Book Report, Print

8/6/2019 Book Report, Print

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PART ONE: THE INFORMATION AGE

THE DIGITAL AND ICT REVOLUTIONS

What is the digital revolution?

Technological breakthroughs have revolutionized communications and the

spread of information. In 1875, for example, the invention of the telephone breached

distance through sound. Between 1910 and 1920, the first AM radio stations began to

broadcast sound. By the 1940s television was broadcasting both sound and visuals to

a vast public. In 1943, the worlds first electronic computer was created. However, it

was only with the invention of the microprocessor in the 1970s that computers

became accessible to the public. In the 1990s, the Internet migrated from universities

and research institutions to corporate headquarters and homes.

All of these technologies deal with information storage and transmission.

However, the one characteristic of computer technology that sets it apart from earlier

analog technologies is that it is digital. Analog technologies incorporate acombination of light and sound waves to get messages across, while digital

technology, with its system of discontinuous data or events, creates a universal

model to represent information that is expressed by almost anything using light and

sound waves.1 To use an analogy, a digital world is a world united by one language,

a world where people from across continents share ideas with one another and work

together to build projects and ideas. More voluminous and accurate information is

accumulated and generated, and distributed in a twinkling to an audience that

understands exactly what is said. This in turn allows the recipients of the information

to use it for their own purposes, to create ideas and to redistribute more ideas. The

result is progress. Take this scenario to a technological levelall kinds of computers,

equipment and appliances interconnected and functioning as one unit. Even today, we


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see telephones exchanging information with computers, and computers playing

compressed audio data files or live audio data streams that play music over the

Internet like radios. Computers can play mov ies and tune in to television. Some

modern homes allow a person to control central lighting and air-conditioning through

computers. These are just some of the features of a digital world.

Box 1. Wearable Computer Systems Wearable computers are entire systems

that are carried by the user, from the CPU and hard drive, to the power supply and all

input/output devices. Such systems are under development here at the (MIT) Media

Lab, where we are also working to create prototypes of uniquely affective wearablesystems. The size and weight of these wearable hardware systems are dropping, even

as [their] durability...is increasing. We are also designing clothing and accessories

(such as watches, jewelry, etc.) into which these devices may be embedded to make

them not only unobtrusive and comfortable to the user, but also invisible to others.

Wearable computers allow us to create systems that go where the user goes,

whether at the office, at home, or in line at the bank. More importantly, they provide

a platform that can maintain constant contact with the user in the variety of ways that

the system may require; they provide computing power for the all affective

computing needs, from affect sensing to the applications that can interpret,

understand and use the data; and they can store the applications and user input data in

on-board memory. Finally, such systems can link to personal computers and to the

Internet, providing the same versatility of communications and applications as most

desktop computers.

Chapter 1 (Business information system)

For most businesses, there are a variety of requirements for information.

Senior managers need information to help with their business planning. Middle

management need more detailed information to help them monitor and control


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business activities. Employees with operational roles need information to help them

carry out their duties.

As a result, businesses tend to have several "information systems" operating at

the same time. This revision note highlights the main categories of information

system and provides some examples to help you distinguish between them.

The main kinds of information systems in business are described briefly below:

Information

System

Description

Executive

Support

Systems

An Executive Support System ("ESS") is designed to help

senior management make strategic decisions. It gathers, analyses

and summarises the key internal and external information used in

the business.

A good way to think about an ESS is to imagine the senior

management team in an aircraft cockpit - with the instrument

panel showing them the status of all the key business activities.

ESS typically involve lots of data analysis and modeling tools

such as "what-if" analysis to help strategic decision-making.

Management

Information

Systems

A management information system ("MIS") is mainly

concerned with internal sources of information. MIS usually take

data from the transaction processing systems (see below) and

summaries it into a series of management reports.

MIS reports tend to be used by middle management and

operational supervisors.


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Decision-

Support

Systems

Decision-support systems ("DSS") are specifically designed to

help management make decisions in situations where there is

uncertainty about the possible outcomes of those decisions. DSS

comprise tools and techniques to help gather relevant information

and analyze the options and alternatives. DSS often involves use

of complex spreadsheet and databases to create "what-if" models.

Knowledge

Management

Systems

Knowledge Management Systems ("KMS") exist to help

businesses create and share information. These are typically used

in a business where employees create new knowledge and

expertise - which can then be shared by other people in the

organization to create further commercial opportunities. Good

examples include firms of lawyers, accountants and management

consultants.

KMS are built around systems which allow efficient

categorization and distribution of knowledge. For example, the

knowledge itself might be contained in word processing

documents, spreadsheets, Power Point presentations. INTERNET

pages or whatever. To share the knowledge, a KMS would use

group collaboration systems such as an intra net.

Transaction

Processing

Systems

As the name implies, Transaction Processing Systems ("TPS") are

designed to process routine transactions efficiently and accurately.

A business will have several (sometimes many) TPS; for example:

- Billing systems to send invoices to customers

- Systems to calculate the weekly and monthly payroll and tax

payments

- Production and purchasing systems to calculate raw material


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requirements

- Stock control systems to process all movements into, within and

out of the business

Office

Automation

Systems

Office Automation Systems are systems that try to improve the

productivity of employees who need to process data and

information. Perhaps the best example is the wide range of

software systems that exist to improve the productivity of

employees working in an office (e.g. Microsoft Office XP) or

systems that allow employees to work from home or whilst on the

move.

Chapter 2 (Strategic uses ofinformation)

Should Architects aspireto be Product Managers?

One of the interesting trends I am observing is that Architectures aspiring to

be Product Managers. Have recently come across multiple PM who were architects

and have also been approached my a few who are interested in becoming one.

Following are my thoughts on when Architects should consider PM as their career

path.

1. A true Business Architect with the ability to map the technology strategy toalign with the Business Strategy


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2. Good understanding and hopefully first hand experience interacting with thereal customer (not the business units)

3. Good understanding of revenue and business model4. Passionate and believe about the role of the products in the customers life

(whatever they are using the product for)

5. Ability to influence cross-functional team and get everyone passionate andfocused on the product

6. Willing to change course mid-stream based on customer/market feedback7. Ability to ride up and down the market roller coaster8. Ability to keep singularly focused on an single product/portfolio

Do not take on the role:

1. by assuming that PM get to define the product and every one else will followwithout any questions (the PM is responsible for bringing every one on board)

2. consider whether one would be a great Architect vs. a good Product Manager(focus on what one is better at doing - a great advise given to me by my

manager)

3. do not want to deal with constant communication with customers / leadershipteams

4. assume that the grass is greener there - doing what one does best shall reap theright rewards

The concept of Strategic Information Systems or "SIS" was first introduced into

the field of information systems in 1982-83 by Dr. Charles Wiseman, President of a

newly formed consultancy called "Competitive Applications," (cf. NY State records

for consultancies formed in 1982) who gave a series of public lectures on SIS in NYC

sponsored by the Datamation Institute, a subsidiary of Datamation Magazine.


