MIS Ch 1 Information Systems in Business Today

Production or service workers

Production or service workers actually produce the product and deliver the service.The major business functions, or specialized tasks performed by business organizations, consist of sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, and human resources

Knowledge workers

Knowledge workers, such as engineers, scientists, or architects, design products or services and create new knowledge for the firm.

Middle management

Middle management carries out the programs and plans of senior management.

Operational management

Operational management is responsible for monitoring the daily activities of the business.

Data workers

Data workers, such as secretaries or clerks, assist with scheduling and commu- nications at all levels of the firm.

Feedback

Information systems also require feedback, which is output that is returned to appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate or correct the input stage.

Business model

A business model describes how a company produces, delivers, and sells a product or service to create wealth.

Digital firm

A 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.

Network

A network links two or more computers to share data or resources, such as a printer.

Information technology (IT) infrastructure

All of these technologies, along with the people required to run and manage them, represent resources that can be shared throughout the organization and constitute the firm's information technology (IT) infrastructure.

Information system

An information system 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.

Business processes

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.

Complementary assets

Complementary assets are those assets required to derive value from a primary investment (Teece, 1988).

Computer hardware

Computer hardware is the physical equipment used for input, processing, and output activities in an information system.

Computer literacy

Computer literacy, in contrast, focuses primarily on knowledge of information technology.

Computer software

Computer software consists of the detailed, preprogrammed instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardware components in an informa- tion system.

Data management technology

Data management technology consists of the software governing the organization of data on physical storage media.

Data

Data, in contrast, are streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the physical environ- ment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can understand and use.

How are information systems transforming business and what is their relationship to globalization?

E-mail, online conferencing, and cell phones have become essential tools for conducting business. Information systems are the foundation of fast-paced supply chains. The Internet allows many businesses to buy, sell, advertise, and solicit customer feedback online. Organizations are trying to become more competitive and efficient by digitally enabling their core business processes and evolving into digital firms. The Internet has stimulated globalization by dramatically reducing the costs of producing, buying, and selling goods on a global scale. New information system trends include the emerging mobile digital platform, online software as a service, and cloud computing.

Culture

Each organization has a unique culture, or fundamental set of assumptions, values, and ways of doing things, that has been accepted by most of its members.

What exactly is an information system? How does it work? What are its management, organization, and technology components?

From a technical perspective, an information system collects, stores, and disseminates information from an organization's environment and internal operations to support organizational functions and decision making, communication, coordination, control, analysis, and visualization. Information systems transform raw data into useful information through three basic activities: input, processing, and output. From a business perspective, an information system provides a solution to a problem or challenge facing a firm and represents a combination of management, organization, and technology elements. The management dimension of information systems involves issues such as leadership, strategy, and management behavior. The technology dimension consists of computer hardware, software, data management technology, and networking/telecommunications technology (including the Internet). The organization dimension of information systems involves issues such as the organization's hierarchy, functional specialties, business processes, culture, and political interest groups.

What are complementary assets? Why are complementary assets essential for ensuring that information systems provide genuine value for an organization?

In order to obtain meaningful value from information systems, organizations must support their technology investments with appropriate complementary investments in organizations and management. These complementary assets include new business models and business processes, supportive organizational culture and management behavior, appropriate technology standards, regulations, and laws. New information technology investments are unlikely to produce high returns unless businesses make the appropriate managerial and organizational changes to support the technology.

Why are information systems so essential for running and managing a business today?

Information systems are a foundation for conducting business today. In many industries, survival and the ability to achieve strategic business goals are difficult without extensive use of information technology. Businesses today use information systems to achieve six major objectives: operational excellence; new products, services, and business models; customer/supplier intimacy; improved decision making; competitive advantage; and day-to-day survival.

Information technology (IT)

Information technology (IT) consists of all the hardware and software that a firm needs to use in order to achieve its business objectives.

Input

Input captures or collects raw data from within the organization or from its external environment.

Intranets

Internal corporate networks based on Internet technology are called intranets.

Networking and telecommunications technology

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.

Extranets

Private intranets extended to authorized users outside the organization are called extranets, and firms use such networks to coordinate their activities with other firms for making purchases, collaborating on design, and other interorganizational work.

Processing

Processing converts this raw input into a meaningful form.

Senior management

Senior management makes long-range strategic decisions about products and services as well as ensures financial performance of the firm.

World Wide Web

The 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.

Management information systems (MIS)

The field of management information systems (MIS) tries to achieve this broader information systems literacy.

Business functions

The major business functions, or specialized tasks performed by business organizations, consist of sales and marketing, manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, and human resources.

What academic disciplines are used to study information systems? How does each contribute to an understanding of information systems? What is a sociotechnical systems perspective?

The study of information systems deals with issues and insights contributed from technical and behavioral disciplines. The disciplines that contribute to the technical approach focusing on formal models and capabilities of systems are computer science, management science, and operations research. The disciplines contributing to the behavioral approach focusing on the design, implementation, management, and business impact of systems are psychology, sociology, and economics. A sociotechnical view of systems considers both technical and social features of systems and solutions that represent the best fit between them.

Sociotechnical view

The view we adopt in this book is best characterized as the sociotechnical view of systems. In this view, optimal organizational performance is achieved by jointly optimizing both the social and technical systems used in production.

Organizational and management capital

These investments in organization and management are also known as organizational and management capital.

Information systems literacy

We refer to this broader understanding of informa- tion systems, which encompasses an understanding of the management and organizational dimensions of systems as well as the technical dimensions of systems, as information systems literacy.

Information

By information we mean data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings

Output

Output transfers the processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used.