ADMS 2511 Midterm Study Notes PDF

Session 1 Chapter 1 – Introduction to Information Systems Why are information systems important? Internet and wireless systems have created rapid growth and innovations Japan creating robots for the elderly Information technology jobs are everywhere Hardware store - Database...

Session 1 Chapter 1 – Introduction to Information Systems Why are information systems important? Internet and wireless systems have created rapid growth and innovations Japan creating robots for the elderly Information technology jobs are everywhere Hardware store - Database in accounting - Banking related - Cash registers Book publisher - Website, database - Downloading People: user and IT - Informed user: a person knowledgeable about information systems and information technology - Inventory counting (basic user) - Come from many cultural and educational backgrounds - Programmers, application users (accounting; manager, CFO) - People or users need to implement ongoing use to ensure success and reliability - Management style directly affects success of systems - People contribute their knowledge during selection, design, and testing of systems - Knowledge worker (data analytic worker) Examples of IT and user roles: Decision-making People at all levels, including management, make choices about behaviours and processes These decisions create an organizational environment that affects the work effectivenessat the organization The types of processes used also affect the quality of information and the quality/success of information systems Computer-based Information Systems in an organization Data: elementary description of transactions that are recorded, classified, and stored but not organized to convey any specific meaning Information: refers to data that have been organized so that they have meaning and value to the recipient (set of related pieces of data. Ex, my name and 80% and this course name all give me collective infor. About my grade in course) Knowledge: data and/or information that has been organized and processed to convey understanding, experience, accumulated learning, and expertise (comparing pieces of data from months, interpreting information is knowledge) Computer-based information system: is an IS that uses computer tech. to perform some or all of its intended tasks. Infor. tech. components: - Hardware: includes equipment as well as data communications lines and infrastructure for systems such as the world wide web - Software: includes many layers such as operating system level, data base management level and applications (functional) level - Database: is a collection of related files or table containing data - Network: is a connection system (wireline or wireless) that permits different computers to share resources oProcedures: are the instructions for combining the above components to processinfor. And generate the desired output How is data transformed? Data is sorted, processed or assembled to create information When people apply learned criteria or learned expertise to information they create knowledge Information technology inside an organization Types of Computer-Based Information Systems Transaction processing system (TPS): supports the monitoring, collection, storage and processing of data from the orgs. basic business transaction, each of which generates data (transaction occurs when employee scans an item). A transaction is anything that changes a firm’s chart of accounts Management information systems (MISs) A management information system is an information system used for decision-making, and for the coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of information in an organization. Enterprise resource planning (ERP): designed to correct a lack of communication among functional area ISs. Interorganizational information systems (IOSs): connect two or more orgs. - Supply chain: flow of material, infor. money and services from suppliers of raw material through factories and warehouses to the end customers - E-Commerce systems: enable orgs. to conduct transactions, called business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce, and customers to conduct business-to-customers (B2C) Breadth of Support of Information Systems Functional area information systems (FAIS): are supporting pills for the IS located at the top of the picture. Supports a particular functional area within the org. (ex., accounting IS, finance IS, production/operations management (POM), marketing IS, and human resources IS) - Product analysis: developing new goods and service  - Site analysis: determining the best location for production and distribution facilities - Promotion analysis: identifying the best advertising channels - Price analysis: setting product prices to obtain the highest total revenues Support for Organizational Employees Clerical staff: support managers at all levels of org., include bookkeeping, secretaries, e-file clerks. Recording the sales of items sold at retail store Lower level manager: handle day-to-day operations of the organization, making routine decisions such as assigning tasks to employees and placing purchase orders Middle manager: make tactical decisions, which deal with activities such as short-term planning, organizing, and control. A report showing hours worked by employee, highlighting overtime hours and their cost Knowledge worker: are professional employees such as financial and marketing analysts, engineers, lawyers, and accountants. Specialize in specific area. Development of computer aided design of a new product Executive management: financial forecasts by product line for the next five years Office automation systems (OASs): typically support clerical staff, lower and middle managers, and knowledge workers. Employees use OASs to develop documents (word, publishing software), schedule resources, communicate (email, voicemail) Business intelligence systems (BISs): provide computer-based support for complex, nonroutine decisions, for middle managers and knowledge workers Expert systems (ESs): attempt to duplicate the