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In 1984 Wiseman published an article on this subject (co-authored by Prof. Ian

MacMillan) in the Journal of Business Strategy (Journal of Business Strategy, fall,

1984)

In 1985 he published the first book on SIS called "Strategy and Computers:

Information Systems as Competitive Weapons" (Dow-Jones Irwin, 1985; translated

into French by Bertrand Kaulek and into Italian by Professor Fabio Corno of Bocconi

University). In 1988 an expanded version of this book called "Strategic Information

Systems" was published by Richard D. Irwin. This book was translated into Japanese

by Professor Shinroki Tsuji and published by Diamond Publishing. Over 50,000copies have been sold.

The following quotations from the Preface of the first book ("Strategy and

Computers: Information Systems as Competitive Weapons") establishes the basic

idea behind the notion of SIS:

"I began collecting instances of information systems used for strategic purposes

five years ago, dubbing them "strategic information systems" (Internal Memo,American Can Company (Headquarters), Greenwich, CT, 1980). But from the start I

was puzzled by their occurrence. At least theoretically I was unprepared to admit the

existence of a new variety of computer application. The conventional view at the time

recognized only management information systems, and management support systems,

the former used to automate basic business processes and the latter to satisfy the

information needs of decision makers. (Cf. articles by Richard Nolan, Jack Rockart,

Michael Scott Morton, et al. at that time)...But as my file of cases grew, I realized that

the conventional perspective on information systems was incomplete, unable to

account for SIS. The examples belied the theory,and the theory in general blinded

believers from seeing SIS. Indeed, some conventional information systems planning

methodologies, which act like theories in guiding the systematic search for computer


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application opportunities, exclude certain SIS possibilities from what might be found.

(ibid.)"

"This growing awareness of the inadequacy of the dominant dogma of the day led

me to investigate the conceptual foundations, so to speak, of information systems. At

first, I believed that the conventional gospel could be enlarged to accommodate SIS.

But as my research progressed, I abandoned this position and concluded that to

explain SIS and facilitate their discovery, one needed to view uses of computer

(information) technology from a radically different perspective."

"I call this the strategic perspective on information systems (technology). The

chapters to follow present my conception of it. Written for top executives and line

managers, they show how computers (information technology) can be used to support

or shape competitive strategy."

Most of the second book, Strategic Information Systems, was exposed from 1985 to

1988 to MBA students at the Columbia University Graduate School of Business and

to a large number of practitioners seeking to apply SIS concepts to disparate industrysettings. Since that time the concept has stimulated journals on the subject,

dissertations, and extensive critical research. (References: search Google Scholar,

Clusty, et al. using the terms: Strategic Information Systems, SIS, Charles Wiseman,

et al.)

Strategic systems are information systems that are developed in response to

corporate business initiative. They are intended to give competitive advantage to the

organization. They may deliver a product or service that is at a lower cost, that is

differentiated, that focuses on a particular market segment, or is innovative.

Some of the key ideas of storefront writers are summarized. These include

Michael Porters Competitive Advantage and the Value Chain, Charles Wisemans


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Strategic Perspective View and the Strategic Planning Process, F. Warren McFarlans

Competitive Strategy with examples of Information Services Roles, and Gregory

Parsons Information Technology Management at the industry level, at the firm level,

and at the strategy level.

General Definition

Strategic information systems are those computer systems that implement

business strategies; They are those systems where information services resources are

applied to strategic business opportunities in such a way that the computer systems

have an impact on the organizations products and business operations. Strategic

information systems are always systems that are developed in response to corporate

business initiative. The ideas in several well-known cases came from information

Services people, but they were directed at specific corporate business thrusts. In other

cases, the ideas came from business operational people, and Information Services

supplied the technological capabilities to realize profitable results.

Most information systems are looked on as support activities to the business.

They mechanize operations for better efficiency, control, and effectiveness, but they

do not, in themselves, increase corporate profitability. They are simply used to

provide management with sufficient dependable information to keep the business

running smoothly, and they are used for analysis to plan new directions. Strategic

information systems, on the other hand, become an integral and necessary part of the

business, and directly influence market share, earnings, and all other aspects of

marketplace profitability. They may even bring in new products, new markets, and

new ways of doing business. They directly affect the competitive stance of the

organization, giving it an advantage against the competitors.

Most literature on strategic information systems emphasizes the dramatic

breakthroughs in computer systems, such as American Airlines' Sabre System and


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American Hospital Supplys terminals in customer offices. These, and many other

highly successful approaches are most attractive to think about, and it is always

possible that an equivalent success may be attained in your organization. There are

many possibilities for strategic information systems, however, which may not be

dramatic breakthroughs, but which will certainly become a part of corporate decision

making and will, increase corporate profitability. The development of any strategic

information systems always enhances the image of information Services in the

organization, and leads to information management having a more participatory role

in the operation of the organization.

The three general types of information systems that are developed and in

general use are financial systems, operational systems, and strategic systems. These

categories are not mutually exclusive and, in fact, they always overlap to some. Well-

directed financial systems and operational systems may well become the strategic

systems for a particular organization.

Financial systems are the basic computerization of the accounting, budgeting,

and finance operations of an organization. These are similar and ubiquitous in all

organizations because the computer has proven to be ideal for the mechanization and

control or financial systems; these include the personnel systems because the

headcount control and payroll of a company is of prime financial concern. Financial

systems should be one of the bases of all other systems because they give a common,

controlled measurement of all operations and projects, and can supply trusted

numbers for indicating departmental or project success. Organizational planning must

be tied to financial analysis. There is always a greater opportunity to develop strategic

systems when the financial systems are in place, and required figures can be readily

retrieved from them.


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Operational systems, or services systems, help control the details of the

business. Such systems will vary with each type of enterprise. They are the computer

systems that operational managers need to help run the business on a routing basis.

They may be useful but mundane systems that simply keep track of inventory, for

example, and print out reorder points and cost allocations. On the other hand, they

may have a strategic perspective built into them, and may handle inventory in a way

that dramatically impacts profitability. A prime example of this is the American

Hospital Supply inventory control system installed on customer premises. Where the

great majority of inventory control systems simply smooth the operations and give

adequate cost control, this well-know hospital system broke through with a new

version of the use of an operational system for competitive advantage. The great

majority of operational systems for which many large and small computer systems

have been purchased, however, simply help to manage and automate the business.

They are important and necessary, but can only be put into the "strategic" category it

they have a pronounced impact on the profitability of the business.

All businesses should have both long-range and short-range planning of

operational systems to ensure that the possibilities of computer usefulness will be

seized in a reasonable time. Such planning will project analysis and costing, system

development life cycle considerations, and specific technology planning, such as for

computers, databases, and communications. There must be computer capacity

planning, technology forecasting, and personnel performance planning. It is more

likely that those in the organization with entrepreneurial vision will conceive of

strategic plans when such basic operational capabilities are in place and are well

managed.

Operational systems, then, are those that keep the organization operating

under control and most cost effectively. Any of them may be changed to strategic


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systems if they are viewed with strategic vision. They are fertile grounds for new

business opportunities.

Strategic systems are those that link business and computer strategies. They

may be systems where a new business thrust has been envisioned and its advantages

can be best realized through the use of information technology. They may be systems

where new computer technology has been made available on the market, and planners

with an entrepreneurial spirit perceive how the new capabilities can quickly gain

competitive advantage. They may be systems where operational management people

and Information Services people have brainstormed together over business problems,and have realized that a new competitive thrust is possible when computer methods

are applied in a new way.

