Midterm Flashcards
Cost of data communications and data storage is
Essentially zero
Moore’s Law
As power increases, cost will decrease
Managing information resources is difficult because
- IS (Information Systems) has an enormous strategic value to organizations
- IS’s are very expensive to acquire, operate, and maintain
- evolution of the MIS function within the organization
Information Systems are used for managing
People (individuals, groups, or organizations)
Procedures (design, development, and documentation)
Data (info for decision making)
Software
Hardware
(Last three are IT; procedures and people are unique to IS)
Major capabilities of IS
Perform high speed, high volume numerical computations
Provide fast, accurate communication and collaboration within and among organizations
Store huge amounts of info in an easy to access, yet small space
Allow quick and inexpensive access to vast amounts of info, worldwide
Interpret vast amounts of data quickly, and efficiently
Automate both semiautomatic business processes and manual tasks
Breadth of support of IS- FAIS
Functional Area Information Systems
- accounting
- finance
- production and operations management
- marketing
- HR
Breadth of support of IS- 2 ISs support the entire system
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems
-provide communication among functional area ISs (general)
Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
-support the “real-time” monitoring, collection, storage, and processing of data from the organization’s day to day operations
Importance of Information Systems to society
IT affects our quality of life
The robots revolution is here now
Improvements in healthcare
How does IT impact organizations?
IT reduces the number of middle managers
IT changes the manager’s job
Will IT eliminate jobs?
IT impacts employees at work
Development and use of ISs
Need to take active role in the development
- specifying the system’s requirements
- helping to manage the development project
- using the IS
Achieving business goals with IS
ISs exist to help ppl in business achieve goals and objectives of that business
What is business process?
A network of activities, resources, facilities, and information that interact to achieve some business function
ISs vital role in three areas of business processes
Executing the process
Capturing and storing excess data
Monitoring process performance
ISs help execute the business processes by
Informing employees when it is time to complete a task
Providing required data
Providing a means to complete the task
Capturing and storing process data
Processes generate data
-dates, times, production numbers, quantities, prices, addresses, names, employee actions
ISs capture and store process data (aka transaction data)
Capturing and storing data provides immediate, ‘real-time’ feedback
Monitoring process performance
IS evaluates info to determine how well a process is being executed
Evaluations occur at two levels
-process level
-instance level
Monitoring identifies problems for process improvement
Measures of excellence in executing business processes
Customer satisfaction Cost reduction Cycle and fulfillment time reduction Quality Differentiation Productivity
Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
A radical redesign of an organization’s business processes to increase productivity and profitability
Examines business processes with a “clean-slate” approach
Business Process Improvement (BPI)
An incremental approach to move an organization toward business process centered operations
Focuses on reducing variation in process outputs by identifying the underlying cause of the variation
Six Sigma is a popular methodology
Five basic phases of successful BPI
- Define
- Measure (is it doing what it is supposed to do?)
- Analyze
- Improve
- Control
Business Process Management (BMP)
A management system used to support continuous BPI initiatives for core business processes over time
Important components
- process modeling
- web-enabled technologies
- business activity monitoring (BAM)
BPM Suite
-an integrated set of applications used for BPM
Emerging trend of social BPM
-technologies enabling employees of collaborate across functions internally and externally using social media tools
Business Pressures
Market pressures
-global economy, intense competition, changing nature of the workforce, and powerful customers
Technology pressures
-technological innovation and info overload (to embrace, need training; takes time)
Social pressures
-social responsibility, gov. regulation, deregulation, social problem
Globalization
The integration nod interdependence of the economic, social, cultural, and ecological facets of life, made possible by rapid advances in IT
Stages
- 1492-1800; focus on countries
- 1800-2000; focus on companies
- 2000-present; focus on groups and individual
Changing nature of the workforce
Workforce becoming more diverse -women -single parents -minorities -persons with disabilities IT is enabling telecommunicating with employees
Powerful customers
Increasing customer sophistication and expectations Consumer more knowledgeable about -products and services -price comparisons -electronic auctions Customer relationship management
Technology pressures
Technological innovation and obsolescence
-rapid development of both new and substitute products and services
Information overload
- vast stores of data, info, and knowledge
- difficulties in managing data for decision making
Porter’s competitive forces model
Threats of new entrants -high when easy to enter -low when difficult to enter (patent, start up costs) Supplier power (bargaining power of supplier) -high when buyers have few choices -low when many choices Threats of substitute products or services -high when many substitutes Buying power (bargaining power of buyer) -high when buyer has many choices Competing organizations -high fierce competition
Porter’s value chain model
A sequence of activities through which the org’s inputs are transformed into valuable outputs
Five primary activities for manufacturing
- Inbound logistics (inputs)
- Operations (manufacturing and testing)
- Outbound logistics (storage and distribution)
- Marketing and sales
- After sales services
Four support activities
- Firm’s infrastructure (accounting, finance, management)
- HR management
- Product and technology development
- Procurement
Six characteristics of business-IT alignment
- IT viewed as an engine of innovation continually transforming the business and often creating new revenue streams
- Organizations view their internal and external customers and their customer service function as supremely important
- Organizations rotate business and IT professionals across departments and job functions
- Organizations provide overarching goals that are completely clear to each IT and business
- Organizations ensure that IT employees understand how the company makes (or loses) money
- Organizations create a vibrant and inclusive company culture
Major reasons business-IT alignment does NOT occur
Business managers and IT managers have diff objectives
The business and IT departments are ignorant of the other group’s expertise
A lack of communication
