Chapter 7
IT Infrastructures
Business-Driven Technology
7-1
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Presentation Overview
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7-2
Organizational Goals and Strategies
Increase Employee Productivity
Enhance Decision Making
Improve Team Collaboration
Create Business Partnerships and Alliances
Enable Global Reach
Facilitate Organizational Transformation
IT Infrastructures and The Real World
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Opening Case Study
What’s The Difference Between Napster
and Gnutella?
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Napster and Gnutella have similar
products that use different IT
infrastructures.
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Why is it important for a company to build
a solid IT infrastructure?
7-3
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Introduction
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7-4
IT infrastructure includes the hardware,
software, and
telecommunications
equipment that, when
combined, provide the
underlying foundation to
support the
organization’s goals.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Organizational Goals and
Strategies
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7-5
Increase employee productivity
Enhance decision making
Improve team collaboration
Create business partnerships and
alliances
Enable global reach
Facilitate organizational transformation
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
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Client/server network
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Internet
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Intranets and extranets
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Backup/recovery
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Disaster recovery plan
7-6
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
Client/Server Network
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Client/server network - a network in
which one or more computers are servers
and provide services to the other
computers which are called clients.
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Thin client - a workstation with a small
amount of processing power and costs
less than a full powered workstation.
7-7
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
Client/Server Network
7-8
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
Internet
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7-9
Global reach - the ability to extend a
company’s reach to customers anywhere
there is an Internet connection, and at a
much lower cost.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
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Intranets and Extranets
Intranet - an internal organizational
Internet that is guarded against outside
access by a special security feature called
a firewall (which can be software,
hardware, or a combination of the two).
Extranet – is an intranet that is restricted
to an organization and certain outsiders,
such as customers and suppliers.
7-10
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
Backup/Recovery
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Backup - the process of making a copy of
the information stored on a computer.
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Recovery - the process of reinstalling the
backup information in the event the
information was lost.
7-11
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
Disaster Recovery Plan
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Disaster recovery plan - a detailed process for
recovering information or an IT system in the event
of a catastrophic disaster such as a fire or flood.
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Hot site - a separate and fully equipped facility
where the company can move immediately after the
disaster and resume business.
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Cold site - a separate facility that does not have any
computer equipment, but is a place where the
knowledge workers can move after the disaster.
7-12
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee
Productivity Disaster Recovery Plan
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Disaster recovery
cost curve – charts
1.
2.
7-13
The cost to your
organization of the
unavailability of
information and
technology.
The cost to your
organization of
recovering from a
disaster over time.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
Factors That Increase Employee
Productivity
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Availability - determining when your IT system will be
available for knowledge workers to access.
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Accessibility - determining who has the right to access
different types of IT systems and information.
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Reliability - ensures your IT systems are functioning
correctly and providing accurate information.
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7-14
Data cleansing - the process of ensuring that all information is
accurate.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
Factors That Increase Employee
Productivity
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Scalability – how well your system can adapt to
increased demands.
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Flexibility - the systems ability to change quickly.
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Performance - measures how quickly an IT
system performs a certain process.
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7-15
Benchmark - a set of conditions used to measure
how well a product or system functions.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Increase Employee Productivity
Factors That Increase Employee
Productivity
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Capacity planning determines the future IT
infrastructure
requirements for new
equipment and additional
network capacity.
7-16
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Team Work
IT Components
and Factors
(p. 339)
Increase Employee Productivity
Factors That Increase Employee
Productivity
On Your Own
Increase Student
Productivity
(p. 340)
7-17
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enhance Decision Making
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Integration
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Enterprise application integration (EAI)
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Enterprise application integration middleware
(EAI middleware)
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Storage devices
7-18
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enhance Decision Making
Integration
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Integration - allows
separate systems to
communicate directly
with each other by
automatically
exporting data files
from one system and
importing them into
another.
7-19
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enhance Decision Making
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
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7-20
Enterprise application integration
(EAI) - the process of developing an IT
infrastructure that enables employees to
quickly implement new or changing
business processes.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enhance Decision Making
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Enterprise Application Integration
Middleware
Enterprise application integration
middleware (EAI Middleware) - allows
organizations to develop different levels of
integration from the information level to the
business process level.
