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Business Strategy and Technology > 14. Strategies for information > Flashcards

14. Strategies for information Flashcards

1
Q

Why do organisations require information?

A
  • Planning
  • Controlling
  • Recording transactions
  • Performance measurement
  • Decision making
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2
Q

Give characteristics of strategic information.

A

Derived from both internal and external sources:

  • Summarised at a high level
  • Relevant to the long term
  • Concerned with the whole organisation
  • Often prepared on an ad hoc basis
  • Both quantitative and qualitative
  • Uncertain, as the future cannot be accurately predicted
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3
Q

Give characteristics of tactical information.

A
  • Primarily generated internally (but may have a limited external component)
  • Summarised at a lower level
  • Relevant to the short and medium term
  • Concerned with activities or departments
  • Prepared routinely and regularly
  • Based on quantitative measures
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4
Q

Give characteristics of operational information.

A
  • Derived from internal sources
  • Detailed, being the processing of raw data
  • Relevant to the immediate term
  • Task specific
  • Prepared very frequently
  • Largely quantitative
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5
Q

What are typical information requirements for the manufacturing sector?

A

Strategic:

  • Future demand estimates
  • New product development plans
  • Competitor analysis

Tactical:

  • Variance analysis
  • Departmental accounts
  • Inventory turnover

Operational:

  • Production reject rate
  • Materials and labour used
  • Inventory levels
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6
Q

What are typical information requirements for the service sector?

A

Strategic:

  • Forecast sales growth and market share
  • Profitability, capital structure

Tactical:

  • Resource utilisation such as average staff time charged out, number of customers per hairdresser, number of staff per account
  • Customer satisfaction rating

Operational:

  • Staff timesheets
  • Customer waiting time
  • Individual customer feedback
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7
Q

What are typical information requirements for the public sector?

A

Strategic:

  • Population demographics
  • Expected government policy

Tactical:

  • Hospital occupancy rates
  • Average class sizes
  • Percent of reported crimes solved

Operational:

  • Staff timesheets
  • Vehicles available
  • Student daily attendance records
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8
Q

What are typical information requirements for NFP organisations?

A

Strategic:

  • Activities of other charities
  • Government (and in some cases overseas government) policy
  • Public attitudes

Tactical:

  • Percent of revenue spent on admin
  • Average donation
  • ‘Customer’ satisfaction statistics

Operational:

  • Households collected from/approached
  • Banking documentation
  • Donations
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9
Q

What are the qualities of good information?

A
  • Accurate
  • Complete
  • Cost-Beneficial
  • User-targeted
  • Relevant
  • Authoritative
  • Timely
  • Easy to use
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10
Q

Define information management strategy.

A

Strategy specifying who controls and uses the technology provided.

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11
Q

Define information systems strategy.

A

Strategy specifying how hardware, software and telecommunications can achieve delivery of the information systems strategy.

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12
Q

Define information technology strategy.

A

Strategy specifying the systems that will best enable the use of information to support the business strategy.

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13
Q

What are the benefits of a proposed information system?

A
  • Increased revenue
  • Cost reduction
  • Enhanced service
  • Improved decision making: Forecasting, developing scenarios, market analysis, project evaluation
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14
Q

When formulating an overall IS/IT strategy, what aspects should be taken into consideration?

A
  • What are the key business areas which could benefit most from an investment in information technology?
  • What form should the investment take, and how could such strategically important units be encouraged to use such technology effectively?
  • Will maintenance of the new system be provided in-house or be outsourced?
  • How much would the system cost in terms of software; hardware; management commitment and time; education and training; conversion; documentation; operational manning; and maintenance?
  • The importance of lifetime application costs must be stressed – the costs and benefits after implementation may be more significant than the more obvious initial costs of installing an information technology function.
  • What criteria for performance should be set for information technology systems?
  • What are the implications for the existing work force – have they the requisite skills; can they be trained to use the systems; will there be any redundancies?
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15
Q

What are the recommendations of Earl’s systems audit grid?

