BADM 7050 Exam 1
Hypercompetition implies that any architecture must be designed with what two characteristics in mind?
Maximum scalability and flexibility
What is bandwidth?
speed and performance of a network
How has technology hardware evolved?
'50s - '60s + - Batch processing predominant; on-line systems emerged later Mid '70s processing power began to move out of the central site (at the insistence of users!) 1980s: Advent of personal computers Client-Server computing: "Client" machine user interfaces with "Server" on the network holding the data and applications Major current development = hand-held devices, wireless thin computing, wearable computing, and miniaturization of devices Consumerization of IT inside the firm has led to BYOD The next development will be the Internet of Things (iOT)
Be able to identify the different types of organizational structure
4 Types: Hierarchical Organizational Structure: organizational form based on the concepts of division of labor, specialization, span of control, and unity of command Decision rights are highly specialized/centralized Top-down approach Flat organizational structure: no need for organizational charge; relationships are fluid and jobs are loosely defined Everyone does what needs to be done to conduct business Few "middle managers" Able to respond quickly to dynamic, uncertain environment Teamwork = crucial factor Decision making is decentralized Matrix Organizational Structure: assigned employees to two or more supervisors (from different aspects of the employee's work) in an effort to ensure multiple dimensions of the business are integrated See previous question for strengths and weaknesses Networked Organizational Structure: rely on highly decentralized decision rights and utilize distributed information and communication systems to replace inflexible hierarchical control with controls based on IS. (feels characteristically flat and hier. At the same time) Defined by ability to promote creativity and flexibility while maintaining operational process control Employees can share knowledge/experience and participate in key organizational decisions IT ties together people, processes, and units Technological leveling = establishes the flat feeling, tech. enables individuals from all parts of the organization to reach all of its other parts
What is the difference between data mining and a data warehouse?
A data warehouse is a big collection of are not operational data. We then use that to make some decisions. Databases are focused on transactions. They support our transaction processing systems. They keep track of the day to day activities of the company. However, to help us with decision-making, we use a data warehouse. A data warehouse is a collection of all the data from our operational databases that's used to create business intelligence to support business analysis and decision-making tasks. It's simply the collection of data. We're not going to do anything with it. That's what data mining is. The data warehouse is where we're going to move all of the data.
business strategy
A plan articulating where a business seeks to go and how it expects to get there. It is the means by which a business communicates its goals. Management constructs this plan in response to market forces, customer demands, and organizational capabilities.
Understand the different approaches to risk (e.g. acceptance, mitigation, etc)
Acceptance- Organizations may choose to take no actions for risks that have low impacts [ You can determine that the risk is so low that you're not going to do anything about it. Maybe it's too expensive for you to handle. Maybe it's just such a low risk that is not something that you're going to concern yourself with. You cannot mitigate 100% of the risks.] Mitigation- Use of control to remove or reduce impact of threat Sharing- Transferring all or part of impact (e.g., insurance) -Ex: It could be that you decide to hire a cyber security insurance company where if you're attacked, they will pay the ransom or pay some other outcome of the risk being materializing. It could be that you decide to outsource. You may decide to use cloud-based computing. If you use the cloud, you're moving all of your technology from your company to a third party. Now that third party needs to make sure that you're not going to get hacked. Make sure that your data stays secure. You're going to share the risks with someone else. Deferring- For non- imminent risks; want to deal with it later
What are qualities associated with agile and dynamic business processes?
Agile business process: designed to simplify redesign and reconfiguration Designed to be flexible and easily adaptable to changes in the business environment and can be incrementally changed with little effort Process has a high degree of IT use EX: manufacturing operations - production lines are reconfigured regularly to accommodate new processes and technologies Dynamic Business processes: reconfigure themselves as they "learn" and the business utilizes them The process must use a high degree of IT EX: network with changing flow of data that could have built in sensors to monitor the flow and when the flow is greater than the current network configuration can handle, the network automatically redistributes or requisitions more capacity to handle the additional data and reconfigures itself to balance the flow over the new channels
Understand the different types of synchronicity options for team members
Asynchronous - the exchange of data between two or more parties without the requirement for all the recipients to respond immediately email, text Synchronous - Two or more people share information in real time phone call, face-to-face Polysynchronous - blended communication through synchronous and asynchronous methods
Understand the risk of awakening a sleeping giant
Awakening a sleeping giant: A firm can implement IS to gain competitive advantage only to find that it nudged a larger competitor with deeper pockets into implementing an IS with even better features. FedEx offered its customers the ability to trace the transit and delivery of their packages online. FedEx's much larger competitor, UPS, rose to the challenge. UPS not only implemented the same services but also added a new set of features eroding some of the advantages FedEx enjoyed, causing FedEx to update its offerings. Both the UPS and FedEx sites passed through multiple website iterations as the dueling delivery companies continue to struggle for competitive advantage.
