Business Information Systems
Business Information Systems
Business Information Systems
of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value such as economic, social, or other forms of value. business model is used for a broad range of informal and formal descriptions to represent core aspects of a business , including purpose, offerings, strategies, infrastructure, organizational structures, trading practices, and operational processes and policies. Business models will vary from one organization to another and with the introduction of information technology there will come changes that will affect the existing business model. There are four basic types of business models: Brokers, Creators, Distributers and Landlords. Introduction of information technology into an organization can change its business model in the following ways; The globalization of intellectual capital -- with the availability of high-speed networks and English increasingly as a universal language, it is easier than ever to have intellectual work such as research and analysis performed by specialists anywhere in the world The accessibility of information -- the availability, quality, and speed of information are all combining to transform our work and personal lives. Whether you are "Googling" to find a local pizzeria or researching a service provider, information access has never been easier. The threat is that many traditional information-based business models will be replaced by online digital business models, while the opportunities include the ability to work faster and deliver a higher quality product, often independent of employer location. The replacement of labor -- low skill jobs that involve repetitive, non-cognitive processes are increasingly "automated away" by technology. Whether it is production robots that weld auto frames 24x7 or computer software that can analyze reams of information in a split second, jobs with lower skill content continue to be replaced by IT. This threatens lower-skilled workers that are candidates for replacement, while the opportunities mean a lower-cost, higher quality product for product-based companies. The increase in spans of control -- IT enables faster and easier communication and better monitoring of worker's activities, allowing supervisors to manage larger numbers of workers in disparate locations. While this threatens the jobs of lower-level supervisors, the opportunities for flatter organizations and leaner, lower cost production means companies that are more competitive in the marketplace. The collaborative work environment -- more information-based services are delivered through collaborative efforts of others, many times unknown to each other. From networking sites such as LinkedIn to collaborative information and product communities such as Wikipedia and Linux, information is increasingly delivered collaboratively, creating new venues for work. The threats include a loss of market share by companies without collaborative mediums and the opportunities are for companies to tap into a vast knowledge pool that directly apply their services via contract work that results in faster and richer results.
First came the agrarian era followed by industrial age which was then succeeded by the information age where almost everything is focused with production and management of information and the introduction of information technology has come led to change in industries. Information technology has now become a major supporting industry in the business sector. It is often claimed that information technology has the potential to transform organizations and entire industries and this can be categorized into three perspectives; Economic This deals with the relation between the input and output of an industry. The use of information technology may have various economic impacts on an industry. First, the use of IT can reduce the cost of searching for a product and thus change the set of suppliers considered by a buyer. One phenomenon that has attracted particular attention is disintermediation: this is the idea that buyers and sellers will deal with each other directly, rather than through intermediaries, as the use of IT makes interactions cheaper, allowing buyers and sellers to handle a wider range of interactions. Some predict that the widespread adoption of electronic commerce will lead to the disappearance of all human agents who merely act as match-makershelping buyers find sellers and vice versa Second, IT use can change the competitive position of buyers and suppliers. For example, a company that successfully employs IT to cut costs or to increase service levels may be able to out-compete traditional competitors. These changes can be considered changes to the industry when they lead to changes to the set of suppliers for the product Third, IT can reduce transaction costs and may have some impact on the boundaries of the firm. Transaction cost theory (which extends the neoclassical economic perspective of the firm by recognizing the significance of transaction costs in any market exchange) has been used to help explain IT outsourcing decisions in various industries Finally, IT can change the nature of the product itself. In some cases, information becomes an important part of the good or service. In other cases, the product itself becomes digital (e.g. music CDs, digital videos, online journals). Such changes to the nature of the product can lead to changes in the basis of competition among firms and changes in industry structure. Institutional A second perspective that may be used to analyze industries is an institutional one. An institution can be defined as any standing legal entity that exerts influence and regulation over other social entities. Institutions constrain and regularize behavior, and have the capacity to establish rules, inspect or review others conformity to them, and as necessary, manipulate sanctionsrewards or punishmentsin an attempt to influence future behavior. Introduction of information technology into an industry can greatly affect the organization politics and flatten the organization reducing long communication lines that always causes delays. So where unnecessary departments, employees and managers existed information can come in and do away with all that. Developments in Information technology may necessitate or enable changes in the laws or other legal agreements relating to an industry.
Social and cultural In this perspective, an industry is defined more broadly than in the institutional perspective. It includes the various institutional relationships within an industry, but it also includes the social relationships and networks between the various people and organizations within it. An industry is the set of firms and organizations whose stakeholders share cultural characteristics and consider themselves to be in the same industry. An industry is thus a socially defined community of discourse with accepted norms, beliefs, and values. As technology changes, the patterns of social interaction and culture within an industry may also change in systematic ways. IT use may lead to industry transformation by changing its social and cultural characteristics. For example, an information system may have a classification system embedded within it and therefore users may be forced to adopt the language of the system. A system may similarly reflect and impose particular sets of values, norms and behavior, all of which affect the constitution of the industry
HOW IS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CREATING NEW MARKETS Introduction of information technology in a business greatly impacts on the process of the organization, input and output.in order to come up with new markets, an organization needs to define what kind of market they satisfy and using what kind of products and services are being offered. When IT comes into play, organizations can use IT infrastructure to get networked into other regional zones and even globally thus opening its products to those regions. For instance a company can decide to open other regional center connected through the HQ so as to satisfy other markets hence increasing its revenues. Through information technology and innovation, organizations can tap on this resource and come up with new fresh ideas that will generate new products that can be introduced into the markets. For instance a security firm can come up with new innovations such as car track and cctv cameras to add a plus on to what they already supply to the market. Competitive advantage can be gain through the use of information technology. In this modern day and age IT is becoming the bloodline of most industries so in order to keep up a company will be compelled to employ IT so as to stay on top of its game and in turn capturing its competitors markets. With the rapid growth of the information technology, most companies need employees who are computer literate therefore leaving most people going to seek education concerning IT hence creating learning center and for educational centers that previously did not offer such courses will be forced to introduce it In the job markets, organizations need people skilled with IT know how and with this it creates a job market for people with such skills.