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Information Systems – Week 12

Information Systems – Week 12. Last week: Your presentations Some excellent performances I’ll mark your materials after Christmas This week Preparation for the Exam – Notes on structure Ganesh Case Study – Key disciplines involved Knowledge Management Security Strategic aspects of IS

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Information Systems – Week 12

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  1. Information Systems – Week 12 • Last week: Your presentations • Some excellent performances • I’ll mark your materials after Christmas • This week • Preparation for the Exam – Notes on structure • Ganesh Case Study – Key disciplines involved • Knowledge Management • Security • Strategic aspects of IS • Review of Course • International Business

  2. Examination • See end of previous handout, consisting of: • Notes on the examination structure • Case Study for “Ganesh Corporation” • You should review the case study & make notes • Annotated case-study can be brought in with you;up to four sides including full case-study (>= 8-point) • But not any books • Focus of case study is on • Knowledge Management, Security and Strategy • Don’t constrain your thinking to the case study

  3. (1) Course introduction • Driving forces include: • The emergence of the global economy • The transformation of industrial economies • The Transformation of the business enterprise • Information Systems can improve: • Communication within organizations • Analysis for setting strategies • Implementation of Business processes • Transforming Businesses with IS

  4. (2) Strategic role of information systems • Information Systems • have become critical for supporting organizational goals • enable firms to stay ahead of competition • Types of information systems in an organization • Discuss how firms can gain competitive advantage • Summarize types of information systems • Describe relationships that exist between systems • A strategic information system • Determine how information systems can be used to support three levels of strategy used in business • Consider why an IS may be difficult to implement

  5. (3) Enhancing management decisions • Katrina Easterling’s slides covered use of IS in HRM • Operational (payroll etc) • Strategic • Eric covered Brian Freeman’s use of information systems in a Patent Attorney’s business • Financial management • Simplify tasks with better access to internal information • Research and expedited searches • Generate extra business through rapid response (competitive edge plus “impulse ordering”) • Process management • Very high exposure to process failures

  6. (4) Approaches to systems building • Ch 12-13 of Laudon & Laudon 8th edition (Ch10-11 in 7th) • Off-shore development – lecture by Stephen Bullas • Bespoke systems at a lower cost • Focus on System Lifecycle • It doesn’t finish when the product is delivered • Alternatives to traditional product development • Prototyping • Application software packages • End-user development • Outsourcing

  7. (5) Redesigning with information systems See Chapter 12 of Laudon & Laudon 7th (Ch10 in 7th, Ch11 in 6th) • My take is that it’s a bit “new technology” based • You don’t need the latest fashionable systems to transform a business – • get understanding of costs and sources of funding • rationalize processes to manage costs and profitability • Can go on to re-engineer fundamental processes

  8. (6) IS Project Management • See also Chapter 13 of Laudon & Laudon 8th edition • Too many disasters to count • Projects not properly defined (or definition changed) • Inadequate user buy-in • Underestimates of scale of project • PRINCE introduced to help manage these aspects • Need to Quantify objectives, and .... Control risks, progress, costs and quality • Cost, duration, function and quality are interrelated • Change one and the others will be impacted • It’s better to cut function than to cut quality

  9. (7) e-Commerce and e-Business • See Chapter 9 of Laudon & Laudon 8th and 7th eds • e-Commerce – Main focus is communication between business and outside • B2C: Business to Consumer • B2B: Business to Business • Different technological demands, but both depend on wide-area networking • Concerned with supply chain (up- and down-stream) Explain the main differences • e-Business – adds use of IS for internal processes • Typified by Enterprise Resource Planning systems

  10. (8) IS Security and Control • Chapter 14 in Laudon & Laudon (7th and 8th editions) • Business exposures • What are the threats? • Security breaches • System failure • Defence mechanisms • Encryption and authentication • Back-up and Recovery • Disaster fall-back • Safety-critical systems • Legal responsibilities

  11. (9) Ethical and Social Impact of IS • Moral risks inherent in Information Systems • Risks caused by unethical behaviour – from viruses and worms to improper synthesis of personal data • Legal controls • Data Protection Acts • Computer Misuse Act • Credit information laws in UK and USA • Human Rights Act • Intellectual Property Rights • Risks to Health and Wellbeing • “Ethical Organizations” Laudon and Laudon Ch.15

