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Management Information Systems - Lecture notes, lectures 1
- 12
Management Information Systems (University of Ottawa)
Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university
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Information Systems & Business Strategy
09/11/2014
Information Systems (IS)
 Any computer-based tool that people use to work with information
and that supports the information and information processing needs
of an organization
 An IS can be an important enabler of business success and
innovation
Management Information Systems (MIS)
 The function that plans for, develops, implements, and maintains IS
hardware, software, and applications that people use to support the

goals of an organization
MIS is a business function, similar to Accounting, Finance,
Operations, and HR
These 3 things are NOT the same:
Data – raw facts that describe the characteristic of an event
Information – data converted into meaningful and useful context
Knowledge – information that can be enacted upon (actionable
information)
People use Information Systems to transform Data into
Information and Information into Knowledge.
IS Cultures
Organizational information cultures include:
 Information-functional culture
 Information-sharing culture
 Information-inquiring culture
 Information-discovery culture
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IS Roles & Responsibilities
Chief Information Officer (CIO)
 Oversees all uses of IT and ensures the strategic alignment of IT
with business goals and objectives
 Increasing enterprise growth, attracting and retaining new
customers, reducing costs, innovation, delivering operational
results, improving efficiency and profitability. Attracting and
retaining the workforce, improving marketing and sales, expanding
into new markets
Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)
 Responsible for collecting, maintaining, and distributing the
organization’s knowledge
Chief Privacy Officer (CPO)
 Responsible for ensuring the ethical and legal use of info
Chief Security Officer (CSO)
 Responsible for ensuring safety of IT resources including data,
hardware, software, and people
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
 Responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy,
availability, and reliability of IT
The Gap Between Business Personnel and IS Personnel
 Business personnel possess expertise in functional areas such as
marketing, accounting, and sales
 IS personnel have the technological expertise
 This typically causes a communications gap between the business
personnel and IS personnel
Business Strategy
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Identifying Competitive Advantage
To survive and thrive an organization must create a competitive advantage.
Competitive Advantage
 A product or service that an organization’s customer place a greater
value on than similar offerings from a competitor
First-Mover Advantage
 Occurs when an organization can significantly impact its market
share by being first to market with a competitive advantage
Organizations watch their competition through environmental
scanning.
Environmental Scanning
 The acquisition and analysis of events and trends in the
environment external to an organization
Three common tools used in industry to analyze and develop
competitive advantages include:
1. Porter’s Five Forces Model
2. Porter’s Three Generic Strategies
3. Value Chains
1. Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model (figure 1.13)
Buyer Power
 The ability of buyers to affect the price of an item
Switching Cost
o Manipulating costs that make customers reluctant to switch to
another product
Loyalty Program
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o Rewards customers based on the amount of business they do
with a particular organization
Supplier Power (figure 1.14)
 High when buyers have few choices of whom to buy from and low
when their choices are many
Supply Chain
o Consists of all parties involved in the procurement of a
product or raw material
 Organizations can create a competitive advantage by locating
alternative supply sources (decreasing supplier power) through B2B
marketplaces
B2B Marketplace – an internet-based service that brings together
many buyers and sellers
o Private Exchange – single buyer posts its needs and then
opens the bidding to any supplier who would care to bid
o Reverse Auction – an auction format in which increasingly
lower bids are solicited from organizations willing to supply
the desired product or service
Threat of Substitute Product of Service
 High when there are many alternatives to a product or service and
low when there are few alternatives
 Threat is reduced when switching costs are high
Threat of New Entrants
 High when it is easy for new competitors to enter a market and low
when there are significant entry barriers
o Entry Barriers – a feature of a product or service that
customer have come to expect and entering competitors must
offer the same for survival
Rivalry Among Existing Competitors
 High when competition is fierce in a market and low when
competitors are more complacent
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o Product Differentiation – occurs when a company develops
unique differences in its products or services with the intent
to influence demand
2. Three Generic Strategies for Creating a Business Focus (fig.
1.15)

Based on Cost Strategy and Competitive Scope axis, the three
generic strategies are:
i. Cost Leadership (low cost, broad market)
ii. Differentiation (high cost, broad market)
iii. Focused Strategy (ranging cost, narrow market)
3. Value Chain Analysis – Executing Business Strategies (fig. 1.18)
 Business Process – a standardized set of activities that
accomplish a specific task, such as a specific process
 Value Chain Analysis – views a firm as a series of business
processes that each add value to the product or service
 Value creating, with the Porter’s Five Forces (fig. 1.19)
Business-Driven IS’ and Business Strategy
 The Five Forces Model, Three Generic Strategies and Value Chain
allow business to assess competitive advantage
 IS’ collect the data from from the business processes activities and
provide analysis to give organizations insight into ways to behave
more competitively
 IS’ are not used on their own. They are driven by the need of
business for fast, accurate and insightful information
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Decision Making & Business Processes
09/11/2014
Making Good business decisions
 Analyze large amounts of information
 Apply sophisticated analysis techniques
 Make decisions quickly
 Protect the corporate asset of organizational information
Operational
Employees develop, control and maintain core business activities req’d
to run the day to day operations
 Structured Decisions
o Situations where establish processes offer potential solutions
Managerial
Employees evaluate company operations to identify adapt to and
leverage change
 Semi-structured
o Occur in situations in which a few established process help to
evaluate potential solutions.. pg 30
Strategic
Managers develop overall strategies, goals & objectives
 Unstructured decisions
o Occurs in situations in which no procedures of rules exist to
guide decision makers towards the correct choice
Pg 32
Metrics
 Measurements that evaluate results to determine whether a project
is meeting its goals
Common types:
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
KPIs – Key Performance Indicators (The quantifiable metrics a
company uses to evaluate progress toward critical factors)
o Turnover rates of employees
o Number of product returns
o Number of new customers
o Average customer spending
 Efficiency and Effectiveness
Efficiency Metrics - Measure the performance of IS itself, such as
throughput, transaction speed, and system availability
Common types of Efficiency IS Metrics
 Throughput
o Amount of info that can travel through a system at any point
in time
 Transactions Speed
o Amount of time a system takes to perform a transaction
 Web Traffic
o Includes a host of benchmarks such as the number of page
visits, and the average time spent viewing a web page
 Response Time
o Time it takes to respong to user interactions such as a mouse
click
Effectiveness Metrics - Measures the impact IS has on business processes
and activities, including customer satisfaction and customer conversation
rates
Common types of Effectiveness IS Metrics
 Usability
o The ease with which people perform transactions and / or find
info
 Customer Satisfaction
o Measured by such benchmarks as satisfaction surveys,
customer retention percentages and increasing revenue per
customer
 Conversion Rates
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
o Number of customers an organization “touches” for the first
time and persuades to purchase a product / service
Financial
o Such as RoI (earning power of an organization’s assets),
Cost/Benefit Analysis and Break Even Analysis
Benchmark – Baseline values the system seeks to attain
Benchmarking – a process of continuously measuring system results,
comparing those results to optimal system performance (benchmark values),
and identifying steps and procedures to improve system performance
Transaction Processing Sytems
Transactional Processing Systems (TPS)
 Basic business system that serves the operational level and assists
in making structured decisions
Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)
 Capturing of transaction and event information using technology to
process, store, and update
Source Document
 The original transaction record
Decision Support Systems
Decision Support System (DSS)
 Models information to support managers and business professionals
during the decision making process
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)
 Manipulation of information to create business intelligence in
support of strategic decision making
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Three Quantitative Models Used by DSS Include:
i. What-if Analysis
ii. Sensitivity Analysis
iii. Goal-seeking Analysis
Slide 25 shows interaction between TPS and DSS
Digital Dashboards
 Integrates information from multiple components and presents it in
a unified display
 Verizon’s “Wall of Shaygan” updates every 15 seconds with the
company’s performance
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – Simulates human intelligence such as
the ability to reason and learn
Intelligence System – Various commercial applications of artificial
intelligence
5 Most Common Categories of AI include:
Expert System
 Computerized advisory programs that imitate the reasoning
processes of experts in solving difficult problems
Neural Network
 Attempts to emulate the way the human brain works
 Most useful for decisions that involve patterns or image recognition
o Fuzzy Logic – a mathematical method of handling imprecise
or subjective info
Genetic Algorithm
 AI system that mimics the evolutionary, survival-of-the-fittest
process to generate increasingly better solutions to a problem
(shopping bot)
Intelligent Agent
 Special purpose knowledge based information system that
accomplishes specific tasks on behalf of its users
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Virtual Reality
 A computer-simulated environment that can be simulation of the
real or imaginary world
2.2 Business Processes
Make sure IS actually fits processes (accounting / finance,
environmental, HR, MIS)
Customer Facing Processes – result in a product or service that is
received by an organization’s external customer
Business Facing Processes – invisible to the external customer but
are essential to the effective management of the business
5 Step Order-to-Delivery Process, Slide 39
Business Process Re-Engineering
 Business Process – standardized set of activities that accomplish
specific tasks, such as processing customers order
 Business process improvement – attempts to understand and
measure current processes and upgrade them
 Business Process Re-Engineering (BPR) – analysis and redesign of
workflow within and between enterprises
Business Process Modelling (textbook pg 48)
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Business and the Internet
09/11/2014
Disruptive Technology
Digital Darwinism – implies that organizations which cannot adapt to
the new demands placed to the new demands placed on them for surviving
in the information age are doomed to extinction
Disruptive vs. Sustaining Technology
Disruptive Technology – a new way of doing things that opens new
markets and destroys old one
Sustaining Technology – produces improvements to product that
customers are eager to buy
The Internet – Disruptive Business Technology
 One of the biggest forces changing business is the Internet
 Organizations must be able to transform as markets, economic
environments, and technologies change
 Focusing on the unexpected allows an organization to capitalize on
the opportunity for new business growth from a disruptive
technology
 Has impacted almost every industry; auto, publishing, financial
services, retail
Evolution of the Internet
 The Internet began as an emergency military communications
system operated by the U.S. Department of Defense
 Gradually the internet moved from a military pipeline to a
communication tool for scientists to business
o Internet – computer networks that pass information from
one to another using common computer protocols
o Protocol – standards that specify the format of data as well
as the rules to be followed during transmission
 World Wide Web (WWW) – a global hypertext system that uses
the internet as its transport mechanism
 Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP) – the Internet standard
that supports the exchange of information on the WWW
 Reasons for growth; figure 3.6
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

The internet makes it possible to perform business in ways not
previously imaginable
It can also cause a gap between winners and losers in the game of
business
o Digital Divide – when those with access to technology have
great advantages over those without access to technology
o Web 2.0 – a set of economic, social, and technology trends
that collectively form the basis for the next generation of the
Internet
Mashups
 Website or web application that uses content from more than one
source to create a completely new product or service
o Application programming interface
o Mashup Editor
Web 3.0
 Based on “intelligent” Web applications using natural language
processing, machine-based learning and reasoning, and intelligence
applications
 Semantic Web – structuring data so web pages describe things in
a way that computers can “understand” and, thus, find, share, and
integrate ideas more effectively for people
 The Semantic Web encompasses one or more of the following:
o Transforming the web into a database
o An Evolutions Path to artificial intelligence
o The realization of the semantic Web and SOA (ServiceOriented Architecture)
o Evolution toward 3D
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Accessing Internet Information
 Four tools for accessing Internet information
i. Intranet – internalized portion of the Internet, protected
form outside access, for employees
ii. Extranet – an intranet that is available to strategic allies
iii. Portal – Web site that offers a broad array of resources and
services
iv. Kiosk – publicly accessible computer system that allows
interactive information browsing
Providing Internet Information
 Three common forms of service providers
i. Internet Service Provider (ISP) – Provides individuals and
other companies access to the Internet
 Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP)
 Common ISP services include:
 Web Hosting
 Hard-disk Storage Space
 Availability
 Support
ii. Online Service Provider (OSP) – offers and extensive array
of unique Web services
iii. Application Service Provider (ASP) – offers access over
the internet to systems and related services that would
otherwise have to be located in organizational computers
 ISPs, OSPs, and ASPs use service level agreements (SLA) which
define the specific responsibilities of the service provider and set
the customer expectations
E-Business Basics
How do e-commerce and e-business differ?
