BUS 237
Lecture 1: Sep. 5, 17
• System: a group of components that interact to achieve some purpose
• Information system (IS): is a group of components that interact to produce information.
Use is to develop competitive advantage.
• 5 fundamental components of computer based IS are:
o Hardware: electronic components/gadgetry that constitute a computer system
o Software: programs/applications that run or operate on computer system
o Data: basic building blocks of info such as facts/observations
o Procedures: instructions/processes followed to achieve a desired objective
o People: actors that want outcome by interacting with system
• Management Information System (MIS): the development and use of information
systems that help organizations meet goals/objectives. 3 key elements:
o Development and use of MIS: you need to take an active role to ensure that
system will meet your needs, understand how they are constructed, consider the
user’s needs during development, learn how to employ the system, consider
other important functions (security, backup, recovery)
o MIS aids in businesses in achieving objectives: organizations themselves don’t do
anything, people within an organization or business who: sell, buy, design,
produce, finance, market, account, and manage.
o MIS empowers users to reach goals: exist to assist business people, need to be
developed for right reason.
• Information technology (IT): represents raw technology components of IS: Hardware,
Software, Data components. IT refers to: methods, inventions, standards, and products
• IS makes IT useful, making IS more important then IT, because IT do not include people.
• Every business professional uses multiple IS. (email, assessing web, using word/excel,
talking or texting on cell phone.
• Build competitive advantage by: developing technical skills, specific technology and
industry experience, and satisfactory communication and other business skills.
• Moore’s Law: density of circuits on an integrated chip will double every two years or so.
This law has been accurate last 50 years.
• Hal Varian suggested that business is changing because of advances in IS and IT. Mobility
devices will change what it means to go to work, industries are undergoing significant
change because of the shifts in technology.
• David Ticoll suggested within the next decade: unlimited storage will almost be free,
analytical software will reveal hidden information, real and virtual worlds will collide.
Lecture 2 Sep. 12, 17
• Business process/system: series of activities, tasks, or steps designed to produce a
product or service.
• Examples include sales, purchasing, and inventory management processes. These
elements are often considered part of an overall organization supply chain.
• Data does not make sense on its own, when it has meaning or purpose then it is
information. To turn data into information use arithmetic and statistical techniques.
• Components of business processes:
o Activities: transform resources and information of one type into resources and
information of another type. Can be manual, automated, or both. E.g. payment
(activity) transforms quantity received (information) and shipping voice
(information) into a supplier payment (resource)
o Resources: items of value, can be external (pay to use them) to organization. E.g.
cash, workers, customers, suppliers, etc.
o Facilities: structures used within the business (internal). E.g. factories,
equipment, inventories, databases, etc.
o Information: knowledge derived from data, or data presented in a meaningful
context, or processed data, or a difference that makes a difference. Activities use
information to determine how to transform the inputs received into outputs
produced. Business processes create information
• Characteristics of good information
o Accurate: correct and complete, cross-check information to ensure accuracy
o Timely: produced in time for intended use
o Relevant: to context and subject (e.g. email body and subject should be related)
o Sufficient: sufficient for the purpose, and not including additional information
that will have to be ignored anyways (time)
o Worth its cost: relationship between cost and value. IS cost money to develop,
maintain, and use, must be worth the cost.
• Role of information in business processes:
o Business process and services, generates information and data
o Information is useful to manage business processes.
• Business process Management BPM): field of management that promotes development
of effective/efficient processes through continuous improvement/innovation.
o Method of BPM: total quality management, six sigma, lean production
o Information about the process helps to better manage the process itself.
• Enterprise Resource Management (ERM): how a company manages its resources
• Supplier Resource Management (SRM): involves company informing suppliers when to
send and deliver product. E.g. Just in time system. Used by manufacturing companies
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
• 3 stages business goes through:
o Business Process Automation (BPA): ATM machine from bank teller
o Business Process Innovation (BPI): ATM machine in a moving van
o Business Process Transformation (BPT): E-banking online.
