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ICT Summary - KU Leuven
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Chapter one: Introduction to ICT ManagementImportance of ICT Management
Information systems are everywhere. Businesses, cars, hospitals etc..
They cause efficiency improvements
New products and services
Source of economic growth
In general, ICT is used to analyse the inputs and outputs of an organisation, and provide meaning to these
inputs and outputs.
An organisation can be explained as a system which transforms
inputs into outputs through business processes.
ICT is very important in processing these inputs to outputs.
Information technology in business
It can play a crucial role to the core business of the organisation, or it can play a supportive role. It
depends on this role how ICT will be viewed as a process in itself.
There are three ways within businesses:
1. Data processing: supports isolated processes(Process isolation is a set of different hardware and
software technologies designed to protect each process from other processes on the operating
system.) Individual business processes are supported by the storage and processing of data.
2. Task automation: supports groups of processes, sometimes even complete business functions. Task
automation requires a strong integration. For example, paying online. It requires a lot of structure.
3.Integrated information system: integrated
information systems automate complete business
processes along the value chain/value system. For
example a system that does both demand forecasting,
CRM, financials, HR etc.. They consider the whole
organisation: activities, customers, products. You need to
have a structured approach (methodology), overall
design and architecture, as well as it has to have a vision
in terms of what it wants to achieve. They are quite
different to implement. Given the complexity of such systems, it is quite hard to change and manage
them, which is why a phased and planned approach is used to handle it.To develop such systems it is
important to involve IT users as well and not only IT specialists.
Benefits of having an information systems
1. Operational benefits: makes daily business processes more efficient. For example it helps in time
savings, better supply management or lower communication costs.
2. Tactical benefits: organisation can better realise its goals like marketing campaigns etc..
3. Strategic benefits: the business develops a better strategy. An example of this would be Amazon.
Types of benefits
1. Quantifiable benefits: represent an amount of money and can be estimated in advance and can be
compared to the cost.
2. Non quantifiable benefits: they cannot or can hardly be expressed in money but can be very important
like better customer service.
- ICT can provide multiple advantages which may lead to a better competitive advantage. However, ICT
alone does not provide one. A competitive advantage can only be gained if ICT is used as a
complementary tool . A competitive advantage from ICT is only temporary because technology can be
, easily copied, which does not make it sustainable.For example, a competitive advantage using ICT was
about the package delivery companies which first used ICT to trace the packages.
Main components of ICT Management
It is primarily concerned with the hardware and software
involved in the information systems.
Information systems have a life cycle: being born , being
managed and then being replaced with a new information
system. When managing these information systems it is
important to keep the concerns of the stakeholders in
mind.
Information system domains:
1.Business processes: what happens in the organisation?
How are activities carried out? What rules and constraints
are there and what are the results? Business processes are a
set of structured activities which are done for a goal. They
need resources to be carried out. The execution of business
processes are restrained by business rules.
•Business data: usually is customer data. It does not have a
predefined structure.
•Application data: generated by the software which you
use. This type of data is clearly structured.
2.Applications: by applications we mean software.They are
used to help the organisation by automation or to facilitate integrated information systems.
3. Infrastructure: applications need an infrastructure to work on. This means they need hardware,
software and communication networks. Data also needs infrastructure because they need someplace to be
stored.
They all interact with each other
They cannot stand alone
The lifecycle
1. Requirements: the starting phase of any information system. In this phase you will define and document
the requirements the system should have and what it should be able to do, the role of the system in the
business.
2. Design: you will build an overall description with models based on the requirements.
3. Development: You build the system in which you use a certain methodology to do so.
4. Roll out: you make the system operational, you will install and configure it and also perhaps provide
training in the organisation.
5. Operations system: using the system. You will still need support and maintenance.
6. Decommissioning: the end of useful life. You will remove it and replace it by a new system which has
just been developed.
ICT Strategy
1. Business-IT alignment: ICT decisions should be made by the business, with the business in mind.
2. Set up, maintain IT decision structures.
3. Exert control.
Concerns
Worry and expectations of stakeholders about the system and should be considered throughout the
lifecycle.
Common business concerns.
1. Products and services: how are they affected?how can we support existing products and
services in a better way? How can we improve the product and service?
2. Economic aspects: project and operational costs, as well as overall benefits.
, 3. Compliance: compliance with laws and with regulations(external, internal)
- System concerns
1. Service levels: does it have the minimum quality requirements? Should be quantitative and thus
measurable. A typical service levels is its availability ( how long is it available for use), reliability
(probability about the system meeting the defined standards), capacity and performance ( the
volume the system can handle while being able to perform) as well as support and administration
needed.
2. Usability: user friendliness (neat and clean), maintainability (easy to maintain), administrating and
scaling.
3. System security: authentication(who is who ?) , Authorisation ( what are you allowed to do and
what not? ), Confidentiality (you should not see what you are not allowed to see)
It is always a good idea to map out which stakeholder has a
certain concern.You. have to evaluate the level of interest and
power to determine how to manage each stakeholder.
The importance of modelling
A model is an abstract representation of a part of a reality: metro map, diagram etc…
Each map can be useful for different people and help to communicate their ideas/problems. It shows only a
small amount of the totality of information and it allows people to concentrate on the essentials of a
complex problem by keeping out non-essential details.
The description will depend on the purpose.
Why do we need models?
They facilitate discussions with the stakeholders
Specification of a system before implementation
Gain overview and understanding into the underlying
system
Documentation of systems for traceability and
knowledge management
They can aide us in performance analyses.
Some models can even be automatically executed.
They are created for a specific target audience with
a specific modelling purpose in mind.
Business Information System
A set of related components to collect, search, process, store and distribute information in order to support
the coordination and control of the decision making process within an organisation, as well as to automate
tasks that. Help reach the goals of the organisation.
, The horizontal area categories business information systems according to the function which they have
( sales and marketing, finance etc..)
The vertical dimension allows us to look at it from a managerial level: is it operational, managerial or
strategic level. Through the vertical dimension we also see who it serves(operational managers, middle
managers or senior managers).
The lower you are in the pyramid, the bigger the difference between the different managerial areas.
Functional domains
1. Sales and marketing: order processing, pricing, forecasts
2. Finance and accountancy: registration of financial transactions, short term budgeting and long term
planning
3. Production & logistics: process control, planning and opening a new production unit.
4. Human Resources: registration recruitments and dismissal, distribution of pay scales and the planning
of personnel needs.
-> If there is a separation between functional domains, then they are called isolated silos. That means that
each functional domain has its own information system.
Information systems at operational level
Mainly concerned with the day to day operating tasks
Easiest to automate
Operational processes are well structured, unambiguous and routinely.
Operational decisions regard the short term, occur often and contain little uncertainties
The required information is easy to determine, it is independent of the individual and occurs particularly
within the organisation.
Examples: OLTP and ERP.
The payroll system is an example.
However, they are
not integrated.
They only include
one single
department.
You can integrate domains in a single
information system, which is an ERP
one. The functional domains are
integrated in a single system and the
data is shared freely between the
domains. ERPs are usually not self
made, but are sold by vendors. Then,
you choose and design the
functionalities that you need. A very
typical one is SAP.
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