Management Information Systems - Weeks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
Week 1: Introduction to Information Systems
Information Technology (IT): is 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 (IS): collects, processes, stores, analysis, and disseminates information
for a specific purpose
The Purpose of 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 decision making
Factors that increase difficulties and complexity of managing information systems:
1. Strategic systems have value and are needed to conduct operations (SAP, Oracle)
2. Information systems are costly to acquire, operate, and maintain
3. MIS functions have moved from being centralized to being more distributed to functional
areas that do end-user data entry and end-user development. This has resulted in the
management of information systems resources being shared between the MIS
department and users
Traditional Functions of MIS Department: Manage systems development and systems
project management
Consultative Function of MIS Department: Create business alliances with business partners
Data is stored, processed, or assembled to create information. When people apply learned
criteria or learned expertise to information, they create knowledge
Computer-Based Information Systems: Software, hardware, database, network
MIS = Integration
Different Information Systems:
- Functional area information systems
- Enterprise resource planning systems (ERP)
- Transaction processing systems
- Interorganizational information systems
- Electronic commerce (e-commerce)
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Used to manage the main business functions in an
organization, can be local or cloud-based
Transaction Resource Planning (TRP): Collects, stores, modifies, and retrieves all information
on transactions in an organization
Week 2: Organizational Strategy, Competitive Advantage, and Information Systems
Organizational Strategy: A planned approach that the organization takes to achieve its goals
and its mission statement
Competitive Advantage: An advantage over competitors in some measures such as cost,
quality, or speed; leads to control of a market and to larger-than-average profits
Business Process: A collection of related activities (inputs, resources, and outputs) that
produce a product or service of value to the organization, its business partners and/or its
customers. Breaking down the business process into three areas, we look at how IS can help in
each one of them:
1. Execution of a process: Doing the work, calculations, comparisons, creation of data, or
other output (when a sale is made, compare inventory to quantity-on-hand)
2. Capturing and storing process data: Format the data, store it in the correct data file or
physical device safely (storing sales data on a hard drive)
3. Monitoring process performance: Examine, analyze, and assess the business
process to ensure compliance and to evaluate the process (reports can be automatically
produced to identify purchases and where too much/too little has been received)
Cross-Functional Processes: A process where no single functional area is responsible for its
execution; all or multiple departments must collaborate to perform the process
Business Process Reengineering/Redesign (BPR): A radical strategy for improving the
efficiency and effectiveness of an organization’s business processes. It’s known as the “clean
slate” approach; high cost, radical redesign, high failure rate
Business Process Improvement (BPI): A more incremental approach, with lower risk and cost
than BPR. Six Sigma is a popular methodology for BPI
Business Process Management (BPM): A management technique that includes methods and
tools to support the design, analysis, implementation, management, and optimization of
business processes/BPI (includes Business Process Management Suite (BPMS))
Six Sigma/Five Basic Phases of Successful BPI:
1. Define
2. Measure
3. Analyze
4. Improve
5. Control
Measures of Excellence in Executing Business Processes:
- Customer satisfaction
- Quality
- Cost reduction
- Differentiation
- Cycle and fulfillment time reduction
- Productivity
Business Pressures:
Market: Pressures are generated by the global economy, intense competition, the
changing nature of the workforce, and powerful customers
Technology: Pressures involving technological innovation and innovation and
obsolescence and information overload
Societal: Includes social responsibility, government regulation/deregulation, spending
for social programs, spending to protect against terrorism and ethics
Entry Barrier: A product or service that customers have come to expect and that must be
provided by all new competitors, increasing the cost to enter a new market
