chapter 19
outsourcing in the 21st century

outsourcing projects

• insourcing (in-house-development) - a common approach using professional expertise within an organization to develop and maintain the organization's information technology systems
• outsourcing - an arrangement by which one organization provides a services or services for another organization that chooses not to perform them in-house
• onshore outsourcing - engaging another company within the same country for services 
• nearshore outsourcing - contracting an outsourcing arrangement with a company in a nearby country
• offshore outsourcing - using organizations from developing countries to write code and develop systems
• factors driving outsourcing growth include:
• core compentencies
• financial savings
• rapid growth
• industry changes
• the internet
• globalization
• accoding to Pricewaterhouse Coopers "businesses that outsource are growing faster, longer, and more profitable than those that do not"
• most organizations outsource their noncore business functions, such as payroll and IT
• outsourcing benefits include:
• increased quality and efficiency
• reduced operating expenses
• outsourcing non-core processes
• reduced exposure to risk
• economies of scle, expertise, and best practices
• access to advanced technologies
• increased flexibility
• avoid costly outlay of capital funds
• reduces headcount and associated overhead expense
• reduced time to market for products or services
• outsourcing challenges include 
• contract length
1. difficulties in getting out of a contract
2. problems in foreseeing future needs
3. problems in reforming an internal IT department after the contract is finished
• competitive edge
• confidentiality
• scope definition

chapter 15
creating collaborative partnerships

teams, partnerships, and alliances

• organizations cretae and use teams, partnerships, and alliances to:
• undertake new initiatives 
• address both minor and major problems
• capitalize on significant opportunities
• organizations create teams, partnerships, and alliances both internally with employees and externally with other organizations
• collaboration system - supports the work of teams by facilitating the sharing and flow of information
• organizations form alliances and partnerships with other organizations based on their core competency
• core competency - an organization's key strength, a business function that it does better than any of its competitors
• core competency strategy - organization chooses to focus specifically on its core competency and forms partnerships with other organizations to handle nonstrategic business processes
• information partnership - occurs when two or more organizations cooperate by integrating their IT systems, thereby providing customers with the best of what each can offer
• the internet has dramatically increased the ease and availability for IT-enabled organizations alliances and partnerships

collaboration system

• two categories of collaboration
1. unstructured collaboration (information collaboration) - includes document exchange, shared whiteboards, discussion forums, and e-mail
2. structured collaboration (process collaboration) - involves shared participation in business processes such as workflow in which knowledge is hardcoded as rules
• collaboration systems include:
• knowledge management systems
• content management systems
• workflow managements systems 
• groupware systems

knowledge management systems

• knowledge managements (KM) - involves capturing, classifying, evaluating, retrieving and sharing information assets in a way thta provides context for effective decisions and actions
• knowledge mangement system - supports the capturing and use of an organization's " know-how"

explicit and tacit knowledge

• intellectual and knowledge -based assets fall into two categories 
1. explicit knowledge - consists of anything that can be documented, archieved, and codified, often with the help of IT
2. tacit knowledge - knowledge conatined in people's haeds
• the following are two best practices for transferring or recreating tacit knowledge
• shadowing - less experienced staff observe more experienced staff to learn how their more experienced counterparts approach their work
• joint problem solving - a novice and expert work together on a project
• reasons why organizations launch knowledge management programs

KM technologies

• knowledge mangement systems include:
• knowledge repostories (databases)
• expertise tools
• E-learning applications
• discussion and chat technologies 
• search and data mining tools

KM and Social networking

• finding out how information flows through an organization
• social networking analysis (SNA) - a process of mapping a group's contacts (wether personel or professional) to identify who knows whom and who works with  whom
• SNA provides a clear picture of how emplotees and divisions work together and can help identify key experts

content management

• content managemnet system (CMS) - provides tools manage the creation, storage, editing, and publication of information in a collaborative environment
• CMS marketplace includes:
• document management system (DMS)
• digital asset management system (DAM)
• web content management system (WCM)

working wikis

• wikis - web-based tools that make it easy for users to add, remove, and change online content
• business wikis - collaborative Web pages that allow users to edit documents, share ideas, or monitor the status of a project

