BUS337 – Business Computing

1. Business computing and the digital economy

2. eBusiness and eCommerce
3. Digital collaborations
4. Business systems and Enterprise Resource Planning
5. IT strategy and competitive advantage
6. Business intelligence
7. (Big) data analytics
8. Mobile, wireless and cloud computing
9. The crowd economy
10. Government computing

Week 1: Business computing and the digital economy

Digital firm – one in which nearly all of the organisation’s significant business relationships with customers,
suppliers, and employees are digitally enabled and mediated. Core business processes are accomplished through
digital networks spanning the entire organisation or linking multiple organisations.

Business processes – set of logically related tasks and behaviours that organisations develop over time to produce
specific business results and the unique manner in which these activities are organized and coordinated. Ways
organisations accomplish their business processes can be a source of competitive strength.
1
Digital economy and the transformation of today’s business
 Core business processes accomplished through digital networks
 Key corporate assets are managed digitally
 New workplaces and flexibility in digital collaborations (time and space shifting)
 The “social business” is happening
 Business relationships digitally enabled and managed
 IT as an enabler of globalization, foreign trade and outsourcing
 Emerging mobile platforms and ecosystems
o replacing the PC as a business system?
o growth in cloud computing and network connectivity
 Growing business use of “big” and new forms of data
o business intelligence applications growing more powerful data analytics and
o interactive dashboards
data insights from many sources of unstructured data (e.g. web traffic data, social data)
o Artificial intelligence grows from data-intensive applications
 Co-creation of business value and the “crowd” economy
o collaborations with suppliers and customers
o new phenomena of crowd sourcing, crowd funding and crowd labour

Why invest heavily in the digital firm?

1. Operational excellence and improved decision making:
 general impacts of automation on efficiency, productivity, cost reduction
 real time data and interactive dashboards
 better forecasts and supply chain management
2. IT as a major enabler of new products, services, and business models:
 digital ecosystems (e.g. Apple’s iOS, Google Android)
 new services and business models (e.g. online streaming, AirBnB)
3. Customer and supplier intimacy
 serving customers better, stronger relationships with suppliers.
4. Competitive advantage and survival.

What is an “information system”?

Defining elements of information systems:

 They are a set of interrelated components (hardware, software)
 They collect, process, store, and distribute information
 They support decision making, coordination, and control
 They transform streams of raw facts (data) to meaningful form (information)
 An information system can be defined technically as a set of interrelated components that collect (or
retrieve), process, store, and distribute information to support decision making and control in an
organization. Information systems may also help managers and workers analyse problems, visualize complex
subjects, and create new products.
 Information systems contain information about significant people, places, and things within the organization
or in the environment surrounding it.
o By information we mean data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to
human beings.
o Data, in contrast, are streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the
physical environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can
understand and use.

2
  Three activities in an information system
produce the information that
organizations need to make decisions,
control operations, analyse problems, and
create new products or services.
 These activities are input, processing, and
output. Input captures or collects raw
data from within the organization or from
its external environment.
 Processing converts this raw input into a
meaningful form.
 Output transfers the processed
information to the people who will use it
or to the activities for which it will be
used.
 Information systems also require
feedback, which is output that is returned to appropriate members of the organization to help them
evaluate or correct the input stage.
 Management information systems (MIS) tries to achieve broader information systems literacy. MIS deals
with behavioural issues as well as technical issues surrounding the development, use, and impact of
information systems used by managers and employees in the firm.

What’s new in MIS?

 IT Innovations: cloud computing, the growth of mobile digital business platforms, business analytics, use of
social networks by managers.
 New business models: for instance, emergence of Netflix (Internet TV revolution) has challenged the
traditional dominance of TV show production; growing number of users.
 E-commerce expanding: $600 billion in 2016, predicted growth $900 billion in 2020; service based e-
commerce, not only goods. Mobile e-commerce hit $130 billion in 2016 and is growing at more than 30% a
year.
 Management changes: due to mobile devices managers are in continuous contact with their employees;
corporate collaboration tools enable information sharing and communication.
 Changes in firm and organizations: less emphasis on hierarchy and structure more emphasis on employees
taking on multiple roles, importance of competencies and skills rather than positon in the hierarchy.

Week 2: eBusiness and eCommerce

Business processes: refer to the manner in which work is organized, coordinated, and focused to produce a valuable
product or service; the collection of activities required to produce a product or service. These activities are
supported by flows of material, information, and knowledge among the participants in business processes. It also
refers to the unique ways in which organizations coordinate work, information, and knowledge, and the ways in
which management chooses to coordinate work. The performance of the firm depends on how well its business
processes are designed and coordinated. Can be a source of competitive advantage.

How information technology improves business processes?

 Information systems automate many steps in business processes that were formerly performed manually, such
as checking a client’s credit, or generating an invoice and shipping order.
 New technology can change the flow of information, making it possible for many more people to access and
share information, replacing sequential steps with tasks that can be performed simultaneously, and eliminating
delays in decision making.
 New information technology frequently changes the way a business works and supports entirely new business
models.
 Examples: Downloading a Kindle e-book from Amazon, buying a computer online at Best Buy, and downloading a
music track from iTunes are entirely new business processes based on new business models that would be
inconceivable without today’s information technology.
3
E-commerce
 E-Business: use of digital
technology and Internet to drive major
business processes
 E-Commerce (sub-concept of e-
business): buying and selling goods
and services through Internet.
 E-Government: using IT to deliver
information and services to citizens,
employees, and businesses
 E-commerce: began in 1995, it refers
to the use of the Internet and the
Web to transact business. E-
commerce is about digitally enabled
commercial transactions between and
among organizations and individuals;
transactions that occur over the
Internet and the Web. Commercial
transactions involve the exchange of
value (e.g., money) across
organizational or individual
boundaries in return for products and
services.
 Retail e-commerce revenues grew 15–
25 percent per year until the
recession of 2008–2009, when they
slowed measurably. In 2016, e-
commerce revenues are growing
again at an estimated 15 percent
annually.
 The new e-commerce is social, mobile, local: from “eyeballs” to “conversations”; from desktops to smartphones

Global and digital marketplaces

 Dramatic reduction of cost, radical transparency of information, highly volatile pricing,
 Reduce information asymmetry (everyone knows everything)
 Greater flexibility and efficiency due to:
o reduced search costs and transaction costs
o lower menu costs (merchants’ costs of changing prices)
o greater price discrimination,
o dynamic pricing (the price of a product varies depending on the demand characteristics of the customer
or the supply situation of the seller)
o market segmentation easier to achieve than in traditional markets
o stronger network effects
 New digital markets may either reduce or increase switching costs, depending on the nature of the product or
service being sold, and they may cause some extra delay in gratification (opózniona koszulka)
 Digital markets provide many opportunities to sell directly to the consumer, bypassing intermediaries, such as
distributors or retail outlets. Eliminating intermediaries in the distribution channel can significantly lower
purchase transaction costs.
 To pay for all the steps in a traditional distribution channel, a product may have to be priced as high as 135
percent of its original cost to manufacture.
 By selling directly to consumers or reducing the number of intermediaries, companies are able to raise profits
while charging lower prices. The removal of organizations or business process layers responsible for
intermediary steps in a value chain is called disintermediation.

