Chapter 12
Information System Trends
2012
What managers need to know about
the emerging and enduring trends in
Information Systems management
Chapter 12 2012
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The Hype Cycle
• Technology Trigger: When a new technology becomes
available
• Peak of Inflated Expectations: When over enthusiasm
and unrealistic expectations fuel rapid adoption
• Through of disillusionment: When failures become
public
• Slope of Enlightenment: when the true benefits of the
technology become apparent to the organizations
• Plateau of Productivity: the phase when the benefits
and risks of the technology become widely understood
and accepted
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The Hype Cycle -2005
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The Hype Cycle - 2010
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Current & Emerging IS/IT Trends
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Enterprise Systems
Supply Chain Management
Customer Relationship Management
Business Intelligence
Digital Data Genius
Knowledge Management Systems
Mobile Computing
Web 2.0 Technology
Social Media
Gesture Based Computing
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Enterprise Systems
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Enterprise Systems
•
In the early 1990s developers realized the
limitations of the functional approach
•
This led to a class of standardized software
applications that would enable and support
integrated business processes
•
These applications are known as Enterprise
Systems (ESs)
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Enterprise Systems
• Provide native integration
• Attempt to support all components of the firm’s IT
infrastructure.
• Defining characteristics:
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–
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Modular
Integrated
Software applications
Span all organizational functions
Rely on one database at the core.
• Custom developed or purchased off-the-shelf
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Characteristics of ESs
• Modularity
– Enables the organization to decide which
functionalities to enable and which ones not to
– Allows for flexibility at the design stage
– No need to pay for unnecessary components
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Characteristics of ESs
• Application Integration:
– Events in one module automatically trigger events
in one or more separate modules
• Data Integration
– Data is stored in one
central database
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Characteristics of ESs
• Configurable
– Enterprise Systems are parameterized
– Firms choose among a predefined set of
configuration options during the implementation
of the application
– The firm can extend the capabilities of the
standard application by creating “bolt-on
modules”
– This customization process further tailors the ES to
the specific needs of the organization
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Advantages of Enterprise Systems
• Efficiency
– ESs are able to rein in complex, generally hard-tomange and support legacy IT infrastructures
– Potential to reduce direct costs
• Example: No redundant data entry
– Potential to reduce indirect costs by streamlining
business processes and operations
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Advantages of Enterprise Systems
• Responsiveness
– ESs can deliver improvements in the firm’s ability
to respond to customers and market demands
• Knowledge Infusion
– The application embeds the state of the art in
industry practice
– ES can be used to update obsolete business
processes within the firm
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Advantages of Enterprise Systems
• Adaptability
– Offer a degree of customizability rarely offered by
off-the-shelf applications
– Achieved through the use of configuration tables
and bolt-on functionality
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Limitations of Enterprise Systems
• Standardization and Flexibility
– Organizations are encouraged to implement as close to a
standard version of the software as possible.
– So called “Vanilla” implementation ensure that firms take
advantage of the economies of scale created by the vendor
– But flexibility is sacrificed by this approach
– ESs are often referred to as software concrete
• Much of the adaptability only occurs during the implementation
process.
• Once set, ESs are difficult to change
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Limitations of Enterprise Systems
• Limitations of best practice software
– It will force the firm to adapt
– It is unclear how “best practices” are defined
– The “best” practice may differ for different firms
– Its not enough to implement a software program
to enact a new practice
– A firm’s own best practices may not be supported
by the new ES
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Limitations of Enterprise Systems
• Strategic Clash
– A firm will have to choose amongst the set of
business processes supported by the software
– What if one of your unique and differentiating
practices is not supported by the ES?
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Supply Chain Management
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Supply Chain Management
• The set of coordinated entities that contribute
to move a product or service from its
production to its consumption
– Upstream
Supply Chain
– Downstream
Supply Chain
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Modern Supply Chain Management
• Tight linkages between upstream (i.e.,
suppliers) and downstream firms (i.e.,
customers)
• Inter-organizational systems increasingly
supported by the Internet
• Integration with enterprise systems
• Increasing attention to IT-enabled supply
chain management
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Supply Chain Management
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Supply Chain Management Trends
• Radiofrequency Identification (RFID)
• A new frontier in SCM:
– No line of sight requirements
– Embedding potential
– Writing capabilities
– Storage capacity
– Speed up the receiving process
– Improve monitoring and control of inventories
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Knowledge Management
“All the value of this company is in its people. If
you burned down all out plants, and we just
kept out people and out information files, we
should soon be as strong as ever.”
