Data Analytics And Knowledge Management

1. INFORMATION SYSTEM AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge management (KM) is the process of creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organisation. It refers to a multidisciplinary approach to achieving organisational objectives by making the best use of knowledge.

Knowledge management efforts typically focus on organisational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, integration and continuous improvement of the organisation. These efforts overlap with organisational learning and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and on encouraging the sharing of knowledge.

KM is an enabler of organisational learning.

Information systems (IS) are formal, sociotechnical, organizational systems designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. In a sociotechnical perspective, information systems are composed by four components: task, people, structure (or roles), and technology (that fits with the other 3 elements).

Any specific information system aims to support operations, management and decision-making. An information system is the information and communication technology (ICT) that an organization uses, and also the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes.

Types of information systems:

The classic view of Information systems found in textbooks in the 1980s was a pyramid of systems that reflected the hierarchy of the organization, usually transaction processing systems at the bottom of the pyramid, followed by management information systems, decision support systems, and ending with executive information systems at the top.

The Anthony triangle is a Convenient way to categorize and understand the purpose of different information systems in organization. It is a piramid that represents the strategy translated in simple goal.

information systems  can be classified by the nature of activities they support.

Decisions are structured, recurring and can often be automated using IS.

IS used to optimize processes, understand causes of performance problems.

Decisions are semi-structured, moderately complex, time horizon of few days to few months.

These are tactical decisions from management, in which occurs the aggregation of data from different part of the firm is important! They pass info from the operational level to the top management.

they work as translator, their tactical is key role to translate between operational and top management, they know both languages and have tools to elaborate data.

IS helps in performance analytics (dashboard), predictive analysis, KPI.

Decisions: unstructured long-term strategic issues, complex and non-routine problems with long-term ramification. Strategic decisions are not shared with all the company. top management utilize the internal info but also the external ones.

IS used to obtain summary of trends and projections, provide KPIs, Internet information extraction.

There are some New laws to classify information systems and knowledge and it’s important to know them because ignoring these postulates bring to misunderstanding and errors in our society and in policies associated.

MOORE’S LAW:

Taken from an empirical observation by the cofounder of Intel.

The performance of the processors, and the number of transistors available for it, is doubling every 18 months

The limits of the first law of Moore would be only in reaching the physical limits imposed for the reduction of the size of the transistors, and therefore the scale of integration. This integration capacity and the processing make possible the use of ICT applications increasingly complex, at costs equal with the doubling of computing power.

Moore's Law refers to Moore's perception that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every two years, though the cost of computers is halved. Moore's Law states that we can expect the speed and capability of our computers to increase every couple of years, and we will pay less for them.

Laws of Sarnoff, MetCalfe and Reed: laws that define the value of a network respect to the number of participants/connections.

Sarnoff’s law: related to TV and radio.

"The value of a broadcasting network is directly proportional to the number of users."

Value network increases when more people are connected.

Metcalfe’s law:  "The value of a communication system grows with the square of the number of people connected"

Another formulation/ implication: the connection between independent networks creates a higher value than the sum of the values of individual networks. (Law linked to the spread and success of the Internet.)

Reed’s law: "the value of a network, the internet in particular, grows exponentially when combined in groups with common interests, sharing ideas, interest, goals and a sense of belonging".

The value of a network can be:

HYPE CYCLE DI GARTNER

It’s about Visibility, meaning how many times/how much people talk about it. We have 5 distinct phases:

1)trigger: A potential technology breakthrough kicks things off. Early proof-of-concept stories and media interest trigger significant publicity. Often no usable products exist and commercial viability is unproven.

2)peak (everyone use it): Early publicity produces a number of success stories—often accompanied by scores of failures. Some companies take action; most don't.

3)disillusionment (not so useful): interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investment continues only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters.

