HOW BUSINESSES USE
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
(PART 2)
By: Zeeshan A. Bhatti
Enterprise Applications
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How can different Functional systems manage the information in these
different systems???
Enterprise applications help businesses become more flexible and
productive by coordinating their business processes for efficient mgmt of
resources
Types of Enterprise Application:
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Enterprise Resource Planning Systems
Supply Chain Management Systems
Customer Relationship Management Systems
Knowledge Management Systems
Intranet & Extranet
Collaboration Systems
Enterprise Applications
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
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Collects data from various key business processes in
manufacturing & production, finance & accounting, sales
and marketing, & HR
Stores data in a single central repository
Information that is previously fragmented in different
systems can be easily shared across the firm to help
diff. parts of business work closely
WEBLINK EXAMPLE: OPEN ERP SCREENSHOTS
Ex: ERP System (e.g., SAP)
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A customer places an order, the data flows
automatically to other parts of the company
Order transaction triggers the warehouse to pick ordered
products and schedule shipment
 Warehouse informs the factory
 Accounting dept. is notified to send customer an invoice
 Customer Service representatives track progress of order
to inform customers about status
 RESULT: IMPROVED EFFICIENCY and LOWER COSTS
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Ex. Oracle ERP, SAP etc.
Supply Chain Mgmt System (SCM)
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Help businesses manage relationships with suppliers
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Purchasing from distributors, logistics companies share info.
Orders, production, inventory levels, and delivery or
products & services
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Objective: Right amount of products from their source to
their point of consumption with least amount of time and
lowest cost
They are a type of Inter-organizational Systems –
across organizational boundaries
Ex: Supply Chain Mgmt Systems
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Haworth’s Transportation Mgmt System (TMS)
 Examines
customer orders, factory schedules, carrier
rates and availability, and shipping costs to produce
optimal lowest-cost delivery plans
 Plans
are generated every 15 min
Customer Relationship Mgmt Systems
(CRM)
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Help manage their relationships with their
customers
 E.g.,
Sales, Marketing, and Service
 E.g.,
Mobilink/Ufone CRMs, Banks CRM etc.
 Consolidates
customer data from multiple channels –
Telephone, Email, Wireless devices, retail outlets, Social
Media etc.
 E.g.,
Pizza Hut CRM, Mobile Operators CRM
Knowledge Management Systems
(KMS)
 Values
of a firm also depends on intangible assets
 Support
processes for acquiring, creating, storing,
distributing, applying, integrating knowledge
 How
to create, produce, distribute products and
services
 Collect
internal knowledge and experience within
firm and make it available to employees
 Link
to external sources of knowledge
Intranets & Extranets
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Alternative tools that increase integration and
expedite the flow of information
 Intranets:
 Internal company
employees
Web sites accessible only by
 Extranets:
 Company Web sites accessible externally only
vendors and suppliers
 Often used to
coordinate supply chain
to
E Business, E Commerce & E Govt.
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E-business
 Use
of digital technology and Internet to drive major
business processes
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E-commerce
 Subset
of e-business
 Buying and selling goods and services through Internet
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E-Government:
 Using
Internet technology to deliver information and
services to citizens, employees, and businesses and
other govt. agencies
Collaboration & Communication
Systems
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Collaboration:
 Working
with others to achieve shared goals
 Short-lived or long-term
 Informal or formal (teams)
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Growing importance of collaboration:
 Changing
nature of work
 Growth of professional work – “interaction jobs”
 Changing organization of the firm – hierarchy
 Changing scope of the firm – multiple locations
 Emphasis on innovation – Strength of week ties
 Changing
culture of work
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Business benefits of collaboration and teamwork
 Investments in
collaboration technology can produce
organizational improvements returning high ROI
 Benefits:
 Productivity
 Quality
 Innovation
 Customer
service
 Financial performance
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Profitability, sales, sales growth
Tools for Collaboration
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Internet-Based Collaboration Environments
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Geographical teams collaboration
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E-Mail and Instant Messaging (IM)
Cell Phones and Smart Phones
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E.g., Facebook and Internal SNS
Wikis
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E.g., IPhone, Android, BB etc
Social Networking Services (SNS)
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E.G., Internet Conferencing, WebEx
Wikipedia, Internal Wikis
Blogs
Collaboration Systems
Establishing Information Systems
Department
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Programmers
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System Analysts
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Translate business problems into information system
requirements
IS Managers
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Specialists
Leaders of team of programmers, Telecommunications, DB
Chief Information Officer (CIO)
Head of the IS dept.
 Have knowledge about business as well as IS
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Chief Security Officer (CSO)
 In
charge of security policy
 Educating and training users about security
 Keeping management aware of security threats
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End users
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Representatives of departments for whom applications are
developed
They play an important role in the design and development of
of IS