4
 Disintermediation is affecting the market for services. Airlines and hotels operating their own reservation sites
online earn more per ticket because they have eliminated travel agents as intermediaries.

Types of e-commerce
Three major types by demand and supply:
 Business-to-consumer (B2C)
o Example: Amazon, Argos, Tesco, Asos, Aom.com many many more!
 Business-to-business (B2B)
o Example: ChemConnect (not any more), TradeKey, Amazon Business
 Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
o Examples: Craiglist, eBay, Gumtree, other online auction sites

E-commerce can be categorized by platform:

 Mobile commerce (m-commerce)
 Social commerce (s-commerce)

E-Commerce business models

1. Portal: content aggregator, first point of entry; home page (Google, Yahoo)
2. E-tailer: sells physical products directly, online retail stores (B2B and B2C examples, Amazon); will generate
$24 billion in 2017, growing at an estimate of 18% per year.
3. Content provider: provides own digital content (iTunes, Netflix)
4. Transaction broker: facilitates transactions on a fee basis; usually travel services (Expedia)
5. Market creator: provides a digital marketplace (C2C and B2B examples, eBay)
6. Service provider: online services, photo and video sharing, cloud storage, software download (Dropbox,
YouTube)
7. Community provider: digital networking and information sharing (most social media applications, Facebook)

E-Commerce revenue models

1. Sales revenue model: selling products or services directly to consumers or businesses (Amazon)
2. Advertising: exposing a large audience to advertisements; content on the web is free for visitors because
advertisers pay; companies will pay around $77 billion for online advertising in 2017
3. Subscription: subscriptions to services (Netflix 75 million customers in 2016)
4. Freemium/Preemium: basic services fee, subscribe for the rest (Spotify, Grammarly)
5. Transaction fee: fee for executing or enabling transaction
6. Affiliate: referral fees, send visitors to other websites in return for fee (personal blogs often contain links to
affiliate products).

E-commerce and marketing transformation

New ways to identify and communicate with customers.
 Long tail marketing:
o Ability to reach a large audience inexpensively o Internet advertising formats
o Website personalisation
 Behavioural targeting:
o Tracking online behaviour on websites and within apps
o Third –party cookies the major privacy concern
o EU cookie law in effect since 2012

M-commerce
 In 2014, 19% of all e-commerce but growing really fast
 Main areas of growth (exclusive of location-based services):
o Retail sales (Amazon, eBay, etc.)
o Sales of digital content (music, movies, series etc.)
o Banking, finance and account management apps
o Mobile display advertising (e.g. ads embedded in games, videos and social networks)

5
  Location-based services used by most smartphone owners (74%):
o Geosocial services (findings friends)
o Geoadvertising (finding places)
o Geoinformation (finding information, e.g. price of a house)
 The fastest growing location-based services are on-demand economy firms such as UBER, Airbnb.
 Other m-commerce services: apple pay, mobile banking.

Week 3: Digital collaborations

Collaboration is working with others to achieve shared and explicit goals. Collaboration focuses on task or mission
accomplishment and usually takes place in a business, or other organization, and between businesses.

How are information systems managed in organisations?

 The Information Systems or IT department is the unit responsible for information technology services:
o Often headed by a chief information officer (CIO). It includes programmers, systems analysts,
information systems managers
 End users:
o Representatives of other departments for whom applications are developed – usually have increasing
role in system design and development (e.g. agile methods)
 IT Governance:
o Strategies and policies for using IT in the organization
o Decision rights, accountability and organisation of information systems

How information technology changes organisations?

• Structure: size and other characteristic facilitate or hinder IT integration (e.g. many different user groups)
• Business processes: changes and automates standard operating procedures in many different ways
• Politics: affects people’s interests and viewpoints (e.g. work monitoring and access to information)
• Culture: changes the ways in which people work together and collaborate
• Environment: affects information flows with external stakeholders
(e.g. electronic data interchanges and makes it easier to switch suppliers)
• Management decisions: information changes how decisions are made (e.g. key performance indicators - KPI)

Collaboration and the social business

 Collaboration can be formal or informal with important IT implications
 Growing importance of collaboration:
o Changing nature of work
o Growth of professional work “interaction jobs”
o Changing organization and scope of the firm
o Emphasis on innovation and managerial flexibility
 Social business
o Many firms today enhance collaboration by embracing social business—the use of social networking
platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and internal corporate social tools—to engage their employees,
customers, and suppliers.
o Use of social networking platforms to deepen interactions and facilitate information sharing a working
norm in most professions
o Engage with a range of stakeholders like employees, customers, and suppliers; if firms could tune into
these conversations, they would strengthen their bonds with consumers, suppliers, and employees,
increasing their emotional involvement in the firm.
o Create “conversations” that require new levels of information transparency

Business benefits of collaboration and social business:

1. Productivity: people interacting and working together can capture expert knowledge and solve problems
more rapidly than the same number of people working in isolation from one another. There will be fewer
errors.

6
 2. Quality: People working collaboratively can communicate errors, and corrective actions faster than if they
work in isolation. social technologies help reduce time delays in design and production.
3. Innovation: People working collaboratively can come up with more innovative ideas for products, services,
and administration than the same number working in isolation from one another. Advantages to diversity
and the “wisdom of crowds.”
4. Customer service: People working together using collaboration and social tools can solve customer
complaints and issues faster and more
effectively than if they were working in
isolation from one another.
5. Financial performance (profitability, sales,
and sales growth): collaborative firms have
superior sales, sales growth, and financial
performance.

Building a collaborative culture and business

processes:
Collaboration won’t take place spontaneously in a
business firm, especially if there is no supportive
culture or business processes.