 E-Commerce – the buying adns elling of goods and services over
the internet
 E-Business – the conducting of business on the internet including
not only buying and selling, but also serving customers and
collaborating with business partners
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

Mass Customization – the ability of an organization to tailor its
products or services to the customers’ specifications
Personalization – occurs when a company knows enough about a
customer’s like and dislikes that it can fashion offers more likely to
appeal to that person
Opening New Markets
 The Long Tail – refers to the tail of a typical sales curve (figure
3.13, 3.14)
 Intermediary – agents, software, or businesses that provide a
trading infrastructure to bring buyers and sellers together
o Disintermediation
o Re-intermediation
o Cybermediation
Further Advantages of E-Business
 Reducing Costs – business processes that take less time and
human effort
 Improving Operations – communication customized to meet
consumer needs and available 24/7
 Improving Effectiveness – web sites must increase revenue and
new customers and reduce service calls
 Interactivity Metrics – measure E-Business success: number of
repeat visits, times spent on site and number of pages viewed
among other activities
 Improving Effectiveness through E-Business Marketing
o Associate (Affiliate) Programs
o Banner Ads
o Tracking Click-Through
o Cookies
o Pop-Up Ads
o Viral Marketing
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Measuring Website Success
 Stickiness – visit duration time
 Raw Visit Depth – total Web page exposures per session
 Unidentified Visitor – no info about visitor is available
 Unique Visitor – recognized and counted once in a period of time
 Identified Visitor – can be tracked across multiple web visits
 Hits – a single request made by a visitor to view a web page
Business Models
 Types of Businesses:
o Brick and Mortar – physical store, no web site
o Pure-Play (Virtual) – only online
o Click and Mortar – physical and online
 E-Auctions are a successful E-Business model
o Forward Auction – seller offers to many buyers who bid
with the highest bid winning the product
o Reverse Auction – buyer specifies product or service an
lowest seller bid wins contract
Business-to-Business (B2B)
 Electronic Marketplace (E-Marketplace)
o Interactive business communities providing a central market
where multiple buyers and sellers can engage in e-business
activities
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
 Common B2C e-business models include:
o E-Shop – a version of a retail store where customers can
shop any time without leaving their home (also called e-store
or e-tailing)
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o E-Mail – consists of a number of e-shops; it serves as a
gateway through which a visitor can access other e-shops
Marketing
 E-Business’ success in direct selling is evidenced by growth of the
Internet sales of Dell Inc., eBay, Indigo, and Travelocity
 Innovative approaches are changing the face of retailing:
o Sears installed Skype-enabled screens into 10 of its fashion
outlets so that buyers could remotely show their friends
potential clothing choices
Financial Services
 Online consumer payments include:
o Financial cybermediary
o Electronic cheque
o Electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP)
o Digital wallet
 Online business payments include:
o Electronic data interchange (EDI)
 Value-added network (VAN)
o Financial EDI
 Figure 3.27
Procurement
 Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) materials (also
called indirect materials) – materials necessary for running an
organization but do not relate to the company’s primary business
activities
o E-Procurement – the B2B purchase and sale of supplies and
services over the internet
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o Electronic Catalogue – presents customers with information
about goods and services offered for sale, bid, or auction on
the Internet
Customer Service
 Customer service is the business process where the most human
contact occurs between a buyer and a seller
 E-business strategists are finding that customer service via the Web
is one of the most challenging and potentially lucrative areas of ebusiness
 The primary issue facing customer service departments using ebusiness is consumer protections
E-Business Challenges
Security
o Encryption
o Secure socket layer (SSL)
 TLS (Transport layer security)
o Secure electronic transaction (SET)
Other challenges include:
 Protecting consumers – against unsolicited, illegal or harmful
goods, invasion of privacy, cyber fraud
 Leveraging existing systems – effectively integrating innovative
systems with existing systems
 Increasing liability – identity theft, privacy, and the Internet’s
global reach means dealing with laws of many countries
 Providing security – protection of consumer and business
information and data assets
 Taxation rules – Adhering to often new rules
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E-Business Benefits
 Highly accessible
 Increase customer loyalty
 Improved information content
 Increased convenience
 Increased global reach
 Decreased cost
Figure 3.32
E-Government
 Involves the use of strategies and technologies to improve the
delivery of services and enhance the quality of interaction between
citizen-consumer within all branches of government
 Federal government portal, www.canada.gc.ca , connects citizens,
immigrants, visitors, and other to all gov’t public communication
 Figure 3.33
M-Commerce
 Mobile Commerce – the ability to purchase goods and services
through a wireless internet-enabled device
Social Media & Business
 Companies advertise on Facebook, with their own pages on
Facebook, active on Twitter
 Companies are advised to integrate social media in business
communications, use social customer support, provide leadership
and expertise through social media, and that social media can drive
reputation
 Figure 3.36

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Enterprise Computing Challenges
and Enterprise Resource Planning
09/11/2014
ENTERPRISE COMPUTING CHALLENGES
Innovation: Finding New
 The introduction of new equipment or methods
Six Best Practices of Innovation
1. Find your relevant edge
2. Assemble innovation hothouses
3. Reward risk takers
4. Celebrate diversity
5. Look around
6. Mix practitioners and developers
Social Entrepreneurship: Going Green
 Corporate Policy is the position a firm takes on social and political
issues
 Sustainable or “Green” IT describes systems that minimize
damage to the environment
Responses to Energy Consumption
 Sun Microsystems: throughput computing
 Virtualization is a framework of dividing the resources of a
computer into multiple execution environments
 Energy rebate programs
 Smart cooling
 Alternative energy sources
 Biology meets chips
 Government involvement
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Recycle IT Equipment
E-Waste refers to discarded, obsolete or broken electronic devices
Sustainable IT Disposal refers to the safe disposal of MIS assets at
the end of their life cycle
Electronic Product Stewardship Canada (EPSC) is an industry
association that educates and encourages e-waste control
Recent international laws restrict the use of hazardous materials
Greener IT
Ways to Save Energy in a Data Centre
 Use outside air for cooling
 Cool high-density areas
 Use low-power processors
 Incorporate cooling solutions
 Use server power management
 Buy high-efficiency power supplies
 Use virtualization to consolidate servers
Social Networks: Who’s Who
Organizing Social Networking
Passive Search – finding people for new jobs who are happy and
productive through business networking sites
Boomerangs – former employees returning to old jobs
Marketing Networks – using business networks for marketing and
events
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Virtual Worlds: It’s a Whole New World
Virtual World – an internet resource which presents a 3D virtual
community
Virtual Organizations – interactive web presence for businesses and
their customers
Virtual Workforce – working from home, or anywhere via the
internet
Tools for the Virtual Workforce
 Mobile commerce (m-commerce): the ability to purchase goods
and services through a wireless internet-enabled device
 Telematics: the blending of computers and wireless
telecommunications with the foal of efficiently conveying
information over vast networks to improve business operations.