4)enlightenment: more instances of how the technology can benefit the enterprise start to crystallize and become more widely understood. Second- and third-generation products appear from technology providers. More enterprises fund pilots; conservative companies remain cautious

5)productivity (technology is used in the correct sector where it can fully exploited): mainstream adoption starts to take off. Criteria for assessing provider viability are more clearly defined. The technology's broad market applicability and relevance are clearly paying off. If the technology has more than a niche market then it will continue to grow

LONG TAIL:

The long tail concept has found some grounds for application, research and experimentation in for example online business, mass media, micro finance, knowledge management and user-driven innovation.

The overall demand for these less popular goods (represented by this long tail) could rival the demand for mainstream goods.

Mainstream goods: achieve a greater number of customers but initial cost high

Long tail goods: remain in the market for long time, have low distribution and production costs and are available for sale.

Amazon, Apple, Yahoo examples that apply this strategy.

LONG TAIL=consists of small volumes of hard-to-find items to many customers instead of only selling large volumes of a reduced number of popular items.

The total sales of this large number of non-hit items is called the long tail.

LAW OF DISRUPTION:

Says that "Process by which a product or service takes root initially in simple applications at the bottom of a market, and then moves up market, eventually displacing established competitors."

Disruption: the time at which a new technology gives rise to a change in a particular activity and completely changes the previous business model.

Disruptive innovation is nowadays helped by the digital technologies, which accelerated this process.

1.1 SOCIO TECHNICAL SYSTEM

Software Systems are essential components of broader systems that have a human, social or organizational purpose.

Sociotechnical systems (STS) in organizational development is an approach to complex organizational work design that recognizes the interaction between people and technology in workplaces. The term also refers to the interaction between society's complex infrastructures and human behaviour. In this sense, society itself, and most of its substructures, are complex sociotechnical systems (Wikipedia).

Following the KEY ELEMENTS of Sociotechnical systems.

A good developer has to take into account:

1.        Structure

2.        Processes

3.        Mind of individuals

There’s the need to check task, people, structure and then to find a technology to implement that fits with all the 3 elements above.

Sociotechnical systems stack is made of:

1.equipment= hardware devices, some of which may be pcs. Most devices will include an embedded system of some kind.

2.operating system= set of common facilities for higher levels in the system.

3.communication and data management= access to remote systems and databases.

4.application systems= specific functionality to meet some organization requirements.

5.business processes= set of processes involving people and computer systems that support the activities of business.

6.organizations=higher level strategic business activities.

7.society=laws, regulations and culture.

The Effects of the  introduction of a new Sociotechnical system on organizations are:

A)        Process changes

B)        Job changes

C)        Organizational changes (political power- the ones who have control of the new system have more power)

Many of the problems and failures of Management Information Systems (MIS) have been attributed to organizational behavioural problems, which are the result of inadequate designs .

These bad designs are due to the way MIS system designers view organizations, their members and the function of MIS within them. (system designers’ frames of reference);

These frames of reference cause faulty design choices and failures to perceive better design alternative;

There are 7 conditions which are the major causes of inadequate designs and unsuccessful change strategies, and which collectively reflect the existing frames of reference / system designers’ point of view. The goal is to reframe MIS design adopting a STS design approach.

STS design  approach is based on a more realistic view of organizations. It assumes that an organization or organizational work system can be described as a socio-technical system = a work system is made up of two jointly independent, but correlative interacting systems - the social and the technical.

The technical system is concerned with the processes, tasks, and technology needed to transform inputs to outputs.  Aims to improve task accomplishment.

The social system is concerned with the attributes of people (e.g., attitudes, skills, values), the relationships among people, reward systems, and authority structure. Aims to improve quality of working life (QWL).

MIS is viewed as an intervention strategy: to enter in an on-going work system for improving.

STS approach to MIS argues that any intervention must deal with both technical and social goals, simultaneously.

The CONDITIONS responsible for inadequate design are listed as follows:

1- Systems Designer's Implicit Theories:

Systems designers clearly make assumptions about people, organizations and change process. These assumptions affect which design alternatives are considered and chosen.

2- Systems Designer's Concept of Responsibility:

The critical question is "Who is responsible for the change effort?"

Currently, systems designers are the ones taking responsibility for the