Week 4: Group Project and Web Services MIS5001: Management Information Systems David S. McGettigan

2 Agenda Group Project Prior Lecture Recap Web Services Case study: Amazon Next Week

Group Project Details The completed report should be approximately 4-6 pages in length single spaced. Use 11 point Times New Roman font and one-inch margins. Do not prepare a separate cover page, instead put your group member names, the class section number (MIS5001), and the assignment name in the top-left corner of the first page header. Number all pages. The specific content sections should minimally include:  Executive Summary: one paragraph reiterating your key points (e.g., the elevator pitch).  Target Organization: description of the target organization for deployment (plus tables or figures, if applicable). This can either be a fictional organization or a real organization.  Overview of Solution: description of the proposed IT solution (plus tables or figures, if applicable).  Cost / Benefits Analysis: cost / benefits analysis for the proposed IT solution (plus tables). Make reasonable estimates about costs and benefits based on whatever information you can find publicly available for the IT deployment costs and based on your profiling of the target organization as per 3) above.  Deployment Considerations: discussion of critical success factors for a successful IT deployment including specific steps required to insure that expected benefits are realized  Alternatives: discussion of at least one alternative solution and why it is an inferior option. The alternative could be “do nothing.” If so, enough detail needs to be provided about the current situation (actual, assumed, or made up) for the reader to make a reasonable judgment as to desirability of this option.  Bibliography and Reference List: 1/4 to 1/2 page list of additional resources to learn more; this could include websites, articles, videos, etc. 3 Source: Professor Steven Johnson MIS 5001

Group Project Details Initial sections can be arranged differently if you feel they make more sense in a different order for your topic. The key to a successful report is that enough detail is provided to convincingly explain what the proposed solution is, how it will generate value for an organization, and what steps the organization needs to take to realize that value. Group Project Presentation  The PowerPoint presentation should follow the same structure, and also be approximately 4-6 slides in length. Of course, the format of the presentation should use bullets, graphics, and abbreviated points to enable an effective presentation in class. Citation Guidelines  If you use text, figures, or data created by others you must identify the source and clearly differentiate your work from the material that you are referencing. If you fail to do so you are plagiarizing. There are many different acceptable formats that you can use to cite the work of others (see resources in the course syllabus). The citation format is not as important as the intent. You must clearly show the reader what is your work and what is a reference to someone else’s work. Grading Criteria – Outlined in Syllabus 4 Source: Professor Steven Johnson MIS 5001

Prior Lecture Recap Role of the CIO  Strategic Planning – Aligning the direction of IS with that of the business  Operations – running the corporate information center  Project Governance – responsibility for large scale and high cost technical initiatives System Development Lifecycle  A structured step-by-step approach for developing information systems Change Management  The “change curve” 5

Web Services I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out. Jeff Bezos

Web Services – Business Concept A software concept and infrastructure — supported by several major computing vendors (notably Microsoft and IBM) — for program-to-program communication and application component delivery.  The Web services concept treats software as a set of services accessible over ubiquitous networks using Web-based standards and protocols. Specifically, a Web service is a software component can be accessed by another application (such as a client, a server or another Web service) through the use of generally available, ubiquitous protocols and transports, such as Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP).  Joint efforts between IBM and Microsoft, with the support of other vendors such as Ariba and Iona Technologies, have produced agreement on a basic set of XML-based standards for Web service interface definition, discovery and remote calling. 7 Source: : Gartner

Web Services - Technology o A Web service is a software application identified by a URL, whose interfaces and bindings are capable of being defined, described, and discovered as XML artifacts. A Web service supports direct interactions with other software agents using XML based messages exchanged via internet-based protocols. Source: : World Wide Web Consortium 8

What’s a Web Service? Delivering application functionality over the web  Like object architecture Allowing people to access that service by  Sending information (inputs)  Receiving information (outputs) Big Idea: Any vendor can make their services available to any customer  Through an easily accessible software interface 9

A Web Service is not a Web Site User Google.com (the site) Google Search Engine (the service) Application Google Search (the service) Using a web site Using a web service interacts with interacts directly with without human intervention 10

They are based on open standards  Application developers don’t need special expertise to use a web service Use “web protocols”  HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) Handle the transportation of data Request web services like we request web pages  XML (Extensible Markup Language) Formatting of messages Structuring data so that it adheres to a standard format What’s different about Web Services? 11

Extensible Markup Language Considered to be a future standard for sending structured data over the web  From browser to person (business to consumer)  From application to application (business to business)  Specification for defining your own tags for formatting data “Cousin” of HTML A brief look at XML 12