workflow management systems

• work activities can be performed in series or in parallel that involves people and automated computer systems
• workflow - defines all the steps or business rules, from beginning to end, required for a business process
• workflow management system - facilitates the automation and mangaement of business processes nd controls the movement of work through the business process
• messaging-based workflow system - sends work assignments through an e-mail system
• databases-based workflow system - stores documents in a central in a central location and automatically asks the team members to access the document when it is their turn to edit the document

groupware systems

• groupware - software that supports team interaction and dynamics including calendaring, scheduling, and videoconferencing
• groupware system advantages
• facilitating communication(faster,easier, clearer, more persuasive)
• enabling telecommuting
• reducing travel costs
• sharing expertise
• forming groups with common interets where it would not be possible to gather a sufficient number of people face-to-face
• saving time and cost in coordinating group work
• facilitating group problem

videoconferencing

• videoconference- a set of interacts of interactive telecommunication technologies that allow two or more locations to interact via two-way video and audio transmission simultaneously
• web conference - blends audio, video and document-sharing technologies to create virtual meeting rooms where people "gather" at a password protected Web site

instant messaging 

• e-mail is the dominant form of collaboration application, but real-time collaboration tools like instant messaging are creating a new  communication dynamic
• instant messaging - type of communications service that enables someone to crate a kind of private chat room with another individual to communicate in real-time over the internet

chapter 14
E-business

E-business

• the internet is a powerful channel that present new opportunities for an organization to:
• touch customers
• enrich products and services with information
• reduce costs
• how do e-commerce and e-business differ?
• E-commerce - the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet
• E-business - the conducting of business on the internet including, not only buying and selling, but also serving customers and collaborating with business partners

E-business models

• business-to-business (B2B) 
• applies to business buying from and selling to each other over the internet
• electronic marketplace (e-marketplace) - interactive business communities providing a central market where multiple buyers and sellers can engage in e-business activities

• business-to-consumer (B2C)
• applies to any business that sells its products or services to customers over the internet
• common b2C e-business models include:
• e-shop - a version of a retail store where customers can shop at any hour of the day without leaving their home or office
• e-mail - consist of a number of e-shop, it serves as agateway through which a visitor can access other e-shops
• business types:
• brick and mortar busines
• pure-play business
• click and mortar business
• consumer-to-business (B2B)
• applies to any consumer that sells a prpduct or service to a ny business over the internet
• priceline.com is an example of a C2B e-busines model
• the demand for C2B e-business will increase over the next few years due to customer's desire for greater convenience and lower prices
• consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
• applies to sites primarily offerings goods and services to assist consumers interacting with each other over the internete bids from each other and prices 
• online auctions
• electronic auction (e-auction) - seller and buyers solicit consecutive bids from each other and prices are determined dynamically
• forward auction - sellers use as a selling channel to many buyers and the highest bid wins
• reverse auction - buyers use to purchase a product or service, selecting the seller with the lowest bid
• C2C communities include:
• communities of interest - people interact with each other on specific topics, such as golfing and stamp collecting
• communities of relations - people come together to share certain life experiences, such as cancer patients, senior citizens, and car enthusiasts
• communities of fantasy - people participate in imaginary environments, such as fantasy football teams and playing one-on-one with Michael Jordan

E-business benefits and challenges

• e-business benefits include: 
• highly accessible
• increased customer loalty
• improved information content
• increased convenience
• increased global reach
• decreased cost
• e-business challenges include:
• protecting consumers
• leveraging existing systems
• increasing liability
• providing security
• adhering to taxation rules
• there are numerous advantages and limitations in e-business revenue models including:
• transaction fees
• license fees
• subsciption feees
• value-added fees
• advertising fees

Mashups

• web mashups - a web site or web application that uses content from more than one source to create a completely new service
• appliation programming interface (API) - a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications
• mashups editor - WSYIWYGs (What You see Is What You Get ) for mashups

chapter 12
integrating the organization from end to end - enterprise resource planning

enterprise resource planning (ERP)

