Introduction to Information Systems

Why Should I study IS?

1. Informed User:
a. You benefit from orgn's IT apps
b. Your input enhanced orgn's IT apps
c. Assist orgn in selecting IT apps
d. Aware of new tech
2. IT Offers Career Opportunities - ChiefInfoOfficer, demand, high salary
3. Managing Information Resources - managing info is difficult and complex

Computer-Based Information Systems (CBIS)

● Data-Information-Knowledge
● IS is a set of organised and interrelated components that work collectively to collect, store,
process, analyse and disseminate information for a specific purpose like decision support.
● Components of CBIS: Hardware, Software, Database, Network, People, Procedures
● CBIS/Types of IS in an organization:

● Types of CBIS:
○ Breadth of support for IS - FAIS, ERP, TPS, E-Commerce
○ Support for Organisational employees - Workers, Office automation, BI, ES, Dashboard

How does IT Impact Organizations?

1. Reduces no of middle managers
2. Changes the manager's job
3. IT eliminates jobs?
4. Impacts Employees at work:
 a. Impacts employee health and safety
b. Provides opportunities for people with disabilities
Importance of IS to Society
1. IT affects our quality of life
2. Robot Revolution
3. Improvements in the healthcare

Business Environment
Combination of social, legal, economic, physical or political factors in which business operates.
Any significant changes in them are likely to create Business pressures.

Business Pressures:
1. Market Pressures
a. Global economy/Globalization
b. Intense competition
c. Changing nature of workforce
d. Powerful customers
2. Technology Pressures
a. Tech Innovations and Obsolescence
b. Information Overload
3. Societal/Political/Legal Pressures
a. Social Responsibility
b. Compliance with Government regulations
c. Protection against terrorist attacks
d. Ethical issues

Organization Responses
Organizations respond to pressures by implementing IT:
1. Strategic Systems
2. Customer Focus
3. Make to Order
4. Mass Customization
5. E-Business
6. E-Commerce

Competitive Advantage
Any asset that provides an organization with an edge against its competitors in some measure
like cost, quality or speed.
It helps organizations control the market and get more profits.
Competitive Advantage and Strategic IS:

Porter's Competitive/Five Forces Model

1. Threat of new competitors.
2. Threat of substitute products or services.
3. Bargaining power of suppliers
4. Bargaining power of customers
5. Rivalry among existing firms in industry

Porter's Value Chain Model

Two categories of organization's activities in the value chain:
1. Primary Activities
● Inbound logistics (inputs)
● Operations (manufacturing and testing)
● Outbound logistics (storage and distribution)
● Marketing and sales
● Services
2. Support Activities
● Firms Infrastructure
● Human Resource management
● Product and Technology Development
● Procurement

Strategies for Competitive Advantage

1. Cost Leadership
2. Differentiation
3. Innovation
4. Organizational effectiveness
5. Customer Orientation

Characteristics of Excellent Business IT Alignment

1. IT as an engine of innovation, create new revenue streams
2. Internal, external and customer service are supremely important
3. Orgn rotates business and IT professionals across departments
4. Orgn provides goals that are clear to both IT and Business employees
5. Orgn ensures IT employees understand how the company makes money
6. Orgn creates a vibrant and inclusive culture.
 Data and Knowledge Management, Business Intelligence

Managing Data
IT apps require data.
Data should be of high quality - accurate, complete, timely, consistent, accessible, relevant, and
concise.

Difficulties of Managing Data

1. Data increases exponentially over time.
2. Data is scattered throughout the organization
3. Data generated from multiple sources - internal (db, docs), personal (thoughts, opinions),
external (db, reports, websites)
4. New sources of data
5. Data degradation (change address)
6. Data rot (temp, humidity damage storage media)
7. Data security, integrity
8. Legal requirements

Data Governance
Approach to managing information across the entire organization involves a formal set of rules
for creating, collecting, handling and protecting info.
One strategy for implementing data governance is Master data management.
It is a process that spans all orgn processes and apps. Provides companies with ability to store,
maintain, exchange, and sync a consistent, accurate and timely single truth for companies' master
data (set of core data)

Database Approach

DBMS minimizes:
● Redundancy
● Inconsistency
● Isolation
● Lack of flexibility
● Poor security
● Lack of sharing/availability

DBMS maximizes:
● Security
● Integrity
● Independence
Data Hierarchy:
Bit -> Byte -> Field -> Record -> DataFile/Table -> Database

RDBMS:
Data Model (ER diagram), Table, Entity, Record, Attribute, Primary key, Secondary Key,
Foreign key, Operations (SELECT, JOIN, PROJECT), Designing databases, Normalization,
Cardinality

Object Oriented DBMS:

RDBMS is not suited for graphics or multimedia apps. OODB are better suited.
OODB stores data and procedures that act on the data as objects that can be automatically
retrieved and shared.

Non-Relational DBMS/No SQL:

More flexible data model; Data distributed across machines; easy to scale; handle large qty of
unstructured data

Big Data
● Massive sets of unstructured or semi-structured data from web traffic, social media, sensors,
etc.
● Can reveal more patterns and anomalies.
● Vast datasets that exhibit variety, including structured and unstructured data, generated at
high velocity with no pattern, cannot fit in traditional dbs, and can be captured processed and
analysed in small time by IS.

