tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6659205678000908882024-02-08T11:36:36.056-08:00Information Technologycaryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-7604189205916818012012-04-15T21:03:00.002-07:002012-04-15T21:03:48.849-07:00Chapter 15 - Managing Global Systems<!--StartFragment-->
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Today electronic companies
are assigning the distribution and production of their products to other
countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>International information
systems architecture consists of the basic information systems required by organizations
to coordinate worldwide trade and other activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The levels for developing an international
information systems architecture are the global environment, the corporate
global strategies, the structure of the organization, the management and business
processes, and the technology platform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
global environment the firm is operating in is the first place to start when
building an international system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
overall market forces, or business drivers, that are pushing the industry
toward global competition must be understood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A business driver is a force in the environment that businesses must
respond and that influences the direction of the business.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A corporate strategy for competing in that
environment will then need to be considered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Once a strategy is developed, how to structure the organization so it
can pursue the strategy is considered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Management issues must then be considered in implementing the strategy
and making the organization design come alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The final issue is to consider the technology platform.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The global environment
includes business drivers and challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Global business drivers can be divided into two groups:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>general cultural factors and specific
business factors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>General cultural
factors include global communication and transportation technologies, development
of global culture, emergence of global social norms, political stability, and
global knowledge base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Specific business
factors include global markets, global production and operations, global
coordination, global workforce, and global economies of scale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business challenges on a global level include
cultural particularism (regionalism, nationalism, language differences), social
expectations (brand-name expectations, work hours), and political laws
(transborder data and privacy laws, commercial regulations).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business challenges on a specific level
include standards (different Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), email,
telecommunications standards), reliability (phone networks not uniformly
reliable), speed (different data transfer speeds, many slower than US), and
personnel (shortages of skilled consultants).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">International companies
often times are behind in the most up-to-date applications and systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Significant difficulties are faced in
building appropriate international architectures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These difficulties involve planning a system
appropriate to the firm’s global strategy, structuring the organization of
systems and business units, solving implementation issues, and choosing the
right technical platform.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Corporations seeking a
global position face three organizational issues:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>choosing a strategy, organizing the business,
and organizing the systems management area.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Four main global strategies form the basis for global firms’
organizational structure:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>domestic
exporter, multinational, franchiser, and transnational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of these strategies is pursued with a
specific business organizational structure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Three kinds of organizational structure are centralized (in the home
country), decentralized (to local foreign units), and coordinated (all units
participate as equals). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A domestic
exporter strategy is characterized by heavy centralization of corporate
activities in the home country of origin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Most international companies begin this way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Production, finance/accounting,
sales/marketing, human resources, and strategic management are set up to
optimize resources in the home country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A multinational strategy concentrates financial management and control
out of a central home base while decentralizing production, sales, and
marketing operations to units in other countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Franchisers are a mix of old and new.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The product is created, designed, financed,
and initially produced in the home country, but for product-specific reasons
must rely heavily on foreign personnel for further production, marketing, and
human resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Transnational strategy
is where nearly all the value-adding activities are managed from a global
perspective without reference to national borders, optimizing sources of supply
and demand wherever they appear, and taking advantage of any local competitive
advantages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They take the globe as their
management frame of reference and there is a strong central management core of
decision-making.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Configuration, management,
and development of systems tend to follow the global strategy chosen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four types of systems configurations are
considered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Centralized systems are those
in which systems development and operation occur totally at the domestic home
base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are found in domestic
exporters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Duplicated systems are those
in which development occurs at the home base but operations are handed over to
autonomous units in foreign locations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are found in franchisers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Decentralized systems are those in which each foreign unit designs its
own unique solutions and systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
are found in multinationals, and somewhat in domestic exporters and
franchisers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Networked systems are those
in which systems development and operations occur in an integrated and
coordinated fashion across all units.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are found in transnationals, and somewhat in multinationals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">To develop a global company
and information systems support structure, firms need to follow the following
principles:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1) Organize value-adding
activities along lines of comparative advantage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(2) Develop and operate systems units at each
level of corporate activity—regional, national, and international.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(3) Establish at world headquarters a single
office responsible for development of international systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not only does the success of companies rely
on the proper organization of activities, but also a management team that can
understand the risks and benefits of international systems and that can devise
strategies for overcoming the risks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Management faces problems by
developing international systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
problems are also the main difficulties managers experience in developing
ordinary domestic systems, but they are enormously complicated in the
international environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They include
agreeing on common user requirements, introducing changes in business
processes, coordinating applications development, coordinating software
releases, and encouraging local users to support global systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Management needs to have
solutions to face these challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They
need to realize that not all systems should be coordinated on a transnational
basis, but only some core systems are truly worth sharing from a cost and
feasibility point of view.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Core systems
support the functions that are absolutely critical to the organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Step one is to define a short list of
critical core business processes by conducting a business process
analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second step is to conquer
the core systems and define these systems as truly transnational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The third step is to choose an approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last step is to make the benefits
clear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although each system offers
unique benefits to a particular budget, the overall contribution of global
systems lies in four areas:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>contribution
to superior management and coordination; vast improvement in production,
operation, and supply and distribution; global customers and global marketing;
the ability to optimize the use of corporate funds over a much larger capital
base.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The problems faced by
managers developing the global information systems architectures now have
solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Agreeing on common user
requirements:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>establishing a short list
of the core business processes and core support systems will begin a process of
rational comparison across the many divisions of the company, develop a common
language for discussing the business, and naturally lead to an understanding of
common elements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Introducing changes in
business processes:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>success as a change
agent will depend on legitimacy, authority, and ability to involve users in the
change design process; involving people in change, assuring them that change is
in the best interests of the company and their local units, is a key
tactic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coordinating applications
development:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>choice of change strategy
is critical for this problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Coordinating software releases:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>firms can institute procedures to ensure that all operating units
convert to new software updates at the same time so that everyone’s software is
compatible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Encouraging local users to
support global systems:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the key is to
involve users in the creation of the design without giving up control over the
development of the project to parochial interests; the overall tactic for
dealing with resistant local units is a transnational company is cooptation,
which is bringing the opposition into the process of designing and implementing
the solution without giving up control over the direction and nature of the
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Several alternatives are
possible for cooptation to proceed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
is to permit each country unit the opportunity to develop one transnational
application first in its home territory, and then throughout the world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another is to develop new transnational
centers of excellence, or a single center of excellence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Once a global business model
and systems strategy has been defined, firms must select hardware, software,
and networking standards, along with key system applications to support global
business processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hardware, software,
and networking pose technical challenges in an international setting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One is finding some way to standardize a
global computing platform when there is so much variation from operating unit
to operating unit and from country to country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Another is finding specific software applications that are user friendly
and that truly enhance the productivity of international work teams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overcoming these challenges requires systems
integration and connectivity on a global basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The goal with computing platforms is to develop global, distributed, and
integrated systems to support digital business processes spanning national
boundaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Data standards and other
technical standards with which sites are to comply must be established.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, integrated global systems must
have connectivity, which is the ability to link together the systems and people
of a global firm into a single integrated network.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Challenges for application
software also need to be addressed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
old system interfacing with the new is one issue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If new systems are to be built and tested,
this could be costly and messy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, it
should be taken into consideration to build software that can be realistically
used by multiple business units form different countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Problems also arise of human interface design
and functionality of systems with language becoming a barrier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-7584192636825477142012-04-15T21:02:00.000-07:002012-04-15T21:02:20.158-07:00Chapter 14 - Managing Projects<!--StartFragment-->
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It is essential to have some
knowledge about managing information systems projects and the reasons why they
succeed or fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A systems development
project without proper management will most likely suffer consequences such as
costs that vastly exceed budgets, unexpected time slippage, technical
performance that is less than expected, and failure to obtain anticipated
benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The actual design of the
system may fail to capture essential business requirements or improve
organizations performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition,
the way that nontechnical business users must interact with the system may be
excessively complicated and discouraging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Also, the data in the system may have a high level of inaccuracy or
inconsistency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Project management is the
application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to achieve specific
targets within specified budget and time constraints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Activities include planning the work,
assessing risk, estimating resources required to accomplish the work,
organizing the work, acquiring human and material resources, assigning tasks,
directing activities, controlling project execution, reporting progress, and
analyzing the results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Project
management must deal with five major variables:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>scope (defines what work is or is not included in a project), time (the
amount of time required to complete the project), cost (based on the time to
complete a project multiplied by the cost of human resources required to
complete the project), quality (an indicator of how well the end result of a
project satisfies the objectives specified by management), and risk (potential
problems that would threaten the success of a project).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Firms are presented with
many different projects for solving problems and improving performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The firm’s overall business strategy should
drive project selection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The management
structure for information systems project helps ensure that the most important
projects are given priority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the top
of the structure is the corporate strategic planning group, which is
responsible for developing the firm’s strategic plan, and the information
system steering committee, which is the senior management group with
responsibility for systems development and operation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They review and approve plans for systems in
all divisions, seek to coordinate and integrate systems, and occasionally
become involved in selecting specific information systems projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next level is the project management
group, which is composed of information systems managers and end-user managers
responsible for overseeing several specific information systems projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They supervise the project team and they are
responsible for the individual systems projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">An information systems plan
needs to be developed to identify the information systems projects that will deliver
the most business value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The plan serves
as a road map indicating the direction of systems development, the rationale,
the current system’s situation, new developments to consider, the management
strategy, the implementation plan, and the budget. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Critical success factors
(CSFs) are used to determine the information requirements of an
organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It relies on interviews
with key mangers to identify their CSFs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Individual CSFs are aggregated to develop CSFs for the entire firm and
systems can then be built to deliver information on these CFSs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Portfolio analysis can be
used to evaluate alternative system projects once strategic analyses have
determined the overall direction of systems development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It inventories all of the organization’s information
systems projects and assets, including infrastructure, outsourcing contracts,
and licenses, and each information systems project carries its own set of risks
and benefits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most desirable are
systems with high benefit and low risk because they promise early returns and
low risks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next, high-benefit, high-risk
systems should be examined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Systems that
are low-benefit, high-risk should be totally avoided.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Low-benefit, low-risk systems should be
reexamined for the possibility of rebuilding and replacing them with more
desirable systems having higher benefits.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Scoring models are useful
for selecting projects where many criteria must be considered because it
assigns weights to various features of a system and then calculates the
weighted totals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This model requires
experts who understand the issues and the technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These models are used most commonly to
confirm, to rationalize, and to support decisions, rather than as the final
arbiters of system selection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">A system project needs to be
a good investment for a firm, which is determined by the return on invested
capital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Costs of information systems
include the hardware, telecommunications, software, services, and personnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tangible benefits are cost savings and can be
quantified and assigned a monetary value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Examples include increased productivity, lower operational costs,
reduced workforce, lower computer expenses, lower outside vendor costs, and
reduced facility costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Intangible
benefits cannot be immediately quantified but may lead to quantifiable gains in
the long run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Examples include improved
asset utilization, improved resource control, improved organizational planning,
increased organizational learning, higher client satisfaction, and better
corporate image. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">All costs and benefits will
need to be calculated to determine if a project is feasible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If costs outweigh benefits, of course it is
not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If benefits outweigh costs,
additional financial analysis is required to determine whether the project
