CHAPTER 7 - STORING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION DATABASES

RELATIONAL DATABASE FUNDAMENTALS

Information is everywhere in an organization
Information is stored in databases

· Database – maintains information about various types of objects (inventory), events (transactions), people (employees), and places (warehouses)

Database models include:

· Hierarchical database model – information is organized into a tree-like structure (using parent/child relationships) in such a way that it cannot have too many relationships

· Network database model – a flexible way of representing objects and their relationships

· Relational database model – stores information in the form of logically related two-dimensional tables

Entities and Attributes

Entity – a person, place, thing, transaction, or event about which information is stored

Attributes (fields, columns) – characteristics or properties of an entity class

Keys and Relationships

Primary key – a field (or group of fields) that uniquely identifies a given entity in a table
Foreign key – a primary key of one table that appears an attribute in another table and acts to provide a logical relationship among the two tables

RELATIONAL DATABASE ADVANTAGES

Database advantages from a business perspective include
·         Increased flexibility
·         Increased scalability and performance
·         Reduced information redundancy
·         Increased information integrity (quality)
·         Increased information security

Increased Flexibility

A well-designed database should:

•         Handle changes quickly and easily
•         Provide users with different views
•         Have only one physical view

Physical view – deals with the physical storage of information on a storage device

•         Have multiple logical views

Logical view – focuses on how users logically access information

Increased Scalability and Performance

A database must scale to meet increased demand,  while maintaining acceptable performance levels

• Scalability – refers to how well a system can adapt to increased demands
• Performance – measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction

Reduced Information Redundancy

• One of the primary goals of a database is to eliminate information redundancy by recording each piece of information in only one place
• Databases reduce information redundancy

Redundancy – the duplication of information or storing the same information in multiple places

• Inconsistency is one of the primary problems with redundant information

Increase Information Integrity (Quality)

•         Information integrity – measures the quality of information
•         Integrity constraint – rules that help ensure the quality of information

Increased Information Security

•         Information is an organizational asset and must be protected
•         Databases offer several security features including:

Password – provides authentication of the user
Access level – determines who has access to the different types of information
Access control – determines types of user access, such as read-only access

DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
software through which users and application programs interact with a database

DATA-DRIVEN WEB SITES

A data-driven Web site is an interactive Web site kept constantly updated and relevant to the needs of its customers through the use of a database. Data-driven Web sites are especially useful when the site offers a great deal of information, products, or services. Web site visitors are frequently angered if they are buried under an avalanche of information when searching a Web site. A data-driven Web site invites visitors to select and view what they are interested in by inserting a query, which the Web site then analyzes and custom builds a Web page in real-time that satisfies the query. The figure displays a Wikipedia user querying business intelligence and the database sending back the appropriate Web page that satisfies the user’s request.

Data-Driven Web Site Business Advantages

• Development: Allows the Web site owner to make changes any time—all without having to rely on a developer or knowing HTML programming. A well-structured, data-driven Web site enables updating with little or no training.

• Content management: A static Web site requires a programmer to make updates. This adds an unnecessary layer between the business and its Web content, which can lead to misunderstandings and slow turnarounds for desired changes.

• Future expandability: Having a data-driven Web site enables the site to grow faster than would be possible with a static site.  Changing the layout, displays, and functionality of the site (adding more features and sections) is easier with a data-driven solution.

• Minimizing human error: Even the most competent programmer charged with the task of maintaining many pages will overlook things and make mistakes. This will lead to bugs and inconsistencies that can be time consuming and expensive to track down and fix. Unfortunately, users who come across these bugs will likely become irritated and may leave the site. A well-designed, data-driven Web site will have ”error trapping” mechanisms to ensure that required information is filled out correctly and that content is entered and displayed in its correct format.

• Cutting production and update costs: A data-driven Web site can be updated and ”published” by any competent data entry or administrative person. In addition to being convenient and more affordable, changes and updates will take a fraction of the time that they would with a static site. While training a competent programmer can take months or even years, training a data entry person can be done in 30 to 60 minutes.

