FB5003 - Seminar 1

“Management Information
Systems”

Introduction
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 Mini-Bio of Myself
• In HK since 1991; Travels in 98 countries.
• Teaching non-technical IS courses to MSc and MBA students
• Research involves China-focused:
– Knowledge sharing in SMEs
– Virtual work
– IT-enabled organisational change
• Web http://www.is.cityu.edu.hk/staff/isrobert
• Email isrobert@cityu.edu.hk

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Your Expectations

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Your IS/IT Background

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Information
• Information is critical to us as individuals, as well as to
organisations
• Without information, business would be impossible
• Anything Internet-related depends on information
• So, systems that help us manage information are also
rather important

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 And Systems…?
• All organisations operate through systems.
– Ordering supplies, tracking inventory, manufacturing, locating
customers, selling goods, hiring and paying employees, handling
auctions, coordinating supply chains, etc.
– Spying, monitoring, restricting, disrupting, …
– All systems are premised on information flows about designs,
products, orders, shipments, finances, stories, people…
– These systems can integrate and align different parts of an
organisation, locally and globally.

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 So, an Information System is…
• An integrated set of computer-based components that can be
used to …
– analyse data, and
– deliver information
• to support people in their …
– operations,
– management, and
– decision-making functions
• …in a personal or organisational context.

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Information System Components
• Hardware
• Software
• Databases
• Decision models
• Procedures
• Management
• Communications
• Information
• People

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The Impact of IS on Organisations
• Transaction processing systems.
– Information processing efficiency
• Databases
– Any-time access; organizational memory.
• Network & Internet
– Any-place access to multiple resources.
• Decision/executive support technologies
– Organizational intelligence.
• Organisation changing applications (e.g. KM, SCM, CRM)
– Re-engineering of processes; Competitive Advantage
• Sensors (e.g. RFID)
– Information gathering without presence.
• Communication and Social Systems
– Social Media, ubiquitous systems
• Disruptive Systems
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The Impact When Systems Fail
• British Airways cancelled all flights from LGW and LHR
due to IT failure
– May 27th, 2017
– Severe Disruption to Global Operations
• Estimated Cost: £100 Million
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/27/british-air
ways-system-problem-delays-heathrow

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Maersk
• $300 Million and 2 weeks of disruptions
– The unprecedented attack forced workers to improvise with
Twitter, WhatsApp and Post-It notes as they struggled to
get goods moving from ships to shore again
– http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-maersk-cyberattack-
20170817-story.html

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Does Anyone Talk about Systems?
• The more common terms seem to be:
– Apps (now ubiquitous on mobile devices)
– Solutions/Services (consultants’ preference)
• Are systems too scary, complex and remote?
– Does it matter what terms we use so long as we
understand what we are talking about?

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Sample Global IS Players
• Banks: HSBC, Citibank, BoC
• Airlines: CX, QF, SQ
• Shipping/Logistics: OOCL, Fedex, SF Express, Kerry
• Consumer: P&G, Philips, Samsung, Sony
• Oil: Shell, Exxon, BP, CNOC
• Governments & Agencies: NSA, GCHQ
• Intermediaries: Alibaba, eBay, Amazon
• Others: Monsanto, Unilever, Li & Fung

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But What are Global IS?
• Systems used by single organisations across
two or more nations?
• Systems used individually by many different
organisations – in many nations around the
world?
• Systems that track the online activities globally
for a single customer?
• And what issues do these GIS encounter?

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IS, Now and the Future
• Transaction costs drop to ~0; ‘free’ goods.
• Near-Instant delivery of digital goods.
• Distance, location and time can be bridged easily, but
misunderstandings still occur.
• Customers, suppliers, competitors and criminals can be
anywhere.
• Information about anything is available in almost unlimited
quantities.
• Interpersonal interactivity becomes the norm.
• Work is virtualized and globalized.
• Information Systems are so embedded that they disappear?
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Cloud-Based Information Systems
• Cloud computing customers generally do not own the physical
infrastructure
• They reduce capital costs by renting resources (hardware,
software, network bandwidth) from a third-party provider and
pay only for what they use.
– Customers can be billed on a subscription basis (like electricity,
water)
– Major Cloud Providers
• Microsoft, IBM, HP, Amazon, Google, Aliyun, Baidu,…

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Cloud Components
• SaaS – Software as a Service
– Office, analytical or enterprise software
– Purchasing, sales, project management,…
• PaaS – Platform as a Service
– Application design or development
– E-business hosting, Team collaboration
• IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service
– Hardware, netware, storage, …

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 Why Use Clouds?
• A key motivation to rely on cloud-based resources is
cost
– It can save a lot of money
– Rent software, networks as you need them
– Store data without the trouble of maintaining the hardware
– Outsource non-core activities
• Let other people do it better and cheaper
• P&G saved US$800M over 7 years by outsourcing basic IT services
to the cloud

