ITIS101 IT & BUSINESS

PROCESSES

Lecture 2
Global E-Business and Collaboration

Textbook Reading:
Chapter 2
Learning Objectives

• What are business processes? How are they related

to information systems?
• How do systems serve the different management
groups in a business, and how do systems that link
the enterprise improve organisational performance?
• Why are systems for collaboration and social
business so important, and what technologies do
they use?
• What is the role of the information systems function
in a business?
Business Processes (1 of 2)
• Business processes
• The collection of activities required to produce a product or service.
• These activities are supported by flows of material, information,
and knowledge among the participants in business pro-cesses.
• Logically related set of tasks that define how specific business tasks
are performed
• The unique ways in which organizations coordinate work,
information, and and knowledge, and the ways in which
management chooses to coordinate work.
• Businesses: Can be seen as collection of business processes
• Business processes may be assets or liabilities
Business Processes (1 of 2)

• Many business processes are tied to a specific

functional area.
• For example, the sales and marketing function is
responsible for identifying customers, and the human
resources function is responsible for hiring employees.
• Other business processes cross many different functional
areas and require coordination across departments.
• For instance, consider the seemingly simple business
process of fulfilling a customer order (see Figure 2.1).
Figure 2.1: The Order Fulfillment
Process
Business Processes (1 of 2)
• Examples of functional business processes(see table
2.1)
• Manufacturing and production
• Assembling the product
• Sales and marketing-- Identifying customers
• Finance and accounting
• Creating financial statements
• Human resources--Hiring employees
How Information Technology
Improves Business Processes
• Increasing efficiency of existing processes
• Automating steps that were manual
• Example: checking a client’s credit or generating an
invoice and shipping order.
• Enabling entirely new processes
• Initiating, Redesigning and Implementation
• Changing flow of information
• Replacing sequential steps with parallel steps
• Eliminating delays in decision making
• Supporting new business models
Relation between Information
Technology and Business
Processes
• Effective business processes and IT systems share
the same goals
improving efficiency,
reducing cost,
enhancing customer service and
providing objective data to make educated business
decisions.
Information Technology and
Business Processes
• The following video will show how Amazon Drone
Delivery Will Work.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzhvR4wm__M
Systems for Different Management
Groups (1 of 2)
• A business firm has systems to support different groups or
levels of management.
• These systems include transaction processing systems and
systems for business intelligence.
• Transaction processing systems
• Serve operational managers and staff
• Perform and record daily routine transactions necessary
to conduct business
• Examples: sales order entry, payroll, shipping
• Allow managers to monitor status of operations and
relations with external environment
• Serve predefined, structured goals and decision making
Figure 2: A Payroll TPS
Systems for Different
Management Groups (2 of 2)
• Systems for business intelligence
• Data and software tools for organizing and analysing
data
• Used to help managers and users make improved
decisions
• Management information systems
• Decision support systems
• Executive support systems
Management Information
Systems
• Designates a specific category of information
systems serving middle management.
• Provide reports on firm’s current performance, based
on data
• from TPS
• Provide answers to routine questions with predefined
procedure for answering them
• This information is used to monitor and control the
business and predict future performance.
• Typically have little analytic capability
Figure 2.3: How Management
Information Systems Obtain Their
Data from the Organisation’s TPS
Figure 2.4: Sample MIS Report
Decision Support Systems
• Focus on problems that are unique and rapidly
changing, for which the procedure for arriving at a
solution may not be fully predefined in advance.
• Serve middle management
• Support nonroutine decision making
• Example: What is the impact on production
schedule if December sales doubled?
• May use external information as well TPS / MIS
data
Decision Support Systems
• Model driven DSS
• Voyage-estimating systems
• Data driven DSS
• Example--large ski resort companies such as
Intrawest and Vail Resorts collect and store large
amounts of customer data from call centres, lodging
and dining reservations, ski schools, and ski
equipment rental stores. They use special software to
analyse these data to determine the value, revenue
potential, and loyalty of each customer to help
managers make better decisions about how to target
their marketing programs.
Figure 2.5: Voyage-Estimating
Decision-Support System
Executive Support Systems(ESS)
• Support senior management
• Address non routine decisions
• Requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight
• No agreed-on procedure for arriving at a solution.
• ESS present graphs and data from many sources through an
interface that is easy for senior managers to use.
• Often the information is delivered to senior executives through a
portal, which uses a web interface to present integrated
personalized business content.
• Incorporate data about external events (e.g., new tax laws or
competitors) as well as summarized information from internal
MIS and DSS
• Example: Digital dashboard with real-time view of firm’s
financial performance
Systems for Linking the Enterprise—
Enterprise Applications
• Systems for linking the enterprise
• Span functional areas
• Focus on execute business processes across the firm
• Include all levels of management.
• Enterprise applications help businesses become
more flexible and productive by coordinating their
business processes more closely and integrating
groups of processes so they focus on efficient
management of resources and customer service.
Systems for Linking the
Enterprise—Enterprise
Applications
• Four major applications--Each of these enterprise
applications integrates a related set of functions and
business processes to enhance the performance of
the organization as a whole
• Enterprise systems
• Supply chain management systems
• Customer relationship management systems
• Knowledge management systems
Figure 6: Enterprise Application
Architecture
Enterprise Systems