work of human experts by applying reasoning capabilities, knowledge, and expertise within a specific domain Dashboards (digital dashboards): are a special form of IS that support all managers of the org. Provide rapid access to timely infor. and direct access to structures infor. in the form of reports How Does IT Affect Organizations? Affecting the book industry (publishing), music industry (apple iTunes), video industry (blockbuster/Netflix), software industry (Microsoft), gaming industry, photography industry (phone cameras), marketing industry, recruiting industry, financial services, automobile, agriculture, national defence, How does technology affect management style? Manage from a distance Flexibility in dealing with suppliers and customers Need to address changing business environment Fluid organization boundaries Effects of technology on organizational structure Fewer middle managers (“flattened organizations) Ability to “telecommute” – skype, webcam Redesigning workflow to reduce costs and increase efficiency  Work participation Session 2 Chapter 2 – Organizational Strategy, Competitive Advantage, and Information Systems Constant Connectivity “Digital Junkie” video explain how plugged this society is with technology and devices and how much it affects our social and cultural lives What is a business process? Business process: is a collection of related activities that produce a product or service of value to the organization, its business partners, and/or its customers - A process uses inputs (materials, services) and resources (people/equip.) to produce outputs (end result of inputs/resources), and its activities can be measured - Examples of business processes – accounting, finance, marketing, production/ operations, HR, MIS business processes Cross-functional business processes happen in multiple area of an organization to perform the process, such as product development which involves design, engineering, manufacturing, marketing and distribution - The procurement process: includes all of the tasks involved in acquiring needed materials externally from a vendor (3 diff. functional areas of firm which are warehouse, purchasing, accounting) - The fulfilment process: concerned with processing customer orders - Orgs. business can create a competitive advantage: if they enable company to innovate or execute more effectively and efficiently than its competitors Other processes involve only one functional area Competitive advantage An organizational strategy is a planned approach that the organization takes to achieve its goals and its mission statement Competitive advantage: advantage over competitors in areas like cost, quality, speed Effective use of IT is needed to operationalize an organizations strategy Changes to operations are new processes Such as banks improving ATM technology to redeem cheques Business processes are what organizations do Accounting – managing AP & AR Finance – forecasts Marketing – customer service complaints Production Operation Management (POM) – inventory count Human resources -- WHIMS MIS – training users Business processes connect to customer and others Things could always go wrong between processes Although, processes can always improve Efficiency: reducing costs or time to complete a process, while maintaining quality, “doing things well” Effectiveness: ensuring that the desired outcome is achieved and assessing whether the outcome is important, “doing things that matter” Business Process Reengineering, Improvement, Management Customer satisfaction: the result of optimizing and aligning business processes to fulfil customers’ needs, wants and desires Cost reduction: the result of optimizing operations and supplier processes Cycle and fulfillment time: the result of optimizing the manufacturing and logistics processes Quality: the result of optimizing the design, development, and production processes Differentiation: the result of optimizing the marketing and innovation processes Productivity: the result of optimizing each individual’s work process BPR: “starting from scratch” or “clean sheet” to evaluate and redesign business processes to be more efficient and effective (can become too redundant, lengthy and too comprehensive) BPI: “incremental changes” that organize work around business processes rather than individual tasks or activities BPM: “includes methods and tools to support … continuous optimization …” i.e. ongoing evaluation and improvement Business Pressures Business environment: the combination of social, legal, economic, physical and political factors in which businesses conduct their operations Market (economic) Pressures Globalization: is the integration and interdependence of economic, social, cultural, and ecological factors of life Global economy and strong competition The changing nature of the workforce Powerful customers Technology Pressures Technological innovation and obsolescence – rapidly create or support substitutes for products (how fast phones are changing, versions of books are changing, newspaper copies are changing? These force businesses to keep up with consumer demands) Information overload – amount of free info. On the internet is doubling in millions everyyear. This helps managers to make effective and efficient decisions and they should be able to navigate and access this info. Properly Societal/Political/Legal Pressures Social responsibilities, gov’t regulations Organizational social responsibility or individual social responsibility Protection against fraud or terrorist attacks Ethical issues Competition laws apply to the Internet too IT-Based Organizational Responses Strategic systems – provides organizations with advantages that enable them to increase their market share or profits, to better negotiate with suppliers, and to prevent competitors from entering their markets Customer focus – focusing on CS to ensure they do not to go competitors Make-to-order and mass customization – strategy of producing customized products and services. Mass production creates many of identical products. Mass