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Microsoft Access 2019年5月8日

12:22

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Notes Page 1

Exam Notes Tuesday, May 28, 2019

12:01 AM

15 MC questions 2 short answer questions focusing on BIS fundamentals 2 case study questions focusing on applied knowledge Preparation: TBL Slides, textbook, TBL activities and any blackboard readings o Note: pay attention to Key take-aways and repetitions • Exam will NOT cover MSAccess, Lab content, and $RU case text • Part A (MCQs) will cover all topics • Part B and C will be on those topics not covered in mid-term, such as: o Business process management o Creating BPMN model o BIS ethics o Digital Commerce o Business Intelligence • • • •

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Week 1 - Introduction Sunday, 24 February 2019

10:47 PM

What is a busi busines nes nesss? • Purpos Purpose: e: ▪ Production of products + services (‘value adding’) ▪ Division of labour, dealing with complexity - Modern firms tend to be large that employees cannot be generalists. - Collaboration becomes challenging due to specialisation. - E.g. Sales vs R&D; R&D KPI is based on innovations (e.g. product features) while

Sales KPI is based on ‘sales’. More features (from R&D) increases price, which will hurt sales. ▪ Collaboration of individuals to achieve greater goal ▪ Governance + control ▪ Efficient allocation of resources (input/output) ▪ Effectiveness (Overall value/quality) ▪ Efficiency (Do things right → cost) ▪ Profit Manufactu actu acturin rin ringg ▪ Manuf - Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs); brandholders such as Toyota, Apple - Suppliers/license producers - Raw materials: steel, coal • How is it orga organised nised nised?? Functiona na nall orga organisa nisa nisatio tio tion: n: vertical and horizontal distribution of tasks ▪ Functio - Horizo Horizontal ntal → dividing organisation into different departments, all on the ‘same’

level (functional specialisation) dividing organisation into different hierarchical levels; who has more decision making rights? (chain of command) Processs organisa organisation: tion: no specific departments, but company is divided according to ▪ Proces what must be done (according to processes). Organise materials/value flow through the organisation; fulfil orders, get things done (operations) - Vertical →

- A lot of complexity to deal with; convoluted processes

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• Where does i t operat operate? e? In a market; as part of a supply chain. ▪ Competition is no longer between firms, it is now between business networks INFS1000? 0? Info Systems primarily concerned with business. • Why does i t matter for INFS100

What is an inform informatio atio ation n Syste System m (I (IS)? S)? • 5 fund fundam am amen en ental tal compo components nents of co compu mpu mputer-ba ter-ba ter-based sed IS [using example of Airline Reserv Reservation ation

System System]: ]: ▪ Computer hardware; anything you can touch/see/feel/ and define as a piece of computing or networking equipment; hundreds of computers, routers etc linked together ▪ Software; applications/programs that perform a function for you; hundreds of programs recording customer details, reservations etc ▪ Data; any information that a business needs to know; about flights, customers, reservations etc ▪ Procedures; what the information system allows you to do; followed by airline personnel, travel agents, customers ▪ People; Users/implementers + maintainers of the information system; customers, travel agents, airline staff, IT personnel differ ffer from IS? • How does IT di

assign n exampl examples es t o each part of I S - Be a ble to assig ▪ IT includes raw tech such as: hardware, software, data components. Will not help an

organisation achieve goals until it is embedded in an IS. - IS = I T + people + procedu procedure re ress

What is M MIS IS or BIS? • MIS: Management Information System • BIS: Business Information System • MIS = BIS (same thing in BIS context);; refer to the overall a cadem cademic ic disciplin discipline e that looks at the

development and use of IS’ helping businesses achieve goals + solve problems. • Key elemen elements ts of BIS: ▪ Business goals + objectives ▪ Information systems [IS (the 5 part one) is only PART of BIS] ▪ Information ▪ Business processes ▪ Development and use ▪ Change, innovation and transformation • Develop Development ment & Use of IS: any business professional needs to; ▪ Take an active role in IS ensuring systems meet their needs ▪ Understand what IS are and how they operate ▪ Understand what the impact of IS is on the workplace + organisation as a whole ▪ Learn to read + speak the language of IS professionals ▪ Consider Users’ needs during new development

Notes Page 4

▪ Learn how IT systems are developed • How success successfu fu full busines businesss profes profession sion sionals als use IS IS:: ▪ Email, websites + SMS do not provide competitive advantage ▪ Companies need IS that support the work of the business professionals ▪ Developing right IS requires inputs from those with the know nowledg ledg ledge e of the busine business ss not

just IT experts ▪ NOTE: think creatively about problems, challenges and opportunities and find ways to

apply IT + IS; create innovative applications using emerging technologies; find ways to gain a competitive advantage with IS.

