Summary: Information systems today, 9th edition
Chapter 1 - Managing in the digital world
Knowledge worker = professionals who are relatively well educated and who
create, modify, and/or synthesize knowledge as a fundamental part of their jobs
-> not the knowledge itself, but the knowledge of how to learn is of primary
importance
Knowledge society / Digital world = the premise that information and related
technologies and systems have become indispensable and that knowledge
workers are vital
-> these days, knowledge is as important as owning land, capital, or labour
E-business = an organization that uses information technologies or systems to
support nearly every part of its business
-> these days, almost every organization is some kind of e-business
Downsides of living in the digital world:
▪ knowledge workers will be the first to be replaced by automation with
information systems
▪ digital divide = those with access to information systems have great
advantages over those without access
Information systems play a crucial role in various major issues societies face:
1. Globalization = the integration of economies throughout the world, enabled
by innovation and technological progress
+ falling transportation and telecommunication costs
+ a shared understanding about norms of behaviour or interaction being created
+ increased possibilities for outsourcing (moving business processes to another
company/country)
- governmental challenges (difference in political systems, laws, standards, or
individual freedom)
- geoeconomic challenges (difference in infrastructure, demographics, welfare, or
worker’s expertise)
- cultural challenges (difference in language, beliefs, attitudes, religions, or life
focus)
2. Societal issues in the digital world
▪ demographic changes (changes in the structure of populations)
-> urbanization = the movement of rural populations to urban areas
▪ shifts in economic power (changes in countries’ purchasing power and control
over natural resources)
-> resource scarcity = the limited availability of natural resources
-> sustainable development = development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs
Digital density = the amount of connected data per unit of activity
-> increasing at a rapid pace because of many radical innovations
How?
▪ Connections
,-> almost anything and anyone can be connected through the digital world
Consumerization of IT = many technological innovations are first introduced to
the consumer marketplace before being used by organizations
Internet of Things = a network of a broad range of physical objects that can
automatically share data over the internet
-> fuelled by: advances in chips/wireless radios and decreasing costs of sensors
Quantified self = the logging of all aspects of one’s daily life, ranging from
monitoring and recording of activities, performance, or intakes to monitoring
bodily states to improve one’s health and performance
▪ Data
Big data = extremely large and complex datasets, which are characterized as
being of high volume, variety, and velocity
▪ Interactions
-> increasing connections/data enable new value-added interactions and
business models
Network effect = the notion that the value of a network increases with the
number of other users
API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) = intermediaries that provide
ways for different components of software to interact and exchange data or
functionality using common web communication protocols
-> one of the key drivers of continuous innovations and new business models
Benefits of API’s for:
- Organizations: creating new revenue streams and increasing the accessibility
of its services
- Users: utilizing the functionality to offer value-added services
Computer fluency = the ability to independently learn new technologies as
they emerge and assess their impact on one’s work and life
Information system = the combination of people and information technology
that create, collect, process, store, and distribute useful data
Information technology = hardware, software, and telecommunications
networks
-> Hardware = physical computer equipment
-> Software = a program or set of programs that tell the computer to perform
certain tasks
-> Telecommunications networks = a group of two or more computer systems
linked together with communications equipment
Key components of the IT definition:
1. Data
-> unformatted data are raw symbols, they have no meaning in and of
themselves and are of little value until processed
-> data quality depends on completeness, accuracy, timeliness, validity, and
consistency
2. Information
= formatted, organized and processed data
3. Knowledge
,= the ability to understand information, form opinions, and make decisions or
predictions based on the information
What makes IS personnel so valuable for an organization?