Tools for collaboration and teamwork:

 E-mail and instant messaging
 Knowledge management platforms
 Intranets and extranets
 Wikis (from the Hawaiian wiki wiki = very quick!): Wikis are a type of Web site that makes it easy for users to
contribute and edit text content and graphics without any knowledge of Web page development or
programming techniques
 Virtual worlds and virtual reality tools: to reduce travel expenses
 Collaboration and social business platforms
o Virtual meeting systems (telepresence)
o Cloud collaboration services (e.g. Google Drive) Google Drive is an example of a cloud-based cyberlocker
(online file-sharing services that allow users to upload files to secure online storage sites from which the
files can be shared with others). Other cyberlocker services: Dropbox and Microsoft SkyDrive.
o Enterprise social networking tools (e.g. Yammer)
o Intranets with social networking features (e.g. MS SharePoint, IBM Notes)
 Microsoft SharePoint is a browser-based collaboration and document management platform,
combined with a powerful search engine that is installed on corporate servers. SharePoint has a
Web-based interface and close integration with everyday tools such as Microsoft Office desktop
software products. SharePoint software makes it possible for employees to share their
documents and collaborate on projects using Office documents as the foundation. SharePoint
stores and organizes information in one place, users can find relevant information quickly and
efficiently while working together closely on tasks, projects, and documents.
 Intranets:
o Internal company Web sites accessible only by
employees
o Also used to increase integration and expedite
the flow of information
 Extranets:
o Company Web sites accessible externally only to
some stakeholders (usually vendors and
suppliers)
o Often used to coordinate supply chain activities

The time/space collaboration and social tool matrix

7
The collaboration and social technologies are ways of overcoming the limitations of time and space. Using this
time/space framework will help you to choose the most appropriate collaboration and teamwork tools for your firm.

Knowledge management systems

 Processes for capturing and applying knowledge and expertise, e.g. how to create, produce, deliver products and
services
 Collect and share internal knowledge and experience within firm
 Commonly in the form of a content management system or an internal network

Enterprise social networking is an organization's use of social media, internally and externally, to connect
individuals who share similar business interests or activities.
Important implications of enterprise social networking for:
 Access to and organisation of internal knowledge
 Internal systems of connectivity and control
 Professional profiling and relationships especially within large organisation

Capabilities of enterprise social networking (or social media)

 Profiles: internal networking in large organisations to help find work-related associations and expertise (e.g.
skills, projects, teams)
 Content sharing: share, store and manage content in many different forms (e.g. documents, presentations,
videos, emails, external content)
 Feeds and notifications: real-time information streams about status updates, announcements, new interactions
 Groups and team workspaces: establish groups to share information, collaborate on content and set up private
or public groups
 Tagging and social bookmarking: “linking”, sharing and classifying information
 Permissions and privacy: make sure information flows and nature of business relationships are maintained
according to company standards

Collaborating or just getting things done? (Weber and Shi, 2011)

 Theories of affordances: ESM afford users with visibility, persistence, editability and association -> these become
materialised into the everyday life of users
 Theories of social networks: range of theories to study how people connect and its implications for the nature of
work and collaboration
 Social capital theories: the intangible benefits that an individual receives from access to others (stronger
interpersonal connections).

Week 4: Business systems and Enterprise Resource Planning

o How information systems support the business processes of a firm? A business firm has systems to support
different groups or levels of management. These systems include transaction processing systems and systems for
business intelligence.
o All of these types of systems provide business intelligence that helps managers and enterprise employees make
more informed decisions. These systems for business intelligence serve multiple levels of management, and
include executive support systems (ESS) for senior management that provide data in the form of graphs, charts,
and dashboards delivered via portals using many sources of internal and external information

Transaction processing systems (TPS)

 Transaction processing system is a computerized system that performs and records the daily routine transactions
necessary to conduct business, such as sales order entry, hotel reservations, payroll, employee record keeping,
and shipping.
 Systems that serve operational managers and staff
8
 Perform and record daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business like sales order entry, payroll,
shipping, credit decisions
 Allow managers to monitor status of operations and relations with external environment
 Serve predefined, structured goals and decision making
 Short term decision making horizon

Business intelligence is a contemporary term for data and software tools for organizing, analysing, and providing
access to data to help managers and other enterprise users make more informed decisions. Business intelligence
systems for middle management help with monitoring, controlling, decision-making, and administrative activities.

Management information systems (MIS) provide middle managers with reports on the organisation’s current
performance. This information is used to monitor and control the business and predict future performance.

Decision-support systems (DSS) focus on problems that are unique and rapidly changing, for which the procedure
for arriving at a solution may not be fully predefined in advance. For instance: what would be the impact on
production schedules if we were to double sales in the month of December?

DSS use internal information from TPS and MIS, they often bring in information from external sources, such as
current stock prices or product prices of competitors. These systems are employed by “super-user” managers and
business analysts who want to use sophisticated analytics and models to analyse data.

Executive support systems (ESS)

 Support senior management
 Support non-routine decisions usually in long term horizon
 Requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight
 Incorporate data about external events (e.g. new tax laws or competitors) as well as summary information from
MIS and DSS
 Example: digital dashboard with real-time view of firm’s financial performance: working capital, accounts
receivable, accounts payable, cash flow, and inventory

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, to integrate business processes in manufacturing and production,
finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and human resources into a single software system.
Information that was previously fragmented in many different systems is stored in a single comprehensive data
repository where it can be used by many different parts of the business.

Leading enterprise software vendors include SAP, Oracle, IBM, Infor Global Solutions, and Microsoft. There are
versions of enterprise software packages designed for small and medium-sized businesses and on-demand versions,
including software services running in the cloud.

Three main features of ERPs:

1. Suite of integrated software modules and a common central database
2. Collects data from many divisions of firm for use in nearly all of firm’s internal business activities
3. Information entered in one process is immediately available for other processes

Business value of enterprise systems:

 Increase operational efficiency
 Integration with legacy applications
 Provide firm-wide information to support decision making
 Rapid responses to customer requests for information or products
 Include analytical tools to evaluate performance

How are enterprise applications taking advantage of new technologies?

 Enterprise applications are now more flexible, Web-enabled, and capable of integration with other systems,
using Web services and service-oriented architecture (SOA).

9
 They also have open source and on-demand versions and are able to run in cloud infrastructures or on mobile
platforms.
 CRM software has added social networking capabilities to enhance internal collaboration, deepen interactions
with customers, and utilize data from social networking sites. Open source, mobile, and cloud versions of some
of these products are becoming available.

What are the challenges posed by enterprise applications?

