Information Systems Management

Simon Fraser UniversityCMPT 301Week 1, Fall 2007Wang, Can/tsan/

Outline

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Course Introduction

The Organizational Environment

The Technology Environment

A Framework for IS Management

CMPT 301 is about

CMPT 301 is about the management of information technology as it is being practiced in organizations today.

Coverage across the full spectrum of IT for managing and operating organizations.Guidance on the issues, strategies, and tactics for managing the use of IT.

Why Business?

You will either be working for:An IT Vendor

Whose customers are businesses and non-profit organizationsYour products need to fulfill their needs

Working for a business as a IT professionalDeploying IT resources is even harder than creating them in the first placeServicing the IT needs of companies

Why Management Problems?

Problems are rarely just "technical"Management problems are just as difficult to resolve

We are very good at resolving technical problems, not so for management problemsPartly because management problems are sometimes harder than technical ones to define

Industry Trends

For IT VendorsCustomers demand complete solutions; not just hardware or software. Businesses want problems solve by IT; they don't want problems created by IT.

For IT professionalsEmployers want problem solvers; not just programmers.Problem solving skills can protect you from commoditization of your technical skills

Layout of Topics (1)

Weeks 2-4:Introduction to the strategic issues that are the responsibility of top IT management executives (CIOs)

Evolution of IS function and the CIO's jobStrategic use of ITIS planning

Weeks 5-9:Management of the essential information technologies

Distributed systems architectureTelecommunicationsCorporate information resourcesManaging computer operations

Layout of Topics (2)

Weeks 10-12:Developing and delivering systems

Tools, approaches and trends of system developmentManaging system development and delivery

Weeks 13: Project presentation

Grading

2 Written Case Assignments 20%Midterm 20%Final Group Project

Project Report 20%Project Presentation 5%

not showing up for project presentations -2%

Final Exam 35%Covers all materials in class

Learning Materials

TextbookBarbara C. McNurlin, Ralph H. Sprague, Information Systems Management in Practice (7/e), Pearson Prentice Hall

Supplemental readingsLectures will be on the web at (??)Set aside about 4-6 hours per week for CMPT 301

Class, lesson prep, assignments and projects

Contact Info

Office HoursMondays 15:00-16:00 (TASC1 9241)Thursdays 16:15-17:15 (TASC1 9241)Office tel: 778-782-7331

My Email: cwa50@sfu.caTA: Jiawei Huang, jha48@sfu.ca

Outline

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Course Introduction

The technology environment

A framework for IS management

The Organizational Environment

The External Business Environment

The way IT is used depends Organizational environmentTechnological advances

Major changes in our global marketplaceThe Internet economyGlobal marketplaceBusiness ecosystems &. decapitalizationFaster business cycles & accountability and transparencyRising societal risks of IT

The Internet Economy

From APARTNET to today’s InternetWWW has evolved from a graphical layer of the Internet to a cyberspace for business

B2C, e.g. Amazon.comB2B, e.g. eBay

Dot-com crashPure Internet economy VS. the hybrid model

Bricks and clicks

Global Marketplace

Mergers cross the national boundariesThe entire world has become the marketplace

Internet enables companies to work globallyEven small firms have global reachLocal backlash

Global environment VS. local tastes

Business Ecosystems

An ecosystem is a web of relationships surrounding one or a few companies

They appear to follow biological rulesVarious players in one's business ecosystem

Banks, advertising agencies, suppliers, distributors, retailers, competitors etc.

Decapitalization

Tangible items, such as capital, equipment and buildings were the tenets of power in the industrial ageToday, we see power of ‘intangibles’ such as ideas and knowledge

Managing talent is now as important as e.g. managing finance

Faster Business Cycle& Accountability and Transparency Issues

Faster tempo of businessLess time to marketShorter product life cycle

The rise and fall of dot-coms and telecomsCalls for greater transparency of corporationsIncreasing pressure for corporate ethics

Rising Societal Risks of IT

CIOs need to address the dark side of IT more than ever

Network shutdownsComputer virusesIdentity theftEmail scams

CIOs need to consider the societal effects of outsourcing

Movement of white collar jobs offshore

The Internal Organizational Environment

Organizational structures are changingThe relationship between IT and enterprise structure is growing more widespread and deeperThe ways people work and organizations operate are affected by changes in the internal organization environment

From Supply-Push to Demand-Pull

Supply-pushCompanies did their best to figure out what customers wantedOrganized to build a supply of products or services and then ‘push’ them out to end customers on stores shelves, in catalogs etc.

Demand-pullAllows much closer and ‘one-to-one’ contact between customer and sellerOffer customers the components of a product/service then the customer creates their own version by ‘pulling’ what they want

Self- Service

ATMS FedExAllows customs to communicate and ‘do business’ with the firm on their own

Real-Time Working

Sales people have up-to-the-minute information about customersKnowing e.g. inventory and cash levels as the are NOW – not as they were a week or a month agoBeing able to reach someone when you need them

Instant messaging

Team-Based Working

Task-oriented teamsEach member has a unique contribution to the overall results.

GroupwareProvides IT support for meeting, collaborative work, and communication among far-flung team members.