• at the heart of all ERP systems is  aatabase, when a user enters or updates information in one module, it os immediately and automatically updaed throughout the entire system

the evoluation of ERP

• ERP
• materials planning
• order entry
• distribution
• general edger
• accounting
• shop floor control
• extended ERP
• scheduling
• forecasting
• capacity planning
• e-commerce
• warehousing
• logistics
• ERP-l l
• project management
• knowledge management
• workflow management
• customer relationship management
• human resource management
• portal capability
• integrated financials

integrating SCM, CRM, and ERP

• SCM, CRM, and ERP are the backbone of e-business
• integration of these applications is the key to success for many companies
• integration allows the unlocking of information to make it available to any user, anywhere, anytime

integration tools

• many companies purchase modules from an ERP vendor, an SCM vendor, and a CRM vendor and must integrate the different modules together
• middleware - several different types of software which sit in the middle of and provide connectivity between two or more software applications
• enterprise application integration (EAI)  middle - packages together commonly used functioanally which reduced the time necessary to develop solutions that integrate applications from multiple vendors

enterprise resource planning

• ERP system must integrate various organization processes and be:
• flexible
• modular and open
• comprehensive
• beyond the company

enterprise resource planning's explosive growth

• SAP boasts 20 000 installations and 10 million users worldwide
• ERP solutions are growing because:
• ERP is a logical solution to the mess of incompatible applications taht had sprung up in most businesses
• ERP addresses the need for global information sharing and reporting
• ERP is used to avoid the pain and expenses of fixing legacy systems

chapter 11
building a customer-centric organization - customer relationship management

customer relationship management

• provide better customer service
• make call centers more efficient
• cross sell products more effectively
• help sales staff close deals faster
• simplify marketing and sales processes 
• discover new customers
• increase customer revenues

recency, frequency, and monetary value

• organizations can find their most valuable customers through "RFM"
• how recently a customer purchased items (recency)
• how frequently a customer purchased items (frequency)
• how much a customer spends on each purchase (monetary value)

the evolution of CRM

• CRM reporting technology - help organizations identify their customers across other applications
• CRM analysis technologies - help organization segment their customers into categories such as best and worst customers
• CRM predicting technologies - help organizations make predictions regarding customer behavior such as which customers are at risk of leaving

using analytical CRM to enhance decisions

• operational CRM - supports traditioanl transactioanl processing for day -to-day front- office operations or systems that deal directly with the customers
• analytical CRM - supports back-office operations and strategic analysis and includes all systems that do not deal directly with the customers

customer realtionship management success factors

• CRM success factors include:
• clearly communicate the CRM strategy
• define information needs and flows 
• build an integrated view of the customer
• implement in iterations
• scalability for organizational growth

chapter 10
extending the organization - supply chain management

supply chain managements

• the average company spends nearly half of every dollar that it earns on production
• in the past, companies focused primarily on manufacturing and quality improvements to influence their supply chains

basics of supply chain

• the supply chain has three main links
1. materials flow from suppliers and their 'upstream' suppliers at all levels
2. transformation of materials into semifinished and finished product through the organization's own production process
3. distribution of products to customers and their 'downstream' customers at all levels
• organizations must embrace technologies that can effectively manage supply chain

visibility

• supply chain visibility - the ability to view all areas up and down the supply chain
• bullwhip effect - occurs when distorted product demand information passes from one entity to the next throughout the supply chain

consumer behavior

• companies can respond faster and more effectively to consumer demands through supply chain enhances
• demand planning software - generates demand forecasts using statiscal tools and forecasting techniques 

competition

• supply chain planning (SCP) software - uses advanced mathematical algorithms to improve the flow and efficiency of the supply chain
• supply chain execution (SCE) software - automates the different steps and stages of the supply chain

speed

• there factors fostering speed
1. pleasing customers has become something of a corporate obsession. serving the customer in the best, most efficient, and most effective manner has become critical, and informaion about issues such as order status, product availability, delivery schedules, and invoices has become a necessary a part of the total customer service experience.
2. information is crucial to managers' abilities to reduce inventory and human resource requirements to a competitive level.
3. information flows are essential to strategic planning for and deployment of resources.

supply chain management success factors

seven principles of supply chain management

1. segment customers by service needs, regardless of industry and then tailor services to those particular segments
2. customize the logistics network and focus intensively on the service requirements and on the profitability of the preidentified customer segments
3. listen to signals of market demand and plan accordingly. planning must span the entire chain to detect signals and changing demand.
4. differentiate products closer to the customer, since companies can no longer afford to hold inventory to compensate for poor demand forecasting.
5. strategically manage sources of supply, by working with key suppliers to reduce overall costs of owning materials and sevices
6. develop a supply chain information technology strategy that supports different levels of decision making and provides a clear view (visibility) of the flow of products, services and information.
7. adopt performances evaluation measures that apply to every link in the supply chain and measure true profitability at every stage.

