Information Systems in BusinessAn Introduction

MIS1 L1 10

Ref. CH-1 of text

Contents

• Introduction to Information systems

• Business pressures and IT support

• IS for rural uplift

• Towards a new society

• Course details

Data and Information

• Data:– Raw facts, such as an employee’s name and

number of hours worked in a week, inventory parts etc. that are recorded ,collected and stored.

• Information:– Data that have been organized so that they have

meaning and value to the recipient– This requires a basic knowledge of the processing

to be done

UK Meteorological office

• The office provides daily weather prediction and information regarding climatic changes, hurricane warning and global warming effects.

• Data on temp., pressure, humidity, wind are relayed to HQ at UK, from monitoring centers around the world,

• The data is processed with super computers every 90 minutes using Meteorological model which is continuously refined by a team of experts

• Resulting information is relayed to media centers.

Some Characteristics of Valuable Information

• Accurate – Error free

• Timely-When needed

• Economical-Cost vs. value

• Reliable- depends on the source

• Relevant-depends on applications

.

What is a System?

• A set of interrelated components, with a clearly defined boundary, working together, to achieve a common set of objectives

Examples:

Manufacturing systems

Railway systems

Educational systems

• A system concept become even more useful by including feedback and control components

Systems: Some Examples

• University

–Inputs: Students, Faculty, Textbooks

–Processes: Education/Training

–Output: graduates

–Feedback: surveys, grades

• Toyota Plant–Inputs: raw

materials, components

–Processes: assembly line

–Output: Cars /vans–Feedback: customer

surveys, quality reports

ManufacturingProcess

Input ofRaw Materials

Output ofFinished Products

Environment

Control byManagement

ControlSignals

ControlSignals

FeedbackSignals

FeedbackSignals

System Boundary

A Manufacturing System

What is an Information System?

Input of

Data

Resources

Processing

Data

Output of

InformationProducts

Control of System Performance

Storage of Data Resources

A purposefully designed system that accepts data resources as input , process them to information products as output.

Ex.: Weather forecast data

Components of an IS

1-10

Components of an IS

History of the Role of IS

Data

Processing

Management

ReportingDecision

Support

Strategic &

End UserElectronic

Commerce

1950-1960 1960-1970 1970-1980 1980-1990 1990-2000

Transaction

processing

Systems-

TPS

Management

Information

Systems-

MIS

Decision

Support

Systems

-DSS Exec Info Sys

Expert Systems

EIS/ESElectronic

Business &

Commerce

- EC

Types of Information Systems

Roles of IS in Business

IS provide an organization with

Lufthansa IS• In 2001, Lufthansa launched the “Lufthansa Mobile

Initiative,” which aimed to provide all pilots with notebook computers.

• It helps 3,500 highly mobile airline pilots plugged into the corporate infrastructure, that informs them about schedules, weather events, and other facts that affect their jobs throughout the world.

• Pilots use their notebook computers for computer-based training whether they are learning about new aircraft or things like specific hydraulic systems.

• This Lufthansa Mobile Initiative is yielding significant productivity and efficiency improvements, while keeping costs manageable.

IS and Business

Ref-Turban

New Economy vs. Old Economy

Today’s Business Environment

• Characterized by:

– Rapid Change

– Global extent

– Technology support

– Hypercompetition

– Customer Focus

• Businesses therefore requires the support of IT/IS for survival

Business Pressures

• The three types of business pressures faced

are: market, technology, and societal pressures.

• These factors or forces can change quickly,

sometimes in an unpredictable manner and it

can create business pressures on the

organizations

IT support for organizational responses

• Organization can respond to the business

pressures with activities, supported by IT

IT Support - Ex. Made-to-order

Intel and AMD

• Till 2006 the computing chip market was controlled by Intel with Pentium.

• In 2005 AMD introduced a low energy consuming chip Opteron with Pentium comparable performance and captured the major share in Intel market.

• In 2006 Intel came up with a new very low energy consuming chip with better performance than Opteron and at a lower cost. Intel recaptured the market.

IS Success metrics

• Efficiency

– Minimize cost, time, and use of resources

• Effectiveness. How IS :

– Support business strategies

– Enable business processes

– Enhance organizational functions

– Increase customer relations

Hospital information system

• Heart attack is the No1 killer in any advanced country.

• Getting the health history is very crucial in deciding treatment.

• The health information system provides doctors with the necessary health details using Smart cards, internet access and centralized database.

• Telemedicine extends this facility to remote areas.

IS for Rural Uplift

An UN initiative

Gyandoot

• A Community owned self sustainable and

low cost, rural IS project

Started on January 1, 2000, Dhar district,

Madhya Pradesh Under the initiative of Dr. Rojara, an IAS officer

Gyandoot

• An Intranet in Dhar District (MP, India) that connects rural cyber cafes

• Main feature

– The intranet connects 21 rural cyber cafes called Soochanalayas. Each Soochanalayaprovides services to about 10 to 15 Gram Panchayats, 20 to 30 villages, 20,000 to 30,000 population. The net covers 5 out of 13 Blocks in the district and 3 out of 7 tahsils in the district.

Typical Soochanalay

Gyandoot

• The Soochanalayas are located on the roadside of the central villages where people normally travel. All together they serve a population of over half a million.

• Services Provided at present are:– Commodity marketing information services– Copies of land records– On-line registration of applications (income

certificates, land demarcation)– Public Grievance Redressal– Hindi e-mail

Why follow Gyandooth Example?

• To improve the efficiency, effectiveness, accountability and transparency of local government

• To increase access to services, information and policy documentation by the public.