If this table were an XML document, it would look like this: John /16/45 Ringo /11/72 Paul /20/50 and so on… Simple XML Example 13

XML facilitates standards XML is self-describing XML is flexible Industries can decide on a standard schema  All messages can follow that standard Makes sending data between companies easier  Order processing  Airline reservations How does this help? 14

Using Fixed Length Records: David Schuff Fox School First Name, Characters 0-9 Last Name, Characters SSN, Characters School Name, Characters You have to hard code where the fields start and their length, so the application knows which characters belong to which fields. What if I have a 15 character last name? What if the last name is provided before the first name? Example: Fixed Length Records Versus XML 15

Using XML: David Schuff Fox School Because I have the schema and use tags to match characters with data fields: I don’t care how long each piece of data is. I don’t care what order it arrives in. Extra fields can be included – I just retrieve a modified schema. Example: Fixed Length Records Versus XML 16

Web services example: PriceGrabber.com What they do  Aggregates prices from vendors  Presents them in one place for comparison  Provides customer ratings of vendors The problem  How do you easily interact with multiple vendors? 17

Without web services Custom software to communicate with J&R PriceGrabber’s computer system J&R’s computer system w/ price information Best Buy’s computer system w/ price information MacMall’s computer system w/ price information TigerDirect’s computer system w/ price information Custom software to communicate with Best Buy Custom software to communicate with MacMall Custom software to communicate with TigerDirect “computer-to-computer” (no human intervention) “computer-to-computer” (no human intervention) “browser-to- computer” (human intervention) “browser-to- computer” (human intervention) 18

With web services PriceGrabber’s computer system J&R’s computer system w/ price information Best Buy’s computer system w/ price information MacMall’s computer system w/ price information TigerDirect’s computer system w/ price information Single approach to communication across businesses “computer-to-computer” (no human intervention) “computer-to-computer” (no human intervention) “browser-to- computer” (human intervention) “browser-to- computer” (human intervention) 19

Without standard messages PriceGrabber’s computer system J&R’s computer system w/ price information Best Buy’s computer system w/ price information MacMall’s computer system w/ price information TigerDirect’s computer system w/ price information Price: $120 Quantity: 100 Shipping: $4.00 Price: $120 Quantity: 100 Shipping: $4.00 Price: 150 In-stock: Yes Shipping: 12 Price: 150 In-stock: Yes Shipping: 12 Shipping: 5% Cost: $143 Qty: 200 Shipping: 5% Cost: $143 Qty: 200 $125, 200, $5 PriceGrabber’s required information from vendors: Price: Quantity: Shipping cost: PriceGrabber’s required information from vendors: Price: Quantity: Shipping cost: Software to translate data from J&R Software to translate data from Best Buy Software to translate data from MacMall Software to translate data from TigerDirect “computer-to-computer” (no human intervention) “computer-to-computer” (no human intervention) “browser-to- computer” (human intervention) “browser-to- computer” (human intervention)

With standard messages PriceGrabber’s computer system J&R’s computer system w/ price information Best Buy’s computer system w/ price information MacMall’s computer system w/ price information TigerDirect’s computer system w/ price information PriceGrabber’s required information from vendors: Price Quantity Shipping cost PriceGrabber’s required information from vendors: Price Quantity Shipping cost Software which can “decode” XML and interacts with ANY web service “computer-to-computer” (no human intervention) “computer-to-computer” (no human intervention) “browser-to- computer” (human intervention) “browser-to- computer” (human intervention) Web service

Standard Messaging – Another Example Scenario:  A large retailer wants to Maintain optimal inventory levels Order from multiple vendors Dynamically adjust product mix  A vendor wants to Service multiple suppliers Maintain service level 22

Summary of Web Services Web services use web-based standards (XML, HTTP) These standards make it easier to develop standard formats for business messages  XML is an easy, standard way to define data  HTTP is an easy, standard way to exchange data 23

Case Discussion – Amazon Describe the four major web services described in the case offered by Amazon.com. What does each service do? Why would a company use these services from Amazon instead of maintaining their own infrastructure? Compare the pros and cons. Assume you are the CIO of a hospital. Would you recommend using Amazon, or other similar, cloud-based services, to host your applications and data? Justify your answer. If you used these services, what precautions would you take to protect yourself against failures? Discuss how Amazon’s Web Services represent a disruptive business strategy. Which companies and industries are they disrupting? How are those companies and industries being disrupted? Who are their competitors? Are they well-positioned against them? 24

Next Week Disruptive Technology