IT in the Modern Organization

IT in the Modern Organization

Basic Concepts

1. Information Infrastructures

2. Architecture

3. Transaction Processing Systems

4. Management Information Systems

5. Support Systems

6. Intelligent Systems

7. Integrating Support (and Other) Systems

Basic Concepts

• Consists of physical facilities, services & management that support all computing resources in an organization

• 5 major components – Computer hardware, – general purpose software,– Networks and communication facilities including Internet)– Databases– Information management personnel

• Also includes integration, operation, documentation, maintenance and management

Information Infrastructure

Basic Concepts

• Plan of the information requirements in an organization

• A guide for current operations and a blueprint for future directions

• Ensure the organization’s IT meets the organization’s strategic business needs

Information Architecture

Basic Concepts

• Preparing the information architecture– Business needs for information

• The organizational objectives and problems

• The contribution that IT can make

• The potential users of IT

– Existing and planned information infrastructure and applications in the organization

• Includes how the planned system and its applications can be combined among themselves or with future systems to support the organization information needs.

Information Architecture

Basic Concepts

• An IS that supports routine and repetitive tasks e.g. employees payment, customers’ purchase orders etc.

• TPS – supports the monitoring, collection, storage,

processing and dissemination of the organization’s basic business transactions

– Provides input data for many applications, including computerized decision making

Transaction Processing Systems

Basic Concepts

• Several TPS can exist in one company

• Critical to the success of an organization

• TPS support core business operations – purchasing of materials, billing, payroll and supplies to

customers

Transaction Processing Systems

Basic Concepts

• Payroll– Monitor employee time cards– Track employee pay and deductions– Issues payroll checks

• Purchasing– Issue purchase orders– Accept and records deliveries– Pay accounts payable

• Sales– Keep sales records– Issues invoices and billings– Track accounts receivable– Keep shipping records

• Manufacturing– Prepare production reports– Prepare quality-control reports

• Finance and Accounting– Prepare and issue financial

statements– Maintain tax records– Monitor and pay expense accounts

• Inventory Management– Track materials usage– Monitor inventory levels– Reorder inventory as needed

Routine Business Transactions in a Factory

Basic Concepts

• Systems that accessed, organized, summarized and displayed information for supporting routine decision making in the functional areas

• Geared towards middle managers

• Ensure that business activities(functions) are done in an efficient manner.

• Provides periodic reports about such topics as operational efficiency, effectiveness and productivity.

• Extracting information from corporate database and processing it according to the needs of the user.

Management Information Systems

Basic ConceptsMajor output of a functional

MIS

Output Description

Statistical summaries

Summaries of raw data; daily production, weekly and monthly usage of electricity

Exception reports Highlights of data items that are larger or smaller than designated levels

Periodic reports Statistical summaries and exception reports provided at scheduled, regular periods

Ad-hoc reports Special, unscheduled reports provided on demand

Comparative analysis

Performance comparison to that of competitors, past performance or industry standards

Projections Advance estimates of trends in future sales, cash flows, market share, etc.

Basic Concepts

• Provide computerized support for complex, sometime nonroutine decisions.

• Expanded in 2 directions– Executive Information Systems(EISs) to support senior

executives– Group Support Systems(GSSs) to support people

working in special decision making situation or meeting, in single/different locations

– Groupware - commercial software that support people working in groups.

Support Systems

Basic Concepts

• DSS helps manufacturing company in..

– Showing trends that help managers to make decisions.

– Forecasting the product needed that respond to customer need & when they need it

– Sales forecasting problem

– Product scheduling problem

– Save company time and money

Support Systems

Basic Concepts

• Systems that replicate the thought processes of humans

• Expert systems - advisory systems that provide the stored knowledge of experts to nonexperts.

• Intelligent system (1980s) - systems with learning capabilities– Enables the computers to incorporate new information or feedback

and update their knowledge

– Artificial intelligence

– Processing vague information, make predictions or recognizing patterns.

– E.g. expert system, artificial neural networks

Intelligent Systems

Class discussion

• Identify any intelligent systems that you would need in your organization – refer pg 36, box 2.2

– Pg 43 box 2.3

Intelligent Systems

Basic Concepts

• Systems that integrates two or more information systems- e.g. TPS and MIS

• E.g. DSS combined with Expert Systems can support more decision making systems

• Enterprise Resources Planning system (ERP)– Plans and manages all organization’s resources and

their use.

