Revision

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Revision

• Week 13 Lecture 1

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Course structure
You will recall that the course covered three
broad areas  

• Basic concepts in Information Systems
• The technology of Information Systems
• Some managerial aspects of Information Systems

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Assessment

• Final exam worth 60 of the total mark (you must
  attain a minimum of 40)
• Two individual assignments, each worth 15 of the
  final mark
• Two group tutorial presentations, each worth 5
  of the final mark.

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Exam

• Six questions each with several parts
• Some questions ask for your knowledge within a
  context think about that context first so your
  answer is relevant.
• Each question has different marks allocated to it
  that is an indication of how long and complex
  your answer needs to be.

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Illness or misadventureat the time of an
examination

• There are two possibilities
• Sit the exam in which case there is no
  possibility of another exam
• Miss the exam.
• If your absence is due to circumstances beyond
  your control, then you may apply for special
  consideration.
• Subject to supplying acceptable documentation you
  may be granted a supplementary exam

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Applications for special consideration

• The application must be received within 5 days of
  the exam
• The evidence, medical or otherwise, must make it
  clear that
• The circumstances were beyond your control
• The circumstances would have significantly
  affected your performance
• The underlying principle is that you HAVE the
  knowledge, but the circumstances prevented you
  from demonstrating that.
• Is is NOT that the circumstances prevented you
  from attaining that knowledge

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What is an organisation?

• Identifiable body or institution
• With a defined purpose
• Having resources of land, capital, labour and
  information/knowledge
• Usually having a defined legal structure
• Sometimes being a part of a larger organisation

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An organisation is bounded, and exists within an
environment.
Owners
Staff Capital Systems to achieve a
Purpose Information/Knowledge Legal structure
Customers
Suppliers
Government
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A Business Model

• An abstraction of
• what an enterprise (organisation) is, and
• how it delivers a product or service,
• showing how it creates wealth (LL page 114)

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Four major changes that challenge the business
environment

• Globalisation
• Transformation of industrial economies
• Transformation of enterprises
• Emergence of the digital firm

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Globalisation

• Globalisation is the free movement of
• Capital
• Trade in goods services
• People
• Implications
• Management in a global marketplace
• Global competition
• Global work groups
• Global systems

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Transformation of Industrial economies

• Information based white collar workers in the
  USA constitute 60 of the workforce (sales,
  insurance, office, law, healthcare, financial
  services etc)
• Knowledge is a strategic asset
• Time based competition
• Shorter product life

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Transformation of the enterprise

• Flattening of the management structure
• Decentralisation
• Location independent
• Collaborative workgroups virtual teams

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Emergence of the Digital firm

• Digital relationship with customers, suppliers
  and employees
• E-Commerce
• Core business processes accomplished via networks
• Knowledge management
• Systems extend beyond organisational boundaries

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From
To
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What is an Information System?

• An information system (IS) is a pre-established
  set of inter-related components that collect,
  process, store, and distribute information, to
  support decision making and control in an
  organisation. Laudon Laudon
• Our primary interest in this course is on
  computer-based IS.
• An IS is almost always a component in a broader
  system.

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Information systems can be

• Operational
• part of the day to day business
• often part of a larger system that has physical
  elements eg a wholesalers delivery system that
  includes the movement of goods
• Managerial
• A feedback system for managing the business
• A system to support strategic and technical
  decisions
• A repository of the organisations knowledge

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General Systems Theory

• Developed by a biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy
  and published in 1968
• He was reacting against another theory of
  reductionism
• GST introduces some concepts that are useful to
  us in studying systems
• He considered the principles of GST applied to
  all systems social, biological, technological

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What is a system?
A system is something that maintains
its existence and functions as a whole through
the interaction of it parts. Joseph OConnor
and Ian McDermott The Art of Systems Thinking
Examples Your body The environment The
Federal government The Sydney Train
service Sydney University student enrolment
system
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Characteristics of all Systems
Environment
Inputs
Outputs
Interconnected parts
System-environment boundary Emergent
properties Feedback loops Leverage Goal
directed Process
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Interconnected parts