Business Information Technology (BIT): 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
Competitive Strategy: Documents a business’ approach to compete and how it will accomplish
these goals (in increasing market share)
Competitive Advantage: Helps a company function profitably within a market and generate
larger-than-average profits
Strategic Information Systems (SIS): Provide a competitive advantage by helping an
organization implement its strategic goals and improve its performance and productivity
Porter’s 5 Competitive Forces:
1. Threat of entry of new competitors: The threat of new companies is high when the
entry is easy, and low when the entry is hard, internet increases the threat
2. The bargaining power of suppliers: It is high when buyers have few choices from
whom to buy from and low when buyers have many choices; internet impact is mixed; if
buyers can find new suppliers, they reduce the buying power of suppliers
3. The bargaining power of buyers: It is high when buyers have many choices from
whom to buy from and low when buyers have few choices; the internet increases
buying power of buyers since customers have more price information; loyalty programs
reduce the buyer’s buying power
4. The threat of substitute products and services: It is high when there are many
alternatives for an organizations products and services and low when there are few
alternatives; the internet increases the use of substitutes since buyers can search more
5. The rivalry among firms in an industry: It is high when there is intense competition
among many firms in the industry. The threat is low when competition is among fewer
firms and not as intense; internet has increased rivalry
Strategies for Competitive Advantage:
1. Cost leader (Walmart)
2. Differentiation (Westjet, Dell)
3. Operational Effectiveness (Deloitte)
4. Innovation (Apple, Samsung)
5. Customer Orientation (Amazon)
Week 3: Data Knowledge and Management
Difficulties in Managing Data:
- Amount of data increases exponentially over time
- Data is obtained from multiple internal and external sources
- Data degrade over time
- Federal regulations require corporations to account for how their data is managed
Data Governance: An approach to managing information across an entire organization; uses
Master Data Management (a subset of data governance)
Database Approach: Databases are arranged so that one set of software programs (the
database management system or DBMS) provides users with access to all data
Databases/DBMS minimize the following:
- Data Redundancy: The same data being stored in multiple places
- Data Isolation: Applicants cannot access data associated with other applications
- Data Inconsistency: Various copies of the data do not agree
Databases/DBMS maximize the following:
- Data Security
- Data Integrity
- Data Independence
Big Data: Data so large and complex that it cannot be managed by traditional systems
Big Data Characteristics:
- Volume: Computer-generated from many sources
- Velocity: Flows rapidly to and from within the organization
- Variety: In addition to numbers and text, it also includes images, sounds, webbased content, and others
Databases: Organized for storage, ability, accessibility, and retrieval
Data Content: From current operations, normally updated in real-time, with high
volumes
Searching for a Database: That is part of operations for specific queries could slow
down operations (with many searches)
Content: Changes frequently due to transaction processing and changes to master data
Organization: Is optimized for online processing of single transactions
Data Warehouses or Data Marts: A type of database used mainly for analytical purposes
Data Content: From part and current data that is updated at regular intervals (hourly,
daily)
Searching for a Database: This can be done with a long turnaround time or even at
night
Content: Is read-only, data cannot be changed, only added to
Organization: Is to support business intelligence applications, such as complex
manipulations of arrays
Data Warehouses and Data Marts Characteristics:
- Organized by business dimension or subject (data marts)
- Use online analytical processing
- Integrated
- Time variant
- Non-volatile
- Multidimensional
Data Integration: Extract, transform, load (ETL)
Knowledge Management (KM): A process that helps organizations manipulate important
knowledge that is part of the organization’s memory
Knowledge: Information that is contextual, relevant, and useful, developed with the assistance
of expertise, also known as Intellectual Capital (or intellectual assets)
Knowledge Management Systems (KMS): Use modern information technologies to
systemize, enhance, and expedite knowledge management, with the goal to make the most
