Download Chapter 1 Business Driven Technology

Chapter 1
Business
Driven
Technology
MANGT 366
Information
Technology
for Business
Chapter 1:
Introduction to
Information
Systems
1.1
Why Should I Study
Information Systems
• The Informed
User – You!
• IT Offers Career
Opportunities
• Managing
Information Resources
Reasons Why You Should
Be An Informed User…
1. You will benefit more from your
organization’s IT applications because
you will understand what is “behind”
those applications.
2. Your input can enhance your
organization’s IT applications.
3. As you enter the workforce you can
assist in selecting the IT applications
your organization will use.
Reasons Why You Should Be
An Informed User (con’t)…
4. You will aware of both new
information technologies and rapid
developments in existing
technologies.
5. You will understand how using IT can
improve your organization’s
performance.
6. If you are entrepreneurial minded,
you can use IT to start your own
business.
Class Focus this semester
• Business Driven Technology
– Business initiatives should drive technology choices
• Business needs first: technology supports those needs
• Core business fundamentals are constant or get better: technology
changes
• Business Intelligence
– How do we acquire it?
How do we use it?
– What do we do with it?
– Defined: A broad category of applications and technologies
for gathering, storing, analyzing and providing access to data
to help users make better business decisions.
• Data-driven decision making
– Also referred to as Business Analytics
•
Management 665 Business Analytics and Data Mining
Big Data
Big Data Analytics: Answers from Big Data
Information
Technology’s
Impact on
Business
Operations
Information
technology is
everywhere in
business
• For a long time, the different parts of a business were
organized by independent functional areas or functional
silos: everyone thought that what happened in one part
of the business was totally independent from other areas
of the business.
While you might think that each of the different areas of a
business are independent, they are actually interdependent
because they require information from around the organization in
order to operate.
They do not exist in isolation.
Information Technology (IT) enables
business success
• In order to be successful in business, you must
understand how to use information technology to
be innovative.
– Using IT and/or spending lots of money on IT will not
equal business success.
• IT is used to leverage the talents of people
– IT by itself does not get the job done.
– IT is only useful if the right people know how to use it
and manage it effectively.
• IT is a TOOL (and if you don’t know how to use the
tool, then you won’t be successful)
The function of the IT department is to
get people, technologies and procedures
to work together to solve business
problems.
• In order for this to happen, it is important to
understand
– Data, information and business intelligence (knowledge)
– IT resources
• Information technology is EVERYWHERE in business
and if you want to be successful in business, you
need to understand technology.
Data
• Raw facts that describe the characteristic of an event
• Data recording sales events in an Excel Spreadsheet
Without analyzing the data, it is just a bunch of names and
numbers.
Information
• Data converted into a meaningful and useful context is
information
• Data turned into information
One person’s information might be another person’s data (store manager vs CEO)
You can analyze that data even further by
running queries to gain deeper insights
Pivot tables help us gain a better understanding of our data and information:
primary business analysis tool
Business Intelligence
• The analysis of data and information from multiple sources
to gain a comprehensive picture of the factors impacting
your business
–
–
–
–
Analyze patterns and trends
Attempt to determine relationships between variables
Predictive analytics (develop models to predict behavior)
Used in business decision-making (Data Analytics)
• These multiple sources include:
– Suppliers
– Competitors
– Data from industry
Customers
Business partners
Data from governmental sources
• Manipulate multiple variables from multiple sources (sometimes even
manipulate hundreds of variables) to gain a better understanding of the
data.
What is Business Intelligence (BI)?
Components
of a CBIS
•
•
•
•
•
•
Hardware
Software
Database
Network
Procedures
People
People use
Information
technology
to work with
Information
• The single most important
resource in any organization
is its people. Your greatest
asset is your brain/mind
(your ability to think).
– Information technology (IT) is
simply a set of tools that helps you
work with and process information.