The most notable example of telematics may be the internet itself,
since it depends on a number of computer networks connected
globally through telecommunication devices
 Electronic Tagging: the use of RFID (radio frequency
identification) and other systems to identify and tracking digital
assets
ENTERPRISE RESOUORCE PLANNING (ERP)
ERP – Integrates all departments and function throughout an
organization into a single IT system (or integrated set of IT systems) so that
employees can make enterprise-wide decisions by viewing enterprise-wide
information on all business operations
ERP:
 Is a solution to incompatible applications
 Addresses the need for global information sharing
 Avoids the expense of fixing legacy systems
Legacy Systems are older computer technology still in use
Functional Systems serve single business departments or units
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ERP System Figure 4.9 – 4.15 Page 119
Figure 1.10
ERP Integration Data Flow
 At the heart of all ERP systems is a database; when a user enters or
updates information in one module, it is immediately and
automatically updated throughout the entire system
Core and Extended ERP Components
ERP II: Core and Extended
Core ERP Components are the traditional components included in
most ERP systems and they primarily focus on internal operations
Extended ERP Components are the extra components that meet the
organizational needs not covered by the core components and primarily
focus on external operations
Three Most Common Core ERP Components
1. Accounting & Finance
 Manages accounting data and financial processes within the
enterprise with functions such as general ledger, accounts payable,
accounts receivable, budgeting, and asset management
2. Production & Materials Management
 Handles the various aspects of production planning and execution
such as demand forecasting, production scheduling, job cost
accounting, and quality control
 Figure 4.16
3. Human Resources
 Tracks employee information including payroll, benefits,
compensation, performance assessment, and assumes compliance
with the legal requirements of multiple jurisdictions and tax
authorities
Extended ERP Components
1. Business Intelligence
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
Information people use to support their decision-making efforts
2. Customer Relationship Management
 Managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an
organization to increase customer loyalty and retention, and
profitability for the organization
3. Supply Chain Management
 Managing data flows between and among stages in a supply chain
to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability
4. E-Business
 Conducting business on the internet – not only buying and selling,
but also serving customers and collaborating with business partners
E-Logistics manages the transportation and storage of goods
E-Procurement is the B2B purchase and sale of supplies and
services over the internet
Integrating SCM, CRM and ERP
Integration Tools
 Middleware – several different types of software that sit between
and provide connectivity for two or more software applications
 Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) Middleware – takes
a new approach to middleware by packaging commonly used
applications together, reducing the time needed to integrate
applications from multiple vendors
 SCM, CRM, and ERP are the backbone of e-business
 Integration of these applications is the key to success for many
companies
 Integration allows the unlocking of information to make it available
to any use, anywhere, anytime
Measuring ERP Success
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
Balanced Scorecard is a management system, in addition to a
measurement system, that enables organizations to clarify their
vision and strategy and translate them into action using 4
perspectives:
o Learning & Growth
o Internal Business Process
o Customer
o Financial
Successful ERP Projects Share Three Attributes
1. Overall Fit
 Off the rack
 Off the rack and tailored to fit
 Custom made
2. Proper Business Analysis
 Successful companies spend up to 10% of the project budget on a
business plan
3. Solid Implementation Plans
 A plan is needed to monitor the quality, objectives, and timelines
ERP and SME Markets
 ERP is no longer the purview of large organizations
 In the hopes of expanding their client base many large-scale ERP
vendors, such as SAP and Oracle, are attempting to enter the small
to medium enterprise (SME) market

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Operations Management and
Supply Chain Management
09/11/2014
OPERATION MANAGEMENT FUNDAMENTALS
Production Management describes all the activities managers do to
help companies create goods
Operation Management (OM) is the management of systems or
processes that convert or transform resources (including human resources)
into goods and services
A Transformation Process is often referred to as the technical core,
especially in manufacturing organizations, and is the actual conversion of
inputs and outputs
Value-Added is the term used to describe the difference between the
cost of inputs and the price value of outputs
OM in Business
 Forecasting
 Capacity planning
 Scheduling
 Managing inventory
 Assuring quality
 Motivating and training employees
 Locating facilities
Figures 5.1 – 5.4
IS Support for Operations Strategy
 Concerned with developing a long-term plan for how best to use the
company’s resources
 IS support for operations strategy depends on:
o Level of available technology
o Skill level of workers
o Degree of vertical integration, to what degree the suppliers
are owned (or partnered) with the company
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o Extent to which outside suppliers are used
OM Strategic Business Systems
Strategic Business Units (SBUs) – is a stand-alone business under
a corporate umbrella
Strategic Planning – the collection of decisions focused on doing the
right things over a longer period of time
Material Requirements Planning (MRP) Systems – use sales
forecast to make sure parts and materials are available
Tactical Planning – focuses on producing goods and services as
efficiently as possible within the strategic plan
Global Inventory Management System (GIMS) – locate, track,
and predict materials and components by installing GPS in transportation
vehicles
Operational Planning and Control (OP&C) – deals with day-to-day
operations
Inventory Management and Control Systems – provides control
and visibility to the status of individual items maintained in inventory
Transportation Planning Systems – tracks and analyzes the
movement of materials and products to ensure the delivery of materials and
finished goods on time, at a low cost
Distribution Management System – coordinate the process of
transporting materials from a manufacturer, to distribution centres, to the
final customers
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Competitive OM Strategy
Five key competitive priorities that can add value for customers
Cost
Quality
o International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Delivery
Flexibility
Service
OM and the Supply Chain
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Supply Chain consists of all parties involved, directly or indirectly, in
the procurement of a product or raw material
Supply Chain Management (SCM) involves the management of
information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize
total effectiveness and profitability
Four Basic Components of SCM are:
1. Supply Chain Strategy
 Managing all the resources required to meet customer demand for
all products and services
2. Supply Chain Partners
 The partners chosen to deliver finished products, raw materials, and
services, including pricing, delivery, and payment processes along
with partner relationship monitoring metrics
3. Supply Chain Operation
 The schedule for production activities, including testing, packaging,
and preparation for delivery. Measurements for this component
include productivity and quality
4. Supply Chain Logistics
 The product delivery processes and elements, including orders,
warehouses, carriers, defective product returns, and invoicing
Figures 5.5 – 5.8
SUPPLY CHAIN FUNDAMENTALS
The supply chain has three main links:
i. Materials flow from suppliers and their “upstream” suppliers at all
levels
ii. Transformation of materials into semi-finished and finished products
through the organization’s own production process
iii. Distribution of products to customers and their “downstream”
customers at all levels
Figure 5.9
Five Basic Supply Chain Management Components:
 Plan
 Source
 Make
 Deliver
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
Return
Figure 5.10
Information Systems’ Role in the Supply Chain
 IS’s primary role is to create integrations or tight process and
information linkages between functions within a firm (Figure 5.11)
Factors Driving SCM
Visibility is the ability to view all areas up and down the supply chain
 Bullwhip Effect occurs when distorted product demand
information passes from one entity to the next throughout the
supply chain
Consumer Behaviour
 Demand Planning Systems generate demand forecast using
statistical tools and forecasting techniques
Competition
 Supply Chain Planning (SCP) Systems use advanced
mathematical algorithms to improve the flow and efficiency of the
supply chain while reducing inventory
 Supply Chain Execution (SCE) Systems automate the different
steps and stages of the supply chain
Speed
Supply Chain Management Metrics
Common supply chain metrics include:
Back Order
 An unfilled customer order, inventory is insufficient
Inventory Replenishment Cycle Time
 Measure of the manufacturing cycle time plus the time included to
deploy the product to the appropriate distribution centre
Customer Order Promised Cycle Time
 Gap between the purchase order creation date and requested
delivery date
Customer Order Actual Cycle Time
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Average time it actually takes to fill an order
Inventory Turnover
 Number of times an organizations inventory cycles per year
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Seven Principles of SCM
Segment customers by service needs, regardless of industry, and tailor
service to those segments
Customize the logistics network and focus intensively on the service
requirements and on profitability of the pre-identified customer segments
Listen to signals of market demand and plan accordingly. Planning must
span the entire chain to detect signals of changing demand
Differentiate products closer to the customer, since companies can no
longer afford to hold inventory to compensate for poor demand
forecasting
Strategically manage sources of supply, by working with key suppliers to
reduce overall costs of owning materials and services
Develop a supply chain information technology strategy that supports
different levels of decision making and provides a clear view (visibility) of
the flow of products, services, and information
Adopt performance evaluation measures that apply to every link in the
supply chain and measure true profitability at every stage
Supply Chain Success Factors
SCM Industry Best Practices Include:
 Make the sale to suppliers
 Wean employees off traditional business practices
 Ensure the SCM system supports the organizational goals
 Deploy in incremental phases, measure, and communicate success
 Be future oriented
Future Supply Chain Trends
Instrumentation – data will be increasingly machine-generated.
GIMS and RFID-enabled devices, meters and actuators
Interconnectedness – every component from customer back to
materials source and every element in between such as vehicles, containers
and products will be identified and can be tracked
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Intelligence – data received from the smart objects in the supply
chain will be processed with smart analytics which will create better models
to support improved decisions in an increasingly complex world
The Future of SCM
Fastest Growing SCM Components:
 Collaborative Demand Planning
 Collaborative Engineering
 Selling Chain Management
 Supply Chain Event Management (SCEM)
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Customer Relationship Management
09/11/2014
CRM:
 A management philosophy according to which a company’s goals
can be best achieved through identification and satisfaction of the
customers’ stated and unstated needs and wants
 A computerized system for identifying, targeting, acquiring, and
retaining the best mix of customers
 Involves managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an
organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an
organization’s profitability
CRM as a Business Strategy
CRM enables an organization to:
 Provide better customer service
 Make call centres more efficient
 Cross-sell products more effectively
 Help sales staff close deals faster
 Simplify marketing and sales processes
 Discover new customers
 Increase customer revenues
Organizations can find their most valuable customers through RFM –
Recency, Frequency, and Monetary value
The Evolution of CRM
CRM Reporting Systems help organizations identify their customers
across other applications
CRM Analysis Systems help organizations segment their customers
into categories such as best and worst customers
CRM Predicting Systems help organizations make predictions
regarding customer behaviour, such as which customers are at risk of
leaving
Operational CRM – supports traditional transactional processing for
day-to-day front-office operations or systems that deal directly with the
customers
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Analytical CRM – supports back-office operations and strategic
analysis and includes all systems that do not deal directly with the
customers
Figure 6.5
Marketing & Operational CRM
Three primary operational CRM systems marketing can use to increase
customer satisfaction:
1. List Generators – compile customer data from a variety of sources and
segment the data for different marketing campaigns
2. Campaign Management Systems – guide campaign planners through
