Chapter 1 Margin Notes
General Note: This
chapter's entire motivation is discussing Information Systems in Business. Much
(if not all) of what you see in this chapter will be repeated in later chapters. In general,
the charts in this chapter are horrendous.
Page 4, What Is an Information System. You tell me!
Page 4, Real World Case #1, Sew What? Inc. Even if you aren't assigned this, be sure to read the Case study. I guarantee you that a question about it may appear on the midterm. Here are some links from the Case Study you may find interesting...
Page 4, What Is an Information System? Notice that not all Information Systems require a computer.
Page 7, Information Technologies. Check out the difference between an Information System and Information Technology. The terms are used interchangeably. Do they mean the same thing?
Page 9, The Fundamental Roles of IS in Business. The author lists three--and these should all interest you. In your role as future business people, you will use IS to accomplish one or more or all of these.
Page 9, The Fundamental Roles of IS in Business IS: Examples. Be sure to check out the blue box examples.
Page 9, Figure 1.4. We discuss the Internet, Intranets, and Extranets later on in the course.
Page 9, Enterprise collaboration systems. You may use one of these one day to work with co-workers all over the world.
Page 9, Electronic commerce. Also known as e-commerce, it's not the same as e-business. e-Commerce is aimed towards selling goods to a consumer. e-Business is used not only by customers, but employees and vendors as well. The 11th edition of this book spent much time dealing with the difference. This book doesn't.
Page 10, Information Technology Keeps the Boston Red Sox in the Game. Are you a baseball fan? Be sure to check out this blue box.
Page 10, Trends in Information Systems. Trends, not facts, are always an important thing to remember in a course like this.
Page 11, Figure 1.4, The expanding roles of the business applications in information systems. A good figure. It's showing how important computers are in business--and growing more important every year. But that's no surprise--that's why you are here in this class.
Page 12, The Role of e-Business in Business. We talk about this a great deal throughout the course.
Page 13, Types of Information Systems. It's convenient to classify information systems by their types---these are listed in Figure 1.6. These are discussed briefly in this chapter--and later on in the course, each one is discussed in even more detail---bet you can't wait :) By the way, the first type of system I worked on was a Management Information System (discussed on Page 15). I'll have lots of stories to tell you about the programs I wrote for it.
Page 16, Other Classifications of Information Systems. Still more types...we talk about these a lot during the course.
Page 17, Managerial Challenges of Information Technology. Now, if you're smart (and I know you all are), this should pique your interest. After all, most of you will wind up being highly paid managers, VP's or CEO's :) Knowing the challenges (and opportunities) that Information Technology presents will enable you to use it even better--and make even more money.
Page 18, Success and Failure with IT. Yes, there are failures too :)
Page 18, Hershey Foods: Failure and Success with IT. Read this blue block. What is ERP? We discuss it later on in the course--and I will possibly show a video on it.
Page 19, Developing IS Solutions. More on this later on in the book--and the course.
Page 19, Frito-Lay: Challenges and Solutions in Systems Development. Check it out. Very interesting!
Page 20, Challenges of Ethics and IT. As a potential future managers (some of you may be managers now). Read this section with great interest. As with most of the topics in this chapter, we'll come back to cover it in more detail.
Page 20, Citibank: Problems with e-Mail Scams. Be sure to check it out. Have you ever received one of these email scams?
Page 21, Challenges of IT careers. An IT career can be well paying, but it is challenging---imagine the whole body of your profession's knowledgebase completely changing every 18 months. That's what's happened to me many times.
Page 23, Want to Win in Vegas?. Be sure to check out this blue box. Would you like to work for a Casino?
Page 25 What Is a System? A good definition here. Systems have five components (yes, I know the author says three): Input, Processing, Output, Feedback and Control. The example of a thermostat-controlled heating system is an excellent example of a system. By the way, NOT ALL SYSTEMS ARE COMPUTER SYSTEMS.
Page 25, Real World Case #2. Autosystems. Be sure to read this case--it's the most interesting one in the book so far.
Page 29, Figure 1.18. This is a pretty lame figure--although I like the explanation to the left.
Page 30, Figure 1.19. Not a bad figure---although it's a bit disjointed. What's the point? I guess it's an attempt to illustrate the Information System Resources discussed on Page 25.
Page 31, People Resources. People are the most important resource (at least I think so)
Page 33, Data versus Information. Wow--it's been a long time since he had this in here. Data and Information are not the same. Data are (is) raw facts---Information is processed, summarized, synthesized, amalgamated data.
Page 33, Information System Activities. A nice overview--check it out.
Page 39, Real World Case #3. Heidelberg, Honeywell, and Eaton. Check it out.