ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE

INNOVATION
 INNOVATION

Innovation is the process of creating and implementing a new idea. It is not the same
as change but they are closely related. Change often involves new ideas of some
sort. The
New idea may be the creation of a new product or process, or it can also be an idea
Which can change completely the way business is conducted .Successful
organizations understand that both innovation and change are required to satisfy
their most important stakeholders.

A dynamic changing environment makes innovation and change more important for
an established organization than a new organization.Succesful organizations can’t
rest on their prior success because if they become complacent competitors are sure
to woo Customer’s away.Organisation decline and extinction may follow sooner or
later.Innovation and change is an essential part of a managers competence

Innovation may be divided into these types:

Technical Innovation – This includes creation of new, research and Development

techniques for customers seeking goods/services.

Process Innovation – This includes producing, selling, introducing stock, trading,

Distributing existing goods etc.

Administrative Innovation- Here computers use networks and virtual organizations

Convergence of fames- E-business,

Even in the absence of new products innovation can still occurs.

Innovation is;

SUCCESSFUL EXPLOITATION OF NEW IDEAS

- Under this fresh ideas are further brain stormed to get to some results
SUCCESSFUL EXPLOITATION OF NEW IDEAS
CVITAL INGREDIENT- This is the most important ingredient used in all the
organizations and in all the fields.

CESSFUL EXPLOITATION OF NEW IDEAS

AS CREATIVITY IS THE GENERATION OF NEW IDEAS
INNOVATION IS:

TRANSLATION OF NEW IDEAS INTO A NEW CO.

INTO A NEW PRODUCT

INTO A NEW SERVICE

INTO A NEW PROCESS

INTO A NEW METHOD

Innovation, like many business functions, is a management process that requires

specific tools, rules and discipline - it is not mysterious.

Innovation requires measurement and incentives to deliver sustained, high yields.

Companies can use innovation to redefine an industry by employing combinations of

business model innovation and technology innovation.

Architecture for Innovation

Learning Orientation

• These identify and solve problems.

• Managers discuss failures etc with employers.

• Small- scale experiments are conducted to resolve emerging problems.

Resilient Workforce

• They are trained.

• They resist change

Support for Innovation

• Rewards and recognition is achieved.

• Key measures are monitored.

• Can be formal or informal.

ORGANIZING FOR INNOVATION;

HOW TO STRUCTURE A COMPANY FOR INNOVATION

ORGANIZING for innovation continues to be a challenge for many companies. It is not

enough to craft a strategy or to build innovation processes, one needs to build and
embed innovation into the overall organization. Successful innovation requires
choosing, building and preparing the right people for executing and scaling the
innovation. Many large firms have struggled and, by their own description failed in
the attempt to integrate innovation into their organization.Organisational antibodies
are released that kill off innovations and often the structures, resources and
processes responsible for the innovation. Because of this, some believe that it is not
possible or atleast much harder to innovate successfully within the structure of a
large, established organization. Therefore one has to do the following;

Developing an internal marketplace for innovation.

Balancing Creativity and Value creation

Outsourcing Innovation

Making Good use of one’s partners

Integrating Innovation within the Organization

In the end one has to understand that no single structure is appropriate for all types
of innovation. The organizational structure needs to vary based on the innovation
strategies and the characteristics of the portfolio. But for an organization to innovate
successfully, it needs to foster a balance of creativity and value capture. Maintaining
that balance requires support from metrics and rewards, and also has cultural
components. However, the organization is at the core of the internal marketplace
that provides for balanced creativity and value capture.
Organizational structure influences every aspect of how innovation occurs. It is a
major part of the how variable in the equation.

How u innovate = What you innovate

INNOVATION is used for by these people in an organization:

FOR BUSINESS

FOR EMPLOYEES

FOR CONSUMERS
 STAGES OF INNOVATION

VALUE ADD

SOPHISTICATION

There are three stages of innovation event ,process and capability, with value
addition and sophistication being on the x axis and y axis.