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Cloud Problems
• Some data is just too sensitive
– Key client data
– Would HSBC want to store details of its VIP customers in
the same cloud as BEA or Bank of America?
• How quickly can you access data if it is ‘in the cloud’?
– You need to have a good Service Level Agreement (SLA)

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Cloud Consequences
• As more firms relocate IT services to cloud providers, the
traditional technology ecosystem faces disruption and
challenges.
• Some internal departments will disappear
– CityU outsources email services to the cloud (Microsoft), so the
people who used to support email …
• There are opportunities for the cloud masters to become
bigger and stronger
• Niche-players will have to rethink what they do, how they do
it and who for.
• Disruption is good for some, bad for others.

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Cloud Players 1
• Masters:
– Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Aliyun
• Huge data centres and services for mostly smaller businesses
• Enterprise Software Specialists
– Oracle, SAP
• Traditional providers to large firms
• Trying to bridge to the SME market, with SaaS and PaaS services.
MySAP.

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Cloud Players 2
• Independent Software Vendors
– Adobe
• Going beyond simple software sales to software hosting for clients
• Integrated Giants
– IBM, HP
• Cost-effective, large scale, scalable, private, secure solutions
across IaaS, PaaS and SaaS domains.

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Cloud Consumer Examples
• Dropbox is simple and popular (though not very
secure)
• SugarSync
• Box
• Google Drive / MS Sky Drive
• iCloud
• Spider Oak (very secure)

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E-Commerce
• E-Commerce is a more simple form of digital
enablement, whether on websites or mobile devices
• www.buyoyo.com
• www.solerebelsfootwear.co
• www.avaaz.org
• www.plusgrade.com

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Social Commerce
• S-Commerce is a more recent, and still evolving, trend
– Pinduoduo - www.pinduoduo.com
– Kaboodle – www.kaboodle.com
– Little Red Book – www.xiaohongshu.com
– GroupOn – www.groupon.com
– Mogujie – www.mogujie.com

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Livestreaming Commerce
• In Western countries, livestreaming is most commonly
associated with online games, like Twitch.
• In China, livestreaming is synonymous with online
shopping
– and valued at close to RMB1 trillion by end of 2020
• Livestreams take place in real time and often involve
influencers or key opinion leaders (KOL)
demonstrating a product and responding to questions
from a digital audience.
https://ebusinessinstitute.com/livestreaming-the-latest-trend-in-ecommerce/ 26
Chips Under the Skin
• How far do we want to go?
• Perhaps it is a niche area, but not only are pets and
prisoners ‘chipped’ but also party-goers…
– Some clubs offer microchips to members to help
pay for goods/services
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3Ql_-bpytA

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Recommendation Agents
• Many large e-commerce platforms now use RAs to
drive consumer impulsive behaviour
– Amazon: Cross-selling mechanisms
• There are also private programmes that facilitate
consumer searching
– http://www.isearchthenet.com/isearch
– http://nowdiscount.com/nowdiscount_web
– http://www.taotaosou.com
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 Digital Enablement
• Digital Enablement is an emerging but unstable phenomenon of
our times
– Digital technologies transform, empower and popularize the business,
social & consumer activities in which we engage
• DE creates opportunities for individuals & organizations
• It also helps developing countries to leapfrog over intervening
technology developments
• But DE is not a magic bullet
– Human creativity, innovation and intervention are required
– Some people will be disadvantaged by DE
– DE requires a) infrastructure, b) education, c) strategy
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 Digital Enablement
• Digital Enablement (DE) is an emerging but unstable
phenomenon of our times
– Digital technologies transform, empower and popularize the business,
social & consumer activities in which we engage
• DE creates opportunities for individuals & organizations
• It also helps developing countries to leapfrog over intervening
technology developments
• But DE is not a magic bullet
– Human creativity, innovation and intervention are required
– Some people will be disadvantaged by DE
– DE requires a) infrastructure, b) education, c) strategy
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 DE Requirements
• Technology Access + Infrastructure
– We take it for granted, invisible and omnipresent
• Governance
– Essential for security, financial regulation, IP protection
• Trust
– Assumed, yet if people don’t trust it, they won’t want it
• Security
– Critical, yet data is regularly hacked from organisations
• Education
– We need to know why we need it. Digital literacy.
– In Africa, the top reason for people not using the Internet is not knowing
how to use it or why they should use it. 31
The Digital Divide
• The old digital divide was concerned with who had
access to the Internet
• That’s still here, but with some refinements
– The ITU estimates that one billion people do not have
telephone access, with an extra 3 billion not connected to
broadband Internet
• The digital divide has narrowed (more people are
visible and online) but also deepened (each new
generation of technology leaves some people further
behind, ever more invisible)
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 Four Barriers to DE
• Availability
– The access problem; networks and devices; power supply; high speed;
infrastructure
– Applications that meet local needs in local languages with local content
• Affordability
– Of the hardware and network
– But also relative to the value that is obtained
• Appetite
– Why do I need it? How will it benefit me? Fear.
• Ability
– Digital literacy. How can I do it? Education.
• http://www.huawei.com/minisite/digital-enablement/download/Digital+Enablement_ENGLISH+online.pdf
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Success Stories in Developing Countries
 Mobile social media (for work and play) is
common, though most of the apps are global,
not local
 Mobile payments are popular
 Taobao Villages in China
 But outside urban areas, connectivity is an issue
 The range of local applications is more limited

