There are great deals of work need to do if an organization would like to have some change to achieve a business goal. It is a very complex and time-consuming task. There are many options available to achieve this, not only in the different components of an IS, but also in the design and development methods.
Introducing a new, major IS in to an organization generally brings significant changes to the well-established organization IS. As Machiavelli (1532) said above, we can understand that introducing significant organizational change can be a very difficult, risky operation. As a result, the methods of managing the process the developing and implementing major IS are quite important. They require successfully identifying and addressing potential risks.
Schedule delays, cost overruns, less functionality than planned, and significant organizational disruptions are some of the specific problems that organizations may face with IS development efforts. However, there are no way to avoid problems associated with the IS development process. However, there are some suggestions of minimizing risks showing in Ronald T &William’s book:
- Align IS plans with organizational strategy.
- Define the problems or opportunity clearly.
- Access (and reassess) project feasibility.
- Apply appropriate project management techniques and systems devlopment tools.
- Assign (and/or hire) the right people
- Ensure appropriate controls are enforced
With these suggestions, we now explore how to implement them. Implementation of an IS, defined in Vladimir Zwass’s Management Information systems (1992), is the process of preparing people in an organization for a new systems and introducing the system into the organization. In other words, it is an ongoing process, which should start early during system development and culminate in the institutionalization of the new system. We can also find the similar definition in Laudons’ Management Information Systems (2004). One formal process of information systems development is commonly referred to as the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It has 6 steps, each of which will vary from organization to organization. They are:
- Project planning (define goals and objectives).
- Analysis (define information requirements).
- Generation and evaluation of alternatives.
- Designing the chosen alternative.
- Implementation (convert to the new system).
- Maintenance and operation of the system.
Step 1. Project planning in any systems development process is to clearly define the goals and objectives of the new system, essentially answering the question of why an information system should be built. Often the ideas for a new system comes from outside the IS department.
Step 2. Analysis involve determining the requirements for all major components of an IS, but it typically emphasize on the outputs and inputs, the processes, the data, and the scale of processing. In this step, there is a need to understand the existing system, to identify improvement opportunities, and to develop the requirements specifications for the new systems.
Step 3 Generation and evaluation of Alternatives. Information systems that initially seem small and insignificant can have major repercussions down the road. That means we should choose among competing design alternatives carefully. Often the evaluation covers at least three general areas: technical assessment organizational assessment and economic assessment. Technical assessment addresses the issue of how risky the technical aspects of the alternative are. Organizational assessment looks at the important stakeholders of the project, to see how much support there is for its completion. For economic assessment, the basic approach is a cost-benefit analysis: determining which alternative provides the higher net benefits by identifying the costs and benefits, which will be discussed in the following part. In today’s environment, organizations no longer have to build all of there IS by themselves. They can select among existing proposals.
Step 4. Once which design alternative to go with has been decided, it is necessary to consider the entire specific needed for the new system. IS design is more than just writing computer code. It also includes architecture, user interface, data storage, application logic, and procedures.
Step 5. Basically, implementation involves all the steps required to move form the existing system to the new one. There are four general approaches to converting to a new system: parallel, pilot, phased, and plunge. The parallel conversion approach involves running both the old systems and new for a period of time, to make sure that new system has no errors or problems. The pilot conversion approach is where the new systems is implemented in a subset of the organization first, and then it is disseminated to other sites. A phased or piecemeal conversion approach involves the implementation of the new systems in phases. This approach requires that the IS be modular. Finally, the direct cutover (or plunge) approach means pulling the plug on the old system and converting immediately to the new.
Step 6. Maintenance and operation Maintenance of an IS requires upgrading the system as required. System operations is a general term that encompasses a variety of activities and issues.
In Vladimir Zwass’s Management Information systems (1992), he described the SDLC in the following several steps: Systems Analysis Stages, Systems Design Stages, Programming, Conversion, Postimplementation. Which is more or less the same as the above steps.
Besides the DSLC, many easy-to-maintain systems are produced to help speed the development process and to help ensure that high quality. Such as Visual Analyst Workbench, Rational Rose, and System Architect. These can be classified under the general heading of computer-aided systems engineering (CASE) tools. (Ronal T, William Cats-Baril 2003) In Turban, Rainer, Potter’s Introduction to Information Technology we can find some other methods for System Development. Such as Prototyping, Joint Application Design, Rapid Application Development, Integrated Computer-Assisted Software Engineering Tools and Object-Oriented Development.
