Information Systems Review

Christy McClure
02/28/20

Unit 2
Information systems Foundation

Before information systems existed, most information was shuffled around via hardcopy. Papers and
files being transferred from one Desk to another made it impossible for Multiple people to view the
information at the same time. Information systems was a solution to that problem. Information systems
has a main purpose of supplying information to multiple people at the same time using multiple
components that work together. This enables viewing and interaction among multiple participants in a
much faster manner. Data and information is not the same thing. Data is raw material that needs to be
entered in the system before becoming information. Data, like inventory, is not meaningful until it is
grouped, labeled and the appropriate associations are made. Until then it is just numbers. Once entered
correctly though, you can see vital information. Information such as, how many units of a particular item
were sold, at what price, what the gross sales for the week are and how many units need to be ordered
to adequately provide supply for the market demand of that particular product. That is useful
information. Information technology consists of components such as hardware, Software, networks and
data and assigned technicians . Information systems then uses that information technology. Information
systems contain all of the previously mentioned information technology with the addition of people who
program maintain and run the system as well as the programs and the processes the system uses to
store, compute and deliver this information. Information technology or IT has specific people assigned
responsibility for maintenance, troubleshooting and repair of the information system or IS. Information
systems has a pecking order of sorts. By pecking order I mean a chain of command or a system of
hierarchy. At the bottom of this order you have the transactional processing systems, your non-
managerial employees typically use this for every day operational decisions. And example of this would
be a cashier at a store. Then one step up from that you have management information systems this is
the beginning of your management at the lower level and Decisions are made in this realm. Tactical
decisions would be things such as stocking and restocking shelves. Inventory and ordering replacement
items for that inventory. One step up from management information systems is decision support
systems. Decision support systems is utilized by your middle management it is also considered an area
of tactical decisions. It would be a slightly higher Level of involvement in these tactical decisions. Such as
the main person in charge of trial and research of new products as well as integrating these products
into the store. The highest person in this system is your executive management. Executive management
uses executive information system to make very strategic decisions. Your executive management would
use the executive information system to decide things like feasibility of introducing a new product.
Overall financing decisions that would be involved in that. Executive management would decide if you
were going to franchise or open new stores in order to expand selling capabilities. information systems
encompasses many basic business functions. Functions like accounting and finance, production and
operations, human resources and sales and marketing. Accounting and finance would receive and pay
people who the company does business with, create budgets and payroll ledger’s and account for all
cash flow and financial transactions. Production and operations deals with a product, manufacturing of
the product, what kind of lifecycle product has, inventory management, research and development and
quality control. Human resources is the department that trains and recruits employees, gathers
information and stores it for their records on each employee, assist in regulating the management of the
employees and assigning employee benefits. Sales and marketing will set pricing, determine what
promotions will work in sales, deriving a suitable market mix by profiling customers and completing a
sales analysis. When determining products and marketability, porters five forces are often taken into
consideration. Threat of substitute, potential entrants, fire power, supplier power and industry rivalry.
These things must be considered to determine market ability and likelihood of success. Some industries
are not fond of substitutions. Medical industry often would prefer a name brand like Tylenol over
generic brand. This is all part of how porters five forces helps you determine that information. Firepower
for instance, is a question of how in demand is the product that you’re wanting to supply. What are your
potential customers willing to spend on your product. Set of substitute for example is a knock off, or
close reproduction or female products. Are there any on the market will they hold true competitive
resistance against the product. Potential entrants, What is the likelihood that a new product will give
you substantial competition against your product? Supplier power, can your suppliers, the people you
buy your products from, sufficiently and economically sustain your need for product and enable you to
continue providing your goods and services to consumers at viable rates. Industry rivalry, what
distinguishes you from the competition? Specificities and branding make the difference here. It’s your
competitive edge. Mac or Apple is a great example of a company with a product that has no real
industry rivals. They are so specified and distinguished in what they do that their branding to date
decimates any industry rival. Customer service can also play a huge part in keeping your competitive
advantage over any potential rival. Information systems makes customer service so much easier to
maintain with the ability to have live interaction with customers and exchange of information.

