BUS361-S210-S5.txt

• Strategic Planning:
• Deals with the development of an organization’s mission, goals, strategies, and policies. Begins with strategic visioning questions.
• Tactical Planning:
• The setting of objectives and the development of procedures, rules, schedules, and budgets.
• Operational Planning:
• Done on a short-term basis to implement and control day-to-day operations.

• Teams of managers and planners participate in microworld or virtual world exercises. Business scenarios are created and evaluated. Alternative scenarios are then created.
• Gaining in popularity as a less formal, but more realistic, strategic planning methodology.

• Betting on new IT innovations can mean betting the future of the company.
• Leading-edge firms are sometimes said to be on the “bleeding edge”.
• Almost any business executive is aware of disastrous projects that had to be written off, often after large cost overruns, because the promised new systems simply did not work.

• Strategy Development – developing business strategies that support a company’s business vision.
• Resource Management – developing strategic plans for managing or out-sourcing a company’s IT resources.
• Technology Architecture – making strategic IT choices that reflect an information technology architecture designed to support a company’s e-business and other business/IT initiatives.

• A conceptual design that includes:
• Technology Platform – networks, computer systems, system software and integrated enterprise application software
• Data Resources – databases
• Applications Architecture – business applications
• IT Organization – organizational structure of the IS function and distribution of IS specialists

• Method for measuring company’s activities in terms of its vision and strategies.
• Financial Perspective – Financial performance measures
• Customer Perspective – Measures impact on customer
• Business Process Perspective – Measures performance of key business process
• Learning and Growth Perspective – Measures company’s learning curve

Identifying Business/IT Strategies-Strategic Positioning Matrix Cost and Efficiency Improvements – use Internet as a fast, low-cost way to communicate and interact with customers, suppliers, and business partners Performance Improvement in Business Effectiveness – widespread internal use of Internet-based technologies to improve information sharing and collaboration within the business and with trading partners Global Market Penetration – build e-commerce websites with value-added information services and extensive online customer support Product and Service Transformation – use the Internet for electronic commerce transaction processing with customers at company websites, and e-commerce auctions and exchanges for suppliers

Includes the evaluation of proposals made by the IT management of a company for using information technology to accomplish the strategic business priorities developed earlier in the planning process

Combines contemporary strategic planning methods like SWOT analysis and alternative planning scenarios with more recent business modeling and application development methodologies like component-based development

• Proper education and training
• Improved communications with IS professionals
• Involvement and commitment of top management and all other business stakeholders.
• End user involvement in organizational changes, and in development of new information systems

• Involve as many people as possible in e-business planning and application development
• Make constant change an expected part of the culture
• Tell everyone as much as possible about everything as often as possible, preferably in person
• Make liberal use of financial incentives and recognition
• Work within the company culture, not around it

• Systems Approach is a problem-solving technique that uses a systems orientation to define problems and opportunities and develop solutions.
• It’s analyzing a problem and formulating a solution involves the following interrelated activities:
• Recognize and define a problem or opportunity using systems thinking
• Develop and evaluate alternative system solutions
• Select the system solution that best meets your requirements
• Design the selected system solution
• Implement and evaluate the success of the designed system

• Seeing the forest and the trees in any situation by:
• Seeing interrelationships among systems rather than linear cause-and-effect chains whenever events occur
• Seeing processes of change among systems rather than discrete snapshots of change, whenever changes occur

Rapid development and testing of working models, or prototypes, of new applications in an interactive, iterative process that can be used by both IS specialists and business professionals

• Involves consideration of proposals generated by an e-business planning process.
• Includes the preliminary study of proposed IS solutions to meet a company’s e-business priorities and opportunities.

• Determining how to address e-business opportunities and priorities.
• Conducting a feasibility study to determine whether a new or improved e-business system is a feasible solution.
• Developing a project management plan and obtaining management approval.