 Highly expensive to purchase and difficult implement
 Requires technology/ business process changes and organisational learning
 Careful assessment of how these systems will enhance organizational performance
 Switching costs high -> dependence on software vendors
 Data standardization, management, cleansing non-trivial steps

Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM)

Firms use CRM systems to help manage their relation- ships with their customers. CRM systems provide information
to coordinate all of the business processes that deal with customers in sales, marketing, and service to optimize
revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. This information helps firms identify, attract, and retain the
most profitable customers; provide better service to existing customers; and increase sales.

CRM systems:
 Capture and integrate customer data from all over the organisation
 Consolidate and analyse customer data
 Distribute customer information to various systems and customer touch points across enterprise
 Provide single enterprise view of customers
 Major CRM application software vendors include Oracle, SAP, Salesforce.com, and Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Typical CRM functions:

 Partner relationship management (PRM)
o PRM uses many of the same data, tools, and systems as customer relation- ship management to enhance
collaboration between a company and its selling partners.
o If a company does not sell directly to customers but rather works through distributors or retailers, PRM
helps these channels sell to customers directly
o Integrating lead generation, pricing, promotions, order configurations, and availability
o Tools to assess partners’ performances
 Employee relationship management (ERM)
o Setting objectives, employee performance management, performance-based compensation, employee
training
o ERM software deals with employee issues that are closely related to CRM, such as setting objectives,
employee performance management, performance-based compensation, and employee training.
 Sales force automation (SFA)
o Sales prospect and contact information, sales quote generation capabilities
o systems help sales staff increase their productivity by focusing sales efforts on the most profitable
customers, those who are good candidates for sales and services.
 Customer service
o Assigning and managing customer service requests, Web-based self-service capabilities
o tools to increase the efficiency of call centres, help desks, and customer support staff.
 Marketing
o Capturing prospect and customer data, scheduling and tracking direct marketing mailings or email,
o cross-selling: is the marketing of complementary products to customers.

Business value of CRM software:

 Increased customer satisfaction and sales revenue
 Reduced direct marketing costs
 More effective marketing
 Lower costs for customer acquisition/retention
10
  Indicator of growth or decline of firm’s customer base
 Managing complicating social conversations or interactions happening in multiple spaces
 Information from CRM systems increases sales revenue by identifying the most profitable customers and
segments for focused marketing and cross-selling.
 Customer churn is reduced as sales, service, and marketing better respond to customer needs. The churn
rate measures the number of customers who stop using or purchasing products or services from a company.
It is an important indicator of the growth or decline of a firm’s customer base.

Week 5: IT strategy and competitive advantage

Should business strategy drive IT strategy?

Aligning IT with business objectives is a difficult process involving careful decisions and big investments
Business system integration  usually involving substantial changes in business processes, especially when it comes
to ERP systems

PORTER’S COMPETITIVE FORCES MODEL  industry level analysis

 Competitive rivalry:
Competitor balance – when the competitors are the same size there is intensive competition as one of
them wants to gain dominance over another; when there are two dominants or one in the market
competition tend to be less intensive
Industry growth rate – in situation of strong growth organization grow with the market; when there is
low growth or decline there is price competition and low profitability
High fixed costs – companies with high fixed costs tend to be highly rivalrous, thus they start price wars
from which everyone in industry suffer
High exit barriers – high costs of getting rid of machinery and equipment as anyone else would not buy it
Low differentiation – there is little to stop customers to switch between different competitors and only
way to compete is on price
 The threat of entry:
Scale and experience – existence of economies of scale; when there are high investments requirements it
stops companies from entering the market as it may be difficult to compete with big, mass producing
competitors; experienced companies know how to cut costs so they have advantage over new entrants
Access to supply or distribution channels – existing companies have control over suppliers as they
possess them (vertical integration) or because suppliers are loyal
Expected retaliation – the number of sales of existing companies may prevent new entrant as they may
believe that entry will be too costly
Legislation or government action – patent protection, market regulations or tariffs, etc.
Differentiation – providing products with higher perceived value that competitors – it reduces barriers to
entry because of increasing customer loyalty
 The threat of substitutes:
The price/performance ratio – substitute is still an effective threat even if more expensive, so long as it
offers performance advantages that customers value; ratio is more important than price itself
Extra-industry effects – substitution concept is to force managers to look outside their own industry to
consider more distant threats and constraints; the higher the threat of substitution, the less attractive the
industry is likely to be
 The power of buyers:
Concentrated buyers – when a few large customers account for most of sales buyers power is increased
Low switching costs – when buyer can easily switch between suppliers they have strong negotiating
position and can squeeze suppliers
Buyer competition threat – when there is possibility of backward vertical integration (buyers supply by
themselves) it increase buyers power in negotiations
 The power of suppliers:
Concentrated suppliers – when there are only a few suppliers they have greater power than buyers
High switching costs – when it is expensive to switch between suppliers buyers become relatively
dependant and weak
Suppliers competition threat – suppliers have increased power where they are able to cut out buyers

11
 who are acting as intermediaries; forward vertical integration – ability to exclude the buyer

Existence of sixth force implies that companies are complementators rather than competitors, what means that they
can help each other by making their products more attractive to customers; e.g. McAfee security makes Microsoft
more appealing to customers, as they know that their computer will be protected; so if both companies inform each
other about updates etc. they both can benefit from it.

Information system strategies use for Generic strategies:

 Cost leadership – becoming lowest-cost organization in a domain of activity Primark; Lidl
 Input costs – labour or raw materials – seeking low cost by offshoring to countries with cheap labour
or locating near to sources of raw materials
 Economies of scale – it is important to reach output level equivalent to the minimum efficient scale
 Experience – the more experience the organisation has, the more efficient it becomes what leads to
cost reduction, increased efficiency of staff & efficient design of equipment
 Entry time to market – early entrants have more experience than late entrants
 Gain and hold market share – companies with higher market share have more ‘cumulative
experience’ because of their greater volumes
 Improvement continues over time – with time company learns how to be more efficient thus costs
decrease
 Product/process design – building product form cheap components; cheap ways of interacting with
customers; important to consider whole-life cost to customers – not only cost of buying but also cost
of maintaining
 Walmart’s inventory replenishment system
 Efficient customer response system (Walmart as well)
 Differentiation – involves uniqueness along some dimension that is sufficiently valued by customers to allow
a price premium BMW; Mercedes-Benz
 Strategic customer – finding a distinctive means of prioritising customers
 Key competitors – being aware of competitors that may attract the same customers for the lower
price not drawing boundaries for comparison too tightly, concentrating on a particular niche
 Use of information systems to enable new products and services– Google (introducing new systems
and search engines as google maps); Ebay bought PayPal; Apple introduced iPod and iTunes music
 Mass customization – creating personalized products – NIKEiD customized shoes
 Focus strategies – targets a narrow segment or domain of activity and tailors its products or services to the
needs of that specific segment to the exclusion of others
 Cost focus – identify areas where broader cost-based strategies fail because of the added costs of
trying to satisfy a wide range of needs Iceland foods; Ryanair
 Differentiation focus – look for specific needs that broader differentiators do not serve so well focus
on one particular need helps to build specialist knowledge and technology, increases commitment to
service and can improve brand recognition and customer loyalty Fairphone; ARM

