Lecture 1:

Introduction to Management
Information Systems

ISIT224 Management Information Systems

Lecture Outline
Background

• About Me
• Subject Overview
• Assessments

Content Introduction

• Introduction to Management Information

Systems
• Future Trends
Subject Coordinator
• Dr. Jun Yan
• Professor, SCIT, EIS
• Head of Students
• Academic Program Director: Bachelor of Business
Information Systems, SIM

• Phone: +61 2 4221 5411

• Email: jyan@uow.edu.au
• UOW scholar page:
– https://scholars.uow.edu.au/display/jun_yan

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Subject Overview

What is in the subject outline?

Subject Description

• An overview of all the major Information

Systems in the contemporary business
environment
– finance, HR, payroll, inventory, sales, CRM, SCM and
ERP
– processes involved in managing information systems
• Topics surrounding the key components of
Information Systems
– people, software, hardware, data, and communication
technologies

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Subject Learning Outcomes
• Some major projects you will work on in your life will be
done in the context of a business or organization

• EITHER
• You will use/manage/analyze systems for
businesses/organizations
– (e.g. DBS, OCBC, Singtel, Singapore Airlines, Breadtalk)
• OR
• You will work for a business that builds systems
– (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Apple, SAP, Cisco) for other
businesses/organizations

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Subject Learning Outcomes

• Identify the components of an Information System

(IS) and the roles IS play in organizations.

• Explain the functionality of the main IS typically

found in organizations.
– Understanding the business & IS relationship
– IS management and planning, roles of CIOs

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Subject Learning Outcomes

• Discuss how technology diffusion impacts on an

organization and the impact of not keeping pace
with technological change.
• Apply IS in organizational decision making
process.
• Analyze how organizations manage its IS
(technology evaluation, adoption, development,
deployment, etc.)

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Subject Outline
• It is a ‘contract’ between you and the University
• It tells you what you are required to do and what you are
not allowed to do: e.g.
– It tells you when assignments are due, how and when they are to be
submitted etc.
– It tells you about penalties for late submission, for cheating and for
plagiarism
• It tells you about the textbook and other readings you
should complete
• Your subject outline is available online at ISIT224 Moodle
site

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Moodle - eLearning

• This subject will use a Moodle (eLearning) site

– Make sure you can log on
• Subject outline is/will be uploaded on Moodle.
– Read through carefully
• Announcements posted to the eLearning site will
be deemed to have been delivered to you
• Lecture notes (in PDF form) will become
available there
Subject Materials
• Textbook:
– Management Information Systems- Managing the
Digital Firm, 15th Ed.
– Authors: Laudon, K. C., Laudon, J.P.
– Publisher: Pearson
– (Not compulsory, only suggested as guideline)

• Options:
– Purchase from UniShop
– Borrow from Library
– Online access: e_book is available from the UOW
library

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Subject Materials
• Keep pace by accessing Moodle regularly, esp.
announcements

• IS and IT technologies develops very quickly

• Keep reading, practicing and thinking

• Other resources
– Internet (Google scholar)
– Library: both bookshelves and online databases
– Magazines and newspapers: reports (advertisements and
critics) on new technologies
– Personal (daily) experiences with IS, mobile apps, data, etc

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Contribution
• Class contribution
– use good case facts or your own experience to support
a point of argument
– constructive disagreement
– insightful comments on class topics or case questions
– more

• Moodle forum contribution

– the sharing of course related materials such as news
articles, videos, or other relevant links
– discussion questions & findings
– any questions
– more
Subject Organisation
• Three hour lecture
– Download lecture notes from Moodle before lectures
– Focus on essential topics in lectures
– Learning IS technologies to advance our ‘business’

• Three hour labs

– Lab discussions
– Group project, give presentations
– Feedback in labs and to your assignment submissions

• Fuel your self-learning after classes

Lecture Schedule
Lecture Topic Readings
Introduction to Management Information
1 Chapter 1 & 9
Systems
2 E-Business and E-Commerce Chapter 2 & 10
Information Systems for Competitive
3 Chapter 3
Advantage
4 IT Infrastructure and Emerging Technologies Chapter 5 & 7
5 Information Systems Security Chapter 8
6 Business Intelligence and Business Analytics Chapter 6 & 11
Information Systems Development and
Chapter 13
7 Acquisition
Lecture Notes
Subject Review
Subject Assessments
Assessment Items & % of Final Group/
Due Date
Format Mark Individual

Participation in discussion during the

1. Lab Discussions 15% Individual
labs.

Project report: 30%

Softcopy to be uploaded to UOW
2. Group Project 35% Group Moodle, 17th August 2025 by 23.59
pm.
Presentation: 5%, in the lab