Knowledge Management

Idea Management Event

Realization Process

Innovationn

Competitive Advantage
NETWORKING AS AN INNOVATION

E.g.: AMWAY –this was a different kind of an organization when it was formed. Here
the customer was also the seller. Buying a product from Amway would benefit both
the buyer as well as the seller thus multiple chains of customers were
formed.Purchasing the product was only a method to start one’s own business. There
was no compulsion of going to an office as this networking could be conducted from
one’s own house itself.

HLL - PROJECT SANGAM- this is a latest form of networking innovation in

organization,where one can order products by merely dialing a number
A get the products delivered at home free of cost with additional free products also
Here again one customer as to give references about other customers and they can
gain rewards in the form of free products, whereas the organization can gain a
customer database.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES :

DIRECT SELLING

C2C

WIN - WIN SITUATION

VIRTUAL ORGANISATION

OVERCOMES BOUNDRY BARRIERS

OVERCOMES BOUNDRY BARRIERS

FLAT ORGANIZATION

INTELLECTUAL
FLA
T ONIZATION
INTELLECTUAL

Eg.
Electromagnetic Car Seat Release

Convergence of many types of innovation

Can fundamentals change the basics of competition within an industry? The

Opportunities for value/wealth will be beyond the box not in the hardware of the
Computer but in related gadgets and services to which the company provides access.

SEVEN RULES OF INNOVATION

• Exert strong leadership defining the innovation strategy and designing

innovation portfolios and encourage truly significant value creation.

• Match innovation to the company business strategy including selection of the

innovation strategy.

• Make innovation an integral part of the company’s business mentality, and

ensure that the processes and organization support culture of innovation.

• Balance creativity and value capture so that the company generates

successful new ideas and gets the maximum return on its investment.

• Neutralize organizational antibodies that kill off good ideas because they are
different from the norm

• Create innovation networks inside and outside the organization;networks,not

individuals, are the basic organizational building blocks of innovation.

• Implement the correct metrics and incentives to make innovation manageable

and to produce the right behavior; many organizations have disincentives or
poor incentives to elicit the appropriate innovation behavior.

CONCLUSION

V2MOM MEHOD

Vision- What do u want?

Values-What’s important about it?

Methods-How do u get it?

Obstacles-What is preventing you from getting it?

Measures-How will you know when you got it?

Innovation is;
RELEVANT FOR ALL SECTORS- innovation is necessary for all sectors of an
organization.Without innovation the organizations will not grow.
COPING WITH THE CHANGE-innovation always teaches to cope with change because
without change, only stagnancy exists.In order to retain one’s customers every
organization has to cope with change

In today’s economies, core competencies have short lifecycles.Organisations-

whether pursuing profits or investing in nonprofit objectives-cannot expect to survive
without innovation, their fate is determined; the only question is whether the end will
happen suddenly because a competitor comes up with a radical innovation or if it will
happen as they slowly fall behind competitors that are constantly pushing the
envelope. By embracing innovation, companies can define their industries, create
new ones and achieve leadership position that dictates the rules of the game in their
favor. Innovation is not reserved to a few companies, nor does it depend on magic
formulas available only to a few initiated. It is about good management. How your
organization innovates determines what it will innovate.

In the end each company’s innovation process is unique. What a company produces
in the way of innovations, business growth and industry leadership will be
determined by how the various pieces are arranged and how well they work together.
There is no silver bullet for innovation, no formula or structure for innovation that will
work for every organization. The seven innovation rules provide the basis for
executing improved innovation that creates value and growth.
IMPACT OF IT IN ORGANIZATION
What is IT?

Information technology (IT) or information and communication technology (ICT) is the

technology required for information processing. In particular the use of electronic
computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and
retrieve information from anywhere, anytime. Any equipment or interconnected
system or subsystem of equipment, that is used in the automatic acquisition,
storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching,
interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information. The term information
technology includes computers, ancillary equipment, software, firmware and similar
procedures, services (including support services), and related resources. ...

The term "IT" encompasses the methods and techniques used in information
handling and retrieval by automatic means. The means include computers,
telecommunications and office systems or any combination of these elements.

