Chapter 2 Business Processes Information and Information Systems
Chapter 2 Business Processes, Information, and Information Systems
This Could Happen to You: “I Got the Email, but I Couldn’t Download the Attachment” Felix misses meetings and doesn’t know what was decided at last meeting. Making assumptions about customers want without any data. Wasting time covering old ground. Cell phone call interrupts meeting. Do you continue with a missing group member, who has problems with email? Boss comes to meeting. Do you tell her about group’s problems? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -2
Study Questions Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -3
Q 1: Why Does the Flex. Time Team Need to Understand Business Processes? Flex. Time team needs to have better collaboration processes Establish objective and rules on meeting times Need better resources for sharing work product How will that team know where and how to save costs? Scenario Video Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -4
Study Processes and Look for Inefficiencies Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -5
Q 2: What Is a Business Process? A network of activities, resources, facilities, and information that interact to achieve some business function. Resources Activities Facilities Business Functio n Informatio n Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -6
Flex. Time’s Three Business Processes Figure 2 -1 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -7
Register Participants Process Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -8
Components of a Business Process Activities— Transform resources and information of one type into another type Decisions— Roles— A question that can be answered Yes or No Sets of procedures Resources — People, or facilities, or computer programs that are assigned to roles Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Repository— Collection of business records 2 -9
Q 3: How Do Information Systems Support Business Processes? Figure 2 -3 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -10
Register Participants Process Figure 2 -4 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -11
Manual and Automated Register Participants Process Figure 2 -5 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -12
Q 4: What Is Information? Knowledge derived from data (recorded facts or figures) Data that is presented in a meaningful context Data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations A difference that makes a difference Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -13
Experiencing MIS In. Class Exercise 2: Woot. com Woot (www. woot. com) offers a featured item for sale each day. Starting at midnight (U. S. Central time), a featured item posted for sale at deep discount. When inventory of item gone, selling stops. What’s today’s item? Click “What is woot? ” and read FAQs. Identify five business processes that Woot needs to run site. Name and describe three business processes that typical online retailers need that Woot avoids. Diagram key processes involved in each day’s sales. Describe (in generic terms) contents of what you think is most important repository. List five types of information that Woot can obtain from repository. Present your business process to class. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -14
Characteristics of Good Information 1. Accurate • Correct and complete • Crucial for management • Cross-check information to ensure accuracy 2. Timely • Produced in time for intended use 3. Relevant to both: • Context • Subject Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -15
Characteristics of Good Information (cont’d) 4. Just barely sufficient • Sufficient for purpose it is generated • Avoid too much or extraneous information 5. Worth its cost • Relationship between cost and value • Information systems cost money to develop, maintain, and use • Must be worth that cost Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -16
Q 5 Where Is the Information in Business Processes? Information Stored in Repositories Status Check Membership Status Memb er Record s Customer data: Name, Email, Address, Phone(s), Date. Of. Birth Membership data: Date. Of. Membership, Membership. Type, Fee. Paid, Expiration. Date Course data: Name, Description, Standard. Fee, Promotional. Terms Class data: Course. Name, Start. Date, End. Date, Instructor, Available. Seats Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -17
Information for Unstructured Processes Quality of information determined by people and procedures used to interpret that data Data is a stimulus that causes you to create information …in your mind Your mind and your thinking are most important part of an information system Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -18
Q 6: How Does the Knowledge in this Chapter Help Flex. Time and You? Learn to model important business processes and identify processes to simplify or reduce resources or processes to partly or fully automate. Consider costs from a process-perspective helps team/you understand how changes in one activity (or process) impacts other activities and processes. Provide a guiding framework for conversations, discussions, and decisions. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -19
Ethics Guide: Egocentric vs. Empathetic Thinking Egocentric thinking • Self centered • “I’m right, everyone else is wrong. ” • “I believe sales are declining because our price is too high. We need to cut the price. ” Empathetic thinking • “My View” is one possible interpretation. • Take time to learn what others are thinking. • Take time to understand the problem domain as a system. What other factors can affect sales? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -20
Egocentric Thinking “Professor Jones, I couldn’t come to class last Monday. Did we do anything important? ” Egocentric Thinking Approach • Implies student isn’t accountable for his or her actions • Implies professor lectured on nothing important • Doesn’t take into account professor’s view of absences • Assumes professor has time to rehash class discussions and activities one-on-one • Puts responsibility on professor to remember everything said in class Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -21
Empathetic Thinking “I couldn’t come to class, but I got the class notes from Mary. I read through them, and I have a question…Oh by the way, I’m sorry to trouble you with my problem. ” Empathetic thinking approach • Takes personal responsibility • Minimizes impact of absence on someone else • Considers impact from professor’s side • Considers that the professor must interrupt their other work to give extra help so you can recover from your absence Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -22
Ethics Guide: Egocentric vs. Empathetic Thinking (cont’d) What happens if you are in meeting with three people who have three different views of customer support problem? • Customer support reps do not have data about prior customer contacts • Customer support rep recommended a solution that did not work • Company is shipping too many defective laptops Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -23
Ethics Guide: Egocentric vs. Empathetic Thinking (cont’d) Empathetic thinking is an important skill in all business activities (and classes) Q: How would egocentrics behave in a meeting? How would empathetics behave? Q: Which thinking style would lead to a more a productive meeting? Why? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -24
Ethics Guide: Understanding Perspectives and Points of View Every human being speaks and acts from a personal perspective. Everything we say or do is based on, biased by, that point of view. Conflicting perspectives can all be true at the same time. Being able to discern and adapt to perspectives and goals of others will make you much more effective. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -25
Ethics Guide: Understanding Perspectives and Points of View (cont’d) Suppose you buy a new laptop and it fails within a few days. Repeated calls to customer support produce short-term fixes, but your problem continues. Three plausible reasons for the problem: • Customer service does not have data about prior customer contacts • Customer support reps recommended a solution that did not work • Company is shipping too many defective laptops 2 -26
Ethics Guide: Understanding Perspectives and Points of View (cont’d) Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -27
Active Review Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -28
Case Study 2: Ohio State, UCLA, University Washington, Oregon State University… These universities operate on quarter system of about 10 weeks each. Most students attend three quarters a year: Fall, Winter, and Spring. Majority of universities operate on semester system, of about 15 weeks each. Most students attend only Fall and Spring semesters. One unit of credit in quarter systems is worth twothirds a unit of semester credit. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -29
Summary of Opinions on Relative Merits of Two Systems Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -30
Case Study 2: Ohio State, UCLA, University Washington, Oregon State University… (cont’d) Consider the following business processes and their costs. • Schedule classes • Allocate classrooms and related equipment • Staff classes • Enroll students • Prepare and print course syllabi • Adjust enrollments via add/drop • Schedule finals • Allocate final exam rooms • Grade finals • Record final grades Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2 -31
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
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