Ch 5: Database Processing

Q1: What is the purpose of a database?

The purpose of a database is to keep track of anything and everything such as clients, vendors, hours worked by employees, materials, etc.  Spreadsheets can also be used, but databases help you keep track of multiple things all at once without having to create multiple spreadsheets.

Q2: What is a database?

A database is a self-describing collection of integrated records.  Columns are fields and rows are records of information. A key is a column/group of columns that identifies a unique row in a table.  Columns that fulfill a role are called foreign keys.  Databases that carry their data in the form of tables & represent their relationships using foreign keys are relational databases.  Metadata are data that describe data.

Q3: What are the components of a database application system?

The components are: User, Database Application, Database Management System, and the Database.  Users employ a database application that consists of forms formatted reports, queries, and application programs. Each component calls on the database management system to process the database tables.

Q4: How do database applications make databases more useful? A database application is a collection of forms, reports, queries, and application programs that process a database, which may have one or more applications and each application may have one or more users. This allows for different users to use the database at the same time as long as they avoid “lost-update problem.” Everyone will be on the same page.

Q5: How are data models used for database development?

A logical representation of database data called a data model. It describes the relationships that will be stored in the database…sort of like a blueprint.

Q6: How is a data model transformed into a database design?

Normalization is the process of converting a poorly structured table into two or more well-structured tables.  It is important that the most relevant information is on the table and that the fields you have built into your table require the data that is what you need.  A data integrity problem is when the data varies for the same field…it’s inconsistent.

Q7: What is the users’ role in the development of databases?

The users are the final judges as to what data the database should contain and how the records in that database should be related to one another.  The user is the one that develops the structure of the database, creates the tables, queries, etc.

Q8: 2020?

Companies have begun to look at consumer buying habits. With data aggregators such as Acxiom, whenever you use your credit card, obtain data from public and private sources and process it. There are laws as to how your information can be obtained and stored.  In 2020, when you call for assistance, to your telephone number your name, address, etc will be linked to the database.

Kroenke, David. "Chapter 5: Database Processing." Using MIS. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. 134-161. Print.

Ch 4: Hardware and Software

Q1.What do business professionals need to know about computer hardware?

Hardware is the electronic components that input, process, output, and store data according to instructions encoded in computer programs or software.

Input Hardware-keyboard, mouse, scanners, bar-code scanners, microphones.

Output Hardware-displays, printers, speakers, projectors

Storage Hardware-magnetic disks CD’s, DVD’s, magnetic tape all to save data & programs

Q2. What is the difference between a client and a server?

A client computer is for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. and a server provides service.

Q3. What do business professionals need to know about software

There are four major Operating Systems: Windows, Mac OS, UNIX and Linux

Application software performs a service or function. There are different types of applications including Horizontal-market software that provides capabilities across all organizations. Vertical-market applications serve specific industries. One-of-a-kind applications are customized for a specific need.

Q4. Why are thin clients preferred to thick clients?

A client-server application that requires nothing more than a browser is called a thin client. A thick client is an application that requires programs other than a browser on a user’s computer.

Q5. Is open source software a viable alternative?

Yes, open source software is a viable alternative as long as it meets all of your requirements.  Some choices are: Open Office (Microsoft), Firefox (browser), MySQL, Apache, Ubuntu, and Android.

Q6. How can you use this knowledge?

It’s important to know about hardware and software so that you may be able to supply your business with the correct tools for your information system.  First, you must determine your requirements, of course and list out all of the procedures that you will be carrying out. Then with the knowledge of the hardware and all of the different software, you will be able to operate with the correct technology.

Q7. 2020?

 As time progresses, hardware and software will evolve and become more efficient and available.

Kroenke, David. "Chapter 4: Hardware and Software." Using MIS. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. 102-123. Print.

Chapter 3: Information Systems for Competitive Advantage

Q1: How does organizational strategy determine information systems structure?

Strategy determines value chains which determine business processes that will determine the design of information systems.

Q2: What five forces determine industry structure?

Bargaining Power of Customers

Threat of Substitution

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Threat of New Entrants

Rivalry

Q3: How does analysis of industry structure determine competitive strategy?

In order to respond to the structure of an industry, one of four competitive strategies much be chosen.  These are: Cost, Differentiation, Industry-wide, and Focus.

Figure 3-5

	Cost	Differentiation
Industry-Wide	Lowest cost across the industry	Better product/service across the industry
Focus	Lowest cost within an industry segment	Better product/service within an industry segment

Q4: How does competitive strategy determine value chain structure?

There are five major primary activities and four support activities.

Primary Activities

Inbound Logistics: receiving, storing, raw materials

Operations/Manufacturing: transforming material into product

Outbound Logistics: collecting, storing and distributing the product to buyers

Sales and Marketing: inducing buyers to purchase product

Customer Service: assist customers use of the product and at the same time enhancing product’s value.

