inf1505-summary Exam Prep.

INF1505 Introduction to Business Information Systems CHAPTER 1 – OVERVIEW Overview  Organisations use computers and information systems to reduce costs and gain a competitive advantage.  Help be more effective and productive. Computers and information systems in daily life  Use of computers and MS office  Used to grade exams and generate reports comparing performance.  POS point of sale  UPC universal product codes  Used in banks, grocery stores etc.  PDA – personal digital assistant includes: calendar, address book and task listing programs. More advanced PDAs allow wireless connection and have MP3.  Internet is used for shopping, desktop connection, social networking, video sharing.  Anyone can watch videos on YouTube but you must register to upload. Can be used as a marketing tool e.g. quicksilver ,ford models, university of phoenix online, the home depot and nikefootball.  Information systems are broader in scope than information technologies but the two overlap in many areas. Information technologies improve decision making and add security and privacy. Computer Literacy and Information Literacy  Computer literacy o Is a skill in using productivity software such as, word processors, spreadsheets, data base management systems and presentation software. And having the knowledge of hardware software and internet.  Information literacy o Understanding the role of information in generating and using business intelligence. o BI – Business Intelligence – provides historical, current and predictive views of business operations and environments and gives organizations a competitive advantage in the market place. o TPS – transaction processing systems – focus on data collection and processing, the major reason for using them is cost reduction. o Transaction processing systems - TPS  Applied to structured tasks such as record keeping, clerical operations, and inventory control. For example: payroll one of the first automated.  Automation involves less human involvement decreasing personnel costs. Management information systems – MIS  Is an organized integration of hardware and software technologies, data, processes and human elements designed to produce timely, integrated, relevant, accurate and useful information for decision making purposes.  In designing an MIS – define the system objectives, data to be collected and present information in an acceptable format.  DSS -Decision support system Downloaded by Samantha Tapson () lOMoARcPSD|  EIS – executive information system Major components of an information system  There are four major components of an information system:  Data consists of raw facts and is a component of the information system.  A database is a collection of all relevant data organized in a series of integrated files.  The process generates the most useful type of information for decision making, including transaction processing reports and models for decision making.  Information consists of facts that have been analyzed by the process component and is an output of an information system.  Data o The data component in considered the input to the system. The information users need affect the type of data. Two sources of data are internal which includes sale records, personnel records etc. and external which include customers, competitors, suppliers, government, financial institutions, labor and population stats and economic conditions. o Past data is collected for performance reports. o Present data is collected for operational reports. o Future data is predicted for budget and cashflow reports. o Data can be collected in the form of Aggregated reporting totals or disaggregated reporting lists. o Strategic goals must be defined to easily identify what data is needed.  Database o Is the heart of an information system, collection of all relevant data organized in a series of integrated files. o A comprehensive database is critical for a successful information system. o To create, organize and manage database a DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (DBMS) is used like access and filemaker pro for small business and oracle, IBM and DB2 for large business.  Process o The includes transaction processing reports and models of decision analysis that can be built in or assessed externally. o Should grow with the organize so that they can redefine and restructure models to incorporate new information in their analysis.  Information Data Database Process Information Downloaded by Samantha Tapson () lOMoARcPSD| o Consists of facts that have been analyzed by the process component and are more useful to the MIS user. o The quality of the system is determined by its usefulness and the usefulness determines the success of the system. To be useful, information must have qualities:  Timeliness  Integration with other data and information  Consistency and accuracy  Relevance o Systems user interface must be flexible and easy to use. GUI (graphical user interface) has features such as menus and buttons and must present information in different formats including graphs and tables.  The ultimate goal of an information system is to generate business intelligence. Using information systems and information technologies Information systems are designed to collect data, process the collected data and deliver useful information and to achieve this goal, information systems use different information technologies. For example: internet for worldwide communication, computer networks, database systems, POS systems and radio-frequency-identification RFID The importance of information systems  Information is the second most important resource in an organization after human resources.  The four M’s of resources: o Manpower o Machinery o Materials o Money  To manage these resources different types of information systems have been developed.  Major information systems o PIS – personnel information system  Or human resource information system (HRIS) helps carry out their tasks. Web technologies have played a major roles in improving HR departments e.g intranets SAP  Supports actions like choosing the best candidate for the job / scheduling and assigning employees / predict personnel needs / stats on employee demographics / allocate human and financial resources. o LIS – logistics information system Downloaded by Samantha Tapson () lOMoARcPSD|  Designed to reduce cost of transporting materials  Supports – improve routing and delivery schedules / best modes of transport / improve budget / shipment planning. o MFIS – Manufacturing information systems  Used to manage the manufacturing process to reduce costs, increase product quality and make better investory decisions.  Supports ordering decisions / product cost calcs / space utilization / evaluation of vendors and suppliers / analysis of price changes and discounts. o FIS – financial information systems  Improve budget allocation / minimize investment risk / cost trends / cashflows / portfolio structures. o MKIS – marketing information systems  Used to improve marketing decisions  Supports analyses market share, sales and personnel / sales forecast / price and cost analysis Using information technologies for a competitive advantage  Information technologies can help bottom line and top line strategies.  Michael porters 3 strategies : overall cost leadership / differentiation / focus.  Improve efficiency by reducing overall costs and generate revenue top line strategy.  Supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other software to reduce costs. The goal is to use the information technologies to create an efficient. Effective link between suppliers and consumers. Porters Five Forces Model: understanding the business environment  Analyzing an organization, its position in the market place and how information systems could be used to make it more competitive