Chapter 1 Information Systems, Global Business today
Extranets
Private intranets extended to authorized users outside the organization, and firms use such networks to coordinate their activities with other firms for making purchases, collaborating on design, and other inter-organizational work.
Information Technology (IT)
consists of all the hardware and software that a firm needs to use in order to achieve its business objectives.
Computer Software
consists of the detailed, pre-programmed instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardware components in an information system.
Processing
conversion of raw input into a meaningful form.
Organizational and management Capital
Firms that support their technology investments with investments in complementary assets such as new business models, new business processes, management behavior etc. These investments in organization and management are also known as this.
Intranets
Internal corporate networks based on Internet technology.
Knowledge Workers
Knowledge workers such as engineers, scientists, or architects, design products or services and create new knowledge for the firm.
Business Processes
Logically related tasks and behaviors for accomplishing work
Information Technology (IT) Infrastructure
The constituents of all the technologies, along with the people required to run and manage them, represent resources that can be shared throughout the organization that provides the foundation, or platform, on which the firm can build its specific information systems.
Management Information Systems (MIS)
The field of management information systems (MIS) tries to achieve the broader information systems literacy. MIS deals with behavioral issues as well as technical issues surrounding the development, use, and impact of information systems used by managers and employees in the firm.
Data
are streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the physical environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can understand and use.
Complementary Assets
are those assets required to derive value from a primary investment.
Information Systems
can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization.
Input
captures or collects raw data from within the organization or from its external environment.
Networking and Telecommunications Technology
consisting of both physical devices and software, links the various pieces of hardware and transfers data from one physical location to another.
Data Management Technology
consists of the software governing the organization of data on physical storage media.
Business Processes
refer to the set of logically related tasks and behaviors that organizations develop over time to produce specific business results and the unique manner in which these activities are organized and coordinated.
Data Workers
such as secretaries or clerks, assist with scheduling and communications at all levels of the firm.
Information Systems Literacy
the broader understanding of information systems, which encompasses an understanding of the management and organizational dimensions of systems as well as the technical dimensions of systems.
Information
the data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings.
Culture
the fundamental set of assumptions, values, and ways of doing things, that has been accepted by most of its members.
Feedback
the output that is returned to appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate or correct the input stage.
Business Functions
the specialized tasks performed by business organizations, consist of sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, and human resources.
Middle Management
those carries out the programs and plans of senior management.
Operational Management
those who are responsible for monitoring the daily activities of the business.
Senior Management
those who make long-range strategic decisions about products and services as well as ensures financial performance of the firm.
Production or service workers
those who produce the product and deliver the service.
Sociotechnical View
to achieve optimal organizational performance by jointly optimizing both the social and technical systems used in production. Adopting a sociotechnical systems perspective helps to avoid a purely technological approach to information systems.
Business Model
describes how a company produces, delivers, and sells a product or service to create wealth.
Computer Literacy
focuses primarily on knowledge of information technology.
Internet
is a global "network of networks" that uses universal standards to connect millions of different networks with more than 1.4 billion users in over 230 countries around the world.
World Wide Web
is a service provided by the Internet that uses universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information in a page format on the Internet.
Digital Firm
is one in which nearly all of the organization's significant business relationships with customers, suppliers, and employees are digitally enabled and mediated.
Computer Hardware
is the physical equipment used for input, processing, and output activities in an information system.
Output
is the transfer of the processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used.
Network
links two or more computers to share data or resources, such as a printer.
