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Why is information an important ressource for organisations?
-Globalisation (management of a global market)
-Increasing importance of the information economy (knowledge and information-based market economies)
-Change in the organisational structures (decentralisation, less hierarchy, location independence, etc.)
-Emergence of the networked enterprise (Relationships with customers, suppliers and employees supported by electronic means of communication)
How can Information Technology (IT) be defined?
IT is the hardware and software a business uses to achieve its objectives.
How can Information Systems (IS) be defined?
ISs are the interrelated components that manage information to: Support decision-making and control, help with analysis, visualisation, and product creation.
Which six strategic business objectives do organisations try to achieve by investing in information systems?
-Operational Excellence: Achieve operational efficiency and thus increase profits.
-New products, services and business models: Information Systems enable firms to create new products, services and business models.
-Customer and supplier intimacy: Customers who are served well, become repeat customers who purchase more. Similarly, the more a business engages with suppliers, the more it can contribute to reduce costs.
-Improved decision making: Without accurate information, managers must use forecasts, best guesses, and luck, resulting in misallocation of resources, inventory, employees.
-Competitive Advantage: Achieving the previous business goals allows them to reach a competitive advantage, which means offering better products at lower prices.
-Survival: Businesses may need to invest in information systems out of necessity. It is simply the cost of doing business (e.g. Citibank's introduction of ATMs Federal and state regulations and reporting requirements).
What is data?
A stream of raw facts.
What is information?
Data shaped into meaningful, useful form.
What is feedback?
Feedback is the output returned to appropriate members of an organisation to help evaluate or correct input stage.
What is the difference between computers and information systems?
Computers and software are technical foundation and tools, similar to the material and tools used to build a house.
What are the three basic activities in an information system that provide information for organisations?
Input, Processing, and Output
What are the three dimensions of information systems?
-Organisations
-Management
-Technology
What does the hierarchy in a business organisation typically look like?
What is the business information value chain?
What is Business Informatics?
What is an organisation from a technical perspective?
An organisation is a stable, formal social structure that processes resources from the environment to produce outputs.
What are the key properties of an organisation from a technical perspective?
• More stable than an informal group: longevity and routineness
• Formal legal entity: internal rules and procedures that must follow the laws
• Social structure: collection of social elements
What are the 3 elements of an organisation from a technical perspective?
What is an organisation from a behavioural perspective?
An organisation is a collection of rights, privileges, obligations, responsibilities delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution.
What are the 2 key properties of an organisation from a behavioural perspective?
• This definition emphasises group relationships, values, and structures.
• People working in organisations have arrangements and feelings which are not discussed in any formal rulebook
What is the behavioural view of an organisation?
What is the difference between the technical and behavioural perspective of organisations?
The technical definition embeds organisations in a competitive market.
The behavioural definition focuses on individual firms and its inner working.
What are routines, business processes, and firms?
What is organisational culture?
Organisational culture are the “rules” taken for granted, rarely announced or discussed, which define how and where to produce, and who produces.
What are disruptive technologies?
What organisational types exist?
-Entreprenureal structure: Young, small firm in a fast-changing environment. It has a simple structure and is managed by an entrepreneur serving as its single chief executive officer (e.g. small start-up business).
-Machine bureaucracy: Large bureaucracy exists in a slowly changing environment, producing standard products. It is dominated by a centralised management team and centralised decision-making (e.g. mid-size manufacturing firm).
-Divisionalised bureaucracy: Combination of multiple machine bureaucracies, each producing a different product or service, all topped by one central headquarters (e.g. large manufacturing firms).
-Professional bureaucracy: Knowledge-based organisation where goods and services depend on the expertise and knowledge of professionals. Dominated by department heads with weak centralised authority (e.g. Hospital, Universities).
How can information systems reduce the amount of levels in an organisation?
Information systems can reduce the number of levels in an organisation by providing managers with information to supervise larger numbers of workers and by giving lower-level employees more decision-making authority.
Which four factors affect information systems innovations adaption?
- Structure of organisation
- Tasks affected by innovation
- Nature of the innovation
- Culture of organisation
What is Porter‘s competitive forces model?
What are switching costs?
Costs in the form of lost time or resource expenditure that a customer or a company suffer from when changing from one supplier or information system to a competitor or a competing system.
What is the value chain model?
The value chain model is a business model that includes a series of activities, each one adding value to products or services.
What is the value web?
What are models for the value of a network?
What are Strategic Information Systems (SIS)?
Strategic Information Systems are present at every level of the organisation. They influence goals, operations, products, services or relationships with the corporate environment to give the company a competitive advantage.
What types of decisions exist?
What kind of decisions do senior managers, middle managers and operational managers usually make?
What are the stages in the decision-making process?
What are the four main types of application systems?
What are databases and Database Management Systems (DBMS)?
What are relational DBMS?
What is normalization in databases?
