1. Introduction to Information Systems

2. What is an information system?
An information system is an organized combination of people, hardware, software, and data resources that collects, transforms, and disseminates information in an organization.
Information system is an organizational and management solution, based on information technology, to a challenge posed by the environment.

3. Why study information systems?
An end-user perspective
Enhance personal productivity, and the productivity of their work groups and department.
Increase your opportunities for success:
be aware of the management problems and opportunities presented by the information technology.

4. Why study information systems?
An enterprise perspective: Information systems play a vital role in the business success of an enterprise.
Efficient operations
Effective management
Competitive advantage

5. Information System is a major functional area of business
A major part of the resources of an enterprise and its cost of doing business.
An important factor affecting operational efficiency, employee productivity, customer service, etc.
A major source of information needed to promote effective decision making.
An important ingredient in developing competitive products and services that give an organization a strategic advantage in the marketplace.
A challenge career opportunity.

6. Business Are Becoming Internetworked Enterprises
The internet and Internet-like networks (intranets and extranets) have become the primary information technology infrastructure that supports the business operations of many organizations.
Electronic commerce:
The buying and selling, and marketing and servicing of products, services, and information over a variety of computer networks.
Globalization:
Global markets, global production facilities, global partners, global competitors, global customers.

7. Techies might finally be able to move into top management
More Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are reporting directly to CEOs.
More CIOs are being included on management committees.
In a recent survey of executives at capital market firms, 89% believed that technology managers would assume greater responsibilities.

8. What Is Information System?
Fundamental roles of information systems
Types of Information Systems
Information System Activities
Components of an Information System

9. Fundamental roles of information systems
Support of business operations.
Support of managerial decision making.
Support of strategic competitive advantage:
Business process reengineering.
Competitive strategies:
cost strategies
differentiation strategies
etc

10. Functional Business Information Systems
Production
Operations
Marketing
Human Resource
Management
Finance
Accounting
Functional
Business
Systems
Functional Business Systems: Information systems within a business organization that support one of the traditional functions of business such as marketing, finance, or production. Functional business systems can be either operations or management information systems.
Marketing: Accounting:
- Customer relationship management - Order processing
- Interactive marketing - Inventory control
- Sales force automation - Accounts receivable
- Accounts payable
Human Resource Management - Payroll
- Compensation analysis - General ledger
- Employee skills inventory
- Personnel requirements forecasting Finance:
- Cash management
Productions/Operations - Credit management
- Manufacturing resource planning - Investment management
- Manufacturing execution systems - Capital budgeting
- Process control - Financial forecasting
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to Figure 7.12 on pp. 232 and relates to the material on pp

11. Targeted Marketing on the Web p 233
Community: virtual communities
Content: advertising banner placed on various website pages
Context: advertising appears only in web pages that are relevant to the product
Demographic/Psychogrphic: income, age, education
Online behaviors: tracking techniques such as cookies

12. Push/Pull Internet push marketing: Internet pull marketing
marketing
Web page personalization
Internet pull marketing
Product web page

13. Customer Relationship Management
It costs six times more to sell to a new customer than to sell to an existing one.
A typical dissatisfied customer will tell eight to ten people about his or her experience.
A company can boost its profit 85% by increasing its annual customer retention by only 5%.
The odds of selling a product to a new customer are 15%, whereas the odds of selling to an existing customer are 50%.
70% of complaining customers will do business with the company again if it quickly takes care of a service snafu.

14. Customer Relationship Management
Sales
Cross-Sell
Up-Sell
TeleSales
Store Front
and Field
Service
Marketing and
Fulfillment
Customer
Service and
Support
Retention
and Loyalty
Programs
Contact Management
Customer relationship management (CRM): A cross-functional e-business application that integrates and automates many customer serving processes in sales, direct marketing, account and order management, and customer service and support.
CRM systems also create an IT framework that integrates all of these processes with the rest of a company’s business operations. CRM systems consist of a family of software modules that perform the business activities involved in such front office processes. CRM software provides the tools that enable a business and its employees to provide fast, convenient, dependable, and consistent service to its customers.
Business benefits of CRM are many. Examples include:
1. Allows a business to identify and target their best customers; those who are the most profitable to the business, so they can be retained as lifelong customers for greater and more profitable services.
2. Enables real-time customization and personalization of products and services based on customer wants, needs, buying habits, and life cycles.
3. Also used to keep track of when a customer contacts the company, regardless of the contact point.
4. Enables a company to provide a consistent customer experience and superior service and support across all the contact points a customer chooses.
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to Figure 7.6 on pp. 220 relates to the material on pp

15. Cross-Functional Enterprise Systems
Systems that cross the boundaries of traditional business functions in order to reengineer and improve vital business processes all cross the enterprise.
Share information resources
Improve the efficiency and effectiveness of business processes.

16. Enterprise Resource Planning
ERP is a cross-functional enterprise system that integrates many of the business processes that must be accomplished within the manufacturing, logistics, distribution, accounting, finance, and human resources functions of a business.