How are managers in today's global, virtual workforce rethinking about how to break from traditional methods of managing?
By hiring new employees, setting strategic objectives, evaluating an employee's contribution to a team and the company, and creating individual-based rewards and compensation policies.
What are the three roles that IT can play in the supply chain?
Business Process Integrations Examples: Collaborative Logistics, Commerce Web Sites, Vender-Managed Inventory, Private Exchanges Information Integration Examples: Inventory Visibility, Performance Metrics, Event Monitoring, Business Intelligence, Scorecards, and Dashboards Planning and Control Supply Chain Integration Examples: Supply Chain Planning, Collaborative Product Development, Integrated Demand and Supply Management
What is business process redesign? And Business Process Outsourcing?
Business Process Outsourcing: Leveraging of technology or special vendors to prove and maintain an orgaization's critical or non-critical process for them
Know the elements and use of the information systems strategy triangle
Business Strategy - A plan articulating where a business seeks to go and how it expects to get there Information Strategy - A plan an organization uses to provide information services Organization Strategy - A plan that answers the question "How will the company organize to achieve its goals and implement its business strategy? includes the organization's design as well as the choices it makes to define, set up, coordinate, and control its work processes. Successful firms have an overriding business strategy that drives both organizational strategy and IS strategy IS strategy can itself affect and is affected by changes in a firm's business and organizational design IS strategy always involves consequences—intended or not—within business and organizational strategies
How is wealth accumulated in the digital revolution?
By leveraging the power of creativity of the unknown, not through optimization of the known The ideal environment for cultivating the unknown is to nurture the agility and nimbleness of networks by using the power of IT Find nurture, destroy means I find the weakness in my competitor. I nurture my strengths, and I use that to destroy them. We're seeing that businesses are happening quicker and quicker than ever before in a global context.
Know the definition of co-opetition
Co-opetition - A strategy whereby companies cooperate and compete at the same time with companies in their value net
What is the strategic inflection point?
Companies stop growing, are they going to change or not? companies grow and grow and grow to a certain point then flatten off
What are the two dualities of IT?
Constraints vs. Enables ; Control vs. Freedom
Be able to identify the four types of strategy, according to Porter
Cost leadership: Cheap products and broad market Differentiation: Unique products and broad market Cost Focus: Cheap products and narrow market Differentiation Focus: Unique products and narrow market
What are the elements of the business model canvas?
Customer segments → Who is (are) the target customer(s)? Mass market/niche Single segment/ multi-segments Multi-sided platforms (serving several independent customer segments) Value proposition → What is our unique value proposition that allows the v alue of our company to be greater than the actual price of the product Product + service + brand = perceived value Perceived value may be a combination of economic and social value Distribution Channel → How will we distribute our products? Direct and Indirect Customer Relationships → What relationships do we want to establish and maintain with our target customers? Self-service, personal assistance, automated service, communities, co-creation Revenue Stream → How do we generate income from each of our customer segments? Direct sale, usage fees, subscription, etc. Key Resources → What are the most important resources we need to run our business? Physical, Intellectual, Human, Financial Key Activities → What are the key activities necessary to run the business? Key Partnerships → Who will our key partners be? Buyer-supplier relationships, Strategic alliances, Co-opetiton Cost structure → What will drive the cost of the business? Variable and fixed costs, break even points
What are the three roles that IS plays in organizations?
Data collection, evaluation, and control
Know the definitions of: data governance, data architecture, data quality management, master data management, and meta data management
Data governance People, processes, and information technology required to create a consistent and proper handling of an organization's data across the business enterprise Defines who is responsible for accuracy, accessibility, consistency, and completeness of data; Team typically includes executive leadership, project management, line-of-business managers, and data stewards Data architecture Concerned with the underlying structures of the data and the analysis of data for useful results, Focused upon the business side of the data, How and where the data will be stored, defined, and analyzed Data quality mgt Ensuring that data is high quality in order to make better decisions. Includes data cleansing, enrichment and QA/QC Master data mgt Integrate, manage and reference data. Identify mission-critical data Meta data mgt Data about the data. Data collection, discover, publishing and registry
What are the organizational design variables?