  12. (10) Managing Knowledge • See Chapter 10 of Laudon & Laudon 8th (Ch12 in 7th) • Concept of Data => Information => Knowledge • Need to manage explicit and tacit knowledge • Information supply is exploding • Articles published – Journals > 360,000/year by 2000 • Gartner Group predicted that knowledge management will become a $2 billion market by 2004 • Knowledge management market borders on • data-mining (mainly in transactional/financial data) • search tools (finding what you know to be there) • With additional goal of capturing understanding

  13. Knowledge Management Systems • Include many simple and prosaic applications • Calendars, Groupware, Document imaging • Re-use of existing knowledge in new contexts • ..and more complex • Workflow systems to capture knowledge of processes • Systems to capture and codify knowledge • Cannot be restricted to the precise • Traditional IS domain is exact measurements • Knowledge requires balancing and weighting inputs • Logic required is often “fuzzy” • Artificial Intelligence and Expert systems

  14. IBM: An International Business • Started in USA with machine for 1890 census • Applied “punch card” technology to Business • Introduced automated time-clocks • 1914: “International Business Machines” in Canada • 1922: Whole corporation renamed IBM, and started subsidiaries in most developed countries • Specialized in precision electro-mechanical products: • Butcher-scales, time-clocks, card sorters and collators • Bought electric typewriter company in 1930s • Biggest manufacturer of gears in the world by 1945 • US Government took action in 1950s to limit IBM’s control of punch-card business

  15. What about Computers? • IBM sponsored Columbia University to produce high-speed number-crunchers in 1940s • NOT a stored-program computer (Britain did that first!) • Main US developer of computers was Univac • Around 1955, IBM was brave (and lucky) • Decided to invest in computer development • Invented magnetic disk drive • Sperry bought Univac and slowed investment • Set up laboratory in UK in 1957 • Britain was at leading-edge of scientific computing • Introduced “Systems Engineers” to develop market

  16. 1960s • Computing had become international • National markets still relatively small • Need larger market to write-off development costs • IBM & other US companies could use existing channels • IBM sued by CDC over 7030 “paper machine” • Consent decree forbade “pre-announcement” • IBM Hursley invented ROM (Read-only memory) • Behaviour of hardware determined by programming • Allowed first “family” to be developed: System/360 • $25M programming project to produce OS/360 • Raised cost of entry to computer business

  17. Impact of System/360 • Revolutionized computing • One “family” for scientific and commercial computing • Scalable – programs would run on whole range • Concerns arose about US domination of market • IBM set up manufacturing and development sites • Goal was to spend income made in each country • Plants in UK, F, NL, D, S, I, CDN, J • Development labs in UK, F, D, NL, CH, CDN, J • Other international functions in UK, B, IRL, DNK, A, E • Corporation funded development (USA pays world) • Took royalties on all Intellectual property (vice versa)

  18. International Structure • Marketing and Manufacture managed by region • “Domestic” (US) operations • “World Trade” initial dealt with the rest of the world • then AFE (Americas/Far East) + Europe ME Africa • then AFE split into Latin America, Canada and FE • EMEA largely decentralized now • Development remained Corporate responsibility • Divisions handled particular product lines, e.g. • Small mainframes in UK, D, CDN and Endicott NY • Big mainframes based in Poughkeepsie NY • Research in Yorktown NY, Almaden CA, Zurich CH • Strong interdependence between laboratories

  19. Strong Control allowed Brave Decisions • Mid-50s – switched from punched-card equipment to electronic computers • IBM was dominant in punched card, not in computers • 1971 – ditched magnetic memory in favour of chips • IBM was most efficient producer of magnetic cores (competitors all licensed the IBM patents) • Pre-emptive strikes against technology substitution • Alas, didn’t do the same in the 80s • PC developed on a shoestring • Not integrated into Corporate strategy • Underestimated competence of Microsoft

  20. Parallel Sysplex Development • The problem • Mainframe technology (ECL) fast, but hot and costly • Not competitive with PC technology (CMOS) • The solution • Build collections of CMOS chips working in parallel • Find some way to make them run existing applications • Logistics • Boeblingen were brilliant at CMOS chips • Poughkeepsie could integrate mainframes • Hursley could make CICS efficient on new hardware • Santa Teresa and Toronto could fix up the database

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