Business Information Systems

Information Age

The present time, during which infinite quantities of facts are widely available to anyone who can use a computer.

Internet of Things (IoT)

A world where interconnected internet-enabled devices or “things” have the ability to collect and share data without human intervention.

EX. a manufacturer can use IoT sensors to monitor production line performance, look for improvements, and reduce down time.

Machine to Machine (M2M)

Refers to devices that connect directly to other devices.

Telecommuting

using communication technology to work in a place other than a central location.

EX. working from a hotel. most everyone can except service industry, manual jobs.

Data

Raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event or object.

Is the smallest or least complex.

Is considered the input of the system.

Information

data converted into a meaningful and useful context.

computers need data, humans need information.

Business Intelligence

Information collected from multiple sources such as suppliers, customers, competitors, partners, and industries that analyze patterns, trends, and relationships for strategic decision-making.

Knowledge

making meaning of the business intelligence.

skills, experience, and expertise coupled with information and intelligence that creates a person’s intellectual resources.

is the most complex of the core drivers of the information age.

Knowledge Worker

individuals who are valued for their ability to interpret and analyze information.

Systems Thinking

Way of monitoring the entire system by viewing multiple inputs being processed or transformed to produce outputs while continuously gathering feedback on each part.

The output is not the product itself, just the information.

EX.

inputs → lettuce, tomatoes, patty, bun

process → cook the patty/ ingredients together

output→ hamburger

Management Information Systems (MIS)

a business function, like accounting or HR, which moves information about people, products, and processes across the company to facilitate decision-making and problem-solving.

Information Technology

any computer-based tool that people use to work with information and support the information and information processing needs of an organization.

Hardware

consists of the physical devices associated with a computer system.

physical.

5 C’s:

Create → CPU (Intel, Pentium)

Capture → Input (mouse, keyboard)

Convey → Output (monitor, printer, headphones)

Cradle → Storage ( hard drive, memory stick)

Communicate → (cable modem)

Software

the set of instructions the hardware executes to carry out specific tasks.

Application Software → apps, performs specific information processing needs (Microsoft word)

System Software: controls how the various tools work together along with the application software.

Operating system Software → (windows)

Utility software → (antivirus, data recovery)

Competitive Advantage

a product or service that an organization’s customers place a greater value on than similar offerings from a competitor.

SWOT Analysis

evaluates an organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to identify significant influences that work for or against business strategies.

Porter’s Five Forces Model

Analyzes competitive forces within the company environment to assess the potential for profitability in an industry. Where profitability exists, invest in I.T.

who is the consumer? who are the rivals?

if forces are strong => increase competition

if forces are weak => decrease competition

Three Generic Strategies

Business strategies that are neither organization or industry specific and can be applied to any business, product, or service. Helps to formulate a strategy for entering the industry. industry-specific

looking at the market and cost to see where to invest in.

Value Chain Analysis

views a firm as a series of business processes that each add value to the product or service.

looking where the value is by breaking everything down.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP)

Manipulation of information to support decision making.

Systems that use it are; MIS, DSS, AI, EIS

Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)

gather transaction information, process information, and update existing information to reflect the gathered and processed transaction information.

EX. calculated grade

systems that use it are; TPS and CIS

Transaction Processing System (TPS)

Process transactions w/ an organization

EX. payroll, accounts receivable, inventory

OLTP

Customer Integrated System (CIS)

Customer processes own transaction. Empowers the customer.

EX. ATM, airport kiosk,

OLTP

Management Information Systems (MIS)

Produce pre-determined reports.

Types:

Periodic - produced on a pre-determined time interval i.e. monthly statement

Summarized - aggregate information, i.e. district, state, or country

Exception - show a subset of information based on selection criteria. i.e. when accidents occur in a manufacturing plant

Comparative - show two or more sets of similar information to illustrate a relationship, a vs b

Ad hoc - generated whenever wanted, opposite of periodic. i.e. class roster.