There is a tendency to think that strategic systems are only those that have

been conceived at what popular, scientific writing sometimes calls the "achtpunckt."

This is simply synthetic German for "the point where you say acht! or thats it!"

The classical story of Archimedes discovering the principle of the density of matter

by getting into a full bathtub, seeing it overflow, then shouting "Eureka!" or "I have

found it!" is a perfect example of an achtpuncht. It is most pleasant and profitable if

someone is brilliant enough, or lucky enough, to have such an experience. The great

majority of people must be content, however, to work step-by-step at the process of

trying to get strategic vision, trying to integrate information services thinking with

corporate operational thinking, and trying to conceive of new directions to take in

systems development. This is not an impossible task, but it is a slow task that requires

a great deal of communication and cooperation. If the possibilities of strategic

systems are clearly understood by all managers in an enterprise, and they approach

the development of ideas and the planning systematically, the chances are good that

strategic systems will be result. These may not be as dramatic as American Airlines

Sabre, but they can certainly be highly profitable.


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There is general agreement that strategic systems are those information

systems that may be used gaining competitive advantage. How is competitive

advantage gained?. At this point, different writers list different possibilities, but none

of them claim that there may not be other openings to move through.

Some of the more common ways of thinking about gaining competitive advantage

are:

y Deliver a product or a service at a lower cost. This does not necessarily meanthe lowest cost, but simply a cost related to the quality of the product or

service that will be both attractive in the marketplace and will yield sufficient

return on investment. The cost considered is not simply the data processing

cost, but is the overall cost of all corporate activities for the delivery of that

product or service. There are many operational computer systems that have

given internal cost saving and other internal advantages, but they cannot be

thought of as strategic until those savings can be translated to a better

competitive position in the market.

y Deliver a product or service that us differentiated. Differentiation means theaddition of unique features to a product or service that are competitive

attractive in the market. Generally such features will cost something to

produce, and so they will be the setting point, rather than the cost itself.

Seldom does a lowest cost product also have the best differentiation. A

strategic system helps customers to perceive that they are getting some extras

for witch they will willingly pat.

y Focus on a specific market segment. The idea is to identify and create marketniches that have not been adequately filled. Information technology is

frequently able to provide the capabilities of defining, expanding, and filling a

particular niche or segment. The application would be quite specific to the

industry.


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y Innovation. Develop products or services through the use of computers thatare new and appreciably from other available offerings. Examples of this are

automatic credit card handing at service stations, and automatic teller

machines at banks. Such innovative approaches not only give new

opportunities to attract customers, but also open up entirely new fields of

business so that their use has very elastic demand.

Almost any data processing system may be called "strategic" if it aligns the

computer strategies with the business strategies of the organization, and there is close

cooperation in its development between the information Services people andoperational business managers. There should be an explicit connection between the

organizations business plan and its systems plan to provide better support of the

organizations goals and objectives, and closer management control of the critical

information systems.

Many organizations that have done substantial work with computers since the

1950s have long used the term "strategic planning" for any computer developments

that are going to directly affect the conduct of their business. Not included are budget,

or annual planning and the planning of developing Information Services facilities and

the many "housekeeping" tasks that are required in any corporation. Definitely

included in strategic planning are any information systems that will be used by

operational management to conduct the business more profitably. A simple test would

be to ask whether the president of the corporation, or some senior vice presidents,

would be interested in the immediate outcome of the systems development because

they felt it would affect their profitability. If the answer is affirmative, then the

system is strategic.

Strategic system, thus, attempt to match Information Services resources to

strategic business opportunities where the computer systems will have an impact on


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the products and the business operations. Planning for strategic systems is not defined

by calendar cycles or routine reporting. It is defined by the effort required to impact

the competitive environment and the strategy of a firm at the point in time that

management wants to move on the idea.

Effective strategic systems can only be accomplished, of course, if the capabilities are

in place for the routine basic work of gathering data, evaluating possible equipment

and software, and managing the routine reporting of project status. The calendarized

planning and operational work is absolutely necessary as a base from which a

strategic system can be planned and developed when a priority situation arises. Whena new strategic need becomes apparent, Information Services should have laid the

groundwork to be able to accept the task of meeting that need.

Strategic systems that are dramatic innovations will always be the ones that

are written about in the literature. Consultants in strategic systems must have clearly

innovative and successful examples to attract the attention of senior management. It

should be clear, however, that most Information Services personnel will have to

leverage the advertised successes to again funding for their own systems. These

systems may not have an Olympic effect on an organization, but they will have a

good chance of being clearly profitable. That will be sufficient for most operational

management, and will draw out the necessary funding and support. It helps to talk

about the possibilities of great breakthroughs, if it is always kept in mind that there

are many strategic systems developed and installed that are successful enough to be

highly praised within the organization and offer a competitive advantage, but will not

be written up in the Harvard Business Review.

Another way of characterizing strategic information systems is to point out

some of the key ideas of the foremost apostles of such systems.

Porters Competitive Advantage


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sustainable competitive advantage. It is possible that the answer lies in information

technology together with good management._Porter claims that the principal types of

competitive advantage are low cost producer, differentiation, and focus. A firm has a

competitive advantage if it is able to deliver its product or service at a lower cost than

its competitors. If the quality of its product is satisfactory, this will translate into

higher margins and higher returns. Another advantage is gained if the firm is able to

differentiate itself in some way. Differentiation leads to offering something that is

both unique and is desired, and translates into a premium price. Again, this will lead

to higher margins and superior performance._It seems that two types of competitive

advantage, lower cost and differentiation, are mutually exclusive. To get lower cost,

you sacrifice uniqueness. To get a premium price, there must be extra cost involved

in the process. To be a superior performer,_however, you must go for competitive

advantage in either cost or differentiation._Another point of Porters is that

competitive advantage is gained through a strategy bases on scope. It is necessary to

look at the breadth of a firms activities, and narrow the competitive scope to gain

focus in either an industry segment, a geographic area, a customer type, and so on.

Competitive advantage is most readily gained by defining the competitive scope in

which the firm is operating, and concentrating on it._Based on these ideas of type and

scope, Porter gives a useful tool for analysis which he calls The Value Chain (Figure

No. 1). This value chain gives a framework on which a useful analysis can be hung.

The basic notion is that to understand competitive advantage in any firm, one cannot

look at the firm as a whole. It is necessary to identify the specific activities which the

firm performs to do business. Each firm is a collection of the things that it does that

all add up to the product being delivered to the customer. These activities are

numerous and are unique to every industry, but it is only in these activities wherecost

advantage or differentiation can be gained._The basic idea is that the firms activities

can be divided into nine generic types. Five are the primary activities, which are the

activities that create the product, market it and deliver it; four are the support

activities that cross between the primary activities. The primary activities are:


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y Inbound logistics, which includes the receipt and storage of material, and thegeneral management of supplies.

y Operations, which are the manufacturing steps or the service steps.y Outbound logistics, which are associated with collecting, storing, and

physically distributing the product to buyers. In some companies this is a

significant cost, and buyers value speed and consistency.

y Marketing and sales includes customer relations, order entry, and pricemanagement.

y After-sales services covers the support of the product in the field, installation,customer training, and so on.