--Thomas Watson, the CEO of IBM
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Knowledge
• Knowing What: Based on the ability to collect,
categorize, and assimilate information
• Knowing How: Ability to recognize or create
the sequence of steps that are needed to
complete a task
• Knowing Why: Based on understanding of
cause-effect relationships
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Knowledge
• Categories of Knowledge
– Explicit Knowledge
• Can be articulated
• Codified
• Transferred with relative ease.
– Tacit Knowledge
• The type of knowledge that individuals possess but find
difficult to articulate
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Knowledge Management
• Set of activities and processes used to:
– Create
– Codify
– Disseminate knowledge in the organization
• IT is a key component and enabler
• Aspects of knowledge management:
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Creating
Capturing
Storing
Disseminating
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Creating Knowledge
• Knowledge creation is the first stage in
knowledge management:
– Generate new information
– Devise solutions to existing problems
– Identify new explanations for events
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Capturing and Storing Knowledge
• Enables the organization to:
– Codify new knowledge
– Maintain an organizational memory
• Content Management Systems (CMSs):
– Applications used to capture and store knowledge
– A knowledge repository is a central location and
search point for relevant knowledge
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Disseminating Knowledge
• The last phase in a knowledge management
initiative
• When knowledge is formatted and easily
accessible, dramatic improvements in
effectiveness and efficiency can be achieved.
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Business Intelligence
• The ability to gather and make sense of
information about your business
– A set of techniques
– Processes
– Technologies
• Designed to enable managers to:
– Gain superior insight about the organization
– Gain superior understanding of the business
– Make better decisions
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Business Intelligence
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Components of BI
• Data Warehouse:
– A data repository
– Collects and consolidates data
– Multiple sources
• Characteristics:
– Large in size
– Large in scope
– Enabling data integration
– Designed for analytics
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Components of BI
• Data Mart:
– A scaled-down version of a data warehouse
– Focuses on the needs of a specific audience
– Smaller in scope, thus easier to build
• Online Analytical Processing (OLAP):
– User-driven
– Enables a knowledge worker to easily and
selectively extract and view data from analytical
databases
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Components of BI
• Data Mining:
– The process of automatically discovering non-obvious
relationships in large databases.
– Used to analyze historical information
– Machine-driven
• Possible Patterns:
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Associations
Sequences
Classifications
Forecasting
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Customer Relationship Management
• CRM is a strategic initiative, not a technology
• CRM relies on transactional data and is designed to
help the firm learn about customers
• Designed to use data to make inferences about
customer:
– Behaviors
– Needs
• The objective is to create value for the firm by
optimizing the relationship with each customer
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CRM Infrastructure
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Limitations of CRM
• CRM is firm centric
– Only relies on transactional and behavioral data
pertaining to the interactions of the customer
with the firm
• Limited predictive ability
– Some events are unforeseeable and only the
customer knows about their occurrence
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Customer Managed Interactions
• In CMIs customer data is stored and managed
by the customer
• CMI solves the limitations of CRM initiatives:
– The customer’s personal data warehouse holds
complete historical information
– Future events are more likely known
– Inferences are more precise
• Infomediaries may maintain customers’ data
warehouses
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Customer Managed Interactions
• CMI is not only about the lowest prices
– CMI completion may depend on lower price
– More likely will stem from the quality of the
recommendation
• CMI technology
– The Internet provides the infrastructure for data
transfer
– Falling costs of storage make personal data
warehouses a feasible alternative
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Customer Interactions in the CMI
Paradigm
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Web 2.0 Space
• Some of them are technological components (e.g., AJAX, RIA‘s,
and XML/DHTML)
• Some are principles (e.g., participation, collective intelligence,
and rich user experience)
• Some are applications and tools (e.g., Wikipedia, Flickr, and
Mashups).
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Technology Push/Demand Pull Theory
• Demand Pulls Technology
– Market and consumer needs may create a
demand for new technology/service
– Forces research and development efforts to
accelerate innovation.
• Technology Pushes Demand
– New technology/service may evolve to spawn
innovative uses
– Thereby generate demand.
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Examples
• Technology Push
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Early internet allows for early version of e-mail
I/O devices move from teletype machines to CRT
Networking PCs
Cell Phone Displays – LCD
• Demand Pull
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E-mail Servers & Clients
GUI’s – MAC, Windows 3.0, etc.
