1. GLOBAL E-BUSINESS AND COLLABORATION
Chapter 2
GLOBAL E-BUSINESS AND COLLABORATION

2. Learning Objectives
Define and describe business processes and their relationship to information systems.
Evaluate the role played by systems serving the various levels of management in a business and their relationship to each other.
Explain the importance of collaboration in business and how they are supported by technology.
Assess the role of the information systems function in a business.
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3. Business Processes and Information Systems
Manner in which work is organized, coordinated, and focused to produce a valuable product or service
Concrete work flows of material, information, and knowledge—sets of activities

4. Unique ways to coordinate work,
information, and knowledge
Ways in which management chooses
to coordinate work

5. Examples of Business Processes
Manufacturing and production: Assembling product, checking quality, producing bills of materials
Sales and marketing: Identifying customers, creating customer awareness, selling

6. Examples of Business Processes
Finance and accounting: Paying creditors, creating financial statements, managing cash accounts
Human Resources: Hiring employees, evaluating performance, enrolling employees in benefits plans

7. Cross-Functional Business Processes
Business Processes and Information Systems
Cross-Functional Business Processes
Transcend boundary between sales, marketing, manufacturing, and research and development
Group employees from different functional specialties to a complete piece of work

8. The Role of Information Systems in a Business
Firms invest in information systems in order to:
Achieve operational excellence.
Develop new products and services.
Attain customer intimacy and service.
Improve decision making.
Promote competitive advantage.
Ensure survival.

9. Decision-Making Levels of an Organization
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10. Decision-Making Levels of an Organization
Executive level (top)
Long-term decisions
Unstructured decisions
Managerial level (middle)
Decisions covering weeks and months
Semistructured decisions
Operational level (bottom)
Day-to-day decisions
Structured decisions

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12. Type of Information System
Laudon & Laudon: Canadian Edition
Type of Information System
Transaction Processing System
Management Information System
Decision Support System
Executive Information System

13. Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
Laudon & Laudon: Canadian Edition
Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
Serves operational level, Supervisory Mgt.
Records daily, routine activities
Example: sales order entry, hotel room reservation, payroll, ticketing systems

14. Management Information Systems (MIS)
MIS primarily provides information on the firm’s performance to help managers in monitoring and controlling the business.

15. Management Information Systems (MIS)
Serve mid-management level
Provide scheduled, summary or exception reports
Use data collected by TPS
Oriented to internal, not external events of organization

16. Decision Support Systems (DSS)
Middle and higher level management
Semi-structured & unstructured decision-making
Use external as well as internal data
Process data through analytical models with some decision rules (e.g., appropriate expenses model, maximize/minimize, optimization) – model-driven system
Another kind of DSS uses lots of data and special data mining techniques – data-driven system

17. Executive Information Systems (EIS)
Laudon & Laudon: Canadian Edition
Executive Information Systems (EIS)
Also called Executive Support Systems
Serve strategic level of the organization
Support non-routine decision-making
Use graphics software to create visual information display of key summary information
Use data from sources within and outside organizations
Have drill-down capability to reveal what is behind summary information
Graphical output is important because of role of senior executive (business, decision-making, dealing with external and other busy people)

18. Relationship of systems to one another
TPS: Major source of data for other systems
ESS: Recipient of data from lower-level systems
Data may be exchanged between systems
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19. System for collaboration & Teamwork
Collaboration occurs when two or more people work together to achieve a common
Goal
Result
Work product
Greater than individuals working alone
Involves more than coordination and communication alone
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Feedback and iteration provide an opportunity for team members to:
Proceed in a series of steps (iterations) by continuously reviewing and revising each other’s work
Learn from each other rather than working in isolation
Change the way they work and what they produce
Ultimately produce a product that’s greater (and better) than an individual could accomplish working alone
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21. Growing importance of collaboration:
Changing nature of work
Growth of professional work
Changing organization of the firm
Changing scope of the firm
Emphasis on innovation
Changing culture of work
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22. Collaboration systems have the same components as any information system; namely hardware, software, data, procedures, and people

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The three critical collaboration drivers are:
Communication
Content management
Workflow control
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Critical collaboration drivers – communication
How well can group members communicate with each other, providing and receiving critical feedback?
The success of the collaboration group depends on the availability of effective communication systems that allow them to share their skills and abilities.
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25. Types of communication
Synchronous communication
Team members meet at the same time, but not necessarily at the same geographic location.
It may include conference calls, face-to-face-meetings, or online meetings.
Asynchronous communication
Team members do not meet at the same time or in the same geographic location.
It may include discussion forums or exchanges.

26. Information Technology for Communication

27. Virtual meetings don’t require everyone to be in the same place at the same time.
Conference calls – can be difficult to arrange the right time
Multiparty text chat – easier to arrange if everyone has mobile texting
Videoconferencing – requires everyone to have the proper equipment
– most familiar but has serious drawbacks in content management
Discussion forums – content is more organized than
Team surveys – easy to manage but don’t provide very much interactive discussion

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Critical collaboration drivers – content management
Users need to manage the content of their work to avoid conflicting with other team members.
Team members need a system that will help them track and report changes.
An effective system assigns permissions to team members depending on their functionality within the group.
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29. There are three categories for sharing content
There are three categories for sharing content. Your choice depends on the degree of control your team needs to complete their tasks
Information Technology for Sharing Content

30. Someone may not receive the email or ignores it.
The following methods of sharing are effective but provide no control over content management.
attachments are the most primitive but have numerous problems.
Someone may not receive the or ignores it.
It’s difficult to manage attachments.
A shared file server provides a single storage location for all team members.
It uses FTP technology to access files.
Problems can occur if multiple team members try using the same file at the same time.

31. Critical collaboration drivers – workflow control
Workflow is a process or procedure to create, edit, use, and dispose of content.
It specifies the particular ordering of tasks.
It includes processes for handling rejected changes and exceptions.
It ensures tasks are completed in an orderly manner.

32. The Information Systems Function in Business
Information systems department:
Formal organizational unit responsible for information technology services
Often headed by chief information officer (CIO)
Other senior positions include chief security officer (CSO), chief knowledge officer (CKO), chief privacy officer (CPO)
Programmers
Systems analysts
Information systems managers
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33. Services provided by the information systems department include:
Computing and telecommunications services
Data management services
Application software services
Physical facilities management services
IT management services
IT standards services
IT educational services
IT research and development services

34. The Information Systems Function in Business
End users
Representatives of other departments for whom applications are developed
Increasing role in system design, development
IT Governance:
Strategies and policies for using IT in the organization
Decision rights
Accountability
Organization of information systems function
Centralized, decentralized, etc.
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