Transcript Document

OMIS 351: Information Systems
in Organizations
Professor: Chuck Downing
Course meets T/Th (12:30-1:45) in the Auditorium, BH 200,
during Spring 2013.
View the syllabus on BlackBoard or ChuckDowning.com. Also
on our class web site:
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Select a 4 digit code.
Enter your preferred email address.
Answer data questions on the Web.
Register your seat.
Sign up for group.
Register your clicker.
The Best Places to
Launch a Career
What’s Hot:
“Technology: One of the few industries to survive the downturn
relatively unscathed, tech offers some of the best pay around for
new grads”
Highest Paying Industries:
#2
Technology
#3
Consulting
“there are more job openings in IT than in any other industry
except healthcare”
IS means Business
What is the future of E-Commerce and Technology?
“Tech Wreck”, “Dot Bombs”, etc.???!!!!
Check out previous patterns of Speculation, Bust,
and Re-growth …
Check the pattern for canals,
electricity, automobiles, radio, etc….
about 30 years
Time
“But speculative bubbles, it's worth remembering, have
accompanied everything truly "new" in U.S. economic
history, from canal mania in the 1830s to the radio craze of
the 1920s. Investors invariably got burned for letting their
exuberance get ahead of reality (who knew that 500
automobile startups would be too many?). But when the
smoke cleared, the basis of a new economy was left standing:
railroad tracks that would help create a national mass market;
telegraph lines that would facilitate the rise of modern big
business; electricity grids that would revolutionize
manufacturing and extend the working day. "To think that the
new economy is over," futurist Alvin Toffler argues, "is like
somebody in London in 1830 saying the entire industrial
revolution is over because some textile manufacturers in
Manchester went broke." In other words, the Internet is like
these Victorian technologies: a general-purpose infrastructure
that can make all economic activities more efficient, as well
as wholly new ones possible.” -- Business 2.0 Quote
What is the future of E-Commerce and Technology?
“Tech Wreck”, “Dot Bombs”, etc.???!!!!
…right now: The “HI-TECH
Act”
• The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of
2009 was signed by President Obama on February 17,
2009.
• The Act includes the Health Information Technology
for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act).
• The purpose of the HITECH Act is to promote the use
of health information technology with a goal of
utilization of an electronic health record for each
person in the United States by 2014.
You, too, can invent “sliced
bread”!!!!
• Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoS9iv9ucY
• What this means: You see an application for
technology to a business problem.
– You don’t have to invent the technology or implement
it.
– You have to understand its promise.
Managing in the Information
Age
• Information Age - What is it?
• In Contrast to: Computer Age.
– Damaging fascination
– Easy to understand
Movement Into Information
Age
• Exciting and frightening
• Nearly all theories and constructs
currently used developed since 1976
Examples: Things to Watch
For
• E-Commerce flipping business models upside
down.
• Telecommunications Revolution.
• Loan processing: 7 days to 15 minutes.
• Frootloops every Wednesday.
• etc., etc.
YOU have to be ready to deal with
this!
Technical
Specialists
Senior
Management
Who’s more valuable to the business?
Senior
Management
Technical
Specialists
Goal of IS in OMIS (351 starts it
all off!):
Senior
Management
Technical
Specialists
YOU
SYSTEM
INPUT
PROCESS
FEEDBACK
OUTPUT
FUNCTIONS OF AN INFORMATION SYSTEM
ENVIRONMENT
Customers
Suppliers
ORGANIZATION
INFORMATION SYSTEM
INPUT
PROCESS
OUTPUT
FEEDBACK
Regulatory
Agencies
Stockholders
Competitors
Got Tech?
• Finance: No other industry impacts financial markets
more than tech.
• Accounting: Want to be a good auditor? Find out
where the numbers came from.
• Marketing: Internet advertising, multi-channel
marketing, data mining, and customer-relationship
management - modern marketing is all about tech.
• Operations: Want to propose workable process
improvements? You'll need to understand tech to do it.
IS means Business
The Course
 
Vocabulary. It is impossible to have a conversation,
understand, develop or manage anything, if basic
terminology is not understood. There are many acronyms
and concepts in the field of Information Systems, and
discussions of these terms permeate the course.
 
Managerial Relevance. It is useless to have a
vocabulary without an understanding of each term's
importance and relevance. Information Systems terms and
concepts discussed are placed into their appropriate
business context(s), and management frameworks are
demonstrated that lead to strategies which will create
competitive advantage.
 
