storage, canteen and any other facility is
monitored 24/7 by CCTV cameras. These camera feeds go directly to top and mid-level

27 
 
managers who can instantly take necessary steps upon monitoring any suspicious activity
within the compound. Being monitored by more than one person ensures more security in this
case.

The CCTV cameras used by EDCL are network video recorder (NVR) type. These have IP
addresses and powered with Ethernet CAT 5 cables. The NVR feeds are accessible even
through internet, so that any manager can monitor the compound and all its activities from any
part of the world.

Figure: NVR CCTV Camera

Fingerprint Access
Employees of EDCL must input their fingerprint data using a fingerprint device during entering
and exiting the compound. This helps the organization in many ways. From day to day
attendance, late and absence counts, to salary, promotion, overtime all require this fingerprint
data.

28 
 
But this also helps to know the identity of individuals present inside the facility at any given
time. Thus any data leaks can be linked to the responsible individual correctly if it happens any
time.

Figure: Fingerprint Scanner on Entrance

Guards & Devices on Entrance

Besides all the above mentioned security features, the organization also has traditional security
measures in place. For example, there are guards on the entrance at all-time who monitors and
ask questions under suspicion. Visitors require to sign their names, contact information and
details about visiting on the gate. There are metal detectors for extra security.

These measures are part of the ongoing attempts to improve the overall security features of the
company. The company thinks that although these measures have prevented attacks on the MIS
system of the company so far, these might not be enough to face future threats.

29 
 
 Chapter 6. Competitive Advantage Analysis

Competitive advantage means the leverage a business has over its competitors. This can be
gained by offering clients better and greater value. Value proposition is very important in
competitive advantage. If value proposition is effective, i.e. if the company can offer greater
value to its customers it can achieve a very good competitive advantage.

According to Michael Porter, there are two ways a company can achieve competitive advantage
over its competitors, ‘Cost Leadership strategy’ and ‘Differentiation strategy’. In cost
leadership strategy, the company provides same goods or services to people as its competitors
but at a lower cost. In differentiation strategy the company provides better goods or services.
In case of management information system, the goal is to establish better operations
management which in turn provides cost effective day to day operations. This will significantly
enhance efficiency and reduce overall expenses, which will result in lower sale price. This will
give the company competitive advantage according to cost leadership strategy.

EDCL is the only government pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh. It provides goods only
to government hospitals. So in case of EDCL, competitive advantage analysis is not similar to
other non-government pharmaceutical companies. But if MIS of EDCL is compared with that
of other pharmaceutical companies, it can be seen that MIS of EDCL has many features that
would give EDCL advantages over the other ones in day to day operations. The MIS features
of EDCL that are better than other companies and would provide EDCL with better daily
operation are given below:

Data accessibility
All the employees of EDCL can access the MIS software. This accessibility is highly controlled
by the IT department of the company. This saves time and brings efficiency. Few non-
government pharmaceutical companies have this feature. For example, Orion Pharma does not
have this feature.

Cloud System
EDCL does not have any cloud system. It is advantageous to the company in the way that
EDCL does not have to be concerned about online hacking. Other companies like Beximco and
Incepta has this feature. So they have well developed firewall. EDCL is more concerned about
manual hacking. So it has a very good surveillance system. Beacon pharma also does not have
cloud system for security concerns.

30 
 
Highly trained employees
EDCL highly trained employees in ERP software and MIS. The company has limited customer
base. So it is easier for them to implement MIS. EDCL has advantage over Aristopharma as
EDCL has highly trained employees.

Decision Support System

EDCL has DSS in its Management Information System although limited. So it is advantageous
to EDCL. Beacon pharma and Aristopharma has no DSS.

Backup system
EDCL has a very good data recovery system. IT has dual data backup and server backup
systems.

