Introduction to Information Systems (L1)

Information Systems
Information Systems an organized integration of various
components designed to produce timely, integrated, relevant,
accurate and useful information, typically for some purpose suchas administration,
commerce, decision-making with the following components:
1. Hardware
2. Software
3. Data
4. Database
5. Process
6. Information
7. Human elements

Computer-based Information Systems #

What is data, information, knowledge?#

Information Systems # (functions among multiple

organisation)
Information technology in your organization # (two
important systems needed are enterprise and
transaction)

Information system in society

Positive consequences
• Can provide more opportunities for those with disabilities
• Can provide more flexibility, work where and when you want
• Can have a positive health effect for professions

Negative consequences
• May have a negative health effect for individuals
• Can expect availability
• May provide misinformation, health, education

How does IT affect organizations?

• Jobs disappear
• Professions disappear
• Management gets a better overview and decision basis
• Provides new opportunities
New IT Jobs # (nearly 20 new)

Organisation, Strategy and Information

Systems (L2)
Business processes #
• A business process is an ongoing collection of related
activities that create a product or service of value
to your organization, its business partners, and/or its
customers
• Consists of input, resources, and output
• Must assess quality against quantity
Business processes#
• Competitive advantages
• Cross-functional processes
• Information system and business processes

Business process examples #

Cross-functional processes #
• A single functional area is not responsible solely
• Steps are performed in a coordinated collaborative manner
• Introduction and fulfilment of cross-functional processes

Information system and business process

Key roles in three information system areas:
• Perform the process
• Capture and store data from the process
• Monitor process performance
Information Systems (IS) support processes #
• Provide information to employees about status
• Provide the necessary data
• Help complete tasks

IS capture data
Captures and stores data from the process:
• Processes generate data
• Information system captures and stores process data (transaction data)
• Capturing and storing data provides instant real-time feedback

IS monitor processes
Monitor the performance of a process
• Information system evaluates information to determine how well a process is
performed
• Evaluation occurs at two levels
• Process level
• Occurrence level
• Monitoring identifies process improvement issues

Rebuilding, improving and managing

• Re-gilding of research process
• Business process improvements
• Handling and managing business processes

Measuring the execution quality

Measuring how good the execution through
• Customer satisfaction
• Cost reduction
• Reduction of time to perform tasks
• Quality
• Differentiation
• Productivity

Business process rebuilding and improving:Reasons

• Rebuilding to increase productivity and profit
• Looks at the processes of "blank sheets"
• Incremental improvements to move your business towards business process-
centered operations
• Improvements focus on reducing variation in output from a process by looking at
the underlying cause of variation
Five basic phases of improvement:
• Define, measure, analyze, improve, check

Business process rebuilding and improving: Risks

• Rebuilding has higher risks than improvements
• Improvements bring incremental changes while rebuilding brings major changes
• Improvements are a bottom-up approach while rebuilding is a top-bottom- approach
• Rebuilding can be time-consuming in relation to improvements
• Easy to measure the value of improvements
• Rebuilding has a high drop

Business process management

• System to support continuous changes for core businesses over time
• Key components
• Process modeling
• Monitoring business activities
• Have a system/platform for handling
• Growing trends with social business management
• Technology enables employees to collaborate across internal and external features
using social media

Business pressure, organizational response, information

technology support
Business pressure, organizational response, information technology support
• Pressure on your business
• Organizational response

Pressure on the business

• Market pressure
• Technology pressure
• Pressure from society, politics, law and politics
Business pressures, organizational performance and
responses, and IT support # (business risks,
organizational and IT response)

Globalization’s focus #
Friedman’s Ten Flatteners # (forces that contributed to
the “flattening of the world” which means globalization)

Market pressure
• Globalization
• Integration and interdependence on economic, social, cultural and ecological
aspects of life, made possible by rapid advances in IT
• Changes in the workforce
• Greater variations in the workforce
• Proportion of women and men changing, single parents, minorities, disabilities
• IT makes it possible to work online
• Strong customers with a lot of power
• Increased customer satisfaction and customer expectations
• Customer has more knowledge of product and services, prices, online auctions
• Handling customer relationships
Technology pressure
• Technology is changing, new is coming and things are becoming obsolete
• Information overload
• A lot of data, information and knowledge
• Difficulty making decisions

Pressure from society, politics, legislation

• Corporate Social Responsibility
• Green IT, digital differences/losers
• Government regulations
• Municipal, national, European, worldwide
• Different for different domains
• Protection against terrorism
• Some domains require more than others, non-disclosure statements, cyberattacks
• Ethical questions
• Right and wrong standard, privacy

Organizational response
• Strategic systems
• Customer focus
• Satisfy orders and bulk customization
• E-business and e-commerce

Competitive advantage and strategic system

• Porter's model of competing powers
• Porter's value chain model
• Strategies to gain a competitive advantage
• Business - Information Technology Adjustment
• Competitive strategy
• Cost, differentiation, innovation, efficient operation, customer-oriented
• Strategic information systems

Porter's model of competing powers

• Threat from new competitors
• Bargaining power in relation to suppliers
• Bargaining power in relation to customers
• Threat from substitute products and services
• Rivalry between existing firms in the industry
Porter’s Competitive Forces Model #

Porter value chain model

• Value chain is a sequence of activities that changes your organization’s input to
valuable output
• Primary activities relate to the production and distribution of products and services
• Support activities are activities that support primary activists and contribute to
competitive advantage

Porter’s Value Chain Model # (basic activities = primary

activities = 5)
Strategies for Competitive Advantage #

Business - IT Adjustment (Characteristics)

• Organizations see IT as an innovation engine that continuously transforms their
business, often creating new revenue streams
• Organizations view their internal and external customers and their customer service
function as overly important
• Organizations rotate business and IT professionals across departments and job
functions
• Organizations provide overall goals that are absolutely clear to each IT and
business associate
• Organizations make sure IT staff understand how the company makes (or loses)
money
• Organizations create a vibrant and inclusive corporate culture
Ethics and Security (L3)
Ethics
• Definition and framework
• Ethics in business and information systems
• Privacy
• Personal information in databases, on Internet
• Privacy rules and codes

Security
• Vulnerability, threats, human errors, ‘social engineering’
• Security check, assess control, communication control

What is Ethics?
From the Great Norwegian Encyclopedia
• Ethics is the doctrine of morality, the same as moral philosophy
- a doctrine that studies correct and wrong, permissible and indistinguishable, Good
and bad
• The purpose of ethics is to study how to act, and to understand the concepts we
use when evaluating actions, people acting, and outcomes of actions
• Central concepts of action that ethics apply, and study are correct and wrong,
permissible and indistinguishable, good and bad

Ethics in business and information systems

• Ethics and frameworks
• Ethics and business environment
• Ethics and information technology

Ethical framework
• Five widely used standards for approach
• Utilitarian (practical)
• Rights
• Justice
• Common good
• Deontology
-framework of ethics is based on the following standard for decision making:
Utilitarianism, Rights, Justice, Common Good, Deontology

Approach to ethics:
• Combining the five standards to create a framework for ethical decision-making