productive use of knowledge
KMS Cycle: Create -> Capture -> Refine -> Store -> Manage -> Disseminate -> Knowledge
Explicit Knowledge: Objective, rational, technical knowledge that has been documented
(policies, reports, strategies, goals)
Tacit Knowledge: Cumulative store of subjective or experimental learning (experiences,
insight, skillsets, expertise)
Normalization: A method for analyzing and reducing a relational database to its most
streamlined form; purpose is to provide minimum redundancy
Week 4: E-Business and E-Commerce
E-Commerce: The process of selling, buying, transferring, or exchanging products, services, or
information via computer networks, including the internet (transactions on the internet)
E-Business: A broader concept than e-commerce that also includes servicing customers,
collaborating with business partners, and performing electronic transactions within an
organization
Types of Organizations:
Brick and Mortar: Purely physical organizations, no e-commerce
Virtual Organizations: Pure-play, digital-only organizations, only e-commerce
Clicks and Mortar: Partially e-commerce with a primary physical presence
Types of E-Commerce:
- B2B
- B2C
- C2C
- B2E (Business to everyone)
- G2B or G2C (Government to everyone)
- Mobile commerce
DisintermediationResponsibility: Removing the in-person third-party (travel agent)
Reintermedation: Introducing an online third-party person (expedia.com)
Legal and Ethical Issues specific to E-Commerce:
- Fraud on the internet
- Domain names
- Cybersquatting
- Taxes and other fees
- Copyright
Week 5A: Privacy and Ethics
Ethics: The principles of right and wrong that individuals use to make choices that guide their
behaviour
Ethical Frameworks and Widely-Used Standards:
- Utilitarian approach
- Rights approach
- Fairness approach
- Common good approach
- Deontology approach
- Combine approaches for ethical decision making
Traditional Approach for Resolving Ethical Issues:
1. Recognize an ethical issue
2. Get the facts
3. Evaluate alternative actions
4. Make a decision and test it
Giving Voice to Values (GVV) Approach:
1. Identify an ethical issue
2. Get the facts
3. Evaluate alternative actions
4. Powerful response
5. Scripting and coaching
Ethical in the Corporate Environment:
- Code of ethics
- Fundamental tenets of ethics:
- Responsibility
- Accountability
- Liability
- What is unethical is not necessarily illegal
Four general categories of ethical issues related to IT; Ethics and IT:
1. Privacy
2. Accuracy
3. Property
4. Accessibility
Privacy: The right to be left alone and to be free of unreasonable personal intrusions
Information Privacy: The right to determine when and to what extent information about you
can be gathered and/or communicated to others
Court decisions in many countries have followed two general rules:
1. The right to privacy is not absolute, and privacy must be balanced against the needs of
society
2. The public right to know supersedes the individual’s right to privacy
Electronic Surveillance: Using technology to monitor individuals as they go about their daily
routines. Surveillance is conducted by employers, government, and other institutions (cameras
in buses, trains, banks, etc.)
Privacy, Codes, and Policies: An organization’s guidelines for protecting the privacy of its
customers, clients, and employees
Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P): A protocol that automatically communicates privacy
policies between a website and its visitors
Week 5B: Security
Five factors contributing to vulnerability of organizational information resources:
1. Today’s interconnected, interdependent, wirelessly networked business environment
2. Smaller, faster, cheaper computers and storage devices
3. Decreasing skills needed to be a computer hacker
4. International organized crime taking our cybercrime
5. Lack of management support
Two areas pose significant threats:
1. Human resources
2. Information systems
Social Engineering: An attack in which the perpetrator uses social skills to trick or manipulate
legitimate employees into providing confidential company information such as passwords
Types of Software Attacks:
Remote attack requiring user action:
- Virus
- Worm
- Phishing attack
Remote attacks needing no user action:
- Denial of service attack
- Distributed denial of service attack
Attacks by a programmer developing a system:
- Trojan horse
- Back door
- Logic bomb
Alien Software: Adware, spyware, spam ware, cookies
What organizations are doing to protect information resources:
- Risk management
- Risk analysis
- Risk mitigation
- Risk acceptance
- Risk limitation
- Risk transference
Security is only one aspect of operational control (which is part of general controls).