Activ Activity ity [Do in Clas Class] s] Key ‘Take ‘Take--Aw Awaays’ • Business Organisation: hierarchy, functional specialisation, and processes • IS: 5 component framework, IS does not equal IT • Business Information Systems (Business first): o IS assist to achieve goals o IS support existing business operations

IS help innovate and create new business

Notes Page 5

Week 2 - Introduction to Business Processes Saturday, 2 March 2019

2:17 PM

• KEY CONCEPT: characteristics of well-designed business processes

• How did this st stuff uff get he here? re? ▪ The various parts of a business must work together as an integrated system - Flows of information and documents (e.g. purchase orders) - Flows of materials and products (within and across businesses) - Flows of money (payments) Businesss process processes es must be specified, executed and managed for a business to function ▪ Busines cross-fu nction nctional al (?) ▪ Often cross-function

process? s? • What is a business proces businesss process (BP) is a structured network of activities supported by resources, ▪ A busines facilities and information (inputs) that interact to achieve some business function. - BPs turn input into higher value output - A BP is a system; BP are sometimes referred to as business systems • Charac Characterist terist teristics ics of well-des well-design ign igned ed BP Complete: te: they include all activities necessary to achieve business goal ▪ Comple Minimal: l: do not include unnecessary activities (cost efficiency) ▪ Minima

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Well-structur uctur uctured: ed: activities are organised in a logical sequence. Everything is specified in ▪ Well-str advance, so if anything goes wrong you know what to do. Embedde de ded: d: logically connect with other BPs in organisation ▪ Embed Outcomes es of a well-des well-desig ig igned ned BP are: ➢ Outcom - Increased effectiveness (value for the customer) - Increased efficiency (less cost for company) • Levels of Abstra Abstractio ctio ction n ( i.e. level of detail) ▪ BPs exist on many different levels of a business ▪ On the highest level, the core value creation of a business can be depicted as one high-

level BP; - Source → Produce → Sell → Ship → Provide Service ▪ This BP can be broken down to smaller sub processes until describing granular activities at the work level - Receive document → Specify quantity → Update document → Send document to manager for approval → etc • Compo Components nents of a B P Activitiess: transform resources and information of one type into another type ▪ Activitie Decisions ns ns: questions that can be answered ‘yes’ or ‘no’ ▪ Decisio ▪ Roles Roles: Look after sets of procedures Resources ces ces: people, facilities or computer programs that are assigned to roles ▪ Resour Repositori ori ories es es: Collection of business records (databases) ▪ Reposit ▪ Data / inform informat at ation ion flow flow: Movement of a data item from one activity to another activity or to a repository/database • Exampl Example e of a process model in BPMN notati notation on (week 7/ 7/8) 8)

• Busines Businesss Infrast Infrastruct ruct ructure ure ▪ Repetitive use of IS gets standardised over time and becomes part of the infrastructure ▪ BP and IS are both part of the infrastructure and hence two sides of same coin ▪ Infrastructure drives efficiency How do IS support BP? • ▪ IS supports activities within a BP - Several activities may use one (integrated) IS - Activity may have its own IT system - Activity may use several IT systems ▪ New BP may require design of new IT systems ▪ New IS facilitates new activities, leading to change in existing BP (e.g. self-service kiosks) - From ‘as is’ to ‘to be’ process ▪ Some processes are automated (run by IT systems), while others are manual. There are

some business processes that deman demand d human accountability. These cannot be automated. (e.g. paying a supplier, if there’s an issue you can track down the person. Machine cannot be held accountable for incorrect payment).

