1. Business Processes, Information, and Information Systems
Chapter 2
Business Processes, Information, and Information Systems

2. This Could Happen to You: “I Got the Email, but I Couldn’t Download the Attachment”
Felix misses meetings and doesn’t know what was decided at last meeting.
Making assumptions about customers want without any data.
Wasting time covering old ground.
Cell phone call interrupts meeting.
Do you continue with a missing group member, who has problems with ?
Boss comes to meeting. Do you tell her about group’s problems?
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3. Study Questions
Q1 Why does the FlexTime team need to understand business processes?
Q2 What is a business process?
Q3 How do information systems support business processes?
Q4 What is information?
Q5 Where is the information in business processes?
How does the knowledge in this chapter help FlexTime and you?
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4. Q1: Why Does the FlexTime Team Need to Understand Business Processes?
FlexTime team needs to have better collaboration processes
Establish objective and rules on meeting times
Need better resources for sharing work product
How will that team know where and how to save costs?
Scenario Video
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5. Study Processes and Look for Inefficiencies
Can any processes be simplified?
Can tasks be re-ordered or re-organized to eliminate tasks and save labor hours?
Can process costs be reduced by applying information technology?
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6. Q2: What Is a Business Process?
A network of activities, resources, facilities, and information that interact to achieve some business function.
Business Function
Activities
Resources
Facilities
Information
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7. FlexTime’s Three Business Processes
Figure 2-1
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8. Register Participants Process
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9. Components of a Business Process
Activities—
Transform resources and information of one type into another type
Decisions—
A question that can be answered Yes or No
Roles—
Sets of procedures
Resources—
People, or facilities, or computer programs that are assigned to roles
Repository—
Collection of business records
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10. Q3: How Do Information Systems Support Business Processes?
Figure 2-3
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11. Register Participants Process
Figure 2-4
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12. Manual and Automated Register Participants Process
Figure 2-5
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13. Q4: What Is Information?
Knowledge derived from data (recorded facts or figures)
Data that is presented in a meaningful context
Data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations
A difference that makes a difference
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14. Experiencing MIS InClass Exercise 2: Woot.com
Woot ( offers a featured item for sale each day. Starting at midnight (U.S. Central time), a featured item posted for sale at deep discount. When inventory of item gone, selling stops.
What’s today’s item? Click “What is woot?” and read FAQs.
Identify five business processes that Woot needs to run site.
Name and describe three business processes that typical online retailers need that Woot avoids.
Diagram key processes involved in each day’s sales.
Describe (in generic terms) contents of what you think is most important repository.
List five types of information that Woot can obtain from repository.
Present your business process to class.
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15. Characteristics of Good Information
1. Accurate
Correct and complete
Crucial for management
Cross-check information to ensure accuracy
2. Timely
Produced in time for intended use
3. Relevant to both:
Context
Subject
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16. Characteristics of Good Information (cont’d)
4. Just barely sufficient
Sufficient for purpose it is generated
Avoid too much or extraneous information
5. Worth its cost
Relationship between cost and value
Information systems cost money to develop, maintain, and use
Must be worth that cost
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17. Q5 Where Is the Information in Business Processes?
Information Stored in Repositories
Status
Member Records
Check Membership Status
Customer data: Name, , Address, Phone(s), DateOfBirth
Membership data: DateOfMembership, MembershipType, FeePaid, ExpirationDate
Course data: Name, Description, StandardFee, PromotionalTerms
Class data: CourseName, StartDate, EndDate, Instructor, AvailableSeats
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18. Information for Unstructured Processes
Quality of information determined by people and procedures used to interpret that data
Data is a stimulus that causes you to create information …in your mind
Data
Your mind and your thinking are most important part of an information system
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19. Q6: How Does the Knowledge in this Chapter Help FlexTime and You?
Learn to model important business processes and identify processes to simplify or reduce resources or processes to partly or fully automate.
Consider costs from a process-perspective helps team/you understand how changes in one activity (or process) impacts other activities and processes.
Provide a guiding framework for conversations, discussions, and decisions.
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20. Ethics Guide: Egocentric vs. Empathetic Thinking
Egocentric thinking
Self centered
“I’m right, everyone else is wrong.”
“I believe sales are declining because our price is too high. We need to cut the price.”
Empathetic thinking
“My View” is one possible interpretation.
Take time to learn what others are thinking.
Take time to understand the problem domain as a system. What other factors can affect sales?
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21. Egocentric Thinking Approach
“Professor Jones, I couldn’t come to class last Monday. Did we do anything important?”
Egocentric Thinking Approach
Implies student isn’t accountable for his or her actions
Implies professor lectured on nothing important
Doesn’t take into account professor’s view of absences
Assumes professor has time to rehash class discussions and activities one-on-one
Puts responsibility on professor to remember everything said in class
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22. Empathetic thinking approach
“I couldn’t come to class, but I got the class notes from Mary. I read through them, and I have a question…Oh by the way, I’m sorry to trouble you with my problem.”
Empathetic thinking approach
Takes personal responsibility
Minimizes impact of absence on someone else
Considers impact from professor’s side
Considers that the professor must interrupt their other work to give extra help so you can recover from your absence
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23. Ethics Guide: Egocentric vs. Empathetic Thinking (cont’d)
What happens if you are in meeting with three people who have three different views of customer support problem?
Customer support reps do not have data about prior customer contacts
Customer support rep recommended a solution that did not work
Company is shipping too many defective laptops
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24. Ethics Guide: Egocentric vs. Empathetic Thinking (cont’d)
Empathetic thinking is an important skill in all business activities (and classes)
Q: How would egocentrics behave in a meeting? How would empathetics behave?
Q: Which thinking style would lead to a more a productive meeting? Why?
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25. Ethics Guide: Understanding Perspectives and Points of View
Every human being speaks and acts from a personal perspective.
Everything we say or do is based on, biased by, that point of view.
Conflicting perspectives can all be true at the same time.
Being able to discern and adapt to perspectives and goals of others will make you much more effective.
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26. Ethics Guide: Understanding Perspectives and Points of View (cont’d)
Suppose you buy a new laptop and it fails within a few days. Repeated calls to customer support produce short-term fixes, but your problem continues.
Three plausible reasons for the problem:
Customer service does not have data about prior customer contacts
Customer support reps recommended a solution that did not work
Company is shipping too many defective laptops

