Information, technotechnologies and systems for organizational performance Flashcards
what are the 3 decision making levels in a business
strategic( CEO CFO, BOD) - long term decisions
Management level ( managers ) - mix of long and short term decisions
operational ( employees)- short term decision making
why do organizations require information systems (2 reasons)
1.to support day to day business operations via processing and storing transactions,
- and to support the managerial activities of planning, decision making, performance measurement, and control
what is a system
A set of interacting components that operate together to accomplish a purpose.
what are information systems
a combination of hardware software and communications capability, where information is collected processed and stores
what is information technology
t.he equipment used to capture, store, transmit or present information. IT provides a large part of the information systems infrastructure
what are benefits of information systems 2
- well stored and collected information can aid in better decision making and give a competitive advantage
-quick and efficient access to information helps in faster decision making and can lead to things like first mover advantage
what are the 3 component parts of a system?
- inputs
- processes
- outputs
what are Transaction processing systems
systems that are used to capture all the day-to-day
routine transactions within a business. These will mostly be of use to the managers at an
operational level ( e.g a cashier till that can take payment transactions and process the money into business bank account
what are Customer relationship management (CRM) Systems
A CRM helps to manage customer data, the business can use it to track and organise its contacts with both existing and potential future customers.
what is a Executive information systems (EIS)
EIS provide board level with summarised information for strategic decisions. e.g dashboard , animated chart , done for strategic decisions such as mergers accuisition.
what are Decision support systems (DSS)
DSS provide information in a flexible format to facilitate “what if’ analysis. These will often be
used to assist resource planning at a management / tactical level. e.g make or buy decisions , should we make in house or outsource , etc
what is a Management Information System
Management Information System (MIS) is a generic term used to describe any system which provides information for use in the decision making at all levels within an organisation. can be accessed from all levels in business
what are expert systems
Expert systems provide access and assistance with tax legislation, Companies Act requirements etc
what is an Enterprise resource planning systems (ERPS)
An ERP software system is a set of integrated applications or modules for managing a company’s core business processes – including finance and accounting, supply chain, HR, procurement, sales, inventory management, and more. these will all be separate modules in the system
whatever work is done gets updated in the central hub so hr work will be recorded kin the accounting system in real time however they can’t access each others departments
what are Costs of information systems (7)
The Equipment or Software cost
* Implementation/Maintenance
* Training Costs
* Management and Staff time required (Opportunity cost)
* Expert Knowledge/time required
* System security
* Costs associated with a reduction in the size of the workforce
what are benefits of information systems (5)
- Management and Staff time saved
- Increased knowledge and expertise
- Improvement in customer experience
- Reduction in other costs e.g. bad debts
- Increased quality of information - more likely to be ‘ACCURATE’
what are some examples of privacy and security threats
risk of natural disasters, malfunction of computer hardware or software, computer viruses, hackers, electronic eavesdropping, or human errors
what is the internet used for in business
The internet is an electronic communications network that connects computer networks, individual users and organisational computer facilities around the world
what controls must a business have in order to reduce these privacy and security risks (2)
- General controls - includes controls over the IT environment such as access controls, segregation of duties, and business continuity planning.
- Application controls - refers to transaction processing controls automatically performed by
the system such as, completeness checks, data validity checks, and authorisation checks
how can information be shared (title)
what is a network
computers which are connected and can send information together are networked and form a network
what is the intranet
a cluster of computers can be networked together to form an organization-wide network. this is intranet and can be used to share information internally. they are private networks
what is the extranet
An extranet is a secure extension of a company’s private intranet. It can be accessed by authorised outsiders such as suppliers and/or customers using things like usernames and passwords
what is the internet
a global public network connecting millions of computers
what is cloud computing
cloud computing is the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, analytics, and intelligence—over the Internet (“the cloud”) to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.
benefits of cloud computing : 3
-reduced IT costs
-safe storage - as data can be backed up in the cloud
-Improved access- information can be accessed form anywhere
what is the use of wifi in business
Wireless technology enables the linking of devices (typically laptop computers, smartphones and other personal handheld devices) to networks wherever WiFi networks are available.
what is data visualization
- process of reporting information in a graphical or pectoral format to make the key pieces of information easier to extract
to be effective what 3 features should data visualization tools have
- have results that are essential for decision making
- the tool must be displayed quickly and stay up to date with changes
- the tool must be supported with enough quality data
what is Anthonys hierarchy
he made a hierarchy that classified the information used at differnent stages of management for planning, decision making and control
what are the levels and what do they mean
- strategic level (top of hierarchy )- the process of deciding on objectives of the organisation
- tactical- (middle)managers make sure that resources are obtained and used effectively and efficiently to achieve the organisational objectives
- operational (bottom)is the process of ensuring that specific tasks are carried out effectively and efficiently.
