Learning about information systems will help you
participate in key office decisions no matter what
the organization
Learning about information systems will help you
to understand where you and your company fit
in the system
Understanding this will help you to use the right
information system at the right time and in the
right place
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Information Technology as a
Competitive Strategy
Available technology can
determine if you are profitable
or not
Information Technology can:
Give access to a world market
Improve product & service
quality
Aid communication between
employees
Reduce costs
Increase productivity
Improve company morale
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Cost, Risk, and Change
IT solutions can be
expensive and time
consuming
Element of risk in the
implantation of IT
Implementing IT
means change
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Leveraging Information Technology
Increasing sales
Increasing market share
Creating new business
Collecting data at the
source
Eliminating the
intermediary
Improving customer
service
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Information and Decision Making
Qualities of information
Completeness of
information
Timeliness of information
Relevance of information
Accessibility of
information
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Making Decisions to Produce Products and Services
Plan
Organize
Lead
Control
Strategic Management
Tactical Management
Operational Management
Resources
Employees
Managers
Products &
Services
Functions
Government
Customers
Stockholders
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Financial
Institutions
Colleges/
Agencies
Media
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Filtering Information
Results in the right information
reaching the right decision
maker at the right time in the
right form
Clerical Level
Operational Level
Exception Reports
Tactical Level
Transaction Handling
What-if Reports
Strategic Level
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One-time reports, what-if reports,
and trend analysis
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Types of Decisions
Programmed
decisions
Address
well-defined
problems
Information-based
decisions
Unstructured
decisions
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What is an Information System
Hardware
Software
Information
processing capabilities
System’s
ability to
handle and process
information
People
Procedures
Data
Information to make
better decisions
System’s
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ability to
produce on-demand
information
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What Can an Information System Do
Input
Source data
Inquiry
Response to
prompt
Instruction
Message
Change
Optimizes the collection,
transfer, and presentation
of information throughout
an organization
Uses an integrated
structure of databases and
information flow
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15
Decisions Support Systems
DSS are interactive
information systems
DSS rely on an integrated
set of user-friendly
hardware and software
tools
These tools produce
information to support
management in the
decision-making process
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The DSS Versus the MIS
MIS supports structured
problems
DSS supports
semistructured and
unstructured problems
MIS is designed and
created to support a set
of applications
DSS can be adapted to
any decision environment
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Characteristics of DSS
Helps decision maker
Semistructured & unstructured
problems
Most effective for tactical &
strategic management levels
Interactive and user-friendly
Uses models, simulations, &
analytical tools
Readily adaptable to any decision
environment
Interacts with a corporate
database
Not used for pre-established
production schedule
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The DSS Tool Box
Data Management
Data warehousing
Data mining
Throwaway systems
Support a one-time decision
Modeling
Decisions involve many
factors
Uncertainty and risk present
The EIS supposedly offer the
same decision support tools as
the DSS
However, each tool is
designed specifically to
support decision making at the
executive levels of
management
Primarily the tactical and
strategic levels
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Expert Systems
An Expert System is an interactive
system
Responds to questions
Asks for clarification
Makes recommendations
Helps the user in the decision-making
process
Simulates human thought process
Reasons, draws inferences & makes
judgments (heuristic knowledge)
Information acquired from live
domain experts
Highest form of knowledge-based
systems, not an assistant system
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Expert System Example- Printer
Replace technical
support people
Knowledge base
contains:
Means
of identifying
problem
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Possible solutions
How to progress from
problem to solution
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Intelligent Agents and BOTS
Type of artificial intelligence
Can act on our behalf
We set its goals
Agent may work on:
An ongoing goal
Sort e-mail
An action triggered by an
event
A one-time goal
Send an e-mail
Deliver a present
Internet intelligent agents
growing
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Summary
Information Technology as a
Competitive Strategy
Information and Decision
Making
All About Information Systems
The DP System and the MIS
Decision Support Systems
Expert Systems
Intelligent Agents and Bots