Framework/ rammeverk: an essential supporting structure of a building,

vehicle,object, or field.
A framework for ethical issues #
Ethical framework # (steps in ethical decisión making)
• Five steps for decision-making
• Recognize an ethical question
• Gather facts
• Evaluate different actions
• Make a decision and test it
• Take action and reflect on the outcome of the decision
• Combine the five standards to create a framework for ethical decision-making

Ethics and business environment

• Ethical guidelines
• Basic ethical principles
• Be responsible for the task
• Take responsibility for action
• Acknowledge obligations

• Unethical does not necessarily mean illegal

Ethics and information technology

Four general categories of ethical issues related to IT
• Privacy
• Accuracy
• Property
• Accessibility
Privacy policy guidelines: a sampler #

Privacy
• Electronic monitoring
• Personal information in databases
• Information about internet bulletin boards, newsgroups and social networks
• Privacy codes and policies
• International aspects of privacy

Personal privacy
• The right to be alone and be free from unreasonable personal interventions

Privacy in the information system

• The right to determine when and to what extent information about you may
collected and/or communicated to others
Legislative
• GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation
• https://bobbytable.github.io/NorskGDPR/
• See also https://lovdata.no/dokument/NL/lov/2018-06-15-38

Privacy
Court decisions in many countries have followed two rules:
• The right to privacy is not absolute. Privacy must be balanced against the needs of
society.
• The public's right to knowledge exceeds the individual's right to privacy.

Privacy
• Digital folder with personal data
• Profiling
• Data aggregators (dadcollectors )
• LexisNexis
• ChoicePoint
• Acxiom

Electronic monitoring
• Using technology to monitor individuals when doing daily routines
• Performed by the State, employers and others.

Examples:
• CCTV, toll stations
• Mobile apps
• Digital sensors in digital equipment (camera, passport, ...)
• Microsoft, Google, street view and more
• Drones
• Bank

Personal information in databases

• Personal data / register holders
• Credit reporting systems
• Banks and finance
• Service companies (grid, power, ...)
• Employers
• Hospitals
• Schools
• Government agencies

Personal information in databases

• Main concerns about personal information you give away:
• Do you know where the information is?
• Are the correct/accurate information stored?
• Can you correct incorrect/inaccurate information?
• How long does a change take?
• Under what circumstances does others have access to the personal data?
• How is the data used?
• Who is the data given or sold to?
• How secure is the data against unauthorized persons?

Information on Internet and social networks

• Freedom of speech against online privacy
• Derogatory information can influence hiring decisions
• Little or no possibility for victims

Privacy codes and rules

• An organization's policy to protect the privacy of its customers, customers and
employees.
• Opt-out model (opt-out = must opt-out = must opt away at the end (checkbox))
• Opt-in model ( opt-in = must select at start)
• Privacy Settings Platform (P3P)
• A protocol that communicates privacy rules between a website and its visitors
• "US Federal Trade Commission's Standard" for standard information
• European Privacy Directive

International aspects of privacy

• The global nature of the Internet complicates privacy
• Approximately 50 countries have data protection laws
• Inconsistent standards from country to country
• Cross-border data flow

Information security (information security aspects)

• Security
• Information security
• Threat
• Exposure
• Vulnerability

Information security: Vulnerability

Information security
Five factors contributing to vulnerability:
• Today's interconnected, interdependent wireless networking environment
• Smaller, faster, cheaper computers and storage devices
• Ever less skills needed to become a "hacker"
• International organized crime takes over cybercrime
• Lack of leadership support
Unintended threats to information systems
• Human error
• Social Engineering

Security threats #

Human error
• Higher-level employees + greater access rights = greater threat

• Two areas pose significant threats

• Human resources
• Information system
• Threats from other areas
• Contract work
• Consultants
• Janitors, guards and other support staff

Common human errors #

• Computer carelessness
• Carelessness with other devices
• Open questionable e-mail
• Careless browsing the internet
• Poor choice and careless use of passwords
• Office carelessness
• Carelessness when using unmanaged devices
• Carelessness with discarded equipment
• Careless monitoring of hazards from the surroundings
"Social Engineering"
An attack in which the perpetrator uses social skills to trick or
manipulate legitimate employees into providing confidential company information
such as passwords

Example
• Kevin Mitnick , world-famous hacker and former FBI most wanted person'

Deliberate threats to information systems

• Espionage or infringement
• Information blackmail
• Sabotage or vandalism
• Theft of equipment or information
• Identity theft
• Attack on intellectual property agreements, patents, copy protection
• Software attacks
• Foreign software
• Attack on management and surveillance system (SCADA)
• Cyberterrorism and cyber warfare

Software attacks
• Remote attacks requiring user action
• Viruses and worms
• Phishing attacks
• Spear phishing attacks
• Remote attacks that do not require user action
• Denial of Service attacks ( DoS)
• Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS)
• Attack by a programmer through the development of a system
• Trojan horse, backdoor, logical bomb
Types of malware #

Type of attacks requiring action #

Type of attacks requiring NO action #

Foreign software
• Advertising software and can spy and other (adware)
• Spyware
• «Keyloggers» – monitors keystrokes
• "Spam" item (spamware)
• Cookies can release information
• Cookies that send tracking cookies

What do organizations do to protect

themselves?
• Risk and risk management
• Risk analysis
• Risk mitigation measures
• Accept risk
• Limit risk
• Transfer risk
The difficulties in protecting information resources #

Security check of information

• Physically, prevents unauthorized physical access, such as lock, alarm, walls,
doors
• Access, prevents the use of systems through authentication and authorization
• Communication, prevents unwanted web traffic through firewalls, encryption,
monitoring, antivirus, white and blacklists
• Continuation planning for protection and recovery
• Information system audit
Access control #
Are you the right person?
• Authentication
• Password, chip, fingerprint, facial recognition
• Authorization
• What do you have access to after authentication?

Basic password guidelines

• Hard to guess
• Long over short
• Should have mix of uppercase, lowercase letters, digits, special characters
• Not recognizable words
• No name for yourself or family, including pets
• Not a recognizable number, such as date of birth

• Most commonly used passwords:

123456,123456789, qwerty, password,1234567, 12345678, 12345, iloveyou
Defence Mechanisms #
Communication control
• Firewalls (firewalls)
• Malware-preventable systems
• Whitelisting and blacklisting
• Encryption
• Virtual private network (VPN)
• Secure communications – Transport Layer Security
(TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
• Monitoring employee activities

(a)Basic firewall for home computer. #

(b)Organization with two firewalls and demilitarized zone. #
Public key encryption #

Digital Certificates #
Virtual private network and tunnelling #

Data, Information, and Knowledge (DIK) Models #

(knowledge hierarchy)
Digital and analogue data [Floridi pp. 25] #
• Digital, Discrete

Analogue, Continues
Many data sources #
• Internal sources
• Company data, company documents
• Personal sources
• Personal thoughts, opinions and experiences
• External sources
• Commercial databases, public reports and business websites
• "Clickstream" data

Challenges in data management

• The amount of data increases exponentially over time
• Many data sources
• New data sources
• Data decay and data degradation
• Data security, data quality and data integrity
• Public regulation

Data governance
• An approach to managing information across the entire organization.
• Master data management concerns all business processes and application in a
synchronized way.
• Managing core (master) data.
Big Data and Data Science
• What is "Big Data"?
• Characteristics of "Big Data"
• Handling "Big Data"
• Leveraging "Big Data"
• Using "Big Data"
• "Big Data" used in the functional areas of an organization

