MIS 301 Exam 1

A system that helps manage organizations efficiently and effectively; the study of people, technology and organizations, teaches how to use technology to improve life and business

adds efficiency and competitive advantage

Complex Adaptive Systems: contain a large number of elements, no one element understands the entire system, have rich interaction, operate in an open system, operate far from equilibrium, any agent can influence and be influenced by other agents, demonstrate emergent behavior, affected by positive or negative feedback loops, unknowable and unpredictable, self organize into patters, can experience big change from small causes (Think basketball team)

A pathway formed by an effect returning its cause and generating either more (positive) or less (negative) of the same effect

Small random changes can lead to radically different outcomes

long periods where nothing changes followed by short revolutionary transitions (stock market, weather, music industry, media delivery)

Where a business should manage innovation; a CAS characteristic between a stable business structure and changing

contracting out of a business process, which an organization may have previously performed internally or has new need for

Outsourcing a job traditionally performed by a designated agent to an undefined large group of people in the form of an open call 

Price equals Revenue minus Cost

Focused externally describing how a firm is positioned within its industry:

• -Potential New Entrants
• -Power of buyers
• -Threat of substitute products/services
• -Power of Suppliers
• -Rivalry among existing competitors 

Deliberately chosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value

Sustainable Competitive Advantage-ability to consistently outperform industry peers 

Operational Effectiveness: margin eroding, sameness, technology is imitable; performing the same tasks better than rivals can perform them 

Strategic Positioning: performing different tasks than rivals or the same task in different ways 

Resources must be: Valuable, Rare, Imperfectly Imitable, Nonsubstitutable 

Imitation resistant value chain, brand, scale, switching cost/data, differentiation, network effect, patent (legal power)

make is difficult for other firms to enter an industry and compete; this provides a more likely sustainable profit (NFL)

Brand, Regulation, Distribution Channels, Capital Intensity, Switching Cost, Network Effects

A cost that a consumer incurs when switching from one product to another (Gmail)

exist if the value of a network increases with the number of users

*adds value:exchange value, complementary benefits, staying power

Develop a new product or service, enhance products or services, differentiate products/services, lock in customers, lock in suppliers, raise barriers to market entry, establish alliances, reduce costs

• Industry Wide Scope:
• Cost-lowest cost across the industry
• Differentiation-Better product/service across the industry

• Focused Scope:
• Cost-Lowest cost within an industry segment
• Differentiation-better product/service within an industry segment 

Industry Structure-Competitive Advantage-Value Chains-Business Processes-Information Systems 

Examine, Choose, Link, Streamline, Design 

set of activities through which a product or service is created and delivered to customers

• Internally focused, showing how products or information flow through an organization
• *improvement in any step has the potential to increase profitability 

• Support Fuctions:
• Infrastructure-GM, planning, finance, IS
• HRM-recruiting, hiring, training, development
• Technology-research and development
• Procurement-buying power

• Primary Fuctions:
• Inbound logistics-Operations-Outbound Logistics-Marketing and Sales- Service

Log on to website-Place order- Save order- pay for order- Assemble order-Ship order-Update customer shopping list 

Hardware-Software-Data-Process-People

• Actors-Hardware and People
• Instructions-Software and Process
• <-Automation moves work from human to computer side
• ->increasing degree of difficulty to change

Automation speeds up process unless a complex decision is needed 

when a company owns more if its value (Zara)

• knowledge is derived from Data 
• Data-(context)-Information-(meaning)-Knowledge-(insight)-Wisdom

network of organizations and facilities that transforms raw materials into products delivered to customers 

Customers-Retailers-Distributors-Manufacturers-Suppliers

• Applies to the Network Effect
• Value=Users²

the size of network you can connect with (Xbox live)

products and services that add value to the product to provide complementary benefits 

more positive feedback loops as an increase in the number of users on one side of the market creates a rise in the other side (users attract developers)

market in which there are potential buyers or potential sellers, not both (IM)

When network effects are present, markets may reach a tipping point where network effects become so valueable that one winner emerges 

move early, subsidize adoption, refine the market (blue ocean strategy), form alliances and partnerships, establish distribution channels, seed the market with complements, maintain backward capability, use open standards

keyboard, mouse, scanners, barcode scanners, video cameras, microphones 

Central Processing Unit (CPU)- selects instructions, processes them, performs arithmetic and logical comparisons and stores operations in memory 

Main Memory (RAM)-volatile 

Special Function Cards- enhance basic capabilities on things like video cards 

video displays, printers, audio speakers, overhead projectors

• Magnetic Disks (hard drives)
• Optical Dicks (CD, DVD)
• Magnetic Tape
• Flash Drives
• Storage Area Network (SAN)

• bits: 0 and 1 
• represent switches, orientation, holes

• Applies to chips
• The speed of a computer doubles at half the price every 18 months

*exponential growth 

Massively Parallel- computers designed wit many microprocessors that work together simultaneously to solve problems 

uses special software to enable several computers to work together as if they were massively paralleled 

electronic waste that typically ends up overseas with high environmental and human costs

a computing program or a collection of programs, a precise set of instructions that tells hardware what to do 

the software that controls the computer hardware and established standards for developing and executing applications; interface between hardware and user applications; responsible for managing and coordinating tasks and sharing the computer's resources (Windows, Linux, Mac OSx)

*Every computing device has an operating system

User-Application-Operating System-Hardware

products and services that allow for the development and integration of software products and other complementary goods 

Platform Competition- competing for both consumers and applications developers 

include desktop applications, enterprise software and other programs, perform specific tasks with a specific operating system and utilize specific hardware