12
  Key factors for success of focus strategies:
Distinct segment needs – when there is not possible to differentiate segment needs, focus
strategies are not so successful
Distinct segment value chains – focus strategies are strengthened if they have distinctive value
chains that will be difficult or costly for rivals to construct
Viable segment economics – segments can easily become too small to serve economically as
demand or supply conditions change
 Information systems enable companies to analyse multiple factors – Hilton Hotels, determining
guests’ preferences
 Customer and supplier intimacy – increasing switching costs (Netflix offer you recommendations, so when
you switch all recommendations will be gone) – all loyalty programmes etc

Porter’s requirements for cost-based strategies states that business cost structure have to be lowest cost
(competitive advantage). However, low cost should not be pursed in total disregard to quality. Cost-leaders options
are parity (equivalence) with competitors in product or service features valued by customers or proximity (closeness)
to competitors in terms of features. Differentiation allows higher prices but also costs are higher than those of
average competitors.

The value chain: where to apply the competitive strategies

 Primary activities – directly concerned with the creation or delivery of a product or service:
o Inbound logistics – activities concerned with receiving, storing and distributing inputs to the product
or service  automated warehousing systems
o Operations – transform these inputs into the final product or service  computer-controlled
machining systems
o Outbound logistics – collect, store and distribute the product or service to customers  automated
shipment scheduling systems
o Marketing and sales – provide the means whereby consumers or users are made aware of the
product or service and are able to purchase it  computerized ordering systems
o Service – includes those activities that enhance or maintain the value of a product or service 
equipment maintenance systems
 Support activities – help to improve the effectiveness or efficiency of primary activities
o Procurement – processes that occur in many parts of the organisation for acquiring the various
resource inputs to the primary activities  computerized ordering systems
o Technology development – all value activities have a ‘technology’, even if it is just know-how 
computer-aided design systems
o Human resource management – transcends all primary activities and is concerned with recruiting,
managing, training, developing and rewarding people within the organisation  workforce planning
systems
o Infrastructure (administration and Management)– The formal systems of planning, finance, quality
control, information management and the structure of an organisation  electronic scheduling and
messaging systems

Value web???

The resource-based view of strategy

 The resource-based view (RBV) of strategy asserts that the competitive advantage and superior performance
of an organisation are explained by the distinctiveness of its capabilities
 The resources and capabilities of an organisation contribute to its long-term survival and potentially to
competitive advantage
 It is sometimes also called the ‘capabilities view’

Benchmarking - a means of understanding how an organisation compares with others – typically competitors
Two approaches to benchmarking:

13
  Industry/sector benchmarking - comparing performance against other organisations in the same
industry/sector against a set of performance indicators.
 Best-in-class benchmarking - comparing an organisation’s performance or capabilities against ‘best-in-class’
performance – wherever that is found even in a very different industry.

Synergies – when the output of some units can be used as input to other units
Core competencies – an activity for which a firm is a world-class leader

In many industries, digital solutions have become a matter of survival rather than competitive advantage, so
sustaining competitive advantage becomes even more difficult than before. For this reason aligning IT with business
objectives and managing strategic transition is crucial

Network-based strategy:
 Network economics – sth as economies of scale but building a network – adding more subscribers doesn’t
rise the cost but increase the gain
 Virtual company
 Business ecosystem
o Value co-creation is very common in digital services  multiple industries work together to deliver
value to the customer
o Industry sets of firms providing related services and products (e.g. software developers)
o Keystone firms: dominate ecosystems by creating platforms used by other firms (e.g. operating
systems like Windows or OSX)
o Niche firms: rely on platform developed by keystone firm
o Individual firms can consider how IT will help them become profitable niche players in larger
ecosystems
o IT plays an important role in enabling a dense network of interactions among the participating firms

Business Model (HBR article)

 The way of doing business but not only in terms generating profit or revenue structures
 Business mode links strategy with operations by describing how the business creates value  not the same
as operational model
 Describes the structure of product, service and information flows and the roles of the participating parties
 Once established are often taken for granted. Models can become institutionalised and form a ‘recipe’ for
the industry
 Even if competitors share a business model their strategies may still differ. e.g. Airbnb have differentiation
advantages based on their size and network effects even though others use the same model
 Can help us understand why and how strategies succeed or not in practice
 Useful to capitalise on a new technology by wrapping it a new business model around it
 Help link business strategy with operations
 Business model example: Primark
o Value proposition: to provide a wide range of clothing options at the cheapest possible price in the
B2C markets, ‘fast fashion’ added values. The target costumers are both locals and visitors in every
market.
o Profit formula: low margin per item aiming at bulk purchases, e.g. selling density twice as much
H&M. Clear implementation of cost leadership strategies based on economies of scale.
o Key resources: store size and organisation, massive speedy production in vast numbers while serving
the whole range of the market, minimum labour skills
o Key processes: a range of processes to maximise clothes sold per square foot, ruthless cost
cutting/control to improve efficiency in retail operations, e.g. no complication from customer
services, low implementation of e-commerce options to avoid complicated supply chains.

14
Week 6: Business intelligence

Business intelligence

 “Business intelligence (BI)” is a term used by hardware and software vendors and information technology
consultants to describe the infrastructure for warehousing, integrating, reporting, and analysing data that comes
from the business environment, including big data. The foundation infrastructure collects, stores, cleans, and
makes relevant information available to managers.
 Includes databases, data warehouses, data marts and delivery platforms so that they right users can see the right
data
 Shortly: infrastructure for collecting, storing, analysing data produced by business

BI features capabilities and tools to manage and analyse large quantities of data produced by the business:

15
 includes different types of data from multiple sources
 easy-to-use query and reporting tools for casual business users
 more sophisticated analytical toolsets for power users (analytics)
 BI is essentially a gradual progress of database capabilities within organisations pushed by new tools that allow
data integration with less effort

Business analytics
 Analytics is the discovery of meaningful patterns in data.
 Business analytics are tools and techniques for analysing data:
 Online analytical processing (OLAP) supports viewing data using multiple dimensions
o Each aspect of information (product, pricing, cost, region, time period) is different dimension
o Quick answers to ad hoc queries, e.g. how many bikes we sold in Bristol last December compared with
London?
 Data mining are techniques of finding hidden patterns, relationships in datasets and predicting behaviours (e.g.
product associations)
 Text mining extracts key elements from large unstructured data sets
 Location analytics and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
 Business analytics are heavily based on traditional statistics
 Big data: phenomenon associated with the large growth of volume, velocity and variety of data-intensive
applications

 Business intelligence and analytics are about integrating all the information streams produced by a firm into a
single, coherent enterprise-wide set of data;
 and then, using modelling, statistical analysis tools (like normal distributions, correlation and regression analysis,
Chi square analysis, forecasting, and cluster analysis), and data mining tools (pattern discovery and machine
learning), to make sense out of all these data so managers can make better decisions and better plans, or at least
know quickly when their firms are failing to meet planned targets.