Decision Rights: Authority to initiate, approve, implement, and control various types of decisions necessary to plan and run the business. Business Process: Set of ordered tasks needed to complete key objectives of the business. Formal Reporting Relationships: Structure set up to ensure coordination among all units of the organization, reflects allocation of decision rights. Informal Networks: Mechanisms such as ad hoc groups, which work to coordinate and transfer info. outside the formal reporting relationships.
Why are core processes so difficult to alter?
Difficult to coordinate Have not kept up with improvements in manufacturing Difficult to detect waste and inefficiencies Often as little as 5% of the time considered adding customer value Customers more likely to abandon business because of "poor" service than "poor" products
What are the factors driving the use of teleworking?
Def: Sometimes called telecommuting refers to employees working from home, at a customer site, or from convenient locations instead of coming into offices. Factors: shift to knowledge based work- eliminates requirement that certain work be performed in a specific place chaining demographics and lifestyle preferences-provides workers geographic and time-shifting flexibility new technologies with enhanced bandwidth- makes remotely performed work practical and cost effective reliance on web- provides employees with the abilities to stay connected to coworkers and customers and to access the work-related apps, even on a 24/7 basis energy concerns- reduces the costs of commuting, energy costs associated with real estate, and travel costs.
What is defense in depth?
Defense in depth: concept of having multiple layers of different security policies and practices so when one layer fails to stop a perpetrator, another layer might be more effective. Typical plans have physical, technical, and administrative barriers Origin of concept: Medieval times when castle had multiple layers of defense EX: when a hacker gets past a firewall, they would have to enter in the correct password or a fingerprint to proceed
Be able to identify how a distributed denial of service attack works
Denial of Service (DoS) attacks flood a network with messages that prevent normal access A Distributed DoS(DDoS) attack uses multiple devices to perform the attack DDoS attacks are often performed using a network of compromised devices (called agents, bots, or zombies)
What does the resource-based view tell us?
Determining whether a firm's strategy has created value by using IT. Concentrates on areas that add value to the firm, but not on activities but the resources that it can manage strategically in a rapidly changing competitive environment Helps identify 2 types of info resources those that enable a firm to attain competitive advantage (valuable and rare resources; efficient, effective, innovative) those that enable a firm to sustain the advantage over the long term (continue to innovate and protect against imitation, substitution, or transfer and transfer or replicate) *does not thoroughly take into account the environment in which the firm is embedded, especially when the environment is quite dynamic.
Understand the definition of a digital firm, a platformed firm, and a social firm
Digital firm: Organization where nearly all significant business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, and employees are digitally enabled Social firm: Organization where nearly all significant business processes enables a partnership with customers, suppliers, and employees that goes beyond traditional organizational boundaries The social firm breaks down the barriers between customer and organization and enables the customer to help shape firm strategy Platformed firm: A platform is where suppliers, customers, partners, and employees interact to create new forms of value The platform is an IT-enabled connection point that serves as the way that business is done Examples: Uber, Airbnb
What should a manager do when using information technology to collect data for the purpose of monitoring workers?
Embed monitoring tasks within everyday work. Reduce the negative impacts to employees being monitored- Automatic and non intrusive.
What is an ERP? What are characteristics of an ERP? What are the benefits? And why are they so expensive?
Enterprise Resource Planning: designed to help large companies manage the fragmentation of information stored in hundreds of individual desktops, department, and business unit computers across the organization Integration: ERP systems are designed to seamlessly integrate information flows throughout the company. ERP systems are configured by installing various modules, such as: Manufacturing (materials management, inventory, plant maintenance, production planning, routing, shipping, purchasing, etc.) Accounting (general ledger, accounts payable, accounts receivable, cash management, forecasting, cost accounting, profitability analysis, etc.) Human resources (employee data, position management, skills inventory, time accounting, payroll, travel expenses, etc.) Sales (order entry, order management, delivery support, sales planning, pricing, etc.) Packages: ERP systems are usually commercial packages purchased from software vendors. Unlike many packages, ERP systems usually require long‐term relationships with software vendors because the complex systems must typically be modified on a continuing basis to meet the organization's needs. Best practices: ERP systems reflect industry best (or at least "very good") practices for generic business processes. To implement them, businesses often have to change their processes in some way to accommo- date the software. Some assembly required: The ERP system is software that needs to be integrated with the organization's hardware, operating systems, databases, and network. Further, ERP systems often need to be integrated with proprietary legacy systems. It often requires that middleware (software used to connect processes running in one or more computers across a network) or "bolt‐on" systems be used to make all the components opera- tional. Vendor‐supplied ERP systems have a number of configurable components, too, which need to be set up to best fit with the organization. Rarely does an organization use an ERP system directly "out of the box" without configuration. Evolving: ERP systems were designed first for mainframe systems, then for client‐server architectures, and now for Web‐enabled or cloud‐based delivery. why so expensive? because they must be reconfigured to fit each organization, meaning someone with the correct knowledge and expertise must be hired/selected to execute these tasks requirement of additional systems to help integrate into processes cost of having to restructure existing processes to fit the software also
Know the definition of IT enterprise architecture (from the book and lecture)
Enterprise architecture - term used for a "blueprint" for the corporation that includes the business strategy, the IT architecture, the business processes, and the organization structure and how all these components relate to each other; often this term is IT-centric, specifying the IT architecture and all the interrelationships with the structure and processes; it specifies how information technologies support business processes, align with business needs, and produce business outcomes
What is information asymmetry and how did the internet change this?
