UNIT 3

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Study Questions
 Q1 – What is collaboration?

 Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team

communication?

 Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content?

 Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow?

 Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision

making?

 Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem

solving?

 Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project

management?

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-2

 Q1 – What is collaboration?

 Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team

communication?

 Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content?

 Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow?

 Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision

making?

 Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem

solving?

 Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project

management?

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-3

Q1 – What is collaboration?
 Collaboration occurs when two or more people work together to
achieve a common
– Goal
– Result
– Work product
 Greater than individuals working alone
 Involves more than coordination and communication alone
 Feedback and iteration provide an opportunity for team
members to:
– Proceed in a series of steps (iterations) by continuously reviewing and
revising each other’s work
– Learn from each other rather than working in isolation
– Change the way they work and what they produce
– Ultimately produce a product that’s greater (and better) than an
individual could accomplish working alone

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-4

Q1 – What is collaboration?
 The three critical collaboration drivers are:
– Communication
• The success of the collaboration group depends on the
availability of effective communication systems that allow
them to share their skills and abilities
– Content management
• Users need to manage the content of their work to avoid
conflicting with other team members.
– Workflow control
• Workflow is a process or procedure to create, edit, use, and
dispose of content.

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-5

 Q1 – What is collaboration?

 Q2 – How can you use collaboration

systems to improve team communication?

 Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content?

 Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow?

 Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision

making?

 Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem

solving?

 Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project

management?
© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-6
Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems
to improve team communication?
 Synchronous communication
– Team members meet at the same time, but not necessarily at
the same geographic location.
– It may include conference calls, face-to-face-meetings, or
online meetings.

 Asynchronous communication
– Team members do not meet at the same time or in the same
geographic location.
– It may include discussion forums or email exchanges.

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-7

Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems
to improve team communication?

Fig 2-1 Information Technology for Communication

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Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems
to improve team communication?
 Virtual meetings don’t require everyone to be in the same place at
the same time.

– Conference calls – can be difficult to arrange the right time

– Multiparty text chat – easier to arrange if everyone has mobile texting

– Videoconferencing – requires everyone to have the proper equipment

– Email – most familiar but has serious drawbacks in content

management

– Discussion forums – content is more organized than email

– Team surveys – easy to manage but don’t provide very much

interactive discussion

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-9

 Q1 – What is collaboration?

 Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team

communication?

 Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems

to manage content?

 Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow?

 Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision

making?

 Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem

solving?

 Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project

management?
© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-10
Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems
to manage content?
 There are three categories for sharing content.
Your choice depends on the degree of control your
team needs to complete their tasks

Fig 2-5 Information Technology for Sharing Content

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-11

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems
to manage content?
 The following methods of sharing are effective but
provide no control over content management.

– Email attachments are the most primitive but have numerous

problems.
• Someone may not receive the email or ignores it.
• It’s difficult to manage attachments.

– A shared file server provides a single storage location for all

team members.
• It uses FTP technology to access files.
• Problems can occur if multiple team members try
using the same file at the same time.

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-12

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems
to manage content?
 These methods of content sharing provide version
management

– Wikis

– Google Docs and Spreadsheets

– Microsoft Office Groove

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-13

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems
to manage content?
 Wikis are shared knowledge bases, repositories of team
knowledge, which have or use tracking mechanisms for
changes.

 Most commonly known wiki is wikipedia.com.

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-14

Q3 – How can you use collaboration
systems to manage content?
 Google Docs and Spreadsheets

– Access it at http://docs.google.com with a Google account

(different from a Gmail account).

– Documents are stored on Google servers making them

accessible from anywhere.

– Team members can track revisions and review change

summaries.

– It’s a free service but you must use Google programs for
processing.

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-15

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems
to manage content?
 Microsoft Office Groove

– You create a workspace and invite others to join.

– Document changes are automatically provided to all team
members.
– You can use VoIP rather than separate phone lines for
conversations.
– You can use it asynchronously or synchronously.
– You can use any computer or server to access workspaces.
– Each user must purchase a license and install it on each computer
(may be exceptions).

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-16

Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems
to manage content?
 Shared content with version control provides more limitations than
version management and more control over changes to documents.

– It uses shared libraries (directories) to store documents.

– Users are given permissions that limit what they can do with
the documents.

– It requires users to check out documents and check them back

in.

– Microsoft SharePoint is the most popular for business use.

• It requires a publicly accessible server.
• It’s difficult to install.

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-17

 Q1 – What is collaboration?

 Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team

communication?

 Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content?

 Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems

to control workflow?

 Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision

making?

 Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem

solving?

 Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project

management?
© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-18
Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems
to control workflow?

