10

Advantages and disadvantages of

information systems
6 diciembre, 2015 by Mirzodaler Muhsinzoda 5 Comments

The competitiveness of most companies is in a large degree based on the

effective use of information technologies and information systems especially.
The main purpose of information systems are provide the right information to
the right people at the right time. It is used to track, store, manipulate and
distribute the information from gathered data to appropriate persons when
necessary.

In this post I thought to think about what advantages and disadvantages can
bring to the businesses and society the integrating information systems. Of
course, without any doubt the efficient usage of information systems will give
a lot opportunities to the companies and advantages to their
business. Sometime it can make kind of new job environments but on the
other hand it can make some group of employees unemployed.

Advantages
Communication – with help of information technologies the instant
messaging, emails, voice and video calls becomes quicker, cheaper and
much efficient.
Globalization and cultural gap – by implementing information systems we
can bring down the linguistic, geographical and some cultural boundaries.
Sharing the information, knowledge, communication and relationships
between different countries, languages and cultures becomes much easier.

Availability – information systems has made it possible for businesses to be

open 24×7 all over the globe. This means that a business can be open
anytime anywhere, making purchases from different countries easier and
more convenient. It also means that you can have your goods delivered right
to your doorstep with having to move a single muscle.

Creation of new types of jobs – one of the best advantages of information

systems is the creation of new and interesting jobs. Computer programmers,
Systems analyzers, Hardware and Software developers and Web designers
are just some of the many new employment opportunities created with the
help of IT.

Cost effectiveness and productivity – the IS application promotes more

efficient operation of the company and also improves the supply of information
to decision-makers; applying such systems can also play an important role in
helping companies to put greater emphasis on information technology in order
to gain a competitive advantage. IS has a positive impact on productivity,
however there are some frustrations can be faced by systems users which are
directly linked to lack of training and poor systems performance because of
system spread.

Disadvantages
Unemployment and lack of job security – implementing the information
systems can save a great deal of time during the completion of tasks and
some labor mechanic works. Most paperwork’s can be processed
immediately, financial transactions are automatically calculated, etc. As
technology improves, tasks that were formerly performed by human
employees are now carried out by computer systems. For example,
automated telephone answering systems have replaced live receptionists in
many organizations or online and personal assistants can be good example
also. Industry experts believe that the internet has made job security a big
issue as since technology keeps on changing with each day. This means that
one has to be in a constant learning mode, if he or she wishes for their job to
be secure.

Dominant culture – while information technology may have made the world a
global village, it has also contributed to one culture dominating another
weaker one. For example it is now argued that US influences how most young
teenagers all over the world now act, dress and behave. Languages too have
become overshadowed, with English becoming the primary mode of
communication for business and everything else.

Security issues – thieves and hackers get access to identities and corporate
saboteurs target sensitive company data. Such data can include vendor
information, bank records, intellectual property and personal data on company
management. The hackers distribute the information over the Internet, sell it to
rival companies or use it to damage the company’s image. For example,
several retail chains were targeted recently by hackers who stole customer
information from their information systems and distributed Social Security
numbers and credit card data over the Internet.

Implementation expenses – to integrate the information system it require

pretty good amount of cost in a case of software, hardware and people.
Software, hardware and some other services should be rented, bought and
supported. Employees need to be trained with unfamiliar information
technology and software.

Information systems contribute to the efficient running of organizations.

Information systems are showing the exponential growth in each decades.
Today’s information technology has tremendously improved quality of life.
Modern medicine has benefited the most with better information system using
the latest information technology. By understanding and learning what
advantages and disadvantages it can bring, we have to try, believe and put an
effort with our best to make that existing advantage much better and navigate
the disadvantages to have a less impact on organizations and society.

Change management is usually overseen by a Change Review Board

composed of representatives from key business areas, security, networking,
systems administrators, Database
administration, applications development, desktop support and the help desk.
The tasks of the Change Review Board can be facilitated with the use of
automated work flow application. The responsibility of the Change Review
Board is to ensure the organizations documented change
management procedures are followed. The change management process is
as follows:

    * Requested: Anyone can request a change. The person making the
change request may or may not be the same person that performs the
analysis or implements the change. When a request for change is received, it
may undergo a preliminary review to determine if the requested change is
compatible with the organizations business model and practices, and to
determine the amount of resources needed to implement the change.

    * Approved: Management runs the business and controls the allocation of
resources therefore, Management must approve requests for changes and
assign a priority for every change. Management might choose to reject a
change request if the change is not compatible with the business
model, industry standards or best practices. Management might also choose
to reject a change request if the change requires more resources than can be
allocated for the change.

    * Planned: Planning a change involves discovering the scope and impact of
the proposed change; analyzing the complexity of the change; allocation of
resources and, developing, testing and documenting both implementation and
backout plans. Need to define the criteria on which a decision to back out will
be made.
    * Tested: Every change must be tested in a safe test environment, which
closely reflects the actual production environment, before the change is
applied to the production environment. The backout plan must also be tested.

    * Scheduled: Part of the change review board's responsibility is to assist in

the scheduling of changes by reviewing the proposed implementation date for
potential conflicts with other scheduled changes or critical business activities.

    * Communicated: Once a change has been scheduled it must be

communicated. The communication is to give others the opportunity to remind
the change review board about other changes or critical business activities
that might have been overlooked when scheduling the change. The
communication also serves to make the Help Desk and users aware that a
change is about to occur. Another responsibility of the change review board is
to ensure that scheduled changes have been properly communicated to those
who will be affected by the change or otherwise have an interest in the
change.

    * Implemented: At the appointed date and time, the changes must be
implemented. Part of the planning process was to develop an implementation
plan, testing plan and, a back out plan. If the implementation of the change
should fail or, the post implementation testing fails or, other "drop dead"
criteria have been met, the back out plan should be implemented.