• Also called enterprise resource planning (ERP)

systems
• Integrate data from key business processes into
single system
• Speed communication of information throughout
firm
• Enable greater flexibility in responding to customer
requests, greater accuracy in order fulfillment
• Enable managers to assemble overall view of
operations
Supply Chain Management
(SCM) Systems 1
• Manage relationships with suppliers, purchasing
firms, distributors, and logistics companies
• Manage shared information about orders,
production, inventory levels, and so on
• Goal is to move correct amount of product from
source to point of consumption as quickly as
possible and at lowest cost
• Type of interorganisational system: Automating
flow of information across organisational
boundaries
Supply Chain Management
(SCM) Systems 2
Supply Chain Management
(SCM) Systems 3
• The following link will show you supply chain
technology operation in Coles Supermarket
• myWizard AiOPs for Supply Chain Technology Op
erations at Coles Supermarket HD 1080 WEB H264
4000 – YouTube
• Or,
https://youtu.be/F8WXKCA5bhg?si=viV0tdP5h8e
mRNKl
Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) Systems 1
• Help manage relationship with customers
• Coordinate business processes that deal with
customers in sales, marketing, and customer service
• Goals:
• Optimise revenue
• Improve customer satisfaction
• Increase customer retention
• Identify and retain most profitable customers
• Increase sales
Customer Relationship
Management (CRM) Systems 2
• The following link will show you why so many
companies use Salesforce CRM
• Why Do So Many Companies Use Salesforce? Expl
aining the ROI of CRM | Salesforce Explained - Yo
uTube
Knowledge Management Systems
(KMS)
• Manage processes for capturing and applying
knowledge and expertise
• Collect relevant knowledge and make it available
wherever needed in the enterprise to improve
business processes and management decisions
• Link firm to external sources of knowledge
Intranets and Extranets

• Technology platforms that increase integration and

expedite the flow of information
• Intranets:
• Internal networks based on Internet standards
• Often are private access area in company’s Web site
• Extranets:
• Company Web sites accessible only to authorized
vendors and suppliers
• Facilitate collaboration
E-Business, E-Commerce, and E-
Government
• E-business
• Use of digital technology and Internet to drive major
business processes
• E-commerce
• Subset of e-business
• Buying and selling goods and services through Internet
• E-government
• Using Internet technology to deliver information and
services to citizens, employees, and businesses
• For example, citizens in some states can renew their
driver’s licenses or apply for unemployment benefits online
E-Business, E-Commerce, and E-
Government
• The following link will show you how Estonia
become the most advanced digital government in
the world
• The Most Advanced Digital Government in the Wor
ld - YouTube
What is Collaboration?

• Collaboration
• Working with others to achieve shared and explicit goals.
• Short lived, lasting a few minutes, or long term
• Informal or formal (teams)
• Growing importance of collaboration
• Changing nature of work
• Growth of professional work—“interaction jobs”
• Changing organisation of the firm
• Changing scope of the firm
• Emphasis on innovation
• Changing culture of work
What is Social Business?

• Social business
• Use of social networking platforms (internal and
external) to engage employees, customers, and suppliers
• Aims to deepen interactions and expedite
information sharing
• “Conversations” to strengthen bonds with
customers
• Requires information transparency
• Seen as way to drive operational efficiency, spur
innovation, accelerate decision making
Business Benefits of
Collaboration and Teamwork
• Investment in collaboration technology can return large
rewards, especially in sales and marketing, research and
development
• Productivity: Sharing knowledge and resolving problems
• Quality: Faster resolution of quality issues
• Innovation: More ideas for products and services
• Customer service: Complaints handled more rapidly
• Financial performance: Generated by improvements in
factors above
Figure 2.7: Requirements for
Collaboration
Building a Collaborative Culture and
Business Processes
• “Command and control” organisations
• The top leaders thought up all the really important matters and
then ordered lower-level employees to execute senior
management plans.
• The job of middle management supposedly was to pass
messages back and forth, up and down the hierarchy.
• Collaborative business culture
• Senior managers rely on teams of employees
• Policies, products, designs, processes, and systems rely on teams
• Teams are rewarded for their performance, and individuals are
rewarded for their performance in a team.
• The function of middle managers is to build the teams,
coordinate their work, and monitor their performance.
Tools and Technologies for
Collaboration and Social Business
• E-mail and instant messaging (IM)
• Wikis
• Virtual worlds
• Collaboration and social business platforms
• Virtual meeting systems (telepresence)
• Cloud collaboration services (Google Drive, Google
Docs, etc.)
• Microsoft SharePoint and IBM Notes
• Enterprise social networking tools
Checklist for Managers: Evaluating
and Selecting Collaboration and
Social Software Tools
• Time/space matrix
• Six steps in evaluating software tools
• Identify your firm’s collaboration challenges
• Identify what kinds of solutions are available
• Analyse available products’ cost and benefits
• Evaluate security risks
• Consult users for implementation and training issues
• Evaluate product vendors
Figure 2.8: The Time/Space
Collaboration and Social Tool
Matrix
The Information Systems
Department
• Information systems department is the formal
organizational unit responsible for information
technology services.
• Often headed by chief information officer (CIO)
• Other senior positions include chief security officer
(CSO), chief knowledge officer (CKO), chief privacy
officer (CPO), chief data officer (CDO)
• Programmers
• Systems analysts
• Information systems managers
• End users
Organising the Information Systems
Function
• Larger companies will have a separate information systems
department, which may be organized along several different lines,
depending on the nature and interests of the firm.
• A very small company will not have a formal information systems
group.
• IT governance
• Strategies and policies for using IT in the organisation
• It specifies the decision rights and framework for
accountability to ensure that the use of information
technology supports the organization’s strategies and
objectives.
Summary
• Business processes
• Logically related set of tasks that define how specific business
• tasks are performed
• May be tied to functional area or be cross-functional
• Information Technology Improves Business Processes by Increasing
efficiency of existing processes & enabling new processes
• Systems for Different Management Groups - Management Information
systems, Decision support systems, Executive support systems
• ERP Systems, SCM, CRM, KMS
• E-Business, E-Commerce, and E-Government