CHAPTER 6: VALUING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

6.1) ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION..

Ø  Organizational information comes at different levels and in different formats and “granularities”..

Ø  Information granularities refers to the extent of detail within the information (fine and detailed or coarse and abstract)..

Ø  Successfully collecting, compiling, sorting and finally analyzing information from multiple levels, in varied formats, exhibiting different granularity can provide tremendous insight into how an organization is performing..

Ø  After understanding the different levels, formats and granularities of information, it is important to look at a few additional characteristics that helps determine the value of information..

Figure 6.1: Levels, formats and granularities of organizational information

6.2) THE VALUE OF TRANSACTIONAL AND ANALYTICAL INFORMATION..

Ø  Transactional information encompasses all of the information contain within a single business process or unit of work, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of daily operational tasks..

Ø  Analytical information encompasses all organizational information, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of managerial analysis tasks..

Ø  It is also includes transactional information along with other information such as market and industry information..

Figure 6.2: Transactional versus analytical information

6.3) THE VALUE OF TIMELY INFORMATION..

Ø  Real-time information means immediate, up-to-date information..

Ø  This system provide real-time information in response to query request..

6.4) THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION..

Ø  Business decisions are only as good as the quality of the information used to make the decisions..

Ø  The five characteristics common to high-quality information:

Accuracy	Are all the values correct? For example, is the name spelled correctly? Is the dollar amount recorded properly?
Completeness	Are any of the values missing? For example, is the address complete including street, city, state and zip code?
Consistency	Is aggregate or summary information in agreement with detailed information? For example, do all total fields equal the true total of the individual fields?
Uniqueness	Is each transaction, entity and event represented only once in the information? For example, are there any duplicate customers?
Timeliness	Is the information current with respect to the business requirements? For example, is information updated weekly, daily or hourly?

now is chapter 5 turn, i do my best!!..

CHAPTER 5: ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES THAT SUPPORT STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

5.1) ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES..

v Employees across the organization must work closely together to develop strategic initiatives that create competitive advantages..

5.2) IT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITY..

v  Chief Information Officer (CIO) – Overseeing all uses of information technology and ensuring the strategic alignment of IT with business goals and objectives..

v  Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – Responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy, availability and reliability of an organization’s information technology..

v  Chief Security Officer (CSO) – Responsible for ensuring the security of IT systems and developing strategies and IT safeguards against attacks from hackers and viruses..

v  Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) – Responsible for ensuring the ethical and legal use of information within an organization..

v  Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) – Responsible for collecting, maintaining and distributing the organization’s knowledge..

5.3) THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS PERSONNEL AND IT PERSONNEL..

v  Business personnel possess expertise in functional areas such as marketing, accounting, sales and so forth..

v  IT personnel have the technological expertise..

v  Business personnel must seek to increase their understanding of IT. Although they do not need to know every technical detail, it will benefit their careers to understand which they can and cannot accomplish using IT..

v  IT personnel are left out of strategy meetings because of the belief they do not understand the business so they will not add any value. So, IT personnel must understand the business if the organization is going to determine which technologies can benefit (or hurt) the business..

5.4) ORGANIZATIONAL FUNDAMENTALS- ETHICS AND SECURITY..

ETHICS:

v  Technology poses new challenges for our ethics- the principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people..

v  Issues affected by technology advances:

Intellectual property	Intangible creative work that is embodied in physical form..
Copyright	The legal protection afforded an expression of idea, such as a song, video game, and some types of proprietary documents..
Fair use doctrine	In certain situations, it is legal to use copyrighted material..
Pirated software	The unauthorized use, duplication, distribution, or sale of copyrighted software..
Counterfeit software	Software that is manufactured to look like the real thing and sold as such..

SECURITY:

v  Information security is a broad term encompassing the protection of information from accidental or intentional misuse by persons inside or outside the organization..

chapter 4 question.. hahaha..

CHAPTER 4: MEASURING THE SUCCESS OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES..

Define metrics and describe the relationship between efficiency IT metrics and effectiveness IT metrics..

Ø  Efficiency IT metrics from the table is the important to monitor, do not always guarantee effectiveness…

Ø  For effectiveness IT metrics, it is determined according to an organization’s goals, strategies and objectives…

	EFFICIENCY IT METRICS
Throughput	The amount of information that can travel trough system at any point…
Transaction speed	The amount of time a system takes to perform a transaction…
System availability	The number of hours a system is available for users…
Information security	The extent to which a system generates the correct results when executing the same transaction numerous times…
Web traffic	Includes a host of brenchmarks such as the number of pages views, the number of unique visitors and the average time spent viewing a web page…
Response time	The time it takes to respond to user interactions such as a mouse click…

	EFFECTIVENESS IT METRICS
Usability	The ease with which people perform transactions and/or find information. A popular usability metric on the Internet is degrees of freedom,which measures the number of clicks required to find desired information…
Customer satisfaction	Measured by such branchmarks as satisfaction surveys, percentage of existing customers retained and increases in revenue dollars percustomer…
Conversion rates	The number of customers an organization “touches” for the first time and persuades to purchase its products or services.This is a popular metric for evaluating the effectiveness of banner, pop-up and pop-under ads on the Internet…
Financial	Such as return on investment (the earning power of an organization’s assets), cost-benefit analysis (the comparisonof projected revenues and costs including development, maintenance fixed, and variable), and break-even analysis (the point at which constant revenues equal ongoing costs)…