Main functionalities of BI systems:

1. Delivering accurate real-time information to decision makers when they need it and in forms that are usable
2. Predefined production reports based on industry specific requirements
3. Parameterised reports for ad hoc analysis, Users enter several parameters as in a pivot tableto filter data
and isolate impacts of parameters.
4. Dashboards/scorecards visual tools for visualising data
5. Ad hoc query/search/report creation: allow users to create their own reports based on queries/searches
6. Drill down ability to move from higher level summary to more detailed views
7. Forecasts, scenarios, models: the ability to perform linear forecasting, what-if scenario analysis, and analyse
data using standard statistical tools.

The largest five providers of these products are Oracle, SAP, IBM, Microsoft, and SAS.
Microsoft’s products are aimed at small to medium-sized firms, and they are based on desktop tools familiar to
employees (such as Excel spreadsheet software), Microsoft SharePoint collaboration tools, and Microsoft SQL Server
database software.

According to the International Data Corporation, the global business intelligence and analytics market was $35.1
billion in 2012 and is expected to reach $50.7 billion by 2016 (Kern, 2012). This makes business intelligence and
business analytics one of the fastest growing and largest segments in the U.S. software market.

Six elements in this business intelligence environment:

1. Data from the business environment: Businesses must deal with both structured and unstructured data from
many different sources, including big data. The data need to be integrated and organized so that they can be
analysed and used by human decision makers.

16
2. Business intelligence infrastructure: The underlying foundation of business intelligence is a powerful database
system that captures all the relevant data to operate the business. The data may be stored in transactional
databases or combined and integrated into an enterprise-data warehouse or series of interrelated data marts.
3. Business analytics toolset: A set of software tools are used to analyse data and produce reports, respond to
questions posed by managers, and track the progress of the business using key indicators of performance.
4. Managerial users and methods: Business intelligence hardware and software are only as intelligent as the
human beings who use them. Managers impose order on the analysis of data using a variety of managerial
methods that define strategic
business goals and specify how
progress will be measured. These
include business performance
management and balanced
scorecard approaches focusing on
key performance indicators and
industry strategic analyses focusing
on changes in the general business
environment, with special attention
to competitors. Without strong
senior management oversight,
business analytics can produce a
great deal of information, reports,
and online screens that focus on
the wrong matters and divert
attention from the real issues.
5. Delivery platform—MIS, DSS, ESS:
The results from business
intelligence and analytics are
delivered to managers and
employees in a variety of ways, depending on what they need to know to perform their jobs. MIS, DSS, and ESS
deliver information and knowledge to different people and levels in the firm—operational employees, middle
managers, and senior executives. In the
past, these systems could not share data
and operated as independent systems.
Today, one suite of hardware and
software tools in the form of a business
intelligence and analytics package is able
to integrate all this information and
bring it to managers’ desktop or mobile
platforms.
6. User interface: Business analytics
software suites emphasize visual
techniques such as dashboards and
scorecards. They also are able to deliver
reports on BlackBerrys, iPhones, and
other mobile handhelds as well as on the
firm’s Web portal. BA software is adding
capabilities to post information on Twitter, Facebook, or internal social media to support decision making in an
online group setting rather than in a face-to-face meeting.

Who Uses Business Intelligence and Business Analytics?

 Over 80% of the audience for BI consists of casual users who rely largely on production reports.
 Senior executives tend to use BI to monitor firm activities using visual interfaces like dashboards and scorecards.

17
 Middle managers and analysts are much more likely to be immersed in the data and software, entering queries
and slicing and dicing the data along different dimensions.
 Operational employees will, along with customers and suppliers, be looking mostly at pre-packaged reports.

Production Reports: the most widely used output of a BI suite of tools are pre-packaged production reports.
Examples of business intelligence predefined production reports:
 Sales: Forecast sales; sales team performance; cross selling; sales cycle times
 Service/Call Centre: Customer satisfaction; service cost; resolution rates; churn rates
 Marketing: Campaign effectiveness; loyalty and attrition; market basket analysis
 Financials: General ledger; accounts receivable and payable; cash flow; profitability
 Human Resources: Employee productivity; compensation; workforce demographics; retention

Predictive analytics use statistical analysis, data mining techniques, historical data, and assumptions about future
conditions to predict future trends and behaviour patterns.
Predictive analytics are being incorporated into numerous business intelligence applications for sales, marketing,
finance, fraud detection, and health care. One of the most well-known applications is credit scoring, which is used
throughout the financial services industry.

Big Data Analytics:

Companies such as Walmart, Netflix, and eBay are analysing big data from their customer transactions and social
media streams to create real-time personalized shopping experiences.

Week 8: (Big) data analytics

 Big data: phenomenon associated with the large growth of volume, velocity and variety of data-intensive
applications
 The big data movement, like analytics before it, seeks to glean intelligence from data and translate that into
business advantage.
 Predictive analytics are starting point to use big data from private and public sectors. Including data from social
media, customers transactions, output form sensors and machines.
 On average, less than 1% of and organisation’s unstructured data are analysed or used at all.
 More than 70% of employees have access to data they should not
 80% of analysts’ time is spent simply discovering and preparing data
 Limited by stakeholder interests beyond operational efficiency
 Underestimating the development of organisational models and underlying capabilities
 Limited by dominant, traditional business models where making sense of new forms of data is difficult

The 3Vs of Big Data:

1. Volume
a. More data cross the internet every second than were stored in the entire internet just 20 years ago.
b. Datasets easily extend to petabytes or the equivalent of about 20 million filing cabinets’ worth of text.
2. Velocity
a. For many applications, the speed of data creation is even more important than the volume.
b. Real-time or nearly real-time information makes it possible for a company to be much more agile than its
competitors
3. Variety
a. Big data takes the form of messages, updates, content posted to social networks, readings from sensors
(Internet of Things), GPS signals from cell phones and more
b. Many of the most important sources of big data are relatively newànew data are also big!

