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Chapter 1
Information Systems in Business today
Greater flexibility in organization and management (time shifting = 24/7, space shifting
= global workplace) = anytime/anywhere, flexibility
of IS!
IS =
Set of interrelated components;
Collect, process, store, and distribute information; produce new information;
Support decision making, coordination, control;
Solve tasks automatically, create new products, analyze problems
Information about significant people, places, things
! Computers and Software are only part of an IS! ( = technical foundation and tools)
Organizational dimension
IS = integral part
Key elements: people, structure, business processes, politics, culture
Different levels/specialties, hierarchy or pyramid structure
o Upper level: managerial, professional, technical employees
o Lower level: operational personnel
o Senior Mgt.: long-‐term strategic decisions, financial performance
o Middle Mgt.: carries out programs and plans
o Operational Mgt.: monitoring daily activities
Business perspective
Investment because IS (instrument) = real economic corporate value to the
business
ROI will be superior to other investments (buildings, machines etc.)
Increases in productivity, revenues ( stock market value), long-‐term strategic
positioning ( future revenues)
Decreases costs because of information for better decisions, better execution of
business processes.
Complementary assets
Some firms achieve better results with IS than others
Invest great deal or little a amount, receive low or much returns
IT investments alone are not enough
Organization and Management: supportive values, structures, behavior patterns
(= complementary assets)
Adopt right business model that suits the new technology
Complementary assets = assets required to derive value from a primary
investment receive superior returns
E.g. new business models, business processes, management behavior,
organizational culture, training
Investment in organizational and management capital
o Organizational assets, e.g.
Appropriate business model
Efficient business processes
o Managerial assets, e.g.
Incentives for management innovation
Teamwork and collaborative work environments
o Social assets (not by company, society in gerneal) e.g.
The Internet and telecommunications infrastructure
Technology standards
Contemporary Approaches to IS
Multidisciplinary field
IS = sociotechnical systems (machines, devices, physical tech, social,
organizational, intellectual investments
Technical approach
Emphasizes mathematically based models
Computer science (computability, data storage + access), management science,
operations research (transportation, inventory control, transaction costs)
Sociotechnical view
Optimal organizational performance achieved by jointly optimizing both social
and technical systems used in production (technic and behavior)
Helps avoid purely technological approach
Mutual adjustment of both technology and organization
Chapter 2
Global E-‐Business and Collaboration
Business Processes
= Unique manner in which work is organized, coordinated, focused to produce valuable
products and services
Workflows of material, information, knowledge (coordinated by Management
and Organization)
Performance depending on design and coordination of bp
Competitive strength, innovation (assets) or liabilities
Sets of activities, steps
May be tied to functional area or be cross-‐functional (e.g. fulfilling customer
order)
Businesses: collection of bp information must flow rapidly
between departments, supplier, customer, business partners
Types of IS
Typical: different kinds of systems supporting processes for each major business
function
Large-‐scale cross-‐functional systems, integrate related activities
Different systems supporting decision making needs management groups
o Transaction processing system
o Management information system
o Decision-‐support system
o System for business intelligence
Transaction processing systems / TPS
Perform and record daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business
(Examples: sales order entry, payroll, shipping)
Answer routine questions, flow of transactions
Allow managers to monitor status of operations and relations with external
environment
Serve operational levels (predefined tasks, resources, goals)
Serve predefined, structured goals and decision making
Producing information for other business functions
Business intelligence
Class of software applications (organizing, analyzing, providing access)
Analyze current and historical data to find patterns and trends and aid decision-‐
making (long-‐term)
Used in systems that support middle and senior management
o Data-‐driven DSS
o Executive support systems (ESS)
Enterprise applications
Systems for linking the enterprise + span functional areas
Execute business processes across firm (customer, supplier, business partner)
Include all levels of management
Four major applications:
o Enterprise systems
o Supply chain management systems
o Customer relationship management systems
o Knowledge management systems
Enterprise systems / ERP
Collects data from different firm functions and stores data in single central data
repository (serves variety of groups)
Resolves problem of fragmented, redundant data sets and systems
Enable: coordination of daily activities, efficient response to customer orders
(production, inventory), Provide valuable information for improving
management decision making
Alternative tools that increase integration and expedite the flow of information
Intranets: Internal company Web sites accessible only by employees
Extranets: Company Web sites accessible externally only to vendors and
suppliers
E-‐business: Use of digital technology and Internet to drive major business processes
E-‐commerce: Subset of e-‐business; Buying and selling goods and services through
Internet
E-‐government: Using Internet technology to deliver information and services to
citizens, employees, and businesses
IT Governance
Strategies and policies for using IT in the organization
Specifies decision rights and framework for accountability
Organization of information systems function (centralized, decentralized, ROI,
monitoring etc.)
Being able to use IT efficiently and effectively has become more and more
essential to a business’ success.
Chapter 3
Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy
What is an Organization?