    * Documented: All changes must be documented. The documentation

includes the initial request for change, its approval, the priority assigned to it,
the implementation, testing and back out plans, the results of the change
review board critique, the date/time the change was implemented, who
implemented it, and whether the change was implemented successfully, failed
or postponed.

    * Post change review: The change review board should hold a post
implementation review of changes. It is particularly important to review failed
and backed out changes. The review board should try to understand the
problems that were encountered, and look for areas for improvement.
Change management procedures that are simple to follow and easy to use
can greatly reduce the overall risks created when changes are made to
the information processing environment. Good change
managementprocedures improve the over all quality and success of changes
as they are implemented. This is accomplished through planning, peer review,
documentation and communication.

Management Information Systems and Decision-

Making: An Overview

The type of information required by decision makers in a company is directly related to:

 the level of management decision making

 the amount of structure in the decision situations managers face

The levels of management decision making that must be supported by information

technology in a successful organization (independently of its size, shape, and participants),

are often shown as a managerial pyramid – see the figure below (O'Brien, p. 393) and

Lecture 4:

Strategic management: As part of a strategic planning process top executives

i. develop overall organizational goals, strategies, policies, and

ii. monitor the strategic performance of the organization and its overall direction

in the political, economic, and competitive business environment

Tactical management: Business unit managers and business professionals in self-directed

teams

i. develop short- and medium-range plans, schedules, budgets and specify

policies, procedures, and business objectives for their sub-units of the

company, and
 ii. allocate resources and monitor the performance of their organizational sub-

units, including departments, divisions, process teams, project teams, and

other workgroups.

Operational management: Operating managers and members of self-directed teams

i. develop short-range plans (e.g. weekly production schedules), and

ii. direct the use of resources and the performance of tasks according to

procedures and within budgets and schedules they establish for the teams

and other workgroups of the organization.

Decision makers need information products whose characteristics, attributes or quality are

having the three dimensions of time, content, and form – see the figure below (O'Brien,

p. 393).
8

 What is Knowledge Management?

   
 

Defining Knowledge Management

KM is difficult to articulate and quantify. It contains elements of many disciplines of

"hard" and "soft" sciences. KM practices can be found in a number of places in
Corporate America: in MIS departments, corporate libraries, strategic marketing, human
resources, sales and customer services and in many other areas. In a growing number of
forward looking companies, newly formed Knowledge Management departments can
already be found.

Before we can talk about KM we need define what knowledge is.

Knowledge is "information resident in people’s minds, which is used for making

decisions in unknown contexts". While knowledge must be in the mind of a knowledge
worker (or automated process) to be productive, dormant or transient knowledge can be
stored (i.e. in paper or electronic format) for subsequent retrieval and application by the
knowledge worker.

The point is, in order to have value, knowledge must be applied to a new situation on
which a decision or action can be made.

It is important to notice the distinction between knowledge and information. These two
are distinct entities. While 'information' stored in a computer system is not a very rich
carrier of human interpretation for potential action, ‘knowledge’ resides in the user’s
subjective context of action based on that information.

With a notion of what knowledge is, we can begin our discussion of Knowledge
Management.

Experts have defined KM as the storing, sharing and utilization of knowledge

information in an organization for specific business advantages. There is no consensus
on what KM is. Different articles give different definitions of KM. Following is a
number of definitions:

"KM is an integrated systematic approach to identifying, managing and

 sharing all of an enterprise’s information assets, including databases,
documents, policies and procedures, as well as previously unarticulated
expertise and experience resident in individual workers" [R1].

"KM aims to achieve fast and easy access to all types of information and
emphasizes interpersonal communication rather than the mere capture and
storage of knowledge" [R1].

"KM caters to the critical issues of organizational adoption, survival and

competence in face of increasingly discontinuous environmental change.
Essentially, it embodies organization processes that seek synergies in the
combination of data and information processing capacity of information
technologies, with the creative and innovative capacity of human beings"
[R2]

For the purpose of this paper we chose to adapt, with small alterations, the definition
adopted by Delphi [R3]:

"KM is a tool set for the automation of deductive or inherent

relationships between information objects, corporate users and
business processes"

This definition clearly establishes the three different entities, which, through their
interaction, aim to create new, knowledge-based, added value. None of these
components is "new" in the corporate world. The innovation lies in the cost
effectiveness and widespread capability of interaction between these three elements
anywhere, anytime coupled with the increasing market offer of powerful "tools sets"
capable of relating and operating them.

Functions of Knowledge Management

 

 
We can divide all the functions performed by KM in five main categories:

1. Intermediation: Intermediation refers to the brokering or knowledge transfer

between an appropriate knowledge provider and knowledge seeker. Its role is to
"match" a knowledge seeker with the optimal source of knowledge for that
seeker. By doing so, intermediation ensures a much more efficient transfer of
knowledge.
2. Externalization: Externalization refers to the transfer of knowledge from the
minds of its holders into an external repository, in the most efficient way
possible. The function of externalization is to provide the sharing of
knowledge. This is where Competitive Intelligence/Business Intelligence
comes in. Through KM tools it is possible to track the vast quantity of data
about competitors — from news stories to price changes.
3. Internalization: Internalization is the extraction of knowledge from the
external repository, and the filtering of this knowledge to provide greater
relevance to the knowledge seeker. Knowledge should be presented to the user
in the form most suitable to its comprehension. This, this function may include
interpretation and/or reformatting of the presentation of the knowledge. To
implement this function, companies can build yellow pages thus mapping and
categorizing the skills and work experience of the organization. Another aspect
of internalization would be the documentation of best practices.
4. Cognition: Cognition is the function of systems to make decisions based on
available knowledge. Cognition is the application of knowledge which has been
exchanged through the preceding three functions.
5. Measurement: Measurement refers to all KM activities that measure, map and
quantify corporate knowledge and the performance of KM solutions. This
function acts to support the other four functions, rather than to actually manage
the knowledge itself.

