Chapter Nineteen Understanding Information and e-Business.

Chapter Nineteen

Understanding Information

and e-Business

Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved.

Learning Objectives

1. Examine how information can reduce risk when making a decision.

2. Discuss management’s information requirements.

3. Outline the five functions of an information system.

4. Describe how the Internet helps in decision making, communications, sales, and recruiting and training.

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Learning Objectives (cont’d)

5. Analyze how computers and technology change the way information is acquired, organized, and used.

6. Explain the meaning of e-business.

7. Describe the fundamental models of e-business.

8. Explore the factors that will affect the future of e-business.

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Chapter 19 Outline

– How Can Information Reduce Risk When Making a Decision?

• Information and Risk• Information Rules• The Difference Between Data and Information

– What Is an Information System?• Managers’ Information Requirements• Size and Complexity of the System

– How Do Employees Use an Information System?• Collecting Data• Storing Data• Updating Data• Processing Data• Presenting Information

– Using Business Research to Obtain Information• Qualitative Research• Quantitative Research• Which Research Method to Choose

Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. 16 | 4

Chapter 19 Outline (cont’d)

– Improving Productivity with the Help of Computers and Technology

• Making Smart Decisions• Helping Employees Communicate• Assisting the Firm’s Sales Force• Recruiting and Training Employees

– Using Computers and the Internet to Obtain information

• The Internet, the Intranet, and Networks• Accessing the Internet• Creating Web Pages

– Defining e-Business• Organizing e-Business Resources• Satisfying Needs Online• Creating e-Business Profit


Chapter 19 Outline (cont’d)

– Fundamental Models of e-Business• Business-to-Business (B2B) Model• Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Model

– The Future of e-Business: Growth, Opportunities, and Challenges

• Internet Growth Potential• Environmental Forces Affecting e-Business



Introduction

• To improve the decision-making process, the information used by both individuals and business firms must be

– Relevant– Useful to meet a specific need

• Using relevant information results in better decisions• For businesses, better intelligence and knowledge that

lead to better decisions are especially important because they can provide a competitive edge over competitors and improve a firm’s profits

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How Can Information Reduce Risk When Making a Decision?

• Information produces knowledge and empowers managers and employees to make better decisions

• The relationship between information and risk

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How Can Information Reduce Risk When Making a Decision? (cont’d)

• Information rules– Information rules based on situational experience

provide guidance in handling similar situations or circumstances

– Business research continuously looks for new rules since business conditions are always changing

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How Can Information Reduce Risk When Making a Decision? (cont’d)

• The difference between data and information– Data– Numerical or verbal descriptions that usually result from

some sort of measurement

– Information• Data presented in a form that is useful for a specific purpose

– Database• A single collection of data stored in one place that can be used

by people throughout an organization to make decisions– Knowledge management (KM)

• A firm’s procedures for generating, using, and sharing the data and information contained in the firm’s databases

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What Is a Management Information System?

• Management information system (MIS)

• Information technology officer

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What Is a Management Information System? (cont’d)

• Managers’ information requirements

• Size and complexity of the system

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How Do Employees Use an Information System?

• Collecting data– Data should be relevant and accurate– Internal sources– External sources– Cautions

• The cost of obtaining data from external sources should be weighed against the benefits

• Outdated data are likely to yield inaccurate information

• Check data, especially computerized data, for accuracy

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How Do Employees Use an Information System? (cont’d)

• Storing data– An MIS must be capable of storing data until they are

needed• Updating data

– Manual updating—employee inputs fresh data into the database

– Automatic updating—MIS updates itself as data become available

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• Processing data– The transformation of data into a form useful for a

specific purpose– Statistics

• A measure that summarizes a particular characteristic of an entire group of numbers

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• Presenting information– Verbal information—list or paragraph form

– Visual displays

– Tabular displays

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Improving Productivity with the Help of Computers and Technology

• Areas of concern for a business include decision making, communications, sales, recruiting and training employees, and business software applications

• Making smart decisions– Three different applications can help to improve and speed the

decision-making process for people at different levels within an organization

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Improving Productivity with Computers

• Helping employees communicate– E-mail

– Groupware

– Collaborative learning system

• Assisting the firm’s sales force

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Improving Productivity (cont’d)

• Training employees

• Recruiting employees

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Business Applications Software

• Integrated software combines many functions in one package– Database management– Graphics– Spreadsheets– Word processing– Desktop publishing– Accounting– Computer-aided design (CAD)– Computer-aided manufacturing

(CAM)– Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM)

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Using Computers and the Internet to Obtain Information

• Information society

• The Internet, the Intranet, and Networks– Internet

– Intranet

– Networks


Using Computers and the Internet to Obtain Information (cont’d)

• WAN (Wide-area network)

• LAN (Local-area network)

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Using Computers and the Internet (cont’d)

• Accessing the Internet

– Website addresses• URL—Uniform Resource Locator • http—HyperText Transfer Protocol

– Web search engines• www.altavista.com; www.google.com;

www.yahoo.com

• Software for creating web pages– Developing a website– Hosting a website

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http://www.yahoo.com/


Tips for Website Development

• Develop a theme• Determine how much information to include

on your site• Plan the layout of your site• Add graphics• Outline the material for each page• Develop plans to update the site• Make sure your site is easy to use

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Defining e-Business

• e-Business (electronic business)

• e-Commerce

• Outsourcing

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Satisfying Needs Online

• The Internet has created new customer needs

• E-business can satisfy those needs as well as traditional ones

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Creating e-Business Profit

• Revenue growth

• Expense reduction

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Fundamental Models of e-Business

• Business model– A group of common characteristics and

methods of doing business to generate sales revenues and reduce expenses

• Business-to-Business (B2B) model

• Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model

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The Future of e-Business: Growth, Opportunities, and Challenges

• The Internet will continue to expand along with related technologies

• Opportunity: Only 1.2 billion of the world’s nearly 7 billion people are online

• Americans comprise 17 percent of all users—the largest group online.

• Of the 300 million people making up the American population, 210 million use the Internet—140 million actively

• With approximately 70% of Americans already using the Internet, growth potential in the U.S. is limited

• Projections indicate worldwide users will exceed 2 billion by 2011 or 2012

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Environmental Forces Affecting e-Business

• Globalization– Positive: Drawing people of the world together– Negative: A threat to national cultures, identities,

languages, ways of life• Convergence of technologies

– The overlapping capabilities and the merging of products and services into one fully integrated interactive system

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Chapter Nineteen Understanding Information and e-Business.

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Transcript of Chapter Nineteen Understanding Information and e-Business.