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Opening Scenario: Fired? Why?

Chapter 1 The Importance of MIS

From the intro-case, Jennifer gets fired from FlexTime after four months on job. Why???? Her job was to find ways to increase revenues. She only followed orders, did not show self initiative. Did not become a team member. Did not collaborate with others. Did not understand business process concepts. Being reliable, hard working, honest, and having integrity is important, but TODAY THEYRE NOT SUFFICIENT.
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Study Questions
Q1. Why is Introduction to MIS the most important class in the business school?
Q2. Q3. Q4. Q5. Q6. What is MIS? How can you use the five-component model? What is information? What makes some information better than other information? What is the difference between information technology and information systems?
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First Reason Introduction MIS Most Important

Future business professionals need to be able to assess, evaluate, and apply emerging information technology to business. You need the knowledge of this course to attain that skill.

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Second Reason Introduction MIS Most Important

The only job security that exists is a marketable skill and the courage to use it. Moores Law MIS is the fuel to mobilize business engines

Third Reason Introduction MIS Most Important

Rapid technological change and increased international competition place the spotlight on the skills and preparation of the workforce, particularly the ability to adapt to changing technology and shifting demand. Shifts in the nature of organizationsfavor strong nonroutine cognitive skills. (Lynn A Kaoly and
Constantijn W.A. Panis, The 21st Century at Work. RAND Corporation, 2004, p. xiv)

What are your marketable skills?

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The Bottom Line is

Q1. MIS will give you the background you need to assess, evaluate, and apply emerging information systems technology to business. ..using the marketable skills i.e. abstraction, systems thinking, collaboration, and experimentation. ..which are important for job security nowadays!!!

Study Questions
Why is Introduction to MIS the most important class in the business school? How can you use the five-component model? What is information? What makes some information better than other information? What is the difference between information technology and information systems?

Q2. What is MIS?

Q3. Q4. Q5. Q6.

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Its Your Turn.

Think about the information systems around you and how they interact with each other. How do they affect your life and your job? Every day you touch dozens of information systems. Ask yourself about the type of information those systems provide you. Does the information make a difference?

What is MIS?
Simply, MIS can be defined as.. Development and use of information systems that help businesses achieve their goals and objectives. Sometimes, people call it as Computer-based Information System (CBIS)

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What is MIS?
Information Systems components are:

Development and Use of IS

Development: IS are built for business professionals (you) to use. You need to take an active role in specifying system requirements and in managing development projects to ensure that the system meets your needs and the organizations needs. Use: You need to learn how to use to accomplish goals. You have responsibilities for protecting security of system and data. You have responsibilities for backing up data. You will help in recover systems and data.
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Figure 1-3 Five Components of an Information System

Hardware: desktops, laptops, PDAs Software: operating systems, application programs Data: facts and figures entered into computers Procedures: how the other four components are used People: users, technologists, IS support (YOU)
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Achieving Business Goals and Objectives

Businesses themselves do not do anything. People within a business sell, buy, design, produce, finance, market, account, and manage. Information systems exist to help people in business achieve the goals and objectives of that business.

Achieving Business Goals and Objectives

IS fallacy: Every other has an IS presence, thus we must have one is the wrong reason for developing an information system. Right questions to ask in developing an IS, such as: What is the purpose of our Facebook page? What is it going to do for us? Is Facebook the best choice? Should we be using Microsoft Vine, instead? Are the costs of maintaining the page sufficiently offset by the benefits?
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Study Questions
Q1. Q2. Why is Introduction to MIS the most important class in the business school? What is MIS?

How Can You Use the Five-Component Framework?

Five components interact with each other to create a complete system.
Actors: hardware and people take actions Instructions: software and procedures provide instructions for actors Bridges: data bridges hardware/software and people/procedures

Q3. How can you use the five-component model?

Q4. Q5. Q6. What is information? What makes some information better than other information? What is the difference between information technology and information systems?
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How Can You Use the Five-Component Framework?

The Most Important Component YOU

You are part of every information system that you use. Even if you have the perfect information system, if you do not know what to do with the information that it produces, you are wasting your time and money. Your quality of thinking is a large part of the quality of an information system. Remember: YOU ARE THE MASTER.THEREFORE MUST BE IN-CONTROL OF THE SYSTEMS

Figure 1-3 Characteristics of the Five Components

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High-Tech vs. Low-Tech Information Systems

Low-tech IS: Consists only of a file of email addresses and an email program. Only small amount of work moved from the human side to computer side. Considerable human work is required to determine when to send which emails to which customers.