Characteristics:
Volume, Velocity, Variety

Issues with Big data:

1. Untrusted sources
2. Big data is dirty (inaccurate, incorrect, duplicate, erroneous)
3. Big data changes (quality can change, data itself can change)

Managing Big data:

● Reveal valuable patterns (track disease, crime, fraud detection)
● Integrate info stores in db and develop data warehouses for decision making, many orgn are
turning to NoSQL
● Make sense of growing data

Using Big Data:

● Making big data available
● Enable orgn to conduct experiments
● Micro-Segmentation of customers
● Create new business models
● Analyse far more data

Data Warehouse and Data Marts

Why orgn are building data warehouse/marts?

● Db contains info for manager queries, but is not organised in a way that makes sense to
them.
● Orgn dbs process millions of transactions every day; complicated queries can take a long
time, and reduce performance
● Data is read-only; hence no extra processing is required
● Warehouses are designed to access large groups of data at a time

Characteristics:
1. Organised by subject/business dimension
2. Integrated
3. Time variant
4. Non-volatile
5. Uses OLAP
6. Multidimensional

Data Warehouse Framework/Architecture:

Knowledge Management

Knowledge:
Very distinct from data and info
Provide a higher level of meaning about that data and info

Data is a collection of facts, measurements and stats.

Info is organized and processed data that is timely and accurate.
Knowledge is info that is contextual, relevant and actionable.

Dimensions of Knowledge in an organization:

1. Knowledge is firm asset (intangible, increases when shared)
2. Knowledge has different forms (explicit or tacit, skills, procedures, causality)
3. Knowledge has a location (cognitive, social and individual, sticky, contextual)
4. Knowledge is situational (conditional or contextual)

Explicit knowledge Tacit knowledge

1. Deals with more objective, rational 1. Cumulative store of subjective,
and technical knowledge cognitive or experimental learning
2. Knowledge that has been codified in 2. Unstructured, not easy to codify or
a structured form formalize
3. easy to distribute or transform 3. Imprecise and not easy to transfer
4. In orgn - data, software, policies, 4. In orgn, experience, insights,
procedures, reports, goals, strategies, know-how, trade secrets, skill sets,
infrastructure culture, values

Knowledge Management Systems

Orgn integrates both explicit and tacit knowledge into a formal information system - KMS
KMS is a set of business processes in orgn to create, store and apply knowledge.
Helps orgn to: cope with turnover, rapid change, and downsizing

Benefits:
1. Improves overall orgn performance
2. Eg. acc managers can share tacit knowledge of how to best handle large accounts, use this
to train new acc managers
3. Improves customer service
4. More efficient production development
5. Improved employee morale and retention
6. Reward employees who add their expertise to the knowledge base
Knowledge Management Cycle

Knowledge Management Value Chain

1. Acquisition - document tacit and explicit, create knowledge, track internal/external data
2. Storage - db, document mgmt system
3. Dissemination - portals, emails, SMS, search engines, collaboration tools, training, share exp.
4. Application - orgn knowledge must become a systemic part of mgmt decisions and DSS, new
business practices, new products/services, new markets

Decision
a choice among two or more alternatives that individuals and groups make

Decision Making Process

Intelligence Phase: managers examine a
situation and then identify and define the
problem.
Design Phase: decision makers construct a
model for addressing the situation.
Managers then validate the model by using
test data.
Choice Phase: involves selecting a solution
or course of action that seems best suited to
resolve the problem.
Implementation Phase: is successful if the
proposed solution solves the problem or
seizes the opportunity.
BI for Data Analysis

1. OLAP
Involves ETL, cube operations like slice, dice, rollup, drill down

2. Data Mining
Process of searching for valuable business info in large DB, data warehouse or data mart. It can -
predict trends, -identify previously unknown patterns.

3. Decision Support Systems

Interactive software-based systems that help managers in decision-making by accessing large
volumes of info generated from various related IS
DSS Capabilities - Sensitivity analysis, What if analysis, Goal seeking analysis

BI for Presenting Results

1. Dashboard
easy access to timely information and direct access to management reports.
Capabilities of Dashboards - Drill down, Critical Success Factors, Key Performance Indicators,
Status Access, Trend Analysis, Exception Reporting

2. Data Visualization Techniques

Data can be presented in various formats like text, tables, charts, graphics, etc.
Two well-known data visualization tools - Geographic Information Systems (geocoding), Reality
Mining (usage patterns of mobile phones)
 Ethical Issues and Privacy, Information Security

Ethics
Principles of right and wrong that individuals use to make choices that guide their behaviour

Ethical Frameworks
● Utilitarian Approach - provides most good and does the least harm to affected parties
● Rights Approach - best respects and protects moral rights of all affected parties
● Fairness Approach - actions treat all humans equally, or if unequally then with a
defensible reason
● Common Good Approach - respect and compassion for all, welfare of all

Steps of General Ethical Framework

1. Recognize the issue
2. Get facts
3. Evaluate alternative actions
4. Make decision and test it
5. Act and Reflect on the outcome of decision

