Difference between Information Technology and Information System - Assignment Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Title : ASSESSMENT ITEM 2— SURVEY THEORY Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx @ 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Knowledge worker in the context of the business World……………………………………...4 Difference between Information Technology and Information System………………………4 Differences between data, Information, knowledge and Wisdom……………….……………5 Current Technologies and Issues………………………………………………………………..6 Business intelligence and how organizations use it for competitive knowledge……………...6 The concept of web services and its importance to business………………………………......7 (Define outsourcing and, how it is used in organizations today)……………………………8 (Imagine you are in charge of designing- a new videoconferencing system for a large multinational.)What are some features you would include as essential? (Which features would be nice to have but may not be) essential…………………………………………………………………………………………...8 Explain what a ‘revenue model’ is and how it relates to a ‘business model’? Use examples to make your explanation clearer……………………………………………………………….9 What kinds of government regulations might be regarded by some as potential threats to e-commerce and why?......................................................................................................................9 Explain the difference between a ‘forward auction’ and a ‘reverse auction’ in the context of e-auctions………………………………………………………………………………………..10 List and describe the primary threats to information systems security…………………………………………………………………………………………..10 Explain why it is necessary to conduct a ‘risk analysis’ as a first step in creating an Information Systems security plan……………………………………………………………………………………………....11 Contrast ‘technological safeguards’ and ‘human safeguards’ in information systems security, using examples to illustrate your points…………………………………………………………………………………………….11 Describe the difference between ‘online processing’ and ‘batch processing’ using an example of each to illustrate your answer…………………………………………………………………………………………...11 Explain what are the ‘models’ used in Decision Support systems architectures…………...11 How can data mining and visualization are used to gain business intelligence and improve decision making…………………………………………………………………………………12 How can data mining and visualization be used to gain business intelligence and improve Decision) making?.........................................................................................................................................12 What is a ‘knowledge management system’ and what types of technologies would make up a comprehensive knowledge management system?..................................................................12 (Describe what enterprise systems are and how they have evolved)………………………...12 References………………………………………………………………………………………13 Question 1. (What does the term ‘knowledge worker’ mean in the context of today’s business world?). The term knowledge worker refers to people with the ability to do the interpretation of information of a given area of a subject. They go a head to analyze develop and design by use of their skills in research. In this way they enhance understanding of these things. They are influential and do affect the priorities, strategies and decisions of the organization (Ackoff 1989 pp.3-9). Question 2. (What is the difference between ‘information technology’ and ‘information system’?). Information system or IS is a discipline that deals with the operational and managerial activities that are concerned with storage, processing, distribution and utilization of information and together with concerned technology both in organizations and societies. IS is considered both an academic and professional discipline. IS serves as a link between the field of business that happens to involve many disciplines and the field of computer science. Information systems rest on the foundations of computations and information (Ackoff 1989 pp.3-9). An information system is composed of hardware and software for gathering and analyzing digital information, people, procedures and data. Information systems that depend on computers are networks made of software and hardware that are used for collecting, creating, filtering, processing and distributing data. Currently computer based IS happens to be a mere track in computer science for study of algorithmic processes and computers. This is inclusive of the designs of their software and hardware, impact on society and application. IS systems put emphasis on functioning rather than design (Liang 2008 pp.574). On the other hand Information Systems is an area of engineering that deals with communication systems, software and hardware that are based on computers. These things make it possible to acquire, represent, store, transmit and utilize information. Information Technology is successfully implemented if people are able to get along with the ways systems are wired, the interfaces of those systems with people and companies and the way they interact with the out side environment (Liang 2008 pp.574).It also relies on people’s ability to change power to knowledge. Information Technology (IT) deals with making improvements in organizations and people’s efforts to solve problems. This is done through designing, developing and using processes and systems based on technology. These processes and systems make information more effective and efficient in different situations of operation. It is possible to achieve this through paying attention to people’s needs of information where tasks that bring solutions to problems are involved. Providing helps for technology like software and hardware that are based on computers, electronic communication and other processes involved with them. Information Technology assists and works hand in hand with traditional engineering by stressing on the basis of information in engineering (Liang 2008 pp.574). Question 3.