key tasks, can calculate campaign ROI and track results for future fine
tuning
3. Cross-Selling and Up-Selling – identify customers that would have
interest in additional, related products or might respond to increasing the
value of their purchase
Sales & Operational CRM
Sales Force Automation (SFA) is a system that automatically tracks all of
the steps in the sales process
Three primary operational CRM systems sales can use to increase
customer satisfaction:
1. Sales Management CRM System – automates each phase of the sales
process, helping individual sales representatives coordinate and organize
all of their accounts
2. Contact Management CRM System – maintains customer contact
information and identifies prospective customers for future sales
3. Opportunity Management CRM System – targets sales opportunities
by finding new customers or companies for future sales
CRM Pointers for Gaining Prospective Customer
i. Get their attention
ii. Value their time
iii. Overdeliver
iv. Contact frequently
v. Generate a trustworthy mailing list
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vi. Follow up
Customer Service & Operational CRM
Three primary operational CRM systems marketing can use to increase
customer satisfaction:
1. Contact (Call) Centre
2. Web-base Self-service System
 Click-to-talk
3. Call Scripting System
 Tracking similar issues in a database and provider information to
the customer service representative (CSR)
Using IS to Drive Analytical CRM
Analytical CRM – digs deep into the company’s historical customer
data to expose patterns of customer behaviour on which a company can
capitalize
Personalization – when a web site knows enough about a person’s
likes and dislikes that it can fashion offers that are more likely to appeal to
that person
Information Examples
i. Give customers more of what they want
ii. Find new customers similar to the best customers
iii. Find out what the organization does best
iv. Beat competitors to the punch
v. Reactivate inactive customers
vi. Let customers know they matter
Implementing CRM
CRM Industry Best Practices Include:
 Clearly communicate the CRM strategy
 Define data needs and flows
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
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Build an integrated view of the customer
Implement in iterations
Scalability for organizational growth
Eight Building Block of CRM
Creating a CRM vision that provides a “big picture” of what the
customer-centric organization should look like
Defining and weaving a CRM strategy that aligns with broader
marketing and sales strategies, and informs operational and
production strategies
Understanding and engaging the customer
Ensuring organizational collaboration between internal groups and
external business partners
Focusing on improving customer processes
Achieving data integrity across the enterprise
Leveraging information systems to implement CRM
Defining, collecting, and analyzing CRM metrics
CRM Marketing Metrics
 Number of marketing campaigns
 New customer retention rates
 Number of responses by marketing campaign
 Revenue generated by marketing campaign
 Cost per interaction by marketing campaign
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
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Number of new customers acquired by marketing campaign
Customer retention rates
Number of new leads by product
CRM Sales Metrics
 Number of prospective customers
 Number of new customers
 Number of retained customers
 Number of sales calls
 Number of sales calls per lead
 Amount of new revenue generated
 Amount of recurring revenue
 Number of proposals given
CRM Customer Service Metrics
 Cases closed the same day
 Number of cases handled by an agent
 Number of service calls
 Average number of service requests by type
 Average time to resolution
 Average number of service calls per day
 Percentage of compliance with service-level agreements
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Percentage of service renewals
Customer satisfaction levels
Managing Other Relationships
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) focuses on keeping
suppliers satisfied by evaluating and categorizing suppliers for different
projects
Partner Relationship Management (PRM) focuses on keeping
vendors satisfied by managing alliance partner, dealer, retailed, and reseller
relationships that provide customers with an optimal sales channel
 Alliance Partners are competitors who cooperate in order to
compete more successfully
 Dealers are agents who sell products or services on behalf of
organizations
 Retailers sell smaller quantities of products to customers
 Resellers buy products in bulk and resell in order to make a profit
Employee Relationship Management (ERM) is a management
activity that focuses on managing an organization’s relationships with its
employees
Future CRM Trends
 CRM applications will continue to evolve and be used by a wide
variety of partners
 CRM will continue to be a major strategic focus for companies
 CRM applications will continue to adapt wireless capabilities
supporting mobile sales and mobile customers
 CRM suites will incorporate SRM, PRM, and ERM modules
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Databases & Data Warehouses
09/11/2014
DATABASES
Data are raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event
Information is data converted into meaningful and useful context
Information Granularity refers to the extent of detail within the
information (fine and detailed or coarse and abstract)
Levels
 Individual, department, enterprise
Formats
 Document, presentation, spreadsheet, database
Granularities
 Detail (fine), summary, aggregate (coarse)
Transactional Data encompasses all of data contained within a single
business process of unit of work, and its primary purpose is to support
performing daily operational tasks
Analytical Information encompasses all organizational information,
and its primary purpose is to support the performance of higher-level
analysis tasks
Information Timeliness
Timeliness is an aspect of information that depends on the situation
Real-time Data are immediate, up-to-date data
Real-time Information is immediate, up-to-date information
Real-time System provides real-time transactional data and / or realtime analytical information in response to query requests
Characteristics of High Quality Information
Accuracy: are all the values correct?
Completeness: are any values missing?
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Consistency: does aggregate or summary information agree with
detailed information
Uniqueness: is each transaction, entity, and event represented only
once in the information?
Timeliness: is the info current with respect to business requirements
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Four Primary Sources of Low Quality Info Include:
Online customers intentionally enter inaccurate info to protect their
privacy
Data or info from different systems have different entry standards or
formats
Call centre operators enter abbreviated or erroneous info by accident or
to save time
Third party and external info contains inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and
errors
Potential Business Effects Resulting From Low Quality Info Include:
 Inability to accurately track customers, which directly affects
strategic initiatives such as customer relationship management
(CRM) and supply chain management (SCM)
 Difficulty identifying the organization’s most valuable customers
 Inability to identify selling opportunities
 Wasted revenue from marketing to non-existent customers and
non-deliverable mail
 Difficulty tracking revenue because of inaccurate invoices
 Inability to build strong relationships with customers, which
increases their buyer power
Understanding the Benefits of Good Information
 High-quality information can significantly improve the chances of
making a good decision
 Good decisions can directly impact an organization’s bottom line
Storing Transactional Data
 Transactional data is stored in databases
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
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Database is a collection of records about various business
categories such as resources (inventory), events (sales, payroll),
people (employees), and places (warehouses, stores)
Operational IS such as SCM and CRM maintain and access the
transactional data in databases
The most common business databases today are relational
database management systems (DBMS)
Database Fundamentals
Hierarchical Database Model: information is organized into a treelike structure (using parent / child relationships) in such a way that it cannot
have too many relationships
Network Database Model: a flexible way of representing objects and
their relationships
Relational Database Model: stores info in the form of logically
related two-dimensional tables. The most prevalent form of data basis
structures used in business
 Entity: an individual person, place, thing, or an individual
occurrence of an event about which info is stored
 Entity Class: a category of person, place, thing or event about
which info is stored
 In a relational database each table collects the data for an entity
class. ex. One table is for customers, another for orders, another
for products
 In each table (entity class) each row, or record, contains the data
for each entity belonging to that class
 Attributes: characteristics or properties of an entity class for which
we collect data. In a DBMS, these are columns in the table called
fields
Relating Data through Keys
 Primary Key: a field (or group of fields) contain values that
uniquely identify a given record in a table
 Foreign Key: a primary key of one table that appears a field in
another table. A value in the foreign key of one table corresponds
to the value in the primary key of another table
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Relationships: the data from one table is linked to another when
the computer finds a match between the values in a primary key to
the values in the foreign key of another table
Relationship Database Advantages
Database advantages from a business perspective include:
1. Increased Flexibility
A well-designed database should:
 Handle changes quickly and easily
 Provide users with different views
 Have only one Physical View: deals with the physical storage
information on a storage device
 Have multiple Logical Views: focuses on how users logically access
information
2. Increased Scalability and Performance
A database must increase or decrease in size to meet increased
demand, while maintaining acceptable performance levels
 Scalability refers to how well a system can adapt its capacity to
changing demands
 Performance measures how quickly a system performs a certain
process of transaction
3. Reduced Redundancy
Data Redundancy: the duplication of information or storing the same
information in multiple places
Problems Include:
 Inconsistency of data describing the same thing
 Waste of space, waste of time to enter and update
 Difficulty securing data in many places
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4. Increased Integrity (Quality)
Information Integrity: measure the quality of info
Integrity Constraint: rules that help ensure the quality of info:
 Relational Integrity Constraint: rule that enforces basic and
fundamental information-based constraints
 Business-Critical Integrity Constraint: rule that enforces
business rules vital to an organization’s success and often requires
more insight and knowledge than relational integrity constraints
5. Increased Security
Information is an organizational asset and must be protected
Databases offer several security features including
 Password: provides authentication of the user
 Access Level: determines who has access to the different types of
information
o RBAC – Role-Based Access Control allows groups to be
assigned access levels, and people assigned to groups
 Access Control: determines types of user access, such as
read-only access
Database Management Systems (DBMS) is software through which
users and application programs interact with a database (figure 7.6)
Data-Driven Websites are interactive websites which use a database
to keep it updated and relevant to the needs of its customers
Advantages:
 Development
 Content management
 Future expandability
 Human error minimized
 Reduced production and update costs
 Increased efficiency
 Improved stability
Data Integration
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Integration: allows separate systems to communicate directly with
each other
 Forward Integration: takes information entered into a given
system and sends it automatically to all downstream systems and
processes
 Backward Integration: takes information entered into a given
system and sends it automatically to all upstream systems and
processes
 Figures 7.9 & 7.10
DATA WAREHOUSES
Fundamentals:
Data Warehouse: a logical collection of info – gathered from many
different operational databases – that supports business analysis activities
and decision-making tasks
 Data warehouse extend the transformation of data into info
 In the 1990’s executives became less concerned with the day-today business operations and more concerned with overall business
function
 The data warehouse provided the ability to support decision making
without disrupting the day-to-day operations
 The primary purpose of a data warehouse is to aggregate
information throughout an organization into a single repository for
decision-making purposes
Extraction, Transformation, and Loading (ETL): a process that
extracts information from the internal and external databases, transforms
the information using a common set of enterprise definitions, and loads the
information into a data warehouse
Data Mart: contains a subset of data warehouse info extracted to be
analyzed for specific units or objectives
Figure 7.11
Multi-Dimensional Analysis
Databases contain information in a series of two-dimensional tables
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In a data warehouse and data mart, information is multi-dimensional.