1. Technical competency
-> knowledge and skills in hardware, software, networking, and security
2. Business competency
-> understanding the nature of the business and being able to
understand/manage people and projects
3. Systems competency
-> understanding how to build and integrate systems and how to solve problems
Categories of information systems used in organizations:
Information Function Example
system
1. Transaction to process day-to-day business grocery store
processing system event data at the operational level checkout cash
of the organization register with
connection to
network
2. Management to produce detailed information to inventory
information help manage a firm or part of a firm management and
system planning systems
3. Decision to provide analysis tools and access product demand
support system to databases to support forecasting
quantitative decision making systems
4. Intelligent to emulate or enhance human self-driving cars
system capabilities
5. Business to analyse Big Data to better online analytical
intelligence understand various aspects of a processing
system business system and data
visualization
6. Office to support a wide range of presentation
automation predefined day-to-day work software
system activities of individuals or small
groups
7. Collaboration to enable people to communicate, email system with
system collaborate, and coordinate with automated,
each other shared calendar
8. Knowledge to enable the generation, storage, knowledge portal
management sharing, and management of for finding
system knowledge assets answers to FAQ
9. Social software to facilitate collaboration and social networks
knowledge sharing
10. Geographic to create, store, analyse, and site selection for
information manage geographically referenced new shopping
system data mall
11. Functional to support the activities within a planning system
, area information specific functional area of the firm for personnel
system training and work
assignments
to support interaction between the sales force
12. Customer firm and its customers automation
relationship
management
system
13. Enterprise to support and integrate all facets financial,
resource planning of the business operations, and
system human resource
management
14. Supply chain to support the coordination of procurement
management suppliers, product or service planning
system production, and distribution
15. Electronic to enable customers to buy goods Amazon
commerce system and services from a firm’s website
16. Mobile app to perform a well-defined function, Instagram
typically on a mobile device
Interworking = connecting host computers and their networks together to form
even larger networks
Systems integration = connecting separate information systems and data to
improve business processes and decision making
Computer ethics = describes moral issues and standards of conduct as they
pertain to the use of information systems
Some issues with information systems:
1. Information privacy
= concerned with what information an individual should have to reveal to others
in the workplace or through transactions, such as online shopping
2. Information property
= concerned with the ownership of computerized data about people
3. Email privacy
= concerned with the privacy when sending emails (either privately or at work)
Widely accepted fair information practises:
1. Notice/awareness = providing information about what data are gathered,
what the data are used for, who will have access to the data, whether provision of
the data is required or voluntary, and how confidentiality will be ensured
2. Choice/consent = providing options about what will be done with the data
-> opt-in or opt-out of data collection
3. Access/participation = providing customers with means to access data
collected about them, check their accuracy, and request correction of
inaccuracies
4. Integrity/security = ensuring integrity and safety of the data
5. Enforcement/redress = providing means to enforce these practices
Chapter 1 - Managing in the digital world
Knowledge worker = professionals who are relatively well educated and who
create, modify, and/or synthesize knowledge as a fundamental part of their jobs
-> not the knowledge itself, but the knowledge of how to learn is of primary
importance
Knowledge society / Digital world = the premise that information and related
technologies and systems have become indispensable and that knowledge
workers are vital
-> these days, knowledge is as important as owning land, capital, or labour
E-business = an organization that uses information technologies or systems to
support nearly every part of its business
-> these days, almost every organization is some kind of e-business
Downsides of living in the digital world:
▪ knowledge workers will be the first to be replaced by automation with
information systems
▪ digital divide = those with access to information systems have great
advantages over those without access
Information systems play a crucial role in various major issues societies face:
1. Globalization = the integration of economies throughout the world, enabled
by innovation and technological progress
+ falling transportation and telecommunication costs
+ a shared understanding about norms of behaviour or interaction being created
+ increased possibilities for outsourcing (moving business processes to another
company/country)
- governmental challenges (difference in political systems, laws, standards, or
individual freedom)
- geoeconomic challenges (difference in infrastructure, demographics, welfare, or
worker’s expertise)
- cultural challenges (difference in language, beliefs, attitudes, religions, or life
focus)
2. Societal issues in the digital world
▪ demographic changes (changes in the structure of populations)
-> urbanization = the movement of rural populations to urban areas
▪ shifts in economic power (changes in countries’ purchasing power and control
over natural resources)
-> resource scarcity = the limited availability of natural resources
-> sustainable development = development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs
Digital density = the amount of connected data per unit of activity
-> increasing at a rapid pace because of many radical innovations
How?
