Unit-II Management Information System (MIS)

1. Unit-IIManagement Information System (MIS) `

2. Syllabus Duration : 08 Hours • Managing Information Systems • Ethical and Social Issues • Information Technology Infrastructure and Choices • Information Systems Security and Control • Case Studies -Information Technology Infrastructure in a Bank. • Information Technology Infrastructure in a manufacturing / process industry. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

3. Contents 2.1 Managing Information Systems 2.1.1 Challenges of Managing the IT Function 2.1.2 Vendor Management 2.1.3 The Role of the CIO 2.1.4 IT Governance 2.2 Ethical and Social Issues 2.2.1 Ethical Issues (A) Privacy (B) Workplace Monitoring (C) Power over Users Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

4. Contents 2.3 Information Technology Infrastructure and Choices 2.3.1 What is the IT Infrastructure? 2.3.2 IT Infrastructure Decisions 2.3.3 Infrastructure Components 2.3.4 Networks 2.3.5 Solutions 2.4 Information Systems Security and Control 2.4.1 Threats to the Organization 2.4.2 Technologies for Handling Security 2.4.3 Managing Security 2.5 Case Studies -Information Technology Infrastructure in a Bank. 2.6 Information Technology Infrastructure in a manufacturing / process industry. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

5. 2.1.1Challenges of Managing the IT Function • Modern IT Environment • The Modern IT environment of business presents strong challenges for management. • It is a dynamic and changing environment with technology leading dramatic changes in competitive space and also in the internal function of organization. • IT has impacts that can be categorized as (i) first order, (ii) second order and (iii) third order impacts. First order impacts are those which are felt immediately upon adoption of new technology by an organization. This is also known as initial target or step for IT implementation in organization Example: Banks adopts IT to perform faster, with accuracy, increase number of transactions, increase efficiency (speed and volume). Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

6. Second Order: Reduce or Remove certain manual task to be performed, so than employees can be re – trained or deployed elsewhere. Sometimes an entire department can be removed as the work they perform is not needed anymore Third Order: when the industry in which the organization is located also changes owing to the changes brought by IT. For ex: when banks introduced IT, they started providing number of services such as financial investments and trading, insurance, loans for more diverse markets Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

7. B. Centralization versus Decentralization Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

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9. C. Standardisation • It is a key issue in the centralized IT management. • Standardisation implies that all components, physical and software ,which are used to create the IT infrastructure across the organization are of same type or follow the same standard. Example 1: a cable standard refers to the width, components ,capacity of a cable that is used for carrying data. Example 2: The central IT may be specify that all laptops computers purchased within the organization will need to have a certain make & certain parameters. • With Decentralization standards are easily loosened • Different departments may want to acquire technology from different vendors and of different types and quality. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

10. D. Vendors • Vendors are often viewed as strategic partners who have a stake in the success of their clients. • Large Vendors look for Centralised management and control • Small Vendors prefer to deal with the decentralized IT management • Example: SBI one of the largest banks in India and the second largest in the world with over 10,000 branches wanted to computerize its core banking operations it had to select the vendor carefully. It already had a decentralized information system at many of its branches but felt the need for a system that was central.SBI initiated a call for vendors by asking them to bid as a consortium. Finally it selected a consortium led by TCS Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

11. Vendor Management Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

12. E. Innovation • The most important advantage of decentralized IT management is the ability to innovate. • Individual/ Departments can acquire and manage technology on their own so they are able to address their own needs in the more direct & efficient manner. • Centralised IT management can also drive innovation, but this is more organized and slow. • It requires a set of laboratories, experimental softwares and engineers who are dedicated to working on new solutions Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

13. F. IT Procurement • Centralised IT management makes IT procurement highly benefical • Advantage of reduced prices and better component matches(such as laptops and desktops) • Decentralised procurement can enable a stronger fit with the end user’s need. • Large scale purchases take so much time to complete that the technology being considered is often undertaken by newer offerings in the market. • In such cases the decentralized purchasing is better as it allows the buyers to act quickly and acquire the product when needed. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

14. G. Fit with the Culture • Many organizations work in a largely decentralized or centralized management culture. Decentralised culture Centralised culture Autonomy over work Rely on organization wide norms and practices • Impact of a centralized IT in a decentralized management culture • Impact of a decentralizedIT in centralized management culture Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