"Big Data" - definition (I)

• Diverse, high-volume, high-velocity information assets that require new forms of
processing to enable enhanced decision making, insight discovery, and process
optimization. (www.gartner.com)»

Big Data - definition (II)

• Shows variation, and includes structured, unstructured and semi-structured data
• Generated at high speed and with an uncertain pattern
• Does not fit into traditional, structured relational databases
• Can be captured, processed, transformed and analyzed in a timely manner by
sophisticated information systems

Big Data Facts

• Where does the data come from?
• Traditional business data
• Machine generated and sensor data
• Social data
• Photos taken by billions of devices worldwide
• Digital cameras, camera phones, medical scanners and security cameras

Characteristics of "Big Data"

• Volume
• Speed
• Variety

Problems with "Big Data"

• Data sources you cannot trust
• The data is "dirty"
• The data changes, especially nine data streams

Handling "Big Data"

• When properly analyzed, data can reveal valuable patterns and information
• Database environment
• Relational databases versus NoSQL databases
• "Open Source" solutions
Using "Big Data"
• Make "Big Data" available
• Enable organizations to experiment (simulations)
• Micro-segmentation of customers
• Creating new business models
• Organizations can analyze a lot of data

Use of "Big Data" in your organization's functional areas

• Human resources
• Product development
• Operations
• Marketing
• Governing operations

Data warehouses and computer stores (I)

What is a data warehouse and computer store?
• Data warehouse
• A repository of historical data organized to support business decision makers

• Data store
• A cheap scaled-down version of a data warehouse designed for end users' needs
in a strategic business unit or individual department
• A generic data warehouse environment

Data warehouses and computer stores (II)

• Basic characteristics of data warehouses and computer stores
• Organized by business dimension or subject
• Use online analytical processing (OLAP)
• Integrated
• Time variant
• Not volatile (persistent over time)
• Multidimensional

Database Management Systems (DBMS)

Minimizes three problems
• Redundancy
• Isolation
• Inconsistency
Maximizes three things
– Security
– Integrity
– Independence
DBMS example #

Data hierarchy
Bit
Bytes
Field
Record
Table/Folder
Database
Hierarchy of data for a computer-based file #

Entity- relationship model

• ER diagrams contain
– entities
– attributes
– relationships

ER modeling # (entity model)

• ER diagram
• Business rules
• Data catalog
• Associations
• Unary, binary, ternary
• Cardinality
• Number of connections
Cardinality and modality symbols #
RDBMS Basics
• Query language
• SQL (Structured Query Language)
• QBE (Query By Example)
• ER- (Entity-Relationship) modelling
• Normalizing and JOIN

Relation data model

• Database Management System (DBMS)
• Relational model
• Entity
• Instances
• Attributes
• Primary keys
• Foreign and Secondary keys

Normalization and JOIN

• Normalization
• Functional dependencies
• First normal form (atomic records)
• Second normal form (functional dependency of the entire key)
• Third normal form (all attributes should depend only on primary key)
Example JOIN #

Normalized database #

An example of smaller normalized relationship #

Relational database #

Data cube # (data cube and multidimensional

databases)

Relational and multidimensional databases #

Data warehouse framework #

Generic data warehouse environment

• System that provides data sources
• Integration of data
• Storing data
• Metadata
• Data quality
• Data management
• Users

Concepts and definitions

• Knowledge management (KM) is a process that helps manage important
knowledge that forms part of the organization's history, usually in unstructured format
• Knowledge
• Explicit and internal knowledge
• Knowledge management system
• Refers to the use of modern information technology - internet, intranet, extranet,
databases - to systematize, improve and expedite internal and external knowledge
management in the organization
Knowledge management (II) # (knowledge management
cycle)
• KMS cycle
• Create knowledge
• Capture Knowledge
• Improve knowledge
• Store knowledge
• Manage knowledge
• Disseminate knowledge

Telecommunications and networking

Computer networks
Bandwidth
Bandwidth, the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies
that a signal consists of, or that a transmission channel can pass
through. (Large Norwegian Encyclopedia)

In data: Bits per second

Broadband
"Broadband is a two-way communication network that can transmit
various forms of data such as text, sound, and live images and must be
able to carry new services and allow many people to use the web at
the same time." (Report No. 49, 2002-2003)
Ethernet
A system for connecting several computer systems to form a local area network, with
protocols to control the passing of information and to avoid simultaneous
transmission by two or more systems.

Ethernet belongs to one of Local Area Network(LAN), mainly responsible for the
interconnections of computers in local areas.

The physical layer consists of # (two layers of Ethernet)

• Cabling
• Devices

Computer networks: LAN (Local Area Network) #

• Ethernet is a communication standard developed in the early ’80s to network
computers and other devices in a local environment (building).
• This local environment is defined as a LAN (Local Area Network) and it connects
multiple devices so that they can create, store and share information with others in
the location.
LAN #
• In a local area network (LAN) computers are located geographically close to each
other.
• Usually, they can be linked by a single cable or pair of wires
• Ethernet is the main technology for local area networks.
• It is used for connecting all the computers in a lab or a building.

Ethernet Network #
• The physical setup for an Ethernet network is a wire, wire pair, or
optical fiber, called the channel
• Engineers “tap” into the channel to connect a computer:
• This allows it to send a signal or an electronic pulse or light flash onto the
channel
• All computers, including the sender, can detect the signal

Ethernet Party Analogy [Snyder, pp.70,71]

To understand how an Ethernet network works, consider this:
• A group of friends is standing around at a party telling stories.
• While someone is telling a story, everyone is listening.
• When the story is over, here may be a pause before the next one speaks.
• Then, someone typically just begins talking and the cycle starts again.
How does Ethernet network work?
A computer wanting to transmit a message:
• It starts sending signals and also starts listening to see if the
message it gets is the one it sent (right message)

IF YES (it is the right message)

the computer knows it’s the only computer sending, and it completes the
transmission

IF NOT (not the right message)

the computer stops transmitting immediately
the other computers stop too.
each machine pauses for a random length of time.
the computer that waits the shortest length of time begins sending.

Computer networks: Wide Area Network (WAN) #

Wide Area Network (WAN):
• Many LAN interconnected
• Router forwards data packets to LAN
Enterprise network (example) networks #
"Enterprise network" denotes the IT infrastructure that midsize and large
organizations use to provide connectivity among users, devices, and applications.
The goal is to support the organizations' objectives by consistently delivering
connected digital services reliably and securely to workers, partners, customers, and
increasingly also things. (Cisco)
https://www.microsemi.com/applications/communications/enterprise-infrastructure

Computer networks basics #

Concepts
• Digital signals
• Modem (MODulator DEModulator)
• Translates digital into analog signals and vice versa
• Dial-up, wired, DSL (Digital Subscriber Line)

Computer network basics

• Communication media and channels
• Twisted cable: #
• Coaxial cable : #

• Fiber optical cable: #

https://realpars.com/ethernet/
Cables: Advantages and disadvantages
Channel Advantages Disadvantages
Twisted-pair wire Inexpensive. Slow (low bandwidth).
Widely available. Subject to interference.
Easy to work with. Easily tapped (low security)
Coaxial cable Higher bandwidth than Relatively expensive and
twisted-pair. inflexible.
Less susceptible to Easily tapped (low-to-
electromagnetic medium-security).
interference. Somewhat difficutl to work
with.
Fiber-optic cable Very high bandwidth. Difficult to work with
Relatively inexpensive. (difficult to splice)
Difficult to tap (good
security)

Network protocols
A network protocol is a defined set of rules that specify how is data transmitted on
the same network between different devices.
In general, it allows connected devices to interact with each other regales of their
structure, configuration or internal processes.

