Management of Information Systems: 45-870

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Management of Information Systems 45-870
Mini-3 Spring 2000
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Agenda

• Schedule Reminders
• ASP and IT Exercise III
• Sonoco Case IT Diagnosis and Strategic Analysis
• Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage
  using IT

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Schedule Reminders

• Sonoco I/T Diagnosis
• Due today (as a link to your teams web)
• Ford I/T Strategy Analysis
• No assignment due
• Articles and discussion questions distributed
  today
• We will discuss the article and discussion
  questions informally in class on 29-Feb

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Schedule Reminders

• Guest Speakers
• Today, Mr. Alberto Espinosa, CEO of Mayor Maynot
  Deliver, Inc. to discuss
• ASP and web databases
• Technical aspects of IT Exercise III
• Feb 24, Mr. Rob Trollinger, Principal, AT
  Kearney, to discuss
• Developing an I/T Strategy

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IT Exercise III Web Business Opportunity

• Scenario
• You (and your team) own a small, high quality
  restaurant in the East End (of Pittsburgh)
• Current focus on individual on-site diners
• Decline in on-site dining clientele
• Offer limited delivery service

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IT Exercise III Web Business Opportunity

• The Opportunity
• Proposal from Mr. Espinosa, CEO of Mayor Maynot
  Deliver, Inc.
• New Internet Start-up company
• East Ends only Internet-enabled multi-restaurant
  ordering and delivery service
• Delivers high quality food (generally not fast
  food) from best restaurants to homes, offices,
  and hotels
• Customer Profile higher incomes, professionals,
  business travelers, graduate students, etc. Also
  larger groups or corporate customers.

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IT Exercise III Web Business Opportunity

• Mayor Maynot Deliver, Inc.
• provides its own delivery service (customers
  charged a flat 15 delivery fee)
• Menu items at same prices as in the restaurants
• Restaurants listed in companys web directory
  (where customers can order online on web pages
  created by each restaurant)
• Restaurants included in companys delivery
  service
• Restaurants must pay a monthly fee of about
  (3-5) of total sales volume ordered over the web
  each month

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Mayor Maynot Deliver, Inc. Website

• Prototype web site for company at
  http//softrade-11.gsia.cmu.edu/data/restaurants.h
  tml
• Each restaurant responsible for creating and
  updating its menu order page and information in
  the companys database
• Company responsible for creating and maintaining
  other pages on the web site

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Your Assignment

• Evaluate this business opportunity and decide
  whether to accept or reject it
• Technical Portion
• Register your restaurant name and type on the
  companys web site
• Register up to 20 different menu items and prices
  for your restaurant on the company web site
• Create a web order page for your restaurant using
  FrontPage (see and follow exactly the technical
  instructions!)
• Your web page should be attractive to customers
  and should be functional in terms of taking orders

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Your Assignment

• Technical Portion (contd)
• Address the following questions
• Strengths/weaknesses of the companys design for
  the web site
• What functionality to add and why
• What technical concerns do you have and how
  should Mayor Maynot Deliver, Inc. address them

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Your Assignment

• Strategic Portion
• Address the following questions
• How could this opportunity improve competitive
  advantage for your restaurant
• What strategic challenges/threats does this
  opportunity represent
• How would your business change if you accepted
  this opportunity
• Will you accept this opportunity
• What would you want to modify or change in the
  proposal

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Web Fair

• Assignment due at the beginning of class on
  Thursday, March 2, 2000
• Create a web page on your team web with your
  answers to the technical and strategic questions.
  This page should have a hyperlink pointing to
  your restaurant order page
• Your team will demonstrate your restaurant order
  page at the web fair and will explain to Prof.
  Slaughter whether youve decided to accept Mayor
  Maynot Delivers proposal and why

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Enabling Transaction Processing on an Intranet

• Static vs. Dynamic HTML
• Need for scripts
• Server-side scripting
• CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
• Scripts (Perl, C)
• Client-side scripting
• Java (applets), Java Script
• Microsoft VB Script

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Dynamic HTML UsingActive Server Pages (ASP)

• Alberto Espinosa
• MIS 45-870

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Static HTML and the HTTP Protocol

• HTTP ? designed as a doc fetching protocol
• 1. User clicks on URL with HTTP protocol
• 2. Browser requests HTML page to web site
• 3. Server finds/sends HTML page to client as is
• 4. Clients browser interprets HTML and presents
  page to user

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Dynamic HTML Overcoming HTTP Shortcomings

• HTML is static text (info) and tags (formatting)
• Corporate information is dynamic
• If info changes ? HTML pages need to change
• How to customize displays for different users?