It contains layers of columns and rows
 Dimension: a particular characteristic of the information; an
attribute
Cube: common term for the representation of multi-dimensional
information
Information Cleansing or Scrubbing
An organization must maintain high-quality data in the data warehouse
Information Cleansing or Scrubbing: a process that weeds out and
fixes or discards inconsistent, incorrect, or incomplete info
Software tools use sophisticated algorithms to parse, standardize,
correct, match and consolidate warehouse info
Figures 7.12 – 7.16
Business Intelligence (BI)
BI: applications and technologies used to gather, provide access to,
and analyze information to support decision-making
The challenge is to make decisions in an environment that is data rich
and information poor, to make data into information before said data is out
of date, turning that information into knowledge by understanding how to
use the info to increase profitability
The Solution: Business Intelligence
 Businesses make hundreds of decisions a day based on facts but
also on experience, accumulated knowledge and rules of thumb that
take years to develop
 Improving business decisions has a direct positive effect on the
bottom line
 BI systems can assist in better decisions, a more agile, intelligent
enterprise
 Figures 7.17 – 7.21
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BI’s Operational Value
Data Latency: the duration of time needed to make transactional
data ready for analysis (extracting, transforming, and cleansing), and
loading the summarized, aggregated, cleansed data (analytical info) into a
data warehouse
Analysis Latency: the time from which the analytical information is
make available to the time when analysis is complete
Decision Latency: is the time it takes for a human to comprehend
the analytic result and determine an appropriate action
Data Mining
Data Mining: the process of analyzing data to extract information not
offered by the raw data alone
 Drilling Down: increasing levels of detail
 Drilling Up: increasing summarization
 Data-Mining Tool: uses a variety of techniques to find patterns
and relationships in large volumes of information and infers rules
that predict future behaviour and guide decision making
Data mining approaches decision making with a few different activities
in mind including:
 Classification: assigns records to one of a predefined set of
classes
 Estimation: determines values for an unknown continuous variable
behaviour or estimated future value
 Affinity Grouping: determines which things go together
 Clustering: segments a heterogeneous population of records into a
number of more homogeneous subgroups
Techniques
Cluster Analysis: a statistical technique used to divide an information
set into mutually exclusive groups such that the members of each group are
as close together as possible to one another and the different groups are as
far apart as possible
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Association Detection: reveals the relationship between variables
along with the nature and frequency of the relationships
 Market Basket Analysis analyzes such items as web sites and
checkout scanner information to detect customers’ buying
behaviour and predict future behaviour buy identifying affinities
among customers’ choices of products and services
Statistical Analysis: performs such functions as information
correlations, distributions, calculations, and variance analysis
 Forecasts are predictions made on the basis of time-series
information
 Time-Series Information is time-stamped information collected
at a particular frequency
Business Benefits of BI
 Single point of access for all users
 BI across organizational departments
 Up-to-the-Minute info for everyone
 Categories of BI benefits:
o Direct quantifiable benefits
o Indirect quantifiable benefits
o Unpredictable benefits
o Intangible benefits
Figures 7.24, 7.25
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Helping Organizations Access,
Share, and Use Information
09/11/2014
Peter Drucker
 “Knowledge has become the economic resource and the dominant and perhaps even the only - source of competitive advantage”
 Look up more info
 “now that knowledge is taking the place of capital as the driving
force in organizations worldwide, it is all too easy to confuse data
with knowledge and information technology with information”
 “the computer is a moron”
Family miles instead of air miles, offered by IBM
Introduction
Knowledge Management (KM) involves capturing, classifying,
evaluating, retrieving, and sharing information assets in a way that provides
context for effective decisions and actions. KM is the systematic, effective
management and use of an organization’s information resources that contain
or embody knowledge
Knowledge Management System (KMS) supports capturing,
organizing, and disseminating knowledge (i.e. know-how) throughout an
organization
Explicit Knowledge consists of anything that can be documented,
archived, and codified, often with the help of information systems
Tacit Knowledge is the knowledge in people’s heads, the challenge
lies in how to share, generate, recognize, and manage this knowledge
Shadowing: less experienced staff observe more experienced staff to
learn how their more experience counterparts approach their work
Joint Problem Solving is having an expert and novice work together
to bring their independent processes to light and complete a given task
KM Technologies generally fall into one or more of the following four:
 Knowledge repositories (databases)
 Expertise tools
 E-learning applications
 Discussion and chat technologies
 Search and data mining tools
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KM Outside the Organization
Crowdsourcing is the most common form of collective intelligence
found outside the organization
Asynchronous Communications are instant forms of communication
KM and Social Networking
Social Networking Analysis (SNA) is a process of mapping a
group’s contacts (whether personal or professional) to identify who knows
whom and who works with whom. This provides a clear picture of how
groups work together and any clear leaders within the group
Collaboration giving others the tools to share and receive knowledge
Teams, Partnerships, and Alliances
Core Competency of an organization is its key strength, a business
function that it does better than any of its competitors
Core Competency Strategy is one in which an organization chooses
to focus specifically on what it does best (its core competency) and form
partnerships and alliances with other specialist organizations to handle nonstrategic business processes
Information Partnership occurs when two or more organizations cooperate by integrating their information systems, thereby providing
customers with the best of what each can offer
Collaboration Systems
Collaboration System is an IT-based set of tools that supports the
work of teams by facilitating the sharing and flow of information
Collaboration Systems fall into one of two categories:
1. Unstructured Collaboration (or Information Collaboration) includes
document exchange, shared whiteboards, discussion forums, and email.
These functions can improve personal productivity, reducing the time
spent searching for information or chasing answers
2. Structured Collaboration (or Process Collaboration) involves shared
participation in business processes, such as workflow, in which knowledge
is hard-coded as rules. This helps improve automation and the routing of
information.
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Content Management Systems
CMS provides tools to manage creating, storing, editing, and publishing
information in a collaborative environment
Wikis are web-based tools that make it east for users to add, remove, and
change online content
Business Wikis are collaborative web pages that allow users to edit
documents, share ideas or monitor the status of a project
Workflow Management Systems
Workflow defines all the steps or business rules, from beginning to end,
required for a business process
Workflow Management Systems facilitate the automation and
management of business processes and control the movement of work
through the business process
Messaging-Based Workflow Systems send work assignments through
and email system
Data-Based Workflow Systems store documents in a central location and
automatically ask the team members to access the document when it is their
turn to edit the document
Groupware Systems
Groupware is software that supports team interaction and dynamics
including calendaring, scheduling, and videoconferencing
Video Conference is a set of interactive telecommunication technologies
they allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio
transmissions simultaneously
Web Conferencing blends audio, video, and document-sharing
technologies to create virtual meeting rooms
Instant Messaging is a type of communications service that enables
someone to create a kind of private chat room with another individual in
order to communicate in real time over the internet
M-Learning uses portable computing devices with wireless capability to
enable mobility and mobile learning
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Enterprise Portals
Enterprise Portals are single-point web browser interfaces used within an
organization to promote gather, sharing, and disseminating information
throughout and enterprise (also rarely referred to as corporate or business
portals)
The four features of Enterprise Portals are:
 Publishing Facility allowing users to post and index info directly
 Automatic Indexing Facility classifies info in the portal using an
algorithm
 Subscription Facilities notifies and distributes info on a regular
basis to specific or groups of users
 Intelligent Agents to understand a user’s preferences and toles,
helping them find information of relevance
Two broad categories of Enterprise Portals
 Vertical Enterprise Portals focusing on accessing specific
applications or business functions, such as account or purchasing
 Horizontal Enterprise Portals seek to integrate and aggregate
information from multiple cross-enterprise applications (i.e., a
particular product or service, or specific line of business
Potential of Enterprise Portals
These three distinct areas must be comprised in order to leverage EP for
knowledge work and promoted collaboration:
1. Content Space: provides access to corporate data and information
2. Communication Space: provides channels for conversations
3. Coordination Space: facilitates workflow and work routines
Factors Affecting Enterprise Portal Adoption and Use
Several broad factors were identified that affect the degree to which an
enterprise portal would be used:
1. Information Politics: the human struggle over an enterprise portals
content and functionality can lead to resultant designs that favour certain
stake holder groups rather than address end-user needs
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2. System Development Process: a perceived slowness in changes to an
enterprise portals design or information content can lead to user
dissatisfaction
3. Information Culture has 5 sub-factors:
a. Information Sharing: the provision of protected, secure areas in an
enterprise portal to pre-defined individuals or groups can lead to
greater exchange of documents and ideas
b. Information Overload: the filtering of info within an enterprise portal
can lead to greater user acceptance
c. Information Access: providing quick and universal access to an EP
can lead to heightened usage
d. Information Control: offering a means to tailor the display and
presentation of info on an EP can increase user satisfaction
e. Attitude Towards Using an EP: a positive perception towards an
awareness of an EP’s functionality can lead to greater user adoption
Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) refers to a field
of research concerned with the development and use of software to help
groups increase their competency in working together. The following are
insights on adoption and us of EPs:
 Ensure that everyone benefits
 Create incentives for use
 Promote multiple perspectives
 Understand current work practice

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Information, Ethics, Privacy, & Security
09/11/2014
Intro
Ethics are the principles and standards that guide our behaviour toward
other people
Privacy is the right to be left alone when you want to be, to have
control over personal possessions, and not to be observed without your
consent
Confidentiality is the assurance that messages and info are only
available to those who are authorized to view them
INFORMATION ETHICS
Information Ethics concerns the ethical and moral issues arising
from the development and use of information technologies and systems, as
well as the creation, collection, duplication, distribution, and processing of
information itself
 Individuals form the only ethical component of MIS
o Individuals copy, use, and distribute software
o Search organizational databases for sensitive and personal
info
o Individuals create and spread viruses
o Indivs hack into computer systems and steal info
o Employees destroy and steal info
 Acting ethically and legally are not always the same
Technology Related Ethical Issues:
Intellectual Property: intangible creative work that is embodied in
physical form
Copyright: the legal protection afforded an expression of an idea,
such as a song, video game, and some types of proprietary documents
Fair Dealing: in certain situations, it is legal to use copyrighted
material
Pirated Software: the unauthorized use, duplication, distribution, or
sale of copyrighted software
Counterfeit Software: software that is manufactured to look like the
real thing and sold as such
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Primary Reasons Privacy Issues Reduce Trust for E-Business:
1.
Loss of personal privacy
2.
Internet users a “a lot” more inclined to purchase a product on a
site that has a privacy policy
3.
Effective privacy would convert more internet users to buyers
Information Ethics Issues in the Workplace
Systems That Don’t Respect Human Dignity
 Tasks are overly simplified, removing the need for employee
decision making
 Some systems interfaces require difficult navigation or overly long
wait times between transactions
 Including users in systems design ensures that worker impact is
considered
Employee Monitoring
 May be unprecedented or intrusive and violating basic privacy and
personal freedom
 Employees may not even be aware of it
 Org’s can be held financially responsible for their employees’
actions, may be liable for the risks the employees take, monitoring
is required
 Communication with employees is necessary
Effects of Employee Monitoring
 Employee Absenteeism
o Taking care of personal business, given a few hours or whole
days can make impacts on costs
 Lower Job Satisfaction
o People believe the quantity of work is more important that the
quality
 “Psychological Resistance”
o If employees are told they can’t do something, they will want
to even more than before
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Tracking People’s Activities
 Information Technology Monitoring is tracking people’s
activities buy such measures as number of keystrokes, error rate,
and number of transactions processed (cookies, adware, spyware,
clickstream, etc.)
