Midterm Chapters

Introduction to Information Systems
Rainer, Prince, Sanchez-Rodriguez,

Splettstoesser Hogeterp, Ebrahimi
Fifth Canadian Edition
Chapter 1
Copyright ©2021 John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd.

Learning Objectives
• Identify why being an informed user of information

systems is important in today’s world
• Describe the various types of computer-based information
systems in an organization
• Discuss ways in which information technology can affect
managers and nonmanagerial workers
• Identify positive and negative societal effects of the
increased use of information technology
Copyright ©2021 John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. 2

Chapter Outline
1. Why Should I Study Information Systems?

2. Overview of Computer-Based Information Systems
3. How Does IT Impact Organizations?
4. Importance of Information Systems to Society

Opening Case: The Digital Transformation of the
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
Think about:
• How do you use technology when you do your banking or
make payments?
• How has technology helped your financial institution?

1.1 Why Should I Study Information Systems?
• The Informed User—You!

• IT Offers Career Opportunities
• Managing Information Resources

The Informed User—You!
1. You benefit more when you understand what is “behind”

IT applications
2. You can provide valuable input
3. You can recommend and help select IT applications
4. You will be aware of new technology
5. You understand how IT improves performance
6. Understanding IT is beneficial to entrepreneurs

Digital Transformation
• Organizations that you work with will be continually

undertaking digital transformation: the business strategy
that leverages IT to dramatically improve employee,
customer, and business partner relationships
• New technologies that enable digital transformation
include: big data, social computing, cloud computing,
artificial intelligence, and more

FIGURE 1.1 MIS provides what users
see on their computer screens
FIGURE 1.1 MIS provides what users see and use on their computers.

IT’s About Business 1.1:
A Variety of Digital Transformations
Consider:
• How digital transformation is changing business
relationships
• How those changes increase organizational agility to
respond to circumstances; e.g., physical isolation
requirements imposed in 2020 due to the COVID-19
pandemic

IT Offers Career Opportunities
• IT is vital to modern businesses, providing many lucrative

career opportunities that include:
o Programmers, business analysts, systems analysts, and
designers
o Chief information officer (CIO)—executive in charge of the
IS function
• Career opportunities will remain strong in the future

Top Job Rankings: Canadian Business
(out of 100, 2019)
• #26 Computer Systems Manager
• #46 Software Engineer
• #54 Database Analyst
• #56 Computer Engineer

Top Job Rankings: MSN (out of 20,
2019)
• #8 IT Project Manager

Top Job Rankings: Forbes (out of 20,
2019)
• #4 IT Manager
• #11 IT Manager
• #13 Data Engineer
• #14 Front-End Engineer (User Experience Designer)

Managing Information Resources
• Managing information resources is difficult and complex

because:
o ISs have an enormous strategic value to organizations
o ISs are very expensive to acquire, operate, and maintain
• Evolution of the MIS function within the organization

Factors Affecting Responsibility For
Managing Information Resources
• MIS personnel vs. end users
• Changing role of the IS department
o Traditional functions of the MIS department
o New (consultative) functions of the MIS department
facilitate informed user involvement

Traditional Function of the MIS
Department
• Managing systems development and systems project
management
• Managing computer operations
• Staffing, training, and developing IS skills
• Providing technical services
• Infrastructure planning, development, and control

New (Consultative) Functions of the
MIS Department (1 of 2)
Consultative MIS Department Role Informed End User Role
Initiating and designing specific strategic IT steering committee mandates
information systems development of new strategic information
systems
Incorporating the Internet and e-commerce Responsible for effective use of the Internet
into the business and e-commerce
Managing system integration of the Describe business needs and the type of
Internet, intranets, and extranets integration that is required
Educating non-MIS managers about IT Advise the MIS department about your
employees’ training needs
Educating the MIS staff about the business Communicate business needs, requirements
and goals

New (Consultative) Functions of the
MIS Department (2 of 2)
Consultative MIS Department Role Informed End User Role
Partnering with business unit executives Responsible for defining and clarifying your
roles in alignment with the MIS department
roles and organizational strategy
Managing outsourcing Identify outsourcing requirements for your
functional area with the assistance of MIS
department advice
Proactively using business and technical Partner with the MIS department to target
knowledge to see innovative ideas about high-priority business needs and use
using IT innovative solutions
Create business alliances with business Identify supply chain or other inter-
partners organizational business requirements

1.2 Overview of Computer-Based
Information Systems
• Data, information, knowledge
• IT infrastructure
o IT components
o IT personnel
o IT services
• Types of computer-based information systems

FIGURE 1.2 Data, information, and
knowledge
FIGURE 1.2 Data, information, and knowledge.

FIGURE 1.3 Computer-based
information systems
FIGURE 1.3 Computer-based information systems consist of hardware,
software, databases, networks, procedures, and people.

Computer-Based Information System
(CBIS)
Six basic components:
• Four information technology (IT) components: hardware,
software, database, network
• Two non-IT components: procedures, people

TABLE 1.3 Major Capabilities of
Information Systems
• Perform high-speed, high-volume numerical computations
• Provide fast, accurate communication and collaboration within
and among organizations
• Store huge amounts of information in an easy-to-access yet
small space
• Allow quick and inexpensive access to vast amounts of
information worldwide
• Interpret vast amounts of data quickly and efficiently
• Automate both semiautomatic business processes and manual
tasks

Types of Computer-Based Information
Systems
• Breadth of support of ISs
• Support for organizational employees

Breadth of Support of Information
Systems (1 of 3)
• Functional Area Information Systems (FAIS), also known
as a departmental information system:
o Human resources (HR)
o Accounting
o Finance
o Marketing
o Production/operations

FIGURE 1.4 IT inside your organization
FIGURE 1.4 Information technology inside your organization.

Systems (2 of 3)
• Two information systems support the entire organization:
o Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems
• Provide communication among functional area ISs through an
integrated database
o Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
• Support the monitoring, collection, storage, and processing of
data from the organization’s day-to-day operations for basic
business transactions

Systems (3 of 3)
• Interorganizational Information Systems (IOS)
o Support many interorganizational operations
o Examples include:
• Supply chain management (SCM) systems
• Electronic commerce (e-commerce) systems

FIGURE 1.5 Information systems that
function among multiple organizations
FIGURE 1.5 Information systems that function among multiple
organizations.

TRIEC Helps Canada Newcomers Find a Job
Consider:
• How can technology support a mentor for you in your
future careers?
• How is your online education supported by email systems?