Controls come in layers:
Control Environment: Encompasses management attitude towards controls, as
evidenced by management actions, as well as by stated policies that address:
- Ethical issues
- Quality of supervision
Physical Controls: Prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining access to a
company’s facilities (walls, doors, badges, guards)
Access Controls: Logical controls (implemented by software) help to provide controls
such as:
- Authentication
- Authorization
Passport controls need to be supported at all three control levels:
Control Environment: Policies that enforce the proper management of user codes and
passwords
General Control: A security system that requires a user ID and password to log-on
Functional/Application Control: Separate passwords for sensitive functions
Authentication: Something the user is, does, has, knows (passwords)
Communication Controls:
- Firewalls
- Anti-malware systems
- Whitelisting and blacklisting
- Encryption
- VPN
Application Controls:
- Controls that apple to individual applications (functional areas; ex. payroll)
- The text describes three categories: input, processing, and output
- It is more common to consider the purpose of application controls for input, processing,
and output using accuracy, completeness, authorization, and an audit trail
Examples:
Input: Edits that check for reasonable data ranges (accuracy)
Processing: Automatically check that each line of an invoice adds to the total
(accuracy for total and completeness of line items)
Output: Supervisor reviews payroll journal for unusual amounts (exceptions)
before cheques are printed (authorization)
Business Continuity Planning (BCP):
Disaster Recovery Plan: Hot site, warm site, cold site
Purpose: Provide continuous availability; be able to recover in the event of a hardware
or software failure or attack, ensure that critical systems are available and operating
Week 6: Cloud Computing
Evolution of the Modern IT Infrastructure:
1. Stand-alone Mainframe
2. Mainframe and Dumb Terminals
3. Stand-alone Personal Computers
4. Local Area Networks (LAN)
5. Enterprise Computing
6. Cloud Computing and Mobile Computing
Cloud Computing Characteristics:
- Cloud computing provides on-demand self-service
- Cloud computing encompasses characteristics of grid computing
- Grid computing enables organizations to utilize resources more efficiently
- Grid computing provides fault tolerance and redundancy
- Grid computing makes it easy to scale up/down
- Cloud computing encompasses characteristics of utility computing
- Cloud computing utilizes broad network access
- Cloud computing pools computing resources
- Cloud computing often occurs on virtualized servers
- Server farms, server virtualization
Different Types of Clouds:
- Public Cloud (OneDrive, AWS)
- Private Cloud, or corporate cloud (Bank or sensitive information)
- Hybrid Cloud (Guelph General Hospital)
- Virtual Cloud (Cloud bursting)
Cloud Computing Services:
Platform as a Service (PaaS): Application developers can develop and run their
software solutions on a cloud platform without the cost of buying and managing the underlying
hardware and software; resources automatically scale to match demand; operating system
features can be upgraded frequently; costs are reduced; services can be used across the world
Software as a Service (SaaS): Software is priced on a per-use basis; flexible, scalable,
and easy to try before rolling out; offers HelpDesk and other IT support
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS): Delivers hardware and networking capabilities
including server services and storage; pay-as-you-use model; cost-efficient as the user does not
pay for excess; highly scalable
Services-Oriented Architecture (SOA): A collection of web services that are used to
build a firm’s IT application; can make quick changes to application software; can use to
integrate systems for a variety of platforms
Web Services are based on 4 key protocols: XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI
Three Major Benefits of Cloud Computing to Individuals and Organizations:
1. Positive Impact on Employees: Access information anywhere, on any device, across
boundaries
2. Can Save Money: Reduces or eliminates the need to purchase hardware, build and
install software, and pay software licensing fees
3. Can Improve Organizational Flexibility and Competitiveness: Can scale operations
up or down as needed
Six Categories of Cloud Computing Concerns:
1. Legacy IT systems
2. Reliability
3. Privacy
4. Security
5. Legal environment
6. Criminal use of cloud computing
Week 7: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Transactional Processing Systems (TPS): Continuous “real-time” data collection; efficiently
