ISYS 2006 Introduction

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ISYS 2006 Introduction

• Week 1 Lecture 1

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Course structure
This course will provide an introduction to some
of the critical aspects and dimensions of
information systems in contemporary
organisations. The content will be presented
in three modules  

1. Basic concepts in Information Systems
2. The technology of Information Systems
3. Some managerial aspects of Information Systems

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Administration

• Lecturers
• Hugh Springford
• Room G82A
• Email address hugh_at_it.usyd.edu.au
• Consultation hours Friday 1200 to 100pm
• Dr Liaquat Hossain
• Room G82C
• Email address lhossain_at_it.usyd.edu.au
• Consultation hours tba
• Course assistant -
• Trevor Simpson
• Email address tasnmeg_at_bigpond.net.au

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Assessment

• Final exam worth 60 of the total mark (you must
  attain a minimum of 40)
• Two individual assignments, each worth 15 of the
  final mark
• Two group tutorial presentations, each worth 5
  of the final mark.

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School policies

• All students must read and understand the
  Schools policy on academic honesty in the
  printed or on-line handbook at
• http//www.it.usyd.edu.au/current_ugrad/handbook20
  04/policies.htmlacadhonesty
• The important issue is to acknowledge the source
  you are quoting, whether that be a book or a web
  page
• You should also read the policy regarding Special
  consideration due to illness or misadventure

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Text Book
Management Information Systems Managing the
Digital firm Kenneth C. Laudon Jane P
Laudon Eighth edition 2004 Pearson/Prentice Hall
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Other course resources

• Course Web page
• Course outline
• Lecture slides
• Tutorial questions
• Readings
• URLs for relevant information
• Message board

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What you should learn this week

• The nature of organisations, and the challenges
  that face organisations today
• The difference between data, information and
  knowledge
• The definition of an Information System and its
  use within an organisation

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The nature of organisations, and the challenges
that face organisations today
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What is an organisation?

• Identifiable body or institution
• With a defined purpose
• Having resources of land, capital, labour and
  information/knowledge
• Usually having a defined legal structure
• Sometimes being a part of a larger organisation

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Examples of organisations

• University of Sydney
• School of Information Technologies
• Commonwealth Bank of Australia
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
• IBM
• Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
• NSW Department of Environment Conservation
• NSW Government
• Catholic Church
• RPA Hospital
• Drummoyne Rowing Club

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Can you suggest another common characteristics of
organisations?
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A complex but standardised method of
operating.They are systematic, orThey have
systems, or perhaps They are a system!
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An organisation is bounded, and exists within an
environment.
Owners
Staff Capital Systems to achieve a
Purpose Information/Knowledge Legal structure
Customers
Suppliers
Government
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Organisations

• OPERATING PROCEDURES Standard Business
  Processes, organisational routines and rules for
  action
• POLITICS Factions and interest groups and the
  struggle for power and authority occasionally
  involving conflict.
• CULTURE Fundamental assumptions and beliefs
  about most aspects of the org. typically taken
  for granted and rarely discussed.

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Characteristics of organisations

• PEOPLE Managers, knowledge workers, data
  workers, production or service workers
• FORMAL STRUCTURE Organization chart,
  distribution of work, authority and
  responsibility, grouping of specialists, reward
  systems, products, geography

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Four major changes that challenge the business
environment

• Globilisation
• Transformation of industrial economies
• Transformation of enterprises
• Emergence of the digital firm

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Globilisation

• Globilisation is the the free movement of
• Capital
• Trade goods services
• People
• Implications
• Management in a global marketplace
• Global competition
• Global work groups
• Global delivery systems

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Transformation of Industrial economies

• Information based white collar workers in the
  USA constitute 60 of the workforce (sales,
  insurance, office, law, healthcare, financial
  services etc)
• Knowledge is a strategic asset
• Time based competition
• Shorter product life

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Transformation of the enterprise

• Flattening of the management structure
• Decentralisation
• Location independent
• Collaborative workgroups virtual teams

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Emergence of the Digital firm

• Digital relationship with customers, suppliers
  and employees
• E-Commerce
• Core business processes accomplished via networks
• Knowledge management
• The system extends beyond organisational
  boundaries

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Data, Information and Knowledge
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Knowledge
Information
Data
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Knowledge
Information
Your speedometer shows you are driving at 90kph.
Data
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Knowledge
You are driving at 90kph, and You are in a 50kph
speed zone.
Information
Your speedometer shows you are driving at 90kph.
Data
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You know you should slow down, because you are
exceeding the speed limit by 40kph, with a
probability that you will be caught and fined
230 and lose 6 points off your licence
Knowledge
You are driving at 90kph, and You are in a 50kph
speed zone.
Information
Data
Your speedometer shows you are driving at 90kph.
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Data

• Gives us one or more pieces of data
• By themselves, do not tell us anything
  particularly useful.
• Examples
• Invoice 12345 is for 9,000
• ISYS2006 is a course code
• The salary is 40,000

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Information

• Two or more bits of related data
• Where the relationship tells us more than the sum
  of the parts
• Or it has been summarised or filtered in some
  process
• Examples
• Invoice 12345 is from IBM, for 3 new computers
  and the total is 9,000
• The average starting salary at Accenture for an
  IS graduate is 40,000
• There were 100 IS graduates from Sydney
  University in 2003

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Knowledge

• Two or more pieces of information
• That have been obtained from unrelated sources
• And related using judgement or experience
• Giving a new insight or understanding
• That may have a degree of uncertainty
• That could guide decisions or actions

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The definition of an Information System and its
use within an organisation
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What is an Information System?

• An information system (IS) is a pre-established
  set of inter-related components that collect,
  process, store, and distribute information, to
  support decision making and control in an
  organisation. Laudon Laudon
• Our primary interest in this course is on
  computer-based IS.
• An IS is almost always a component in a broader
  system.

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Information Technologies (IT) Information System
(IS)

• Information Technologies (IT) or
  Information Communication Technologies (ICT) is
  an umbrella term used for a wide range of
  computer hardware, software, and
  telecommunications technologies,
• Information Systems (IS) refers to specific
  systems that use one or more of those information
  technologies
• IT provides the platform for an Information
  System

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Information systems can be

• Operational
• part of the day to day business
• often part of a larger system that has physical
  elements eg a wholesalers delivery system that
  includes the movement of goods
• Managerial
• A feedback system for managing the business
• A system to support strategic and technical
  decisions
• A repository of the organisations knowledge

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Our delivery system
Customer
Our office
Purchase order
Invoice
Picking slip
Cash
Goods Delivery note
Our warehouse
Bank
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Information system components are

• Defined business processes, that are
• Manual, or
• Imbedded in application software
• Staff trained in the use of the system
• Application software that implements
• Some of the business processes
• The interface between the staff the computer
  system
• The technical platform, consisting of
• Workstations and servers
• Middleware system software
• Data storage devices and database management
  systems
• Networks
• Computer rooms

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The role of an IS within an organisation

• Operational humans invented writing numbers to
  manage trade
• Efficiency of operations
• Feedback to management
• Enabling the enterprise to meet the challenges of
  the new environment
• Enabling the enterprise to create a new business
  model

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Course content

• Today introduced some key concepts
• General systems theory
• Types of Information systems
• The Digital firm
• A case study of Dell as a digital firm
• Hardware The machine room
• Application software, middleware and systems
  software
• Networks, The Internet The Web

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Course content (cont.)

• A case study on developing a major system for US
  security
• IS design and implementation
• The business value of IT measuring productivity
• IS ethics and social impacts
• Data warehousing, decision support and knowledge
  management