These macro KM functions are combinations of many atomicfunctions, namely

those of:

o finding, mapping, gathering, and filtering information;

o developing new knowledge (identifying relations among items and
sharing information);
o converting personal knowledge into shared knowledge resources;
o understanding and learning;
o adding value to information to create knowledge;
o enabling action through knowledge (performance and management);
 o processing shared knowledge resources; delivering (transferring) explicit
knowledge;
o building adequate technical infrastructures.

7 Need and Importance of IT infrastructure

Management Services

In the changing economy in recent times, there is a necessity to improvise the business
requirements according to the changing needs of the market, customers and technologies.
This in turn causes a change in the business environment and has to be tackled in an
appropriate way minimizing the costs while enhancing the benefits.  To increase the overall
efficiency of the Organization’s operating components, the infrastructure management in the
areas like cloud, security, IT, networks, server, application,data and people is given prime
importance. In order to ensure good service and tremendous quality,a secure, reliable
infrastructure is essential to reduce the cost of the company, maintaining the standards,and
ensure the information flow is processed in undisruptive way and managing existing and
new staff.
Infrastructure of data center provides an insight into the assets of IT company and realigns
the physical infrastructure to improve efficiency of the company to the business needs.
Cloud infrastructure is solely based on virtualization tools to deploy sources from IT,
investments are utilized in a flexible and efficient manner and which further increases the
security in the organization. Network infrastructure provides an insight into the resources
and provides a connectivity between hardware, software, and bridges a communication gap
inside both internal and external networks. This bridging further helps to increase
communication, which in turn patches the operations of an organization.
Application Infrastructure helps in the assessment of organization’s applications, mapping
them to various underlying applications like databases, designing applications
infrastructure, migrating the application to a different destination from the source, monitoring
and management of vendors.
Server Infrastructure management helps to maximize the investments made in the IT by
standardizing and controlling the costs of a server. The servers are monitored
24/7,maintained by deleting the temporary files and updating the software versions to utilize
the optimum benefits of servers.
The overall concept of IT infrastructure management has been rapidly adapting in
companies to meet the existing demands of the customers and the market. Business needs
of the customers are met and in turn the organization is adapting to give a user rich
experience, enhancing and reevaluating their resources and remodeling them to increase
the substantial value of the organization.
The company’s assets are handled carefully to the changes in the technology, which in turn
helps to overcome the risk and decreases the complexity of the problems. All the areas of
infrastructure management are interlinked which mainly strive to adopt practices which are
best in industry and increase the scalability of the enterprise and improve the focus of the
business.
IT infrastructure management plays a key role in reducing the costs of a company, ensuring
the quality of the service is maintained to a greater extent overcoming the risk. The
operational efficiency of the organization will also rise to a new level, increasing the
company’s revenue.
Underlying principles of IT infrastructure and overall focus is to optimize the output, keeping
the data safe and secure, bridging a communication between internal and external
networks, meeting the demands of the customers and reducing the operating cost of a
company.
With the introduction of IT infrastructure management in an organization, end to end
solutions are provided to the customers, optimizing the data, process and application
infrastructure of the organization. Several MNC companies like Wipro, Tech Mahindra,
Infosys and cognizant are offering IT infrastructure management Services to various clients
across the globe which are  a huge success and meeting the demands of the companies
and the customers.
This IT infrastructure forms the prominent backbone of the economy of a company, hence it
is of utmost importance to monitor and manage them and overcome the challenges of the
traditional system. It also helps to maintain the compliance with the government policies and
regulations and in turn reducing the operating costs.Infrastructure management is also
outsourced and monitored remotely (RIM) and provides all the necessary features to ensure
its security. The cost benefits are optimized, efficient, scalable, service and security are
improved.
The major business challenges faced by an organization are subsided when IT
infrastructure management plays a pivotal role in shaping the future, by providing improved
processes, policies which are adhered to the standards, collecting efficient data, managing
the networks , IT assets and the IT staff.
Handling infrastructure management at several levels increases the companies strategic
planning and business revenues. There is an extreme need and importance for the
infrastructure management in an organization which helps them to achieve higher targets.

Types of Business Information Systems

No single system can provide all the information an organization needs.

Even small firms have a collection of different systems: e-mail systems,
sales tracking systems, etc. Different systems can be described through:

 A functional perspective: Identifying systems by their major

business function

 A constituency perspective: Identifying systems in terms of the

major organizational groups that they serve

There are four main types of information systems that serve different
functional systems:

1. Sales and marketing information systems help the firm with marketing

business processes (identifying customers for the firm's products or
services, developing products and services to meet their needs,
promoting products and services) and sales processes (selling the
products and services, taking orders, contacting customers, and
providing customer support).

Figure 2-2
FIGURE 2-2 EXAMPLE OF A SALES INFORMATION SYSTEM
This system captures sales data at the moment the sale takes place to help the business
monitor sales transactions and to provide information to help management analyze sales
trends and the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.
2. Manufacturing and production information systems deal with the
planning, development, and production of products and services, and
controlling the flow of production.

Figure 2-3

FIGURE 2-3 OVERVIEW OF AN INVENTORY SYSTEM

This system provides information about the number of items available in inventory to
support manufacturing and production activities.
3. Finance and accounting information systems keep track of the firm's
financial assets and fund flows.
Figure 2-4

FIGURE 2-4 AN ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE SYSTEM

An accounts receivable system tracks and stores important customer data, such as payment
history, credit rating, and billing history.
4. Human resources information systems maintain employee records,
track employee skills, job performance and training, and support
planning for employee compensation and career development.

Figure 2-5

FIGURE 2-5 AN EMPLOYEE RECORD KEEPING SYSTEM

This system maintains data on the firm’s employees to support the human resources
function.
There are four main categories of systems from a constituency perspective.