7-21
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enhance Decision Making
Storage Devices
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A storage architecture takes into account
the types and sizes of devices where
information is stored.
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Archived information is stored on a
storage server.
7-22
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Improve Team Collaboration
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Document management system
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Enterprise information portals (EIP)
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Workflow systems
7-23
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Improve Team Collaboration
Document Management System
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Document management system manages a document through its life cycle.
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Primary functions of a document
management system include:
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7-24
Creation: For creating different document types.
Modification: Manages the integrity of a
document as it’s edited.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Improve Team Collaboration
Document Management System
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7-25
Security: Controls access to a document.
Approval: Sends documents to knowledge
workers for approval.
Distribution: Knowledge workers distribute
documents via e-mail or the web.
Archiving: Saving documents in a storage
facility.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Improve Team Collaboration
Enterprise Information Portals
Enterprise information portals (EIPs) - allow
knowledge workers to access company
information via a Web interface.
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7-26
Collaborative processing enterprise information
portal - provides knowledge workers with access to
workgroup information such as e-mails, reports,
meeting minutes, and memos.
Decision processing enterprise information
portal - provides knowledge workers with corporate
information for making key business decisions.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Improve Team Collaboration
Workflow Systems
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Workflow - defines all of the steps or
business rules, from beginning to end,
required for a process to run correctly.
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Workflow systems - automate business
processes.
7-27
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Improve Team Collaboration
Workflow Systems
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Messaging-based workflow systems - send
work assignments through an e-mail system.
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Database-based workflow systems - store
the document in a central location and
automatically asks the knowledge workers to
access the document when it’s their turn to
edit the document.
7-28
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Improve Team Collaboration
Workflow Systems
On Your Own
Working Together
As A Team
(p. 345)
7-29
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Create Business Partnerships
and Alliances
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Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Systems
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Sales Force Automation (SFA) Systems
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Electronic Catalog
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Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems
7-30
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Create Business Partnerships
and Alliances
Customer Relationship Management Systems
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Customer relationship management
(CRM) systems - use information about
customers to gain insights into their needs,
wants, and behaviors in order to serve
them better.
7-31
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Create Business Partnerships
and Alliances
Customer Relationship Management Systems
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Front office systems - the primary
interface to customers and sales channels,
and send all of the customer information to
the data warehouse.
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Back office systems - used to fulfill and
support customer orders, and send all of
the customer information to the data
warehouse.
7-32
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Create Business Partnerships
and Alliances
Customer Relationship Management
Systems
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A sample CRM infrastructure
7-33
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Create Business Partnerships
and Alliances
Sales Force Automation Systems
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Sales force automation (SFA) systems automatically track all of the steps in the
sales process.
7-34
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Create Business Partnerships
and Alliances
Electronic Catalog
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Electronic catalog - designed to
present products to customers or
partners all over the world via the
Web.
7-35
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Create Business Partnerships
and Alliances
Supply Chain Management System
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Supply Chain
Management
(SCM) Systems track inventory and
information among
business
processes and
across companies.
7-36
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enable Global Reach
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Internet Service Provider (ISP)
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Application Service Provider (ASP)
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Collocation Facilities
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Server Farms
7-37
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enable Global Reach
Internet Service Provider
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Internet service provider (ISP) - a
company that provides individuals,
organizations, and businesses access to
the Internet.
7-38
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enable Global Reach
Application Service Provider
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Application service provider (ASP) - a
company that provides an outsourcing service
for businesses software applications.
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Service Level Agreements (SLAs) - define the
specific responsibilities of the service provider
and set the customer expectations.
7-39
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enable Global Reach
Application Service Provider
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A sample ASP infrastructure
7-40
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enable Global Reach
Collocation Facilities
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Collocation - a company rents space and
telecommunications equipment from
another company, or a collocation vendor.
7-41
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Enable Global Reach
Server Farm
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Server farm - the name of a location
that stores a group of servers in a single
place.