Protecting Digital Content
In Canada a new bill is in the process of being enacted to protect
copyright and digital content. It will likely include the following:
 Legalizing format shifting
 Legalizing time shifting
 Creating back-up files
 Allowing mash up media for non-commercial use
 Enacting a system where copyright holders can inform ISPs of
piracy by their customers
The Canadian copyright legislation and protection of digital content
would also include:
 Protecting search engines and ISPs from copyright violations of
their users
 Differentiating commercial and individual penalties
 Criminalizing cracking a digital lock placed on a device, disc, or file
 Increasing fair dealing and use of material in education
o Fair Dealing: is a long-standing feature of Canadian
copyright law that permits certain uses of copyrighted
material in ways that do not threaten the interests of
copyright owners, but which could have significant social
benefits
Access Copyright: established in 2010, increased the tariff on
gaining copyright permissions for things like articles or cases for classroom
use
Information Privacy
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Concerns the legal right or general expectation of individuals,
groups, or institutions to determine from themselves when, and to
what extent, information about them is communicated to others
 Information privacy legislation varies from Europe, the United
States, and Canada
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
(PIPEDA): Canada’s primary privacy law
Types of Personal Info Covered Under PIPEDA:
 Pension and employment insurance files
 Medical records
 Tax records
 Security clearances
 Student loan applications
 Military records
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Exceptions to PIPEDA:
 Journalistic, artistic, or literary use
 Actions clearly benefit to the individual, or if obtaining permission
could infringe on the information’s accuracy
 Information, or the disclosure of, aids a legal investigation, or an
emergency where lives / safety are at stake
 Info disclosure facilitates that conservation of historically important
records
PIPEDA’s 10 Guiding Principles
Accountability: an org is responsible for personal info under its control
Identifying Purposes: the purposes for which personal info is collected
shall be identifies
Consent: the knowledge and consent of the individual are required
Limiting Collection: the collection of personal info shall be limited to
that which is necessary for the purposes identified
Limiting Use, Disclosure, and Retention: personal info shall not be
used or disclosed for purposes other than those for which it was collected
Accuracy: personal info shall be as accurate, complete, and up-to-date
as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used
Safeguards: personal info shall be protected by security safeguards
Openness: an org shall make readily avail specific info about its policies
and practices
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9. Individual Access: upon request, an individual shall be informed of the
existence, use and disclosure of their personal info and shall be given
access to said info
10. Challenging Compliance: an individual shall be able to address a
challenge concerning compliance
Developing Policies for Information Ethics and Information Privacy
E-Policies: policies and procedures that address the ethical use of
computers and Internet use in the business environment
Ethical Computer Use Policy: contains general principles to guide
computer user behaviour
 The ethical computer use policy ensures all users are informed of
the rules and, by agreeing to use the system on that basis,
consent to abide by the rules
CIO Magazine’s Six Principals for Ethical Info Management
1. Info is a valuable corporate asset and should be managed as such, like
cash, facilities, or any other corporate asset
2. The CIO is steward of corporate info and is responsible for managing it
over its lifecycle – from its generation to its appropriate destruction
3. The CIO is responsible for controlling access to and use of info, as
determined by governmental regulation and corporate policy
4. The CIO is responsible for preventing the inappropriate destruction of info
5. The CIO is responsible for bringing technological knowledge to the
development of information management practices and policies
6. The CIO should partner with executive peers to develop and execute the
organization’s info management policies
Information Privacy Policy contains general principles regarding info
privacy. A few guidelines for org’s creating an info privacy policy:
 Adoption and Implementation of a Privacy Policy
 Notice and Disclosure
 Choice and Consent
 Information Security
 Information Quality and Access (figure 9.9)
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Acceptable Use Policy (AUP): a policy that a user must agree to
follow in order to be provided access to a network of to the internet
Non-Repudiation Clause: a contractual stipulation to ensure that
e-business participants do not deny (repudiate) their online actions
AUP Stipulations:
 Not using the technologies in violating any law
 Not attempting to break the security of any computer network or
user
 Not posting commercial messages to groups without prior
permission
 Not performing any non-repudiation
 Not attempting to send junk email or spam to anyone who doesn’t
want to receive it
Email Privacy Policy details the extent to which email messages may
be read by others (FIGURE 9.11)
Email Privacy Policy Stipulations:
 Is complementary to the ethical computer use policy
 Defines who legitimate email users are
 Explains the backup procedure so users will know that at some
point, even if a message is deleted from their computer, it will still
be on the backup tapes
 Describes the legitimate grounds for reading someone’s email and
the process req’d before such action can be taken
 Informs that the org has no control of email once it is transmitted
outside the org
 Explains what will happen if the user severs their connection with
the org
 Asks employees to be careful when making org’l files and docs
available to other
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Internet Use Policy contains general principles to guide the proper
use of the internet
Anti-Spam Policy simply stats that users will not receive unsolicited
emails (spam)
Spam Prevention Tips:
 Disguise email addresses poster in a public electronic place
 Opt out of member directories that may place your email online
 Use a filter
Employee Monitoring Policies
1. Be as specific as possible
2. Always enforce the policy
3. Enforce the policy in the same way for everyone
4. Expressly communicate that the company reserves the right to monitor
all employee
5. Specifically state when monitoring will be performed
6. Specifically state what will be monitored (email, IM, etc.)
7. Describe the types of info that will be collected
8. State the consequences for violating the policy
9. State all provisions that allow for updates to the policy
10. Specify the scope and manner of monitoring for any information
system
11. When appropriate, obtain a written receipt acknowledging that each
party has, received, read, and understood the monitoring policies
INFORMATION SECURITY
Downtime can be unplanned and affect finances in many ways. Unplanned
downtime can come in the form of an earthquake, fraud, a flood, shredded
data, sabotage, theft, etc.
Downtime can impact:
 Financial Performance: cash flow, stock price, credit rating, etc.
 Revenue: direct loss, future revenues, lost productivity, etc.
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Damaged Reputation: customers, suppliers, banks, etc.
Other: temp employees, overtime costs, legal obligations, etc.
Protecting Enterprise Information
Information Security: the protection of info from accidental or
intentional misuse by persons inside or outside an org
Info must be protected to maintain a company’s competitive
advantage as well as customer privacy
The First Line of Defence – People
Insiders: the greatest threat to a business IS, legitimate users who
purposely or accidentally misuse their access to the environment and cause
some kind of business-affecting incident
Social Engineering: using social skills to trick others into revealing
access credentials or other valuable information, dumpster diving is a lower
form of social engineering
Information Security Policies: identify the rules req’d to maintain
info security
Information Security Plan: how an org will implement the info
security policies
Things an Info Security Plan Should Do:
 Identify and assess risks to customer info
 Identify security plan roles and assign responsibilities
 Provide ways to identify and assess risk
 Develop written policies and procedures to manage and control
identified risks
 Identify mechanisms to implement and assess the plan
Areas That Should be Addressed by an Info Security Plan:
 Employee mgmt and training
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1.
2.
3.
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Physical security of the data and info
Safeguards
Service providers
Creating an Information Security Plan
Develop the Info Security Policies: could be as simple as ensuring
logging out, or frequent password changes
Communicate the Info Security Policies: train all employees and
establish clear expectations
Identify Critical Info Assets and Risks: require the use of user IDs,
passwords, and anti-virus software.
a. Firewall: hardware or software that guards a private network by
analyzing the info leaving and entering the network
b. Intrusion Detection Software (IDS): searches out patterns in
info and network traffic to indicate attacks and quickly responds to
prevent any harm
Test and Revaluate Risks: continually perform security reviews, audits,
background checks, and security assessments
Obtain Stakeholder Support: gain the approval and support of the info
security policies from the board of directors and all stakeholders
The Second Line of Defence – Technology
There are three primary information technology security areas
1. Authentication and authorization
 Authentication: is a method for confirming users’ identities
 Authorization: is the process of giving someone permission to do
or have something
The most secure type of authentication involves:
Something the User Knows, Such as a User ID and Password
 Identity Theft: is the forging of someone’s identity for the purpose
of fraud
 Phishing: is a technique to gain personal information for the
purpose of identity theft, usually by fraudulent email
Something the User Has, Such as a Smart Card or Token
 Tokens: are small electronic devices that change user passwords
automatically
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Smart Card: a device that is around the same size as a credit card,
containing embedded technologies that can store information and
small amounts of software to perform some limited processing
Something That is Part of the User, Such as a Fingerprint or Voice
Signature:
 Biometrics: the identification of a user based on a physical
characteristic, such as a fingerprint, iris, face, voice, or handwriting
2. Prevention and resistance
Technologies available to help prevent & build resistance to attacks include:
 Content Filtering: prevents emails containing sensitive
information from transmitting and stops spam and viruses from
spreading
 Encryption: is a method of transforming a message into an
alternative form that requires a key or password to make it
readable
 Public Key Encryption (PKE): is a method where the key to
scramble the message is known to everyone but the key to
unscramble it is held by the recipient only
 Firewall: hardware and / or software that guards a private network
by analyzing the information leaving and entering the network
3. Detection and response
Antivirus software is the most common type of detection and response
technology.