The support activities are shown across the top of Figure No. 1 because they are a

part of all of the firms operations. They are not directed to the customer, but they

allow the firm to perform its primary activities. The four generic types of support

activities are:

y Procurement, which includes the contracting for and purchase of rawmaterials, or any items used by the enterprise. Part of procurement is in the

purchasing department, but it is also spread throughout the organization.

y Technology development may simply cover operational procedures, or many be involved with the use of complex technology. Today, sophisticated

technology is pervasive, and cuts across all activities; it is not just an R&D

function.

y Human resource management is the recruiting, training, and development ofpeople. Obviously, the cuts across every other activity.

y Firm infrastructure is a considerable part of the firm, including the accountingdepartment, the legal department, the planning department, government

relations, and so on.


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The basic idea is that competitive advantage grows out of the firms ability to

perform these activities either less expensively than its competitors, or in a unique

way. Competitive advantage should be linked precisely to these specific activities,

and not thought of broadly at a firm-wide level. This is an attractive way of thinking

for most information Services people, as it is, fundamentally, the systems analysis

approach. Computer people are trained to reduce systems to their components, look

for the best application for each component, then put together an interrelated

system._Information technology is also pervasive throughout all parts of the value

chain. Every activity that the firm performs has the potential to imbed information

technology because it involves information processing. As information technology

moves away from repetitive transaction processing and permeates all activities in the

value chain, it will be in a better position to be useful in gaining competitive

advantage. Figure No. 2, Value Chain: Key Activities, gives a brief example of a

typical analysis of a value chain for a manufacturing company. It is obvious that

information processing plays an important role in all these key activities._Porter

emphasizes what he call the linkages between the activities that the firm performs. No

activities in a firm are independent, yet each department is managed separately. It is

most important to understand the cost linkages that are involved so that the firm may

get an overall optimization of the production rather than departmental optimizations.

A typical linkage might be that if more is spent in procurement, less is spent in

operations. If more testing is done in operations, after-sales service costs will be

lower. Multifunctional coordination is crucial to competitive advantage, but it is often

difficult to see. Insights into linkages give the ability to have overall optimization.

Any strategic information system must be analyzed across all departments in the

organization._Cost and Competitive Advantage. Cost leadership is one of Porters

two types of competitive advantage. The cost leader delivers a product of acceptable

quality at the lowest possible cost. It attempts to open up a significant and sustainable

cost gap over all other competitors. The cost advantage is achieved through superior

position in relation to the key cost drivers._Cost leadership translates into above-


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average profits if the cost leader can command the average prices in the industry. On

the other hand, cost leaders must maintain quality that is close to, or equal to, that of

the competition. Achieving cost leadership usually requires trade-offs with

differentiation. The two are usually incompatible._Note that a firms relative cost

position cannot be understood by viewing the firm as a whole. Overall cost grows out

of the cost performing discrete activities. Cost position is determined by the

cumulative cost of performing all value activities._To sustain cost advantage, Porter

gives a number of cost drivers which must be understood in detail because the

sustainability of cost advantage in an activity depends on the cost drivers of that

activity. Again, this type of detail is best obtained by classical systems analysis

methods. Some of the cost drivers which must be analyzed, understood, and

controlled are:

y Scale. The appropriate type of scale must be found. Policies must be set toreinforce economies of scale in scale-sensitive activities.

y Learning. The learning curve must be understood and managed. As theorganization tries to learn from competitors, it must strive to keep its own

learning proprietary.

y Capacity Utilization. Cost can be controlled by the leveling of throughput.y Linkages. Linkages should be exploited within the value chain. Work with

suppliers and channels can reduce costs.

y Interrelationships. Shared activities can reduce costs.y Integration. The possibilities for integration or de-integration should be

examined systematically.

y Timing. If the advantages of being the firs mover or a late mover areunderstood, they can be exploited.

y Policies. Policies that enhance the low-cost position or differentiation shouldbe emphasized.


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y Location. When viewed as a whole, the location of individual activities can beoptimized.

y Institutional Factors. Institutional factors should be examined to see whethertheir change may be helpful.

Care must be taken in the evaluation and perception of cost drivers because there are

pitfalls if the thinking is incremental and indirect activities are ignored. Even though

the manufacturing activities, for example, are obvious candidates for analyses, they

should not have exclusive focus. Linkages must be exploited and cross-subsidies

avoided. Porter gives five steps to achieving cost leadership:

y Identify the appropriate value chain and assign costs and assets to it.y Identify the cost drivers of each value activity and see how they interact.y Determine the relative costs of competitors and the sources of cost

differences.

y Develop a strategy to lower relative cost position through controlling costdrivers or reconfiguring the value chain.

y est the cost reduction strategy for sustainability.Differentiation Advantage

Differentiation is the second of Porters two types of competitive advantage.

In the differentiation strategy, one or more characteristics that are widely value by

buyers are selected. The purpose is to achieve and sustain performance that is

superior to any competitor in satisfying those buyer needs._A differentiator

selectively adds costs in areas that are important to the buyer. Thus, successful

differentiation leads to premium prices, and these lead to above-average profitably if

there is approximate cost parity. To achieve this, efficient forms of differentiation

must be picked, and costs must be reduced in areas that are irrelevant to the buyer

needs._Buyers are like sellers in that they have their own value chains. The product


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being sold will represent one purchased input, but the seller may affect the buyers

activities in other ways. Differentiation can lower the buyers cost and improve the

buyers performance, and thus create value, or competitive advantage, for the buyer.

The buyer may not be able to assess all the value that a firm provides, but it looks for

signals of value, or perceived value.

A few typical factors which may lower the buyers costs are:

y Less idle timey Lower risk of failurey Lower installation costsy Faster processing timey Lower labor costsy Longer useful life, and so on.

Figure No. 3 Representative Sources of Differentiation, shows a number of

typical examples of activities that should be considered. It indicates the breadth and

detail that must be involved in the study._Porter points out that differentiation isusually costly, depending on the cost drivers of the activities involved. A firm must

find forms of differentiation where it has a cost advantage in

differentiating._Differentiation is achieved by enhancing the sources of uniqueness.

These may be found throughout the value chain, and should be signaled to the buyer.

The cost of differentiation can be turned to advantage if the less costly sources are

exploited and the cost drivers are controlled. The emphasis must be on getting a

sustainable cost advantage in differentiating. Efforts must be made to change the

buyers criteria by reconfiguring the value chain to be unique in new ways, and by

preemptively responding to changing buyer or channel

circumstances._Differentiation will nor work if there is too much uniqueness, or

uniqueness that the buyers do not value. The buyers ability to pay a premium price,


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the signaling criteria, and the segments important to the buyer must all be understood.

Also, there cannot be over reliance on sources of differentiation that competitors can

emulate cheaply or quickly.

Porter lists seven steps to achieving differentiation:

y Determine the identify of the real buyer.y Understand the buyers value chain, and the impact of the sellers product on

it.

y Determine the purchasing criteria of the buyer.y Assess possible sources of uniqueness in the firms value chain.y Identify the cost of these sources of uniqueness.y Choose the value activities that create the most valuable differentiation for the

buyer relative to the costs incurred.

y Test the chosen differentiation strategy for sustainability.

