Class Summary

Bus 188

Before I took this class, I only know that Management Information System (MIS) has something to do with managing computers for business use. I do not know what exactly people in MIS do and how does MIS create value for profit and non-profit organizations. In this class, I learned that every computer information system will always has five components: hardware, software, data, procedures and people. I learned that information technology (IT) and information system (IS) are not the same, IT lacks the people component that IS has. IS helps organization manage data and process them into valuable information that managers can use to make decisions. In order for information to be valuable, it needs to be accurate, timely, relevant, just sufficient and worth its cost. When working on any project, team members can use collaboration systems to help them collaborate more effectively and efficiently at everywhere and anytime. Team members can communicate with each other synchronously through face to face meeting or asynchronously through email if each member is locating in a different geographic area. To manage team work effectively, a workflow control needs to be established to specify the tasks that need to be done and the responsibilities of each team member. Team members can share documents with one another through email or file server, yet this method does not have control or track the changes each user make to the shared documents. Alternatively, the team could use version management systems like Microsoft Office Grove to help track changes, yet this method still does not specify which user has the authority to create, alter or delete documents. Version control application such as Microsoft SharePoint eliminates all the flaws and limitations mention above. Collaboration systems are needed to facilitate problem solving, project management and decision making. There are three levels of decision making in organizations: operational, managerial and strategic decisions. Every organization needs to assess its industry structure in order to determine which competitive strategy the organization wants to focus in. Porters five forces model is a useful tool in helping organizations determining its industrys structure, they include: bargaining power of customers, threat of substitutions, bargaining power of suppliers, threat of new entrants, and rivalry. After analyzing the industry structure, organizations will choose one of the following four competitive strategies it wants to follow: industry-wide cost strategy, focused-cost strategy, industry-wide differentiation strategy and focused-differentiation strategy. Each organizations business activities differ from one another, but they only want to include activities that create value yet yield a positive margin (value - cost) at the same time. Five primary activities that add value directly to the products are: inbound logistics, operations/manufacturing, outbound logistics, sales and marketing and customer service. There are four other support activities that indirectly add value to the products such as: procurement, technology, human resources and firm infrastructure. Organizations can achieve competitive advantage by creating new products/services, enhancing the existing products/services or differentiating the organizations products/services from those of their competitors. In addition, by focusing on business processes that generate value to the customers, it can help the organization lock in customers and suppliers, reduce costs, raise barrier entry into the market and establish alliances with other organizations. There are many types of application programs used in organizations. They could buy off-the-shelf horizontalmarket application for word processing or create a product presentation. They could buy vertical market application such as QuickBooks and modify some of its feature to fit the organizations accounting needs or they can custom-developed a one-of-a-kind application for the organizations specific and unique needs. Client is a computer program that makes a service request to another program called the server, which process and fulfills the clients request. Thin client refers to a client computer that could access the server through a web browser, and thick client requires a program to be installed on the client computer before it could access the server. Computer data are stored in forms of bits and bytes. The order of data storages starting from the smallest unit are: bit, byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte and exabyte. Organizations use database to organize and keep track of their data. A database is a collection of tables, relationships and metadata. Database management system (DBMS) is a program used to create, process, and administer a database. A data model such as the Entity-Relationship model needs to be created to illustrate the relationships among entities before designing a relational database. In E-R diagram, cardinalities are used to shows the relationship between two entities, they can be one-to-one relationship, one-to- many relationship or many-to-many relationship. A poorly constructed table can lead to data integrity problem, which will results in inconsistent and incorrect data output. However, a poorly constructed table can be converted into two or more well-constructed tables through the process called normalization.

Class Summary

Bus 188

Computers typically communicate with one another through three types of network: local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN) and Internet. In order for computers and other electronic devices to communicate with one another, they have to use the same protocol, or a set of rules that allow them to communicate with one another over the network. Data are vulnerable to interception and malicious modification when transmitting across the internet; hence it is important for organizations to encrypt their data before transmitting. In addition, organizations also set up layers of firewalls to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing their network. Organizations use business process management (BPM) to manage their business processes, which are activities that create values by transforming inputs to outputs. The BPM cycle involved four steps: creating an AS-IS model for each business process, create system components for the processes, implement processes and access business processes for effectiveness. Since business processes tend to change very often, organizations need to keep the BPM cycle going so they could modify those processes to adapt to changes that are expected to occur. Business processes can fall into one of the following three categories: functional processes that involve activities within a single business function, crossfunctional processes which involve activities that cross into multiple departments within an organization (CRM and ERP), and inter-organizational processes that involve activities that cross into multiple companies (SCM). E-commerce conducts business over the Internet and other private computer networks. E-commerce helps facilitate companies in conducting business worldwide, eliminates the need of distributors and suppliers, improves the flows of information and produces information about price elasticity. Merchant e-commerce companies include B2C, B2B and B2G government which sell goods and services that they owned/provided directly to the customers. Nonmerchant e-commerce companies such as clearinghouses, auctions and exchanges sell goods and services that are owned/provided by others. When conducting business online, it is necessary for the company to create a web page to facilitate business transaction between the business and its customers. Web pages are coded in one of the standard page markup language: Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and eXensible Markup Language (XML). It is important to keep in mind that by engaging in e-commerce, manufacturers may encounter: channel and price conflict with its distributors or retailers, an increase in logistic and customer service expenses. Web 2.0 processing is the use of web applications that facilitate users in participating in information sharing and collaboration on the Internet. Web 2.0 companies provide software as a (free) service (SAAS) on their website, and use viral marketing and generate revenue through advertising or other revenue-from-use. Organizations use reporting tools, data mining tools and knowledge management tools to help them identify patterns and relationship within the raw data and then deliver them to the end users for decision making. The System Development Life Cycle begins when the organizations/management identify a need for a new system. There are five phases in the SDLC process: defining goals and scope of new information system, analyze the requirements of the new system, determine and create description for each of the IS components, implement the system and maintain the system. The SDLC process repeats when organization makes a system enhancement or fixes a system failure. The IS department is head by the chief information officer (CIO) and is make up of four groups and a data administration staff function. The technology group investigates new IS technologies and determines how the organization can benefit from them. The operations group manages computer infrastructure, monitors user experience and response to user problems. The development group manages the process of creating and maintaining new and existing IS. Outsourcing relations group exists in organizations that have negotiated outsourcing agreements with other companies. Data administration office protects data and information assets by establishing data standards and data management practices and policies. There are three sources of security threats every organization needs to be aware of: human error and mistakes, malicious human activity and natural disasters. Security problems organizations have to face are: unauthorized data disclosure, incorrect data modification, faulty service, denial of service and loss of infrastructure. Organizations need to develop strong security program to safeguard their valuable data from security threats. It includes senior management involvement in establishing security policy, assessing and managing risks; implementation of technical, data, human and disaster recovery safeguards measures and an incidental response plan to specify steps that employees need to take in response to security problems.

Class Summary

Bus 188

Overall, I really like this class. Ive learned so many new things about computers and MIS that I do not know before. Moreover, I love all the video clips that Professor Nitin showed in class, they are funny and informative at the same time. Taking this class helps me understand more about my major since AIS is also a part of MIS.