If prevention and resistance strategies fail and there is a security
breach, an org can use detection and response technologies to mitigate the
damage
 Hackers: experts in technology who use their knowledge to break
into computers and computer networks, either for profit or just
motivated by the challenge
o Black-hat Hacker: work at the request of the system owners
to find system vulnerabilities and plug the holes
o White-hate Hacker: break into other people’s computers,
might just look around, or steal / destroy info
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o Hactivists: have philosophical and political reasons for
breaking into systems and will often deface the web in protest
o Script Bunnies: find hacking code in the internet and clickand-point their way onto systems to cause damage or viruses
o Crackers: hackers with criminal intent
o Cyberterrorists: seek to cause harm to people or to destroy
critical systems or information and use the internet as a
weapon of mass destruction
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
Virus: malicious software that spreads from computer to computer
by a user activating the file in which it resides
o Worms: a type of malicious software that spreads across
networks and does not need a user to activate it
o Backdoor Programs
o Denial-of-Service (DoS)
o Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS)
o Polymorphic Virus
o Trojan-horse Virus
Security Threats to E-Business
o Elevation of Privilege
o Hoaxes
o Malicious Code
o Packet Tampering
o Sniffer
o Spoofing
o Splogs
o Spyware
o
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Systems Development &
Project Management
09/11/2014
SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT
Developing Information Systems:
 Information systems that are built correctly can transform as the
organization and its business transform
 Information systems that effectively meet employee needs will help
an organization become more productive and enhance decision
making
 Information systems that do not meet employee needs may have a
damaging effect on productivity and can cause a business to fail
As org’s reliance on IS grows, so do the business-related
consequences of IS development successes and failures including:
 An increase or decrease in revenue
 Repairs or damage to brand reputation
 Prevention or incurring of liabilities
 Increase of decrease productivity
Global IS Development
 Global IS must support a variety of customers, users, products,
languages, laws, currencies, and so on
 An efficient, effective and responsive IS to support global
e-commerce must promote the involvement and ownership of all
local system users
 Global standardization of data definition allows for sharing data
among international businesses
Strategies:
1. Transform and customize home office system into a global
application to support all end-users
2. Set up multinational development teams to represent local sites as
well as corporate headquarters
3. Use centres of excellence where development is sent to the
subsidiary with the expertise
4. Outsource development offshore to take advantage of experience in
building global IS
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The Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
 The overall process for developing IS from planning and analysis
through implementation and maintenance
Seven Distinct Phases of SDLC (IMPORTANT)
1. Planning Phase: establishes a high-level plan of the intended
project and determines project goals
2. Analysis Phase: involves analyzing end-user business
requirements and refining project goals into defined functions and
operations of the intended system
o Business Requirement: specific business requests the
system must meet to be successful
3. Design Phase: establishes descriptions of the desired features and
operations of the system including screen layouts, business rules,
process diagrams, pseudo code, and other documentation
4. Development Phase: involves taking all of the detailed design
documents from the design phase and transforming them into the
actual system
5. Testing Phase: involves bringing all the project pieces together
into a special testing environment to eliminate errors and bugs, and
verify that the system meets all of the business requirements
defined in the analysis phase
6. Implementation Phase: involves placing the system into
production so users can begin to perform actual business operations
with it
7. Maintenance Phase: involves performing changes, corrections,
additions, and upgrades to ensure the system continues to meet its
business goals
System Development Methodologies
Methodology: a set of policies, procedures, standards, processes, practices,
tools, techniques, and tasks that people apply to technical and management
challenges
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Systems Development Methodologies Include:
1. Waterfall Methodology: a sequential, activity-based process in which
each phase in the SDLC is performed sequentially from planning through
implantation and maintenance
Shortfalls:
 The Business Problem: any flaws in defining what is needed to
complete one phase and move onto the next phase
 The Plan: the effects of unexpected contingencies, schedule
delays, managing costs, resources, and time constraints
 The Solution: assumes that users can specify all requirements in
advance, vision is limited at the beginning
2. Agile Software Development Methodologies
Agile Methodology: aims for customer satisfaction with early and
continuous delivery of useful system or software components meeting bare
minimum requirements
Iterative Development: consists of a series of fast, efficient, short,
lower cost projects that achieve rapid feedback and acceptance. It’s speed,
size, and focus account for end user satisfaction (figure 10.5)
Primary Forms of Agile Methodologies:
 Rapid Application Development Methodology (RAD):
emphasizes extensive user involvement in the rapid and
evolutionary construction of working prototypes
o Prototype: a smaller-scale representation or working model
of the users’ requirement, or, a proposed design
 Extreme Programming (XP) Methodology: software project is
broken down into small phases
o 4 parts: planning, designing, coding, testing, which advance
rapidly one after another
o Users are embedded in the process narrowing the
communications gap between developer and user
o Method responds to changing customer requirements as the
system is developed
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Rational Unified Process (RUP) Methodology: provides a
framework for breaking down the development of software into four
gates:
o Gate One: Inception
o Gate Two: Elaboration
o Gate Three: Construction
o Gate Four: Transition
 Scrum Methodology: uses small teams to produce small pieces of
deliverable software using sprints, or 30-day intervals, to achieve
an appointed goal. Under this methodology, each day ends or
begins with a stand-up meeting to monitor and control the
development effort
Agile Alliance Manifesto values:
 Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
 Working software over comprehensive documentation
 Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
 Responding to change over following a plan
3. Participatory Design Methodology: views the users, not the
developers as experts:
 Create opportunities for mutual learning
 Utilize design tools familiar to users
 Use language familiar to users
 Start the design with current practice
 Encourage users to envision future situations of working with the
final system
Self-Sourcing: the systems are developed by those who use them
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Developing Successful Systems
Five Primary Principles For Successful Agile Software Development
Include:
 Slash the Budget
 If It Doesn’t Work, Kill It
 Keep Requirements to a Minimum
o Scope Creep: occurs when the project scope increases
o Feature Creep: occurs when developers add more features
than were initially required
 Test and Deliver Frequently
 Assign Non-IT Executive to Software Projects
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Consequences of failed projects include:
 Damaged brand
 Lost goodwill
 Dissolution of partnerships
 Lost investment opportunities
 Low morale
Three Primary Project Variables:
 Time
 Cost
 Scope
These three variables are all interdependent; all projects are limited in
some way by these three constraints.
Project Management Terms
 Project: temporary activities undertaken to create a unique
product or service
 Project Management: the application of knowledge, skills, tools,
and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements
 Project Manager: an individual who is an expert in project
planning and management, defines and develops the project plan,
and tracks the plan to ensure the project is completed on time and
on budget
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Project Deliverable: any measurable, tangible, verifiable
outcome, result, or item that is produced to complete a project or
part of a project
Project Milestone: represents key dates when a certain group of
activities must be performed
Project Management Institute (PMI): the org that supports the
profession of project management
Project Management Office (PMO): an internal department that
oversees all organizational projects
Four Primary Activities of Project Management
1. Choosing Strategic Projects: org’s choose among possible projects
that should be undertaken
 Project Stakeholders: are individuals and orgs actively involved
in the project or whose interests might be affected as a result of
project execution or project completion
 Executive Sponsor: the person or group that provides the
financial resources for the project
Techniques for Choosing Strategic Projects:
 Focus on Organizational Goals
 Categorize Projects (such as the following 3)
o Problems  undesirable situations
o Opportunities  chances to improve
o Directives  new requirements imposed by management
 Perform a Financial Analysis (net present value, ROI, payback)
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2. Understanding Project Planning: 2 key components, charters & plans
 Project Charter: a document issued by the project initiator or
sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project and
typically includes:
o Project Scope: defines the work to be done (Use SMART)
o Project Objectives: the quantifiable criteria to be met
o Project Constraints: the factors that limit project options
o Project Assumptions: factors believed to be true that
impact the project (hours of the week, time of year)
 Project Plan: a formal, approved document that manages and
controls project execution. A well defined plan should have:
o Description of project scope
o A list of activities
o A schedule
o Time and cost estimates
o Risk factors
o Assignments & responsibility
o Kill Switch: a trigger that enables mgmt to close the project
prior to completion
Characteristics include:
o Easy to understand & read
o Communicated to all key participants (key stakeholders)
o Appropriate to the project’s size, complexity, and criticality
o Prepared by the team, rather than by an individual PM
Two diagrams that provide visual support to a project:
 Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) Chart: is a
graphical network model that depicts a project’s tasks / milestones
and the relationships between them, the dependencies (fig 10.15)
 Gantt Chart: is a simple bar chart that depicts project tasks
against a calendar (fig 10.16)
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3. Managing Projects: managing a project includes:
 Identifying requirements
 Establishing clear and achievable objectives
 Balancing the competing demands of quality, scope, time, and cost
 Adapting the specifications, plans, and approach to the different
concerns and expectations of the various stakeholders
A PM must focus on managing 3 primary areas to ensure success:
 People
 Communications
o Receiving Feedback
 Change
o Change Management (Organizational Change
Management): is a set of techniques that aid in evolution,
composition, and policy management of the design and
implementation of a system
o Change Management System: includes a collection of
procedures to document a change request, and define steps
to consider the change based on the anticipated outcome
o Change Control Board (CCB): responsible for approving or
rejecting all change requests
 John Kotter’s 8 Steps for Leading Change
i. Establish a sense of urgency
ii. Create the guiding coalition
iii. Develop the change vision and strategy
iv. Communicate the change vision for buy-in
v. Empower for broad-based action
vi. Generate short-term wins
vii. Never let up
viii. Incorporate changes into the culture
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Measuring Project Value:
Difficult to measure all the benefits as well as all the costs to
determine ROI
 Not everything is quantifiable (morale)
 Not every cost or benefit is visible
 How to measure problems that were prevented
Designing metrics requires expertise
 How to define success?
 How to apply quantitative measures to business process and
qualitative deliverables?
 What info reflects progress or lack of?
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4. Outsourcing Projects: two basic options
 Insourcing (in-house-development): a common approach
within an org to develop and maintain the org’s info tech systems
 Outsourcing: is an arrangement by which one org provides a
service for another that chooses not to perform them in-house
Outsourcing Options:
 Onshore Outsourcing: engaging another company within the
same country for services
 Nearshore Outsourcing: contracting an outsourcing arrangement
with a company in a nearby country
 Offshore Outsourcing: using orgs from developing countries to
write code and develop systems
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Benefits to Outsourcing IS Development:
 Core Competencies: allows a company to maintain an up-to-date
infrastructure and invest in what it does best
 Financial Savings: often cheaper to hire labour offshore
 Acquire Best Practices: instead of keeping up with technology,
buy the benefits from a company that has
 Industry Changes: keep managers busy with their own
businesses and outsource to better focus on their own issues
 Globalization and the Internet: make off shore outsourcing easy
and comfortable, deliver international services
Challenges to Outsourcing:
 Contract Length
o Difficulties in getting out of a contract
o Problems in foreseeing future needs
o Problems in reforming an internal IS department after the
contract is finished
 Competitive Edge
 Confidentiality
 Scope Definition
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Enterprise Architectures
09/11/2014
Enterprise Architecture
Enterprise Architecture (EA): includes the plans for how an org will
build, deploy, use, and share its data, processes, and IT assets
Enterprise Architect: a person grounded in technology, fluent in
business, a patient diplomat, and provides the important bridge between IT
& business
Goals of Enterprise Architecture
 Reduce Cost / Improve Productivity
 Improve Customer Satisfaction
 Create Competitive Advantages
 Generate Growth
 Generate New Revenue Streams
 Optimize the Supply Chain
Global Enterprise Architectures
 The interent creates a borderless global enviro with opportunity for
low cost communication / exchange
 Managing a global EA includes technology issues, and political and
cultural considerations
 More than 2 dozen countries still attempt to restrict internet access
 Estimating operational expenses with international IT operations is
a global challenge. Deciding on in-sourcing or out-sourcing
Top International Telecommunications Issues
Network
 Improving the operational efficiency of networks
 Dealing with different networks
 Controlling data and communication security
Regulatory Issues
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


Dealing with transborder data flow restrictions
Managing international telecommunication regulations
Handling international politics
Continued on next page.