Support for Particular Organizational
Employees
All types of workers require support from information
systems:
• Clerical workers, managers, knowledge workers
The systems that support them are called:
• Functional area information systems (FAIS)
• Business analytics (BA) and business intelligence (BI)
• Expert systems (ES)
• Dashboards (aka digital dashboards)

TABLE 1.4 Types of Organizational
Information Systems
Type of System Function Example
Transaction processing system Processes transaction data from terminal Walmart checkout point-of-sale business events
Enterprise resource planning Integrates all functional areas of the Oracle, SAP system
organization
Functional area IS Supports the activities within specific System for processing payroll
functional area
Decision support system Provides access to data and analysis “What-if” analysis of changes in budget
tools
Expert system Mimics human expert in a particular area Credit card approval analysis
and makes decisions
Dashboards Present structured, summarized Status of sales by product
information about aspects of business
important to executives
Supply chain management Manages flows of products, services, and Walmart Retail Link system connecting
system information among organizations suppliers to Walmart
Electronic commerce system Enables transactions among www.dell.com
organizations and between organizations
and customers

1.3 How Does IT Impact Organizations?
• IT Impacts Entire Industries

• IT Reduces the Number of Middle Managers
• IT Changes the Manager’s Job
• Will IT Eliminate Jobs?
• IT Impacts Employees at Work

IT Impacts Entire Industries: Examples
(1 of 2)
• Book industry
• Music industry
• Video industry
• Software industry
• Video game industry
• Photography industry
• Marketing
• Recruiting

IT Impact Impacts Entire Industries
Examples (2 of 2)
• Financial services
• Motion picture industry
o DreamWorks Animation
• Automobile industry
• Agriculture
• Fashion
• Education
• Legal profession

IT Reduces the Number of Middle
Managers
• Makes middle managers more productive
• IT increases the number of employees reporting to a single
manager, so IT reduces the number of middle managers
required

IT Changes the Manager’s Job
• Decision making is the most important managerial task

• IT changes the way managers make decisions
o IT provides near real-time information
o Managers have less time to make decisions
o IT provides tools for analysis to assist in decision making
and in handling high volumes of information

Will IT Eliminate Jobs?
• The competitive advantage of replacing people with IT and

machines is increasing rapidly
• Increasing the use of IT in business also:
o Creates new job categories
o Requires more employees with IT knowledge and skills

IT Impacts Employees’ Health and
Safety
• Increased job stress
• Long-term use of the keyboard and mouse can result in
repetitive strain injuries (RSI)

FIGURE 1.6 Ergonomic products
protect computer users
FIGURE 1.6 Ergonomic products protect computer users.

IT Provides Opportunities for People
with Disabilities
• Speech-recognition for employees unable to type due to
physical impairment
• Audible screen tips for employees who are visually impaired

1.4 Importance of Information Systems
to Society
• IT Affects Our Quality of Life
• The Robot Revolution Is Here Now
• IT Impacts Health Care
• The Emergence of Cognitive Computing: IBM Watson

IT Affects Our Quality of Life
• IT has changed the way we work

o Smartphones provide constant access to text, email, and
voice communications
o The lines between time at work and leisure time at home
have become blurred
o Surveys indicate employees take laptops and smartphones
on vacation

The Robot Revolution is Here Now
• Baxter
• LoweBots
• Drones
• Autonomous vehicles

Diverse Uses for Drones
Consider:
• How are drones and robots helping with our food supply?
• How could drones help reduce crime in your area, town, or
city?

IT Impacts Health Care
• IT is used in health care to:

o Make better and faster diagnoses
o Streamline the process of researching and developing new
drugs
o Enhance the work of radiologists
o Allow surgeons to use virtual reality to plan complex
surgeries, and use robots to remotely perform surgery

The Emergence of Cognitive
Computing: IBM Watson
• IBM’s Watson is an example of artificial intelligence (AI)
called cognitive computing. Watson:
o Understands natural language
o Learns and absorbs information to formulate hypotheses
o Has the ability to understand the context of a question
• In health care Watson helps fine-tune diagnoses and
treatment protocols
• Watson is being used in other areas including: customer
service, financial services, tax preparation services, and
strategic analysis

Closing Case: John Deere Becomes a Technology
Company and It Is Not All Good News
Think about:
• Technology has helped farmers work more precisely with
their crops and with other partners: how much could that
be worth?
• Should software maintenance for any product be “locked
in” to specific suppliers or more readily accessible?

Copyright
Copyright © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Canada, Ltd. or the author. All rights
reserved. Students and instructors who are authorized users of this course are
permitted to download these materials and use them in connection with the
course. No part of these materials should be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
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how to obtain permission to reuse this material is available at
http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.

Chapter 2
Organizational Strategy, Competitive
Advantage, and Information Systems

Learning Objectives
• Discuss ways in which information systems enable cross-
functional business processes and business processes for a
single functional area
• Differentiate between business process reengineering,
business process improvement, and business process
management
• Identify effective IT responses to different kinds of
business pressures
• Describe the strategies that organizations typically adopt to
counter Porter’s five competitive forces

Chapter Outline
1. Business Processes
2. Business Process Improvement, Business Process
Reengineering, and Business Process Management
3. Business Pressures, Organizational Responses, and
Information Technology Support
4. Competitive Advantage and Strategic Information Systems

Opening Case: The Toronto Raptors and Maple Leaf
Sports Entertainment Enhance the Fan Experience
Think about:
• How interorganizational systems via apps are facilitating
digital transformation
• How business process changes could improve your concert
or sports experience

2.1 Business Processes
• Competitive Advantage
• Cross-Functional Processes
• Information Systems and Business Processes

Competitive Advantage
• An organizational strategy is a planned approach that the

organization takes to achieve its goals and mission
statement
• Competitive advantage is an advantage over competitors
in some measure, such as cost, quality, or speed; it leads to
control of a market and larger-than-average profits
• Often, effective use of IT (properly doing the things that
matter) is needed to operationalize an organization’s
strategy

Business Processes
• A business process is an ongoing collection of related
activities that create a product or service of value to the
organization, its business partners, and/or its customers
• Comprised of three elements:
1. Inputs
2. Resources
3. Outputs
• Efficiency vs. effectiveness
• Adding value can increase competitive advantage

TABLE 2.1 Examples of Business Processes
(1 of 2)
Accounting Business Processes
Managing accounts payable Managing invoice billings
Managing accounts receivable Managing petty cash
Reconciling bank accounts Producing month-end close
Managing cash receipts Producing virtual close
Finance Business Processes
Managing account collection Producing property tax assessments
Managing bank loan applications Managing stock transactions
Producing business forecasts Generating financial cash flow reports
Applying customer credit approval and credit terms
Marketing Business Processes
Managing post-sale customer follow-up Handling customer complaints
Collecting sales taxes Handling returned goods from customers
Applying copyrights and trademarks Producing sales leads
Using customer satisfaction surveys Entering sales orders
Managing customer service Training sales personnel

TABLE 2.1 Examples of Business Processes
(2 of 2)
Production/Operations Management Business Processes
Processing bills of materials Managing quality control for finished goods
Processing manufacturing change orders Auditing for quality assurance
Managing master parts list and files Receiving, inspecting, and stocking parts and materials
Managing packing, storage, and distribution Handling shipping and freight claims
Processing physical inventory Handling vendor selection, files, and inspections
Managing purchasing
Human Resources Business Processes
Applying disability policies Producing performance appraisals and salary adjustments
Managing employee hiring Managing resignations and terminations
Handling employee orientation Applying training and tuition reimbursement
Managing files and records Managing travel and entertainment
Applying health care benefits Managing workplace rules and guidelines
Managing pay and payroll Overseeing workplace safety
Management information Systems Business Processes
Antivirus control Applying e-mail policy
Computer security issues incident reporting Generating Internet use policy
Training computer users Managing service agreements and emergency services
Computer user and staff training Applying user workstation standards
Applying disaster recovery procedures Managing the use of personal software

Cross-Functional Processes
• No single functional area is responsible

• Steps executed in a coordinated, collaborative way
• Requires multiple areas of an organization to produce a
single output
• Example: procurement and fulfillment process uses three
functional areas to acquire merchandise

FIGURE 2.1 Business process for ordering
an e-ticket from an airline website
FIGURE 2.1 Business process for ordering an e-ticket from an airline
website.

