Chapter One: Information Systems in Global Business Today
-Information system: A set of interrelated components that collect, retrieve, process, store, and distribute info to support decision making and control in an organization –Six building blocks of computers: input, output, memory, arithmetic/logic unit, control unit and files. Control unit and arithmetic/logical unit together known as CPU (central processing unit). –Arithmetic/Logic Unit: carries out mathematical operations and logical comparisons, consist of very large scale integrated circuits, can perform billion operations per second, numbers taking from memories as input and results stored in memory as output. -Control Unit: controls the other five compo of the comp system, enables the comp to take advantage of speed and capacity of its other compo, list of operations called a program, these operations read from memory, interpreted and carried out one at a time (stored program concept). –Cache memory: high speed, high cost storage, used as intermediary between control unit and main memory, compensates for speed mismatches built into the comp system. –Multiple processor configurations: a comp system usually contains more than one processor, dual processor contain two physical separate processors as two separate chips, dual core contain two complete processors manufactured as a single chip, dual processor are better and faster. –Input: devices allow users to enter data into the comp for processing, common devices: keyboard, disk drive, magnetic ink character, etc) –Terminal: Simpler than PC, design for input and output, connected to computer with telecommunication line. –Output: devices produce results in usable format, common output methods: printer, output to paper using various types of printers, video display unit, displays output on a screen. –Data: Streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations. –Information: A message that is meaningful and useful to human beings. –Three basic functions of information system: Input (captures or collects raw data from within the organization or from its external environment), processors (converts this raw input into a meaningful form), output (transfers the processed info to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used. –Microcomputers: Also called personal computers or PCs, ex. desktops PC, laptop or notebook, tablet) –Midrange systems: Broadest category of comp systems, workstations are more powerful than microcomputer, mini computers are less powerful and less expensive. –Mainframe computer: The heart of the computer systems for most major corp and govern agencies, versatile. –Supercomputers: Serve as number crunchers, handle problems generated by research scientists, high end supercomputers located in govern research laboratories and major universities, fastest super computer incorporates 65,536 processors and can achieve performance of 280.6 teraflops. –Info systems: organizations (how to use info systems to achieve business objectives and support competitive strategies), tech (how to bring cutting-edge tech into info system), management (how to use info sys to manage various business processes such as sales, customer service, supply chain management).

Chapter Two: Global E-Business and Collaboration

-Information systems enhance business processes in two ways: increase the efficiency of existing processes and enables entirely new process. -Transaction processing systems: processes thousands transactions each day, ex. sales, payments received, inventory shipped, typical outputs: invoices, checks, orders, reports, critical to business operations. –Enterprise resource planning systems: collecting data from various key business processes, allowing info to be shared across firm, speeding comm., respond quickly, is a set of integrated business app that carry out common business functions such as general accounting, accounts payable, accounts receivable, order management, etc. Differ from earlier approached to developing business applications, the ERP modules are integrated, two giant ERP vendors are SAP and Oracle. Advantages of ERP: improvement of work processes, upgrade of technology infrastructure. –ERP Vendors: SAP, Germany, leading ERP vendor. ORACLE grown by PeopleSoft. The SAGE GROUP is an ERP vendor of UK. MICROSOFT offers the ERP systems. INFOR GLOBAL SOLUTIONS, private US comp, provides SSA ERP. –SAP ERP: most popular ERP system used by 30k firms. Consist of 4 primary modules and 2 additional ones, financials, human capital management, operations and corporate services, two additional. End user service delivery, analytics. –Supply chain management systems: help support and manage the links between a comp’s key business processes and those of its suppliers, distributors, customers and business partners, WMS warehouse management systems and TMS transportation management system. –Customer relationship management systems: manage relationship with customers, attract customers, provide better service, a well designed CRM system focuses on increasing revenue by providing delightful experiences for the customer in a variety of ways: better understanding of customer needs, tailored product and service offerings, product knowledge. A CRM has call center and help desk. –Business intelligence: process of gathering enough of the right info in a timely manner and usable form and analyzing it to have a positive impact on business strategy tactics pr operations. Turns data into useful info. –DSS (decision support systems): Brings speed, a lot of info/data. –(EIS) Executive info system: hands on tool that focuses, filters, organizes info so that an executive can make more effective use of it, employs filtered and summarized data such as comparative info, assessments and insights. Addresses strategic issues, provide computing and communications capacity, incorporating external info. –Knowledge management systems: better managing the processes for capturing and applying knowledge and expertise, collecting all relevant knowledge and making it available, linking to external sources of knowledge. –Groupware: refers to software designed to support groups by facilitating collaboration, communication and coordination, products vary in the features they provide, to support real time collaborate,, groupware needs the feature or presence awareness. –Intranets: internal networks used for the internal distribution of info to employees, and as repositories of corporate policies, programs, data. –Extranets: are extended to authorized users outside the company.

