Information Technology in the Digital Age

1. Chapter 1 Information Technology in the Digital Age

2. Learning Objectives • Describe the characteristics of the digital economy. • Recognize the relationships between business pressures, organizational responses, and information systems. • Identify the major pressures in the business environment & describe the major organizational responses to them. • Describe the role of I.T. in organizational activities. • Define computer-based information systems & I.T. • List the essentials of networked computing & Web-based systems.

3. Case: BMS enters the Digital Economy Problem: • Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) is a leading manufacture of pharmaceutical drugs, beauty and infant-food products. • They were struggling to stay ahead in the new digital economy. Solution: • BMS initiated multiple Web-based projects, overhauled its management structure, revamped its procurement and supply chain processes, and expanded its myriad of Web sites. Results: • BMS experienced over $100 million in annual savings just from e-procurement.

4. Lessons from the Case • Global competition drives even large corporations to find ways to reduce costs, increase productivity and improve customer service. • These efforts are best achieved by using Web-based systems. • The major initiatives that BMS embarked upon were: • Reduce costs by introducing an e-procurement system. • Increase sales by utilizing the Web. • Improve relationships with employees & customers.

5. EC & Networked Computing • Electronic commerce (EC) is the use of Web-based systems to support buying, selling, and customer service. • Click-and-mortar companies add some EC activities to their regular business. • Networked computing connects several computers and other electronic devices via telecommunication networks. • Informationtechnology (IT) refers to the collection of computer systems used by an organization.

6. The Digital Economy • The digital economyrefers to an economy that is based on digital technologies, including digital communication networks, computers, and software. • The digital economy is also sometimes called the Internet economy, the New economy, or the Web economy.

7. Old Economy You buy film at the store, insert it into your camera & take pictures. Once you complete the film, sometimes weeks or months after you began the roll, you take it to the store for processing. Go back to the store and pay for enlargements and duplications. Send photos to family and friends. New Economy Use a digital camera that can also take videos. No film is needed, and no processing required. You can see the results immediately & enlarge & print photos quickly. If your digital camera is connected to a wireless device (such as a palmtop computer or a cell phone) take pictures and see them within a few seconds. Old vs. New Economy: Photography

8. Digital Economy Business Models • Name-Your-Own-Price. Pioneered by Priceline.com, this model allows customers to state a price they are willing to pay for a product or service. • Dynamic Brokering.In the digital age customers can specify requirements for a service or a product. These specifications are broadcast over the Internet (“Webcasted”) to service providers in an automatic invitation to submit bids. • Reverse Auctions. Electronic reverse auctions are fast, they reduce administrative costs by as much as 85 %, & products’ prices can be 5 - 20 % lower.

9. Digital Economy Business Models (cont.) • Affiliate marketing is an arrangement in which marketing partners place a banner of a company, such as Amazon.com, on their Web site. • Group Purchasing.Anyone can pay less per unit when buying more units. Discounts are usually available for quantity purchases. • E-marketplaces and Exchanges. Since 1999, thousands of electronic marketplaces, of different varieties, have sprung up.

10. Major Business Pressures

11. Rapid and inexpensive communication and transportation modes increase the magnitude of international trade even further. Market Pressures • Global Economy & Strong Competition. Global competition is intensified as governments become involved through the use of subsidies, tax policies, import/export regulations & incentives.

12. Changing Nature of the Workforce.  The workforce is becoming more diversified, with more females, single parents, minorities, and handicapped persons working in all types of positions. Powerful Customers.  Consumer sophistication & expectations increase as customers become more knowledgeable about the availability and quality of products and services. Market Pressures(cont.)

13. Technological Innovation & Obsolescence. Some of today’s state-of-the-art products may be obsolete tomorrow. Thus, technology accelerates the competitive forces. Information Overload.  The amount of information available on the Internet more than doubles every year. The management of information is critical. Technology Pressures

14. Social Responsibility.  Issues range from the environment to education. Government Regulations. Regulation issues involve health, safety, environmental control, and equal opportunity. Government Deregulation.Deregulation can be a blessing to one company but a curse to another company. Ethical Issues. Business ethics relates to standards of right and wrong in business practices. Societal Pressures (cont.)

15. Organizational Framework

16. Organizational Responses • Organizations need to respond to business, societal and technical pressures with critical response activities. • A typical industry-level response to the digital economy is disintermediation, or the elimination of intermediary organizations. • Organizations can also take proactivemeasures, to create a change in the market place. • e.g., exploiting opportunities created by external pressures.

17. Organizations’ Major Responses • Strategic systems for competitive advantage • Continuous improvement efforts • Business process reengineering (BPR) • Business alliances • Electronic commerce

18. Organizations’ Major Responses • Strategic Systemsprovide organizations with strategies to increase their market share, better negotiate with suppliers, or stop competitors. • Continuous Improvement Effortsaim to improve a company’s productivity and quality. Examples include: • Improved productivity Managing enterprise data • Just-in-time (JIT) Innovation and creativity • Total quality management  Change management • Knowledge management Customer service

19. Organizations’ Major Responses • Business Process Reengineering refers to the introduction of a major innovation in an organization’s structure & the way it conducts business. • The major areas in which IT supports BPR are the following; • Reducing cycle time and time to market. • Empowerment of employees and collaborative work.  • Customer-focused approach and CRM. • Restructuring and team-based structure.

20. Organizations’ Major Responses • Business Alliances.Many companies realize that alliances with other companies, even competitors, can be very beneficial. • Temporary jointventure = companies form a special company for a specific, limited-time mission. • Electronic Commerce. Doing business electronically is the newest and perhaps most promising strategy that many companies can pursue.