Information Systems and Business
Processes
IS’s have a vital role in three areas of business processes:
1. Executing the process
2. Capturing and storing process data
3. Monitoring process performance

Graham Construction Digitizes Travel Expense
Business Process
Consider:
• How IT is helping the business reduce costs (efficiency)
• How the new system is providing better choices for
employees when submitting their expenses (effectiveness)

Executing the Process
• IS’s help execute the process by:

o Informing employees when it is time to complete a task
o Providing required data
o Providing a means to complete the task

Capturing and Storing Process Data
• Processes generate data

o For example: dates, times, product numbers, quantities,
prices, addresses, names, and employee actions
• ISs capture and store process data (aka transaction data)
• Immediate capturing and storing of data provides “real
time” feedback

Monitoring Process Performance
• IS evaluates information to determine how well a process

is being executed
• Evaluations occur at two levels
1. Process (process as a whole)
2. Instance (a specific task or activity)
• Monitoring identifies problems for process improvement

2.2 Business Process Improvement, Business Process
Reengineering, and Business Process Management
• Reengineering
• Improvement
• Management

Measures of Excellence in Executing
Business Processes Include:
• Customer satisfaction
• Cost reduction
• Cycle and fulfillment time reduction
• Quality
• Differentiation
• Productivity

Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
• Michael Hammer & James Champy, 1993, Reengineering

the Corporation
• BPR:
o A radical redesign of an organization’s business processes to
increase productivity and profitability
o Examines business processes with a “clean slate” approach

Business Process Improvement (BPI)
(1 of 2)
• BPI:
o An incremental approach to move an organization toward
business-process-centered operations
o Focuses on reducing variation in process outputs by
identifying the underlying cause of the variation
• Six Sigma is a popular methodology for BPI

Business Process Improvement (BPI)
(2 of 2)
• Five basic phases of successful BPI
1. Define
2. Measure
3. Analyze
4. Improve
5. Control

BPI versus BPR
BPI BPR
• Low risk/low cost • High risk/high cost
• Incremental change • Radical redesign
• Bottom-up approach • Top-down approach
• Takes less time • Time consuming
• Quantifiable results • Impacts can be
• All employees trained in overwhelming
BPI • High failure rate

Business Process Management (BPM)
(1 of 2)
• A management system used to support continuous BPI
initiatives for core business processes over time
• Important components of BPM:
o Process modeling
o Business activity monitoring (BAM)

Business Process Management (BPM)
(2 of 2)
• Business Process Management Suite (BPMS)
o An integrated set of applications used for BPM
• Emerging trend of social BPM
o Enable employees to collaborate across functions internally
and externally using social media tools

BPR, BPI, and BPM at Chevron
Consider:
• What were the issues that motivated Chevron to initiate
BPR, BPI, and BPM?
• How does that compare to recent organizational upheavals
like those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic?

2.3 Business Pressures, Organizational Responses,
and Information Technology Support
• Business Pressures
• Organizational Responses

Business Pressures
• Market pressures
• Technology pressures
• Societal/political/legal pressures

FIGURE 2.2 Business pressures, organizational
performance and responses, and IT support
FIGURE 2.2 Business pressures, organizational performance and
responses, and IT support.

Market Pressures
• Globalization
• Changing nature of the workforce
• Powerful customers

Globalization
• The integration and interdependence of economic, social,

cultural, and ecological facets of life, made possible by
rapid advances in IT

Changing Nature of the Workforce
• The workforce is becoming more diversified

o Women
o Single parents
o Visible minorities
o Persons with disabilities
• IT is enabling telecommuting employees

Powerful Customers
• Increasing consumer sophistication and expectations

• Consumer is more knowledgeable about
o Products and services
o Price comparisons
o Electronic auctions
• Customer relationship management (discussed in Chapter
11)

Technology Pressures
• Technological innovation and obsolescence

o Rapid development of both new and substitute products and
services
• Information overload
o Vast stores of data, information, and knowledge
o Difficulties in managing data for decision making

Societal/Political/Legal Pressures
• Social responsibility
• Compliance with government regulations
• Protection against terrorist attacks
• Ethical issues

Social Responsibility and Philanthropy
in Business
• PatientsLikeMe (www.patientslikeme.com)
• Kiva (www.kiva.org)
• Canadian Red Cross (www.redcross.ca)

Social Responsibility
• Green IT
o Facilities design and management
o Carbon management
o International and Canadian provincial environmental laws
• Digital Divide
o One Laptop per Child (OLPC): one.laptop.org

Compliance with Government
Regulations
• Canadian Sarbanes-Oxley Act (C-SOX) (Bill 198) affects
collection and management of information
• PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic
Documents Act)

Protection against Terrorist Attacks
• Information technology used to identify and protect against

terrorists and cyberattacks
• Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (www.acfe.com)
• Canada’s Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA)
• Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of
Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) program

Ethical Issues
• General standards of right and wrong

• Issues include:
o Information-processing activities
o Monitoring employee email
o Privacy of customer data

Organizational Responses
• Strategic systems
• Customer focus
• Make-to-order and mass customization
• E-business and e-commerce

Cruise Ships Embrace Technology
Consider:
• How security-related techniques such as facial recognition
can improve the customer experience
• How inventory management tools like radio-frequency
identification (RFID) can be used with a payment system

2.4 Competitive Advantage and
Strategic Information Systems
Terms: Competitive Strategy, Strategic Information Systems
(SIS)
• Porter’s Competitive Forces Model
• Porter’s Value Chain Model
• Strategies for Competitive Advantage
• Business–Information Technology Alignment

Porter’s Competitive Forces Model
1. Threat of entry of new competitors

2. Bargaining power of suppliers
3. Bargaining power of customers (buyers)
4. Threat of substitute products or services
5. Rivalry among existing firms within the industry

FIGURE 2.3 Porter’s Competitive Forces
Model
FIGURE 2.3 Porter’s competitive forces model.

Porter’s Value Chain Model
• Value chain
o A sequence of activities through which the organization’s
inputs are transformed into valuable outputs
• Primary activities
o Relate to production and distribution of products and
services
• Support activities
o Support primary activities contributing to competitive
advantage

FIGURE 2.4 Porter’s Value Chain Model
FIGURE 2.4 Porter’s value chain model.