Graphical Web Browsers
Custom Graphics & Ringtones
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Conceptual Framework of Web 2.0 Paradigm
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Web 2.0 Tech Push/ Demand Pull Layers
• Web 2.0 Technology Layer
– Enabling technologies or technological concepts
– Provide the infrastructure and building blocks for Web 2.0 RIAs
– Supports Web 2.0 principles.
• Web 2.0 Principle Layer
– Common fundamental characteristics observed from current web 2.0
platforms
– Different from traditional applications or platforms.
• Web 2.0 Application Layer
– Web 2.0 RIAs that implement the lower layer principles using the enabling
technologies in the technology layer.
• Web 2.0 Driver Layer
– Market/social/user driving forces that pull the fundamental shifts in
technology, online business networks, online communities, and individual
online behaviors.
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The Web 2.0 Revolution,
Social Media, and Industry Disruptors
• social media
The online platforms and tools that people
use to share opinions, experiences, insights,
perceptions, and various media, including
photos, videos, and music, with each other
• disruptors
Companies that introduce a significant change
in their industries, thus causing a disruption in
normal business operations
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Social Media
• Social Media Makes History
Return to Current & Emerging IS/IT Trends
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Digital Data Genius
• We are rapidly moving toward a world where
events, transactions, and processes are all
digitized
– Purchasing a book online
– Using RFID devices to track items
– Using a search engine (Google, Bing) to locate
information
– Using our cell phone to retrieve voice-mail
messages
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Digital Data Genius Requirements
• In order to take advantage of the
opportunities afforded by digital data genesis,
a firm must develop a digital data genesis
capability
– Choosing IT to generate and capture data in its
native digital form
– Integrating IT in the business processes that
generate the data of interest
– Managing the digital data so produced
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Digital Data Genius
Strategies & Decisions
• Digital data genesis strategies require a
disciplined approach to digital data generation
and capture, predicated on the recognition of the
value of data and the consequent need to
architect systems that originate it in a digital
format
• Digital data genesis decisions about digital data
genesis should be driven by the desire to
seamlessly and unobtrusively collect data that
answers basic questions about a transaction
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Digital Data Genius
Basic Questions
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When did the transaction take place?
Where did the transaction occur?
What was the nature of the transaction?
How was the transaction executed?
Who initiated the transaction?
What was the outcome?
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Digital Data Genius
Automation
• Machine to Machine (M2M)
– IT-enabled everyday objects (e.g., utility meters) and
pervasive connectivity (e.g., wireless networks) make
it is possible to leverage data that is born digital to let
the machine generating an event communicate
directly with the other machines that can act upon
that event.
• Machine to Person (M2P)
– When the actuator on the receiving end of the digital
data generated by IT-enabled everyday objects is a
person, rather than an object, we talk about M2P
transactions.
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Digital Data Genius
Opportunities
• The proliferation of sensors and sensor data that produce usable
information with unprecedented speed and granularity provides the
opportunity to design information systems expressly designed to
take advantage of this environmental change
• At its most fundamental level, digital data genesis offers the
opportunity to bridge the gap between the digital and physical
world. In other words, as more and more physical activities come
with an automatically generated information representation of the
activity, it is increasingly possible to extract value from the
symbiotic relationship of physical and digital systems
• One approach to analyzing this symbiotic relationship between
physical activities and information is through the lens of ubiquity,
uniqueness, unison, and universality
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Digital Data Genius
Opportunities
• Ubiquity
– Information access that is unconstrained by time and
space ranks high on the ubiquity scale.
– Data that are generated natively in digital form are
theoretically available in real time.
– Ubiquitous information provides opportunities for
rationalizing the use of resources.