Several layers are supported by protocols:

• Application layers (provides protocol for applications)
• Transport layers (communication and packaging services to application layers)
• Internet layers (addressing, routing, packaging)
• Network interface layers (sending and receiving packets)

Network protocols: OSI model # (Open System

Interconnection model of network communication)
The layers of Internet protocols #
• Basic connectivity protocols
(TCP, UDP, IP, ICMP, ARP, NDP)

• Encryption protocols
(SSH, SCP, SSL, TLS, IPsec)

• Application protocols
(HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, SFTP, FTPS, TFTP)

• Email protocols
(SMTP, POP3, IMAP4)
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) # (data packet defined by a transmisión
protocol)
• Manages the transmission of data packets between computers by establishing a
connection between the computers
• Sequencing the transmission of packets
• Authenticates packet transmission

Network protocols (III): Packet switching #

P4 travelling from LA to NY through Dallas and Chicago

Types of network processing #

• Client/server
• Client/server computing links two or more computers in an arrangement in which
some machines, called servers, provide computing services for user PCs, called
clients.

• P2P (peer-to-peer) #

• Peer-to-peer (P2P) processing is a type of client/server distributed processing

where each computer acts as both a client and a server.

The Internet and the world's web

There are many uses for the data on the Internet (emails, sending/receiving files,
retrieving information).
The most common use of the Internet is the World Wide Web with help of Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Internet vs. Intranet #
Connection to the internet #
• Internet Service Provider (ISP) connection
• Connection via other media (telephone, cafes, satellite, fiber etc.)

Connecting to the Internet [Snyder, pp.71]

• Today there are two basic methods:
• Connection via an Internet service providers.
• Connection provided enterprise network.
• Most of us use both kinds of connections.

• Companies sell connections to the Internet.

• a modem at a house.
• to convert the bits a computer outputs into a form that is compatible with
the carrier.

• The organization connects to the Internet by a gateway.

Computer Addresses #
IP Addresses
Each computer connected to the Internet is given a unique address called its IP
address

An IP address is a series of four numbers (one byte each) separated by dots

The range of each of these numbers (0–255) allows for billions of IP addresses
Computer Domains
• It is hard to remember the numeric IP address of all the computers we communicate
with
• The Internet uses human-readable symbolic names for computers that are based
on a hierarchy of domains
• A domain is a related group of networked computers

Domain Name Usage #

Example: spiff.cs.washington.edu
• The name of the computer is spiff
• Which is part of the Computer Science and Engineering Department domain (cs)
• Which is part of the University of Washington domain (washington)
• Which is part of the educational domain (edu)
Domain Hierarchy #

Domain Name System #

• The Domain Name System (DNS) translates the hierarchical, human-readable
names into the four-number IP address
• Every Internet host knows the IP address of its nearest DNS name server
• Whenever the hierarchical symbolic name is used to send information to a
destination, your computer asks the DNS server looks up the corresponding IP
address

Internet Addressing #
• Internet Protocol (IP) address
• Coordinator: Internet Corporation for Assigned Names (ICANN)
• Norway: UNINETT
• Top-level domain (TLD)
Future
• Three factors can cause internet congestion
• Increasing number of people working online
• Rising popularity on sites like YouTube that require large amounts of
bandwidth
• High demand for HD TV delivered over the internet
• Internet version 2 (?)

World Wide Web (WWW)

A system of generally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting
and displaying information via a client/server architecture
• Website
• Webmaster
• Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
• Browsers
• Hypertext
• Search engines
• Translators

Portals
• Commercial portal
• Affinity portal ("extended family")
• Enterprise portal
• Industrial portal

Network applications (I)

• Email (separate protocol)
• Web telephony
• Electronic chat rooms
• Voice communication
• IP telephony
• Coordinated communication systems (discord, teams, zoom)
• Telecommunications
• People can communicate together anywhere
• Good or not good?
• Digital nomads

Network applications (II)

• Collaboration
• Crowdsourcing
• Video and teleconferencing
• Workgroups
• Workflow
• Virtual layers
• Virtual collaboration
• Asynchronous and synchronous collaboration

Network applications (III) #

• E-learning (an online platform that offers learning)
• Distance learning
• Virtual universities

dyndevice.com
INFO110: e-business and e-commerce # (digital
business)

https://
www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/knowledge-base/what-
are-the-various-types-of-ecommerce-retail-models/

Definitions and Concepts

Electronic Commerce
• The process of purchasing, selling, transmitting or exchanging products, services or
information via computer networks, including the Internet

Online business (e-business)

• A much broader concept than e-commerce
• Serves customers, collaborates with business partners and conducts electronic
transactions in an organization

Degree of digitization
• Brick-and-mortar (physical) organizations
• Virtual (electronic) organizations
• Click-and-mortar/ clicks and bricks (physical and electronic) organizations
Types of e-commerce #
• Business-to-consumer (B2C)
• Business-to-business (B2B)
• Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
• Business-to-employee (B2E)
• E-management (government) with people (G2C), businesses (G2B)
• Mobile commerce (M-commerce)
• Social trade
• Conversational trade (calls, messages, chatbots)

E-commerce models (I)

• Direct online marketing
• Electronic tendering system (reverse form of auction)
• Give your own price
• Find the best price
• Partner marketing
• Viral marketing
• Group purchases (e-coops)

E-commerce models (II)

• Online auctions
• Product customization
• Online marketplaces
• Online shopping
• Discounts
• Membership Electronic e-commerce solutions
• Electronic catalogs
• Online auctions
• E-shop
• E-shopping malls
• E-marketplaces

E-commerce Business Models # (10-15 models)

 #

E-commerce:
1. ‘The process of purchasing, selling, transmitting or exchanging products, services or
information via computer networks, including the Internet.’ This is definition of:

Electronic payment solutions #

• Electronic checks (e-checks)
• Electronic cards
• Electronic credit cards
• Virtual credit cards
• Purchase cards
• Prepaid account cards
• Smart cards
• Crypto valuta

https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/business/17093-what-are-finland-s-most-popular-online-payment-
solutions.html
E-credit cards transactions #

E-credit card transaction activities

1. Purchase: Your credit card information and purchase price will be encrypted in
your browser
2. Transfer from store to clearing bank for decryption and verification
3. The clearing bank asks the card issuer to verify the credit card information
4. The card issuer verifies the information and reports to the clearing bank
5. Clearing banks’ reports the results to the store.
6. The store will report a successful purchase to you.
6. Card issuer sends money to store bank.
7. Card issuer notifies you of debit on your credit card
8. Bigger banks notify stores of credit on their accounts.
9. The seller bank is notified about the credit to the account.

