BUS361-S210-S1.txt

IS/IT can help all kinds of businesses improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their business processes, managerial decision making, and workgroup collaboration, thus strengthening their competitive positions in a rapidly changing marketplace.Internet-based systems have become a necessary ingredient for business success in today’s dynamic global environment. IS/IT are playing an expanding role in business.

IS is any organized combination of people, hardware, software, communications networks, and data resources that stores, retrieves, transforms, and disseminates information in an organization.

• IS – all components and resources necessary to deliver information and information processing functions to the organization.
• IT – various hardware & software components necessary for the system to operate

• Computer Hardware Technologies - including microcomputers, midsize servers, and large mainframe systems, and the input, output, and storage devices that support them
• Computer Software Technologies - including operating system software, Web browsers, software productivity suites, and software for business applications like customer relationship management and supply chain management
• Telecommunications Network Technologies - including the telecommunications media, processors, and software needed to provide wire-based and wireless access and support for the Internet and private Internet-based networks
• Data Resource Management Technologies - including database management system software for the development, access, and maintenance of the databases of an organization

Can be defined as use of Internet technologies to internet work and empower business processes, electronic commerce, and enterprise communication and collaboration within a company and with its customers, suppliers, and other business stakeholders

Involve use of groupware tools to support communication,coordination, and collaboration among the members of networked teams and workgroups. An internet-worked e-business enterprise depends on intranets, the Internet,extranets, and other networks to implement such systems.

Is buying and selling, and marketing and servicing of products, services, and information over a variety of computer networks. An internet-worked e-business enterprise uses the Internet,intranets, extranets, and other networks to support every step of the commercial process.

• The role of a business firm’s OSS is to
• Effectively process business transactions
• Control industrial processes
• Support enterprise communications and collaboration
• Update corporate databases

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) focus on processing data generated by business transactions and operations. TPS’ record and process data resulting from business transactions (sales, purchases, inventory changes). TPS process transactions in two basic ways 1) Batch Processing 2) Real-time (or online) processing

• Operations Support Systems - Process Control Systems monitor and control physical processes. These computers are designed to automatically make decisions, which adjust the physical production process.
• Enterprise Collaboration Systems enhance team/workgroup communications and productivity (sometimes called office automation systems).
• Management Support Systems (MSS) MSS focus on providing information and support for effective decision making by managers.

• Conceptually, 3 major types of IS to support decision-making responsibilities:
• Management Information Systems (MIS)
• Decision Support Systems (DSS)
• Executive Information Systems (EIS)

• What uses of IT might be considered improper, irresponsible, or harmful to other individuals or to society?
• What is the proper use of an organization’s information resources?
• What does it take to be a responsible end user of IS/IT?
• How can you protect yourself from computer crime and other risks of information technology?

• Rising labor costs have resulting in large-scale movement to outsource programming functions to India, Middle East and Asia-Pacific countries.
• More new and exciting jobs emerge each day as organizations continue to expand their wide-scale use of IT.
• Frequent shortages of qualified information systems personnel.
• Constantly changing job requirements due to dynamic developments in business and IT ensure long-term job outlook in IT remains positive and exciting.

• A vital ingredient in developing competitive products and services that give an organization a strategic advantage in global marketplace.
• A dynamic, rewarding, and challenging career opportunity for millions of men and women. A key component of the resources,infrastructure, and capabilities of today’s networked business enterprise.

System Concepts. A system is a group of interrelated components working together toward a mon goal by accepting inputs and producing outputs in an organised transformation process. A system (sometimes called a dynamic system) has three basic interacting components or functions: Input, Processing. Output. A Cybernetic System is self-monitoring (feedback) & self-regulating (control). Feedback is data about the performance of a system. Control involves monitoring and evaluating feedback to determine whether a system is moving toward the achievement of its goals.

• People – end users and IS specialists
• Hardware – physical devices and materials used in information processing including computer systems, peripherals, and media
• Software - sets of information processing instructions including system software, application software and procedures
• Data - facts or observations about physical phenomena or business transactions
• Network - communications media and network infrastructure

• Data – raw facts or observations typically about physical phenomena or business transactions
• Information – data that have been converted into a meaningful and useful context for specific end users

• Communications Media – examples include twisted-pair wire, coaxial and fiber- optic cables, microwave, cellular, and satellite wireless technologies.
• Network Infrastructure – examples include communications processors such as modems and internetwork processors, and communications control software such as network operating systems and Internet browser packages.

• Input of Data Resources
• Processing of Data into Information
• Output of Information Products
• Storage of Data Resources
• Control of System Performance

A Strategic IS uses IT to help an organization gain a competitive advantage, reduce a competitive disadvantage, or meet other strategic enterprise objectives.

• Competitive Strategy Concepts
• A strategic IS can be any kind of IT (TPS, MIS, DSS, etc.) that helps an organisation.
• Gain a competitive advantage
• Reduce a competitive disadvantage
• Meet other strategic enterprise objectives

• Rivalry of competitors within its industry
• Threat of new entrants
• Threat of substitutes
• Bargaining power of customers
• Bargaining power of suppliers.

Value chain is a view of a firm as a chain or network of activities that add value to its products and services - thus add a margin of value both to the firm and its customers.

• Business value of a customer-focused business is:
• Keep customers loyal
• Anticipate customers’ future needs
• Respond to customer concerns
• Provide top quality customer service
• his strategy recognises that quality, rather than price.
• ‘Quality’ companies are able to:
• Keep track of their customers’ individual preferences
• Keep up with market trends
• Supply products, services and information anytime and anywhere
• Provide customer services tailored to individual needs

BPR is fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of business processes to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality,speed, and service.

What is Agility? Ability to prosper in rapidly changing, continually fragmenting global markets for high-quality, high performance, customer-configured products and services.

• What is Mass Customization?
• Providing individualized products while maintaining high volumes of production. An agile company can make a profit in markets with broad product ranges and short model lifetimes, and can produce orders individually and in arbitrary lot sizes.

• Virtual Company
• Virtual company uses Internet, intranets and extranets to link people, organizations, assets, and ideas.

• Share infrastructure and risk with alliance partners.
• Link complementary core competencies.
• Reduce concept-to-cash time through sharing.
• Increase facilities and market coverage.
• Gain access to new markets and share market or customer loyalty.
• Migrate from selling products to selling solutions.

• Definitions: Explicit Knowledge – data, documents, things written down or stored on computers Tacit Knowledge – the “how-tos” of knowledge, which reside in workers.
• Uses techniques, technologies, systems, and rewards for getting employees to share what they know and to make better use of accumulated workplace and enterprise knowledge.
• Creates new business knowledge, disseminating it widely throughout the company, and quickly building the new knowledge into their products and services.

• KMS can manage organizational learning and business know-how.
• Goal of KMS is to help knowledge workers create, organise, and make available important business knowledge, wherever and whenever it’s needed in an organisation.

• Facilitate organisational learning and knowledge creation.
• Use a variety of IT to collect and edit information, assess its value, disseminate it within the organization, and apply it as knowledge to the processes of a business.
• Sometimes called adaptive learning systems. Create cycles of organizational learning called learning loops, where the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge produces an adaptive learning process within a company.
• Provide rapid feedback to knowledge workers, encourage behaviour changes by employees, and significantly improve business performance. Knowledge-creating company integrates its knowledge into its business processes, products, and services.