Midterm 1 Flashcards
What is an information system
- An information system (IS) is a group of components
that interact to produce information - Five fundamental components of computer-based
information systems are: Hardware, software, data, people, procedures
Information Systems are more than just computers
and software.
§ IS combine the people and procedures they use to
make technology work for business.
what are the characteristics of the five components of IS?
Hardware and programs are on the data side, procedures and people are on the human side and date is the bridge between the two sides
Programs and procedures are instructions while people and hardware are actors
To the left automation works to move work from human to computer side and towards the right has an increasing level of difficulty
What is MIS
MIS = Management Information Systems
- MIS is the development and use of information
systems to help businesses achieve goals and
objectives - Key terms:
§ Development and use § Information systems
§ Business goals and objectives
How does IS differ from IT
Information system (IS) is a system of hardware,
software, data, procedures, and people that produce
information
- Information technology (IT) represents raw
technology components of IS
§ Hardware
§ Software
§ Data structure and components
In other words, inventions, standards, products!
How does IT fit within IS
- IT alone will not help an organization achieve goals
- IT must be embedded into an IS to help accomplish
objectives
§ Technology must be combined with people and procedures to be useful
Is the world now “flat” with internet and global
communication? and what challenges does this provide for us
▪ Reduced economic advantages of
developed countries
▪ Compete for jobs markets, resources and
even ideas from less developed world
▪ Develop high-level skills through education
▪ On-the-job experience that cannot be
What is a digital firm
- NOT about just adding a computer
system to the mix. Then what is it? - information technology as the “core of
the business” and the primary
management tool - IS allows the firm to response more
rapidly to changes in their environment
and thus survives in turbulent times - It allows “time-shifting” and “space-
shifting”
How do you plan to acquire and use IS
▪ Understand how they are created (and cost)
▪ Take an active role in order to insure that system will
meet your and your users’ needs
▪ Determine how to best use the system
▪ Take into account other functions necessary to keep
the system running:
Security, backup and recovery
What are the six strategic business objectives
Operational excellence
New products, services and business models
Customer and Supplier Intimacy
Improved decision making
Competitive advantage
Survival
What is operational excellence
improve the efficiency of their operations in
order to achieve higher profitability
* coupled with changes in business practices
and management behavior
what is New products, services, and business
models
- a major enabling tool for firms to create new
products and services, as well as entirely
new business models, e.g. Apple Inc. - business model describes how a company
produces, delivers, and sells a product or
service to create wealth
What is customer and supplier intimacy
- Wal-Mart digitally links their suppliers to everyone of
Wal-Mart’s 5,289 stores worldwide. Suppliers are able to ensure the continuous flow of products to the stores in order to satisfy customer demands - Mandarin Oriental uses computers to keep track of
guests preferences such as room temperature, frequently dialed number, TV channels etc. The digital profile is stored in a central database and be used all over the world
What is improved decision making
- The inability to make informed decision
resulted in raising costs and lost customers - use real-time, accurate data from the
marketplace
What is competitive advantage
- Doing things better than your competitors,
charging less for superior products, and responding to customers and suppliers in real time - Toyota Production System
What is survival
- Information systems is not a luxury, they
are necessities of doing business. Example: Citibank was the first banking firm to introduce ATMs - Regulations changed - turn to information systems and technologies in order to comply with the new requirements
Explain the interdependence between organizations and information technology
Hardware data management and telecommunications form software which works with businesses to help them achieve their strategic objectives through businesses processes using IT
what was the percentage of GDP ICT accounted for in 2019
4.8% (94.9 billion)
What is the gap between business leaders and IT leaders
Business leaders are strong at business but weak at IT and IT leaders are expert at IT but novice at business. we must bridge that gap
What is IT’s impact nowadays on organizations
- Allowed the individual to compete with the
corporation: iStockPhoto - Changed music delivery: success of streaming
services such as Spotify and Apple Music and impact
on buying music. - Disrupting the Taxi industry with Uber and Lyft
- How about impact on newsprint, textbook publishing,
traditional software sales, desktop computers, need
for increased customer service, “customized”
manufacturing, and much, much more.
Explain Moore’s law with respect to increasing rate of tech
- “The number of transistors per square inch on an
integrated chip doubles every 18 months.”