Support Activities

Procurement: process of finding vendors, setting up contracts, and negotiating prices

Technology: research & development, activities used to develop techniques, methods, procedures

Human Resources: recruiting, compensating, evaluation, and training of full-time/part-time employees

Firm Infrastructure: general management, finance, accounting, legal, and government affairs

Q5: How do business processes generate value?

A business process is a set of activities that each generates value by transforming inputs into outputs. Each process varies in cost and effectiveness and with information about each process, management can make decisions to reduce costs and maximize value.

Q6: How does competitive strategy determine business processes and the structure of information systems?

It all depends on which competitive edge you want to adopt. If you want to be a low-cost business, you must implement processes to minimize costs. If you choose a differentiation strategy that appeal to a higher-income crown, you must ensure that an excellent customer service process is in effect.

Q7: How do information systems provide competitive advantages?

There are many different strategies that give competitive advantages to a business.

Fig 3-12

Competitive Advantage via Products & Processes

Product Implementation: 1. Create a new product/service, 2. Enhance product/service, 3. Differentiate

Process Implementation: 4. Lock in customers & buyers by making it difficult or expensive for them to switch to another product, 5.Lock in suppliers by making it difficult to switch to another organization or by having a good relationship with them, 6. Raise barriers to market entry by making it difficult and/or expensive to enter the market, 7. Establish alliances to establish standards, promote product awareness and needs, develop market size, reduce costs, etc., 8. Reduce costs to maximize profit and give you freedom to reduce prices and.

Information Systems allow a business to customize their management to their competitive advantages.

Q8: 2020?

Information systems will improve more and more over time, giving a business a growing freedom to implement competitive advantages into their products and processes.

Kroenke, David. "Chapter 3: Information Systems for Competitive Advantage." Using MIS. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. 64-91. Print.

Chapter 2: Collaboration Information Systems

Q1: What is Collaboration?

Collaboration is when two or more people work together using coordination and communication to achieve a common goal, result, or product. If it is effective, the results are greater than when a single person works alone.

Collaboration involves feedback and iteration, where group members review each others’ work and give feedback.

The effectiveness of collaboration is driven by:

Communication:

                >Communication skills

                >Availability of effective communication systems

Content Management: make sure the conflict of interference with each others’ work doesn’t occur.

Workflow control: process/procedure by which the work is created, edited, used, & disposed of.

Q2: What are the components of a collaboration information system?

Hardware:

                >Client Hardware-  computers & other devices used by the group

                >Server Hardware- computers that are installed by IT people to help the group

Software: programs such as GoogleDocs, Microsoft Sharepoint.

Data: documents, discussions, tasks lists, etc.

Procedures:

                >Starting Phase

                >Planning Phase

                >Doing

                >Wrapping Up

                >Iteration and Feedback

People: The most important element is people.

                12 Most Important Characteristics for an Effective Collaborator:

1.       Enthusiastic about the subject of collaboration

2.       Open-minded & curious

3.       Speaks their mind even if it’s an unpopular viewpoint

4.       Gets back to the group in a timely way

5.       Willing to enter into difficult conversations

6.       Perceptive listener

7.       Skillful at giving/receiving negative feedback

8.       Willing to put forward unpopular ideas

9.       Self-managing and requires “low maintenance”

10.   Follows through on commitments

11.   Willing to dig into the topic with zeal

12.   Thinks differently than I do/brings different perspectives

Q3: How can you use collaboration systems to improve team communication?

Synchronous communication is when all team members meet at the same time, such as with conference calls or face-to-face meetings.

Asynchronous communication is when team members don’t meet at the same time.

Q4: How can you use collaboration systems to manage content?

Shared Content with No Control:  sending attachments; sharing content on a file server.

Shared Content with Version Management: systems that provide version management, track changes to documents and provide features and functions for works. Ex: Wikis, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Microsoft Office Groove.

Shared Content with Version Control: each member has an account with a set of permissions.

Q5: How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow?

Sequential Workflow: activities occur in sequence

Parallel Workflow: activities occur at the same time

Q6: How do businesses use collaboration systems?

Using Collaborative Systems for Problem Solving: Different points of view will help determine what issues to solve and how.

Using Collaborative Systems for Project Management:  Dividing the work into phases, making a list of things to accomplish for each phase, and matching a collaboration tool for each task helps the job get done.

Using Collaborative Systems for Decision Making: Decisions occur at 3 levels:

                Operational: day to day activities, can use transaction processing systems (TPS).

Managerial: concern the allocation and utilization or resources

Strategic: concern broader-scope, organizational issues.

-Decision Process:

                Structured Decision: there is an understood and accepted method for making a decision

                Unstructured Decision:  there is no agreed-on decision-making method

Q7: 2020?

