Download IMS9043 IT in Organisations - Information Management and Systems

IMS9043 IT in Organisations
Week 1
Organisations and IT
www.monash.edu.au
Objectives for this lecture
• Understand the concept of aligning IT
with organisational objectives.
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Organisations and Processes
LECTURER:
Barry Atkinson
Room S4.01
[email protected]
Consult: Mondays 5:00 to 6:00pm before lecture
Other times by appointment
TUTOR:
Katherine Knight
[email protected]
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Unit website
• http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/subjects
/ims9043/
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Assessment
• Examination (50%)
Individual assignment:
• Research report (25%) – Weeks 6 & 7
Individual assignment:
• Business Case (25%) – Weeks 11 & 12
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Lectures
• Inescapable truths:
– Lectures identify and introduce the topics
you need to understand – they do not
supply all you need to know about the topic.
– Learning comes from your own efforts at
reading, questioning, comprehending and
doing.
– Assessment outcomes are usually directly
proportional to your effort.
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Tutorials
• Wk 1
• Wk 2-5
No tutorial
Research report writing;
System failure;
• Wk 6-7 Assignment Presentations
• Wk 8-10 Business case writing;
IT applications for organizations
• Wk 11-12 Assignment Presentations
Attendance is expected every week and is
mandatory for presentations by all students
• Research topics approved in week 3 & 8
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Readings
•Prescribed text:
Turban, E., McLean, E. & Wetherbe, J. (4th Ed.), 2004.
Information Technology for Management: Transforming
Organizations in the Digital Economy. New York: John
Wiley & Sons. ISBN: 0-471-17898-5
•Recommended texts
Turban, Rainer& Potter,2003. Introduction to Information Technology.
John Wiley
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Topics
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Aligning IT with organisational objectives
IT and contemporary businesses
Management of IT in business today
Impact of IT on business
Relating IT to the rest of the business
Assessing IT’s contribution
It as a strategic business tool
Using IT for competitive business advantage
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Issues
• Issues:
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eCommerce
Outsourcing
Security
Business re-engineering
System failure
Building a business case
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Business Organisations
• What is an organisation?
– a stable, formal social structure
– takes resources from the environment and
processes them to produce outputs
• What is a business?
– an organisation which applies processes,
information and knowledge to produce a
service or product
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Organisations
• levels – heirarchy of responsibility/ power
• functional structure – sales, manufacture,
accounting, human resources etc.
• specialisation – skills and information
• division of labour
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Organisations – purpose, objectives
• purpose
– why is a formal social structure required?
– what does the social structure allow?
• objectives
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what outcome from the collective activities?
profit?
good corporate citizen?
altruism?
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Market Pressures
 Global Economy & Strong
Competition.
Rapid and inexpensive
communication and
transportation modes
increase the
magnitude of
international trade.
from Turban, McLean & Wetherbe
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Market Pressures (cont.)
 Changing Nature of the Workforce.
The workforce is becoming more diversified, with more
females, single parents, minorities, and handicapped
persons working in all types of positions.
 Sophisticated Customers.
Consumer sophistication & expectations increase as
customers become more knowledgeable about the
availability and quality of products and services.
from Turban, McLean & Wetherbe
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Technology Pressures
Technological Innovation & Obsolescence.
Some of today’s state-of-the-art products may be obsolete
tomorrow.
Competitors might move to better technology.
Thus, technology accelerates the competitive forces.
Information Overload.
The amount of information available on the Internet
more than doubles every year.
The management of information is critical.

