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BSYS 3355 Final Notes

Chapter 1 What Is New in Management Information Systems? There are three interrelated changes in the technology area: (1) the emerging mobile digital platform, (2) the growing business use of big data, and (3) the growth in cloud computing, where more and more business software run over the Internet. Managers are increasingly using these devices to coordinate work, communicate with employees, and provide information for decision making. We call these developments the “emerging mobile digital platform”.

BSYS 3355 Final Notes

The Emerging Digital Firm Digital Firm: Organization where nearly all significant business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, and employees are digitally enabled, and key corporate assets are managed through digital means. · Greater flexibility in global organization and management

BSYS 3355 Final Notes · Space shifting means that work takes place in a global workshop, as well as within national boundaries. Work is accomplished physically wherever in the world it is best accomplished. · Time shifting refers to business being conducted continuously, 24/7, rather than in narrow “work day” time bands of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Strategic Business Objectives of Information Systems Growing interdependence between: · Ability to use information technology and · Ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve corporate goals

Firms invest heavily in information systems to achieve six strategic business objectives: 1. Operational excellence - Businesses continually seek to improve the efficiency of their operations in order to achieve higher profitability. 2.

New products, services, and business models- A business model describes how a company produces, delivers, and sells a product or service to create wealth.  Example: the music industry and Apple’s introduction of iTunes.

2. Customer and supplier intimacy - When a business really knows its customers and serves them well, the customers generally respond by returning and purchasing more.  Example: High-end hotels that use computers to track customer preferences and then monitor and customize the environment.  Nygard, Canadian based clothing company informs supplier electronically and expects just-in-time delivery resulting in near zero inventory cost. 3. Improved decision making – Without accurate information: Managers must use forecasts, best guesses, luck 4. Results in:  Overproduction, underproduction  Misallocation of resources  Poor response times

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Poor outcomes raise costs, lose customers

5. Competitive advantage - Delivering better performance, charging less for superior products, responding to customers and suppliers in real time  Example: operational excellence; new products/services, and business models; customer/supplier intimacy; and improved decision making. 6. Survival - Information technologies are necessity of business.  Example: Citibank introduced the first automated teller machines (ATMs) in the New York region in 1977. As of today, virtually all banks now offer ATM because it has become a “necessity”. Providing ATM services to retail banking customers is simply a requirement of being in and surviving in the retail banking business.

What Is an Information System? Information Systems: · Set of interrelated components · Collect, process, store, and distribute information · Support decision making, coordination, and control Information: data shaped into meaningful form Data: streams of raw facts Three activities of information systems produce information organizations need:  Input: Captures raw data from organization or external environment  Processing: Converts raw data into meaningful form  Output: Transfers processed information to people or activities that use it An information system contains information about an organization and its surrounding environment. Three basic activities to produce the information organizations need input, processing, output Feedback is output returned to appropriate people or activities in the organization to evaluate and refine the input. Environmental actors, such as customers, suppliers, competitors, stockholders, and regulatory agencies, interact with the organization and its information systems.

Dimensions of Information Systems

BSYS 3355 Final Notes An information system creates value for the firm as an organizational and management solution to challenges posed by the environment. The field of management information systems (MIS) tries to achieve this broader information systems literacy 1.Organizations ● Senior management makes long-range strategic decisions about products and services and ensures the financial performance of the firm. ● Middle management carries out the programs and plans of senior management ● Operational management is responsible for monitoring the daily activities of the business. ● Knowledge workers, such as engineers, scientists, or architects, design products or services and create new knowledge for the firm. ● Data workers, such as secretaries or clerks, assist with scheduling and communications at all levels of the firm ● Production or service workers actually produce the product and deliver the service

The major business functions or functional areas, or specialized tasks performed by business organizations, consist of sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, and human resources.

2. Management · Managers set organizational strategy for responding to business challenges 3. Technology · Networking and telecommunications technology: consisting of both physical devices and software, links the various pieces of hardware and transfers data from one physical location to another

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Network: links two or more computers to share data or resources, such as a printer.

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Internet: largest and most widely used network. The “network of networks”.