Technical definition:
o Stable, formal social structure that takes resources from environment and
processes them to produce outputs
o 3 elements: Capital + labor production factors from environment;
transformation from organization into products/services; outputs
consumed by environment
o Formal legal entity with internal rules and procedures, as well as a social
structure
Behavioral definition: (more realistic)
o Collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that is
delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict
resolution
o Working people develop customary ways of working, attachments to
existing relationships, arrangements with subordinates and superiors
about how to work, amount, conditions (informal)
Relation to IS: technical view: easy to change arrangement of workers and
machines, substitution capital and labor; but behavior: IS change balance of
rights, privileges, obligations, responsibilities, feelings time and
resources
technical
behavioral
Features of Organizations
Use of hierarchical structure (specialists)
Accountability, authority in system of impartial + universal decision making
(abstract rules or procedures)
Promote employees on basis of technical qualification + professionalism
Adherence to principle of efficiency (may output, min input)
Routines and business processes
Organizational politics, culture, environments and structures
Economic impacts
IT changes relative costs of capital and the costs of information
IS technology is a factor of production, like capital and labor (also a substitute for
middle managers, buildings, machinery)
IT affects the cost and quality of information and changes economics of
information
Firms contract/shrink in size because IT can reduce transaction costs (cost
participating in markets, e.g. locating distant suppliers) outsourcing (same X= cost Y=size
ore more revenues with less employees)
Firms experience agency costs (cost of managing + supervising self-‐interested
parties = agents (employees)) (nexus of contracts) IT analyzes info, easier
for manager to oversee greater number of employees reducing costs
Organizational and behavioral impacts
IT flattens organizations
o Decision making pushed to lower levels (empowering, higher educational
level)
o Fewer managers needed (IT enables faster decision making and increases
span of control, eliminating middle managers)
Postindustrial organizations
o Organizations flatten because in postindustrial societies, authority
increasingly relies on knowledge and competence rather than formal
positions =self management
o Decentralization because knowledge also decentralized
o IT –> task force networked organization, groups of professionals
o New approaches for evaluating, organizing, informing workers required
Organizational resistance to change
o IS bound up in organizational politics because influence access to a key
resource – information
o IS potentially change organization’s structure, culture, politics, and work
often considerable resistance
o Most common reason for failure of large projects is due to organizational
and political resistance to change
IS Design consider:
Environment
Structure (hierarchy, routines, business processes)
Culture and politics
Organization type, leadership style
Main interest groups affected by system, attitudes of end users
Tasks, decisions, business process the system will assist
Low-‐cost leadership
o Produce products and services at a lower price than competitors while
enhancing quality and level of service
o Examples: Walmart’s continuous replenishment system, high speed, no
large inventory, adjust purchases depending on demands =efficient
customer response system
Product differentiation
o Enable new products or services, greatly change customer convenience
and experience (IS to customize + personalize to fit precise specifications
mass customization
o Examples: Google, Nike (NIKEiD), Apple (iPod + iTunes)
• Focus on market niche
o Use IS to enable a focused strategy on a single market niche; specialize,
analyzing, buying patterns, tastes, preferences marketing
campaigns
o Example: Hilton Hotels OnQ guest preferences profitable customers
additional privileges , credit cards
• Strengthen customer and supplier intimacy
o Use IS to develop strong ties and loyalty with customers and suppliers;
increase switching costs
o Example: Netflix, Amazon (recommended books)
Network-‐based strategies
Take advantage of firm’s abilities to network with each other
Include use of: network economics, virtual company model, business ecosystems
Traditional economics: Law of diminishing returns
o The more any given resource is applied to production, the lower the
marginal gain in output, until a point is reached where the additional
inputs produce no additional outputs
Network economics:
o Marginal cost of adding new participant almost zero, with much greater
marginal gain
o Value of community grows with size (e.g. communities
customer loyalty, enjoyment)
o Value of software grows as installed customer base grows
Virtual company strategy
o uses networks to ally with other companies to create and distribute
products without being limited by traditional organizational boundaries
or physical locations (link people, assets, ideas)
o when cheaper to acquire products, services…, or when to move quickly
o E.g. Li & Fung manages production, shipment of garments for major
fashion companies, outsourcing all work to over 7,500 suppliers
Business ecosystems (modification Porter)
o Industry sets of firms (instead of only one industry) providing related
services and products, loosely coupled, but interdependent networks
o Theory: Value web but with many industries (not only firms) – e.g
Walmart, Microsoft
o Keystone firms: Dominate ecosystem and create platform used by other
firms
o Niche firms: Rely on platform developed by keystone firm
o Individual firms can consider how IT will help them become profitable
niche players in larger ecosystems
o Use IS to develop into keystone firm
o E.g.: ecosystem mobile digital platform (device makers, wireless telefirms,
application providers, internet service providers
Management Issues
Strategic IS change organizationa, product, services, procedures, new behavioral
patterns
Success is a challenge, requiring precise coordination of techolgy, orga and mgt.
