Business and IS Performance (IS 6010) MBS BIS 2010 / 2011 Fergal Carton Accounting Finance and Information Systems

Course Objective To understand why and how organisations measure their performance, both from a financial and an operational viewpoint, and to relate performance measurement to the underlying control systems and their technical characteristics.

Business and IS performance Definition of organisational goals and conflict across functions The influence of shareholder priorities on goal setting How are organisational goals translated into reality? Use of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and constraints Setting budgets for expenditure and targets for income Understanding the different types of performance information Data collection constraints influence performance measures Integration and the challenge for real-time reporting The role of business intelligence tools in reporting Understanding the limitations of control systems

Attendance: Obligatory! Attendance is taken at all lectures and tutorials Notes are posted on web, but in-class discussion is vital Some assessments may take place during class hours Poor attendance can disqualify a student from exam Notify me in advance of absence where possible Absence due to illness requires a Medical Certificate

Marking scheme Practical assignments (Term 1) –Worth 40% Written examination (Term 2) –Worth 60%

Organisations must set goals The problem of organisation design is to create mechanisms that permit co-ordinated action across large numbers of interdependent roles (Galbraith, 1983). From an internal perspective, the greater the degree of differentiation between units in an organisation, the greater the challenge of achieving co-ordinated action (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967). From an external perspective, the greater the uncertainty, the greater the requirement for information processing (Galbraith, 1983; Daft et al., 1988).

Themes from literature on control systems Standardisation Centralisation Specialisation

Operational performance Metrics for any business activity –Manufacturing a product –Selling a product –Purchasing raw material –Creating a Fixed Asset Register –Paying a supplier –Shipping a product –…

TMI is not new First, the data processing and storage tasks proved much larger and more complex than had been imagined. Perhaps more crucial, it became less and less clear just how the data were to enter into the decision making process, or indeed to just what decisions they were relevant (Simon, 1973).

Manager’s view Volume has been increasing at a huge pace compared to … like, you go talk to Jonathan, … my answer to it will be, get used to it, it’s not going to go away, I don’t care what you do, it’s not my problem, I want the reports, you deal with the volume of records, it’s not going to go away, you deal with it.

Exercise Pick a business idea Describe customer requirements How can these requirements be met? What performance criteria will be applied –Financial –Operational What type of control system will be used?

Why pursue an MBS in BIS? “It is effectiveness which is very much to do with people, particularly in our organisation, … not technology, and the more educated people the better, … creating a certain climate for people being stretched, mightn’t think it good for them at the time, but once they’ve gotten through it …”

Lecturer contact details Name: Fergal Carton Phone: Office:Room 2.113, ORB University College Cork Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh