The Importance of Information Systems Managementblog.ub.ac.id/ardhihdra/files/2013/05/McNurlin_01.pdf · • Management of Information Systems – 3 Major Trends 1. Governance of

The Importance of Information Systems

Management

Chapter 1

Information Systems Management In Practice 7E

McNurlin & Sprague

PowerPoints prepared by Michael Matthew Visiting Lecturer, GACC, Macquarie University – Sydney Australia

©2006 Barbara C. McNurlin. Published by Pearson Education. 1-2

Chapter 1 •  This lecture / chapter traces the growing importance

of information systems management and presents a conceptual model to show the key areas, how they fit together, and the principal issues for CIOs in each area

•  It sets up the context for the book: –  First by describing today’s business organizational and

technical environment –  Second by describing a framework for viewing the work of

the IS organization; and –  Third by describing an IS organization’s evolution from 1985

to present

•  MeadWestvaco, described from the mid-1980s to the present, is a case example of how these areas are being implemented in an IS organization


Today’s Lecture •  Introduction •  A Little History •  The Organizational Environment

–  External Business Environment –  Internal Organizational Environment –  Goals of the New Work Environment

•  The Technology Environment –  Hardware Trends –  Software Trends –  Data Trends –  Communication Trends


Today’s Lecture cont.

•  The Mission of Information Systems

•  A Simple Model

•  A Better Model –  The Technologies –  The Users –  Systems Development and Delivery –  IS Management

•  Organization of this Unit / Book

•  Case example – MeadWestvaco Corporation


Introduction •  (Finally) Information Technology (IT) -

computers and telecommunications - is having the kind of revolutionary, restructuring impact that has been expected and promised for years

•  Rapid advances in speed and capacity + pervasiveness of Internet, wireless, portable devices etc. = making major changes in the way we live and work

•  ‘Go Back’ – 5, 10, 15 years


Introduction cont.

•  Due to the growth and pervasiveness of IT, organizations are operating in a different environment from just a few years ago

•  Themes this unit emphasizes: –  Globalization

•  The world seems to be getting smaller •  Backlash – local needs Vs. ‘standard’ •  Jobs to stay ‘local’ •  IS executives need ‘balancing act’

–  E-enablement •  Internet has become a hub for conducting business •  Interconnectivity plus!

–  Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Management •  Between people •  Out of people’s heads and into ‘lasting’ things e.g. systems,

policies and procedures etc.


Introduction cont.

•  Management of Information Systems –  3 Major Trends 1.  Governance of IT = a collaborative effort from IS

executives and all other members of Senior Management

2.  Role of IS is shifting from application delivery to system integration and infrastructure development

3.  Outsourcing – total / selective •  Developing and managing contracts and relationships


Introduction cont.

•  Historically, managing IT has been the job of ‘technical managers’

•  NOW = increasingly becoming an important part of the responsibilities of: – Senior executives – Line managers – Employees at all levels of an organization


The ‘Key’ (What’s it all about?)

Technology is configured into systems that help manage information to improve organizational performance


A Little History •  U.S. passed from the industrial era to the

information era as early as 1957 –  The number of U.S. employees whose jobs were

primarily to handle information surpassed the number of industrial workers

•  In the late ’50s / ‘60s IT to support “information work” = largely non-existent (except telephone) –  Information work = mostly done in general offices

without much support from technology •  People factories?



A Little History cont.

•  70s = it all ‘started’ with many of the foundations of IT today invented and costs starting to fall –  Typewriters, fax, ‘smaller’ computers

•  1980s = number of US information workers surpassed the number in all other sectors (>50%)


A Little History cont.

•  Information Technology: –  Initially used to perform existing information

work more quickly and efficiently

–  Then = used to manage work better

–  Now = well into the 3rd stage of technology assimilation

•  IT makes pervasive changes in the structure and operation of:

–  Work –  Business practices –  Organizations –  Industries –  The ‘Global Economy’ (=enabler?)


The Organizational Environment

•  The way IT is used depends on the environment surrounding the organization that uses it

•  Simultaneously, technological advances affect the way IT is used


The Organizational Environment cont.

•  The External Organizational Environment –  IT allows information to move faster, thus increasing

the speed at which events take place and the pace at which individuals and organizations respond to events.

–  The Internet Economy •  B2C, B2B etc. •  IT is a major underpinning of the way the ‘old’

and ‘new’ worlds interface



•  The External Organizational Environment cont.

