one from the material essentially

00:30
information systems in today's business
00:33
environment provides a mechanism or a
00:36
means for supporting the organization in
00:38
a way that many other or many other
00:40
departments or agencies within the
00:41
organization aren't aren't at a similar
00:45
level for instance information systems
00:47
in the organization today is evolving to
00:50
the point where most businesses are not
00:52
capable of really providing the business
00:55
services that they provide without some
00:57
form of information systems therefore
00:58
understanding information systems as a
01:00
business student particularly as an MBA
01:02
student is critical in order to be more
01:05
effective within the focus of the
01:07
organization so this course essentially
01:10
will outline those requirements in those
01:12
needs and what you need to know in terms
01:15
of terminology and processes from an
01:18
information systems perspective so let's
01:21
talk a little bit about what information
01:22
systems means within the organizational
01:25
structure first let's let's define some
01:27
terminology here you'll hear two terms
01:30
that are generally used within the
01:32
within an organization you'll hear
01:34
information systems and you'll hear
01:35
information technology a traditionally
01:38
information systems was was the defined
01:41
term used to describe an overall
01:46
management of a system structure within
01:48
the organization for example I have a
01:51
Human Resources system or I have an
01:53
accounting or finance or manufacturing
01:55
system and information systems as a
01:57
group as an organization was responsible
02:00
for maintaining those today we use the
02:02
term information technology almost
02:04
interchangeably but it's an important
02:06
distinction to make
02:07
information technology really relates to
02:09
technology implementation across the
02:11
scope of the
02:13
and not necessarily systemic based
02:15
individual systems but an overall scope
02:18
within the organization so what you'll
02:20
hear when I in these in these recordings
02:24
in these brief presentations and you'll
02:25
hear it in the classroom as well is
02:27
information technology or IT the scope
02:35
of IT within an organizational structure
02:37
really depends on the organization
02:38
itself you know I typically will ask a
02:41
group of students the question can
02:43
business exist without technology and
02:46
oftentimes the answer is yes although
02:48
difficult business can't exist without
02:50
technology but I think on the opposite
02:53
side of that can technology exist
02:55
without business and the reality is that
02:57
without a justification without a
02:59
financial basis without a goal
03:02
technology is very difficult to
03:05
implement without some business
03:06
justification so in terms of defining
03:10
the role of IT within an organizational
03:13
structure again depends specifically on
03:15
the organization and their needs you'll
03:17
see a variety of roles that information
03:20
technology plays within the organization
03:22
from typical support activities such as
03:25
maintaining systems hardware we call
03:29
break fix you know replacing computers
03:31
etc up to larger or broader scope types
03:35
of applications such as maintaining
03:39
human resources finance manufacturing
03:41
those kinds of environments call centers
03:44
telephone environments etc all the way
03:47
up to the more advanced capabilities
03:49
were the most more advanced applications
03:52
such as process re-engineering
03:55
redesigning structures within the
03:57
organization determining what are the
04:00
actual needs that the organization has
04:02
related to their goals and then applying
04:05
technology to those particular goals
04:07
those kinds of sort of advanced
04:09
capabilities are those that an mba
04:12
student particularly should be able to
04:14
understand and address and go forward
04:16
not necessarily understanding the full
04:18
scope of technology but understanding
04:20
how those needs are addressed at a
04:23
solution in order to implement those
04:26
NEADS so that's kind of a broad scope of
04:29
what information technology is so from a
04:35
if you think about information
04:37
technology as a group typically within
04:41
the organization the structure of that
04:43
group and we'll go into more detail
04:44
later on organizational structure but
04:46
the structure of that group essentially
04:48
consists of those individuals within
04:51
various structures now if you think
04:52
about a business structure as a pyramid
04:54
which from a structural perspective most
04:56
organizations are with executive
04:58
management middle management and you
05:01
know maybe a layer of lower management
05:04
and then employees IT is structured much
05:07
the same where at the top typically you
05:09
have a CIO or a chief information
05:12
officer or director of information
05:13
technology you actually have middle
05:15
managers IT managers system managers etc
05:19
and then you'll have employee level or
05:22
middle management employee level which
05:23
would include the different functions
05:26
within an IT organization some of these
05:28
different functions include database
05:31
management a DBA for instance a database
05:33
administrator might include a network
05:36
administrator or a systems administrator
05:39
network administrator obviously
05:41
responsible for the infrastructure and
05:43
the network structure a systems
05:44
administrator obviously responsible on a
05:46
broader scope for the system's
05:48
themselves that is those larger business
05:51
applications and then you're going to
05:53
have helpdesk type technicians
05:55
responsible for maintaining the systems
05:57
on a break fixed level and then other
06:00
types of activities such as project
06:01
management for instance or programmers
06:04
developers etc all fit within that
06:07
organizational structure now it's
06:09
important to consider that the size of
06:12
that structure depends to a large extent
06:14
on the size of the IT department so the
06:17
IT department thus is therefore is also
06:19
dependent on the size of the
06:21
organization so larger organization will
06:25
tend to employ more IT staff a smaller
06:27
organization will tend to employ less in
06:29
an organization where you have a smaller
06:32
number of individuals those individuals
06:34
tend to take on more roles so the
06:36
distinction between those various
06:39
catagories becomes a bit blurred so it's
06:42
not uncommon to walk into a small
06:44
organization and have two or three IT
06:46
staff that do all of those functions
06:49
across the board so one of the key
06:51
functions that we need to review just
06:54
briefly as it relates to chapter one is
06:56
this concept of business process
06:58
activities as I said earlier one of the
07:02
primary roles of IT is an integration or
07:06
pulling together the needs of the
07:08
business and applying technology
07:09
solutions from an integration
07:12
perspective it's important to understand
07:15
that IT is one of those entities that is
07:18
not just focused on one individual group
07:21
I always always make a joke I tell my I
07:25
tell my boss that my needs are not my
07:27
needs my needs or your needs from an
07:29
organizational perspective IT doesn't
07:32
have any specific needs the needs are
07:34
based on organizational needs for
07:36
example if manufacturing the
07:40
manufacturing group or the engineering
07:42
group or accounting or HR comes and says
07:44
we have this particular business goal
07:47
for the coming year I then take that as
07:50
a need to integrate their need with a
07:53
technology solution so where am I going
07:57
with this it's important to understand
07:58
that while I'm developing those
08:00
solutions it's not in a vacuum and from
08:02
an IT perspective because there's such a
08:04
broad base of support across the
08:07
organization for my team that is I don't
08:10
just focus on HR I don't just focus on
08:12
manufacturing when I integrate a
08:14
solution or when the organization
08:16
integrates a solution it must cross
08:19
those organizational boundaries and so
08:21
from an information technology
08:22
perspective it's important to consider
08:25
that an application or an implementation
08:29
of a system must cover the entire
08:32
organization not just one individual
08:34
group so we're going to talk more about
08:36
that in this course and how those
08:38
different groups integrate and how we
08:41
apply solutions that embrace the entire
08:44
organization not just one individual
08:47
group within the organization