Quiz #1 (ITM ch 2)

Business Processes

• Definition: The way work is organized, coordinated, and focused to produce a valuable product or service.
• Elements: Flows of material, information, and knowledge.
• Structure: Sets of activities and steps.
• Scope: Can be tied to a specific functional area or be cross-functional.

Information Technology and Business Processes

• Efficiency Enhancement: Automates manual steps, improving existing processes.
• Examples: Checking client credit, generating invoices.
• Process Improvement: Changes information flow, replaces sequential steps with parallel steps, eliminates decision-making delays, and supports new business models.

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

• Purpose: Performs and records routine transactions necessary for business operations.
• Examples: Sales order entry, hotel reservations, payroll, employee record keeping, and shipping.
• Management Benefits: Allows monitoring of operational status and external relationships.
• Decision Making: Serves predefined, structured goals and decision-making.
• Example: Credit approval based on predefined criteria, requiring only a check against those criteria.

Business Intelligence and Management Information Systems (MIS)

• Purpose: Provides data and tools for organizing, analyzing, and accessing data to support informed decision-making.
• Focus: Serves middle management.
• Functionality: Reports on current performance, answers routine questions with predefined procedures, and has limited analytic capability.

Decision Support Systems (DSS)

• Purpose: Helps address unique, rapidly changing problems with undefined solutions.
• Focus: Serves middle management.
• Functionality: Supports non-routine decision-making, utilizes external information, and leverages data from TPS/MIS.
• Types:
  • Model-driven DSS: Examples include voyage-estimating systems.
  • Data-driven DSS: Examples include target marketing systems.

Executive Support Systems (ESS)

• Purpose: Supports senior management in addressing non-routine decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight where no standard solution exists.
• Functionality: Provides information through portals with integrated and personalized business content.
• Sources of Data: Incorporates both internal MIS and DSS data, as well as external information like new tax laws or competitor data.
• Example: Digital dashboard with real-time financial performance view.

Enterprise Applications

• Scope: Systems that span functional areas, focus on executing business processes across the firm, and involve all levels of management.
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Integrates business processes in manufacturing, finance, sales, and human resources into a single software system.
• Benefits: Consolidates fragmented information into a central data repository, enabling coordinated daily activities, efficient customer order responses, and informed decision-making by managers.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems

• Purpose: Manages relationships with suppliers.
• Functionality: Facilitates information sharing among suppliers, purchasing firms, distributors, and logistics companies regarding orders, production, inventory, and delivery.
• Objective: To optimize product delivery from source to consumption by minimizing time and cost.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

• Purpose: Manages relationships with customers.
• Functionality: Coordinates business processes related to customer interactions in sales, marketing, and service.
• Benefits: Identifies and attracts profitable customers, enhances existing customer service, and increases sales.

Knowledge Management Systems (KMS)

• Purpose: Manages processes for capturing and applying knowledge and expertise.
• Functionality: Collects relevant knowledge and experience within the organization and makes it accessible for improving business processes and decision-making.
• Scope: Includes enterprise-wide systems for managing documents, graphics, employee expertise directories, and external knowledge sources.

Intranets and Extranets

• Intranet: Internal company website accessible only to employees.
• Extranet: Company website accessible to authorized vendors and suppliers, used for coordinating supply chain activities.

Electronic Business (E-Business)

• Definition: Use of digital technology and the Internet to execute major business processes within the enterprise.
• Scope: Includes internal management and coordination with suppliers and business partners.

Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce)

• Definition: Buying and selling goods and services over the Internet.
• Scope: Encompasses activities supporting market transactions, such as advertising, marketing, customer support, security, delivery, and payment.

E-Government

• Definition: Application of Internet and networking technologies to digitally enable government interactions with citizens, businesses, and other government entities.

Collaboration and Teamwork

• Definition: Working together towards shared and explicit goals, typically within a business or other organization.
• Duration: Can be short-term or long-term, depending on the task and participant relationships.
• Team Structure: Groups with specific missions assigned by the business, requiring members to collaborate on tasks and achieve collective goals.
• Importance: Driven by changing nature of work, growth of professional work, changing organizational structure, expanding firm scope, emphasis on innovation, and shifting work culture.

Social Business

• Definition: Use of social networking platforms by businesses to engage employees, customers, and suppliers.
• Goal: Deepen interactions and expedite information sharing.
• Benefits: Strengthens bonds, increases emotional involvement, drives operational efficiency, spurs innovation, and accelerates decision-making.
• Requirement: Information transparency for open sharing of opinions and facts.

Collaborative Business Culture

• Key Traits: Collaboration and teamwork are vital to the organization.
• Implementation: Policies, products, designs, processes, and systems are developed by teams at all levels.
• Rewards: Teams are rewarded for collective performance.
• Middle Management Role: Builds teams, coordinates their work, and monitors their performance.

Tools and Technologies for Collaboration and Social Business

• Communication: Email, instant messaging.
• Knowledge Sharing: Wikis.
• Virtual Environments: Virtual worlds, virtual meeting systems (including videoconferencing with telepresence technology), cloud collaboration services (Google Drive, Google Docs, etc.).
• Platform Specific: Microsoft SharePoint, IBM Notes, and enterprise social networking tools.

Evaluating Software Tools

• Step 1: Identify your firm's collaboration challenges.
• Step 2: Identify available solutions.
• Step 3: Analyze cost and benefits of available products.
• Step 4: Evaluate security risks.
• Step 5: Consult users for implementation and training issues.
• Step 6: Evaluate product vendors.