Lecture Outline 8

“OTHER SYSTEMS” 2

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) *MC

p. 314

-- delivery manager may want to know the shortest distance a truck can travel to deliver ordered goods

-- efficient routes for busing school children

-- where to locate police stations

-- where to drill for oil

-- sales territories

-Typical GIS consists of:

-A) database of quantitative and qualitative data

-B) database of maps

-C) a program that displays the information on the maps

-- digitized maps are produced from satellite and aerial photography

GIS for Operations

• Can get directions and a map on how best to drive from one place in Winnipeg to another

• Try Google Maps

GIS for Decisions *MC

• Supermarket chain gets a system that shows population by age and income groups on map of city– Management can decide where to build their

next store

• Police may have maps showing incidents of specific crimes in areas of City– Can decide how many police cars to deploy to

different areas

Collaborative Information systems *L

• Groups can work; each member had PC as part of network

• Each member can submit ideas anonymously; it shows up on big screen to be discussed

• Can include group decision support systems

Collaborative Information systems

• e.g., ThinkTank• -p. 324+

– business collaboration tool (group decision support)

– Use ThinkTank for brainstorming, organizing, prioritizing, evaluating, identifying and documenting your innovation process.

– Can document presented ideas– Groups can be in one room or distributed over

long distances– See links and handouts

Collaboration Technologies *MCVideoconferencingSoftware and hardware that allow parties to meet electronically with both picture and voice Supported Activities

• Stand-alone Videoconferencing • High quality, typically very expensive systems using

dedicated microphones, cameras and hardware• Can support meetings between several people and

locations simultaneously • Desktop Videoconferencing

• Lower quality, relatively inexpensive systems using a PC, small camera, and a microphone or telephone for voice communication

• Allows two individuals to communicate from a desktop

Global Information Systems *MC

• Single transaction may require input from multiple data centre located across more than one nation

• Nestle had over 140 financial systems being used around the world– It is moving to an enterprise-wide system

• Information systems must correspond to organizations’ business operations

Vertical Area Systems *L

We have examined information systems support in accounting and distribution (AIS); manufacturing, marketing, and HR management; such systems apply ACROSS variety of organizations and industries they may thus be called HORIZONTAL SYSTEMS

- th en , there are p ackag ed system s geared to a specificin dustry (typ e of b usiness); these typically in tegrateseveral functions at several levels (lower m gt., m iddle, andh igher)e.g, system s for lumb er retailing, trucking bu siness, g olfcourse m anagement; such systems are referred to asVERTICAL SYSTEMS

- a vertical system often in cludes b asic accounting andd istribution functions (AIS ), and p ossibly som e m arketingfunctions e.g., sales an alysis, in ad dition to specificin dustry sup port (in su ch a case separate accountingsystem s d o n ot need to b e purchased )

  -- vertical systems are acquired and installed ready-made ("canned " systems)

- must fit with how a business operates or business will have to change operations

- or, the software may be modified in-house, or by the vendor

- some vertical systems are quite expensive (~$135,000); in such a case, formal package evaluation may be undertaken

- an installed "canned" system should connect well to other existing systems

Office Automation Systems *MC

- computerizing and integrating office tasks through technology- use different types of technologies- instead of 'number crunching', they may perform 'document crunching'

- we will get only an overview:

*MC- document processing systems:

- for creating, storing, revising, distributing, and duplicating documents

- users can search and retrieve

imaging systems:- convert photographs and charts to a series

of dots and transfer the dots in magnetic form to disk storage

electronic mail systems:Calendaring, appointment books etc.

Office Automation Systems *MCOffice Automation SystemsA collection of software and hardware products that increase productivity within the office setting

Supported ActivitiesThe activities supported by these kinds of systems include:

• Scheduling ResourcesExamples: electronic calendars with resource management (equipment, facilities, etc.)

• Document PreparationExamples: software (word processing and desktop publishing); hardware (printers)

• CommunicatingExamples: e-mail, voice mail, videoconferencing and groupware

Web-Based Information Systems

• You will see later 4 levels of user interaction with the Web

• What is the fourth level there?– A complete information system that is

accessible to the user through the Internet and a browser

Web-Based Information Systems

• Also, later: how a web session works– Pay attention as to how a web server provides

web pages to the requesting browser

• Now recall the diagram of the relationship between an information system, a database management system, and a database

• In this case we have yet another “front end”

Web-Based Information Systems

• The specific menus, screens etc. of the information system will now need to be sent by the system server to the web server

• The web server uses web server software (e.g., Apache) to make web pages out of every screen sent to it and send these screens to the user’s browser, coded in HTML

Web-Based Information Systems

• Use of information systems on the web is increasingly common– e.g., job applications submitted to the Federal

Government– employee claims for job relocation costs– Job search systems