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• Gives companies the flexibility to respond rapidly to customer requests while
producing and stocking only that inventory necessary to fulfill existing orders.
In short, supply chain management (SCM) systems help businesses better manage
relationships with their suppliers. Objective of SCM: Get the right amount of
products from the companies’ source to their point of consumption with the least
amount of time and with the lowest cost. SCM provide information to help suppliers,
Business benefits include:
• Decide when and what to produce, store, and move
• Rapidly communicate orders
• Track the status of orders
Customer relationship management (CRM) systems enable a business to better
manage its relationships with existing and potential customers. With the growth of the
Web, potential customers can easily comparison shop for retail and wholesale goods
and even raw materials, so treating customers better has become very important.
Business benefits include:
• CRM systems provide information to coordinate all the business processes
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• CRM tools integrate a business’s customer-related processes and consolidate
customer information from multiple communication channels, giving the
Knowledge management systems (KMS) enable organizations to better manage
processes for capturing and applying knowledge and expertise. These systems collect
all relevant knowledge and experience in the firm, and make it available wherever
and whenever it is needed to improve business processes and management decisions.
They also link the firm to external sources of knowledge.
Business benefits include:
• KMS support processes for acquiring, storing, distributing, and applying
knowledge, as well as processes for creating new knowledge and integrating it
into the organization.
recognize patterns and important relationships in large pools of data.
Explain how intranets and extranets help firms integrate information and
business processes.
Because intranets and extranets share the same technology and software platforms as
the Internet, they are easy and inexpensive ways for companies to increase integration
4. Why are systems for collaboration and social business so important and what
technologies do they use?
Define collaboration and social business and explain why they have become so
important in business today.
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Collaboration is working with others to achieve shared and explicit goals. It focuses
Social business is part of an organization’s business structure for getting things done
in a new collaborative way. It uses social networking platforms to connect employees,
customers, and suppliers. The goal of social business is to deepen interactions with
groups inside and outside a company to expedite and enhance information-sharing,
innovation, and decision-making.
Collaboration and social business are important because:
• Changing nature of work. More jobs are becoming “interaction” jobs. These
kinds of jobs require face-to-face interaction with other employees, managers,
vendors, and customers. They require systems that allow the interaction
workers to communicate, collaborate and share ides.
List and describe the business benefits of collaboration and social business.
The general belief is that the more a business firm is collaborative in nature, the more
successful it will be and that collaboration within and among firms is more essential
than in the past. The overall economic benefits of collaboration and social business
are significant.
The business benefits of collaboration and social business are listed in Table 2-3
(page 91):
• Productivity: people working together accomplish tasks faster, with fewer
errors, than those working alone.
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• Financial performance: collaborative firms have superior sales, sales
growth, and financial performance.
Describe a supportive organizational culture and business processes for
collaboration.
Historically, organizations were built on hierarchies which did not allow much
decision making, planning, and organizing at lower levels of management or by
implements collaboration for the senior ranks of the business as well.
List and describe the various types of collaboration and social business tools.
Some of the more common enterprise-wide information systems that businesses can
use to support interaction jobs include:
• Internet-based collaboration environments like Lotus Notes, Groove, and
WebEx provide online storage space for documents, team communications
(separated from email), calendars, and audio-visual tools members can use
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documents as the foundation.
5. What is the role of the information systems function in a business?
Describe how the information systems function supports a business.
Compare the roles played by programmers, systems analysts, information
systems managers, the chief information officer (CIO), chief security officer
(CSO), and chief knowledge officer (CKO).
• Programmers are highly trained technical specialists who write the software
instructions for computers.
• Systems analysts constitute the principal liaisons between the information
Discussion Questions
1. How could information systems be used to support the order fulfillment process
illustrated in Figure 2-1? What are the most important pieces of information
these systems should capture? Explain your answer.
Today’s systems are built to electronically coordinate all the business functions in an
enterprise. The sales function begins the process by completing a sales order,
2. Identify the steps that are performed in the process of selecting and checking a
book out from your college library and the information that flows among these
activities. Diagram the process. Are there any ways this process could be
improved to improve the performance of your library or your school? Diagram
the improved process.