The tangible and intangible costs & benefits
In general, the tangible (easy-to-measure) costs include costs of software licenses, computing hardware, information systems personnel, maintenance contracts, training costs, communications costs, and so on. The intangible (hard-to-measure) costs include the time it will take employees to learn how to use the new system, the potential disruption to operations during the conversion from the old to the new, a potential drop in morale, and so on. Very often, the intangible costs are substantially underestimated.
The tangible benefits are those that ca be readily quantified and expressed in monetary terms. Often the tangible benefits are considered more in terms of cost avoidance than of cost reduction. Obviously, the expected or claimed benefits must be examined closely. The intangible benefits, oppositely, are more difficult to quantify, but it is important to avoid the temptation to simply list a number of potential intangible benefits without attempting to quantify them. (Ronald. P & William Cats-Baril2003)
There are many types of Information Systems when classified in different ways. After considering the general concepts, I will explore a IS example in the following paragraphs.
The Internet as an information system
A linkage of many computer networks through the world, working in the same rules about how to exchange information, the Internet can be seen as an Information System. According to Laudon (2004), the Internet began as a U.S Department of Defense network to link scientists and university professors around the world. Dave Chaffey (2003) defines the Internet as it refers to the physical network that links computers across the globe. It consists of the infrastructure of network servers and wide-area communication links between them that are used to hold and transport the vast amount of information on the Internet. The Internet is based on client/server technology. Individuals using the Internet control what they do through client applications, such as web browser software. All the data, including email messages and web pages are stored on servers. A client uses the Internet to request information from a particular web server on a distant computer and the server sends the requested information back to the client via the Internet.
The applications of the Internet
The most important Internet services for business include e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, LISTSERVs, chatting, telnet, FTP, and the World Wide Web. An important improvement in the attitudes of the Internet has been the development of the World Wide Web (Lawrence, 2000). They can be used for the information flowing. They are some other 4 aspects of its usage described in Boddy, Boonstra and Kennedy (2002).
Providing information is the simplest application of Internet. In B2C model, customers can view product or other information on a company website. In B2B model, business customers can place their requirements on the Internet, inviting potential suppliers to seek more information.
A further form of Internet use is for interaction. Customers enter questions about (for example) offers and prices. The system will respond quickly and show availability and costs.
A third us is for transaction, the whole transaction including accessing information, ordering, delivery (in some cases) and payment can take place electronically.
Finally, a company achieves integration when it links its own information systems and links them in turn to customers and suppliers. Lets see the IBM example of using the Internet.
Information—the company web site gives information about the company, including products, employment opportunities and financial performance;
Interaction—prospective on-line purchasers can select options and configurations for their chosen machine, and receive information on price and delivery. The company places current purchase orders for suppliers on a secure Internet web site to which suppliers respond.
Transaction—customers can order their computer or other products on-line; suppliers can accept orders and send invoices on-line;
Integration—the production planning system takes customer orders and automatically translates those into the components required in the following period. This passes electronically to a buyer, who in turn releases it to the Internet site. Contracted suppliers cases this, and indicate their acceptance or otherwise. After delivering the physical good, the supplier converts the original electronic purchase order into an electronic invoice, which passes to IBM for electronic payment. (Boddy, Boonstra and Kennedy 2002).
Suddenly it seems that the Internet is everywhere. After two decades of relative obscurity as a government and research network, the Internet burst upon the 1990s to penetrate the public consciousness, capturing headlines and attracting millions of users around the world. Every indication points to even faster growth in the future. Cronin, Mary (1996). We can see from the following survey that the Internet has expanded dramatically, even more; it is constantly expanding, as more and more businesses and other organizations join it. The Internet has become the largest and most important network of networks today. James O.B (2000)
Internet and Organizations.
The Internet has range of capabilities that organizations are using to exchange information internally or to communicate externally. It makes the information flow more smoothly and effectively between different organizations and their different parts, also the organization and its customers, suppliers, and other value partners. Organizations can use Internet Technology and tools to reduce communication and coordination costs, create interactive products and service, and accelerate the distribution of knowledge. Internet also provides the primary infrastructure for new emerging organizations or business model such as E-commerce, E-business and emerging digital firm.
In a business or organization’s diversified aspects, Internet mostly affected the marketing mix.
According to Dave Chaffey (2003) the market mix- referred to as the 4Ps of product, Price, Place and Promotion-was originally proposed by Jerome McCarthey (1960) and is still used as an essential part of formulating implementing marketing strategy by many practitioners. The marketing mix provides a simple strategic framework for varying different elements of an organization’s product offering to influence the demand for products within target markets. It can be talked in 4 aspects, product, price, place, and promotion, which are all affected by the Internet.