17. Enterprise Resource Planning
Integrated
Logistics
Production
Planning
Sales
Distribution,
Order
Management
Customer/
Employee
Accounting
and Finance
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a cross-functional enterprise system that serves as a framework to integrate and automate many of the business processes that must be accomplished within the manufacturing, logistics, distribution, accounting, finance, human resource functions of a business.
ERP software is a family of software modules that supports the business activities involved in these vital back office processes.
ERP is being recognized as a necessary ingredient for the efficiency, agility, and responsiveness to customers and suppliers that an e-business enterprise needs to succeed in the dynamic world of e-commerce.
Companies are finding major business value in installing ERP software in two major ways:
1. ERP creates a framework for integrating and improving their back-office systems that results in major improvements in customer service, production, and distribution efficiency.
2. ERP provides vital cross-functional business processes and supplier and customer information flows supported by ERO systems.
Teaching Tips
This slide corresponds to Figure 7.4 on pp. 218 relates to the material on pp
Human
Resources

18. Support of Managerial Decision Making
Structured decision
The information requirements are known precisely
The criteria for making decision are known
The quality of a decision can be measured precisely
Unstructured decision

19. DEGREE OF PROBLEM STRUCTURE
The DSS Focuses on Semistructured Problems
Manager + Computer
(DSS)
Solution
Computer
Solution
Manager
Solution
Structured Semistructured Unstructured
DEGREE OF PROBLEM STRUCTURE

20. Information Systems for Strategic Advantage
Competitive forces model by Michael Porter
Threat of
New Entrants
Bargaining Power
of Suppliers
Rivalry among
Existing Competitors
Bargaining Power
of Customers
Threat of Substitute
Products

21. Competitive Strategies
Cost leadership strategy.
Product differentiation strategy.
Innovation strategy: Finding new way of doing business.
Alliance strategy: Establish alliances with customer, suppliers, competitors, other company.
Growth strategy: expanding, diversifying, integrating.

22. Strategic Roles for Information Systems
Improving business operations
Promoting business innovation
Locking in customers and suppliers
Interorganizational IS, EDI, automatic inventory replenishment system
Creating switching costs
make customers dependent on the continued use of innovative IS.
Raising barriers to entry
discourage competitors from entering a market

23. Strategic Uses of Information Technology
Improving
Business
Process
Promote
Innovation
Locking in
Customers
and Suppliers
Use IT to reduce costs of doing business
Use IT to improve quality
Use IT to link business to customers and suppliers
Use IT to create new products or services
Enhance
Efficiency
Create New
Opportunities
Maintain Valuable
Customers and
Relationships
Strategy
IT Role
Outcome
Teaching note: Once the instructor has covered the basic competitive strategy concepts found in Figure 2.2, in the text, they should then further develop the discussion by looking at other competitive strategies that firms use in addition to the five basic strategies of cost leadership, differentiation, innovation, growth, and alliance. The material is found on pages 44 to 45 of the text.
The information in this slide comes from Figure 2.5 found in the textbook which outlines other strategic uses of information technology.
Develop interenterprise information systems whose convenience and efficiency create switching costs that lock in customers or suppliers.
Make major investments in advanced IT applications that build barriers to entry against industry competitors or outsiders.
Include IT components in products and services to make substitution of competing products or services more difficulty.
Leverage investment in IS people, hardware, software, databases, and networks from operational uses into strategic applications.

24. Types of Information Systems
Operations support systems
Transaction processing systems
Office automation systems
Management support systems
Management information systems
Decision support systems
Executive support systems
Strategic information systems
Can be TPS, MIS, DSS, etc.
Systems that help an organization to meet strategic objectives

25. Transaction Processing Systems
Support day-to-day business operations
batch processing, online processing
large amount of data, high processing speed, high reliability, accuracy, and security (fault tolerant)
Data: internal, historical, detailed

26. Examples of TPS Order entry system Billing system
Accounts receivable system
Accounts payable system
Payroll system
General ledger system

27. Management Information Systems (Information Reporting Systems)
Facilitate management control by producing summarized reports that compare actual performance against planned performance on a regular and recurring basis.
Management control: Ensuring that performance meets established standards.

28. Information System Activities
Input of data resources
Processing of data into information
calculating, comparing, sorting, classifying, and summarizing
Output of information products
Storage of data resources

29. Components of an Information System
Hardware
Software
People
Database

30. Hardware Input devices CPU and primary storage RAM - temporary storage
Processor
Control Unit - decoder
Arithmetic & Logic Unit (ALU)
Machine cycle:
fetch instruction
decode instruction
execute instruction
place results in memory

31. Hardware
Output devices
Secondary storage
Communication devices

32. Hardware Microcomputers Minicomputers Mainframes
personal computing, workstation,network server.
Minicomputers
Departmental and workgroup systems, network server, workstation.
Mainframes
Enterprisewide systems, transaction processors
Networked computer systems

33. Local area network
Peer-to-peer network:
no dedicated server
allow file sharing with password protection
Client/Server network
at least one computer as dedicated server
improved security, performance
Network Operating System (NOS), Windows NT Server
Downsizing: replacing mainframes by networked micro/minicomputers.
Upsizing: replacing PC based systems by networked micro/minicomputers.
Distributed processing.
Client/Server computing.