21. Case: IT Shortens Time to Market Problem: • In order to assure quality, and minimize risk, the FDA requires companies to conduct extensive research & testing, which can take up to 10 years. Solution: • Several software companies enable document scanning into databases that saves hours in research time. • The database is indexed and includes full-text-search and retrieval programs. Results: • The time to market of a new drug has been reduced by up to a year, saving hundreds of lives.

22. Information Systems • Information systems (IS) collect, process, store, analyze, and disseminate information for a specific purpose. • Information Systems are comprised of; • inputs(data, instructions) • outputs (reports, calculations) • feedbackmechanisms that controls the operation • an environment that it works within

23. Computer-Based Information System A computer-based information system (CBIS) is an information system that uses computer technology to perform some or all of its intended tasks.

24. Hardware is a set of devices such as processor, monitor, keyboard, and printer. Softwareis a set of programs that enable the hardware to process data. Database is a collection of related files, tables, relations, and so on, that stores data. Network is a connecting system that permits the sharing of resources between computers. Proceduresare the set of instructions about how to combine the above components. People are those individuals who work with the system or use its output. Components of Information Systems

25. Case: Managing Accounting Across Asia Problem: • Le Saunda Holding Company (Hong Kong) is a shoe manufacturer that manages 32 subsidiaries in four Asian countries. • Their financing and cash flow is a very complex process. Solution: • To cope with the rapid growth of the company, a sophisticated accounting software package was installed. Results: • The system is much more reliable & internal/ external auditing is easier. • All these improvements have led to a substantial growth in revenue and profits for the firm.

26. Case: the US Presidential Election 2000 • In addition to the various success stories, IT involves a number of failures, with the most famous being the Presidential Election of 2000. • 20-to-30 year old machines were used to count votes and generated the greatest election confusion ever encountered. • How can such election confusion be avoided in the future? • Perhaps the solution lies in digital-age voting machines, which displays a person’s vote on a computer screen and asks them to verify their choice.

27. General Technological Trends General trends within computing systems include the following: • Cost Performance Ratio • Object-Oriented Environment & Document Management.  • Networked Computing • Mobile Commerce • Integrated Home Computing.  • The Internet • Intranets and Extranets • Corporate Portals • The Networked Enterprise • Optical Networks

28. Cost Performance Ratio • Cost Performance Ratio: Improvement by a Factor of at Least 100. • In about 10 years, a computer will cost the same as its costs today but will be about 50 times more powerful. • Moore’s Law: • Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, predicted in 1965 that the processing power of silicon chips would double every 18 months.

29. Object-Oriented Environments • An object-oriented environment is an innovative way of programming and using computers that is expected to significantly reduce the cost of both building and maintaining information systems. • Object technology enables the development of self-contained units of software that can be shared, purchased, and/or reused. • The increased use of multimedia and object-oriented systems makes electronic document management one of the most important topics of IT.

30. Network Computing Network technology enables users to reach other users and access databases anywhere in the organization. • Metcalfe’s Law:Robert Metcalfe, a pioneer of computer networks, claims that the value of a network grows roughly in line with the square of the number of its users. • Kelly’s Extension: The value of the Internet is much larger, according to Kelly (1999). On the Internet we can make multiple simultaneous connections between groups of people.

31. Mobile-Commerce  M-commerce (mobile commerce) refers to the conduct of e-Commerce via wireless devices. It is the commercial application of mobile computingwhich is based on wireless networks. • There is an increased interest in m-commerce because the number of mobile devices is projected to top 1 billion by 2004.  Location-based commerce (L-commerce)is an application of m-commerce that offers customers the location information of anything they want to purchase.

32. Network Computers & Home Computing • The Network Computer, first introduced in 1997, does not have a hard drive. Instead, it is served by a central computing station, and temporarily receives and can use applications and data stored elsewhere on the network. • Integrated Home Computing. Soon,home computing, television, telephone, home security systems, and other devices will be integrated and managed in one unit. • Smart appliancesrefer tohome appliances that are connected to the Internet.

33. The Internet, Intranets & Extranets • The Internet.From about 50 million Internet users in 1997, there could be as many as 750 million by 2007. • Intranets utilize information technology to provide organizations with internal communication systems. • Extranets combine intranets with the Internet to create a powerful interorganizational systems for collaboration.

34. Corporate Portals, Networked Enterprises& Optical Networks • A corporate portal refers to a company’s Web site that is used as a gateway to the corporate data, information, and knowledge. • The Networked Enterprise. The various components just described can be integrated together into an enterprise wide network extended to all business partners. • Optical Networks are high capacity telecommunication networks that convert signals in the network and transmit these over fiber optic filaments.

35. Why Learn about IT? • Being IT Literate On the Job & Off • Finding Employment Opportunities in IT • Future Organizational Leadership • Using IT to Become a Millionaire

36. Plan of the Book Part I: IT in the Organization Part II: The Web Revolution Part III: Organizational Applications Part IV: Managerial and Decision Support Systems Part V: Implementing and Managing IT

37. How can we recognize the opportunities for using IT and Web-based systems? How important is IT? In some cases, IT is the only approach that can help organizations. Who is going to build, operate, and maintain the information systems? How much IT?IT does not come free, but not having it may be much costlier. Managerial Issues

38. Is the situation going to change?Yes, the pressures will be stronger as time passes & the IT role will be even more important. What about ethics and social issues? The implementation of IT involves many ethical and social issues. What about Globalization? Globalization opens many opportunities, ranging from selling products and services online, to conducting joint ventures or investing in them. How can an organization transform itself to the digital economy? Managerial Issues (cont.)