A
  • A system of poor quality and little value should be disposed of (divest).
  • A system of high business value and low technical quality should be renewed (invested in).
  • A system of high quality but low business value should be reassessed.
  • High quality systems with a high business value should be maintained.
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16
Q

How can IS/IT be used in operation?

A
  • Process control
  • Machine tool control: Numerical control, computer numerical control, direct numerical control
  • Robotic automation
  • Computer aided manufacturing
  • 3D printing
  • Computer Integrated Manufacturing
  • Enterprise Resource Planning
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17
Q

How can IS/IT be used in logistics?

A
  • The use of IT in inbound logistics includes stock control systems such as MRP, MRPII, ERP and IT.
  • Warehousing: the use of barcodes can increase knowledge about the quantity and nature of stock in hand.
  • It is possible to create computer models, or virtual warehouses, of stock actually held at suppliers.
18
Q

How can IS/IT be used in marketing?

A
  • Social media
  • Buying data about customer purchasing habits
  • A variety of market research companies use IT/IS as a way of interacting with consumers.
  • Supermarkets can use automated EPOS
19
Q

What is Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?

A

Customer relationship management (CRM) describes the methodologies, software, and usually internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships.

20
Q

What does CRM consist of?

A
  • Helping an enterprise to identify and target their best customers, manage marketing campaigns with clear goals and objectives, and generate quality leads.
  • Assisting the organisation to improve telesales, account, and sales management by optimising information shared, and streamlining existing processes
  • Allowing the formation of relationships with customers, with the aim of improving customer satisfaction and maximising profits; identifying the most profitable customers and providing them with the highest level of service.
  • Providing employees with the information and processes necessary to know their customers
21
Q

How can IS/IT be used in support activities?

A
  • Procurement.
  • Technology development
  • HR
22
Q

What are five ways in which Big Data and Data Analytics can help organisation?

A
  • Enhanced data transparency
  • Enhanced performance
  • Market segmentation and customisation
  • Improved decision-making
  • New products and services
23
Q

What are the criticisms of Big Data and Data Analytics?

A
  • Latest buzzword
  • Correlation and causation
  • Data overload
  • Ability to verify
  • Sustainable competitive advantage
  • Representative data
24
Q

What are barriers to introducing Big Data and Data Analytics?

A
  • The unknown destinations
  • The underlying technology challenges
  • The lack of a holistic approach
  • The shortage of talent
  • The fear of cyber attack
  • The difficulty of building the business case
  • The need for legal and regulatory compliance
  • The need for customer data
25
Q

Define knowledge.

A

Is the potential for action based on data, information, intuition and experience.

26
Q

Define explicit knowledge.

A

Is knowledge that the company knows that it has. This includes facts, transactions and events that can be clearly stated and stored in management information systems.

27
Q

Define tacit knowledge.

A

Is personal knowledge and expertise held by people within the organisation that has not been formally documented.

28
Q

Define knowledge management.

A

Describes a range of strategies and tools that capture all the knowledge that is valuable to an organisation, and deliver it to the people in such a way that it can be acted on quickly, to the competitive advantage of the business.

29
Q

What does knowledge management concern?

A
  • Designing and installing techniques and processes to create, protect and use explicit knowledge.
  • Designing and creating environments and activities to discover and release tacit knowledge.
  • Capturing good quality information from outside the business as well as within eg, intelligence on competitors.
30
Q

How can knowledge management help promote competitive advantage?

A

• The fast and efficient exchange of information
Effective channelling of the information to:
– Improve processes, productivity and performance.
– Identify opportunities to meet customer needs better than competitors.
– Promote creativity and innovation.

31
Q

What are the risks associated with IT/IS?

A

– The risk of inadequacy: the failure by the firm to utilise IT/IS as effectively as its rivals will lead to loss of competitive advantage, eg, inferior service, poorer products, excess costs.

– The risk of breakdown: where the firm depends on IT/IS a breakdown in its operations threatens the business.

– The risk of excess expense: IT/IS is a significant budget item. Botched projects, expensive contracts, inappropriate systems or non-adoption presents a direct financial risk.

32
Q

What are some common mistakes that adversely affect the implementation of a new information system?