represents a good return on the firm’s invested capital.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One way to measure this is by using capital
budgeting models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This method relies on
measures of cash flows into and out of the firm; capital projects generate
those cash flows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">In some cases management may
benefit from using real options pricing models (ROPMs) to evaluate information
technology investments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These models use
the concept of options valuation borrowed from the financial industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It gives managers the flexibility to stage
their IT investment or test the waters with small pilot projects or prototypes
to gain more knowledge about the risks of a project before investing in the
entire implementation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Financial models have
limitations that are often overlooked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some companies’ information systems investment decisions do not
adequately consider costs from organizational disruptions created by a new
system, such as the cost to train end users, the impact that users’ learning
curves for a new system have on productivity, or the time managers need to
spend overseeing new system-related changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Benefits, such as more timely decisions from a new system or enhanced
employee learning and expertise may also be overlooked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The level of risk in
information systems projects is influenced by the project size, the project
structure, and the experience with technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Other risk factors include the complexity of information requirements,
the scope of the project, and how many parts of the organization will be
affected by a new information system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The introduction or alteration
of an information system has an impact on behavioral and organizational
elements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Careful change management is
needed for successful system building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The process of implementation must be examined to manage the
organizational change surrounding the introduction of a new information system
effectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Implementation is all
organizational activities working toward the adoption, management, and
routinization of an innovation, such as a new information system. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this process the systems analyst is a change
agent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>System implementation generally
benefits from high levels of user involvement and management support.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>User participation in the design and
operation of information systems has several positive results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the relationship between users and
information systems specialists has traditionally been a problem area for
information systems implementation efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Systems development projects run a high risk of failure when there is a
distinct gap between users and technical specialists and when these groups
continue to pursue different goals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
an information systems project has the backing and commitment of management at
various levels, it is more likely to be perceived positively by both users and
the technical information services staff. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, management support ensures that a
systems project receives sufficient funding and resources to be successful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It is not surprising to find
a high failure rate among enterprise application and business process
reengineering projects given the challenges of innovation and
implementation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These projects typically
require extensive organizational change and may require replacing old
technologies and legacy systems that are deeply rooted in many interrelated
business processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, projects related
to mergers and acquisitions have a similar failure rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are deeply affected by the
organizational characteristics of the merging companies as well as by their IT
infrastructures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Without a successful
systems integration, the benefits anticipated from the merger cannot be
realized, or the merged entity cannot execute its business processes
effectively.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Not all aspects of the
implementation process can be easily controlled or planned, however
anticipating potential implementation problems and applying appropriate
corrective strategies can increase the chances for system success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First, the level and nature of risk must be
identified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The success of projects
depends on how well their technical complexity can be managed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next, implementers can handle each project
with the tools and risk-management approaches geared to its level of risk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Large projects benefit from appropriate use
of formal planning tools and formal control tools for documenting and monitoring
project plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two most commonly
used methods are Gantt charts and PERT charts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Gantt charts lists project activities and their corresponding start and
completion dates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PERT charts
graphically depict project tasks and their interrelationships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They list the specific activities that make
up a project and the activities that must be completed before a specific
activity can start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Projects with relatively
little structure and many undefined requirements must involve users fully at
all stages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>External integration tools
links the work of the implementation team to that of users at all organizational
levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Overcoming user resistance is
another issue faced when implementing a project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The implementation strategy must not only
encourage user participation and involvement, but it must also address the
issue of counterimplementation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
a deliberate strategy to thwart the implementation of an information system or
an innovation in an organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Strategies to overcome user resistance include user participation, user
education and training, management edicts and policies, and better incentives
for users who cooperate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Information systems projects
must explicitly address the ways in which the organization will change when the
new system is installed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Organizational
factors that must be addressed when planning and implementing information
systems include employee participation and involvement, job design, standards
and performance monitoring, ergonomics (including equipment, user interfaces,
and the work environment), employee grievance resolution procedures, health and
safety, and government regulatory compliance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>System analysis and design activities should also include an
organizational impact analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
explains how a proposed system will affect organizational structure, attitudes,
decision-making, and operations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sociotechnical
design results in blending technical efficiency with sensitivity to
organizational and human needs, leading to higher job satisfaction and
productivity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Project management software
tools typically features capabilities for defining and ordering tasks,
assigning resources to tasks, establishing starting and ending dates to tasks,
tracking progress, and facilitating modifications to tasks and resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most widely used project management
software today is Microsoft Office Project 2010.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While project management software helps
organizations track individual projects, the resources allocated to them, and
their costs, project portfolio management software helps organizations manage
portfolios of projects and dependencies among them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-22583274102015082002012-04-15T21:01:00.001-07:002012-04-15T21:01:09.065-07:00Chapter 13 - Building and Managing Systems<!--StartFragment-->
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Building a new information
system is a planned organizational change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Information technology can promote various degrees of organizational
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four kinds of structural organizational
change that are enabled by information technology include automation,
rationalization, business process redesign, and paradigm shifts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of these carries different risks and
rewards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Automation is the most common
form of IT-enabled organizational change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is using the computer to speed up the performance of different
tasks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It frequently reveals new
bottlenecks in production and makes the existing arrangement of procedures and
structures painfully cumbersome.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Rationalization of procedures is the streamlining of standard operating
procedures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is often found in
programs for making a series of continuous quality improvements in products,
services, and operations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business
process redesign is where business processes are analyzed, simplified, and
redesigned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It reorganizes workflows
combining steps to cut waste and eliminate repetitive, paper-intensive
tasks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paradigm shift refers to
rethinking the nature of the business and the nature of the organization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Many businesses are trying
to use information technology to improve their business processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Organizations are turning to business process
management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This provides a variety of
tools and methodologies to analyze existing processes, design new processes,
and optimize those processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Companies
practicing business process management go through several steps.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first step is to identify processes for
change. The next step is to analyze existing processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The third step is to design the new
process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Step four is to implement the
new process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Step five is to
continuously measure the implemented process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Tools are also provided by software firms to help businesses identify
and document processes requiring improvement, create models of improved
processes, capture and enforce business rules for performing processes, and
integrate existing systems to support new or redesigned processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some BPM tools can document and monitor
business processes to help firms identify inefficiencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>BPM tools can also automate some parts of a
business process and enforce business rules so that employees perform that
process more consistently and efficiently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Another category of tools can help businesses integrate their existing
systems to support process improvements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They can automatically manage processes across the business, extract
data from various sources and databases, and generate transactions in multiple
related systems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Systems development are the
activities that go into producing an information system solution to an
organizational problem or opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a structured kind of problem solved with distinct activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These activities consist of systems analysis,
systems design, programming, testing, conversion, and production and
maintenance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">System analysis is the
analysis of a problem that a firm tries to solve with an information
system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It consists of defining the
problem, identifying its causes, specifying the solution, and identifying the
information requirements that must be met by a system solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The systems analysis process identifies
several alternative solutions that the organization can pursue and assess the
feasibility of each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The systems analyst
must define the specific information requirements that must be met by the
chosen system solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The information
requirements of a new system involve identifying who needs what information,
where, when, and how.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Systems design shows how a
system will meet the information requirements as determined by the systems
analysis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It consists of all the
specifications that give the system its form and structure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Systems designer details the system
specifications that will deliver the functions identified during systems
analysis.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Programming is where system
specifications that were prepared during the design stage are translated into
software program code.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Testing must be
conducted to ascertain whether the system produces the right results.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Testing can be broken down into three types
of activities:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>unit testing (testing
each program separately in the system), system testing (tests the functioning
of the information system as a whole), and acceptance testing (provides the
final certification that the system is ready to be used in a production
setting).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A test plan is then developed
which includes all the preparations for the series of tests.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Conversion is the process of changing from
the old system to the new system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four
main conversion strategies can be employed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These include the parallel strategy (both the old system and its
potential replacement are run together for a time until everyone is assured
that the new one functions correctly; it is the safest conversion approach),
the direct cutover strategy (replaces the old system entirely with the new
system on tan appointed day; it is a very risky approach), the pilot study
strategy (introduces the new system to only a limited area of the organization),
and the phased approach strategy (introduces the new system in stages, either
by functions or by organizational units).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Documentation showing how the system works from both a technical and
end-user standpoint is finalized during conversion time for use in training and
everyday operations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">During the production stage,
the system is reviewed by both users and technical specialists to determine how
well it has met its original objectives and to decide whether any revisions or
modifications are in order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once
fine-tuned, the system must be maintained while it is in production to correct
errors, meet requirements, or improve processing efficiency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maintenance is the changes in hardware,
software, documentation, or procedures to a production system to correct
errors, meet new requirements, or improve processing efficiency.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maintenance is approximately 20 percent
debugging or correcting emergency production problems, 20 percent concerned
with changes in data, files, reports, hardware, or system software, and 60
percent consists of making user enhancements, improving documentation, and
recoding system components for greater processing efficiency.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Structured methodologies and
object-oriented development are two alternative methodologies for modeling and
designing systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Structured
methodologies are used to document, analyze, and design information systems,
progressing from the highest, most abstract level to the lowest level of
detail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are process-oriented,
focusing primarily on modeling the processes, or actions that capture, store,
manipulate, and distribute data as the data flow through a system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This method separates data from
processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The primary tool for
representing a system’s component process and the flow of data between them is
the data flow diagram.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It offers a
logical graphic model of information flow, partitioning a system into modules
that show manageable levels of detail, and it specifies the processes or
transformations that occur within each module and the interfaces that exist
between them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another tool is a data
dictionary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It defines the contents of
data flows and data stores so that systems builders understand exactly what
pieces of data they contain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also,
software design is modeled using hierarchical structure charts, which is a
top-down chart showing each level of design, its relationship to other levels,
and its place in the overall design structure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Object-oriented development
uses the object as the basic unit of systems analysis and design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is based on the concepts of class and
inheritance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Objects belong to a certain
class, or general categories of similar objects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These classes are grouped into hierarchies in
which a subclass inherits the attributes and methods from its superclass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Computer-aided software
engineering (CASE) is the automation of step-by-step methodologies for software
and systems development to reduce the amounts of repetitive work the developer
needs to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CASE tools facilitate the
creation of clear documentation and the coordination of team development
efforts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They enforce common methods and
standards, which may discourage their use in situations where organizational
discipline is lacking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Alternative systems-building
approaches have been developed to deal with the fact that systems differ in
terms of their size and technological complexity and in terms of the
organizational problems they are meant to solve.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such approaches include the traditional systems
life cycle, prototyping, application software packages, end-user development,
and outsourcing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The systems life cycle is a
phased approach to building a system, dividing systems development into formal
stages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It maintains a formal division
of labor between end users and information system specialists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is used for building large complex systems
that require a rigorous and formal requirements analysis, predefined
specifications, and tight controls over the system-building process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, it can be costly, time-consuming,
and inflexible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Prototyping is the building
an experimental system rapidly and inexpensively for end users to
evaluate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The process of building a
preliminary design, trying it out, refining it, and trying again is known as an
iterative process of systems development.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Prototyping is more explicitly iterative and it actively promotes system
design changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The four steps of
prototyping are to identify the user’s basic requirements, develop an initial
prototype, use the prototype, and revise and enhance the prototype.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once no more iterations are required, the
approved prototype then becomes an operational prototype that furnishes the
final specifications for the application.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Prototyping encourages intense end-user involvement throughout the