OLAP

Workgroup Support System (WSS)

Designed to improve the performance of teams by supporting the sharing and flow of information

Both OLTP and OLAP

Groupware: core of WSS

team dynamic: group scheduling, electronic meeting, videoconferencing, software

document management - group document database

application development

Decision Support System (DSS)

Supports decision making

OLAP

EX. Excel, GIS

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Science of making machine imitate human thinking and behavior

OLAP

Executive Information System (EIS)

Combines DSS and AI to help managers with problems/opportunities. Provides drill down capabilitie.

OLAP

Integration

Allows separate systems to communicate directly with each other, eliminating the need for manual entry into multiple systems.

Application integration → integration of a company’s existing management information systems

Data integration → integration of data from multiple sources, which provides a unified view of all data

Forward integration → sends information entered into a given system automatically to all downstream systems and processes

Backward integration → sends information entered into a given system automatically to all upstream systems and processes

Enterprise System

Provide enterprise-wide support and data access for a firm’s operations and business processes.

Middleware

Several different types of software sit between and provide connectivity for 2 or more software applications.

A piece of software that sits between two software applications and acts as the communication link. Think of it like a translator for two people who don’t speak the same language.

Integration Tools

Supply Chain Management (SCM) - The management of information flows between and among activities in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability.

3D Printing

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification)

Drones

Robotics

Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)

Involves managing all aspects of a customer relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an organization’s profitability.

Understanding behaviors.

Understanding wants and needs of customers

Benefits→ Recency, Frequency, Monetary (RFM)

Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP)

Integrates all departments and functions throughout an organization into a single IT system so that employees can make enterprise-wide decisions by viewing enterprise-wide information on all business operations.

Integrates management, accounting, finance, HRM, PM, inventory management, etc.

Benefits → logical solution to incompatible applications; addresses global information and sharing and reporting, avoids the pain and expense of fixing legacy systems.

Collects data from across an organization and correlates the data generating an enterprise wide view.

Moral

Personal Character

Facts

Social conventions

Vary by age, cultural group

EX nursing homes

Ethic

Social system in which morals apply

Principles and standards that guide our behavior towards other people

Beliefs regarding right and wrong

influenced by family, religion, education, etc

EX lost and found box

Law

Legislated by governing body

Rights to Information - Mason 1986

Privacy

Accuracy

Property

Accesss

Privacy

concerned with what information an individual should have to reveal to others through the course of employment or through other transactions such as online shopping.

Accuracy

concerned with the authenticity and fidelity of information, as well as identifying who is responsible for informational errors that harm people.

Property

focuses on who owns information about individuals and how information can be sold and exchanged

Access

focuses on defining what information a person or organization has the right to obtain about others and how this information can be accessed and used.

Information Ethics

Govern the ethical and moral issues arising from the development and use of information technologies, as well as the creation, collection, duplication, distribution, and processing of information itself.

Intellectual property

intangible creative works that is embodied in a physical form; more valuable than the actual physical form

Copyright

legal protection afforded an expression of an idea, such as a song, video game, etc.

Fair Use Doctrine

exception of copyright law, may use copyrighted material in certain situations.

Pirated Software

unauthorized use, duplication, distribution, or sale of copyrighted software

counterfeit software

software manufactured to look like the real thing

Ethical Computer Use Policy

Contains general principles to guide computer user behavior ; issues since employees can BYOD.

ensures all users are informed of the rules and, by agreeing to use the system on that basis. also ensures that all user consent to abide by the rules.

Information privacy policy

contains general principle regarding information privacy

Acceptable use Policy

Requires a user to agree to follow it to be provided access to corporate email, information systems and the internet

Email privacy policy

details the extent to which email messages may be read by other.

Social media policy

outlines the corporate guidelines or principles governing employee online communications

Workplace IT Monitoring Policy

Tracks people activities by such measures as number of keystrokes, error rate, and number of transactions processed.

