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Asper School of Business - MBA Program 6150
Management of Information Systems
Technology April-June 2007 Instructor Bob Travica
Class 1 The Importance of Information Technology
Systems Management
Updated April 2007
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Outline

• Importance of Management of Information
  Technology Systems
• Concepts of IT and of IS
• What ISes affect your professional life?
  (practice link, discussion)
• Organizational and IS themes Trends
• Historical development of IS function in
  organizations
• Concepts of data, information, and knowledge
• Guidelines in study of Management of Information
  Technology Systems
• Summary

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Importance of Management of Information
Technology Systems

• Management of information technology (IT) and
• information systems (ISes) is similar to
  Management
• Information Systems (MIS)

• Managing IT/IS as a management vehicle for
  accomplishing
• organizational goals (strategic perspective)
• vs.

• Managing IT/IS at operational level

• IT/IS as asset, strategic weapon, tool,
  nervous system,
• commodity

More
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• What do we mean by IT?
• Any tool for manipulating information in broad
  sense electronic
• (computer software and hardware, paper trail)

• What do we mean by IS?
• (see next slide)

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What do we mean by information system (IS)?
Information Technology (IT) (Computer Other
Hardware, Computer Software)
Data, Information, Knowledge
Use Procedures
Users (Organizational members Managers,
Professionals, Clerks)
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What ISes affect your professional life?

• What do the ISes support?

• How do the ISes affect you?

• What is good about the systems?

• What could be improved?

These question can also initiate your thinking
about a topic of your paper.
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Contemporary Organizational/IS Themes

• Electronic Commerce/Business (Internet, linking
  back-end
• systems to Internet interface b/w organization
  and environment)

• Globalization (markets and trade global
  computer networks)

• Changing perceptions of time (what is present
  real time data)

• Focus on intellectual capital, knowledge
  (knowledge tech,
• communication tech.)

• Changes in organizations (teams, flattening, any
  time/any space-operations groupware,
  communication tech.)

More
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• Organization webs, alliances, ecosystems (EDI,
  networks, ERP)

• Deregulation, competition, privatization of
  telecommunications

• Demand-Pull (product customization/personalizatio
  n
• support of programmable machinery)

• Customer-centric and network-centric business
  (tech. support)

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Technological Trends

• Moores Law (IT capabilities double in 17
  month-intervals)

• Home-grown software, outsourced development
  (off-shoring)
• off-the-shelf products, Application Software
  Providers

• Proprietary vs. open standards

• Internet-centric ISes (storage, distributed
  services, virtualization)

• Systems integration old/new topic (1980s, ERP
  systems intranet)

• Wireless mobile systems

More
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Development of IS Function (MeadWestvaco case)

• - Centralized mainframe data processing centre
  (1960s)
• Decentralization (mini-computers 1970s, PCs
  1980s, networks,
• Client-Server models)
• Recentralization (ERP)
• Transactions ? office work ? decision making ?
• professional work
• Role of IS function Support to operations ?
  Strategic business
• partner interfacing with business and
  vendors/outsourcing
• partners shared IT governance.

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Data, Information, Knowledge

• Conceptual Relationships

simple just in textbooks ?
Data
Information (Meaningful data, meaning)
Knowledge (Complex whole of interconnected
information theories, conceptual maps,
procedures, experience)

• NOTE Term information also used in broad
  sense to mean
• data, meaning (information in narrower sense),
  knowledge

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Comparisons
Focus in IS Development
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Users
Organizational members that use IT, data /
information/ knowledge, and IS procedures.
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Guidelines in Study of Management of Information
Technology Systems (Strategic Alignment Model)
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Guidelines in Study of Management of Information
Technology Systems (Information View of
Organization IVO Framework, IVO Eye)

• IVO Eye builds on
• 1. Classic org. views

3. Sharper focus on information IT
4. New aspects at intersection of these three
2. Classic MIS issues
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Summary 1/4

• Managing IT/IS as a management at strategic
  level is the vehicle (strategic weapon,
  nervous system) for accomplishing
  organizational goals (effectiveness).
• Managing IT/IS at operational level (tool) is
  part and parcel of organizing and performing
  daily work in efficient manner.

• IT refers to machines, devices and simple tools
  for manipulating
• data/information. Thus manipulation includes
  creating, collecting,
• filtering, storing, organizing, transforming,
  transferring, and discarding.
• Examples are computer (our focus), overhead
  projector, paper and pencil.

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Summary 2/4

• IS is a whole consisted of IT, system
  procedures, and data that delivers information
  (meaningful data). (slide 5)

• IS users are important part of MIS (slide 5, 12)

• Information and knowledge are often neglected
  parts while IT is
• emphasized (a weakness of mainstream MIS
  textbooks including ours).
• By organizing and transforming data, computer
  contributes to
• meaningfulness of data. Still, meaning occurs
  only in human cognition.
• Similarly, computer can represent knowledge
  (e.g., a decision tree in
• expert systems) but knowledge is only in human
  brain (slides 5, 11, 12).

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Summary 3/4

• It is useful to think of ISes that affect your
  professional work, how they
• impact on you, and what their ups and dons are.
  This perspective prepares
• you for this course and for its term paper
  assignment in particular.
• Discussed example Email systems are part of
  everyday job
• and may pose problems, such as email inflation.

• Modern IT/IS are involved in key trends of our
  time, including
• e-commerce, globalization, changing perceptions
  of time, and significant
• changes in organizing (slides 7, 8).

• Current technological trends include Internet,
  Internet-centric systems, and wireless
  communications.

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Summary 4/4

• The organization of the IS function in firms has
  moved through
• several historical stages outlined in
  MeadWestvaco case (slide 10).

• Various analytical models and frameworks can be
  used for
• understanding the relationship between IT/IS and
  organization.
• - A model for studying IS from a strategic
  stance (slide 14).
• - A framework showing relationships b/w
  organization/management
• aspects and IS issues (slide 15).

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