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What we have learned

• UNIT 1: Achieving Business Success Through Information Technology– Chapter One – Business Driven Technology Overview– Chapter Two – Identifying Competitive Advantages– Chapter Three – Strategic Initiatives for Implementing

Competitive Advantages– Chapter Four – Measuring the Success of Strategic

Initiatives – Chapter Five – Organizational Structures That Support

Strategic Initiatives

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BUSINESS DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY

UNIT 2: Managing Information for Business Initiatives

OPENING CASESearching for Revenue - Google

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Unit Two

• The chapters in this unit include:– Chapter Six – Valuing Organizational Information– Chapter Seven – Storing Organizational Information -

Databases– Chapter Eight – Viewing and Protecting

Organizational Information

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BUSINESS DRIVEN TECHNOLOGY

Chapter Six: Valuing Organizational Information

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LEARNING OUTCOMES

6.1 Describe the broad levels, formats, and granularities of information

6.2 Differentiate between transactional and analytical information

6.3 List, describe, and provide an example of each of the five characteristics of high-quality information

6.4 Assess the impact of low-quality information on an organization and the benefits of high-quality information on an organization

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Real World Cases

• Google sales Enterprise Search Appliance Tool released in 2002.

• Companies use the tool within an enterprise information portal (EIP) to search corporate information for answers to customer questions and to fulfill sales orders. For example, Xerox, Hitachi Data Systems, P&G, Cisco, Discovery Communication.

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CHAPTER SIX OVERVIEW

• Information is everywhere in an organization• Employees must be able to obtain and analyze the

many different levels, formats, and granularities of organizational information to make decisions

• Successfully collecting, compiling, sorting, and analyzing information can provide tremendous insight into how an organization is performing e.g. Samsung took a detailed look at over 100,000 reports from its resellers to identify “lost deals” and found that 80% of such lost took place in a single business unit: the health care industry.

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CHAPTER SIX OVERVIEW

• Levels, Formats, and Granularities of Information

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THE VALUE OF TRANSACTIONAL AND ANALYTICAL INFORMATION

• Transactional information – encompasses all of the information contained within a single business process or unit of work, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of daily operational tasks

• Analytical information – encompasses all organizational information, and its primary purpose is to support the performing of managerial analysis tasks

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THE VALUE OF TIMELY INFORMATION

• Timeliness is an aspect of information that depends on the situation– In some industries, information that is a few days or

weeks old can be relevant e.g. insurance, construction while in other industries information that is a few minutes old can be almost worthless e.g. stock traders, 911 which require up-to-the second information, 24/7

– Real-time information – means immediate, up-to-date information

– Real-time systems – provide real-time information in response to query requests

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THE VALUE OF TIMELY INFORMATION

• Real-time systems can help organizations make faster and more effective decisions

• But there is no need to gather real-time in a smaller increments e.g. MBIA insurance staff satisfy with overnight updates

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Pitfalls of Real-Time Information

• Pitfalls associated with Real-Time Information is the continual change.

• Scenario: Three Managers meet at the end of the day to discuss a business problem– Each manager gather information at different times during the day– Each manager’s picture of the situation may be different because of this time

discrepancy– Their view of business may not match since the information they are basing

their analysis on is continually changing.

• This approach may not speed up decision making, and in fact it may slow it down. Organization do not want to find themselves in the position of using real-time information to make a bad decision faster.

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THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION

• WESTPAC Financial Service– Million of customers, many core systems– Failed to develop information capturing standards which led to inconsistent

organizational information– Sending conflicting or competing message to customers– No way to identify the two different customer accounts were for the same

customer

• Business decisions are only as good as the quality of the information used to make the decisions

• The five characteristics of high-quality information include– Accuracy, Completeness, Consistency, Uniqueness, Timeliness

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THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION

• Five common characteristics of high-quality information

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THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION

• Low-quality information example

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THE VALUE OF QUALITY INFORMATION

• The four primary sources of low-quality information include:

1. Online customers intentionally enter inaccurate information to protect their privacy

2. Information from different systems that have different information entry standards and formats

3. Call center operators enter abbreviated or erroneous information by accident or to save time

4. Third party and external information contains inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and errors

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Understanding the Costs of Low-quality Information

• Potential business effects resulting from low-quality information– Inability to accurately track customers– Difficulty identifying valuable customers– Inability to identify selling opportunities– Marketing to nonexistent customers– Difficulty tracking revenue due to inaccurate invoices– Inability to build strong customer relationships – which increases buyer power

• Using wrong information can lead to wrong decision which can cost time, money, and even reputation.

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Understanding the Benefits of High-Quality Information

• High-quality information can significantly improve the chances of making a good decision

• E.g. Lillian Vernon Corp, used Web analytics to discover that men preferred to shop at Web Site instead of looking through its paper catalog.

• Phoenix & Arizona is not a good place to sell golf clubs, even with it high number of golf courses.

• Good decisions can directly impact an organization's bottom line

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OPENING CASE STUDY QUESTIONSSearching for Revenue - Google

1. Determine if Google’s search results are examples of transactional information or analytical information

2. Describe the ramifications on Google’s business if the search information it presented to its customers was of low-quality

3. Review the five common characteristics of high-quality information and rank them in order of importance to Google’s business

4. Explain how the Web site RateMyProfessors.com solved its problem of low-quality information

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CHAPTER SIX CASEFishing for Quality

• Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game requires high-quality information to manage the state’s natural resources, specifically to increase fishing yields, while ensuring the future of many species

• Using fish counts the department makes daily decisions as to which districts will be open or closed to commercial fishing

• Allowing too many fish to be caught before they swim upstream to spawn could diminish fish populations – yielding devastating effects for years to come

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CHAPTER SIX CASE QUESTIONS

1. Describe the difference between transactional and analytical information and determine which type the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is using to make decisions

2. Explain the importance of high-quality information for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game

3. Review the five common characteristics of high-quality information and rank them in order of importance for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game