Transcript INFORMATION

INFORMATION
•What is it?
Information???
• Data that have been shaped into a form
that is meaningful and useful to human
beings.
What comes first--the Chicken
or the Egg?
• Information vs. data
–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 or use.
Data
–Data are: (Ex: names and vital info
of CSULA students)
»Stored Facts
»Inactive (they exist)
»Technology-based
»Gathered from various sources
Information
–Information is: (Students with 4.0
GPA)
»Presented facts
»Active (it enables doing)
»Business-based
»Transformed from data
The War is Over!
During the next three to five years,
data traffic on telecommunications
networks is going to easily outstrip
voice traffic.
Michael Vizard, Info World, June 8, 1998
What is an Information System?
• Any system that provides people with either
data or information relating to an
organization’s operations.
• An information system contains information
about an organization (internal) and its
surrounding environment (external).
• The internal environment is the organization.
• The external environment are the customers,
suppliers, regulatory agencies, stockholders,
competitors.
Three Basic Activities of an
Information System
• Input--Raw data collected/captured from internal or
external environments. (raw materials, energy,
people, money)
• Processing--Conversion of raw input into a
meaningful form.
• Output--Transfers the processed information to the
people or activities where it will be used. (products
and services)
• And then there’s the feedback process--this is a
necessary output activity which is used to
evaluate/refine the input.
MIS FIELD IS EVOLVING
RAPIDLY DUE TO:
• Changing Technologies
• Changing Management Priorities
Class Activity
• Input--Teacher-provided description
• Processing--Student
arranging/classifying/calculating information
• Output--Student hands output to student
seated on their right
• Feedback--Student evaluates the information
based on teacher input, owner of the
information refines their information
DATA
• Types of Transformations:
–Retrieval
–Analysis
–Capture
–Presentations
• Types of Information:
–Reports
–New Files
– Graphical displays
The Powerful Changes in
Managing Information
• Emergence/Strength of Global Economy
– Global Corporations
– Worldwide Marketplace--Internet--I-Commerce, E-commerce, EBusiness
» Is your chair comfortable? Old saying: “Don’t leave home without
it.” New saying: “No need to leave home.”
• Transformation of Economies from industrial to
knowledge/information based
– Instant service--credit card usage, smart card usage, quick delivery,
immediate on-line reservations, instant access/retrieval of information.
– Transformation of Business Enterprise
– Project Workgroups, Temp workforce
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO
PREPARE FOR THESE
CHANGES?
• Basic skill core
preparation
– Communication skills
– Computational skills
– Critical-thinking/Problem-solving
skills
– People skills
• Lifelong learning approach
• Adaptability & Flexibility-Attitude
MIS IS COMPRISED OF
DISSIMILAR SKILL BASES:
• Technical skills vs. Business Skills
• “Hard Science” skills vs. “Soft
Science” skills
• Practical, contingency-based
perspective skills vs. theoretical
perspective skills
Technical Approach
• Emphasizes mathematically-based model
– Contributing disciplines:
» Computer science-• Established Computability theories
• Computational methods
• Efficient data storage and access methods
» Management science
• Development of models for decision-making and management
practices
» Operations research
• Mathematical techniques for organizational optimal effectiveness
and efficiency: inventory control, transportation, transaction
costs
Behavioral Approach
• Concerned with behavioral problems
– Creative design, system utilization, implementation
– (What can I do/cannot do? I have a “tude”! This
policy stinks! I am not going to do it that way!”)
» Contributing disciplines:
• Sociology--focus on impact of information systems on
people
• Political science--investigates the political
impacts/uses of information systems (legal issues)
• Psychology--concerned individual responses to info
systems and cognitive models of human reasoning.
(Techno-stress, adapto-stress, work-related stress
issues)
SocioTechnical Systems
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Change is necessary in today’s environment.
Change is inevitable in today’s environment.
Change is an ongoing process.
Change impacts both the internal and external
environments.
• Imagine the changes that will occur in the environment
with ethical issues, security issues, robotic body parts,
machine cloning?
Organizational Design
Options-A flexible
Workplace/Marketplace
• Virtual Organizations free workers to live and work
anywhere
• Custom Manufacturing, preferred customer plans, oneto-one marketing, individualized products & services
• Electronic markets which operate as electronic middle
men between buyer and seller
• Restructure of workflow
• Empowerment of employees
• Information Architecture challenge
• Hierarchical Organizational Levels
SIX TYPES OF
INFORMATION SYSTEMS:
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TPS- Transaction Processing Systems
OAS- Office Automation Systems
KWS-Knowledge Work Systems
DSS-Decision Support Systems
MIS-Management Information Systems
ESS-Executive Support Systems
But wait! These systems
serve four distinct levels
in an organization.
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TPS--an operational level
KWS and OAS-- a knowledge level
DSS and MIS--a management level
ESS--a strategic level
SPECIFIC PURPOSES SERVED
BY INFORMATION SYSTEMS
• TPS: Routine data processing and accounting procedures
• OAS: The use of technologies to produce an end product
• KWS: Promote the creation and design of new
knowledge/information, technical/engineering expertise
• DSS: An information gathering and reporting tool for
management, a prototype, a model
• MIS: Generation of preplanned, printed reports to assist in
decision-making
• ESS:Designed to be used by senior managers who have
little direct contact/expertise with CBIS. Easy-to-use,
“seductive” software, Not designed specifically to solve
specific problems.