SCM industry best practices include:

1. make the sale to suppliers
2. wean employees off traditional business practices 
3. ensure the SCM system supports the organizational goals
4. deploy in incremental phases and measure and communicate success
5. be future oriented

SCM success stories

• top reasons why more and more executives are turning to SCM to manage their extended enterprises
• numerous decision support systems (DSSs) are being built to assist decision makers in the design and operation of intergrated supply chains
• DSSs allow managers to examine performance and relationships over the supply chain and among:
• suppliers
• manufacturers
• distributors
• other factors that optimize supply chain performance
• companies using supply chain to drive operations
• dull
• nokia
• procter & gamble
• wal-mart stores
• toyota motor 
• the home deposit
• best buy
• marks & spencer

CHAPTER 9
enabling the organization - decision making

Decision Making

• reasons for the growth of decision making information system
• people need to analyze large amounts of information
• people must make decision quickly
• people must apply sophisticated analysis techniques, such as modelling and forecasting, to make good decision
• people must protect the corporate asset of organizational information
• model- a simplified representation of abstraction of reality
• IT system in an enterprise
• moving up through the organizational pyramid users move from requiring transactional information to analytical 

Transaction Processing System

• transaction processing system - the basic business system that serves the operational level (analysis) in an organization
• online transaction processing (OLTP) - the capturer of transaction and event information using technology to (1) process information according to defined business rules, (2) store the information, (3) update existing information to reflect the new information
• online analytical processing (OLAP) - the manipulation of information to create business intelligence in support of strategic decision making

Decision Support Systems

• decision support system (DSS) - models information to support managers and business professionals during the decision making process
• three quantitative models used by DSSs include:
1. sensitivity analysis - the study of the impact that changes in one (or more) parts of the model have on other parts of the model
2. what-if analysis - checks the impact of a change in an assumption on the proposed solution
3. goal seeking analysis - finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output 

Executive Information System

• executive information system (EIS) - a specialize DSS that supports senior level executives within the organization
• most EIS offering the following capabilities:
• consolidation - involves the aggregation of information and features simple roll-ups to complex groupings of interrelated information
• drill-down - enables users to get details, and details of details, of information
• slice and dice - looks at information from different perspective
• digital dashboard - integrates information from multiple components and presents it in a unified display

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• intelligent system - various commercial applications of artificial intelligence systems
• artificial intelligence (AI) - stimulates human intelligence such as the ability to reason and learn
• advantages : can check info on competitor
• the ultimate goal of AI is teh ability to build a system that can mimic human intelligence
• four most common categories of AI include:
1. expert system - computerized advisory programs that initiate the reasoning processes of experts in solving difficult problems
2. neural network - attempts to emulate the way the human brain works
• fuzzy logic - a mathematical method of handling imprecise or subjective information
3. genetic aigorithm - an artificial intelligent system that mimics the evolutionary, survival of the fittest process to generate increasingly better solutions to a problem
4. intelligent agent - special purposed knowledge based information system that accomplishes specific tasks on behalf of its users
• multi-agent systems
• agent-based modelling

Data Mining

• data mining software includes many forms of AI such as neural networks and expert 
• common forms of data mining analysis capabilities:
• cluster analysis
• cluster analysis is a technique used to divide an information set into mutually exclusive groups such that the members of each group are so close together as possible ti one another and the different groups are as far apart as possible
• CRM systems depend on cluster analysis to segment customer information and identify behavioral traits   
• association detection
• association detection reveals the degree to which variables are related and the nature and frequency of these relationship in the information
• market basket analysis - analyzes such items as Web sites and checkout scanner information to detect customer's buying behavior and predict future behavior by identifying affinities among customers' choices of products and services
• statistical analysis
• statistical analysis performs such function as information correlations, distributions, calculations, and variance analysis
• forecast- predictions made on the basis of time series information
• time series information-time stamped information collected at a particular frequency