A

Analysis:

  • The problem the system is intended to solve is not fully understood.
  • Investigation of the situation is hindered by insufficient resources.
  • User input is inadequate
  • The project team is unable to dedicate the time required.
  • Insufficient time spent planning the project.

Design:

  • Insufficient user input.
  • Lack of flexibility.
  • The system requires unforeseen changes in working patterns.
  • Failure to perform organisation impact analysis.
  • Overlooking organisational factors such as ergonomics, health and safety, compliance with legislation, job design and employee involvement

Programming:

  • Insufficient time and money allocated to programming.
  • Programmers supplied with incomplete or inaccurate specifications.
  • The logic of the program is misunderstood.
  • Poor programming technique results in programs that are hard to modify.
  • Programs are not adequately documented.

Testing:

  • Insufficient time and money allocated to testing.
  • Failure to develop an organised testing plan.
  • Insufficient user involvement.
  • User management do not review and sign-off the results of testing.

Conversion:

  • Insufficient time and money allocated to data conversion.
  • Insufficient checking between old and new files.
  • The process is rushed to compensate for time overruns elsewhere.

Implementation:

  • Insufficient time, money and/or appropriate staff mean the process has to be rushed.
  • Lack of user training increases the risk of system under-utilisation and rejection.
  • Poor system and user documentation.
  • Lack of performance standards to assess system performance against.
  • System maintenance provisions are inadequate.
33
Q

What are the three types of theories to explain user resistence?

A

People-Oriented: Caused by factors internal to users as individuals or as a group. Can be overcome by: Organisation policies, Persuasion, User involvement in system development.

System-Oriented: Caused by factors inherent in the new system design relating to ease of use and functionality. Can be overcome by: User training and education. Improve user-interface. Ensure users contribute to the system design process. Ensure the system ‘fits’ with the organisation.

Interaction: User-resistance is caused by the interaction of people and the system. Can be overcome: Re-organise the organisation before implementing the system. Redesign any affected incentive schemes to incorporate the new system.
Promote user participation and encourage organisation-wide teamwork. Emphasise the benefits the system brings.

34
Q

What are the risks from IT system?

A
  • Natural threats: Fire, flood, electrical storms.
  • Non-compliance with regulations
  • Data systems integrity
  • Accidents
  • Cyber security risks
35
Q

Define cyber security.

A

The protection of systems, networks and data in cyberspace.

36
Q

What are some of the most significant risks that an IT system might encounter?

A
  • Human threats
  • Fraud
  • Deliberate sabotage
  • Viruses and other corruptions
  • Denial of Service (DoS) attack
37
Q

What are some measures that an organisation can take to improve cyber security?

A
  • Embed a greater awareness of cyber risk throughout the organisation’s strategy and operations.
  • Build a security focused culture based on continuous improvement in terms of cyber security.
  • Articulate the organisation’s approach to managing cyber risks through its reporting mechanisms.
  • Reduce complexity in the organisation’s IT environment
  • Develop talent management strategies to attract and retain individuals skilled in managing cyber security.
  • Corporate boards should demand that suppliers to the organisation comply with relevant cyber security laws and standards as this should help to protect IT assets in the supply chain.
  • Organisations should avoid solely relying on point-in-time assessments regarding occasional checks on the security procedures associated with IT infrastructures and instead should make this an on-going activity.
38
Q

In what aspects can IT security controls be subdivided?

A
  • Prevention
  • Detection
  • Deterrence
  • Recovery procedures
  • Correction procedures
  • Threat avoidance
39
Q

What are some practical measures that an organisation can take to combat IT risks?

A
  • Business continuity planning
  • Systems access control
  • Systems development and maintenance
  • Physical and environmental security
  • Compliance with any relevant legal requirements
  • Personnel security
  • Security organisation
  • Computer and network management
  • Asset classification and control
  • Security policy
40
Q

Define Blockchain.

A

Is a technology that allows people who do not know each other to trust a shared record of events.

41
Q

What are the key benefits of Blockchain?

A
  • Building trust
  • Reducing costs
  • Improving money laundering procedures

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