 Sequential workflow
– When documents are reviewed by multiple members of a team one
after another
 Parallel workflow
– When documents are reviewed by multiple members of a team
simultaneously
 SharePoint site
– Defines workflows and ensures team members perform required
tasks (
http://sharepoint.microsoft.com/en-us/Pages/Videos.aspx?VideoID
=1
)

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-19

 Q1 – What is collaboration?

 Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team

communication?

 Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content?

 Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow?

 Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration

systems for decision making?

 Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem

solving?

 Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project

management?

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-20

Information Systems for Decision Making
 Decision making in organizations is varied and complex.
 Decisions occur at three levels in organizations (decision
levels):
 Operational decisions concern day-to-day activities.
– Information systems that support operational decision making are
called transaction processing systems (TPS).
 Managerial decisions concern the allocation and utilization
of resources.
– Information systems that support managerial decision making are
called management information systems (MIS).
 Strategic decision making concern broader-scope
organizational issues.
– Information systems that support strategic decision making are
called executive information systems (EIS).
Information Systems for Problem Solving
 Information systems can be used to solve problems.
 Problem definition
– A problem is a perceived difference between what is and what is
not.
– A problem is a perception.
– A good problem definition defines the differences between what is
and what ought to be by describing both the current and desired
situations.
– Different problem definitions require the development of different
information systems.
– All personnel in the organization must have a clear understanding
of which definition of the problem the information system will
address.
Decision Making and Problem Solving
 Problem solving is the most critical activity a business organization
undertakes. Problem solving begins with decision making.
 In the intelligence stage, potential problems and /or opportunities are
identified and defined
 In the design stage, alternative solutions to the problem are developed
 In the choice stage, a course of action is selected
 In the implementation stage, action is taken to put the solution into
effect
 In the monitoring stage, the implementation of the solution is
evaluated to determine if the anticipated results were achieved and
modify the process
The Decision Process
 Two decision processes (method by which a decision is to
be made) are structured and unstructured.
 Structured decision process is one for which there is an
understood and accepted method for making the decision.
 Unstructured process is one for which there is no agreed on
decision making process.
 The terms structured and unstructured refers to the decision
process-not the underlying subject.
Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems
for decision making?

Fig 2-15 Collaboration Needs for Decision Types

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-25

Optimization, Satisficing, and Heuristic
 Optimizing is finding the best solution and is usually best
fit for problems that can be modeled mathematically with a
low degree of estimation risk. For example, find how many
products an organization should produce to meet a profit
goal.
 Satisficing is finding a good, but not necessarily the best,
solution. Satisficing does not look at all possible solutions,
but at those that are likely to give good results. Satisficing
is a good decision method because it is sometimes too
expensive to analyze every alternative to get the best
solution. A satisficing example is when you have to select a
location for a new plant.
 Heuristics are guidelines or procedures that usually find a
good solution by using “rules of thumb”.
Different Types of Information Systems for
Different Types of Decisions
 Automated information systems are those by which the
computer hardware and program components do most of
the work.
– Humans start the programs and use the results.
 Augmentation information systems are those in which
humans do the bulk of the work.
– These systems augment, support, or supplement the work done by
People (email, instant messaging, video-conferencing, etc) to aid in
decision making.
 Q1 – What is collaboration?

 Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team

communication?

 Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content?

 Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow?

 Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision

making?

 Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration

systems for problem solving?

 Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project

management?
© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-28
Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems
for problem solving?
 Collaboration systems provide team members with
feedback and iteration that helps them:

– Identify numerous solution alternatives rather than just

one.
– Make a choice by allowing them to discuss the pros and
cons of each alternative.
– Broker the selected solution and make necessary
adjustments that benefit all parties.

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-29

Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems
for problem solving?

 Problem solving and collaboration systems are more

effective when they successfully employ the three
collaborative drivers:
– Communication systems that allow a regular and reliable
exchange of ideas and information
– Content-management systems that control document changes
and revisions so everyone has the most current version
– Workflow control is less important because of the nature of the
unstructured decision-making process

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-30

 Q1 – What is collaboration?

 Q2 – How can you use collaboration systems to improve team

communication?

 Q3 – How can you use collaboration systems to manage content?

 Q4 – How can you use collaboration systems to control workflow?

 Q5 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for decision

making?

 Q6 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for problem

solving?

 Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration

systems for project management?
© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-31
Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems
for HR management?

 The three collaborative drivers are important to ensure the

success of a project.

– Communication systems help decision makers communicate with

one another and deal with unexpected problems as they occur.

– Content-management systems control document changes and

revisions that occur during the project.

– Workflow control is important because of task dependencies

inherent in projects.

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-32

Q7 – How do businesses use collaboration systems for project
management?

Fig 2-17 Collaboration Systems for Decision Making, Problem Solving & Project Mgt

© Pearson Prentice Hall 2009 2-33