L12 Information strategy

Question 1

what are the three stages of strategic planning?

Answer 1

1. Analysis
2. Choice
3. implementation

*not always in that order.

Question 2

what does information need to do throught a company and why?

Answer 2

Information needs to flow. It is easy for directors (those at the top) to say that they didn’t know. i.e. they didn’t have the information.

Question 3

why does information need to flow? using an investment bank as an e.g.?

Answer 3

For e.g. banks can pin things on a rogue trader. But if the management have good information, this shouldn’t happen. They need to have good information to spot people who are a risk and stop this.

Question 4

what are the three levels of management and what kind of information do they receive?

Answer 4

1. Strategic management – this is the future stuff. The trends and projections etc, what do we expect to achieve in the next five years? Anything that effects the whole org and their growth. They would also look at competitor info. Would be anything that those at the top of the co concern themselves with. This is information that affects the whole org, e.g. market share, competitiro analysis etc.
2. Tactical management – this is routine info, stuff that is produced fotnighlty or monthly. Tells you about sales in particular area for e.g. and how that has faired over a time period. So looks at a particular product or service. Not the whole co. good example of this is departmental accounts. So you look at it on a more compartmental approach.
3. Operational management – this is detailed day to day info. Cost of labour, staff time sheets for e.g. it is detailed information, with a lot of volume. So you need to think of how much of this operational info should filter to the top and how much strategic goes to bottom. People at top make decisions so info needs to be analysed and summarised and flow to top so strategic decisions can be made.

Question 5

benefits of IT for businesses?

Answer 5

1. Information systems - can change structure of organisation (e.g. flatter structure) or forms of work (e.g. home working)
2. Strategic value – key business areas benefit from IT investment
3. Can develop new organisational forms (virtual businesses)

Question 6

What are the two IS models?

Answer 6

1. Bottom-up evaluative approach (Earl Model)
2. McFarlane’s grid

Question 7

What is earls bottom up valuation approach?

What does it look like?

Answer 7

Earl Model analyses the current use of IT in an org.

Earl says you can look at an org’s current IT systems.

Question 8

explain the 4 parts of earles model?

Answer 8

Divest – low business value and low technical quality. might a system that records NCA and you don’t have any NCA anymore. You would get rid of it.

Reassess – so higher technical quality, but its not meeting information needs so that’s why It is under utilized. You need to ask why its under utilized as its good quality and just not used. There might be all sort of things you can do with it but youre not. You just need to try and use it to itss capacity in the org to get business value.

renew – it is very risky to have a system that’s high business value and needs renewed. It is out of date as it doesn’t do what you need it to do anymore. It is key to your business though so you need to renew it.

Maintain – this is maintenance. You need to look to enhance them further by looking out for how up to date the systems are.

Question 9

problem with earles bottom up valuation model

Answer 9

This model is strategic, so designed for those at top of orgs who don’t have best info on IS or how to use it. So it depends on the information flows they receive!! It is also very subjective model, in terms of where you put particualr systems. May be that you don’t understand the system and divest when it actually needs renewed for e.g.

Question 10

difference between earles and mcfarlanes grid?

Answer 10

mcfarlane looks at the whole company, and its reliance on IS and IT. It does not look at individual systems like earl. You put your company in one of the 4 boxes!

Question 11

what does mcfarlane grid help you do?

Answer 11

The system asks two questions:

1. How important is IS and IT currently to your org?
2. How important will IS and IT be to your org in the future? (so looks at future developments - will IS and IT affect your business in the future? And how?)

Question 12

what are the four parts to mcfarlanes grid and explain

Answer 12

Support – for e.g handmade Bread factory – don’t really need IT now, and don’t really need it now or in the future. So you wont invest lots in IT as it wount be a deal changer for you as you will use it but very much

Turnaround – Your future strategic planning includes IT, but you don’t need a huge amount of IS or IT now but you expect it to change. For e.g. you might be pursuing online sales, or you might be looking at new goods that change this.

Factory – you don’t expect to need IS and IT more in the future. It means you are using IT as much as you think you will as you don’t envisage huge technological changes in terms of what you are already doing. So high importance now with no expectation of change. So you are going to look at things like data security and back up plans. You need these to work, but you wont invest much in things like a IS. A good example of this is the electronical point of sale. Already updates stock level when good scanned, self service etc. what more can they do? This is already so important for how a supermarket operates.

Strategic – often referred to as mission critical. So might be done through marketing, product development, big data. Your systems and IT is evolving and you expect to need it more in the future. For e.g. Tech companies, it is mission critical for them to keep investing in new technology to keep adaprting.

Question 13

Limitations to Mcfarlanes grid?

Answer 13

• Doesn’t tell you want to do next just tells you where you are.
• Not very useful to move the organisation forward.

Question 14

what can these resources do:

1. MRP (materials requirements planning)
2. ERP (enterprise resource planning)
3. CRM (customer relationship management).