( Explain the differences between DATA, INFORMATION, KNOWLEDGE and WISDOM. Why do you think the differences are important to the ‘study, development, and use of information systems?) Based on the writings of Russel Ackoff what is in the mind of a person can be categorized into data, information, knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Data refers to symbols, while information is a type of data that goes through processing in order to become meaningful for use. This information will answer questions like ‘when’, ‘where’ ‘what’ and ‘who’. Knowledge on the other hand is concerned with how information and data is applied. It will respond to the question ‘why’. Understanding brings the idea of appreciating ‘why’ while wisdom refers to understanding that has been evaluated (Liang 2008 pp.574). Of the above only wisdom operates with the future because it brings together design and vision. A person is able to use wisdom to bring the future into existence. The others are related to the past since they are concerned with things that are already known. Data is normally raw and it exists in any form which can be put to use or not. It lacks meaning of its own. Information can be said to data which has acquired meaning which may be useful. Knowledge has to do with gathering of information that is useful. Understanding in itself is analytical. Question 4.( View these four websites: www.informationweek.com; www.computerworld.com; www.cio.com; and www.newsfactor.com.-Then write a paragraph on which technologies and issues seem to be current (“hot”) at the moment, and which seem to be most important to business managers, according to each of these sites.) Business managers are advocating for employment of new technologies instead of sticking to the old ones. (Gadomski, Adam and Maria 2007).These new technologies will help the companies to match the pace of the changing world. E-commerce is the way to go if an organization has to succeed. It is efficient and fast and can be put to many uses. Question 5.(What is ‘Business Intelligence’ and how do organizations use it for competitive advantage?) Business intelligence is a wide section of technology and applications meant for collection, storage, analysis and provision of access to data in order to assist business people to make good decisions in their businesses. Some of the Business Intelligence applications are questions and giving reports, analytical processing online, data mining, analysis of statistics, forecasting and decision support activities. (Gadomski, Adam and Maria 2007). Question6. (Explain the concept of ‘web services’ and why they are important to e-businesses.) Web services is a term that is used to refer to a method used to integrate applications based on the web by use of SOAP, WSDL UDDI open standards and XML on a background of internet protocol. Tagging of data is done by use of XML; UDDI is for putting the services on a list, WSDL is for giving a description of the services present while SOAP is for transferring data. Web services make it possible for data to be communicated by different parties without having to closely understand each other’s Information Systems. These services serve as a medium of communication between businesses and with their customers. (Sol 1987).With web services, different applications coming from different origins can carry out communication between them without wasting time on custom coding. Since communication in its entirety is done in XML then web services are not hooked to a single operating system or language of programming. For instance UNIX applications can communicate with windows while Perl talks with Java. Web services don’t need HTML or browsers to operate (Gadomski, Adam and Maria 2007). As opposed to ancient client-server models like web page system or web server, in web services the user is not given a GUI. Web services share processes, data and business logic via an interface that is programmed on a network. A web service can then be added to a GUI probably by developers in order for it to be functional in a specific way to those using it. According to Sol (1987)use of web services business enterprises are able to connect their applications with those of their partners, clients or suppliers through the internet in a similar way in which the web pages are connected .This makes it possible for businesses to check and use information belonging to their partners just like if it belonged to them. Companies may also form a linkage within their own establishment in order to kill redundancy and increase the level of efficiency. In a company accounting programs may be connected to inventory programs. This means if a change is effected in one area it affects the other area automatically. Question 7.