UNIT-1a Differences between Information System and Information Technologics Information systems (IS) and information Technology (IT) are often considered synonymous. In reality, information technology is a subset of information systems. Information Systems Information systems is an umbrella term for the systems, designed to create, store, manipulate, distribute and disseminate information. IT typically includes hardware, software, databases , networks ,people & Process. The field of information systems bridges between business and outside environment. An information system, however, can be as simple as a pencil and a piece of paper. Separate, the objects are just tools. Used together, they create a system for recording information. Although information systems are heavily reliant on computers and other technology-based tools.Information Technology Information technology falls under the IS umbrella and ONLY deals with the technology involved in the systems themselves. Information technology can be defined as the study, design, implementation, support or management of Technology involved in computer-based information systems. IT typically includes hardware, software, databases and networks. Information technology often governs the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of digitized information, or data, generated through the disciplines of computing and telecommunications, Information technology focuses. on managing technology and improving its utilization ta advance the overall business goals. Information systems and information technology are growing fields that offer a variety of job options and long-term professional growthAW teieeM VEteroesala teen tele nisy cic ie > A management information system (MIS) is a computer system consisting of hardware and software that serves as the backbone of an organization's operations. An MIS gathers data from multiple online systems, analyzes the information, and reports data to aid in management decision-making. > In business, management information systems (or information management systems) are tools used to support business processes, operations, intelligence, and helps in strategic planning and decision making. > MIS produce data-driven reports that help businesses make the right decisions at the right time."SA manascent information system is an information system used for decision-making, and for the coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of information in an organization. » MIS produces information products that support many of the day-to-day decision making needs of managers and business professional. » Managers and other decision makers use MIS to request information at their networked work stations that support their decision making activities. 9>It should support various output formats and follow 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. Thus MIS means a system for processing data in order to give proper information to the management for performing its functions.Following are the characteristics of an MIS: It should provide a holistic view of the dynamics and the structure of the organization. ¥ lt should work as a complete and comprehensive system covering all interconnecting sub-systems 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 need of strategic, tactical and operational information of managers of an organization *Itshould be able to process data accurately and with high speed, using various techniques like operations research, simulation, heuristics, ete. ¥ It should be able to collect, organize, manipulate, and update large amount of raw data of both related and unrelated nature, coming from various internal and external sources al different periods of time.The goals and objectives of the MIS are the products of business goals and objectives. It helps indirectly to pull the entire organization in one direction towards the corporate goals and objectives by providing the relevant information to the organization. MIS is important because all businesses have a need for information about the tasks which are to be performed. Information and technology is used as a tool for solving problems and providing opportunities for increasing productivity and quality,Management Effectiveness and MIS Using an MIS system can improve the performance of a company in many ways. According to George Phillips Professor at Auburn University and Co- author of Management Information Systems, Moving Business Forward, says, “Any organization that does net use MIS simply will not exist for long, This statement would not have been true a couple of decades ago, but computer- based information systems are now essential to the survival of any organization.” Beyond the need to stay competitive, there are some key advantages of effective use of management information system: = Management can get an overview of their entire operation = Managers have the ability to get feedback about their performance. = Organizations can maximize benefits from their investments by seeing what is working and what isn’t. = Managers can compare results to planned performance by identifying strengths and weakness in both the plan and the performance. = Companies can drive workflow improvements that result in better alignment of business processes to customer needs. = Many business decisions are moved out of upper management to levels of the organization that is closer to where the knowledge and experience lie.IMPACTS OF INFORMATION ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS FIRMS Abtivate wit Gyip tangsImpact of Information Systems on Organisations and Business Firms a ECONOMIC IMPACTS: From an economic point of view, information systems technology