• The interconnected parts function as a whole
• The system is changed if parts are added or
  removed, or their connections are changed
• The arrangement of the parts is crucial
• Its behaviour depends on the total structure
• Those parts are sometimes systems themselves
• It is the input output of a part that is
  important, not how it achieves that output

OConnor McDermott
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Emergent properties

• Systems have properties above and beyond the
  properties of the parts that comprise them they
  emerge from the system when it is working (piano,
  human body, The Internet)
• They are often unpredictable and surprising.
  (although as system designers we expect to
  predict the outcome)

OConnor McDermott
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Stability and leverage

• Systems with many parts are usually stable and
  resistant to change
• If pressure builds up within a system then it can
  change suddenly and dramatically the fall of
  Communism in Europe
• If you can find the right point in a system then
  again, change can be instigated. You need to
  understand the system and the principal of
  leverage

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Feedback loops

• Our body/system requires us to drink water.
• If we dont we get thirsty
• This reminds us to have a drink
• The drink satisfies the thirst when the body has
  had enough
• No more thirst we stop drinking
• MIS are primarily feedback systems

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KEY SYSTEM APPLICATIONS IN THE ORGANIZATION
Types of Information Systems
DS/ES and communication
MIS and communication
KM and communication
Transaction processing
Laudon Laudon
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Transaction processing systems

• Operational level
• High volumes
• Multi-user access
• Increasingly crossing organisational boundaries
• Application integration a big challenge

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Management Information Systems

• Management level
• Accepts data from multiple TP systems
• Summarises and relates data from those internal
  sources
• Usually both
• Standardised reporting on a periodic basis, and
• One-off query based
• Generates KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)

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Knowledge Management Systems

• Knowledge workers management support staff,
  engineers, researchers etc
• Report/ task orientated e.g. Microsoft Office or
  Engineering CAD
• Complex data manipulation text, diagrams,
  graphics, modelling (what if) etc
• Allows extraction of data from MIS
• External data sources
• Document management

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Decision support/Executive support

• Data analysis tools
• data mining
• Multi-dimensional analysis tools
• Modelling software
• Grown-ups Excel
• Large quantities of data
• Econometric model building
• Target Long term strategic planning
• Used by executive support staff
• External data sources

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The Supply Chain
Our firm
Manufacturers
Raw material suppliers
Customers
Distributors
Retailers
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What supply chain management does

• Plan production based on orders
• Decide what to order produce
• Track status of orders supplier customer
• Check and control inventory levels
• Plan transportation
• Track shipments

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Customer Relationship management
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What CRM does

• Who are our most loyal customers it cost 6
  times more to sell to a new customer
• Who are our most profitable customers 80 of
  profits are earned from 20 of clients the
  80/20 rule
• What do our customers want can we tailor
  products to meet their needs better
• Customer satisfaction
• Sales staff performance

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What HR does

• Personnel management
• Performance reviews
• Succession planning
• Skill database
• Employee records address, next-of-kin etc
• Recruitment
• Planning
• Managing the recruitment process
• Salaries sometimes a special system closely
  integrated

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Finance Accounting

• General ledger financial reporting
• Accounts payable - debtors
• Accounts receivable creditors
• Budgeting
• Fixed asset management
• Cash management

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Integration the major challenge
Orders, Customer info.
Supply Chain
CRM
Purchases
Resource availability
Sales Staff
Invoices
HR
Financial
Salary summaries
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The drivers for integration

• Transaction cost reduction in the supply chain
  firms can grow and still reduce its workforce
• Reduce internal management costs increased span
  of control
• More and faster information enables better
  decisions
• Enabling faster product cycles
• Broader range of information in the MIS

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XML XBRL
TCP/IP
IBM PC Windows
Mainframe Minicomputer
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Characteristics of e-Commerce