Unit 3
Computer hardware and software

When computing First began it was done without electricity or computers. The first type of computing
was basically written record. Through time and the invention of electricity computing evolved and the
invention of the computer arrived.The very first computers were huge and took up entire rooms or
buildings. When computers arrived we had to enlist and train technicians to run then. Computers were
capable of doing major calculations in a record amount of time. Computing before computers took
hours to do several hundred. The Innovation of computers shortened that time to tens of thousands of
computations done in seconds to minutes. The evolution of that computer and the hardware that came
along with it had an enormous impact on business and operations around the globe. Modernization of
computers, hardware and software allowed automation of repetitive tasks and reduced and often
eliminated human error enabling vast amounts of information to be processed simultaneously in
seconds. The earliest computers also consisted of vacuum tubes and transistors. This changed and
vacuum tubes were replaced by transistors that later were replaced but integrated circuits which consist
of sets of electronica circuits on a chip or plate type of semi conductor material. The UNIVAC being the
first general purpose computer for commercial use emerged in 1950 and ENIAC the first digital
computer called the “press” by Great Britain and and developed in 1940 for the military. PC came along
later a term coined by IBM for the personal computer. Computers have so many sub categories now.
There are main frame, minicomputers, microcomputers and all emerged in that order. Smart phones,
PC, workstations are all considered smaller subsets of personal computing. These smaller forms of
personal computing makes it extremely easy to conduct business while on the go or remotely. With
computers came computer languages necessary in programming computers. Before that it mostly
consisted of manual switch is in on our offsets combined with wiring and punch cards that reconfigured
mechanical components within the computer. Alan Turing and others in the 1930s and 1940s pioneered
advanced computer theory that in turn led to computer hardware requiring software applications to be
employed. The first computer based language was FORTRAN in the 1940s and 50s. Then more English
like programming came in with COBOL in the 1960s. FORTRAN stands for formula translation/translator
and is mostly used in math, engineering and science. COBOL stands for common business oriented
language and was the first computer software for business application. Java and C++ are examples of
contemporary programming languages. Java being in trouble with online gaming development.
Integrated development via meant or IDE is a programming environment that provides users with tools
to compile and debug and also write code. Pseudocode is an informal high-level descriptive operational
based programming or algorithm . Computer innovations in the 1960s made computers more
affordable by the 1980s and 1990s. During that time MS-DOS was the operating system most often used
associated with Microsoft and it was very proficient in computer operation. With computers
programmers or needed to create software to help computers execute bottle tasks. This entails
operating systems and applications within a computer. Software is considered a low level programming
code and humans need high-level programming software to ease the task of coding.

