Chapter 1

The Importance of MIS

But Today, Theyre Not Enough.

Jennifer lacks skills AllRoad Parts needs
1. Abstract reasoning skills.
2. Systems thinking skills.
3. Collaboration skills.
4. Experimentation skills.

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Study Questions
Q1: Why is Introduction to MIS the most important class in the business
school?
Q2: What is MIS?
Q3: How can you use the five-component model?

Q4: Why is the difference between information technology and information

systems important?
Q5: What is information?
Q6: What are necessary data characteristics?
Q7: 2025?

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Q1: Why Is Introduction to MIS the Most Important

Class in the Business School?

Moores Law
The number of transistors per square inch on an integrated
chip doubles every 18 months.

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Computer Price/Performance Ratio Historical

Trend

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Some Consequences
Google+
Vine
Pandora
LinkedIn

Pintrest
Zulily
Twitter
Tableau

None prominent in 2010, most didnt exist in 2010

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What Are the Cost Effective Business Applications of

Facebook, Twitter, or Whatever Will Soon Appear?
Are Facebooks Like and Twitters Follow applications costeffective? Do they generate revenue worth and expense of running
them? What about cloud apps?
Marketing people, not in a technical specialist, must answer those
questions.

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How Can I Attain Job Security?

Only job security is a marketable skill and courage to use it.
Any routine skill can and will be outsourced to lowest bidder.
Message: Develop strong non-routine cognitive skills.

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What Is a Marketable Skill?

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How Can Intro to MIS Help You Learn Non-Routine

Skills?
Abstract Reason
Ability to make and manipulate models.
Learn five components of an information system model.
Chapter 5: How to create data models.
Chapter 10: How to make process models.

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How Can Intro to MIS Help You Learn Non-Routine

Skills? (contd)
Systems Thinking
Ability to model system components, connect inputs and
outputs among components to reflect structure and
dynamics of system observed.
Ability to discuss, illustrate, critique systems; compare
alternative systems; apply different systems to different
situations.

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How Can Intro to MIS Help You Learn Non-Routine

Skills? (contd)
Collaboration
Two or more people working together to achieve a common
goal, result, or work product.
Chapter 2 discusses collaboration skills and illustrates
several sample collaboration information systems.

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How Can Intro to MIS Help You Learn Non-Routine

Skills? (contd)
Ability to Experiment
Make reasoned analysis of an opportunity; developing and
evaluating possible solutions.
Ive never done this before.
I dont know how to do it.
But will it work?
Is it too weird for the market?
Avoid "Fear of failure paralyzes".

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Job Growth over the Past Twenty Years

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Bottom Line of MIS Course

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Q2: What Is MIS?

Key elements
1. Management and use
2. Information systems
3. Strategies
Goal of MIS
Managing IS to achieve business strategies

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What Is MIS (contd)

Management
Develop, maintain, adapt by:
Creating an information system that meets your needs,
take an active role in systems development. Why?
Business professionals use cognitive skills to understand
business needs and requirements.

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Components of an Information System?

Components interact to produce information

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Development and Use of Information Systems

Business professionals need to:
Take active role to ensure systems meet their needs.
Understand how IS is constructed.
Consider users needs during development.
Learn how to use the IS ancillary (security, backups).

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Achieving Strategies
Information systems exist to help people achieve
business strategies.
What is the purpose of our Facebook page?
What is it going to do for us?
What is our policy for employees contributions?
What should we do about critical customer reviews?
Are the costs of maintaining the page sufficiently offset by
the benefits?

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Q3: How Can You Use the Five-Component

Model?

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Characteristics of the Five Components

Most Important Component
YOU!
Your cognitive skills determine quality of your thinking,
ability to conceive information from data.
Information is value you add to information systems.
All IS components must work together.

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Characteristics of the Five Components (cont'd)

High-tech versus low-tech information systems.
Understanding scope of new information systems.
Components ordered by difficulty and disruption.

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Why Is the Difference Between Information Technology

and Information Systems Important to You?
Avoid a common mistake: Cannot buy an IS.
Can buy, rent, lease hardware, software, and databases,
and predesigned procedures.
People execute procedures to employ new IT.
Use of a new system requires training, overcoming employees
resistance, and managing employees as they use new system.

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So What? Whats Your Number?

