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Saturday, July 13, 2013

chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Business Driven Technology


Why we need to study Information Technology (IT)?

IT is everywhere in business. Understanding IT provides great insight to anyone learning about business.


Information Technology’s Impact on Business Operations
  • -          Organization typically operate by functional areas or functional silos
  • -          Functional areas are interdepends


Information Technology Basics

  • -          Information technology (IT) – A field concerned with the use of technology in managing and processing information. IT is an important enabler of business success and innovation
  • -          Management information system (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 business intelligence
    ·         Data is a raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event
    ·         Information is a data converted into a meaningful and useful context.
    ·         Business intelligence is an applications and technologies that are used to support decision making efforts.

    -          IT Resources
    ·         People use
    ·         Information technology to work with
    ·         Information

    -          IT Cultures
    ·         Organizational information cultures include;
    §  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 manager’s input each time a new sales strategy is developed.
    §  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 insight about crisis and radical changes and seek ways to create competitive advantages.
    §  Information-Sharing Culture – Employees across departments trust each other to use information (especially about problems and failures) to improve performance.

    Information Technology’s Role in Business

                    Students frequently ask, “Why do we need to study information technology?” The answer is simple: Information technology is everywhere in business. Understanding information technology provides great insight to anyone learning about business.It is easy to demonstrate information technology’s role in business by reviewing a copy of popular business magazines such as Bloomberg Businessweek, Fortune, or Fast Company. Placing a marker (such as a Post-it Note) on each page that contains a technology-related article or advertisement indicates that information technology is everywhere in business. These are business magazines, not technology magazines, yet they are filled with technology. Students who understand technology have an advantage in business, and gaining a detailed understanding of information technology is important to all students regardless of their area of expertise. The magazine articles typically discuss such topics as databases, customer relationship management, web services, supply chain management, security, ethics, business intelligence, and so on. They also focus on companies such as Siebel, Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM. This text explores these topics in detail,along with reviewing the associated business opportunities and challenges.



      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 (HR) 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 ) is the management of systems or processes that convert or transform resources (including human resources) into goods and services.
    Management information systems (MIS) is the academic discipline covering the application of people, technologies, and procedures—collectively called information systems—to solve business problems.


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