Additional Vs:

 Veracity
o Trustworthiness of the data in terms of quality and accuracy
18
 o Does volume make up for the lack of quality or accuracy? Sometimes yes!
o Example: if you classify the sentiment of a million tweets not all of them will be right but the overall will
be accurate and will probably fluctuate accurately over time
 Value
o Enthusiasm about big data but the business value not always evident
o Not all big data applications can generate value or good value (compared to costs)
o Value is not about the data itself what we do with them
 Visualisation
o Visualisations have become very important in our understanding of big data
o Infographic = information graphic
 Variability (or validity)
o Variation in the meaning of the data on the top of diversity in sources and technical formats
o e.g. if you call something ‘great’ in a tweet it can be either positive or ironical
o Metadata = data about the data

Applications of big data analytics

 Retailing: real-time personalised shopping experiences ( e-commerce - Netflix, Amazon, eBay)
 Smart cities: regulatory and planning data, city analytics
 Sports analytics: formula one sensors, football and basketball data analytics
 Finance and banking (Fintech): fraud detection, credit scoring, stock markets
 Big science: how do particles behave?
 Predictive analytics: using a variety of data and techniques to predict future trends and behaviour patterns
o Can Twitter data predict the stock market or election results?
 Numerous other applications incorporated in BI environments like sales, marketing, health care, credit scoring,
responses to marketing campaigns

Operational analytics
 Not doing new things but really improving what we need to do:
o Predicting product demand by combining enterprise with social media data
o Car data for insurance companies to understand how well their customers actually drive instead of
predicting from general factors (e.g. age)
o Optimising business processes like recruitment and supply chains
o Transport optimisation: traffic data to control lights, TFL data
‘Small data’: more actionable data for everyday tasks, e.g. targeting costumers
 Many aspects of big data are about having more data to apply our classic statistics or predictive models

Big data criticism:

 As all major technological advancements, big data is neither good nor bad
 Myth: large data sets offer a higher form of intelligence and knowledge that can generate insights that were
previously impossible.
 Bigger data are not always better data, consider sampling and representations limitations (e.g. Twitter data does
not represent everyone, not even all Twitter users!)
 Taken out of context, behavioural data might mean little (e.g. Facebook friends might have little to do with real
life friends)
 Ethical and privacy considerations – are social media data ‘public’ data?
 Access to data creates new digital divides – especially when it comes to market and academic research

SPRAWDZIC CZY TU JEST TO WSZYSTKO!

Relationships between business intelligence, business analytics and big data
Applications of big data analytics
Business value and value creation from big data applications
The Vs of big data and how they relate to value, how these different dimensions are critical for different
applications
Critical issues around the use and usefulness of big data including paper on QMplus
19
Week 9: Mobile, wireless and cloud computing

Cloud computing

Cloud computing is a model of computing in which computer processing, storage, software, and other services are
provided as a pool of virtualized resources over a network, primarily the Internet. These “clouds” of computing
resources can be accessed on an as-needed basis from any connected device and location.

Essential characteristics of cloud computing:

1. On-demand self-service: Consumers can obtain computing capabilities such as server time or network storage as
needed automatically on their own.
2. Ubiquitous network access: Cloud resources can be accessed using standard network and Internet devices,
including mobile platforms.
3. Location-independent resource pooling: Computing resources are pooled to serve multiple users, with different
virtual resources dynamically assigned according to user demand. The user generally does not know where the
computing resources are located.
4. Rapid elasticity: Computing resources can be rapidly provisioned, increased, or decreased to meet changing user
demand.
5. Measured service: Charges for cloud resources are based on amount of resources actually used.

 On-demand (utility) computing services or virtualised resources obtained over networks – usually the Internet
 Businesses and employees have access to applications and IT infrastructure anywhere, at any time, and on any
device
 Evolution and upscaling of ‘web services’
 Three main types of cloud computing services:
o Infrastructure as a service (IaaS): virtual machines, servers, storage
o Platform as a service (PaaS): environment for application development
o Software as a service (SaaS): on-demand software like emails, games etc.

Cloud computing - benefits and concerns

Benefits and potential: Drawbacks and limitations:

 Cost savings from large IT investments the main  Security concerns (heard about those lost iCloud
benefit photos?)
 Ubiquitous access and integration with devices  Reliability and network access are critical
 Large and instant availability  Technical complexities like interoperability and
standards

What makes mobile devices so special?

1. Portability: smartphones of up to 7in screens and tablet computers usually in the range of 7-10.1in are highly
portable social and work stations
2. Interoperability and file sharing using cloud or other synchronisation services.
3. Constant connectivity using Wi-Fi and mobile Internet networks
4. Social presence, networking and information sharing applications in addition to voice calls and traditional short
text messages
5. Personalisation and customisation features like widgets, notifications, reminders and advanced applications for
taking notes (e.g. Evernote)
6. Location-aware services that support a series of geographical tagging features but also raise privacy concerns
7. Contactless payments using Near Field Communication (NFC)

Wireless computing
20
Our world has gone wireless mainly due to the following:
 Cellular systems
o Third-generation (3G) networks (144 Kbps)
o Fourth-generation (4G) network (up to 100 Mbps!)
 Bluetooth (IEEE specification 802.15)
o Links up to 8 devices in 10-m area using low-power, radio-based communication
 Wi-Fi (IEEE specification 802.11)
o Used for wireless LAN and wireless Internet access
o Use access points: device with radio receiver/transmitter for connecting wireless devices to a wired LAN

The mobile ecosystem

 Smartphones (iPhone, Android, Windows Phone Blackberry)
 Tablets (screens from 7 to 13 inches, mobile data optional)
 Phablets (phone + tablet, screen sizes 5.1 to 6.99)
 Networked e-readers or players (Kindle, Nook, iPod)
 Wearable devices (smart watches, smart glasses)

Comparison of Android vs. iOS as business ecosystems

Google Android – an open ecosystem

 The largest operating system of any kind based on installations, users and devices
 Android is a linux-based open source system developed by Google
 Most applications written in Java –> high interoperability standards, resource-intensive
 Google Play is the main market for applications with over one millions apps offered since 2013 – limited
restrictions for developers
 Used by manufacturers like HTC, Samsung, Huawei, Motorola, Asus, LG Electronics, ZTE, Sony, Xiaomi
 Google Nexus and Pixel devices offer a pure Android experience other manufacturers adapt the system to their
own needs