Example: Shopping for a TV online you can see all the prices at all the different stores instantly, before you had to drive around Situation in which bargaining power of a transaction is determined by one party processing information essential to the transaction than the other party Consumers now have more power than before, caused by ease of information access. Before, companies controlled the information and the power.
convergence
Exhibiting a state in which business strategy and technology strategy are intertwined and the leadership team members operate almost interchangably
How are organizations changing?
Flattening decentralization flexibility location independence low transaction and coordination costs empowerment collaborative work and teamwork firms are changing how they interact with their customers from analyze-push to engage shape firms are working in a real-time, global, mobile, working environment firms are becoming more networked through outsourcing and strategic alliances
What are the origins of business process design?
Functional organization and division of labor paradigm dates back to Adam Smith and the late 1700's Division of labor rationale: Workers' skill level goes up → work faster No time lost when workers switch between tasks Workers well positioned to help develop better techniques and tools Drawback→ more complex coordination issues when: More complex products and services, and Customers demand more variety
Understand the different types of business structures
Functioning (silo) Perspective - Self‐contained functional units such as marketing, operations, finance, and so on Business Process Perspective - Interrelated, sequential set of activities and tasks that turns inputs into outputs
Be able to identify the factors in the general and task environment
General: Economic, Technical, Socio-Cultural, Political, International Assessed by strategic level employees Task: Competitors, Customers, Suppliers, Regulators, Strategic Partners Directly affect operation of an organization
Who is responsible for developing a cybersecurity culture?
IT and business leaders
Understand the differences between the information economy, the industrial economy, and the digital revolution
Information economy- This is an economy in which we produce knowledge, we produce information, we produce intangibles; used to manage work better Industrial economy- IT used to perform existing information work more quickly and efficiently; you're using technology to validate, to increase efficiency, to make work quick. Digital revolution- We saw companies like Uber and Facebook and Twitter evolve. And what were they doing? They were using technology completely differently. They weren't using technology to make work quick. They weren't using technology to make work better. They were using technology to change work and business practices to change industries, to change the economy, to change mobility. cultivating the unknown, IT made pervasive changes in the structure and operation of.. work, business practices, org, industries, The global economy, mobility
What is the difference between an information system and information technology?
Information technology: the study, design, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems Includes hardware, software, databases and networks IT supports IS, but IS not does require IT IS is an umbrella term and also includes people, processes, and other requirements to facilitate the flow of information beyond the IT
What is the difference between infrastructure and architecture?
Infrastructure - more technology decisions architecture - more business decisions
Is it possible to achieve all dimensions of a solid infrastructure? Why or why not?
It is very difficult to achieve all five characteristics of a solid infrastructure (flexibility, scalability, reliability, availability, and performance). The answer is yes but it is very very costly to achieve all five at the same time.
How has IT altered employees and the way that they work?
Many traditional jobs are done by computers Ex: computers can check spelling in documents, whereas traditionally that was the job of an editor or writer. IS has changed communication - people are always connected Ex: Workers once were familiar with many others in their organization because they passed work to them; now they may never know those coworkers because the IT routes the work. The challenge created by the large number of choices is that individuals now must have a presence on numerous platforms to ensure that they can be contacted. It has created new types of work IT expands the abilities of a single employee (sales now also consults) IT can lead to direct automation changing the ways to connect IT helps make work more team oriented and collaborative.
What is a modular producer?
