Understanding Information and e-Business

1. Understanding Information and e-Business Chapter 14

2. What Is a Management Information System? • Management information system (MIS) • A system that provides managers and employees with the information they need to perform their jobs as effectively as possible • Information technology officer • A manager at the executive level who is responsible for ensuring that a firm has the equipment necessary to provide the information the firm’s employees and managers need to make effective decisions

3. Management Information System (MIS)

4. Management Information System (cont.) • A firm’s information requirements • Summary of future possibilities • Summary of present situation • Summary of past performance • Information about five areas of management: finance, operations, marketing, human resources, and administration • Size and complexity of the system • Must be properly sized to provide sufficient information resources without being too simple or too complex to be useful

5. Every MIS must be tailored to the organization it serves and must perform five functions

6. How Do Employees Use a Management Information System? (cont.) • Processing data • Data and Information are not the same thing. • Data has to be analyzed and become meaningful and useful to be considered to be information. • For example: • 2012 Sales were $500,000 (this is Data) • Means nothing unless we compare it to other years’ performance and then are possibly able to predict next year’s performance. (This is then useful information!)

7. Seven Tips for Effective E-mail Communication

8. Using Computers and the Internet to Obtain Information (cont.) • Creating web sites • Reflects the company image • Should be kept current • Most companies manage their sites internally but some pay an outside hosting service to provide site management

9. Tips for Web Site Development

10. An Example of a Web Site • Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood

11. Defining e-Business • E-business (electronic business)—the organized effort of individuals to produce and sell, for a profit, the products and services that satisfy society’s needs through the facilities available on the Internet

12. E-Business must Satisfy Needs like any other business • Satisfying needs online • The Internet has created new customer needs • E-business can satisfy those needs, as well as traditional ones • Global access to information and entertainment • Virtually unlimited selection of products • Opportunities for interaction • Individually custom-tailored content

13. Creating e-Business Profit • Creating e-business profit • Increasing sales revenue • Revenue stream—source of revenue flowing into a firm. Examples of revenue streams: • Sales of merchandise online • Intelligent information systems to suggest purchases to repeat online customers • Increased sales in physical stores because of product information available online • Advertising on web pages • Subscription fees charged for access to online services and content • Sale of company assets? Not a revenue stream.

14. Creating e-Business Profit (cont.) • Creating e-business profit (cont.) • Reducing expenses • Offering online services that: • Reduce transaction costs • Provide information • Provide customer assistance • Reduces the costs of dealing with customers • Reduces the need for as many physical store locations

15. Planning for a New Internet Business or Building an Online Presence for an Existing Business

16. The Future of Computer Technology, the Internet, and e-Business • The Internet and e-business will continue to expand along with related computer technologies. • Internet growth potential • Opportunity: only about 1.8 billion of the world’s nearly 7 billion people use the Web. • Americans comprise 12 percent of all users. • Internet growth potential in the U.S. is limited since 73 percent of Americans already use it. • Projections indicate worldwide users will exceed 2.1 billion by 2012. • Social network site—a Web site that functions like an online community of Internet users who share personal information, messages, photos, friends.

17. Chapter Quiz • Data presented in a form useful for a specific purpose is • factual data. • information. • statistical data. • a computer information base. • a computer network.

18. Chapter Quiz • The term that refers to buying and selling activities conducted online is • Internet business. • e-business. • online sales. • e-marketing. • e-sales.