Information

Technology
Information
Technology Definition
IT refers to any computer-based tools that are used to work with
information and to support the information and information-
processing needs of an organization.
 Better devices & Smaller footprints

Input devices
Sensors and chips
Information
Radio Frequency ID (RFID)
Technology Hardware
Storage hardware
Internal Solid State Driver (SSD) storage
Cloud storage

Display technology
Curved and paper thin displays
 Application programmes are executed by OS

Information
Technology Software
 Making hardware and software power multifold
Information because of the connections.
Technology Network

Heading towards Intelligent Network

that can connect everything
 Internet, Web 1 .0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0

Information
Technology Network
 Dataset

Information
Technology
Database
Information
Systems Information system uses computer technology to perform some or all of
Definition its intended tasks and it contains hardware, software, network, database,
processes, and people.
 Processes are the instructions for combining hardware, software,
Process database, network to process information and generate the desired
output.
Information
Systems

People are those individuals who use the hardware and software,
People
interface with it, or utilise its output.
 From art to a discipline
In the early days of computing it was considered an art that a very
few people could master

Information Standardised development methods

Systems IS
The techniques used to build an IS varies greatly from individual
Evolutions
to individual. It was very difficult to integrate and maintain. To
address this problem, IS professionals decided to use a
disciplined approach of introducing common methods, techniques,
and tools for building IS

Software/Systems engineering (SE)

This evolution led to the use of the term SE to define what system
analyst & programmer do.
 Build your own

Purchase a prepackaged system from a software development

company or consulting firm

Information Example: Payroll system.

Systems IS
Origin Outsource development to a 3rd party: outside organization
custom build a system to its specifications. Good option when an
organization does not have adequate resources or expertise.

End user development: Individual users and departments build

their own custom systems to support their individuals. Example:
MS. Excel.
 Awareness
It is important for all members of the organization to understand
what is meant by IS design/development and what activities occur.
Information
Systems

Partnership
It is important to ensure a close and mutually respectful working
relationship between analysts and users.
Information
Systems
 Information Systems inside an organization

Information
Systems IS type
 Information Systems among organizations

Information
Systems IS type
 Information Systems support individual users

Business Intelligence (BI)

Expert Systems (ES)
Information
Systems IS type
 Information Systems support individual users

Digital Dashboards
Knowledge Workers Office Automation Systems (OAS)
Information
Systems IS type
 Increase employee productivity: reducing the time, errors, and costs
associated with processing
Enhance decision making: generate alternatives, recommend solutions,
Information drill down through information

Systems Improve team collaboration: by sharing information

Capabilities
Create business partnerships: helping work together to provide better
and more timely products and services
Enable global reach: marketing your product all over the world, take
advantage of a cheaper/larger workforce
Facilitate organizational transformation: responding to the ever-
changing needs of today’s marketplace
Information
Systems Information systems collect, process, store, analyse, and disseminate
Definition
information for a specific purpose
 IT + Process + People = IS

IT + Business + Management = IS

Information
Systems

IS acceptance
IS resistance
Research
IS usefulness
IS effectiveness
 Five Difficulties

IS Evaluation
Difficulty 1 . Intangible change

Some of the business influences of IS might be intangible in the

sense that they do not directly lead to identifiable performance
changes.
 2. Long-term change

 Some changes might happen gradually and take long time to

IS Evaluation materialise, and thus trying to envisage those changes IS might bring
Difficulty is a difficult task

3. Dynamic change

The changes of IS do not usually stay static but rather evolve over the
system lifecycle.
 4. Various stakeholders

 Different stakeholders see the system from different perspectives and

may have conflicting objectives. These conflicting objectives as well
IS Evaluation as the lack of a common baseline of definitions make the evaluation
Difficulty problematic.

5. Side effects

The users might feel threatened by the introduction of the system, as

they might see their jobs being at risk, and when asked to participate
in the evaluation they may underrate the system in order to oppose its
introduction
Business
Process
An ongoing collection of related activities that create a product or
Definition service of value to the organization, its business partners, and/or
its customers.
 Efficiency:
Effectiveness:
doing things
doing things
Business well in the
that matter
Process process

e.g. Progressing from one process e.g. Creating outputs of value to the
activity to another without delay or customer in the process, for example,
without wasting money or resources providing high-quality products to the
customers
Business
Process
 Executing the process
Business
Informing employees when it is time to complete a task
Process IS Role
Providing required data
Providing means to complete the task
Business Capturing and storing process data