Focus Strategies for Advantage. Porters writings also discuss focus strategies. He

emphasizes that a company that attempts to completely satisfy every buyer does nothave a strategy. Focusing means selecting targets and optimizing the strategies for

them. Focus strategies further segment the industry. They may be imitated, but can

provide strategic openings._Clearly, multiple generic strategies may be implemented,

but internal inconsistencies can then arise, and the distinctions between the focused

entities may become blurred._Porters work is directed towards competitive

advantage in general, and is not specific to strategic information systems. It has been

reviewed here at some length, however, because his concepts are frequently referred

to in the writings of others who are concerned with strategic information systems.

The value chain concept has been widely adopted, and the ideas of low cost and

differentiation are accepted. This section, therefore, is an introduction into a further


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discussion of strategic information systems. The implementation of such systems

tends to be can implementation of the factors elucidated by Porter.

Wisemans Strategic Perspective View

Charles Wiseman has applied the current concepts of Strategic Information

Systems in work at GTE and other companies, and in his consulting work as

President of Competitive Applications, Inc. His book, Strategy and Computers:

Information Systems as Competitive Weapons, extends Porters thinking in many

practical ways in the Information Systems area, and discusses many examples of

strategic systems.

Wiseman emphasizes that companies have begun to use information systems

strategically to reap significant competitive advantage. He feels that the significance

of these computer-based products and services does not lie in their technological

sophistication or in the format of the reports they produce; rather, it is found in the

role played by these information systems in the firms planning and implementation

in gaining and maintaining competitive advantage.

Wiseman points out that although the use of information systems may not

always lead to competitive advantage, it can serve as an important tool in the firms

strategic plan. Strategic systems must not be discovered haphazardly. Those who

would be competitive leaders must develop a systematic approach for identifying

strategic information systems (SIS) opportunities. Both business management and

information management must be involved.

He emphasizes that information technology is now in a position to be

exploited competitively. A framework must be developed for identifying SIS

opportunities. There will certainly be competitive response, so one should proceed

with strategic thrusts based on information technology. These moves are just as


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important as other strategic thrusts, such as acquisition, geographical expansion, and

so on. It is necessary to plan rationally about acquisition, major alliances with other

firms, and other strategic thrusts.

IMBS Business Systems Planning (BSP) and MITs Critical Success Factor (CSF)

methodologies are ways to develop information architectures and to identify

conventional information systems, which are primarily used for planning and control

purposes. To identify SIS, a new model or framework is needed. The conventional

approach works within the perceived structures of the organization. An effective SIS

approach arises from the forging of new alliances that expand the horizon ofexpectation. Such an approach is most difficult to attain, and can only work with top

management support. Innovations, however, frequently, come from simply a new

look at existing circumstances, from a new viewpoint. Information Services people

must start to look systematically at application opportunities related to managers.

Wiseman believes that the range of opportunities is limited by the framework

adopted. He contrasts the framework for Conventional IS Opportunities (Figure No.

4) with the framework for Strategic IS Opportunities (Figure No. 5).

In the conventional view, there are two information system thrusts: to

automate the basic processes of the firm, or to satisfy the information needs of

managers, professionals, or others. There are three generic targets: strategic planning,

management control, and operational control. In this perspective, there are, thus, six

generic opportunity areas.

In the strategic view of IS opportunities, there are five strategic information

thrusts and three strategic targets. This gives fifteen generic opportunity areas. This

opens up the range and perspective of management vision.


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Sustainable competitive advantage can mean many things to different firms.

Competitive advantage may be with respect to a supplier, a customer, or a rival. It

may exist because of a lower price, because of desirable features, or because of the

various resources that a firm possesses. Sustainability is also highly relative,

depending upon the business. In established businesses, it may refer to years, and the

experience that the firm develops may be quite difficult to emulate. In other

industries, a lead of a few weeks or months may be all that is necessary.

There is an advantage in looking at Figure No. 5 as a study group, and

brainstorming through it to find out what information may be needed to do a jobbetter. One can find competitive advantage in information systems when the subjects

are broken down to specifics.

Strategic Thrusts. Wiseman uses the term strategic thrusts for the moves that

companies make to gain or maintain some kind of competitive edge, or to reduce the

competitive edge of one of the strategic targets. Information technology can be used

to support or to shape one or more of these thrusts. Examining the possibilities of

these thrusts takes imagination, and it is helped by understanding what other firms

have done in similar situations. This is why so many examples are presented in the

literature. Analogy is important.

There is no question that there is considerable overlap between conventional

information systems and strategic information systems. Systems are complex and a

great deal of data is involved. The idea is to look at this complexity in a new light,

and see where competitive advantage might possibly be gained. Note that Wiseman

takes Porters three generic categories: low cost producer, differentiation, and focus,

and extends them to five categories: differentiation, cost, innovations, growth, and

alliance.


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Cost may be move that not only reduces the costs, but also reduces the costs

of selected strategic targets so that you will benefit form preferential treatment. A

strategic cost thrust may also aim at achieving economies of scale. The examples

always seem obvious when they are described, but the opportunities can usually only

be uncovered by considerable search.

Innovation is another strategic thrust that can be supported or shaped by

information technology in either product or process. In many financial firms, the

innovative product is really an information system. Innovation requires rapid

response to opportunities to be successful, but this carries with it the question ofconsiderable risk. There can be no innovation without risk, whether information

systems are included or not. Innovation, however, can achieve advantage in product

or process that results in a fundamental transformation in the way that type of

business is conducted.

Grown achieves an advantage by expansion in volume or geographical

distribution. It may also come from product-time diversification. Information systems

can be of considerable help in the management of rapid growth.

Alliance gains competitive advantage by gaining growth, differentiation, or

cost advantages through marketing agreements, forming joint ventures, or making

appropriate acquisitions.

The Strategic Planning Process. Wiseman advocates brainstorming and the

systematic search for SIS opportunities. He has had considerable success with a

formalized framework for surfacing ideas. He describes his SIS Planning Process in

five phases:


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y Phase A: Introduce the Information Services management to SIS concepts.Give an overview of the process describe cases. Gain approval to proceed

with an idea-generation meeting in Information Service.

y Phase B: Conduct an SIS idea-generation meeting with Information Servicesmiddle management. Test the SIS idea-generation methodology. Identify

significant SIS areas for executive consideration.

y PhaseC: Conduct an SIS idea-generation meeting with senior InformationServices management. Identify SIS ideas, and evaluate them together with the

ideas from the previous meeting

y Phase D: Introduce the top business executives to the SIS concept. Discusssome of the SIS ideas that were considered for the business. Gain approval to

proceed with the SIS idea-generation meetings with business planners.

y Phase E: Conduct an SIS idea-generation meeting with the corporateplanners. Identify some SIS ideas and evaluate them together with the ideas

that have emerged from the previous meeting.

