Introduction to

Information Technology
 Objectives
• Why an organisation should invest in IT based solutions
• What are Information Systems and how they are
different from Information Technology
• What level of IT solutions organisations should
implement
• Major changes that need to be addressed in terms of
organisation and management
• Different level of activities being performed by various
level of managers and their information solutions needs
• The latest trends in Information Technology.
 What is IT?
• Information Technology can be defined as a
collection of computer hardware, software,
databases, networking and telecommunication
devices that helps the organisation to manage the
business process more effectively and efficiently.
• Or in simple terms, one may say, any
technological device that helps the organisation in
managing its processes more effectively and
efficiently qualifies to be part of IT.
 Why organization should invest in IT based solution

• Because the business is changing; competition is

changing; and technology is changing.
• Because:
– Opening of Global Markets
– Business Process Outsourcing
– Knowledge Process Outsourcing
– Shift from Industrial Based Economy to Knowledge
based Economy
– Shift in Organizational Structures
– Emergence of Digital Economy
 Why Organization should invest in IT
based solution?
• Information technology can help all kinds of
businesses improve the efficiency and effectiveness
of their business processes, managerial decision
making, and workgroup collaboration, thus
strengthening their competitive positions in a rapidly
changing marketplace.
• Internet-based systems have become a necessary
ingredient for business success in today’s dynamic
global environment.

• Information technologies are playing an expanding

role in business.
 BPO Vs. KPO
• Business process outsourcing (BPO) is about
contracting a specific business process or task,
such as payroll, to a third-party service provider.
• Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) is a value-
added process in which the achievement of goals is
largely dependent on the skills, knowledge and
experience of the people carrying them out.
 Digital Economy
• Digital Economy is defined as economy based
on Information Technologies including
computers, internet, intranets, and extranets.
• Allows management of Digitally-enabled
relationships with Customers, Suppliers and
Employees.
 Data, Information & Knowledge
• Data is a collection of raw facts and figures. Data is an
element of a transaction. Any transaction facts collected
about the lifestyle of credit card customers, or point of
sales or demographics and geographic are some of the
examples of data.
• Information is a collection of data (facts & figures)
arranged in more meaningful manner, which helps in
decision making.
• Knowledge is defined as the experience and expertise
acquired by an individual. Knowledge can also be defined
as level of understanding in interpreting the information
available for effective decision making purpose.
 System
• System can be defined as group of entities
that work together to achieve a common
predefined goal.

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

FEEDBACK
 Information System
• Information system is a set of procedures that
collects, process, store and disseminate
information to support decision making.
• Information systems always have a pre-defined
boundary and operate in an environment which
includes other systems and also players like
customers, suppliers and government
departments etc.
 Information Technology vs. Information System.
• Information Technology is a means • Building information system solution
to Information System as they are without strong information
similar to heart and soul technology backbone is not possible.
relationship. • Information system provides best
• Information technology provides practices to manage business
processes.
effective and efficient means of
storing, processing and • For designing and developing good
disseminating information. information system solution, one
needs to know the businesses
• To manage effective information processes better, the environment in
technology solutions, one needs to which it operates and good project
have good understanding of management skills.
computers, networks, • To learn about information systems,
communication systems and other one needs to understand the
technological tools and techniques. organisation, management and
technology.
 Components of Information
System
ENVIRONMENT

