MIS 300 Test 3

Tag

*Keyword or term that describes a piece of information. Ex: a blog, a picture, an article, or a video clip.

ERP II Systems

Interorganizational ERP systems that provide Web-enabled links among a company's key business systems- such as inventory and production- and its customers, suppliers, distributors, and other relevant parties. *Interorganizational, web-enabled, and can be set up with extranets.

Blogs

*A weblog (blog for short) is a personal Web site, open to the public, in which the site creator expresses his or her feelings or opinions via a series of chronological entries. *Often provide incredibly useful information, often before the information becomes available in traditional media outlets (e.g., television, newspapers).

Tagging

*Allows users to place information in multiple, overlapping associations rather than in rigid categories. *Tagging is the basis of folksonomies.

Different Ways of Converting to a New IS

*Direct conversion: In this conversion, the old system is cut off, and the new system is turned on at a certain point in time. This type of conversion is the least expensive, and the most risky because, if the new system does not work as planned, there is no support from the old system. Because of these risks, few systems are implemented using direct conversion. *Pilot conversion: Introduces the new system in one part of the organization, such as in one plant or one functional area. The new system runs for a period of time and is then assessed. If the assessment confirms that the system is working properly, then the system is implemented in other parts of the organization. *Phased conversion: Introduces components of the new system, such as individual modules, in stages. Each module is assessed. If it work properly, then other modules are introduced, until the entire new system is operational. Large organizations commonly combine the pilot and phased approaches. That is, they execute a phased conversion using a pilot group for each phase. *Parallel conversion: The old and new systems operate simultaneously for a time. This strategy is seldom used today.

ERP Systems (Enterprise Resource Planning)

*Information systems that take a business process view of the overall organization to integrate the planning, management, and use of all of an organization's resources, employing a common software platform and database. *Designed to correct a lack of communication among the functional area IS by tightly integrating the functional area IS via a common database. *Experts credit ERP systems with greatly increasing organizational productivity. *Advantages: -organizational flexibility and agility -decision support -quality and efficiency *Disadvantages: -The business processes in ERP software are often predefined by the best practices that the ERP vendor has developed. -ERP systems can be extremely complex, expensive, and time consuming to implement.

Management Roles

*Interpersonal roles- figurehead, leader, liaison *Informational roles- monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, analyzer *Decisional roles- entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator

Web 1.0

*Key developments were the creation of Web sites and the commercialization of the Web. *Users typically had minimal interaction with Web 1.0 sites. *Users passively received information from those sites.

Semi-structured

*Located between structured and unstructured decisions. *Some of the decision process phases are structured. *Require a combination of standard solution procedures and individual judgment. *Examples: evaluating employees, setting marketing budgets for consumer products, performing capital acquisition analysis, and trading bonds.

Web 2.0

*Loose collection of information technologies and applications, plus the Web sites that use them. *Enrich user experience by encouraging user participation, social interaction, and collaboration. *Unlike Web 1.0 sites, Web 2.0 sites are not so much online places to visit as Web locations that facilitate information sharing, user-centered design, and collaboration. *Web 2.0 sites often harness collective intelligence; deliver functionality as services, rather than packaged software; and feature remixable applications and data.

Bloggers

*People who create and maintain blogs- write stories, convey news, and provide links to other articles and Web sites that are of interest to them. *Simplest method of creating a blog is to sign up with a blogging service provider.

Different Types of Feasibilities

*Technical Feasibility: determines whether the company can develop and/or acquire the hardware, software, and communications components needed to solve the business problem. Also determines whether the organization can use its existing technology to achieve the project's performance objectives. *Economic Feasibility: determines whether the project is an acceptable financial risk and, if so, whether the organization has the necessary time and money to successfully complete the project. *Behavioral Feasibility: addresses the human issues of the systems development project.

Collaborative CRM System

A CRM system where communications between the organization and its customers are integrated across all aspects of marketing, sales, and customer support processes

Vertical Integration

A business strategy in which a company purchases its upstream suppliers to ensure that its essential supplies are available as soon as the company needs them.

360-Degree View

A complete data set of customer-related data that is available to every unit of a business. *Being able to access all of the data on a customer.

Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM)

A customer-focused and customer-driven organizational strategy that concentrates on addressing customers' requirements for products and services, and then providing high-quality, responsive services.

Source Data Automation

A process used by organizations to try to automate the TPS data entry as much as possible because of the large volume involved

Upselling

A sales strategy where the organizational representative provides to customers the opportunity to purchase higher-value related products or services in place of, or along with, the customer's initial product or service selection.

OLTP (Online Transaction Processing)

A transaction processing system (TPS) that processes data after transactions occur, frequently in real time.

Service-oriented architecture

An IT architecture that makes it possible to construct business applications using Web services. *One of the major benefits of Web services is that they can be reused across an organization in other applications.