CHAPTER 8


history of data warehousing

• data ware house extend the transformation of data into information
• in the 1990's executives became less concerned with the day-to-day business operations and more concerned with overall business functions
• the data warehouse provided the ability to support decision marking without disrupting the day- to-day operations

data warehouse fundamentals

• data warehouse - a logical collection of information, gathered from different operational database that support business analysis activities and decision making task
• the primary purpose of a data warehouse is to aggregate information throughout an organization into a single repository for decision making purpose
• extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) - a process that extracts information from internal and external databases, transform the information using a common set of enterprise definitions, and loads the information into a data warehouse
• data mart - contains a subset of data warehouse information

multidimensional analysis and data minig

• databases contain information in a series of two-dimensioanl tables
• in a data warehouse and data mart, information is multidimensional, it contais layers of columns and rows
• dimension - a particular attribute of information
• cube - common term for the representation of multidimensional information
• data mining - the process of analyzing data to extract information not offered by the raw data alone
• to perform data mining users need to dat mining tools
• data mining tool - uses a variety of techniques to find patterns and relationships in large volumes of information and infers rules that predict future behavior and guide decision making

information cleansing or scrubbing

• an organization must maintain high quality data in the data warehouse
• information cleansing or scrubbing - a process that weeds out and fixes or discards inconsistent, incorrect, or incomplete information

business intelligence

• business intelligence - information that people use to support their decision making efforts
• principle BI enblers include:
• technology
• people
• culture

chapter 7
storing organizational information databases

relational database fundamentals

• information is everywhere in an organization
• information is stored in databases
• databases - maintains information about various types of objects (inventory), events (transaction), people )employee), and places (warehouse)
• database includes includes:
• hierarchical database model - information is organized into a tree-like structure (using parent/child relationships) in such way that it cannot have too many relationships
• network database model - a flexible way of representing object and their relationships
• relational database model - stores information in the form of logically related two-dimensional tables

entities and attributes

• entity - a person, place, thing, transaction, or event about which information is stored
• the rows in each table contain the entities
• attributes (fields, columns) - characteristics or properties of an entity class
• the column in each table contains the attributes

keys and relationships

• primary keys and foreign keys identify the various entity classes (tables) in the database
• primary key - a field (or group of fields) that uniquely identifies a given entity in a tables
• foreign key - a primary key of one table that appears an attribute in another table and acts to provide a logical relationship among the two tables

relational database database

• database advantage from a business perspective include
• increased flexibility
• increased scalability and performance
• reduced information redundancy
• increased information integrity (quality)
• increased information security

increased flexibility

• a well- designed database should:
• handle changes quickly and easily
• provide users with different views
• have only one physical views
• have multiple logical views
• logical view - focuses on how users logically access information
• eg: a mail-order buss-2 people view diff format (logical views) but same physical view

increased scalability and performance

• a database must scale to meet increased demand, while maintaining acceptable performance levels
• scalability - refers to how well a system can adapt to increased demand
• performance - measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction

reduced information redundancy

• databases reduce information redundancy
• redundancy - the duplication of information or storing the same information in multiple places
• inconsistency is one of the primary problems with redundant information
• difficult to decide which is most current and most accurate

increased information integrity (quality)

• information integrity - measures the quality of information
• integrity constraints - rules that help ensure the quality of information
• relational integrity constraint - rule that enforces basic and fundamental information-based constraints
• Eg. users cannot create an order for a nonexistent customer, provide a markup percentage that was negative etc.
• business critical integrity constraint - rule that enforce business rules vital to an organization's success and often require more insight and knowledge than relational integrity constraints
• Eg. product returns are not accepted for fresh product 15 days after purchase

increased information security

• information is an organization asset and must be protected
• database offer several security features including:
• password - provide authentication of the user
• access level - determines who has access to the different types of information
• access control - determines types of user access, such as read-only access

 Database management system

• database management system (DBMS) - software through which user and application programs interact with a database