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17. H. Career Paths of IT Staff • IT staff is responsible for managing and executing the IT functions • For a centralized IT infrastructure, they may work with the center and be appointed at various divisions according to the need. In this It staff have a career path to follow , they can move up the hierarchy • For a decentralized IT infrastructure, the IT staff has to be hired for independent divisions or departments. In this the role of the IT staff may often be outsourced to vendors, depending on the needs of the dept. • Many Organizations have a Chief Information Officer(CIO) as the highest officer responsible for the IT function in the organization Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

18. IT Security • One of the most difficult challenges of managing modern IT infrastructures is managing security • Some estimates say that the cost of managing security is as high as 50% of the total IT budget for some organisations • External Threats Malwares (include viruses and worms) Phising (Fake websites) Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

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20. B. Internal Threats According to a report 60-70% of the computer based crimes in the world are committed by person’s inside the organisation. Internal security threats are: • Theft of information • Replication of sensitive information such as designs, leaking of information to competitors • Deliberate destruction or corruption of data • Breaking into another employees computers • Replacement of files with fake files etc Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

21. Managing Security • Process of Authentication • Monitoring( involves watching process logs, physically observing the organisations activities through video cameras and surveillance equipment) Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

22. Technology Selection It is driven by many criteria described below: • Cost • Scalability • Interoperability • Security • Maturity • Upgrades Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

23. Vendor Management • Vendor Selection Process includes • Release advertisements stating their requirements in popular media • Vendors may be found in online and published listings of industry and commerce associations. • After initial screening vendors are usually requested to bid for a service or project with technical details and commercial terms. • Technical bid • Commercial bid Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

24. B. Vendor Contracts and Service Levels • Once a vendor is selected, a contract is drawn that specifies the terms of work that has to be performed, payment terms, the service levels that have to be maintained • A service level is specified for various types of technologies differently. • For Example: if the vendor’s job is to maintain servers then the service level may specify the amount of downtime the server is permitted per day, per week or per year. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

25. C. Ongoing Relationship Management Routine reporting plans Client's organisation has to identify a person or team that will interact with the vendor. (regarding new & evolving requirements) D. Vendor Retention or Termination Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

26. The Role of the CIO • CIO is a part of top management equivalent with Chief Financial officer or the Chief Operations officer • His roles vary according to the organisation • In some organisations the CIO has a staff of system engineers, technicians, data entry operators, network engineers, and project managers reporting to him/her. • In other organisations, the CIO may have more of a coordinator’s role where MIS managers from different divisions and functions report to him/her. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

27. Major roles of CIO is: • Create IS plan for the organization • Vendor Coordination • Technology Updates • ROI of Technology Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

28. IT Governance • The governance of IT refers to the manner in which the organisation better utilizes its IT infrastructure by designing a structure of decision making that outlines roles and responsibilities for various stakeholders. • Decision making domains are divided into five categories: • IT principles • IT architecture • IT services • Business application needs • IT budgets Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

29. 2.2 Ethical Issues • Ethics are publicly accepted rules of behaviour for social engagement. • In a larger sense ethics are the moral rules and codes that individuals in a society follow. • These rules are often derived from religion or a community ethos. • The dividing line between ethical and unethical behaviour is determined by the community ethos and what is considered, widely, to be acceptable Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

30. A. Privacy • Information systems are used widely across organisations and they enable data and information to be widely distributed for use. • When the data pertains to individuals (relating to their work, personal habits or personal life), and it resides on organisational information systems, the question of privacy that arises here is: whose data is this-of the individual or of the organisation? Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

31. Data and information relating to individuals could be of sensitive nature. Some examples of such kinds of data are as follows: 1.Employees who work extensively with computers, log in every morning when they come to work and log out in the evening when they leave. During the working day, every time they leave their desk or are not working on the computer, the system logs their inactivity at work. For example, a United Airlines worker, in the USA, was threatened with job loss on the grounds that she had spent more than the allotted time in the bathroom, making her co-workers take up her work. 2. Medical records detailing illnesses and treatments, hospital visits and medications routines are all stored on organisational databases that contain personnel data. The data is specific to individuals and, for some organisations, also contains details about the individual’s family members. In the USA, for example, the medical records of the famous singer Britney Spears were read by employees of a hospital in which she was treated. The employees later leaked the information to the press. Spears took legal action against the hospital, which had to fire Several employees Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

32. 3 Web surfing activities of individuals are also logged by corporate web servers. Which sites individuals have visited, how long they have been on the site and what kind of material they have downloaded are also logged. A multinational media firm, for example, threatened to fire an employee based on his visits to Yahoo.com from an office computer. The firm had obtained details about the employee’s surfing behaviour from server logs. 4. Many organisations also check all incoming and outgoing e-mails of their personnel. The e-mails are checked for content and attachments. Some organisations either remove e-mails containing certain keywords, such as expletives, or flag them to warn employees. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