1. Transaction processing systems (TPS) are basic business

systems that serve the operational level of the organization by
recording the daily routine transactions required to conduct
business, such as payroll and sales receipts.

2. Management information systems (MIS) serve middle

managers' interests by providing current and historical performance
information to aid in planning, controlling, and decision making at
the management level. MIS typically compress TPS data to present
regular reports on the company's basic operations.

Figure 2-6, Figure 2-7

FIGURE 2-6 HOW MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS OBTAIN THEIR

DATA FROM THE ORGANIZATION’S TPS
In the system illustrated by this diagram, three TPS supply summarized transaction data to
the MIS reporting system at the end of the time period. Managers gain access to the
organizational data through the MIS, which provides them with the appropriate reports.
FIGURE 2-7 SAMPLE MIS REPORT
This report showing summarized annual sales data was produced by the MIS in Figure 2-6.
3. Decision support systems (DSS), or business intelligence
systems, help managers with non-routine decisions that are unique,
rapidly changing, and not easily specified in advance. DSS are more
analytical than MIS, using a variety of models to analyze internal
and external data or condense large amounts of data for analysis.

Figure 2-8

FIGURE 2-8 VOYAGE-ESTIMATING DECISION-SUPPORT SYSTEM

This DSS operates on a powerful PC. It is used daily by managers who must develop bids on
shipping contracts.
4. Executive support systems (ESS) provide a generalized
computing and communications environment that help senior
managers address strategic issues and identify long-term trends in
the firm and its environment. ESS address nonroutine decisions
requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight because there is no
 agreed-on procedure for arriving at a solution. ESS present graphs
and data from many internal and external sources through an
interface that is easy for senior managers to use. Often the
information is delivered to senior executives through a portal, which
uses a Web interface to present integrated personalized business
content.

Figure 2-9

FIGURE 2-9 MODEL OF AN EXECUTIVE SUPPORT SYSTEM

This system pools data from diverse internal and external sources and makes them
available to executives in an easy-to-use form.
Ideally, these constituency-based systems are interrelated. TPS are
typically a major source of data for other systems, whereas ESS are
primarily a recipient of data from lower-level systems and external sources.

Figure 2-10
 FIGURE 2-10 INTERRELATIONSHIPS AMONG SYSTEMS
The various types of systems in the organization have interdependencies. TPS are major
producers of information that is required by many other systems in the firm, which, in turn,
produce information for other systems. These different types of systems are loosely coupled
in most business firms, but increasingly firms are using new technologies to integrate
information that resides in many different systems.

Data Warehousing - Overview

The term "Data Warehouse" was first coined by Bill Inmon in 1990.
According to Inmon, a data warehouse is a subject oriented, integrated,
time-variant, and non-volatile collection of data. This data helps analysts to
take informed decisions in an organization.

An operational database undergoes frequent changes on a daily basis on

account of the transactions that take place. Suppose a business executive
wants to analyze previous feedback on any data such as a product, a
supplier, or any consumer data, then the executive will have no data
available to analyze because the previous data has been updated due to
transactions.
A data warehouses provides us generalized and consolidated data in
multidimensional view. Along with generalized and consolidated view of
data, a data warehouses also provides us Online Analytical Processing
(OLAP) tools. These tools help us in interactive and effective analysis of
data in a multidimensional space. This analysis results in data
generalization and data mining.

Data mining functions such as association, clustering, classification,

prediction can be integrated with OLAP operations to enhance the
interactive mining of knowledge at multiple level of abstraction. That's why
data warehouse has now become an important platform for data analysis
and online analytical processing.

Understanding a Data Warehouse

 A data warehouse is a database, which is kept separate from the
organization's operational database.
 There is no frequent updating done in a data warehouse.
 It possesses consolidated historical data, which helps the organization to
analyze its business.
 A data warehouse helps executives to organize, understand, and use
their data to take strategic decisions.
 Data warehouse systems help in the integration of diversity of application
systems.
 A data warehouse system helps in consolidated historical data analysis.

Why a Data Warehouse is Separated from

Operational Databases
A data warehouses is kept separate from operational databases due to the
following reasons:

 An operational database is constructed for well-known tasks and

workloads such as searching particular records, indexing, etc. In
 contract, data warehouse queries are often complex and they present a
general form of data.
 Operational databases support concurrent processing of multiple
transactions. Concurrency control and recovery mechanisms are required
for operational databases to ensure robustness and consistency of the
database.
 An operational database query allows to read and modify operations,
while an OLAP query needs only read onlyaccess of stored data.
 An operational database maintains current data. On the other hand, a
data warehouse maintains historical data.

Data Warehouse Features

The key features of a data warehouse are discussed below:

 Subject Oriented - A data warehouse is subject oriented because it

provides information around a subject rather than the organization's
ongoing operations. These subjects can be product, customers,
suppliers, sales, revenue, etc. A data warehouse does not focus on the
ongoing operations, rather it focuses on modelling and analysis of data
for decision making.
 Integrated - A data warehouse is constructed by integrating data from
heterogeneous sources such as relational databases, flat files, etc. This
integration enhances the effective analysis of data.
 Time Variant - The data collected in a data warehouse is identified with
a particular time period. The data in a data warehouse provides
information from the historical point of view.
 Non-volatile - Non-volatile means the previous data is not erased when
new data is added to it. A data warehouse is kept separate from the
operational database and therefore frequent changes in operational
database is not reflected in the data warehouse.
Note: A data warehouse does not require transaction processing, recovery,
and concurrency controls, because it is physically stored and separate from
the operational database.