Primary Activities
• Five primary activities for manufacturing

1. Inbound logistics (inputs)
2. Operations (manufacturing and testing)
3. Outbound logistics (storage and distribution)
4. Marketing and sales
5. Services

Support Activities
• Four support activities

1. Firm infrastructure (accounting, finance, management)
2. Human resources management
3. Product and technology development (R&D)
4. Procurement

Strategies for Competitive Advantage
• Cost leadership
• Differentiation
• Innovation
• Operational effectiveness
• Customer orientation

FIGURE 2.5 Strategies for competitive
advantage
FIGURE 2.5 Strategies for competitive advantage.

Business–Information Technology
Alignment
Six characteristics of excellent alignment:
1. Organizations view IT as an engine of innovation that continually transforms
the business, often creating new revenue streams
2. Organizations view their internal and external customers and their customer
service function as supremely important
3. Organizations rotate business and IT professionals across departments and
job functions
4. Organizations provide overarching goals that are completely clear to each IT
and business employee
5. Organizations ensure that IT employees understand how the company makes
(or loses) money
6. Organizations create a vibrant and inclusive company culture

Information Technology Governance
• Helps organizations effectively manage their IT operations

to align with business strategies
• Part of an organization’s overall corporate governance
• Provides a framework and structure for organizations to
ensure that IT investments support business objectives
• Includes using an IT steering committee

Bank of America Transforms its Information
Technology
Consider:
• Digital transformation requires updating IT software and
physical infrastructure. How does this relate to the IT
infrastructure that you use?
• How can artificial intelligence provide improved customer
service?

Closing Case: Domino’s Pizza
Think about:
• How do Domino’s Pizza’s problems relate to Porter’s Value
Chain Model?
• How has Domino’s Pizza improved its efficiency and
effectiveness?

Copyright

Chapter 3
Ethics and Privacy

Learning Objectives
• Describe ethics, its three fundamental tenets, and the four

categories of ethical issues related to information
technology
• Discuss at least one potential threat to the privacy of the
data in each of three places that store personal data

Chapter Outline
1. Ethical Issues
2. Privacy

Opening Case: The Huge Scope of
Privacy Issues: All Data Are Accessible
Think about:
• How privacy issues could affect your data
• How the organizations profiled could have prevented the
privacy breaches discussed

3.1 Ethical Issues
• Ethics:
o The principles of right and wrong that individuals use to
make choices that guide their behavior
• Ethical Frameworks
• Ethics in the Corporate Environment
• Ethics and IT

Ethical Frameworks (aka “standards”)
• Widely used standards

o Utilitarian: provides the most good or does the least harm
o Rights: best protects and respects the moral rights of the
affected parties
o Fairness: treat all humans equally, or if unequally, then
fairly, based on some defensible standard
o Common Good: respect and compassion for all others is the
basis for ethical actions
o Deontology approach: morality of an action is based on the
action itself is write or wrong under as set of rules. e.g.
killing someone is wrong, even in self defense.
Traditional Approach for Resolving
Ethical Issues (left column TABLE 3.1)
1. Recognize an ethical issue
2. Get the facts
3. Evaluate alternative actions
4. Make a decision and test it

Giving Voice to Values (GVV) Approach
(right column TABLE 3.1)
1. Identify an ethical issue
2. Purpose and choice
3. Stakeholder analysis
4. Powerful response
5. Scripting and coaching

TRADITIONAL vs. GVV APPROACHES
Traditional Giving Voice to Values (GVV)
1. Recognize an ethical issue 1. Identify an ethical issue
2. Get the facts 2. Purpose and choice
3. Evaluate alternative actions 3. Stakeholder analysis
4. Make a decision and test it 4. Powerful response
5. Scripting and coaching

Ethics in the Corporate Environment
• Code of ethics
• Fundamental tenets of ethics:
o Responsibility
o Accountability
o Liability
• What is unethical is not necessarily illegal

Google Links Online Search Data and Offline
Purchase Data
Consider:
• What are the different sources that can be used to integrate
and analyze spending data?
• How can online use of this data for advertising result in
privacy invasion?

Ethics and Information Technology
• Four general categories of ethical issues related to IT:

1. Privacy
2. Accuracy
3. Property
4. Accessibility

Quizlet
Consider:
• Data available online is subject to varying levels of
copyright protection. How do you use it?
• What resources do you use for studying and where does it
come from?

3.2 Privacy
• Introduction
• Electronic Surveillance
• Personal Information in Databases
• Information on Internet Bulletin Boards, Newsgroups, and
Social Networking Sites
• Privacy Codes and Policies
• International Aspects of Privacy

Privacy Introduction (1 of 3)
• Privacy:
o The right to be left alone and to be free of unreasonable
personal intrusions
• Information privacy:
o The right to determine when, and to what extent, information
about you can be gathered and/or communicated to others

• Court decisions in many countries have followed two

general rules:
1. The right of privacy is not absolute, and privacy must be
balanced against the needs of society
2. The public’s right to know supersedes the individual’s right
of privacy

• Digital dossiers are created using profiling

• Data aggregators include:
o LexisNexis
o Acxiom
o Statistics Canada

Electronic Surveillance (1 of 2)
• Using technology to monitor individuals as they go about

their daily routines
• Surveillance is conducted by employers, governments, and
other institutions
• Examples:
o Surveillance cameras in airports, subways, banks, and other
public venues

Electronic Surveillance (2 of 2)
• Inexpensive digital sensors are found in laptop webcams,

video game sensors, smartphone cameras, utility meters,
passports, and identification cards
• Smartphones create geotags
• Google and Microsoft street view images
• Drones

Licence Plate Readers
Consider:
• How else could licence plate and driver’s licence data be
used?
• Is this a possible invasion of privacy when combined with
geographic positioning data?

Personal Information in Databases (1 of 3)
• Personal data locations and record keepers

o Credit reporting agencies
o Banks and financial institutions
o Utility companies
o Employers
o Hospitals
o Schools
o Government agencies (Canada Revenue Agency, province,
municipality)

• Major concerns about information you provide record

keepers
o Do you know where the records are?
o Are the records accurate?
o Can you change inaccurate data?
o How long will it take to make a change?
o Under what circumstances will personal data be released?

• Major concerns about information you provide record

keepers
o How are the data used?
o To whom are the data given or sold?
o How secure are the data against access by unauthorized
people?

India’s Aadhaar System
Consider:
• How would you feel if your province implemented a
fingerprint identification system?
• Do you use biometric (fingerprint) identification with your
smartphone or computer? Why or why not?