Although EDCL has some advantages over other companies, it has much room for
improvement. The features through which other companies have advantages over EDCL are:

Cloud system
EDCL does not have any cloud system. Although not having a cloud system is advantageous
as it does not require well firewall system and hence cost effective, it is also disadvantageous.
Eskayef pharma, Popular Pharma both have cloud system and well-built firewall. So they have
better data accessibility. It makes their daily operation easier and faster. In this way they have
competitive advantage over EDCL.

ERP Software
EDCL does not have any ERP software. Beximco, Popular, Incepta, Renata all have a dedicated
ERP system. ERP system plays a vital role in any business in distribution process management,
supply chain management, service knowledge base, configuring prices, improving accuracy of
financial data, facilitating better project planning, automating the employee life-cycle,
standardizing critical business procedures, reducing redundant tasks, assessing business needs,
accounting and financial applications, lowering purchasing costs, managing human resources
and pay. So not having an ERP system is a disadvantage.

Intranet and Extranet

31 
 
Beximco and Incepta pharma have intranet and extranet system. It has web-based solutions for
colleagues, app for planning tour, order collection etc. Through this system Beximco gets
competitive advantage over EDCL.

Decision support system

The DSS of EDCL is not very strong. Incepta pharma has a very strong DSS.

Customer relationship management: Network Basics 

CRM uses data analysis about Network a system of computers, peripherals, terminals, 
customers' history with a company to and databases connected by communications lines. 
improve business relationships with Networks can be used to connect devices in the same 
customers, specifically focusing on building or they can be used to connect devices that are 
customer retention and ultimately miles apart. A network system connects your company’s 
driving sales growth. Beximco and computers, allowing them to share and exchange a variety 
Incepta have incorporated CRM into of information. While one computer can be useful on its 
MIS. But EDCL does not have this in its own, several networked computers can be much more 
useful. It provides a huge amount of advantages to a 
MIS.
company, such as: file sharing, printer sharing, quick 
communication and collaboration, efficient scheduling, 
remote access, data protection etc.  
Knowledge Management System
Hardware needed: base server, interfaces, CPUs, memory, 
EDCL does not have knowledge hard‐disk storage 
management system. But Incepta
Software needed: operating system, hypervisor, public 
pharma has proper knowledge
internet access 
management system.

Database mirroring
Database mirroring is the creation and maintenance of redundant copies of a database. The
purpose is to ensure continuous data availability and minimize or avoid downtime that might
otherwise result from data corruption or loss, or from a situation when the operation of a
network is partially compromised. Eskayef has this system. This is a huge advantage as this is
the fastest backup system.

Use of mobile technology

Eskayef utilizes mobile technology fully. It utilizes mobile email, m-reporting, WhatsApp etc.
This gives the employees flexibility in communication. EDCL does not have this feature.

32 
 
Below is a table showing comparison among different IT features of different companies:

Features Different Pharmaceutical companies

Data accessibility Beximco, Incepta, Eskayef, EDCL, Renata,
Orion, Popular
Cloud System Beximco, Incepta, Eskayef, Renata, Orion,
Popular
Decision Support System Incepta
Backup system Beximco, Incepta, Eskayef, EDCL, Renata,
Orion, Popular, Aristopharma,
Beaconpharma
ERP Software Beximco, Incepta, Eskayef, Renata, Popular
Intranet and Extranet Beximco, Incepta
Customer relationship management Beximco, Incepta, Eskayef
Knowledge Management System Incepta
Database mirroring Eskayef
Use of mobile technology Eskayef
Highly trained employees Beximco, Incepta, Eskayef, EDCL, Renata,
Orion, Popular

33 
 
 Chapter 7. Recommendations

The Management Information System currently employed in Essential Drugs Company

Limited has been helping the company to perform day to day activities more efficiently, reduce
cost, improve production, procurement and delivery time and face competitors more effectively
in national and international markets.

But this system can be improved in many ways to serve the company better. Here are few of
such picks that has proven useful in similar industries around the world.