systems development life cycle, however it can miss essential steps in systems
development and may not easily accommodate large quantities of data or a large
number of users in a production environment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">End-user development are
types of information systems developed by end users with little or no formal
assistance from technical specialists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fourth-generation languages make this possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are software tools that enable end
users to create reports or develop software applications with minimal or no
technical assistance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They tend to be
nonprocedural, or less procedural, than conventional programming languages,
which means they only specify what has to be accomplished rather than provide
details about how to carry out the task.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>End-user developed systems can be completed more rapidly than those
developed through the conventional systems life cycle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, is poses organizational risks
because it occurs outside of traditional mechanisms for information systems
management and control, and when systems are created rapidly, testing and
documentation may be inadequate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Using software packages that
are common to all business organizations can save a company time and
money.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the software package does not
meet all requirements for an organization, it can be customized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This feature allows a software package to be
modified to meet an organization’s unique requirements without destroying the
integrity of the packaged software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If
the package cannot be customized because the organization’s requirements
conflict with the way the package works, then the organization will have to
adapt to the package and change its procedures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Outsourcing is contracting
the applications development to external vendors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Firms may use this if they do to want to use
their internal resources to build or operate their information systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A company could also hire an external vendor
to design and create the software for its system, but that company would operate
the system on its own computers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Outsourcing
vendors may be domestic or in another country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Domestic outsourcing is driven by the fact that outsourcing firms
possess skills, resources, and assets that their clients do not have and it is
often less expensive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Offshore
outsourcing is more cost-driven and many of these firms offer world-class
technology assets and skills.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In order to keep up with the
digital environment and respond to new opportunities, organizations need to be
able to add, change, and retire their technology capabilities quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fast-cycle techniques such as rapid
application development (RAD), joint application design (JAD), agile
development, and reusable standardized software components allow them to do
so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>RAD is the process for developing
systems in a very short time period by using prototyping, fourth generation
tools, and close teamwork among users and systems specialists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>JAD is the process to accelerate the
generation of information requirements by having end users and information
systems specialists work together in intensive interactive design
sessions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Agile development focuses on
rapid delivery of working software by breaking a large project into a series of
small subprojects that are completed in short periods of time using iteration
and continuous feedback.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Component-based
development enables a system to be built by assembling and integrating existing
software components.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Web services can be
used as tools for building new information system applications or enhancing
existing systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can perform
certain functions on their own and they can engage other Web services to
complete more complex transactions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-16905898233752628552012-04-08T21:51:00.000-07:002012-04-08T21:51:29.409-07:00Chapter 12 - Enhancing Decision Making<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Decisions are made at all levels of an
organization as IS has made information available to these levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Decisions can be classified as structured,
semistructured, and unstructured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Structured decisions are repetitive and routine and they involve a
definite procedure for handling them so that they do not have to be treated
each time as if they were new. Operational management focuses these types of
decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unstructured decisions are
nonroutine decisions in which the decision maker must provide judgment,
evaluation, and insights into the problem definition, and there is no
well-understood or agreed-on procedure for making them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Middle management focuses these types of
decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Semistructured decisions have
elements of both structured and nonstructured decisions and are where only part
of the problem has a clear-cut answer provided by an accepted procedure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Senior management focuses these types of
decisions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The decision-making process is broken down into
four stages:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>intelligence design,
choice, and implementation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Intelligence
is discovering, identifying, and understanding the problems occurring in the
organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Design is identifying and
exploring various solutions to the problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Choice is choosing among solution alternatives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Implementation is making the chosen
alternative work and continuing to monitor how well the solution is
working.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the solution does not work,
return to an earlier stage in the process and repeat it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Managers play a key role in the organization
with a wide range of responsibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The classical model of management describes formal managerial functions
but does not address what exactly managers do when they plan, decide things,
and control the work of others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
contemporary model addresses that the actual behavior of managers appears to be
less systematic, more informal, less reflective, more reactive, and less well
organized than the classical model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Managers’
day-to-day behavior can be classified into 10 managerial roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Managerial roles are the expectations of the
activities that managers should perform in an organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These roles fall into three categories:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>interpersonal, informational, and
decisional.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Managers act as figureheads,
leaders, and liaisons in their impersonal role. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Managers act as the nerve centers,
disseminators, and spokes person in their informational roles. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Managers act as entrepreneurs, disturbance
handlers, resource allocators, and negotiators in their decisional roles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Investments in information technology do not
always produce positive results in managerial roles where information systems
might improve decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three reasons
for this include information quality (high-quality decisions require
high-quality information), management filters (managers absorb information
through a series of filters to make sense of the world around them), and
organizational culture (a firm’s decisions represent a balancing of the firm’s
various interest groups rather than the best solution to the problem).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Decisions today are not always made by
management, but are often made by the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The class of decisions that are highly structured and automated is
growing rapidly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Organizations are
making decisions faster than what managers can monitor or control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Business intelligence is the infrastructure for
warehousing, integrating, reporting, and analyzing data that comes from the
business environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business
intelligence and analytics are about integrating all the information streams
produced by a firm into a single, coherent enterprise-wide set of data, and
then, using modeling, statistical analysis tools, and data mining tools, to
make sense out of all these data so managers can make better decisions and
better plans, or at least know quickly when their firms are failing to meet
planned targets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A business intelligent
environment consists of data from the business environment, a business
intelligence infrastructure, a business analytics toolset, managerial users and
methods, MIS, DSS, and ESS delivery platforms, and user interface.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Analytic functionalities that BI systems
deliver to achieve these ends include production reports; parameterized
reports; dashboards and scorecards; ad hoc query, search, report creation;
drill down; and forecasts, scenarios, and models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Over 80 percent of the people who use BI consist
of casual users who rely largely on production reports.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Senior executives use it to monitor firm
activities using visual interfaces, such as dashboards and scorecards.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Middle managers and analysts use the data and
software, entering queries and slicing and dicing the data along different
dimensions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Operational employees,
customers, and suppliers are looking mostly at prepackaged reports.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Pre-packaged production reports are the most
widely used output of a BI suite of tools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Examples of BI applications include predictive analytics, data
visualization and geographic IS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Predictive analytics are being built into mainstream applications for
everyday decision making by all types of employees, especially in finance and
marketing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It uses data mining techniques,
historical data, and assumptions about future conditions to predict outcomes of
events.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Data visualization is technology
for helping users see patterns and relationships in large amounts of data by
presenting the data in graphical form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Geographic information systems (GIS) helps decision makers visualize
problems requiring knowledge about the geographic distribution of people or
other resources.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Two different strategies for adopting BI and BA
capabilities for the organization are the one-stop integrated solution and the
multiple best-of-breed vendor solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
one-stop integrated solution is where a single vendor provides a firm’s total
hardware and software solution, making the firm dependent on its pricing
power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The multiple best-of-breed vendor
solution offers greater flexibility and independence, but with the risk of
potential difficulties integrating the software to the hardware platform, as
well as to other software.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Many different constituencies make up a modern
business firm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each of the management
groups (operational management, middle management, and senior management) has
different responsibilities and different needs for information and business
intelligence, with decisions becoming less structured among higher levels of
management.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Operational and middle management are usually
charged with monitoring the performance of key aspects of the business and most
decisions they make are fairly structured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>MIS are typically used by middle managers to support this type of
decision making, and their primary output is a set of routine production
reports based on data extracted and summarized from the firm’s underlying
transaction processing systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Decision
support systems (DSS) are the BI delivery platform for the managers who
consider themselves “super users.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Senior management uses the balanced scorecard
and enterprise performance management methods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The balanced scorecard focuses on measurable outcomes on four dimensions
of a firm’s performance:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>financial,
business process, customer, and learning and growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Performance on each of these dimensions is
measured using key performance indicators.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These are the measures proposed by senior management for understanding
how well the firm is performing along any given dimension.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The business performance management attempts
to systematically translate a firm’s strategies into operational targets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once identified, a set of key performance
indicators are developed that measure progress towards the targets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The firm’s performance is then measured with
information drawn from the firm’s enterprise database systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Group decision-support systems (GDSS) have been
developed to support group and organizational decision-making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an interactive computer-based system
for facilitating the solution of unstructured problems by a set of decision
makers working together as a group in the same location or in different
locations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>GDSS provide tools and
technologies geared explicitly toward group decision-making.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-88814597956314272282012-04-08T21:39:00.000-07:002012-04-08T21:39:12.344-07:00Chapter 11 - Managing Knowledge<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Communicating and sharing knowledge have become
increasingly important in today’s businesses. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowledge is most useful and actionable when
it is shared throughout the firm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Knowledge has several dimensions that must be understood.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Knowledge is a firm asset.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an intangible asset and is not subject
to the law of diminishing returns as are physical assets, but it experiences
network effects as its value increases as more people share it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The transformation of data into useful
information and knowledge requires organizational resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowledge also has different forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be either tacit or explicit and it
involves know-how, craft, and skill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
involves knowing how to follow procedures and knowing why, not simply when,
things happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowledge has
location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a cognitive event
involving mental models and maps of individuals, having both a social and an
individual basis of it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is “sticky”
(hard to move), situated, and contextual.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Lastly, knowledge is situational.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is conditional, knowing when to apply a procedure is just as
important as knowing the procedure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is related to context, meaning it must be known how to use a certain tool and
under what circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Organizations create and gather knowledge using
a variety of organizational learning mechanisms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Organizational learning is the process of
learning to adjust the organization’s behavior to reflect learning by creating
new business processes and by changing patterns of management decision
making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Organizations that can sense and
respond to their environments rapidly will survive longer than organizations
that have poor learning mechanisms.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Knowledge management is the set of processes
developed in an organization to create, gather, store, maintain, and
disseminate the firm’s knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
increases the ability of the organization to learn from its environment and to
incorporate knowledge into its business processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To maximize the return on investment in
knowledge management projects, supportive values, structures, and behavior
patterns must be built.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowledge
management involves both information systems activities and a host of enabling
management and organizational activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Information system activities include knowledge acquisition (knowledge
discovery, data mining, neural networks, genetic algorithms, knowledge
workstations, expert knowledge networks), knowledge storage (document
management systems, knowledge databases, expert systems), knowledge
dissemination (Intranet portals, push email reports, search engines,
collaboration), and knowledge application (decision support systems, enterprise
applications).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Essentially there are three major types of
knowledge management systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems are general-purpose
firmwide efforts to collect, store, distribute, and apply digital content and
knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Knowledge work systems (KWS)
refer to specialized systems built for engineers, scientists, and other
knowledge workers charged with discovering and creating new knowledge for a
company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Intelligent techniques have
different objectives from a focus on discovering knowledge (data mining and
neural networks) to distilling knowledge in the form of rules for a computer
program (expert systems and fuzzy logic) to discovering optimal solutions for
problems (genetic algorithms). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems
deal with three types of knowledge:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the
knowledge that exists within the firm in the form of structured text documents;
the knowledge that is semistructured; and the knowledge that resides in the
heads of employees where there is no formal or digital information of any
kind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Enterprise content management systems help organizations
manage structured and semistructured knowledge, providing corporate
repositories of documents, reports, presentations, and best practices and
capabilities for collecting and organizing email and graphic objects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One main issue in managing knowledge is the
creation of an appropriate classification scheme (known as taxonomy) to
organize information into meaningful categories so that it can be easily
accessed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once created each knowledge
object needs to be “tagged” so that it can be easily retrieved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enterprise content management systems have
this capability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These systems also
include powerful portal and collaboration technologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The portals can provide access to external
sources of information as well as to internal knowledge resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social bookmarking makes it easier to search
for and share information by allowing users to save their bookmarks to Web
pages on a public Web site and tag these bookmarks with keywords.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A learning management system provides tools
for the management, delivery, tracking, and assessment of various types of
employee learning and training.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Knowledge network systems are also known as
expertise location and management systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They address the problem that arises when the appropriate knowledge is
not in the form of a digital document but instead resides in the memory of expert