– Global Marketplace •  The entire world has become the marketplace •  The Internet allows companies to work globally •  Globalization is a ‘two way street’ •  Internet allows small firms to have a global reach •  Business environment is now global, but local tastes

still matter




– Business Ecosystems

– Decapitalization •  Tangible items, such as capital, equipment and

buildings were the tenets of power in the industrial age

•  Today = power of ‘intangibles’ such as ideas and knowledge

– Managing talent = as important as e.g. managing finance




–  Faster Business Cycles •  Rely on IT

–  Accountability and Transparency •  Rise and fall of dot-coms probably should have been expected

–  Many business plans could not make $$$ •  Debacle in Telco and business shenanigans have shaken

investor confidence –  Call for greater transparency of corporate operations and greater

accountability of corporate officers –  IT will play a significant role in implementing the ensuing

regulations and fostering transparency




• Rising Societal Risks of IT – IT has negatively affected millions of people

•  Network shutdowns •  Computer viruses •  Identity theft •  Email scams •  Movement of white collar jobs offshore

– Led to increasing calls for Government regulation and for vendors and corporations to take action



•  The Internal Organizational Environment The work environment is also changing, and the art of managing people is undergoing significant shifts

–  From Supply-Push to Demand-Pull •  ‘Old’

–  Companies did their best to figure out what customers wanted –  Organized to build a supply of products or services and then ‘push’ them out to end customers on stores shelves, in catalogs etc.

•  ‘New’ (Internet) –  Allows much closer and ‘one-to-one’ contact between customer

and seller –  Offer customers the components of a product/service then the

customer creates their own version by ‘pulling’ what they want



•  The Internal Organizational Environment cont.

– Self- Service •  ATMs = early example

•  1990s saw an increase in systems that let consumers access corporate computer systems to:

–  Learn about products –  Purchase products –  Inquire about orders – Communicate and ‘do business’ with the firm

•  Now = heaps e.g. FedEx parcel tracking




– Real-Time Working •  Sales people have up-to-the-minute information

about customers •  Knowing e.g. inventory and cash levels as the are

NOW – not as they were a week or a month ago •  Being able to reach someone when you need them

–  Instant messaging?

– Team-Based Working •  Working together on projects

– Anytime, Anyplace Information Work




–  Outsourcing and Strategic Alliances

•  To become more competitive, organizations are examining types of work that should be done internally or externally by others

•  Ranges from a simple contract for services to a long-term strategic alliance

•  The thinking is: We should focus on what we do best and outsource the other functions to people who specialize in them

–  Note = not ‘new’ (especially in non-IT) –  Also = some ‘backlash’




–  The Demise of Hierarchy •  Traditional hierarchical structure groups, several

people performing the same type of work, overseen by a supervisor

– No longer the most appropriate in factories or offices

•  Hierarchical structures cannot cope with rapid change

– Communications up and down the chain of command takes too much time for today’s environment

•  IT enables team-based organizational structures by facilitating rapid and far-flung communication

•  Note: = some of the time. Still has its place in many organizations


Goals of the New Work Environment

•  Leverage Knowledge Globally – Tap tacit knowledge by fostering sharing and

supporting sharing through technology – Note: driving force is culture!

§ Happens through organizational pull (people needing help) rather than organizational push which overloads people with information

•  Organize for Complexity


Goals of the New Work Environment cont.

•  Work Electronically –  Taking advantage of the Internet and networks in

general = 3rd major goal of enterprises today •  Requires different organizing principles, management tenets,

compensation schemes, structure etc. •  Changes how organizations interact with others including

customers –  The microchip moved power within companies.

Bandwidth moves power all the way to consumers –  Will increase exponentially as bandwidth capability

increases and costs decrease

•  Handle Continuous and Discontinuous Change –  Fits and starts


The Technology Environment

IT enables advances in organizational performance.

•  Hardware Trends –  ’50s – ’60s + - Batch processing predominant; on-line systems

emerged later –  Mid ’70s processing power began to move out of the central site

(at the insistence of users!) –  1980s: Advent of personal computers –  Client-Server computing: “Client” machine user interfaces with “Server” on the network holding the data and applications

–  Major current development = hand-held devices, wireless etc. –  Further distribution beyond organizational boundaries to

suppliers, customers etc.