Wiseman points out that the whole idea is designed to introduce the strategic

perspective on information systems, stimulate the systematic search for SIS

opportunities, and evaluate and select a set of projects that are expected to secure the

greatest competitive advantage for the firm. In the idea-generation meetings of Phases

B, C, and E of the process, there are always seven explicit steps:

y Give a Tutorial on Competitive Strategy. Introduce the concepts of strategicthrusts, strategic targets, and competitive strategy.

y Apply SIS Concepts to Actual Cases. Develop an understanding of SISpossibilities and their strategic thrusts and targets.

y Review the Companys Competitive Position. Try to understand its presentsbusiness position and its strategies.

y Brainstorm for SIS Opportunities. Generate SIS ideas in small groups.


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y Discuss the SIS Opportunities. Use the experience of the group to correlateand condense the SIS ideas.

y Evaluate the SIS Opportunities. Consider the competitive significance of theSIS ideas.

y Detail the SIS Blockbusters. Select the best SIS ideas, and detail theircompetitive advantages and key implementation issues.

Wiseman says that typical SIS idea-generation meetings will last for days. Each

step takes about two hours, at least. The process generates many good SIS ideas, and

a few will always be considered well worth implementation. Top management beginsto focus their attention on SIS opportunities. The ideas that are generated can produce

significant competitive advantage.

Chapter 3 (Business Functions and Supply Chains)

Supply chain management (SCM) is the management of a network of

interconnected businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service

packages required by end customers (Harland, 1996).[1] Supply chain management

spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and

finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption (supply chain).

Another definition is provided by the APICS Dictionary when it defines SCM as the

"design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with

the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging

worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance

globally."


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In an economy that produces and consumes so much information,

professionals must know how to use information systems in virtually every business

activity. Managers must have an overall understanding of all elements of a system, so

that they know what options are available to control quality, costs, and resources.

Modern information systems encompass whole business cycles, often called supply

chains. When you finish this chapter, you will be able to:

y Identify various business functions and the role of ISs in these functions.y Explain how ISs in the basic business functions relate to each other.y Articulate what supply chains are and how information technology supports

management of supply chains.

y Enumerate the purposes of customer relationship management systems.y Explain the notion of enterprise resource planning systems.Something had to give: Eats2Gos business expansion to more carts and to chip

manufacturing had worked so well that Juan Moreno was drowning in piles of sales

receipts. He had hired a part-time assistant to help him input the receipts to the

businesss spreadsheet program, but that solution was no longer enough. The labor-

intensive process simply had to go. Luckily, Juan, Kendra Banks, and Dave Slater

found a solution in a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA) with wireless mobile

printer software. The sales staff manning the carts keyed the customers menu

selections into the PDAs and printed a receipt. Later, the information was

downloaded from the PDAs to the businesss main accounting system. The time

saved by automating the sales transactions allowed Juan to concentrate on bigger

issues the partners faced: tracking sales, costs, and profitability.

As part of his monthly sales analysis, Juan printed sales reports segregated by

each of the three carts. When he did so, he noticed that sales from the Robbins Park

pushcart were dropping. Their Subwich competitor was drawing customers from the

Robbins Park cart. Also, Juan noticed that business was even worse during colder

months and bad weather. The partners needed to turn the situation around.


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A New Opportunity Appears

Earlier Juan, Kendra, and Dave had decided to find their own kitchen space to

handle their increased food volume. When they were looking for rental space, they

ran across a vacant storefront in Campus Town. Instead of simply renting kitchen

space, they decided theyd open a small restaurant with its own kitchen. That way,

they could meet their Subwich competitor head on, offering dinners as well as

lunches and not worrying about the change of seasons or weather. They could also

use the restaurants kitchen for chip manufacturing when the restaurant was closed.

The telephones at the offices of Capital One Financial Corp., a leading credit-card

issuer, ring more than a million times per week. Cardholders call to ask about their

balance or to ensure that the company received their recent payment. While callers

almost immediately hear a human voice at the other end, computers actually do the

initial work. The computers use the callers telephone number to search the

companys huge databases. Inferring from previous calls and numerous recorded

credit-card transactions of the caller, the computers predict the reason for calling.

Based on the assumed reason, the computers channel the call to one of 50 employees

who can best handle the situation. Important information about the caller is brought

up on the employees computer monitor. Although callers usually do not contact the

company to make purchases, the computer also brings up information about what the

caller might want to purchase. As soon as the customer service representative

provides the caller with satisfactory answers, he or she also offers the cardholder

special sales. Many callers do indeed purchase the offered merchandise. All of these

stepsaccepting the call, reviewing and analyzing the data, routing the call, and

recommending merchandisetake the computers a mere tenth of a second. It is often

said that the use of information technology makes our work more effective, more

efficient, or both. What do these terms mean? Effectiveness defines the degree to

which a goal is achieved. Thus, a system is more or less effective depending on

(1) how much of its goal it achieves, and

(2) the degree to which it achieves better outcomes than other systems do.


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Efficiency is determined by the relationship between resources expended and

the benefits gained in achieving a goal. Expressed mathematically,

One way to look at business functions and their supporting systems is to

follow typical business cycles, which often begin with marketing and sales activities

(see Figure 3.1). Serving customers better and faster, as well as learning more about

their experiences and preferences, is facilitated by customer relationship management

(CRM) systems. When customers place orders, the orders are executed in the supply

chain. Customer relationship management continues after delivery of the ordered

goods in the forms of customer service and more marketing. When an organization

enjoys the support of CRM and supply chain management (SCM) systems, it can plan

its resources well. Combined, these systems are often referred to as enterprise

resource planning (ERP) systems.


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Shows some of the most common business activities and their

interdependence. For example, cost accounting systems are linked to payroll,

benefits, and purchasing systems to accumulate the cost of products manufactured by

a company; and information from purchasing systems flows to both cost accounting

and financial reporting systems. The following discussion addresses the role of

information systems, one business function at a time.

PART TWO: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGI

Information technology (IT) is the acquisition, processing, storage and

dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a

microelectronics based combination of computing and telecommunications The term

in its modern sense first appeared in a 1958 article published in theHarvard Business

Review, in which authors Leavitt and Whisler commented that "the new technology

does not yet have a single established name. We shall call it information

technology(IT)."

General information

IT is the area of managing technology and spans wide variety of areas that

include but are not limited to things such as processes, computer software,

information systems, computer hardware, programming languages, and data

constructs. In short, anything that renders data, information or perceived knowledge

in any visual format whatsoever, via any multimedia distribution mechanism, is

considered part of the domain space known as Information Technology (IT).

IT professionals perform a variety of functions (IT Disciplines/Competencies)

that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and

information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include


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data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and

software design, as well as management and administration of entire systems.

Information technology is starting to spread further than the conventional personal

computer and network technology, and more into integrations of other technologies

such as the use of cell phones, televisions, automobiles, and more, which is

increasing the demand for such jobs.

Chapter 4 (Business Hardware)

IBM business hardware products offer the best of both worlds IBM's

heritage of technical innovation and reliability in hardware tailored to meet your

business needs and resources. You can rely on our business hardware products to be

affordable and easy to use, deploy and manage.

Chapter 5 (Business software)

This article is about software made for business, if you were looking for the

business of selling software Software business.