individuals in the firm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These systems
provide an online directory of corporate experts in well-defined knowledge
domains and use communication technologies to make it easy for employees to
find the appropriate expert in a company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Knowledge workers include researchers,
designers, architects, scientists, and engineers who primarily create knowledge
and information for the organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They perform three key roles that are critical to the organization and to
the managers who work within the organization:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>they keep the organization current in knowledge as it develops in the
external world; they serve as internal consultants regarding the areas of their
knowledge, the changes taking place, and opportunities; and they act as change
agents, evaluating, initiating, and promoting change projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They require highly specialized knowledge
work systems with powerful graphics, analytical tools, and communications and
document management capabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Knowledge work applications include CAD
systems, virtual reality systems for simulation and modeling, and financial
workstations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CAD (computer-aided
design) automates the creation and revision of designs, using computers and
sophisticated graphics software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Virtual
reality systems use interactive graphics software to create computer-generated
simulations that are so close to reality that users almost believe they are
participating in a real-world situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) is a standard used by these
applications and is a set of specifications for interactive, 3-D modeling on
the World Wide Web that can organize multiple media types to put users in a
simulated real-world environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Augmented reality (AR) provides a live direct or indirect view of a
physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual
computer-generated imagery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Artificial intelligence (AI) technology
consists of computer-based systems (both hardware and software) that attempt to
emulate human behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This along with
database technology provides a number of intelligent techniques that
organizations can use to capture individual and collective knowledge and to
extend their knowledge base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
techniques include expert systems, case-based reasoning, fuzzy logic, neural
networks and data mining, genetic algorithms, and intelligent agents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Expert systems are used for capturing tacit
knowledge and capturing the knowledge of skilled employees in the form of a set
of rules in a software system that can se used by others in the
organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, they lack the
breadth of knowledge and the understanding of fundamental principles of a human
expert and they typically perform very limited tasks that can be performed by
professionals in a few minutes or hours.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Yet, by capturing human expertise in limited areas, expert systems can
provide benefits, helping organizations make high-quality decisions with fewer
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These systems model human
knowledge as a set of rules that collectively are called the knowledge
base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inference engine is the strategy
used to search through the knowledge base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Two strategies commonly used are forward chaining and backward
chaining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Forward chaining begins with
the information entered by the user and searches the rule base to arrive at a
conclusion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Backward chaining acts like
a problem solver by beginning with a hypothesis and seeking out more
information until the hypothesis is either proved or disproved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Benefits of expert systems include improved
decisions, reduced errors, reduced costs, reduced training time, and higher
levels of quality and service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But, they
require large, lengthy, and expensive development efforts and the environment
in which it operates is continually changing so that the expert system must
also continually change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, some of
these systems are so complex that in a few years the maintenance costs equal
the development costs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Case-based reasoning is also used for capturing
tacit knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It represents knowledge
as a series of cases, and this knowledge base is continuously expanded and
refined by users.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is found in
diagnostic systems in medicine or customer support where users can retrieve
past cases whose characteristics are similar to the new case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It suggests a solution or diagnosis based on
the best-matching retrieved case.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Fuzzy logic is rule-based AI that tolerates
imprecision by using nonspecific terms called membership functions to solve
problems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Organizations can use this
logic to create software systems that capture tacit knowledge where there is
linguistic ambiguity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also provides
solutions to problems requiring expertise that is difficult to represent in the
form of crisp IF-THEN rules.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Management
also has found it useful for decision-making and organizational control.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Neural networks are used for knowledge
discovery; solving complex, poorly understood problems for which large amounts
of data have been collected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
networks “learn” patterns from large quantities of data by sifting through
data, searching for relationships, building models, and correcting over and
over again the model’s own mistakes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Neural network designers seek to put intelligence into the hardware in
the form of a generalized capability to learn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The applications are used in medicine, science, and businesses to
address problems in pattern classification, prediction, financial analysis, and
control and optimization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However,
neural networks cannot always explain why they arrived at a particular solution
and they cannot always guarantee a completely certain solution, arrive at the
same solution again with the same input data, or always guarantee the best
solution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, they are very sensitive
and may not perform well if their training covers too little or too much data.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Genetic algorithms are useful for finding the
optimal solution for a specific problem by examining a very large number of
possible solutions for that problem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are based on techniques inspired by evolutionary biology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are used to solve problems that are very
dynamic and complex, involving hundreds or thousands of variables or
formulas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Intelligent agents can automate routine tasks
to help firms search for and filter information for use in electronic commerce,
supply chain management, and other activities. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is software programs that work in the
background without direct human intervention to carry out specific, repetitive,
and predictable tasks for an individual user, business process, or software
application.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These applications can be
found in operating systems, application software, email systems, mobile
computing software, and network tools.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-61436821593702021582012-04-08T21:15:00.000-07:002012-04-08T21:15:27.047-07:00Chapter 10 - E-Commerce: Digital Markets, Digital Goods<!--StartFragment-->
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">E-commerce is defined as the
process of buying and selling goods and services electronically using the
Internet, networks, and other digital technologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It involves transactions between and among
organizations and individuals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It began
in 1995 and showed exponential growth in retail sales until the recession of
2008-2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2010 it began growing
again at an estimated 12 percent annually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">E-commerce has grown so
rapidly because the Internet and e-commerce technologies are much more rich and
powerful than previous technology revolutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unique features of e-commerce include ubiquity, global reach, universal
standards, richness, interactivity, information density,
personalization/customization, and social technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ubiquity is having Internet/Web technology
available everywhere, such as at work, at home, and elsewhere via mobile
devices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Global reach is having
technology reach across national boundaries, around the Earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Universal standards allow sharing by all
nations around the world and enable any computer to link with other computer
regardless of the technology platform each is using.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Richness refers to the complexity and content
of a message.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Interactivity is where the
technology works through interaction with the user.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Information density is how the technology
reduces information costs and raises quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Personalization/customization is where the technology allows
personalized messages to be delivered to individuals as well as groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social technology allows users to create and
share with their personal friends and others content in the form of text,
videos, music, or photos.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The Internet has created a
digital marketplace and as a result it has changed the way companies conduct
business and increased their global reach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Digital markets are said to be more “transparent” than traditional
markets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One feature that makes digital
markets transparent is the reduction of information asymmetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Information asymmetry exists when one party
in a transaction has more information that is important for the transaction
than the other party.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, digital
marketplaces are very flexible and efficient because they operate with reduced
search and transaction costs, lower menu costs, greater price discrimination,
and the ability to change prices dynamically based on market conditions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Menu costs are the merchants’ costs of
changing prices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These markets also
provide many opportunities to sell directly to the consumer, bypassing
intermediaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By eliminating the
middleman in the distribution channel, purchase transaction costs can be
significantly lowered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This removal of
organizations or business process layers responsible for intermediary steps in
a value chain is known as disintermediation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The digital marketplace has expanded sales of digital goods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are goods that can be delivered over a
digital network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">One was to classify
e-commerce is by the nature of participants in the e-commerce transaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce involves
retailing products and services to individual shoppers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce is the
sales of goods and services amoung businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) e-commerce involves consumers selling
directly to consumers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another way to
classify e-commerce is by the platforms used by participants in a
transaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mobile commerce is using
handheld wireless devices for purchasing goods and services from any
location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two types of m-commerce are
smart phones and e-readers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">E-commerce business models
have emerged to add extra value to existing products and services or to provide
the foundation for new products and services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Types of e-commerce business models include portals, e-tailers, content
provider, transaction brokers, market creators, service providers, and
community providers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Portals such as
Google and Bing offer powerful Web search tools as well as an integrated
package of content and services all in one place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>E-tailers are online retail stores, such as
Amazon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here customers only need to
connect to the Internet to check their inventory and place an order.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A content provider creates revenue by
providing digital content, over the Web.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The ITunes Store and Apple’s Internet-connected devices such as the
iPhone, iPod, and iPad are examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They have enabled new forms of digital content delivery from podcasting
to mobile streaming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Podcasting is a
method of publishing audio or video broadcast via the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Streaming is a method of publishing music and
video files that flows a continuous stream of content to a user’s device
without being stored locally on the device.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Transaction brokers are sites that process transactions for consumers
normally handled in person, by phone, or by mail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Market creators provide a digital environment
where buyers and sellers can meet, search for products, display products, and
establish prices for those products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Service providers offer services online, such as photo sharing, video
sharing, and online sites for data backup and storage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Community providers are sites that create a
digital online environment where people with similar interests can buy and sell
goods, share interests, communicate with like-minded people, and receive
interest-related information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">A revenue model shows how a
firm will earn revenue, generate profits, and produce a superior return on
investment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most firms rely on one, or
some combination, of the following e-commerce revenue models:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>advertising, sales, subscription,
free/freemuin, transaction fee, and affiliate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The advertising revenue model is the most widely used revenue model in
e-commerce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this model a Web site
generates revenue by attracting a large audience of visitors who can then be
exposed to advertisements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a sales
revenue model a company derives revenue by selling goods, information, or services
to customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The subscription revenue
model is where a Web site offering content or services charges a subscription
fee for access to some or all of its offerings on an ongoing basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The free/freemuim revenue model is how firms
offer basic services or content for free, while charging a premium for advanced
or special features.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the transaction
fee revenue model a company receives a fee for enabling or executing a
transaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An affiliate revenue model
is where Web sites (called “affiliate Web sites”) send visitors to other Web
sites in return for a referral fee or percentage of the revenue from any
resulting sales.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Web 2.0 online services are
one of the fastest growing areas of e-commerce revenues, with the most popular
social networking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This links people
through their mutual business or personal connections, enabling them to mine
their friends for sales leads, job-hunting tips, or new friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Examples include Facebook, MySpace,
Friendster, and LinkedIn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These sites
offer new possibilities for e-commerce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Networking sites sell banner, video, and text ads; sell user preference
information to marketers; and sell products, such as music, videos, and
e-books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At social shopping sites, such
as Kaboodle and ThisNext, one can swap shopping ideas with friends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Wisdom of crowds is the
belief that large numbers of people can make better decisions about a wide
range of topics or products than a single person or small committee of experts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This concept suggests that firms should
consult with thousands of their customers first as a way of establishing a
relationship with them, and then better understand how their products and
services are used and appreciated (or rejected).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This allows firms to help in solving some
business problems using crowdsourcing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Firms can also use this concept in the form of prediction markets, which
are established peer-to-peer betting markets where participants make bets on
specific outcomes of business decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">E-commerce has affected
marketing and marketing communications more than any other industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Internet provides marketers with new ways
of identifying and communicating with millions of potential customers at costs
far lower than traditional media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
Internet enables long tail marketing, which is the ability for firms to
profitably market goods to very small online audiences, largely because of the
lower costs of reaching very small market segments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Internet also provides new ways to gather
information from customers, adjust product offerings, and increase customer
value.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Behavioral targeting techniques
are used to increase the effectiveness of banner, rich media, and video
ads.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This technique refers to tracking
the click-streams (history of clicking behavior) of individuals on thousands of
Web sties for the purpose of understanding their interests and intentions, and
exposing them to advertisements that are uniquely suited to their
behavior.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Many believe this technique
leads to more efficient marketing and larger sales and revenues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, it also leads to the invasion of
personal privacy without user consent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This technique takes place at the individual Web site level and on
various advertising networks that track users across thousands of Web
sites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It enables firms to understand how
well their Web site is working, create unique personalized Web pages that
display content or ads for products or services of special interest to each
user, improve the customer’s experience, and create additional value through a
better understanding of the shopper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">B2B e-commerce refers to the
commercial transactions that occur among business firms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of these transactions are still based on
proprietary systems for electronic data interchange (EDI), which is the direct
C2C exchange between two organizations of standard business transactions, such
as orders, shipment instructions, or payments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Private industrial networks (private exchanges) consist of a large firm
using an extranet to link to its suppliers and other key business partners for
efficient supply chain management and other collaborative commerce
activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Net marketplaces (e-hubs)
provide a single, digital marketplace based on Internet technology for many
different buyers and sellers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exchanges
are independently owned third-party Net marketplaces that connect thousands of
suppliers and buyers for spot purchasing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">M-commerce is the use of
