A waiter in a recently-opened restaurant at KOTI-YE-ABOA takes an order at a table, and then enters it online via one of the six terminals located in the restaurant dining room. The order is routed to a printer at an appropriate preparation area: the cold item printer if it is a salad, the hot-item printer if it is a hot pizza or the bar printer if it is a drink. A customer’s meal check-listing (bill) the items ordered and the respective prices are automatically generated. This ordering system eliminates the old three-carbon-copy guest check system as well as any problems caused by a waiter’s handwriting. When the kitchen runs out of a food item, the cooks send out an ‘out of stock’ message, which will be displayed on the dining room terminals when waiters try to order that item. This gives the waiters faster feedback, enabling them to give better service to the customers. Other system features aid management in the planning and control of their restaurant business. The system provides up-to-the-minute information on the food items ordered and breaks out percentages showing sales of each item versus total sales. This helps management plan menus according to customers’ tastes.

The system also compares the weekly sales totals versus food costs, allowing planning for tighter cost controls. In addition, whenever an order is voided, the reasons for the void are keyed in. This may help later in management decisions, especially if the voids are consistently related to food or service. Acceptance of the system by the users is exceptionally high since the waiters and waitresses were involved in the selection and design process. All potential users were asked to give their impressions and ideas about the various systems available before one was chosen.

Questions:
a) In the light of the system, explain the decisions to be made in the area of strategic planning, managerial control and operational control? What information would you require to make such decisions?
b) What would make the system a more complete MIS rather than just doing transaction processing?
c) Account for the factors responsible for the relative success story of this IS/IT facility from the standpoint of the users.