what are open systems
refer to systems that interact with other systems or the outside environment
what are closed systems
refer to systems having relatively little if not no interaction with other systems or the outside environment
what are internal sources of management information
The accounts (nominal ledger, sales ledger, purchase ledger), particularly relevant for sales,
costs and inventory valuation information
* Original budget
* Supplier and customer databases
* Meetings (formal and informal)
* Inventory management system
* Payroll department/system
what are direct data capture costs
include money spent on scanning, bar code systems, completion of forms (time, paper etc)
what are the costs of internal sources
Direct data capture costs
processing costs
indirect costs
what are processing coasts
If information is generated internally then there will be processing costs such as the costs of data input personnel and costs of staff who check/summarise input data
what are indirect costs
producing internally generated information, including lost output from not being able to employ more production staff if budget is taken up with data personnel. Also, if too much information is produced there is a danger that inefficient decisions are made as staff get “blinded” by the data
what is big data
Big Data involves capturing and processing data on a vast scale and converting it into information that is able to be utilised by the organisation. Analysis of big data can uncover unexpected relationships and provide new insights into business performance
what is structured data
Structured data is stored within defined fields, often
with defined lengths, within a defined record, in a file of similar records.
what is unstructured data
Unstructured data may be ‘tagged’ using metadata to make organising and analysing the data easier
what is metadata
Metadata describes other data, for example using keywords thatdescribe the content.
what are Doug Laneys 3 characteristics of big data
volume
velocity
variety
what is volume
More data than ever before is being collected. This is driven by social media andtransactional-based data recorded by large organisations, for example data captured from Point of Sale systems and loyalty cards. Internal systems also provide large pools of data
able to contribute to big data
what us velocity
refers to the speed at which data is being streamed into the organisation, in real time. Transactions may be constant, particularly for multi-national organisations and those with significant ecommerce presence
what is variety
Big Data includes data from many different systems which will be in many different formats. Structured data will include transaction files. Unstructured data will include social media posts, which are likely to include images, video and audio recordings. There may also be email messages, and SMS (text messages). ‘Making sense’ of these many different
sources and formats may require significant investment.
how do companies use big data
- Companies who identified the potential of Big Data ahead of competitors have obtained competitive advantage. Netflix use big data to shape recommendations to customers, and to
improve streaming video. - Big Data can be used to identify and / or analyse opportunities to increase revenues by improving product offerings, or reducing costs through process efficiencies. Tesco uses Big Data, including data collected under their Clubcard loyalty programme, to target offers to specific customers.
- Organisations can build a more complete picture of their customers gained from multiple sources including transactions, website visits, social media posts and emails.
- Although Big Data, by definition, is big and complex, systems need to ensure information is able to be made available and acted upon quickly. A system that is slow and cumbersome will likely present competitors with an opportunity to act first.
what is data analytics
The process of using fields within the source data itself, rather than predetermined formats, to collect, organise and analyse large sets of data to discover patterns and other useful information which an organisation can use for its future business decisions
what are the uses of big data and analytics for planning
Big Data can help make budget estimates more accurate by providing missing data or enabling the business to see correlations in data.
- Big Data provides more reliable information about the impact of factors in the wider environment, which may generally be difficult to determine, for example legal / political developments and exchange rate changes, resulting in more robust budgets.
what are the uses of big data and analytics for costing
Big Data can help identify ways of reducing costs through process efficiencies or removing non value-adding activities. For example, social media could be monitored and customer feedback collected to establish which features of a product customers do not like, then these could be removed resulting in cost savings.
what are the uses of big data and analytics for decision making
- Big data can also have an impact upon an organisations decision making as better decisions
can be made due to the new insights into areas such as customer thinking and product
usage. - When using big data, information becomes more transparent and more accessible. It becomes more viable to predict trends, analyse customer behaviour, understand what customers want and deliver what customers want, leading to better decisions being made. For example, Netflix removed the mandatory auto play feature after the results of a twitter poll revealed many users did not like this feature, so now users have the option to turn this feature off
what are the uses of big data for performance management
- Big data can provide more detailed and up to date performance measurement.
- Big Data can provide a better idea of non-financial performance, which indicates better long-
term direction and earlier corrective action
what are the Challenges and risks of implementing and using big data and data analytics in an
organisation
- There will be significant costs involved in setting up a system to effectively use big data.
Computer systems may need to be upgraded to handle to volume of data and these will
need to be monitored to ensure they do not run out of storage space. It also requires skill to
be able to interpret the big data which means organisations will either need to spend money
training their existing staff or hire a data scientist to interpret the data, and going forwards
analysing big data will be complex and time consuming. - Organisations will need to make sure they adhere to the relevant data protection legislation,
and could incur penalties and fines if they do not. - There is also the risk the data may contain data outliers - anomalies in the data - which
could distort the patterns and trends shown in the data. - Consideration also needs to be given to the veracity of the data. Sometimes known as the
fourth V, veracity refers to the accuracy of the data. Inaccurate data could lead to inaccurate
conclusions drawn and suboptimal decisions made.
In generating and distributing internal information what types of controls may be
necessary
Input controls - passwords, checks that data is in appropriate format (e.g. alphanumeric
checks) etc
- Processing controls - audit trails of who has updated information and when
- Output controls - Distribution to authorised personnel only (use lists) or password access
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Controls for highly sensitive information include…?
- Keeping passwords or other codes securely
- Staff contracts specifying procedures and action to be taken if the person fails to adhere to the security standards
- Storing physical documents in locked cabinets in secure locations
- IT department monitoring file access on a regular basis
