IS223 Chapter 1: IS and UPS Case

What are the inputs of UPS’s package tracking system?

Inputs: The inputs include package information, customer signature, pickup,
delivery, time-card data, current location (while in route), and billing and customer
clearance documentation.

What are the dimensions of the UPS tracking system?

Organizational: Procedures for tracking packages and managing inventory and provide information

Management: Monitoring service levels and costs

Technology: Handheld computers, bar-code scanners, networks, desktop
computers, and so on

What are the processing of UPS’s package tracking system?

Processing: The data are transmitted to a central computer and stored for
retrieval. Data are also reorganized so that they can be tracked by customer
account, date, driver, and other criteria.

What are the outputs of UPS’s package tracking system?

Outputs: The outputs include pickup and delivery times, where to go next, and
package recipient. The outputs also include various reports, such as all packages
for a specific account or a specific driver or route, as well as summary reports for
management

What strategic business objectives do UPS’s information systems address?

▪ Operational excellence – faster and more reliable deliveries
▪ New products, services, and business models – customers can
track, reroute, and get notifications.
▪ Customer and supplier intimacy – e-commerce delivery services,
integration with retailers.
▪ Improved decision making – ORION uses real-time data to
minimize miles driven, better routes = less fuel use = lower prices
▪ Competitive advantage – technology enables the long-standing
UPS promise: best service, lowest rates

What are networks? (IMPORTANT)

A provider that connects data between system:

Internet

WWW: Internet service that uses universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information in a page format on the Internet

Intranet (company’s defined community, ex. BU Webprint)

Extranet: Firms use to coordinate their activities with other firm to make purchases, collabing on design, performing other inter-organizational work

What is information technology?

The hardware and software a business uses to achieve objectives

What is an information system? (IMPORTANT)

Interrelated components that manage information to:

• Support decision-making and control

• Help with analysis, visualization, and product creation

• IS works at the intersection of organizations, management, and technology. Using IS effectively requires an understanding of how those three components shape the systems

How is data different from information?

• Data: streams of raw facts

• Information: data shaped into meaningful, useful form

What are the activities in an information system that produce information (IMPORTANT)

Activities in an information system that produce information:

• Input: captures raw data from the external environment

• Processing: converts raw input into a meaningful form (classifying, arranging, performing calculations)

• Output: transfers the processed information to the people who will use it/activities for which it will be used

• Feedback: output that is returned to the appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate or correct the input stage

What technologies are used by UPS? How are these technologies
related to UPS’s business strategy?

• Technologies include handheld computers (DIADs), barcode scanning
  systems, wired and wireless communications networks, desktop computers,
  UPS’s central computer (large mainframe computers), and storage technology
  for the package delivery data.

• UPS also uses telecommunication technologies for transmitting data through
  pagers and cellular phone networks.

• The company uses in-house software for tracking packages, calculating
  fees, maintaining customer accounts, and managing logistics, as well as
  software to access the World Wide Web.

Overall, the technology also enables data to seamlessly flow throughout UPS and helps streamline the workflow at UPS, making them more competitive, efficient, and profitable