Chapter Three: Info systems, organizations and strategy

-Three elements of an organization: capital and labor from environment, organization transforms these inputs into products and services, products and services are consumes by environment. –Features of organizations: routines and business processes, organizational politics, organizational culture. –Porter’s competitive forces model: traditional competitors, new market entrants, substitute products and services, customers, suppliers. –Inbound logistics: activities associated with receiving, storing and disseminating, inputs necessary to build the product or provide service. –Output logistics: are activities associated with picking, packaging, shipping, and tracking items ordered by customers, distribution centers and others. Business competitive strategies: low cost leadership, product differentiation, focus on market niche (serve the marrow target market better than competitors), strengthen customer and supplier intimacy, synergies (merge markets and expertise), enhance core competencies (enhance manufacturing, communication, decision making), network-based strategy (build communities of users).

Chapter Four: Ethical and social issues in Information Systems

-Ethic: refers to the principles of right and wrong that individuals. Ethical behavior. –Fair Info Practices (FIP): set of principles governing the collection and use of info about individuals. Mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual, individual maintain an interest in the record. Personal info valuable to marketers. –Cookies: the growth of IT, especially the web, has increased privacy problems, one method of getting consumers info is through cookies, coolie is a small file created by a web browser that can identify the user to a particular web site. Text files, created by web servers and saved on uses comp, identify use computer IP address, track website visits. EX. Facebook ads from Nordstrom. –Spyware: one of the most rapidly growing types of software that covertly gathers a user’s personal info w/o the users knowledge, hidden inside of other programs, scans comp hard drives for users files. Sends banner ads. –Trade secret: not based on info in public domain, any intellectual work product such as formula, device, pattern and data. –Copyright: protect against copying of comp programs. –Patents: exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for 20 yrs.

Chapter Five: IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies

-IT infrastructure: shared technology resources that provide the platform for the firm’s specific info system app, includes investment in hardware, software, and surfaces such as consulting, education and training. –Computing services: large mainframes, midrange comps, desktops and laptop comps and mobile handheld devices. –Telecommunications services: provide data, voice, and video connectivity to employees, customers, and suppliers. –Data management services: store and manage corporate data and provide capabilities for analyzing data. –Application software services: provide enterprise-wide capabilities (ERP, CRM. SMC, KMS) –Physical facilities management services: develop and manage the physical installations required for computing and data management. –IT management services: plan and develop the infrastructure, coordinate with the business units for IT services on projects. –IT standard services (provide the firm with policies to determine which tech will be used, IT education services (provide training in system use and in the management of IT investments, IT research and development services (provide the firm with research on potential future IT projects and investments. –Computer hardware platforms: intel, AMB, IBM, HP, Dell. –Computer software platforms: operating systems and application software, Microsoft, unix, linux, SAP, oracle. –Virtualization: the process of presenting a set of computing resources so that they can all be accessed in way that are no restricted by physical configuration or geographic location, enables a single physical resource to appear to users as multiple logical resources, allows comp to use computing resources housed in remote locations. –Cloud computing: is a technology model in which any and all comp resources are delivered as a set of services, the internet. Resources include, app software, data storage, backup facilities, etc. –Public cloud: maintained by an external service provider, accessed through the internet and available to the general public. –Private cloud: a propriety software that ties together servers, storage, networks, data and app as a set of virtualized services that are shared by users inside a comp. -Unix, as a multi-user & -tasking computer operating system, was originally developed by a group of AT&T & Bell Lab employees in 1969. The Unix operating system was first developed in assembly language, but had been recoded in the procedural language, C, by 1973. -Linux, as a Unix-like computer operating system, was originally developed for Intel x86-based personal computers and was first released in 1991. -Hypertext Markup Language (HTML): A page description language for specifying how text, graphics, video, and sound are placed on a Web page document. -Extensible Markup Language (XML): Foundation technology developed by World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Presentation, communication, and storage of data.