Students should rely on information from Section 2-1, Business Processes and
Information Systems, and specifically the information from “Business Processes,” to
3. Use the Time/Space Collaboration and Social Tool Matrix to classify the
collaboration and social technologies used by TELUS?
First, students should use Table 2-5 (page 96) to evaluate various enterprise social
networking software capabilities, and Figure 2-8 (page 97) to help them choose the
Hands-on MIS Projects
Management Decision Problems
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1. Don’s Lumber Company: The price of lumber and other building materials are
constantly changing. When a customer inquiries about the price on pre-finished wood
flooring, sales representatives consult a manual price sheet and then call the supplier
for the most recent price. The supplier in turn uses a manual price sheet, which has
2. Henry’s Hardware: Owners do not keep automated, detailed inventory or sales
records. Invoices are not maintained or tracked (other than for tax purposes). The
owners use their own judgment in identifying items that need to be reordered. What is
the business impact of this situation? How could information systems help Henry and
Kathleen run their business? What data should these systems capture? What decisions
could the systems improve?
The business impact includes lost sales, over- and under-ordering products, improper
Improving Decision Making: Using a Spreadsheet to Select Suppliers
Software skills: Spreadsheet date functions, data filtering, DAVERAGE functions.
Business skills: Analyzing supplier performance and pricing.
This exercise requires some student knowledge of spreadsheet database functions. At a
minimum, students should know how to sort the database by various criteria such as item
description, item cost, vendor number, vendor, name, or A/P terms. Students may need to
be told that A/P Terms is expressed as the number of days that the customer has to pay
the vendor for a purchase. In other words, 30 designates net 30 days. The vendor that
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allows customers the longest amount of time to pay for an order would, of course, offer
the most favorable payment terms.
Achieving Operational Excellence: Using Internet Software to Plan Efficient
Transportation Routes
Obviously, the shortest amount of time is more cost effective than the shortest distance
since there’s only a difference of 27.05 miles. Saving the 27 miles will take 2 hours, 24
Shortest distance: 10 hours, 11 minutes; 506.56 miles
Shortest time: 8 hours, 35 minutes; 533.61 miles
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Video Case Questions
Collaboration and Teamwork: Describing Management Decisions and Systems
With a team of three or four other students, find a description of a manager in a
corporation in Business Week, Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, or another business
publication or do your research on the Web. Gather information about what the
manager’s company does and the role he or she plays in the company. Identify the
organizational level and business function where this manager works. Make a list of
the kinds of decisions this manager has to make and the kind of information that
manager would need for those decisions. Suggest how information systems could
supply this information. If possible, use Google Sites to post links to Web pages,
team communication announcements, and work assignments. Try to use Google
Docs to develop a presentation of your findings for the class.
Group answers will vary because students will select different companies and different
managerial levels. The major element of this project is to make sure the students select
Case Study: Modernization of NTUC Income
1. What were the problems faced by Income in this case? How were the problems
resolved by the new digital system?
Lack of flexibility, poor connectivity to the Internet, costly hardware and software
maintenance, lack of hardware support, and frequent breakdowns of the mainframe
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2. What types of information systems and business processes were used by Income
before migrating to the fully digital system?
Before migrating to the fully digital system, Income had been using a manual paper–
based insurance system running on HP3000 S969 mainframe that housed the core
insurance applications as well as the accounting and management information
3. Describe the Information systems and IT infrastructure at Income after migrating to
the fully digital system?
The new eBao LifeSystem was based on Java technology and comprised three
subsystems – Policy Administration, Sales Management and Supplementary
Resources.
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4. What benefits did Income reap from the new system?
With the successful implementation of the eBao system, Income obtained significant
benefits in terms of higher efficiency and performance with a reduction in both
operational and hardware cost.
5. How well is Income prepared for the future? Are the problems described in the case
likely to be repeated?
Income is well prepared for the future. The operational and hardware problems described