Various payment cards #

E-commerce
Benefits
• National and international markets are more accessible
• Lowers the cost of processing, distributing and retrieving information
• Provides access to a large number of products and services 24/7
• Provides information, services and products to people in cities, districts and
development

Limitations
• Lack of generally accepted security standards
• In less developed countries, telecommunications bandwidth is often inadequate and
internet access is expensive
• Perceptions that e-commerce is unsafe
• Unresolved legal questions
• Missing a critical mass of buyers and sellers

Business-to-Consumer (B2C) #
• Online stores and shopping centers
• Uses catalogues for product selection
• Portals
• Online service providers
• Distribution, online banks, stock trading, job posting, travel agency, online
advertising
• E-retail

https://wearefram.com/blog/differentiate-b2c-vs-b2b-ecommerce/
Virtual mall with products from many vendors #

First Internet Bank in Indiana (USA) #

Marketing methods #
• Banner
• "Pop-up" ads (ad)
• "Pop-under" ads
• Spamming
unsolicited usually commercial messages (such as emails, text messages, or
Internet postings) sent to a large number of recipients or posted in a large number of
places
• Marketing with permission
• Viral marketing
Business-to-Business (B2B) (I)
• Seller-side marketplaces
• Auctions
• Online catalogs
• Third-party auction locations
• Buyer-side marketplaces
• Acquisitions
• Purchases
• Reverse auction
• E-acquisitions
• Group drive

Business-to-Business (B2B) (II) #

• Electronic exchange hubs
• Vertical
• Horizontal
• Functional

https://hbr.org/2000/05/e-hubs-the-new-b2b-marketplaces
M-commerce # (e-commerce 10% grown from 2018-
2021)
• According to Statista, in 2017 online sales reached $2.304 trillion and 58.9%
($1.357 trillion) were done on mobile devices.*
• E-commerce sales was expected to reach $4.848 trillion by 2021, and m-
commerce is expected to account for 73.3% ($3.556 trillion) of these.*

* https://www.nop-templates.com/e-commerce-explained-with-history-and-examples

Ethical and legal issues in e-commerce

• Ethical issues
• Threats to privacy through tracking of commerce and unwanted
software from the store
• Potential loss of job through streamlining – relocation?
• Legal and ethical questions specific to e-commerce
• Online fraud
• Domain names
• "Cybersquatting" - misuse of domain names
• Taxes and other fees

International Corporation for Assigned Names and

Numbers (ICANN) #
Business process modeling (BPM) [Wikipedia]
• Business Process Modeling (BPM) in business process
management and systems engineering is the activity of representing processes of an
enterprise, so that the current business processes may be analyzed, improved, and
automated.
• BPM is typically performed by business analysts, who provide
expertise in the modeling discipline; by subject matter experts, who
have specialized knowledge of the processes being modeled; or
more commonly by a team comprising both.
• Alternatively, the process model can be derived directly from
events' logs using process mining tools.

Model [Wikipedia]
A model is an informative representation of an object, person, or system. The term
originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English and derived via
French and Italian ultimately from Latin modulus, a measure.
Models can be divided into physical models (e.g. a successful pupil as a role model
for others in the school) and abstract models (e.g. mathematical expressions
describing behavioral patterns). Modelling business processes are base don results
from both on findings of business analyst and/or from evento logs

Models # (left: physical model, right: abstract model)

Conceptual model #

Business modelling methods [Wikipedia]

• Use case diagrams created by Ivar Jacobson, 1992 (integrated in UML)
• Activity diagrams (also adopted by UML)

Some business process modelling techniques are:

• Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)
• Life-cycle Modelling Language (LML)
• Subject-oriented business process management (S-BPM)
• Cognition enhanced Natural language Information Analysis Method (CogNIAM)
• Extended Business Modelling Language (xBML)
• Event-driven process chain (EPC)
• ICAM DEFinition (IDEF0)
• Unified Modelling Language (UML), extensions for business process
• Formalized Administrative Notation (FAN)
• Harbarian process modeling (HPM)
Use Case #
Graphical depiction of a user's possible interactions with a system

Activity Diagram # (activity model)

Representations of workflows of stepwise activities and actions
Prosessutvikling RIS-teknikken #

Metode for IPO-modellering #

Business process modelling #

Process modelling tools

INFO110: Wireless and Mobile Computing
Wireless Technologies #
• Wireless Devices
• Smartphones
• Wireless Transmission Media
• Microwave
• Satellite
• Radio

Wireless devices
Three major benefits for users
• Small enough to carry or carry lightly
• Sufficient computing power to perform productive tasks
• Communicate wirelessly with the Internet and other devices

A major drawback for organization

• Workers can intercept and transmit sensitive proprietary information

What your mobile phone offers?

• Bluetooth (Bluetooth Bluetooth)
• Wi-Fi
• Digital camera for photos and video
• Mobile (digital) wallet
• Wireless charging/fast charging
• Global Positioning System (GPS)
• Organizer
• Planner
• Address book
• Calculator
• Email

• Biometric apps
• Cloud storage
• Short Message Service (SMS)
• Instant messaging
• Text messages
• Music player
• VCR
• Internet access with full-featured browser
• QWERTY keyboard

Dematerialization with smartphones: Using less to

produce more #

Smart telephones and health

• Diagnosis
• Surveillance
• Help
• Training
Wireless transmission media #
Wireless media (broadcast media): transmits cordless signals through several main
channels:
Microwave
Satellite
Radio
Infrared

Microwave [Wikipedia] #
Microwave is a line-of-sight*
wireless communication technology that uses high frequency beams of radio
waves to provide high speed wireless connections that can send and receive voice,
video, and data between two locations, which can be from just a few feet or meters to
several miles or kilometers apart.

Microwave links are commonly used by television broadcasters to transmit

programmes across a country, for instance, or from an outside broadcast back to a
studio.

*intended to communicate something that is not directly expressed

Satellite [Wikipedia]
• A satellite is an object that has been intentionally placed into orbit. These
objects are called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as
Earth's Moon.
• On 4 October 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite,
Sputnik 1.

Radio [Wikipedia] #
Telecommunication by means of radio waves.
• Radio communication requires the use of both transmitting and receiving
equipment. The transmitting equipment, which includes a radio transmitter and a
transmitting antenna, is installed at the point from which messages are transmitted.
• Communication by means of radio waves, such as by radio facsimile,
radiotelegraph, radiotelephone, and radioteletypewriter.

Infrared [Techopedia, Wikipedia]

• Infrared (IR) is a wireless mobile technology used for device
communication over short ranges. [Techopedia]
• IR communication has major limitations because it requires line-of-sight, has
a short transmission range and is unable to penetrate walls. IR transceivers
are quite cheap and serve as short-range communication solutions.
• Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation
(EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore
invisible to the human eye. [Wikipedia]
IR Screening System for Airports #

Advantages and disadvantages of wireless media #

Telecommunication satellite #
Types
• Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)
• Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)
• Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) #

• Orbit: 22,300 miles
• Number of satellites: 8
• Use: TV signal

• Characteristics:
 Satellites stationary relative to a point on Earth
 Few satellites needed for global coverage
 Transmission delay (approx. 0.25 seconds)
 Most expensive to build and shoot up
 Longest turnaround time (many years)
Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO)
Advantages
• Provides Internet services to distant areas of earth; two main applications:
– Observation of weather conditions
– Global telecommunication coverage

Disadvantages
• Propagation delay
• Disturbed by the environment

– The polar regions are not covered by the satellites in the geostationary orbit.
– The path length is quite large that results in delay.
– At such a high altitude, satellite installation is quite costly.