High-Tech vs. Low-Tech Information Systems

High-tech IS: Customer support system keeps track of equipment customers have, maintenance schedules for equipment, and automatically generates email reminders to customers. More work has been moved from human side to computer side. Computer is providing more services on behalf of humans.
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Understanding the Scope of New Information Systems

You can understand and evaluate new information systems by evaluating and asking questions about each component separately and then as a whole system.

Understanding the Scope of New Information Systems

Ask questions:
What new hardware will you need? What programs will you need to license? What databases and other data must you create? What procedures will need to be developed for both use and administration of the information system? What will be the impact of the new technology on people? Which jobs will change? Who will need training? How will the new technology affect morale? Will you need to hire new people? Will you need to reorganize?

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Understanding the Scope of New Information Systems

The five components can also be evaluated based on the order of difficulty and disruption hardware is the easiest part while people are the most difficult.

Making Decision for Adopting New Information Systems

Five IS components evaluated based on order of ease of change and amount of organizational disruption.
Hardware is simple to order and install. Obtaining or developing new programs is more difficult. Creating new databases or changing structure of existing databases is more difficult. Changing procedures, requiring people to work in new ways, is even more difficult. Changing personnel responsibilities and reporting relationships and hiring and terminating employees are both very difficult and very disruptive.
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Study Questions
Q1. Q2. Q3. Q5. Q6. Why is Introduction to MIS the most important class in the business school? What is MIS? How can you use the five-component model? What makes some information better than other information? What is the difference between information technology and information systems?

Definitions Vary
Information System is an assembly of hardware, software, data, procedures, and people that interact to produce information. Various definitions of information: Knowledge derived from data (most common) Data presented in a meaningful context Data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations Any of these definitions will do. Choose one definition that makes sense to you and the situation. Important point is to discriminate between data and information.
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Q4. What is information?

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Information is Subjective
Information in one persons context is just a data point in another persons context because what may be important to you may not hold the same level of importance to someone else. Context changes occur in information systems when output from one system is input to another system

Context Change Process

Figure 1-5

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Try to Say Something

Q1.

Study Questions
Why is Introduction to MIS the most important class in the business school? What is MIS? How can you use the five-component model? What is information? What makes some information better than other information? What is the difference between information technology and information systems?

If you have more information, do you weigh more? Why or why not? If you give a copy of your transcript to a prospective employer, is that information? If you show that same transcript to your cat, is it still information? Where is the information?

Q2. Q3. Q4. Q5. Q6.

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Characteristics of Good Information

Figure 1-6 here

What Makes Some Information Better than Other Information?

Accurate: Correct and complete data, and processed correctly. Accuracy is crucial; managers must be able to rely on results of their information systems. Timely: Produced in time for its intended use. Relevant: Both to the context and to the subject. Just barely sufficient: For purpose for which it is generated. Avoid information overload. Worth its cost: Appropriate relationship between cost of information and its value.

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Study Questions
Q1. Q2. Q3. Q4. Q5. Why is Introduction to MIS the most important class in the business school? What is MIS? How can you use the five-component model? What is information? What makes some information better than other information?

Difference Between IT and IS?

Information technology (IT) pertains to things you buy: Hardware Software Data components Things you can buy or lease: Products Inventions Standards (obtain pre-designed procedures) Information technology drives the development of new information systems.
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Q6. What is the difference between information technology and information systems?
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Difference Between IT and IS?

Information Systems (IS) is an assembly of five components: Hardware Software Data Procedures People New systems are always associated to have training tasks (and costs), employees resistance to change to overcome, and need to manage employees as they utilize the new system. You can buy IT, you cannot buy IS.
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To Do or Not To Do
Situation A: Suppose an e-mail is mistakenly sent to you that contains confidential information from which would give you advantage in business negotiations. Q1: Should you read the e-mail? Q2: Do you use that information?

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To Do or Not To Do
Situation B: Suppose you receive that same information in an email. Perhaps an administrative assistant at the agents office confuses you and the other customer, and mistakenly sends you the terms of the other partys offer. Q1: Do you read that email? Q2: If so, do you use the information that you read to your advantage?
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Understanding Perspectives and Points of View

Every human being speaks and acts from the perspective of a personal point of view. A problem is defined as a perceived difference between what is and what ought to be. An information system development team must have common definition and understanding of the problem in order to communicate with each other. What can a development team do to create common definitions and understandings?
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