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Extranets: Private intranets extended to authorized users outside the organization

(customers and suppliers) ·

Intranets: Internal corporate networks based on Internet technology

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World Wide Web: a service or information space provided on the Internet that uses

universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information in a page format on the Internet. Business information value chain: Raw data acquired and transformed through stages that add value to that information. · Value of information system determined in part by extent to which it leads to better decisions, greater efficiency, and higher profits Investing in information technology does not guarantee good returns Factors: · Adopting the right business model · Investing in complementary assets (organizational and management capital)

Complementary Assets: Organizational Capital and the Right Business Model Complementary assets Examples of organizational assets:  Appropriate business model  Efficient business processes Examples of managerial assets:  Incentives for management innovation  Teamwork and collaborative work environments Examples of social assets:  The Internet and telecommunications infrastructure  Technology standards Technical Approach: Emphasizes mathematically based models, computer science, management science, operations research

BSYS 3355 Final Notes Behavioral Approach: Behavioral issues (strategic business integration, implementation, etc.) Psychology, economics, sociology Sociotechnical view: Optimal organizational performance achieved by jointly optimizing both social and technical systems used in production. Helps avoid purely technological approach

Chapter 2 - Global E-business and Collaboration Business Processes and Info Systems: -

Must organize activities that use info to operate efficiently and enhance the overall performance

Business Processes: ● ● ●

Def’n: collection of activities required to produce a product/service & ways an organization coordinates work, ingo and knowledge Activities are supported by flows of material, information, knowledge among participants May be tied to ○ functional area: Ex – Production = assembling the product ○ Cross-functional: Order fulfillment:

How can IT improve business processes? ● Increasing efficiency of existing processes · Automating steps that were manual ● Enabling entirely new processes · Changing flow of information making it possible to: · more ppl to access and share info · Replacing sequential steps with parallel steps · Eliminating delays in decision making ● Changes the way a business works → Supporting new business models

BSYS 3355 Final Notes

Different IT Systems: Systems for management groups: Transaction processing systems(TPS): · Def’n: Perform and record daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business · Serve operational managers and staff · Examples: sales order entry, payroll, shipping · Answer routine questions & track the flow of transactions · central to business → short system failure may lead to decrease of performance to the business overall Systems for Business Intelligence: · focus on delivering info to support management decision making · BI: data and software tools for organizing, analyzing, and providing access to data to help managers and other enterprise users make more informed decisions; addresses business needs on all levels of management · Management Information Systems(MIS): information systems serving middle management. ➢ Provide routine reports on the organization’s current performance [have little analytic capability (transactional reports etc.)] ➢ Used to monitor, control and predict future performance ➢ Use simple routines (summaries & comparisons) · Decision Support Systems(DSS): focus on problems that are unique and rapidly changing and for which the procedure for arriving at a solution may not be fully predetermined in advance. ➢ Serve middle management ➢ Uses sophisticated analytics and models ➢ Often bring in info from external sources · Executive Support Systems (ESS): help senior management make these decisions. ➢ Address non-routine decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight. ➢ No agreed-upon procedure to arrive to solutions ➢ Incorporate data from external event & internal MIS and DSS ➢ Info often delivered to senior execs via a portal which uses a web interface

Systems for Linking the Enterprise Enterprise Applications: systems that span functional areas, focus on executing business processes across the business firm, and include all levels of management. ● Help business become more flexible & productive by: ○ coordinating processes more closely ○ Integrating processes

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may extend outside the organization. Ensure that TPS, MIS, DSS, and ESS work together smoothly. Four types: 1. Enterprise Systems (aka ERP): ● Integrate processes in manufacturing/production, finance/accounting, sales/marketing and human resources into a single software system 2. Supply Chain Management Systems (SCM): help manage relationships with their suppliers ● Interorganizational (cross organizational boundaries) ● Help suppliers, purchasing firms, distributors and logistic companies share info so they can source, produce and deliver goods efficiently ● Goal: get right amount of product in the least amt of time and at the lowest cost → increase profitability because managers can make better decisions on how to schedule sourcing, production and distribution 3. Customer Relationship Management Systems: ● Provide info to coordinate all processes that deal with customers to increase sales, optimize revenue, customer satisfaction and retention 4. Knowledge Management Systems(KMS): collect all relevant knowledge and experience in the firm, and make it available wherever and whenever it is needed to improve business processes and management decisions ● Enable organizations to better manage processes for capturing and applying knowledge/expertise

Intranets and extranets: alternative tools for increasing integration and expediting the flow of information w/in the firm and with customers and suppliers ● Intranet: internal websites accessible only by employees ● Extranets: websites that are accessible to authorized vendors and suppliers to coordinate the movement of supplies

E-Business, E-commerce and E-Government E-Business: Use of digital technology and Internet to drive major business processes E-Commerce: Subset of e-business - buying and selling goods and services through Internet E-government: Using Internet technology to deliver information and services to citizens, employees, and businesses ● Makes operations more efficient and and also empower citizens by giving that access to info and ability to network with other citizens

Systems for Collaboration and Social Business Collaboration: is working with others to achieve shared and explicit goals ● Can be long or short term; one-to-one or many-to-many; formal or informal

