CIS 502
Introduction to Computer Information Systems

Skills & Knowledge Inventory

"Information technology is a business force now. It amounts to one-half of U.S. firm's annual capital expenditures and increasingly affects how firms organize, do business, and compete. Business managers who choose not to reckon with it do so at their and their firms' peril."
Peter G. W. Keen in Every Manager's Guide to MIS

On successful completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Define and describe the major elements of an organization's information systems.
• Understand the issues involved in the management of data, information and knowledge.
• Become a knowledgeable participant in decisions and discussions involving different types of information technologies. Learn the questions to ask in order to evaluate information systems alternatives.
• Become familiar with some of the classic examples of strategic uses of information technology, organizational change through information technology, and business transformation using information technology in order to identify future opportunities.
• Identify ways to use information technology in your area of responsibility by way of understanding alternative IT infrastructures.
• Understand the role and responsibility of senior and line management in information systems decisions.
• Experience hands-on opportunities with networks and information retrieval systems.
• Determine the strategic and organizational impact of technologies on the horizon today.

Specifically, we will try to answer some of the following questions:

Organizations and the Role of IT

• How has IT evolved to its current state?
• How does IT provide value?
• What impacts will IT have in the future?

IT and Strategy

• Aligning IT: How does IT strategy relate to organizational strategy and the external and internal environment?
• Porter Framework: What are the (5 or 6 including government) major forces impacting the competitive position of the firm?
• What are the 3 generic strategies for any business?
• What offensive and defensive sub-strategies are available to help pursue the generic goals? (e.g. build switching costs, enhance product or service using IT)
• Generating Ideas for Strategic Opportunities: Given that IT can be a strategic force, how can one generate ideas for using IT competitively? (Three major approaches)
• The Resource Life Cycle: How can we systematically examine the experience of our customers with our product (thereby seeking ways to improve service)?
• Competitive Advantage and Risk: What are the dangers in pursuing IT strategic opportunities? In not pursuing strategic opportunities?
• The Three Pillars Model: What are the preconditions for gaining a strategic competitive advantage?

Information Technology and the Firm: Some Frameworks

• The IT Interaction Model: What are the ingredients for successful IT projects? (the "fits", the implementation process, appropriate use, desirable outcomes)
• IT and Industrial Organization: How does IT impact the scope and boundaries of firms? Will lower transaction costs result in smaller, more focused firms and more outsourcing? Will lower agency costs result in increased spans of control and flatter organizations?
• Malone & Yates Hypothesis: Do hierarchical electronic distribution channels evolve into biased markets, then unbiased markets and finally to "personal" markets?

IT and Markets: Electronic Commerce

• EDI: What is the underlying technology? How can it be used to reduce costs and cycle times?
• Internet: History, scope and potential. What are the commercial uses of the Internet? How can one classify the various commercial WWW sites? What kinds of products/companies are likely to succeed on the super highway?
• Electronic Commerce: What are the necessary technical and institutional foundations for the growth of electronic commerce? How can one ensure privacy, data integrity, authenticity and non-repudiation? What alternative forms of payment system are likely to evolve?

Technology Essentials (Hardware and Software)

• Why is information stored in binary form in a computer? What functions are performed by: transistors, integrated circuits, RAM memory, microprocessors? What three classes of information are stored in a computer's memory and operated on by its CPU (microprocessor)? What are the major components of a computer system? What do we mean by secondary storage? How does a mainfame differ from a PC or a workstation?
• What is "Moore's Law"? What are its implications for the computer industry?
• What are the four major classes of software? Why is an operating system necessary for a computer to function? What are the different roles of a system programmer? of an applications programmer? What is a "source program?", an "object program?", a "compiler?"
• How is data represented and organized? (hierarchically). What do we mean by a file, a database? What are the two major ways in which a file can be organized and accessed? Why was DASD important in the history of data processing and what new classes of data processing did it enable?
• What is a database management system (DBMS)? What are its major functions? advantages? What are the drawbacks of file-oriented data processing as opposed to database-oriented data processing? In a relational database, information is stored in related tables (the tables correspond to files, the rows of the tables to records and the columns to data items or fields). What is meant by "related" tables? Why is this important? How are these relationships represented?
• What do we mean by the "master file update process", by "batch processing? and "real-time processing?"

Telecommunication Networks

• What is the significance of the divestiture of AT&T in 1984? What are the two major classes of telecommunications? What are the major application areas? What do we mean by analog transmission? by digital transmission? In what units is telecommunications capacity measured? What are the most common media for telecommunications? What form of wiring most commonly connects to your telephone?
• In a typical telecommunications situation, what are the roles of a modem, the "local loop?, the Telephone Company Central Office, a digital trunk line? What advantages does digital transmission have over analog transmission? What significance does the "digitalization of everything" have for companies striving to have a major role on the information super highway?
• What is a local area network? What are its advantages? What is a network operating system? What do we mean by "client-server" computing?
• What are the major alternatives for a company wishing to set-up telecommunications links between widely dispersed offices? What is an "enterprise architecture"? What is the role of a PBX?

Platforms and Architectures

• What do we mean by an information architecture? By a "platform"? Why is the proper choice of an information architecture so important to the firm?
• What are the five major types of information architecture? What are the major advantages and disadvantages of each of these? Why should a company switch from mainframe-based computing to client-server computing? Why not?

Business Process Reengineering / Enterprise Modelling

• What is business process reengineering (BPR)? Why has it been so popular over the last 5 years? What are the major advantages of BPR? What are the major problems in applying this technique successfully? What is the main impact of BPR on the design of organizations? Why should processes have "owners"? What are the major criteria for measuring the effectiveness of particular BPR projects? What do we mean by "BPR principles?" How can they be used? abused? What do we mean by "case management?" When might "case management" be an appropriate reengineering strategy? Why might we consider eliminating (reducing) checks, inspections and reconciliations? Is IT an essential component of all or most BPR projects? Why?

Flexibility and Organizational Design

• What are the major ways in which IT can enable new forms of organization? What is a virtual organization? Why virtual?

Class Notes Availability

Most class notes are prepared in Microsoft Powerpoint '97 format and are available for download on the Internet.

You may wish to download the Windows 95 PowerPoint viewer.

Depending on timing, the capability of the class and what we discuss during the cases, I may not cover all lecture slides.

NOTE: You must find a way to perform queries using Microsoft Access, either by loading it at home or at work. I will do my best to make the database available over the Internet, but this is not as good as having it loaded on your own machine. I heartily recommend a stable and fast internet connection, the Firstclass and Netscape Communicator software installed.

Last Changed June, 1999