Modular producer - offer products and services primarily to others who manage the ultimate customers; adaptable and able to serve multiple ecosystems because of their strong focus on digital innovations
Understand the different approaches for controls
Network controls are safeguards that reduce or eliminate threats to data security Preventative controls - Mitigate or stop a person from acting or an event from occurring - Act as a deterrent by discouraging or restraining Detective controls - Reveal or discover unwanted events (e.g., auditing) - Documenting events for potential evidence Corrective controls Remedy an unwanted event or intrusion
What are the three levels of an organization?
Operational: employees that manage and direct daily operations and implementations of goals and strategies Tactical: develops goals and strategies outlined by strategic level Strategic: provides organizations with overall direction and guidance (CFO, CIO, COO)
How has technology led to the development of globalization?
Over the past 50 years, we have seen technology move us from a domestic to global economy Flattening effects of tech are the impetus behind the change Global marketplace- - The entire world has become the marketplace - Technology allows companies and individuals to work and source goods and services globally Global workgroups- Technology enables global collaboration in far flung teams No longer tied to geographical location or time zones - this is a true 24 hour firm
What are the steps in business process management (Not the three phases - the lower level steps)?
Phase 1: Initialization Steps - Clarify process scope, Assign owner for each process Phase 2: Definition Steps - Understand and document process workflow, Facilitate communication, Define process to be managed Phase 3: Control Establish system for controlling process, Establish control points, Develop and implement measurements, Perform feedback
Identify and define the elements of Porter's Five Competitive Forces model
Potential Threat of New Entrants: includes established firms diversifying their business models to begin competition for space in the market that is occupied by existing firms, or an enterprising entrepreneur that creates a new business that changes the game for existing firms. It's important to create barriers of entry to help the existing firms create a stronghold by offering products and services that are difficult to displace in the eyes of customers based on apparently unique features Information resource help create barriers of entry Search optimization Ex: google's search algorithm has allowed the firm's market share to be so high, no one wants to enter the market and try to compete Ex: walmart's inventory control system has allowed them to sell items to customers at a low cost, new entrants would have to spend millions to build up inventory control that is competitive with this firm Bargaining Power of Buyers: Customers often have substantial power to affect the competitive environment. This power can take the form of easy consumer access to several retail outlets to purchase the same product or the opportunity to purchase in large volumes at superstores such as Walmart. Information resources can be used to build switching costs that make it less attractive for customers to purchase from competitors. Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Suppliers' bargaining power can reduce a firm's options and ultimately its profitability. Suppliers often strive to "lock in" customers through the use of systems (and other mechanisms). [For example, there are many options for individuals to back up their laptop data, including many "cloud" options. The power of any one supplier is low because there are a number of options. The force of bargaining power is strongest when a firm has few suppliers from which to choose, the quality of supplier inputs is crucial to the finished product, or the volume of purchases is insignificant to the supplier. The decision of providing more info on the internet, reduces the power of info suppliers and necessitates finding new ways for content providers to develop info. ] Threat of Substitute Products: The potential of a substitute product in the marketplace depends on the buyers' willingness to substitute, the relative price‐to‐performance ratio of the substitute, and the level of switching costs a buyer faces. Threat comes from other products that make your product obsolete Industry Competitors: Rivalry among the firms competing within an industry is high when it is expensive for a firm to leave the industry, the growth rate of the industry is declining, or products have lost differentiation. Intense rivalry in an industry ensures that competitors respond quickly to any strategic actions.
Know the difference between primary and secondary value activities and definitions for all of the activities
Primary Activities - relate directly to the value created in a product or service Inbound Logistics - transportation, storage, delivery or incoming goods into a business Materials handling, delivery Operations - converting raw materials to finished goods manufacturing, assembly Outbound Logistics - distribution of final product to consumer order processing, shipping Marketing and Sales - strategies to enhance visibility and target appropriate customers product, pricing, promotion, place Service - program to maintain products and enhance consumer experience customer service, repair Secondary Activities - make it possible for the primary activities to exist and remain coordinated Organization - Communication and capabilities between departments within the organization Human Resources - Managers are trained and have proper skills and assets to assist with operations and customer service Technology - the use of technology or IT within the organization to assist with primary activities Purchasing - keeping the correct amount of stock or equipment in order to properly perform the primary activities of the organization
What are some methods for quantifying the financial value of IT components?