Technology and Country-Oriented Issues
 Managing network infrastructure across countries
 Managing international integration of technologies
 Reconciling national differences
 Dealing with international tariff structures
Building Blocks of EA
Information Architecture: identifies where and how important data,
like customer records, are maintained and secured
 Backup and Recovery

Backup: an exact copy of a system’s info
Recovery: the ability to get a system up and running in the even of
a system crash or failure, including restoring info backup
Fault Tolerance: a computer system designed that in the event a
component fails, a backup component or procedure can
immediately take its place with no loss of service
Failover: a backup operational mode in which the functions of a
computer component is assumed by another when the first
becomes available
Disaster Recovery best practices include:
o Mind the enterprise architectures
o Monitor the quality of computer networks that provide data on
power suppliers and demand
o Make sure the networks can be restored quickly in the case of
downtime
o Set up disaster recovery plans
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o Provide adequate staff training, including verbal
communication protocols so that operators are aware of any
IT-related problems
Disaster Recovery Plan: a detailed process for recovering info or
an IT system in case of a disaster (fire, flood, etc.)
Disaster Recovery Cost Curve: charts the cost of the
unavailability of information and technology, and, the cost of
recovering from a disaster over time
Hot Site: a separate, fully equipped facility that the company
moves into after a disaster
Cold Site: a separate, facility lacking computer equip where
employees can move after a disaster
Business Continuity Planning: indicates how an org will restore
interrupted critical functions within a pre-determined time
o Key incident-responding elements; the response itself,
communications mgmt, and operations mgmt.
o Then, critical services must be continued, followed by
restoration and recover of normal business operations
 Info Security
Managing User Access: preventing unauthorized access to the IS
and it’s data, weakest link in securing an IS
Anti-Virus Software and Patches: applications that prevent
hackers, spammers and other malcontents from entering the
network, constantly updated and changed
Infrastructure Architecture (fig 11.6)
 Flexibility: watching business trends and adapting
 Scalability: how well a system can adapt to increased demands
o Capacity Planning: determines future IT requirements for
new equip and additional network capacity
 Reliability: ensures all systems are functioning correctly and
providing accurate info
 Availability: addresses when a system can be used
o High Availability: a system that is continuously operational
for a long period of time
o Measured on scale of 100 percent operational (5 9’s, 99.999)
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
Performance: measures how quickly a system performs a certain
process or transaction (in terms of efficiency IT metrics, both speed
and throughput)
Application Architecture: determines how applications integrate and
relate to each other
 Web Services: contain web-based data and procedures that use
the same standards permitting different applications to relate to
each other
o Interoperability: two or more systems share data and
resources, even though they are made by diff manufacturers

Two Types of Web Services
o Event: the type of application that monitors a business
process for threats and opportunities and alerts those who
can act on the info
o Service: a software component that, no only provides code
to be used by developers to create specific functionality in a
larger program being developed, but also can be used by
other applications to perform a task across a wide range of
clients
Open Systems: a broad, general term that describes nonproprietary IT hardware and software made available by the
standards and procedures by which their products work, making it
easier to integrate them
o Open Source: refers to any program whose source code is
made available for use or modification
ARCHITECTURE TRENDS
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA): is an approach to IT architecture
which creates connections among a variety of applications and info sources
so that the system can adapt quickly and easily (fig 11.8)
SOA Business Benefits (fig 11.9)
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SOA Service: is not merely a piece of software but a business task that is
part of a business process. IT can be coupled and uncoupled with others as
needed providing flexibility and agility
Interoperability: a key characteristics of SOA, allowing component
software to be used across platforms and applications
 Extensible Markup Language (XML): for documents containing
structured info
Loose Coupling: applications are built from a number of services that are
distinct well-defined units that can be disconnected and replaced or reused
elsewhere as needed. New applications may be assembled rather than coded
from scratch
SOA Solutions Figure 11.10
Virtualization
 A framework of dividing the resources of a computer into multiple
execution environments
 Creates multiple “virtual machines” on a single computer
 Optimizes the use of computer processing and storage
 Can be performed on data-centre resources and peripherals such as
printers
System Virtualization: sometimes referred to as server or desktop
virtualization, is the ability to present the resources of a single computer as
if it is a collection of separate computers
Benefits of Virtualized Computing
 With an exponential increase in capacity for every generation of
processor improvement, there is capacity in most hardware to run
multiple operating systems.
 Data Centres are running out of space. Collaborative projects,
collection of transaction data, downloads from the Internet escalate
the problem. By hosting multiple guests on single systems, the
space utilization drops significantly.
 Benefits to sustainability arise as a single computer is supporting
multiple users and consuming the energy for one computer instead
of many.
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GRID Computing
 A collection of computers, often geographically dispersed that are
coordinated to solve a common problem (fig 11.13, 11.14)
Cloud Computing
 Refers to the use of resources and applications hosted remotely on
the internet
Advantages:
 Convenient access to application programs and data
 Cost saving for data storage and software and client computers
 “pay as you go” rather than large capital expenditures
Disadvantages:
 No control over applications, lack of customization
 Must trust a 3rd party with confidential information
 Possible data access issues
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Networks, Telecommunications,
and Mobile Technology
09/11/2014
NETWORKS & TELECOMMUNICATIONS
Network Basics
Telecommunication System: enables the transmission of data over
public or private networks
Network: a system created by linking two or more computers and
establishing standards, or protocols, so that they can work together
The three types of networks include:
 Local Area Network (LAN)
o Used in an office, school, or home, connects printers, etc.
 Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
o Covers a state, province, or country
 Wide Area Network (WAN)
o Usually connects multiple LANs
Data Sharing Through Networks
 The key advantage of providing data communication links between
a company and its suppliers or customers is the sharing of data
 Data communication links enable data sharing allowing companies
to be competitive
 Topics in this area include:
Voice Over IP (VoIP): uses TCP/IP technology to transmit voice calls
over long-distance telephone lines
VoIP Business Advantages:
 Windows Installer / MSI package to make it easy to rollout the
application to multiple machines
 Skype for Business Control Panel allowing a business to manage all
of its Skype accounts from a central interface (Skype has long been
a popular choice for business)
 Call forwarding and the ability to filter and block unwanted calls
 Conference calling for up to 10 people
 File transfer feature allowing the sharing of reports, pics, or files
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Networking Businesses
 Virtual Private Network (VPN): a way to use the public
telecommunication infrastructure (ex. Internet) to provide secure
access to an org’s network (fig 12.3)
 Value-Added Network (VAN): a private network, provided by a
third party, for exchanging info through a high capacity, secure
connection
Increasing the Speed of Business
 Bandwidth: the difference between the highest and lowest
frequencies that can be transmitted on a single medium
 Broadband: refers to high-speed internet connections transmitting
data at speeds greater than 200Kbps
Securing Business Networks
MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
Mobile & Wireless are often used synonymously, but actually denote
two different technologies.
Mobile Technology: means the technology can travel with the user,
but it is not necessarily in real-time
Wireless Technology: gives users a live (internet) connection via
satellite or radio transmitters. The signal is carried on radio waves,
microwaves & satellites. Refers to any type of electrical or electronic
operation that is accomplished without the use of a “hard wired” connection
Drivers of Wireless Growth
 Universal Access to Data and Applications
 The Automation of Business Processes
 User Convenience, Timeliness, and Ability to Conduct
Business 24/7/365
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Mobile Strategy
Mobile Applications Can:
 Help track materials and shipments from suppliers and distributors
to customers
 Manage inventory
 Support point of sale
 Collect data in an automated fashion
 Immediate data analysis
Factors to Consider When Deploying Mobile Strategies fig. 12.9
 Defining Risks
 Knowing the Limits of Technology
 Protecting Data from the Loss
 Compliance in the Mobile Enterprise
 Staying Flexible and Embracing Change
Cellular Technologies
 Today 3G cellular networks are designed for high-speed
transmission of multi-media data and voice
 4G networks are set up to integrate radio and television
transmission and to consolidate the world’s phone standards into
one high-speed technology
 Convergence of voice, video, and data allow users to make calls,
surf the Web, use touch controls, access music, audiobooks, videos,
TV shows and movies
Types of Cellular Technologies:
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs): small, handheld computers
capable of entirely digital communications transmission
Smartphone: combines the functions of a cell phone and a PDA in a
single device
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Tablets: a mobile computer that is larger than a mobile phone, with
an integrated flat touch screen. Recent improvements in memory and
functionality have seen tablet sales sky-rocket
Bluetooth: is a telecommunications industry specification that
describes how mobile phones, computers, and PDAs can be easily
interconnected using a short-range wireless connection
Cellular Technology Overview
Base Station transmits radio waves to Cells
Cells transmit to users
Each cell has a base station that consists of a tower and a small building
containing radio equipment
Each cell is typically sized at about 26 square kilometres
Using Satellite Technologies in Business
Satellite: a space station that orbits the Earth receiving and transmitting
signals from Earth0based stations over a wide area
Microwave Transmitter: uses the atmosphere as the transmission medium
to send the signal to a microwave receiver. The microwave receiver then
either relays the signal to another microwave transmitter or translates the
signal to some other form, such as digital impulses
Satellite Technologies
Location Based Services (LBS): wireless mobile content services that
provide location-specific data to mobile users moving from location to
location
 Mass Market
o Emergency, navigation, and tracking services, location
advertising, and gaming
 Professional Market
o Workforce organization, and security
Global Position Systems (GPS): a constellation of 24 well-spaced
satellites that orbit the Earth and make it possible for people with ground
receivers to pinpoint their geographical location (fig 12.15)
Geographic Information System (GIS): is designed to work with data
that can be shown on a map
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
Consists of hardware, software, and data that provide location info
for display on a multidimensional map
Using Wireless Technologies in Business
Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi): a means by which portable devices can connect
wirelessly to a LAN, using access points that send and receive data via radio
waves
Wireless LAN (WLAN): a local area network that uses radio signals to
transmit and receive data over distances of a few hundred feet
Wireless MAN (WMAN): a metropolitan area network that uses radio
signals to transmit and receive data
Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX): a
communications technology aimed at providing high-speed wireless data
over metropolitan area networks (fig 12.17, 12.18)
 Benefits: long range, low cost, wireless, high bandwidth, service
RFID Tags: radio frequency identification
The High Arctic Data Communication Systems (HADCS) of
Ellesmere Island: "The HADCS is a secure data communication system
between CFS Alert and Ottawa. The system is, in part, composed of a chain
of six, line-of-sight microwave repeaters between CFS Alert to Eureka with a
satellite link between Eureka and Ottawa." -Canadian Forces
Mobile Trends
 Social Networking Gets Mobilized
 Mobile TV
 Multi-Function Devices Become Cheaper & More Versatile
 Location-Based Services
 Mobile Advertising
 Wireless Providers Move into Home Entertainment
 Wireless Security Moves to the Forefront
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
Enterprise Mobility
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09/11/2014
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09/11/2014
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