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Dynamic HTML

• 2 Solutions to Static HTML
• 1. Client side scripting
• Further processing by browser after page is
  received
• 2. Server side scripting
• Prior processing by web server before page is sent

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Client Side Scripting

• Useful for interactive use with user
• Browser needs to support the scripting language
  used
• Most popular JavaScript, VB Script
• Embed scripts in HTML page
• HTML stuff
• ltSCRIPT LANGUAGE JavaScriptgt
• script code
• lt/SCRIPTgt
• More HTML stuff

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Server Side Scripting

• Useful to interact with data stored on the server
  (databases, images, etc.)
• And when centralized processing is needed
• Sever needs to support the scripting language
• Most popular
• CGI ? Perl (Unix)
• ASP ? VB Script or JScript (Windows)

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Server Side Scripting (contd)

• Embedded scripts in HTML page
• HTML code
• lt (marks the beginning of ASP
  script)
• ...
• ASP script code
• ....
• gt (marks the end of ASP script)
• More HTML code
• lt more ASP gt
• Etc.

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Dynamic HTML with ASP

• 1. Client clicks on URL with .asp file
• 2. Web server notices file extension .asp
• Note Only Windows NT IIS web server supports ASP
• 3. Server then processes .asp file
• 4. Server creates a new HTML file
• 5. Contains all original HTML stuff
• 6. Plus processing results from ASP code
• 7. Dynamically formatted as HTML
• 8. Server sends the new HTML file to client

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Dynamic HTML with ASP
ASP code on server
HTML code sent to client
Same

• ltH3gtWelcome to my pagelt/H3gt
• ltH2gtHere is my product listlt/H2gt
• lt Start ASP code
• Open a database connection
• SQL queries to database
• Copy results to a record set
• Display records one at a time
• Close database connection
• gt End ASP code
• ltPgtThank you very much for inquiring about our
  products

ltH3gtWelcome to my pagelt/H3gt ltH2gtHere is my
product listlt/H2gt ltPgt ltBgtProduct
Pricelt/Bgt ltHRgt ltPgtHammer ... 8.50 ltPgtPliers
. 7.79 ltPgtScrewdriver .. 4.50 ltPgtPower
Drill .. 49.99 ltPgtChainsaw 95.95 ltPgtWrench
.. 6.50 ltPgtThank you very much for inquiring
about our products
Dynamically generated by ASP
Same
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ASP, SQL, Databases, and HTML
Web Server MS IIS Web Server
HTML
ASP
Databases
Client Browser Internet Explorer Netscape
Navigator
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Server Requirements

• You cant do ASP on Andrew
• ASP requires an MS Windows environment
• NT Server with Internet Information Server (IIS)
• NT Workstation with Peer Web Services (10-user
  connection limit)
• Win95/98 with Personal Web Server

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Common Uses of ASP

• Register as a client (insert a record in
  database)
• Products services listing (query database)
• Place orders (inserting records in database)
• Track order status (query database)
• Tech support (query a knowledge base)
• Fill out a survey (insert record(s) in database)

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Very Common

• Feed data to an ASP script using HTML forms
• This is typically what the Submit button does
• HTML forms contain items data with field names
• Which are passed to ASP scripts for processing
• Often used to embed an SQL command
• To query a database (product list, etc.)
• Or to insert records in a database (orders, etc.)

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Example--ASP on Server (Query)

• lt Set conn Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connectio
  n")
• conn.open "orders "
• Set rs_customers Conn.Execute("SELECT
  clientID, clientName,_
• shipAddress, telephone FROM clients") gt
• ltIMG SRC"music22.gif"gtltBgtAlberto's Music
  Instruments, Inc.ltpgt
• ltTABLE BORDER"0"gtltBgtCustomer Listlt/Bgt
• ltTRgtltTHgtClientIDlt/THgt ltTHgtClient Namelt/THgt
  ltTHgtShipping Addresslt/THgt ltTHgtTelephonelt/THgtlt/TRgt
  
• lt do while Not rs_customers.eof gt
• ltTRgtltTDgtlt rs_customers.Fields("clientID")
  gtlt/TDgt
• ltTDgtlt rs_customers.Fields("clientName"
  ) gtlt/TDgt
• ltTDgtlt rs_customers.Fields("shipAddress
  ")gtlt/TDgt
• ltTDgtlt rs_customers.Fields("telephone")
  gtlt/TDgtlt/TRgt
• lt rs_customers.MoveNext
• loop
• Conn.Close gt
• lt/TABLEgtlt/BODYgtlt/HTMLgt

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Example--Response to Browser

• ltIMG SRC"music22.gif"gtltBgtAlberto's Music
  Instruments, Inc.ltpgt
• ltTABLE BORDER"0"gtltBgtCustomer Listlt/Bgt
• ltTRgtltTHgtClientIDlt/THgt ltTHgtClient Namelt/THgt
• ltTHgtShipping Addresslt/THgt ltTHgtTelephonelt/THgt
  lt/TRgt
• ltTRgtltTDgtjoseelt/TDgt
• ltTDgtAlberto Espinosalt/TDgt
• ltTDgtSchenley Park, GSIA Building, 20lt/TDgt
• ltTDgt412-268-3681ltBRgtlt/TDgt lt/TRgt
• ltTRgtltTDgtsandylt/TDgt
• ltTDgtSandra Slaughterlt/TDgt
• ltTDgt5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh PA
  15213lt/TDgt
• ltTDgt412-268-3681ltBRgtlt/TDgt lt/TRgt
• etc.
• lt/TABLEgtlt/BODYgtlt/HTMLgt