Notes Page 7

• Benefi Benefits ts of IT use in BPs ▪ More accurate information - BPs draw on databases, which ensure accurate information across many activities

and BPs ▪ More automated - Some activities that were manual before can be automated ▪ More streamlined → faster - E.g. Enterprise applications such as ERP systems can facilitate quick hand-over of activities between workplaces ▪ More efficient → less cost - All of the above together can lead to significantlxy reduced cost

Notes Page 8

Week 3 - Strategy & Competitive Advantage Friday, 8 March 2019

12:31 PM

Competitive strategy affected IS: • IS helps organisations achieve business objectives • Devising objectives: ○ Organisations examine industry structure to understand opportunities and risks ○ Devise a competitive strategy to leverage opportunities and respond to risks ○ Design organisational structures and processes to implement strategy ○ Design (buy) and implement IS (features, applications) to execute processes

Porter’s 5 Forces • Determines industry structure • Be specific to business model in answers

Notes Page 9

▪

• Substitute: ○ A substitute provides same or similar utility for customer, but with different technology ○ Some substitutes have the potential to change markets ○ A competitor’s product is NOT a substitute ○ This is a , which is a type of ” Same but different = substitute" ○ Can replace product needs ○ e.g. uber substituting taxis

How does Analysis of Industry Structure Determine Competitive Strategy? ○ From the industry – to the Competitive Strategy, Porter identified four competitive strategies: ○ Cost Leader [you try to suppress production costs so you can undercut competitors prices] ▪ Broad cost leadership across industry (most efficient) ▪ Narrow cost leadership focused on particular industry segment (most efficient) ○ Differentiation [trying to make your product/service different along a dimension that your customers value. E.g. apple] ▪ Broad differentiation across industry (most effective) ▪ Narrow differentiation focused on particular industry segment (most effective) ○ Barney likes to ask students: Is infant baby formula broad or narrow? It is broad. Product type is not an indicator of whether a strategy is broad or narrow. (e.g. if you said ‘I sell rice’ that is obviously broad)

Notes Page 10

•

How does Competitive Strategy Determine Value Chain Structure? • Businesses need to organise internally to create and deliver products and services • A value chain is a network of value-creating activities that consist of: ○ Primary activities (add value directly to customers) ○ Support activities (assist primary activities) • This is a generic model that mainly fits manufacturing organisations • Porter’s value chain model:

▪

- Make sure it is specific to business (e.g. plane airlines will have suppliers (fuel/catering))

Activities in Value Chain • Each primary activity clearly adds value to the product • Highest level of abstraction --> detail each activity to run operations • Three support activities ○ Human Resources [training, recruitment, compensation] ○ Accounting and Infrastructure [general management, finance, accounting, legal] ○ Procurement and Technology [finding vendors, negotiating prices; R&D, new techniques, methods and procedures) • These support primary activities (e.g. production, sales, and service)

Notes Page 11

• They indirectly contribute to value creation for the customer

How do Value Chains relate to Business Processes and Information Systems? • Business processes: ○ Describe how to execute value creation (work) within or across parts of the value chain ○ Link together different parts of the value creation (e.g. integrated manufacturing planning) → cross-functional processes ○ An IS may then be designed to support the business process EXAMPLE: High-Value Bike Rental • Bike rental company uses a computer system to maintain customer data in the customer database and bike data in a bike inventory database • Two strategic options: Cost Strategy or differentiation (value) strategy ○ Reducing costs: Eliminate Rental personnel ▪ Bicycles could be placed on racks with locks that customers can open with hotel room keys; ▪ The bike would be rented until customer places the bike back on the rack ○ Increase value of the process: ▪ The rental agency could rent additional types of equipment or sell clothing/beverages ▪ Personalised services increase value and experience for customers

•

How IS provide competitive advantage Principles of competitive advantage • Product implementations 1. Create a new product or service 2. Enhance products or services 3. Differentiate products or services • Process implementations 4. Lock in customers and buyers 5. Lock in suppliers 6. Raise barriers to market entry 7. Establish alliances 8. Reduce costs

Notes Page 12

Competitive Advantage via Business Process Design • Lock in customers ○ By creating high switching costs • Lock in suppliers ○ Make it easy to connect to and work with your organisation ○ E.g. cross-organisational just-in-time delivery process • Create entry barriers for new entrants ○ Make it difficult (expensive) for new competitors to enter a market ○ E.g. economies of scale through process optimisation Establish alliances with competitors • ○ Standardise processes, share costs, develop joint processes ○ E.g. Airline alliances, such as Star Alliance, One World