Ethical Analysis
1. Identify and describe clearly the facts
2. Describe conflict and dilemma and identify the higher-‐order values involved
3. Identify the stakeholders
4. Identify the options that you can reasonably take
5. Identify the potential consequences of your options
EU: 1998 Commissions Data Protection Directive, costumer must consent before
companies legally can use data, disclosure how stored and used, no transfer to
countries without similar protection
Informed consent = consent given with knowledge of all the facts needed to make
a rational decision
Safe harbor framework = private self-‐regulating policy and enforcement
mechanism, meets objectives of government regulators
Technical Solutions
Technologies to protect privcy (e.g encryption, anonymous, prevent cookies,
detect and eliminate spyware)
Tools to determine kind od extracted date
P3P (Platform for Privacy Preferences):
o Allows Web sites to communicate privacy policies to visitor’s Web
browser – user
o User specifies privacy levels desired in browser settings
o E.g. “medium” level accepts cookies from first-‐party host sites that have
opt-‐in or opt-‐out policies but rejects third-‐party cookies that use
personally identifiable information without an opt-‐in policy
Policies need to be codified according to P3P rules, only works with this web sites
Quality of life: Equity, access, and boundaries (Negative social consequences of systems)
Many not violations of property crimes, but can be very harmful, potentially can
destroy valuable elements of our culture and society, even when the bring
benefits
Balancing power: Although computing power decentralizing, key decision-‐
making remains centralized
Rapidity of change: Businesses may not have enough time to respond to global
competition just in time society, jobs, families, vacations
Maintaining boundaries: Computing, Internet use lengthens work-‐day, infringes
on family, personal time
Dependence and vulnerability: Public and private organizations ever more
dependent on computer systems
Computer crime and abuse
o Computer crime: Commission of illegal acts through use of compute or
against a computer system – computer may be object or instrument of
crime
o Computer abuse: Unethical acts, not illegal (e.g. Spam: High costs for
businesses in dealing with spam
o Conduct surveillance of employees and ordinary citizens
Employment: Reengineering work/redesign business processes) resulting in lost
jobs
Equity and access – the digital divide: Certain ethnic and income groups in the
United States less likely to have computers or Internet access
Health risks:
o Repetitive stress injury (RSI): most common, largest source is computer
keyboards, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS)
o Back, neck pain, leg stress, foot pain
o Computer vision syndrome (CVS) – eyestrain condition
o Technostress: aggravations, hostility towards humans, impatience, fatigue
o Role of radiation, screen emissions, low-‐level electromagnetic fields not
been proved, unknown effects
o Digital technologies are damaging ability to think clearly and focus, try to
multitask, concentration, interruptions
Chapter 5
IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies
IT Infrastructure
Shared technology resources providing platform for specific IS applications
Investment in hardware, software, services (consulting, education, training)
Foundation for serving customers, working with vendors, managing business
process
Set of physical devices and software required to operate enterprise
Set of firmwide services
o Computing platforms providing computing services (e.g desktop
computer, laptop)
o Telecommunications services
o Data management services (+analyzing)
o Application software services (ERP, CRM, SCM, KMS)
o Physical facilities management services
o IT management (plan infrastr. Coordinate with BU), standards (policies),
education (training) , research and development services (future
investments)
“Service platform” perspective more accurate view of value of investments
Evolution of IT Infrastructure
General-‐purpose mainframe & minicomputer era: 1959 to present
o 1958 IBM first mainframes introduced (centralized) – support thousands
online remote terminals connected
o 1965 Less expensive DEC minicomputers (more decentralized)
Personal computer era: 1981 to present
o 1981 Introduction of IBM PC
o Proliferation in 80s, 90s resulted in growth of personal software
o Wintel PC (95%)
Client/server era: 1983 to present
o Desktop clients networked to servers, with processing work split between
clients and servers
o Network may be two-‐tiered or multitiered (N-‐tiered)
o Various types of servers (network, application, Web)
o Smaller, inexpensive machines, costs less, computing power explosion
Enterprise computing era: 1992 to present
o Move toward integrating disparate networks, applications using Internet
standards and enterprise applications
o Free information flow, link different types of hardware, includes public
infrastructures, link applications, web services
Cloud and Mobile Computing: 2000 to present
o Refers to a model of computing where firms and individuals obtain
computing power and software applications over the Internet or other
network (shared pool of computing resources)
o Fastest growing form of computing
4 Management Issues
Operations of a Relational DBMS (Three basic operations to develop useful sets of data)
SELECT: Creates subset of data of all records that meet stated criteria
JOIN: Combines relational tables to provide user with more information than
available in individual tables
PROJECT: Creates subset of columns in table, creating tables with only the
information specified
Object-‐Oriented DBMS (OODBMS)
• Stores data and procedures as objects, can be automatically retrieved and shared
• Objects can be graphics, multimedia, Java applets, not only structured numbers
and characters, integrate from various sources
• Relatively slow compared with relational DBMS for processing large numbers of
transactions
• Hybrid object-‐relational DBMS: Provide capabilities of both OODBMS and
relational DBMS
Designing Databases
• Conceptual (logical) design: Abstract model from business perspective
• Physical design: How database is arranged on direct-‐access storage devices
• Understand relationship among data, type of data, grouping, usage, changes
• Relationships among data elements, redundant database elements
• Most efficient way to group data elements to meet business requirements, needs
of application programs
• Normalization: Streamlining complex groupings of data to minimize redundant
data elements and awkward many-‐to-‐many relationships (small, stable, flexible
data structures)
• Enforce referential integrity rules, ensure relationships remain consistent (e.g. no
parts from nonexistent suppliers)
• Entity-‐relationship diagram: Used by database designers to document the data
model, Illustrates relationships between entities
• Distributing databases: Storing database in more than one place
• Partitioned: Separate locations store different parts of database
• Replicated: Central database duplicated in entirety at different locations
Understand organizations data and how it should be represented in a database to serve
business well with your data model, or the data will be inaccurate, incomplete, and
difficult to retrieve!
