Session 1:

Data: Data are raw facts and figures that on their own have no meaning.These can be any
alphanumeric characters i.e. text,numbers, symbols.

Information:
● To achieve its aims, the organisation will need to process data into information.
● Data needs to be turned into meaningful information and presented in its most useful
format.
● Data must be processed in a context in order to give it meaning.

Knowledge: Understanding required to process data into information.

Useful Information:
● Relevant
● Complete
● Accurate
● Current
● Economical

Information System: A set of interrelated components that collect (or retrieve), process,store,
and distribute information to support decision making and control in an organization.
We are living in the age of data. The whole world is driven by data. With this
abundance of data, it becomes essential for managers and executives to get the right set of data
and derive the meaning information from this data.

For Cases: First list down all the issues/problems/requirements of the case and then carefully
think about appropriate IT solutions. Assume you are working as an IT consultant to the
Company.

CASE 1

MIS(Management Information System) : Management Information System or 'MIS' is a planned

system of collecting, storing, and disseminating data in the form of information needed to carry
out the functions of management.

● For dealing with enormous amounts of data, MIS is required.

● An MIS is a system which takes the data in raw format and converts it into useful
information which further can be used for effective managerial decision making.
 ● An effective MIS presents the right information to the right people and it also ensures
the integrity and security of the data.
● While designing an MIS, we have to divide the organization into various levels such
as top level, middle level, and bottom level. This will help in finding the information
needs of various levels.
● Information needs of the top level such as CEO will be different from the information
needs of bottom level such as store manager.

Objectives of MIS:

● Caturing Data − Capturing contextual data, or operational information that will

contribute in decision making from various internal and external sources of organization.
● Processing Data − The captured data is processed into information needed for planning,
organizing, coordinating, directing and controlling functionalities at strategic, tactical
and operational level. Processing data means −
○ making calculations with the data
○ sorting data
○ classifying data and
○ summarizing data
● Information Storage − Information or processed data need to be stored for future use.
● Information Retrieval − The system should be able to retrieve this information from the
storage as and when required by various users.
● Information Propagation − Information or the finished product of the MIS should be
circulated to its users periodically using the organizational network.

Characteristics of MIS:

● It should be based on long-term planning.

● It should provide a holistic view of the dynamics and the structure of the organization.
● It should work as a complete and comprehensive system covering all interconnecting
subsystems within the organization.
● It should be planned in a top-down way, as the decision makers or the management
should actively take part and provide clear direction at the development stage of the
MIS.
● It should be based on the need for strategic, operational and tactical information of
managers of an organization.
● It should also take care of exceptional situations by reporting such situations.
 ● It should be able to make forecasts and estimates, and generate advanced information,
thus providing a competitive advantage. Decision makers can take actions on the basis of
such predictions.
● It should create linkage between all subsystems within the organization, so that the
decision makers can take the right decision based on an integrated view.
● It should allow easy flow of information through various sub-systems, thus avoiding
redundancy and duplicity of data. It should simplify the operations with as much
practicability as possible.
● Although the MIS is an integrated, complete system, it should be made in such a flexible
way that it could be easily split into smaller subsystems as and when required.
● A central database is the backbone of a well-built MIS.

Computerized MIS:

● It should be able to process data accurately and with high speed, using various
techniques like operations research, simulation, heuristics, etc.
● It should be able to collect, organize, manipulate, and update large amounts of raw data
of both related and unrelated nature, coming from various internal and external sources
at different periods of time.
● It should provide real time information on ongoing events without any delay.
● It should support various output formats and follow the latest rules and regulations in
practice.
● It should provide organized and relevant information for all levels of management:
strategic, operational, and tactical.
● It should aim at extreme flexibility in data storage and retrieval.

CASE 2

Cloud Computing: Cloud computing is the delivery of different services through the Internet.
These resources include tools and applications like data storage, servers, databases, networking,
and software.
● Cloud Computing is a general term used to describe a new class of network based
computing that takes place over the Internet,basically a step on from Utility Computing,
a collection/group of integrated and networked hardware,software and Internet
infrastructure (called a platform).
● Using the Internet for communication and transport provides hardware, software and
networking services to clients.
 ● These platforms hide the complexity and details of the underlying infrastructure from
users and applications by providing a very simple graphical interface or API (Applications
Programming Interface).
In addition, the platform provides on demand services, that are always on, anywhere, anytime
and any place.Pay for use and as needed, elastic scale up and down in capacity and
functionalities.The hardware and software services are available to the general public,
enterprises, corporations and businesses markets.

Cloud computing is an umbrella term used to refer to Internet based development and
services.A number of characteristics define cloud data, applications services and infrastructure:
● Remotely hosted: Services or data are hosted on remote
infrastructure.
● Ubiquitous: Services or data are available from anywhere.
● Commodified: The result is a utility computing model similar to traditional utilities, like
gas and electricity - you pay for what you would want!

● Shared pool of configurable computing resources

● On-demand network access
● Provisioned by the Service Provider

Types of Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is not a single piece of technology like a microchip or a cellphone. Rather, it's a
system primarily comprising three services: software-as-a-service (SaaS),
infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), and platform-as-a-service (PaaS).