Medium Earth Orbit (MEO)

• Orbit: 6434 miles
• Number of satellites: 10-12
• Usage: GPS (Global Positioning Systems)

• Characteristics:
 Satellites move relative to a point on Earth
 Moderate number needed for global coverage
 Requires medium-strength transmitters
 Negligible transmission delay
 Cheaper to build and shoot up
 Moderate turnover time (6-12 years)

Global Positioning Systems (GPS)

• A wireless system that uses satellites to enable users to determine their position
anywhere on Earth
• Supported by 24 MEO satellites
Applications
• Navigation, imaging, mapping, emergency number location

• Three additional GPS systems

– GLONASS, Russia 2005
– Galileo, EU 2015
– Beidou, China 2020

Low Earth Orbit (LEO)

• Orbit: 400 - 700 miles
• Number of satellites: Many
– A majority of artificial satellites are placed in LEO.
• Usage: Phone, Internet

• Characteristics:

 Satellites move rapidly relative to points on Earth

 Large number needed for global coverage
 Requires transmitters with low power
 Negligible transmission delay
 Least costly to build and shoot up
 Shortest turnover time (as low as 5 years).

LEO satellites [Wikipedia] #

• The International Space Station is in a LEO about 400 km to 420 km above Earth's
surface and needs re-boosting a few times a year due to orbital decay.
• The Iridium telecom satellites orbit at about 780 km.
• Earth observation satellites, also known as remote sensing satellites, including spy
satellites and other Earth-imaging satellites, use LEO as they can see the surface of
the Earth more clearly by being closer to it.

• Satellites can also take advantage of consistent lighting of the surface below:
– Sun-synchronous LEO orbits at an altitude of about 800 km and near-polar
inclination.

• The Hubble Space Telescope orbits at about 540 km above Earth.

• The Chinese Tiangong space station was launched in April of 2021 and currently
orbits between about 340 kilometers and 450 kilometers.

• Fictional: A Space Odyssey (2001)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/
Comparison_satellite_navigation_orbits.svg
Wireless computer networks and Internet access #
• Short haul
• Medium range
• Wide range

https://www.rohm.com/electronics-basics/wireless/short-range-wireless-communication

Short-Range Wireless Communication Comparison #

https://www.rohm.com/electronics-basics/wireless/short-range-wireless-communication

Wireless networks (examples)

• Bluetooth (Bluetooth)
• Ultra wide broadband (UWB)
• Near-field communication (mobile, credit card)
Medium range wireless networks
• Wi-fi is a type of wireless communication technology that is medium-range and can
be used to establish hotspots for internet access.

• Wi-Fi signals do not carry as far as cellular signals (up to several kilometers), or
satellite signals (up to thousands of kilometers).

• Wi-Fi operates in frequencies of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

These frequencies are considerably higher than those used for cell phones and
allow for the signal to carry more data.

Cellular radio network #

Internet of Things (IoT)* #

Acronym of “Internet of Things“, the IoT designates a system where the physical
objects, identified in a direct and standardized digital way (via protocols SMTP,
HTTP, an IP
address), are connected to Internet thanks to a system of RFID, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth
wireless communication.

Elements are needed to build an IoT solution:

• Objects
• The network
• The data
• Operating systems
IoT technologies #
• The Internet of Things (IoT) starts with connectivity, but since IoT is a widely
diverse and multifaceted realm, there are several types of IoT wireless technologies.
• Each solution has its strengths and weaknesses in various network criteria and is
therefore best-suited for different IoT use cases.

Mobile Computer Applications

• Location-based applications and services
• Financial services
• Intra-business applications
• Assessing information telemetry application

Pervasive Computing
• Pervasive: invisible, ‘everywhere computing’ – embedded in object around us
• Example: smart homes #

Radio Frequency Identification #

• Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
• Tags with antennas and chips are attached on goods to follow their movement and
computer
• Barcodes and QR codes contain information about people and products
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) #
• Networks that are interconnected, battery-powered, wireless sensors called motes
that are place in the physical environment.
• Placing sensors into products makes them smart.

INFO110: Social Computing

Impact and reach of social media #

Social media and disaster relief
• Tsunami
• Earthquakes in Japan
• Hurricanes
• War in Ukraine

• Official response to the use of social media in disaster relief

Computing and Social Computing [Wikipedia]

Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating
computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic
processes and development of both hardware and software. It has scientific,
engineering, mathematical, technological and social aspects.

Social computing is an area of computer science that is concerned with the

intersection of social behavior and computational systems. It is based on creating or
recreating social conventions and social contexts through the use of software and
technology. Thus, blogs, email, instant messaging, social network services, wikis,
social bookmarking and other instances of what is often called social software
illustrate ideas from social computing.

Web 2.0 # (Participatory Web) (Syntactic Web)

• The phrase "Web 2.0" hints at an improved form of the World Wide Web (ca 2004)
• Emphasizing tools and platforms that enable the user to Tag, Blog, Comment,
Modify, Augment, Rank, etc.
• The more explicit synonym of "Participatory Web“
• ‘Collective intelligence’
Web 2.0 No Products but Services #
Web 2.0
• Wikis
• Social networking sites
• Social graph
• Social capital
• Corporate social network
• Mashups (multi-page composition into a new one)
* Tagging
• Folksonomy
• Geotagging
• Live Bookmarks - RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
• Blogs

•Microblogging (example: xanga web site with categorized microblogs)

The National Public Radio (NPR) website # (functions

enabled by Web 2.0)
with RSS toolbar aggregator and search function
Social networking sites: categories (I) #
Social networking sites: categories (II) #

Google maps: example of mashup #

Social media data in decision making #
Social media data is analyzed using data mining techniques such as*:
• Artificial Neural Network (ANN)
• Bayesian Networks (BN)
• Decision Trees (DT)
• Density Based Algorithm (DBA)
• Fuzzy Logics
• Genetic Algorithm (GA)
• Hierarchical Clustering (HC)
• K-Means
• k-nearest Neighbors (k-NN)
• Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA)
• Linear-Regression (Lin-R)
• Logistic Regression (LR)
• Support Vector Machine (SVM)

Domains of data mining* #

Social computing in business #
Provides more benefits to businesses
• Social commerce
• Benefits for customers
• Benefits for businesses

Potential benefits of social commerce #

Collaborative Side of Social Media (more advantages

than disadvantages)
Advantages
• Collaborative consumption
• Collaborative production, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending and more
• self-management, variety, flexibility and positive environmental impact
Disadvantages:
• legal and regulatory adjustments
• resources and pay issues
• employee benefits and protection

Social computing in business: Shopping

• Ratings, reviews and recommendations
• Group shopping
• Trading communities and clubs
• Social marketplaces and direct sales

Etsy: a social marketplace & Livingsocial: a group

shopping website #

Social computing in business: marketing

• Social advertising
• Market research
• Conducting market research using social networks

