INFORMATION

1
INFORMATION

• What is it?

2
Information???

• Data that have been shaped into a form that is
  meaningful and useful to human beings.

3
What comes first--the Chicken or the Egg?

• Information vs. data
• Data are streams of raw facts representing events
  occurring in organizations or the physical
  environment before they have been organized and
  arranged into a form that people can understand
  or use.

4
Data

• Data are (Ex names and vital info of CSULA
  students)
• Stored Facts
• Inactive (they exist)
• Technology-based
• Gathered from various sources

5
Information

• Information is (Students with 4.0 GPA)
• Presented facts
• Active (it enables doing)
• Business-based
• Transformed from data

6
The War is Over!

• During the next three to five years, data traffic
  on telecommunications networks is going to easily
  outstrip voice traffic.
• Michael Vizard, Info World, June 8, 1998

7
What is an Information System?

• Any system that provides people with either data
  or information relating to an organizations
  operations.
• An information system contains information about
  an organization (internal) and its surrounding
  environment (external).
• The internal environment is the organization.
• The external environment are the customers,
  suppliers, regulatory agencies, stockholders,
  competitors.

8
Three Basic Activities of an Information System

• Input--Raw data collected/captured from internal
  or external environments. (raw materials, energy,
  people, money)
• Processing--Conversion of raw input into a
  meaningful form.
• Output--Transfers the processed information to
  the people or activities where it will be used.
  (products and services)
• And then theres the feedback process--this is a
  necessary output activity which is used to
  evaluate/refine the input.

9
MIS FIELD IS EVOLVING RAPIDLY DUE TO

• Changing Technologies
• Changing Management Priorities

10
Class Activity

• Input--Teacher-provided description
• Processing--Student arranging/classifying/calculat
  ing information
• Output--Student hands output to student seated on
  their right
• Feedback--Student evaluates the information based
  on teacher input, owner of the information
  refines their information

11
DATA

• Types of Transformations
• Retrieval
• Analysis
• Capture
• Presentations
• Types of Information
• Reports
• New Files
• Graphical displays

12
The Powerful Changes in Managing Information

• Emergence/Strength of Global Economy
• Global Corporations
• Worldwide Marketplace--Internet--I-Commerce,
  E-commerce, E-Business
• Is your chair comfortable? Old saying Dont
  leave home without it. New saying No need
  to leave home.
• Transformation of Economies from industrial to
  knowledge/information based
• Instant service--credit card usage, smart card
  usage, quick delivery, immediate on-line
  reservations, instant access/retrieval of
  information.
• Transformation of Business Enterprise
• Project Workgroups, Temp workforce

13
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO PREPARE FOR THESE CHANGES?

• Basic skill core preparation
• Communication skills
• Computational skills
• Critical-thinking/Problem-solving skills
• People skills
• Lifelong learning approach
• Adaptability Flexibility-- Attitude

14
MIS IS COMPRISED OF DISSIMILAR SKILL BASES

• Technical skills vs. Business Skills
• Hard Science skills vs. Soft Science skills
• Practical, contingency-based perspective skills
  vs. theoretical perspective skills

15
Technical Approach

• Emphasizes mathematically-based model
• Contributing disciplines
• Computer science--
• Established Computability theories
• Computational methods
• Efficient data storage and access methods
• Management science
• Development of models for decision-making and
  management practices
• Operations research
• Mathematical techniques for organizational
  optimal effectiveness and efficiency inventory
  control, transportation, transaction costs

16
Behavioral Approach

• Concerned with behavioral problems
• Creative design, system utilization,
  implementation
• (What can I do/cannot do? I have a tude! This
  policy stinks! I am not going to do it that
  way!)
• Contributing disciplines
• Sociology--focus on impact of information systems
  on people
• Political science--investigates the political
  impacts/uses of information systems (legal
  issues)
• Psychology--concerned individual responses to
  info systems and cognitive models of human
  reasoning. (Techno-stress, adapto-stress,
  work-related stress issues)

17
SocioTechnical Systems

• Change is necessary in todays environment.
• Change is inevitable in todays environment.
• Change is an ongoing process.
• Change impacts both the internal and external
  environments.
• Imagine the changes that will occur in the
  environment with ethical issues, security issues,
  robotic body parts, machine cloning?

18
Organizational Design Options-A flexible
Workplace/Marketplace

• Virtual Organizations free workers to live and
  work anywhere
• Custom Manufacturing, preferred customer plans,
  one-to-one marketing, individualized products
  services
• Electronic markets which operate as electronic
  middle men between buyer and seller
• Restructure of workflow
• Empowerment of employees
• Information Architecture challenge
• Hierarchical Organizational Levels

19
SIX TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS

• TPS- Transaction Processing Systems
• OAS- Office Automation Systems
• KWS-Knowledge Work Systems
• DSS-Decision Support Systems
• MIS-Management Information Systems
• ESS-Executive Support Systems

20
But wait! These systems serve four distinct
levels in an organization.

• TPS--an operational level
• KWS and OAS-- a knowledge level
• DSS and MIS--a management level
• ESS--a strategic level

21
SPECIFIC PURPOSES SERVED BY INFORMATION SYSTEMS

• TPS Routine data processing and accounting
  procedures
• OAS The use of technologies to produce an end
  product
• KWS Promote the creation and design of new
  knowledge/information, technical/engineering
  expertise
• DSS An information gathering and reporting
  tool for management, a prototype, a model
• MIS Generation of preplanned, printed reports
  to assist in decision-making
• ESSDesigned to be used by senior managers who
  have little direct contact/expertise with CBIS.
  Easy-to-use, seductive software, Not designed
  specifically to solve specific problems.

