Definition of an Enterprise System
• An enterprise system is an interrelated set of
information systems (technologies) working together
for the purpose of facilitating planning, control,
coordination, and decision making in businesses and
other organisations to aid in achieving the vision and
mission of the organisation
Environment
Organisation
Input
Processing
Feedback
Output
Enterprise Systems:
Decision Support Systems
Basic I.S. Activities
•
Basic activities:
– Input: capturing or collecting raw data from inside or outside the
organisation
– Processing: converting the raw data into a more appropriate or useful
form
– Output: transferring the processed data to the people or business
activities that need it
– Feedback: output used to refine input
•
Basic Components
– Organisations: consist of specialised units with a clear-cut division of
labour, e.g. sales, manufacturing, personnel, finance
– People: use information from I.S. in their jobs
– Technology: the means by which data are transformed and organised
for business use
• Hardware, Software, Storage technology, Communications
technology
The Organisation
Organisational
Problem
Organisational
Level
Strategic
Senior Management
General or Middle
Management
Tactical
Knowledge or Data
Workers
Knowledge
Operations
Production Workers
P ro duct io n
Fin an ce/
Sales/
Hum an
acco un t in g
m ark et in g
Reso urces
Strategic Management –
Defined
Art & science of formulating,
implementing, and evaluating,
cross-functional decisions that
enable an organization to achieve
its objectives
Strategy Formulation
Vision & Mission
External Opportunities & Threats
Internal Strengths & Weaknesses
Long-Term Objectives
Alternative Strategies
Strategy Selection
Strategy Implementation
Annual Objectives
Policies
Employee Motivation
Resource Allocation
Strategy
Implementation
Action Stage of Strategic
Management –
Most difficult stage
Mobilization of
employees & managers
Interpersonal skills
critical
Consensus on goal
pursuit
Strategy Evaluation
Internal Review
External Review
Performance Metrics
Corrective Actions
Strategy
Evaluation
Final Stage of Strategic
Management
Subject to future
modification
Today’s success no
guarantee of future success
New & different problems
Complacency leads to
demise
Strategic Management
• Integrating Intuition and analysis
– objective, logical, systematic approach for making
major decisions in a way that allows effective
decisions to be made under conditions of uncertainty.
• Adapting to change
– organizations should continually monitor internal and
external events and trends so that timely changes can
be made as needed.
– The rate and magnitude of changes that affect
organizations are increasing dramatically.
Strategy Formulation
Vision & Mission
External Opportunities & Threats
Internal Strengths & Weaknesses
Long-Term Objectives
Alternative Strategies
Strategy Selection
Key Terms
Vision Statement –
What do we want to become?
Mission Statement –
What is our business?: Mission
statements are “enduring statements of
purpose that distinguish one business
from other similar firms. A mission
statement identifies the scope of a firm’s
operations in product and market terms.”
It addresses the basic question that
faces all strategists: “What is our
business?” It should include the values
and priorities of an organization.
Mission state examples
• Microsoft vision: A personal computer in
every home running Microsoft software.
• Microsoft is to create software that
empowers and enriches people in the
workplace at school and at home.
Key Terms
Opportunities and Threats (External)
Largely beyond the control of a single
organization
Process of conducting industrial analysis:
research, gathering and assimilating external
information
Key Terms
Opportunities & Threats (External)
Analysis of Trends:
•
Economic
•
Social
•
Cultural
•
Demographic/Environmental
•
Political, Legal, Governmental
•
Technological
•
Competitors
Take advantage of
External Opportunities
Avoid/minimize impact of
External Threats
Key Terms
Strengths & Weaknesses (Internal)
An organisations controllable activities that
are performed especially well or poorly
Key Terms
Strengths & Weaknesses (Internal)
Analysis of performance in in functional areas such as:
•
Management
•
Marketing
•
Finance/Accounting
•
Production/Operations
•
Research & Development
•
Computer Information Systems
Long-term Objectives:
Objectives or specific results that an
organization seeks to achieve in pursuing its
basic mission.
Essential for ensuring the firm’s success
•
•
Provide direction
•
Aid in evaluation
•
Create synergy
•
Focus coordination
•
Basis for planning, motivating, and
controlling
The objectives should be at least measurable,
consistent clear and reasonable.
Key Terms
Strategies:Means by which long-term objectives are
achieved
Some Examples
1. Geographic expansion
2. Diversification
3. Acquisition
4. Market penetration
Annual Objectives:Short-term milestones that firms must
achieve to attain long-term objectives
Policies:Means by which annual objectives will be
achieved
Some benefits of SM
• Its benefits can be financial and non
financial :
– enhanced awareness of external threats,
– an improved understanding of competitors’
strengths,
– increased employee productivity,
– reduced resistance to change,
– and a clearer understanding of performancereward relationships.
Impact upon enterprise structure
• Scott Morton’s 5 levels of organisational
restructuring
Impact upon enterprise structure
• evolutionary levels:
• localised exploitation within individual
business functions. The primary objectives
addressed are local efficiency and
effectiveness;
• internal integration between different systems
and applications, generally involving not just
automation, but also rationalisation, and
using a common IT platform. Efficiency and
effectiveness are enhanced by coordination
and cooperation within the enterprise;
•
Impact upon enterprise structure
• revolutionary levels:
• business process redesign, involving more thorough
re-evaluation of the enterprise value-chain and the
production process, and more far-reaching change.
• business network redesign, the reconfiguration of the
scope and tasks of the business network involved in
the creation and delivery of products and services.
Coordination and cooperation extend, selectively,
beyond the enterprise's boundaries.
• business scope redefinition, involving migration of
functions across the enterprise's boundaries, to the
extent of changing the organisation's conception of
the business it is in.
Questions on the class
• Discuss which stage(s) of the strategic
formulation process are the most suitable
to the utilisation of Enterprise information
systems.
• Discuss how you, as head of the school of
computing would derive strategies for
increasing the popularity of DT211 “degree
in computing”; this can not include altering
module syllabi…