Supply Chain Management Systems (SCM)

An activity in which the leadership of an organization provides extensive oversight for the partnerships and processes that compose the supply chain and leverages these relationships to provide an operational advantage. *The function of SCM is to improve the processes a company uses to acquire the raw materials it needs to produce a product or service and then deliver that product or service to its customers. *SCM is the process of planning, organizing, and optimizing the various activities performed along the supply chain. *The five basic components of SCM are: Plan, Source, Make, Deliver, and Return.

End-user Development

An approach in which the organization's end users develop their own applications with little or no formal assistance from the IT department. *Advantages: -Bypasses the IS department and avoids delays -User controls the application and can change it as needed -Directly meets user requirements -Promotes increased user acceptance of new system -Frees up IT resources *Disadvantages: -May eventually require maintenance from IS department -Documentation may be inadequate -Leads to poor quality control -System may not have adequate interfaces to existing systems -May create lower quality systems

Wikipedia

An online encyclopedia that is the largest existing wiki

Transactions

Any business event that generates data worthy of being captured and stored in a database. *Examples: a product manufactured, a service sold, a person hired, and a payroll check generated. When checking out at a grocery store, each time the cashier swipes an item across the bar code reader is one transaction.

CRM Customer Touch Points (Electronic CRM)

Any interaction between a customer and an organization. *Traditional customer touch points include telephone contact, direct mailings, and actual physical interactions with customers during their visits to a store.

Customer-facing CRM Systems

Areas where customers directly interact with the organization, including customer service and support, sales force automation, marketing, and campaign management.

Open-source software

Source code is available at no cost to both developers and users. *This software is distributed with license terms that ensure that its source code will always be available. *Produced by worldwide "communities" of developers who write and maintain the code. *Advantages: -Open-source development produces high-quality, reliable, low-cost software. -Flexible (the code can be changed to meet users' needs). -Can be more reliable than proprietary software. -Because the code is available to many developers, more bugs are discovered early and quickly, and they are fixed immediately. -Technical support is also available from firms that offer products derived from the software. *Disadvantages: -Companies that use open-source software depend on the continued goodwill of an army of volunteers for enhancements, bug fixes, and so on, even if they have signed a contract that includes support. -Organizations that do no have in-house technical experts will have to purchase maintenance-support contracts from a third party. -Poses questions concerning ease of use, the time and expense needed to train users, and compatibility with existing systems either within or outside the organization. How it's used in business: -Used on servers -Customer relationship management tasks -Database management software -Management of images and video for Web sites

Systems Analysis

The process whereby systems analysts examine the business problem that the organization plans to solve with an information system. *Primary use is to gather information about the existing system to determine the requirements for an enhanced system or a new system. *The end product of this stage, known as the deliverable, is a set of system requirements.

SDLC (Systems Development Life Cycle)

Traditional systems development method that organizations use for large-scale IT projects. *Structured framework that consists of sequential processes by which information systems are developed.

Batch Processing

Transaction processing system (TPS) that processes data in batches at fixed periodic intervals.

RSS (Really Simply Syndication)

*A Web 2.0 feature that allows you to receive the information you want (customized information), when you want it, without having to surf thousands of Web sites. *Allows anyone to syndicate (publish) his or her blog, or any other content, to anyone who has an interest in subscribing to it.

Netcasts/Wikis

*A Web site made up entirely of content posted by users. *Has an "edit" link on each page that allows any user to add, change, or delete material, thus fostering easy collaboration.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)

*A page-description language for specifying how text, graphics, video, and sound are placed on a Web page document. *Was originally designed to create and link static documents composed primarily of text.

Mashup

A Web site that takes different content from a number of other Web sites and mixes them together to create a new kind of content.

Software-as-a-Service (SAAS)

A delivery model with which cloud computing vendors provide software that is specific to their customers' requirements.

Bundling

A form of cross-selling where an enterprise sells a group of products or services together at a lower price than the combined individual price of the products.

Management

A process by which an organization achieves its goals through the use of resources (people, money, materials, and information). *These resources are considered to be inputs. *Achieving the organization's goals is the output of the process.

Analytical CRM System

CRM system that analyzes customer behavior and perceptions in order to provide actionable business intelligence.

BI Systems

BI uses enormous data sets and appropriate technology. The user is looking for "patterns" in the data. BI is company-wide and includes data mining, predictions, dashboards and data visualization. *BI can be used for individual departments, enterprise wide situations, and organizational transformation.

DSS (Decision Support System)

Combine models and data to analyze semistructured problems and some unstructured problems that involve extensive user involvement. *DSS's can enhance learning and contribute to all levels of decision making. *They also employ mathematical models and have related capabilities of sensitivity analysis, what-if analysis, and goal-seeking analysis. *Example: Excel

Decision making in today's business environment

Due to increased uncertainty in the decision environment, decisions are becoming more complex. *It is usually necessary to conduct a sophisticated analysis in order to make a good decision.