WHAT IS A CBIS?
• Consists of hardware, software, data,
procedures, and people
• People are defined as users, systems
analysts, and programmers
WHAT ARE THE
ELEMENTS OF CBIS?
• Input, processing, output, and
storage
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
IN COMPANY COMPETITIVE
APPROACHES:
•Knowledge is Power
WHAT CHALLENGES FACE
THOSE WHO DESIGN, USE, OR
APPROVE INFORMATION
SYSTEMS?
• Rapid Changes in Technology
• A Movement toward a Global Society
• The Processing Speed of Information
INFORMATION-INTENSIVE
SOCIETY
• 1950s ushered in the age of informationintensive jobs in the U.S. labor force
• Blending of communications and computing
technologies continues (i.e. computer
networks)
• A movement toward a global society created
for a global telecommunications network
• Information is now recognized as the central
organizational resource in today’s economy
WHAT IS MIS?
• Any system that provides people with
either data or information relating to an
organization’s operations.
MIS SUPPORTS THE
ACTIVITIES OF
ORGANIZATIONAL PEOPLES
BY:
• Processing data to assist with
transaction workload (in an effective
manner)
• Supplying information to authorized
people in a timely manner
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
HAVE EVOLVED AS
FOLLOWS:
• 1950s Transaction Processing Systems
• 1960s Management Information
Systems
• 1970s Decision Support Systems
• 1980s, 1990s Knowledge-based
Systems used for strategic
organizational competitive
knowledge/information advantages
• New Century: Wireless technologies
INFORMATION RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
• Data vs. Information
• Data are facts
• Data filtering is processed to apply
meaning and value, resulting in
information (Example: O.J./DNA
testing)
• Data is useful for everyday transaction
processing
• Information is more useful for
managerial decision-making
INFORMATION RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
• IRM REFERS TO:
– Properly managing data and information as key
organizational resources
– Seeing information as a desirable investment used to
strategically provide a competitive advantage
– Recognizing the role of CIO and the importance of
this rank
– Goals of information Systems
– Leveraging Investment in Information Technology
» Selling MIS Products (i.e. Microsoft)
» Providing services/outsourcing (i.e. Novell)
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
FUNDAMENTALS
• We live in an INFORMATION AGE; most people have
INFORMATION-INTENSIVE JOBS.
• We are entering a KNOWLEDGE AGE where information
technology has greater intelligence
• The blending of communications and computing
technologies continues; computer networks are
becoming increasingly common
• A need has arisen for global telecommunications
networks due to global financing, global outsourcing,
and international joint ventures.
• Information is now recognized as a central
organizational resource in today’s economy.
KEY ISSUES IN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
• ISSUE #1: The Development of an
information Architecture
• ISSUE #2: The Management of data as
an organizational resource
• ISSUE #3: Strategic Planning of data
and information
– Management & enterprise-wide problems are often
viewed as more important than technical and
application-related problems
– The same issues have been highly ranked since the
1980s; however, recently global systems have taken
on much importance
WHAT IS MEANT BY
STRATEGIC PLANNING?
• A Long-range planning process, the
“strategic use of information” refers to using
information technologies for competitive
advantage.
Now, Let’s get serious!
Strategic is only about achieving strategic direction,
ignoring the practicalities of day-to-day operations that
absorb all of your resources and more.
SO
An Integrated plan is needed because it includes
strategic components with the realities of the current
operating environment. An integrated plan is a roadmap
for where you are going and how to survive until the
future gets here.
Source: Bob Lewis, Info World, June 8, 1998
CHALLENGES FOR THE STUDY
OF MIS
• MIS incorporates an unusually wide variety of knowledge
areas
• Both technology & technology-related products are
evolving at an extremely fast and unpredictable rate.
• Many MIS terms are imprecise & controversial
• MIS problems are not easy to define or structure
• The body of MIS knowledge is recent and scarce
• Often, a lack of rapport exists between MIS personnel &
management and between MIS personnel & users.
• Knowing how much money to spend on information
systems is still a guessing game. (Can you afford to
make million dollar mistakes in your organization?)
MIS IS A GREY AREA
OF STUDY
• A “soft” field: A field where there are
few universally correct answers that
work for every situation; situational
actions are dependent on a number of
variables.
MISs Involve:
• The processing of data and the supply of
timely information for managerial decisionmaking
• Both people inside and outside the
organization; with electronic data interchange
(EDI) and other interorganizational systems;
some users of an organization’s information
system may be employees of other
organizations
• The process of making the organization both
more efficient and more effective
READ, READ, READ!
• Business Week and Fortune carry
articles on new technologies that may
change the way business is conducted,
the state of MIS in a particular
company, the revolutionary products
emerging, etc.
• Read Info World, Computer World, MIS
Quarterly, Information Week,
FirstMover, CIO, Journal of
Management Information Systems
QUESTION: HOW CAN
INFORMATION SYSTEMS BE
USED AS COMPETITIVE
WEAPONS?
• Assignment: Research a company which has
made effective use of technology to expand
their customer base without forgoing quality
to gain a lion’s share of the marketplace.
Next week submit your article and one-page
paper (typed, double-spaced summary)
• Example: Use Mercantile Mutual on page 45
as a guide. *Do not use the examples given in
your textbook as your final assignment.