▪ The speed of a computer chip doubles every 18
months
▪ Price/performance ratio of computers has fallen dramatically - Computers are smaller * Computers are less expensive
What id disruptive tech
a new technology that changes or transforms the industry
what is data
recorded facts or figures
not meaningful on their own and requires context
What is information
- Information is data with a meaning!
– It is the central focus of information systems
– It is used and created by activities
– Business processes create, process and store information
– “Information Systems” support business processes by automating or
facilitating the creation, processing, and storage of information - The concept of Information can be difficult to define
– Data presented in a meaningful context
– Processed data
– Data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or
other similar operations – A difference that makes a difference
explain perspectives on information systems
data combines with info to form an information system which provides value
Raw data from a supermarket checkout counter can be processed and organized to produce meaningful information, such as the total unit sales of dish detergent or the total sales revenue from dish detergent for a specific store or sales territory.
what makes good information and what is most important
accurate
Timely
Relevant
Just barely sufficient
worth its cost
Most important are accurate and timely
what is the role of information in business processes
- Business processes use, generate and store information:
– Business processes bring together important items of data in context - Eg. Quantity received = 6, Shipping Invoice = 8
T hese should be equal. There is a problem. - Business Processes bring together information so it can be
understood at various levels(??) - Information from business processes are useful for managerial and
strategic decisions
what do business activities use information systems for
– Automate the generation of information
– Manipulate and store data and information
– Uncover new and novel methods (activities) to make the entire business
process more efficient
what is required for an information system to be used effectively
U sing information systems effectively requires an understanding of the organization, management, and information technology shaping the systems. An information system creates value for the firm as an organizational and management solution to challenges posed by the environment.
what are the dimensions of information systems
– Organizations
* It usually has a hierarchical structure
* It has different business functions
* Business process: formal and informal rules
* Culture: set of fundamental values and assumptions
– Management
* To make sense out of many situations and solve
problems
* Also creative work! Design new products and even
recreate the organization
– Technology
Change in process leads to change in structure which leads to change in decisions
Management must support correct incentives and train properly
How do the three dimensions relate to business
– Management (M)
* Determine Business strategies
* Select new products and services – Organization (O)
* Implement these strategies
* Work with outside parties etc. – Technology (T)
* Provide the means to implement the strategies
* Such as a electronic platform or network etc.
Review slide 16 of lecture 3
THIS IS IMPORTANT BRAYDEN DONT SKIP OVER THIS YOU FUCKING DUMBO
what are the different decision levels and wear systems do they use to make them
- Operational decisions concern day-to-day activities
– transaction processing systems (TPS) - Managerial decisions concern the allocation and utilization of
resources
– management information systems (MIS) - Strategic decisions concern broader-scope, organizational issues
– executive information systems (EIS)
what is a TPS and what strategic bus objective can it meet
– Transaction processing systems
* The operational level of the organization include various
units such as order processing, material movement control, payroll, accounts payable, and employee record keeping etc.
* The information systems used in this level of the
organization are transaction processing systems (TPS), so called because they record the routine transactions that take place in everyday operations.
* The transaction processing system records the data from
everyday operations throughout every division or department in the organization. Each division/department is tied together through the TPS to provide useful information to management levels throughout the company.
Operational excellence
what is an MIS
– Management information systems
* Those using management information systems (MIS)
require information on a periodic basis instead of on a daily recurring basis like those using a transaction processing system. The MIS will also draw data from the transaction processing system to help managers answer structured questions
* Managers also require information on an exception basis.
* A management information system is used by managers
throughout the organization to help them in directing, planning, coordinating, communicating, and decision making.
What is a DSS
– Decision-support systems
* An MIS uses internal data to supply useful
information. A DSS uses internal data but also combines it with external data to help analyze various decisions management must make. Analyzing complex, interactive decisions is the primary reason for a company to use a DSS.
* There are a lot of gray areas in successfully managing
an organization and the larger the company, the more diverse the decision-making process becomes.
- Decision-support systems are used for
complex “what-if” questions that require
internal and external data. Decisions at
this management level are mostly
semistructured so the information
system must respond to the unique
requirements of the executives.
what is an ESS
– Executive support systems
* They are used at the very top of management. At
the strategic level, the typical decision is very unstructured. Often there is no specific question, but rather a series of undefined situations executives may face.
* There are no easy, definable answers. These
executives require summarized, historical information gleaned from all other levels of the organization, coupled with large amounts of external data gathered from many sources.