wireless devices, such as cell phones or handheld digital devices, to conduct
both B2C and B2B e-commerce transactions over the Internet and is the fastest growing
of e-commerce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The main areas of growth
are location-based services; software application sales at stores such as
iTunes; entertainment downloads of ring tones, music, video, and TV shows;
mobile display advertising; direct shopping services; and e-book sales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>M-commerce applications have taken off for
services that are time-critical, that appeal to people on the move, or that
accomplish a task more efficiently than other methods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Types of applications include location-bases
services, banking and financial services, wireless advertising and retailing,
and games and entertainment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In order to build a
successful e-commerce site, a strong understanding of business, technology, and
social issues, as well as a systematic approach is needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The two most important challenges management
faces are developing a clear understanding of their business objectives and
knowing how to choose the right technology to achieve those objectives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first step in the building process is to
be aware of the main areas where decisions need to be made, i.e., bringing in
the best individuals who possess the skill sets needed to build and manage a
successful e-commerce site.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next
decisions will need to be made about the site’s hardware, software, and
telecommunications infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Customers’ demands will drive these decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once these decisions are made, the next step
is planning the Web site to identify the specific business objectives for the
site, and then developing a list of system functionalities and information
requirements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Business objectives are
the capabilities the site needs to have.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>System functionalities are the types of information system capabilities needed
to achieve the business objectives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
information requirements are the information elements that the system must
produce in order to achieve the business objectives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Choices from building and
maintaining the Web site range from outsourcing the entire Web site development
to an external vendor to building everything in-house and deciding whether to
host the site on the firm’s own servers or outsource the hosting to a Web host
provider.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The building decision has pros
and cons for whichever choice is made.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If building in-house a pre-built template should be used to create the
Website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the least expensive and
simplest way to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the risk of
high development costs and doing a poor job come with not using the pre-built
template.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>External vendors are relied
heavily on to provide sophisticated Web site capabilities, while also
maintaining a substantial internal staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Most companies choose to outsource hosting and pay a company to host
their Website.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means that the
hosting company is responsible for making sure the site is “live” or accessible,
24 hours a day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With this businesses
need not concern themselves with technical aspects of setting up and
maintaining a Web server, telecommunications links, or specialized staffing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">System maintenance is the
biggest component of a Web site budget. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is followed by system development,
content design and development, telecommunications and hardware, and software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A simple Web site can be built and hosted
with a first-year cost of $5,000 or less. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-29413096728189209322012-04-01T20:44:00.000-07:002012-04-01T20:44:24.388-07:00Chapter 9 - Achieving Operational Excellence and Customer Intimacy: Enterprise Applications<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Enterprise systems are based on a suite of
integrated software modules and a common central database that collects data
from many different divisions and departments in a firm, making it available
for applications that support nearly all of an organization’s internal business
activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enterprise software is a set
of integrated modules for applications that allow data to be used by multiple
functions and business processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enterprise
systems provide value in several ways to a firm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It increases operational efficiency and it
provides firm-wide information to help managers make better decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also helps firms respond rapidly to
customer requests for information or products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In addition, it provides much valuable information for improving
management decision-making.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Supply chain management systems automate the
flow of information between a firm and its suppliers in order to optimize the
planning, sourcing, manufacturing, and delivery of products and services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A firm’s supply chain links suppliers,
manufacturing plants, distribution centers, retail outlets, and customers to
supply goods and services from source through consumption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Materials, information, and payments flow
through the supply chain in both directions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Inefficiencies in the supply chain are caused
by inaccurate or untimely information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Uncertainties
arise because many events cannot be foreseen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One recurring problem in supply chain management is the bullwhip
effect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is where information about
the demand for a product goes distorted as it passes from one entity to the
next across the supply chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
bullwhip effect is controlled by reducing uncertainties about demand and supply
when all members of the supply chain have accurate and up-to-date
information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Supply chain management
systems provide the kind of information that helps members of the supply chain
make better purchasing and scheduling decisions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Supply chain management software includes
software to help businesses plan their supply chains (supply chain planning) or
software to help them execute the supply chain steps (supply chain
execution).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Supply chain planning
systems allows firms to model their existing supply chain, generate demand
forecasts for products, and develop optimal sourcing and manufacturing
plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Demand planning is one of the
most important and complex supply chain planning functions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It determines how much product a business
needs to make to satisfy all of its customers’ demands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Supply chain execution systems manage the
flow of products through distribution centers and warehouses to ensure that
products are delivered to the right locations in the most efficient
manner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Supply chains now can extend across multiple
countries and regions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In doing so,
there are complexities and challenges to managing a global supply chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, there may be additional costs
for transportation, inventory, and local taxes are fees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Supply chain managements will need to reflect
foreign government regulations and cultural differences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Internet will enable companies to manage
many aspects of their global supply chains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Globalization has also encouraged outsourcing warehouse management,
transportation management, and related operations to third-party logistics
providers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Supply chain management systems facilitate
efficient customer response, enabling the workings of the business to be driven
more by customer demand.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It follows a
pull-based model where actual customer orders or purchases trigger events in
the supply chain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is also known as
a demand-driven model or build-to-order because transactions to produce and
deliver only what customers have ordered move up the supply chain from
retailers to distributors to manufacturers, and eventually to suppliers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Supply chain management systems help in
reducing costs and increasing sales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By
implementing a networked and integrated supply chain management system,
companies match supply to demand, reduce inventory levels, improve delivery
service, speed product time to market, and use assets more effectively.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Customer relationship management (CRM) systems
capture and integrate customer data from all over the organization, consolidate
the data, analyze the data, and then distribute the results to various systems
and customer touch points across the enterprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A touch point is a method of interaction with
the customer, such as telephone, email, Website, or retail store.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A well-designed CRM system provides a single
enterprise view of customers that is useful for improving both sales and customer
service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also provides data and
analytical tools for answering questions that allow firms to use the answers to
acquire new customers, provide better service and support to existing
customers, customize their offerings more precisely to customer preferences,
and provide ongoing value to retain profitable customers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">CRM software packages range from niche tools
that perform limited functions to large-scale enterprise applications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The core comprehensive packages contain
modules for partner relationship management (PRM) and employee relationship
management (ERM).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>PRM is the automation
of the firm’s relationships with its selling partners using customer data and
analytical tools to improve coordination and customer sales.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>ERM is software that deals with employee
issues that are closely related to CRM, such as setting objectives, employee
performance management, performance-based compensation, and employee
training.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CRM systems typically provide
software and online tools for sales, customer service, and marketing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sales force automation modules help sales
staff increase their productivity by focusing sales efforts on the most
profitable customers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Customer service
modules provide information and tools to increase the efficiency of call
centers, help desks, and customer support staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Marketing modules provide capabilities for
capturing prospect and customer data, for providing product and service
information, for qualifying leads for targeted marketing, and for scheduling
and tracking direct-marketing mailings or email.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also identifies opportunities for
cross-selling which is the marketing of complementary products to customers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The CRM software packages provide capabilities
for both operational CRM and analytical CRM.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Operational CRM are the customer-facing applications, such as tools for
sales force automation, call center and customer service support, and marketing
automation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Analytical CRM are the
applications that analyze customer data generated by operational CRM
applications to provide information for improving business performance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Customer lifetime value (CLTV) is another
important output of analytical CRM which is based on the relationship between
the revenue produced by a specific customer, the expenses incurred in acquiring
and servicing that customer, and the expected life of the relationship between
the customer and the company.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Customer relationship management provides many
benefits, including increased customer satisfaction, reduced direct-marketing
costs, more effective marketing, and lower costs for customer acquisition and
retention.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Information from CRM systems
increases sales revenue by identifying the most profitable customers and
segments for focused marketing and cross-selling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The churn rate is an important indicator of
the growth or decline of a firm’s customer base.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It measures the number of customers who stop
using or purchasing products or services from a company.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Firms are implementing enterprise systems, SCM
systems, and CRM systems in order to achieve operational excellence and
enhancing decision-making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, they
are challenging to implement because they are so powerful in changing the way
the organization works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
applications are very expensive to purchase and implement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They also require fundamental changes in the
way the business operates and new organizational learning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once an enterprise application is adopted
from a vendor, it is very costly to switch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“Switching costs” are introduced because the firm becomes dependent on
that vendor to upgrade its product and maintain its installation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The way the data is organized in these
systems needs to be understood because the applications are based on
organization-wide definitions of data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This typically requires some data cleansing work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Enterprise software vendors are addressing
these challenges by offering paired-down versions of their software and
“fast-start” programs for small and medium-sized businesses and best-practice
guidelines for larger firms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Companies
adopting these applications can also save time and money by keeping
customizations to a minimum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Enterprise systems, CRM systems, and SCM
systems are fazing out because enterprise application vendors are delivering
more value by becoming more flexible, Web-enabled, and capable of integration
with other systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Next generation
enterprise software vendors have now created enterprise solutions, enterprise
suites, or e-business suites to make their CRM, SCM, and enterprise systems
work closely with each other, and link to systems of customers and
suppliers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These applications also
include open source and on-demand solutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In addition the vendors also offer portions of their products that work
on mobile handhelds and complementary analytics products.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Service platforms are created to integrate
information from multiple functional areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They provide a greater degree of cross-functional integration than the
traditional enterprise applications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-55168023771071293432012-04-01T20:41:00.000-07:002012-04-01T20:41:16.564-07:00Chapter 8 - Securing Information Systems<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Data is more vulnerable today that it ever has
been.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unauthorized access, abuse, fraud,
floods, fires, and power failures, only to name a few, can occur at any access
point in the network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If hardware breaks
down or software fails due to errors in programming, improper installation, or
unauthorized changes systems become more vulnerable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Internet is more vulnerable than private
networks because it is available to practically anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The increased use of e-mail, instant
messaging (IM), and peer-to-peer file-sharing programs has also caused an
increase in vulnerability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition,
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks are more susceptible to hacking by eavesdroppers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Malware, which is malicious software programs,
include a variety of threats, such as computer viruses, worms, and Trojan
horses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A computer virus is a rogue
software program that attaches itself to other software programs or data files
in order to be executed, usually without the user’s knowledge or
permission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Worms are independent
computer programs that copy themselves from one computer to other computers
over a network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Worms spread much more
quickly than viruses because they operate on their own relying less on human
behavior in order to spread.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Trojan
horse is a software program that appears legitimate, but has a hidden
motive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once installed on computers it
allows access so hackers are able to get in and obtain personal
information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>SQL injection attacks are
the largest malware threat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They take
advantage of vulnerabilities in poorly coded Web application software to
introduce malicious program code into a company’s systems and networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Spyware can also act as malicious software by
installing themselves secretively on computers to monitor user Web surfing and
serve up advertising.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">A hacker is an individual who gains
unauthorized access to a computer system by finding weaknesses in the security
protections employed by Web sites and computer systems. They often take advantage
of various features of the Internet that make it an open system that is easy to
use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They attempt to hide their true
identity by misrepresenting themselves by using a fake email address or
impersonating as someone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
known as spoofing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hackers can use a
sniffer to steal proprietary information from anywhere on a network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a type of eavesdropping program that
monitors information traveling over a network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Using a denial-of-service (DoS) attack allows hackers to flood a network
server or Web server with many thousands of false communications or requests
for services to crash the network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack uses numerous computers to
overwhelm the network from numerous launch points.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Computer crimes have been on the rise with the
ease of access.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can cost companies
thousands and thousands of dollars in damage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They often times go unreported because they may involve employees, or
the company fears that publicizing its vulnerability will hurt its
reputation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>DoS attacks are the most
economically damaging because they introduce viruses, theft of services, and
disruption of computer systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Identity theft has also seen an increase with
the growth of the Internet and electronic commerce.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a crime where an imposter obtains key
pieces of personal information and uses it to impersonate someone else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One common tactic is a form of spoofing known
as phishing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This involves setting up
fake Web sites or sending email or text messages that look like those of
legitimate businesses to ask users for confidential personal data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Evil twins and pharming are two types of phishing
techniques that are harder to detect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Evil twins are wireless networks that pretend to offer trustworthy Wi-Fi
connections to the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pharming