specialization is tricky because it is the production of many individually specific products E-business and E-commerce – conducting business electronically is an essential strategy in today’s environment Competitive Advantage Strategic Infor. Systems (SISs): provide a competitive advantage by helping an organization implement its strategic goals and improve its performance and productivity Porter’s Five Forces Model Competitive forces model 1. Threat of new entrants 2. Buyer power (bargaining power of buyers) 3. Supplier power (bargaining power of suppliers)  4. Threat of substitute products/services 5. Rivalry amongst competitors Porters Value Chain Model The value chain model is used to describe what organizations do and how they “add value,” i.e. make their products and earn profits. Value chain: is a sequence of activities through which the org’s inputs are transformed into more valuable outputs Value chain model: identifies points where an org. can use infor. tech. to achieve competitive advantage Primary activities: relate to the production and distribution of the firm’s products and services These primary activities are reinforced by support activities 1. Inbound logistics (inputs) 2. Operations (manufacturing and distribution) 3. Marketing and sales 4. Services 5. Outbound logistics (outputs) Strategies for Competitive Advantage 1. Cost leadership strategy – produce products and/or services at the lowest cost in the industry 2. Differentiation – offer diff. products, services or product features 3. Innovation – introduce new products and services, add new features to existing products and services or develop new ways to produce them  4. Operational Effectiveness – improve the manner in which internal business processes are executed so that a firm performs similar activities better than its rival 5. Customer-orientation – concentrate on making customers happy Information technology governance The purpose of IT Governance is to provide effective oversight over the use of technology IT governance is the structure of relationships and processes used to direct and control organizations in order to achieve the enterprise’s goals by adding value while balancing risk versus return over IT and its processes Without IT governance, orgs. errors in info. systems or excess costs would be more likely. Also, orgs. could implement information systems that do not meet their needs or that donot help them meet their business objectives Session 3 Chapter 3 – Ethics and Privacy Ethics – set of principles of right and wrong that individuals use to make choices that guide theirbehaviour. Not always easy to decide what is right or wrong, which is why we use the framework. 4 steps approach to solve an ethical dilemma 1. Recognize ethical issue 2. Get the facts 3. Evaluate alt. actions 4. Make decision and test it GVV Approach 1. Identify ethical issue 2. Purpose and choice (i.e. yours) 3. Stakeholder analysis 4. Powerful response 5. Scripting and coaching Framework for IT ethical issues Utilitarian approach: an ethical action is one that provides the most good or does the least harm for all affected parties (customers, employees, environment) Rights approach: maintains that an ethical action is one that best protects and respects the moral rights of the affected parties (moral rights include how people want to live, they don’t want to be harmed, they want the truth to be told, etc.) Fairness approach: posits that ethical actions treat all human beings equally, or if unequally, then fairly, based on some defensible standard  Common good approach: can be useful when the issue involves, or should involve, the overall picture or environment. Regards all individuals as part of a larger community. 1. Privacy: issues involve collecting, storing and disseminating infor. about individuals 2. Accuracy: involve the authenticity, fidelity, and correctness of information that is collected and processed 3. Property: issues involve ownership and value of information 4. Accessibility: issues revolve around who should have access to information and whether they should pay a fee for this access Privacy Privacy: Right to be left alone and to be free of unreasonable personal intrusions Information privacy: right to determine when, and to what extent, information about you can be gathered and/or communicated to others Digital dossier: which is an electronic profile of you and your habits and is called profiling (ex., data aggregators such as LexisNexis) Electronic surveillance: rapidly increasing, particularly with the emergence of new technologies. It is conducted by employers, the gov’t, and other institutions Privacy policies or privacy codes: are an organization’s guidelines for protecting the privacy of its customer, clients, and employees. The opt-out model of informed consent permits the company to collect personal information until the customer specifically requests that the data not be collected The opt-in model of informed consent, which prohibits an organization from collecting any personal information unless the customer specifically authorizes Canada’s privacy legislation is called the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) Social Networking Sites We see more and more electronic bulletin boards, newsgroups, electronic discussions such as chat rooms, and social networking sites Privacy policy guidelines: Data collection: data should be collected on individuals only for the purpose of accomplishing a legitimate business objective. Data should be adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the business objective. Individuals must give consent before data pertaining to them can be gathered Data accuracy: sensitive data gathered on individuals should be verified before they are entered into database. Data should be kept current, where and when necessary file should be made available so individual can ensure data is correct Data confidentiality: computer security procedures should be implemented to ensure against unauthorized disclosure of data. These procedures should include