• Direct communication between business partners
  DISINTERMEDIATION, removes intermediate layers
  streamlines process
• Low entry cost and potentially fast return on
  investments (need to consider total costs
  though!)
• Vendors can provide information 24 hours a day
• Extends distribution channels
• Can reduce transaction costs
• Personalisation, one-to-one

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Some advantages

• REDUCES INFORMATION ASYMMETRY Asymmetry exists
  when one party has more information than other
• INCREASES RICHNESS Depth detail of information
• INCREASES REACH Number of people contacted

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Types of e-Commerce

• BUSINESS-TO-CONSUMER (B2C)
• Information brochures, specifications
• Enquiry on account or delivery status
• Product ordering payment
• Browser based
• BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS (B2B)
• Information brochures, specifications, problem
  solving
• Product ordering via browser
• System integration
• On-line marketplaces e.g. Covisint
• CONSUMER-TO-CONSUMER (C2C)
• Individuals use Web for private sales or exchange
• E-Bay most well known example

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Client server model

• Any computer connected to a network is called a
  host a host for a process which provides or
  requests a service
• The client host process requests a service from
  the server host process
• A process is a program running within a host
• The request and service is provided by the
  exchange of messages

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Host 1
Proc. A asks Proc. X to Perform a service. Proc.
Z asks Proc. C to Perform a service Host 1 does
not ask Host 2 to perform a Service
Client process
Operating system
Server process
Proc A
Proc B
Proc C
Operating system
Server process
Proc X
Proc Y
Proc Z
Client process
Host 2
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A protocol defines

• the format and order of messages
• exchanged between two communicating entities, and
• the actions taken on receipt or transmission of a
  message.

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What do we want from a communications network?

• We want to
• transfer messages from a process in one computer
• to a process in another computer
• reliably
• quickly
• and in an understandable form.

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We also know that

• Messages have to pass through a number of routers
  and switches from one computer to another, and
  thus the network has to route messages correctly
• The various links may be of different media at
  different bandwidths
• The signals carrying data are subject to
  interference and degradation, and thus messages
  may be corrupted or lost
• The byte coding structure in one computer may be
  different from the other

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Message
Application
Process
Application
Segment
Host
Transport
Transport
Router
Host Router
Datagram
Datagram
Network
Network
Network
Frame
Frame
Link
Switch
Link
Link
Link
Link
Host, router switch
Link/Physical
Link/Physical
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The interface
To provide application services FTP, X400, X500
Application
To translate, encrypt And compress data
Presentation
Establish and manage Connection.
Session
Provide end-to-end error free delivery of messages
Transport
End-to-end routing of packets through the network.
Network
Reliable transfer of a frame of data between two
devices
Data Link
Transmits bits across a physical medium
Physical
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Comparing The Internet OSI
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Key points about a layered approach

• The source process only wants to know that the
  message it sent gets to the destination process
  it does not need to know how
• The Network stack is implemented in the
  operating system of both hosts and the various
  switches routers
• As such the software in each operating system
  will be different code
• but implementing the same protocol

Application processes
Middleware
DBMS
Command language (Shell)
TCP/IP
File manager
Ethernet ATM etc
Device drivers
Task management (scheduler)
Memory management
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XML

• Is not a single pre-defined language but a
  language for describing other customised
  languages
• It allows the creation of DTDs (Document Type
  Descriptions) or Schemas
• A DTD consists of a DOCTYPE and ELEMENT
  definitions
• These allow a program to validate the syntax of a
  document

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XML

• The data is all ANSII text thus can be read by
  any machine
• Parsers can be written in any language
• Tags can be created for the definition,
  transmission, validation and interpretation of
  data
• However XML by itself does not provide all of the
  elements needed

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Industry groups are developing their own schemas

• XBRL Business Reporting Language
• Rosetta Net
• These allow data to be transferred across
  organisation boundaries

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RosettaNet

• 400 companies in the Electronic component and
  Information Technology industries
• Uses XML XML Schemas
• Business technical data dictionaries
• Implementation framework
• Partner Interface Processes (PIPs)
• Product (GTINs) and company codes (DUNS)
• Defined processes and outcomes
• Clearly defined units of work

