Business Processes, Information, and Information Systems Chapter 2 Business Processes, Information, and Information Systems

This Could Happen to You: “I Got the Email, but I Couldn’t Download the Attachment” Felix misses meetings and doesn’t know what was decided at last meeting. Making assumptions about customers want without any data. Wasting time covering old ground. Cell phone call interrupts meeting. Do you continue with a missing group member, who has problems with email? Boss comes to meeting. Do you tell her about group’s problems? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Study Questions Q1 Why does the FlexTime team need to understand business processes? Q2 What is a business process? Q3 How do information systems support business processes? Q4 What is information? Q5 Where is the information in business processes? How does the knowledge in this chapter help FlexTime and you? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q1: Why Does the FlexTime Team Need to Understand Business Processes? FlexTime team needs to have better collaboration processes Establish objective and rules on meeting times Need better resources for sharing work product How will that team know where and how to save costs? Scenario Video Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Study Processes and Look for Inefficiencies Can any processes be simplified? Can tasks be re-ordered or re-organized to eliminate tasks and save labor hours? Can process costs be reduced by applying information technology? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q2: What Is a Business Process? A network of activities, resources, facilities, and information that interact to achieve some business function. Business Function Activities Resources Facilities Information Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

FlexTime’s Three Business Processes Figure 2-1 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Register Participants Process Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Components of a Business Process Activities— Transform resources and information of one type into another type Decisions— A question that can be answered Yes or No Roles— Sets of procedures Resources— People, or facilities, or computer programs that are assigned to roles Repository— Collection of business records Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q3: How Do Information Systems Support Business Processes? Figure 2-3 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Register Participants Process Figure 2-4 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Manual and Automated Register Participants Process Figure 2-5 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q4: What Is Information? Knowledge derived from data (recorded facts or figures) Data that is presented in a meaningful context Data processed by summing, ordering, averaging, grouping, comparing, or other similar operations A difference that makes a difference Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Experiencing MIS InClass Exercise 2: Woot.com Woot (www.woot.com) offers a featured item for sale each day. Starting at midnight (U.S. Central time), a featured item posted for sale at deep discount. When inventory of item gone, selling stops. What’s today’s item? Click “What is woot?” and read FAQs. Identify five business processes that Woot needs to run site. Name and describe three business processes that typical online retailers need that Woot avoids. Diagram key processes involved in each day’s sales. Describe (in generic terms) contents of what you think is most important repository. List five types of information that Woot can obtain from repository. Present your business process to class. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Characteristics of Good Information 1. Accurate Correct and complete Crucial for management Cross-check information to ensure accuracy 2. Timely Produced in time for intended use 3. Relevant to both: Context Subject Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Characteristics of Good Information (cont’d) 4. Just barely sufficient Sufficient for purpose it is generated Avoid too much or extraneous information 5. Worth its cost Relationship between cost and value Information systems cost money to develop, maintain, and use Must be worth that cost Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q5 Where Is the Information in Business Processes? Information Stored in Repositories Status Member Records Check Membership Status Customer data: Name, Email, Address, Phone(s), DateOfBirth Membership data: DateOfMembership, MembershipType, FeePaid, ExpirationDate Course data: Name, Description, StandardFee, PromotionalTerms Class data: CourseName, StartDate, EndDate, Instructor, AvailableSeats Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Information for Unstructured Processes Quality of information determined by people and procedures used to interpret that data Data is a stimulus that causes you to create information …in your mind Data Your mind and your thinking are most important part of an information system Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q6: How Does the Knowledge in this Chapter Help FlexTime and You? Learn to model important business processes and identify processes to simplify or reduce resources or processes to partly or fully automate. Consider costs from a process-perspective helps team/you understand how changes in one activity (or process) impacts other activities and processes. Provide a guiding framework for conversations, discussions, and decisions. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Ethics Guide: Egocentric vs. Empathetic Thinking Egocentric thinking Self centered “I’m right, everyone else is wrong.” “I believe sales are declining because our price is too high. We need to cut the price.” Empathetic thinking “My View” is one possible interpretation. Take time to learn what others are thinking. Take time to understand the problem domain as a system. What other factors can affect sales? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Egocentric Thinking Approach “Professor Jones, I couldn’t come to class last Monday. Did we do anything important?” Egocentric Thinking Approach Implies student isn’t accountable for his or her actions Implies professor lectured on nothing important Doesn’t take into account professor’s view of absences Assumes professor has time to rehash class discussions and activities one-on-one Puts responsibility on professor to remember everything said in class Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Empathetic thinking approach “I couldn’t come to class, but I got the class notes from Mary. I read through them, and I have a question…Oh by the way, I’m sorry to trouble you with my problem.” Empathetic thinking approach Takes personal responsibility Minimizes impact of absence on someone else Considers impact from professor’s side Considers that the professor must interrupt their other work to give extra help so you can recover from your absence Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Ethics Guide: Egocentric vs. Empathetic Thinking (cont’d) What happens if you are in meeting with three people who have three different views of customer support problem? Customer support reps do not have data about prior customer contacts Customer support rep recommended a solution that did not work Company is shipping too many defective laptops Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Ethics Guide: Egocentric vs. Empathetic Thinking (cont’d) Empathetic thinking is an important skill in all business activities (and classes) Q: How would egocentrics behave in a meeting? How would empathetics behave? Q: Which thinking style would lead to a more a productive meeting? Why? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Ethics Guide: Understanding Perspectives and Points of View Every human being speaks and acts from a personal perspective. Everything we say or do is based on, biased by, that point of view. Conflicting perspectives can all be true at the same time. Being able to discern and adapt to perspectives and goals of others will make you much more effective. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Ethics Guide: Understanding Perspectives and Points of View (cont’d) Suppose you buy a new laptop and it fails within a few days. Repeated calls to customer support produce short-term fixes, but your problem continues. Three plausible reasons for the problem: Customer service does not have data about prior customer contacts Customer support reps recommended a solution that did not work Company is shipping too many defective laptops

Ethics Guide: Understanding Perspectives and Points of View (cont’d) A “problem” is a perceived difference between what is and what ought to be. Development team needs a common definition and understanding of problem in order to communicate. What can a development team do to create common definitions and understanding? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Active Review Q1 Why does the FlexTime team need to understand business processes? Q2 What is a business process? Q3 How do information systems support business processes? Q4 What is information? Q5 Where is the information in business processes? How does the knowledge in this chapter help FlexTime and you? Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Case Study 2: Ohio State, UCLA, University Washington, Oregon State University… These universities operate on quarter system of about 10 weeks each. Most students attend three quarters a year: Fall, Winter, and Spring. Majority of universities operate on semester system, of about 15 weeks each. Most students attend only Fall and Spring semesters. One unit of credit in quarter systems is worth two-thirds a unit of semester credit. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Summary of Opinions on Relative Merits of Two Systems Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Consider the following business processes and their costs. Case Study 2: Ohio State, UCLA, University Washington, Oregon State University… (cont’d) Schedule classes Allocate classrooms and related equipment Staff classes Enroll students Prepare and print course syllabi Adjust enrollments via add/drop Schedule finals Allocate final exam rooms Grade finals Record final grades Consider the following business processes and their costs. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.   Publishing as Prentice Hall