Information Systems and Databases Lecture Notes

Information Systems and Databases
Lesson 1: Enterprise Information System
Enterprise Information System
 Flows
o Cash flow through the business
 Business needs sufficient cash to carry out activities
 Staff salaries
 Operational expenses
 Procuring products for later sale
o Companies sometimes fail because monies owing to them do not become available
in time to fund essential business operations
 Information Technology as a Force for Innovation
o The use of IT has made it possible for all businesses to carry out their operations
more efficiently
 Lead to more value
 Post Office operates a system to replace the postage stamp with a bar code
o Some enterprises create products that could not exist without a major IT input
 eBay has taken a traditional activity and produced a product entirely based
on IT
 Business based on social networking
 The Six Functions of IT
o Capture (Keyboard, barcode scanner, iris recognition system)
o Transmit (Radio, TV, Satellite, E-mail, Internet)
o Store (Magnetic media, Optical media)
o Retrieve (Software to retrieve data specified by the user)
o Manipulate (Create new data by analysing existing data)
o Display (Screen, printer)

Obstacles Implementing of Enterprise Information Systems
 Major IT projects have a history of cost overruns and unsatisfactory performance. Why?
 Unrealistic expectations
o Executives with little understanding of IT negotiate with suppliers over keen to win
contracts
 Difficulty implementing IT based solutions
o Large IT systems are inherently complex
 Difficulty integrating IT based system into existing system
o Redesign the system as a whole – don’t simply bolt new technology onto an existing
system
 Resistance to change
o Fear of losing one’s job
o Reluctance to learn new skills
 BUT Over enthusiasm for exciting new technology may produce excessively complex systems

SWOT Analysis
 SWOT Analysis is basically an evaluation of internal strengths/ weaknesses and external
threats/opportunities

,  Principal based systems analysis
o Principal based systems analysis is one of a number of tools used to analyse an
information system
o Process:
 Define any problem
 Describe the situation in appropriate depth
 Design improvements
 Produce an action plan

Value Chain




Men Machine Symbiosis
 Computing Paradigm
o Many problems are difficult to think through in advance
o Turing machine
o manipulates symbols on a tape according to rules
o Tape is unlimited
o Rules are given by humans
 Necessity of Building Symbiosis
o Machines
 can do many things that are difficult for man
o Men
 can do many things that are difficult or impossible for computers
o Symbiosis
 Integrating positive characteristics of both
 Different speeds
 Different languages
 Licklider
o Proposed man-computer symbiosis in 1960
o Men and computers cooperate in making decisions and controlling complex
situations
 Without relying on predetermined programs
o Symbiotic partnership
 Performs better than either man or computer
 Thinking Components
o Searching
o Calculating
o Plotting
o Transforming

, o Determining solution
o Preparing for a decision
o Considering feasibility
 Function Separation
o Men
 Generate goal, motivation, hypothesis, question
 Design Process, model
 Remember past
 Define criteria, handle low probability situation
o Computers
 Test model against data
 Routine, clerical operations
 Statistical inference, mathematical calculation
 Diagnosis, pattern matching, relevancy recognition
o Common: Decision based on facts
 Case 1: Industrial Symbiosis




 Find Partners
o How to find an appropriate partner to increase value?
 through optimizing
 Material flow
 Energy flow
 Money flow
 Information flow
 knowledge flow
 Case 2: Recommend Travel Product




 Case3 : Symbiosis for Gaining Value

,  Co-Evolution of Symbiotic Network




 Case 4: Information System Evolves