Introduction

Purpose
This document intends to provide an insight into how the organizations use Marketing Information System in their operations. It has been prepared to meet partial fulfilment of the course Management Information System according to the proposal submitted to honourable course instructor Mr. Abu Reza Mohammed Muzareba who has allowed preparing this report accepting the proposal.

Background of the Report

In todays world of information technology, no organization can ignore the importance of appropriate and timely Information for running its operation effectively and efficiently. The more informed an organization, the more competitive advantage it gains. So the effective use of information technology has become increasingly important to the longrange message of a virtual organization. Now it is the time when billions of dollars are being transacted through only a keypunching. Therefore a well-designed and structured Marketing Information System is a timely need. MKIS can support the operation, management and decision making function.

Company Profile
Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is a leading pharmaceutical company in Bangladesh established in the year 1999. Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. is now the 2nd largest company of the country and recognized as the fastest growing of the top five manufacturing company in the country. The company has a very big manufacturing facility located at Savar, 35 kilometer away from the center of the capital city Dhaka. Since its inception, Incepta has been launching new and innovative products in order to fulfill unmet demand of the medical community. The company produces various types of dosage forms which include tablets, capsules, oral liquids, ampoules, dry powder vials, powder for suspension, nasal sprays, eye drops, creams, ointments, lotions, gels, prefilled syringes, liquid filled hard gelatin capsules, lyophilized injections etc.

Vision
We want to become a research based global pharmaceutical company in addition to being a highly efficient generic manufacturer. To discover and develop innovative, valueadded products those improve the quality of life of people around the world. And contribute towards the growth of our Nation.

Mission

Provide people globally with high quality health care products at affordable prices in order to improve access to medicine and to provide employees an enabling environment that facilitates realization of their full potential.

Objective of the Report

The broad objectives are: To analyze the existing marketing information system. To get some idea about the practical usage of MKIS.

Specific objectives of the report are: To analyze the information input and output of the system for different level of marketing. To identify the different marketing activities of the company and the type of decision made for the activities. To find out the different physical elements of MKIS, specially the hardware and software and network requirement.

Methodology
An interview was taken at Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd to see and understand how the process is currently running. The information for the report was collected from both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources: All the data and information that are collected from primary sources are acquired by interviewing the executives. A questionnaire has been used to cover and ensure all inquires. Secondary sources:

Brochures and different types of literature on Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd were used to prepare the report, which were very helpful to give an in depth idea. Other books and journals were also used to gain enough understanding about the usage of Marketing Information System in an organization.

Limitations
Unawareness: Even the executives who use the software are not well aware about the programming languages and program design of all the software. They are merely end users. Hence a detailed description of the software or computer application could no be gathered from the interviewee. Secrecy: Information related to information systems were difficult to find out as the organization intended to maintain secrecy. Thus, the executives denied providing information about the ultimate outputs of the software. Complication: Due to the complicated nature of a MKIS, the report only suggests a feasible outline for a MKIS used in Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. As a result, the report is unable to provide a complete breakdown of each and every aspects of the Marketing information system.

Marketing, Sales & Distribution

A complete and integrated Marketing, Sales and Distribution network is required to make the information on products and services available to the customer. To achieve the purpose and mission, Incepta affirms its values of integrity, respect for people, innovation, performance and leadership. Around 4000 individuals from diverse disciplines including pharmacy, microbiology, MBA, Accounting, Engineering and Medicine are working nationwide under the umbrella of Incepta. All the skilled and professional personnel are set at their very appropriate responsible positions. The sales team comprising highly professional science graduate and post-graduate people are involved in the timely and smooth promotion of the products for the benefits of doctors, people as well as the whole nation. Incepta has its own large distribution network having 18 depots all over the country. They make the products available in every single drug store of the country. The depots are located in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal, Comilla, Noakhali, Mymensingh, Magura, Bogra, Narayangonj, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Tangail, Jessor, Moulovibazar and Cox's Bazar.

MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM (MKIS) in INCEPTA

A marketing information system is a management information system designed to support marketing decision making. Marketing information system refers to a comprehensive and flexible, formal and ongoing system designed to provide an organized flow of relevant information to guide marketing decision making ( Marshal and LaMotte, 1992). First, Marketing information system should be viewed as comprehensive and flexible because the marketing activities of a firm is interrelated and must adapt to changing environments. Second, the system must be designed conciously with specific organizational goals in mind so that the system will meet the needs of marketing managers over an extended period. Third, the information must be relevant to marketing decision making. The system must be desinged to provide the types of data that will guide the companys decision making and provide the tools needed to transform this data into information that will help managers make wise and calculated marketing manament decisions.

Components of MKIS
Marketing Information System has five basic components. Each of the five basic components of Marketing Information System are interrelated and influence one another with the context of the organiztions internal environment. The internal enviroment User interfaces Databases Applications and softwares Administrative supports

These are seven sectors of Marketing Information System.