Integrating Support Systems

Evolution of Computer-based IS

Scientific military applications

Routine business Applications,TPS

MIS,officeautomation

DSS, LAN

Client/server,ExecutiveInformation systems,PCs, AI, groupware

Integration,Intelligent systems, The web, intranets,Extranets, softwareERP

Web servicesM-comrce & I-comrceSupply chain integrationData w/house & mining;Very intelligent systems

1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s

Organization: Structure and IT Support

Organizational structure

1. Accounting

2. Finance

3. Marketing and Sales

4. Production or Operations Management(POM)

5. Human Resources Management

6. Information Systems

Organization: Structure and IT Support

• Mapping IS to Organizational Structure

– IT provides support in three major areas Communication, collaboration and data processing and access including knowledge sharing.

– Use application program - a system developed for a specific purpose, facilitates production schedule, expediting a financial forecast or executing weekly payroll.

Organization: Structure and IT Support

Example of Application systems

1. Departmental IS

2. Plant IS

3. Divisional IS

4. Enterprisewide IS

5. Inter-organizational IS

IS that reflects the dept. they support

Related to functional areaCollections of all dept. IS

Connects all plant’s systems With IS of other systems,Permits communications &Collaboration among plants& other units in the division

Connects all divisions and other units of an organization

Connects two or moreOrganizations e.g. airline syst.

IT Support at Different Organizational Levels

Strategic decisions

Top management• Long-term planning decision• Deal with organization’s objectives

as a whole• use executive information systems

for decision making and forecasting

Tactical or managerial decisions

Middle managers• Short-term plans, procedures and

policies and policies• Involve implementing the long-term

strategies• Use MIS, for primary support along

with DSS

IT Support at Different Organizational Levels

Operational decisions

Line managers and operators• Day-to-day decisions that aim to

keep the organization’s operations moving smoothly

• Use TPS to capture the operational information relevant for decision making at this level.

How Information Systems Support People in Organizations, (continued)

Identify who’s who in your organization…

IT Support at Different Organizational Levels

Knowledge workers

• Responsible for finding or developing new knowledge for organization and integrating it with existing knowledge

• Major users of the internet

• Supported by internet, expert system, computer aided design, and all new technologies.

• Engineers, financial and marketing analyst, production planners, lawyers and accountants

IT Support at Different Organizational Levels

Knowledge workers

IT can integrate the expertise of knowledge workers into an organization and assist in improving worker performance through

the use of Intelligent Systems

How productivity increased by used of the expert systems??

IT Support at Different Organizational Levels

Organizational Knowledge Base

• The reserve of accumulated knowledge in organizations.

• Contain knowledge generated by all employees (not only knowledge workers) and by people outside the organization such as by consultants.

• The outside knowledge is known as best global practice or benchmarks

IT Support at Different Organizational Levels

Knowledge Management

The process of acquiring, maintaining and disseminating organizational knowledge, supported by various IS

How Information Systems Support People in Organizations

Class discussion

• List the organization level in your workplace

• Identify your organization’s knowledge workers.

• What kind of knowledge being supported by every level of people in your organization.

Main types of IT support systems

System Employees supported

Office automation Office workers

Communication All employees

Group support People working in groups

Decision support Decision makers, managers

Executive information Executives, top managers

Intelligent systems Knowledge workers

TPS Line managers and employees

MIS Middle management

Role of the IS Department

• Initiating and designing specific strategic IS

• Infrastructure planning, development and control

• Incorporate the internet and e-commerce into the business

• Managing system integration including internet, intranets and extranets

• Educating the non-IS managers about IT, etc

• Managing systems development and systems project management

• Managing computer operations

• Staffing, training and developing skills

• Providing technical services

Refer table 2.4 pg 45

IT people and CareersIT people Task

Programmer Modify computer programs or write programs to satisfy user requirement

System analyst/ developer Analyze & design IS by using specialized and and design tools

Telecommunication/ Network specialist

Specialist in handling telecommunication or network problem

System operations specialist

Keep system up & running, has specialization in computing hardware and softwares as well as some aspects of networks

Business analyst Involved in development of new IS. As a translator between IS developers and users

IT people and CareersIT people Task

Database administrator Design and manage data/ database organization efficiently and effectively. Has knowledge in database software and hardware

Webmaster/ e-commerce specialist

Manage company’s website and business transactions through the internet, IT support and supply chain.

Class discussion

• Discuss the characteristics and roles of knowledge workers

• Discuss the relationship between TPS, MIS and DSS

Class discussion

• For next class…

How is productivity and efficiency increased by used of Intelligent Systems in your

workplace??

Class discussion

What system do you think.. You need most in your organization???

And… why?

Next week group presentation

Computer Hardware

Content:

1. The significance of hardware

2. The central processing unit (CPU)

3. Computer memory

4. Computer hierarchy

5. Input technologies

6. Output technologies

7. Strategic hardware issues

Next week group presentation

Computer Software

Content:

1. Software history and significance

2. System software

3. Application software

4. Software issues

5. Programming languages

6. Enterprise