Week 3, Chapter 2: STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING

Blog Questions

Define TPS & DSS, provide some examples of these systems in business

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) is the basic business system that serves the operational level in an organisation. The most common TPS example is a payroll system. The accountant (or account department) would simply enter the hours worked and the program would generate the weekly pay in relation to the individual pay rate, allowances, withholdings and a payroll summary is then generated, deducting this monetary amount from the organisations cash flow. Another example would be within a retail environment where the TPS determines stock orders. The system would analyse the amount of inventory on hand within a store (minus sales and transfers, plus returns and new deliveries) before reordering.  Decision Support Systems (DSS) models information to support decision makers during their decision making process and therefore assist in the overall planning of business within an organisation. These systems compile raw data to assist management in making business decisions.

The expanded DSS framework includes; Communications driven DSS, data driven DSS, document driven DSS, knowledge driven DSS and model driven DSS.

Examples include:

·       Communications driven – chat

·       Data driven: invoicing, inventory, and KPI management in retail environments

·       Document driven – template materials to increase workflow and improve consistency across materials in an advertising agency

·       Knowledge driven – Credit analysis in a banking environment

·       Model driven – Applicant eligibility scoring in a insurance environment

Describe the three quantitative models typically used by decision support systems

·       Sensitive analysis: How alterations to one area of the model may or may not impact other areas of the model. This analysis studies the change resulting from an altered variable

·       What-if analysis: The study of the impact of a change to understand the effects of a situation

·       Goal-seeking analysis: Defines the inputs required to achieve a desired outcome

Describe a business process and it's importance to an organisation

Streamlined operations increase customer satisfaction and organisational workflow.

By understanding processes, a business is better able to understand (and therefore serve!) it’s customers. The business processes are standardised activities that complete a certain task, such as processing an order or fulfilling a customer request. For an example, a digital agency may receive a website brief from a client. This is then communicated the agency designers and developers, who then create concepts which, once approved, become the clients website. The process is then completed once the invoice has been paid and the job details archived. Examining business processes allows organisations to identify areas of improvement and implement more time saving procedures that ultimately impact organisational profits.

Compare business process improvement and business process re-engineering using an example

Business Process Improvement (BPI) analyses current processes and makes improvements accordingly.

Business Process Re-Engineering (BPRE), assumes that the current process is inefficient and therefore requires replacing (rather than improving in the way that BPI does). A seemingly irrelevant example would be the method by which a graphic design business transfers documents. While a BPI solution would be to send emails, decreasing organisational costs and allowing designers to continue working a BPRE would be to create a technological driven drop box system by which the client and agency are able to share and transfer files.

Describe the importance of business process modelling (or mapping) and business process models

The importance in being able to visualise an organisation’s operation in the future can often identify opportunities for business growth or enable organisations to avoid problems. This activity maps the work processes and is important when an organisation is attempting to streamline work processes. A business process model displays the sequence of activities either as the business currently operates (As-Is process model) or as it will operate (To-Be Process Model). These processes identify opportunities for improvement in relation to BPI or ensure all aspects of the business have been considered when implementing BPRE.

Week 2, Chapter 1: INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN BUSINESS

Blog Questions

Explain information technology’s role in business.
“Information technology (IT) is everywhere in business”. Staffs from all departments unavoidably deal with information technology everyday. It is a facet of organisations that impact almost every role within an organisation. In retail environments, the manager accesses sales information and inventory records when performing stock takes. IT systems such as MYOB are also used to enter the end of day sales. The accountant calculates the weekly wages using IT, while the sales person records sales, tracks inventory available at interstate stores and may enter details provided by the customer that are then stored on a database.  All organisations work with systems, which makes IT very relevant to everyday business activity.

What are Efficiency and Effectiveness Metrics? Provide some examples of each.

Efficiency and effectiveness metrics are two primary types of IT metrics. Efficiency measures the performance of the IT system itself. If an IT system is efficient it is doing things right. An example of an efficiency metric may be transaction speed, throughput and response time. The University of Notre Dame’s previous online timetable sign up was very inefficient according to these metrics as it was unable to process a large amount of information through the system at one time which resulted in slow transaction speed and response time.

Effectiveness measures the impact IT has on business processes and activities. Effectiveness may also be measured by how well an organisation achieves its goals and objectives. If an IT system is effective it is doing the right things. Metric that measure this conversion rates. This is very common with web banners. The effectiveness of such elements is measured by the amounts of users that click through (the web banner) to the actual advert. Users that click on the ‘Lose 5kgs for Summer’ web banner and are then taken to the Jenny Craig home page have added to the effectiveness.

What does Porter’s Five Forces Model attempt to explain? How does the Internet affect each of the five forces?

The five forces define an attractiveness of particular markets and shape the nature of competitive interaction within a particular industry. Porter’s analysis reveals the strongest competitive force or forces within an industry, which determine the industry’s profitability by identifying critical success factors, ultimately exploiting opportunities that enable organisations to establish a competitive advantage. The Internet affects the five forces across all industries in the following ways:

- Buyer power is more powerful due to access to information and consumer ability to research alternatives. Although this is beneficial to consumers, it also poses a significant managerial threat.

- Supplier power is increased, as suppliers are able to reach many more potential customers, ultimately allowing the ability to supply to more, however the internet also allows buyers to easily source alternative suppliers.

- Threat of substitutes is increased as the Internet itself as a substitute or providing a platform for the substitute.

- Threat of new entrants is increased as the Internet reduces industry entry barriers.  

- Rivalry among existing competitors is also increased.

Conclusively, the Internet decreases the attractiveness of markets for existing dominating companies but also provides opportunity for potential entrants. The Internet creates an even platform in which all organisations are able to compete and thus create competitive advantages, ultimately providing the consumer with more choice, lower prices and more choices. 

Week 1: OVERVIEW

My name is Jayne and I am in my final year of university.

Post graduation I hope to continue my studies while working full time at the design & advertising agency that I am currently employed, Holy Cow! 

I hope that this unit will motivate me to maintain my personal blog and become more PC proficient.