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Teams: have a specific mission that someone in the business that is assigned to them, collaborate on specific tasks Important for current days compared to the past because:: ○ Changing nature of work: change from pre-computerized office work ○ Growth of professional work: jobs that require high interaction tend to be “professional” jobs (one that require higher education, higher degree of info sharing, expertise in specializations ○ Changing organization of firms: work is done in teams/groups rather than the traditional hierarchy

Social Business: the use of social networking platforms (Facebook, Twitter etc.) and internal corporate social tools, such as blogs—to engage their employees, customers, and suppliers. ● Aims to deepen interactions and expedite information sharing ● Can allow more direct conversation between employees and individuals outside the organization, such as customers → allow more efficient work and way to discover business solutions Benefits of collaboration and social media: ● More collaborative = more successful ● Investments made in collaboration saw a ROI of over 4 times

Building collaborative culture and business processes: ● ● ●

Teams are rewarded for performance Function of middle manager is to built, coordinate and monitor teams Function of senior managers is to establish a working environment that fosters teams and collaboration

Tools for collaboration: ● ● ● ● ● ●

Email & IM Wikis: websites that allow user to contribute and edit content w/o the need for technical expertise/knowledge Virtual worlds: 3-d environments populated by avatars Social business platforms: Virtual meeting systems: video conferencing, some include telepresence, an integrated audio and visual environment such as holograms Google Apps/Sites and Cloud Collaboration Services

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Cyberlockers: online file sharing services that allow users to upload les to secure online storage sites from which the les can be shared with others. (ie google drive) Microsoft Sharepoint: a browser-based collaboration and document management platform, combined with a powerful search engine that is installed on corporate servers ○ Has a web-faced interface and integrated with Microsoft office programs Lotus notes: collaborative software with the capabilities of sharing calendars, collective writing/editing, shred database access, electronic meetings Enterprise Social Networking Tools: create business value by connecting the members of an organization through pro les, updates, and notifications, similar to Facebook features, but tailored to internal corporate uses

Six steps in evaluating software tools: 1. Identify your firm’s collaboration challenges → locate ur firm in the time/space matrix 2. Identify what kind of solutions are available 3. Analyze available products’ cost and benefits 4. Evaluate security risks 5. Consult users for implementation and training issues 6. Evaluate product vendors

BSYS 3355 Final Notes

Information Systems Function in Business IT Department: formal unit responsible for technology services ● Consist of: ○ Programmers ○ Systems analysts: as the principal liaison between info systems groups and the rest of the organization, they translate business problems and requirements into info requirements and systems ○ Infor systems managers: leaders of teams of programmers and analysts, project managers, physical facility managers, telecommunications managers, or database specialists ○ CIO: senior managers who oversees the use of info tech in the firm ○ Other senior positions include chief security officer (CSO) (oversees tech’s security), chief knowledge officer (CKO) (helps design programs and systems to find new sources of knowledge or make better use of existing knowledge, chief privacy officer (CPO), chief data officer (CDO) ○ End users: reps of departments outside of IT that use the systems that are developed Organizing the info systems function: How info systems department should be organized is part of a larger issue of IT governance: includes the strategy and policies for using information technology within an organization

Chapter 3 - Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy - Gabe Information technology and organizations influence each other

BSYS 3355 Final Notes

Organization: Technical definition: stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs. This definition encourage us to focus on how inputs are combined to create the outputs. The main three resource they focus on is capital, labour, and information technology. Behavioural definition: A collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that is delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution. Most of these arrangements and feelings are usually not in a formal rule book. This definition suggests that developing new info systems, or redeveloping old ones, involves much more than a technical rearrangement of machines and workers. Information Systems Changes the Organization: ● Can shift the organizational balance of rights, privileges, obligations, responsibilities, and feelings that have been established over a long period of time. ● can take a while and be very disruptive ● need resources to support training and maintenance ● When implementing a new system usually takes longer than expected because of the lag between implementing the system and training people.

The technical and behavioural definitions do not contradict each other, they complement each other. The technical definition tells us how other firms in competitive markets combine their resources and the behavioural definition tells us how technology can affect a firm’s organization and explain the relationships between information systems and organizations.

BSYS 3355 Final Notes

Features of Organizations ● ● ● ● ●

Use of hierarchical structure ○ To have rules and order. Accountability, authority in system of impartial decision making ○ Everyone can be held accountable by their actions. Adherence to principle of efficiency ○ Limiting inputs and maximizing outputs Routines and business processes Organizational politics, culture, environments, and structures

Routines and Business Process ● ● ●

Routines (standard operating procedures): Precise rules, procedures, and practices developed to cope with virtually all expected situations Business Processes: collection of routines Business Firm: collection of processes

Organizational Politics: ● Divergent viewpoints lead to political struggle, competition, and conflict.

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