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 21st 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.
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