Quantify costs: The easy part is costing out the proposed infrastructure components and estimating the total investment necessary. Work with the IT staff to identify cost trends in the equipment the company proposes to acquire. Don't forget to include installation and training costs in the total. Determine the anticipated life cycles of system components: Experienced IT staff or consultants can help establish life cycle trends for both a company and an industry to estimate the useful life of various systems. Quantify benefits: The hard part is obtaining input from all affected user groups as well as the IT group, which presumably knows most about the equipment's capabilities. If possible, form a team with representatives from each of these groups and work together to identify all potential areas in which the new IT system may bring value. Quantify risks: Assess any risk that might be attributable to delaying acquisition as opposed to paying more to get the latest technology now. Consider ongoing dollar costs and benefits: Examine how the new equipment affects maintenance and upgrade costs associated with the current infrastructure.
What is richness versus reach?
Richness is the depth and detail of information that a business can supply to (or can collect from) a customer Reach is how many people a business can connect with and how many products it can offer the people No need to trade off now with internet
What are the strengths and weaknesses of a matrix organization?
Strengths: FAST adaptation to any changes in projects. HIGH speed innovations Possibility to produce adequate and simultaneous responds on the several market segments. Good and functional specialists might take part in all company projects. Stimulate developing functional and project skills Give the possibility for creative self organization. Flexibility Weaknesses: Employees should be able to work in a team, they need communication skills. Stimulate conflicts as a result of double system of authority. Conflict of interest between different managers.
Understand which variable that IS helps to determine in order for an organization to remain competitive
Sustainable competitive advantage
What is a strategic timeframe?
The appropriate timeframe for an organization's strategy, typically (3-5 years).
Know the elements of the information systems strategy matrix
The purpose of the matrix is to give the manager a high‐level view of the relation between the four IS infrastructure components and the other resource considerations that are keys to IS strategy
According to Porter's value chain framework, where does a competitive advantage come from?
The value chain framework suggests that competition stems from lowering the costs to perform activities adding value to product/service so that consumers will pay more To achieve TRUE competitive advantage, a firm requires accurate information on elements outside itself.
What does the Technology Acceptance Model tell us?
To avoid the negative consequences of resistance to change, those implementing change must actively manage the change process and gain acceptance for new IS TAM suggests that managers cannot get employees to use a system until they want to use it. To convince employees to want to use the system, managers may need to employ unfreezing tactics to change employee attitudes about the system. Attitudes may change if employees believe that the system will allow them to do more or better work for the same amount of effort (perceived usefulness), and that it is easy to use.
Why should general managers take an active role in making decisions about information systems?
To be effective, managers need a solid sense of how IS are used and managed within the organization. A general manager who relies solely on IS personnel to make all IS decisions not only gives up authority over IS strategy but also hampers crucial future business decisions. In fact, business strategy should drive IS decision making, and changes in business strategy should entail reassessments of IS.
Understand business process reengineering versus total quality management and understand when to use each
Total Quality management (TQM) Approach that contain W. Edwards Deming's "14 points" or key principles to transform business Principles outline a set of activities for increasing quality and improving productivity Used in incremental, continuous business process improvement, or when it is favorable to have more control and ownership of improvements (change is less threatening to the firm this way) Business process reengineering Major changes or complete restructuring of an existing business process Use when opting for radical, aggressive improvements When the firm wants to make rapid, breakthrough impacts on key metrics When the firm has cross-functional processes and major change is needed
How has technology software evolved? And what is the trend today?
Trend today is toward the cloud; purchase software instead of developing internal IT talent for in-house development Push for 'open systems' Purchasers were tired of being "locked in" to proprietary software (or hardware) Mainframes had proprietary software and locked into what they wanted
What are the critical success factors for BPM projects?
Understand re-engineering Build a business and political case Adopt a process management approach Measure and track performance continuously Practice change management and prove support Manage results
What is the difference between a value adding, a business value adding, and a non-value adding activity?
Value adding Helps/essential to meet customer expectations Activities customers would be willing to pay for Involves doing the right things, or performing the correct activities while also doing them correctly and with high efficiency Ex: service after sale, delivery, etc Business value adding Control activities Do not directly add customer value but are essential to conducting business EX: control, policy compliance Non-value adding Activities that customers are not willing to pay for Eliminating these activities is the key first step in redesigning business processes (often achieved through task or activity consolidation) EX: handoff, delay, rework
The concept of "jobs" is being replaced with the concept of work. What questions should a framework address to assist in linking the IS strategy with the organizational strategy?
