Using MIS Chapter 7 Flashcards
Business Process Reengineering
The activity of altering existing and designing new business processes to take advantage of new information systems technology.
-Business process reengineering is difficult, slow, and exceedingly expensive.
Customer Life Cycle
Taken as a whole, the processes of marketing, customer acquisition, relationship management, and loss/churn that must be managed by CRM systems.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System
A suite of applications, a database, and a set of inherent processes for managing all the interactions with the customer, from lead generation to customer service.
-Every contact and transaction with the customer is recorded in the CRM database.
Data Integrity
In a database or a collection of databases, the condition that exists when data values are consistent and in agreement with one another.
when an organization has inconsistent duplicated data, it is said to have a data integrity problem.
Distributed Systems
Systems in which application processing is distributed across multiple computing devices.
-Example: Inter-enterprise PRIDE System (Figure 7-19 Page 268)
Dynamic Processes
Flexible, informal, and adaptive processes that normally involve strategic and less specific(/less structured) managerial decisions and activities.
- Deciding whether to open a new store location and how best to solve the problem of excessive product returns are examples, as is using Twitter to generate buzz about next season’s product line.
- Dynamic processes usually require human judgement.
- support strategic and less structured managerial decision and activities.
- less specific, fluid
- usually informal
- exceptions frequent an expected
- adaptive processes that change structure rapidly and readily
- Example: collaboration, social networking, ill-defined, ambiguous situations
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
A suite of software applications that integrates existing systems by providing layers of software that connect applications together.
- -EAI does the following:
- it connects system “islands” via a new layer of software/system.
- it enables existing applications to communicate and share data.
- it provides integrated information.
- it leverages existing systems–leaving functional applications as is, but providing an integration layer over the top.
- it enables a gradual move to ERP.
–The major benefit of EAI is that it enables organizations to use existing applications while eliminating many of the serious problems of isolated systems.
Enterprise Information System
Information systems that support cross-functional processes and activities in multiple departments.
support one or more enterprise processes.
- they typically have hundreds to thousands of users.
- procedures are formalized and extensively documented
- users always undergo formal procedure training.
- sometimes enterprise systems include categories of procedures, and users are defined according to levels of expertise with the system as well as by level of authority.
Enterprise Processes
Processes that span an organization and support activities in multiple departments.
-at a hospital, the process for discharging a patient supports activities in housekeeping, the pharmacy, the kitchen, the nurses’ stations, and other hospital departments.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
A suite of applications called modules, a database, and a set of inherent processes for consolidating business operations into a single, consistent, computing platform.
ERP System
An information system based upon ERP technology.
- ERP systems include the functions of CRM systems, but also incorporate accounting, manufacturing, inventory, and human resources applications.
- Primary purpose of an ERP system is integration; an ERP system allows the left hand of the organization to know what the right hand is doing. This integration allows real-time updates globally, whenever an wherever a transaction takes place. Critical business decisions can then be made on a timely basis using the latest data.
Functional Application
Software that provides features and functions necessary to support a particular business activity (function).
the program component of a functional information system is called a functional application.
Functional Information Systems
Workgroup information systems that support a particular business function.
sometimes, workgroup information systems are called functional information systems.
-for example, an operations management system is a functional information system, as are a general ledger system and a cost accounting system.
Industry-specific Solutions
An ERP template that is designed to serve the needs of companies or organizations in specific industries. Such solutions save time and lower risk. The development of industry-specific solutions spurred ERP growth.
starter kits for specific industries provided by ERP vendors to reduce the work needed to be done to customize an ERP application to a particular customer.
-these solutions contain program and database configuration files as well as process blueprints that apply to ERP implementations in specific industries.
Information Silo
A condition that exists when data are isolated in separated information systems.
Inherent Processes
The procedures that must be followed to effectively use licensed software. For example, the processes inherent in ERP systems assume that certain users will take specified actions in a particular order. In most cases, the organization must conform to the processes inherent in the software.
are predesigned procedures for using the software products, which save organizations from the expense, delays, and risks of business process reengineering.
Inter-enterprise Processes
Processes that span two or more independent organizations.
Inter-enterprise Information Systems
Information systems that support one or more inter-enterprise processes.
-Such systems typically involve thousands of users, and solutions to problems require cooperation among different, usually independently owned, organizations. Problems are resolved by meeting, by contract, and sometimes by litigation.
Modules
A suite of applications in an ERP system.
Process Blueprints
In an ERP application, comprehensive sets of inherent processes for all organizational activities, each of which is documented with diagrams that use a set of standardized symbols.
what some ERP vendors call the inherent processes that are defined in the ERP solution, process blueprints.
Process Effectiveness
A measure of how well a process achieves organizational strategy.
Process Efficiency
A measure of the ratio of process outputs to inputs.
Self-efficacy
A person’s belief that he or she can successfully perform the tasks required in his or her job.