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Web farm – is either a Web site that has
multiple servers, or an ISP that provides
Web site outsourcing services using
multiple servers.
7-42
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Facilitate Organizational
Transformation
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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
and Enterprise Software
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Data Warehouse
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Infrastructure Documentation
7-43
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Facilitate Organizational
Transformation
ERP and Enterprise Software
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Enterprise resource planning (ERP) - the
method of getting and keeping an overview of
every part of the business (a bird’s eye view, so
to speak), so that production, development,
selling, and servicing of goods and services will
all be coordinated to contribute to the company’s
goals and objectives.
7-44
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Facilitate Organizational
Transformation
ERP and Enterprise Software
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Enterprise software - a suite of software that
includes:
1.
2.
3.
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7-45
A set of common business applications.
Tools for modeling how the entire organization
works.
Development tools for building applications unique
to your organization.
Computer-aided software engineering
(CASE) tools - software suites that automate
systems development.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Facilitate Organizational
Transformation
ERP and Enterprise Software
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7-46
A sample enterprise software
infrastructure
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Facilitate Organizational
Transformation
ERP and Enterprise Software
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Legacy systems - are IT systems
previously built using older technologies
such as mainframe computers and
programming languages such as COBOL.
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Business process reengineering (BPR)
- the reinventing of processes within a
business.
7-47
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Facilitate Organizational
Transformation
Data Warehouse
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The data warehouse consolidates the ERP
information along with other sources of
information in order to perform and support
analysis.
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A data warehouse can help knowledge workers
organize, understand, and analyze the
information collected by the organization.
7-48
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Facilitate Organizational
Transformation
Infrastructure Documentation
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One of the keys to building a solid IT
infrastructure is to ensure every
component is well documented and the
documentation is available to all company
employees.
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A major issue for organizations today is
the lack of system documentation.
7-49
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
IT Infrastructures and the
Real World
Remember to ask yourself the following
questions before approving the IT
infrastructure designs:
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7-50
How big is your department going to grow?
Will the system be able to handle additional users?
How are your customers going to grow?
How much additional information do you expect to
store each year?
How long will you maintain information in the
systems?
How much history do you want to keep on each
customer?
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
IT Infrastructures and the
Real World
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7-51
When do the people in your department work?
What are the hours you need the system to be
available?
How often do you need the information backed up?
What will happen to your system if there is a disaster?
What is the disaster recovery plan for your system?
How easy is it to change the system?
How flexible is the system?
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
IT Infrastructures and the
Real World
Team Work
Choosing An ERP Vendor
(p. 356)
7-52
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Closing Case Study One
University Infrastructures
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A university’s IT infrastructure is an
important criterion students use when
deciding which university they want to
attend.
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How can a university ensure they have
implemented a solid IT infrastructure?
7-53
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Closing Case Study Two
Document Management Solutions In The
Automotive Industry

Ford has helped to improve product quality and
customer satisfaction by implementing a
document management system and employee
information portal.
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What types of IT infrastructure components has
Ford used to help increase employee
productivity and team collaboration?
7-54
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Summary
Student Learning Outcomes
1.
2.
3.
7-55
Explain the relationship between the
organization’s roles and goals and the IT
infrastructure.
List and describe four of the seven
factors that help increase employee
productivity.
Explain system integration and how it
enhances decision making.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Summary
Student Learning Outcomes
4.
5.
6.
7-56
List and describe two different types of
workflow systems.
List and describe two IT infrastructure
components that create business
partnerships and alliances.
List and describe two of the four IT
infrastructure components that enable
global reach.
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Summary
Assignments & Exercises
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7-57
An EIP for your course
Sponsor of the IT Infrastructure
IT Infrastructure components and the real
world
Creating the ideal infrastructure
The complete IT infrastructure
Creating a campus IT infrastructure
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age
Visit the Web to Learn More
www.mhhe.com/haag
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Online magazines
Online movie listings and reviews
Cooking from the Internet
Highly useful miscellaneous sites
Capacity planning
7-58
Management Information Systems
for the Information Age