Business software is generally any software program that helps a business

increase productivity or measure their productivity. The term covers a large variation

of uses within the business environment, and can be categorized by using a small,

medium and large matrix:


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y The small business market generally consists of home accounting software,and office suites such as Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org.

y The medium size, or SME, has a broader range of software applications,ranging from accounting, groupware, customer relationship management,

human resources software, outsourcing relationship management, loan

origination software, shopping cart software, field service software, and other

productivity enhancing applications.

y The last segment covers enterprise level software applications, such as thosein the fields of enterprise resource planning, enterprise content management

(ECM), business process management (BPM) and product lifecycle

management. These applications are extensive in scope, and often come with

modules that either add native functions, or incorporate the functionality of

third-party software programs.

Chapter 6 (Business networkand telecommunications)

Some students take to networking naturally, but many find it the most difficult

course conceptually in their information systems (IS) program.

In programming, your learn to write code in projects of various sizes.

Database also tends to have projects in which you build something.

In networking, however, your learn more abstract skills, especially design and

troubleshooting.

In both skills, you must understand a large number of different concepts and

use them together. If there is something you do not know, your network design will

almost certainly be wrong, and your troubleshooting will be ineffective.


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In particular, you must not study concepts in isolation. When you design, you

must know the pros and cons of alternatives. So when you study several technologies,

be able to compare and contrast them very well.

Also, be very cautious about cramming. There are a lot of similar concepts

you must distinguish. When people cram just before an exam, similar concepts tend

to run together. At the same time, most students do very well in networking. It just

takes a lot of work.

Chapter 7 (Databases and datawarehouses)

So how is a data warehouse different from you regular database? After all,

both are databases, and both have some tables containing data. If you look deeper,

you'd find that both have indexes, keys, views, and the regular jing-bang. So is that

'Data warehouse' really different from the tables in you application? And if the two

aren't really different, maybe you can just run your queries and reports directly from

your application databases! Well, to be fair, that may be just what you are doing right

now, running some EOD (end-of-day) reports as complex SQL queries and shippingthem off to those who need them. And this scheme might just be serving you fine

right now. Nothing wrong with that if it works for you. But before you start patting

yourself on the back for having avoided a data warehouse altogether, do spend a

moment to understand the differences, and to appreciate the pros and cons of either

approach. The primary difference betwen you application database and a data

warehouse is that while the former is designed (and optimized) to record , the latter

has to be designed (and optimized) to respond to analysis questions that are critical

for your business. Application databases are OLTP (On-Line Transaction Processing)

systems where every transaction has to be recorded, and super-fast at that. Consider

the scenario where a bank ATM has disbursed cash to a customer but was unable to

record this event in the bank records. If this started happening frequently, the bank


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wouldn't stay in business for too long. So the banking system is designed to make

sure that every trasaction gets recorded within the time you stand before the ATM

machine. This system is write-optimized, and you shouldn't crib if your analysis

query (read operation) takes a lot of time on such a system.

A Data Warehouse (DW) on the other end, is a database (yes, you are right, it's a

database) that is designed for facilitating querying and analysis. Often designed as

OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) systems, these databases contain read-only

data that can be queried and analysed far more efficiently as compared to your regular

OLTP application databases. In this sense an OLAP system is designed to be read-

optimized. Separation from your application database also ensures that your business

intelligence solution is scalable (your bank and ATMs don't go down just because the

CFO asked for a report), better documented and managed (god help the novice who is

given the application database diagrams and asked to locate the needle of data in the

proverbial haystack of table proliferation), and can answer questions far more

efficietly and frequently. Creation of a DW leads to a direct increase in quality of

analyses as the table structures are simpler (you keep only the needed information in

simpler tables), standardized (well-documented table structures), and often

denormalized (to reduce the linkages between tables and the corresponding

complexity of queries). A DW drastically reduces the 'cost-per-analysis' and thus

permits more analysis per FTE. Having a well-designed DW is the foundation

successful BI/Analytics initiatives are built upon.

If you are still running your reports off the main application database, answer this

simple question: Would the solution still work next year with 20% more customers,

50% more business, 70% more users, and 300% more reports? What about the year

after next? If you are sure that your solution will run without any changes, great!!


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However, if you have already budgeted to buy new state-of-the-art hardware and 25

new Oracle licenses with those partition-options, and the 33 other cool-sounding

features, good luck to you. (You can probably send me a ticket to Hawaii, since it's

gonna cost you just a minute fraction of your budget)

A data warehouse (DW) is a database used for reporting. The data is uploaded

from the operational systems for reporting. The data may pass through an operational

data store for additional operations before it is used in the DW for reporting.

A data warehouse maintains its functions in three layers: staging, integration,

and access. Staging is used to store raw data for use by developers (analysis and

support). The integration layer is used to integrate data and to have a level of

abstraction from users. The access layer is for getting data out for users. This

definition of the data warehouse focuses on data storage. The main source of the data

is cleaned, transformed, catalogued and made available for use by managers and other

business professionals for data mining, online analytical processing, market research

and decision support (Marakas & OBrien 2009). However, the means to retrieve and

analyze data, to extract, transform and load data, and to manage the data dictionary

are also considered essential components of a data warehousing system. Many

references to data warehousing use this broader context. Thus, an expanded definition

for data warehousing includes business intelligence tools, tools to extract, transform

and load data into the repository, and tools to manage and retrieve metadata.

So how is a data warehouse different from your regular database? After all,

both are databases, and both have some tables containing data. If you look deeper,youd find that both have indexes, keys, views, and the regular jing-bang. So is that

Data warehouse really different from the tables in you application? And if the two

arent really different, maybe you can just run your queries and reports directly from

your application databases!


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Well, to be fair, that may be just what you are doing right now, running some

EOD (end-of-day) reports as complex SQL queries and shipping them off to those

who need them. And this scheme might just be serving you fine right now. Nothing

wrong withthat if itworks for you. But before you start patting yourself on the back

for having avoided a data warehouse altogether, do spend a moment to understand the

differences, and to appreciate the pros and cons of either approach.

The primary difference betwen you application database and a data warehouse

is that while the former is designed (and optimized) to record, the latter has to be

designed (and optimized) to respondto analysis ques

tions that are critical for your

business. Application databases are OLTP (On-Line Transaction Processing) systems

where every transation has to be recorded, and super-fast at that. Consider the

scenario where a bank ATM has disbursed cash to a customer but was unable to

record this event in the bank records. If this started happening frequently, the bank

wouldnt stay in business for too long. So the banking system is designed to make

sure that every trasaction gets recorded within the time you stand before the ATM

machine. This system is write-optimized, and you shouldnt crib if your analysis

query (read operation) takes a lot of time on such a system.

A Data Warehouse (DW) on the other end, is a database (yes, you are right,

its a database) that is designedfor facilitating querying and analysis. Often designed

as OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) systems, these databases contain read-only

data that can be queried and analysed far more efficiently as compared to your regular

OLTP application databases. In this sense an OLAP system is designed to be read-

optimized.


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PART THREE: WEB-ENABLED COMMERCE

Commerce Generation is the premier provider of e-Commerce solutions on

Microsoft Commerce Server platform. Our e-Commerce Solution Framework

provides the latest industry trends and features that maximize conversion rates. Our

ever evolving platform utilizes the latest SEO principles to ensure optimum

placement. Commerce Generations Solution Framework empowers business users

through feature-rich merchandizing, marketing and customer service dashboards as

well as a Content Management System.

