Information & Data Management
Notes from David Bourgeois’ “Information Systems for Business and Beyond” & Mandatory Articles
Week 1 2
Bourgeois Chapter 1: What is an Information System? 2
Bourgeois Chapter 3: Software 7
Bourgeois Chapter 10: Information Systems Development 16
Week 2 25
Bourgeois Chapter 4: Data and Databases 25
Week 3 32
The Truth About Blockchain – Karim Lakhani (2017) 32
Week 5 & 6 39
The Business of Artificial Intelligence – Erik Brynjolfsson & Andrew McAfee (2017) 39
Week 7 47
Good Graphics – Antony Unwin 47
,Week 1
Bourgeois Chapter 1: What is an Information System?
Defining Information Systems
• Some of the more popular definitions, first from Wikipedia and then from a couple of textbooks:
o “Information systems (IS) is the study of complementary networks of hardware and software
that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data.”
o “Information systems are combinations of hardware, software, and telecommunications
networks that people build and use to collect, create, and distribute useful data, typically in
organizational settings.”
o “Information systems are interrelated components working together to collect, process,
store, and disseminate information to support decision making, coordination, control,
analysis, and viualization in an organization.”
• These definitions focus on two different ways of describing information systems:
o the components that make up an information system and
o the role that those components play in an organization.
Components of Information Systems
• Information systems are made up of different components that work together to provide value to an
organization.
• They are made up of five components: hardware, software, data, people, and process.
o The first three, fitting under the category technology, are generally what most students think
of when asked to define information systems.
o But the last two, people and process, are really what separate the idea of information
systems from more technical fields, such as computer science.
• Technology
o Technology can be thought of as the application of scientific knowledge for practical
purposes.
o The first three components of information systems – hardware, software, and data – all fall
under the category of technology.
o Hardware
Information systems hardware is the part of an information system you can touch –
the physical components of the technology.
Computers, keyboards, disk drives, iPads, and flash drives are all examples of
information systems hardware.
o Software
Software is a set of instructions that tells the hardware what to do.
Software is not tangible – it cannot be touched.
When programmers create software programs, what they are really doing is simply
typing out lists of instructions that tell the hardware what to do.
There are several categories of software, with the two main categories being
• operating-system software, which makes the hardware usable, and
o E.g. Microsoft Windows on a personal computer and Google’s
Android on a mobile phone.
• application software, which does something useful.
o E.g. Microsoft Excel and Angry Birds.
o Data
You can think of data as a collection of facts.
• E.g., your street address, the city you live in, and your phone number
Like software, data is also intangible.
By themselves, pieces of data are not really very useful.
But aggregated, indexed, and organized together into a database, data can become
a powerful tool for businesses.
• In fact, all of the definitions presented at the beginning of this chapter
focused on how information systems manage data.
Organizations collect all kinds of data and use it to make decisions.
• These decisions can then be analyzed as to their effectiveness and the
organization can be improved.
, o Networking Communication: A Fourth Technology Piece?
Besides the components of hardware, software, and data, which have long been
considered the core technology of information systems, it has been suggested that
one other component should be added: communication.
An information system can exist without the ability to communicate – the first
personal computers were stand-alone machines that did not access the Internet.
• However, in today’s hyper-connected world, it is an extremely rare
computer that does not connect to another device or to a network.
Technically, the networking communication component is made up of hardware and
software, but it is such a core feature of today’s information systems that it has
become its own category.
• People
o When thinking about information systems, it is easy to get focused on the technology
components and forget that we must look beyond these tools to fully understand how they
integrate into an organization.
o From the front-line help-desk workers, to systems analysts, to programmers, all the way up
to the chief information officer (CIO), the people involved with information systems are an
essential element that must not be overlooked.
• Process
o A process is a series of steps undertaken to achieve a desired outcome or goal.
o Information systems are becoming more and more integrated with organizational processes,
bringing more productivity and better control to those processes.