33. The major ethical questions that arise in these situations are: 1. Who has the ownership of the data the firm or the customer From whom the data is obtained? . 2. If a profit is made with the data then should this be shared with the customer? 3. Do customers have any rights to the information that is derived from their data? Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

34. Internet Challenges to Privacy • Cookies are small files that are maintained by the browser a user is using to surf the internet. • These files keep track of the user’s activity to help sites that the user has visited or is working with. • Cookies present a threat to privacy, as they reveal the user’s surfing behaviour. • Many e-commerce sites use cookies to learn what kinds of sites and pages the user has visited, and then target advertisements at him/ her. Sometimes cookies also reveal personal details about the user-such as the name, phone number and address of the User. • Spyware are computer programs, pieces of software, which enter and reside on personal computers and monitor user activity. • Spyware are malicious software created to invade the privacy of users and report to their creators details about what software the user-has, what sites the user views and how the user uses his/her computer Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

35. Workplace Monitoring There are many possible ways in which electronic monitoring can be effected in organisations. Some of these are as follows: 1. Use of digital video cameras For internal monitoring of employees, offices, hallways and buildings The video footage is stored for later retrieval and viewing. 2 Use of computer network logs to record all use of Files, visits to websites, and access to other computer networks and programs. 3 Scanning a storage of all outgoing and incoming e-mails from and to employees 4 Use of employee identity cards to monitor physical movement of employees. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

36. Social Issues Social issues arise when Information systems create conditions that are different from existing social conditions. A. Workplace Behaviour and Health i) Resistance & Conformity It is well known that information systems face resistance from users within organisations. Resistance arises from many reasons. 1. A dislike of the technology, 2. malfunctioning of the technology, 3. fear of new work norms or 4. fear of unknown technology among others. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

37. Changing Work Practices Changing Work Practices Changing Work Practices Changing work Practices IS in organisations have not only created new kinds of jobs (such as those of knowledge workers, data administrators, web administrators and security analysts) but have also put in place new work practices for all employees. • Employees have to deal with and use more information for their work. This may be in the form of messages, files, data inputs or data manipulation. • Owing to increased monitoring, employees are more careful and disciplined in their workplace. • IS have increased the volume of work that typical employees do. Owing to their ability to process faster and more efficiently, information systems have forced employees to work faster too. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

38. De-skilling • When IS were first introduced in organisations, it was found that many employees who began working with them lost some of their skills that they used in the manual methods of working. This phenomenon was called de-skilling and attracted considerable criticism. • An example of de-skilling is as follows: 1. A person who used to manually search and retrieve files had to have skills of reading labels quickly, 2. had to remember where the Files were located, 3. had a sense of why the files had been removed and where they could be located, 4. what information certain files had and others did not. 5. how the Files had been updated and placed within their location Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

39. Alienation • Alienation also resulted from the employees not interacting with each other as much as before. • Working alone for much longer times resulted in their feeling disconnected from the workplace. • It created an atmosphere of isolation and disorientation for some workers, with resulting loss in confidence and self-esteem. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

40. Telecommuting • Telecommuting is a way of working where the individual employees do not have to Physically come to their place of work. • Employees can log into the organisation’s computer network from their homes and can access their files and continue work. • They can use phones or e-mail or voice-chat Facilities to communicate with their co-workers. • They can share files, data, information and process instructions over the networks. • Telecommuting has been adopted by many organisations to allow workers to work from home, or away from office, as long as their work is completed according to their goals. Employees have found this to be of value, particularly women employees who have family responsibilities at home. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

41. E- WASTE • Electronic goods such as computers, mobile phones, music players and game devices Usually have a short life cycle of a few years after which they are either discarded or traded in by users. • E- waste refers to all categories of electronic products that are discarded and have to be treated as waste. A bulk of the products is constructed with materials that are toxic and cause pollution when disposed of, untreated, in nature. • Developed nations export, legally or illegally, e-waste to underdeveloped or less developed countries, where the waste is recycled or disposed of. • India is among the nations that receive e-waste from developed nations. According to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), lndia imports almost 50,000 tonnes of e-waste illegally. Besides illegal e-waste import, India itself generates e-waste. In 2007, the country generated almost 330,000 tonnes of e-waste. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

