Transcript 116 Chp2

Business Information
Systems
Dr. Merle P. Martin
MIS 116
Agenda
Data versus information
 Information overload
 Business decision making
 Problems
 Problem solving cycle
 Characteristics of information

Data Versus Information
Data is unedited stimuli
 business transactions
 sales, payments, etc.
 Information is processed data
 customer balance
 sales trends
 Information used to make decisions

Information Overload
Proven for
 animals
 humans
 organizations
 Effectiveness increases with
information
 UNTIL . . . exceeds sensory capacities
 THEN . . . effectiveness decreases

Information Overload
The point where this occurs is called
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
 “I’m so busy squashing ants
the elephants are stomping me to
death.”
 Figure 2-2, Page 44

Business Decision
Making
Selection of an action
from among two or more alternatives
to solve a business problem
Problem
Figure 2-3, page 46
Problem Solving Cycle
Figure 2-5, page 48
Characteristics
of Information
Relevancy (Decisions)
 Accuracy
 Completeness
 Correctness
 Security
 Timeliness

Characteristics
Economy ($)
 Efficiency
 Output/Input
 Reliability
 Usability (Human Factors)

War Stories
Give an example of
Information Overload
that you have encountered
 in your job.
 outside your job
Concepts to Remember
Data and Information
 Information Overload
 Problems and Decision Making
 Characteristics of Information
 Building blocks for
remainder of course
