Systems Thinking and Information Systems

• A system is a group of interacting elements acting by rules to form a unified whole, and can be man-made, natural, or conceptual.

Systems Thinking

• Involves making distinctions about things.
• Organizing things into systems.
• Recognizing relationships among things.
• Viewing things from different perspectives.

Data, Information, Knowledge, Wisdom (DIKW)

• Data is individual facts, figures, or statistics.
• Information is processed data (sorted, categorized, organized).
• Knowledge is the ability to apply information.
• Wisdom is integrated knowledge, made "super-useful".
• The DIKW model shows structural and functional relationships between a set of components.

Information Systems

• A computer-based system that supports an organization's needs for data collection, processing, storage, use, and distribution.
• Consist of hardware, software, data, procedures, and people.
• Computer hardware architecture includes a computing device (RAM, CPU, power, storage).
• Computer software architecture includes an operating system and browser.

Organizations

• A grouping of people, assets, materials, and knowledge coordinated to meet objectives and serving a purpose.
• They carry out inter-related activities as processes or structures.
• They are temporary or permanent, and must adapt to evolving needs.
• The primary objective is to make profit.

Projects

• Refer to a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result.
• Achieved when the objectives are met, or when the project is terminated.

Processes

• Structured activities or things done in a particular sequence.
• A business process is a set of tasks that process inputs to produce desired outputs done by an entity.
• Workflow is the procedural movement of information, material, and tasks, that includes procedures, people, and tools in each step.
• A business model describes and classifies the business and is the approach to create and deliver value.

Competitive Advantage

• Business organizations use information systems to transform and gain competitive advantage.
• Achieved through cost leadership (more efficient) or differentiation (new/innovative/different).
• Efficiency is doing things well, where output costs don't surpass the input costs.
• Effectiveness is doing the right things, where processes support or are aligned with organizational objectives
• Productivity is the actual output divided by the actual input.

Strategy

• Means by which companies achieve their goals, involving long-term goals, analysis, resource exploitation, and strong leadership.
• Consist of some of the most critical decisions and the big-picture plans and long-term goals.
• Actioned though the OS that align goals with the people, processes, and necessary tools.
• IT infrastructure are the components that make up the foundation of an IT service like hardware, storage, networks and software

Enterprise Architecture

• Conceptual framework describing how the business is constructed, ensuring correct value delivery.
• Enterprise IT architecture includes the architecture that describes overall design and structure of IT including systems, applications, and processes.
• Strategy sets the vision, architecture translates it into plan and infrastructure provides the means to execute that plan
• Consist of goals extracted from strategy and aligned with business requirements, leading to architectural requirements which are a blueprint for org
• Enterprise Architecture Framework has the methods and tools that software teams use to plan and build large, enterprise-grade application architecture systems.
• The IT platform is the infrastructure on which software is executed, allowing users to build, run, and manage applications, systems, and services.
• Components include:
  • Hardware: servers, storage, networking equipment.
  • Software: OS manages hardware, applications perform tasks.
  • Network: LANs connect offices, WANs connect locations.
  • Data storage and management: Ensures accessibility and backups.
  • Facilities: Support IT operations and ensures hardware and software functionality.

Layers of Architecture

• Business: Strategy, governance, organization, business processes.
• Data: Structure of data assets and management resources.
• Application: Blueprint for individual applications and their interactions.
• Technology: Logical capabilities to support services, including IT infrastructure and standards.

Types of Architecture

• Centralized: A central system runs all applications and stores data.
• Decentralized: Computing power spread across multiple services/devices.
• Service-Oriented (SOA): Software broken down into reusable services.

Process Management

• Standardization: Preforming processes based on uniform procedures and guidelines.
  • Offers consistency, efficiency, quality control, and regulatory compliance.
• Integration: Businesses connect data, applications, people in order to remain operational and help it reach its primary objectives.
• Key properties are that it is robust, flexible, and efficient.
• Functional structure is where employees are grouped into departments based on specific skills and job function like marketing, finance, operations, or human resources.

Business Functions

• Typical functions include marketing, finance, operations, HR, sales, R&D, customer service, IT, and legal.
• Four essentials are:
  • Operations- Produce goods, Input Raw materials/resources, Output Finished goods/services.
  • Marketing- Customer relations, generate revenue, Input Market data, customer feedback, Output Increased brand awareness.
  • Finance- manage financial resources maintain compliance, Input Revenue, Expenses, financial statements, Investment data. Output financial reports.
  • HR- manage employee relations, Input Job applications, employee data, Output Skilled workforce.

Business Processes

• Silo effect is isolation within an organization, losing sight of organizational goals, remedied by integrating processes and sharing the vision.
• In a business-process perspective, processes become cross-functional.
• Enterprise System (ES) enables cross functional processes
• Functional Area Information System (FAIS): Each department does its own process. FAIS works on departments own, and the enterprise system works cross department
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a type of ES that supports cross functional processes
• Helps organizations by collecting, storing, managing and interpreting data in many business activities/processes
  • Common DBMS across enterprise
  • Adaptative to change
  • Improves data security
  • Increased collaboration
  • Enhances decision making.

Business Process Management

• Business Process Management (BPM) manages processes to build and execute, monitor and evaluate, and update and improve.
• Business Process Improvement (BPI) involves small incremental changes continuously through small tweaks and is less risky.
• Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) is radical aggressive changes, and is often used for cross-functional processes.
• BPI operates within the BPM framework, and both aim to improve the system.
• BPM provides the overarching framework, while BPI mechanism that drives improvements within that framework.
• BPI is on incremental, continuous improvements to existing processes with less disruption and quicker results.
• BPR involves radical, organization-wide changes with potential for transformative, long-term improvements.
• The efficacy of a business process can be demonstrated through lower costs, increased revenue, and customer satisfaction.
• Achieved and supported ultimately by hardware supports that software using processes.