handles high volumes of data and large variations in those volumes; avoids errors and
downtime; records results accurately and securely
Functional Area Information Systems (Silos): Each department or functional area has its
own collection of application programs or information system; functional area IS increase each
area’s internal efficiency and effectiveness
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) (1990s): Integrates all departments and functions into a
single information system; employees can make decisions by viewing enterprise-wide data;
before integrating ERP, each department has its own “information silo”; after integrating ERP,
the organization has one combined silo
Extended ERP Models (2000s): Scheduling, forecasting, capacity planning, e-commerce,
warehousing, business analytics, and e-business
ERP II Systems (Present): Interorganizational ERP systems that provide web-enables links
among a company’s key business system and its customers, suppliers, distributors, and other
relevant parties
Implementing ERP Systems:
On-Premise ERP Implementation:
Vanilla Approach: A company implements a standard ERP package, minimal
deviation from the “on-the-shelf” package
Custom Approach: Implements a more customized ERP system by developing
new ERP functions; customization is also expensive and risky because computer code must be
written and updated
Best of Breed Approach: Mix and match cone ERP modules, as well as other
extended ERP modules from different software, provides
Software as a Service (SaaS): Renting ERP software over the internet
Limitations of ERP Implementations: Since ERPs are based on best practices companies
may need to change their methods of achieving business objectives by changing their business
processes; such practices are not the “best” for every company and may result in a loss of
competitive advantage; ERP systems can be complex, expensive, and time-consuming to
implement
Cause of ERP Implementation Failure:
- Failure to involve affected employees in the planning and development phases and in
charge management processes
- Trying to do too much too fast in the conversion process
- Insufficient training in the new work tasks required by the ERP system
- Failure to perform proper data conversion and testing for the new system
Cross-Departmental Process:
1. Originates in 1 department and end in another department
2. Originates and ens in the same department but involves other departments
(procurement process)
Tiers of ERP:
Tier 1: Enterprise
- SAP ($23 billion in sales, 75K employees)
- Oracle ($37 billion in sales, 132K employees)
- Microsoft (primarily focused on midsized companies)
Tier 2: Midmarket
- Used for specific applications such as accounting or inventory
- Netsuite
- Sage 300
- Infor
Tier 3: Small Business
- Often left out, mostly software as a service (SaaS)
- Workday
- Work[etc]
- Spyspro
Week 8: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Sales Funnel:
Awareness Stage: Get traffic
Consideration Stage: Get leads
Decision Stage: Get sales
Retention Stage: Retention
Customer Relationship Management (CRM): A customer-focused and customer-driven
organizational strategy. CRM treats customers differently because their needs and their value to
the company differs
RFM: The most valuable customer
Recency: The freshness of customer activity
Frequency: The frequency of customer transactions
Monetary: The willingness to spend
Customer Touch Points: Effective customer touchpoints make use of omnichannel marketing
(the use of multiple channels for reaching the customer)
Benefits of Effective CRM:
- Better customer service
- Improved call centre activity
- Ability to cross-sell products more effectively
- Ability of sales staff to close deals faster
- Simplification of marketing and sales processes
- Ability to discover new customers
Data Consolidation: Customer data is stored in insolated systems located in different
functional areas across the business (marketing, finance, and logistics database). Data
consolidation using data warehouses enables collaborative CRM, customer identity
management, and 360-degree view
Data Mining: Refers to the process of searching for valuable business
information in a large database, data warehouse, or data mart. Data mining can perform two
basic operations: 1) identifying previously unknown patterns (descriptive analytics) and 2)
predicting trends behaviours (predictive analytics)
Primary Components of Operational CRM: Streamlines the business process customerfacing applications that include marketing automation, sales automation, and customer service
automation; streamlines the process of customer-touching applications