Mangers from all the levels use the marketing information system. This helps them to take decisions related to the total value chain system, which involves supplying products, transporting, and warehousing goods, selling goods and providing customer services. They provide high technology computer hardware resources such as, personal computers, different types of scanners and printers to input information in the database and collect output from it whenever it is needed. Incepta has its own database software. The information needed by marketing managers of Incepta comes from three main sources: 1) Internal company information Sales records, sales persons commission reports, orders, customer profiles, stocks, inventory information and customer service reports etc. 2) Marketing intelligence Marketing Intelligence (MI) is the information relevant to a companys markets, gathered and analyzed specifically for the purpose of accurate and confident decision-making in determining market opportunity, market penetration strategy, and market development metrics. (3) Market research The SAP software used by SSRD department provides all information needed about the customers and the products for market research of the company. In application software they use Microsoft Office, SPSS and SAP. On 15th January 2011, Incepta implemented globally acclaimed ERP software system - SAP. Incepta is the first Bangladeshi company to implement SAP to manage resources throughout the

company operation. This world class resource management system will allow the company to become more efficient and effective in its day to day operation. We have worked with four of the seven sectors of marketing information system. These four sectors are: Interactive marketing Sales management Customer relationship management Marketing Research Product Management

The description of above mentioned points are given in next segments.

Interactive Marketing
Interactive marketing is marketing by a service farm recognizing that perceived service quality depends heavily on the quality of buyer-seller interaction. The sales team comprising highly professional science graduate and post-graduate people are involved in the timely and smooth promotion of the products for the benefits of doctors, people as well as the whole nation. In Incepta, SAP software helps to judge the amount of selling to know the relationship between doctors (indirectly their patient) and sellers that are the MPOs.

Sales management
Sales record allow the marketer to monitor unit product sales, prices obtained & gross margins by product type, geographic area, wholesaler ,retailer &salesperson. To obtain this potential information Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. also has a well developed sales management which help them to monitor sales and allocated costs at each aggregated level of analysis. For this type of analysis the MKIS user organize product & sales data as if relational databases. In their lead tracking system they include a database system that contains names addresses & phone numbers & perhaps some demographic, industrial, psychographic or social information of the customers. Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. has some loyal customers who prefer their medicine rather than from their competitors. So it is easy for them to keep customer identification for these loyal respect customers. When the identifying information is entered into this system, it verifies whether this information corresponds to a customer already on file.

Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. also records the name of the salespersons that are responsible for sales. Following customer identification, they also include the medicine being distributed to customers and its quantities. They use a unique and validate item number or product code for each of their medicine and if the prices to be changed for each of these medicines are standardized, these may be automatically inserted in the order entry record by the computer system using the look up table to verify the product code. When the specific units of products are provided to their sales persons for distribution then the inventory manager reduce these specific units of product code from their database to update it on a daily basis. If new products are stored in the external warehouse for further distribution these products code also included into database. By using SAP software SSRD (sells service research department) collects data from the MPOs (medical promotion officers) in a daily basis. And SSRD send the formulated report created by SAP to the national sells manager.

Customer Relationship Management

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is managing detail information about individual customer and carefully managing them. Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. differentiates strictly between consumers and customers of their products. According to them consumers are those people who are the last level users of the products and customers are treated as a via between Incepta Pharma and their consumers. Mainly doctors are the customers of Incepta Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Incepta Pharma has a close and sound relationship with their customers. And customers opinions regarding their products are very much important for them. In fact, their new product development process is highly dependable on customers opinion and recommendations. Their interactions with the customers are one to one basis. Maximum customers are loyal to Incepta Pharma, there are very few numbers who switch from them. Loyal customers help them to collect information about their competitors as well as suggest them to introduce new products in the market. In Incepta doctors and drug stores are basically the customer not the traditional consumer. Because doctors recommends the patients to bye the medicine produce from Incepta.

Product Management
Product management is the organizational structure within a business that manages the development, marketing and sells of a product or set of products through out the PLS. By using SAP software SSRD insert the daily amount of sells and give estimation about the production. Incepta Pharma differentiates strictly between consumers and customers of their products. According to them consumers are those people who are the last level users of the products and customers are treated as a via between Incepta Pharma and their consumers. Mainly doctors are the customers of Incepta Pharma. Incepta Pharma monitors their customers through careful analysis with the help of their medical representatives. By careful monitoring, medical representatives find out who

are the customers and their basic information- names, locations, positions, etc, which products customers have suggested or recommended more and which one they have ignored, how many units of a certain product they have suggested in a time period, what problems they have faced- their complains about certain products, what type of change or modification they would like to have in the existing products, what new products competitors have recently introduced in the market, recent new products in the overseas market which Incepta Pharma can launch in the local market. Using these information they build a database of customer information that marketing managers can use in the planning stage of marketing programs and for monitoring the success of ongoing programs

Marketing Reserch
Marketing research is "the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process. SAP software research activity provides all information about the doctors ,drug stores and the MPOs. Incepta is one of the largest pharmaceuticals company in Bangladesh which uses a large amount of technology for their marketing purpose. Though pharmaceuticals companies are not permitted to perform promotional activities in the mainstream media. So their promotional activities are quite different from others. Their main customers basically are doctors and drug stores. Incepta has its own large distribution network having 18 depots all over the country. They make the products available in every single drug store of the country. The depots are located in Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet, Barisal, Comilla, Noakhali, Mymensingh, Magura, Bogra, Narayangonj, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Tangail, Jessor, Moulovibazar and Cox's Bazar. They follow direct method in marketing research. They send their representatives to their customers and collect their information about their products to do a research. From there they get a specific idea about their existing problems and new ideas for new products. They enlist their projects on the basis of coding system in their research database.