Business information systems
Chapter 1
1.1 Managing in the Digital World
Information systems are found everywhere. From technologies such
as smartphones, lap- tops and tablets to information systems used to
optimize supply chains and systems for adaptive traffic control.
In addition to enhancing the work and social experience of individuals
and organizations, the prevalence of technology in daily lives blurs the
boundaries between work and personal life resulting in a virtuous or
vicious cycle, depending on the outlook.
Knowledge workers are a product of the digital age. Typically, being
well-educated professionals, their jobs are grounded in creation,
modification and synthesizing of knowledge. The rise in numbers of
knowledge workers and their importance has enabled the emergence
of knowledge society in which education has become the
cornerstone of society.
It is argued that in a knowledge society, knowledge is an item of value
just as important as land, capital and labor, and puts those with access
to information systems at a much greater advantage than those who
do not. This disparity is called the digital divide.
There are other cons to the over reliance on information systems.
However, they have now become critical to the success of modern
individuals, societies and organizations.
1.2 Globalization
Information systems are directly related to globalization: The
increasing integration and interdependence of people, economies and
governments across the world.
The fall in telecommunication costs and the ease of transportation has
opened up many opportunities for businesses, including access to a
whole new pool of skilled labor across the world. Outsourcing refers
to hiring an external party to perform services or tasks originally
carried out in-house. Due to low labor costs in many countries,
outsourcing is now done on a global scale. The primary reason for
outsourcing is usually cost-cutting.
The technology developments have created a number of societal
issues that have enormous influence on the world. Demographic
changes occur when the age structure of a population changes due
to adjustments to living conditions and migration. Demographic
changes and urbanization influence the balance between demand and
supply of labor. These, combined with shifts in economic power, fuel
other problems such as resource scarcity, depletion of natural
resources and climate change.
,Technological developments and breakthroughs can also help address these
issues.
1.3 Digital Innovation
Digital innovation refers to a product, process or business model
that is perceived as new, requires significant changes from the
adopters and is enabled or embodied by IT.
However, digital innovation does not refer only to IT. IT can be an
enabler or the cause, but the effects of innovation require individuals
and entire organizations to change. Digital innovation changes the way
people work and management has the obligation to utilize these
changes to organizational advantage.
Important characteristics of digital innovation include:
• Digitalization: The ease of use and accessibility enabled by digital
technology.
• Moore’s Law: The observation that computational power doubles every
2 years and the cost of computers halves.
• The Network Effect: The idea that the value of a network is proportional to
the number of users.
Digital innovation happens in four phases:
• Discovery: findings through observations, reasoning, and experimentation
• Development: The idea, essentially the discovery, is built upon to create a
product or service that can be used.
• Diffusion: The rate at which new technology and ideas are spread. This
includes innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and
laggards.
• Impact: How does the new technology or idea affect how people, society,
business interact? Does it have a negative or positive impact?
Relationships between technology (IT), organization and individuals are
interactive, connected and inseparable. Every aspect has an impact on
the other.
The development of information technologies has enabled the
, emergence of five inter- connected ’mega-trends’ that influence the
societies and organizations.
5 IT Mega-
Trends
The use of mobile devices
(smartphones), and the portability and
Mobile
connectivity of laptops and tablets
have enabled the world to be closely
connected.
Social media has enabled people to
Social Media view, connect, and experience things
from different
parts of the world without having to
travel.
Network of physical devices that can
Internet of Things
share
(IoT) and receive data over the internet.
The use of a network of remote servers
Cloud Computing on the
internet to store, manage, and
process data
instead of a local server or personal
computer.
Large amounts of data that cannot be
processed with traditional data-
Big Data processing soft- ware. Usually, big data
is used to detect pat- terns and trends
from mass amounts of data
sets.
Information Systems Defined
An information system (IS) combines people and information
technology (IT) to collect, process, store and distribute data. Information
systems are primarily used to convert data into information.
IT is a component of information systems and includes computer
hardware, software and telecommunication networks.
Data, Information and Knowledge
In order to understand how information systems work, it is essential to
understand the difference between data, information and knowledge.
Data refers to unformatted and unorganized raw symbols that have
no meaning on their own and little value until its processed. It is a raw
representation of facts, recorded via observation or research. In order
for it to convey any meaning, it has to be organized.
After data is formatted, organized and processed, it acquires meaning
and becomes information.
Information is a representation of reality and can help answer
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