Marketing: Data mining is used to develop customer purchasing profiles that could lead to
cross-selling, upselling, and bundling
Customer-Touching Applications (e-CRM): Typical applications such as FAQs, email and
automated responses, loyalty programs, customized products and services; Emerging CRM
approaches in Covid-19 include client and organization interaction without human presence
Analytical CRM Systems: Enhance and support decision-making by identifying patterns in
customer data collected in operational CRM. Analytic/CRM systems analyze customer data for
a variety of purposes including designing marketing campaigns, financial forecasting, and
acquiring/upselling
Operational CRM:
Analytical CRM: Data mining, decision support, business intelligence, OLAP
Customer-Facing Applications: Sales, marketing, customer service/support
Customer-Touching Applications: Search and comparison, FAQs,
personalized web pages, loyalty programs
Customer Power: It is important to monitor external sources of info. Social media has given
customers incredible power
Social Media Marketing: An important source of CRM metrics come from external communities
such as social media
Week 9: Supply Chain Management (SCM)
The Structure of Supply Chains*:
Upstream: Flow of materials from suppliers and their upstream suppliers at all levels
Internal: The transformation of materials into work-in-progress, semi-finished, and
finished products
Downstream: The distribution of products to customers and their downstream
customers at all levels
*see notes for graph
The Components of Supply Chain:
Tiers of Suppliers:
Tier 1: Basic Products
Tier 2: Sub-assemblies
Tier 3: Integrated components
The flows in the supply chain:
- Material flows
- Information flows
- Financial flows
5 Basic Components of Supply Chain Management:
Plan: Strategic portion of SCM sets out the expectations for managing all the resources
to meet customer demand and a set of metrics to monitor progress
Source: Careful choice of reliable suppliers and negotiations of pricing, delivery, and
payment aspects of the contracts. Creation of metrics to monitor and improve the relationship
Make: Transform inputs into outputs requires scheduling, testing, packaging, and
preparing for delivery. Most metric-intensive component to assure quality and productivity
Deliver: Receive, fulfill, and invoice customer orders
Return: Most problematic stage. Requires a process for receiving defective/excess
products while maintaining positive customer relationships
Interorganized Information Systems (IOS): Enables the partners to do the following:
- Reduces the cost of routine business transactions
- Improve the quality of the information flow by reducing or eliminating errors
- Compress the cycle time involved in filling business transactions
- Eliminates paper processing and its inefficiencies and costs
- Make the transfer and processing of information easier for users
Management Principle - Pareto:
Client A: Outstanding client buys for several millions per year
Client B: Good client that the firm wants to grow because it buys hundreds of thousands
per year and there is potential for growth
Client C: Generates very little revenue, highly demanding and consumers time that
could be spent on Type A or Type B clients (OPEQ computers for schools)
Push Model: Pushing your product onto the market through trade shows, exhibitions, or demos
(selling insurance)
Pull Model: Pulling customers into buying your product before actually producing it (selling a
custom-built computer before building it)
Bullship Effect*: The demand distortion that travels upstream in the supply chain from the
retailer through to the wholesaler and manufacturer due to the variance of orders which may be
larger than sales
*see notes for graph
Keys to Supply Chain Management Success:
- Convince suppliers: SCM extends beyond the company walls and external partners must
support change
- When employees off traditional business practices
- Deploy incremental phases
- Be future-oriented – make it scalable and flexible
Solutions to Supply Chain Patterns:
Vertical Integration: It might be strategic to acquire suppliers or resalers
Using Inventory to Solve Supply Chain Problems: Building inventory, JIT inventory
system
Information Sharing: Vendor-managed inventory (VMI) such as Walmart
Extranets*: They link business partners over the internet by providing access to certain areas
of each other intranets; using VPN technology; data tunnels
*see notes for graph
Portals: Single point of access through a web browser to critical business information in an
organization (uOttawa Virtual Campus is a portal for students)
Procurement Portals: For a single buyer and multiple suppliers
Distribution Portals: For multiple buyers with a single supplier
