week 11 chapter 9 (E-business)

 E-business and E-commerce

E-commerce is exchanging products online and is a major development for the buying and selling of goods which reduces operational and transaction costs, it also can intise people to come to your store and can boost reputation.

E-business is broader than E-commerce and also involves customer service, learning and collaboration. 

Digitalization is the transformation of physical to digital business. It has occurred in different amounts in different business areas. Some Businesses remain brick and mortor like fresco. Many businesses are partially digitilized. Then pure play businesses are exclusively digital. 

There is a large variety of business models that organizations use.

                                                                                table 9.1

There are several e-commerce mechanisms that businesses and individuals can buy and sell of the web. Electronic catalogue includes product database, a directory and search. electronic auctions including forward auctions which are traditional, and reverse auctions where customers request a quote with information, then suppliers analyse the requests and submit bids online. electronic storefronts are one online store, where electronic malls are multiple stores in one website address. an electronic marketplace where many transactions can occur between many buyers and sellers. These are facilitated by a variety of online payment methods like credit cards and paypal. 

There a a few limitations of e-commerce, the technological limitations are the need for internet accessing equipment, lack of standards and running out of bandwidth resulting in websites crashing.

Online service industries are another development that allows tasks like recruitment, banking and marketing to be exclusively online services.

This new form of marketing results in new ethical and legal issues previously covered. 

Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, K. (2014). Management Information Systems, 1st Australian Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia.

week 10 chapter 8 (Social computing)

Social computing

This week we started by looking at how the internet started with web 1.0 which focused on growth and monetisation of the web. Then we looked at web 2.0 which is what we have today, this is very extensive and serves many purposes and has many developments like AJAX which allows web pages to only refresh necessary parts and not the whole page. Another large development is social networking, this is now integrated into the daily life of billions of people and involves networks like facebook. Social shopping is another development which allows previous consumers to communicate to possible consumers about the product through ratings and reviews. Advertisement has seen a huge development through the web by the development of market research and therefore targeted online advertisement. Recruiting has seen a significant development as a possible employee’s internet past can be viewed, aswell as putting job openings on the web so many people can view and apply for them.

Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, K. (2014). Management Information Systems, 1st Australian Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia.

Week 9 chapter 6 (Ethical issues)

Ethical issues

Ethics are the principles of right and wrong that people draw on when making decisions.

There are 4 approaches to decision making:

1. The utilitarian approach is choosing the path that does the most good or the least harm for the largest amount of people.
2. The rights approach involves making a decision that supports the rights of the affected people.
3. The fairness approach aims to treat all affected individuals impartially or with equality according to some specific standards.
4. The common good approach involves providing benefit to the wellbeing of all people in a community.

The ethical framework is a process to create a rational and well thought out decision.

Figure 6.1

Code of ethics are a set of guidelines to aid the decision making of a group. The three fundamental tenets of these ethics are: responsibility, accountability and liability.

Some business practises are often legal, but very often viewed as unethical. Some of these are shown below with questions to come to a conclusion of their ethicalness.

figure 6.2

Privacy issues

The right to privacy involves the protection of individuals personal details. Freedom of information is the right to access government information.

There are several threats to privacy that have arisen due to the growth and spread of modern technologies. Electronic surveillance means people’s physical and online actions can be accurately tracked, The Surveillance Devices Bill 2004 was introduced to counter this issue. As well as this the extensive use of databases mean individuals information can be gathered and stored for long periods of time and can be accessed by external sources when cybersecurity is poor. To combat this, groups that collect information have an opt in or opt out model, meaning well informed individuals have control of how their data is collected and stored.

All of this information will help me in all areas of business that I will be involved in in the future.

Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, K. (2014). Management Information Systems, 1st Australian Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia.

Week 8 chapter 5 (business intelligence)

This week we went through chapter 5 of the text book and started by looking at how the decision-maker goes through three steps while making a decision, whether it is personal or organisational. These steps are intelligence, design, and choice. 

Numerous information technologies have been employed to help managers. They are called business intelligence information systems (BI) when taken as a whole. Here is a diagram showing how technology helps the decision making process:

A primary way organisations use these BI systems is to assist with organisational change. It is utilised to radically alter a company's approach to competing in a market. BI makes the business plan possible and supports a new company model.

BI systems provide a substantial help in data analysis through apps that come in a range of formats. Decision support systems, data mining which is finding important business information in big databases, and multidimensional analysis are some of these uses.

Online analytical processing (OLAP), which is multidimensional analysis, is the process that involved rearranging data that is recorded in a dimensional format, combining data, and drilling down to a higher level of detail.

A dashboard is a great tool which offers quick access to management reports and current information. Using digitalized maps, a geographic information system (GIS) is a computer-based system that gathers, integrates, manipulates, and displays data. 

Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, K. (2014). Management Information Systems, 1st Australian Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia.

week 7 Chapter 4 (Telecommunications and networking)

 A computer network is a system that links digital devices together to allow information to be shared among them.

Analog signals are waves and digital signals are pulses Modems transform analogue and digital signals.

Signals are sent through 3 types of cables:

Protocols are processes dictating communications across a network,

When transferring large files, a protocol used is packet switching:

Internet is a global network of information while an intranet is an organisations internally accessible database. An internet service provider (ISP) connects individuals or organisations to the internet through these means:

Search engines use specified keywords to find data related to the search input. While Metasearch engines do the same thing while searching several different engines to find the relevant information.

Different types of communications: Email, Web based call centres which are customer service centres, electronic chat rooms which are digital collaboration spaces where groups can meet together and voice communications which are analog voice signals send over the internet, for example face time. These communication forms allow learning to occur online, as well as exclusively online universities.