• Uniqueness
– Information access that is personalized and individually
tailored to the needs of a person or other entity ranks high
in uniqueness
– Digital data genesis enabled unprecedented levels of
uniqueness
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Digital Data Genius
Opportunities
• Unison
– Information that is consistent and devoid of
redundancies ranks high in unison
– At a procedural level unison translates into the
standardization of the activities necessary to perform
an activity
• Universality
– Information that is standardized and easily shareable
across platforms ranks high in universality
– At a procedural level universality describes the ease
with which separate processes can interlock and
coordinate
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The Super Crunchers
• “In an information-rich world, the wealth of
information means a dearth of something else: a
scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes”
• Digital data genesis exacerbates this problem by
enabling the creation of unprecedented amounts of
information
• Because data is in a digital form, some argue that the
future belongs the supercrunchers
– Those who will be able to exploit the availability of data to
their advantage and the advantage of their organizations
by quickly and effortlessly testing their hunches and
intuitions with data
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The Mobile Platform
• The most visible trend in computing today is the
widespread adoption of the mobile platform
• A recent development in the area of mobile
computing is the rise to prominence of tablets,
characterized by their light weight, multi-touch
input screens and sustained battery power
• hanks to its technological characteristics –
portability and connectivity –the mobile platform
gives users the opportunity for constant access to
computing power and access to the data grid
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Characteristics
• Ubiquity
– Ubiquity represents the idea that users of the device can access
needed resources from (in theory) anywhere
• Identifiabilty
– Identifiabilty represents the idea that mobile devices uniquely
identify their user. In order to access the data grid, both
smartphones and tablets utilize the cellular network and use a
Subscriber Identification Module (SIM card)
• Context Awareness
– Context Awareness is enabled by the fact that mobile devices
can be geolocated. In other words, modern smartphones that
incorporate a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver can
communicate their position to any software application running
on them
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Mobile Commerce
• Mobile commerce
– Refers to the ability to complete commercial
transactions using mobile devices, such as
smartphones and tablets
– Also known as M-Commerce or mCommerce
• Has recently received significant impetus as
consumers have shown its viability by
adopting electronic commerce and self-service
through digital mobile devices
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Location-Based
Social Networking
• The rise to prominence of the mobile platform has enabled
social networking firms to allow users to reach (some
would say annoy!) their contacts more often and in a more
timely manner using mobile versions of their service
• Location-based social networking
– Extension of mobile social networking whereby the geographical
location of the user becomes an integral component of the
service enabling efficient access to context-dependent services
– Enable social network users to bridge the gap from access to
their friends ratings and reviews (what friends say), to their
actual behavior (what friends do) – the ultimate high tech
version of “voting with your feet!
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Augmented Reality
• Augmented reality is a field of
computing that has recently
received increased attention
thanks to the launch of a few
augmented reality applications
for smartphones, such as
Wikitude and Layar
• Augmented reality consists of
superimposing an information
layer on top of a real image.
• Augmented reality is not
confined to the mobile
platform
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Green IS vs. IT
• Environmental sustainability:
– The notion that it is imperative for the human species
to take the lead in the conservation of the natural
environment and the sustainable management of its
resources
• Green IT
– Focus on reducing energy consumption of IT devices
and data centers
• Green IS
– Focus on broadening the role of IT in minimizing
adverse impacts on environmental sustainability
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Gesture-Based Computing
Prototype of Mouse - 1965
Gesture-Based Computing
• Gesture-based Computing refers to the ability to interface
with devices through natural human movement.
• Gesture Based Computing is already used widely today.
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•
iPod touch,
Smart Phones,
Tablets,
Nintendo Wii,
Kenect
Playstation Move and SMART Boards all respond to natural
human gestures.
Gesture-Based Computing
• Different devices can recognize a variety of Gesture-Based
inputs.
• Touch Screens and Surfaces recognize
– Touch
– Taps
– Swipes
– Multiple Fingers/Touches
• Handheld Devices respond when they are
– Tilted
– Shaken
– Moved in space
Gesture-Based Computing
•
Game Systems (like the Wii) use hand held remote and an
infared sensor to determine players location and movement
in 3-D space
• Hands-Free Systems (like Xbox 360 Kenect) require no
controls. A set of cameras recognizes full-body motion.
Gesture-Based Computing
• Gesture-based interfaces are changing the way we interact with
computers
• Provide with us a more intuitive way to control devices.
• New devices take advantage of certain motions that are easy and
intuitive to perform
• Allowing an unprecedented level of control over the surrounding
devices.
• Cameras and sensors translate movements of our bodies without the
need of remotes or hand held tracking tools.
• As the underlying technologies evolve, a variety of approaches to
gesture-based input are being explored.
• The most common applications for gesture-based computing are:
– computer games,
– file and media browsing, and
– simulation and training
Examples
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iPhone - iPad
Children’s Demo
Control Surgical Device
Hands Free Access Information
Marketing Technique
Add a Sixth Sense – Information Access
The Future - BCI
Gesture-Based Computing
• "Good Bye" to the mouse and keyboard
• "Hello" to Gesture Based Computing!
• BCI is next
• Comments and/or Questions?
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