BUSINESS DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY
Information Technology’s Impact on
Business Operations
Describe a few of the types of IT
services each business function might be receiving from IT.
§Customer
service: click-to-talk, call scripting, auto answering, call centers
§Finance:
accounting packages, Sarbanes Oxley
§Sales
and marketing: campaign management, customer relationship management
§Operations:
supply chain management
§Human
resources: software to track employees at risk of leaving
Which types of IT services can be
used to meet these types of goals?
§Reduce
costs/ improve productivity: supply chain management, enterprise resource
planning
§Improve
customer satisfaction/loyalty: customer relationship management, loyalty
programs
§Create
competitive advantage: business intelligence/data warehousing
§Generate
growth: sales management systems
§Streamline
supply chain: demand planning software
§Global
expansion: e-business
§Accounting provides quantitative information about
the finances of the business including recording, measuring, and describing
financial information
§Finance deals with the strategic financial
issues associated with increasing the value of the business, while observing
applicable laws and social responsibilities
§Human resources includes the policies, plans, and
procedures for the effective management of employees (human resources)
§Sales is the function of selling a good or
service and focuses on increasing customer sales, which increases company
revenues
§Marketing is the process associated with promoting
the sale of goods or services. The marketing department supports the sales
department by creating promotions that help sell the company’s products
§Operations management (also called production management
) includes the methods, tasks, and techniques organizations use to produce
goods and services. Transportation (also called logistics) is part of
operations management.
§Management information systems (MIS) is the function that plans for,
develops, implements, and maintains IT hardware, software, and the portfolio of
applications that people use to support the goals of an organization
—Organizations
typically operate by functional areas or functional silos
—Functional
areas are interdependent
Each functional area undertakes a specific core business
function.
§Sales
and Marketing – forecasting, segmentation, advertising, promotion
§Operations
and Logistics – purchasing, supplying, receiving, transportation
§Accounting
and finance – accounting, planning, budgeting, tax, costs
§Human
resources – hiring, training, benefits, and payroll
Information Technology Basics
•IT does not equal or represent business success and innovation,
it is simply an enabler of business success and innovation
Will spending large amounts of
money on IT guarantee automatic
success?
§Spending
large amounts of money on IT will not guarantee an organization automatic
success
§Organizations
need to allocate resources on the right types of IT that correctly support
their business operations to be successful
—Management information systems
(MIS)
– a general name for the business function and academic discipline covering the
application of people, technologies, and procedures to solve business problems
—MIS
is a business function, similar to Accounting, Finance, Operations, and Human
Resources
—When
beginning to learn about information technology it is important to understand
—Data, information, and business
intelligence
—IT resources
—IT cultures
Data, Information, and BI
—Data - raw facts that describe the
characteristic of an event
—Information -
data converted into a meaningful and useful context
—Business intelligence –
applications and technologies that are used to support decision-making efforts
IT Resources
—People use
—Information
—Information technology to
work with
IT Cultures
—Information-Functional Culture
- Employees use information as a means of
exercising influence or power over others. For example, a manager in sales
refuses to share information with marketing. This causes marketing to need the
sales manager’s input each time a new sales strategy is developed.
—Information-Sharing Culture
- Employees
across departments trust each other to use information (especially about
problems and failures) to improve performance.
—Information-Inquiring Culture
- Employees
across departments search for information to better understand the future and
align themselves with current trends and new directions.
—Information-Discovery Culture
- Employees
across departments are open to new insights about crisis and radical changes
and seek ways to create competitive advantages.
Which type of information culture
will help an organization achieve the greatest success?
§Information-discovery
culture
Which type of information culture
would hurt an organization?
§Information-functional
culture
§Organizations
that encourage their employees to share ideas and openly discuss challenges and
opportunities on an enterprisewide level have a competitive advantage
over organizations that operate in functional silos
§This
point is easily demonstrated by looking back at the Apple case and how many
different people from different areas needed to be involved in the iPod
creation
§Apple
even purchased an outside company, SoundStep, to help bring the iPod to life.
