MANAGAMENT IFORMATION SYSTEM QUESTION 1 What is the difference between information technology and information system?

Describe some of the function of information system ? The main difference between information technology and information systems (IS) is that IS personal are business oriented and focus on the applications and implications of computing in the business domain. IT does not focus on a single domain in which IT is practiced, but instead focuses on the selection, integration and deployment of computing technology.

IS requires the business skills to thrive in the Board Room and learn enough about the technology to make sound strategic decisions. On the other hand IT generally consists of planning and deploying networking infrastructure or integrate databases or build significant Web sites. In layman's terms IS deals with the business side of technology as IT deals with the technical side.

The function of an information system is to enable users to access information by using the different communication channels available in an organization. An information system refers to a combination of information technology and people's actions whose aim is to support operations and management.

QUESTION 2 Define business process. What might be a business process used a hospital . A business process is an activity or set of activities that will accomplish a specific organizational goal. Business process management (BPM) is a systematic approach to improving those processes. A business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product (serve a particular goal) for a particular customer or customers.

Business process used a hospital : 1) Medical Records / HER = Process of electronically collecting, storing and retrieving

complete personal health data that is delivered across different healthcare settings. 2) Medication Administration = Ability to electronically document medications at the bedside or other patient treatment areas. 3) Receiving = Taking possession of products in order to stage them for inspection, place them into inventory, or deploy them for immediate use. The receiving process usually must be successfully completed before invoices can be paid.

QUESTION 3 Define and describe a business ecosystem . Give an example of a business ecosystem. A business ecosystem describes the structure and behaviour of a network of high-tech organisations that share a key technological platform and the ways individual firms can flourish in such an environment.

The essence of a business ecosystem is that networks between companies need to be analysed from a higher conceptual level rather than from the viewpoint of individual organisations. A business ecosystems scope is the set of positive sum relationships (symbiosis) between actors who work together around a core technology platform. Irrespective of an organisations individual strength, all actors in a business ecosystem are connected and share the success or failure of the network as a whole. Aspects of ecosystem are:

actors (species) relations between actors (network) performance (health) dynamics (evolution) strategies and behaviour of actors (roles).

A business ecosystem has seven types of actors:

customers markets products processes organisations stakeholders government / society.

The health (performance) of an ecosystem is defined by the following four factors:

value (niche creation) critical mass (robustness) continuous performance improvement (productivity) co-evolution or the joint learning and optimization effects.

One example is the technology platform of MS Windows that induces a synergy between MS windows compatible companies delivering hardware, software, services, etc. Another example is Reverse Osmosis whose water treatment technology has an ecosystem of companies involved in membranes, pumps, filters, piping, services, and others.