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DE for Individuals - 1
• Mobile Money Systems
• e/m-Wallets – linked to bank/cc accts
– PayPal
– Apple Pay
– AliPay
• Smart Cards – un/linked to accts
– Octopus, Oyster, Myki, Opal, EZ-Link, Touch ‘n Go,

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DE for Individuals 2
• Phones
– SIM cards (mobile purchases, savings and transfers)
– WeChat, M-Pesa, M-Birr, M-Paisa, bKash, mKash,
Smart, Mukuru, etc.

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DE for Individuals 3: BoP
• The Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) refers to the ~3
billion people who live on less than HK$20 a day – and
the 200 million small businesses who don’t have access
to the banking system
• Although poor, there are so many people here that
they may represent a huge economic opportunity,
especially as entrepreneurs
• Mobile money systems provide an opportunity for these
unbanked people to become banked
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 DE for Employees
• The Better than Cash Alliance
(www.betterthancash.org) tracks DE events
• It reports that GAP plans to pay all (1M+) garment
workers in Tier 1 suppliers (800 factories in 30
countries) digitally by 2020
• GAP wants to draw unbanked workers (80% female)
into the financial system to give them better control
over saving, transferring and investing

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DE for Individuals 4: M-Pesa
• M-Pesa led the wave with a number of mobile money
market initiatives, HQed in Kenya, currently operating in
10 countries with 25+ million registered customers
• Established in 2007, by 2014, 50% of Kenya’s GDP
flowed through it.
• It has also brought financial inclusion to 20 million
unbanked Kenyans
• Thousands of businesses depend on M-Pesa for most
transactions
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DE for Individuals 5: China
• Clearly the China market continues to break records
with the number of people who use various apps for
various purposes
– and who no longer use cash for anything
• China is world-leading in mobile apps, in terms of
variety and transaction volumes
– But why is China so advanced?
– And why are other countries so backward?
• Or is it not that simple?
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 DE for Individuals 6: WeChat
• WeChat is trying to become a global app
• In South Africa, Standard Bank directly backed
WeChat’s Wallet with support for the most popular
apps:
– P2P transfers, hotel and restaurant bills, taxis
– wechat.co.za
• But WeChat in Africa will not be the same as WeChat in
China: it is localized and each of the 54 countries will
require something different.
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DE for Individuals 7: mHealth
• This is one of the most popular domains for DE
• There are hundreds of mHealth pilots, though
few scale up
• A new disease has emerged: pilotitis!
– mClinica is a rare scaled-up success story
– Digital networks of pharmacies, physicians, and
patients in six ASEAN countries.

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DE for Individuals 8: mHealth
• Most mHealth apps are limited to one country, even
one city or district
– mCamPharma is one – from Cameroon
• Designed to help patients find where prescription drugs are
available for purchase, because supplies are unreliable
• Great idea – but will it scale up?
• What is the business model? Strategy?

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Culture
• Patterned ways of thinking, feeling and reacting
– Behaviour styles
– Negotiating techniques
– Protocol
– Business practices
• Cultural misunderstandings can threaten or even
destroy your efforts in a foreign country
– Where and who is foreign these days?
– Are some of us more foreign than others?!

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Understanding Culture
• … is not just about observing.
• “the same behaviour can have different meanings and
different behaviours can have the same meaning” [Schneider &
Barsoux, 1997]
• Why do people behave in this way?
• What are their underlying values and beliefs?
• Do we really live in a global village?
• “We do not see things as they are – we see them as we are”
(Anais Nin)
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The Problem of Relativism
Describe the “typical” American”

 Brazilians say:  Japanese say:

always in a relaxed
hurry friendly
serious, spontaneous
reserved reckless
cautious uninhibited
restrained emotional
composed impulsive
 What is Culture?
HUMAN NATURE
universal
to laugh to cry

CULTURE
group level construct
When is it appropriate to laugh? to cry?
Where is it appropriate to laugh? to cry?
way of life passed down from one generation to the next through
education and experience – Concise Columbia Encyclopedia
collective programming of the mind – Geert Hofstede

PERSONALITY
individual
each of us laughs / cries at different times / places 47
Iceberg Model of Culture

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 Culture Above the Surface
• Greetings
– How should you greet someone?
kiss, hug, bow, shake hands or knock skulls (?!)
– Does it depend on who they are, who you are?
• Dress
– What is appropriate attire at work? at a funeral?
• Punctuality
– What does it mean to be “on time”? Now?
– How quickly should you reply to an e-mail?
• Gift giving
– Should you give gifts to business associates?
– What should you give? How much?
• Corporate Logos
– What projects the “right” or “wrong” image?