Week 10: Business Analytics
Business Intelligence (BI): Has been defined as broad categories of applications,
technologies, and processes for gathering, storing, accessing, and analyzing data to help
business users make better decisions
Business Analysis (BA): The process of developing actionable decisions or recommendations
for actions based on insights generated from historical data using applications, technology, and
processes
Business analytics systems provide actionable business results that decision-makers can act on
in a timely fashion
“Over the next 10 years, AI won’t replace managers, but managers who use AI will replace
managers who don’t”
3 Basic Roles of a Manager (Mintzberg, 1973):
1. Interpersonal: Figurehead, leader, and leader
2. Informational: Spokesperson, disseminator
3. Decisional: Entrepreneur, disturbances handler, negotiator
Simon (1977) described decision-making as composed of three major phases:
intelligence, design, and choice
Decision Support Framework:
Problems:
Structured: Routine and repetitive problems with standard solutions – candidate
for automation (inventory control)
Semi-Structured: Combination of standard solution procedures and individual
judgement (employee evaluation)
Unstructured: “Fuzzy”, complex problems for which there are no clear solutions,
BA assists (making a hit TV show)
Nature of Decisions:
Operational Control: Task execution
Management Control: Resource utilization
Strategic Planning: Long-term orientation for growth
3 specific analytics targets that represent different levels of enterprise-side change:
- The development of one of a few related analytics applications
- The development of infrastructure to support enterprise-wide applications
- Support for organizational transformation
Types of Analytics:
Descriptive (Low difficulty and value): Summarizes what happened in the past,
historical insights, employed heavily across all industries (statistics, reporting, BI)
Predictive (Medium difficulty and value): Anticipate what will happen based on
historical patterns, employed by data-driven organizations as a key source of insight (data
mining, machine learning)
Prescriptive (High difficulty and value): Recommend what to do and outcomes,
quantify the effect of future decisions, employed by leading data and internet companies
(optimization, decision trees)
Business Analytics Tools: Excel, OLAP, data mining
Presentation Tools: Dashboards provide easy access to timely information and direct access
to management reports; it is user-friendly and supported by graphics
Capabilities of Dashboards:
Drill Down: A series of clickable menus
Critical Success Factors (CSF): Organizational, industrial, departmental, or for
individual workers
Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Specific measures of CSFs
Status Access: The latest data on KPI; realtime
Trend Analysis: Short, medium, or long term trend of KPI/metrics
Exception Reporting: Reports highlighting deviations of metrics
Week 11: Systems Design
IS solutions allow companies to improve cost structure, manage people better, bring new
products to market faster, and solve complex problems
Effective systems development processes can transform an organization as its business
transforms, making an organization more responsive
Poor processes can damage productivity and morale, cause a business to fail
Developing a system locally can be complex, however, global IS systems development can be
even more challenging due to different customers, vast product portfolios, languages, and
currencies (Nike, Amazon)
IT Planning:
Organizational Strategic Plan: Identifies the firm’s overall mission, the goals that follow
from that mission (IS can and should support organizational plans)
IT Architecture: Encompasses both the technical (hardware and software) and
managerial aspects (IT department) of information resources
IT Strategic Plan: The IT strategic plan must meet 3 objectives:
1. It must be aligned with the organization’s strategic plan and business plan
2. It must provide for an IT architecture that seamlessly networks users, applications, and
database
3. It must efficiently allocate IS development resources among competing projects so that
the projects can be completed on time and within budget and still have the required
functionality
Evaluating and Justifying IT Investment:
Assessing the Costs: Challenging because of fixed cost allocation, costs do not end
with the end of a project (maintenance)
Assessing the Benefits: Benefits are more complex, it has intangible nature; often not
fully realized (delays, overruns, fewer functionalities)
Conducting the Cost-Benefit Analysis - 4 Approaches:
1. Net present value (NPV)