Functional Area Information Systems

Information System support for every functional area in business. *Supports a particular functional area in the organization by increasing each area's internal efficiency and effectiveness.

Wiki

Information is posted to a web site and the information can be edited by other users

Choice Phase

Pick an option and decide how to implement it.

Buying Applications

Purchasing an existing package can be a cost-effective and time-saving strategy compared with custom-developing the application in-house. *Before a company can perform this process, it must decide which features a suitable package must include. *Because a single software package can rarely satisfy all of an organization's needs, a company sometimes must purchase multiple packages to fulfill different needs. It then must integrate these packages with one another as well as with its existing software.

Types of Decisions

Structured Decisions Unstructured Semi-structured

TPS Systems (Transaction Processing System)

Supports the monitoring, collection, storage, and processing of data from the organization's basic business transactions, each of which generates data. *Collects data continuously, typically in real time (as soon as the data are generated), and provides the input data for the corporate databases. *They are critical to the success of any enterprise because they support core operations. Examples:

Social Commerce

The delivery of electronic commerce activities and transactions through social computing. *Also supports social interactions and user contributions, allowing customers to participate actively in the marketing and selling of products and services in online marketplaces and communities. *Individuals can collaborate online, obtain advice from trusted individuals, and find and purchase goods and services.

Strategic Planning

The long-range goals and policies for growth and resource allocation.

Best Practices

The most successful solutions of problem-solving methods for achieving a business objective.

Cross-selling

The practice of marketing additional related products to customers based on a previous purchase.

Folksonomies

User-generated classifications that use tags to categorize and retrieve Web pages, photos, videos, and other Web content.

Aggregator

Web sites that provide collections of content from the web. They search the web and bring together information about an entity that may be distributed throughout the web.

Social Networking Sites

Where participants of social networking congregate and can create their own profile page for free and on which they can write blogs and wikis; post pictures, videos, or music; share ideas; and link to other Web locations they find interesting.

Horizontal Integration

a company purchases another company in its industry to try and increase its market share.

Unstructured

are intended to deal with "fuzzy," complex problems for which there are no cut-and-dried solutions. *There is no standardized procedure for carrying out any of the three phases. *In making a decision, human intuition and judgement often play an important role. *Typical unstructured decisions include planning new service offerings, hiring an executive, and choosing a set of research and development (R&D) projects for the coming year.

Structured Decisions

deal with routine and repetitive problems for which standard solutions exist, such as inventory control. *The first three phases of the decision process- intelligence, design, and choice- are laid out in a particular sequence, and the procedures for obtaining the best (or at least good enough) solution are known.

Loyalty Programs

Recognize customers who repeatedly use a vendor's products or services. *Are appropriate when two conditions are met: a high frequency of repeat purchases, and limited product customization for each customer. *Frequently referred to as "rewards programs," but their actual purpose is not to reward past behavior, but, rather, to influence future behavior.

Blogosphere

Term for the millions of blogs on the Web.

Supply Chain Visibility

The ability of all organizations in a supply chain to access or view relevant data on purchased materials as these materials move through their suppliers' production processes.

Operational CRM System

The component of CRM that supports the front-office business processes that directly interact with customers (i.e., sales, marketing, and service).

Crowdsourcing

*A process in which an organization outsources a task to an unidentified, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. *Benefits: -Crowds can explore problems- and often resolve them- at relatively low cost, and often very quickly. -The organization can tap a wider range of talent than might be present among its employees. -By listening to the crowd, organizations gain firsthand insight into their customers' desires. -Taps into the global world of ideas, helping companies work through a rapid design process.

Management Control

Acquiring and using resources efficiently in accomplishing organizational goals

Scope Creep

Adding functions to an information system after the project has begun. *The time frame and expenses associated with the project expand beyond the agreed-upon limits.

Prototyping

An approach that defines an initial list of user requirements, builds a prototype system, and them improves the system in several iterations based on users' feedback.

System Design

Describes how the system will resolve the business problem. *The deliverable (The product) of the systems design phase is the set of technical system specifications, which specify the following: Systems outputs, inputs, and user interfaces; Hardware, software, databases, telecommunications, personnel, and procedures; A blueprint of how these components are integrated

Design Phase

Determines "What are my options?"

Intelligence Phase

Determines "What is the problem?"

Dashboards

Evolved from executive information systems, which were information systems designed specifically for the information needs of top executives. *Provides easy access to timely information and direct access to management reports. *User Friendly, supported by graphics, and, most importantly, enables managers to examine exception reports and drill down into detailed data.

Operational Control

Executing specific tasks efficiently and effectively

Decision

Refers to a choice among two or more alternatives that individuals and groups make. *They are diverse and are made continuously. *Composed of three phases: intelligence, design, and choice. *Once the choice is made, the decision is implemented. *There is a continuous flow of information from intelligence, to design, to choice. *At any phase, however, there may be a return to a previous phase.