Chapter 6 Foundation of business intelligence: databases and info management

-Database management systems (DBMS): software that permits an organization to centralized data, manage them efficiently and provide access to the stored data by app programs, acts as an interface between app programs and the physical data files. –Data definition compatibility: specify structure of database, create database tables and define the characteristics of the fields, data dictionary is an automated or manual file that stores definitions of data elements and their characteristics. –Bit: represents the smallest unit of data a cop can handle –Byte: group of 8 bits rep a single character, which can be a number or another symbol. -Field is a complete number or a group of words; a word is a group of characters. A field represents an attribute, i.e., the characteristic of an object of interest. A record is a group of related fields, such as the student’s name, the course taken, the date, and the grade. -File is a group of records of the same type. -A file is for an entity such as a person, place, thing, or event on which we store and maintain information. -Database is a group of related files. –Operations of a relational DBMS: create, select, join. –Structured query language (SQL): most prominent data manipulation language, used to add change delete and retrieve the data in the database. -Data warehouse is a database that stores current and historical standardized data of potential interest to decision makers throughout the company. -Data mart is a subset of a data warehouse in which a summarized or highly focused portion of the organization’s data is placed in a separate database for a specific population of users. –Data mining: finds hidden patterns and relationships in large databases. –Text mining: extracts key elements from large unstructured data sets, discovers patterns ad relationships and summarizes the info, analyze transcripts of calls to customer service centers to identify major service and repaid issues. –Web mining: discovers and analyzes useful patterns and info from the world wide web, understand customer behavior, evaluate the effectiveness of a particular web site.

Chapter 7 Telecommunications, the internet, and wireless technology

-Hub: simple device that connects network components, sending a packet of data to all other connected devices. –Switch: has more intelligence than a hub and can filter and forward data to a specified destination on a local area network. Hubs and switches link up the devices on a local area network. –Network Interface Card: network interface , device contained by a comp on the network usually built in motherboard. –Network Operating System: routes and manages comm on the network and coordinate network resources, can reside on every comp in the network or primarily on a dedicated server comp, which also serves up web pages and stores data. –Packet switching: method of slicing digital message into parcels, parcels are called packets, sent along diff comm. Paths, reassembled once they arrives at their destination, packet switching makes more efficient use of the comm, capacity of a network. –Protocol: set of rules and procedures between two points in a network, TCP/IP 1970s support. –Analog: waveform for voice comm., digital: discrete, binary waveform for comp. –Local Area Network (LAN): connect personal comp and other digital devices within half mile radius, connect few comps in small office, in one building, in several buildings in close proximity. Ethernet is dominant LAN standard. –Wide Area Network (WAN): span broad geographical distances, entire regions, states, continents, globe. Internet is the most universal and powerful WAN. –Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN): older, international telephone standard for network access, integrates voice, data, images and video services, basic rate ISDN (128 kbps) and primary rate ISDN (1.5 mbps). Digital Subscriber Line (DSL): Has higher transmission capacities than ISDN. Asymmetric DSL – 1.5-9 Mbps for receiving and 700 Kbps for sending, Symmetric DSL – 3 Mbps for both receiving and sending. -Cable Internet Connections: Provided by cable television vendors, Can transmit at 10 Mbps, More than 60% of U.S. broadband households use cable. -Domain Name System (DNS): Converts IP addresses to domain names, DNS servers maintain a database containing IP addresses mapped to their corresponding domain names, has a hierarchical structure. -Web 2.0: refers to second-generation interactive Internet-based services. Enable people to collaborate, share information, and create new services online., Share photos over Flickr, blog, or Wikipedia.

Interrelated components(hardware and software)-> manipulate information (collect,retrieve, process and store) -> manage business (decision making, business process control, etc)
Memory- RAM( Random access memory); much faster than a hard drive; used to match up the speed of CPU
Files- Hard Drive
Using IS to improve process:
Improve existing business process: improve customer service process, sales process, marketing process, supply chain management process, etc. Build new business process: online business or e-commerce. Decisions Support System(DDS) is a typical Business Intelligence system(BI) Strategic issues: Which types of products to produce? Where to locate resources and facilities? What is the target market? Craigslist is very similar to ubid and ebay and is a type of customer-to-customer(C2C) e-commerce website. Blog- WebLog SMS- Short messaging service provided by wireless phone service vendors
Mobile phone SMS is limited to 160 characters: 20 characters for username and 140 for messages…on twitter

