Management information systems: chapter 2

Systems from a constituency perspective

-Transaction processing systems: supporting operational level employees -Management information systems and decision-support systems: supporting managers -Executive support systems: supporting executives

Business processes:

-Workflows of material, information, knowledge -Sets of activities, steps -May be tied to functional area or be cross-functional -Businesses: Can be seen as collection of business processes -Business processes may be assets or liabilities

Information technology enhances business processes in two main ways:

1.Increasing efficiency of existing processes Automating steps that were manual 2.Enabling entirely new processes that are capable of transforming the businesses -Change flow of information -Replace sequential steps with parallel steps -Eliminate delays in decision making

Six steps in evaluating software tools

1.What are your firm's collaboration challenges? 2.What kinds of solutions are available? 3.Analyze available products' cost and benefits 4.Evaluate security risks 5.Consult users for implementation and training issues 6.Evaluate product vendors

Technology for collaboration and teamwork

15 categories of collaborative software tools Email and instant messaging White boarding Collaborative writing Web presenting Collaborative reviewing Work scheduling Event scheduling Document sharing /wikis File sharing Mind mapping Screen sharing Large audience Webinars Audio conferencing Co-browsing Video conferencing

Building a collaborative culture and business processes

"Command and control" organizations -No value placed on teamwork or lower-level participation in decisions Collaborative business culture -Senior managers rely on teams of employees -Policies, products, designs, processes, systems rely on teams -Managers purpose is to build teams

Growing importance of collaboration:

-Changing nature of work -Growth of professional work - "interaction jobs" -Changing organization of the firm -Changing scope of the firm -Emphasis on innovation -Changing culture of work

Management information systems

-Serve middle management -Provide reports on firm's current performance, based on data from TPS -Provide answers to routine questions with predefined procedure for answering them -Typically have little analytic capability

Collaboration can be:

-Short-lived or long-term -Informal or formal (teams)

Information systems department

Formal organizational unit responsible for information technology services Often headed by chief information officer (CIO) -Other senior positions include chief security officer (CSO), chief knowledge officer (CKO), chief privacy officer (CPO) Programmers Systems analysts Information systems managers

Alternative tools that increase integration and expedite the flow of information

Intranets: -Internal company Web sites accessible only by employees Extranets: -Company Web sites accessible externally only to vendors and suppliers -Often used to coordinate supply chain

Business benefits of collaboration and teamwork

Investments in collaboration technology can produce organizational improvements returning high ROI Benefits: -Productivity -Quality -Innovation -Customer service -Financial performance -Profitability, sales, sales growth

Supply chain management (SCM) systems

Manage firm's relationships with suppliers Share information about -Orders, production, inventory levels, delivery of products and services Goal: -Right amount of products to destination with least amount of time and lowest cost

Examples of functional business processes:

Manufacturing and production -Assembling the product Sales and marketing -Identifying customers Finance and accounting -Creating financial statements Human resources -Hiring employees

Transaction processing systems

Perform and record daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business -Examples: sales order entry, payroll, shipping Allow managers to monitor status of operations and relations with external environment Serve operational levels Serve predefined, structured goals and decision making

Customer relationship management systems:

Provide information to coordinate all of the business processes that deal with customers in sales, marketing, and service to optimize revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention Integrate firm's customer-related processes and consolidate customer information from multiple communication channels

End users

Representatives of other departments for whom applications are developed Increasing role in system design, development

Decision support systems

Serve middle management Support non-routine decision making -Example: What is impact on production schedule if December sales doubled? Often use external information as well from TPS and MIS Model driven DSS -Voyage-estimating systems Data driven DSS -Intrawest's marketing analysis systems

Technology for collaboration and teamwork (cont.)

Social Networking Wikis Virtual Worlds Internet-Based Collaboration Environments -Virtual meeting systems (telepresence) -Google Apps/Google sites -Microsoft SharePoint -Lotus Notes

Two dimensions of collaboration technologies

Space (or location) - remote or colocated Time - synchronous or asynchronous

IT Governance:

Strategies and policies for using IT in the organization Decision rights Accountability Organization of information systems function -Centralized, decentralized, etc.

E-commerce

Subset of e-business Buying and selling goods and services through Internet

Knowledge management systems (KMS)

Support processes for acquiring, creating, storing, distributing, applying, integrating knowledge -How to create, produce, distribute products and services Collect internal knowledge and experience within firm and make it available to employees Link to external sources of knowledge

Executive support systems

Support senior management Address non-routine decisions -Requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight Incorporate data about external events (e.g. new tax laws or competitors) as well as summarized information from internal MIS and DSS Example: Digital dashboard with real-time view of firm's financial performance: working capital, accounts receivable, accounts payable, cash flow, and inventory

Enterprise applications

Systems for linking the enterprise Span functional areas Execute business processes across firm Include all levels of management Four major applications: -Enterprise systems -Supply chain management systems -Customer relationship management systems -Knowledge management systems

Relationship of systems to one another

TPS: Major source of data for other systems ESS: Recipient of data from lower-level systems Data may be exchanged between systems In reality, most businesses' systems are only loosely integrated (but they are getting better!)

E-business

Use of digital technology and Internet to drive major business processes

E-government:

Using Internet technology to deliver information and services to citizens, employees, and businesses

Business intelligence

Class of software applications Analyze current and historical data to find patterns and trends and aid decision-making Used in systems that support middle and senior management -Data-driven DSS -Executive support systems (ESS)

Enterprise systems

Collects data from different firm functions and stores data in single central data repository Resolves problem of fragmented, redundant data sets and systems Enable: -Coordination of daily activities -Efficient response to customer orders (production, inventory) -Provide valuable information for improving management decision making