ISYS210 (Fall 2013) Exam 1 Study Guide
Chapter 1

Section 1.1 – Business Driven MIS
1) Information Age – when infinite quantities of facts are widely available to anyone who can use a computer

2) Core Drivers of the Information Age
A)
Data- raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event or object

Information- data converted into a meaningful and useful context

Business Intelligence- (BI)- Information collected from multiple sources such as suppliers, customers, competitors, partners, and industries that analyze patterns, trends, and relationships for strategic decision-making. B)
Variable- a data characteristic that stands for a value that changes or varies over time

3) Departmental Companies

a) Accounting-Records, measures, and reports, monetary Transactions

Finance- Deals with strategic financial issues including money, banking, credit

Human Resources- Maintains policies, plans, and procedures for the effective management of employees.

Marketing- Supports sales by planning, pricing, and promoting goods or services. Operations Management- Manages the process of converting or transforming or resources into goods or services.

Sales- Performs the function or selling of selling goods or services
4) Management Information Systerms-(MIS) is a business function, like accounting and human resources, which moves information about people, products, and processes across the company to facilitate decision-making and problem solving.
MIS incorporates systems thinking to help companies operate cross-functionally

5) Systems Thinking- A way of monitoring the entire system by viewing multiple inputs being processed or transformed to produce outputs while continuously gathering feedback on each part (4 PARTS)

1. Inputs
2. Processing
3. Outputs
4. Feedback- information that returns to its original transmitter (input, transform, or output) and modifies the transmitter’s actions.

6) MIS Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Information Officer- (CIO) – Oversees all uses of IT and ensures the strategic alignment of IT with business goals and objectives

Chief Knowledge Officer- (CKO) - Responsible for collecting, maintaining, and distributing the organization’s knowledge

Chief privacy officer (CPO) – Responsible for ensuring the ethical and legal use of information

Chief security officer (CSO) – Responsible for ensuring the security of IT systems

Chief technology officer (CTO) – Responsible for ensuring the throughput, speed, accuracy, availability, and reliability of IT

Section 1.2 – Business Strategy

1) Comparative Advantage- A product or service that an organization’s customers place a greater value on than similar offerings from a competitor

First Mover Advantage- Occurs when a company can significantly increase its market share by being the first with a new competitive advantage.

2) Competitive Intelligence- The process of gathering information about the competitive environment to improve the company’s ability to succeed

Competitive intelligence tools
Porter’s Five Forces Model
Porter’s Three Generic Strategies
Porter’s Value Chain Analysis

3) Porter’s Five Forces Model- analyzes the competitive forces within the environment in which a company operates to assess the potential for profitability in an industry. Its purpose it to combat these competitive forces by identifying opportunities, competitive advantages, and competitive intelligence.

If the Forces are STRONG they INCREASE competiton
If the Forces are WEAK they DECREASE competition

The 5 Forces

1) Buyer Power- is the ability of buyers to affect the price they must pay. Factors used to assess buyer power include number of customers, their sensitivity to price, size of orders, differences between competitors, and availability of substitute products.
Switching Costs- Manipulating costs that make customers reluctant to switch to another product
Loyalty Programs- Rewards customers based on the amount of