Andorful's Blog

After Class Discussion Chapter 7

andorful — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 22:17:15 +0000

I understand that in achieving comparative advantage over others in business, information systems plays a major role. Most companies use ERP systems to obtain these goals. My understanding about ERP systems is that it helps all the functions of an organization to be put together. This helps each function such as accounting,HR etc access the same information at the same time which helps avoid redundancy of data. This means that the same information about an object would not be entered again by different function since the object’s information is already entered by another function.

Another problem resulting from choosing an ERP systems is training users. Training can take greater amount of company’s fund in installing an ERP systems. Managers need to understand all these problems and make provisions for it.

Question:

Can you explain the many ways that an ERP systems is prune to fail?

Response to chapter7

andorful — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:56:38 +0000

Information systems help businesses to take comparative advantages over others. IS helps to improve efficiency, consistency and adding value to business. One way this can be achieved is by using value chain system which includes in-bound logistics, operations, out-bound logistics, services and supports, and marking and sales. Through these processes, businesses are able to obtain and keep track of raw material for production of good and services and sell them to customers.

Systems such as accounting systems, plays a major role in value chain. In most cases, ERP systems are used to accomplish these functional systems in business process. This systems also helps avoid redundancy of data which is prune to error resulting from humans.

Another interesting system is the customer relationship management systems. Every business can survive because of its customers. By implementing CRM systems, businesses are able to keep track to customers and how to improve their services to them.

After Class Response to Case2-1

andorful — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:35:10 +0000

As I was preparing for the presentation, I thought about the fact that information system cannot be 100% trusted. I back up my point with the story of Air Bus which recently crushed in the Atlantic Ocean. It was their information system which could not give correct reading of the system thereby, resulting in a crush.

I will also consider the BYUH computer labs such as the library and the rest. Sometimes, some computers would not respond to some changes which have made generally for all computers. I have seen this because I work on them.

My major point here is that information systems saves great amount of time but cannot be fully trusted.

Response to Case2-1

andorful — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:26:40 +0000

My group presented the case study

After Class Response Chapter 6

andorful — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 20:37:07 +0000

There are various information systems for various kinds of work. As I did my research for jobs opportunities based on information system, I found out that many jobs are looking for database specialist ranging from administrators to developers.
Another interesting information system l came across was Accounting Information System which few people also talked about in class.

Enterprise database is also gaining advantage in the market due to its functionality to incorporate different modules.

Part 2 Review Assignment Response

andorful — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:43:18 +0000

Database in general has numerous advantages over spreadsheet. As a business professional, I would use database to hold huge amount of data such as customer information. This is so because database provides queries and forms that makes sorting information easy as compared to spreadsheet. Also, with database, customers can make request or order items online when the database is embedded in a website. This will provide extra profit for the business in that while the physical business in not in operation, or has closed, customers will use the online site to order items.

On the other hand, I will use spreadsheet to handle small amount of data. These data might not be necessarily important to be online, therefore it will save money to have it on spreadsheet than in a database.

I would use use a personal DBMS when I want to have my business compete online with others. As I have explained previously, database has functionality that support online site. For example, ebay uses their online stores to make most of their business. This helps ebay to avoid manual ways of receiving others from customers. Besides, having humans receiving orders from hundreds of customers through some sort of telephone transaction will generate many errors. Also, hundreds of workers will be needed to handle all customers at a time else the company looses all it customers.

With enterprise DBMS, I would use BYUH as an example. There are many departments in this school ranging from finances to HR and the rest. Also, student should have the ability to register classes online instead of having thousand students at the registrar office registering for classes manually. Therefore using Enterprise DBMS will help all department share same information which are mostly about students. For instance, my supervisor is able to view my class schedule to schedule working hours base on my free time. The same information is accessible to the accounts department and the rest of them. This functionality created by enterprise systems provides convenient way of managing big companies and institutions.