Data warehousing
Stores current + historical data from many core operational transaction systems
Consolidates and standardizes information for use across enterprise, but data
cannot be altered
Data warehouse system will provide query, analysis, and reporting tools
E.g. Catalina Marketing largest loyalty database in the world, US Internal
Revenue Service (IRS) with Compliance Data Warehouse consolidating taxpayer
data from different resources into relational structure (find out who cheats)
Data marts
Subset of data warehouse, smaller, decentralized
Summarized or highly focused portion of firm’s data for use by specific
population of users
Typically focuses on single subject or line of business, constructed more rapidly,
lower costs
E.g. Barnes and Noble point-‐of-‐sale, college bookstore, online sales
Business Intelligence
Tools for consolidating, analyzing, and providing access to vast amounts of data
to help users make better business decisions (patterns, relationships, insights)
Principle tools include: Software for database query and reporting,
multidimensional online analytical processing (OLAP), data mining
Data mining
More discovery driven than OLAP: finds hidden patterns, relationships in large
databases and infers rules to predict future behavior
Applications for all functional areas of business, government, scientific work
E.g., Finding patterns in customer data for one-‐to-‐one marketing campaigns or to
identify profitable customers.
Types of information obtainable from data mining
o Associations, occurrences linked to a single event (coke, chips, promotion)
o Sequences, events linked over time (house fridge, oven)
o Classification, inferring set of rules, patterns that describe group item
belongs (discover characteristics of customers who are likely to leave)
o Clustering, similar to classification where no groups defined (partitioning
database into groups of customers based on demographics)
o Forecasting, use series of existing values to forecast what other values will
be (finding patterns to estimate future value of continuous variables)
High level analyses of patterns or trends, can also drill down and provide more
detail when needed
Predictive analysis: Uses data mining techniques, historical data, and
assumptions about future conditions to predict outcomes of events (e.g.
probability a customer will respond to an offer)
Text mining
Extracts key elements from large unstructured data sets (e.g., stored e-‐mails)
80% of organizations useful information
Discover patterns, relationships, summarize
New myriad ways unstructured data is generated by consumers and the business
uses for this data
Web mining
Discovery and analysis of useful patterns and information from WWW (E.g., to
understand customer behavior, evaluate effectiveness of Web site)
Web content mining (Knowledge extracted from content of Web pages)
Web structure mining (E.g., links to and from Web page)
Web usage mining (User interaction data recorded by Web server)
Packet Switching
• Slicing digital messages into parcels (packets), sending packets along different
communication paths as they become available, reassembling packets at
destination
• Previous circuit-‐switched networks required assembly of complete point-‐to-‐
point circuit (expensive, wasting capacity)
• More efficient use of network’s communications capacity
TCP/IP and connectivity
Connectivity between computers (different hardware and software) enabled by
protocols (Rules that govern transmission of information between two points)
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP): Common worldwide
standard that is basis for Internet
TCP: handles movement of data, establishes connection, sequences transfer of
packets
IP: responsible for delivery of packets, dissembling and reassembling of packets
during transmissions
Four layers (department of defense reference model)
o Application layer (enables apps access to other layers, exchange data
protocol like HTTP (hyper Text Transfer Protocol)
o Transport layer (provide app layer with communication and packet
Data
Types of networks
Local-‐area networks (LANs)
Connect personal and other digital devices within 500m radius
1 dedicated network file server, providing access to shared resources, determine
who gets access, in which sequence, large: various dedicated servers
Router connects LAN to other networks (external information exchange)
Ethernet = dominant LAN Standard, physical
Peer-‐to-‐peer = treat all processors equally, exchange data by direct access, charge
peripheral devices without server (Windows: workgroup, not domain network)
Topologies (way components are connected): star (single hub), bus (single
transmission segment, both directions, most common, same signals), ring (closed
loop, ones station transmits at a time)
Campus-‐area networks (CANs), 1000m radius
Wide-‐area networks (WANs) e.g. Internet
Metropolitan-‐area networks (MANs)
Web 2.0
Collaboration, sharing, creating new services
4 defining features: Interactivity, real-‐time user control, social participation,
user-‐generated content
Technologies/services: Cloud computing, Blogs/RSS, Mashups & widgets (mix
and match content or software components, e.g. Flickr), Wikis, Social networks
Blog: chronological entries, blog roll, trackbacks, comments, Templates (no HTML
skills needed) blogosphere
RSS: Rich Site Summary, Really Simple Syndication syndicates content,
feeds, subscribe and automatically receive new content
Wikis: collaborative web sites, visitors add, modify content, monitoring work
easy to share information
Social networks: build communities, profiles. Interactivity, real time user control,
opinions, how communicate, stay in touch, advertising, + application
development platforms
Cellular Systems
Competing standards for cellular service
o CDMA(Code Division Multiple Access): United States (Verizon, Sprint),
transmits several frequencies, entire spectrum
o GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication): Rest of world, plus AT&T
and T-‐Mobile, international roaming capability
Third-‐generation (3G) networks: Suitable for broadband Internet access , 144
Kbps – 2Mbps, special cards for PCs
4G networks: Entirely packet-‐switched, 100 Mbps – 1Gbps, premium quality,