• To enhance the livelihoods of the public by providing better access to agricultural information, commerce, education and training facilities

A priority project for Government

Ref Text pp. 365: Drishtee.com: Connecting India Village by village

Questions?

.

Towards a new society

• Carl Sagan - The dragons of Eden

• Alvin Toffler – Future shock

• Thomas Friedman – The world is flat

• Peter F Drucker – Management challenges for 21stcentury and others books

Carl Edward Sagan

• Carl Edward Sagan , An American Astronomer,1934-1996- a highly successful popular science Writer

• He published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books

• The Dragon of Eden, Speculations on the evolution of human intelligence, Pulitzer Price..

• If the discoveries of earth can be condensed to a cosmic year, all of recorded discoveries occupies the last one second of December 31

• In this period human beings have witnessed an exponential growth in discoveries.

Alvin Toffler

• Alvin Toffler is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the Information revolution

• A former associate editor of Fortune magazine, his early work focused on technology and its impact on society

• He has also been described in the Financial Times as the "world's most famous Futurologist".

Future shock-in nutshell

• Toffler argues that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a “Super Industrial Society".

• “Man has a limited biological capacity for change. When this capacity is overwhelmed, the capacity is in future shock.”

• This accelerated rate of technological and social change will leave them disconnected, suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation"

A summary

• Learn to Learn Fast

• Selective Learning

• Overlapping Subject Boundaries

• Life Long Learning

• Job stress

• Repetitive strain (stress) injuries

• psychological impacts

• Digital Divide

Quote-Future Shock

• ‘If you look at the change today, the scale is enormous, it’s increasingly global, and it’s happening at an unbelievable speed.’

• ‘The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those

who cannot read and write, but those who cannot rapidly learn, unlearn, and relearn’

• ‘Guru is anyone who bought his PC a week before you bought ’

Management orientation

Thomas L. Friedman

• Thomas L. Friedman, a world-renowned author and journalist, joined the New York Times in 1981 as a financial reporter

• A three-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he has traveled hundreds of thousands of miles reporting the Middle East conflict, international economics, and the worldwide impact of the terrorist threat.

• His foreign affairs column, which appears twice a week in the Times, is syndicated to seven hundred other newspapers worldwide

See - MIT Video

Why does Friedman say the world is flat?

• “Only 30 years ago, if you had a choice of being born as a student in Boston or a genius in Bangalore or Beijing, you probably would have chosen Boston, because a genius in Beijing or Bangalore could not really take advantage of his or her talent. They could not plug and play globally. Not anymore. Not when the world is flat, and anyone with smarts, access to Google and a cheap wireless laptop can join the innovation fray.”-Friedman

Globalization

• Friedman credits the creation of Business software and the internet, and political factors that caused several developing countries, including China, Russia, India and Latin America, to open their borders and be technologically in par with USA in the technological front.

• Friedman agrees that these developments in Globalization and Outsourcing are desirable and unstoppable, and he feels that American society has to wakeup to remain a world leader

In sourcing

Peter Drucker

• Peter Drucker is a writer, teacher and consultant who has published 32 books, mostly on various aspects of society, economics, politics and management.

• Born in 1909 in Vienna, Mr. Drucker was educated in Austria and England, and holds a doctorate from Frankfurt University.

• Since 1971 he has been Professor of Social Science and Management at Claremont Graduate University, California.

The next society- Peter Drucker

• The next society will be a knowledge society. The term “Knowledge society” is first used by Peter Druker in 1969 as a fancy neologism.

• In such a society Knowledge will be its key resource, and knowledge workers will be the dominant group in its workforce. Its three main characteristics are:– Borderlessness, because knowledge travels even

more effortlessly than money.– Upward mobility, available to everyone through

easily acquired formal education.– Selection, Anyone can acquire the knowledge

required for the job, but not everyone can win.

Information Society And Knowledge society

• “Information society is the building block for knowledge societies. Whereas I see the concept of ‘information society’ as linked to the idea of ‘technological innovation’, the concept of ‘knowledge societies’ includes a dimension of social, cultural, economical, political and institutional transformation, and a more pluralistic and developmental perspective..”

- Sally Burch

Knowledge society

Wealth Generation Social Transformation

Focus Areas

Information TechnologyBio-TechnologyEnergyEnvironment RegenerationTele-Medicine ServicesNative knowledge products

Focus Areas

Education Health CareAgricultureEmployment generationRural prosperity

Knowledge Commission

• “……Whether a nation has arrived at the state of knowledge society is judged by the way the country effectively deals with knowledge creation and knowledge deployment in all sectors like IT, industries, agriculture, health care etc”

Dr.Abdul Kalam.

Organization of the future

• The percentage of older population in developed /developing countries is on the increase

• Majority of these people may work for an organization either as part-time staff, multiskilledworkers or outsourced ‘deployees’, managed either independently or through a separate outsourcing organization

• ¨ large organizations, and even medium-sized ones, will need to disintegrate into federations of associated companies “

World of Tomorrow

• The world of tomorrow will not be dominated or even shaped by information technology, but IT will be only one of several important new technologies like Bio-technologies, Nano -technologies etc.

• Drucker comments, “…the resource crunch makes ‘economic miracles’ increasingly difficult for developing countries to achieve”.

• Drucker also warns that protectionism and tariff barriers against the ‘developing countries’ are likely to increase - defeating the ‘global benefit’ promises made through GATT and the like. - Survival

In Short

In short

• “We are schooled to learn from the past. Our predictions are often based on what we see when we look back and examining the patterns that lead us to where we are. The age we are in doesn’t work that way any more. In these times evolution is just as likely to be created by discontinuous change as it is

by steady progression.”

Business Standard

The next society