SAD Ch 2

Strategic planning

The process of identifying long-term organizational goals, strategies, and resources; looks beyond day-to-day activities to a horizon of three, five, ten, or more years.

Mission statement

A statement that reflects a firm's vision, purpose, and values, usually focusing on long-term challenges and goals, the importance of stakeholders, and the firm's role as a corporate citizen.

Critical success factor

A high-priority objective that must be achieved in order for a company to fulfill its mission.

SWOT analysis

An analysis of a firm's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats; can focus on a specific product/project, a division, the entire company, or the mission statement itself, with the goal of avoiding unrealistic or unachievable goals.

Business case

The reasons, or justification, for a proposal; should describe the project clearly, provide justification to proceed, and estimate the project's financial impact.

Systems request

A formal way of asking for IT support; the starting point for most information systems projects, which may propose enhancements, correction of problems, replacement of an older system, or development of an entirely new system.

Six main reasons for systems requests

Stronger controls, reduced cost, more information, better performance, improved service, and more support for new products and services.

Encryption

Coding data to keep it safe from unauthorized users.

Biometric devices

Hardware-based security controls that identify a person using physical characteristics, such as a retina scan or fingerprint pattern.

Internal factors (affecting systems projects)

Factors from within the organization that affect IT projects, including the strategic plan, top managers, user requests, the IT department, existing systems and data, and company finances.

External factors (affecting systems projects)

Factors from outside the organization that affect IT projects, including technology, suppliers, customers, competitors, the economy, and government.

Legacy systems

Older systems that are less technologically advanced than currently available systems; errors or problems in these systems can trigger requests for new systems projects.

Just-in-time (JIT) inventory system

A system enabled by EDI that relies on computer-to-computer data exchange to minimize unnecessary inventory, providing the right products at the right place at the right time.

Blockchain

A distributed ledger system that is efficient, secure, and transparent; increasingly used to manage supply chains more powerfully than before.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems

Systems that integrate all customer-related events and transactions, including marketing, sales, and customer service activities, and often interconnect with SCM systems.

Electronic proof of delivery (EPOD)

An RFID application in which a supplier places RFID tags on shipping units to create a digital shipping list; the customer scans the incoming shipment, and any discrepancy is detected, reported, and adjusted automatically.

QR Code (Quick Response code)

A square code similar to a bar code that contains more information than a traditional bar code but less than an RFID tag, and is less expensive to use than RFID.

Internet of Things (IoT)

A network in which almost all electronic devices communicate with one another over a computer network, using radio signals, digital messages, or other means; devices can act as sensors sending data to centralized storage and processing nodes.

Systems review committee

A group of key managers and users (also called a computer resources committee) assigned responsibility for evaluating systems requests, using the combined judgment and experience of several people rather than one individual.

Systems request form

A standardized form used to submit systems requests that streamlines the request process, ensures consistency, and indicates what supporting documents are needed.