redirects users to a bogus Web page, even when the user types the correct Web
page address into his or her browser. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Click fraud happens when someone fraudulently
clicks on an online ad without any intention of learning more about the
advertiser or making a purchase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Employees pose just as much of a threat to a
business as do outsiders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have
access to privy company information and without proper controls and security in
place they may be able to roam throughout the organization’s systems without
anyone’s knowledge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Social engineering
is one way to gain access to a company’s networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is tricking people into revealing their
passwords by pretending to be legitimate users or members of a company in need
of information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, both the end users
and the information systems specialists are a major source of errors introduced
into information systems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Software flaws and vulnerability also leads to threats
in businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This can lead to losses
in productivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One problem with
software is the presence of hidden bugs or program code defects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Patches are put on software to correct flaws
once they are identified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This will
repair the flaws without disturbing the operation of the software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Businesses need to protect their information
systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Implementing a sound security
and control framework can lead to a high return on investment as well as
increased employee productivity and lower operational costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The government is now requiring businesses to
take security and control more seriously by requiring them to protect their
data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>HIPPA (Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act) is used in the health industry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It outlines medical security and privacy
rules and procedures for simplifying the administration of health care billing
and automating the transfer of health care data between health care providers,
payers, and plans.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Firms who provide
financial services follow the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which requires these
institutions to ensure the security and confidentiality of customer data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Publicly traded companies follow the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It requires
management to safeguard the accuracy and integrity of financial information
that is used internally and released externally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Firms are being required to pay more attention
to security and electronic records management because legal actions are
requiring electronic evidence and computer forensics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Electronic evidence includes digital data
stored on CDs, computer hard disk drives, instant messages, e-commerce over the
Internet, and email which is the most common.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Computer forensics is defined as the scientific collection, examination,
authentication, preservation, and analysis of data held on or retrieved from
computer storage media in such a way that the information can be used as
evidence in a court of law.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In order for information systems to be reliable
and secure, proper controls must be in place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>General controls manage the design, security, and the use of computer
programs and the security of data files in general throughout the
organization’s IT infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Application controls are unique to each computerized application and
include both automated and manual procedures that ensure only authorized data
are completely and accurately processed by that application.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Companies need to know which assets require
protection and the extent to which these assets are vulnerable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Risk assessments determine the most
cost-effective set of controls for protecting assets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also determines the level of risk to the
firm if a specific activity or process is not properly controlled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although not all risks can be anticipated or
measured, it is necessary to have these controls in place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once risks have been assessed, systems
builders will concentrate on the control points with the greatest vulnerability
and potential for loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then a security
policy is developed which ranks information risks, identifies acceptable
security goals, and identifies the mechanisms for achieving these goals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Businesses also need to prepare for disaster
and business continuity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disaster
recovery planning designs plans for the restoration of computing and
communications services after they have been disrupted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It focuses primarily on the technical issues
involved in keeping systems up and running.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Business continuity planning is used to help the company restore
business operations after a disaster strikes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It identifies critical business processes and determines action plans
for handling mission-critical functions if systems go down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Audits are performed to make sure management
knows that information systems security and controls are effective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MIS audits examine the firm’s overall security
environment and controls governing individual information systems as well as
the data quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Security audits
examine technologies, procedures, documentation, training, and personnel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once audits are performed, management is
expected to devise a plan for countering significant weaknesses in controls.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Businesses have technologies and tools
available to protect their information resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These include tools for managing user identities,
preventing unauthorized access to systems and data, ensuring system
availability, and ensuring software quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Identity management software automates the process of keeping track of
all users and their systems privileges, assigning each user a unique digital
identity for accessing each system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
also includes tools for authenticating users, protecting user identities, and
controlling access to system resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Users must be authorized and authenticated to gain access to a
system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Authentication is often
established by using a password, token, smart card, or biometric readings.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Tools to protect against unauthorized access to
systems and data include firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and antivirus
software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A firewall is a combination of
hardware and software that controls the flow of incoming and outgoing network
traffic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It prevents unauthorized users
from accessing private networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An
intrusion detection system is a full-time monitoring tool placed at the most
vulnerable points of corporate networks to detect and deter intruders
continually.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Antivirus software is
designed to check computer systems and drives for the presence of computer
viruses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They must be continually
updated to remain effective.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Businesses also use encryption to protect
digital information that they store, physically transfer, or send over the
Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the process of
transforming plain text or data into cipher text that cannot be read by anyone
other than the sender and the intended receiver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two methods for encrypting are SSL and
S-HTTP.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)
enable client and server computers to manage encryption and decryption
activities as they communicate with each other during a secure Web
session.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>S-HTTP (Secure Hypertext
Transfer Protocol) is a protocol used for encrypting data flowing over the
Internet and is limited to individual messages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Symmetric key encryption is an alternative method of encryption where
the sender and receiver establish a secure Internet session by creating a
single encryption key and sending it to the receiver so both the sender and
receiver share the same key.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another
alternative method is public key encryption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This uses two keys, one shared (or public) and one totally private.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Digital certificates protect online
transactions by providing secure, encrypted, online communication.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Companies use fault-tolerant computer systems
to ensure that their systems and applications are always available.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These systems contain redundant hardware,
software, and power supply components that create an environment that provides
continuous, uninterrupted service.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>High-availability computing attempts to minimize downtime by helping
firms recover quickly from a system crash.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Deep packet inspection (DPI) is a technology that examines data files
and sorts out low-priority online material while assigning higher priority to
business-critical files.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Companies can
also outsource many security functions to managed security service providers
(MSSPs) that monitor network activity and perform vulnerability testing and
intrusion detection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Companies can also improve system quality and
reliability by employing software metrics and rigorous software testing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Software metrics are objective assessments of
the system in the form of quantified measurements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regular and thorough testing will contribute
significantly to system quality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-3454375944058091452012-04-01T20:39:00.001-07:002012-04-01T20:39:43.211-07:00Chapter 7 - Telecommunications, the Internet, and Wireless Technology<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Over the past couple of decades communication
has evolved from postage and telephone to connecting with each other
instantaneously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the past businesses
have used basically two types of networks—telephone networks and computer
networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now these two networks are
merging into one Internet-based technology network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">A simple computer network consists of two or
more computers, a network operating system residing on a dedicated server
computer, wiring connecting the devices, network interface cards (NICs),
switches, and a router.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A network
operating system (NOS) directs and manages communications on the network and
coordinates network resources.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A server
computer is a computer on a network that performs important network functions
for client computers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Network interface
cards are cards in a computer that enable it to connect to the network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A router is a communications processor used
to move packets of data through different networks making sure it reaches the
correct address. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By linking many small local
area networks to other local area networks and to business-wide corporate
networks, a network infrastructure for a large corporation is formed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Contemporary networks and the Internet are
shaped on three main technologies:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>client/server computing, packet switching, and TCP/IT and
connectivity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Client/server computing is
a distributed computing model where some of the processing power is located
within small, inexpensive client computers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Packet switching is where data is grouped into small packets, which are
transmitted independently over various communications channels and reassembled
at their final destination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Transmission
Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) transmits data among different
types of computers over long distances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A protocol is a set of rules and procedures governing transmission of
information between two points in a network.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>TCP establishes a connection between the computers, sequences the
transfer of packets, and acknowledges the packets sent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>IP is responsible for the delivery of packets
and includes the dissembling and reassembling of packets during transmission.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Two ways to communicate a message in a network
are by analog signal or digital signal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>An analog signal is characterized by a continuous waveform that passes
through a communications medium and has been used for voice communication,
e.g., telephone handset, speaker on computer, iPod earphone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A digital signal is a discrete, binary
waveform that communicates information as strings of two discrete states—one bit
and zero bits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A modem converts digital
signals from a computer into analog signals that can be sent over and/or
received from telephone lines, cable lines, or wireless media that use analog
signals.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">One way to classify networks is according to
their geographic range.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Local Area
Networks (LANs) are designed to connect personal computers and other digital
devices that are within close range of each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are also able to link long-distance
networks using the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>LANs are
sometimes described by their topologies (the way their components are connected
together).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A star topology is where all
devices on the network connect to a single hub.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A bus topology is where one station transmits signals, which travel in
both directions along a single transmission segment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A ring topology connects network components
in a closed loop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another type of
network based on geographic range is a wide area network (WAN).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These networks span over a larger
geographical range.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Internet is the
most useful WAN.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>WANs connect computers
through public networks or through leased lines or satellites.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A metropolitan area network (MAN) spans over
an area between a LAN and a WAN.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Networks use different types of physical
transmission media.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Twisted wire
consists of strands of copper wire twisted in pairs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an older type of transmission
medium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Coaxial cable consists of
thickly insulated copper wire than can transmit a larger volume of data than
twisted wire.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is used today for
longer runs in large buildings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Fiber-optic cable consists of bound strands of clear glass fiber.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is much faster, lighter, and more durable
than wire media, and it is well suited for systems that transfer large volumes
of data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wireless transmission media is
based on radio signals of various frequencies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Three types are microwave, cellular, and Wi-Fi.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The Internet is a worldwide network of
networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is based on the TCP/IP
networking protocol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each computer is
assigned an Internet Protocol (IP) address indicating a unique computer
location on the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Domain
Name System (DNS) converts domain names to IP addresses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The domain name is the English-like name that
corresponds to the unique IP address number.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Worldwide Internet policies are established by a number of professional
organizations and government bodies, including the Internet Architecture Board
(IAB), which helps define the overall structure of the Internet; the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which assigns IP addresses;
and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which sets Hypertext Markup Language
and other programming standards for the web.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These organizations help to keep the Internet operating as efficient as
possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The Internet is based on client/server
technology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Individuals using the
Internet control what they do through client applications on their
computer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In turn the client uses the
Internet to request information from a particular Web server on a distant
computer, and the server sends the requested information back to the client
over the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Client programs
include PCs and other computers, cell phones, and small handheld digital
devices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Services used to connect a
client computer to the Internet include email, electronic discussion groups,
chatting and instant messaging, Telnet, File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and the
Web.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One or more software programs
implement each of these services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Voice
transmission and corporate networking and virtual private networks are other
platforms used by the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">The Web is the most used Internet service with universally
accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying
information using a client/server architecture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>A Web site is a collection of Web pages linked to a home page.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a page
description language that describes how data should be presented in the form of
Web pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hypertext Transfer Protocol
(HTTP) is the communications standard used to transfer pages on the Web that
defines how messages are formatted and transmitted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A uniform resource locator (URL) tells the
browser software exactly where to look for a specific address on the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Web server is software that locates the Web
pages requested by a user on the computer where they are stored and delivers
them to the user’s computer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Search engines are used to find useful
information on the Web nearly instantly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The top three are Google, Yahoo, and Bing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition to search engines, shopping bots
are used to search for and find information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They use intelligent agent software for searching the Internet for
shopping information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Web 2.0 is a second-generation interactive
Internet-based service that allows people to collaborate, share information,
and create new services and content online.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It has four defining features, which include interactivity, real-time
user control, social participation (sharing), and user-generated content.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Technologies and services behind these
features are cloud computing, software mashups and widgets, blogs, RSS, wikis,