•  Software Trends 1.  In 1960s = Improve the productivity of in-house

programmers who created transaction processing systems

–  ‘Problem’ = memory $

2.  Later, programming issues:

•  First = Modular and structured programming techniques

•  Then = Life cycle development methodologies and software engineering

–  Goal = Introduction of rigorous project management techniques

The Technology Environment cont.


•  Software Trends cont.

3.  Prototyping: quick development of a mock-up

4.  Purchasing software became viable alternative to in-house development

5.  Paying attention to applications other than transaction processing

•  Decision support systems (DSS), report generation, database inquiry

6.  End users develop their own systems




7.  Push for ‘open systems’ •  Purchasers were tired of being “locked in” to proprietary

software (or hardware)

8.  1990s – trend towards Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) e.g. SAP, PeopleSoft •  DANGER : BEWARE

•  Expensive and troublesome, especially for companies wanting to modify the ERP software to fit their ‘unique’ processes

•  A fundamental organizational change!




9.  Like hardware, software is migrating to be network centric. •  Web front ends to empower employees rather than replacing

legacy systems •  Looming change = move to Web Services – packages of

code that each perform a specific function and have a URL

-  e.g FedEx parcel tracking, MacAfee's’ virus updates •  The significance of Web Services is that it moves software

and programming to being truly network centric – the network becomes the heart of the system, linking all Web Services




•  Data Trends

–  At first = File management •  Organizational techniques for files that served

individual applications

– Then = Corporate databases •  Serving several applications •  Led to concept of establishing a data

administration function



•  Data Trends cont.

–  ’70s = focus on Technical solutions •  Database management systems •  Dictionary/directory •  Specification and format •  Now = Data definitions: information about

relationships among systems, sources and uses of data, and time cycle requirements

– First 20 years: techniques to manage data in a centralized environment




•  Late ’70s / early ’80s = 4th generation languages and PCs: –  Employees directly access corporate data –  Users “demanded it”!

•  Also = Distributing data from data resources to information resources –  Data management organizes internal facts into data

record format –  Information management focuses on concepts

•  Contains a much richer universe of digitized media including voice, graphics, animation and photographs (digitized media)




•  Managing this expanded array of information resources requires new technologies –  Data warehousing

•  Stores huge amounts of historical (not ‘live’) data from systems such as retailers Point-Of-Sale systems

–  Data mining •  Uses advanced statistical techniques to explore data

warehouses looking for previously unknown relationships in data e.g which customers are the most profitable

•  Knowledge management (intellectual capital) –  ‘New’ – The ‘Holy Grail’?

•  Web has broadened ‘data’ to mean ‘content’ –  Text, graphics, animation, maps, photos, video etc.

•  Now ‘tightly’ controlled Vs. early proliferation




•  Two major data issues are now facing CIOs:

1.  Security – protecting data from those who should not see it

2.  Privacy – safeguarding the personal data of employees, customers etc.

•  Regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley in the U.S. now require company officers to verify their financial data -  The processes that handle financial data are automated =

need to document and ensure the accuracy of these processes



•  Communications Trends •  Final core technology = Telecommunications. •  This area has (is?) experienced enormous

change and is now taking ‘centre stage’ •  Early use = online and time-sharing systems •  Then = interest in both public and private (intra-

company) data networks blossomed •  Internet = changed everything! •  Today the Internet’s protocol has become the

worldwide standard for LANs and WANs -  Will also soon be the ‘standard’ for voice



•  Communications Trends cont.

•  Telecom opened up new uses of IS so it became an integral component of IS management

–  Communications-based information systems link organizations to their suppliers and customers

–  Explosion of wireless •  2nd generation, instant messaging, Wi-Fi, 3rd generation

(3G) •  Doesn’t just enable mobility = changes how people

communicate, how they live and how they work

–  EXCITING TIMES!!!


The Mission of Information Systems

•  Early days: “paperwork factories” to pay employees, bill customers, ship products etc. –  Objectives of information systems defined by productivity

measures •  Later = MIS era: produced reports for “management by

exception” for all levels of management •  Today = Improve the performance of people in

organizations through the use of information technology

•  Improving organizational performance is accomplished by the people and groups that comprise the organization –  One resource for this improvement is IT


The Mission of Information Systems

The mission is to improve the performance of people in

organizations through the use of information technology


A Simple Model (Fig. 1-2)

In the early days of Information Systems, the ‘translation’ between IT and users was performed almost entirely by systems analysts



Systems Professionals Bridging the Technology Gap (Fig. 1-3)

•  Over the last 50 years technology has become increasingly complex and powerful

•  Users have become increasingly sophisticated •  Information systems are now viewed as ‘products’ and

users have become ‘customers’

•  More specialization is required of systems professionals to bridge this wider gap



Users Bridging the Technology Gap (Fig. 1-4)

•  Technology has become sophisticated enough to be used by many employees and consumers

•  Today, some of the technology is truly user-friendly, and some applications such as Web page development, database mining and spreadsheet manipulation, are handled by non-IT staff

•  Transaction systems, however, are still ‘developed’ by professional developers, either inside or outside the firm



Why talk about the ‘Technology Gap’?