34. Hardware Trends CPU: Parallel processor systems. Storage:
RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks): Arrays of disk drives that provides a fault tolerant capability by storing multiple copies of data on several disks.
RAID hardware/RAID software, Mirroring.
Erasable optical disk.
Input/output: video and multimedia input/output, voice recognition and response, optical and magnetic recognition.
Hand-held devices

35. Software System software Application software
Operating system
Application software
University’s registration system
Application development software

36. Operating system functions
User interface
Resource management (managing hardware)
Task management (managing the accomplishment of tasks)
File management (managing data and program files)
Utilities (providing a variety of supporting services)

37. Application development software
Low level language
High level language
Third generation
Fourth generation
Fifth generation

38. Compiler
Translator: Translate the source program to machine executable code.
Interpreter: Translate one command at a time.
VBScript, JavaScript

39. Object-oriented development tools
graphics-oriented user interface
component programming
event-driven programming
codes are reusable,
Examples, C++, JAVA, VisualBasic.

40. Portability Java: Write Once Run Anywhere
Java Byte Code
Java Source Code
Java Virtual Machine
(JVM)
Java Byte Code
(Intermediate Code)
Executable Code

41. Microsoft’s .Net
Language must compliance with Common Language Specification, CLS.
Compile the language into Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) code.
The MSIL code is then executed in the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which conceptually is same as the JVM, where it is translated into machine code by a compiler.

42. Microsoft .Net: a new monopoly?
Web services:
A web service is a collection of functions packaged as a single entity, published to the network for other application to use.
Microsoft passport:
An internet authentication service that provides single sing-on to passport-enabled web sites and services.
Microsoft hailstorm:
A consumer-oriented, subscription-based internet services.

43. Groupware Electronic messaging. Information sharing
Users can access the information, change it, comment on it, and add new information (at different times)
Example: Lotus Note.
Document conferencing (WhiteBoard or Application conferencing)
Allow group members to confer on a document at the same time.

44. Groupware Audio/video conferencing Electronic conferencing
Combining document conferencing with videoconferencing.
Group scheduling .

45. People Information specialists End-user: End-user computing
programmer, system analyst, database administrator, etc.
End-user:
Menu-level end users
Command-level end users
End-user programmer
End-user computing

46. What Stimulated End-User Computing?
An increase in computing literacy
The information services backlog
Low-cost hardware
User-friendly software
General-purpose productivity software
Office automation applications
Group wares
Application development software

47. Traditional Communications Chain
Database
Administrator
Systems
Analyst
User
Operator
Programmer
Computer
Network
Specialist

48. IS and EUC The End-User Computing Communication Chain
Information
Specialists
Support
User
Communication
Computer

49. EUC Risks Poorly aimed systems Poorly designed/ documented systems
Inefficient use of information resources
Loss of data integrity
Loss of security

50. Controls for end-user applications
Thorough documentation of user-developed systems.
A formal process for evaluating and acquiring new hardware and software.
Formal testing, security control for access, backup and recovery procedures for all user systems.

51. Office Ethics Confusion
Technology Is Changing the Rules of Conduct on the Job

52. Do you think it is wrong to
Copy company’s software for use at home?
35 % say no.
Use company equipment like computers to search for a new job?
34% say no.
Blame your own personal errors on technological glitches?
39% say no.
Use office computers to do personal shopping on the Internet?
46% say no.

53. Workplace PCs May Not Be Very Private
Don’t be fooled: it may be personal, but it is not private.
Cyber-surveillance: the person most likely to be spying on you is your boss. 27% of businesses surveyed by the American management association said they review employee .
Reasons:
Productivity
Liability
Network performance

54. Database A group of related files Support business operations
Provide information

55. An example of database application
Lucky NEWS (Lucky ad.)
Lucky presents another great way to save with your Lucky Rewards Card! You can get up to 4 FREE movie tickets!
From May 13 through June 9, 1998, use your Lucky Rewards Card every time you shop at Lucky. When you accumulate between $250 - $ in groceries during the qualifying period, you get 2 FREE movie tickets! And if you purchase $400 or more during the same period you get 4 FREE movie tickets!

56. Major Functions of Database Management
Creating a database
Analysis: Entity-Relationship Diagram
Design: Design file structure
Implementation
Accessing a database
Updating a database

57. Database Security Logical protection: Physical protection
Illegal access
Illegal update
Virus
Physical protection

58. Internet firms flocks to store data in blast-proof British bunker
Some of Britain’s biggest companies are running their Internet operations on systems installed in a 300-foot-deep nuclear blast-proof bunker.
IRA bombings
Anti-Capitalists

59. Database Application
An organized set of menus, forms, reports, business rules, and the database it operates on.
An example:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Samples\Northwind.mdb