Data Warehouse Applications

As discussed before, a data warehouse helps business executives to
organize, analyze, and use their data for decision making. A data
warehouse serves as a sole part of a plan-execute-assess "closed-loop"
feedback system for the enterprise management. Data warehouses are
widely used in the following fields:

 Financial services

 Banking services

 Consumer goods

 Retail sectors

 Controlled manufacturing

Types of Data Warehouse

Information processing, analytical processing, and data mining are the
three types of data warehouse applications that are discussed below:

 Information Processing - A data warehouse allows to process the data

stored in it. The data can be processed by means of querying, basic
statistical analysis, reporting using crosstabs, tables, charts, or graphs.
 Analytical Processing - A data warehouse supports analytical
processing of the information stored in it. The data can be analyzed by
means of basic OLAP operations, including slice-and-dice, drill down, drill
up, and pivoting.
 Data Mining - Data mining supports knowledge discovery by finding
hidden patterns and associations, constructing analytical models,
performing classification and prediction. These mining results can be
presented using the visualization tools.
Sr.No. Data Warehouse (OLAP) Operational
Database(OLTP)

1 It involves historical It involves day-to-day

processing of information. processing.

2 OLAP systems are used by OLTP systems are used by

knowledge workers such as clerks, DBAs, or database
executives, managers, and professionals.
analysts.

3 It is used to analyze the It is used to run the business.

business.

4 It focuses on Information It focuses on Data in.

out.

5 It is based on Star It is based on Entity

Schema, Snowflake Relationship Model.
Schema, and Fact
Constellation Schema.

6 It focuses on Information It is application oriented.

out.

7 It contains historical data. It contains current data.

8 It provides summarized It provides primitive and

and consolidated data. highly detailed data.

9 It provides summarized It provides detailed and flat

 and multidimensional view relational view of data.
of data.

10 The number of users is in The number of users is in

hundreds. thousands.

11 The number of records The number of records

accessed is in millions. accessed is in tens.

12 The database size is from The database size is from 100

100GB to 100 TB. MB to 100 GB.

13 These are highly flexible. It provides high performance.

Data Warehousing - Concepts

What is Data Warehousing?
Data warehousing is the process of constructing and using a data
warehouse. A data warehouse is constructed by integrating data from
multiple heterogeneous sources that support analytical reporting, structured
and/or ad hoc queries, and decision making. Data warehousing involves
data cleaning, data integration, and data consolidations.

Using Data Warehouse Information

There are decision support technologies that help utilize the data available
in a data warehouse. These technologies help executives to use the
warehouse quickly and effectively. They can gather data, analyze it, and
take decisions based on the information present in the warehouse. The
information gathered in a warehouse can be used in any of the following
domains:
  Tuning Production Strategies - The product strategies can be well
tuned by repositioning the products and managing the product portfolios
by comparing the sales quarterly or yearly.
 Customer Analysis - Customer analysis is done by analyzing the
customer's buying preferences, buying time, budget cycles, etc.
 Operations Analysis - Data warehousing also helps in customer
relationship management, and making environmental corrections. The
information also allows us to analyze business operations.

Integrating Heterogeneous Databases

To integrate heterogeneous databases, we have two approaches:

 Query-driven Approach

 Update-driven Approach

Query-Driven Approach
This is the traditional approach to integrate heterogeneous databases. This
approach was used to build wrappers and integrators on top of multiple
heterogeneous databases. These integrators are also known as mediators.

Process of Query-Driven Approach

 When a query is issued to a client side, a metadata dictionary translates
the query into an appropriate from for individual heterogeneous sites
involved.
 Now these queries are mapped and sent to the local query processor.
 The results from heterogeneous sites are integrated into a global answer
set.

Disadvantages
 Query-driven approach needs complex integration and filtering processes.
 This approach is very inefficient.
 It is very expensive for frequent queries.
  This approach is also very expensive for queries that require
aggregations.

Update-Driven Approach
This is an alternative to the traditional approach. Today's data warehouse
systems follow update-driven approach rather than the traditional approach
discussed earlier. In update-driven approach, the information from multiple
heterogeneous sources are integrated in advance and are stored in a
warehouse. This information is available for direct querying and analysis.

Advantages
This approach has the following advantages:

 This approach provide high performance.

 The data is copied, processed, integrated, annotated, summarized and
restructured in semantic data store in advance.
 Query processing does not require an interface to process data at local
sources.

Functions of Data Warehouse Tools and Utilities

The following are the functions of data warehouse tools and utilities:

 Data Extraction - Involves gathering data from multiple heterogeneous

sources.
 Data Cleaning - Involves finding and correcting the errors in data.
 Data Transformation - Involves converting the data from legacy format
to warehouse format.
 Data Loading - Involves sorting, summarizing, consolidating, checking
integrity, and building indices and partitions.
 Refreshing - Involves updating from data sources to warehouse.

Note: Data cleaning and data transformation are important steps in

improving the quality of data and data mining results.
 Data Warehousing - Terminologies
In this chapter, we will discuss some of the most commonly used terms in
data warehousing.

Metadata
Metadata is simply defined as data about data. The data that are used to
represent other data is known as metadata. For example, the index of a
book serves as a metadata for the contents in the book. In other words, we
can say that metadata is the summarized data that leads us to the detailed
data.

In terms of data warehouse, we can define metadata as following:

 Metadata is a road-map to data warehouse.

 Metadata in data warehouse defines the warehouse objects.
 Metadata acts as a directory. This directory helps the decision support
system to locate the contents of a data warehouse.

Metadata Repository
Metadata repository is an integral part of a data warehouse system. It
contains the following metadata:

 Business metadata - It contains the data ownership information,

business definition, and changing policies.
 Operational metadata - It includes currency of data and data lineage.
Currency of data refers to the data being active, archived, or purged.
Lineage of data means history of data migrated and transformation
applied on it.
 Data for mapping from operational environment to data
warehouse - It metadata includes source databases and their contents,
data extraction, data partition, cleaning, transformation rules, data
refresh and purging rules.
  The algorithms for summarization - It includes dimension algorithms,
data on granularity, aggregation, summarizing, etc.