Unit 4
Data resource management

As we have established data is raw knowledge and numbers stored or collected in an entity. This
collected data makes of a database. The purpose of a database is for organization and mostly consists of
sets or collections of data that will then be organized into tables to make it easier to find. With each
database you will have a database management system and it will contain organizational software. This
organizational software will organize, manage and recall or access any data that is input. When
employing a database you will also need an administrator for the data and a database administrator.
The data administrator is responsible for data entered into the database. This is someone that is going
to make sure that All data in the system is current and accurate as well as stable. A database
administrator will be more concerned with the integrity of the database and it’s process components.
Database is typically contain information such as entity, field, record, table, primary key, foreign key and
schema. Most databases will come with a relational blueprint or diagram that will detail the elements
and their relationship within the database. A good example as a human resource employee database.
Most businesses and companies that have a database will also have a data warehouse and it is a central
repository of all compiled and transactional data. An advantage of having a data warehouse is you can
sift thru or mine the data.. Data mining is useful when trying to find previously unidentified or hidden
relational components within data and data subsets. A database administrator protects the integrity of
the data staunchly. Data inconsistencies can corrupt the database and destroy valuable data. To keep
this from happening most database administrators inact very strict rules and policies to ensure
referential integrity. Little management typically does transactional calculations in mathematical format
that is processed and handled via online analytical processing. This is useful in many aspects that involve
inventory, sales, and replacement of a product. Transactional processing that occurs on line is typically
handled by non-managerial employees such as a sales clerk or possibly a cashier that will scan the
product which enters the barcode into the database where the information is then read several
transactions occur to make sure that it pulls up the most correct and current price for that specific piece
of product or inventory. Sometimes they do cubes are integrated into a data warehouse as a three
dimensional database that includes Numerical information targeting supply or lack of inventory or any
measurement that could possibly fluctuate a different time intervals.When companies would like to
track subset of data they often employ a data mart which houses transactions that are relational to each
other. These relational transactions can be viewed on a dashboard. Such dashboards are usually viewed
by upper management and used in financial decisions. These dashboards can assist in using analytics to
determine certain aspects of data mining light predictive analytics which is an OLAP approach to
predicting fluctuations in market and increase or decrease in profit margins.

Unit 5
Networking fundamentals

A collection of computers or links that are connected together allowing communication between them
all simultaneously is considered to be a network. With networks there is a type of network topology
which is a type of blueprint for the way the network is planned or laid out. A fully connected network or
bus network is the most common and widely used form of topologY in business. By comparison a
common topology used by individuals in their home is a star network which allows access to the Internet
and devices to be added or connected easily as well. Ring networks or another type of network that are
rarely used in modern society. I host is common with in a network. A network host exists on an Internet
network and is a node that has an IP address. Most IP address is reference location and have numbers
that correspond to a state, city, Internet provider, and person within the network. Anything connected
within the Internet or network is usually connected for the purpose of storing and transitioning data. An
Internet provider provides a service which you pay for so that you may attach to the Internet. With the
Internet comes the risk of intruders Or people who want to hack and steal information. Firewalls are put
in place in devices and networks to prevent such occurrences. Computers communicate and one of two
ways. Peer to peer or client server connection is a one-way. Peer to peer is used a much smaller
percentage of the time and is a direct connection to a computer using a USB cord. In this instance clients
are referred to as a dumb terminal meaning they only receive information and the server is what
supplies this information. Client servers are use the majority of the time to connect to the Internet.
There are two common networks used as well. LAN or local area network and WAN or wide area
network. An LAN is a single network where as a WAN by comparison is a multi faceted network
connecting others using routers and the Internet and covers a much larger area of space than the
aforementioned LAN. When there is a need to transmit phone calls or video most often A voice over
Internet protocol or VoIP is used to accomplish this. Open system interconnection or 0S I are used when
sending large packets of information. There is protocol for conducting this kind of activity and is known
as transmission control protocol/Internet protocol or TCP/IP and is the most common format for
sending data packets.There are five aspects of wireless network that can be utilized for efficiency. Radio
frequency identification device or RFID, GPS or global positioning system, geographic information
system or GIS, Bluetooth network and a connection via Wi-Fi are all added benefits that increase
productivity for businesses.