Collaboration is when two or more people or groups accomplish things through using all parties’ skills.

Telecommuting provides an opportunity to work while not being physically present in an office,

 

 

 

 

 Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, K. (2014). Management Information Systems, 1st Australian Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia.

 

 

week 5 Chapter 3 (Data and Knowledge management)

 3.1

High quality data within an organisation is Timely, Accurate, Reliable, Complete, Concise, Accessible and Useful. Achieving high quality data is difficult because the amount of data increases rapidly, while being spread all through the organization and coming from multiple different sources. The data also becomes outdated, and become corrupted/destroyed. Government regulations also create pressure in data storage and management. 

Data governance is the approach used to manage the huge amounts of information throughout the organization. Master data management involves a strategy to govern data which spans across all of an organisations processes and activities. 

 

3.2

This allows a business to have only one version of all the information spanning across the whole organisation. A good database ensures data redundancy does not occur, meaning data is only stored in one place. Secondly proper data isolation can occur meaning data is only accessible by those who need access. Lastly it also means all data is up to date and does not conflict. It also allows data to be kept securely, meet integrity laws and also be independent of other applications.

Database management systems (DBMS) is a software that creates, stores and organizes data by accessing data from a database.

3.3

Relational databases are a commonly used databases that allows for data to be easily compared through rows or columns. It is also simple to retrieve things by locating the intersection of a specific row and column. However, these huge databases may consist of several connected tables, creating a complicated system and causing poor search and access speeds.

Normalization is refining a database through streamlining the processes of storage and complex groupings of data. as well as minimizing data redundancies and maximizing data integrity. 

 

3.4

Data warehouses and data marts are the storage of historical data to aid decision making through easy access to the information. 

For a data warehouse and marts to be implemented and maintained properly, an organisation must:

·        establish a connection between source systems and the warehouse.

·        utilise data integration procedures and technologies to get the required information.

·        choose a suitable design for data storage in the data mart or data warehouse.

·        choose the programmes and instruments for the range of users within the company.

·        Verify that governance, metadata, and data quality procedures are in place to guarantee that the data warehouse or mart fulfils its intended functions.

 

3.5 

Knowledge management systems allow organisations to reap a number of benefits, including better customer service, more efficient product development, increased employee morale and retention, and easy access to best the practices for a diverse spectrum of staff members.

The following requirements must be met to put KMSs into practice: the knowledge base must be updated and maintained on a regular basis; organisations must foster a culture of knowledge management that rewards staff members who contribute their expertise to it; employees must be willing to share their own tacit knowledge; and businesses must be prepared to invest the funds necessary to carry out these tasks.

Knowledge management may help organisations establish best practices, identify the most practical and efficient methods of operation, and make these methods easily accessible to a variety of staff members. Enhanced customer service, more effective product creation, and higher employee morale and retention are other advantages of knowledge management.

Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, K. (2014). Management Information Systems, 1st Australian Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia.

week 4 Chapter 2 (Organizational strategy)

2.1 Business pressures, organisational responses and IT support

There are three types of business pressures, the first is Market pressures. This is the pressure caused by globalizations resulting in fierce competition between all Businesses with competing products and services. The second pressure is due to technology, which have forced huge amounts of change to the market and resulted in Businesses having to quickly adapt to ongoing changes. Societal, political, and legal pressures is the third Business pressure, this involves the increased spending needed for matters involving ethics and decision making on new and complex issues such as gender/pronoun system changes.

 

Organisational responses involve strategic systems which help Businesses to be most profitable. A costumer focus ensures that their products and services are sold by keeping their customers happy with the organizations purchasing experience. Customizations is an organisational response to attract more customers. Through utilizing E-commerce, organizations access customers all around the world through technology, primarily the internet.

 

2.2 Competitive advantage and strategic information systems

Strategizing for competitive advantage allows Organizations to be more profitable by increasing performance by reaching goals and implementing change. This can be achieved through recognizing Porter’s five competitive forces. These are the risk of new competitors entering the market, the threat of replacement goods or services by competitors, the negotiating power of suppliers, the bargaining power of consumers, and the competition amongst currently operating businesses in the sector.

To counter Porter's five competitive forces and gain a competitive edge, organisations employ one or more of the following five strategies:

1. Cost leadership strategy: Create goods and/or services for the lowest possible price relative to the market.
2. Differentiation strategy: Provide unique goods, services, or attributes to your products.
3. Innovation strategy: Launch new goods and services, give already-existing goods and services additional features, or devise new and inventive methods of manufacturing them.
4. Operational effectiveness strategy: Streamline internal business procedures to enable the outperforming of its competitors in similar business.
5.  Customer-orientation strategy: Putting customers as the primary focus.

 

2.3 Business-IT alignment

Utilizing IT through its comprehensive integration into the mission, goals and strategy of the organisation. Effective utilization consists of six elements:

1. Businesses make sure IT staff members are aware of the company's financial gains and losses.
2. Businesses provide its workers expansive, well-defined objectives.
3. Business and IT specialists are rotated around departments and job roles inside organisations.
4. Businesses cultivate a welcoming and dynamic workplace culture.
5. Businesses see IT as a source of innovation that constantly changes the way they do business.
6. Businesses consider their clients and customer service to be the primary concern.

 

 

Gray, H., Issa, T., Pye, G., Troshani, I., Rainer, K. (2014). Management Information Systems, 1st Australian Edition. John Wiley & Sons Australia.