Using MIS 2e Chapter 2 Information Systems for Collaboration

Using MIS 2e Chapter 2Information Systems for Collaboration David Kroenke Edited by Spiros Velianitis © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Study Questions • Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q1 – What is collaboration? • Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? • Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q1 – What is collaboration? • Collaboration occurs when two or more people work together to achieve a common • Goal • Result • Work product • Greater than individuals working alone • Involves more than coordination and communication alone • Feedback and iteration provide an opportunity for team members to: • Proceed in a series of steps (iterations) by continuously reviewing and revising each other’s work • Learn from each other rather than working in isolation • Change the way they work and what they produce • Ultimately produce a product that’s greater (and better) than an individual could accomplish working alone © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q1 – What is collaboration? • The three critical collaboration drivers are: • Communication • The success of the collaboration group depends on the availability of effective communication systems that allow them to share their skills and abilities • Content management • Users need to manage the content of their work to avoid conflicting with other team members. • Workflow control • Workflow is a process or procedure to create, edit, use, and dispose of content. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Synchronous communication • Team members meet at the same time, but not necessarily at the same geographic location. • It may include conference calls, face-to-face-meetings, or online meetings. • Asynchronous communication • Team members do not meet at the same time or in the same geographic location. • It may include discussion forums or email exchanges. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? Fig 2-1 Information Technology for Communication © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication? • Virtual meetings don’t require everyone to be in the same place at the same time. • Conference calls – can be difficult to arrange the right time • Multiparty text chat – easier to arrange if everyone has mobile texting • Videoconferencing – requires everyone to have the proper equipment • Email – most familiar but has serious drawbacks in content management • Discussion forums – content is more organized than email • Team surveys – easy to manage but don’t provide very much interactive discussion © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? Fig 2-5 Information Technology for Sharing Content • There are three categories for sharing content. Your choice depends on the degree of control your team needs to complete their tasks © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • The following methods of sharing are effective but provide no control over content management. • Email attachments are the most primitive but have numerous problems. • Someone may not receive the email or ignores it. • It’s difficult to manage attachments. • A shared file server provides a single storage location for all team members. • It uses FTP technology to access files. • Problems can occur if multiple team members try using the same file at the same time. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • These methods of content sharing provide version management • Wikis • Google Docs and Spreadsheets • Microsoft Office Groove © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Wikis are shared knowledge bases, repositories of team knowledge, which have or use tracking mechanisms for changes. • Most commonly known wiki is wikipedia.com. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Google Docs and Spreadsheets • Access it at http://docs.google.com with a Google account (different from a Gmail account). • Documents are stored on Google servers making them accessible from anywhere. • Team members can track revisions and review change summaries. • It’s a free service but you must use Google programs for processing. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Microsoft Office Groove • You create a workspace and invite others to join. • Document changes are automatically provided to all team members. • You can use VoIP rather than separate phone lines for conversations. • You can use it asynchronously or synchronously. • You can use any computer or server to access workspaces. • Each user must purchase a license and install it on each computer (may be exceptions). © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content? • Shared content with version control provides more limitations than version management and more control over changes to documents. • It uses shared libraries (directories) to store documents. • Users are given permissions that limit what they can do with the documents. • It requires users to check out documents and check them back in. • Microsoft SharePoint is the most popular for business use. • It requires a publicly accessible server. • It’s difficult to install. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow? • Sequential workflow • When documents are reviewed by multiple members of a team one after another • Parallel workflow • When documents are reviewed by multiple members of a team simultaneously • SharePoint site • Defines workflows and ensures team members perform required tasks (http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/Videos.aspx?VideoID=1 ) © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Information Systems for Decision Making • Decision making in organizations is varied and complex. • Decisions occur at three levels in organizations (decision levels): • Operational decisions concern day-to-day activities. • Information systems that support operational decision making are called transaction processing systems (TPS). • Managerial decisions concern the allocation and utilization of resources. • Information systems that support managerial decision making are called management information systems (MIS). • Strategic decision making concern broader-scope organizational issues. • Information systems that support strategic decision making are called executive information systems (EIS).

Information Systems for Problem Solving • Information systems can be used to solve problems. • Problem definition • A problem is a perceived difference between what is and what is not. • A problem is a perception. • A good problem definition defines the differences between what is and what ought to be by describing both the current and desired situations. • Different problem definitions require the development of different information systems. • All personnel in the organization must have a clear understanding of which definition of the problem the information system will address.

Decision Making and Problem Solving • Problem solving is the most critical activity a business organization undertakes. Problem solving begins with decision making. • In the intelligence stage, potential problems and /or opportunities are identified and defined • In the designstage, alternative solutions to the problem are developed • In the choicestage, a course of action is selected • In the implementationstage, action is taken to put the solution into effect • In the monitoringstage, the implementation of the solution is evaluated to determine if the anticipated results were achieved and modify the process

The Decision Process • Two decision processes (method by which a decision is to be made) are structured and unstructured. • Structured decision process is one for which there is an understood and accepted method for making the decision. • Unstructured process is one for which there is no agreed on decision making process. • The terms structured and unstructured refers to the decision process-not the underlying subject.

Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision making? Fig 2-15 Collaboration Needs for Decision Types © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Optimization, Satisficing, and Heuristic • Optimizing is finding the best solution and is usually best fit for problems that can be modeled mathematically with a low degree of estimation risk. For example, find how many products an organization should produce to meet a profit goal. • Satisficing is finding a good, but not necessarily the best, solution. Satisficing does not look at all possible solutions, but at those that are likely to give good results. Satisficing is a good decision method because it is sometimes too expensive to analyze every alternative to get the best solution. A satisficing example is when you have to select a location for a new plant. • Heuristics are guidelines or procedures that usually find a good solution by using “rules of thumb”.

Different Types of Information Systems for Different Types of Decisions • Automated information systems are those by which the computer hardware and program components do most of the work. • Humans start the programs and use the results. • Augmentation information systems are those in which humans do the bulk of the work. • These systems augment, support, or supplement the work done by People (email, instant messaging, video-conferencing, etc) to aid in decision making.

Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Collaboration systems provide team members with feedback and iteration that helps them: • Identify numerous solution alternatives rather than just one. • Make a choice by allowing them to discuss the pros and cons of each alternative. • Broker the selected solution and make necessary adjustments that benefit all parties. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem solving? • Problem solving and collaboration systems are more effective when they successfully employ the three collaborative drivers: • Communication systems that allow a regular and reliable exchange of ideas and information • Content-management systems that control document changes and revisions so everyone has the most current version • Workflow control is less important because of the nature of the unstructured decision-making process © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? • The three collaborative drivers are important to ensure the success of a project. • Communication systems help decision makers communicate with one another and deal with unexpected problems as they occur. • Content-management systems control document changes and revisions that occur during the project. • Workflow control is important because of task dependencies inherent in projects. © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project management? Fig 2-17 Collaboration Systems for Decision Making, Problem Solving & Project Mgt © Pearson Prentice Hall 2009

Using MIS 2e Chapter 2 Information Systems for Collaboration