27. Ethics Guide: Understanding Perspectives and Points of View (cont’d)
A “problem” is a perceived difference between what is and what ought to be.
Development team needs a common definition and understanding of problem in order to communicate.
What can a development team do to create common definitions and understanding?
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28. Active Review
Q1 Why does the FlexTime team need to understand business processes?
Q2 What is a business process?
Q3 How do information systems support business processes?
Q4 What is information?
Q5 Where is the information in business processes?
How does the knowledge in this chapter help FlexTime and you?
Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

29. Case Study 2: Ohio State, UCLA, University Washington, Oregon State University…
These universities operate on quarter system of about 10 weeks each. Most students attend three quarters a year: Fall, Winter, and Spring.
Majority of universities operate on semester system, of about 15 weeks each. Most students attend only Fall and Spring semesters.
One unit of credit in quarter systems is worth two-thirds a unit of semester credit.
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30. Summary of Opinions on Relative Merits of Two Systems
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31. Consider the following business processes and their costs.
Case Study 2: Ohio State, UCLA, University Washington, Oregon State University… (cont’d)
Schedule classes
Allocate classrooms and related equipment
Staff classes
Enroll students
Prepare and print course syllabi
Adjust enrollments via add/drop
Schedule finals
Allocate final exam rooms
Grade finals
Record final grades
Consider the following business processes and their costs.
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32. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
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Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.  
Publishing as Prentice Hall