2. Return on investment (ROI)
3. Break-even analysis
4. Business case approach
Options for IT Applications:
- Custom-write an entire application (risky)
- Purchase a prewritten application (SAP, Oracle)
- Customize a prewritten application (additional work, more flexible)
- Lease the application (SaaS, ASP)
Application Service Provider (ASP): An agent or a vendor that assembles the software
needed by enterprises and then packages it with services such as development, operations,
and maintenance
Software as a Service (SaaS): A vendor hosts the applications and provides them as a service
to customers over a network, typically the Internet (cloud computing, salesforce.com)
Buy Option Advantages: Many different types of software are available, the company can test
the software before purchasing, save time by buying
Buy Option Disadvantages: Software may not meet the company’s needs, may be
hard/impossible to modify, the software may be discontinued or disregarded by the
manufacturer
Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC):
Systems Investigation: Three basic solutions
1. Do nothing and use the current system unchanged
2. Modify or enhance the existing system
3. Develop a new system
System Analysis: The process whereby systems analysts examine the business
problem that the organization plans to solve with an IS
Systems Design: Describes how the system will resolve the business problem
Programming and Testing:
Programming: Translating the design specifications into computer code
Testing: The process that assesses whether the computer code will produce the
expected and designed code
Implementation: The process of converting from an old computer system to a new one
Conversion Strategies: Direct conversion, pilot conversion, phased conversion,
and parallel/historic conversion
Operations and Maintenance: Systems operate while they meet their objectives,
assessed using audits; systems require several types of maintenance: debugging, updating,
improving
The Traditional Waterfall*: A sequential, activity-based process in which each phase of the
SDLC is performed; highly criticizmobiled
*see notes for graph
Student Syndrome*: The greatest effort in task completion is made before the deadline. At
best, projects are completed on time, never early and often late
*see notes for graph
Rapid Prototyping Development Process (RAD): Highly interactive, users are intensively
involved early on
Week 12: Wireless and Mobile
Wireless: Used to describe telecommunications in which electromagnetic waves, rather than
wires or cables
Mobile: Refers to something that changes its location over time
Mobile Computing: Refers to a real-time, wireless connection between a mobile device and
other computing environments
Wireless Devices:
Advantages: Small, easy to carry; sufficient enough to perform productive tasks;
communicate wirelessly with the internet
Disadvantages: Workers can capture and transmit sensitive confidential or proprietary
information
3 Basic Types of Telecommunication Satellites:
Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO):
Orbit: 35,900 km; # of Satellites: 8; Use: TV signal
- Relatively stationary compared to Earth
- Few satellites needed for global coverage
- Transmission delay (0.25 seconds)
- Most expensive to build, longest orbital life
Middle Earth Orbit (MEO):
Orbit: 10,350 km; # of Satellites: 10-12; Use: GPS
- Satellites move relative to Earth
- Moderate number needed for global coverage
- Negligible transmission delay
- Less expensive to build, life of 6-12 years
Low Earth Orbit (LEO):
Orbit: 640 to 1100 km; # of Satellites: Many; Use: Phone, internet
- Satellites move quickly compared to Earth
- Large number needed for global coverage
- Least expensive to build, shortest life (as low as 5 years)
Global Positioning System (GPS): A wireless system that utilizes satellites to enable users to
determine their position anywhere on Earth; supported by MEO satellites (navigation, mapping)
Radio Transmission: Used to connect computers to peripheral equipment and local area
networks (LANs). Can be ground-based directly between transmitters and receivers or as a
satellite radio (digital radio) that is provided via satellite
Mobile Computing: A real-time connection between a mobile device and other computing
environments such as the Internet. It consists of 2 major characteristics: 1) Mobility and 2)
Broad Reach. They create 5 value-added attributes: 1) Ubiquity, 2) Convenience, 3) Instant
connectivity, 4) Customization, and 5) Localization
Short-Range Wireless Networks:
- 30 metres or less
- Bluetooth
Medium-Range Wireless Networks:
- Wifi
- Lan
- Hotspot
Long-Range Wireless Networks:
- Cellular radio (1G, 2G, 2.5G, 3G, 4G, and 5G)
- Wireless broadband