physical, technical, and administrative security measures. Third parties should not be given infor. without knowledge or permission Codify requirements for employees  Provide a standard set of procedures Help protect organizations from litigation Can be used as a measurement tool if disciplinary action is required Chapter 4 – Infor. Security and Controls Information security (IS): is all of the processes and policies designed to protect an organization’s infor. and infor. systems A Threat to an infor. resource is any danger to which a system may be exposed Exposure of an infor. resource is the harm, loss, or damage that can result if a threat compromises that resource Infor. resource’s vulnerability is the possibility that the system will be harmed by a threat 5 key factors contributing to increasing vulnerability of organizational infor. Resources 1. Interconnected, interdependent,wirelessly networked business environment - Trusted network: any networkwithin your org. - Untrusted network: anynetwork external to org. 2. Smaller, faster, cheaper computers andstorage devices 3. Decreasing skills necessary to be acomputer hacker - Scripts 4. International organized crime taking over cybercrime - Cybercrime: involves illegalactivities conducted overcomputer networks,particularly the internet 5. Lack of management support Unintentional threats to infor. systems Human errors Social engineering: is an attack in which the perpetrator uses social skills to trick or manipulate legitimate employees into providing confidential company infor. such as passwords Deliberate threats to infor. Espionage or trespass Infor. Extortion Sabotage or vandalism Theft of equip. or infor. Identity theft: deliberate assumption of another person’s identity to gain access to their personal infor. Compromises to intellectual property - Intellectual property: property created by individuals or corporation that is protected under trade secret (intellectual work, such as a business plan and is a secret), patent (official document that grants holder exclusive rights on an invention or a process for 20 years), and copyright laws  Software attacks - Virus - Worm - Phishing attack - Spear phishing - Trojan horse - Back door Alien software What organizations are doing to protect infor. Resources Risk: is the probability that a threat will affect an infor. Resource Goal of risk management is to identify, control, and minimize the impact of threat Risk analysis: involves 1) assessing value of each asset being protected 2) estimating the probability that each asset will be compromised 3) comparing the probable costs of the asset’s being compromised with the costs of protecting that asset Risk mitigation: org. takes concrete actions against risks - Risk acceptance: accept the potential risk, continue operating with no controls, and absorb any damages that occur - Risk limitation: implementing controls that minimize the impact - Risk transference: transfer the risk by using other means to compensate for the loss, such as by purchasing insurance Information Security Controls Purpose of controls or defence mechanism (also countermeasures) is to safeguard assets, optimize the use of the organization’s resources, and prevent or detect errors or fraud (protects data, software, hardware and networks in IT) Single most valuable control is user education and training - Control environment – encompasses management attitude toward control as evidence by management actions, stated policies and procedures that address ethical issues and quality of supervision - General controls – apply to more than one functional area (ex., passwords are general controls - Application control – specific to one application (ex., payroll) 1. Physical controls: prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining access to a company’s facilities (ex., walls, doors, fencing, gates, locks, alarms) Can be inconvenient for employees (security checks) 2. Access controls: restrict unauthorized individuals from using infor. Resources (can be physical or logical controls) Logical controls – implemented by software (login attempts, etc.) 2 major functions of access controls: - Authentication: confirms the identity of the person requiring access (biometrics, voice recognition, ID cards, passwords)  - Authorization: determines which actions, rights or privileges the person has, based on verified identity (privilege/least privilege) 3. Communication controls (network controls): secure the movement of data across networks. Consists of: Firewalls: system that prevents infor. From moving between untrusted networks (such as the internet or your company’s network)Demilitarized zone (DMZ): located between the two firewalls, messages must pass external and internal firewall Anti-malware systems (antivirus, AV, or software): packages that attempt to identify and eliminate viruses and worms and other such malwares Whitelisting and Blacklisting: process in which a company identifies the software that it will allow to run on its computer. Blacklisting allows everything to run unless is on the blacklist Encryption: stops unauthorized eavesdroppers. Is the process of converting an original message into a form that cannot be read by anyone except the intended receiver - Public-key encryption (asymmetric encryption) – uses two different keys, public and private Public key (locking key) and private key (unlocking key) are createdsimultaneously using the same mathematical formula or algorithm(data are related) - Organizations that conduct business over internet require more complex system. Certificate authority acts as a trusted intermediary between companies Digital certificate: is an electronic document attached to a file thatcertifies that the file is from the org. it claims to be from and has not been modified from its original format  Virtual Private Networking (VPN): is a privacy network that uses a public network to connect users - VPN integrates global connectivity of the internet with the security of a private network and thereby extend the reach of the organizations networks - VPN is virtual because they have no separate physical existence How does IS Auditor Decide on Audits? IS auditors conduct work using a risk-based approach They consider likelihood of errors or fraud, or the risk of organizations not following their procedures Then, they design procedures to test compliance or percentage of errors IS audits could be part of evaluation of controls for a financial statement audit Internal auditors conduct their audits based on a plan approved by management Plan may look at areas where there’s high risk of theft Privacy audits can be held to ensure organizations are in compliance with legislation Session 4 Chapter 5 – Data and Knowledge Management Managing Data All IT applications require data Data should be accurate, complete, timely, consistent, accessible, relevant, and concise Difficulties Managing Data Data increases exponentially overtime Data are scattered throughout organization and collected by many individuals using various methods and devices, usually stores in numerous servers, locations, diff. computing systems, databases, formats, and human and computer languages so not always easy to obtain to interpret Data generated from multiple sources such as internal sources, corporate databases, company docs, personal sources, external sources Clickstream data: are those data that visitors and customers produce when they visit a website and click on hyperlinks (provide a trail of the users’ activities in the website including behaviour and browsing patterns) New sources of data are constantly being developed (blogs, podcasts, videos) and they must be managed Data degrade overtime (customers move to new addresses, change names, etc.) Data rot: problems with the media on which the data are stored - Overtime, temp., humidity, and exposure to light can cause physical problems with storage media making it diff. to access the data - Machines needed to access the data can be diff. (ex., you can’t play an eight-tracktape because it is rare to find an eight-track player which is obsolete) Data security, quality, and integrity are critical, yet easily jeopardized Legal requirements vary across countries Inconsistent data prevent a company from developing a unified view of core business infor. – data concerning customers, products, finances, etc. Federal gov’t regulations – Bill 198, The Canadian Equivalent to the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act: require companies to account for how infor. is being managed within their org. Canadian law requires 1. Public companies evaluate and disclose the effectiveness of their internal financial controls 2. Independent auditors for these companies agree to this disclosure Data Governance Data Governance: Approach to managing information across an entire organization Involves a formal set of business processes and policies designed to ensure that data are handled in a certain, well-defined fashion Strategy for implementing data governance: - Master Data Management: Process that spans all of an organizations business processes and applications Provides companies with the ability to store, maintain, exchange and synchronize a consistent, accurate and timely “single version of the truth”for the company’s master data (Ex., “product sold”, “vendor”, “sales person”, “store”, “part number”, “price”, “date” Master Data: Set of core data (Ex., customer, product, employee, vendor and geographic location) that span all of the enterprises information system  Transaction Data: Generated and captured by operational systems, describe the activities, or transactions of the business (E.g. “42-inch plasma TV”, “Samsung”, “Yves Gagnon”, “Best Buy”, “1234”, “$2,000”,”08/20/13” The Database Approach Databases: Arranged so that one set of software programs-database management system provides all users with access to all the data Minimizes the following problems: - Data Redundancy: same data stored in many places - Data Isolation: applications can’t access data associated with other applications - Data Inconsistency: various versions of data do not agree Maximize the following strengths: - Data Security: high security measures in place to deter mistakes and attacks - Data Integrity: data meet certain restraints (Ex., no alphabetic cataracts in SIN field) - Data Independence: applications and data no linked to each other; all applications able to access the same data The Data Hierarchy Hierarchy begins with bits and proceeds to databases Bit (binary digit): Represents the smallest unit of data a computer can access Binary means that a bit can consist of only a 0 or 1 Byte: Group of eight bits, represents a single character. Can be a letter, number or symbol. Field: Logical grouping of characters into aword, small group of words or an ID - Ex., “Name” field, “Social Insurance Number” field Record: Logical grouping of related fields File: Logical grouping of related records Database Management Systems Database management system (DBMS): set of programs that provide users with tools toadd, delete, access, modify and analyze data stored in one location Provide mechanisms for maintaining integrity of stored data, managing security and useraccess, and recovering information if the system fails The Relational Database Model: based on the concept of two-dimensional tables - Designed with a number of related tables, each table contains records which are listed in rows and attribute listed in columns - Related tables can be joined when they contain common columns Data Model: Diagram that represents the entities in the database and the relationships among them Entity: Person, place, thing or event about which an organization maintains information Record generally describes an entity (Ex., customer, employee, product) Instance: Specific, unique representation of the entity (Ex., Ali is instance of the entity “Student”) Attribute: Each characteristic or quality of a particular entity (Ex., student Entity-Attribute would be name, ID number, address, major, etc.) Primary Key: Every record on file must contain at least one field that