Fundamental Tenets of Ethics

● Responsibility - you accept consequences of decisions and actions
● Accountability - determining who is responsible for the actions taken
● Liability - right to recover the damages done to you by another orgn, individual or system

Ethical Issues
● Privacy - collecting, storing, and disseminating info about individuals
● Accuracy - authenticity, correctness of info that is collected and processed
● Property - ownership and value of info
● Accessibility - who should have access to info, should they pay for access

Privacy
Right to determine when and how much information about you can be gathered or communicated
to others
Apply to individuals, groups and institutions
Two rules:
right to privacy is not absolute,
publics right to know supersedes individuals privacy

Electronic Surveillance - monitoring our activities, cctv cameras, motion sensors, id cards,
google street view pics, facial recognition, employer reads employee emails, monitor employee
net usage
Personal Information in Databases - credit agencies, banks, cable tv, telephone, hospitals,
schools, retailers, govt. Where your records are, are they accurate, can we change them, will they
be released, how is it used, who has access to it

Information on Internet - e-bulletin, newsgroups, chat rooms, social media, blogs, free speech vs
privacy

Privacy Codes and Policies - orgn guidelines to protect privacy of customers, clients and
employees. Opt-out model, opt-in model. Platform for privacy preferences (P3P) protocol for
websites to enable visitors to determine what data can be collected.

International Aspects of Privacy

● Inconsistent privacy and security laws
● Transborder data flow
● European community commission
● Safe harbour framework for European citizens

Information Security
Processes and policies designed to protect an orgn from unauthorized access, use, disclosure,
disruption, or destruction

Factors contributing to Increasing Vulnerability

● Interconnected and interdependent business environment
● Smaller, faster, cheaper computer and storage devices
● Decreasing skills to become a hacker
● International organized crime taking over cybercrimes
● Lack of management support

Unintentional Threats to IS
Acts performed without malicious intent that represents a serious threat to IS
1. Human Errors
High-level employee = higher risk
Dangerous employees - HR (add data of employees) and IS (create, modify all data),
contract labourers, consultants, janitors, guards
Laziness, carelessness, lack of awareness
Laptops, computing devices, opening emails, careless net surfing, poor password, office,
unmanaged devices, discarded equipment
2. Social Engineering
Attack in which perpetrator uses social skills to trick or manipulate legitimate employees
into providing confidential info or passwords.
Most common type is telephone impersonation, exterminator, tailgating, shoulder surfing
Deliberate Threats to IS
1. Espionage or Trespass - unauthorized person accesses orgn data
2. Information Extortion - threatens to steal and/or demands payment
3. Sabotage or Vandalism - defacing orgn website, damaging image of orgn with customers
4. Theft of Equipment/Info - small devices, carelessness, dumpster diving
5. Identity Theft - stealing mail, personal info, infiltrating orgn, impersonating an orgn
6. Compromise to intellectual property - IP, trade secret, patent, copyright
7. Software attacks -
● Remote attacks requiring user action - virus, worm, phishing, spear phishing
● Remote attacks needing no user action - DoS, DDoS
● Attacks by the programmer - trojan horse, back door, logic bomb
8. Alien Software - clandestine s/w, use up system resources, report on web surfing habits and
personal info, adware, spyware - keyloggers and screen scrapers, spam ware, cookies
9. Data acquisition attacks
10. Cyberterrorism/Cyberwarfare

Risk Management
Risk is probability that a threat will impact an info resource.
Goal is to identify, control and minimize impact of threat.
Processes of Risk Management: Analysis, Mitigation

Risk Analysis
To ensure that their IS security programs are cost-effective.
Steps of risk analysis:
a. Assess the value of each asset being protected
b. Estimate probability that each asset will be compromised
c. Comparing probable costs of an asset being compromised with that of protecting it

Risk Mitigation
Concrete actions against risks
Has two functions: implement controls to prevent threats, and develop means to recover if a
threat occurs
Risk mitigation strategies include:
a. Risk acceptance - accept the risk and absorb damages
b. Risk limitation - limit risk by implementing controls to minimize impact
c. Risk transference - transfer risk to compensate for the loss, like insurance

Information Security Controls

Physical Controls
prevent unauthorised individuals from gaining access to the company's facilities, walls, doors,
fencing, gates, locks, guards, and alarm, check if employee has logged off before leaving office
Access Controls
Restrict unauthorised individuals from using information resources
Involves two major functions:
● Authentication - confirms identity of person requiring access, ID, password, biometrics
● Authorisation - which actions, rights or privileges the person has

Communication Controls
● Firewall
● Anti-malware systems
● Whitelisting and Blacklisting
● Encryption
● VPN
● SSL
● Employee monitoring systems

Business Continuity Plans

In event of a major disaster, orgn employ several strategies for business continuity.
● Hot sites - fully configured computer facility, duplicates all resources
● Warm sites - same services and options, but not actual apps the company needs
● Cold sites - only some services and facilities, no computer or workstations
Hot sites are most expensive option, cold sit reduce risk the least but the least expensive option

Information Systems Auditing

Examining of IS, their inputs, outputs and processing.
Focusses on operations, integrity, software apps, security, budgets and productivity.
● Internal audits
● External audits
Categories of IS auditing procedures:
● Auditing around computer
● Auditing through computer
● Auditing with computer
 Social Computing, CRM and E-Commerce