high security Pre-‐4G: Long Term Evolution (LTE), mobile WiMax
Internet vulnerabilities
• Network open to anyone, Size: abuses can have wide impact
• Use of fixed Internet addresses creates fixed targets hackers
• Unencrypted VOIP (no use of VPN)
• E-‐mail, P2P, IM: Interception, Attachments with malicious software, Transmitting
trade secrets
Legal and regulatory requirements for electronic records management and privacy
protection
• Protection data from abuse, exposure, unauthorized access
• HIPAA: Medical security and privacy rules and procedures
• Gramm-‐Leach-‐Bliley Act: Requires financial institutions to ensure the security
and confidentiality of customer data
• Sarbanes-‐Oxley Act: Imposes responsibility on companies and their management
to safeguard the accuracy and integrity of financial information that is used
internally and released externally
Electronic evidence
• Evidence for white collar crimes often in digital form Data on computers, e-‐mail,
instant messages, e-‐commerce transactions
• Proper control of data can save time and money when responding to legal
discovery request
Computer forensics:
• Scientific collection, examination, authentication, preservation, and analysis of
data from computer storage media for use as evidence in court of law
• Includes recovery of ambient and hidden data, plan needed
Establishing a Framework for Security and Control
Where company at risk, what controls must be in place, security policy, plans
for keeping business running if IS not operational
Information systems controls
• Manual and automated controls
• General and application controls
General controls
• Govern design, security, and use of computer programs and security of data files
in general throughout organization’s IT infrastructure.
• Apply to all computerized applications
• Combination of hardware, software, and manual procedures to create overall
control environment
• Types of general controls: Software controls, Hardware controls, Computer
operations controls, Data security controls, Implementation controls,
Administrative controls
Application controls
• Specific controls unique to each computerized application, such as payroll or
order processing
• Include both automated and manual procedures
• Ensure that only authorized data are completely and accurately processed by
that application
• Input controls: authorization, conversion, editing, error handling
• Processing controls: updating
• Output controls
Risk assessment
• Determines level of risk to firm if specific activity or process is not properly
controlled
• Determine value of info assets, points of vulnerability, likely frequency of the
problem, potential for damage
• Concentration on the control points with greatest vulnerability and potential for
loss
Security policy
• Ranks information risks, identifies acceptable security goals, and identifies
mechanisms for achieving these goals, most important assets
• Acceptable use policy (AUP): Defines acceptable uses of firm’s information
resources and computing equipment, unacceptable, consequences
• Authorization policies: Determine differing levels of user access to information
assets
Identity management
• Business processes and tools to identify valid users of system and control access:
Identifies and authorizes different categories of users, Specifies which portion of
system users can access, Authenticating users and protects identities
• Identity management systems: Captures access rules for different levels of users
Firewall: Combination of hardware and software that prevents unauthorized users from
accessing private networks
• Static packet filtering: examines selected fields in headers of individual packets
• Stateful inspections: track info over multiple packets, part of approved
conversation, legitimate connection
• Network address translation (NAT): conceals ip addresses of internal host
computers
• Application proxy filtering: examines app content of packets
Encryption
Transforming text or data into cipher text that cannot be read by unintended
recipients, encryption key
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and successor Transport Layer Security (TLS)
between 2 computers
Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (S-‐HTTP) limited to individual messages
Symmetric key encryption: Sender and receiver use single, shared key
Public key encryption: Uses two, mathematically related keys: Public key and
private key, Sender encrypts message with recipient’s public key, Recipient
decrypts with private key
Digital certificate:
Data file used to establish the identity of users and electronic assets for
protection of online transactions
Uses a trusted third party, certification authority (CA), to validate a user’s
identity
CA verifies user’s identity, stores information in CA server, which generates
encrypted digital certificate containing owner ID information and copy of
owner’s public key
Public key infrastructure (PKI)
Use of public key cryptography working with certificate authority
Widely used in e-‐commerce
Enterprise Software
• Built around thousands of predefined business processes that reflect
best practices
• Finance/accounting, Human resources, Manufacturing/production,
Sales/marketing
• To implement, firms: Select functions of system they wish to use, Map business
processes to software processes, Use software’s configuration tables for
customizing
• Leading ES vendors: SAP, Oracle, Infor Global Solutions, Microsoft
• Communicate with customers, suppliers, other entities
E-‐commerce today:
• Use of the Internet and Web to transact business; digitally enabled transactions
• Began in 1995 and grew exponentially, still growing even in a recession
• Companies that survived the dot-‐com bubble burst and now thrive
• E-‐commerce revolution is still in its early stages, increasing number of online
products, broadband access
Reduced
Transaction
costs
Lower
Market
Entry
Cost,
Search
cost
Digital goods
Goods that can be delivered over a digital network
Cost of producing first unit almost entire cost of product: marginal cost of 2nd
unit is about zero
Costs of delivery over the Internet very low
Marketing costs remain the same; pricing highly variable
Industries with digital goods are undergoing revolutionary changes (publishers,
record labels, etc.)