and social networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Web 3.0 is a future
version of the Web where all digital information is woven together with intelligent
search capabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is also known
as the Semantic Web.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Cell phones, laptops, and small handheld
devices have evolved into portable computing platforms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the United States the major computing
standard for digital cellular service is the Code Division Multiple Access
(CDMA).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>3G and 4G are cellular networks
that allow high-speed, high-bandwidth, digital packet-switched transmission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Standards for wireless computer networks,
such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, allow computer users to have access to the
Internet without being connected with a wire or cable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">In addition to the wireless systems, radio
frequency identification systems and wireless sensor networks are having a
major impact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Radio frequency
identification (RFID) systems allow for tracking the movement of goods by using
tiny tags with embedded microchips containing data about an item and its
location to transmit radio signals over a short distance for processing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are networks
of interconnected wireless devices that are embedded into the physical
environment to provide measurements of many points over large spaces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-3118432222787344352012-03-18T21:46:00.002-07:002012-03-18T21:46:57.882-07:00Chapter 6 - Foundations of Business Intelligence: Databases and Information Management<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In order for an information
system to be effective, it must provide users with accurate, timely, and
relevant information that is free of errors, available to decision makers when
it is needed, and useful and appropriate for the types of work and decisions
that require it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Information systems
arrange data in computer files in a hierarchy that starts with bits and bytes
and progresses to fields, records, files, and databases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The traditional approach to file processing
encourages each department or area in a company to develop their own systems
and data files, known as specialized applications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These applications require a unique data file
and their own computer program to operate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Over time this leads to data that is difficult to maintain and manage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This results in in data redundancy and
inconsistency, program-data dependence, processing inflexibility, poor data
security, and lack of data sharing and availability.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Database technology has
evolved to reduce the many problems of the traditional file organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A database is defined as a collection of data
organized to serve many applications efficiently by centralizing the data and
controlling redundant data.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A single
database can service multiple applications. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A database management system (DBMS) is a type
of software that allows an organization to centralize data, manage them
efficiently, and provide access to the stored data by application
programs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This minimizes redundant and
inconsistent files.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The most common type of DBMS
used for PCs and larger computers and mainframes is the relational DBMS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These databases organize data in
two-dimensional tables called relations and each table consists of rows and
columns.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As long as two tables share a
common data element, the relational database tables can be combined easily to
deliver data required by users.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Object-oriented databases
are used to handle graphics-based or multimedia applications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This DBMS stores the data and procedures that
act on those data as objects that can be automatically retrieved and
shared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They can also store more complex
types of information that relational DBMS, however they are somewhat slow for
processing large numbers of transactions compared to relational DBMS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">A DMBS has capabilities and
tools for organizing, managing, and accessing the data in a database.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A data definition is a capability that
specifies the structure of the content of the database.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is used to create database tables and to
define the characteristics of the fields in each table.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This information would be documented in a
data dictionary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A data dictionary is
capability of an automated or manual file that stores definitions of data
components and their characteristics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
third capability is the data manipulating language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A data manipulation language that is a
specialized language in most DBMS that is used to add, change, delete, and
retrieve the data in a database.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
contains commands that allow end users and programmers to extract data from the
database to satisfy information requests and develop applications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The most prominent data manipulation language
used today is Structured Query Language (SQL).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In order to create a
database, the relationships among the data, the type of data that will be
maintained in the database, how the data will be used, and how the organization
will need to change to manage data from a company-wide perspective must be
clearly understood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A database requires
a conceptual, or logical, design and a physical design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The conceptual design is an abstract model of
the database from a business perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It describes how the data elements in the database are to be grouped to
meet business information requirements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The physical design shows how the database is actually arranged on
direct-access storage devices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Databases are used by
businesses to keep up with their day-to-day activities in addition to providing
information that will help the company run more efficiently, and help managers
and employees make better decisions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Special capabilities and tools are required for analyzing large
quantities of data and for accessing data from multiple systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One capability is data warehousing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A data warehouse is a database that stores
current and historical data of potential interest to decision makers throughout
the company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It makes the data available
for anyone to access as needed, but it cannot be altered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A data mart is a subset of data warehouses
where a summarized or highly focused portion of the organization’s data is
placed in a separate database for a specific set of users.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It typically focuses on a single subject area
or line of business. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">After the data is in data
warehouses and data marts, it is available for further analysis using tools for
business intelligence, such as multidimensional data analysis and data
mining.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These tools enable users to
analyze data to see new patterns, relationships, and insights that are useful
to assist in decision making.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Online
Analytical Processing (OLAP) is the capability for manipulating and analyzing
large volumes of data from multiple perspectives, i.e., using multiple
dimensions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Data mining finds hidden
patterns and relationships in large databases and deduces rules from them that
are used to guide decision making and forecast the effect of those decisions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">A third capability for
analyzing large quantities of data are the tools used for accessing internal
databases through the Web.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Text mining
tools are able to extract key elements from large unstructured data sets,
discover patterns and relationships, and summarize the information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Web mining is the discovery and analysis of
useful patterns and information from the Web.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Once a database is set up,
special policies and procedures for data management will need to be set into
place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This ensures that the data for
the business remains accurate, reliable, and readily available to those who
need and use it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All businesses need an
information policy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This will specify
the organization’s rules for sharing, disseminating, acquiring, standardizing,
classifying, and inventorying information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These policies lay out the specific procedures and accountabilities,
identifying which users and organizational units can share information, where
information can be distributed, and who is responsible for updating and maintaining
the information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In addition, additional
steps must be taken to ensure that the data in organizational databases are
accurate and remain reliable through audits and cleansing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-46285835559673659432012-03-18T21:45:00.002-07:002012-03-18T21:45:39.010-07:00Chapter 5 - IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Information technology (IT)
infrastructure is defined as the shared technology resources that provide the
platform for the firm’s specific information system applications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It includes the hardware, software applications,
and services that are shared across the organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It provides the framework for serving
customers, working with vendors, and overseeing internal business processes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">For over 50 years the IT
infrastructure has evolved into what it is today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The five eras of this evolution include the
general-purpose mainframe and minicomputer era; the personal computer era; the
client/server era; the enterprise computing era; and the cloud and mobile
computing era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Characteristics of one
era may also be used in another era for other purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The reasons for such change
in the IT infrastructure is due to developments in technologies such as
computer processing, memory chips, storage devices, telecommunications and
networking hardware and software, and software design.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These developments have rapidly increased
computing power while also reducing costs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>One technology driver of this change is Moore’s Law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the assertion that the number of
components of a chip doubles each year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Another driver is the Law of Mass Digital Storage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It provides that the cost of storing digital
information is falling at an exponential rate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Metcalf’s Law is a driver, which shows that a network’s value to
participants, grows rapidly as the number of network members increases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One other technology driver is the rapid
decline in the costs of communication and the rapid growth in the size of the
Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Technology standards specify
the compatibility of products and the ability to communicate in a network. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Seven major components make
up the IT infrastructure, which must be coordinated to provide the firm with a
coherent infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
components include computer hardware platforms, operating system platforms,
enterprise software applications, data management and storage,
networking/telecommunications platforms, Internet platforms, and consulting and
system integration services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Several hardware trends have
changed how businesses organize their computing power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One trend is an emerging mobile digital
platform.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mobile devices such as cell
phones and smartphones have taken on many functions of handheld computers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon these mobile devises will be the primary
means of communication and accessing the Internet for businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another hardware trend is grid
computing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This involves connecting
geographically remote computers into a single network to create a virtual
supercomputer by combining the computational power of all computers on the
grid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The advantages of this trend are
the cost savings, speed of computation, and agility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A third hardware trend is virtualization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the process of presenting a set of
computing resources so that they can all be accessed in ways that are not
restricted by physical configuration or geographic location.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It helps organizations increase equipment
utilization rates by conserving data center space and energy usage and
facilitates centralization and consolidation of hardware administration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cloud computing is another trend in which
firms and individuals obtain computer processing, storage, software, and other
services as a group of virtualized resources over a network, mainly the
Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can be private or public
and the cost to utilize is minimal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Green computing is the practices and technologies for designing,
manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated
devices (monitors, printers, storage devices, networking and communications
systems) to minimize the impact of the environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Autonomic computing is developing systems
that can configure themselves, optimize and tune themselves, heal themselves
when broken, and protect themselves from outside intruders and
self-destruction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another hardware trend
is the use of more efficient and power-saving processors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Software trends have also
changed how businesses organize their computing power.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One trend is open source software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is software produced by a community of
thousands of programmers around the world and can modified by other users and
redistributed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Linux is probably the
most well known open software and is embedded in cell phones, smartphones,
netbooks, and consumer electronics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Another trend is the software for the web.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Java and Ajax are the two most common.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Java is an operating system-independent,
processor-independent, object-oriented programming language.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It can deliver only the software
functionality needed for a particular task and can run on ay computer and
operating system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ajax is a Web
development technique for creating interactive Web applications that makes
conversation with the server more seamless for the user.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A third trend is the use of web services and
service-oriented architecture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Web
services are a set of loosely coupled software components that exchange
information with each other using universal Web communication standards and
languages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are able to exchange
information between two different systems regardless of the languages and they
can be used to build open standard Web-based applications that link systems of
two different organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A service-oriented
architecture is a collection of Web services that are used to build a firm’s
software system.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A fourth software trend
is the external sources for software.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Three such sources include software packages from a commercial software
vendor, outsourcing custom application development to an external vendor, and
cloud-based software services and tools.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Mashups and apps are also a software trend that is used by individuals
and businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mashups combine the
capabilities of two or more online applications to create a kind of hybrid that
provides more customer value than the original source along.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apps are small pieces of software that run on
the Internet, on the computer, or on a cell phone and are generally delivered
over the Internet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Dealing with platform and
infrastructure change, management and governance of the infrastructure, and
making wise infrastructure investments are some of the challenged faces for
creating and managing a coherent IT infrastructure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A competitive forces model can be used as a
guideline as to how much should be invested in the infrastructure and where to
make strategic infrastructure investments.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-15730752304810316532012-03-18T21:43:00.002-07:002012-03-18T21:43:53.208-07:00Chapter 4 - Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Ethics is defined as the
principles of right and wrong that individuals, acting as free moral agents,
use to make choices to guide their behaviors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Ethical issues have become more prominent because of the evolution of
information systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ethical, social,
and political issues are closely connected in an information society.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When one area is disturbed it causes an
effect on the other two areas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
issues raised by information systems center around five moral dimensions:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>information rights and obligations, property
rights and obligations, accountability and control, system quality, and quality
of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Responsibility,
accountability, and liability are the basic concepts that form the foundation
of an ethical analysis of information systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In order to analyze a potential ethical situation, the following
five-step process is helpful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>First the
facts must be clearly identified and described.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Next the issue should be defined and the higher-order values involved
identified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Third the stakeholders must
be identified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then the options that can
be reasonable taken are identified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Last
identify potential consequences of one’s options.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Once the analysis of the
possible ethical situation is complete, several specific principles for conduct
can be used to guide in the ethical decision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These include the Golden Rule, Immanuel Kant’s Categorical Imperative,
Descartes’ rule of change, the Utilitarian Principle, the Risk Aversion
Principle, and the ethical “no free lunch” rule.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Several privacy laws have
been developed over the years to protect individuals and firms who use
information systems.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Privacy Act of
1974 has been the most important because it regulates the federal government’s
collection, use, and disclosure of information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Other federal privacy laws have been put in place to handle areas such
as credit reporting, education, financial records, newspaper records, and
electronic communications.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most U.S.