Social Computing
Type of IT that combines social behaviour and IS. focussed on improving collabn and interacn
among people. make socially produced info available to everyone. Users produce use control and
manage content

Web 2.0 Tools

SC is facilitated by Web 2.0 tools and sites like
1. Ajax: Rich user-friendly UI, reload portion of webpages instead of entire page, speeds
response time and user satisfaction
2. Tagging: Keyword or term to describe info, allows users to place info in multiple or
overlapping categories rather than rigid categories, user-generated classifn, Eg
Geotagging
3. Really Simple Syndication (RSS): Receive whatever info you want when you want
without having to surf websites, anyone can syndicate/publish their blog or etc and allow
anyone to subscribe to it. when updated subscribers get notified with links to full content.
4. Blog: Weblog is a personal website, open to all where the creator expresses their
feelings/opinions via chronological entries. People create and maintain blogs to convey
news, stories etc, companies listen to customer reviews in blogosphere.
5. Microblogging: Allows users to write short messages and publish them, submitted via
SMS email or over the web, differs from blogs because of limited space per message, Eg
Twitter
6. Wikis: Website made entirely of content posted by users, any user can add, change or
delete material, Eg Wikipedia, reliability, not allowed to site, can act as a central repo for
project mgmt in orgn, businesses can collab with customers and others on projects.
7. Social Network Websites: Social network is a structure made of ppl, groups or organs
linked by values, ideas, friendship etc. social networking refers to activities performed
using social software tools. Map of all relevant links among a network's members.
A website where ppl can make their own profile page and write blogs wikis or share pics
vids links etc. instant messaging. Collaborate and share. Find like-minded ppl.
Socially oriented: Facebook, Google+, Instagram
Professional networking: Linkedin
8. Enterprise Social Networks: Companies have in-house private social networks for
employees partners or customers. Use these to create virtual teams, improve collabn, and
increase employee retention. Interact where ppl work remotely. Used for - community
building, social collab, messaging, social publishing, views and feedback, social
intelligence and analytics.
9. Mashups: A website that takes diff content from other websites and mixes them to create
new content. Ppl can use google maps, add their data and display map mashup.
Web 3.0 Characteristics
● Semantic Web
● Artificial Intelligence
● 3D Graphics
● Ubiquity/Connectivity
● Decentralization & Blockchain

Social Computing in Business

called social commerce

Benefits to Customers:
● Better and faster vendor responses to complaints (Twitter, facebook)
● Customer assist each other (forums)
● Customer expectations can be fulfilled quickly
● Can easily search, link, chat and buy while still on the website
● Make better decisions while buying products, reviews, ratings

Benefits to Businesses
● Test new products and ideas quickly and inexpensively
● Learn about customer base
● Identify problems quickly and alleviate customer anger
● Learn customers' rapid feedback
● Increase sales when ppl share positively online
● More effective marketing campaigns
● Free advertising by viral marketing
● Identify and reward influential brand ppl

Risks of Social Computing

● Information security concerns
● Invasion of privacy
● Violation of intellectual property and copyright
● Employees’ reluctance to participate
● Data leakage of personal information or corporate strategic information
● Poor or biased quality of users’ generated content
● Cyberbullying/cyberstalking and employee harassment

Social Computing: Shopping

Method of ecommerce takes all aspects of social networks and focuses on shopping. Helps
shoppers connect with each other based on tastes age location etc.
1. Ratings, reviews and recommendations - customer, expert, sponsored reviews and
conversational marketing
 2. Group shopping - major discounts for a short time frame, flash sales
3. Shopping communities and clubs - sales for their members only for a few days
4. Social marketplaces and direct sales - online intermediaries, members can market their
own creations
5. Peer to Peer shopping models - bartering systems, buy sell rent online

Social Computing: Marketing

It is the process of building profitable customer relationships by creating value for them and
getting the same in return. To do so: define the target audience, develop a message, decide how
to deliver the message, and follow up.
1. Social Advertising
2. Market Research
3. Conversational Marketing
4. Conduct Market Research using Social networks

Social Computing: CRM

customer service professionals do business in the ways that customers adapt to interacting with
companies in a newly connected environment.
Social computing has vastly altered both the expectations of customers and the capabilities of
corporations.

How Social Computing Improves Customer Service:

1. Companies are closely monitoring social computing not only because they are mindful of
the negative comments posted by social network members.
2. Gives them an opportunity to involve customers proactively to reduce problems by
improved customer service.
3. Customers are now incredibly empowered. Empowered customers know how to use the
wisdom and power of crowds and communities to their benefit.
4. They are actively involved with businesses, not just as purchasers, but also as advocates
and influencers.
5. Hence, businesses must respond to customers quickly and appropriately.
6. Social computing provides many opportunities for businesses to do just that. Giving
businesses the opportunity to turn disgruntled customers into champions for the firm.

