Information Management Summary
Lecture 1: “The revolution is just beginning”
Omni Channel → company has 1 picture of you, independent of the channel you used to
purchase the product. An omni-channel strategy is an approach that provides customers
with a fully-integrated shopping experience by uniting user experiences from brick-and-
mortar to mobile-browsing and everything in between.
E-Commerce = Impact of IT on business. Commercial transactions conducted
electronically on the Internet.
• Know what users… example: Google, Facebook, Uber
• Predict customer behaviour… example: Visa
IT-Enabled Business:
Every organization uses IT to reach customers, to produce products and services, to
purchase materials, to hire personnel etc.
• Example: Google, Facebook, Uber
IT-Provider Business:
An increasing variety of IT-firms that PROVIDE all kinds of products and services to IT-
enabled business
• Example: Microsoft, Apple, IBM
Some Vocab
• Value Analysis: Which service/ product for which markets & Revenue model
• Information Analysis: Which data are created and needed to execute business
transactions?
• Process Analysis: Which steps and activities to deliver the service/ product?
What is Information Technology?
Information Technology is SMACIT. SMACIT = the big five technologies.
1. Social Media → technologies that enable communication and creation of virtual
groups
2. Mobile Computing → technologies that enable powerful computing
“everywhere”
3. Analytics (or big data) → technologies that enable data analytics and artificial
intelligence
4. Cloud Computing → technologies that enable data storage and computing “in the
cloud”
5. Internet of Things → technologies that enable to monitor with smart sensors
everywhere
,Behind the Big Five Technologies, we have 3 technologies. These being Web 2.0, aspect
technologies and functional technologies.
Measuring Amounts of Data
• 1 Byte → one symbol (a letter for example (0-9))
• Companies can store whatever type of data now, and whatever amount they want
• Challenge: what to do with the data
Four Disruptive Aspects of IT, Data and Information Systems
1. Information management can compute it
2. IM can deal with messiness
3. IM can find hidden correlations
4. IM can make it visible → in a way we can understand data
What do we do in Information Management?
In IM, we do → Bridging Business (business models) and IT (technology resources)
Information Management = balancing NEEDS and SERVICES
,Business Model
A set of planned activities (business processes) designed to result in a profit in a
marketplace (value)
Core Tools in Information Management
• Value Modeling → To determine which value is provided by which firm to which
client
• Process Modeling → To determine which processes are designed and executed to
provide value (= products and services)
• Information Modeling → To determine which data are created, used, and
exchanged to run the processes and to provide the value
Web 2.0 Technology
Web 2.0 technology is a key enabler of e-commerce, and web 2.0 enables “Social Media
Technology”
• Examples of Web 2.0 based firms: YouTube, Facebook, Apple IPhone etc.
Web 2.0 allows users to:
• Create and share content, preferences, bookmarks, and online personas
• Participate in virtual lives
• Build online communities
E.g. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Second Life, Wikipedia, Digg
What is E-Commerce?
Uber: the new face of e-commerce. Uber has a “on demand service” business model. It
disrupted the traditional taxi business model
• E- commerce is the application of IT to doing business
• E-commerce is (since 1980s!) the result of
o Driver 1: competition and business changes
o Driver 2: new enabling IT
o Interaction between drivers 1 & 2 = reshaping the business
environment
E-Business = “digital enabling of transactions within a firm” involving Information
Systems under the control of a firm
, E-Commerce = “use of Internet and Web to transact business”. More formally: “Digitally
enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals”
E-Commerce = Impact of IT at the FIRM level → VALUE CHAIN
IT affects: IT impact -in an activity and -between activities
• All business process stages (purchasing; design, manufacturing; sales; marketing)
• The linkages and integration of subsequent steps in the value chain
• Contracting between firms
• Connecting value chains (firms) into a dynamic value system
Porter: Value Chain and Value Network (within firm)
• Inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing &sales, and service
= primary activities
• HR, technology development etc. = Support activities
E-Commerce = Impact of IT at INDUSTRY level → PORTERS 5 FORCES
Complicated Role of IT as Business Enabler
Many early visions not fulfilled:
• Friction-free commerce:
o Consumers less price sensitive
o Considerable price dispersion
• Perfect competition
o Information asymmetries persist
• Disintermediation
• First mover advantage
o Fast-followers often overtake first movers
• IT may trigger transparency (of prices) → information symmetry
• IT may trigger information overload → information asymmetry!
Academic Disciplines Concerned with E-commerce