• More efficient:  By their very nature, computers are excellent at keeping volumes of information intact. With a data-driven solution, the system keeps track of the templates, so users do not have to. Global changes to layout, navigation, or site structure would need to be programmed only once, in one place, and the site itself will take care of propagating those changes to the appropriate pages and areas. A data-driven infrastructure will improve the reliability and stability of a Web site, while greatly reducing the chance of ”breaking” some part of the site when adding new areas.

• Improved Stability: Any programmer who has to update a Web site from ”static” templates must be very organized to keep track of all the source files. If a programmer leaves unexpectedly, it could involve re-creating existing work if those source files cannot be found. Plus, if there were any changes to the templates, the new programmer must be careful to use only the latest version. With a data-driven Web site, there is peace of mind, knowing the content is never lost—even if your programmer is.

Integrating Information among Multiple Databases

• Integration – allows separate systems to communicate directly with each other

Forward integration – takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all downstream systems and processes

Backward integration – takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all upstream systems and processes

One of the biggest benefits of integration is that organizations only have to enter information into the systems once and it is automatically sent to all of the other systems throughout the organization

• This feature alone creates huge advantages for organizations because it reduces information redundancy and ensures accuracy and completeness
• Without integration an organization would have to enter information into every single system that requires the information from marketing and sales to billing and customer service

Integrating Information among Multiple Databases
Building a central repository specifically for integrated information

•  The above figure displays an example of customer information integrated using this method
• Users can create, read, update, and delete in the main customer repository, and it is automatically sent to all of the other databases
• This method does not follow the business process when building the integration
• Business-critical integrity constraints still need to be built to ensure information is only ever entered into the customer repository, otherwise the information will become out-of-sync

CHAPTER 6 - VALUING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

•          Information is everywhere in an organization

•          Employees must be able to obtain and analyze the many different levels, formats, and granularities of organizational information to make decisions

•          Successfully collecting, compiling, sorting, and analyzing information can provide tremendous insight into how an organization is performing

•          Levels, formats, and granularities of organizational information

THE VALUE OF TRANSACTIONAL AND ANALYTICAL INFORMATION

Transactional information – encompasses all of the information contained within a single business process or unit of work, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of daily operational tasks

Analytical information – encompasses all organizational information, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of managerial analysis tasks

THE VALUE OF TIMELY INFORMATION

·  Real-time information – immediate, up-to-date information
· Real-time system – provides real-time information in response to query requests

THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION

Business decisions are only as good as the quality of the information used to make the decisions. You never want to find yourself using technology to help you make a bad decision faster

Characteristics of High Quality Information

· Accuracy Are all the values correct? For example, is the name spelled correctly? Is the dollar amount recorded properly?
· Completeness Are any of the values missing? For example, is the address complete including street, city, state, and zip code?
· Consistency Is aggregate or summary information in agreement with detailed information?
· For example, do all total fields equal the true total of the individual fields?
· Uniqueness Is each transaction, entity, and event represented only once in the information?
· For example, are there any duplicate customers?
· Timeliness Is the information current with respect to the business requirements? For example, is information updated weekly, daily, or hourly?

Example of Low quality information:

Understanding the Costs of Poor Information

The four primary sources of low quality information include:

1. Online customers intentionally enter inaccurate information to protect their privacy
2. Information from different systems have different entry standards and formats
3. Call center operators enter abbreviated or erroneous information by accident or to save time
4. Third party and external information contains inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and errors

Potential business effects resulting from low quality information include:

- Inability to accurately track customers
- Difficulty identifying valuable customers 
- Inability to identify selling opportunities
- Marketing to nonexistent customers
- Difficulty tracking revenue due to inaccurate invoices
- Inability to build strong customer relationships

Understanding the Benefits of Good Information

• High quality information can significantly improve the chances of making a good decision
• Good decisions can directly impact an organization's bottom line

CHAPTER 5 - ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES THAT SUPPORT STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

•          Organizational employees must work closely together to develop strategic initiatives that create competitive advantages
•          Ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organizations must base their businesses upon