1. Software-as-a-service (SaaS) involves the licensing of a software application to

customers. Licenses are typically provided through a pay-as-you-go model or
on-demand. This type of system can be found in Microsoft Office 365.
2. Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) involves a method for delivering everything from
operating systems to servers and storage through IP-based connectivity as part of an
on-demand service. Clients can avoid the need to purchase software or servers, and
instead procure these resources in an outsourced, on-demand service. Popular examples
of the IaaS system include IBM Cloud and Microsoft Azure.
3. Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) is considered the most complex of the three layers of
cloud-based computing. PaaS shares some similarities with SaaS, the primary difference
being that instead of delivering software online, it is actually a platform for creating
software that is delivered via the Internet. This model includes platforms like
Salesforce.com and Heroku.

Characteristics of Cloud Computing

 1. No need to know much
2. Flexible & Elastic
3. Pay as much as needed & at times when needed.

Cloud Sourcing

Why is it becoming a Big Deal:

● Using high-scale/low-cost providers,
● Any time/place access via web browser,
● Rapid scalability; incremental cost and load sharing,
● Can forget the need to focus on local IT.

Concerns:
● Performance, reliability, and SLAs,
● Control of data, and service parameters,
● Application features and choices,
● Interaction between Cloud providers,
● No standard API – mix of SOAP and REST
● Privacy, security, compliance, trust…

Advantages of Cloud Computing

● Easy backup & Restore

● Low Maintenance
● Data Security
● Mobility
● Unlimited Storage ( Though now we need to pay)
● Increase data reliability
● Instant Updates
● Low Cost
● Device Independent

Disadvantages:

1. Constant Internet Connection

2. Not very secure
3. Requires high internet for proper functioning.

CASE 3 ( Business Intelligence)

Descriptive Analysis(What has happened): It looks at the events of the past and tries to identify
specific patterns within the data. When someone refers to traditional business intelligence, they
are often describing Descriptive Analytics.Visualizations commonly used for Description
Analytics include pie charts, bar charts, tables, or line graphs.

Predictive Analysis(What might happen): Predictive Analytics involves techniques such as

regression analysis, forecasting, multivariate statistics, pattern matching, predictive modeling,
and forecasting.These techniques are harder for organizations to accomplish as they require
large amounts of high-quality data. Additionally, these techniques require a deep understanding
of statistics and programming languages such as R and Python.Predictive Model will suggest the
impact of the next marketing campaign on customer engagement using historical data.If a
company can accurately identify which action caused a certain result, it can reliably predict
which actions would achieve the desired result.

Prescriptive Analysis(What can be done): This type of analytics is characterized by techniques

such as graph analysis, simulation, complex event processing, neural networks,
recommendation engines, heuristics, and machine learning.This is the most difficult level to
achieve. To obtain an effective response from a prescriptive analysis, the techniques required
stem from how well an organization has accomplished each level of analytics.That being said,
this is not an easy task considering the quality of data needed, the appropriate data architecture
to facilitate it and the expertise needed to implement this architecture. The value that it brings
is that an organization will be able to make decisions based on highly analyzed facts rather than
instinct. Meaning they are more likely to guarantee the desired result, such as increasing
revenue.

CASE 5
Big Data & IOT

● In earlier days, data was there but we were not able to record that data. Now with the
advent of information technology, we are able to record almost all the activity
happening around us.
● In previous days, only the employees of any organization used to record the data. Then
came the era of online social networks where every user started recording the data.
Now we are living in the age of Internet of Things (IoT) where electronic devices around
us are also recording huge amounts of data.
● The data generated in today’s world are so large in amount (volume of data), are
generated with high speed (Velocity) and are of different types (Variety).
● Most of the generated data in today’s world are unstructured (videos, audios,
images,text) in nature. Big data technologies have the challenge to convert this
unstructured data into structured one to get meaningful insights from the data.
● Web mining techniques are used to analyze users’ online activities. Web mining can be
divided into three different types: web usage mining, web structure mining, and web
content mining.
a. Web usage mining is the application of data mining techniques to discover web
users’ usage patterns online. Usage data captures the identity or origin of web
users along with their browsing behavior. The ability to track individual users’
mouse clicks, searches, and browsing patterns makes it possible to provide
personalized services to users.
b. Web structure mining is the process of analyzing the structure of a website or a
web page.The structure of a typical website consists of web pages as nodes and
hyperlinks as edges connecting related pages.
c. Web content mining is the process of extracting useful information from the
content of web pages. A web page may consist of text, images, audio, video etc.
● Text mining has been applied widely to web content mining. Text mining extracts
information from unstructured text and draws heavily on techniques from such
disciplines as information retrieval (IR) and natural language processing (NLP).
● Sentiment analysis uses text analysis, natural language processing, and computational
linguistics to identify and extract user sentiments or opinions from text materials.
● The IoT refers to a technology environment in which devices and sensors have unique
identifiers with the ability to share data and collaborate over the internet even without
any human intervention.