42. Managing E- Waste Many organisations have evolved policies to manage and control e-waste . • Managing Acquisition : Vendors of hardware products often insist that users upgrade their computers and peripheral equipment every 3-5 years to take advantage of the new technologies available. • Centralised Computing: Many Firms have started centralising their computing resources using a technology called virtualisation, Using this technology, most of the computing resources of the organisation are consolidated under one central computing environment ,and users and departments can access these resources through their internal networks. • Use of Renewable and Recyclable Materials :Many computer and device manufacturers have realised the value of using renewable materials and are actively including them in their design . Such materials allow safe disposal after their useful life. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

43. What is the IT infrastructure • An information technology (IT) infrastructure consists of the facilities that are needed by an organisation to Function. These Facilities are in the form of hardware, software, networks and services that combine to form applications that are used by the organisation, such as e-commerce, materials management, accounting, customer relationship management (CRM), etc Examples: 1. Client computers such as desktops and laptops that employees of the organisation use, about 300 at TBZ. These have to be maintained through hardware and software upgrades. Most organisations will also include tablet computers, smart phones and hand-held computers. 2. Servers that host the applications needed by the organisation. At TBZ, after virtualisation, the firm used about 60 servers to run a number of applications. 3. Routers, switches, cables and wireless devices that constitute the network used by the organisation. This will include the services obtained from external Internet service providers. 4. Organisation-wide and function-specific applications such as e-mail, data bases, enterprise software, etc. At TBZ, these applications supported business applications at all the stores. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

44. 5. Support facilities for users, such as a Help Desk, for maintaining and upgrading hardware and software. 6. Physical facilities such as air-conditioned rooms and offices that house the hardware, software and personnel. 7. Training and development facilities for users and staff to enhance skills and also for problem solving. 8. Creating and maintaining standards for IT, including procurement. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

45. IT INFRASTRUCTURE DECISIONS IT infrastructure Questions: Business Needs • What business needs have to be met with the infrastructure components? This question is self-explanatory and has to be answered by identifying the complete set of needs for which support is needed. • How does the technology help the organisation compete? For commercial firms, the infrastructure choices have to reflect their competitive needs. • Is the technology appropriate for the task? This question highlights the issue of considering alternative technologies for addressing the needs of the organisation • Is the technology the best in its class? This question addresses the quality of the technology choice in comparison to the price paid for it. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

46. IT Infrastructure Questions: Technology Issues IT infrastructure questions with regard to technology issues: • Is the technology scalable? • Is the technology interoperable? • What is the technology road map? • What Is the renewal cycle? • Is there vendor support? • What will be the nature of the technology lock-in? • Make or buy? Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

47. INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS • The IT infrastructure consists of three broad categories of components: 1. Hardware. 2. Software. 3. Networks Hardware: Processors The work in a processor is done in machine cycles. Each cycle consists of two parts: i. Instruction cycle ii. Execution cycle • In the instruction cycle, the data and instruction are fetched from external memory and decoded for running them through the gates. • In the second cycle, or the execution cycle, the instructions and data are fed through gates and the results are stored back in the register. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

48. The computer The main type of devices are Desktops Laptops Servers Hand held computers (i pad) • Software: Software is written in computer languages such as C, C++ and Java. Software is categorised into two groups, by functionality. • Systems software that is used to manage the hardware, one example of which is an operating system. • Application software that is used by users to do their work. A word processor is an example of such software Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

49. Operating System : A typical operating system manages the work given to the processor, including scheduling various tasks and giving them priorities. Linux: is a widely used open source operating system that runs mainly on servers and also on desktops and laptops. • Being an open source operating system, Linux is Freely available to everybody and its source code is also made available along with the binaries. • Linux is one of the most widely known open source softwaresand as such there are hundreds of variations of Linux. • Some popular brands of Linux are Ubuntu, Red Hat, Suse, Mandriva and Knoppix. Also, there are a very large number of open source application packages that work with Linux Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)

50. Windows: Is a proprietary operating system sold by the Microsoft Corporation. Windows is particularly popular on desktops, but its variants are also used on servers. There are a vast number of application programs that work on Windows, and this gives it a competitive advantage. Many desktops and laptops come bundled with the Windows software. • The Windows system is threatened by over 1 million viruses that it can be infected with (according to a BBC report of 2008). The users of Windows also need to protect their computer. with additional anti-virus and security software that comes at an additional cost. Unit 2: Management Information System (MIS)