BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
LECTURE 1 : INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE : MANAGING IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
Digital innovation
Introduction to information systems
Data, information, knowledge
Learning objectives :
Understand current developments in terms of digital innovation and the information
society/digital world.
Describe the role of Information Systems (IS) in organizations as we move into the digital
world.
Explain what an IS is and understand its data, technology, people and organizational
components.
Digital innovation
= ‘A product, process, or business model that is perceived as new, requires some significant changes
on the part of adopters, and is embodied in or enabled by IT’
-so, not only IT, but broader
-importance of technology
-organizational change : role of the individual
What’s so special about digital innovation?
- Digitalization
= Taking something that used to be physical and transforming it to be digital
- Moore’s law
= Rapid performance improvements of IT components due to doubling of the number of
transistors in an integrated circuit approximately every two years
>Things become smaller and more powerful
- Network effects
= The value of innovations increase when more people use it
New technologies ‘enable transformations in the way we live and work, how companies organize, and
the structure of entire industries.’
> Managers have to understand these transformations in order to be effective
> Managers have the opportunity (or even obligation) to become ‘digital innovators’
Digital world
= Proliferation of mobile devices, tablets, iPads, and smart phones
Digital density
= the amount of connected data per unit of activity
,Information technology
1. Hardware
2. Software
3. Networks(tele-communication)
Information Technology (IT) > this course is actually not about IT, but you need basic knowledge
INFORMATION SYSTEMS (IS)
>(Information) Technology
>People organization
Digital innovation
-rapid technological developments
-radical changes in how organization deal with information
IT megatrends (VHS) : mobile, social media, internet of things, cloud computing, big data
IS : technology, organization and people
Interrelated
= If you change one thing it influences the other
Data
= raw symbols
-Have no meaning in and of themselves
-Of little value until processed
-Recorded by observation or research
-Not organized to convey specific meaning
Information
= a representation of reality that can help to answer question about who, what, where and when
- The data that has been made useful and meaningful
- So contextually relevant
Knowledge
= the ability to understand information, form opinions, and make decisions or prediction based on
information
Knowledge = skills + experience + accumulated learning + judgement
Is needed for decision and understand and relating data or information
Data information knowledge (insight) wisdom
,Information systems (IS) =
- Combination of hardware, software and telecommunication networks that people build and
use to collect, create, and distribute useful data in organizational settings
- Primary function : to convert data into information
Organization information processing
- Increasing need for information
Markets increasingly complex, dynamic, globalized, etc
- Increasing availability of data
How to deal with all that information ? (Galbraith, 1974)
>Reduce need for information processing
>Increase capacity for information processing
Because of the rapid digital innovation you also need and increasing capacity for information
processing
Big data
Digital innovation has exponentially increased the amount of available information, and our capacity
to store and transmit it
But are we really talking about information here?
Challenge is : make sense of all the data (turn into information), to derive value from all the untapped
data (only a small percentage is analyzed)
IS positively related to organizational performance in like financial results, operational efficiency, and
competitive advantage
1. Automate : doing things more efficiently, accurately and consistently
2. Learning : doing things better, based on available information (informate)
3. Supporting strategy : doing things smarter, fundamentally redefine business and industry
processes and relationships (transform)
But there are many conditions…
So technology is not a magic bullet (Markus, 2004)
Implementing a new technology will not improve performance all by itself
- technological determinism
- reason for failure for many IS projects
Managing IS requires an integrative vision
Of technology, organization, people
Aligning business and IT
Socio-technical approach
, LECTURE 2 : INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND STRATEGY
Learning objectives:
Understand the relationship between business strategy, information systems strategy and
different types of Information Systems
Explain the importance of aligning organization and IS
Describe the role of IS in organization s as we move into the digital world
Case Boeing and the 787 Dreamliner
They had fierce competition and a complex supply chain with little value from relation ships
For new 787:
They want closer relationships with fewer suppliers : from supply chain to supply network
New business strategy, New IS strategy
They wanted that the plane would last longer
They used the knowledge from the suppliers and let them make bigger parts and Boeing would do the
final assembly because of the outsourcing
The new business strategy:
Focus on innovation
Knowledge- and resource-sharing company
Core competencies: integration of large complex systems
From vertical organization to virtual organization: focus on global outsourcing
IS strategy objectives
IT-enabled virtual integration
o Global collaboration environment
Virtualize as much op the process as possible
o Project Lifecycle Systems, videoconferencing, collaboration tools etc.
o Digital mock up : virtual design and modelling of part and the whole plane instead of
physical prototypes
Phase out legacy systems
Decentralization of IT
Aligning business and IS strategies
Product innovation together with process innovation
New aircraft, new manufacturing process
Suppliers do manufacturing and part of engineering
Redesigning both business strategy and IS strategy
Facilitating breakthrough innovation manufacturing and SCM processes
IS crucial in strategy concerning supply chain and manufacturing
Strategic value of IS
BUT the plane failed
STRATEGIC VALUE OF IS
(Porter Model)
Realizing strategic value : aligning investments
with BUSINESS MODEL