IS

• Organizational structure


  Organizational subunits and the way they relate to the overall organization
• Types of organizational structures

  • Traditional
  • Project
  • Team
  • Virtual
• Traditional organizational structure


  • Hierarchy of decision making and authority flows from the strategic management at the top down to operational management and nonmanagement employees
  • Flat organizational structure empowers employees at lower levels
• Empowerment


  Gives employees and their managers more responsibility and authority to make decisions
• Project organizational structure


  • Centered on major products or services
  • Many project teams are temporary
• Team organizational structure


  • Centered on work teams or groups
  • Team can be temporary or permanent, depending on tasks
• Virtual organizational structure


  • Uses individuals, groups, or complete business units in geographically dispersed areas
  • Can reduce costs for an organization
• Collaborative work


  Managers and employees can effectively work in groups, even those composed of members from around the world
• Organizational culture


  Major understandings and assumptions for an organization
• Organizational change


  How organizations plan for, implement, and handle change
• Change model


  1. Unfreezing: Ceasing old habits and creating a climate that is receptive to change

  2. Moving: Learning new work methods, behaviors, and systems

  3. Refreezing: Reinforcing changes to make the new process second nature, accepted, and part of the job
• Organizational learning


  The adaptations to new conditions or adjustments based on experience and ideas over time
• Reengineering


  Radical redesign of business processes, organizational structures, information systems, and values of the organization to achieve a breakthrough in business results
• Continuous improvement


  Constantly seeking ways to improve business processes and add value to products and services
• Technology acceptance model (TAM)


  Specifies the factors that can lead to better attitudes about the use of a new information system, which leads to higher acceptance and usage of the new information system
• Technology diffusion


  Measure of how widely technology is spread throughout an organization
• Technology infusion


  Extent to which technology permeates(spread throughout) a department
• Quality


  Ability of a product or service to meet or exceed customer expectations
• Techniques used to ensure quality

  • Total quality management
  • Six Sigma
• Outsourcing


  Contracting with outside professional services
• On-demand computing


  • Also called on-demand business or utility computing
  • Resources are made available to users when required
  • Rapidly responding to the organization's flow of work as the need for computer resources varies
• Downsizing


  Reducing number of employees to cut costs
• Competitive advantage


  Significant and (ideally) long-term benefit to a company over its competition
• The five forces model

  • Rivalry among existing competitors
  • Threat of new entrants
  • Threat of substitute products and services
  • The bargaining power of buyers
  • The bargaining power of suppliers
• Strategies for competitive advantage

  • Cost leadership
  • Differentiation
  • Niche strategy
  • Altering the industry structure
  • Creating new products and services
  • Improving existing product lines and service
• Other strategies for competitive advantage

  • Seek growth in sales
  • First to market
  • Customizing products and services
  • Hiring the best people
  • Innovation
• Productivity


  A measure of output achieved divided by input required
• Return on investment (ROI)


  • One measure of IS value
  • Investigates the additional profits or benefits that are generated as a percentage of the investment in IS technology
• Earnings growth


  The increase in profit that the system brings
• Market share and speed to market

  The percentage of sales that a product or service has in relation to the total market
• Customer awareness and satisfaction


  Performance measurement is based on feedback from internal and external users
• Total cost of ownership


  The sum of all costs over the life of the information system
• Managers must consider the risks of designing, developing, and implementing systems
• Information systems can sometimes be costly failures
• Primary responsibilities in information systems

  • Operations
  • Systems development
  • Support
• Typical IS titles and functions

  • Chief information officer (CIO)
  • LAN administrators
• Certification


  Process for testing skills and knowledge resulting in an endorsement by the certifying authority
• It is always good for IS professionals to have good communications skills and the ability to work with other people
• Getting the best team of IS personnel to work on important projects is critical in successfully developing new information systems or modifying existing ones
• Organizations are systems with inputs, transformation mechanisms, and outputs