Organization Information System

INPUT PROCESS OUTPUT

FEEDBACK
System Boundary
 Major Characteristics of Information Systems

• Intrinsic
• Accessibility
• Contextual
• Representation
• Information system needs to be economical
to develop and maintain
• Information system needs to flexible and
adaptable
 Uses of Information
• Identification
• Collection
• Controlling
• Measuring and
• Decision Making
 Organizational Structure
• Organizations are structured in a many ways, which is
dependant on their objectives and culture.
• The structure of an organization will determine the manner
in which it operates and it’s performance.
• Structure allows the responsibilities for different functions
and processes to be clearly allocated to different
departments and employees.
• Organizational structures are created in such a way that it
aims at maximizing the efficiency and success of the
Organization.
• Common organization structures that exist are:
Hierarchical, Flat and Matrix.
 Organizational Structures
• Hierarchical. In Hierarchical structure organisation,
employees are organized at various levels (or layers)
within the organisation, each level being one above the
other, typically like a pyramid.
• Flat. A flat organisation will have relatively less number
of layers as compared to hierarchical structure or just
one layer of management .
• Matrix. The Matrix structure organisation contains
teams of people created from various sections of the
business. These teams will be created for the purposes
of a specific project and will be led by a project manager.
 Functions of Management
• Management is creative problem solving which can be accomplished through
four functions of management: planning, organizing, directing and controlling.
• Planning: Planning is the ongoing process of developing the organizational goals
and objectives and determining how they will be accomplished.
• Organizing: Organizing also means to establish the internal organizational
structure of the organization. The focus is on division, coordination, and control
of tasks and the flow of information within the organization.
• Directing: Directing also means to influence staff behavior through motivation,
communication, group dynamics, leadership and discipline.
• Controlling: It is a multi stage process which includes establishing performance
standards based on the firm's objectives; evaluating and reporting actual job
performance; comparing the two, and taking corrective or preventive action as
necessary.
 MANAGEMENT LEVELS AND MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS

Planning Organization Leading Control

Top Level Managers

Middle Level Managers

Lower Level Managers

Decision Characteristics of Management
Decisional Roles
Decision Characteristics
Unstructured

Strategic
Management
(Top Level)

Semi-
structured Tactical
Management
(Middle Level)

Structured
Operational
Management
(Lower Level)
Major Roles of Information Systems

Support of
Strategic
Advantage

Support of
Managerial
Decision Making

Support of
Business Operations
 Types of Information Systems

• Transaction Processing System (TPS)

• Management Information System (MIS)
• Office Automation System (OAS)
• Decision Support System (DSS)
• Executive Support System (ESS) and
• Expert Systems (ES)
 Characteristics of Transaction Processing System
(TPS)
• Serves the Operational Level or lower level management
• Performs & records the daily routine transactions
• Tasks, resources and goals for TPS are predefined & highly structured
• TPS captures data about the organization and its environment
• TPS are major producers of information about the organization
• TPS failure will result in failure of the organizational system
• TPS is often tied to other systems
• TPS is a main feeder of data to other information systems
• TPS serves the most elementary day-to-day activities of an organization
• It can have strategic consequences (eg railway/air reservation system)
• It usually has high volumes of input and output
• TPS systems are meant to be repetitive and predictable
Characteristic of Management Information
System (MIS)
• Provide managers with reports and in some cases on-line access to
the organization performance
• Serves the Management control level
• Produce summary reports generated by TPS
• Have limited analytical capabilities and use simple models
• Address structured questions that are known well in advance
• Not very flexible
• Rely more on existing organizational data & data flows
• Generally past and present oriented
• MIS are generally reporting and control oriented
• Major types of MIS reports include –Periodic, Push, Demand and
Exception reports
Characteristics of Decision Support System
(DSS)
• For Semi-structured & Unstructured decisions
• For managers at different levels
• For groups and individuals
• Adaptability and flexibility
• Effectiveness, not efficiency
• Humans control the machine
• Modeling & Knowledge based
 Types of DSS
• Data Driven DSS are those that help manager to take decisions
with the help of data extractions from large databases. This
technique is used only if large amount of data is available for
extraction purpose which helps in decision-making purpose.
• Model Driven approach uses mostly scientific modeling
techniques for pattern identification. Again Model Driven
approach is also dependent on rich databases. Model driven
approach helps in doing what-if, sensitivity analysis, etc.
• Analytical DSS Models used by various organisations are what-if
analysis, sensitivity analysis, goal seeking analysis and
optimisation analysis
Characteristics of Executive Support System
(ESS)
• Serves the Strategic Level
• Address unstructured decisions and involve a
generalized computing and communication
environment rather than fixed application.
• Dependent on internal & external information
• Make less use of analytical models
• ESS are more oriented towards external events
• More graphic oriented
• What Business should we be in?
• What are the competitors doing?
 Office Automation Systems (OAS)
• Office Automation Systems (OAS) are information system
solutions that try to improve the productivity of
employees of an organization.
• OAS objective is to create the technology driven
environment in an organization and it provides individuals
effective ways to process personal and organisational
data, perform calculations, and create documents.
• They are used for increasing productivity and reducing
paper work by processing major work electronically.
Communication systems and groupware concepts facilitate
implementation of OAS.
 Expert Systems (ES)
• Expert System (ES) are computer system or
program that uses artificial intelligence techniques
to solve problems that ordinarily require a
knowledgeable human.
• Expert Systems help to guide users to find
solutions to problems that would otherwise need
expert advice.
• Expert Systems are useful in diagnosing,
monitoring, selecting, designing, predicting and
training.
 Information Technology Trends
• Innovation: Blending IT with trends will enable transform business and also
enhance customer experience. The key trends are being witnessed in relation to
how mobile can shorten distance from intent to action. In relation to video the
trend is about from talk to me to show to me. Changes in software deal with
common language that drives integration. Cloud refers to shift of shared
infrastructure. IT leverages on the technology trends to create business velocity
and enhance innovation.