3. Final examination 50% Individual During examination period

Notes on Assessment

• Assessment guide is available on the subject’s

Moodle site
– Instructions
– Marking criteria

• All individual assignments must be completed

independently

• Plagiarism in any assignment or exam may result

in a FAIL for that assignment or exam
Notes on Assessment
• If you cannot submit an assignment on time it must be
submitted to the Subject Coordinator/Tutor as soon as
possible

• Unless academic consideration is granted, late submissions

will get a penalty of 5% of the assessment mark per day
including public holidays and weekends
• Work more than 4 days late will get a mark of zero

• Penalties apply to all late work, except if student academic

consideration has been granted
Group Project
• To critically analyse an existing business (in general terms) in the
world and to propose potential opportunities to transform this
business from its existing business model, to one that could
contribute to a smarter or greener Singapore in 5 years’ time.
• Research in the topic you have proposed
– research on its business models, core business processes,
organizational structure, organizational leadership, industry
environment, IT infrastructure, and the information systems
supporting the business

• You will work on this project as part of a group of 5 members

• Detailed instruction & marking criteria on Moodle site
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Final Exam

• The final exam will test for knowledge,

comprehension, and application of concepts as they
relate to the learning objectives specified in the
outline.
• The content on which the final exam will be based
will be discussed in lecture 7.
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Lab Discussions
• Type of Assessment: Individual
• You are required to focus on various topics related
to how organisations make use of Information
System to transform their businesses
• Participate and contribute to the discussion
questions
• The purpose of this discussion is to assist you to
learn course material as well as develop skills in
critical analysis
Attendance Requirements
• It is the responsibility of students to attend all
lectures/tutorials/labs/seminars/practical work for
subjects for which you are enrolled.

• Satisfactory attendance is deemed by the University, to

be attendance at approximately 80% of the allocated
contact hours.
 Lectures Moodle
Tutorials/Labs

Textbook
Discussions Assessments

Readings
Introduction to Management
Information Systems
• What is management information systems?
• Why is management information systems
important?
The World is Changing

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The World is Changing

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 ITs

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And It will Keep Changing

28 Source: Mckinsey report

IT Capital Investment

Source: “Global Technology Investment Predictions Report”, Morning Consult,

IBM, November 2022
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IT Capital Investment
Table 1. Worldwide IT Spending Forecast (Millions of U.S.
Dollars)
Source: Gartner (January 2024)

2023 2023 Growth 2024 2024 Growth

Spending (%) Spending (%)

Data Center 243,063 7.1 261,332 7.5

Systems
Devices 699,791 -8.7 732,287 4.6
Software 913,334 12.4 1,029,421 12.7
IT Services 1,381,832 5.8 1,501,365 8.7
Communications 1,440,827 1.5 1,473,314 2.3
Services
Overall IT 4,678,847 3.3 4,997,718 6.8

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Where Investments Will Flow

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Organisations and Information Technology

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What is an Organisation?

• A stable, formal social structure that takes

resources from the environment and processes
them to produce outputs
• A collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and
responsibilities delicately balanced over a period of
time through conflict and confliction resolution.
• How do these definitions relate to information
systems and information technology?

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What is an Information System
• Information systems:
– Set of interrelated components
– Collect, process, store, and distribute information
– Support decision making, coordination, and control
What is an Information System

• Three activities of information systems produce

information organizations need
– Input: Captures raw data from organization or external
environment
– Processing: Converts raw data into meaningful form
– Output: Transfers processed information to people or
activities that use it

– Feedback
• Output is returned to appropriate members of
organization to help evaluate or correct input stage
What is an Information System
 Data, Information, and Knowledge

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Source: http://www.systems-
thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm
 DIKW Pyramid

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIKW_Pyramid
Information Systems Are More Than Computers

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Dimensions of Information Systems
• Technology dimension of information systems
– Computer hardware and software
– Data management technology
– Networking and telecommunication technology
• Networks, the Internet, intranets and extranets, World Wide
Wed

– IT infrastructure: provides platform that system is built on

Dimensions of Information Systems
• Organizational dimension of information systems
– Hierarchy of authority, responsibility
• Senior management
• Middle management
– Knowledge workers
• Operational management
– Data workers
– Production or service workers
Dimensions of Information Systems
• Organizational dimension of information systems
(cont.)
– Separation of business functions
• Sales and marketing
• Human resources
• Finance and accounting
• Manufacturing and production
– Unique business processes
• Business processes: logically related tasks and
behaviors for accomplishing work.
– Unique business cultures
– Organizational politics
Dimensions of Information Systems

• Management dimension of information systems

– Managers set organizational strategy for responding to
business challenges
– In addition, managers must act creatively:
• Creation of new products and services
• Occasionally re-creating the organization
Example: Dimensions of UPS Tracking System

