• Discuss the criteria to consider in specifying the structure and features of CGC's new system.
• Identify the data that should be incorporated into CGC's new system to provide adequate planning capability.  Explain why each data item it is important and the level of detail needed for the data to be useful.

 The report underlines an analysis performed for the Citizen Gas Company (CGC) to estimate its gas supply and demand more effectively. In order to project more accurate figures and assist the strategic leadership team in a better way, an idea of a new information system is adopted. The analysis in the report is on what data points should the system need and the criteria to arrive on the same. Since a lot of factors affect the demand and supply of gas directly or indirectly, these factors need to be accounted for while taking key decisions. 

The system will need access to ample market information, accurate figures, data on how frequently would the system be used or how dependent the leadership is going to be on the system to take key decisions will decide on the complexity and sophistication of the system design. Also an ability to perform a cost-benefit analysis, the capability of internal staff to support the information system, etc. are key points to decide on the data points. The system will need data points like customer data, weather data for seasonal variations, the price structure for customers as well as the cost structure of the company from suppliers, storage field capacity, ranking mechanism data, heating factors and appropriate monthly sales forecasts. Thus, with the presence of the above data and a sound calculation mechanism, the system can assist the strategic leadership team in taking key decisions and planning for the upcoming phases.

Citizen's Gas Company (CGC) is a natural gas provider to about 200,000 customers. Since the last year has been tough to manage its inventory well, the new director for corporate planning needs to evaluate the proposed information system in order to bring in an effective automation mechanism. The following report underlines the key factors that need to be considered while designing this system and also key data points that will be absolutely essential for the business to take key decisions. The new plan will assist the company in a better and more advanced decision-making process. The idea is to evaluate all the pertinent factors to demand and supply influencers since blending of information technology and supply chain management is extremely essential in these changing times (Gunasekaran & Ngai, 2004). 

The current state of volatile and turbulent markets bring in a risk of slow-moving and lengthy logistics 'pipelines' which can prove dangerous to the sustainability of organizations (Christopher, 2000). The two sections outline a list of criteria while designing and choosing data points for the new information system and the second section lists out the various data points and inputs required by the system. Since it is implied that there are variations in the demand and supply every month, the system should be stable enough to provide outputs on a periodic basis. While choosing the data points in the system, they will be divided into options that estimate the demand of gas, the ones that estimate the supply and points that give a heads up when the supply is projected to be lesser than the demand. 

(Some parts of the solution has been blurred due to privacy protection policy)