BEM 251 Exam 1 Flashcards
Management Information System (MIS)
System/process that provides info that to manage a business in a effective and efficient way
- help make better decisions and solve complex problem, helpful but need to verify
- enable organizations to achieve goals and objectives
- used for strategic and operational
Digital Firm
- core business processes completed through digital process
- any key information are available anytime and anywhere in the firm
means all organization’s business relationships (customers, suppliers, and employees) are digitally enabled and mediated
Business Process: set of logically related tasks and behaviour that organizations develop overtime to produce specific results and unique way activities are organized and coordinated
Why is MIS important?
use informational system to:
- Do things faster: automation and efficient business processes
- Do things better: improved decisions by managers, organizational learning and development
- Do things smarter: support business strategy and enable innovation
Assess the current state
Evaluate options and solutions
Apply technologies to gain competitive advantage
Moore’s Law
as performance gets better, price to produce gets cheaper
Strategic Business Objectives
Operational Excellence
- greater efficiency and productivity to get higher profits
ex: Walmart Retail Link - vendors see inventory and auto-replenished
New products/services/business models
- Business Model: describes how company produces, delivers, and sells products/services
ex: Apple Ecosystem
Customer and Supplier Intimacy
- serving customers well = returning customers
- intimacy with supplier to provide products with cheaper prices
ex: Costco buys bulk from vendors; Target personalizes customer purchases
Improve Decision Making
- without accurate info managers have to make guesses
- results in overproduction, underproduction, misallocation, poor response times
- realtime data can help managers make more informed decisions
Competitive Advantage
- results from achieve business goals
- better performance
- charge less for equal/better product
- respond to customers and vendors in real time
Survival
- business need to invest in IS to do business
Forces: Competitive and Compliance
Five Component Framework
Hardware - Software - Data - Procedures - People
Data is the bridge
Software and Procedures are Instructions
Hardware and People are actors
Automation moves work from human to computer (right to left)
Increasing degree of difficulty (left to right)
1. Hardware easiest to change/install/order
2. Obtaining/Developing new programs is difficult
3. Creating new database/changing is hard
4. Changing procedures with people is hard
5. People
Most Important is YOU
Quality of critical thinking
consider high tech + low tech alternative
understand scope of system
IS are powerful instruments for creating value
Information Technology (IT)
the hardware, software, and telecommunications equipment a business uses to achieve objectives
IT = hardware + software + data
Information System (IS)
set of interrelated components that manage info
- support decision making, coordination, control
help with data analysis, visualization, product creation
IS = IT + procedures + people
Information vs. Data
data is raw facts i.e. stock on specific day
information is data shaped in useful/meaningful form
i.e. history of stocks for a company
Necessary Data Characteristics
Accurate - correct and complete data. must be able to rely on the data
Timely - produced in time for its intended use
Relevant - both to the subject and situation
Just Barely Sufficient - for the purpose it was created, avoid overload
Worth Its Cost - appropriate relationship between cost of info and its value
Project Management Meaning
practice of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing work of a team to achieve a specific goal within a time frame
Successful Project for IS
Cost - not over budget (no more than 10% over)
Schedule - no deliver past promised date
Performance - all promised features + functions
Project Identification and Initiation
projects are driven by business needs
- business people, it, or both
project sponsors believes in the system and wants to see it succeed
- needs to have authority to move the project
Why Initiated?
1. Fix issue or problem
2. First to Market
3. Legal/Compliance
4. Survival
Business Value
Tangible: easily quantified and measured (in a #)
Intangible: intuitive belief, hard to measure, benefits organization
i.e. improve customer service
System Request to start a project
Project Sponsor: someone in org. with power, primary point of contact
Business Need: (short par.) reason for project
Business Requirement: business capabilities system needs to have
Business Values: benefit the org. can expect
Special Issue: anything else (restrictions, payment methods, deadlines, shipping, etc)
Feasibility Analysis
Technical: Can we build it?
- familiarity with application (user) less fam = more risk
- familiar with tech (IT + building) less fam = more risk
- project size : larger = more risk
- compatibility : difficult integration = more risk
Economic: Should we build it?
- development costs
- annual operating costs
- annual benefits (cost saving + revenue)
- intangible costs/benefits
Organizational: If we build it, will they come?
- Stakeholders: project champion, senior management, users, others
- Is project strategically aligned with business?
