Last Friday, we’ve finished our first chapter which was Business Driven Technology. Under this topic, it explains about the difference between Management Information Systems (MIS) and Information Technology (IT), the relationships among people, information and technology, how to identify the four different departments in a typical business and explain how technology helps the departments work together and lastly, how to differentiate the types of organizational information cultures and decide which culture applies to our school. Yes, you’re probably cringing and scratching your head right now, having no clue with what I’m talking about. Bear with me and go through this, I promise you, you will learn something.
Why?
Why? Why?
When I got to class on Friday, I
wondered why we had to learn about IT in Business. What was the purpose of it?
Where it is being applied? The entire WH question and more. I just didn't
understand but later it was explained to me that IT is everywhere in business
and understanding technology provides a great insight to anyone learning about
business. Take a business magazine (Bloomberg Business Week, Fortune, Business Today) and
examine it, the magazine contains many technology related article or advert
which indicates that technology is everywhere in business. As you know these
magazines are not technology magazines but business magazines yet they are
filled with technology. So if you understand technology, you have a very very
very great advantage in business.
Example of a business magazine you can purchase.
Information
Technology’s Impact on Business Operations
As we all know Information Technology
(IT) plays a vital part not only in our daily life but also in business as it
is in every corner of business. Many business functions in the Business
Operation area receive great benefits from IT such as the customer service,
finance, sales and marketing to name a few. Meanwhile, the goal of IT is 81% to
reduce cost/improve productivity, 71% to improve customer satisfaction/loyalty,
66% to create competitive advantage, 54% to generate growth, 37% to streamline
supply chain and 16% for global expansion.
Management
Information Systems v Information Technology
When our lecturer asked us about the
difference between Management Information Systems and Information Technology,
no one answered as we all simply don’t know the difference or don’t even know
what they were. By definition, Information Technology (IT) is a field concerned
with the use of technology in managing and processing information while
Management Information Systems (MIS) is a general name for the business
function and academic discipline covering the application of people,
technologies and procedures to solve business problems. Therefore, IT is an
important enabler of business success and innovation; on the other hand MIS is
just a business function like Accounting, Finance and etc.
What
are Data, Information and Business Intelligence?
I’m actually surprised that I do not
know the difference between data and information when we were asked that day.
Data is raw facts that describe the characteristic of an events and as for
information, it is the data converted into a meaningful and useful context.
Business intelligence is the applications and technologies that are used to
support decision making efforts.
All and all that is what I got from this chapter. I guess learning IT have a great deal of benefits especially for business students or any other students. By the look of it we all need to sharpen up our It skill and get ready to take over the world! That is all for this chapter. ***All pictures and diagrams are not mine unless stated.
Bye bye! Thanks for visiting :)
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