Includes both hardware and software. Use this term when the use of information
technology is the underlying driver of the "interesting" feature or of the
organization's profitability or productivity. This term can include computer modeling,
simulation, innovative uses of AI, automated knowledge discovery, data mining, data
warehousing. (Technology)

The technology of computers, telecommunications, and other devices that integrate

data, equipment, personnel, and problem-solving methods in planning and controlling
business activities. Information technology provides the means for collecting, storing,
encoding, processing, analyzing, transmitting, receiving, and printing text, audio, or
video information.
Hardware: In the context of information technology, the computer and its peripherals
constitute the hardware.
Software: The programs and documentation necessary to make use of a computer
constitute the software.

Information Technology (IT) is concerned with the use of technology in managing and
processing information, especially in large organizations.

Internet and Intranet

The Internet is the publicly available worldwide system of interconnected computer

networks that transmit data by packet switching over the Internet Protocol (IP). It is
made up of thousands of other, smaller business, academic, and government
networks that provide various information and services, such as by electronic mail,
online chat, and on the graphical, interlinked World Wide Web.

Internet research is the practice of using the Internet for research. To the extent that
the Internet is widely and readily accessible to hundreds of millions of people in many
parts of the world, can provide practically instant information on most topics, and
emerged only in the last 10 years, it is having a profound impact on the way in which
ideas are formed and knowledge is created.
Information technology governance, IT governance or ICT Governance, is a subset
discipline of Corporate governance focused on information technology systems and
their performance and risk management. The rising interest in IT governance is partly
due to compliance initiatives (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley (USA) and Basel II (Europe)), as
well as the acknowledgement that IT projects can easily get out of control and
profoundly affect the performance of an organization.
A characteristic theme of IT governance discussions is that the IT capability can no
longer be a black box. The traditional handling of IT management by board-level
executives is that due to limited technical experience and IT complexity, key
decisions are deferred to IT professionals. IT governance implies a system in which all
stakeholders, including the board, internal customers and related areas such as
finance, have the necessary input into the decision making process. This prevents a
single stakeholder, typically IT, being blamed for poor decisions. It also prevents
users from later complaining that the system does not behave or perform as
expected:
The discipline of information technology governance derives from corporate
governance and deals primarily with the connection between business focus and IT
management of an organization. It highlights the importance of IT related matters in
contemporary organizations and states that strategic IT decisions should be owned
by the corporate board, rather than by the chief information officer or other IT
managers.
The primary goals for information technology governance are to (1) assure that the
investments in IT generate business value, and (2) mitigate the risks that are
associated with IT. This can be done by implementing an organizational structure with
well-defined roles for the responsibility of information, business processes,
applications, infrastructure, etc.
An information technology (IT) audit or information systems (IS) audit is an
examination of the controls within an entity's Information technology infrastructure.
These reviews may be performed in conjunction with a financial statement audit,
internal audit, or other form of attestation engagement. Formerly called an Electronic
data processing (EDP) audit, an IT audit is the process of collecting and evaluating
evidence of an organization's information systems, practices, and operations.
Obtained evidence evaluation can ensure whether the organization's information
systems safeguard assets, maintains data integrity, and is operating effectively and
efficiently to achieve the organization's goals or objectives.
IT audits are also known as automated data processing (ADP) audits and computer
audits.

Internet versus intranet design

Most Web sites are designed to be viewed by audiences inside an organization and
are often not visible to the larger World Wide Web. Although these intranet sites
employ the same technology as sites designed for the larger Web audience, their
design and content should reflect the different motivations of intranet users.
External sites are usually aimed at capturing an audience. The overall goal is to
maximize contact time, drawing readers deeper into the site and rewarding their
curiosity with interesting or entertaining information. One assumption that governs
Web design is that readers may have little motivation to stay and must be constantly
enticed and rewarded with rich graphics or compelling information to linger within
the site.
Successful intranet sites assemble useful information, organize it into logical
systems, and deliver the information efficiently. You don't want intranet users
lingering over their Web browsers, either in frustration at not being able to find what
they are seeking or in idle "surfing." Allow employees and students to get exactly
what they need quickly and then move on.
The evolution of the Web
 In most institutions the use of the World Wide Web has evolved over the past few
years from an informal collection of personal or group home pages into a semi
organized collection of sites listed in one or more master home pages or "front door"
sites. Ironically, universities and companies that adopted the Web early are often the
least organized, because each department and group has over the years evolved its
own idiosyncratic approach to graphic design, user interface design, and information
architecture. But the Web and institutional intranets are no longer just a playground
for the local "geeks." Patchy, heterogeneous design standards and a lack of cohesive
central planning can cripple any attempt to realize productivity gains through an
intranet.
IBM's sites are models of a consistent, in-depth approach to Web design, making it
possible for both employees and customers to navigate through a huge, complex
information system with one unified visual identity and user interface:

