Business

Research Methods

William G. Zikmund

Chapter 2:
Information Systems and
Knowledge Management
Global Information System
 Global Information System
• An organized collection of computer
hardware, communication equipment,
software, data, and personnel designed to
capture, store, update, manipulate, analyze,
and immediately display information about
worldwide business activities.
 Data versus Information
• Data—the raw facts—record measures of
certain phenomena which are necessary to
provide
• Information—facts in a form suitable for
managers to base decisions on.
 Characteristics of Valuable
Information
• Relevance
• Quality
• Timeliness
• Completeness
 Decision Support System
• A computer-based system that helps
decision makers confront problems through
direct interaction with databases and
analytical software programs.
• The purpose of a decision support system is
to store data and transform them into
organized information that is easily
accessible to marketing managers.
 A Decision Support System
Has Two Components

Database
Software
 Database
• A database is a collection of raw data arranged
logically and organized in a form that can be
stored and processed by a computer
 Data Warehousing
• Information management term
• The process that allows information from
operational systems to be stored and
organized into separate systems designed
for simple access
 Customer Relationship
Management (CRM)
• Bring together lots of pieces of information
– customer profiles
– sales
– marketing effectiveness/responsiveness
– market trends
• Provides the enterprise with a complete,
dependable, and integrated view of its
customer base.
 Customer Relationship
Management (CRM)
• Management, salespeople, customer service,
and perhaps the customer can directly
– access information e.g. other products a
customer has purchased
– match customer needs with satisfying product
offerings
– remind customers of service requirements
 Software
• Various types of programs that tell
computers, printers, and other hardware
what to do
• Software allows managers to combine and
restructure databases, diagnose
relationships, build analytical models,
estimate variables, and otherwise analyze
the various databases
 Business Intelligence
• The application of software tools to analyze
data in extensive data warehouses to
discover significant patterns and
relationships.
Four Major Sources of Input For
a Decision Support System
• Internal records
• Proprietary business research
• Business intelligence
• Outside vendors and external distributors
 Internal Records
• Internal records that may become useful
information for managers.
• Accounting reports of sales and inventory
figures, provide considerable data.
• Data about costs, shipments, inventory,
sales, and other aspects of regular
operations are routinely collected and
entered into the computer.
 Outside Vendors And External
Distributors
• Distributors of market information as their
products.
• Many organizations specialize in the
collection and publication of high-quality
information.
• e.g. A. C. Nielsen Company provides
television program ratings, audience counts.
 Computerized Data Archives
• Organized and retrievable
• DVD and CD-ROM
• Internet
 On-line Database
Searching Systems
• DIALOG
– ABI/INFORM
– PROMT (The Predicast Overview of Markets
& Technologies)
• DOW-JONES NEWS RETREVIAL
– Business Newsstand
– Historical Market Data Center
• LEXIS-NEXIS
 Types Of Databases
• Bibliographic/text
• Statistical/geographic
• Scanner
• Financial
• Image and video
 Proprietary Research
• Emphasizes the company’s gathering of
new data.
• Not conducted regularly or continuously.
• Projects conducted to study specific
company problems.
 Business Intelligence
• A business intelligence system consists of a
network of sources and regular procedures
by which executives obtain everyday
information about nonrecurring
developments in the external business
environment.
 Input Management
• Inputs - all numerical, text, voice, and
image data entered into the decision support
system
 Electronic Data Interchange
• Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the
term used when one company’s computer
systems is integrated directly with another
company’s proprietary computer system.
 Internet
• A worldwide network of computers that
allows users access to information and
documents from distant sources.
• A combination of a worldwide
communication system and the world’s
largest library.
 URL
• Uniform resource locator
• Web site address
 World Wide Web (WWW)
• Graphic interface
• 1000s of interconnected pages or documents
 Selected Web Sites
• http://www.usatoday.com
• http://www.businessweek.com
• http://www.adcritic.com
• http://www.ceoexpress.com
• http://www.census.gov
 Home Page -Basic Information
Plus Menu
• http://www2.bus.okstate.edu/zikmund/
Links Or Hyperlinks
Lead To Other Pages
 Search Engine
• A computerized directory to search the
WWW
• YAHOO -www.yahoo.com
• HOTBOT - www.hotbot.com
• GOOGLE - www.google.com
• DOGPILE - www.dogpile.com
 Push Technology
• Smart agents
• Find information
• Do the searching for you
• Distribute it to desktop
 Smart Agent
• Learns an individual user’s preferences
• Automatically searches out information
• Delivers information to the desktop
 Cookies
• “Magic cookies”
• Small computer files
• Provides saves onto the computer of
someone who visits
• Tracks websites and files visited
 Intranet
• Private data network
• Uses internet standards and technology
• Firewalls for security