A preliminary study where the information needs of prospective users and the resource requirements, costs, benefits, and feasibility of a proposed project are determined

• Organizational – how well a proposed system supports the strategic business priorities of the organization
• Economic – whether expected cost savings, increased revenue, increased profits, reductions in required investment, and other types of benefits will exceed the costs of developing and operating a proposed system
• Technical Feasibility - Focuses on the reliabilities/capabilities of the hardware and software to meet the needs of the proposed system, and whether they can be acquired or developed in the required time.
• Operational Feasibility - Focuses on the willingness and ability of the management, employees, customers, suppliers, and others to operate, use, and support the proposed system.

Cost/Benefit Analysis Tangible Costs: Costs and benefits that can be quantified (e.g., cost of hardware and software, employee salaries, and other quantifiable costs needed to develop and implement a solution). Intangible Costs: Costs and benefits that cannot be quantified (e.g., loss of customer goodwill or employee morale caused by errors and disruptions arising from the installation of a new system). Tangible Benefits: Tangible benefits are favorable results (e.g., decrease in payroll costs caused by a reduction in personnel or a decrease in inventory carrying costs caused by a reduction in inventory) Intangible Benefits: Intangible benefits are hard to estimate (e.g., better customer service or faster and more accurate information for management).

An in-depth study of end user information needs that produces functional requirements that are used as the basis for the design of a new information system

• The information needs of a company and end users.
• The activities, resources, and products of one or more of the present information systems being used.
• The information system capabilities required to meet information needs of users, and those of other business stakeholders that may use the system.

• Management Structure
• People
• Business Activities
• Environmental Systems
• Current Information Systems

• Before designing a new system, it is important to study the system to be improved or replaced
• Hardware and software
• Network
• People resources used to convert data resources into information products
• System activities of input, processing, output, storage, and control

• A logical model is a blueprint of the current system
• It displays what the current system does, without regard to how it does it
• It allows an analyst to understand the processes, functions, and data associated with a system without getting bogged down with hardware and software

This step of systems analysis is one of the most difficult: Determine what type of information each business activity requires Try to determine the information processing capabilities required for each system activity The goal is to identify what should be done, not how to do it

• User Interface: automatic entry of product data and easy-to-use data entry screens for Web customers
• Processing: fast, automatic calculation of sales totals and shipping costs
• Storage: fast retrieval and update of data from product, pricing, and customer databases
• Control: signals for data entry errors and quick e-mail confirmation for customers

An in-depth study of end user information needs that produces functional requirements that are used as the basis for the design of a new information system

• Focuses on supporting the interactions between end users and their computer-based applications
• Designers concentrate on the design of attractive and efficient forms of user input and output
• Frequently a prototyping process
• Produces detailed design specifications for information products, such as display screens

• Remember the customer – successful websites are built solely for the customer
• Aesthetics – successful designs combine fast-loading graphics and simple color palettes for pages that are easy to read
• Broadband Content – the Web’s coolest stuff can’t be accessed by most Web surfers; don’t make it the focus of a site
• Easy to navigate – make sure it’s easy to get from one part of site to another
• Searchability – include a useful search engine
• Incompatibilities – test site with target web browsers
• Registration forms – short registration forms are a useful way to gather customer data
• Dead links – be sure to keep links updated

• User interface specifications:
• Use personalized screens that welcome repeat Web customers and that make product recommendations
• Database
• Develop databases that use object/relational database management software to organize access to all customer and inventory data and to multimedia product information

Acquire an e-commerce software engine to process all e-commerce transactions with fast responses, i.e., retrieve necessary product data and compute all sales amounts in less than one second

Install redundant networked Web servers and sufficient high-bandwidth telecommunications lines to host the company e-commerce website

Hire an e-commerce manager and specialists and a webmaster and Web designer to plan, develop, and manage e-commerce operations

• IS professionals play a consulting role, while users do their own application development
• A staff of user consultants may be available to help with analysis, design, and installation

• Application package training
• Hardware and software advice
• Help gaining access to organization databases

