Chapter 1- Business Driven Technology

Why we need to study Information Technology (IT)?

IT is everywhere in business. Understanding IT provides great insight to anyone learning about business.

Information Technology's Impact on Business Operation :

• Organization typically operate by functional areas or functional silos.

• Functional areas are interdependence.

• ·    Figure 1.1 shows the business functions receiving the greatest benefit from information technology, along with the common business goals associated with information technology projects.

          Common Department in an organization

Information Technology Basics :

    1) Information Technology (IT)

• A a field concerned with the use of technology in managing and processing information. IT is an important enabler of business success and innovation.

    2) Management Information System (MIS)

• A general name for the business function and academic discipline covering the application of people, technologies and procedures to solve business problems. MIS is a business function, similar to Accounting, Finance, Operations and Human Resources. 

When beginning to learn about information technology it is important to understand :

• Data, information and business intelligence
• IT resources
• IT cultures 

Data, Information And Business Intelligence

•  Data is a raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event
•  Information is a data converted into a meaningful and useful context.
•  Business intelligence is an applications and technologies that are used to support decision making efforts.

 IT Resources

• People use
• Information technology to work with
• Information

 IT Cultures

Organizational information cultures include;

• Information-Functional Culture – Employees use information as a means of exercising influence or power over others. For example, a manager in sales refuses to share information with marketing. This causes marketing to need the sales manager’s input each time a new sales manager’s input each time a new sales strategy is developed.

• Information-Inquiring Culture – Employees across departments search for information to better understand the future and align themselves with current trends and new directions.

• Information-Discovery Culture – Employees across departments are open to new insight about crisis and radical changes and seek ways to create competitive advantages.

• Information-Sharing Culture – Employees across departments trust each other to use information (especially about problems and failures) to improve performance.