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Dell Australia Post

• Article from SMH
• The process is
• Dell accepts order
• Order converted to RosettaNet format and sent to
  Australia Post
• Australia Post packs and send the goods on to
  customer
• Customer receives goods delivery confirmed by
  scanning and sent back to Australia Post
• Australia Post updates Dell systems
• Order closed

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TCP/IP, Internet The WWW

• TCP/IP are two protocols at the Transport and
  Network levels
• The Internet is a Network or Networks that use
  TCP/IP as key layers in its protocol stack
• The World Wide Web is an application that runs on
  the Internet

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TCP/IP

• TCP (Transmission Control Protocol
• IP (Internet Protocol)
• Developed at the same time as OSI, but as a
  product not an international standard
• Developed for the ARPANET Dept of Defence,
  defence contractors, Universities and the
  Military
• To enable communication across analogue lines,
  packet radios and Ethernet networks
• To be a Network of networks

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The Principles set out for TCP/IP

• Autonomy a network should be able to work on
  its own without change
• Best effort service Lost messages would be
  retransmitted
• Stateless servers Routers should not need to
  maintain the state of a connection
• Decentralised control No global control over
  the Internet

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TCP Reliable transmission service

• Implemented in end points only
• To provide a reliable data transmission service
  it needs
• An error detection mechanism. This is based on a
  checksum calculation
• A receiver feedback mechanism. The receiver sends
  an ACK(nowledge) when an error free packet is
  received, and sends a NAK when the packet has
  errors.
• A retransmission service is a packet is damaged
  or not received
• A flow control mechanism

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UDP

• At the Transport layer it does very little.
  Passes the message straight to the IP packet
  service
• It is connectionless
• No overhead in handshaking
• No connection state in end systems
• It has a smaller packet overhead
• No congestion control
• Trades off risk of data loss against higher
  throughput
• Used in multimedia telephony, video
• Some apps. provide own error control

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IP

• Implemented in host and each router
• Provides a connectionless datagram service
• Primary role is to route the datagram through the
  network
• Routers use the IP addresses together with their
  internal routing tables to direct datagram down
  the appropriate links

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The WAN - provided by Telcos
ATT
Telstra
NTT
Optus
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IP Links are router to router
Router
Switch
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We tend to think the public Internet and the Web
are dominant.But most large organisations have
their own WAN.
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An Organisations network can be

• Leased channels
• VPN Virtual Private Network
• VPN on Public network
• Public Network
• Combination of some or all or these

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Quality of Service

• One drawback with the Internet is that it is
  democratic, and all packets are treated as
  important as any other.
• It provides best effort service
• IPv4 has no mechanism to provide priority
• This is needed for time critical applications
  such as telephony, real time conferencing and
  high performance transaction processing
• QoS aims for a predictable and specifiable
  bandwidth and latency

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QoS the key to one network

• When packet switched networks can offer the QoS
  of switched circuits, that will be the day when
  all major users stop having two networks
• Service providers are aware of this
• The network must be able to differentiate between
  delay sensitive and delay insensitive applications

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QoS requires

• The ability to reserve resources (Buffers
  Bandwidth)
• Prioritisation where network traffic is
  classified and priority is given according to
  bandwidth management policy
• These features could be applied to
• An individual data stream
• In aggregate, to flows of a particular type

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The DBMS (Data Base Management System)

• Sits on top of the O/S File System
• Defines the structure in which the data is to be
  organised
• Adds and changes data in the DB
• Maintains the integrity of the data
• Finds and presents data to a process

Application processes
Middleware
DBMS
Command language (Shell)
TCP/IP
File manager
Ethernet ATM etc
Device drivers
Task management (scheduler)
Memory management
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System Issues in DBMS

• Database design The Entity/Relationship model
• Islands of Information
• Need for an organisation wide data dictionary
• Database tuning
• Design for
• Update Transaction processing
• Read Data warehousing
• Distributed databases