With data storage and communications improving, face-to-face meetings will occur less and less. With technology improving every time, people can communicate with each other anytime anywhere, making it possible to work more effectively and efficiently in a collaborative environment.

Kroenke, David. "Chapter 2: Collaboration Information Systems." Using MIS. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. 30-63. Print.

Using MIS: Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Importance of MIS

Study Questions: Q1-Q7

Q1: Why is Introduction to MIS the Most Important Class in the Business School?

“Intro to MIS” is the most important class in the business school ultimately because of…

Moore’s Law: In 1965, Gordon Moore of Intel stated that because of technology improvements in electronic chip design and manufacturing, “The number of transistors per square inch on an integrated chip doubles every 18 months.”

Because of Moore’s Law, the ratio of price to performance of computers has fallen from around $4,000 for a standard computing device to something around a penny for that same computing device.

BECAUSE OF MOORE’S LAW, THE COST OF DATA COMMUNICATIONS AND DATA STORAGE IS ESSENTIALLY ZERO.

When costs are zero…the consequences are:

YouTube, iPhone, Facebook, Twitter...etc.

-There are cost-effective business applications of Facebook and Twitter because businesses can use these applications to promote business, communicate with customers, vendors, etc.

-There are also wasteful, harmful, useless business applications of Facebook and Twitter because not all businesses need to use them. However, maybe you’re not being creative enough…

FUTURE BUSINESS PROFESSIONALS NEED TO BE ABLE TO ASSESS, EVALUATE, AND APPLY EMERGING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO BUSINESS

Skills needed in the 21^st Century are strong non-routine cognitive skills such as:

Figure 1-2

Skill	Example	Problem
Abstraction	Construct a model or representation	Inability to model the customer life cycle
Systems thinking	Model system components and show how components’ inputs and outputs relate to one another	Confusion about how customers contact accounts payable
Collaboration	Develop ideas and plans with others. Provide and receive critical feedback	Unwilling to work with others with work-in-progress
Experimentation	Create and test promising new alternatives, consistent with available resources	Fear of failure prohibited discussion of new ideas

  Q2: What is MIS?

MIS stands for Management Information Systems-the development and use of information systems that help businesses achieve their goals and objectives with 3 key elements: development & use, information systems, and business goals & objectives.

System-a system is a group of components that interact to achieve some purpose.

Information System (IS)- and information system is a group of components that interact to produce information.

There are five components of an information system (IS).           

Figure 1-3                                                           

Hardware

Software

Data

Procedures

People

Information systems are used in every aspect of business, whether it’s in accounting or finance, you must take an active role in the development of a system that will fulfill your needs.  It is up to you to design the system and add the components needed to help the business achieve their goals and objectives.

Q3: How Can You Use the Five-Component Model?

The five components of an information system are symmetrical.

-On the outside there’s hardware and people…both can take actions

-On the inside there’s software and processes, which are sets of instructions…software is instruction for hardware and procedures are instructions for people.

-In the center is data, and this connects the computer side to the human side.

As you move from right to left, automation moves work from human side to computer side, and when you move from left to right, hardware to people, there is increasing degree of difficulty of change.

As a human being, YOU are the most important element in the information system! You are the one that will be using the system and making decisions based on the information you obtain from the IS.

Q4: What Is Information?                                                                                              

- Knowledge derived from data, whereas data is defined as recorded facts or figures

- Data presented in a meaningful context

 -Processed data, or sometimes, information is data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations

- A difference that makes a difference

Q5: What Makes Some Information Better Than Other Information?

-Accurate: correct and complete data

-Timely: produced in time for intended use

-Relevant: to context, to subject

-Just sufficient: just-barely-sufficient

-Worth its cost: cost of time and salary to produce info can’t outweigh the value of the info itself

Q6: Why Is the Difference Between Information Technology and Information Systems Important?

Information Technology (IT) refers to the products, methods, inventions, and standards that are used for the purpose of producing information. IT pertains to the hardware, software, and data components. You can buy IT. You can buy or lease hardware, you can license programs and databases and you can even obtain predesigned procedures. Ultimately, however, it is your people who execute those procedures to employ that new IT.

YOU CAN BUY AN IT BUT YOU CAN NEVER BUY AN IS.

Q7: 2020

Future businesspeople need to be able to assess, evaluate, and apply emerging technology. What technology might that be?

Computers-in-a-product: Students will be the winners, with publishers selling innovative content over the Kindles-to-be. Instead of paying $25,000 per year to go to a traditional classroom, you may only pay $3,500 for a classroom in a box per year.

The Losers are the U.S. Postal Service, Dell, Microsoft (depending on how it responds to this change), and book resellers.

   

Kroenke, David. "Chapter 1: The Importance of MIS." Using MIS. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2011. 2-19. Print.