What work will be performed? (operations, sales, service, mgt) Who is going to do the work? (individuals, robots, groups) Where will the work be performed? (at the office, at home) When will the work be performed? (9-5, 24/7) How can the acceptance of IT-induced change to work be increased? (unfreeze-change-refreeze, Kotter's 8 steps, Technology acceptance model)
What can a company learn from utilizing business analytics?
Who's buying the product and what price they're willing to pay?
What is spoofing?
a security breach in which a hacker counterfeits an internet address
Where can tacit knowledge be stored?
artifical intelligence
Understand the relationship between the value chain and Porter's Five Forces and be able to identify which element of the value chain should be altered when given a force
based on assessment of the five forces, you can decide where to invest and focus on your supply chain
Who makes decisions about security strategy
business leaders
mangerial levers
can be organizational, control, and cultural variables used by decision makers to effect changes in their organizations. Organizational variables include decision rights, business processes, formal reporting relationships and informal networks. Control variables include availability of data, nature and quality of planning, effectivness of performance measurement and evaluation systems and incentives to go good work. cultural variables compromise the values of the organization.
What are the characteristics of a data warehouse that are needed to support the analytical needs of an organization?
centralized so all organization's departments can access the data and store new data in formats that are easily used by others used to manage large collections of unstructured data.
What is a CRM? And why do companies use them?
customer relationship management helps businesses to gain an insight into the behaviour of their customers and modify their business operations to ensure that customers are served in the best possible way essentially provides a central place where businesses can store customer and prospect data, track customer interactions, and share this information with colleagues. It allows businesses to manage relationships with customers, helping the business to grow. (CRM system)
What are the components of business analytics?
data sources- data streams and repositories software tools- applications and processes for statistical analysis, forecasting, predictive modeling and optimization data driven environment- organizational environment that creates and sustains the use of analytics tools skilled workforce- workforce that has the training, experience, and capability to use the analytics tools
Know the definition of encryption, VPN, and a firewall
encryption- system follows a complex formula, using a unique key to convert plain text into what looks like unreadable nonsense and then to decode back into plain text when presented with the decoding key VPN (Virtual private network)- software provides a trusted, encrypted connection between your site and a particular server Firewall- software and sometimes hardware based filter prevents or allows outside traffic from accessing the network.
What is evidence-based management?
evidence and facts are analyzed as the first step in decision making
What type of knowledge is IS traditionally focused on?
explicit knowledge
What type of decision making does business analytics fuel?
fact-based
What are the main process of knowledge management?
generate- discover 'new' knowledge, whether it is new to an individual, firm, or entire discipline capture- continuous processes of scanning, organizing and packaging knowledge after its been generated codification- representation of knowledge in a manner that can be easily accessed and transferred. transfer- transmitting knowledge from one person or group to another and the absorption of that knowledge.
What are the negative outcomes from a firm that is set up using a functional model?
individual departments often recreate information maintained by other departments communication gaps between departments are often wide handoffs between silos are often a source of problems, such as finger-pointing and lost information silos often tend to lose sight of the objective of the overall organization and operate in a way that maximizes their local goals
What are the five critical elements that are used to raise security in a firm?
information security strategy - IT principles like protecting the confidentiality of customer information, strict compliance with regulations, and maintain a security baseline that is above the industry benchmark information security infrastructure- selecting and configuring the right tools to achieve consistency in protection, economies of scale and synergy among the components. information security policy - encourage standardization and integration by broadly defining the scope of and overall expectations for the company's information security program. information security, education, training, and awareness (SETA)- important to be aware of security policies and practices to provide information on SETA. Training and awareness programs build a security-conscious culture, and must be linked to the unique requirements of individual business processes. information security investments - fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) factor once was all top management needed, now security managers increasingly must justify their budget requests financially.
Know the definition of knowledge management, intellectual capital, data warehouse, tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge, data mining, externalization bug data
knowledge management - processes necessary to generate, capture, codify, integrate, and transfer knowledge across the organization to achieve competitive advantage intellectual capital- intangible assets that contribute to a company's bottom line. These assets include the expertise of employees, organizational processes, and sum of knowledge contained within the organization. data warehouse - collections of data designed to support management decision making, sometimes serve as repositories of all of an organization's databases. tacit knowledge - know how to identify the key issues necessary to solve a problem. applies similar experiences from past situations by estimating work required based on intuition and experience. deciding on an appropriate course of action explicit knowledge- knowledge that can be easily collected, organized and transferred through digital means. procedure listed in a manual of books or articles, or new reports and financial statements. information left over from past projects. data mining -process of analyzing data warehouses and other sources for 'gems' that can be used in management decision making. externalization - mode going from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge big data - techniques and technologies that make it economical to deal with very large data sets at the extreme end of the scale.
