ISYS 363 Information Systems for

Management

David Chao

Technologies

• Governor Schwarzenegger's 2010 State of the State Address – “While we still have a long way to go, the

worst is over for California's economy. And the really good thing is that we have the right economic mix going forward -- high tech, green tech, bio-tech, Hollywood-tech, farmer-tech and so forth.”

Information Technology

• Support day-to-day business operations• Create new way of doing business

– Example: Travel• Searching for flights, hotels

– Yahoo Travel, Expedia

• Making reservations– United Airelines- http://www.united.com/– Select your seats– Web check-In

• Mobile check-in with web-enabled mobile phones :– http://www.cathaypacific.com/cpa/en_INTL/manageyourtrip/

mobileservices/mobilecheckin– Save your check-in confirmation with the barcode on your

mobile device

Technology to promote company’s imageSupermarket Smart Cart

• Stop & Shop, a chain based in the Boston area, is seeking to change the whole way we shop for groceries — including the dreaded check-out lane. – Shopping Buddy: a wireless touch-screen device that is

attached to a shopping cart and scans items placed in the cart by shoppers.

– IBM Everywhere Display: Beamed from the supermarket ceiling, this device transforms surface into an interactive computer. In a supermarket, you will be likely to confront it on the floor, where you can access information by tapping your foot on the display.

• Video: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/5465603#5465603

• Website: http://www.stopandshop.com

Technology Life Cycle• Technology pushes itself to progress.

– Problem– Solution– Service– Competition:

• Yahoo Map vs Google Map

• Internet Explorer vs Firefox Mozilla

• Google search vs Bing.com

– Obsolete

• Example: Full-body scanner debuts at O’Hare– http://www.nwherald.com/articles/2010/03/15/

r_vbarkirwss6pmiylga2g5q/index.xml

Information Age• Information Age/society:

– the majority of workers are involved in the creation, distribution, and application of information.

• President Obama’s website:– http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/president_obama/

• Get short, timely messages from Barack Obama.– http://twitter.com/barackobama

– Businesses depend on information technology to get their work done.

Digital Entrepreneur

• People who develop new technologies.– Search engines, map, browser, etc.

• People who use the technologies innovatively.– Twitter applications:

• http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/19/the-top-20-twitter-applications/

Why study information systems?

• An end-user perspective– Enhance personal productivity, and the

productivity of their work groups and department.

– Increase your opportunities for success:• be aware of the management problems and

opportunities presented by the information technology.

Why study information systems?

• An enterprise perspective: Information systems play a vital role in the success of an enterprise.– Efficient operations– Effective management– Competitive advantage

Business Are Becoming Internetworked Enterprises

• The internet and Internet-like networks (intranets and extranets) have become the primary information technology infrastructure that supports the business operations of many organizations.

• Electronic commerce:– The buying and selling, and marketing and servicing of

products, services, and information over a variety of computer networks.

• Globalization:– Global markets, global production facilities, global partners,

global competitors, global customers.

The Role of Information Systems in Business Today

Information Technology Capital InvestmentInformation Technology Capital Investment

Information technology investment, defined as hardware, software, and communications equipment, grew from 34% to 50% between 1980 and 2004.Source: Based on data in U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Product Accounts, 2006.

Techies might finally be able to move into top management

• More Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are reporting directly to CEOs.

• More CIOs are being included on management committees.

• In a recent survey of executives at capital market firms, 89% believed that technology managers would assume greater responsibilities.

Geek-Suithttp://www.nri.co.jp/english/opinion/papers/2009/pdf/np2009143.pdf

Course Introduction• IT – Introduction to information technology

– Computer hardware, software, network

– IT management

• IS – Introduction to information systems– Information system components

– Types of information systems

• PC – personal computing– Advanced spreadsheet techniques in decision support.

– Introduction to database and database application development

– Internet techniques

What is Information Technology?

• A term used to refer to a wide variety of items and abilities used in the creation, storage, and dispersal of data, information and knowledge. – Data: Raw facts, figures, and details.

• Numerical, text, multimedia

– Information: An organized, meaningful, and useful interpretation of data.

– Knowledge: Insight of a subject matter.

Raw data from a supermarket checkout counter can be processed and organized to produce meaningful information, such as the total unit sales of dish detergent or the total sales revenue from dish detergent for a specific store or sales territory.

Data and InformationData and Information

Hardware• Input devices

• CPU and primary storage– RAM - temporary storage– Processor

• Control Unit - decoder

• Arithmetic & Logic Unit (ALU)

• Output devices

• Secondary storage devices

• Communication devices

Computer System Concept

Storage Tradeoffs

3-19

Types of Computer Systems• Micro/Minicomputers

– Personal computing, workstation,network server.– Departmental and workgroup systems, network server, workstation.