Product refers to characteristics of a product, service or brand. Internet-related product decisions can be usefully divided into decisions affecting the core product and the extend product. For some companies, there may be options for new digital products that will typically be information products that can be delivered over the web. When a customer buys a new computer, the computer salesperson, the instruction manual, the packing, the warranty and the follow-up technical service may provide him.
Price will be affected in the following aspects. First is the price transparency, a supplier can use the technology for differential pricing, for example, for customers in different countries. The downward pressure on price is the second aspect. The Internet tends to drive down prices since Internet-only retailers that do not have a physical presence do not have the overhead of operating stores and a distribution network. This means online companies can offer lower prices than offline rival. Also, companies looking to compete online may discount online prices. For example, Easyjet discounted online prices in an effort to meet its growth objectives of online revenue contribution. The Internet can bring in some new types of pricing approaches, such as
bid which is made by a trader to buy under the conditions of the bid such as a commitment for a commitment to purchase at a particular price.
Place. The place element of the marketing mix refers to how the product is distributed to customers. It is also affected by the emergence of Internet. Internet affects the following aspects: place of purchase, new channel structures, channel conflicts, and virtual organizations.
Promotion element of the marketing mix refers to how marketing communications ae used to inform customers and other stakeholders about an organization and its products. It includes advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations and direct marketing. With the improvement of the Internet, they all have been upgraded.
However, the most
Write Something about the open standard, the technology trends.
The open standard, which is used by the software, is one of the important factors the buyer concerned. If the software uses the open standard, it can easy be read by other different systems even they could be upgraded. Oppositely, Close standard, which is used by Microsoft, can produce some unique product to maintain its business. It can also use the money it earns to do research and development, hence, provide the customer more advanced products. One point we should notify is that the open standard is different form open resource. It is the free software, which is a matter of liberty. It provides free access to its program code, allowing people to modify the program code to make improvements or fix errors. Nowadays, open source has become a key factor of the technology development. People put their source on the Internet and allow them to be used or amended by other people, so their soft can be improved quickly. However, it also has some defects. There are two areas of the software industry that open- source will be difficult to cover. One is enterprise software that relates to a company's core activities. Companies will hesitate to bet their business on free software. Open-source is extremely good at optimizing existing programs, says Ray Ozzie, chief executive of Groove Networks and creator of the popular Lotus (Carol Sliwa 1997) It is not practical for them to spend most of their working time on solving the computer problem, There is a trend that software is moving to open standard, however there are still some way to go.
Understanding of Information Technology
WHY SHOULD YOU LEARN ABOUT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY?
We live in the digital age, and that the ways we live and do business are changing drastically. The field of IT is also growing rapidly, especially with introduction of the Internet and EC,, so the organizational impacts keep increasing. The role of IT is a facilitator of organizational activities and processes. That role will become more important as time passes. Therefore, it is necessary that every manager and professional staff member learn about IT not only in his or her specialized field, but also in the entire organization as well as in interorganizational settings.
The terms ‘information systems’ (IS) and ‘information technology’ (IT) are often used interchangeably. This is an error, because the scope of the terms is different. The stress in IT is on the technology while IS not only refers to the technology, but also incorporates how it is applied and managed to contribute to the business. (Paul Bocij, Dave Chaffey, A.Greasley, S.Hickie 2002 Business Information Systems)
References:
Books:
Laudon, K.C. and Laudon, J.P. (2004) Management Information System, (8th edn), the USA, Pearson Education, Inc.
Jame’s A.O’Brien Introduction to Information systems (9th edition), the McGraw-Hill Companies
Steven R. Gordon, Judith R. Gordon (2004) Information Systems (3rd edition) Leyh Publishing, LLC
Efraim Turban, Ephraim Mclean, James Wetherbe (2002) Information Technology for management (3rd edition) John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Ian Winfield (1991) Organizations and Information Technology Blackwell Scientific Publications Editorial office
Ronald Thompson, William Cats-Baril (2003) Information Technology And Management (2nd edition) The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc
Vladimir Zwass (1992) Management Information systems Wm. C. Brown Publishers.
Lawrence E., Corbitt B., Fisher J., Lawrence J. and Tidwell, A. (2000) Internet Commerce, Digital Models for business, Wiley, Brisbane.
Cronin, Mary. Gloabal Advantage on the Internet (1996). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
McCarthy, J.(1960) Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach. Irwin, Homewood, IL.
Website:
accessed 11/11/04