Complete MIS in all departments

For the whole Management Information System to function properly, all the departments of
EDCL needs to come under the system. Currently, there are some departments whose activities
are fully supported by the system but some departments have partial MIS implementation.

Company Policy to protect Digital Information

EDCL policy and code of conduct does not have clause that ensures protection of digital
information. To build a complete MIS infrastructure requires proper security and maintenance
policy of its contents as well. This will help to guide the employees on how to handle
information and will ensure proper punishment upon data breach.

Using Customer Relationship Management

EDCL Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is not that strong because of the nature of
its clients. The clients are usually government hospitals where EDCL is mostly the sole
distributor of necessary drugs. But to serve the customers better EDCL should incorporate
CRM into the MIS framework so that any new order or complaint can be dealt instantly using
minimum time and cost.

34 
 
Using Knowledge Management System
Knowledge management helps 
EDCL has a lot of information stored over the years in its
gather the power from your entire 
data repository. The planning department can use this data in
organization and use it to 
conjunction with relevant information from the internet to
incrementally improve your daily 
better forecast production requirement for national as well as
operations. It enables 
international market. Thus a proper knowledge management
organizations to learn more 
system can improve planning, production and expansion
intuitively, allowing companies to 
efficiency and help management take more accurate
innovate better through 
decisions.
knowledge‐sharing organizational 
structures, processes, and tools. 

Using Intranets and Extranets

An intranet is a set of Internet services (for example a web server) inside a local network, i.e.
only accessible from workstations of a local network, or rather a set of well-defined networks
that are invisible (or inaccessible) from the outside. Here are some of the functions which may
be provided by an Intranet:
 Access to information regarding the enterprise (bulletin board)
 Access to technical documents
 Search engine for documentations
 Exchange of data among coworkers
 Staff roster
 Project management, decision-making aid, agenda, computer-aided engineering
 Electronic messaging
 Discussion forum, distribution list, direct chat
 Videoconference
 Internet portal

On the other hand, an extranet is an extension of the information system of the company to its
partners located outside of the network.

Using intranet can help employees of EDCL to minimize information search time and cost and
using extranet the company can stay connected with its partners for better business efficiency.

Implementing MIS across the Supply Chain

The suppliers of raw materials and the customers of EDCL are not connected to the MIS
infrastructure of the company in any way. Thus orders from customers are mailed to the
company and the company uses phone calls or documents to inform its suppliers of raw
materials’ requirement. This process can be improved by implementing MIS across the supply
chain. Then the suppliers will easily know the inventory condition in real time and prepare for

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raw material delivery without delay and the company will be able to know the stocks of its
customers to better forecast production.

Inventory tracking using RFID tags

Currently, EDCL counts its inventory manually. But using
a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag with each
batch of raw materials, finished goods or packaged goods
can simplify the operation largely without spending
substantial amount of money. This will also reduce error
in inventory counting and require less time to calculate the
inventory.

Cloud Information Backup

The system of backing up server information to an off-site facility (usually rented) using
internet is called Cloud Information Backup. Many companies rent server space to securely
store vital company information. Currently EDCL has a manual backup system done once or
twice a day. But cloud backup happens in real time so that no data is lost even if the main data
server goes down. EDCL should incorporate this backup system for more effective data
protection.

Establish strong passwords

Implementing strong passwords is the easiest thing that can be done to strengthen MIS security.
In EDCL employees can set their password without any restrictions. But this can lead to easy
hacking attempts. Generally while setting passwords anyone should definitely avoid using:
 Any personal data (such as your birthdate)
 Common words spelled backwards
 Sequences of characters or numbers, or those that are close together on the keyboard

Using 2 factor authentication for managers

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In EDCL the top and mid-level managers have access to a large amount of vital information
that is more prone to hacking. So to strengthen the security the company can implement latest
industry practices such as 2 factor authentication system for
its managers. This system requires a second source of
Whom you should be aware of? 
authentication besides the primary password to log into the
 
system. Top tech companies such as Google, Facebook and
A  hacker  is  an  individual  who 
Twitter suggests its users to use phone SMS received during
intends  to  gain  unauthorized 
log in as the second authentication system.
access  to  a  computer  system. 
Also Google has a different type of 2 factor authentication Within the hacking community, 
system for its in house employees which has ensured a no- the  term  cracker  is  typically 
breach for the past two years. This is called a USB Security used  to  denote  a  hacker  with 
Key which costs around $20 a piece. The employees require criminal intent. 
this key along with their password to log into their work
computers in Google Campus. EDCL can follow this proven
security practice to further strengthen the security with a very low investment.