Anytime, anyplace information work

Outsourcing and Strategic Alliances

To become more competitive, organizations are examining types of work that should be done internally or externally by others

The thinking is: We should focus on what we do best and outsource the other functions to people who specialize in themRanges from a simple contract for services to a long-term strategic alliance

Demise of Hierarchy

Hierarchical structures cannot cope with rapid change

Communications up and down the chain of command takes too much time for today’s environment

Self-managed groups produce higher performance

IT enables team-based organizational structures by facilitating rapid and far-flung communication

Goals of the New Work Environment(1)

Leverage Knowledge GloballyTap tacit knowledge by fostering sharing and supporting sharing through technology

Organize for ComplexityThe world is so interconnectedIssues are often systemicChoices are endless

Goals of the New Work Environment(2)

Work ElectronicallyThe microchip moved power within companiesBandwidth moves power all the way to consumersInternet provides a cyber-workspace in which diversified choices can be accommodated

Handle continuous and discontinuous changeInnovations occurring in fits and starts

Outline

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Course Introduction

The technology environment

A framework for IS management

The Organizational Environment

Hardware Trends

1950s –60s: Batch processing (mainframe)Mid 1970s: Departmental minicomputers1980s: Advent of PCsClient-Server computing

"Client" machine user interfaces with "Server" on the network holding the data and applications

Current: hand-held devices, wireless etc.

Further distribution beyond organizational boundaries to suppliers, customers etc.

Software Trends (1)

In 1960sImprove the productivity of in-house programmersModular and structured programming techniques

In 1970sLife cycle development methodologies and software engineeringPrototypingPurchasing software became viable alternative to in-house developmentOOA & OOP

In 1980sIS managers paying attention to applications other than transaction processingDSS, report generation, database appsEnd users develop their own systems

Software Trends (2)

1990sPush for "open systems"Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) e.g. SAP, PeopleSoft

A fundamental organizational changeDefining a corporation's IT architecture

Like hardware, software is migrating to be network centric.Web front ends to empower employees rather than replacing legacy systems

NowMoving to Web Services

Packages of code that each perform a specific function and have a URLThe network becomes the heart of the system, linking all Web Services

Data Trends (1)

1950s-1960sFile management

Organizing files to serve individual applications Corporate databases

Serving several applicationsLed to concept of establishing a data administration function

Data Trends (2)

1970sDBMS

Data dictionary/directorySpecification and format, information about relationships among systems, sources and uses of data etc.

First 20 years: managing data in a centralized environment

Late '70s / '80sRDBMS, 4GL and PCs:Data distribution: employees directly access corporate data

Data Trends (3)

1990sFrom data resources to information resources

Information management focuses on conceptsContains a much richer universe of digitized media including voice, graphics, animation and photographs

New technologiesData warehousing

Stores huge amounts of historical data from systems such as retailers Point-Of-Sale systems

Data miningExtracting knowledge from large amounts of data

Data Trends (4)

NowWeb has broadened ‘data’ to ‘content’

Text, graphics, animation, maps, photos, video etc.

Two major data issues are now facing CIOs:Security – protecting data from those who should not see itPrivacy – safeguarding the personal data of employees, customers etc.

Communications Trends (1)

Telecom opened up new uses of IS so it became an integral component of IS management

Communications-based information systems link organizations to their suppliers and customers

Telecom has experienced enormous change and is now taking "center stage"

Early use: online and time-sharing systemsThen: interest in both public and private (intra-company) data networks blossomed

Communications Trends (2)

Internet: changed everything!Today the Internet's protocol has become the worldwide standard for LANs and WANsWill also soon be the standard for voice, TV etc.

Explosion of wireless2nd generation, instant messaging, Wi-Fi, 3rd generation (3G)Doesn’t just enable mobility: changes how people communicate, how they live and how they work

Outline

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Course Introduction

The technology environment

A framework for IS management

The Organizational Environment

The Mission of Information Systems (1)

Early days: "paperwork factories" to pay employees, bill customers, ship products etc.

MIS era: producing reports all levels of management

“Get the right information to the right person at the right time.” (?)

The Mission of Information Systems (2)

Today: Improve the performance of people in organizations through the use of information technology.

The final objective is the improvement of the enterprise, therefore IS performance is based on business outcomes and business results.

A Simple Model of Technology Use

In the early days of Information Systems, the “translation” between IT and users was performed almost entirely by systems analysts

Systems Professionals Bridging the Technology Gap

Over the last 50 years technology has become increasingly complex and powerful

Users have become increasingly sophisticatedInformation systems are now viewed as "products" and users have become "customers"

More specialization is required of systems professionals to bridge this wider gap

Users Bridging the Technology Gap

Technology becomes user-friendly and many applications are handled by non-IT staff.Transaction systems, however, are still developed by professional developers.

A Better Model

The Technologies

Several forces contribute to the increased importance and complexity of IT:

Growth in capacity and reduction in cost & sizeMerging of previously separate technologies of computers, telephones/telecom/cable TV, office equipment and consumer electronicsAbility to store and handle multiple forms of data

The Users

A dichotomy of information workerProcedure-based activities

High volume of transactions; well-structured procedures; output measure defined; focus on process and efficiency; handling of data...e.g. "Pay employees"

Knowledge-based activitiesLow volume of transactions; ill-structured procedures; output measure less defined; focus on problems, goals and effectiveness; handling of concepts…e.g. "improve sales in the Asian Market"

System Development and Delivery

Bridging the gap between technology and usersSystems for procedure-based activities differ from systems for knowledge-based information workInfrastructure management

Hardware and softwareTelecommunicationsInformation resources

IS Management

Chief Information Officer (CIO)Must be high enough in the enterprise to influence organizational goalsMust have enough credibility to lead the harnessing of technology to pursue those goals

CIOs must work with all the other CXOsIT has become too important to be left to one individual

Executive team must work together to govern IT and leverage IT well

A Better Model