Unit 6
Systems development and decision making

Systems analysis is an organizational analysis to identify problems and bring forth solutions. System
analysis can bring forth changes in a business information system. Often businesses change or upgrade
hardware, software, management, structure, activities, process, and even jobs and skills. Every
information system within a business has a life cycle. There are seven steps to identifying the life cycle
within an information system. The steps of identification are identify the problem, determine
requirements, analyze your systems need, designer system, develop the system, tester system, and
finally implement and maintain the system. Often a waterfall method with a traditional development
method will be utilized in making these changes to an information system. A waterfall method looks
much like it sounds and there are descending Steps to performing it. The steps are requirements, design,
development, testing, deployment, and lastly maintenance. If it is discovered that something is awry in
the steps no changes will be made until the maintenance phase. There is also another method called a
building fix method Which makes modifications along the way until it is successful and can employ
continuous maintenance. This type of maintenance which continues is User friendly but hard on system
development because of the chaotic environment of constant change it causes.
Often a Seasonable form of testing is Prototyping a model which then can be scaled down and built. This
type of prototypes is utilized so that the user can try it out to see if it is desirable before everything is
finalized. Sometimes end user development is a more viable model which I business can use and
develop exactly the way the user would like it to be. This is often facilitated by 4G languages such as
Godaddy.com. Phase implementation is also common and is processed and executed in phases to help
transition from the system into the new one. And lastly sometimes direct implementation is the most
desirable method which generally requires shutting down the old program completely and
implementing the new program.

Unit 7
Information security ethics

Security has three basic aspects. availability, integrity, and confidentiality. Availability means that
anyone accessing the system needs to have timely access to reliable resources. Integrity implies that all
information should be complete as well as accurate without duplication. Lastly confidentiality, no one
should have access to protected information without consent or authorization of use. Risk management
departments typically assess risks to availability, integrity, and confidentiality and report directly to the
CEO of the business. These risks could cause potential loss of information or corruption of information
which could lead to loss of revenue or extensive repairs. It is risk management job to assess threat of
attack or possible damage to the system and its information. Weakness or vulnerability cannot be
excepted as it could result in unacceptable loss. The majority of attacks occur in the system has been
infected by a virus usually sent through email and is referred to in the tech world as a worm. When a
system is infected with such a virus it locks the system down completely and often is coordinated as an
attack to coerce or lure the victim to pay money to get the information back. Similar to kidnapping and
demanding a ransom. Vital information can be stolen during these attacks. Financial information,
passwords and account numbers. This has even happened with the federal government and people had
to be notified when their Social Security numbers had been stolen From the main frame. These attacks
are known by many names and are also punishable by imprisonment and fines. Names like cyber attack,
cyber crime, hacking, cyber espionage or cyber warfare are often used to describe this kind of criminal
behavior in which vital personal information is stolen for the purpose of identity theft and fraud. Most
commonly there are five industries targeted manufacturing, arts and entertainment, retail, financial
services, and information/communication technology. Any business which connects with its customers
through a social platform is more at risk for fishing, far meeting, baiting, or surfing. All of these terms
refer to a scam in which someone tries to steal your information in an attempt to gain money from your
accounts or to scam you into releasing your personal money to them willingly.

Unit 8
E-commerce and social media

Most of us already understand that e-commerce and a business is an extremely efficient way of buying
and selling goods and services online through your computer or even your cell phone. E-commerce
spans the globe and utilizes social media to make business more personal for the consumer. E-
commerce is very vital in major business success. By the same token branding or having a recognizable
logo or icon specific to your type of e-commerce helps to make your business Desirable to the public by
providing only goods and services personified within your company. E-commerce also consist of many
things we do every day like listening to and purchasing online music, books, podcasts and even movies.
These things are considered digital, are delivered immediately, as they are transferred via the Internet
through various platforms and in doing so cost is kept minimal. There are five major types of business
transactions that take place every day. Consumer to government or C2G, business to consumer or B2C,,
business to government or B2G, business to business or B2B and consumer to consumer C2C. As with
any successful business customer relationships go a long way to acquiring and maintaining customers.
Managing your friends wisely means making sure your supplier relationship management along with a
sound business model is employed for your success. Most successful businesses have many social media
platforms as well. These come with benefits and detriments. Social media is a huge part of branding.
Providing everything from Internet customer relationships to marketing information, current news, new
user experience and promotions, social media attract a lot of new and loyal repetitive followers. The
downside is often you have to tolerate good reviews as well as negative reviews and other things that
are out of your control when you deal with the public. Many businesses have gained negative notoriety
due to the negligent or inappropriate actions of an employee openly on social media.