Data Cube
A data cube helps us represent data in multiple dimensions. It is defined by
dimensions and facts. The dimensions are the entities with respect to which
an enterprise preserves the records.

Illustration of Data Cube

Suppose a company wants to keep track of sales records with the help of
sales data warehouse with respect to time, item, branch, and location.
These dimensions allow to keep track of monthly sales and at which branch
the items were sold. There is a table associated with each dimension. This
table is known as dimension table. For example, "item" dimension table
may have attributes such as item_name, item_type, and item_brand.

The following table represents the 2-D view of Sales Data for a company
with respect to time, item, and location dimensions.

But here in this 2-D table, we have records with respect to time and item
only. The sales for New Delhi are shown with respect to time, and item
dimensions according to type of items sold. If we want to view the sales
data with one more dimension, say, the location dimension, then the 3-D
view would be useful. The 3-D view of the sales data with respect to time,
item, and location is shown in the table below:

The above 3-D table can be represented as 3-D data cube as shown in the
following figure:

Data Mart
Data marts contain a subset of organization-wide data that is valuable to
specific groups of people in an organization. In other words, a data mart
contains only those data that is specific to a particular group. For example,
the marketing data mart may contain only data related to items, customers,
and sales. Data marts are confined to subjects.

DATA MINING TECHNIQUES IN DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS

In order to make a decision, the managers need knowledge. In case of massive data amounts, issues
may occur because of data analysis and necessary knowledge extract. Data is analyzed through an
automated process, known as Knowledge Discovery in data mining techniques.

Data mining can be defined as a process of exploring and analysis for large amounts of data with a
specific target on discovering significantly important patterns and rules. Data mining helps finding
knowledge from raw, unprocessed data. Using data mining techniques allows extracting knowledge
from the data mart, data warehouse and, in particular cases, even from operational databases.

In this context, data mining gets an important role in helping organizations to understand their
customers and their behavior, keeping clients, stocks anticipation, sale policies optimization as well
as other benefits which bring a considerable competitive advantage to the organization.

The main purpose of these techniques is to find patterns and hidden (but relevant) relations that
might lead to revenue increase. The essential difference between data mining techniques and the
conventional database operation techniques is that, for the second ones, the database becomes passive
and is only being used for large amounts of data population, therefore helping in future finding of
that specific data. Alternatively, the database is not passive anymore, being able to serve useful
information regarding the business plans put in discussion.
Regarding data mining studies, two major types of them exists. One of them is represented by the
hypothesis testing, which assumes exposing a theory regarding the relation between actions and their
results. The second type of study is represented by the knowledge discovery. For this type of
analysis, relations between data warehouse existing data are tracked. This can be done by using data
viewing tools or by using fundamental statistical analysis, such as correlation analysis.

Data mining techniques reside from classic statistical calculation, from database administration and
from artificial intelligence. They are not a substitute for traditional statistical techniques, but an
extension of graphical and statistical techniques.

Data mining uses a large variety of statistical algorithms, shape recognition, classification, fuzzy
logic, machine learning, genetic algorithms, neural networks, data viewing etc., from which we can
mention regression algorithms, decision algorithms, neural networks, clustering analysis.

Regression algorithms. Regression represents a basic statistical method. In the case of data mining, it
is also an important analysis tool, used in classification applications through logical regressions as
well as forecasted reports measured using the least square or other methods. Non-linear data can be
transformed into useful linear data and analyzed using linear regressions. The universal test for data
mining classification is the coincidence index matrix. It is primarily focused on data classification
abilities of the model. For continuous regressions, class inflection points must be identified. The
applications of the methods into solving business problems are multiple.

Decision trees. In data mining technology, decision trees represent rules tree-view structures, also
known as joining rules. The trees’ creation mechanism of the trees consists in collecting all the
variables the analyst assumes might help the decision making and analyzing them considering their
influence into result estimation.
The algorithm automatically determines which of the variables are the most relevant, based on the
ease of data sorting. The decision tree algorithms are applied in Business data mining in areas like:
loan request classification, applicants ranking for various positions.

Neural networks. This is one of the most commonly used data mining method. It consists of taking
sets of observations and placing them in a relational system through arc-connected nodes. This idea
derives from the way neurons act inside the human brain. Neural networks are usually structured in at
least three layers, having a constant structure allowing reflection of complex non-linear relations.
Each entry data has a node in the first layer, while the last layer represents the output data – the
result. In order to classify the neural network model, the last layer (containing the output) has a
corresponding node for each category. In most of the cases, this type of networks also have a mid
node layer (hidden) which adds complexity to the model. The obtained results are compared to the
targeted ones, and the difference is re-entered in the system for node’s cost adjustments. The process
keeps looping until the network correctly classifies the input data (at a tolerance level).

Clustering analysis. One of the most general forms of this type of analysis allows the algorithm to
determine the number of subsets. Partitioning is mainly used for defining new variable categories,
which divide raw data in a precise number of regions (k-means clustering). Considering a random 

number of centers (k), data is associated to the center which is the closest to it. The basic principle
of this analysis is to identify the average characteristic for different indicators in sets of data. Thus,
new observations can be measured by reporting the deviation from the average. This analysis is
often the base technique applied in a data mining study, being used in client segmentation and,
implicitly, taking a segment-oriented action.

 ADVANTAGES TO USING A WIRELESS

NETWORK
December 12, 2013
Many businesses today use LAN (Local Area Network) technology to enable employees to share a
common data source. It also provides a common point via which the devices that employees use, can
communicate with one another. There is however an ongoing debate as whether businesses should
deliver their LANs via a wired, or an unwired connection.

But with more and more companies now opting to deploy wireless rather than wired technology, are
they perhaps not fully informed, or is it that they see are making informed decisions and are opting to
avail themselves of the many advantages that working wirelessly facilitates?

 If the Hat fits......