• Technology
– Handheld computers, bar-code scanners, networks,
desktop computers, and so on
• Organizational
– Procedures for tracking packages and managing
inventory and provide information
• Management
– Decision making
– Monitoring service levels and costs
Types of Organizational IS

• Systems for different management groups

– Transaction processing systems
– Management information systems
– Executive support systems
– Decision support systems

• Systems for DIKW pyramids

– Knowledge management systems
– Business intelligence systems

• Systems for enterprise management

– Enterprise resources planning systems
– Supply chain management systems
– Customer relationship management systems
Systems for Different Management Groups

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IS within an Organization

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IS among Organizations

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Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

• Perform and record daily routine transactions

necessary to conduct business
– Examples: sales order entry, payroll, shipping
• Serve operational managers and staff
– Allow managers to monitor status of operations and
relations with external environment
• Serve predefined, structured goals
and decision making

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Example: A Payroll TPS

Common features:
Simple &
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Repetitive
Management Information Systems (MIS)

• Serve middle management

– Provide reports on firm’s current performance, based
on data from TPS
– Provide answers to routine questions with predefined
procedure for answering them
• Typically have little analytic capability
Sample MIS Report
Decision Support Systems

• Serve middle/senior management

• Support nonroutine decision making
– Example: What is the impact on production schedule if
December sales doubled?
• May use external information as well TPS / MIS data

• Model driven DSS

– Voyage-estimating systems
• Data driven DSS
– Intrawest’s marketing analysis systems
Example: Voyage-Estimating Decision Support System
Executive Support Systems
• Support senior management
• Address nonroutine decisions
– Requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight
• Incorporate data about external events (e.g., new tax laws
or competitors) as well as summarized information from
internal MIS and DSS
• Example: Digital dashboard with real-time view of firm’s
financial performance
Sample Digital Dashboard

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Types of Organizational IS

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The Business Information Value Chain
The Role of IS in Organization

• IS is transforming businesses, especially

information intensive industries
– Growing online newspaper readership
– Expanding e-commerce and Internet advertising
– Growing data generation rate
• E.g, new federal security and accounting laws
» Require companies to store e-mail for 5 years have
spurred the growth of digital information
» Lead to increasing at a rate of 5 exabytes annually
Organizational Impacts

• Managers
– Reduce the number of middle managers
– Provide managers with real-time or near real-time
information
• Less time to make decisions
– Supervise geographically dispersed employees and
teams
• Non-managerial workers
– Eliminate jobs
– Loss of identity
– Job stress and physical problems

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Societal Impacts

• Positive
– Opportunities for people with disabilities
– Flexibility in work (e.g. work from anywhere, anytime)
– Improvements in healthcare

• Negative
– Health problems for individuals
– Place employees on constant calls
– Misinform patients about health problems

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The Role of IS in Organization

• If you are the manager of a supermarket, and you are

facing that the number of your customers is declining.
What do you do?

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Example: Kroger - Grocery Store of the Future

• Kroger’s solution:
– Information systems to improve checkout experience
• In 2012, Kroger rolled out QueVision, a technology
platform that uses sensors and predictive analytics to
feed managers real-time data
• Online ordering service
• Mobile shopping app
– Average wait time at the store
from four minutes to less than
thirty seconds

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Example: Amazon Go

• Amazon’s solution:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrmMk1Myrxc

• A combination of artificial intelligence, computer vision

and data pulled from multiple sensors and information
systems
• "Just Walk Out" shopping experience

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The Role of IS in Organization

• Organizations invest heavily in information

systems to achieve six strategic business
objectives:
– Operational excellence
– New products, services, and business models
– Customer and supplier intimacy
– Improved decision making
– Competitive advantage
– Survival
IT Capital Investment

• Investing in IS does not guarantee good returns

The Role of IS in Organization

• Success factors:
– Adopting the right business model:
• The alignment between business models and
information systems
– Investing in complementary assets (organizational and
management capital)

• Complementary assets:
– Assets required to derive value from a primacy
investment
– Firms supporting technology investments with
investment in complementary assets receive superior
returns
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The Role of IS in Organization

• What’s new in MIS?

– The emerging mobile digital platform
– Growth of businesses use of “big data”
– Growth of “cloud computing”

• Globalization opportunities
– Internet has drastically reduced costs of operating on
global scale
– Increase in foreign trade, outsourcing
– Presents both challenges and opportunities
Summary
• Information systems is a set of interrelated components
– to collect, process, store, and distribute information
– used to support decision making, coordination, and control

• Types of organizational IS:

– Transaction processing systems
– Management information systems
– Decision support systems
– Executive support systems

• IS is transforming business
Have a happy study journey
with ISIT224! 