federal laws apply only to the federal government.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fair Information Practices (FIP) was set
forth to govern the collection and use of information about individuals and
forms the basis of most U.S. and European privacy laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The use of the Internet has
opened up a challenge to protect an individual’s privacy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As computer users access information, it is
sent over many networks before reaching its final destination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each network it passes through is capable of
monitoring, capturing, and storing communications that pass through it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Due to the weak or lack of privacy protection
policies, individuals are not always informed on their use of the user’s
personal information.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cookies, web
beacons, and spyware are types of information that can be secretly put onto
one’s computer to track their browsing activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">New technologies are now available
to protect user privacy during Web use.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are used for encrypting e-mail and making surfing activities appear
anonymous, for preventing computers from accepting cookies, and for detecting
and eliminating spyware.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One such tool
is the Platform for Privacy Preferences which is used to enable automatic
communication of privacy policies between a Web site and its visitors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Another challenge faced by
Internet users is the existing laws and social practices that protect private
intellectual property.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is due to
the ease of copying or distributing computerized information on networks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Trade secret laws protect the actual ideas in
a work product.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Copyright protects the
creators of intellectual property from having their work copied by others for
any purpose for a minimum of 70 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Patents grant the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an
invention for 20 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The rise of the
use of the Internet and other electronic networks has made it more difficult to
protect intellectual property.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Information technologies are
also challenging existing liability laws and social practices for holding
individuals and institutions accountable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In addition, computer errors can cause serious harm to individuals and
organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poor data quality is also
to blame for disruptions and losses for businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Although information
technologies hold many benefits to the quality of life of individuals, they
also hold many challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Negative
social consequences can be extremely harmful to individuals, societies, and
political institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the
negative consequences include the balancing power between centralizing and
decentralizing computing and decision making; reduced response time to
competition due to the more efficient global marketplace; maintaining
boundaries between family, work, and leisure; dependability on information
systems and vulnerability if they fail; increase in computer crime and abuse;
loss of jobs; the increase of racial and social class split; and the increase
of health risks, such as repetitive stress injury, computer vision syndrome,
and technostress. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-12868796505573239342012-03-11T21:42:00.000-07:002012-03-11T21:42:15.376-07:00Chapter 3 - Information Systems, Organizations, and Strategy<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Summary</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Information systems and organizations work together to function successfully. The interaction between the two is influenced by mediating factors such as the surrounding environment, culture, organization’s structure, business processes, politics, and management’s decisions. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The technical definition of an organization is a stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs. The behavioral definition of an organization is that it is a collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that is delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution. These two definitions actually complement each other. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All organizations have characteristics that affect the types of information systems they use. The characteristics include routines and business processes, organizational politics, organizational culture, surrounding environments, structure, goals, constituencies, and leadership styles. In addition, information systems have also had economic and organizational and behavioral impacts on organizations. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In today’s business world some firms do better than others. These firms are said to have a competitive advantage over others. Michael Porter’s competitive forces model is used to understand this advantage. This model provides an overview of the firm, its competitors, and its environment. According to this model, five competition forces shape the outcome of the firm: traditional competitors are constantly devising new and more efficient way to produce new products; new companies are always entering the market; there are substitute products and services that consumers may use if there is a change in what they had been using; the ability to attract and retain customers; and the variety of supplies a firm has. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When a firm is faced with all of these competitive forces they can use information systems to respond some of them. The four strategies used for dealing with the competitive forces include low-cost leadership, product differentiation, focus on market niche, and strengthening customer and supplier intimacy. Because of the wide-use of the Internet competitive rivalry has become much more intense. It has almost destroyed some industries and severely threatened others; but it has also created new markets and provided new opportunities for building brands with large and loyal customer bases. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The value chain model is used to highlight specific activities in the business where competitive strategies can best be applied and where information systems are most likely to have a strategic impact. It views firms as a chain of basic activities that add a margin of value to a firm’s products or services. The activities are classified as primary activities or support activities. Primary activities are directly related to the production and distribution of the firm’s products and services. Support activities make the delivery of the primary activities possible and consist of organization infrastructure, technology, and procurement. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Strategic information systems not only can change the organization, but its products, services, and operating procedures as well. This change often drives the organization into new behavioral patterns. Successfully using information systems to achieve a competitive advantage requires coordination of technology, organizations, and management.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-65250122201460923422012-03-11T21:40:00.002-07:002012-03-11T21:40:59.343-07:00Chapter 2 - Global E-Business and Collaboration<!--StartFragment--> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Summary</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Information systems allow businesses to improve the execution and overall quality of their processes. A business process is defined as a unique way in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities, information, and knowledge to produce a product or service. They are important because they determine how well the organization can execute its business and they may also be a foundation of strategic advantage. Information systems improve business processes by allowing automation on processes that were once performed manually. This improvement gives businesses the ability to achieve greater efficiency, innovation, and customer service.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because of the different interests, specialties, and levels in a business, different types of information systems are needed to support them. One area where information systems is needed to support is the decision-making or management group. Systems included are the transaction processing system, the management information system, the decision-support system, and systems for business intelligence. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Enterprise applications are implemented in order to allow all systems to work together in a company. They help businesses to become more flexible and productive by coordinating their business processes more closely and integrating groups of processes so they focus on efficient management of resources and customer service. The four major enterprise applications are enterprise systems, supply chain management systems, customer relationship management systems, and knowledge management systems. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Businesses are able to pull all of these systems and information together, work towards common goals, and coordinate plans and actions through collaboration. It takes place within a business or between businesses, it can be short or long term, and it can be one-to-one or many-to-many. In order for collaboration to be successful one will need a supportive business firm culture, the right business processes, and a strong investment in collaborative technologies. Benefits of collaboration include productivity, quality, innovation, customer service, and financial performance. The capability to collaborate along with implementing appropriate technology will enhance the overall performance of the firm. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The information systems department is responsible for making sure the hardware, software, and other technologies used by the information systems are running properly and are up to date. This departments consists of specialists including programmers, systems analysts, project leaders, and information systems managers. Once the information systems department makes sure everything is in proper working condition, end users are the ones who these applications are made for. </span><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-665920567800090888.post-71019960602783354702012-03-11T21:39:00.000-07:002012-03-11T21:39:47.489-07:00Chapter 1 - Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise<!--StartFragment--> <div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Summary</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Information technology has vastly changed the way businesses are conducted. Three interrelated changes that are evolved in the use of technology are the emerging mobile digital platform, the growth of online software, and the growth in “cloud computing” where business is conducted over the Internet. E-mail, online conferencing, and cell phones have now become necessary tools in conducting business. These changes have allowed businesses to now become a fully digital firm. They are able to sense and respond to their environments more quickly than traditional firms, giving them more flexibility to survive in turbulent times.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The use of information technology has become essential in the firm’s ability to achieve its strategic goals. Information systems are used today for a business to achieve six strategic business objectives: operational excellence; new products, services, and business models; customer and supplier intimacy; improved decision making; competitive advantage; and survival in today’s world.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An information system is defined as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. It can also assist managers and workers in analyzing problems, visualizing complex subjects, and creating new products. Input, processing, and output produce the information needed by the managers and workers to accomplish these goals.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order to fully understand information systems and use it effectively, knowledge of the broader organization, management, and information technology shaping the systems is needed. The organization portion involves issues such as the organization’s hierarchy, functional specialties, business processes, culture, and political interest groups. The management portion involves issues such as leadership, strategy, and management behavior. The technology portion consists of computer hardware, software, data management technology, and networking and telecommunications technology. Information systems are an important investment because it provides economic value to the business. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some firms are able to achieve better results from their information system than others. Awareness of the organizational and managerial dimensions of information systems is where to focus as to why this is. Investing in information technology alone cannot make the organization more effective unless other complementary assets accompany them. These are assets that are required to derive value from a primary investment. They include new business models and business processes, supportive organizational culture and management behavior, appropriate technology standards, regulations, and laws. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Issues and insights contributed from technical and behavioral disciplines contribute to the study of information systems. The disciplines that contribute to the technical approach are computer science, management science, and operations research. The disciplines contributing to the behavioral approach include psychology, sociology, and economics. A sociotechnical view consists of the implementation of both the technical and social aspects and finding an optimal fit between them. </span><o:p></o:p></div><!--EndFragment-->caryn.hales.IThttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17910267573635605170noreply@blogger.com0