• typically involved with very basic low level operations; software (control programs) stored on nonvolatile, often read only, memory chips
• *many products allow for firmware to be upgraded online or by connecting to another device 

Special purpose software designed and included inside physical products (often as firmware)

performs the work that users and firms are directly interested in accomplishing

Applications used on a personal computing decide typically supporting tasks performed by a single user

Applications that address the needs of multiple users throughout an organization or work group

*ERP, SCM, CRM, BI

• Enterprise Resource Planning
• software package that integrates the many functions of a business

Customer Relationship Management

Systems used to support customer related sales and marketing activities 

• Supply Chain Management
• Systems that can help a firm manage aspects of its value chain, from the flow of raw materials into the firm, through delivery of finished products and services and the Point of Consumption

• Business Intelligence 
• systems that use data created by other systems to provide reporting and analysis for organizational decision making 

• sometimes referred to as database software, it is software used for creating, maintaining and manipulating data 
• *most enterprise software works in conjunction with DBMS

programmers write software in a programming language- provides the standards, syntax, statements, and instructioons for writing computer software 

• Python
• JAVA
• PHP
• C++
• Assembly Language
• C
• Binary 

Marginal Cost=$0

• Complementary Products
• Upgrades
• Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMS)
• Independent Software Vendors (ISV)
• Bundling
• Network Externalities 

• Ease of Use
• Proprietary Environments
• Design
• Buyer Loyalty 
• Strong Brand
• Dominance SW Segments (desktop publishing, education)

allow any company to use a technology, helps drive penetration, growing the networks users

• software that is free and where anyone can look at and potentially modify the code
• Users freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software (firefox, open office, MySQL)

Firms chose because: cost, reliability, security, scalability, agility and time to market

• Linux OS
• Apache Web Server Software
• MySQL Datable
• Programing Languages (Perl, Python, PHP)

OSS diverts funds that firms would otherwise spend on fixed costs so that these funds can be spent on innovation and other competitive initiatives 

A form of computing where systems in different locations communicate and collaborate to complete a task 

Hardware context- server is a computer that has been configured to support requests from other computers (clients)

Software Context- server is a program that fulfills requests 

software that houses websites and its underlying hardware

Software that houses underlying applications along with its underlying harware

Software (and its underlying hardware) provides database services to other computing devices

• lowers costs
• lowers ongoing investment in internal infrastructure 
• control of budget more tightly for predictable osts
• get work done more efficiently/effectively 
• focus on core competencies 
• make up for lack of in house resources
• increase flexibility to meet changing business and commercial conditions 
• access to innovation and thought leadership

• Loss of Control
• Benefits outweighed by long term costs
• No Easy Exit

usually meas computing resources (hardware/software) with services provided over the internet (cloud)

• Software as a Service
• Software that is made available by a 3rd party called Application Service Provider (ASP) online
• *don't install software, let someone else run it for you and deliver the results over the internet 

• a cloud computing model in which a service provider makes computing resources such as hardware and storage along with infrastructure management, available to a customer on an as needed basis 
• Utility Computing 

• Lower cost
• Mitigate Financial Risk
• Faster deployment times
• Variable operating expense
• Scalable Systems
• Higher Quality and Service Levels
• Remote Access and Availability 

• Dependence on a single vendor 
• Long Term Viability of Partner Firms
• Users may be forced to migrate, incurring unforeseen switching costs
• Might not have all features of desktop software
• Date Assest store off site- security/legal concerns
• Reliance on a network connection 

• Total Cost Ownership
• Components:
• software and license support
• Implementation and Deployment Costs
• Ongoing Operational Support
• Strategic Development Costs 

Returns true if all of its arguments are true; returns false if one or more arguments are false

Syntax: AND(logical 1,[logical2],..)

• A1=85
• Formula for A2: AND(A1>0,A1>100) A2=False

Returns true if any argument is true, returns false if all arguments are false

Syntax:OR(logical1,[logical2],...)

• Cell A1=85
• Formula for A2: OR(A1>0,A1>100) A2=true

returns one calue if a condition you specify evaluates true, and another value if that condition evaluates false 

Syntax: IF(logical test, [value if true],[value if false])

• Cell A1=85
• Formula for A2: IF(A1>100,"good","bad")
• A2:bad

When two or more versions are tested simultaneously to measure which works better

• $A$1-column and row reference are fixed
• $A1-column reference is fixed, row will change
• A$1-column with chain, row reference is fixed

The joint evolution of two or more systems that interact with each other. For example, Google and Facebook will react to each other’s innovations by creating their own innovations, causing both firms to “evolve.”

A measure of the relative use of capital, compared to other factors such as labor, in a production process. Often measured by the ratio of capital to labor, or by the share of capital in factor payments.

When costs can be spread across increasing units of production or in serving multiple customers. Businesses that have favorable economies of scale (like many Internet firms) are sometimes referred to as being highly scalable.

Attempts to occupy more than one position, while failing to match the benefits of a more efficient, singularly focused rival.

A market where there are many buyers but only one dominant seller.

business expenses that are not dependent on the level of goods or services produced by the business. They tend to be time-related, such as salaries or rents being paid per month, and are often referred to as overhead costs.

The mechanism through which users interact with a computing device. The UI includes elements of the graphical user interface (or GUI, pronounced “gooey”), such as windows, scroll bars, buttons, menus, and dialogue boxes; and can also include other forms of interaction, such as touch screens, motion sensing controllers, or tactile devices used by the visually impaired.

The portion of a market controlled by a particular company or product.