Social Computing: HR
● Recruiting
● Onboarding
● Training & Employee Development
● Finding a Job
Customer Relationship Management
It is customer focused and customer driven orgn strategy. It's a customer-centric way of thinking.
Helps companies acquire new and retain existing customers. Elements of CRM -
● Customer Touch Points
● Data Consolidation
● 360 data view of customer
● Collaborative CRM systems

Organisations CRM system contains 2 major types:

Operational CRM System

Front office business processes; Directly interact with customers
Benefits: efficient, personalised marketing sales services, 360 view of each customer, ability to
access history of customer interactions

Two major components of Operational CRM:

1. Customer Facing Applications - allow orgn sales and service ppl to directly interact with
customers through service and support, marketing etc. These include
a. Customer service and support - automate requests, complaints, returns etc using
web, phone, fax or facetoface interact
i. Customer Interaction Centres
ii. Call Centers
iii. Outbound Telesales
iv. Inbound Teleservice
 v. Information Help Desk
vi. Live Chat
b. Sales force automation - automatically record all components of the transaction
process, tracks all interactions with customer, eliminates redundancy and
duplicate contacts
i. Contact Mgmt System
ii. Sales Lead Tracking System
iii. Sales Forecasting System
iv. Product Knowledge System
v. Configurator
c. Marketing - use data mining on volumes of customer data, find buying habits that
may lead to additional sales using cross-selling, upselling, and bundling.
i. Data Mining
ii. Cross-Selling
iii. Upselling
iv. Bundling
d. Campaign management - Plan campaigns to send right message to right ppl
through right channels.
2. Customer Touching Applications - customer self-help apps
a. Search and Comparison Capabilities
b. Technical and other info services
c. Customized products and services
d. Mass Customization
e. Personalised webpages
f. FAQs
g. Email and automated responses
h. Loyalty programs

Analytical CRM System

Provide BI by analysing customer behaviour and perceptions. Create statistical models of
customer behaviour as well as forecasts about acquiring retaining and losing customers.
Analyse customer data for
1. Targeted marketing campaigns
2. Increase customer acquisition by cross-selling and upselling.
3. Products and services decision support
4. Financial forecasting
5. Customer profitability analysis
E-Commerce
process of buying, selling, transferring or exchanging products, services, or information via
computer networks, including the Internet

E-Business
broader concept. In addition to the buying and selling of goods and services, e-business refers to
servicing customers, collaborating with business partners, and performing electronic transactions
within an organisation.

The degree of digitization is the extent to which commerce has been transformed from physical
to digital. Purely physical organizations are referred to as brick-and-mortar organizations.
Organizations engaged only in EC are called virtual (or pure-play) organizations.
Clicks-and-mortar organizations conduct some e-commerce activities, yet their primary business
is carried out in the physical world

Types of E-Commerce
B2C, B2B, C2C, B2E, G2C, G2B, m-Commerce

Major E-Commerce Mechanisms

● e-Catalogs
● e-Auctions
● e-Storefronts
● e-Malls
● e-Marketplaces

Electronic Payment Mechanisms

● e-Checks
● e-Cards
○ e-Credit cards
 ○ Purchasing cards
○ Stored value money cards
○ Smart cards
● Digital Wallets
● Bitcoin

Benefits of E-Commerce
1. Organization Benefits
a. expand their market with minimum capital investment.
b. reduces the paperwork
c. reduces the cost to create processes and distribute paper-based info by digitizing
d. improves the brand image
e. provide better customer services
f. simplify, faster and efficient the business processes
g. increases productivity
2. Customer Benefits
a. 24x7 support, place orders or get service anytime, anywhere
b. more options and quicker delivery of products
c. more options to compare and select the cheaper
d. review comments of other customers about a product
e. options of virtual auction
f. provide readily available information
g. increases the competition among organizations, customers get discounts
3. Benefits to Society
a. need not travel, less traffic on road and low air pollution
b. reducing the cost of products, less affluent people can afford
c. enabling rural areas to access services and products
d. helping the government to deliver public services

Limitations of E-Commerce
1. Technological Limitations
a. lack of system security, reliability
b. software development industry changing rapidly
c. network bandwidth might cause issues
d. Special types of web servers or software is required by vendors
e. difficult to integrate an e-commerce existing apps or dbs
f. software/hardware compatibility issues
2. Non-Technological Limitations
a. Initial Cost
b. User resistance
c. Security/ Privacy
 d. Lack of touch or feel of products
e. Internet access is still not cheaper and is inconvenient to use

B2C E-Commerce
1. Electronic Storefront and Malls
a. Electronic retailing (e-tailing)
b. Electronic storefront
c. Electronic Mall
2. Online Service Industries
a. Disintermediation
b. Cyberbanking
c. Online Securities Trading
d. Online job market
e. Travel Services
f. Online Advertising
i. Advantages: updated any time at minimal cost, reach large no of buyers
online, cheaper than radio TV, interactive and targeted to groups
ii. Advertising Methods: Banner ads, pop-up ads, pop-under ads, spam,
permission marketing, viral marketing
3. Issues in E-Tailing
a. Channel Conflict
b. Multichanneling
c. Order fulfilment

B2B E-Commerce
1. Sell-side marketplaces - forward auctions, customized electronic for large buyers, 3rd
party auctions
2. Buy-side marketplaces - procurement/purchasing, reverse auctions, e-procurement, group
purchasing
3. Electronic exchanges - private exchange, public exchange (vertical, horizontal,
functional)