Process IS Role
Dates, times, product numbers, quantities, prices, addresses,
names, employee actions from processes
Providing immediate or real-time feedback
 Monitoring process performance
IS evaluates information to determine how well a process is being
executed
Identifies problems for process improvement
Business
Evaluations occur at two levels: Process level (the process as a
Process IS Role whole) and Instance level (a specific task or activity)

Process level Instance level

 Business Process Reengineering (BPR): radical redesign

Business
Process IS
Business Process Improvement (BPI): incremental approach
Potential

Business Process Management (BPM): sustain BPI efforts

 A radical redesign of an organization’s business processes to
increase productivity and profitability
Examines business processes with a “clean sheet” approach and
then determines how can best reconstruct the processes
Business
Process BPR
Ford: in the 1 980s, the American automobile industry was in a
depression, and in an attempt to cut costs, Ford decided to find
inefficient processes.
One of their findings was that the accounts payable department
was not as efficient as it could be: their accounts payable division
consisted of 500 people
Moving away from paper-based operations and to a centralised
company database / Paper -> Digital
Result: a 75% decrease in accounts payable staff.
Business
Drawback: too difficult, too radical, too lengthy, and too
Process BPR comprehensive
High failure rate
Business An incremental approach to move an organization toward
business process centred operations
Process BPI
Focuses on reducing variation in process outputs by identifying
the underlying cause of the variation
Six Sigma is a popular methodology for BPI
 BPI BPR

Business
Low risk / low cost High risk / high cost
Process
Incremental change Radical redesign
Bottom-up approach Top-down approach
Takes less time Time consuming
Quantifiable results Impacts can be overwhelming
All employees trained in BPI High failure rate
 A management system used to support continuous BPI initiatives
for core business processes over time

Business
Process BPM Important components of BPM:
Process modeling
a graphical depiction of all of the steps in a process
Web-enabled technologies
display and retrieve data via a Web browser
Business Activity Monitoring (BAM)
a real-time approach for measuring and managing BP
 Business Process Management Suite (BPMS)
An integrated set of applications used for BPM
Business
Process BPM
Emerging Trend of Social BPM
Social media tools enabling employees to collaborate internally
across functions and externally with stakeholders (e.g., customers
or experts)
Exchange process knowledge and improve process execution
 Materials Product
Business Services People and Equipment
Information Service
Process
 Process
Perspective
Business Strategic level

Level
Tactical level

Operational level
 Strategic level

Business
Develop overall organizational goals, strategies, policies as a part of
Level long-range planning
Monitor the strategic performance in the political, economic and
competitive business environment
 Strategic
External
Information

Strategic
Decide general objectives –top down
Business management
Tactical
Level Plan how to achieve objectives Summarised
Information

 High levels of uncertainty and risk Operational

 Situations may not be recurring
Operational Activity
 Deals with complex issues

Raw Data
 Tactical level

Business
Develop medium range plans, schedules and budgets
Level
Specify procedures and business objectives for their subunits
Allocate resources and monitor the performance
Coordinate and supervise
 Tactical

Limited
External
Information Strategic
Taken within the framework of
Business strategic plans
Tactical
Level Ensure that resources are obtained Summarised
and used efficiently and effectively Information
Decisions encompass planning
activities e.g. pricing a new product Operational

Operational Activity

Raw Data
 Operational level

Business
Develop short range plans
Level
Direct the use of resources
Produce products and services
 - Imprecise External

Increasing Increasing Strategic Recurring

Business Information
Scope Detail
Level Needs
Tactical

Operational

Operational Activity + Precise Internal

Raw Data
 Business
Description Example Type of Information
Level

Competitive advantage, New product that External events, rivals,

Strategic become a market leader. will change the sales, costs quality,
Business Long-term outlook industry trends
Level
Improving operations New tools to cut
Expenses, schedules,
Tactical without restructuring the costs or improve
sales, models, forecasts
company efficiency

Transactions,
Day-to-day actions to Scheduling
accounting, human
Operational keep the company employees,
resource management,
functioning ordering supplies.
inventory
 Business

Business Strategic Why do you build with IT/Digital

Level
Tactical What/How do you build with IT/Digitalised IS
Operational Which IT can you build with/Digitised

IT
Socio-Technical
Perspective
Socio-Technical
Perspective
Socio-Technical
Perspective
Socio-Technical
Perspective
Thank you !