Types of e-‐commerce
• Business-‐to-‐consumer (B2C)
• Business-‐to-‐business (B2B)
• Consumer-‐to-‐consumer (C2C)
• Mobile commerce (m-‐commerce)
E-‐commerce marketing
• Internet provides marketers with new ways of identifying and communicating
with customers
• Long tail marketing: Ability to reach a large audience inexpensively
• Behavioral targeting: Tracking online behavior of individuals on thousands of
Web sites, privacy concerns
• Advertising networks profiling
• Advertising formats include search engine marketing, display ads, rich media,
and e-‐mail
Business-‐to-‐business e-‐commerce
Promise: reduce costs, prices, increase productivity, economic wealth
Challenge: chahing existing patterns and systems of procurement, designing and
implementing new Internet-‐based B2B solutions
Electronic data interchange (EDI)
• Computer-‐to-‐computer exchange of standard transactions such as invoices,
purchase orders
• Major industries have EDI standards that define structure and information fields
of electronic documents for that industry
• More companies increasingly moving away from private networks to Internet for
linking to other firms E.g. Procurement: Businesses can now use Internet to
locate most low-‐cost supplier, search online catalogs of supplier products,
negotiate with suppliers, place orders, etc.
Private industrial networks (private exchanges)
• Large firm using extranet to link to its suppliers, distributors and other key
business partners
• Owned by buyer, eg. Volkswagen Group Supply
• Permits sharing of: Product design and development, Marketing, Production
scheduling and inventory management, Unstructured communication
Net marketplaces (e-‐hubs)
• Single market for many buyers and sellers
• Industry-‐owned or owned by independent intermediary
• Generate revenue from transaction fees, other services
• Use prices established through negotiation, auction, RFQs, or fixed prices
• May focus on direct or indirect goods
• May be vertical or horizontal marketplaces
• E.g. Exostar long term contract purchasing, aero defense industry, Elemica
serving chemical industry
Exchanges
• Independently owned third-‐party Net marketplaces
• Connect thousands of suppliers and buyers for spot purchasing
• Typically provide vertical markets for direct goods for single industry (food,
electronics)
• Proliferated during early years of e-‐commerce; many have failed: Competitive
bidding drove prices down and did not offer long-‐term relationships with buyers
or services to make lowering prices worthwhile
M-‐commerce
• Location-‐based services (Loopt, Wikitude)
• Software application sales
• Entertainment downloads
• Mobile display advertising
• Banking and financial services
• Wireless advertising and retailing
• Games and entertainment
Knowledge acquisition
Documenting tacit and explicit knowledge
o Storing documents, reports, presentations, best practices
o Unstructured documents (e.g., e-‐mails)
o Developing online expert networks
Creating knowledge (discover patterns, knowledge workstations)
Tracking data from TPS (sales, payments, inventory, customers), external sources
Knowledge storage
Databases, expert systems corporate in business processes
Document management systems
Role of management:
o Support development of planned knowledge storage systems
o Encourage development of corporate-‐wide schemas for indexing
documents
o Reward employees for taking time to update and store documents
properly
Knowledge dissemination
Portals, Push e-‐mail reports, Search engines, Collaboration tools
A deluge of information
Training programs, informal networks, and shared management experience help
managers focus attention on important information
Knowledge application
To provide return on investment, organizational knowledge must become
systematic part of management decision making and become situated in
decision-‐support systems
Create New business practices, New products and services, New markets
Collaboration Tools
Enterprise knowledge portals: Access to external and internal information
(News feeds, research, Capabilities for e-‐mail, chat..)
Use of consumer Web technologies (Blogs, Wikis, Social bookmarking – user-‐
created taxonomies for shared bookmarks = folksonomies)
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
Provide tools for management, delivery, tracking, and assessment of various
types of employee learning and training
Support multiple modes of learning
Automates selection and administration of courses
Assembles and delivers learning content
Measures learning effectiveness
Knowledge Work Systems = Systems for knowledge workers to help create new
knowledge and integrate that knowledge into business
Knowledge workers = Researchers, designers, architects, scientists, engineers who
create knowledge for the organization
1. Keeping organization current in knowledge
2. Serving as internal consultants regarding their areas of expertise
3. Acting as change agents, evaluating, initiating, and promoting change projects
Expert systems:
• Capture tacit knowledge in very specific and limited domain of human expertise
• Capture knowledge of skilled employees as set of rules in software system that
can be used by others in organization
• Typically perform limited tasks that may take a few minutes or hours, e.g.