from Turban, McLean & Wetherbe
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Societal Pressures
 Social Responsibility.
Issues range from the environment to political correctness.
 Government Regulations.
Regulation issues involve health, safety, environmental
control, and equal opportunity. Nanny state.
 Government Deregulation. Deregulation can be a blessing to
one company but a curse to another company.
 Ethical Issues.
Business ethics relates to standards of right and wrong in
‘new’ business practices.
from Turban, McLean & Wetherbe
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Other trends – the Digital Economy
•
Business environment based on digital technologies
digital communications networks
internet, intranets, private networks
computers
software
other information technologies
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Other trends – the Information Revolution
•
Business activity characterised as the application of
knowledge/information in the course of creating a
business product
knowledge workers
knowledge work
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Organizations’ Major Responses
 Strategic systems for competitive advantage
 Continuous improvement efforts
 Business process reengineering (BPR)
 Business alliances
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Electronic commerce
Best industry practice – BPR
Downsizing – flatten the heirarchy
Standardisation – processes and training
Outsourcing
from Turban, McLean & Wetherbe
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Organizations – strategic systems
 provide organizations with strategies to increase
their market share, better negotiate with suppliers,
or stop competitors
 strategy- art of war
– disposing resources
– impose on competitor the place, time and conditions of fight
• elements of strategic thinking:
– timeframe - when
– level of analysis – broad idea, specific project
– orientation – direction - goal
– justification - costs and benefits
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Organizations – continuous improvement
 Continuous Improvement Efforts aim to improve a company’s
productivity and quality.
 Examples include:
 Improved productivity
 Managing enterprise data
 Just-in-time (JIT)
 Innovation and creativity
 Total quality management
 Change management
 Knowledge management
 Customer service
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Information Systems
 Information systems (IS) collect, process, store,
analyze, and disseminate information for a specific
purpose.
 Information Systems are comprised of;
 inputs (data, instructions)
 outputs (reports, calculations)
 feedback mechanisms that controls the operation
 an environment that it works within
from Turban, McLean & Wetherbe
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Computer-Based Information System

A computer-based information system (CBIS) is an
information system that uses computer technology to
perform some or all of its intended tasks.
 Can provide:
 high speed, high volume computations
 fast, accurate, inexpensive communications
 store huge amounts of information, easy to access, in a
small space
 access worldwide information
 automate business process
 application anywhere – wireless communications
 less expensive than manual
from Turban, McLean & Wetherbe
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Information Technology (IT)
 Information technology (IT) the individual
components of information technology that can be
applied.
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Information Technology infrastructure
 IT infrastructure
 the hardware a set of devices such as processor, monitor, keyboard, and
printer.
 the software a set of programs that enable the hardware to process data.
 the databases a collection of related files, tables, relations, and so on, that
stores data.
 the communications network elements is a connecting
system that permits the sharing of resources between computers
 the people are those individuals who work with the system or use its output.
 the data
 the procedures are the set of instructions about how to combine the above
components.
from Turban, McLean & Wetherbe
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Critical Infrastructure Areas
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
network design and management
processing architecture
desktop environment
operations support strategy
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Providing IT to the Business environment
• key terms = “reach” and “range”
– “reach” refers to the locations and people
the infrastructure can connect
– “range” refers to the business activities
that can be automatically completed
across each level of Reach
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“Reach” and “Range”
• range will depend on a variety of factors including
> technical capabilities
> agreements on formats (protocols and data
structures etc.)
> levels of site permission
> levels of system permission
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“Reach” and “Range”
• “reach” for many firms is now global - the internet
provides a natural extension of the internal network
• “range” can vary widely - in an ascending hierarchy it may
for instance be possible to
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send messages (email)
access some stored information
perform simple transactions
perform complex transactions
access all stored information
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Organization Security
• the reach and range of the infrastructure have been
critical factors in raising the profile of security
issues
• the longer the reach, the more numerous are the
potential sources for trouble
• the wider the range of actions permitted, the more
difficult it becomes to design adequate security
systems
– (ie - different levels of range require different
enabling mechanisms - passwords, update
permissions, data encryption protections etc.)
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IT Management
•
What does an Information Technology manager manage?
– people
> staff
> senior managers
> users, consultants, vendors
– technology infrastructure (equipment , networks, and operating
software)
– money
– projects
– capital investment programs
– strategic plans and objectives
– new systems directions
– new technology directions
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The role of the CIO
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align” IT directions with those of the business
apply IT to gain competitive advantage
support an internet-commerce initiative
build integrated system and technology structures
prepare and apply corporate information
management principles
• reengineer business processes
• transform the organization using IT
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References
• Turban, McLean & Wetherbe (2004).
Information Technology and Management.
Wiley.
• Frenzel, C.W. & Frenzel, J.C. (2004)
Management of Information Technology.
4thed. Thomson Course Technology .
• Dr. Doug Hamilton
• Mr. Andrew Barnden
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