• IS support business processes through:
o Used by activities in a business process: several activities may use one system,
activity may have own system, activity may use several systems
o System designers determine relationship of activities to information systems:
relationship determined during systems analysis.
• The outermost components of IS, hardware and people, are both actors; they can take
actions.
• The software and procedure components are both sets of instructions: software is
instructions for hardware, and procedures are instructions for people
• Data is the bridge between the computer side (left) and the human side (right.)
• Operational Decision: concerns with day-to-day activities. Supported by transaction
processing systems (TPS)
• Managerial Decisions: concern the allocation and utilization of resources. Supported by
management information systems. (MIS)
• Strategic decision: concern broader-scope, organizational issues. Supported by
executive information system. (EIS)
• Structured Decision: there is an understood/accepted method for making the decision.
E.g. weather forecasting
• Unstructured Decision: no agreed-on decision making method. E.g. weather itself.
Lecture 3 September 19, 2017
• Productivity: GDP of a country divided by the total paid hours worked. Measures the
value that workers generate per hour. Conference board of Canada suggest it is primary
indicator of per capita income.
• Increasing labor productivity is the best measure of future growth.
• Productivity Paradox: developed when Stephen Roach found no evidence of an increase
in worker productivity, associated with massive increase in investment in information
technology (IT).
• Result of paradox: Nobel prize winning Robert Solow make the following quote: “we
see computers everywhere except in the productivity statistics”.
• IT creates faster, better, and cheaper product through:
o Productivity: IT allows a company to make more output from same inputs, make
better output, or make output faster
o Structure of Competition: IT can alter the way corporations compete
o Benefits to the End customer: IT helps make processes more efficient and
changes the nature of the competition, consumer may see cheaper/better goods
• ICT sector is an important sector of technology and innovation. Canadian policymakers
are looking to ICT as a primary driver of innovation and hence increase productivity in
Canadian industries
• BTM is a new program designed by Canadian coalitions for tomorrow’s ICT skills. (CCICT)
o BTM programs include a variety of course topics, such as business and technical
training, financial accounting, system analysis and design, project management,
IT infrastructure, marketing, international business management, writing and
business communication, organizational behavior, and teamwork skills
o BTM programs are designed for students who are inspired to use technology to
change the way the world does business
• Efficiency: means that business processes can be accomplished either more quickly or
with fewer resources and facilities. “doing things right”
• Effectiveness: means that the company considers offering either new or improved
goods or services that the customer values. “doing the right things”
• Value Chain: a network of value creating activities.
o Primary Activities: activities in which value is added directly to the product.
Include inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales,
and service. Stages accumulate costs and add value to product; net result is total
margin of chain.
o Supporting activities: support the primary activities. Include firm infrastructure,
human resources, technological development, and procurement. Contribute
indirectly to production, sale, and service.
• Organizational strategy reflects organizational goals and objectives. A company’s
strategy is influenced by the competitive structure of the industry the company is in.
• Michael Porter suggested that every company starts with it’s structure. He described
this using his five forces model:
o Bargaining power of customer: can be reduced by adding variety
o Bargaining power of suppliers: can be reduced by buying in bulk
o Threat of substitution
o Threat of new entrants
o Rivalry among existing firms
• Competitive Strategy: include cost leadership and product differentiation. Porter says
goals, objectives, culture, and activities must be consistent with strategy.
o Cost leadership across industry (competing on price)
o Cost leadership focussed on industry segment
o Differentiation across industry (competing on quality)
o Differentiation focussed on industry segment
• Changes to industry structure often occur through innovation.
• Bowen and Christensen suggested two types of technology innovations:
o Sustaining Technology: are changes in tech that maintain the rate of
improvement in customer value
o Disruptive Technology: introduce a very new package of attributes to the
accepted mainstream products.
• Diffusion of Innovation: proposed by Everett Rogers. The process by which an
innovation is communicated through channels over time.
o Knowledge: first hear about innovation, lack specific info
o Persuasion: become interested about innovation, and find out info about it
o Decision: deciding on pros/cons, and weather to accept or reject innovation
o Implementation: deciding on weather to continue to use or reject innovation
o Confirmation: using innovation to full potential.