But simply automating activities using technology is not enough – businesses
looking to effectively utilize information systems do more.
o Using technology to manage and improve processes, both within a company and externally
with suppliers and customers, is the ultimate goal.
o Technology buzzwords such as “business process reengineering,” “business process
management,” and “enterprise resource planning” all have to do with the continued
improvement of these business procedures and the integration of technology with them.
o Businesses hoping to gain an advantage over their competitors are highly focused on this
component of information systems.
The Role of Information Systems
• From our definitions above, we see that these components collect, store, organize, and distribute
data throughout the organization.
• In fact, we might say that one of the roles of information systems is to take data and turn it into
information, and then transform that into organizational knowledge.
• As technology has developed, this role has evolved into the backbone of the organization.
• The Mainframe Era
o From the late 1950s through the 1960s, computers were seen as a way to more efficiently do
calculations.
o These first business computers were room-sized monsters, with several refrigerator-sized
machines linked together.
The primary work of these devices was to organize and store large volumes of
information that were tedious to manage by hand.
o Only large businesses, universities, and government agencies could afford them, and they
took a crew of specialized personnel and specialized facilities to maintain.
o These devices served dozens to hundreds of users at a time through a process called time-
sharing.
o Typical functions included scientific calculations and accounting, under the broader umbrella
of “data processing.”
o In the late 1960s, the Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP) systems were introduced.
This software, running on a mainframe computer, gave companies the ability to
manage the manufacturing process, making it more efficient.
, From tracking inventory to creating bills of materials to scheduling production, the
MRP systems (and later the MRP II systems) gave more businesses a reason to want
to integrate computing into their processes.
IBM became the dominant mainframe company.
Nicknamed “Big Blue,” the company became synonymous with business computing.
Continued improvement in software and the availability of cheaper hardware
eventually brought mainframe computers (and their little sibling, the minicomputer)
into most large businesses.
• The PC Revolution
o In 1975, the first microcomputer was announced on the cover of Popular Mechanics: the
Altair 8800.
Its immediate popularity sparked the imagination of entrepreneurs everywhere, and
there were quickly dozens of companies making these “personal computers.”
o Though at first just a niche product for computer hobbyists, improvements in usability and
the availability of practical software led to growing sales.
o The most prominent of these early personal computer makers was a little company known as
Apple Computer, headed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, with the hugely successful
“Apple II.”
o Not wanting to be left out of the revolution, in 1981 IBM (teaming with a little company
called Microsoft for their operating-system software) hurriedly released their own version of
the personal computer, simply called the “PC.”
o Businesses, who had used IBM mainframes for years to run their businesses, finally had the
permission they needed to bring personal computers into their companies, and the IBM PC
took off.
The IBM PC was named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” for 1982.
o Because of the IBM PC’s open architecture, it was easy for other companies to copy, or
“clone” it.
During the 1980s, many new computer companies sprang up, offering less
expensive versions of the PC.
This drove prices down and spurred innovation.
o Microsoft developed its Windows operating system and made the PC even easier to use.
Common uses for the PC during this period included word processing, spreadsheets,
and databases.
o These early PCs were not connected to any sort of network; for the most part they stood
alone as islands of innovation within the larger organization.
• Client-Server
o In the mid-1980s, businesses began to see the need to connect their computers together as a
way to collaborate and share resources.
This networking architecture was referred to as “client-server” because users would
log in to the local area network (LAN) from their PC (the “client”) by connecting to a
powerful computer called a “server,” which would then grant them rights to
different resources on the network (such as shared file areas and a printer).
o Software companies began developing applications that allowed multiple users to access the
same data at the same time.
This evolved into software applications for communicating, with the first real
popular use of electronic mail appearing at this time.
o This networking and data sharing all stayed within the confines of each business, for the
most part.
o While there was sharing of electronic data between companies, this was a very specialized
function.
Computers were now seen as tools to collaborate internally, within an organization.
In fact, these networks of computers were becoming so powerful that they were
replacing many of the functions previously performed by the larger mainframe
computers at a fraction of the cost.
o It was during this era that the first Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems were
developed and run on the client-server architecture.