Sum Costs :
Tuition and textbooks
Housing cost (dorm or rent)
Food and entertainment
Transportation and other fees
Computing equipment, supplies, etc.

Divide by total number of credit hours you're taking.

Multiply cost per hour by length of class (1 hr., 1.5 hrs., 3 hrs.)
= Cost per class meeting

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So What? Whats Your Number? (cont'd )

Assume you learned:
Need to assess, evaluate, and apply emerging
information systems technology to business.
Marketable skills: abstraction, systems thinking,
collaboration, and experimentation.
Information systems five components: hardware,
software, data, procedures, people.

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Q4: Why Is the Difference Between IT and IS

Important to You?
Information technology drives development of new
information systems.
Information technology (IT)
1.
2.
3.
4.

Products
Methods
Inventions
Standards

IT components = Hardware + Software + Data

IS = IT + Procedures + People

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Q5: What Is Information?

Definitions vary:
1. Knowledge derived from data, where data are
recorded facts or figures.
2. Data presented in a meaningful context.
3. Processed data, or data processed by summing,
ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other
similar operations.
4. A difference that makes a difference.

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Where Is Information?
Graph is not, itself, information.
Graph is data you and others perceive, use to
conceive information.
Ability to conceive information from data determined by
cognitive skills.
People perceive different information from same data.

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Amazon.com Stock Price and Net Income

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Q6: What Are Necessary Data Characteristics?

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Ethics Guide: Ethics and Professional

Responsibility

Which graph do you present?

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Immanuel Kant
Categorical imperative
One should behave only in a way that one would
want the behavior to be a universal law.
Are you willing to publish your behavior to the
world?

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Duty
Necessity to act in accordance with categorical
imperative.
Perfect duty - behavior must always be met. (Not lying)
Imperfect duty - a action praiseworthy, but not required.
Giving to charity; developing your business skills and
abilities.

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Imperfect Duty of Business Professionals

Cultivating your talent is an imperfect dutyprofessional
responsibility.
Obtaining skills necessary to accomplish your job.
Continuing to develop business skills and abilities
throughout your careers.

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Q7: 2025?
Huge networks of computers to process image data in real
time. What does that mean for privacy? Where are
business opportunities?
Computers-in-a-product
Will people still go to work?
Will people be employees of organizations?
Will classrooms be needed?

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Security Guide: Password Etiquette

Never write down your password.

Never ask someone for their password.
Never give your password to someone.
do-si-do movemoving away so another person can
enter password privatelycommon professional practice.

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Strong Passwords
10+ characters.
Does not contain your user name, real name, or company
name.
Does not contain a complete dictionary word in any language.
Different from previous passwords used.
Contains both upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and
special characters (such as ! @; #
$ % ^; &; * ( ) _ +; =; { } | [ ] \ : ; <; >;? , . /)
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Guide: Five-Component Careers

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Active Review
Q1: Why is Introduction to MIS the most important class in the business
school?
Q2: What is MIS?
Q3: How can you use the five-component model?
Q4: Why is the difference between information technology and
information systems important?
Q5: What is information?
Q6: What are necessary data characteristics?
Q7: 2025?

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Case Study 1: zulily

What is their business model?
Sells to mothers: primarily childrens clothes and toys,
womens clothes, accessories, and dcor items.
Use information technology to provide entertaining
shopping experience to mothers, name brand goods,
unique and difficult-to-find off-brands, at substantial
discounts.
45% of sales occur over mobile devices.
Curated sales.
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Case Study 1: zulily (cont'd.)

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How They Do It
Buyers identify goods to be sold, negotiate with vendors.
Photographs sample items in-house, write ad copy.
Group items for three-day sales events.
After event closes, zulily orders items from vendor, receives,
packages, and ships to customers. (maintains no inventory).
Vulnerable to vendors errors and mistakes.

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Use of Technology
Internet, mobile technology compatibility.
Developed a proprietary technology platform to handle.
enormous spikes in web processing demand.
Extensive data collection and analytics capabilities.

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Growth-Management Problems
To support continued growth, we must effectively integrate,
develop and motivate a large number of new employees, while
maintaining our corporate culture. In particular, we intend to
continue to make substantial investments to expand our
merchandising and technology personnel.
http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1478484/000144530514000741/zu-12292013x10k.htm

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Learning from zulily

Founders developed innovative application of
information systems technology.
Applied it to a business opportunity.
Managerial skill to develop that idea.

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