Ethical Issues in E-Business

● Threat to privacy
● Potential Job loss

Legal and Ethical Issues Specific to E-Commerce

1. Fraud on the internet
● Stock promoters spread false rumours to boost stock prices
● Auctions by both buyers and sellers
● Selling bogus investments
 ● Phantom business opportunities
2. Domain names
3. Cybersquatting
4. Taxes and other fees
5. Copyright

Mobile Commerce
Type of e-commerce conducted purely using a mobile phone over the internet.
Motivation: wide of mobile, availability of proper net, mobile and net are very affordable now
Applications: Location-based, financial, intr business, access info, telemetry services.
 Computer Networks and Cloud Computing

Computer Network
system that connects computers and other devices via communications media. types of computer
networks range from small to worldwide: PAN, LAN, MAN, WAN, and the Internet.

Types of Networks
1. PAN - shortest range, devices should be very close.
2. LAN - connects 2 more devices in a limited geographical area building, every LAN
device has NIC, and medium usually is unshielded twisted pair wire
3. WAN - large geo area country, connect lans, internet, telephone companies provide
4. Enterprise - the large enterprise can combine multiple lans, use for comm b/w dept or
outside

Internet and WWW

Accessing the internet: via online service, via other means - satellite, google fibre
Addresses on the internet - IPv4(32), IPv6(128)
WWW, Hypertext, Website, URL

Network Protocols
1. Ethernet - common lan protocol, 10gbps
2. TCP/IP - protocol for internet
3. HTTP

Types of Network Architectures/Processing

1. Client/Server
2. Peer-to-peer

Network Topologies
1. Bus
2. Ring
3. Star
4. Tree
5. Mesh

Network Components
Hardware: Hub, Switch, Router, Modem, Cable/connector
Software: NOS, Protocol suite
Communications Media/Channels

Dematerialization
Phenomenon when functions of many phy devices are included in another physical device. Eg
Smartphone.

Advantages of Wireless Device:

1. Small to carry
2. Sufficient computing power
3. Communicate wirelessly with internet

Criteria Wired Technology Wireless Technology

Transmission media Cables/wires EM waves
Transmission Guided Unguided
Secured More Less
Reliable More Less
Cost Expensive Cost-effective
Mobility None High
Interference Almost none Air, obstacles, env, distance

Wireless Transmission Media

1. Microwave
Transmit via EM wave. High volume, long distance, LOS commn.
Advantages: high bandwidth, inexpensive
Disadvantages: must have unobstructed LOS, susceptible to env interferences

2. Satellite
Use communication satellites.
Types of Satellites:
A. Geostationary GEO
22300 miles, stationary wrt to pt on earth, orbital speed matches rotation of earth, no need
 for tracking them, for TV programs, cable operators broadcasting
Limitations: propagation delay diff for telephone calls, large, expensive, power to launch
B. Medium earth orbit MEO
6434miles, move relative to point on earth, negligible transmission delay, moderate no
needed for global coverage, for GPS, less expensive to build and launch.
Advantage: less expensive, nm prop delay
Limitation: move wrt earth, receivers must track
C. Low earth orbit LEO
400-700miles, closer to earth, least prop delay, move wrt earth
Advantages: pick signals from weak transmitters, satellite telephones can operate with
less power and small battery, consume less power, cost is less
Limitations: move wrt earth, receivers must track, large no, move fast

Footprint: area of earths surface reached by satellites transmission. Higher satellite->larger

footprint. Footprint of GEO>MEO>LEO

Propagation Delay: their transmissions take 1/4th of second to send and return from earth surface

Applications:
● GPS: wireless system, uses satellite, to help determine users their location on earth. 24
MEO.
● Satellite/Digital Radio: uninterrupted cd qlty radio beamed to your radio from both GEO
and MEO, Sirius XM
● IoS: some places only have satellite internet maybe cables are impossible or expensive,
GEO, dish mounted on homes, prop delay, disrupted by env

Advantages: high bandwidth, large coverage

Disadvantages: must have unobstructed LOS, expensive, propagation delay, use encryption

3. Radio
Use radio freq to send b/w transmitter and receiver.
Advantages: travel through walls, easy to install, inexpensive, high speeds
Drawbacks: electrical interference, susceptible to snooping, too far signal breaks and fades to
static, 30-40 miles only

4. Infrared
Red light not visible. Short dist commn b/w computer and peripherals. Transceiver.
Apps: remotes, VCRs, DVD CD players
Advantages: low to medium bandwidth
Disadvantages: Must have unobstructed LOS, only for short distances
Wireless Networks

Short Range
100 feet or less
1. Bluetooth - create small pans, low power conn
1.0 upto 8 devices in 10m area bandwidth 700kbps
4.0 transmit upto 25 Mbps 100 m area
2. PAN - computer network, common among computer devices close to one person
3. Ultra Wideband - high bandwidth, 100Mbps speed, for streaming multimedia from PC to
TV
4. NFC - smallest range, embedded in mobiles and credit cards