• Principles of Competitive Advantage:
o Product Implementation:
▪ Create a new product/service
▪ Enhance existing product/service
▪ Differentiate product/services from competitors
o System Implementation:
▪ Lock in customers and buyers: high switching costs
▪ Lock in suppliers: making it easy to connect to and work with organization
▪ Raise barriers to market entry: make it expensive for new competition
▪ Establish alliances: establish standards, promote product awareness
▪ Reduce costs: increase profitability
• Can competitive advantage be sustained?
o Procedures and people are components of IS that can not be replicated.
o Companies must find a distinct way to compete
o Companies must successfully integrate people, procedures, and technology.
Lecture 4: September 26, 2017
• Early Computers: 1939-1952:
o ENIAC
o large/expensive/complex
o single user/one program at a time
o use vacuum tube technology
o housed at universities
• Mainframes: 1952 – Present
o First digital computers – large, room sized devices
o Mainly used by business and government
o 1st generation: used vacuum tube technology (grandparents time)
o 2nd generation: used transistors (parent’s generation X)
o 3rd generation: used operating systems and multiprocessing (us generation Y)
• Microcomputers: 1975 – present:
o Integrated circuits
o Small microprocessors
o Monitors/Keyboards
o Portable floppy disks
o Software
• Networking personal computer (PC’s): 1985-present
o Local Area Network (LAN): linking any personal computers together, shared
access to data, printers, and other peripheral devices; 1 geographic location
o Wide Area Network (WAN): the internet, email, web browsing. 2 different
geographical locations linked together over network (laptop at SFU/UBC)
• Mobile and Tablet Computing: late 1990 – present
o Highly publicised Y2K problem and rising popularity of world wide web
o Lowering of costs for cellular technology and mobile telephones resulted in
widespread adaptation of these technologies.
• Cloud Computing: 2010 – present:
o The rise of the internet brought in a movement away from privately owned
technology towards shared or virtual storage and computing services
o Cloud computing promises flexible, secure, and low fixed cost computing that is
available anywhere, anytime, on any device.
• IT Principles:
o Price is decreasing, performance is increasing (Moore’s Law)
o Size is decreasing
o The network is the thing
• Hardware: consist of electronic components and related gadgetry that input, process,
output, and store data according to instructions encoded in computer
programs/software. Basic categories:
o Input: keyboard, mouse, scanner, UPC reader, microphone
o Processing: CPU, main memory, special function cards
o Output: video display, speakers, printer, projector, plotter
o Storage: magnetic disk, optical disk, magnetic tape, SSD
o Special function devices: video cards, audio cards, network cards, etc.
• Main memory: where all program instructions are stored
• Cache memory: backup to main memory, if overflow of info it will flow to cache
memory. Cache does memory swapping.
• Memory Swapping: allows you to swap between programs at a single time
• Binary Digits (bits): used to represent data, either 0 or 1 (electrical impulses of offs/ons)
o Bits are grouped in 8-bit chunks called bytes, 256 different possible combinations
o K: Kilobyte 1024 bytes
o MB: Megabyte 1024 Kilobytes
o GB: Gigabyte 1024 Megabytes
o TB: Terabyte 1024 Gigabytes
o PB: Petabyte 1024 Terabytes
• CPU (central processing unit):
o Transfers program or data from disk to main memory
o Moves instructions from main memory via data channel or bus
o Performance is measured in Hertz (Hz)
o Has small amounts of very fast memory called cache
o Cache: keeps frequently used instructions, large cache makes computer fast, but
it is expensive.
• Main Memory:
o Random access memory (RAM)
o Contains program instructions
o Contains operating system: program controlling computers resource and data
• Memory Swapping:
o CPU loads programs into memory chunks: places new program unto unused
memory, if none available the operating system will swap chunks being used
with requested data
• Manager should care how computer works because:
o Main memory: too little means constant memory swapping, slows processing,