The biggest concerns that are floated when debating wired v wireless networks are security and
speed. It has to be said that in both instances wired is superior. However, having said that, although
wired has a clear edge, that doesn’t mean to say that wireless is either insecure, or slow.

Network Security

The security of wireless is actually very good using the latest encryption technology. That’s not to
say it can’t be hacked into – it can – and being more open, in terms of accessibility, the danger is
certainly greater. This can be overcome by implementing strong passwords and both hardware and
software security solutions.
There are of course businesses that do have particularly desirable data that hackers would like to get
their hands on– like banks for instance, with all of the personal financial information they hold. For
these organisations, that sort of sensitive data warrants maximum security.

Network Speed

In terms of speed - for most small to medium-sized businesses, the slower speed that a wireless
network provides is still fast enough for what they need.

So when it comes down to choosing between wired and wireless networking from a speed and
security angle, each individual business must examine its own needs, and if the hat fits... wear it
accordingly.

WIRELESS NETWORKING HAS MANY ADVANTAGES TO OFFER

For those businesses where superfast speed and ultra secure methodology are not critically important,
going wireless has many advantages to offer.

ADVANTAGE # 1 – INCREASED MOBILITY

Increased mobility is by far the biggest attraction that wireless networking holds for most businesses.
Being able to sit at any terminal, anywhere in the building and access the server is a great advantage.

When laptops were developed, because of the new mobility convenience factor that they brought
within them, this gave added impetus to the advantages of being able to work anywhere within range
of the wireless network signal.  It means that not only can employees now access information from
the server, wherever they are in the premises, but it also enables colleagues to collaborate and share
information in meetings held anywhere; either in a corner of the office, a bespoke meeting room, or
even the staff canteen. It enables total mobility.

ADVANTAGE # 2 – ENABLING BYOD

The increased mobility factor both enables and facilitates the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
phenomenon, which more and more businesses are now taking advantage of. Laptops, Tablets, and
Smartphones that belong to individual employees are now being brought into the workplace and are
being given access rights to the wireless network. As well, as making it more convenient for
employees to carry out their tasks, BYOD also represents a potential cost saving, as businesses no
longer have to fund the hardware cost of the devices themselves.

ADVANTAGE # 3 – INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY

Another important by-product of the increased mobility factor is that it promotes increased
productivity, allowing employees to collaborate where and when they need to. It brings freedom of
operation and speeds up the working process. But there is another factor too, and that is that
employees take their device’s home with them, and can work, (as many do), in their own time when
it’s convenient to do so.
ADVANTAGE # 4 – PUBLIC WI-FI - HOTSPOTS

Wireless networking has also gone into the public domain, with Wi-Fi hotspots being available in
many high street coffee shops, hotels, railway stations, airports, universities, hospitals, etc. It enables
people to get onto the Internet when they’re away from the office, or away from home. People can
pick up their emails, both social and business, and if their place of work allows, can also connect into
the business network remotely.

ADVANTAGE # 5 – SCALABILITY

One of the inherent problems with a wireless network is coping with expansion. Having to add
additional cabling, and reroute existing cables, can be a disruptive and costly process. Whilst every
company should plan ahead when installing a wireless network, it is almost impossible to forecast
future requirements accurately unless sound planning is carried out.

There’s no such problem with a wireless network. Being able to add new users is no more difficult
than having to issue a new password, and update the server accordingly. It’s fast, and it’s relatively
convenient. It also means that offices can be relocated within the building with consummate ease,
furniture can be readily moved around, and, of course, employees can sit wherever they need to.

Not only is it so much more convenient to add new users to a wireless network, but it seldom
involves any additional expenditure.

ADVANTAGE # 6 – GUEST USE

Having a wireless network also means that a business can provide secure network access to visiting
colleagues from other sites within the organisation. It enables them to access the data they need and
pick up and respond to their emails.

It also grants Internet access to visiting customers and suppliers. It’s now something that most
business people who have reason to travel, have come to expect. It’s also how most public Wi-Fi
hotspots grant Internet access to their guests.

ADVANTAGE # 7 – USING VOIP

Another one of the benefits of having a wireless network is that it can be used to make telephone
calls using voice over Internet protocol. VoIP calls are often free, depending on the country and the
devices you are calling, and are considerably cheaper than using conventional technology to make
international calls.

ADVANTAGE # 8 – WI-FI IS COST EFFECTIVE

Using wireless technology rather than having a hard wired network can be much more cost-effective.
The larger the network, both in terms of area and users, the more expensive a hard wired network
will be to install. It’s not just the amount of cabling, but the actual cost of the labour to install the
raceways, and chase the cabling all through the premises; through walls, up and down different floors
etc.
Once a wireless network is in place, and even if it costs a little more initially to install, maintenance
costs are lower, and there are normally no additional costs involved in scaling up, unless the signal
needs to be boosted.

ADVANTAGE # 9 – HEALTH AND SAFETY

Because there are no wires involved with a wireless connection, the potential risk of tripping over
any trailing cables that wired connectivity requires, can be avoided altogether.

WiMAX
is one of the hottest broadband wireless technologies around today. WiMAX
systems are expected to deliver broadband access services to residential
and enterprise customers in an economical way.

Loosely, WiMax is a standardized wireless version of Ethernet intended

primarily as an alternative to wire technologies (such as Cable Modems,
DSL and T1/E1 links) to provide broadband access to customer premises.

More strictly, WiMAX is an industry trade organization formed by leading

communications, component, and equipment companies to promote and
certify compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless access
equipment that conforms to the IEEE 802.16 and ETSI HIPERMAN
standards.

WiMAX would operate similar to WiFi, but at higher speeds over greater
distances and for a greater number of users. WiMAX has the ability to
provide service even in areas that are difficult for wired infrastructure to
reach and the ability to overcome the physical limitations of traditional
wired infrastructure.