An access database create a convenient way of creating forms, reports and queries to handle data and information. But this has a limit. Access database is not powered to be embedded in a website. Therefore, using a database application, queries, forms and report can be collected together and can be embedded online through a website. Also, DBMS provides for multiple users to access the same information at the same time.
Application Exercise
Web services is becoming one of the most important technologies in the world of business today. This is so because of its ability to to facilitate information technology flexibility, improve information management and even create comparative advantage over others.

A study conducted in Israel including 291 IT managers reveal that ERP systems generate an impact on web services as compared to those of non-ERP systems. Organizations are using ERP systems such as SAP, People soft to gaining market share over others. With ERP system, management of an organizations becomes easier to handle as compared to when there is no ERP systems.
As a result of this, there is a growing demand for database developers, administrators and web builders.

Most jobs today are using some sort of information systems to manage its business. Moreover, business are now seeking to upgrade information systems to better ones that can help facilitate business productions. Having a great idea and degree in information systems or it related field give one a comparative advantage over those without such knowledge. This is so because business can rely on one knowledge in operating information systems rather that hiring another information system specialist. Besides businesses love to save money.

After Class Responsee Chapter 6

andorful — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 01:52:03 +0000

I think the principle of data communication should be a basis for everyone who takes business ideas and implement them. Data communication which involves computers and internet has generated so much profit to businesses.

A network computer can now assist workers in sharing files and other information without necessary moving from one office to another delivering paper files. Workers can share network printer instead of buying one printer for each office or department. This form of communication has almost taken over the whole entire business world due to its numerous advantages.

Another example is how Walmart communicate with its distributors. Through internet, distributors can know how much inventory Walmart so that they can send more products to them.

Basically, I think the fundamental ideas in data communication is very important. A manager who has no ideas about how networking works would not know how to talk to vendors about a project though an IT specialist may be around.

Response to Chapter6

andorful — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:56:48 +0000

Data communications has come to replace the older ways of sending information which are through postal mails or messenger. The internet has take over the whole form of sending information. Through the internet instant messages and emails can be sent in a twinkling of an eye. These are accomplished through a computer network. A computer network is a group of computer and other devices connected together to sharing files and information. LAN and WANs and Internet are types of network existing today.

LAN has components such as NIC which help carries message from one computer to another. The NIC when connected to Ethernet cables sends data through an internet protocol to another computer. When messages are sent and received on the internet , they are filtered by firewall to check if the packet sent meet certain requirement.

When packets are sent over the internet, for example secured information, it’s possible for anyone on the internet to assess the information. For this purpose an encryption is implemented to transform raw text into coded characters so that it can not be read by another person.

Response to Chapter 5

andorful — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:31:41 +0000

Database management systems has played a major role in the world of technology. Using Excel can only handle few data. Since the world is doing away with paper work, it becomes very important to have a means of storing huge amount of data. For this reason databases have been known to replacing this legacy systems.

Database management systems has proven to help many organizations organize their data and retrieve them in the least possible amount of time. This it done through queries and forms. These queries are written using database management systems like MySQL, SQL Server etc. The queries also depend on the relationships between the various forms.

One key advantage of database over Excel is that multiusers can use a database concurrently. This means that if a user is from the finance department, he can assess information that another user in human resource department can asses the same time. This increases the productivity of a company.
A company may choose to user Enterprise DBMS which has extra functionality over workgroup database. In Enterprise DBMS such as Microsoft SQL and Oracle, different databases are incorporated together to facilitate global sharing in an organizations.

Chapter 4 Response

andorful — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:56:30 +0000

Being a manager and not having a knowledge about the hardware and software components that runs your systems will not be good enough. The knowledge from these hardware and software will help implement the other components of information systems such as data, procedures and people. How fast a CPU can run will determine the amount of data is can process at a time. Since different users perform different tasks at work knowing this will be beneficial in determining who needs a computer with fast CPU. This can save company’s money in a sense that a computer with Intel 2 Core Due will not be purchase just for word document though.

Various OS are good for different purposes depending on the nature of the job. Managers should have at least the basic knowledge in the different OS’s so they can help make a choice for the company. His business decisions will depend largely on his knowledge of software since most business decisions are accomplished through software.Also this knowledge can help managers when outsourcing a project to a vendor.