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Example--ASP on Server (Data Input)

• ltBgtCustomer Registrationlt/FONTgtlt/BgtltPgt
• ltFORM ACTION
• "http//softrade-11.gsia.cmu.edu/data/custom
  erSubmit.asp"
• METHOD"POST" ENCTYPE"x-www-form-urlencoded
  "gt
• ltTABLEgt
• ltTRgtltTDgtPlease enter a customer ID (4 to 16
  characters)lt/TDgt
• ltTDgtltINPUT TYPE"text" SIZE"35"
  NAME"CustomerID" VALUE" "gt
• lt/TDgtlt/TRgt
• ltTRgtltTDgtPlease enter your namelt/TDgt
• ltTDgtltINPUT TYPE"text" SIZE"35"
  NAME"CustName" VALUE" "gt
• lt/TDgtlt/TRgt
• etc.
• lt/TABLEgt
• ltINPUT TYPE"submit" VALUE"Submit"gtlt/TDgtlt/TRgt
• lt/TABLEgtlt/FORMgtlt/BODYgtlt/HTMLgt

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Example--ASP on Server (Data Input)

• lt!-- customerSubmit.asp --gt
• ltHTMLgtltBODYgtltCENTERgt
• lt Set conn Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Connectio
  n")
• conn.open "orders
• customerId Request.Form("customerId")
• custName Request.Form("custName") . etc.
• Set rs Conn.Execute("INSERT INTO Clients
  (ClientID, CustName, _
• etc. VALUES ('" customerID "', '"
  customerName "', _
• '" shippingAddress "', '" phone "')
  ")
• Conn.Close gt
• Your Customer Registration has been
  processed!ltBRgt
• Thank you very muchltBRgt
• ltA HREF"http//softrade-11.gsia.cmu.edu/data/orde
  rs.html"gt
• Back to main pagelt/Agtnbspnbspnbsp

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(No Transcript)
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IT Exercise III

• A restaurant food delivery service company
• Participant restaurants subscribe to service
• Company developed a web site using ASP to let
• 1. Restaurants subscribe and enter menu items
• 2. Customers place orders
• Web server runs on Windows NT with IIS
• Participant restaurants need to produce their
  HTML pages with order forms
• Which dont need to run on IIS (nor ASP)
• But need to feed data to existing ASP scripts

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Technical Process for IT Exercise III
Internet Explorer, FrontPage
Internet Explorer, FrontPage
Internet Explorer, FrontPage
5. Check Orders
1. Register Restaurant Name, Menu Items
2. Create a Team Menu Order Page (menu.htm) using
FrontPage
4. Place Orders Using Team Menu Page
3. Upload Team Menu Order Page
Internet Explorer, FrontPage
Internet Explorer, FrontPage
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FrontPage Demo

• How to use FrontPage to create order forms
• Create single web page (not a web) and call it
  menu.htm
• Create a form on the page for menu items and
  quantities
• Create a form to allow input of customer name
• Embed a hidden field for your restaurant
• Direct data to ASP script for processing into the
  database
• Allow for exit without placing order
• Upload your web page using FTP to your teams
  restaurant sub-directory on andrew server
• (/afs/andrew.cmu.edu/course/45/870/teamXX/restaur
  ant)

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Case AnalysisSonoco IT Diagnosis

• Background
• Questions
• Create an IS component matrix to
• document the IS activities and resources in
  Sonocos order fulfillment and other information
  systems

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Sonocos IT DiagnosisThe IS Component Matrix
IS Activities and Resources Hardware Software People Data Informa-tion Products
Input
Processing
Output
Storage
Control
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Case AnalysisSonoco IT Diagnosis

• Questions
• Using your IS component matrix
• identify some opportunities for e-commerce for
  Sonoco based upon their IS activities
• describe how Sonoco should adapt or extend its IS
  resources to realize these opportunities

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Case AnalysisSonoco IT Diagnosis

• Questions
• Describe the role of IT in Sonoco
• in the late 1980s and early 1990s
• in the new business strategies
• in an e-commerce marketplace

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Use of IT for Competitive Advantage
ITs Role in Creating Competitive Advantage
Level 1 Strategic
Level 2 Offensive
Level 3 Defensive
Level 4 Cost-Justified
Level 5 Controlled
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Creating and Sustaining Competitive Advantage
using IT

• It is not easy to use IT to gain and sustain
  competitive advantage
• Examples
• Why?

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Barriers to Transforming IT from a Problem to
Opportunity

• Difficulties in streamlining and IT-enabling
  business processes
• Culture gap between business and IS people
• Rapid pace of technological change
• Large, persistent difficulties of integrating
  incompatible IT components into a platform

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Winners and Losers in Sustaining Strategic
Advantage with IT
HIGH
Sustained Winners
Relative Profitability
Sustained Losers
LOW
LOW
Relative Market Share
HIGH
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What are the Drivers of Sustained Competitive
Advantage from IT?
Firm
Environment/ Industry
Management
Sustainability