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 Culture Below the Surface

• Attitudes
– “I can’t live without an iPhone”
• Assumptions
– “An MBA is essential for managers(!)””
• Values
– “Being online is critical to my life and work”
• Beliefs
– “My purpose in life is to be happy”

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 Colours in Different Cultures
Colour Red Blue Green Yellow White Purple
Culture

Anglo Danger Strong Success Happy Warm Purity Royalty

Reliable Jealousy

Brazil Passion Religion Death Death Peace Mourning

Chinese Happy Heaven Disgrace Wealthy Death Spirit

Success Powerful Purity Healing

Japanese Anger Villain Young Grace Death Emperor

Danger Energetic Nobility Wealth

Arab Death Virtue Spirit Wealth Joy Wealth

Evil Safety Peace Happy

Indian Life Religion Hope Success Death Sorrow

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Corporate eLogos

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Culture and IS
• What has IS got to do with Culture?
• Does the technology change in different cultures?
• Do people’s cultural values cause them to use
technology differently?
• Compare the culture of digital natives with digital
dinosaurs!

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Culture and Workplace Issues
• Global transfer of IS applications (across cultures) is
problematic at best.
• Few researchers have investigated these issues - probing the
iceberg.
• Most textbooks assume a monocultural, ethnocentric and
universalist perspective
– “If it works for us, it’ll work for them”
– “They are ‘human’ aren’t they?!”

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Culture and Workplace Issues
• Limited understanding of why failures occur beyond a
generic “culture” explanation.
• Descriptions of successful global IS stories – but little
in the way of detailed understanding.
• Few empirically-tested prescriptions or experiences.

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Local and Global Flavours of FB5003
• Studying IS in different contexts
• Analyzing the opportunities for IS with some cultural and
contextual sensitivity
• Identifying lessons learned in one context that may (not) be
transferable to other contexts
– This does not mean American lessons for everyone else. Quite the
opposite.
• Sharing your global experiences

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FB5003 - Activities
• Seminars not Lectures
• Background material to read in advance, to be referred to as
we go along
• Discussion, argument, interaction
• Case studies to analyse
• Experiences to recount, share and learn from
• Facilitated knowledge seeking

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 My Suggested Learning Styles
• Learning together, not just me talking
– So you have a role to play, a responsibility to engage with
your own learning
– The more you participate, listen, criticise, challenge… so the
more you will learn.
• Each class will have
– Opportunities for interaction, discussion, debate, as well as
your own work-life examples
• Since this is an IS class, you can expect to engage in
some hands-on stuff as well.
– But don’t worry, no programming!
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Assessment
• 30% - coursework
– A small group case write up based on your own Global
IS experiences
• 4000-word essay
• 30% Continuous assessment
– of contributions in class
• 40% - exam
– Application & integration of skills from seminar
materials, our discussions and your own practical
experiences
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Attendance
• You need to attend at least 70% of classes (i.e. 5)
• If you can’t come to class, please let me know in
advance – but the 70% rule still applies.
• Coming late is better than not coming
• If you miss classes, you will need to catch up
somehow

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 Grading Definitions
• A: Excellent
– Strong evidence of original thinking, analysis & synthesis;
extensive knowledge base
• B: Good
– Good awareness of the importance of the subject; some
analytic ability; reasonable understanding of issues & literature
• C: Adequate
– Understanding is reasonable, but much room for improvement
• D: Marginal, basic familiarity with the subject
• F: Very weak, few critical/analytical skills; plagiarism

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Outline of Classes
• 1 (13/1) – Introduction: IS in Organisations and Digitisation
• 2 (20/1) – Global Enterprise Systems
• 3 (27/1) – IT Outsourcing, Offshoring and Risk Management
• 4 (3/2) – Knowledge Management
• 5 (24/2) – IS Strategy & Planning
• 6 (3/3) – Green/CSR & Surveillance + Revision
• 7 (10/3) – Exam
• Coursework Due March 20th
Seminar Materials
• Seminar Notes are available on the web at:
– http://www.is.cityu.edu.hk/staff/isrobert/fb5003.htm
• These notes are not comprehensive, i.e. if you come
to class, you will hear, see and do many things that
are not visible in the notes.
Coursework
• Since time is short, you will need to start work on
coursework planning immediately
• The coursework details are in a file on the course
website
• The final deadline for coursework is March 20 th.

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