(Define outsourcing-and, how it is used in organizations today.) To outsource is to make a contract with another person or organization so that they can do a certain thing for you. Many companies do this. For example an insurance firm can outsource landscaping activities to a company that does that job because the insurance firm does not specialize in that. The company being outsourced is called a service provider. Outsourcing is done through many ways. An organization can give all whole operations to a service provider or just give specific areas of the business (Sol 1987). Outsourcing processes take 4 stages. The stages include strategic thinking to come up with a philosophy for the company concerning the place of outsourcing in its operations, evaluation and selection which determines the service providers, locations and projects and contract development. Developing the contract deals with agreement terms for services and pricing (Amanda 2003). Finally there is management of outsourcing or governance that fine tunes the relationship between the service providers and the client. Question 8.(Imagine you are in charge of designing a new videoconferencing system for a large multinational. (What are some features you would include as essential)?( Which features would be nice to have but may not be essential?) A proper video conferencing system should have specific features that will make function effectively. There are ten very important features to go for when designing such a system. These features include; moderator controls should be packed with power, it should be fully customizable, have capabilities for pass words, file sharing, desk top sharing, presentation mode, full audio and video capabilities, reasonable size like 0-10, 0-100 or 0-500. It should also have simple software that are easy to use and should not operate with down loads. Some feature like size, desk top sharing and file sharing may not be very necessary. Question9 .(Compare and contrast the ‘Click-and-Mortar’ and the ‘Click-Only’ e-commerce business strategies – find and list two examples of each. Click and mortar refers to a business model that helps an organization to integrate online and off line presences. Question 10. (Explain what a ‘revenue model’ is and how it relates to a ‘business model’? Use examples to make your explanation clearer.) A revenue model is a way of planning how money will be made through the satisfaction of the needs of the customers. In a revenue model, one has the goods and services that clients are in need of then the person takes them through the goods and services by maximizing on the meetings with them. A revenue model is normally addressed in a business model. A business model will have all the information about the activities of a business (Keen 1978).Things that are found within a business model are expenses, corporate structure, operating strategies revenues among others. Therefore revenue is one of the operations covered in a business model. Question 11.(What kinds of government regulations might be regarded by some as potential threats to e-commerce and why?) Regulations that are oppressive in nature may become threats to e- business. For example may require obtaining a license in order to operate this business. The government may also want to monitor the way the way web technology is being used by the companies already in the field. Question 12. (Explain the difference between a ‘forward auction’ and a ‘reverse auction’ in the context of e-auctions) In a normal auction the one selling brings an item and many buyers interested place their bids. Either one person or more bidders who have the highest price buy the item on the price arrived at after the bidding is over. However reverse auctions will have the buyer striking a deal with market markers that help in the preparations such as training suppliers, getting new suppliers, availing auction data to buyers, organizing and managing the auction among other things (Sprague, R. H. and H. J. Watson 1993).As opposed to reverse auctions, forward auctions operate on electronic systems. They are crucial in making sellers reach many buyers. The buyers and sellers are companies or individuals. Goods are put on a special site where buyers bid for them until when the highest of them takes away the item. Question 13. (List and describe the primary threats to information systems security.) Viruses are codes of soft wares which do propagation to themselves through multiplication. Viruses are transmitted from one computer to another by way of e-mail, opening an infested file or downloading material on the internet. Threats that are programmed include viruses, spyware, adware, spam, worms, logic bombs and Trojan horses. They damage and change data, steal it, cause nuisances or cripple the functions of a system (Keen 1978). Strangers can be able to see or manipulate data. Primary threats can be natural calamities and accidents, out side hackers and trackers among others. Trackers can do illegal things while hackers are less harmful. Other threats include company employees and consultants, persons linked to out side business contacts. Question 14.