Customer Experience #
• Advertising
• Social advertising
• Viral marketing
IdeaStorm: a platform for sharing ideas between
customers and Dell

Conducting market research using social networks

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

Using Facebook for market research

• Get feedback from Facebook fans
• Test promote your messages
• Use Facebook for survey invitations

Using Twitter for market research

• Twitter searches
• Monitoring of industry-specific keywords
• TweetStats
• Obtaining information from customers and interacting with them

Using LinkedIn for market research

• posting questions
• getting advice from a LinkedIn group
• announcing news on product and events
• commenting and sharing comments

Social Computing two sides

Business Social Computing:
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
• How Social Computing Improves Customer Service

Social computing in business:

• managing personnel (HRM)
• recruitment
• boarding
• employee development
• finding a job

INFO110: Specialized Information systems (L9)

Specialized systems [Wikipedia] #

Designed to meet special needs of users and businesses

The four-level pyramid from 1980s was a pyramid of systems that reflected the
hierarchy of the organization #
System development is done in several stages
[Wikipedia] #
• Problem recognition and specification
• Information gathering
• Requirements specification for the new system
• System design
• System construction
• System implementation
• Review and maintenance.

USER REQUIREMENTS VOICE OF USER* #

• User requirements generally relate to a product, whether the product is a product or
service or an information system.
• User requirements describe goals or tasks the users must be able to perform with
the product/system that will provide value to someone
• The domain of user requirements also includes descriptions of product attributes or
characteristics that are important to user satisfaction.
Waterfall model (traditional system development
method) #
• Carried out sequentially
• Each stage quality assured
• Each stage starts at the agreed baseline
• NO stage repeated
• Suited for large, multi agent projects with need for security
• Suited for projects with complex and lot of requirements
• Interesting for big industries
• Risk for mismanagement and bureaucracy

AGILE DEVELOPMENT #
Carried out iteratively
Each stage done to assure best possible quality.
Development is divided in several stages
Stages can be repeated

Suited for small to medium stage products.

Suited for projects with shorter deadlines.
Interesting for small to medium industries

Risk from producing limited documentation.

Decision Support Systems (DSS) #

Expert Systems #
Database Management System (DBMS) #

Database Management System (with SQL) #

Transaction Processing System (TPS) #
• Monitoring, retrieval, storage of basic transactions
• Batch transaction processing
• "Online" transaction processing (OLTP)
It supports functionalities for: accounting and finances, marketing and sales,
operation and logistics, quality assurance, human resource management.

Transaction Processing System Functions

• Continuous data collection in real time
• Efficiently handles large amounts of data and wide variations in these volumes
• Avoids errors and downtime
• Accurately and securely records results
• Maintains privacy and security
• Automation of source data
• Batch processing
Activities supported by functional information systems (I)
#

Activities supported by functional information systems (I)

#
Information systems supporting the functional areas #

Production/ operations management information

systems #
• Production / operations management
• Production/ operations management information
systems
• Internal logistics and material management
• Marketing
Inventory management #
• Quality control
• Planning production and operations
• Data integrated production
• Product lifecycle management

Functional information systems

• Human resource management
• Recruitment
• Development of human resources
• Personnel planning and management
• Salary and employee records
• Benefits administration
• Management of employee relationships
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP II) system #
• ERP II system are inter-organizational ERP systems that provide online links
between the company's main business system and its customers, suppliers,
distributors and other relevant parties.

ERP II system #

Operations Management:
Management. These modules manage the various aspects of production planning and
execution such as demand forecasting, procurement, inventory management, materials
purchasing, shipping, production planning, production scheduling, materials requirements
planning, quality control, distribution, transportation, and plant and equipment maintenance.
Businesses Intelligence. These modules collect information used throughout the organization,
organize it, and apply analytical tolos to assist managers with decisión making.
Basic ERP modules #
• Financial management
• Operations and management
• Management of human resources

ERP system: Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages
• Organizational flexibility and agility
• Decision support
• Quality and efficiency

Disadvantages
• Since ERP is based on best practices, companies may need to change their
methods to achieve their business goals
• ERP systems can be complex, expensive, and time-consuming to implement

Implementation of ERP system #

• Local ERP implementation
• Standard vanilla approach
• Custom approach
• Standalone approach (Best of breed)
• Cloud-based SOFTWARE-as-a-service implementation
7 Steps to Successful ERP Implementation # (ERP
implementation team)
1. Research
2. Installation
3. Migration
4. Testing
5. Training
6. Deployment
7. Support
Cloud based systems:
Advantages #
• The system can be used from any location that provides access to the Internet
• Businesses using cloud-based ERP avoid the initial hardware and software costs
typical of on-premises implementations
• Cloud-based ERP solutions are scalable, which means it's possible to extend ERP
support to new business processes and new business partners (e.g. suppliers) by
purchasing new ERP modules

Cloud based systems: #

Disadvantages
• It is not clear whether cloud-based ERP systems are more secure than on-
premises systems
• Companies adopting cloud-based ERP systems sacrifice their control over a
strategic IT resource
• Lack of control over IT resources when the ERP system experiences problems

Causes of IMPLEMENTATION errors in ERP

• Lack of involvement of affected employees in the planning and development
phases and in the change process
• Trying to do too much too fast in the conversion process
• Insufficient training in the new tasks required by the ERP system
• Failure to perform proper data conversion and testing of the new system

ERP support for business processes #

• Purchasing, fulfillment and manufacturing processes
• Purchasing process
• Fulfillment process
• Manufacturing process
• Inter-organizational processes
– ERP with SCM and CRM
– SCM and CRM
• Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• Customer Relation Management (CRM) (belongs to the business social computing
side)

Departments and documents in the procurement

process #

Departments and documents in the fulfillment process #

Departments and documents in the production process
#

Integrated processes with ERP #

INFO110: Acquiring information systems
and applications (L10)
The role of technology-based decision support system
• A technology-based decision-support framework supports managerial decision
making at each phase of the decision-making process

What managers do and where they need support?

1. Interpersonal roles: figurehead, leader, liaison (connection/relationship)
2. Informational roles: monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, analyzer
3. Decisional roles: entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator,
negotiator

The processes in phases in decision making #

A framework for computerized decision analysis #

The business analytics process # (business intelligence

process)
IT system planning #
Includes IT aspects, organizational strategic plan, IT strategic plan and IT
architecture

Strategic IT plan
• Must meet three main objectives
• Must be adapted to the organization's strategic plan
• Must provide an IT architecture that seamlessly connects users, applications and
databases
• Must distribute IS development resources efficiently among competing projects so
that projects can be completed on time and within budget and still have the
necessary functionality
• IT plan steering committee

Elements of a typical IS development plan #

• Vision
• IS environment
• Goals for the IS function
• Limitations of the IS function
• IS portfolio
• Resource allocation and project management
IT strategic planning cycle #
IT system evaluation costs and justification # (cost-
benefit analysis)
• Cost assessment
• Assessment of benefits
• Implementation of cost-benefit analysis
• Analysis using net present value (NPV)
• Return on investment (ROI)
• Break-even analysis
• Approach via business cases

Strategies for acquiring an IT applications:

Basic Decision Points
• How much program code does the company want to write?
• How should the company pay for the application?
• Where should the application run?
• Where does the application originate from?
• How will company pay for the application?