22
WHAT IS A CBIS?

• Consists of hardware, software, data, procedures,
  and people
• People are defined as users, systems analysts,
  and programmers

23
WHAT ARE THE ELEMENTS OF CBIS?

• Input, processing, output, and storage

24
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN COMPANY COMPETITIVE
APPROACHES

• Knowledge is Power

25
WHAT CHALLENGES FACE THOSE WHO DESIGN, USE, OR
APPROVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS?

• Rapid Changes in Technology
• A Movement toward a Global Society
• The Processing Speed of Information

26
INFORMATION-INTENSIVE SOCIETY

• 1950s ushered in the age of information-intensive
  jobs in the U.S. labor force
• Blending of communications and computing
  technologies continues (i.e. computer networks)
• A movement toward a global society created for a
  global telecommunications network
• Information is now recognized as the central
  organizational resource in todays economy

27
WHAT IS MIS?

• Any system that provides people with either data
  or information relating to an organizations
  operations.

28
MIS SUPPORTS THE ACTIVITIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL
PEOPLES BY

• Processing data to assist with transaction
  workload (in an effective manner)
• Supplying information to authorized people in a
  timely manner

29
INFORMATION SYSTEMS HAVE EVOLVED AS FOLLOWS

• 1950s Transaction Processing Systems
• 1960s Management Information Systems
• 1970s Decision Support Systems
• 1980s, 1990s Knowledge-based Systems used for
  strategic organizational competitive
  knowledge/information advantages
• New Century Wireless technologies

30
INFORMATION RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

• Data vs. Information
• Data are facts
• Data filtering is processed to apply meaning and
  value, resulting in information (Example
  O.J./DNA testing)
• Data is useful for everyday transaction
  processing
• Information is more useful for managerial
  decision-making

31
INFORMATION RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

• IRM REFERS TO
• Properly managing data and information as key
  organizational resources
• Seeing information as a desirable investment used
  to strategically provide a competitive advantage
• Recognizing the role of CIO and the importance of
  this rank
• Goals of information Systems
• Leveraging Investment in Information Technology
• Selling MIS Products (i.e. Microsoft)
• Providing services/outsourcing (i.e. Novell)

32
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FUNDAMENTALS

• We live in an INFORMATION AGE most people have
  INFORMATION-INTENSIVE JOBS.
• We are entering a KNOWLEDGE AGE where information
  technology has greater intelligence
• The blending of communications and computing
  technologies continues computer networks are
  becoming increasingly common
• A need has arisen for global telecommunications
  networks due to global financing, global
  outsourcing, and international joint ventures.
• Information is now recognized as a central
  organizational resource in todays economy.

33
KEY ISSUES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS

• ISSUE 1 The Development of an information
  Architecture
• ISSUE 2 The Management of data as an
  organizational resource
• ISSUE 3 Strategic Planning of data and
  information
• Management enterprise-wide problems are often
  viewed as more important than technical and
  application-related problems
• The same issues have been highly ranked since the
  1980s however, recently global systems have
  taken on much importance

34
WHAT IS MEANT BY STRATEGIC PLANNING?

• A Long-range planning process, the strategic use
  of information refers to using information
  technologies for competitive advantage.

35
Now, Lets get serious!

• Strategic is only about achieving strategic
  direction, ignoring the practicalities of
  day-to-day operations that absorb all of your
  resources and more.
• SO
• An Integrated plan is needed because it includes
  strategic components with the realities of the
  current operating environment. An integrated
  plan is a roadmap for where you are going and how
  to survive until the future gets here.
• Source Bob Lewis, Info World, June 8, 1998

36
CHALLENGES FOR THE STUDY OF MIS

• MIS incorporates an unusually wide variety of
  knowledge areas
• Both technology technology-related products are
  evolving at an extremely fast and unpredictable
  rate.
• Many MIS terms are imprecise controversial
• MIS problems are not easy to define or structure
• The body of MIS knowledge is recent and scarce
• Often, a lack of rapport exists between MIS
  personnel management and between MIS personnel
  users.
• Knowing how much money to spend on information
  systems is still a guessing game. (Can you
  afford to make million dollar mistakes in your
  organization?)

37
MIS IS A GREY AREA OF STUDY

• A soft field A field where there are few
  universally correct answers that work for every
  situation situational actions are dependent on a
  number of variables.

38
MISs Involve

• The processing of data and the supply of timely
  information for managerial decision-making
• Both people inside and outside the organization
  with electronic data interchange (EDI) and other
  interorganizational systems some users of an
  organizations information system may be
  employees of other organizations
• The process of making the organization both more
  efficient and more effective

39
READ, READ, READ!

• Business Week and Fortune carry articles on new
  technologies that may change the way business is
  conducted, the state of MIS in a particular
  company, the revolutionary products emerging,
  etc.
• Read Info World, Computer World, MIS
• Quarterly, Information Week, FirstMover, CIO,
  Journal of Management Information Systems

40
QUESTION HOW CAN INFORMATION SYSTEMS BE USED AS
COMPETITIVE WEAPONS?

• Assignment Research a company which has made
  effective use of technology to expand their
  customer base without forgoing quality to gain a
  lions share of the marketplace. Next week
  submit your article and one-page paper (typed,
  double-spaced summary)
• Example Use Mercantile Mutual on page 45 as a
  guide. Do not use the examples given in your
  textbook as your final assignment.