Ch 1 - IS & People Flashcards
What is operations management?
The design, operation, and improvement of the systems and processes the organization uses to deliver its goods and services
What are the 6 primary roles of Information Systems?
- Managing operations
- Supporting customer interactions
- Making decisions
- Collaborating on teams
- Gaining competitive advantage
- Improving individual productivity
Managing operations examples:
Ex:
A.
Manufacturers need systems to manage assembly lines, product quality, production schedules, and just-in-time supply deliveries
B. Colleges need systems to manage student academic records, class scheduling, faculty assignment, and student financial aid
C.
Transportation companies rely on information systems equipped with GPS to track their fleets, optimize routes, and conserve has
D.
Companies that buy products from suppliers around the globe need real-time updates on their global supply chains to manage inventories and reduce cost
Used to build customer relationships, enhance loyalty, and manage interactions with customers
Customer relationship management system
CRM
Supporting customer interactions
Examples:
Ex:
A.
A brick-and-mortar retail store needs a sales system that [identifies] each product in the shopper’s basket, [tallies] the total, [feeds] the data to the inventory system, and [accepts] various kinds of payment.
B.
A web application offers many opportunities to build stronger relationships and also better understand the motives and desires of each person who visits.
The information managers use to make decisions, drawn from the company’s own information systems or external sources
Business intelligence
Draws on the billions of pieces of data that can be aggregated to reveal important trends and patterns
Data-driven decision making
Online communities of people who create profiles for themselves, form ties with others with whom they share interests, and make new connections on those ties
Social networking sites
Making decisions examples:
Ex:
A.
The sales system will show how much a restaurant makes in the last hour of business, and that data will help the manager make a good decision about closing early
B.
That restaurant manager might combine customer records with publicly available information about income levels by zip code to help make a smart decision about where to open another branch
Collaborating on teams examples:
Ex:
A.
In online college courses, debates about whether students should turn on their webcams during virtual class sessions are common
B.
Research analysts predict 50% of large companies will depend heavily on internal social networks for their employees by 2016
(For many, will be as important as email is now)
Anything that gives a firm a lead over its rivals
-it can be gained through the development and application of innovative information systems
Competitive advantage
Individual facts or pieces of information
Data
Data or facts that are assembled and analyzed to add meaning and usefulness
Information
Competitive advantage examples:
Ex:
Apple’s iPhone got a lead on smartphone competitors with Siri.
Improving individual productivity examples:
Ex:
A.
You can automatically create and properly format your term paper references by integrating a bibliographical manager such as EndNote or RefNote
-online libraries and reference databases offer links to export the citation in any format, so typing is unnecessary
B.
Time management experts advise you to process your email inbox to zero, flagging important messages and rerouting others by using automated filtering tools
**Stop devoting time to tasks technology can do for you
Data vs Information example:
Ex:
One piece of a Data:
A patient’s single high-temperature reading at a 24 hr walk-in clinic in Maryland
Combining it with data from all patients entering clinics that week, patterns may warn of a flu outbreak or even a major epidemic
-The CDC draws on this type of data to map the spread of diseases and protect the public
How can we make data/information more useful and meaningful ?
By refining, analyzing, and combing information.
-This adds to our ability to use it to make decisions and take action
The path from
Data»_space;> Information»_space;> Knowledge
is a continuum, which means: ________?
No clear diving line separates these categories
-they blend together and form a continuum as more meaningfulness and usefulness are created through skillful analysis and human insight
Examples of the continuum from
Data»_space;> Information»_space;> Knowledge
are:
Ex: A. DATA --------------- CWOT INFORMATION -- Complete Waste of Time KNOWLEDGE --- May be interpreted as an insult
B.
DATA ————— GPS coordinates
INFORMATION – Map showing location w/ a push pin
KNOWLEDGE — Location of Taj Mahal in India
C.
DATA————–010100110100111101010011
INFORMATION— Binary code for SOS
KNOWLEDGE—- HELP!!!
What are 3 characteristics that make information valuable?
Timeliness
Accuracy
Completeness
Timeliness matters a great deal in some settings.
Give an example:
Ex:
People pay monthly fees to financial services (to get up-to-the minute stock prices, rather than the delayed price reports shown on free stock tickers you can add on your browser)
- Riswan Khalfan of TD Securities claims his system can handle > 5 million pieces of data per second, far more than other banks
- With timely up-to-date trading data, Khalfan’s systems can make quicker decisions
Accuracy may seem like an obvious feature of valuable info, but there actually different degrees.
Give an example:
The more accurate you want information to be, the longer it may take to obtain
(which makes extreme accuracy a trade-off to timeliness)
Ex:
A CEO who wants to know how much competitors charge for a rival product
- He may wait too long for staff to scour all distribution channels and assemble the data
- Therefore an approximate answer is more valuable
Completeness adds value
(particularly as a means to avoid bias or spin)
Give an example:
Ex:
A marketing survey that polls customers as they enter a store will completely miss those who shop online
- This survey would not be complete without taking the time to assess the interests of all customers
- Therefore striving for complete information may also introduce delays and affect timeliness
An information system brings together 4 critical components to collect, process, manage, analyze, and distribute information.
What are the 4 components of an IS?
- People
- Technology
- Processes
- Data
