CHAPTER 1

THE INFORMATION AGE IN

WHICH YOU LIVE
Changing the Face of Business
We Are in the Information Age.
A Time When...
l0Knowledge is power
l1Knowledge workers outnumber all other workers by a 4 to
1 margin

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS

(MIS)...
deals with the planning for, development, management, and
use of information technology tools to help people perform
all tasks related to information processing and
management.

MIS Deals with Three Important

Organizational Resources:
1. Information
2. Information technology
3. People (the most important).
 THE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION
SYSTEMS CHALLENGE
l2What businesses do
l3Customer moment of value
l4The role of information technology

WHAT DO BUSINESSES DO?

They service their customers.

Never forget the customer is number one.

CUSTOMER MOMENT OF VALUE is

providing service...
1.When the customer wants it (time)
2.Where the customer wants it (location)
3.How the customer wants it (form), and
4.Guaranteed to the customer (perfect delivery)

THE ROLE OF INFORMATION

TECHNOLOGY
Information technology (IT) is a set of tools that can help
provide the right people with the right information at the
right time.
 FACTORS SHAPING BUSINESS TODAY
l5Globalization
l6Competition
l7Information as a Key Resource
l8The Virtual Workplace and Telecommuting
l9Electronic Commerce
l10 Knowledge Worker Computing

GLOBALIZATION
l11 Few businesses today are wholly domestic.
l12 There are 260 million consumers in the U.S.
l13 There are 5 billion consumers world-wide.

COMPETITION
l14 It’s everywhere.
l15 Globalization has increased competition.
l16 IT helps small firms compete against larger ones.
l17 Competition is good for consumers.

INFORMATION AS A KEY RESOURCE

l18 We are in the information age.
l19 Knowledge is power.
l20 You must know your competition.
l21 You must know your customers.
l22 We operate in a wants-driven economy. So, you have
to know what people want.

THE VIRTUAL WORKPLACE AND

TELECOMMUTING

l23 VIRTUAL WORKPLACE - a technology-enabled

workplace. No walls or boundaries. Work anytime,
anyplace, linked to other people and information.

l24 TELECOMMUTING - the use of communications

technology to work in a place other than a central location.
A person who works via telecommuting is called a
TELECOMMUTER.

SOME TELECOMMUTING STATISTICS

l25 Over 15 million people in the U.S. telecommute.
l26 That number is expected to grow by 20% for several
years.
l27 Every industry is planning to increase their use of
telecommuting (Figure 1.5 page 15).

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE
 Electronic Commerce Includes:
l28 Transactions over the Internet.
l29 Transactions through electronic data interchange (EDI).
l30 Gathering customer and competitor information
(competitive intelligence).
l31 Distributing information electronically.

KNOWLEDGE WORKER COMPUTING

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ITS
ROLE IN THE INFORMATION AGE
Businesses Use Information Technology
in 3 Ways:
1. To support information-processing tasks.
2. As an enabler of innovation.
3. As a collapser of time and space.

TO SUPPORT INFORMATION-
PROCESSING TASKS
1. CAPTURING information - at its point of origin.
2. CONVEYING information - in its most useful form.
3. CREATING information - to obtain new
information.
4. CRADLING information - for use at a later time.
5. COMMUNICATING information - to other people
or another location.

AS AN ENABLER OF INNOVATION
l32 IT is not innovation all by itself.
l33 IT, however, can enable innovation.
l34 FedEx used IT to build customer-oriented tracking
software.

INFORMATION AS A NEW BUSINESS

RESOURCE
YOUR ROLE AS A KNOWLEDGE
WORKER
l35 The true nature of information (its dimensions).
l36 How to be an information-literate knowledge worker.
l37 Your ethical responsibilities of working with information.

AN INFORMATION-LITERATE
KNOWLEDGE WORKER
1. can define what information is needed
2. knows how and where to obtain information
3. understands the meaning of information
4. can act appropriately on information to achieve the
greatest advantage.
 As a Knowledge Worker, You Have 5
Charges
1.Define what information you need.
2.Know how and where to obtain information.
3.Understand the meaning of information.
4.Act appropriately based on information.
5.Use information adhering to both legal and ethical
constructs.

l38 Charges #1-4 relate to how you use information for the
benefit of your organization.

l39 Charge #5 relates to using information in a socially

responsible way.

l40 This relates to ETHICS - sets of principles or standards

that help guide behavior, actions, and choices.

l41 Ethics are often different from laws.

l42 Laws require or prohibit some action on your part.
l43 Ethics are more of a matter of personal interpretation.
l44 What may be ethical to one person is not necessarily to
another.
l45 As an information-literate knowledge worker, your
actions with respect to using information should always be
both legal and ethical.

TO SUMMARIZE
l46 We are indeed in the information age.
l47 All businesses must coordinate their use of IT,
information, and people (The MIS Challenge).
l48 The many forces shaping business today include:
l49Globalization

l50Competition

l51Information as a key resource

l52The virtual workplace and telecommuting

l53Electronic commerce

l54Knowledge worker computing.

TO SUMMARIZE
l55 Businesses are using information technology (IT) in
three ways:
l56to support information-processing tasks

l57as an enabler of innovation

l58as a collapser of time and space

l59 Information is also a key resource in business today.

The value of information can be defined according to its
dimensions:
l60Time (when)

l61Content (what)

l62Form (how)

TO SUMMARIZE
Questions????