Important IT Skills for Functional Areas
• Accounting
– Accounting Information Systems
– Spreadsheet Modeling
– Database Design and
Management
– Web Research
– Network Security/IT auditing
• Finance
– Spreadsheet Modeling
– Statistical Analysis to identify and
measure risk.
– Database Management
– Web sites and Search Engines
• Marketing
• Management
–
–
–
–
ERP software
Spreadsheet Analysis
Database Management
Web sites and web portals
• Operations Management
– Customer Relationship Management
– Spreadsheet Software (what-if analysis)
– Database Management, Data
Warehouses and Data Mining
– Communications software and
desktop publishing
– Advanced Statistical techniques and advanced spreadsheet modeling
– Scheduling software, ERP software, supply chain management software
The End
Accounting
• Accounting Information Systems: almost all accounting
systems are computerized.
• Database Management: Accounting information is stored in
databases and that info. is used to create accounting reports.
• Database Design: In order to audit accounting systems,
accountants must understand the design of the database and
be able to follow transactions through the system.
• Web Research: Accountants frequently consult rules and
regulations available on the Internet: must be able to rapidly
search for and apply information found.
• Network Security: Knowledge of a company’s computer
systems and networks is required to assure the security of a
company’s information.
• Spreadsheet modeling: financial projections and analyses require
extensive use of electronic spreadsheets and accountants must be
very skilled in the use of spreadsheets.
Finance
• Spreadsheet modeling : advanced knowledge is essential as
you forecast cash flows and evaluate changes in assumptions.
• Statistical Packages and Statistical Analysis: Used to help
decision makers identify and measure project risk.
• Database Management: Must be able to create, maintain and
manipulate financial measures stored in a database.
• Internet Sites and Web Portals: Corporations use web sites
to provide investors with company information. Automated bill
paying impacts both accounts receivable and accounts
payable.
• Search Engines: Must be able to accurately and efficiently
gather required business information from external sources.
• Must understand the technological strategy and
technological innovation being used in the industry. For
example, what are banks doing?
Marketing
• Must understand the use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
software and how it can be used to manage relationships with customers.
• Must understand Budget Analysis/Impact Software and Spreadsheet
Software: Used to evaluate financial feasibility of new products and
services, as well as advertising and promotion strategies. Must be able to
run “What If” scenarios.
• Database Management: Marketers work with vast amount of information
that is stored in databases, and you must know how that information is
organized and how it can be accessed.
• Data Warehouses and Data-Mining Tools provide a way to summarize
large amounts of information and understand it from a different perspective.
Must be able to extract information from a data warehouse and be able to
analyze it.
• Must be able to work with communications support software, including
email and contact management software.
• Must be familiar with desktop publishing software which is often used to
create marketing materials.
Management
• Must understand the role of Enterprise Resource Planning
Systems (ERP) and how ERP systems promote the corporatewide sharing and communication of information.
• Managers use spreadsheets to calculate value, display
financial information and work with numbers.
• The information used by managers and the people that they
supervise can be found in databases.
• Internet Sites and Web Portals: Corporations use web sites
to display and access information, as well as link employees,
recruiters and other institutions.
• One of the new areas of business is Electronic Commerce,
and managers must understand the potential of information
technology and the skills needed to be successful in businessto-business and business-to-consumer electronic commerce.
Production and Operations Management
• For most careers in POM, a detailed knowledge of statistical tools and
techniques is essential.
• Advanced decision support spreadsheet functions, such as goal
seeking, optimization, and statistical tools, provides support for many POM
careers.
• A knowledge of Supply Chain Management Systems allows a person to
work with each department of a company, integrating solutions to maximize
customer value.
• Must have an understanding of Material Requirements Planning Software
(part of ERP) and how the business operates from beginning to end and how
to optimally model those operations.
• Must be able to use scheduling software to optimally schedule business
resources (people, plant equipment, transportation modes, manufacturing
operations).
• Must be proficient in the use of Data-Mining Tools and other statistical
techniques in order to be able to find relationships in the information
contained within data warehouses.