Chapter 1: Business Driven Technology

I. Competing in the Information Age

a. Fact: the confirmation or validation of an event or object  can access facts with a
push of the button
b. Information age: infinite quantities of facts are widely available to anyone who can
use a computer
i. Business leaders have created exceptional opportunities coupling the power of
the information age with traditional business methods
1. Understand enough about the information age to apply it to a particular
business, creating innovative companies that now lead entire industries
c. Internet of Things (IoT): a world where interconnected Internet-enabled devices can
collect and share data without human intervention.
i. Machine to Machine (M2M): devices that connect directly to other devices
d. Kevin Ashton: humans have limited time, attention, and accuracy not good at
capturing data
i. Computers can track and count everything and reduce waste, loss, & cost
e. Core drivers of the information age: data, information, business intelligence, and
knowledge

f. Structured Data: has a defined length, type, & format  includes numbers, dates, or
strings.
i. Typically stored in a traditional system such as a relational database or
spreadsheets and accounts for about 20% of data that surrounds us
ii. Machine generated data: created by a machine without human intervention 
sensor, point of sale, and web log data
iii. Human generated data: humans in interaction with computers generate
input, clickstream, or gaming data.
g. Unstructured Data: not defined and does not follow a specified format free-form
texts such as emails, tweets, and texts.
i. Accounts for 80% of the data the surrounds us
ii. Machine generated: satellite images, scientific atmosphere, and radar
iii. Human generated: texts, social media, and emails
h. Big data: collection of large complex data sets, including structured and unstructured,
which cannot be analyzed using traditional database methods and tools.
 i. Lack data  make decisions make business decisions on intuition
i. Snapshot: a view of data at particular moment in time  highlights characteristics like
order date, customer, sales representative, product, quantity, and profit.
j. Information: data converted into meaningful and useful context  computers or
machines need data and humans need info (insightful)
i. Value is only as good as people who use it  use the same info and make
different decisions based on interpretation
k. Report: document containing data organized in a table, matrix, or graphical format 
can cover wide range or specific subjects
i. Static report: created once based on data that does not change
ii. Dynamic report: changes automatically during creation
l. Variable: data characteristic that stand for a value that changes or varies over time 
allows to create hypothetical scenarios to study future possibilities
m. Business Intelligence: information collected from multiple sources as that analyzes
patterns, trends, and relationships for
strategic decision making
i. Manipulates multiple variable
including r%, weather, and gas
prices
n. Analytics: science of fact based
decision making
i. Predictive analytics: extracts
info from data and uses it to
predict future trends and identify
behavioral patterns
ii. Behavioral analytics: uses data
about people’s behaviors to
understand intent and predict
future actions
o. Knowledge: skills, experience, and expertise, coupled with information and
intelligence, that creates a person’s intellectual resources.
i. Knowledge workers: individuals valued for their ability to interpret and analyze
information
1. Use BI along w/ personal experiences to make decisions based on info
and intuition

II. The Challenge: Departmental Companies

a. Business unit: a segment of a company representing a specific business function
b. Information silo: occurs when one business unit is unable to freely communicate
with other business units making it difficult for organizations to work cross-functionally
i. Exists because management does not believe there to be enough benefit from
sharing information across business units
c. Although each department has its own focus and data, none can work independently if
the company is to operate as a whole.
i. All departments must work together as a single unit sharing common
information and not operate independently or in a silo.
III. The Solution: Management Information Systems
a. System: a collection of parts the link to achieve a
common purpose  primary enabler of cross-
functional operations
i. Successful companies operate cross-
functionally, integrating the operations of all
departments
b. Goods: material items or products that customers will
buy to satisfy a want or need
c. Services: tasks performed by people that customers
will buy to satisfy a want or need
d. Production: the process where a business takes raw
materials and processes them or converts them into a finished product for its goods or
services
i. Must gather all the inputs, process all the raw materials, and would have your
output or finished product.
e. Productivity: the rate at which goods and services are produced based on total
outputs given total inputs
i. Ensuring the input, process, and output of goods and services work across all
the departments of a company is where systems add tremendous value to
overall business productivity
f. Systems thinking: a way of monitoring the entire system by viewing multiple inputs
being processed or transformed to produce while continuously gathering feedback on
each part
i. Provides an end-to-end view of how operations work together to create a
product or service.
g. Feedback: information that returns to its original transmitter (input, transform, or
output) and modifies the transmitter’s actions
i. Helps the system maintain stability.

h. Management Information Systems (MIS): a business function that moves

information about people, products, and processes across the company to facilitate
decision making and problem solving  represents business success & innovation
i. Incorporates systems thinking to help companies operate cross functionally
ii. If one part of the company experiences problems, the entire system fails.
iii. MIS are the key to breaking down info silos by allowing information to flow
across the organization