MIS 320 ch. 1 notes - week one PDF

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Business Basics: Ch.1 Business Driven Technology

notes from Baltzan, Paige. Business Driven Technology. eighth ed., Daniels College of Business . (chs.6-8)

Competing in the Information Age- facts are widely available to anyone. Core drivers of the information age include: Date, Information, Business intelligence, and Knowledge. Data- raw facts (order date, amount sold) Structural data- defined length, type, and format. (numbers, dates, or strings) Machinegenerated data vs. Human- generated data Unstructured data does not follow a specified format and is typically free-form text such as emails Big Data- collection of large complex data sets, including structured and unstructured data Information- data converted into a meaningful use (best-selling product) Computers need data and humans need information Report document containing data organized in a table- wide range of subjects. (static report/ dynamic report)

Business Intelligence- information collected from multiple sources that analyze patterns, trends, and relationships (lowest sales per week compared with the economic interest rates) External and internal data variable effect data. Analytics is the science fact-based decision making. Descriptive analytics uses techniques that describe past performance and history. Predictive analytics uses techniques that extract information from data and use it to predict future trends. Prescriptive analytics uses techniques that create models indicating the best decision to make or course of action.

Knowledge- the skills, experience, and expertise, coupled with information and intelligence (choosing not to fore a sales representative who is underperforming knowing that person is experiencing family problems) Knowledge assets- intellectual capital, are the human, structural, and recorded resources available to the organization. Knowledge facilitators- help harness the wealth of knowledge in the organization.

Systems Thinking and Management Information Systems Business unit- segment of a company representing a specific business function (Accounting/ Finance/ HR/ Marketing/ Operations management/ Sales) Information silo- occurs when one business units is unable to freely communicate with other business units making it difficult or impossible for organizations to work cross-functionally.

Management information systems- is a business function, such as accounting and human resources, that moves information about people, products, and processes across the company to facilitate decision making and problem solving.

Ch. 2- Identifying Competitive Advantages Business Strategy- is a leadership plan that achieves a specific set of goals or objectives such as increasing sales, decreasing costs, entering new markets, or developing new products or services.

Competitive advantage- a feature of a product or service on which customers place value than they do on similar offerings from competitors. First- mover advantage- occurs when a company can significantly increase its market share by being first with a new competitive advantage. Competitive intelligence- process of gathering information about the competitive environment, including competitors plans, activities, and products to improve a company’s ability to succeed. SWOT analysis- evaluates an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to identify significant influences that work for or against business strategies. (potential internal strengths, potential internal weaknesses, potential externa opportunities, potential external threats)

The Five forces Model- Evaluating Industry Attractiveness

Buyer power- is the ability of buyers to affect the price they must pay for an item. Switching costs- costs that make a customer reluctant to switch to another product or service Supplier power- consists of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in obtaining raw materials or a product. (charging higher prices) Threat of substitutes products or services- is high when there are many alternatives to a product or service and low when there are few alternatives from which to choose. Threat of new entrants- is high when it is easy for new competitors to enter a market and low when there are significant entry barriers to joining a market. Entry barrier- is a feature of a product or service that customers have come to expect and entering competitors must offer the same for survival.

Rivalry among existing competitors- is high when competition is fierce in a market and low when competitors are more complacent. Product differentiation occurs when a company develops unique differences in its products or services with the intent to influence demand. The three Generic Strategies- Choosing a business focus-

Broad market and low cost- Walmart competes by offering a broad range of products at low prices. It business strategy is to be the low-cost provider of goods for the cost-conscious consumer. Broad market and high cost- Neiman Marcus competes by offering a broad range of differentiated products at high process. Its business strategy offers a variety of specialty and upscale products to affluent consumers Narrow market and low cost- Payless competes by offering a specific product, shoes, at low prices. Its business strategy is to be the low-cost provider of shoes. Payless competes with Walmart, which also sells low-cost shoes, by offering a far bigger selection of sizes and styles Narrow market and high cost- Tiffany and Co. competes by offering a differentiated product, jewelry, at high prices. Its business strategy allows it to be a high-cost provider of premier designer jewelry to affluent consumers. Value Chain Analysis- Executing Business Strategies Business process- standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer’s order. Value chain analysis- identify competitive advantages- views a firm as a series of business processes that each add value to the product or service.

Primary value activities- inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, service Support value activities- firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development, procurement

Ch.9 Enabling the Organization- Decision Making Making Organizational Business Decisions

Operational level- employees develop, control, and maintain core business activities require to run the day-to-day operations

Operational decisions affect how the firm is run from day to day; they are the domain of operations managers, who are the closest to the customer. Managerial level- employees are continuously evaluating company operations to hone the firm’s abilities to identify, adapt to, and leverage change. Managerial decisions concern how the organization should achieve the goals and objectives set by its strategy, and they are usually the responsibility of mid-level management. Strategic level- managers develop overall business strategies, goals, and objectives as part of the company’s strategic plan. Strategic decisions- involve higher level issues concerned with the overall direction of the organization; these decisions define the organization’s overall goals and aspirations for the future. Using MIS to make business decisions

Operational Support Systems Online transaction processing- capture of transaction and event information using technology to (1) process the information according to defined business rules. (2) store the information (3) update existing information to reflect the new information Transaction processing system- the basic business system that serves the operational level and assists in making structured decisions.

Managerial support systems Online analytical processing- is the manipulation of information to create business intelligence in support of strategic decision making. Decision support systems- model information using OLAP, which provides assistance in evaluating and choosing among different courses of action. Strategic Support systems Executive information system- is a specialized DSS that supports senior-level executives and unstructured, long- term, nonroutine decision requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight.

Visualization produces graphical displays of patterns and complex relationships in large amounts of data. Consolidation- is the aggregation of data from simple roll-ups to complex groupings of interrelated information. Drill-down- enables users to view details, and details of details, of information.

Slice-and-dice is the ability to look at information from different perspectives Pivot- rotates data to display alternative presentations of the data The future: Artificial Intelligence Stimulates human thinking and behavior, such as the ability to reason and learn. Intelligent systems- various commercial applications of artificial intelligence. Machine learning-type of artificial intelligence that enables computers to both understand concepts in the environment, and also to learn.

Expert systems are computerized advisory programs that imitate the reasoning process of experts in solving difficult problems. Case based reasoning is a method whereby new problems are solved based on the solutions from similar cases solved in the past. Machine vision is the ability of a computer to “see” by digitizing an image, processing the data it contains, and taking some kind of action. Neural Networks- artificial neural network, is a category of AI that attempts to emulate the way the human brain works. Learning and adjusting to new circumstances on their own. Lending themselves to massive parallel processing Functioning without complete or well-structured information Coping with huge columns of information with many dependent variables Analyzing nonlinear relationships in information Fuzzy Logic- is a mathematical method of handling imprecise or subjective information. Deep learning is a process that employs specialized algorithms to model and study complex datasets; the method is also used to establish relationships among data and datasets.

Genetic Algorithms is an artificial intelligence system that mimics the evolutionary, survival-of-the-fittest process to generate increasingly better solutions to a problem. Mutation- process within a genetic algorithm of randomly trying combinations and evaluating the success of the outcome. Intelligent agents- a special-purpose knowledge-based information system that accomplishes specific tasks in behalf of its users....