Information on Internet Bulletin Boards,
Newsgroups, and Social Networking Sites
• Free speech versus privacy on the Internet
• Derogatory information can influence hiring decisions
• Little to no recourse for victims

Privacy Codes and Policies (1 of 2)
• An organization’s guidelines for protecting the privacy of

its customers, clients, and employees
• Methods of informed consent:
o Opt-out model
o Opt-in model
• Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)
o A protocol that automatically communicates privacy
policies between a website and its visitors

Privacy Codes and Policies (2 of 2)
• European Directive on Data Privacy (GDPR)

• Canadian Standards Association (CSA) Model Code
• Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic
Documents Act (PIPEDA)

TABLE 3.3 Privacy Policy Guidelines:
A Sampler
• Presents three sample sections:
1. data collection
2. data accuracy
3. data confidentiality
• Guidelines such as those in Table 3.3 help to:
o Codify requirements for employees
o Provide a standard set of procedures
o Protect organizations from litigation
o Can be used as a measurement tool if disciplinary action is
required
Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica Data
Scandal
Consider:
• Whether all personally identifiable data is confidential
• Whether you would be concerned if all of your Facebook
data was made available to Facebook app developers

International Aspects of Privacy
• The global nature of the Internet complicates data privacy

• Approximately 50 countries have data-protection laws
o Inconsistent standards from country to country
o Transborder data flow

Closing Case: Accessing Patient Data
through Electronic Medical Records
Think about:
• Examples of your recent private medical data and where it
is stored
• How much of your medical data do your medical caregivers
have access to?

Copyright
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Chapter 4
Information Security
Copyright
Copyright©2021
©2021John
JohnWiley
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SonsCanada,
Canada,Ltd.
Ltd. 137
Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
• Identify the five factors that contribute to the increasing

vulnerability of information resources and provide a specific
example of each factor
• Compare and contrast human mistakes and social engineering
and provide a specific example of each one
• Discuss the 10 types of deliberate attacks
• Define the three risk mitigation strategies, and provide an
example of each one in the context of owning a home

Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
• Identify the three major types of controls that organizations can

use to protect their information resources and provide an
example of each one
• Explain why it is critical that you protect your information
assets and identify actions that you could take to do so

Chapter Outline
1. Introduction to Information Security

2. Unintentional Threats to Information Systems
3. Deliberate Threats to Information Systems
4. What Organizations Are Doing to Protect Information
Resources
5. Information Security Controls
6. Personal Information Asset Protection

Opening Case: The Equifax Breaches
Think about:
• The importance of immediate response to software updates.
Is your computer on “automatic update”?
• How could your credit rating be affected by identity theft?

4.1 Introduction to Information Security
• Security
• Information security
• Threat
• Exposure
• Vulnerability

Introduction to Information Security
• Five factors contributing to vulnerability of organizational

information resources:
o Today’s interconnected, interdependent, wirelessly
networked business environment
o Smaller, faster, cheaper computers and storage devices
o Decreasing skills necessary to be a computer hacker
o International organized crime taking over cybercrime
o Lack of management support

4.2 Unintentional Threats to Information
Systems
• Human Errors
• Social Engineering

FIGURE 4.1 Security threats
FIGURE 4.1 Security threats.

Human Errors: Risk Areas
• Higher level employees + greater access privileges =

greater threat
• Two areas pose significant threats:
o Human resources
o Information systems
• Other areas of threats:
o Contract labour, consultants, janitors, and guards

TABLE 4.1 Human Mistakes (1 of 2)
• Carelessness with computing devices (e.g., laptops, tablets,

smartphones)
• Opening questionable emails
• Careless Internet surfing
• Poor password selection and use

TABLE 4.1 Human Mistakes (2 of 2)
• Carelessness with one’s office

• Carelessness using unmanaged devices
• Carelessness with discarded equipment
• Careless monitoring of environmental hazards

Social Engineering
• Social engineering:
o An attack in which the perpetrator uses social skills to trick
or manipulate legitimate employees into providing
confidential company information such as passwords
• Example:
o Kevin Mitnick, famous hacker and former FBI’s most
wanted

4.3 Deliberate Threats to Information
Systems (1 of 2)
• Espionage or trespass
• Information extortion
• Sabotage or vandalism
• Theft of equipment or information
• Identity theft
• Compromises to intellectual property

4.3 Deliberate Threats to Information
Systems (2 of 2)
• Software attacks
• Alien software
• Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) attacks
• Cyberterrorism and cyberwarfare

TABLE 4.2 Types of Software Attacks
(1 of 3)
• Remote attacks requiring user action:
o Virus
o Worm
o Phishing attack
o Spear phishing

(2 of 3)
• Remote attacks needing no user action:
o Denial-of-service attack
o Distributed denial-of-service attack

(3 of 3)
• Attacks by a programmer developing a system:
o Trojan horse
o Back door
o Logic bomb

Whaling Attacks
Consider:
• How personal data can be used both for identity theft and
for whaling attacks
• That password theft via whaling can provide an
unauthorized gateway to corporate data

An Attack on the Internet
Consider:
• That many computers could be part of a botnet
• How high-capacity servers help prevent successful
execution of DDoS attacks

Alien Software (Pestware)
• Adware
• Spyware
o Keyloggers, screen scrapers
• Spamware
• Cookies
o Tracking cookies

4.4 What Organizations Are Doing to
Protect Information Resources
• Risk: the probability that a threat will impact an
information resource
• Risk management
• Risk analysis
• Risk mitigation

Risk Mitigation
• Risk acceptance
• Risk limitation
• Risk transference

The Data Breach at Desjardins Group
Consider:
• What are the resources required to carefully investigate
a data breach?
• The seriousness of the consequences for individuals
who leak or sell confidential data

4.5 Information Security Controls
• Categories of Controls
• Physical Controls
• Access Controls
• Communication Controls
• Business Continuity Planning
• Information Systems Auditing

Categories of Controls
• Security is only one aspect of operational control (which is

part of general controls)
• Controls come in “layers”
o Control environment
o General controls
o Application control

Control Environment
• Encompasses management attitudes toward controls, as

evidenced by management actions, as well as by stated
policies that address:
o Ethical issues
o Quality of supervision

FIGURE 4.2 Where defence mechanisms
(general controls) are located
FIGURE 4.2 Where defence mechanisms are located.

Physical Controls
• Prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining access to a

company’s facilities
• Examples:
o Walls, doors, fencing, gates, locks
o Badges, guards, alarm systems
o Pressure sensors, temperature sensors, motion sensors

Access Controls
• Logical controls (implemented by software) help to

provide controls such as:
o Authentication
o Authorization

Access and Communications Controls
Help to Prevent Identity Theft
• Using confidential information such as passwords, drivers
licences, or medical records to assume someone else’s
identity
• The thief applies for credit cards, mortgages, or passports
• Example controls include: physical security, access
security, and encryption
• The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada tells
businesses how to reduce the risk of identity theft and how
to respond (priv.gc.ca/en)

Password Controls Need to be
Supported at All 3 Control Levels
1. Control environment: Policies that enforce the proper
management of user codes and passwords
2. General control: A security system that requires a user
ID and password to “log on”
3. Functional application control: Separate passwords for
sensitive functions, e.g., employee raises or write-off
of customer accounts

Authentication
• Something the user is

• Something the user has
• Something the user does
• Something the user knows
o Passwords

Communication Controls
• Firewalls
• Anti-malware systems
• Whitelisting and blacklisting
• Encryption
• Virtual private networking
• Transport layer security (TLS)
• Employee monitoring systems

FIGURE 4.3a Basic firewall for home computer
FIGURE 4.3b Organization with two firewalls and
demilitarized zone
FIGURE 4.3 (a) Basic firewall for a home computer. (b) Organization
with two firewalls and a demilitarized zone.