uniquely identifies that record so it can be retrieved, updated, and sorted (Ex., Primary Key in Canadian University student record, would be the unique student ID) Secondary Key: Other fields that have identifying information, but typically don't identify file with complete accuracy (Ex., students major if you wanted to find all students in a particular major field of study) Foreign key: is a field (or group of fields) in one table that uniquely identifies a row of another table Big Data Big data: is a collection of data so large and complex that it is difficult to manage using traditional database management systems - Traditional enterprise data: examples are customer infor. from customer relationship management systems, transactional enterprise resource planning data, web store transactions, operations data, and general ledger data - Machine-generated/sensor data: examples are smart meters, manufac. Sensors; sensors integrated into smart phone, vehicles and trading systems data - Social data: examples are customer feedback, comments, and all social medias (twitter, LinkedIn) Characteristics of Big Data that distinguish it from traditional data - Volume: ex., machine generated data creates data in much larger quantities - Velocity: data flow in increasing exponentially, velocity allows for the increase of speed - Variety: formats change rapidly Issues with Big Data - Can come from untrusted sources  - Big data is “dirty”: dirty data that are inaccurate, incomplete, incorrect, duplicate,or erroneous - Big data changes, especially in data streams: orgs. must be aware that data quality can change, or the data itself can change, because the conditions under which the data are captured can change. Ex., utility company predicting weather data to provide power usage Managing Big Data - Big data make many things possible such as to spot business trends more rapidly and accurately - Prevent diseases, track crimes, etc. Putting Big Data to use - Making Big Data available - Enabling orgs. to conduct experiments - Micro segmenting customers - Creating new business models - Being able to analyze more data Big Data in functional areas of the org. - HR, product development, operations, marketing, government operations Data Warehouse and Data Marts They both support business intelligence (BI) Applications Data Warehouse: Repository of historical data that are organized by subject to support decision makers in the organization Data Mart: Low-cost, scaled-down version of a data warehouse that is designed for the end-user needs in a small organization or a strategic business unit or department in a large organization - Can be implemented faster than data warehouses Basic Characteristics of Data Warehouses and Data Marts - Organized by Business Dimension or subject: ex., customer, vendor, product, price level, etc. - Use on-line Analytical Processing (OLAP): involves analysis of accumulated data by end users - Integrated: data are collected from multiple systems and are integrated around subjects - Time Variant: maintain historical data (years’ worth) - Non-volatile: only IT professionals can change or update the data - Multidimensional: consists of more than two dimensions. Commonly represented as a data cube A Generic Data Warehouse Environment Environment for data warehouses and data marts include the following: Source systems that provide data to the data warehouse/mart Data integration technology and processes that are needed to prepare the date for use  Different architectures for storing data in an organizations data warehouse or data mart Different BI tools and applications for the variety of users Need for meta-data, data quality, and governance processes to be in place to ensure is that the data warehouse or Data mart meets its purposes Component parts: SOURCE SYSTEMS - Organizations have access to a variety of source systems; operational/transactional systems, ERP systems, website data, third-party data, etc. - Current trend is to include more types of data (Eg. sensing data from RFID tags) - Source Systems often use different software packages (Eg. IBM, Oracle) and storedata in different formulas (Eg. relational/hierarchical) - Organizations must decide hoe granular (level or detail) the data needs to be - Highly granular levels are better as information is likely to be requested at some point DATA INTEGRATION - Necessary to extract data from source systems, transform them and load them into a datamart/warehouse - Data can be extracted by hand-written codes (SQL Queries) or by commercial data- integration software - As data is integrated, it is also transformed to make it more useful oData integration can involve other kinds of transformations - Format changes to data (Eg. using “Male” or “Female” instead of “M” and “F”) - Aggregations may be performed - Data-cleansing software may be used to “clean up” data (Eg. Eliminating duplicate records) - Period of time for loading new data (“load window”) is getting smaller as companies demand - fresher data in their warehouse. Many are moving to real-time data STORING THE DATA - Variety of possible architectures to store decision-support data - Most common is “one central enterprise data warehouse"-all data in warehouse is accessible by allures are the “single version of the truth” - Another architecture is “independent data marts"-store data for a single or few applications - Not very effective in large organizations - Another architecture is the “hub and spoke"-stores data in a central data warehouse while simultaneously maintaining dependant marts that obtain their data from the central repository METADATA - Metadata: Data about data DATA QUALITY - Quality of data must be adequate to satisfy users needs, if not then it will not be trusted and ultimately will not be used  - Some data can be improved through data cleansing software, but the better solution is to improve the quality at the source level - Owners of data must take responsibility for implementing any necessary changes to both the data and data-collation system GOVERNANCE - Requires that people, committees, and processes be in place - Companies with effective bI often create senior level committee who prioritize projects, allocate resources and ensure the business and BI strategies are in alignment - Also have a middle-level committee that oversees the various projects in the BI portfolio to ensure they're being completed effectively and efficiently - Lower-level committees perform tasks such as creating data definitions and identifying and solving data problems - All these committees require the collaborations and contributions of business and IT personnel USERS - Large number of potential BI users (IT Developers, front-line workers, analysts, information workers, mangers, executives, etc.) - Some of these users are information producers-primarily create information for others (IT Developers, analysts, etc.) and others are information consumers-utilize the information create day others (managers, executives, etc.) - Benefits of data warehousing include: - End users can access needed data quickly and easily via web browsers because these data are located in one place - End users can conduct extensive analysis with data in ways that may not have been possible before - End users can obtain a consolidated view of organizational data Knowledge Management Concepts and Definitions Knowledge Management (KM): Process that helps organizations manipulate important knowledge that is part of the organizations memory, usually in an unstructured format Knowledge, as a form of capital, must exist in a format that is exchangeable among persons, and it must be able to grow Knowledge Knowledge: Information that is contextual, relevant and useful; information in actions - Also known as intellectual capital Explicit and tacit knowledge Explicit Knowledge: Objective, rational and technical knowledge. - Policies, procedural guidelines, reports, products, strategies, goals, core competencies of the enterprise and the IT infrastructure - Knowledge that has been codified (documented) in a from that can be distributed to other or transformed into a process or a strategy Tacit Knowledge: Cumulative store of subjective or experiential learning - Organizations experiences, insights, expertise, knowhow, trade secrets, skill sets, understanding and learning Imprecise and costly to transfer The Knowledge Management System Cycle 1. Create Knowledge: knowledge is created as people determine new ways of doing things or develop know-how 2. Capture Knowledge: new knowledge mustbe identified and recorded 3. Refine Knowledge: new knowledge must beplaced in context, so it is actionable 4. Store knowledge: useful knowledge must bestored in a reasonable format in aknowledge repository, so the members canaccess it  5. Manage Knowledge: knowledge must bekept current 6. Disseminate Knowledge: knowledge mustbe available in a useful format to anyone inorganization who needs it, anywhere andanytime Appendix: Fundamentals of Relational Database Operations Query languages Structured Query Language (SQL): Most popular query language used for this purpose Allows people to perform complicated searches by using relatively simple statements or keywords Typical key words are: SELECT (specify desired attribute). FROM (specify table to be used), and WHERE (specify conditions to apply in the query) Query by example (QBE): Another way to find information in a database Entity – Relationship Modelling Designers plan and create the database through a process called the Entity-relationship (ER) modelling, using an Entity-relationship (ER) diagram ER diagrams consist of entities, attributes, and relationships Business rules: are precise descriptions of policies, procedures, or principles in any org. that stores and uses data to generate infor. - Business rules are derived from a description of an orgs. operations, and help create and enforce business processes in that org. Data Dictionary: defines appropriate format for entering data into the database when a relational model is created - Provides information on each attribute, such as name and whether it’s a key part or part of a key, the type of data expected, and valid values Relationships illustrate an association between entities The degree of a relationship indicates the number of entities associated with a relationship Unary relationship: exists when an association is maintained within a single entity Binary relationship: exists when two entities are associated Ternary relationship: exists when three entities are associated Connectivity: describes the relationship classification Connectivity and cardinality are established by the business rules of a relationship Cardinality: is the maximum number of times an instance of one entity can be associated with an instance in the related entity. - Mandatory single: On the student side, only one parking permit can be assigned to one student - Optional single: student can have, but does not need to have, a parking permit. - Mandatory many: - Optional many: the relationship line on the CLASS side An entity is a person, place, or thing that can be identified in the users’ work environment - Entity instances have identifiers or primary keys, which are attributes that are unique to that entity instance  Three types of binary relationships: - One-to-one (1:1) relationship – a single entity instance of one type is related to asingle entity instance of another type (ex. Student – parking permit is 1:1) - One-to-many (1:M): represented by the CLASS – PROF. relationship - Many-to-many (M:M): represented by the STUDENT – CLASS relationship most database management systems do not support many-to-many relationships, so we use junction (or bridge) tables, so that we have two one-to-many relationships Normalization and Joins For a relational DBMS to be effective, the data must be carefully scrutinized to eliminate redundant data elements Normalization: Method for reducing a relational database to its most streamlined form for minimum redundancy, maximum data integrity and optimal processing performance  - When data is normalized, attributed