WiMAX was formed in April 2001, in anticipation of the publication of the

original 10-66 GHz IEEE 802.16 specifications. WiMAX is to 802.16 as the
WiFi Alliance is to 802.11.
WiMAX is
 Acronym for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access.

 Based on Wireless MAN technology.

 A wireless technology optimized for the delivery of IP centric services

over a wide area.

 A scalable wireless platform for constructing alternative and

complementary broadband networks.

 A certification that denotes interoperability of equipment built to the IEEE

802.16 or compatible standard. The IEEE 802.16 Working Group
develops standards that address two types of usage models −

o A fixed usage model (IEEE 802.16-2004).

o A portable usage model (IEEE 802.16e).

2

Internet, Intranet & Extranet

 Internet Intranet Extranet
It is a Global system of interconnected It is a Private network specific to an It is a Private network that uses public
computer network. organisation. network to share information with
suppliers and vendors.

Not regulated by any authority. It is regulated by an organization. It is regulated by multiple organization.

Thus content in the network Thus content in the network is The content in the network is accessible
is accessible to everyone connected. accessible only to members of to members of organization & external
organization. memberswith access to network.

It is largest in terms of number of It is small network with minimal number The number of devices connected is
connected devices. of connected devices. comparable with Intranet.

It is owned by no one. It is owned by single organization. It is owned by single/multiple

organization.

It is means of sharing It is means of sharing sensitive It is means of sharing

informationthroughout the world. information throughout organization. information between members and
external members.

Security is dependent of the user of Security is enforced via a firewall. Security is enforced via a firewall that
device connected to network. separates internet & extranet.

Example: What we are normally using Example: TCS using internal network Example: HP and Intel using network
is internet. for its business operations. for business related operations.

Users can access Internet anonymously. Users should have valid Users should have valid
username/password to access Intranet. username/password to access Extranet.

Internet is unregulated and But Intranet is regulated by Extranet is also regulated by

uncensored. the organization policies. contractualagreements between
organizations.

SHORT ANSWER QUESTION

10
What are the key management challenges involved in building, operating and maintaining
information systems today?

Answer:-The information systems investment challenge: How can organization obtain business
value from their information system?

-The strategic business challenge: What complementary assets are needed to use information
technology effectively?

-The globalization challenge: How can firm understand the business and system requirements
of a global economic environment?

-The information technology infrastructure challenge: How can organization develop an

information technology infrastructure that can support their goals when business conditions
and technologies are changing so rapidly?\

-Ethic and security: The responsibility and control challenge: How can organization ensure that
their information systems are used in an ethically and socially responsible.

9
E-commerce or electronic commerce simply refers to carrying out business
transactions over the internet. Just like in conventional businesses, this type
of trade has all the aspects of a business transaction such as buying, selling,
and payments. The major difference is that this business model is based on
electronic transactions

Benefits of E-Commerce
Hopefully by now you're aware of the main benefits of E-Commerce, which are:

 immediacy - no going to the shops or waiting in queues

 price - goods bought online tend to be cheaper

  choice - the range of goods available is vast and with sites
like http://www.kelkoo.co.uk that let you compare goods from many retailers it
is easy to find what you want

 24-hour availability - the shop never closes

8
Data Warehouses
A database consists of one or more files that need to be stored on a computer. In large
organizations, databases are typically not stored on the individual computers of employees
but in a central system. This central system typically consists of one or more computer
servers. A server is a computer system that provides a service over a network. The server
is often located in a room with controlled access, so only authorized personnel can get
physical access to the server.
In a typical setting, the database files reside on the server, but they can be accessed from
many different computers in the organization. As the number and complexity of databases
grows, we start referring to them together as a data warehouse.
A data warehouse is a collection of databases that work together. A data warehouse makes
it possible to integrate data from multiple databases, which can give new insights into the
data. The ultimate goal of a database is not just to store data, but to help businesses make
decisions based on that data. A data warehouse supports this goal by providing an
architecture and tools to systematically organize and understand data from multiple
databases.

Data Mining
Once all the data is stored and organized in databases, what's next? Many day-to-day
operations are supported by databases. Queries based on SQL, a database programming
language, are used to answer basic questions about data. But, as the collection of data
grows in a database, the amount of data can easily become overwhelming. How does an
organization get the most out of its data without getting lost in the details? That's
where data mining comes in.
Data mining is the process of analyzing data and summarizing it to produce useful
information. Data mining uses sophisticated data analysis tools to discover patterns and
relationships in large datasets. These tools are much more than basic summaries or queries
and use much more complicated algorithms. When data mining is used in business
applications, it is also referred to as business analytics or business intelligence

7
Business process reengineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of
workflows within and between enterprises in order to optimize end-to-
end processes and automate non-value-added tasks.

6
RFID (radio frequency identification) is a technology that incorporates the
use of electromagnetic or electrostatic coupling in the radio frequency (RF)
portion of the electromagnetic spectrum to uniquely identify an object, animal,
or person.

5
Moore's law refers to an observation made by Intel co-founder
Gordon Moore in 1965. He noticed that the number of transistors per square
inch on integrated circuits had doubled every year since their
invention. Moore's law predicts that this trend will continue into the
foreseeable future.

4
REPEATED QUESTION
3
A core competency is a concept in management theory introduced by, C. K.
Prahalad and Gary Hamel. It can be defined as "a harmonized combination of
multiple resources and skills that distinguish a firm in the marketplace". Core
competencies fulfill three criteria: Provides potential access to a wide variety
of markets

2
An executive information system (EIS), also known as
anexecutive support system (ESS), is a type of managementinformation
system that facilitates and supports seniorexecutive information and
decision-making needs. It provides easy access to internal and
external informationrelevant to organizational goals.

1
A management information system (MIS) is a computerized database of
financial information organized and programmed in such a way that it
produces regular reports on operations for every level of management in a
company. It is usually also possible to obtain special reports from
the system easily.