Explain why a business would use metrics to measure the success of strategic initiatives…

Ø  A metric is nothing more than a standardmeasure to assess performance in a particular area…

Ø  Metrics are the heart of a good, customer-focused management system and any program directed at continuous improvement…

Ø  Companies can gain additional insight into their performance by comparing financial ratios against other companies in their industry…

Ø  A few of the more common financial ratios include:

v  Internal rate of return (IRR) - the rate at which the net present value of an investment equals zero…

v  Return on investment (ROI) – indicates the earning power of a project and is measured by dividing the benefits of a project by the investment…

v  Payback method – number of years to recoup the cost of an initiatives based on projected annual net cash flow…

v  Break-even analysis – determines the value of business required to make a profit at the current prices charged for the products or services…

Ø  Most managers are familiar with familiar with financial metrics but unfamiliar with information system metrics…

Ø  The following metrics will help managers measure and manage their strategies initiatives:

v  Website metrics…

v  Supply chain management (SCM) metrics…

v  Customer relationship management (CRM) metrics…

v  Business process reengineering (BPR) metrics…

v  Enterprise resource planning (ERP) metrics…

MGT 300- BUSINESS DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY..

CHAPTER 1: BUSINESS DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY

1.1)     INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY’S ROLE IN BUSINESS..

Ø     Information technology is everywhere in business.

Ø Understanding information technology provides great insight to anyone learning about business.

1.2) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY’S IMPACT ON BUSINESS OPERATIONS..

FIGURE 1.1

·    Figure 1.1 shows the business functions receiving the greatest benefit from information technology, along with the common business goals associated with information technology projects according to CIO magazine..

·  Business must undertake enterprisewide initiatives to achieve broad general business goals such as reducing cost.

1.3) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY’S IMPACT ON BUSINESS OPERATIONS..

·         Organizations typically operate by functional area or functional silos..

·         Functional areas are interdependent..

1.4)     INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY BASICS..

·   ·         Information technology- a field concerned with the use of technology in managing and processing information..

·         IT is an important enabler of business success and innovation...

·         Management information systems (MIS)- a general name for the business function and academic discipline covering the application of people, technologies and procedures to solve business  problems…

·         MIS is a business function, similar to Accounting, Finance, Opeeations and Human Resources…

·         When beginning to learn about IT it is important to understand:

ü  Data information and business intelligence IT resources…

ü  IT cultures...

1.5)     INFORMATION...

·    Data..

·    Information..

·       Business intelligence..

1.6)   IT RESOURCES..

1.7)     IT CULTURES..

·         ·         Organizational information cultures include:

ü  Information- functional Culture..

ü  Information- sharing culture..

ü  Information- inquiring culture..

ü  Information- discovery culture..

CHAPTER  2: IDENTIFYING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

2.1) INTRODUCTION..

·    Competitive advantage is a product or service that an organization’s customers place a greater value on than (similar) offerings from a competitor..

2.2) THE FIVE FORCES MODEL..

·      Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model is useful tool to aid organization in challenging decision whether to join a new industry or industry segment..

FIGURE 2.1) PORTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL

2.3) THE THREE GENERICS STRATEGIES..

     i.       Cost Leadership..

              Becoming a low-cost producer in the industry allows the company to lower prices to customers..

        Competitors with higher costs cannot afford to compete with the low-cost leader on price..

     i.       Differentiation..

      Create competitive advantage by distinguishing their products on one more features important to their customers..

      Unique features benefits may justify price differences and/or stimulate demand..

      Ex: i-care by Proton..

   ii.       Focus Strategy..

        Target to niche market..

        Concentrates on either cost leadership or differentiation..

             The value chains- Targetting business processes..

§  Supply chain- a chain or series of processes that adds value to product and service for customer..

§  Add value to its product and services that support a profit margin for the firm..

CHAPTER 3: STRATEGIC INITIATIVES FOR IMPLEMENTING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

3.1) STRATEGIC INITIATIVES..

Ø  Organizations can undertake high-profile strategic initiatives including:

o   Supply chain management (SCM)..

o   Customer relationship management (CRM)..

o   Business process reengineering (BPR)..

o   Enterprise resource planning (ERP)..

3.2) SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT..

ØØ  Involve the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability..

Ø  Four basic components of supply chain management include:

o   Supply chain strategy- strategy for managing all resources to meet customer demand..

o   Supply chain partner- partner throughout the supply chain that deliver finished products, raw materials and services..

o   Supply chain operation- schedule for production activities..

o   Supply chain logistics- product delivery process..

3.3) CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT..

ØØ Involve managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an organization’s profitability..

Ø CRM is not just technology, but also a strategy, process and business goal that an organization must embrace on an enterprisewide level..

Ø CRM can enable an organization to:

o   Identify types of customers..

o   Design individual customer marketing campaigns..

o   Treat each customer as an individual..

o   Understand customer buying behaviors..

3.4) BUSINESS PROCESS REENGINEERING..

Ø   A standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer’s order..

Ø   The analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises..

3.5) ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING..

ØØ   Intergrates all departments and functions troughout an organization into a single IT system so that employees can make decisions by viewing enterprisewide information on all business operations..
Ø   ERP systems collect data from across an organization and correlates the data generating an enterprisewide view..

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