Part 5

Managing
Technology and
information

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 Chapter 15
Using Technology
to Manage
Information

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 Chapter Objectives
1. Distinguish between data and information.
2. Explain the role of management information systems in
business.
3. Identify and briefly describe the different types of
information system programs.
4. Describe the hardware and software used in managing
information.
5. Identify how different types of software can help
businesspeople.
6. Explain the importance of special network technologies.
7. List the ways that companies can protect themselves
from computer crimes.
8. Explain the steps that companies go through in
anticipating, planning for, and recovering from
information system disasters.
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 Management Information Systems

 Management Information System (MIS)—

organized method for providing past, present,
and projected information on internal
operations as well as external intelligence to
support decision making.

 Chief Information Officer (CIO)—executive

responsible for directing the firm’s MIS and
related computer operations.

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 Increasing Speed of Technology Acceptance

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 Management Information Systems

 Databases
Database—centralized integrated
collection of data resources.
 Can contribute to information overload—
too much data for people to absorb, or
data that are not relevant to decision
making

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 Information
Overload

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 Management Information Systems

 Information Systems for Decision Making

Challenge has shifted from acquiring data
to sorting through it to find the most useful
elements

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 Management Information Systems
 Information Systems for Decision Making
Decision Support System (DSS)—
information system that quickly provides
relevant data to help businesspeople make
decision and choose courses of action
Executive Information System—system
that allows top managers to access a firm’s
primary databases.
Expert system—computer program that
imitates human thinking through
complicated sets of “if . . . then” rules

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 Management Information Systems

 Trends in Information Systems

Local Area Networks and Wide Area
Networks
 Local area networks (LANs)—computer
networks that connect machines within
limited areas, such as one building or
several buildings near each other
 Wide area networks (WANs)—tie larger
geographic regions together by using
telephone lines and microwave and
satellite transmission
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 Management Information Systems

 Trends in Information Systems

Wireless Local Networks
 Wi-Fi—wireless network that connects
various devices and allows them to
communicate with one another through
radio waves; short for wireless fidelity.

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 Management Information Systems

 Trends in Information Systems

Enterprise resource planning (ERP)—
information system that collects,
processes, and provides information about
an organization's various functions.
Application service provider—specialist
in providing both the computers and the
application support for managing
information systems of business clients.

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 Management Information Systems

 Trends in Information Systems

Application service provider—specialist
in providing both the computers and the
application support for managing
information systems of business clients.

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 Costs of Outsourcing Information Systems

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 Computer Hardware and Software

 A few decades ago, computers were

considered exotic curiosities, used only by
scientists and the military
 Today, they are indispensable—not only to
businesses but to households as well

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 Computer Hardware and Software

 Types of Computer Hardware

Hardware—the tangible elements of a
computer system—the input devices, the
machines that store and process data and
perform required calculations, and output
devices that present the results to
information users

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 Types of Computers

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 Computer Hardware and Software
 Types of Computer Hardware
Mainframe—largest type of computer
system with the most extensive storage
capacity and the fastest processing speeds
Supercomputers—especially powerful
mainframes
Minicomputer—more compact and less
expensive than a mainframe, but also
slower and with less memory

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 Computer Hardware and Software
 Types of Computer Hardware
Personal computers (PCs) —have earned
increasing popularity due to their ever-
expanding capabilities to handle many of the
functions that cumbersome mainframes
performed only a few decades ago
Notebook—computer that is small enough to
slip into a briefcase, yet more powerful than
many desktop computers that are two or
three years old
Tablet PC—a notebook computer with a
detachable screen you can write on.

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 Computer Hardware and Software
 Types of Computer Hardware
Handheld devices—Even smaller than
notebook computers—fit in a shirt pocket
and run on ordinary AA batteries
 Can run common applications like word
processing and database software
 Some can link up through wireless
modems to stationary systems as well
as the Internet

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 Computer Hardware and Software

 Types of Computer Software

Software—sets of instructions that tell the
computer hardware what to do
Operating system—software that controls
the basic workings of a computer system
Applications Software—program that
performs the specific tasks that the user
wants to carry out—like writing a letter or
looking up data

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 How Computers Help Business
 Affects contemporary business in three
primary ways:
Improve the speed and effectiveness of
decision making
Make accurate, unbiased data available to
all interested parties
Support team decision making at low levels
of an organization’s hierarchy

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 How Computers Help Business
 Integrated software (software suites):
combine several applications into a single
package that can share modules for data
handling and processing
Example: Microsoft’s Office
software suite

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 How Computers Help Business

 Word Processing—software that uses a

computer to input, store, retrieve, edit, and
print various types of documents.

 Desktop Publishing—employs computer

technology to allow users to design and
produce attractively formatted printed material

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 How Computers Help Business

 Spreadsheet—software package that creates

the computerized equivalent of an
accountant’s worksheet, allowing the user to
manipulate variables and see the impact of
alternative decision on operating results.

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 How a Spreadsheet Works

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 How Computers Help Business

 Electronic Mail
Direct computerized communications with
company colleagues as well as customers,
suppliers, and others outside their
organization
 Presentation Graphics
Presentation software—
a program that includes graphics and tools
for manipulating them to create a variety of
charts, graphs, and pictures

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 Examples of Visuals Grated with
Presentation Software

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 How Computers Help Business

 Multimedia and Interactive Media

Multimedia computing—technologies that
integrate two or more types of media, such
as text, voice, sound, video, graphics, and
animation into computer-based
applications.

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 How Computers Help Business

 Groupware—software that combines

information sharing through a common
database with communication via e-mail so
that employees can collaborate on projects.

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 How Computers Help Business

 Intranets, Virtual Private Networks, and

Broadband Technology
Intranets—company network that links an
organization’s employees via Internet tools
using Web Browsers.
 Firewall—software that blocks outsiders
without valid passwords from entering a
network

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 How Computers Help Business

 Intranets, Virtual Private Networks, and

Broadband Technology
Virtual Private Networks —secure
connections between two points on the
Internet—use firewalls and programs that
encapsulate data to make them more
secure during transit
Broadband technology—digital, fiber-
optic, and wireless network technology that
compresses data and transmits them at
blinding speeds.

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 Types of Broadband Technologies

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 Protecting Information Systems
 Computer Crime
 Common computer crimes involve stealing or
altering data in several ways:
Changing or inventing data to produce
inaccurate or misleading information
Changing computer programs to create
false information or illegal transactions, or
to insert viruses
Unauthorized people accessing computer
systems for their own illicit benefit or
knowledge, or just to see if they can get in
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 Protecting Information Systems
 Computer Crime
Encryption software—prevents system
users from reading sensitive information,
by encoding or scrambling, messages

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 Protecting Information Systems

 Computer Viruses
Programs that secretly attaches itself to
other computer programs or files and
changes them or destroys data.
 Disaster Recovery and Backup
Disaster recovery planning—deciding
how to prevent system failures and
continue operations if computer systems
fail

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