Diagnose malfunctioning machine, Determining whether to grant credit for loan
• Used for discrete, highly structured decision-‐making
How expert systems work
• Knowledge base: Set of hundreds or thousands of interconnected rules
• Inference engine: Strategy used to search knowledge base
o Forward chaining: Inference engine begins with information entered by
user and searches knowledge base to arrive at conclusion
o Backward chaining: Begins with hypothesis and asks user questions until
hypothesis is confirmed or disproved
• Benefits: improved decisions, reduced errors, reduced costs, and training time,
higher levels of quality and service
Successful expert systems
• Con-‐Way Transportation built expert system to automate and optimize planning
of overnight shipment routes for nationwide freight-‐trucking business
Most expert systems deal with problems of classification
• Have relatively few alternative outcomes
• Possible outcomes are known in advance
Many expert systems require large, lengthy, and expensive development and
maintenance efforts Hiring or training more experts may be less
expensive
Neural networks
• Find patterns and relationships in massive amounts of data too complicated for
humans to analyze
• “Learn” patterns by searching for relationships, building models, and correcting
over and over again (construct hidden layer of logic)
• Humans “train” network by feeding it data inputs for which outputs are known,
to help neural network learn solution by example
• Used in medicine, science, and business for problems in pattern classification,
prediction, financial analysis, and control and optimization only as aids!
• E.g Visa Credit Card Fraud monitoring transactions
• Machine learning: Related AI technology allowing computers to learn by
extracting information using computation and statistical methods
• Used in data mining
Genetic algorithms
• Useful for finding optimal solution for specific problem by examining very large
number of possible solutions for that problem
• Conceptually based on process of evolution: Search among solution variables by
changing and reorganizing component parts using processes such as inheritance,
mutation, and selection
• Used in optimization problems (minimization of costs, efficient scheduling,
optimal jet engine design) in which hundreds or thousands of variables exist
• Able to evaluate many solution alternatives quickly
Hybrid AI systems
• Genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic, neural networks, and expert systems integrated
into single application to take advantage of best features of each
• E.g., Matsushita “neurofuzzy” washing machine that combines fuzzy logic with
neural networks
Intelligent agents
• Work in background to carry out
specific, repetitive, and predictable
tasks for user, process, or application
• Use limited built-‐in or learned
knowledge base to accomplish tasks or
make decisions on user’s behalf
(Deleting junk e-‐mail, Finding cheapest
airfare)
• Agent-‐based modeling applications:
o Systems of autonomous agents
o Model behavior of consumers,
stock markets, and supply
chains; used to predict spread of epidemics
Chapter 12
Enhancing Decision Making
Types of decisions:
• Unstructured: Decision maker must provide judgment, evaluation, and insight to
solve problem, novel, non-‐routine and important decisions Senior
management
• Structured: Repetitive and routine; involve definite procedure for handling so
they do not have to be treated each time as new operational
management
• Semistructured: Only part of problem has clear-‐cut answer provided by accepted
procedure Middle management
1. Identify processes for change: what processes are important and how improving
these will help performance
2. Analyze existing processes: modeled and documented, identify redundant steps and
inefficiencies, existing processes measured in times and cost
3. Design the new process: improve processes by designing new one, “to-‐be” process
comparison streamlined processes, justifying by reducing time, cost, enhancing
service and value
4. Implement the new process: translation in new set of procedures and rules,
implement IS to support, uncover and address problems, recommended
improvements
5. Continuous measurement: employees fall back in old methods, processes lose
effectiveness due to other changes
Systems development
Activities that go into producing an information system solution to an organizational
problem or opportunity
Systems analysis
Analysis of problem to be solved by new system
Defining the problem and identifying causes, Specifying solutions (Systems
proposal report identifies and examines alternative solutions), Identifying
information requirements
Analyst: creates roadmap of existing organization, identifying primary owners of
data, hardware, software examining problem areas and objectives
Includes feasibility study: financial, technical, organizational standpoint, good
investment, skills?