• Mainframes– Speed: MIPS million instructions per second

• 26 MIPS to about 17,801 MIPS

– Enterprisewide systems– for organizations have to deal with huge amounts of data. Giga-record or

tera-record files are not unusual.– Data mining and warehousing

• Supercomputers– Speed: Floating-point operations per second

• 20 peta flops

– Supercomputers are often purpose-built for one or a very few specific institutional tasks (E.g. Simulation and Modeling).

– Scientific calculations

• Networked computer systems– WAN, LAN, PAN

Personal Area Network

• A personal area network (PAN) is a computer network used for communication among computer devices (including telephones and personal digital assistants) close to one person. The devices may or may not belong to the person in question. The reach of a PAN is typically a few meters.

• BlueTooth: It is an industrial specification for wireless PANs. Bluetooth provides a way to connect and exchange information between devices such as mobile phones, laptops, PCs, printers, digital cameras and video game consoles via a short-range radio frequency.

Bluetooth Applications

• http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=24243

• http://www.bluetooth.com/English/Experience/Pages/At_Home.aspx

Storage Device

• RAID (Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks): – Arrays of disk drives that provides a fault tolerant capability by

storing multiple copies of data on several disks.

• Mirroring

Storage Network

• Storage Area Network, SAN:– A storage area network is an architecture to

attach remote computer storage devices to servers in such a way that the devices appear as locally attached to the operating system.

• Storage Farm:– The Storage Farm (disk space) is a centrally

managed pool of space. Storage in the Storage Farm is typically provided by Storage Area Network technology to allow easy growing of storage.

Data Center• Google, Microsoft Data Center

– Petabytes of storage– Data Center Containers:

• http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/category/technology/containers/

– Global locations:• http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/

2008/03/27/google-data-center-faq/

• Tour: – Google: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRwPSFpLX8I

– Microsoft: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPnoKb9fTkA

Where to put data center?

• The cost of electric power, labor, taxes and land are key factors when choosing a data center location.– http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/

300809/Low_Cost_Locations?taxonomyId=155&intsrc=kc_feat&taxonomyName=servers

– http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=6ECF9E56-17A4-0F78-31EAB0750688E73E#

Radio Frequency Identification • RFID is a system for tagging and identifying

objects.– Antenna to send and receive signals.

– RFID reader

• Applications:– An alternative to bar code

• Supermarket

– Tracking objects

A few interesting RFID applications– RFID tags help you to choose clothes

• http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=719

– Ford embeds RFID tech into new trucks and vans

• http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9061580&intsrc=hm_list

– Digital watermark to prevent counterfeit:• http://www.industryweek.com/articles/

new_rfid_device_helps_fight_counterfeiting_15439.aspx

Moore’s Law

• A doubling in the number of transistors per integrated circuit every 18 to 24 months– Originally observed in 1965, it holds true today

• Common corollary of Moore’s Law…– Computing prices will be cut in half every 18 to

24 months– This has been consistently accurate– Applies to cost of storage as well

Software

• System software– Operating system

• Application software– University’s registration system

• Application development software

Operating system functions

– User interface– Resource management (managing hardware)– Task management (managing the

accomplishment of tasks)– File management (managing data and

program files)– Utilities (providing a variety of supporting

services)

Today’s Operating Systems

• Personal computers:– IBM PC compatible:

• Microsoft windows, Unix-like systems such as Linux.

– Apple Macintosh:• Mac OS, Linux

• Mainframe computers:– IBM z/OS, Linux

Linux and Open Source

• A Linux system is sometimes referred to as GNU/Linux.– GNU – free software

• Linux has been more widely ported to different computing platforms than any other operating system.

• Linux is the most prominent example of free software and of open source development. Its underlying source code is available for anyone to use, modify, and redistribute freely, and in some instances the entire operating system consists of free/open source software.

Free Software: http://www.gnu.org/• “Free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand

the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”.

• Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0). • The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to

your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

Operating Systems for Mobile Devices

• Mobile devices:– Pocket PC/PDA– Smartphones– Portable media center

• Smartphone Operating systems, the most important software in any smartphone: http://communication.howstuffworks.com/smartphone2.htm

– Windows Mobile, Windows CE– Palm OS– Symbian OS for Nokia– OS X for iPhone– Android for Google phone

Virtualization• Virtualization is a technology that makes it possible to run

multiple operating systems and multiple applications on the same computer at the same time, increasing the utilization and flexibility of hardware. – Average server utilization rate – 10%

• Reduce costs• Green computing

• A virtual machine is a software container that can run its own operating systems and applications as if it were a physical computer. A virtual machine behaves exactly like a physical computer and contains its own virtual (ie, software-based) CPU, RAM hard disk and network interface card (NIC). An operating system can’t tell the difference between a virtual machine and a physical machine, nor can applications or other computers on a network.

• Vendors: VMware, Parallels, etc.

Application development software

• Low level language

• High level language– third generation– fourth generation

• Word processing, desktop publishing, spreadsheet, database management, graphic presentation, etc.

– MS Office

– OpenOffice.Org

» http://www.openoffice.org/

Compiler

• Translator: Translate the source program to machine executable code.

• Interpreter: Translate one command at a time.– JavaScript

Object-oriented development tools

– Graphical user interface– Component programming– Event-driven programming– Code generator/Wizard

• Object example:– Excel’s cell, chart

• Object-oriented tool example:• VB.Net• Java

Portability Java: Write Once Run Anywhere

Java Source Code

Java Byte Code(Intermediate Code)

Java Byte Code

Java Virtual Machine(JVM)

Executable Code

.Net Architecture

Common Language Runtime

Base Class Library

Data and XML

ASP.Net Windows Forms

Common Language Specification

VB.Net C#/J# C++

Microsoft’s .Net• Language must compliance with Common

Language Specification, CLS.• Compile the language into Microsoft Intermediate

Language (MSIL) code. • The MSIL code is then executed in the

Common Language Runtime (CLR), which conceptually is same as the JVM, where it is translated into machine code by a compiler.

• Microsoft .Net is a server-side technology. It runs on any servers that implement the .Net system.

Client-Side VS Server-Side

• Client-side technology has the browser compatibility problem.

• Example:• Using FireFox, Tools/Options/Content

– Enable Java, Enable JavaScript

• Google Maps: Draggable because of AJAX, which is a JavaScript technique. If we disable JavaScript, it is not draggable.

Software as a Service, SaaS• SaaS is a model of software deployment

where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. – SaaS alleviates the customer's burden of software

maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. • no upfront investment in software development

– Conversely, customers relinquish control over software versions or changing requirements;

– Costs to use the service become a continuous expense, rather than a single expense at time of purchase.

What is cloud computing?

• Cloud computing is a style of computing in which computing resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure in the "cloud" that supports them.

• Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae_DKNwK_ms&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpardalis.squarespace.com%2F&feature=player_embedded

Companies Offer SaaS

• SalesForce.com:– http://www.salesforce.com/

• Workday:– http://www.workday.com/index.php

• Google Apps:– http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/

index.html– Google Docs:– Demo:http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/

business/collaboration.html#docs– Login: docs.google.com

Examples of Cloud Computing• SaaS

• Utility computingCompanies such as Amazon.com, Sun, and IBM, now offer storage and virtual servers that others can access on demand.

• Platform as a service, PaaSThis form of cloud computing delivers development environments as a service. You build your own applications that run on the provider's infrastructure and are delivered to your users via the Internet from the provider's servers.– Mainframe, Linux, Windows Server, etc.

• Service commerce platforms: software personal assistant.This cloud computing offers a service hub that users interact with: http://www.reardencommerce.com/

Who owns the data?• Privacy: http://venturebeat.com/2009/02/17/is-facebook-really-

using-its-new-terms-of-service-to-own-your-data/• Facebook introduced a new terms of service agreement in

Feb. 09:– You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive,

transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, …..

• Security: http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/Pinning-Down-Enterprise-Data-Security-in-the-Cloud-67093.html?wlc=1252360837

• Top reasons why big businesses are reluctant to adopt SaaS : http://www.executivebrief.com/blogs/the-pros-and-

cons-of-saas-part-2/

• Information technology provides the means to rethink/recreate/reengineer conventional business processes.

– Business Processes: Collections of activities, often spanning several departments, that take one or more kinds of input and create a result that is of value to a company’s customers.

– Reengineering: The reshaping of business processes to remove barriers that prohibit an organization from providing better products and services and to help the organization capitalize on its strengths.

IT and Business Process Reengineering

• New products, services, and business models:– Business model: describes how company

produces, delivers, and sells product or service to create wealth

– Information systems and technology a major enabling tool for new products, services, business models

• E.g. Netflix’s Internet-based DVD rentals

IT and New Business ModelIT and New Business Model