in the table depend only on the primary key Functional dependencies: are a means of expressing that the value of one particular attribute is associated with a specific single value of another attribute Join operation: combines records from two or more tables in a database to obtain infor. that is located in diff. tables Session 5 Technology Guide 1 – Hardware Introduction to Hardware Central processing unit (CPU): manipulates the data and controls the tasks performed by the other components Primary storage: temporarily stores data and programs for future use Secondary storage: stores data and programs for future use Input technologies: accept data and instructions and convert them to a form that the computer can understand Output technologies: present data and infor. in a form people can understand Communication technologies: provide for the flow of data from external computer networks (ex., internet/intranet) to the CPU, and from the CPU to computer networks Strategic Hardware Issues Exploitation requires: - Organization to keep up with rapid price and performance advancements in hardware - Organization to determine need for new hardware infrastructures - Organization to manage new work styles (24hrs/9-5) Computer Hierarchy Supercomputer: fastest supercomputers boasted speeds exceeding 30 petaflops (1 petaflop is 1000 trillion floating point operations per second) Mainframe computers: accessed by thousands of users simultaneous (ex., airline services, payroll programs, websites), they perform at teraflop (trillions of floating point operations per second) Microcomputers: small, complete, general purpose computers Laptop and notebook computers: small, easily transportable, lightweight, they provide users with access to processing power and data outside an office environment - Thin client – is a computer that does not offer the full functionality of a fat client - Fat client – is a computer that has the ability to perform many functions without a network connection Tablet computers - Augmented reality: is a live, direct or indirect, view of physical, real-world environment whose elements are enhanced by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, etc.  Wearable computers (wearables): miniature computers that people wear under, with, or on top of their clothing (ex., apple watch) Input and output technologies Human data entry devices: require human effort to input data (mouse, keyboard) Source data automation devices: minimal human intervention (barcode reader, ATMs) - Gesture based input or gesture recognition: involves technologies that enable computers to interpret human gestures - Multimedia technology: is the computer-based integration of text, sound, still images, animation, and digitized motion video The central processing unit CPU: performs the actual computation or “number crunching” inside any computer The CPU is a microprocessor (ex., intel’s core i13) made up of millions of microscopic transistors embedded in a circuit on a silicon wafer or chip Control unit: sequentially accesses program instructions, decodes them and controls theflow of data to and from the arithmetic logic unit, the registers, the caches, primary storage, secondary storage and various output devices Arithmetic logic unit (ALU): performs the mathematical calculations and makes logical comparisons How the CPU works: Machine Instruction Cycle 1. Instructions about what to do with data come through RAM. Stored and registered until needed. Infor. flow through buses with determine how much infor. can flow at anytime 2. Control unit detectsflow of data which getdecoded into binarycode 3. ALU receivesdata/instructions asbinary code. CPU onlydecodes binary 4. Data in original formsent to storageregisters and sent backto a storage place outside the chip Advances in microprocessor design Moore’s law - Increasingly miniaturized transistors - Multiple processors placed on a single chip. Chips with more than one processor are called multicore chips - Intel’s 3D chips require less power than intel’s current chips - Increased speeds and performances Computer memory The amount and type of memory that a computer possesses have a great deal to do withits general utility Memory capacity: - Kilobyte: 1024 bytes - Megabyte: 1 million bytes - Gigabyte: 1 billion bytes  - Terabyte: 1 trillion bytes - Petabyte: 1000 terabytes - Exabyte: 1000 petabytes - Zettabyte: 1000 exabytes Primary storage or main memory: stores three types of infor. for very brief periods of time - Data to be processes by the CPU - Instructions for the CPU as to how to process data - Operating system programs that we manage various aspects of the computer’s operation Registers: are part of the CPU Cache memory: is a type of high-speed memory that enables the computer to temporarily store blocks of data that are used more often and that a processor can access Random access memory (RAM): is the part of primary storage that holds a software program and small amounts of data for processing Read-only memory (ROM): is the place – a type pf chip – where certain critical instructions are safeguarded Secondary storage: is designed to store very large amounts of data for extended periods - It is non-volatile - Takes more time to retrieve data from it than from RAM - Cheaper than primary storage - Can use a variety of media, each with its own tech. Magnetic tape: is kept on a large open reel or in a smaller cartridge or cassette Magnetic disks (hard drives or fixed disk drives): the most commonly used mass storagedevices because of their low cost, high speed, and large storage capacity Solid-state drives (SSDs): are data storage devices that serve the same purpose as a harddrive and store data in memory chips Optical storage devices: do not store data via magnetism Flash memory drives: are non-volatile electronic storage devices that contain no movingparts and use 30 times less battery power than hard drives Thumb drive: these devices fit into universal serial bus (USB) ports on personal computers and other devices and can store many gigabytes