FIGURE 4.4 How public key encryption
works
FIGURE 4.4 How public-key encryption works.

FIGURE 4.5 How digital certificates work
FIGURE 4.5 How digital certificates work. Sony and Dell, business
partners, use a digital certificate from VeriSign for authentication.

FIGURE 4.6 Virtual private network
(VPN) and tunneling
FIGURE 4.6 Virtual private network and tunnelling.

Application Controls
• Controls that apply to individual applications (functional

areas), e.g., payroll
• The text describes three categories: input, processing,
output
• It is more common to consider the purpose of application
controls for input, processing, and output using: accuracy,
completeness, authorization, and an audit trail
(documentation)

Application Controls Examples
• Input: Edits that check for reasonable data ranges

(accuracy)
• Processing: Automatically check that each line of an
invoice adds to the total (accuracy for total and
completeness of line items)
• Output: Supervisor reviews payroll journal for unusual
amounts (exceptions) before cheques are printed
(authorization)

Business Continuity Planning (BCP) (1 of 2)
• Disaster recovery plan

o Hot site
o Warm site
o Cold site

Business Continuity Planning (BCP) (2 of 2)
• BCP’s purpose:
o Provide continuous availability
o Be able to recover in the event of a hardware or software
failure or attack (e.g., due to ransomware)
o Ensure that critical systems are available and operating

Information Systems Auditing
• Types of auditors and audits

• How does the IS auditor decide on audits?

4.6 Personal Information Asset
Protection
• Before deciding upon potential actions you need to take:
o Do an inventory of information you are using, storing, or
accessing
o Relate your inventory to a personal risk assessment
• Use Table 4.4 to help enable changes to your methods of
protecting your personal information assets

Closing Case: WannaCry, Petya, and
SamSam Ransomware
Think about:
• Where is your most recent backup and when was it done?
• What are the tangible and intangible costs associated with
ransomware?

Copyright

Chapter 6
Telecommunications and Networking

Learning Objectives
• Compare and contrast the major types of networks
• Describe wireline communications media and transmission
technologies
• Describe the most common methods for accessing the Internet
• Explain the impact that discovery network applications have had on
business and everyday life
• Explain the impact that communication network applications have had
on business and everyday life
• Explain the impact that collaboration network applications have had
on business and everyday life
• Explain the impact that educational network applications have had on
business and everyday life
Chapter Outline
1. What Is a Computer Network?

2. Network Fundamentals
3. The Internet and the World Wide Web
4. Network Applications: Discovery
5. Network Applications: Communication
6. Network Applications: Collaboration
7. Network Applications: Education

Opening Case: Myanmar Suddenly Goes
Online
Think about:
• What you use as a source of news and its potential
reliability
• How could software be used to verify the quality of news
reports?

6.1 What Is a Computer Network?
• Bandwidth, broadband, file server, router

• Local Area Networks (LAN)
• Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN)
• Wide Area Networks (WAN)
• Personal Area Networks (PAN)
• Enterprise networks
o Corporate backbone networks
o Software Defined Networks (SDN)

FIGURE 6.1 Ethernet Local Area
FIGURE 6.1 Ethernet local area.

FIGURE 6.2 Enterprise network
FIGURE 6.2 Enterprise network.

6.2 Network Fundamentals
• Basic Concepts
• Communications Media and Channels
• Network Protocols
• Types of Network Processing

Basic Concepts
• Digital signals, analog signals

• Modem or modulator–demodulator
o Dial-up modem
o Cable modems
o DSL modems

Communications Media and Channels
• Twisted-pair wire
• Coaxial cable
• Fibre optic cable

FIGURE 6.3 Twisted-pair wire
FIGURE 6.3 Twisted-pair wire.

FIGURE 6.4 Two views of coaxial cable
FIGURE 6.4 Two views of coaxial cable.

FIGURE 6.5 Two views of fibre optic
cable
FIGURE 6.5 Two views of fibre-optic cable.

TABLE 6.1 Advantages and Disadvantages of
Wireline Communications Channels
Channel Advantages Disadvantages

Twisted-pair wire Inexpensive Slow (low bandwidth)
Widely available Subject to interference
Easy to work with Easily tapped (low security)
Coaxial cable Higher bandwidth than twisted-pair Relatively expensive and inflexible
Less susceptible to electromagnetic Easily tapped (low to medium security)
interference Somewhat difficult to work with
Fibre optic cable Very high bandwidth Difficult to work with (difficult to splice)
Relatively inexpensive
Difficult to tap (good security)

Network Protocols
• Ethernet
• Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
o Packet switching
o Four layers (described in Figure 6.6)

Three Basic Functions of the TCP
1. Manages the movement of data packets between

computers by establishing a connection between the
computers
2. Sequences the transfer of packets
3. Acknowledges the packets that have been transmitted

Four Layers of the TCP/IP Reference
Model/Protocols
• Application layer
• Transport layer
• Internet layer
• Network interface layer

FIGURE 6.6 The four layers of the
TCP/IP reference model
FIGURE 6.6 The four layers of the TCP/IP reference model.

FIGURE 6.7 Packet switching
FIGURE 6.7 Packet switching.

Types of Network Processing
Distributed processing includes:

• Client/server computing (fat or thin)
• Peer-to-peer processing (P2P) approaches:
1. Accessing unused CPU power among networked computers
2. Real-time, person-to-person collaboration
3. Advanced search and file sharing

6.3 The Internet and the World Wide
Web
Terms: Internet backbone, intranet, extranet
• Accessing the Internet
• The Future of the Internet
• The World Wide Web

FIGURE 6.8 Canada’s Internet backbone
FIGURE 6.8 Canada’s Internet backbone.

Accessing the Internet
• Connecting through an online service

• Connecting through satellite
• Connecting through other means
o Internet kiosks, smartphones
o Google Fiber (FTTH)
• Addresses on the Internet

TABLE 6.2 Internet Connection
Methods
Service Description
Dial-up Access via a conventional telephone line
DSL Broadband access through telephone companies
Cable modem Access over cable TV coaxial cable
Satellite Access over radio-wave satellite network

Wireless Access via Wi-Fi access point or cell phone network
Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) Broadband access via a fibre optic cable

Is Broadband Internet a Right or a Privilege?
Consider:
• How broadband access facilitated separation strategies
implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic
• The different methods that you use to access the Internet

Addresses on the Internet
• Internet Protocol (IP) address (for domain names)

• Internet Corporation for Assigned Names (ICANN)
• Top Level Domain (TLD)
o .com, .edu, .mil, .gov, .org, .ca

The Future of the Internet
• Three factors could cause Internet speed reductions:

o Increasing number of people who work online resulting in
growing usage needs
o Viewing of full-motion video files on popular websites such
as YouTube requiring large amounts of bandwidth
o Increased demand due to health care technologies sending
high-definition files (e.g., X-ray images)
• CANARIE and Internet2

The Splinternet
Consider:
• Where are you and your family members or friends
located? Do you and they have “open access” to the
Internet?
• Is tiered Internet access available in your neighbourhood?
Do you have to pay more for faster access?