• IT and business: With technology becoming the order of the day, CIOs and CEOs
will demand more from less. Currently, cloud computing is the technology which
is disruptive but enables speed and innovation and has had a profound impact
on how the CIOs function. It will lead to a positive impact for many CIOs and has
fundamentally changes the role of the CIO. All the new developments in
technology are required to take IT to a next level. Switching from one technology
to another will require a lot of investment but will have to be done by applying
due diligence.
 Information Technology Trends
• Media Tablets and Beyond
• Mobile-Centric Applications and Interfaces:
• Contextual and Social User Experience
• Internet of Things
• Near Field Communication (NFC) payment
• App Stores and Marketplaces
• Next-Generation Analytics
• Big Data
• In-Memory Computing
• Extreme Low-Energy Servers
• Cloud Computing
 Summary
• Information Technology has become integral part of life.
• Organization started investing in technology to remain competitive, individual started learning about technology for
their survival.
• Information Technology can be simply defined as collection of computing and communication tools that help
organization to manage it business processes better.
• Major reasons, why organizations started looking at IT based solutions includes, change in methods the way we do
businesses; global competition; global opportunities; introduction of concepts like business process outsourcing;
emergence of digital economy; shift towards knowledge based economy; change in organization structure; and
setting of virtual organization.
• Information play an important role in any business, it acts as glue to an organisational process.
• Information is always derived from Data, which is a collection of raw facts and figures.
• Information is a processed meaningful data that helps in decision making.
• Knowledge is a skill required to interpret the information and System is a group of entities that work together to
achieve organisational goals.
• Information System, which is important component of complete technology solution, can be defined as a set of
procedures that collects, process, store and disseminate information to support decision making.
• Major characteristics that Information Systems needs to have include – Intrinsic, Accessibility, Contextual,
Representation, Flexible, Adaptable, and Economical.
• Organizations use Information Systems to manage its business activities and achieve business goals. While
implementing IS solutions for an organization it is important to understand the Organizational and Management
structures. An organization is a collection of people and other resources that work together to achieve
organizational goal. Organizations are similar to systems with inputs, processes and outputs.
 Summary
• Organizational structure determines how it operates.
• Organization structures are created on the basis of their objectives and culture. The common structures are:
Hierarchical, Flat and Matrix.
• Organizational Culture is important to understand how business processes are being managed by the
organisation. The different kinds of cultures being followed by different organisation include – Power, Role,
and Task cultures. Most common among these is the Role culture, which splits the organization into various
functions and the role is assigned within a function.
• Management function needs to be understood wherever human efforts are involved. Typically, most
organizations are divided into three management levels: top-level, middle-level and lower-level.
• The key function that these managers perform at various levels are Planning, Organizing, Directing, and
Controlling.
• Top-level managers take decision affecting entire organisation like policy formulation, middle-level
managers define action plan as per the formulated policies and the lower-level act as per the defined action
plan.
• There are six kinds of information systems which are used by different organisations at different levels.
These systems are Transaction Processing System (TPS) meant for lower-level managers, Management
Information Systems (MIS) meant for middle-level managers, Office Automation System (OAS) helps in
bringing IT culture in an organisation by introducing Office support systems, Decision Support System (DSS)
meant for senior-middle level executive for semi and un-structured kind of decisions, Executive Support
System (ESS) meant for top-level executives for strategic decisions and Expert System (ES) are application
specific intelligent systems.
• The most important challenge being faced by many organizations is to understand how to integrate these
always changing technologies into their business. Technology is evolving faster than the needs of
businesses, finding the right application in the current business is the key challenge.