Apple iOS – a (rather) closed ecosystem

 iOS is based on Mac OS X that is a certified UNIX that has similarities with the UNIX-like Android system
 Apple controls the ecosystem based on high quality standards, high integration of software/hardware
 “People who are serious about software should make their own hardware”
 Apple takes a flat 30% of developers’ revenue and closely controls
 application standards
 Applications are developed in Objective-C and more recently using Apple's programming language Swift

Bring Your Own Device - known as BYOD

 Allowing employees to use personal mobile devices in workplace

 This can range from own laptops to smartphones or tablets
 In many organisations, BYOD associated with hot desking
 Security and data ownership concerns
 Integration of BYOD and cloud computing
 BYOD policies have been implemented in many organisations

Week 10: The crowd economy

Crowd economy – working together with other people to achieve sth together
Sharing economy – sharing sth yours with other people to get benefits (Uber, AirBnb)

Crowdsourcing:

21
  Definition: “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and
outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call”
 Basic premise is that IT allows ideas and efforts to be openly shared over the Internet and facilitates new
forms of connections
 Related to the concepts of open innovation, co-creation, collective intelligence, user innovation and open
source
 Includes activities like innovation contests, idea evaluation, voting, fund collection (crowdfunding),
knowledge generation (e.g. Wikipedia), micro-tasks executed by large paid crowds (crowd labour), policy and
regulatory input (e.g. Red Tape Challenge), crowd science (e.g. Galaxy Zoo), crowd journalism
 Crowdfunding:
o The Internet has always been about raising monetary contributions from large audiences
o Crowdfunding involves from community projects and charitable giving to new product development
and highly innovative ideas
o Usually involves ‘perks’ like a special edition of the product or the first X products if developed
o Finding the right “crowd” can be helpful as a marketing tool in addition to fund raising
 Social or peer-to-peer lending
o Peer-to-peer or social lending is the practice of matching lenders and borrowers through a platform
that mediates the relationship
o The features of the platform highly affect the way capital is distributed and the management of risk
and interest
o More recently, such schemes have become more regulated and mainstream to the UK public via tax-
free allowance accounts (ISAs)
o The P2P lending platform Zopa exists since 2005, hence surviving the financial crisis of 2008 - 2009!

From creation to consumption: the sharing economy

 Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) platforms and applications
 Temporary access to a good without transfer of ownership
 Sharing physical assets based on an on-demand economy
 Sharing or access economy? This is about convenient new value propositions, not exactly sharing because
“low levels of trust between strangers when there is no market mediation”

Regulating the sharing economy

 Policy and regulation are usually slow and struggle to cope with fast evolving new technologies
 Enabling completely new value propositions but also disrupting traditional industries -> due to network
effects, risks of monopolies are evident
 Both Uber and AirBnB have not facilitated authorities on tax collection, banning illegal services and other
issues -> should they be regulated more?

Week 11: Government computing

 The World Bank defines e-government as “government-owned or operated systems of ICTs that transform
relations with citizens, the private sector and/or other government agencies so as to promote citizen
empowerment, improve service delivery, strengthen accountability, increase transparency, or improve
government efficiency”.
 The public sector includes all organisations involved in the delivery of public services (e.g. local government,
NHS, police)
 E-Government or digital government is about the use of IT in the public sector in a variety of contexts and
applications (e.g. online service delivery)
 We use “government computing” as a term that is directly comparable to business computing

Fundamentals of “government computing”

 The public sector has an obligation to be transparent as well as cost effective. There are no “commercial”
secrets about public services.
22
 Online public services should address the needs of all citizens and citizen groups, including meeting high
accessibility and usability standards.
 Although public sector organisations are not for-profit, they still seek efficiency in the execution and
coordination of business processes (e.g. using ERPs).
 Coordination and back-office integration are major challenges in the public sector. Changing organisational
structures and bureaucracies is difficult.
 The public sector is the guardian but also the generator of large amounts of data that need to be stored and
made accessible to the public in appropriate forms.

E-Government – the “front” office

 Advisory and public information online:

o agency, authority, departmental websites
o designed to provide clients/customers with guidance on how to access services
o specific warnings about service interruptions
o information about agency activity and performance
 Transactions online (e.g. applying for benefits, licences, passports, filling out tax forms)
o Government to Government (G2G)
o Government to Citizen (G2C)
o Government to Business (G2B)
o Integrated public sector service access centres online (gov.uk)
 Social media – especially Twitter
o announcements and news about advisory, transactions and public information
o increasingly, reputation management for managing public relations during crises, service failures

E-Government – the “back office”

 Client record systems and databases (e.g. police systems, courts, benefits and hospital patient record
management systems)
 Payment management systems (e.g. receipts, payables, fraud checking)
 Customer relations management systems (e.g. contact centre systems)
 Identity management systems (e.g. to avoid multiple registrations, detailed profiling of individuals)
 Client intelligence management systems (e.g. child protection social work staff)
 Enterprise systems (finance, HR etc)
 Knowledge management systems (e.g. policy evidence systems and other forms of digital collaborations)
 Data archiving systems
o Capture and archiving government websites for public access
o Capture and archiving confidential back-office information incl. emails (UK National Archives)

“Government as a Platform is a new vision for digital government; a common core infrastructure of shared
digital systems, technology and processes on which it’s easy to build brilliant, user-centric government
services.”

Open and big government data

 The public sector is one of the main generators but also the guardian data
 Public sector datasets have evolved to include large volumes of diverse sources of information:
 Datasets expanded as “big” from clickstreams, citizens’ use of government web sites, mobile devices
social media data and many other sources
 Advances in analytics, system interoperability, visualisations and dashboards were imported from
the business sector
 Useful not only about aggregation of data but also segmentation (e.g. reaching local communities
with specific needs)

23
  Open data is about making anonymised sets of data from administrative routine collections available for
secondary analysis and examination by the public and other groups (e.g. researchers)
 There is great potential to create public value through the release of government data

Social media in the public sector

 Obama’s election and subsequent open government memorandum in 2009 more formally initiated the use
of social media in government
 Presence of public sector organisations and politicians on social media in activities such as:
 Sharing information and promoting campaign
 Emergency management and communication with the public
 Public questions and answers, even complains
 Social media in public health care
 Crowdsourcing and social media as information sources
 However, citizen groups seem to prefer to use social media to challenge governments rather than engage
with.
 Examples: anti-austerity campaigns in Europe, the 99% movement in the USA and the Arab Spring

24