Is_in_Global_Business_Today

Chapter 1 IS in global business today 1.1The role of IS The emerging digital firm Digital firm: is one, which nearly all of the organization’s significant business relationships with customers, suppliers and employees are digitally enabled and mediated. Core business process are accomplished through digital networks spanning the entire organization or linking multiple organizations, Business process: refer to the set of logically related tasks and behaviors that organizations develop over time to produce specific business results and the unique manner in which these activities are organized and coordinated. In the emerging, fully digital firm * Significant business relationships are digitally enabled and mediated. * Core business processes are accomplished through digital networks * Key corporate assets are managed digitally Strategic business objectives of IS Growing interdependence between ability to use information technology and ability to implement corporate strategies and achieve corporate goals. (I.e. Google, eBay) * * Strategic business adjectives of information systems a) Operational excellence (improve the efficiency of their operations in order to achieve higher profitability) b) New products, services and business models (business models: how a company produces, delivers and sells a product or service to create wealth) c) Customer and supplier intimacy(隐私) d) Improved decision making (have the right information at the right time to make an informed decision) e) Competitive advantage (to achieve one or more of these business objectives is to achieve a competitive advantages) f) Survival(生存的必须条件 ie 你只有提供了这项服务才能保证你不会被淘汰) * 1.2 Perspectives on IS * IT (information technology) consists of all the hardware and software that a firm needs to use in order to achieve its business objectives. * * What is an information system' * IS (information system): a set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process, store and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization. * * * Input captures or collects from within the organization or from its external environment. * Processing converts this raw input into meaningful form. * Output transfers the processed information the people who will use it or activities. * Feedback: output returns to appropriate members of the organizations. * * Dimensions of IS * (Organizations, management and technology) * * information system literacy(IS文化):encompass(包含) the understanding of management and organization dimensions of system as well as the technical dimensions of systems. * Computer literacy: focus primarily on knowledge of information system. * * Organizations * Are hierarchies consisting of three principal levels: senior management, middle management (scientists and knowledge workers), and operational management (production and service workers ). * * Senior management: make long-range strategic decisions about products and services as well as ensures financial performance of the firm * Middle management: carry out the programs and plans of senior management * Operational management: be responsible for monitoring the daily activities of the business * * Experts (middle management) are employed and trained for different business functions. * Major business functions: * Sales and marketing * Manufacturing and production * Finance and accounting * Human resources * * Management * Make sense out of the many situations faced by organization, mar decisions and formulate action plans to solve organizational problems. * Also create new products and services and even re-create the organization from time to time. * * Information technology * Computer hardware(ie input, output, storage devices) * Computer software(instructions that control and coordinate the computer hardware components in an information system) * Data management technology * Networking and telecommunications technology * Intranets(企业内部互联网): internal corporate networks based on internet technology * Extranets(外联网): private intranet extended to authorized users outside the organization * World Wide Web: a service provided by the Internet that uses universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting and displaying information in a page format on the Internet. * Information technology infrastructure: techniques(mentioned before) +people require run and manage them then the resources can be shared throughout the organizations and constitute IT infrastructure. * * Complementary assets: organizational capital and the right business model * Complementary(互补的) assets: those assets required to derive(得到) value from a primary investment. * Organizational and management capital: investments in organization and management. * * * 1.3Contemporary approaches to IS * Technical approach (management science, computer science and operations research) * Behavioral approach (psychology, economics and sociology) * Approach to the text: sociotechnical systems * * Management information systems (MIS): combines the work of compute science, management science and operations research with a practical orientation toward developing system solutions to real-world problems and managing information technology resources. * * Sociotechnical view: optimal(最佳的) organizational performance is achieved by jointly(共同的) optimizing(最优化) both the social and technical systems used in production. * * * * * * -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. Key corporate assets: Intellectual property, core competencies and financial and human assets- are managed through digital means. [ 2 ]. For example, like apple, transform an old business model of music distribution based on tapes, cds into an online, legal distribution models based on its own iPod technology platform.