IT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Information technology is a relatively new functional area, having only been around formally for around 40 years

Recent IT-related strategic positions:
•         Chief Information Officer (CIO)
•         Chief Technology Officer (CTO)
•         Chief Security Officer (CSO)
•         Chief Privacy Officer (CPO)
•         Chief Knowledge Office (CKO)

Chief Information Officer (CIO) 

The CIO typically reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). CIOs must possess a solid and detailed understanding of every aspect of an organization coupled with tremendous insight into the capability of IT. He also must have strong business skills and strong IT skills. CIO oversees all uses of IT and ensures the strategic alignment of IT with business goals and objectives. Broad CIO functions include:

•          Manager – ensuring the delivery of all IT projects, on time and within budget
•          Leader – ensuring the strategic vision of IT is in line with the strategic vision of the organization
•          Communicator – building and maintaining strong executive relationships


Chief Technology Officer (CTO) 

CTO is responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy, availability, and reliability of IT. Simply put, CTOs are similar to CIOs, except CIOs take on the additional responsibility for effectiveness of ensuring that IT is aligned with the organization's strategic initiatives.

Chief Security Officer (CSO)

 CSO is responsible for ensuring the security of IT systems

Chief Privacy Officer (CPO)

CPO is responsible for ensuring the ethical and legal use of information. CPOs are the newest senior executive position, and many CPOs are lawyers by training

Chief Knowledge Office (CKO)

CKO is responsible for collecting, maintaining, and distributing the organization’s knowledge

THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS PERSONNEL AND IT PERSONNEL

•          Business personnel possess expertise in functional areas such as marketing, accounting, and sales
•          IT personnel have the technological expertise
•          This typically causes a communications gap between the business personnel and IT personnel
•   In order to improve the communication gap, usiness personnel must seek to increase their understanding of IT. While IT personnel must seek to increase their understanding of the business.
•          It is the responsibility of the CIO to ensure effective communication between business personnel and IT personnel

ORGANIZATIONAL FUNDAMENTALS - ETHICS AND SECURITY

•          Ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organizations must base their businesses on to be successful
•          In recent years, such events as the Enron and Martha Stewart, along with 9/11 have shed new light on the meaning of ethics and security

ETHICS

Ethics – the principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people

Privacy – the right to be left alone when you want to be, to have control over your own personal possessions, and not to be observed without your consent
•          Privacy is a major ethical issue

Issues affected by technology advances are:

•          Intellectual property - Intangible creative work that is embodied in physical form
•          Copyright - The legal protection afforded an expression of an idea, such as a song, video game, and some types of proprietary documents
•          Fair use doctrine - In certain situations, it is legal to use copyrighted material
•          Pirated software - The unauthorized use, duplication, distribution, or sale of copyrighted software
•          Counterfeit software - Software that is manufactured to look like the real thing and sold as such

SECURITY  - HOW MUCH WILL DOWNTIME COST YOUR BUSINESS?

Protecting Intellectual Assets
•          Organizational information is intellectual capital - it must be protected
•          Information security – the protection of information from accidental or intentional misuse by persons inside or outside an organization

•          Ebusiness automatically creates tremendous information security risks for organizations

CHAPTER 4 - MEASURING THE SUCCESS OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

Assalamualaikum. So here's another post for chapter 4 MGT300. Enjoy reading! 

MEASURING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY’S SUCCESS

- Key performance indicator – measures that are tied to business drivers

- Metrics are detailed measures that feed KPIs

- Performance metrics fall into the nebulous area of business intelligence that is neither technology, nor business centered, but requires input from both IT and business professionals.

EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS

- Efficiency IT metric – measures the performance of the IT system itself including throughput, speed, and availability

- Effectiveness IT metric – measures the impact IT has on business processes and activities including customer satisfaction, conversion rates, and sell-through increases

BENCHMARKING – BASELINE METRICS

- Regardless of what is measured, how it is measured, and whether it is for the sake of efficiency or effectiveness, there must be benchmarks –baseline values the system seeks to attain.

