© 2012, published by Flat World Knowledge 1-1 Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to...

© 2012, published by Flat World Knowledge 1-1

Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology

By John Gallaugher


This work is licensed under theCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.To view a copy of this license,visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/or send a letter toCreative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105,

USA


Chapter 1Setting the Stage:

Technology and the Modern Enterprise


Learning Objectives

• Appreciate how in recent years, technology has helped bring about radical changes across industries and throughout societies

• Name firms across hardware, software, and Internet businesses that were founded by people in their twenties (or younger)


Learning Objectives

• Appreciate the degree to which technology has permeated every management discipline

• See that tech careers are varied, richly rewarding, and poised for continued growth

• Understand the structure of this text, the issues and examples that will be introduced, and why they are important


Tech’s Tectonic Shift:Radically Changing Business Landscapes

• Billions of people have access to computing and telecommunications

• Google and Facebook have changed the way firms advertise and people communicate

• Open source software has lowered computing costs


Tech’s Tectonic Shift:Radically Changing Business Landscapes

• Sophisticated, high-powered computing is turning into a utility via:

– Cloud computing

– Software as a service

• New technologies have also:

– Fueled globalization

– Redefined concepts of software and computing

– Crushed costs

– Fueled data-driven decision making

– Raised privacy and security concerns


It’s Your Revolution

• Many of the world’s most successful technology firms were created by young people

– Bill Gates was an undergraduate when he left college to found Microsoft

– Michael Dell was a sophomore when he began building computers at the University of Texas

– Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook as a nineteen-year-old college sophomore


It’s Your Revolution

– Tony Hsieh of LinkExchange and Zappos

– Jerry Yang and David Filo of Yahoo!

– Steve Chen and Chad Hurley of YouTube

– Steve Jobs of Apple

– Jeff Bezos of Amazon

– Catherine Cook of MyYearbook

– Shawn Fanning of Napster

– Linus Torvalds – Linux operating system

– Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google


Geek Up—Tech Is Everywhere and You’ll Need It to Thrive

• There isn’t a single modern managerial discipline that isn’t being deeply and profoundly impacted by tech

• Tech skills are becoming more important for jobs everywhere


Finance

• The tech industry continually sprouts new businesses

– Suited to IPO markets

• Tech firms are actively involved in mergers and acquisitions (M&A)

• Finance careers also involve:

– Lending to tech firms

– Evaluating the role of technology in firms in an investment portfolio

• Technology-based trading platforms

© 2012, published by Flat World Knowledge

Table 1.2 - 2011 Tech Deals by Sector

1-12


Accounting

• The reliability of any audit is inherently tied to the reliability of the underlying technology

• Increased regulation has strengthened the link between accounting and tech

– Sarbanes-Oxley Act

• Major accounting firms have spawned tech-focused consulting practices


Marketing

• Firms are shifting spending from traditional media to the Web because of its ability to:

– Track customers

– Analyze campaign results

– Modify tactics


Marketing

• Firms are using social media to:

– Generate sales

– Improve their reputations

– Better serve customers

– Innovate


Marketing

• Central components of the new marketing toolkit include:

– Search engine marketing (SEM)

– Search engine optimization (SEO)

– Customer relationship management (CRM)

– Personalization systems

– Managing the balance between gathering data and respecting consumer privacy


Operations

• Tech-centric operations include:

– Quality programs

– Process redesign

– Supply chain management

– Factory automation

– Service operations


Human Resources

• Knowledge management systems are morphing into social media technologies

• Technology is used for employee training, screening, and evaluation

• Recruiting has moved online

– Grounded in information systems that scour databases for specific skill sets

– Job seekers are writing resumes with key words in mind

• Professional social networks have put added pressure on employee satisfaction and retention


The Law

• Activity has increased in the areas of intellectual property, patents, piracy, and privacy

• Firms need legal teams with the skills to:

– Determine whether a firm can legally do what it plans

– Uncover licensing fees if patents stand in the way

– Help them protect proprietary methods and content

– Help enforce claims in the home country and abroad


Information Systems Careers

• Programmers

• Experts in user-interface design, process design, and strategy

• Consulting and field engineering

• Chief information officer

• Chief technology officer

• “C-level” specialties in emerging areas

– Chief information security officer (CISO)

– Chief privacy officer (CPO)


Your Future

• Study business and technology to develop critical-thinking skills

– To help in the evaluation of new, emerging technologies

• Those not trained to evaluate and make decisions risk irrelevance, marginalization, and failure


The Pages Ahead

• Chapter 2 - Strategy and Technology: Concepts and Frameworks for Understanding What Separates Winners from Losers

• Chapter 3 – Zara: Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems

• Chapter 4 - Netflix in Two Acts: The Making of an E-commerce Giant and the Uncertain Future of Atoms to Bits

• Chapter 5 - Moore’s Law: Fast, Cheap Computing and What It Means for the Manager

• Chapter 6 – Understanding Network Effects

• Chapter 7 - Social Media, Peer Production, and Web 2.0

• Chapter 8 - Facebook: Building a Business from the Social Graph


The Pages Ahead

• Chapter 9 – Understanding Software: A Primer for Managers

• Chapter 10 – Software in Flux: Partly Cloudy and Sometimes Free

• Chapter 11- The Data Asset: Databases, Business Intelligence, and Competitive Advantage

• Chapter 12 – A Manager’s Guide to the Internet and Telecommunications

• Chapter 13 - Information Security: Barbarians at the Gateway (and Just About Everywhere Else)

• Chapter 14 - Google in Three Parts: Search, Online Advertising, and Beyond

© 2012, published by Flat World Knowledge 1-1 Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to...

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