Written systems proposal: costs, benefits, disadvantages, advantages of each
alternative
Establishing information requirements
o Who needs what information, where, when, and how
o Define objectives of new/modified system
o Detail the functions new system must perform
Faulty requirements analysis is leading cause of systems failure and high systems
development cost
Systems design
Describes system specifications that will deliver functions identified during
systems analysis form and structure (blueprint)
Should address all managerial, organizational, and technological components of
system solution fulfill user requirements
Role of end users
o User information requirements drive system building
o Users must have sufficient control over design process to ensure system
reflects their business priorities and information needs
o Insufficient user involvement in design effort is major cause of system
failure
2. Object-‐Oriented Development
Object = basic unit of systems analysis and design
Object: Combines data and the processes that operate on those data
Data encapsulated in object can be accessed and modified only by operations, or
methods, associated with that object
Object-‐oriented modeling based on concepts of class and inheritance
o Objects belong to a certain class and have features of that class
o May inherit structures and behaviors of a more general, ancestor class
More iterative and incremental than traditional structured development
o Systems analysis: Interactions between system and users analyzed to
identify objects
o Design phase: Describes how objects will behave and interact; grouped
into classes, subclasses and hierarchies
o Implementation: Some classes may be reused from existing library of
classes, others created or inherited
Objects = reusable can potentially reduce time and cost of development
Prototyping
Building experimental system rapidly and inexpensively for end users to evaluate
Prototype: Working but preliminary version of information system
Approved prototype serves as template for final system
Iterative Steps in prototyping (can be repeated)
1. Identify user requirements
2. Develop initial prototype
3. Use prototype
4. Revise and enhance prototype
Advantages Disadvantages
Useful if some uncertainty in May gloss over essential steps
requirements or design solutions May not accommodate large
Often used for end-‐user interface quantities of data or large number
design of users
More likely to fulfill end-‐user May not undergo full testing or
requirements documentation
End-‐user development:
Uses fourth-‐generation languages to allow end-‐users to develop systems with
little or no help from technical specialists
Fourth generation languages: Less procedural than conventional programming
Require: cost-‐justification of end-‐user system projects, Establish hardware,
software, and quality standards
Advantages Disadvantages
More rapid completion of projects Not designed for processing-‐
High-‐level of user involvement and intensive applications
satisfaction Inadequate management and
control, testing, documentation
Loss of control over data
Application software packages
Save time and money: pre-‐written, designed, tested, maintenance
Many offer customization features
Evaluation criteria for systems analysis include: Functions provided by the
package, flexibility, user friendliness, hardware and software resources, database
requirements, installation and maintenance efforts, documentation, vendor
quality, and cost
Request for Proposal (RFP): Detailed list of questions submitted to packaged-‐
software vendors, Used to evaluate alternative software packages
Outsourcing
Cloud and SaaS providers: Subscribing companies use software and computer
hardware provided by vendors
External vendors: Hired to design, create software
o Domestic: Driven by firms need for additional skills, resources, assets
o Offshore: Driven by cost-‐savings, better assets, skills
Advantages Disadvantages
Allows organization flexibility in IT Hidden costs, e.g. Identifying and
needs selecting vendor, Transitioning to
Usually at least 15% cost saving vendor
even in worst case scenario Opening up proprietary business
processes to third party
Application Development for the Digital Firm
Rapid application development (RAD)
Process of creating workable systems in a very short period of time (less
sequential, parts occur simultaneously
Visual programming and other tools for building graphical user interfaces
Iterative prototyping of key system elements
Automation of program code generation
Close teamwork among end users and information systems specialists
Agile development
Focuses on rapid delivery of working software by breaking large project into
several small sub-‐projects
Subprojects: Treated as separate, complete projects, Completed in short periods
of time using iteration and continuous feedback
Emphasizes face-‐to-‐face communication over written documents collaboration
and faster decision making
Component-‐based development
Groups of objects that provide software for common functions (e.g., online
ordering) and can be combined to create large-‐scale business applications
Web services
o Reusable software components that use XML and open Internet standards
(platform independent)
o Enable applications to communicate with no custom programming
required to share data and services
o Can engage other Web services for more complex transactions
o Using platform and device-‐independent standards can result in significant
cost-‐savings and opportunities for collaboration with other companies
Chapter 14
Managing Projects
Project management
Project: planned series of related activities for achieving specific business
objective
Activities: planning work, assessing risk, estimating resources required,
organizing work, assigning tasks, controlling project execution, reporting
progress, analyzing results
Five major variables
o Scope what work to (not) include
o Time amount to complete project, schedule
o Cost hr, hardware, software, work space
o Quality result satisfies specified objectives
o Risk potential problems threatening success
Selecting Projects
Linking Systems Projects to the Business Plan
Information systems plan
Identifies systems projects that will deliver most business value, links
development to business plan
Corporate goals, milestones, target dates, key management decisions
Road map indicating direction of systems development, includes:
o Purpose of plan
o Strategic business plan rationale
o Current systems/situation
o New developments to consider
o Management strategy
o Implementation plan
o Budget
In order to plan effectively, firms need to inventory and document existing
software, hardware, systems
Portfolio analysis
Used to evaluate alternative system projects
Inventories all of the organization’s information systems projects and assets
Each system has profile of risk and benefit
To improve return on portfolio, balance risk and return from systems
investments
Determine optimal mix of investment risk and reward
Aligned with business strategy: superior return on IT assets, better alignment
with business objectives, and better coordination if IT investments
Scoring models
Selecting projects where many criteria must be considered
Assigns weights to various features of system and calculates weighted totals
Most important: not score but agreement on criteria to judge system
Requires experts understanding issue and technology
Used to confirm, rationalize and support decisions
Global drivers
General cultural factors lead toward internationalization and result in specific business
globalization factors
Business Challenges
Software Localization
Integrating new systems with old (+ testing)
Human interface design issues, languages mastered quickly
Software localization: converting software to operate in second language
Most important software applications:
o TPS and MIS (basic transaction and management reporting systems)
o Increasingly, SCM and enterprise systems to standardize business
processes not always compatible with differences in
languages, heritage, business processes in other countries
o Problems: not technically sophisticated company units
o Applications that enhance productivity of international teams like EDI,
SCM; Collaboration systems, email, videoconferencing