Answer 14

1. MRP – can monitor materials and supplies etc, how much is left and whats needed to be ordered. This just relates to raw materials to make product!!
2. ERP – this is the same as MRP and looks at what we need and when. It widens it the whole organisation, looks at cost in business, staff levels, etc. it looks at info across whole info and looks at whats needed and whats not.
3. CRM – analysis customers. Data analytics allow companies to see what you click etc and see what you browse. Used to just look at what people buy but now its just what you click. Allows businesses to gather lots of info and improve customer experience.

Question 15

what is knowledge management?

Answer 15

Collecting, storing and using the knowledge held within an organisation

n.b.

• Information systems may capture or aid this, e.g. knowledge worker systems, groupware
• Knowledge is seen as a strategic asset

Question 16

how can you persuade people to share knowledge in a competitive environment?

Answer 16

culture - need to have the correct culture to ensure that workers can share the information and knowledge they they have . This is important to make sure people do their jobs better and so does everyone else.

Question 17

n.b.

impact of new developments

Data analytics and data analytics - patterns and trends, and the info you can find out from your big data.

Cloud computing – you can operate your business on ‘the cloud’

Impact of internet on resources

Question 18

what is a good e.g. of a company with big data?

Answer 18

Target – good e.g. Of big data story. They were sued in America and realised a girl was pregnant before she did. As they realised that when girls were pregnant their taste buds change from XYZ to ABC and then they started advertising pregnancy tools. Kind of makes you ask the question of where do you draw the line for this big data?

They found this out from processing the data.

Question 19

what are the V’s that explain big data?

Answer 19

1. Volume – Big data is to do with harnessing and colleting huge amount of info that we can do now due to tech. big huge org’s can rung loyalty card schemes and record info on your purchases etc.
2. Velocity - This realtes to the speed that info can be processed. So websites can monitor clicks. So if you don’t buy something they know you have been there and what you have clicked on. This is because they can quickly gather information and process it.
3. Variety- Org’s can look at unstructured data too, not just numerical stuff like nuber of clicks. So for e.g. businesses can track certain words being used in relation to products or negative words being used. So can see positive words or negative words etc. business can see this and analayse them even tho they are not structured.
4. Varacity – this realtes to truthfulness. Is this info you are gathering correct or true? So there must be a screening process to make sure you are protected. Hard for an organisation.

Question 20

why is big data important?

Answer 20

Data can be analysed to find answers that enable cost reductions or new product development.

Analysing big data can help to accomplish business-related tasks such as:

• Determining root causes of failures, issues and defects in near-real time.
• Generating coupons at the point of sale based on the customer’s buying habits.
• Recalculating entire risk portfolios in minutes.
• Detecting fraudulent behaviour before it affects your organization.

Question 21

How did UPS use big data?

Answer 21

UPS using big data to study routes and drop offs. They could save lots of money by being able to look at where they were going and therefore recaluculating routes.

Question 22

How did tesco use big data?

Answer 22

Tesco – wanted to reduce carbon emissions in stores by 50%. They could only do this by gathering big data. They employed 12 data analysts to do this. They looked at data half hourly, and tracked patterns of costs etc. so for e.g. lights being left on. They made sure that this didn’t happen which they saw and managed to reduce it. There is a huge skills shortage to do this tho. To get these 12 analysts was not easy!

Question 23

what is cloud computing?

Answer 23

the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or a personal computer.

Question 24

implications of cloud computing

Answer 24

more standardisation

Allows for more rapid expansion (or contraction)

Can have “hybrid cloud” – a combination of a private system with a public cloud provision

“Traditionally, companies were running both their own business and an IT business. Going into the cloud shifts the computing to the experts ‘who do this for a living’.”

This is to do with how small businesses can utilise this and save themselves lots of money, and not need the level of infrastructure and the level of support they would of needed to operate.

Question 25

what is crowdfunding?

Answer 25

issue with this at the moment. People are being asked to crowdfund for people to go to germany to get treatment they cant get from NHS. But there is no information or poof this happens and that it actually goes there. Its done in good faith but no ones sure.

Question 26

what is a gig economy?

Answer 26

for e.g. deliveroo, anyone can do it and sign up to it. There is no contract or going relationship necessarily. They do what they want. So seen as positive in some respect as they match up buyers and seller as you can sell your skills. However have issues legally with things like employment law etc and whether they are getting looked after.

Question 27

how do businesses use social media?

Answer 27

Its used by businesses to monitor behavior and advertise

Question 28

how does the use of mobile phones change business patterns?

Answer 28

Allows for new marketing strategies or whole new markets to develop e.g. working patterns, marketing impact…..

Question 29

what are the IT/Information systems risks?

Answer 29

1. Inadequate – failure to use effectively
2. Breakdown – dependency/disruption
3. Expense – risk at all levels from development to implementation.

Question 30

good example of dependency rish on IT/information systems (IS)

Answer 30

For e.g. – NHS wanted to get everyones medical records online to a system so everyone can access. But its still not happened for many different reasons.

So you need to realise its always going to be a risk If you rely on something.