Data driven web sites

• data driven websites - an interactive web site kept constantly updated and relevant to the needs of its customers through the use of a database
• advantages
• development: allows the websites owner to make changes anytime - all without to rely on a developer or knowing HTML programming. a well-structured, data web site enables updating with little or no training.
• content management: a static web site requires a programmer to make updates. this adds an unnecessary layer between the business and its wen contract, which can lead to misunderstanding and slow turnarounds for desired changes.
• future expandability: having a data driven web site enables the site to grow faster than would be possible with a static site, changing the layout, displays, and functionality of the site (adding more features and section) is easier with a data driven solution
• minimizing human error: even the most competent programmer charged with the task of maintaining many pages will overlook things and make mistakes. this will lead to bugs and inconsistencies that can be time consuming and expensive to track down and fix. unfortunately, uses who come across these bugs will likely become irritated and may leave the site. a well-designed, data driven web site will have "error trapping" mechanisms to ensure that required information is filled out correctly and that content is entered and displayed in its correct format.
• cutting production and update costs: a data driven web site can be updated and "published" by any competent data entry or administrative person. in addition to being convenient and more affordable, changes and updates will tak a fraction of time that they would with a static site. while training a competent programmer can take months or even a years, training a data entry person can be done in 30-60 minutes
• more efficient: by their very nature, computers are excellent as keeping volumes of information intact. with a data driven solution, the system keeps track of the templates, so users do not have to. global changes to layout, navigation, or site structure would need to be programmed only once, in one place, and the site itself will take care of propagating those changes to the appropriate pages and areas.
• improved stability: any programmer who has to update a web site from "static" templates must be very organized to keep track of all the sources files. if a programmer leaves unexpectedly, it could involve re-creating existing work if those source file cannot be found.
• plus. if there were any changes to the templates, the new programmer must be careful to use only the latest version. with a data driven web site, there is peace of mind, knowing the content is never lost.

integration information among multiple database

• integration - allows separate system to communication directly with each other 
• forward integration - takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all downstream systems and processes
• backward integration - takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all upstream systems and processes.
• building a central repository specifically for integrated information
• without integration, an organization will:
• spend considerable time entering the same info in multiple system
• suffer from the low quality and inconsistency typically embedded in redundant info.

group members

NADZATUL AZLIEN BT MYDON
MARYATI BINTI MOHD YACOB
NURSUHADA BINTI ABD GHAFAR
NURAQILAH BINTI HAIYOON
TENGKU FIRDAUS

question

We know that people use information technology to work with information. Knowing this, how could these types of errors occur? What could happen if you decided to use Facebook to collect information intelligence for a research paper? What could Facebook do to help prevent these types of errors?

answer

Information technology is a field concerned with the use of technology in managing and processing information.
These types of errors occurs when online customers intentionally enter inaccurate information to protect their privacy. Secondly, different systems have different information entry standards and formats. Thirdly call center operators enter abbreviated or errorneous information by accidents of to save time. lastly, third party and external information contains inconsistencies, inaccuracies and errors.
Information intelligence for a research paper that I collect from Facebook will the issues will be missing information. next is the issues is incomplete information because the streets address contains only a number and not a streets name. the third issues is a probable duplication of information because the only slight different between the two customers is the spelling of last name. the fourth is issues is, definitely an example of inaccurate information because a phone number is located in the email address field.
Because of that, Facebook  should successfully collecting, compiling, sorting and analyzing information from multiple levels, in varied formats, exhibiting different granularity. Also taking a hard look at organizational information.

CHAPTER 6

VALUING ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATION

• information is everywhere in an organisation
• employees must be able to obtain and analyse the many different levels, formats, and granularity of organisational information to make decisions
• successfully collecting, compiling, sorting, and analysing information can provide tremendous insight into how an organisation is performing
• levels. format, any granularity of organisational information

THE VALUE OF TRANSACTIONAL AND ANALYTICAL INFORMATION

• transactional information encompasses all of the information contained within as single business process or unit of work, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of daily operational tasks
• analytical information encompasses all organizational information, and its primary purpose is to support performing of managerial analysis tasks

THE VALUE OF TIMELY INFORMATION

• timeliness is an aspect of information that depends on the situation
• Real-time-information means immediate, up-to-date information
• Real-time- system provides real-time information in response to query requests

THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION

• business decisions are only as good as the quality of the information used to make the decisions
• you never want to find yourself using technology to help you make a bad decision faster
• characteristics of high-quality information include:
• accuracy
• completeness
• consistency
• uniqueness
• timeliness

UNDERSTANDING THE COSTS OF POOR INFORMATION

• The four primary sources of low quality information include:
1. online customers intentionally enter inaccurate information to protect their privacy
2. information from different systems have different entry standards and formats
3. call center operators enter abbreviated or erroneous information by accident or to save time
4. third party and external information contains inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and errors
• potential business effects resulting from low quality information include:
• inability to accurately track customers
• difficulty identifying valuable customers
• inability to identifying selling opportunities
• marketing to nonexistent customers
• difficulty tracking revenue due to inaccurate invoice
• inability to build strong customer relationships

UNDERSTANDING THE BENEFITS OF GOOD INFORMATION

• high quality information can significantly improve the chances of making a good decision
• good decisions can directly impact an organisation's bottom line

CHAPTER 5

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES THAT SUPPORT STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURES

• organisational employees must work closely together to develop strategic initiatives that create competitive advantages
• ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organisations must base their business upon

IT ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• information technology is a relatively new functional area, having only been around formally for around 40 years
• recent IT-related strategic positions:
1. Chief Information Officer (CIO) is oversees all uses of IT and ensures the strategic alignment of IT business goals and objectives
2. Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy, availability, and reliability of an organization's information technology
3. Chief Security Officer (CSO) is responsible for ensuring the ethical and legal use of information within an organization
4. Chief Knowledge Office (CKO) is responsible for collecting, maintaining, and distributing the organisation's knowledge

THE GAP BETWEEN BUSINESS PERSONNEL AND IT PERSONNEL

• business personnel possess expertise in functional areas such as marketing, accounting and sales
• IT personnel have the technological expertise
• this typically causes a communications gap between the business personnel and IT personnel

IMPROVING COMMUNICATIONS

• business personnel must seek to increase their understanding of IT
• IT personnel must seek to increase their understanding of the business
• it is the responsibility of the CIO to ensure effective communication between business personnel and IT personnel

ORGANIZATIONAL FUNDAMENTALS - ETHICS AND SECURITY

• ethics and security are two fundamental building blocks that organisations must base their businesses on to be successful
• in recent years, such events as the Enron and Martha Stewart, along with 9/11 have shed new light n the meaning of ethics and security

Ethics

• the principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people
• privacy is a major ethical issue. the right to be left alone when you want to be, to have control over your      own personal possessions, and not to be observed without your consent
• issues affected by technology advances
• intellectual property - intangible creative work that is embodied in physical form
• copyright - the legal protection afforded an expression of an idea, such as a song, video game, and some types of proprietary documents
• fair use doctrine - in certain situations,it is legal to use copyright material
• pirated softwarebcounterfeit software - software that is manufactured to look like the real thing and sold as such
• one of the main ingredients in trust is privacy
• primary reasons privacy issues lost trust for e-business
1. loss personal privacy is atop concern for american in the 21st century
2. among Internet user, 37 percent would be "a lot" more inclined to purchase a product on a Web site that had a privacy policy
3. privacy/security is the number one factor that would convert internet researchers into Internet buyers

Security

• organization information is intellectual capital - it must be protected
• information security - the protection of information from accidental or intentional misuse by person inside or outside an organization
• E-business automatically creates tremendous information security risks for organizations 

Chapter 4
Measuring The Success of Strategic Initiatives

MEASURING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY'S SUCCESS

• key performance indicator - measures that are tied to business drivers
• metrics are detailed measures that feed KPIs
• performances metrics fall into the nebulous area of business intelligence that is neither technology, nor business centred, but requires input from both IT and business professionals

EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS

• efficiency IT metrics - measures the performances of the IT system itself including throughput, speed , and availability
• effectiveness IT metrics - measures the impact IT has on business processes and activities including customer satisfaction, conversation rates, and sell-through increases.