“Hands on” Development Skills. Html, Excel,
Access and SAP are skills that you will learn.
Vocabulary
• Terms are defined well in the Gallaugher
book. If you would like another version,
try “www.webopedia.com”.
• You should be prepared each session to
discuss / ask questions about terms and
concepts you do not understand.
• Terms and concepts will appear on the
seven quizzes.
Managerial Relevance
• We will demonstrate where terms fit in a
business context.
• We will complete virtual case exercises
and indicate which type of system is
which.
• We will discuss the relative competitive
advantage of different types of systems.
“Hands on” Development Skills
• We will build systems, using html,
Microsoft Word, Access and Excel,
throughout the semester. We will also be
introduced to SAP.
• You will complete “hands on” virtual case
assignments.
Other Administrative Stuff
• Who am I?
• Who are you?
• Groups
Class Contract
• No exceptions.
• Working Technology is your
responsibility.
• You might not receive an
email response.
No exceptions.
• Explanation: Class policies outlined in the syllabus, the web
page and in class are structured to be fair and lenient for you,
but also so that the instructor and the TA(s) are not put in a
position to judge which excuses are “good enough”. Please
manage your semester within those policies. Please do not
tell us why you missed class, missed a quiz, did not do an
assignment, etc. Students involved in official NIU activities
who notify the instructor of the schedule of those
activities at the beginning of the semester (e.g., athletes)
must use all available drops, etc., first, and will be given
make up opportunities beyond that. Other than that, all
students are treated the same and we will NOT give you
special consideration.
Working Technology is your
responsibility.
• Clickers Explanation: In your business career, you
will be expected to keep your own technology
working. If you lose your clicker, don’t bring it to
class, it runs out of batteries, or anything else which
prevents you from answering that day’s clicker
questions, you won’t get the points for that day.
Period.
• Software Explanation: If your laptop freezes, certain
software required for class does not function properly
on your computer, etc., use the Barsema Hall
computer labs.
You might not receive an email
response.
• Explanation: No emails will be answered containing
questions which are already answered on our web
site. If you ask “Can I bring a doctor’s note to excuse
me from class?”, “I forgot my clicker for the last
class… how can I get my points back?”, “What if my
group member isn’t doing any work?”, etc., you will
simply not receive a response. Dr. Downing and his
TA(s) are diligent as far as responding to emails, but if
you are asking questions (“What’s the TA’s email
address?”) whose answers are easily available on our
web page, we will simply delete your email.
What if you see a “slicing-bread”
opportunity?
• Managing technology projects and
implementation: The “Systems
Development Life Cycle” or SDLC.
• What is the SDLC? A set of steps, or
things you need to think about, when
moving from the idea stage to the reality
stage.
The Systems Development Life
Cycle (SDLC)
• Systems development life cycle (SDLC) – the
overall process for developing information systems
from planning and analysis through implementation
and maintenance
The Systems Development Life Cycle
(SDLC)
Does system make sense?
Feasibility. Scheduling.
Convert from old
system to new system.
Test the system.
3 times the time and
resources of
programming!!
Build the system.
Fix, maintain, and
improve system.
How can system solve
business problem?
LAYPERSON language.
How can system solve
business problem?
TECHIE language.
The Systems Development Life
Cycle (SDLC)
1. Planning phase – involves establishing a
high-level plan of the intended project and
determining project goals
2. Analysis phase – involves analyzing enduser business requirements and refining
project goals into defined functions and
operations of the intended system
•
Business requirement – detailed set of business
requests that the system must meet in order to be
successful
PLANNING: Assess Project
Feasibility
•
Feasibility study – determines if the
proposed solution is feasible and achievable
from a financial, technical, and organizational
standpoint
•
Different types of feasibility studies
–
–
–
–
–
Economic feasibility study
Operational feasibility study
Technical feasibility study
Schedule feasibility study
Legal and contractual feasibility study
Analysis: Examining Business
Processes
• Business process - a standardized set of activities
that accomplish a specific task, such as processing
a customer’s order
• Business processes transform a set of inputs into a
set of outputs (goods or services) for another
person or process by using people and tools
Business Process Improvement
• Continuous process improvement attempts to understand and measure the
current process, and make performance
improvements accordingly
• Business process reengineering (BPR)
– “Blows away” the current processes,
enables new ones. More radical change.
Business Process Design
• Business process modeling (or mapping) - the
activity of creating a detailed flow chart or process
map of a work process showing its inputs, tasks,
and activities, in a structured sequence
• Business process model - a graphic description
of a process, showing the sequence of process
tasks, which is developed for a specific
– As-Is process model
– To-Be process model
Business Process Design
Example: Ford - BEFORE and
After
Purchase
Order
Purchasing
Vendor
Receiving
Copy of
Purchase
Order
Receiving
Document
Goods
Payment
Invoice
Accounts
Payable
500 AP employees! Most time
spent on mismatches.
Example: Ford - Before and
AFTER
Purchase
Order
Purchasing
Vendor
Receiving
Goods
Payment
Database
Accounts
Payable
“Don’t send
us invoices”
75% reduction in head count.
The Systems Development Life
Cycle (SDLC)
3. Design phase – involves describing the
desired features and operations of the system
including screen layouts, business rules,
process diagrams, pseudo code, and other
documentation
4. Development phase – involves taking all of
the detailed design documents from the
design phase and transforming them into the
actual system
The Systems Development Life
Cycle (SDLC)
5. Testing phase – involves bringing all the
project pieces together into a special testing
environment to test for errors, bugs, and
interoperability and verify that the system
meets all of the business requirements
defined in the analysis phase
6. Implementation phase – involves placing the
system into production so users can begin to
perform actual business operations with the
system
The Systems Development Life
Cycle (SDLC)
7. Maintenance phase – involves
performing changes, corrections,
additions, and upgrades to ensure the
system continues to meet the business
goals
Regardless of your major, you will
be involved in Steps 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7
• Technology is a huge part of business and
our world in general.
• You can’t “not like computers” anymore
and survive.
• Minimally, you need to understand
technology and its consequences for
business and life.
• That’s true even if you outsource!
What’s “outsourcing”?
• Generally that means your organization is
not able/willing to complete steps 3 and 4.
• You STILL will be involved in 1, 2, 5, 6
and 7.
• Even if your hire a consultancy you can’t
escape completely!!
Outsourcing
• Reasons companies outsource
Sourcing’s New Surge - Offshoring
• Offshore outsourcing – using
organizations from developing countries to
write code and develop systems
• According to Forrester Research, nearly
half of all businesses use offshore
providers, and two-thirds plan to send
work overseas in the near future