The World Wide Web (WWW)
• A system of universally accepted standards for storing,

retrieving, formatting, and displaying information via a
client/server architecture
• Enabling use of the WWW requires:
o Hypertext and hyperlinks
o Website
o Webmaster
o Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
o Browsers

6.4 Network Applications: Discovery
• Search engines and metasearch engines

• Portals
• Publication of material in foreign languages

Portals
• Commercial portal
• Affinity portal
• Corporate portal (aka enterprise portal)
• Industrywide portal

FIGURE 6.9 York University alumni
affinity portal
FIGURE 6.9 York University alumni affinity portal

FIGURE 6.10 Google Translate
FIGURE 6.10 Google Translate. (Google and the Google logo are
registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission).

6.5 Network Applications:
Communication
• Electronic mail (E-mail)
• Web-based call centers
• Electronic chat rooms
• Voice communication
o Internet Telephony (VoIP)
• Unified Communications (UC)
• Telecommuting

Telecommuting
• A process by which highly prized workers are able to work

anywhere anytime
• Knowledge workers
• Distributed workers
• Advantages versus disadvantages

Telecommuting
Consider:
• How have information systems and internet applications
facilitated telecommuting?
• What are some career choices that you are considering?
Would they be suitable for telecommuting?

6.6 Network Applications:
Collaboration
• Crowdsourcing
• Teleconferencing and video conferencing

Collaboration
Collaboration (working together to accomplish certain tasks) is
performed using technologies and processes such as:
• Workgroups
• Workflow
• Virtual teams (or groups) with virtual meetings
• Virtual collaboration
• Crowdsourcing
• Electronic teleconferencing and video conferencing
• Synchronous versus asynchronous methods

The Boeing Collaboration Center
Consider:
• How could Boeing’s technology be adapted to remote
meetings?
• If you were buying an airplane or helicopter, how does the
collaboration centre illustrate Boeing’s technology
capabilities?

Crowdsourcing Benefits
• Explore and resolve problems quickly at low cost

• Tap into a wider range of talent than current employees
• Gain firsthand insight into customer desires
• Tap into the global world of ideas

Crowdsourcing Concerns
• Unclear how to define the crowd, e.g., just experts?

• Difficult to maintain accuracy of the content created
• Uncertainty about the relevance of the content
• High volume of ideas prohibitively expensive to evaluate
• Content provided may violate copyrights
• Quality of content may be variable, based upon the
unknown composition of the crowd

FIGURE 6.11 Telepresence system
FIGURE 6.11 Telepresence system.

6.7 Network Applications: Education
• E-learning
o Learning supported by the web
• Distance learning
o Any learning situation in which teachers and students do not
meet face-to-face
• Virtual universities
o Online universities in which students take classes via the
Internet at home or an off-site location

Closing Case: The Network Neutrality
Battles Continue
Think about:
• How you use the Internet and which services could be
slowed by internet service providers (ISPs); e.g., video
streaming, video gaming
• Would you use your ISP’s streaming site if it resulted in
your having access to a higher data cap? Why or why not?

Copyright

Chapter 5
Data and Knowledge Management

Learning Objectives
• Discuss ways that common challenges in managing data can be

addressed using data governance
• Identify and assess the advantages and disadvantages of
relational databases
• Define Big Data and discuss its basic characteristics
• Explain the elements necessary to successfully implement and
maintain data warehouses
• Describe the benefits and challenges of implementing
knowledge management systems in organizations
• Understand the processes of querying a relational database,
entity-relationship modeling, and normalization and joins
Chapter Outline
1. Managing Data
2. The Database Approach
3. Big Data
4. Data Warehouses and Data Marts
5. Knowledge Management
6. Appendix: Fundamentals of Relational Database
Operations

Opening Case: Fitbit Data is Being Used
as Evidence in the Courtroom
Think about:
• Where is your health data being collected and stored?
How could it be used for or against you?
• How many different types of data do you access and use
in one day? In one week?

5.1 Managing Data
• Difficulties of Managing Data

• Data Governance

Difficulties of Managing Data (1 of 2)
• Data increases exponentially with time

• Data are scattered throughout organizations
• Multiple sources of data
• New sources of data
• Data becomes outdated
• Data media rots

Difficulties of Managing Data (2 of 2)
• Data security, quality, and integrity may be compromised

• Legal requirements need to be met with appropriate data-
storage methods or management procedures
• Legacy IT systems or functional requirements may result
in repetition (redundancy) or data conflicts (inconsistency)
• High volumes of big data and the variety of data being
collected increase complexity
• Solutions to these difficulties include effective data
governance

Multiple Sources of Data
• Internal sources
o Corporate databases, company documents
• Personal sources
o Personal thoughts, opinions, experiences
• External sources
o Commercial databases, government reports, corporate
websites, clickstream data
• New sources
o Blogs, Tweets, videos, sensor tags

Data Governance (a subset of IT governance)
• Objectives: to enable available, transparent, and useful

data, “a single version of the truth”
• Provides a planned approach to data management for all
types of data
• Includes a formal set of business processes and policies for
data handling
• Requires well-defined, unambiguous rules (both manual
and IT) to avoid functional inconsistency
• Rules address creating, collecting, handling, and protecting
data
Master Data Management
(a part of data governance)
• Focus is on master data in all business processes

• Goal is to effectively store, maintain, exchange, and
synchronize master data
• Intentions include providing consistency, accuracy,
timeliness, and up-to-date master data

Transactional Data and Master Data
• Transactional data represents activities or events, such as a

payroll cheque or customer invoice; stored in transaction
files or as tables as part of a database
• Master data are a set of core data, such as employee name,
address, customer name, or customer credit limit that are
applied to multiple transactions; stored in a master file or
as tables as part of a database

Legislation Can Affect Data Archiving
Requirements
• Legislation that has an effect on data storage and security:
o In Canada, the Personal Information Protection and
Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) came into effect
January 1, 2004
o In the U.S., Sarbanes-Oxley came into effect in July 2002
• Canada’s anti-spam legislation (discussed in Chapters 3
and 4) came into effect July 1, 2014, which means
organizations need to track specific consent to send emails

5.2 The Database Approach
• The Data Hierarchy

• The Relational Database Model

Database Management Systems (DBMs)
Minimize Three Main Problems
• DBMs are a set of programs with tools to create and
manage databases
• DBMs minimize:
o Data redundancy
o Data isolation
o Data inconsistency

Database Management Systems
Maximize Three Things
• Data security
• Data integrity
• Data independence

FIGURE 5.1 Database management system
FIGURE 5.1 Database management system.

The Data Hierarchy
• Bit
• Byte
• Field
• Record
• Data file or table
• Database

FIGURE 5.2 Hierarchy of data for a
computer-based file
FIGURE 5.2 Hierarchy of data for a computer-based file.