Notes Page 13

Week 4 - Database & Information Friday, 15 March 2019

11:02 AM

Purpose of a Database objects cts • To store + organise info on important business obje ○ Things, people and processes with over one instance that we want to collect info about. E.g. customers, products, suppliers, transaction, equipment, location, staff • Spreadsheet can only keep list of a single busine business ss object (e.g. data about customers),

databases are more useful • Databases keep lists of multip multiple le busines businesss objects and thei theirr interrela interrelatio tio tionsh nsh nship ip ipss (e.g.

customers and their purchases, suppliers and deliveries, equipment and its availability) What are relevant business objects in Majestic River Ventures (MRV) example - Runs river rafting tours on rivers in Vic and NSW - Takes bookin bookings gs from guests all over the world - Hires independent guides

Overview:

• User ○ anyone who uses data • Database application: ○ what the user interacts with to use the database (electronic forms, reports). ○ Allows user to specify commands, which is passed on to DBMS. • DBMS: ○ system that runs actual functions of Database ○ Let's you add, modify, delete, retrieve records • Database: ○ sort of a ‘hard disk’ with one function; to store things. ○ Stores tables, relationships (between tables), and metadata

What does a database contain? • Definition: A database is a self-describing collection of integrated records, • Contains

Notes Page 14

1. Tables 2. relationships among tables 3. metadata [data about data] since a database is self-describing

1. Tables: • Represent business objects • Hierarchy of data elements [THIS IS A FREQUENTLY OCCURING EXAM QUESTION]: Bytes/cha ha haract ract racters ers are every letter, number, punctuation etc; grouped into ○ Bytes/c columns/fields ○ Column Columns/field s/field s/fieldss grouped into rows/records Rows/records ecords are grouped into tables/files ○ Rows/r

-

2. Relationships among tables • Relationships exist between rows in different tables business ss rules ○ Implement and represent busine • E.g.: ○ Studen Students’ ts’ interactions with the university on Email or during Office visits ○ How many tables? 3 table tables; s; student, email, office_visit ○ How many relationships? 2 relat relation ion ionships; ships; students send emails; students visit

office Primar Primaryy key is a field that uniquely describes each table. Foreig Foreign n key ey: primary key you import from somewhere else Relation Relationships ships betwe between en ro rows ws are linked by keys: Values in one table may relate to rows/records in another Primar Primaryy key (PK): ○ Column or group of columns that uniquely identifies a row in a table ○ Each table has a primary key • Foreig Foreign n Keys (FK): ○ Fields that are Primary Keys in other tables • The two keys create a relation relationship ship (Primary key → Foreign Key) • Relational databases are those using tables, PKs and FKs • • • • •

3. Metadata • Data about the data ○ Supports the organisation and management of the database ○ E.g.: field name, data type, field properties, description

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What is a DBMS and what does it do? • Database Management System (DBMS) ○ Program used to create, process and administer a database ○ Typically uses SQL (Structured Query Language) ○ Usually licensed from vendors ○ Examples: Oracle, MySQL, IBM DB2, (Microsoft Access) • a DBMS and a database are different ○ A DBMS is a software program ○ A database is a collection of tables, relationships and metadata

What is a Database Application? • Collection of forms, reports, queries, and application programs that make use of a database Forms: • Forms ○ used to read, insert, modify and delete data • Report Reportss: ○ Show data in a structured context ○ may compute values ○ used for analysing data Queriess: • Querie ○ means of getting answers from database data ○ queries feed into reports

Use of Multiple Database applications:

Database Development Processes

Notes Page 16

Creating a database: Data Modelling • Also called; conceptual modelling, Entity Relationship Modelling (ER Modelling) • ER/Data Modelling business ess object objectss (entities (entities)) you want to ○ Identifying and graphically representing busin store information about (customers, products, suppliers) relations ons onship hip hipss betwee between n en entities tities ○ Representing the logical relati ○ The outcome of ER Modelling = a data model

Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) (definitely be in exam) • Several notations exist for data models Notation ion because it is relatively easy to use + understand •...