can be seen as a factor of production that can be freely substituted for capital and labor. As information systems & technology automates the production process, less capital and labor are required to produce a specified output I'l changes both the relative costs of capital and the costs of information. Information systems & technology can be viewed asa factor of production that can be substituted for traditional capital and labour. As the cost of information technology decreases, it is substituted for labour, which historically has been a rising cost. Hence, information technology should result ina decline in the number of middle managers and clerical workers as information technology substitutes for their labour (Laudon, 1990).nformation technology, by reducing the costs of acquiring and analyzing information, permits organizations to reduce agency costs because it becomes easier for managers to oversee a greater number of employees. Information technology enables firms to increase revenues while shrinking the number of middle managers and clerical workers.QIT Flattens Organizations UcConcept of Virtual Organization U Increasing flexibility of organizations UTransformation of the business enterprise UGlobalization ULocation Independence UEmpowerment URise in the Knowledge and Information based Economy OEmergence of the digital firmMIS and Strategic Business Planning> What is S ea u Strategy is a common theme of strategic decisions through which an organisation tries to relate itself with the environment which involves major resources commitment to develop certain advantages which help in achieving its vision and mission. Strategy involves a series of action plans, no way contradictory to each other because a common theme runs across them. It is not merely a good idea; it is making that idea happen too. Strategy is a unified, comprehensive and integrated plan of action. Strategy involves marketing, finance, human resource and operations to formulate and implement strategy. Strategy takes a holistic view. It is multidisciplinary as a new strategy influences all the functional areas, ie., marketing, financial, human resource, and operations.> ‘the purpose of strategy ‘is to creaté competence (things firm does better than competitors), synergy (between different parts of the organisation and their activities) and value creation so as to attain vision and mission. Strategy requires searching for new sources of advantage. To achieve sustainable long term competitive advantage the firm must invent new rules and new games to become unique and create wealth. Strategy is almost always the result of some type of collective decision-making process. The vision, mission, objectives, and corporate strategies are determined by top management.Strategy hierarchy Q Corporate strategy: Q growth strategy, O stability strategy, Q retrenchment strategy. Q Business unit strategy: Q cost leadership, Q differentiation, Q focus, Q mixed Q Functional strategyStrategic Us of Management Information System/MIS and Strategic Business Planning The major role of Information System applications in business is to provide effective support of a company’s strategies for gaining competitive advantage. This strategic role of information systems involves using information technology to develop products, services and capabilities that give a company major advantages over the competitive forces in the global market place. This role is accomplished through a strategic information architecture : The collection of strategic Information Systems that supports or shapes the competitive position and strategies of a business enterprise. There are many strategic initiatives available to a firm in addition to the five basic strategies of cost leadership, differentiation, innovation, growth and alliance. Investment in information technology can allow a business to lock in customers and suppliers and lock out competitors by building valuable new relationships with them.strategic planning for an organization involves long-term policy decisions, like location of a new plant, a new product, diversification etc. Strategic planning is mostly influenced by - Decision of diversification i.e., expansion or integration of business. The MIS helps the top level management in_ goal setting, strategic planning and evolving the business plans and their implementation. The MIS plays the role of information generation, communication, problem identification and helps in the process of decision-makingAdvantages of Bus Topology : ~ Easy to Implement. + Easily Extendable. > Not very expensive Dis-Advantages of Bus Topology : “ If the cable gets damaged ,the whole network collapsed. “ A computers can transmit data only if network is not being utilized. “+ Network slow down if additional computers added into the network.Terminator [_ FOPOLOCCOMPUTER NETWORK TOPOLOGIES Bus Topology > All devices on the network are connected through a central cable called a Bus. > The data signal is available to all computers connected to the bus. ® The data signal carries the address of destination computers > Bus topology may have problem while multiple hosts sending data at the same time. It is one of the simple forms of networking where a failure of a device does not affect the other devices, But failure of the shared communication line can make all other devices stop functioning. > Its good to connecting 15-20 computers. > Asingle coaxial cable is generally used in bus topologies. > Ethernet is commonly used protocol in network connected by bus topologies .Types of Computer Networks, Generally, networks are distinguished based on_ their geographical span. A network can be as small as distance between