Intranet (network within an organization)
Internet

Extranet (network outside an organization)
UPS Case Study:
What are the inputs, processing, and outputs of UPS’s package tracking system?
Input technology: Handheld Scanner, weight scale, shipping information, signature, receiver information, location of the recipient, desktop computers,
Processing: custom-built mainframe systems, applications/software, centralized database, main servers.
Output technology: receipt, information for tracking a package, labor hours used for wage calculation,
What technologies are used by UPS? And how are these technologies related to UPS’s business strategy?
Technology: Handheld computers(DIADs), wired and wireless communications network,
How IT is related to business strategy: provide critical information, allow customers to track their packages, provide better customer service, choose best routes, deliver packages faster, save costs, more efficient, more efficient/convenient payment/transaction process, online pick-up scheduling, drop-off box, print package labels, easy to return packages, use website for self-customer service,
What problems does UPS IS solve: customers are more informed regarding the status of their packages, decrease lost items(less items get lost), reduce insurance claims, provide managers up-to-date information for better decision making,
What would happen if IT was not used: will not be able to compete with other companies.
System view of an organization:
Competitive forces are the forces in the environment that companies must deal with.
Substitute products: Traditional cell phone vs. smart phone
CRT(Cathode ray tube) monitor vs. LCD (Liquid crystal Display) monitor
VCR vs Dvd vs Blu ray
Fiber Optical Cable vs coaxial cable
Value Chain Model includes 5 primary business activities and four supportive business activities.
Synergy refers to that acquisition of, or merger, with partners or other companies
Cookies are text file, usually with .txt as the postfix of their file name.
Web bugs- stored on websites/webpage, are invisible, and are tiny graphical files (e.g. photos, pictures,)
Spyware: a type of MALWARE(MALicious softWARE)
Privacy Bird: how personal information is used, privacy policy of the website, inform users the website privacy policy, whether the policy matches user preferences, if matches and the site is safe, green bird; if not red bird.
It Strategy supports business strategy (Low cost leadership, product differentiation, etc.)
Dropbox- Norton- is a type of secure(encrypted) data storage service
Google has roughly 1 million servers in total Power consumption: Google vs San Francisco
MySQL open-source database management system
Android is an open source mobile device (smart phone) operating system
Google Chrome Operating system
HTML has limited capacity to interact with database, but XML is much more efficient to interact with a database; thus XML supports dynamic websites while HTML is usually used for static websites.
Database tables are the most basic component in a relational database.
A bit of storage is like a light switch; it can be on (1) or off (0) voltage or electrical levels; the number 1 is represented by a non-zero voltage, while a 0 is represented by a zero voltage.
9 (decimal) 00111001(binary)
A – 01000001 (binary)
In a binary system, decimal numbers are “smaller” than letters and symbols. Field is also known as column and is used to represent an attribute.
Attributes are used to describe an entity
Entity in CSUEB: 1. Student(GPA, Major, name, Net ID,), 2. Faculty, 3.Staff, 4. Alumni, 5. Classroom, 6. Library, 7 Dining Places, 8. Dormitory, 9. Parking Lot,
Record is in a table row. Record=row
File is used for a database table; file=table
Column=field-attribute
SQL is a relationship database
Ad hoc queries are those where new tables are created from joining existing tables and then querying them.
1.Hierarchical(phased out), 2. Network(phased out), 3. Relational(most popular), 4. Multi-dimensional, and 5. object-oriented( very efficient to handle multi-media data, e.g., graph, picture, video, audio; getting more and more popular)
Data mining- numbers; text mining- text; web mining—behavior;
Proxy server allows users to browse the internet without directly connecting with each destination; surf in secrecy; protect user IP address and privacy.
Ping of Death is a type of computer attack that involves sending IP packets of a size greater than 65,535 bytes to the target computer. IP packets larger than this size are illegal, but applications can be built to create such larger-than-allowed packets.
Bytes for letters, decimal numbers, symbols, etc.
A—1 byte storage space on a computer;
Computer – 8 bytes
What will happen if a packet is not received by its recipient?
The packet will be resent.
Why is the internet represented as light tunnels?
Web server is used to host company websites and to provide web –related services.
Firewall-protects company network and information; screen packets
Router- read packet header and route packages
A hub is usually used to connect computers to a local area network;
A switch is usually used to connect networks.
A router can be used to connect computers to a LAN and to connect networks; so a routers is more powerful and intelligent