Chapter 8 (TheWeb-Enabled Enterprise)

y The Web provides a universal standardy Enables seamless integration of information exchanges

Withinthe business

Between business and customers/suppliers

y Unbundling of products and product infoy Reductions in search costs for both buyer and sellery Information asymmetry for buyersy Richness and reachy New business models (discussed later)


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Chapter 9 (Challenges ofGlobal Information System)

ABSTRACT

In a global economy, organizations are increasingly selling online in multiple

markets, as well as coordinating work teams distributed across geopolitical, cultural,

and language boundaries. These factors play an important role in informing the

design of effective and appropriate human-computer interfaces. In this paper we

explore issues in interface localization, and the challenge of designing for multiple

markets and audiences. We use a high-speed low cost analysis of different national

and linguistic versions of the home pages of Yahoo! and Google to illustrate the

power and speed of this approach.

Many organizations are exploiting the opportunities of networked

technologies to sell their products and services not just in domestic markets but

internationally. Just as domestic e-commerce can open up dramatic cost savings and

potential for new niches and modes of selling, so too can international e-commerce.

While creating immense opportunities for growth and diversification, the resultant

pressures from new international competitors are also impelling many organizations

to expand not just their sales but also their operations from a domestic to a

multinational perspective. Online systems are especially valuable for multinational

organizations whose members are geographically distributed and may be culturally

diverse. These online systems can help fill the structural holes in networks (Burt,

1992; Ardichvili, Page and Wentling, 2003) to get richer information and solve

problems more quickly.


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PART FOUR DEECISION SUPPORT AND BUSINESS

INTELLEGENT

Chapter 10 Decision supportand expert systems

Covers Information Systems to support managers and other decision makers

in organizations. As a Business School student, you will be responsible for exercising

judgment and making decisions throughout your personal and professional lives.

From site locations and personnel decisions to selecting new advertising campaigns

and deciding to accept a new position, the ability to make effective decisions and

employ and deploy Decision Support Systems and other Management Support

Systems is a necessary skill for professionals in marketing, finance, accounting,

government, law, music, medicine, etc.

I'm not trying to turn you into Excel whizzes or Visual Basic programmers

(though the course requirements include Excel-related assignments and Excel and

Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) projects). You should have prior experience

with Excel, but prior knowledge of VBA is not a prerequisite for the course.

By the end of the course, you should be more aware of the influences of

cognitive biases and group think on decision makers, be able to identify both

potential uses of Information Technology to support decision makers and potential

effects of Information Technology on the decision process and decisions, and be able

to employ Excel and VBA to structure and analyze data for decision making

purposes.


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Chapter 11 Business intelligenceand knowledge management

Nowdays, economic organizations are subject to external forces that they must

live with and react to: increasing sophistication of competitors, customers and

suppliers, globalization of business, international competition. Perhaps the most

critical component for success of the modern enterprise is its ability to take advantage

of all available information - both internal and external. Its a real challenge, due to

the tremendous flow of information its facing every day. Also, the nature of

information itself has changed, in terms of volume, availability and importance. The

data to be considered becomes more and more complex in both structure and

semantics.

With the Internet, Intranets, Groupware systems the volume of available data

increases each day customer communications, internal research reports or

competitors web sites are just some sources of electronic data. Intellectual property

and assets, knowledge are contained within the huge volumes of information and

leveraging this value is increasingly important in the competitive market.

Making sense of all this information, gaining value and competitive advantage

through represents real challenges for the enterprise. The IT solutions designed to

address these challenges have been developed in two different approaches: structured

data management and unstructured content management. We can even think at these

approaches in a more general perspective as being information management

technologies and knowledge management technologies being aware in the same

time that information management its a part of knowledge management, as

information can be considered a type of knowledge (explicit knowledge).


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PART FIVE: PLANNING, ACQUISITION, AND

CONTROLS

The acquisition program baseline is established at the final investment

decision coincident with approval of an investment program for implementation. The

cost and schedule baselines are developed during final investment analysis by the

service organization (working within the investment analysis team) that will

implement and manage the program throughout its lifecycle. The performance

baseline contains the key performance parameters and their associated values that are

essential to meet the mission need. The key performance parameters are obtained

from the program requirements document for the IDA-selected solution.

Certain critical parameters within each baseline in the APB are designated for

IDA control. These parameters define the empowerment boundaries of the service

team during solution implementation. They relate to corporate FAA's commitment to

satisfying the mission need, achieving needed operational capability, and meeting the

schedule requirements of interdependent programs. IDA controls are identified during

final investment analysis by the investment analysis team and approved by the IDA.

Chapter 12 (Systems planning and development)

The Transportation Systems Planning and Development Branch is responsible for:

y Developing strategic plans and policies for sustainable transportation systems tomeet the present and future needs of the province.

y Identifying emerging planning issues and developing strategic options for policyconsideration.


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y Directing transportation system studies and undertaking economic and serviceanalysis of infrastructure projects as an input to highway investment decision

making

y Advancing strategic initiatives to enhance the safety, security, effectiveness,efficiency and sustainability of Manitobas transportation network.

y Reviewing major provincial and local land use policies and documents to ensurethat the provincial transportation system and adjacent land uses are compatible;

and the safe, efficient operation of the provincial transportation system is not

jeopardized.

y Leading the process of public/stakeholder consultations on transportationinfrastructure planning, in particular, inter-jurisdictional discussions with other

Canadian and US transportation authorities to ensure that our transportation

systems and policies complement each other and facilitate the safe and efficient

movement of people and freight.

y Ensuring that economic development, land use, social considerations and otherissues are incorporated into transportation infrastructure planning.

y Developing innovative highway financing strategies and technical informationand policy advice, toward achieving sustainable highway systems.

y Providing technical information and advice on transportation costs, service andother information to public and private sector organizations and agencies.

Chapter 13 Choices in System Acquisition

The focus of this session is on different types or categories of information

system there are in organizations. The aim of the session is to give you a better

understanding of what types of information system there are, what they do and the

choices that need to be faced when developing or acquiring such systems.


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By the end of this session you should have:

y an improved understanding of the range of different types of informationsystem that are available to organizations

y an appreciation of the range of options that face an organization that wishs tomake use such systems

y an appreciation of the social, tactical and strategic implications of the choicesmade when deploying them

This session will begin to look at these issues more closely. In many ways this

session itself will be a 'classic' example of this type of course; we will look at what

types of information systems are available, the ways in which they can be obtained

and the choices that need to be made in doing so.

This is not a technical course, nor is it a course on engineering. We will not look

at the technical details of the different types of system, instead we will examine how

they can affect the way an organization operates, the different ways in which an

organization can go about obtaining the systems it needs and analyze the implications

of the choices that managers make when attempting to align their technological and

business strategies.

Chapter 14 (Risks Security and Disaster Recovery)

The IT Disaster Recovery Test as part of the Business Continuity testing is

becoming an annual event for most IT departments. It is mandated by a lot of

regulators, nearly insisted upon by internal audit and of course a very healthy thing to

do. But performing the IT DRP test without proper risk management can put your

organization at significant risk.


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initiation of theDRP test,

Backupcomponents

and Vendorpresence at

ready duringthe entire test.

Book Report, Print

Documents