Midterm Flashcards
Information Technology
any computer-based tool that people use to work with information and to support the information and information-processing needs of an organization
Information System
collects, processes, stores, analyzes, and disseminates information for a specific purpose
the purpose of an IS
to get the right information to the right people at the right time in the right amount and in the right format to support business processes and desicion making
data
is sorted, processed or assembled to create information
when people apply learned criteria or learned expertise to information they create knowledge
organizational strategy
a planned approach that the organization takes to achieve its goals and its mission statement
competitive advantage
is an advantage over competitors in some measure such as cost, quality, or speed; leads to control of a market and to larger-than-ever profits
business process
a collection of related activities that produce a product or service of value to the organization, its business partners and/or its customers
example:
accounting: managing accounts payable and receivable
cross-functional process
a process that involves multilple divisions, each of which makes its part of the entire company workflow
business process excellence (3)
Business process reengineering is a radical strategy for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization’s business processes - clean slate
business process improvement is a more incremental approach, with lower risk and cost than BPR. - six sigma
business process management is a management technique that includes methods and tools to support the design, analysis, implementation, management, and optimization of business processes
5 successful phases of BPI (Business process improvement)
define measure analyze improve control
BPI (Business Process Improvement) vs BPR (Business Process Reengineering)
Low risk / low cost Incremental change Bottom-up approach Takes less time Quantifiable results All employees trained in BPI
High risk / high cost Radical redesign Top-down approach Time consuming Impacts can be overwhelming High failure rate
competitive strategy
document’s a business’s approach to compete and how it will accomplish those goals, for example, in increasing market share
Porter’s competitive forces model
new competitors
bargaining power of suppliers
bargaining power of customers
threat of substitute products or services
rivalry among firms in industry
business-information technology
alignment is the tight integration of the IT function with the organization’s strategy, mission, and goals of the organization
the IT function directly supports the business objectives of the organization
data governance
an approach to managing information across an entire organization
data security
databases must have extremely high security meaures in place to deter mistakes and attacks since data is stored in one place
data integrity
data must meet certain constraints, such as no alphabetic characters in a social insurance number field
no mistakes in data
data independence
applications and data are not linked to each other so that all applications are able to access the same data
Database Management Systems maximize
data security, data integrity, data independence
Entity
is a person, place, thing, or event about which an organization maintains information. A record describes an entity.
Primary key is
a field that uniquely identifies a record. Note that every record MUST have a primary key.
Secondary keys are
other identifying fields that typically do not identify the file with complete accuracy.
Foreign key field(s) are
used to uniquely identify a row of another table that is linked to the current table
Big Data
data so large and complex it cannot be managed by traditional systems
Volume: computer-generated from many sources
Velocity: flows rapidly to/from within the organization
Variety: in addition to numbers and text, it includes images, sound, web-based content and others