- Executive support systems must be easy to
use and the information must be easily
manipulated. The ESS must be able to
incorporate external information with internal
data to offer concise, complete information
for the imprecise and incomplete scenarios
executives face. And most importantly, the
systems must have a fast response time. - Senior executives often access information
through the use of a portal.
how do all these business information systems relate to one another
TPS extracts processes and adds analysis models and external data to become MIS or DSS and from there it adds a wider range of information to suit specific needs to become ESS
what is a structured vs unstructured decision and who makes the,
- A structured decision is one for which there is an understood and
accepted method for making the decision – Example: How much tax do I need to pay? - An unstructured decision process is one for which there is no
agreed-on decision-making method
– Example: Whom should I marry? * Note: terms structured and unstructured refer to the decision
process/method, not to the underlying subject/problem
Operational managers (TPS) make structured
Managerial (MIS) do both
Strategic executives (EIS) make unstructured decisions
what is a computer at it’s most basic level
Accept input (raw data)
Process that data
Produce output (information)
explain computers in the 50’s
- General-Purpose Mainframe and Minicomputer Era: 1959
to Present
– The mainframe era began with highly centralized
computing with networks of terminals concentrated in
the computing department – While early models contained proprietary software and
data, today’s mainframes are able to process a wide
variety of software and data. – IBM began this era and remains the single largest
supplier of mainframe computing.
what is a mini computer
– Minicomputers are defined as middle-
range computer. – These powerful machines cost much
less than mainframes, and make
decentralization possible. – They can be customized to the specific
needs of individual departments or
business units rather than time sharing
on a single huge mainframe.
what is the client server era
- Client/Server Era: 1983 to Present
– As the desktop and laptop personal
computers became more powerful and cheaper, businesses began using them to replace mini-computers and some mainframe computers by networking them together.
wired means safer and better and that’s when the computers are physically linked to the server
what is the enterprise internet computing era
- Enterprise Internet Computing Era: 1992
to Present
– Many firms found it difficult to integrate
all of their local area network ( LANs) – The problems created by proprietary,
closed systems are being solved by the
standards and open-source software
created in this era, such as TCP/IP
(internet protocol) for communication
IT makes things cheaper
– Also need software such as ERP to link all
separate application together – The promises of delivering critical business
information painlessly and seamlessly are
getting more difficult because of the ever-
changing landscape of technology products
and services.
What is the cloud computing era
- Cloud Computing era (2000 to Present)
– This model of computing relies on the
massive computing centers owned by the likes of Google, IBM, Microsoft, and even Amazon.com.
– “What is Google’s cloud? It’s a network
made of hundreds of thousands, or by some estimates 1 million, cheap servers, each not much more powerful than the PCs we have in our homes.
– It stores staggering amounts of data, including
numerous copies of the World Wide Web. This
makes search faster.
– Unlike many traditional supercomputers, Google’s
system never ages. When its individual pieces die,
usually after about three years, engineers pluck
them out and replace them with new, faster boxes. – “This means the cloud regenerates as it grows,
almost like a living thing.” ( Google and the Wisdom
of Clouds, BusinessWeek, Dec 24, 2007)
What are networking personal computers, LANs and WANs
- Networking Personal Computers
– Critical to the rapid adoption of personal computers and rise of social
networks. – Local Area Networks (LANs) - linking many personal computers together * shared access to data, printers, and other peripheral devices
– Wide Area Networks (WANs) - the Internet * email * web browsing
what is the internet of things
- Networking is not just about personal computing devices
- The Internet of Things is about connecting “dumb” devices to make
them smart, for example:
– Thermostats – Smoke alarms – Refrigerators – Coffee makers – …and other machines
what is hardware and it’s categories
- Hardware consists of electronic components used to input, process, output, and
store data - Basic hardware categories:
– Input
– Processing
– Output
– Storage
explain input process output and storage
Input (keyboard, mouse, scanner ect) goes to be processed (CPU and Main memory) where information can be moved back and forth between storage (Magnetic disk and optical disk) and then moves to output (video display, printer, speaker, etc)
What are some common input and output devices
slide 31 and 32 for examples and categories
Explain computer data
- Binary Digits (bits)
– Used to represent data - Represented as either zero ( 0) or one (1)
- Bytes
– Bits grouped in 8-bit chunks (represent one character)
– Specifications for size of memory - K kilobyte1024 bytes
- MB megabyte 1024 K
- GB gigabyte 1024 MB * TB terabyte 1024 GB