• Look for tools that make sense
• Spur creativity
• Set some limits
• Give managers responsibility
• Make users comfortable
• Training will make users more confident
• It can save the IT department the trouble of fixing problems later on
• It can limit the need for continuous support

• Hardware and software acquisition
• Software development
• Testing of programs and procedures
• Conversion of data resources
• Conversion alternatives
• Education and training of end users and specialists who will operate a new system

Establish minimum physical and performance characteristics for all hardware and software Formalize these requirements in an RFP/RFQ Send RFP/RFQ to appropriate vendors Evaluate bids when received All claims must be demonstrated Obtain recommendations from other users Search independent sources for evaluations Benchmark test programs and test data

• Performance
• Cost
• Reliability
• Compatibility
• Technology
• Ergonomics
• Connectivity
• Scalability
• Software
• Support

• Quality
• Efficiency
• Flexibility
• Security
• Connectivity
• Maintenance
• Documentation
• Hardware
• Software that is slow, hard to use, bug-filled, or poorly documented is not a good choice at any price

• Developing a company website
• Installation or conversion of hardware/software
• Employee training
• Hardware maintenance
• System design and/or integration
• Contract programming
• Consulting services

• Performance
• Systems development
• Maintenance
• Conversion
• Training
• Backup facilities and services
• Accessibility to sales and support
• Business position and financial strength
• Hardware selection and compatibility
• Software packages offered

Testing and debugging software Testing website performance Testing new hardware Review of prototypes Data conversion Converting data elements from the old database to the new database: Correcting data errors Filtering out unwanted data Consolidating data from several databases Organizing data into new data subsets Improperly organized and formatted data is a major cause of implementation failures

• Sample data entry screens, forms, reports
• System operating instructions

• Method of communication among those developing, implementing, and maintaining a computer-based system
• Detailed record of the system design
• Extremely important when diagnosing problems and making system changes

• Other Implementation Activities-Training
• End users must be trained to operate a new business system or its implementation will fail
• May involve only activities, such as data entry, or all aspects of system use
• Managers and end users must understand how the new technology impacts business operations
• System training should be supplemented with training related to:
• Hardware devices
• Software packages

• Direct Conversion:
• The simplest conversion strategy
• The most disruptive to the organization
• Sometimes referred to as the slam dunk or cold-turkey strategy
• May be the only viable solution in cases of emergency implementation or if the old and new system cannot coexist.
• Has the highest risk of failure
• Involves turning off the old system and turning on the new one

• Parallel Conversion:
• Old and new systems are run simultaneously until everyone is satisfied that
• The new system functions correctly
• The old system is no longer needed
• Conversion to new system can be single cutover or phased cutover
• Has the lowest risk, but the highest cost
• Can cost 4 times more than using the old system
• Best choice where an automated system is replacing a manual one

• Pilot Conversion:
• Scenarios best suited to a pilot conversion
• Multiple business locations
• Geographically diverse locations
• Advantages of single location conversion
• Can select a location that best represents the conditions across the organization
• Less risky in terms of loss of time or delays in processing
• Can be evaluated and changed before further installations

• Phased Conversion:
• A phased or gradual conversion
• Takes advantage of both the direct and parallel approaches
• Minimizes the risks involved
• Allows the new system to be brought online as logically ordered functional components
• Disadvantages:
• Takes the most time
• Created the most disruption to the organization over time

• The single most costly activity
• Correcting errors or faults in the system
• Improving system performance
• Adapting the system to changes in the operating or business environment
• Requires more programmers than does application development
• May exist for years

• There are four basic categories of system
• maintenance
• Corrective to fix bugs and logical errors
• Adaptive to add new functionality
• Perfective to improve performance
• Preventive to reduce chances of failure

• Ensures that the newly implemented system meets the established business objectives
• Errors must be corrected by the maintenance process
• Includes a periodic review/audit of the system as well as continuous monitoring