These are the best industry practices that can be followed by EDCL to strengthen their
Management Information System and even stay ahead of its competitors.

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 Chapter 8. Conclusion

EDCL is the only government pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh. It supplies products to

the government hospitals only. Although it does not have any competitor, EDCL has a good
management information system. But it has not been implemented thoroughly. MIS of EDCL
is still under the process of improvement. Having a well-developed MIS really improves a
company’s overall efficiency. Other non-government pharmaceutical companies already have
a very strong MIS compared to EDCL. As EDCL develops its MIS, the company will get more
efficient in supplying products to its customers and will become a more profitable company.

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 Chapter 9. References

 Management Information Systems managing the Digital Firm. Kenneth C. Laudon,

Jane P. Laudon
 Pharmaceutical Opportunities in Bangladesh, UK Trade and Investment
 Improving The Competitiveness of the Pharmaceutical Sector in Bangladesh, World
Bank April 2007
 www.webopedia.com
 www.inc.com
 www.edcl.gov.bd
 National Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Policy, Ministry of
Science and Information & Communication Technology, Government of the People’s
Republic of Bangladesh

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 Chapter 10. Answer index for Questionnaire

Question Answer section

1. Organization Overview: Domain of Business, Organogram: 3 and 3.6

2. What Information System (IS) is used in that specific organization? 5.1

3. Classify those system according to the type of IS you learn in the class. 5.1 and 5.5

4. What are the specific objectives of those IS? 5

5. How those systems contribute in organizational decision-making? 5.5

6. What challenges organization faces to implement those systems? 5.6 and 5.8

7. How the IS give competitive advantages for the organization? (At the end 7
of your report (discussion), Provide your suggestions to the company to
achieve competitive advantage using IS)

8. How the organization consider the security of the IS? 5.7

9. How the organization consider the privacy of the employee and 5.7
customer’s data dealt by the IS?
10. Is there any Security Awareness initiative for the organization’s staff? If 5.7 and 6
yes, briefly describe that initiative.
11. What is the security and privacy threats the management thinks regarding 5.7 and 6
the IS?
12. How the organization is planning to deal those threats? 5.7 and 6

13. Does the organization know/follow any directives from government 5.8
regarding Information privacy/security?(Show them the data privacy act of
govt. or common practices on data privacy)

14. Does the organization has any IT or Information security policy? 5.7

15. Is there any dedicated IT department for the organization? If not, then 5.7
who is responsible for supporting the IS?
16. Is there any specialized/customized software that the organization uses? 5.6
If so, for what purpose the company is using that software?

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17. Does the organization purchase any generic software as a MIS solution 5
that is readily available in the market? If yes, are those software developed
in Bangladesh?

18. If the organization uses any customized MIS solution, does the 5 and 5.6
organization develop that solution internally (inside organization)? If not,
are the solution developed by some other local IT company?

19. How does the organization take advantages of Internet and mobile 7 and 5.1
technology?
20. What technology does the organization use to store and retrieve all the 5.2, 5.3 and 5.4
data generated by its business?
21. Is there any dashboard or consolidated view or visualization interface 5.5
to help top-level management?
22. Does the organization use any cloud services? What are the purposes 5.6
for using those services?
23. What is the data backup mechanism in the organization? 6 and 5.7

24. Open ended questions or concerns… (This should differentiate your 7

work from others!)

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