- Benchmarking – a process of continuously measuring system results, comparing those results to optimal system performance (benchmark values), and identifying steps and producers to improve system performance.

   Comparing efficiency IT and effectiveness IT metrics for the government initiatives

THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS IT METRICS

Common types of efficiency IT metrics

Efficiency IT Metrics

Throughput: The amount of information that can travel through a system at any point.

Transaction speed: The amount of time a system takes to perform a transaction.

System availability: The number of hours at system is available for users.

Information accuracy: The extent to which a system generates the correct results when executing the same transaction numerous times.

Web traffic: Includes a host of benchmarks such as the number of page views, the number of unique visitors, and the average time spent viewing a web page.

Response time: The time it takes to respond to user interactions such as a mouse click.

Effectiveness IT metrics focus on an organization’s goals, strategies, and objectives and include

Effectiveness IT Metrics

Usability: The ease with which people perform transactions and/or find information. A popular usability metric on the Internet is degrees of freedom, which measures the number of clicks required to find desired information.

Customers satisfaction: Measured by such benchmarks as satisfaction surveys, percentage of existing customers retained, and increases in revenue dollars per customer.

Conversion rates: The number of customers an organization “touches” for the first time and persuades to purchase its products or services. This is a popular metric for evaluating the effectiveness of banner, pop-up, and pop-under ads on the Internet.

Financial: Such as return on investment (the earning power of an organization’s assets), cost-benefit analysis (the comparison of projected revenues and costs including development, maintenance, fixed and variable), and break-even analysis (the point at which content revenues equal ongoing costs).

  

    

 METRICS FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

             Metrics for measuring and managing strategic initiatives include

Website metrics.

Supply chain management                  (SCM) metrics

Customer relationship management    (CRM) metrics

Business process reengineering           (BPR) metrics

Enterprise resource planning               (ERP) metrics

WEBSITE METRICS

SUPPLY MANAGEMENT METRICS

CUSTOMER RELATION MANAGEMENT METRICS

 BUSINESS PROCESS RE-ENGINEERING METRICS AND 

ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING METRICS

CHAPTER 3 - STRATEGIC INITIATIVES FOR IMPLEMENTING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

In this chapter,we will learn about the strategic that are being used by the company , how to implementing it ? and going through the competitive advantage . 

Strategic Initiative

Organizations can undertake high-profile strategic initiatives including:

–    Supply chain management (SCM)

–    Customer relationship management (CRM)

–    Business process reengineering (BPR)

–    Enterprise resource planning (ERP)

Supply Chain Management

Supply Chain Management (SCM) – involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximize total supply chain effectiveness and profitability

Four basic components of supply chain management include:

1. Supply chain strategy – strategy for managing all resources to meet customer demand

2. Supply chain partner – partners throughout the supply chain that deliver finished products, raw materials, and services.

3. Supply chain operation – schedule for production activities

4. Supply chain logistics – product delivery process

Effective and efficient SCM systems can enable an organization to:

– Decrease the power of its buyers

– Increase its own supplier power

– Increase switching costs to reduce the threat of substitute products or services

– Create entry barriers thereby reducing the threat of new entrants

– Increase efficiencies while seeking a competitive advantage through cost leadership

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   Customer Relationship Management

• Customer relationship management (CRM) – involves managing all aspects of a customer’s relationship with an organization to increase customer loyalty and retention and an organization's profitability

• Many organizations, such as Charles Schwab and Kaiser Permanente, have obtained great success through the implementation of CRM systems

• CRM is not just technology, but a strategy, process, and business goal that an organization must embrace on an enterprisewide level

• CRM can enable an organization to:

– Identify types of customers

– Design individual customer marketing campaigns

– Treat each customer as an individual

– Understand customer buying behaviors

  Business Process Reengineering

• Business process – a standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer’s order

• Business process reengineering (BPR) – the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises

– The purpose of BPR is to make all business processes best-in-class

     Enterprise Resource Planning

• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) – integrates all departments and functions throughout an organization into a single IT system so that employees can make decisions by viewing enterprisewide information on all business operations

• Keyword in ERP is “enterprise”