Project Portfolio
balance high and low risk projects
- diversify to support business goals which are expressed in quantitative economic values, business strategy, and it strategy
Project Management
Balance cost, performance, and schedule
- make trade-offs between the three
- ideal project is in the middle of triangle
Five Traits of Successful Team
- Results/goals
- Responsibility
- Commitment
- Trust
- Communication
Workplan
a dynamic schedule that records and keeps track of task for project
- created after project manager had general idea of project size and schedule
- main item in project management
- (WBS) Work Breakdown Structure
Critical Plan
project tasks that need to be done
Scope Creep
new requirement are added to the project after original scope was frozen and defined
Staffing Project (Project Management)
Create staffing plan
- assign roles required for the project
- create reporting structure
Motivation
- use monetary rewards cautiously
- use intrinsic rewards: recognition, achievement, the work itself, responsibility, advancement, learn new skills
Coordinating Project Activities (Project Management)
Good documentation upfront
Project binders are best solution
- internal communications
- written standards
- letters to the from users
- deliverables from each task
Business Model Canvas (BMC)
Value
Price
Cost
Price - Cost = company making profit
Value - Price = motivates customers to buy (customer surplus)
Components of Business Model Convas
Customer Value Proposition (CVP)
what value do you offer the customer?
- unique product and services
Customer Segments
who are customers? (mass, niche)
- require and justify distinct offer
- segment market (customer)
- diversified market (products)
Channels
how do you reach the customers?
1. Awareness
2. Evaluation
3. Purchase
4. Delivery
5. After Sales
Customer Relations
what is the nature of relationship with customer
- customer acquisition, retention, upselling
Self-service, cashier transaction (PoS system), personal (tailored experience), dedicated personal (specific people)
Revenue Streams
what are sources of revenue? (estimates)
- sales, subscription fee, licensing, advertising
Key Partners: important partners necessary to make business operate
who are you key partners to get competitive advantage?
Key Resources: important assets required to make business model work
what resources do you need for success/deliver value proposition?
- physical, intellectual, brand, human, financial
Key Activities: important activities the company completes to deliver the value proposition and make competitive
what are the key things the organization does to create value proposition and gain advantages?
- production, expertise building, maintenance, training, R&D
Cost Structure: cost driver vs. value driver
what are sources of major costs to creating and delivering your value proposition and running organization?
- fixed, variable, cost of resource, acquisition vs. material
Routes to Resilience
Transformation A: Repositioning the legacy business
Transformation B: building the future
Capabilities Exchange
1. Establish leadership
2. Identify the resources the two organizations can/need to share
3. Create exchange item
4. Protect boundaries
5. Scale up and promote the new business
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
program that can sense, learn, and adapt
Machine Learning
algorithms whose performance improve as they are exposed to more data over time
not relied on rules-based programming
Supervised Learning: humans teach machine, give data with known outcomes to predict unknown outcomes
“predictive”
Unsupervised Learning: discover structures in data which outcomes are not known, machine makes connections. “descriptive”
Deep Learning
subset of machine learning, multilayered neural networks
Generative AI
type of AI that can produce various content (text, imagery, audio, synthetic)
- use deep learning
think of prediction
Large Language Models
type of generative AI that uses deep learning and large data sets to understand, summarize, and generate and predict new content
Process Modeling (UML)
attempt to make a graphical representation of a process
Step
1. Diagram current process (AS-IS)
2. Identify/describe what’s broken (identify)
3. Diagram an improved process (TO-BE)
4. Describe why it’s superior and what it fixes (and how)
Goal: provide standard notation readily understandable by all business stakeholders
in notebook
Classic Process View of Firm
Inputs
- Capital
- Investments
- Materials
- Expertise
Organization Activities and Processes
- New product development
- Manufacturing
- Marketing/Sales
- Strategy/Finance
Outputs
- Product/Service (Competitive Advantage)
- Profit loss
- Employment
- Taxes
Process View
Stage 1: functions drive the business
Stage 2: processes are acknowledged bu functions still dominate
Stage 3: processes drive the business
Primary/Priority Activities
needed to achieve strategic goal
Inbound Logistics: receiving, storing, and disseminating raw materials
Operations/Manufacturing: transform inputs into outputs
Outbound Logistics: how to get product to customers (directly, third party, brick and mortar)
Sales and Marketing: induce buyers to purchase product
Customer Service: assisting customers, maintain and enhance product value
Support Activities
need to function, but not key to competitive strategy
Technology: R&D, new tech, methods, procedures
Procurement: find vendors, create contracts, used to actually get find materials
H/R: training, recruiting, consulting
Firm Infrastructure: management, finance, accounting, legal, government affair
Factors of Primary/Support Activity
Competitive
- Advantage, Parity, and Disadvantage
Strategic Importance
- Priority, Support
