Business Processes

SCM: Supply Chain Management

Can include procurement, sales order processing, inventory management, supplier management, and related activities

NetSuite

Claims to be the number one Web-Based ERP provider - closely associated with Oracle

Accounting

GL, financial reporting, cost, AP (accounts payable), AR (accounts receivable), cash management, budgeting

MIS

Management Information System

Enterprise Systems

cross departmental boundaries

TPS/Transaction processing system

Record and facilitate efficient operations: efficiency and accuracy matter the most for these systems. We need to manage costs but also keep reliable records.

HR (human resources)

Recruiting, compensation, assessment

Desirable Information Characteristics

- Accurate - based on correct and complete data and processed correctly as expected. - Timely - produced in time for its intended use. - Relevant - on the subject and appropriate for the context. - Just Barely Sufficient - supports its purpose without any extra. Careful here - how much is needed to be confident? - Worth its cost.

Three Ways IS Improve Business Processes

• Improve efficiency • Improve effectiveness • Provide linkages across processes

EAI: Enterprise Application Integration

- Many organizations use tools from several vendors e.g., a GL tool from one, a CRM from another, and SCM from a third. - EAI systems help integrate data from these systems or simply connect legacy systems that are very costly to replace. In a way this is an alternative to a singular ERP environment. - The big idea: information silos happen for many reasons. Sometimes companies invest in a single integrated system, but that is not always feasible. Enterprise Application Integration tools and strategies balance centralization and decentralization

Understand the meaning of system characteristics that help in their evaluation.

- Reliable systems perform correctly (e.g., accurate outputs and no failures) over time given expected operating conditions - Efficient systems use fewer resources to accomplish a task - More extensible systems can be more easily modified by adding features - Verifiable systems support auditing and tracking that confirms transaction accuracy as well as the accuracy of summary reports - Secure systems avoid data loss, inappropriate access, and attack-related down time

3 definitions of information

- Usefully organized facts (Ackoff) - Data presented in a meaningful context (Kroenke) - Data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing or similar operation (Kroenke)

Inter-enterprise systems

-Companies work together - doing it efficiently often requires sharing data - EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is key to the success of Inter-enterprise Systems

Advantages of ERP

-Integration across departments. -Vendors spend billions of dollars developing such systems so that they can support "best practices" worldwide.

Disadvantages of ERP

-They can be configured, but only so far. -Often an organization has to organize its business processes to line up with an ERP system's design which uses standardized process 'blueprints' as described in the text. -"Industry best practices" may not be best for a particular organization.

Random info

A TPS is often the key source of data that is used for analysis in DSS, and for creating reports/graphs for MIS and/or ESS.

DSS

Decision support systems

ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning

ESS

Executive support systems

Microsoft Dynamics

Microsoft's ERP product - more often used by small and midsized companies

MIS/ Management Information System

Report on operations for monitoring and control. In general a system would be an MIS if it produces standardized reports that managers use to monitor operations.

CRM: Customer Relationship Management

Sales prospecting, customer management, marketing, customer support, and call center operations

Epicor

Strong in retail-specific environments

ERP/ Enterprise Resource Planning

These massive systems can include all the other systems in an organization, particularly operational systems such as those listed above and the SCM and CRM systems listed below.

Business Processes

Things organizations do to create value for stakeholders. A Business Process can usually be broken down into a sequence of tasks or activities that have to be completed in a specific order with a clear beginning and an end.

TPS

Transaction processing system

Dynamic processes

are flexible, informal, and adaptive, involving strategic and less specific managerial decisions and activities

Structured processes

are formally defined, standardized processes that involve day-to-day operations. More structure is usually required for automation.

DSS/Decision support systems

help with non-routine decisions. DSS tools often allow analysts and managers to formulate new questions and extract data from existing systems to answer them. The tools can be as simple as Pivot tables and What-if-Analysis that are available in MS Excel or could be based upon very complex algorithms and calculations.

Oracle

includes several products including Oracle financials, PeopleSoft, and Siebel

Sales and Marketing

lead generation, lead tracking, customer management, sales forecasting, product and brand management

Operations

order entry and management, finished-goods inventory

Customer service

order/account tracking, customer support and training

Infor

privately held company which acquired the well-known Baan system

ESS/Executive support systems

provide information for high-level decisions. Digital dashboards are a current focus for ESS data analytics. A dashboard shows how an organization is performing on key metrics. For example, sales, deliveries, process times, etc. Different organizations and different management teams might choose different indicators. Building an ESS usually requires integrating data from multiple subsystems or even collecting extra data.

Manufacturing

raw materials inventory, planning, scheduling

Departmental systems

support a departmental process

SAP

the largest ERP vendor