Medium Range

1. WiFi
Wifi Access Point - wlan, config, transmitter with antenna
Hotspot: wap provides service to no of users in small perimeter 300 feet
WiFi Direct - enables p2p commn, device can send data without relying on antenna,
250mbps, 800 feet
MiFi - small portable device provides permanent hotspot wherever they go, 10m
Super Wifi - long dist, using lower freq, better wall penetration than normal wifi

2. Wireless Mesh
Networks with multiple wifi access points, wide network, basically series of
interconnected lans

IEEE Wifi Standards:

802.11a: bandwidth 54 Mbps; high cost; short range; difficulty penetrating walls.
802.11b: bandwidth 11 Mbps; low cost; longer range.
802.11g: bandwidth 54 Mbps; high cost; longer range.
802.11n: bandwidth 600 Mbps; higher cost than 802.11g; longer range than 802.11g.
802.11ac: bandwidth 1.3 Gbps; will provide the ability to fully support a “multimedia home”
802.11 ad: bandwidth 7 Gbps; targeted to the “wireless office” as opposed to the “wireless
home.”

Benefits of Wifi - low cost, provide simple internet access

Factors preventing wifi market from expanding: Roaming, Security, Cost

Wide Range
Connect users to internet over geographically big region, over licensed spectrum, regulated
Cellular Radio - 2 way radio commn over network of base stations using seamless handoffs.
1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G

Wireless Broadband/WiMAX
● 802.16
● Provide point to multipoint wireless network
● High data rates over 10-40km
● Data transfer rate upto 75mbps
● Secure system, voice and video

Pervasive/Ubiquitous Computing
Every object that has processing power and connected to internet belong to pervasive computing.
It is invisible everywhere computing, embedded in objects around us.
Technologies that provide infrastructure for pervasive computing:

RFID
Attach tags with antenna and chips on goods then track movement using radio signals.

Barcodes
UPC, 12 digits
Limitations - LOS required, barcodes are printed hence ripped soiled, it can identify manu an
prod but not the actual item. Systems to replace barcodes:

QR
2d code
Advantages: much more info, nos text urls and japanese chars, resistant to damage, read from
any angle

RFID:
Use tags with embedded chips which contain data and antenna to transmit radio signal over short
dist to RFID readers.
Pass data over network to computer for processing.
Chip in RFID programmed with info to uniquely identify item
Contains info like its location when where its made
1. Active RFID tags: internal batteries, broadcast to reader, expensive, read over greater
dist, used in tolls
2. Passive RFID tags: rely on readers for power, less expensive, only 20ft, used in inventory
tracking
WSN
Network of interconnected battery powered wireless sensors called motes placed in env.

Mote
Motes collect data in an extended space. Each mote contains processing, storage, RF sensors, and
antennas. Mote activates for a sec when it has to transmit data. Relays to neighbour. Data moves
mote by mote to a central computer. If 1 mote fails another can pick up. Efficient. Reliable. Easy
to scale for more bandwidth.

Capabilities:
● If 1 mote fails another can pick up.
● Provide data from diff angles.
● Determine the direction of movement.
● Weight of vehicle.
● Amt of rain over field of crops.

Applications:
Thermostats (energy efficiency), Bridges and oil rigs (alerts for repairs), Jet engines (real time
data on performance), fruit vege crates (warning of spoilage), water meters (water use and leaks),
electrical meters (grid monitoring)

IoT
Objects are given unique identifiers and they transfer data over internet without human
interaction.
Examples: coke machine, heart monitor, farm animal with biochip, tire pressure.
Capabilities:
● reduce waste, loss and cost
● Identify need for repair replacement or recall
● Tracking expiration data on perishable items

Wireless Security

Threats to Wireless Networks:

1. Rogue access points - setup AP but fails to inform IT dept
2. Evil Twin - locality of wifi enabled computer with separate access to internet
3. War Driving - locating WLANs while driving around city
4. Eavesdropping - efforts by unauth users to access data of wireless net
5. RF Jamming - person or device interferes with wireless commn

Stages of IT Infrastructure Evolution

1. Standalone Mainframe - used mainframe computers, in secure area, only MIS personnel
 2. Mainframe and Dumb terminals - typewriters with limited processing power in user dept
3. Standalone PCs - 1970 IBM PCs, policies and software support for PCs
4. LAN - connect PCs to LAN, client-server computing
5. Enterprise Computing - integrate diff networks in firm, internet, tcp/ip, seamless flow
6. Cloud & Mobile Computing shared pool of computing storage apps and services over net

Cloud Computing
Computing that delivers convenient, on-demand, pay-on-go access for multiple customers to a
shared pool of computing resources rapidly and easily accessed over the internet.
Allows customers to acquire resources at any time and delete them when no longer needed.