your mobile phone and its Bluetooth headphone and as large as the internet itself, covering the whole geographical world, They are broadly defined as follows: > PAN(Personal Area Network) > LAN(Local Area Network) > MAN(The Metropolitan Area Network > WAN(Wide Area Network) > Internetworkoncepts of Computer Networks. A computer network consists of two or more computing devices that are connected in order to share the components of your network and its resources and the information you store there. A network can be defined as a group of computers and other devices connected in some ways so as to be able to exchange data. Each of the devices on the network can be thought of as a node; each node has a unique address. Addresses are numeric quantities that are easy for computers to work with, but not for humans to remember. Example: 204.160.241.98 Some networks also provide names that humans can more easily remember than numbers. Example: www.javasoft.com, corresponding to the above numeric addressaU Sea A ESSE ortStar Topology » All hosts or devises in Star topology are connected to a central device, known as hub device, using a point-to-point connection. » The computers and devises connected to the ring using twisted pair cable , coaxial cable and optics fibre. » Star topology is most popular topology to connect computers and devises in to the network. » The data signals is transmitted from source computers to destination computers via the hub or switch. » Asin Star topology, hub acts as single point of failure. If hub fails, connectivity of all hosts to all other hosts fails. > The common protocols used in star topology is Ethernet , Token ring and Local talk. 2Advantages of Star Topologies : “ Failure of a devise attached to network does not complete halt the network, only that devise is down. * Easily extendable by attaching an new devise to the hub or switch. % No disturbance when a new devises ate being added or removed from the network, + Easy to trouble shoot the network issues . Dis-Advantages of Star Topologies : “ Its Costly since each devise on a the network is attached by a single cable to central link . + Failure of hub or switch break the compete network.» All devices in the network is connected in the form of a ring. » Each device has a receiver s and a transmitters to receive the data signal and to send them to the next computers , respectively. > Ring network does not have terminated ends , thus data signals travel ina circle. > The computers and devises connected to the ring using twisted pair cable , coaxial cable and optics fibre. The protocols used to implement ring topology is Token Ring and Fibre Distributed Data Interface ( FDDI). When one host tries to communicate or send message toa host which is not adjacent to it, the data travels through all intermediate hosts. > To connect one more host in the existing structure, the administrator may need only one more extra cable. > Failure of any host results in failure of the whole ring. Thus, every connection in the ring is a point of failureAdvantages of Ring Topologies : ¢ All computers in the ring have equal access to the ring. ¢ Each computers in the ring gets equal opportunities to transmit data. Dis-Advantages of Ring Topologies : “ Adding or removing the devices is difficult and affecting the entire network. Failure in the node or cable break down the ring and thus the network. + The length of the ring and numbers of nodes are limited. bTCP/IP, or the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, is a suite of communication protocols used to interconnect network devices on the internet. TCP/IP can also be used as a communications protocol in a private network (an Intranet or an Extranet). The entire internet protocol suite -- a set of rules and procedures -- is commonly referred to as TCP/IP, though others are included in the suite. TCP/IP specifies how data is exchanged over the internet by providing end-to-end communications that identify how it should be broken into packets, addressed, transmitted, routed and received at the destination. TCP/IP requires little central management, and it is designed to make networks reliable, with the ability to recover automatically from the failure of any device on the network,A protocol is an agreed-upon format for transmitting data between two devices. The protocol determines the following : ¥ The type of error checking to be used. ¥ Data compression method, if any ¥ How the sending device will indicate that it has finished sending a ¥ message ¥ How the recei ng device will indicate that it has received a message There are a variety of standard protocols from which programmers can choose. Each has it own particular advantages and disadvantages; for example, some are simpler than the others, some are more reliable, and some are faster. From a user’ s point of view, the only interesting aspect about protocols is that your computer or device must support the right ones if you want to communicate with other computers. The protocol can be implemented either in hardware or in software. Some of the popular protocols are TCP/IP, HTTP, FIP, SMTP, Token-Ring, Ethernet, etc.two main protocols in the internet protocol suite serve specific functions. TCP defines how applications can create channels of communication across a network. It also manages how a message is assembled into smaller packets before they are then transmitted over the internet and reassembled in the right order at the destination address. IP defines how to address and route each packet to make sure it reaches the right destination. Each gateway computer on the network checks this IP address to determine where to forward the message.