Business Processes, Information, and Information Systems Chapter 2

Study Processes and Look for Inefficiencies Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 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? 2-2

A network of activities, resources, facilities, and information that interact to achieve some business function. Q2: What Is a Business Process? 2-3 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Business Function Activities Resources Facilities Information

FlexTime’s Three Business Processes Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2-4 Figure 2-1

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

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 Components of a Business Process 2-6 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q3: How Do Information Systems Support Business Processes? 2-7 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Figure 2-3

Q3: How Do Information Systems Support Business Processes? 2-8 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall IS support business processes by: 1.Implementing activities 2.Serving as data repositories 3.Controlling data flow

Manual Register Participants Process Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall 2-9

Figure 2-4 Fully Automated Register Participants Process 2-10 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall - fulfills all of the Desk Clerk roles - Data stored in databases - flow of data controlled by application

Manual and Automated Register Participants Process 2-11 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Figure 2-5 Check membership activity is manual but Check Class Availability and Add Member to Class are automated.

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 Q4: What Is Information? 2-12 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Q4: What Is Information? 2-13 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Data – recorded facts or figures e.g. employee A earns$17.50 per hour and employee B earns $25 per hour. Information – knowledge derived from data e.g. the average hourly wage of all employees who work on the front desk is $22.37 Information – data presented in a meaningful context e.g. Employee C earns $10 per hour (data). Employee C earns less than half the hourly wage of front desk clerks (information).

Q4: What Is Information? 2-14 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall What is information made of? Information is made of data that has been processed in some way to be meaningful to the recipient. If you have more information, do you weigh more? Why or why not? If you are carrying around a 1,000-page report that contains information, then you might say information causes you to physically weigh more. In most situations, however, having more information does not result in a weight gain. It results in a change in your brain. If you give a copy of your transcript to a prospective employer, is that information? If you show that same transcript to your dog, is it still information? Where is the information? A transcript from a prospective employee is meaningful to an employer trying to fill a position. The content of the transcript (courses taken, grades earned) has value in the hiring context. A dog has no use for the content of the transcript and so it has no value to him. If the piece of paper the transcript is printed on is crumpled up, then it might have value to the dog as an item to chase or tear up (depending on the dog).

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 Characteristics of Good Information 2-15 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

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 Characteristics of Good Information (cont’d) 2-16 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall

Information Stored in Repositories Q5Where Is the Information in Business Processes? 2-17 Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Check Membership Status Member Records Status Customer data: Name, , 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 Activity Role Repository Data Flow Decision Pieces for Assignment 1 Activity Decision Role Repository Data Flow Data Flow Data Flow Data Flow Use these pieces to construct a business process. Just drag and drop a shape. Click on the text and type to change the label in the shape. To copy a shape (if you need more), just click on it and select Copy (in Home / Clipboard tab). Then click Paste. To remove an unneeded shape, just click on it and press the delete key. Click Ctrl+Z to undo any action.

Copyright © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall Solicit Memberships Process Check Membership Status Member? Yes No Check Class Availability Available? Schedule Class Process No Yes Class Request Member Data Membership Request Add Member to Class Number Seats Available Member Data Member Records Class Roste r Register Participants Process Figure 2-2 Desk Clerk Activity Role Repository Data Flow Decision Key Member