( Explain why it is necessary to conduct a ‘risk analysis’ as a first step in creating an Information Systems security plan.) Risk analysis needs to be the first step because a critical examination of the risk is necessary. After the risk has been assessed and its magnitude and possible threat established, then it is possible to tell what kind of a security system is appropriate. Other stages in the process as well depend on the knowledge of the dynamics of the risk (Keen 1978). Question 15. (Contrast ‘technological safeguards’ and ‘human safeguards’ in information systems security, using examples to illustrate your points.) People implement procedures on the systems of computers. These are called human systems. They include the right access for people and the right recovery of systems. Question 16. (Describe the difference between ‘online processing’ and ‘batch processing’ using an example of each to illustrate your answer). Batch processing is considered a slower process as compared to the online one. A pay roll for example can be completed in three hours if the batch method was used. On line processes are determined in seconds and they handle individual transactions. On line processing helps one to get small amounts of information within a short time while batch processes will be useful where large amount of information is being handled. (Keen 1978).It is efficient and economical in this sense. Question 17 (Explain what are the ‘models’ used in Decision Support systems architectures.) A decision support system is an information system based on computers and is used in organizations and businesses in decision making. 18. How can data mining and visualization are used to gain business intelligence and improve decision making. Business intelligence implies to techniques that are introduced with the aid of computers that are mainly used in the process of analyzing company’s business information and data. For instance sales and revenue. Business intelligence technologies are used to support business operations such as online processing of data and information. Data mining applications such as online processing of data and information helps in the process of business management. Better decision making are supported better by business intelligence which is upgraded by data mining and visualization pages (Gadomski, Adam and Maria 2007). Business Intelligence can also be referred to as the decision support system and it also serves the purpose of a competitive intelligence in business decision making. Any business that wants to be successful must have effective decision making thus every member of a given business organization aims at making positive decisions to ensure that the performance of the organization does not decrease. One of the best ways for an organization to maintain its performance is through implementing data mining and visualization. Effective decision making in a given business organization means that it is in a position to make more profits thus gaining business intelligence. pages (Gadomski, Adam and Maria 2007). Any business organization that has business intelligence is able to make effective decisions and it has the capability of analyzing the performance of a given organization and giving accurate results according to the data received. Therefore data mining and visualizing can help in gaining business intelligence by enhancing the analysis and giving accurate data that will help it to improve on its decision making. Question 19. (What is a ‘knowledge management system’ and what types of technologies would make up a comprehensive knowledge management system?) A knowledge management system is a term that refers to a number of practices and strategies employed in a company to represent, create, identify, distribute and enable experiences and insights to be adopted. These experience or insights is the knowledge of the organization found in its practices or that of individual people. Technologies that make knowledge management include blogs, book marks and wikis. These are the recent ones. Earlier on there was the online corporate yellow pages (Gadomski, Adam and Maria 2007).Recent technologies are based on text code. This means that open knowledge is passed from one person to another. However they face problems in making the knowledge transmissible across different channels. They also need to distill re usable knowledge that carries a lot of meaning. Question 20.(Describe what enterprise systems are and how they have evolved.) Enterprise systems are application software packages that are integrated on a large scale that support reporting, information flows, processes, by using the computational data transmission and storage power that the current information technology provides. References: Ackoff, R. L., "From Data to Wisdom", Journal of Applies Systems Analysis, Volume 16, 1989 p 3-9. Amanda, D (2003).Introduction to Web servers: Long horn publishing group. Australia. Efraim Turban, Jay E. Aronson, Ting-Peng Liang (2008). Decision Support Systems and Intelligent Systems. p. 574. Gadomski, Adam and Maria(2007).Information, Preferences and Knowledge An Interesting Evolution in Thought Henk G. Sol et al. (1987). Expert systems and artificial intelligence in decision support systems: proceedings of the Second Mini Euroconference, Lunteren, The Netherlands, 17-20 November, 1985. Springer, 1987. ISBN 9027724377. p.1-2. Decision support systems: an organizational perspective. Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. ISBN 0-201-03667-3 Sharma, Nikhil (2006). The Origin of the Data Information Knowledge Wisdom Hierarch: Cambridge University. Prentice Publishers. Sprague, R. H. and H. J. Watson (1993).Decision support systems: putting theory into practice. Englewood Clifts, N.J., Prentice Hall. Read More