Strategies for acquiring IT applications: Options

• Buy a finished system/application (off-the-shelf)
• Customize a finished system/application (off-the-shelf)
• Lease a finished system/application (off-the-shelfware)
Service providers
• ASP (application service providers)
• SaaS (software as a service)
• IaaS (infrastructure as a service)
• PaaS (platform as a service)
Advantages and limitations of the buy option #

Application Service Provider (ASP) #

• It is an agent or a vendor who assembles the software needed by enterprises and
then packages it with services such as development, operations, and maintenance.
The customer then accesses these applications via the Internet.
• ASP hosts both an application and a database for each customer.
Software as a Service (SaaS) #
• It is a method of delivering software in which a vendor hosts the applications and
provides them as a service to customers over a network, typically the Internet.
• Customers do not own the software; rather, they pay for using it.
• SaaS eliminates the need for customers to install and run the application on their
own computers.

Additional strategies for acquiring IT applications

• Open-source applications
• Outsourcing
• Continuous development (CD)
• Hiring/hiring developers with the right expertise

Strategies for acquiring IT applications: pros and cons

Pros and cons of buying, creating and renting systems
• Cheaper to buy off-the-shelfware rather than creating yourself
• Purchased and rented systems do not quite fit and are difficult to align
• Lack of control over what happens with purchased and rented systems
• Open source can be customized and is free
• Open source can "die" and changes must be reversed
Traditional system development lifecycle #
• System investigation
• System analysis Traditional system development lifecycle
• System design
• Programming and testing
• Implementation
• Operation and maintenance

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) #

Traditional system development lifecycle: Roles #
• System analysts
• Programmers (developers)
• Technical specialists
• Product owners
• Stakeholders

User Involvement in system development lifecycle #

 SDLC’s step 1: • Three basic solutions:
Investigation – Continue as now
– Change the current system
– Create new system

• Study feasibility
– Technical feasibility
– Economic feasibility
– Conductibility

• "GO"/"NO GO" decision

• The process by which system analysts investigate the
SDLC’s step 2: business problem that your organization plans to solve
through an IS
System Analysis
• Delivery
• A plethora of system requirements (or user requirements)
SDLC’s step 3: • Describes how the system will solve the business
System design problem
• Delivery
• A plethora of technical system specifications
• Eliminations
SDLC’s step 4: • Programming
Programming • Testing
and testing
SDLC’s step 5: Conversion strategies for transitioning from old to
Implementation new system
• Direct conversion
• Pilot conversion
• Stepwise conversion
• Parallel conversion

SDLC’s step 6: • Operation of the system

Operation and • Maintenance
• Update
maintenance
• Adding new functionality
• Removing the system from use

Alternative development methods and tools

• Joint Application Design (JAD) method for requirement specification
• Rapid Application Development (RAD) iterative method of development
• Agile development
• End-user development
• Tools for system development
Structured Methods for System Development: Elements
#

Rapid Application Development (RAD) #

• RAD approaches to software development put less emphasis on planning and
more emphasis on process.
• RAD approaches emphasize adaptability and the necessity of adjusting
requirements in response to knowledge gained during the development.

RAD vs. SDLC #

Agile system development #

Agile System Development #

Short life cycles and Minimalism

Short life cycles
• Days, weeks, maybe months, not years.
• Avoids missing changing requirements.

Minimalism
• Focuses on ’high value’ activities.
• Discourages activities that do not directly produce
functionality.
KANBAN (agile system development method) #

Pair programming # (an agile system development

method)
• Two persons working on the same computer.
• A driver and a navigator.
• Not meant to be mentoring but working together.
System development tools #
• Prototyping
• Integrated CASE (Computer-Assisted Software Engineering) tools
• Component-based development
• Object-oriented development
• End-user development
INFO110: New Trends in Information
Systems (L11) #

Hardware in Information Systems #

• Information systems hardware is the part of an information system that can be
touched – the physical components of the technology.
The eras of business computing #

Software: systems and application solutions

#

Software Applications #
#
Cloud Computing Often Occurs on Virtualized Servers #

Cloud computing: Different Types of Clouds #

Intelligent Information Systems #
• The term intelligent systems describes the various commercial applications of
artificial intelligence.
• Artificial intelligence (AI) is a subfield of computer science that studies the thought
processes of humans and re-creates the effects of those processes via machines,
such as computers and robots.

(natural intelligence vs artificial intelligence)

Expert system elements and processes #
1. Knowledge acquisition.
Knowledge is acquired from domain experts or from documented sources.
2. Knowledge representation.
Acquired knowledge is organized as rules or frames (object-oriented) and stored
electronically in a knowledge base.
3. Knowledge inferencing.
The computer is programmed so that it can make inferences based on the stored
knowledge.
4. Knowledge transfer.
The inferenced expertise is transferred to the user in the form of a recommendation
or an answer.

IF lung capacity is high AND X-ray results are positive AND patient has fever AND
patient has coughing THEN surgery is necessary.
IF tumor has spread OR contraindications to surgery exist
THEN surgery cannot be performed.
Ten generic categories of expert systems #
Challenges involved with expert systems
• Transferring domain expertise from human experts to the expert system can be
difficult because people cannot always explain how they know what they know.
Often, they are not aware of their complete reasoning process.

• Even if the domain experts can explain their entire reasoning process, automating
that process may not be possible.
The process might be either too complex or too vague, or it might require too many
rules.

• In some contexts, there is a potential liability from the use of expert systems. What
happens if a business decision driven by an expert system harms someone
financially?

Neural Networks #
• A neural network is a system of programs and data structures that simulates the
underlying functions of the biological brain.
• A neural network usually involves many processors operating in parallel, each with
its own small sphere of knowledge and access to data in its local memory.
• Typically, a neural network is initially “trained” or fed large amounts of data and
rules about data relationships.
Genetic Algorithms #
Methods for solving both constrained and unconstrained optimization problems
based on a natural selection process that mimics biological evolution.

Selection (survival of the fittest):

The key to selection is to give preference to better and better outcomes.

Crossover:
Combining portions of good outcomes in the hope of creating an even better
outcome.

Mutation: Randomly trying combinations and evaluating the success (or failure) of
an outcome.

Intelligent Agents #
• An intelligent agent is a software program that assists users, or acts on users’
behalf, in performing repetitive computer-related tasks.
• Intelligent agents often use expert systems and fuzzy logic behind the scenes to
create their seemingly intelligent behavior.

• Example: The information agents for Amazon.com display lists of books and other
products that customers might like, based on past purchases.
Agents #
Model-based agent # (intelligent agent)
• It works by finding a rule whose condition matches the current situation.
• It can handle partially observable environments.
• Updating the state requires information about how the world evolves independently
from the agent and how the agent actions affect the world.

Robots [Wikipedia]
• A robot is a machine— especially one programmable by a computer—capable of
carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.
• A robot can be guided by an external control device, or thecontrol may be
embedded within. Robots may be constructed to evoke human form, but most robots
are task-performing machines, designed with an emphasis on stark functionality,
rather than expressive aesthetics.
ARU IRU