▪ Connections
,-> almost anything and anyone can be connected through the digital world
Consumerization of IT = many technological innovations are first introduced to
the consumer marketplace before being used by organizations
Internet of Things = a network of a broad range of physical objects that can
automatically share data over the internet
-> fuelled by: advances in chips/wireless radios and decreasing costs of sensors
Quantified self = the logging of all aspects of one’s daily life, ranging from
monitoring and recording of activities, performance, or intakes to monitoring
bodily states to improve one’s health and performance
▪ Data
Big data = extremely large and complex datasets, which are characterized as
being of high volume, variety, and velocity
▪ Interactions
-> increasing connections/data enable new value-added interactions and
business models
Network effect = the notion that the value of a network increases with the
number of other users
API’s (Application Programming Interfaces) = intermediaries that provide
ways for different components of software to interact and exchange data or
functionality using common web communication protocols
-> one of the key drivers of continuous innovations and new business models
Benefits of API’s for:
- Organizations: creating new revenue streams and increasing the accessibility
of its services
- Users: utilizing the functionality to offer value-added services
Computer fluency = the ability to independently learn new technologies as
they emerge and assess their impact on one’s work and life
Information system = the combination of people and information technology
that create, collect, process, store, and distribute useful data
Information technology = hardware, software, and telecommunications
networks
-> Hardware = physical computer equipment
-> Software = a program or set of programs that tell the computer to perform
certain tasks
-> Telecommunications networks = a group of two or more computer systems
linked together with communications equipment
Key components of the IT definition:
1. Data
-> unformatted data are raw symbols, they have no meaning in and of
themselves and are of little value until processed
-> data quality depends on completeness, accuracy, timeliness, validity, and
consistency
2. Information
= formatted, organized and processed data
3. Knowledge
,= the ability to understand information, form opinions, and make decisions or
predictions based on the information
What makes IS personnel so valuable for an organization?
1. Technical competency
-> knowledge and skills in hardware, software, networking, and security
2. Business competency
-> understanding the nature of the business and being able to
understand/manage people and projects
3. Systems competency
-> understanding how to build and integrate systems and how to solve problems
Categories of information systems used in organizations:
Information Function Example
system
1. Transaction to process day-to-day business grocery store
processing system event data at the operational level checkout cash
of the organization register with
connection to
network
2. Management to produce detailed information to inventory
information help manage a firm or part of a firm management and
system planning systems
3. Decision to provide analysis tools and access product demand
support system to databases to support forecasting
quantitative decision making systems
4. Intelligent to emulate or enhance human self-driving cars
system capabilities
5. Business to analyse Big Data to better online analytical
intelligence understand various aspects of a processing
system business system and data
visualization
6. Office to support a wide range of presentation
automation predefined day-to-day work software
system activities of individuals or small
groups
7. Collaboration to enable people to communicate, email system with
system collaborate, and coordinate with automated,
each other shared calendar
8. Knowledge to enable the generation, storage, knowledge portal
management sharing, and management of for finding
system knowledge assets answers to FAQ
9. Social software to facilitate collaboration and social networks
knowledge sharing
10. Geographic to create, store, analyse, and site selection for
information manage geographically referenced new shopping
system data mall
11. Functional to support the activities within a planning system
, area information specific functional area of the firm for personnel
system training and work
assignments
to support interaction between the sales force
12. Customer firm and its customers automation
relationship
management
system
13. Enterprise to support and integrate all facets financial,
resource planning of the business operations, and
system human resource
management
14. Supply chain to support the coordination of procurement
management suppliers, product or service planning
system production, and distribution
15. Electronic to enable customers to buy goods Amazon
commerce system and services from a firm’s website
16. Mobile app to perform a well-defined function, Instagram
typically on a mobile device
Interworking = connecting host computers and their networks together to form
even larger networks
Systems integration = connecting separate information systems and data to
improve business processes and decision making
Computer ethics = describes moral issues and standards of conduct as they
pertain to the use of information systems
Some issues with information systems:
1. Information privacy
= concerned with what information an individual should have to reveal to others
in the workplace or through transactions, such as online shopping
2. Information property
= concerned with the ownership of computerized data about people
3. Email privacy
= concerned with the privacy when sending emails (either privately or at work)
Widely accepted fair information practises:
1. Notice/awareness = providing information about what data are gathered,
what the data are used for, who will have access to the data, whether provision of
the data is required or voluntary, and how confidentiality will be ensured
2. Choice/consent = providing options about what will be done with the data
-> opt-in or opt-out of data collection
3. Access/participation = providing customers with means to access data
collected about them, check their accuracy, and request correction of
inaccuracies
4. Integrity/security = ensuring integrity and safety of the data
5. Enforcement/redress = providing means to enforce these practices