BENCHMARKING - BASELINING METRICS

• regardless of what is measured, how it is measured, and whether it is for the sake of efficiency or effectiveness, there must be benchmarks - baseline values the system seeks to attain
• benchmarking - a process of continuously measuring system results, comparing those results to optimal system performance (benchmark values), and identifying steps and procedures to improve system performance. 
• E-government benchmarks......

efficiency	effectiveness
1.       United states (3.11)	1.       Canada
1.       Australian (2.60)	2.       Singapore
2.       New Zealand (2.59)	3.       United States
3.       Singapore (2.58)	4.       Denmark
4.       Norway (2.55)	5.       Australian
5.       Canada (2.52)	6.       Finland
6.       United Kingdom (2.52)	7.       Hong Kong
7.       Netherlands (2.51)	8.       United Kingdom
8.       Denmark (2.47)	9.       Germany
9.       Germany (2.46)	10.   Ireland

THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS IT METRICS

• efficiency IT metrics focus on technology and include:
• throughput - the amount of information that can travel through a system at any point
• transaction speed - the amount of time a system takes to perform a transaction
• system availability - the number of hours a system is available for users
• information accuracy - the extent to which a system generates the correct results when executing the same transaction numerous times
• web traffic - includes a host of benchmarks such as the number of page of views, the number of unique visitors, and the average time spent viewing a web page
• response time - the time it takes to respond to user interactions such as a mouse click
• effectiveness IT metrics focus on an organisation's goal strategies, and objectives and include:
• usability - the ease with which people perform transactions and/or find information. a popular usability metric on the Internet is degrees of freedom, which measures the number of click required to find desired information.
• customer satisfaction - measured by such benchmarks as satisfaction surveys, percentage is existing customers retained, and increases revenue dollars per customer.
• conversation rates - the number of customers an organisation "touches" for the first time and persuades to purchase its products or services. this is a popular metric for evaluating the effectiveness of banner, pop-up, and pop-under ads on the Internet.
• financial - such as return on investment (the earning power of an organisation's assets), cost-benefit analysis (the comparison of projected revenues and costs including development, maintenance, fixed and variables), and break-even analysis (the point at which constant revenues equal ongoing costs).
• security is an issue for any organisation offering products and services over the Internet
• it is inefficient for an organisation to implement Internet security, since it slows down processing 
• however, to be effective it must implement Internet security
• secure Internet connections must offer encryption and Secure Sockets Layers (SSL denoted by the lock symbol in the lower right corner of a browser)
• interrelationships between efficiency and effectiveness........

METRICS FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

• metrics for measuring and managing strategic initiatives include:
• web site metrics
• supply chain management (SCM) metrics
• customer relationship management (CRM) metrics
• business process re engineering (BPR)
• enterprise resource planning (ERP) metrics

WEBSITE METRICS

• abandoned registrations
• number of visitors who start the process of completing a registration page and then abandon the activity.
• abandoned shopping cards
• number of visitors who create a shopping card and start shopping and then abandon the activity before paying for the merchandise.
• click - through
• count of the number of people who visit a site, click on an ad, and are taken to the site of the advertiser.
• conversation rate
• percentage of potential customers who visit a site and actually buy something.
• cost-per-thousand (CPM)
• sales dollars generated per dollar of advertising. this is commonly used to make the case for spending money to appear on a search engine.
• page exposures
• average number of page exposures to an individual visitor.
• total hits
• number of visits to a web site, many of which may be by the same visitor.
• unique visitors
• number of unique visitors to a site in a given time. this is commonly used by Nielsen/Net ratings to rank the most popular Web sites.

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT METRICS

• back order
• an unfilled customer order. A back order is demand (immediate or past due) against an item whose current stock level is insufficient to satisfy demand.
• customer order promised cycle time
• the anticipated or agreed upon cycle time of a purchase order. it is a gap between the purchase order creation date and the requested delivery date.
• customer order actual cycle time
• the average time it takes toi actually fill a customer's purchase order. This measure can be viewed on an order or an order line level.
• inventory replenishment cycle time
• measure of the manufacturing cycle time plus the time included to deploy the product to the appropriate distribution center.
• inventory turns (inventory turnover)
• the number of times that a company's inventory cycles or turns over per year. it is one of the most commonly used supply chain metrics.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT METRICS

• customer relationships management metrics measure user satisfaction and interaction and include:          

BUSINESS PROCESS RE ENGINEERING AND ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING METRICS

• the balanced scorecard enables organizations to measure and manage strategic initiatives