•  The main point of this discussion is that technology is getting more complex, applications are becoming more sophisticated, and users are participating more heavily in the development of applications

•  The net result is that management of the process is becoming more complex and difficult as its importance increases


A Better Model (Fig 1-6)

•  Expanding the simple model gives us more guidance into managerial principles and tasks

•  We suggest a model with four principal elements:

1.  A set of technologies that represent the IT infrastructure installed and managed by the IS department

2.  A set of users who need to use IT to improve their job performance

3.  A delivery mechanism for developing , delivering and installing applications

4.  Executive leadership to manage the entire process of applying the technology to achieve organizational objectives and goals


A Framework for IS Management


1. The Technologies •  Several forces contribute to the increased

importance and complexity of IT: 1.  Growth in capacity + reduction in cost & size 2.  Merging of previously separate technologies of computers,

telephones/telecom/cable TV, office equipment and consumer electronics

3.  Ability to store and handle multiple forms of data

•  Information systems now fill major roles in management reporting, problem solving and analysis, office support, customer service and communications


2. The Users Clerical? Managerial?

Note: the distinction between manager and worker is blurring!


3. System Development and Delivery •  Systems development and delivery bridge the gap

between technology and users

•  Systems for procedure-based (clerical) activities differ from systems for knowledge based information work (managerial)

•  Systems are built based on technology resources. Three main categories (essential technologies):

1.  Hardware and software 2.  Telecommunications 3.  Information resources

•  Management of these is called infrastructure management


4. IS Management •  Chief Information Officer (CIO)

–  Must be high enough in the enterprise to influence organizational goals

–  Must have enough credibility to lead the harnessing of technology to pursue those goals

•  Must work with all the other CXOs –  IT has become too important to be left to one

individual

•  Executive team must work together to govern it and leverage it well


A Better Model - Summary •  This model has four major components:

1.  The technology – which provides the electronic and information infrastructure

2.  Information workers who use IT to accomplish their work goals

3.  System development and delivery – which brings the technology and users together

4.  The management of the IS function •  Overall responsibility = to harness IT to improve the

performance of the people and the organization


A Better Model


Organization of this Book/Unit

•  Part I - Leadership •  Part II - Technologies •  Part III - Delivery •  Part IV - Supporting work •  Part V - Looking ahead


Organization of this Book/Unit cont.

•  Part I – Leadership –  Chapters 2 - 4 –  Deals with the strategic issues that are the

responsibility of the top systems executive – CIO –  Chapter 2 = evolution of the IS function and the

CIO’s job –  Chapter 3 = strategic uses of IT –  Chapter 4 = IS planning



•  Part II – Technologies – Chapters 5 – 8 – Deals with the management of the essential

information technologies – Distributed systems architecture – Building and managing telecommunications – Managing corporate information resources – Managing day-to-day operations



•  Part III – Delivery –  Chapters 9 and 10 –  Deal with developing and delivering systems –  Chapter 9 = describes:

•  The evolution of systems development, tools and approaches

•  The trend towards system integration, and •  The growth of Internet-based development

–  Chapter 10 = discusses important issues in managing system development and delivery



•  Part IV - Supporting work –  Chapters 11 – 13 –  Discuss different types of systems that support

knowledge work –  Chapter 11 looks at using IT to support decision

making –  Chapter 12 discusses systems that support

collaborative work –  Chapter 13 looks at supporting knowledge work



•  Part V - Looking ahead – Chapter 14 – Looks at the future


Case Example: MeadWestvaco Corporation


















A ‘Final Thought’

“It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent,

but the ones responsive to change” - Charles Darwin

Documents

The Importance of Information Systems Managementblog.ub.ac.id/ardhihdra/files/2013/05/McNurlin_01.pdf · • Management of Information Systems – 3 Major Trends 1. Governance of