Employee Monitoring Policy

Explicitly state how, when, and where the company monitors its employees

Spam

unsolicited email

keylogger software

a program that records every keystroke and mouse click, such as email, instant messages, chat rooms, websites visited

Hardware keylogger

hardware device that captures keystrokes

Cookie

a small file that contains information about you and your Web activities, which websites you visit, and helps with IDs and passwords

Web Log

one line of information for every visitor to a website

Clickstream

records information about you during a web session such as websites visited , how long the visit was, etc; more than one line per visitor is recorded

Hacker

Experts in technology who use their knowledge to break into computers and computer networks, either for profit or just motivated by the challenge

Black-hat hackers

break into other people’s computer systems and may just look around or may steal and destroy information.

Cracker

a hacker with criminal intent

Cyberterrorist

seek to cause harm to people or to destroy critical systems or information and use the internet as a weapon of mass destruction

Hactivist

have a philosophical and political reason for breaking into systems and will often deface the website as a protest

White-hat hacker

work at the request of the system owners to find systems vulnerabilities and plug the holes

Virus

software written with malicious intent to cause annoyance of damage

Adware

software that, although purporting to serve some useful function and ofen fulfilling that function, also allows internet advertisers to display advertisements without the consent of the computer user

Malware

software that is intended to damage or disable computers

Ransomware

form of malicious software that infects your computer and asks for money

Scareware

a type of malware designed to tricl victims into giving up personal information to purchase or download useless and potentially dangerous software

Spyware

special class of adware that collects data about the user and transmits it over the internet without the users knowledge or permission

Worm

a type of virus that spreads itself, not only from file to file, but also from computer to computer. The primary difference between a virus and a worm is that a virus must attach to something, such as an executable file, in order to spread. Worms do no need to attach to anything to spread and can tunnel themselves into computer

Backdoor program

viruses that open a way into the network for future attacks

Denial of service attack (DoS)

floods a website with so many request for service that it slows down or crashes the site

Trojan horse virus

hides inside other software, usually as an attachment or a downloadable file

Insiders

legitimate users who purposely or accidently misuse their access

Social Engineering

hackers use their social skills to trick people into revealing access credentials

Dumpster diving

looking through peoples trash

Pretexting

form of social engineering where one lies to obtain confidential data about another

Identity theft

the forging of someones identity for the purpose of fraud

Phishing

a technique to gain personal information for the purpose of identity theft, usually by means of fraudulent email

Pharming

reroutes requests for legitimate websites to false websites.

Biometrics

system that captures and stores characteristics like fingerprints, facial recognition,

Content Filtering

prevents emails containing sensitive information from transmitting and stops spam and viruses from spreading

Encryption

scrambles information so much decrypt when received

Firewalls

hardware and/or software that guards a private network by analyzing the information leaving and entering the network

Phases of Decision Making

Problem Identification → define problem clearly

Data Collection → gather related data, who, what, where, why, how, when

Solution Generation → detail all solutions even farfetched ones

Solution Test → evaluate in terms of feasibility, suitability, and acceptability

Solution Selection → select what best solve the problem and meets businesses needs

Solution Implementation→ correct = solved problem; incorrect = problem persist, start process again

Structured Decision

situations where established processes offer potential solutions.

computer could solve it

EX gross pay

Semi-structure Decision

happens in situations where a few established processes help evaluate potential solutions, not enough to be a definite reccommended decision

computer can help but not solve

EX budgeting to different departments

Unstructured/nonstructured Decision

happens in situations where no procedures or rules exist to guide in making the correct decision

EX where to go to school, offering a new product line

Recurring Decision

repeating or periodically repeating

EX payroll, accounts receivable,

Nonrecurring Decision

Ad hoc decision

infrequently

EX company merger, location decision

Critical Success Factor (CSF)

the crucial steps companies make to perform to achieve their goals and objectives and implement strategies

Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

the quantifiable metrics a company uses to evaluate progress towards critical success factors; they are measurable

Efficiency MIS Metrics

Measures the performance of MIS itself, like throughput, transaction speed, and system availability

Effectiveness MIS Metrics

measures the impact MIS has on business processes and activities, including customer satisfaction and customer conversation rates

Decision Support System (DSS)

Models information to support managers and business professionals during the decisionmaking process

assist in decision making

for semi and unstructured decisions

Model Management Component

store and access models