Characteristics:
1. Provides on-demand self-service
2. Encompasses characteristics of grid computing - pool for single IT env, fault tolerance,
scale
3. Encompasses characteristics of utility computing
4. Utilizes broad network access - resources over the internet, used on any device
5. Pools computing resources - dynamically assign resources to multiple customers
6. Occurs on Virtualised Servers - Server farms

Types of Cloud
1. Public - shared, easily accessible, multiple customers, apps storage over the internet
2. Private - access to only a group of entities like business, provide IT on enterprise, secure,
firewall
3. Hybrid - public and private clouds, based on security env, and policies of company
4. Vertical - built for diff businesses specifically construction, finance, and businesses

Cloud Computing Services

Benefits of Cloud
● More productive individuals
● Facilitates collaboration
● Mining data insights
● Reduce costs
● Expand the scope of business
● Respond quickly to market changes
● Customise products and services

Concerns/Risks with Cloud Computing

● Legacy IT Systems
● Reliability
● Privacy
● Security
● Regulatory and Legal Environment
● Criminal use of CC
 Information System within Organization

Transaction Processing Systems

● Inputs for FAIS and BI systems
● Efficiently handle large volumes of data and variations in it
● Avoid errors and downtime, record results accurately, maintain privacy and security

Batch processing: firm collects data from transactions, placing them in groups/batches and
processes batches periodically
OLTP: transactions processed online as they occur, real-time by using internet

Functional Area Information System

Each dept or functional area has its own collection of apps or IS
Each of these IS support that area of orgn by increasing efficiency and effectiveness
Convey info in variety of info

1. IS for Accounting and Finance

a. Financial Planning and budgeting
i. Financial and economic forecasting
ii. Budgeting
b. Managing Financial Transactions
i. Global stock exchanges
ii. Managing multiple currencies
iii. Virtual close
iv. Expense management automation (EMA)
c. Investment management
d. Control and Auditing
i. Budgetary control
 ii. Auditing - where money is spent and financial health
iii. Financial ratio analysis - activity, liquidity, debt, profitability ratios

2. IS for Production/Operations Management (POM)

a. In-house logistics
b. Inventory management
c. Quality control
d. Planning production and operations mgmt
e. Computer integrated manufacturing
f. Product lifecycle mgmt

3. IS for Marketing
a. Customer relations
b. Customer profiles
c. Sales force automation

4. IS for Human Resource Management

a. Recruitment
b. HR Development
c. HR Planning and Mgmt

Reports
1. Routine reports
2. Ad-hoc/On-demand Reports
a. Drill down
b. Key indicator
c. Comparative
3. Exception reports

ERP
Designed to correct lack of commn among FAIS, view of whole orgn, integrates all resources on
common software platform and database.
ERP II systems - web-enabled inter-organisational ERP, integrate internal facing apps with
external focus apps of supply chain and CRM.

Benefits:
● Organizational flexibility and agility
● Decision support
● Quality and efficiency

Limitations:
 ● Business process predefined by best practices
● Difficult to implement
● Potential for failure
Causes of failure - not involve employees in planning, too fast, insufficient training, no
proper testing

Implementing ERP Systems

1. On-Premise ERP implementation
a. Vanilla approach - built-in configs
b. Custom approach - new functions for the firm
c. Best of breed approach - combined both to avoid extensive costs, mix n match
modules
2. Software as a Service ERP
Acquire erp without complete installation, rents software, vendor manages, contracts

Advantages of cloud-based ERP

● Used from any location of internet
● Avoid initial hardware and software expenses of on-premise
● Scalable

Disadvantages of cloud-based ERP

● Not clear if cloud erp are more secure than on-premise
● Sacrifice control over strategic IT resources
● If the system goes down, wait for the vendor to repair it

ERP support of Business Process

1. Procurement 3. Production

2. Order fulfilment
 ● ERP with SCM - place auto requests for fresh products from supplier, connected to
barcode scanning system to track inventory, predict when supply will become low
● ERP with CRM - forecast analysis of product consumption based on location, season,
day, type of customer, suggest specific product campaigns, create demand-to-order

IT Strategic Plan
The IT strategic plan is a set of long-range goals that describe the IT infrastructure and
identify the major IT initiatives needed to achieve the organization’s goals
Objective:
1. It must be aligned with the organization’s strategic plan
2. It must provide an IT architecture that seamlessly networks users, applications, and
databases
3. It must efficiently allocate IS development resources among competing projects

Cost Benefit Analysis

Assess cost, assess benefits, and compare them
Four approaches:
1. Net present value - convert future values of benefits to their present-value equivalent by
“discounting” them at the organization’s cost of funds
2. return on investment - management’s effectiveness in generating profits with its available
assets
3. breakeven analysis - determines the point at which the cumulative value of the benefit
from a project equals the investment made in the project
4. the business case approach - write a business case to justify funding one or more specific
applications or projects

Business Decisions that Organizations must make when Acquiring IS

1. How much computer code does the company want to write?
2. How will the company pay for the application?
3. Where will the application run?
4. Where will the application originate?

Strategies for Acquiring IT Application

● Purchase prewritten application
● Customize prewritten application
● Lease the application
● Use App service and SaaS vendors
● Use open source software
● Use outsourcing
● Employ custom development
Systems Development Life Cycle - 6 stages

Other models:
1. Joint Application Design - group meeting and all analysts, agree on requirements
2. Rapid Application Development - combines JAD, prototyping and integrated computer
soft engg for quick dev
3. Agile Development - delivers functionality in rapid iterations, frequent user
communication, development, testing, and delivery. One type -SCRUM acknowledges
that dev problems cannot be fully known from the start; works in quick sprints.
4. End-User Development - end users develop their own applications with little or no formal
assistance from the IT dept