What are some examples of multi-factor authentication?
multi-factor authentication- couple two or more access techniques passwords followed by a passkey sent to a mobile phone as a text message or a password followed by a challenge question tokens biometrics and follow-up questions passwords and text messaging
What is cloud computing? Why would a company choose to use cloud computing? And what are the risks?
o An architecture based on services provided over the internet. o Benefits: § Businesses that embrace a virtual infrastructure can consolidate physical servers and possibly eliminate many of them, greatly reducing the physical costs of the data center. § Speed at which additional capacity or provisioning can be done is a big benefit. o Risks: § Dependence on the third-party supplier § Retooling existing applications for the cloud's infrastructure.
What is the best approach for integrating systems inside of an organization (and the one used by nearly all of the Fortune 500 companies)?
o ERP Enterprise Resource Planning o ERP at the base has a database, and that database contains all of the information for all of the different parts of the organization.
Why is it dangerous to open an email with an EXE file in it?
o Email might not be from the known source and someone is spoofing o Email might be for a known source's computer but the e-mail had a virus which infect the recipient's computer o Email might have been sent from a familiar person who doesn't know that a virus is attached.
Why are enterprise systems useful for organizations?
o Enable information flow within and between processes across the organization Advantages of enterprise systems Represents best practices Allows modules throughout the organization to communicate with each other Enables centralized decision making Eliminates redundant data Enables standardized procedures in different locations
What is an intranet? Extranet? Interorganizational system? Middleware? Value web?
o Intranet: an internal network that is deployed over the internet, is guarded against outside access by a special security feature called firewall § Ex: mylsu o Extranet: private internet that is accessible to authorized outsiders / objective: take certain elements of intranet and open it up to external parties i.e., customers, suppliers, distributors, logistics services § Outsiders o Interorganizational system: automates the flow of information between organizations to support the planning, design, development, production, and delivery of products and services § Ex: Walmart's retail link § Extranet o Middleware: software / buy something off the shelf to build your patent o Value web: the collection of independent firms using IT to coordinate value chains to collectively produce a product or service / more customer driven and flexible, adaptive to changes in supply and demand
What is a mainframe? What is a legacy system?
o Mainframe- large, central computers that support many simultaneous users, or all the functionality of a system. o Legacy system- mature information that has worked for a long time.
What is middleware? And what is it used for?
o Middleware is a software to make all components operational o used to connect processes running in one or more computers across a network
Why do firms link their customers and suppliers through a single network?
o Technology, especially Web-based technology allows the supply chains of a company's customers and suppliers to be linked through a single network that optimizes costs and opportunities for all companies in the supply chain.
What are good metrics a firm can use to measure the success of a business process?
o Turnaround time and number of paperwork errors
What should an effective workflow diagram accomplish?
o Understand and communicate the dimensions of the current process.
How much should a manager know about the IT architecture and infrastructure?
o Understand what to expect from IT architecture and infrastructure to be able to make full and realistic use of them.
What is business process management?
o Well-defined and optimized set of IT processes, tools, and skills used to manage business processes.
What is supply chain management? And what does it accomplish?
o supply chain management: manages the integrated supply chain. Automate the internal operations of a firm's value chain to source materials for operations
What is the silo perspective
oThe view of an organization based on the functional departments, typically including manufacturing, engineering, logistics, sales, marketing, HR etc. Self-contained functional units such as marketing operations, finance and so on that focus on business functions and goal is to optimize for the function, which may be suboptimal for the organization. o The view of an organization based on the functional departments, typically including manufacturing, engineering, logistics, sales, marketing, finance, accounting, and human resources. (In contrast, see Process Perspective.)
What are the common elements of a BI system?
reporting dashboards querying scoreboards
What is digital Darwinism?
through natural selection some companies are dying off thanks to the digital revolution Teaches us that only the strong organizations survive Org. that can't adapt to the new demand placed on them for surviving in the information age are doomed to extinction
Why do organizations use the enterprise system to drive the redesign of a business process?
§ Org is starting out and processes doesn't exist- begin with enterprise system to structure operational business processes. § When org doesn't rely on its operational business process as a source of CA § Reasonable when the current systems are in crisis and there isn't enough time, resources or knowledge in the firm to fix them.