The Relational Database Model
• Key terms:
o Relational database model
o Data model
o Entity
o Instance
o Attribute
o Primary key
o Foreign key
o Secondary key

FIGURE 5.3 Student database example
FIGURE 5.3 Student database example.

5.3 Big Data
• Defining Big Data

• Characteristics of Big Data
• Issues with Big Data
• Managing Big Data
• Putting Big Data to Use
• Big Data Used in the Functional Areas of the Organization

Defining Big Data:
Definition #1—Source: Gartner Research
• Diverse, high-volume, high-velocity information assets that
require new forms of processing to enable enhanced
decision making, insight discovery, and process
optimization (www.gartner.com)

Defining Big Data:
Definition #2—Source: Big Data Institute
• Exhibit variety
• Include structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data
• Are generated at high velocity with an uncertain pattern
• Do not fit neatly into traditional structured, relational
databases
• Can be captured, processed, transformed, and analyzed in a
reasonable amount of time only by sophisticated
information systems

Big Data Generally Consist of:
• Traditional enterprise data

o Customer information, general ledger data
• Machine-generated/sensor data
o Smart meters, automobiles
• Social data
o Customer feedback, microblogging
• Images captured by billions of devices around the world
o Digital cameras, camera phones, medical scanners, and
security cameras

Characteristics of Big Data
• Volume: high volumes of traditional (e.g., invoices) and

non-traditional data (e.g., clicks on websites)
• Velocity: the rate at which data is flowing is increasing as
new types of data, such as those related to locations or
products, are added to the data stream
• Variety: more and more types of data are being added, such
as images, meter readings, and product locations

Data from Connected Vehicles Is Valuable
Consider:
• What characteristics of big data are exhibited by data from
cars?
• What features would you like to have in a car that would be
facilitated by its data?

Issues with Big Data
• Can come from untrusted data sources

• Big Data is dirty
• Big Data changes, especially in data streams

Managing Big Data
• When properly analyzed, big data can reveal valuable

patterns and information
• Requires a database environment
• Traditional relational database structures or NoSQL
databases can be used
• Open source solutions and new methods such as data lakes
are also used

Cloud Spanner, Google’s Global Database
Consider:
• How time stamping is an important component of
recognizing a transaction’s uniqueness
• What does an organization have to do to back up its
systems when its data and programs are scattered all over
the world?

Putting Big Data to Use
• Making big data available

• Enabling organizations to conduct experiments
• Microsegmentation of customers
• Creating new business models
• Organizations can analyze more data

Big Data Used in Functional Areas of
the Organization
• Human resources
o Managing employee benefits, recruitment
• Product development
o Capturing customer preferences for use in product design
• Operations
o Efficiency improvements
• Marketing
o Targeted efforts through improved customer understanding
• Government operations
o Traffic monitoring
5.4 Data Warehouses and Data Marts
• Describing Data Warehouses and Data Marts

• A Generic Data Warehouse Environment

Describing Data Warehouses and Data
Marts (1 of 2)
• Data warehouse
o A repository of historical data organized by subject to
support decision makers in the organization
• Data mart
o A low-cost, scaled-down version of a data warehouse
designed for end-user needs in a strategic business unit
(SBU) or individual department

FIGURE 5.4 Data warehouse framework
FIGURE 5.4 Data warehouse framework.

Describing Data Warehouses and Data
Marts (2 of 2)
• Basic characteristics of data warehouses and data marts
o Organized by business dimension or subject
o Use online analytical processing (OLAP)
o Integrated
o Time variant
o Nonvolatile
o Multidimensional

A Generic Data Warehouse Environment
Includes (1 of 2)
• Source systems: provide data to the warehouse or mart
(e.g., point of sale or ERP systems)
• Data integration: technology that processes and prepare the
data for use (using SQL, custom software or software
packages)
• Storing the data: handled by a variety of architectures, such
as a data warehouse or functional data mart (e.g., finance
or human resources)

A Generic Data Warehouse Environment
Includes (2 of 2)
• Metadata: data about the data, such as a data dictionary that
provides access descriptions and rules; also includes update
schedules
• Data quality issues: data cleansing needs to be used to
ensure data meets users’ needs
• BI (business intelligence) governance: establishing people,
committees and processes to maintain the data warehouse
and provide for changes in data types or processing
• Users: business value for users rises when data can be
accessed quickly and easily for analysis or consolidation

FIGURE 5.5 Relational databases
FIGURE 5.5 Relational databases.

FIGURE 5.6 Data cube
FIGURE 5.6 Data cube.

FIGURE 5.7 Equivalence between relational
and multidimensional databases
FIGURE 5.7 Equivalence between relational and multidimensional databases.

Data Lakes
Consider:
• What are some examples of the types of data that could be
in a data lake?
• What might organizations need to do before using data
from the data lake that came from multiple sources (e.g.,
comparing different types of data)?

5.5 Knowledge Management
• Concepts and Definitions

• Knowledge Management Systems
• The KMS Cycle

Concepts and Definitions
• Knowledge management (KM)

o A process that helps manipulate important knowledge that
comprises part of the organization’s memory, usually in an
unstructured format
• Knowledge
o Also known as intellectual capital/assets
• Explicit knowledge
o Objective, rational, and technical
• Tacit knowledge
o Subjective or experiential
Knowledge Management Systems
(KMS)
• The use of modern information technologies—the Internet,
intranet, extranets, databases —to systematize, enhance,
and expedite intrafirm and interfirm knowledge
management
o Make best practices in managing knowledge accessible to
employees

FIGURE 5.8 The knowledge
management system cycle
FIGURE 5.8 The knowledge management system cycle.

5.6 Appendix: Fundamentals of
Relational Database Operations
• Query Languages
• Entity Relationship Modeling

Query Languages
Types:
• Structured Query Language (SQL)
• Query by Example (QBE)

Entity Relationship Modeling
• Entity relationship diagram (ERD)

• Business rules
• Data dictionary
• Relationships
o Unary, binary, ternary
• Cardinality
o Connectivity

FIGURE 5.9 Cardinality symbols
FIGURE 5.9 Cardinality symbols.

FIGURE 5.10 One-to-one relationship
FIGURE 5.10 One-to-one relationship.

FIGURE 5.11 One-to-many relationship
FIGURE 5.11 One-to-many relationship.

FIGURE 5.12 Many-to-many
relationship
FIGURE 5.12 Many-to-many relationship.

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Introduction to Information Systems

Rainer, Prince, Sanchez-Rodriguez,

Introduction to Information Systems

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• Identify why being an informed user of information

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1. Why Should I Study Information Systems?

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• The Informed User—You!

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1. You benefit more when you understand what is “behind”

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• Organizations that you work with will be continually

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• IT is vital to modern businesses, providing many lucrative

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• Managing information resources is difficult and complex

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• Types of computer-based information systems

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• IT Impacts Entire Industries

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• Decision making is the most important managerial task

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• The competitive advantage of replacing people with IT and

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• IT has changed the way we work

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• IT is used in health care to:

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