www.ibm.com

User surveys done at Sun Microsystems in the mid-1990s by user interface expert
Jakob Nielsen showed that the average Sun employee used about twelve intranet
pages a day and about two new intranet subsites each week, and the numbers are
surely many times higher today. Nielsen estimated that his redesign of Sun's intranet
user interface would save each employee as much as five minutes a week through
consistent companywide application of design and navigation interface standards.
The aggregate savings in Sun employee time could amount to as much as ten million
dollars a year, through improving productivity and increasing the efficiency with
which employees use the company's intranet sites. Consistent, predictable interfaces
are the key to a return on the enormous investment enterprises have made in their
Web sites and corporate intranets.
Your intranet and your public website on the open Internet are two different
information spaces and should have two different user interface designs. It is
tempting to try to save design resources by reusing a single design, but it is a bad
idea to do so because the two types of site differ along several dimensions:
• Users differ. Intranet users are your own employees who know a lot about the
company, its organizational structure, and special terminology and circumstances.
Your Internet site is used by customers who will know much less about your company
and also care less about it.
• The tasks differ. The intranet is used for everyday work inside the company, including
some quite complex applications; the Internet site is mainly used to find out
information about your products.
• The type of information differs. The intranet will have many draft reports, project
progress reports, human resource information, and other detailed information,
whereas the Internet site will have marketing information and customer support
information.
• The amount of information differs. Typically, an intranet has between ten and a
hundred times as many pages as the same company's public website. The difference
is due to the extensive amount of work-in-progress that is documented on the
intranet and the fact that many projects and departments never publish anything
publicly even though they have many internal documents.
• Bandwidth and cross-platform needs differ. Intranets often run between a hundred
and a thousand times faster than most Internet users' Web access which is stuck at
low-band or mid-band, so it is feasible to use rich graphics and even multimedia and
other advanced content on intranet pages. Also, it is sometimes possible to control
what computers and software versions are supported on an intranet, meaning that
designs need to be less cross-platform compatible (again allowing for more advanced
page content).
Most basically, your intranet and your website are two different information spaces.
They should look different in order to let employees know when they are on the
internal net and when they have ventured out to the public site. Different looks will
emphasize the sense of place and thus facilitate navigation. Also, making the two
information spaces feel different will facilitate an understanding of when an
employee is seeing information that can be freely shared with the outside and when
the information is internal and confidential.
An intranet design should be much more task-oriented and less promotional than an
Internet design. A company should only have a single intranet design, so users only
have to learn it once. Therefore it is acceptable to use a much larger number of
options and features on an intranet since users will not feel intimidated and
overwhelmed as they would on the open Internet where people move rapidly
between sites. (I know of a frighteningly large number of companies with multiple
intranet homepages and multiple intranet styles: Step 1 is to get rid of that in favor
of a unified intranet.)
An intranet will need a much stronger navigational system than an Internet site
because it has to encompass a larger amount of information. In particular, the
intranet will need a navigation system to facilitate movement between servers,
whereas a public website only needs to support within-site navigation.
Managing the Intranet
There are three ways of managing an intranet:
1. A single, tightly managed server: only approved documents get posted, and the site
has a single, well-structured information architecture and navigation system under
the control of a single designer. Even though this approach maximizes usability of the
information that passes the hurdles and gets posted, this is not the best way to build
a corporate information infrastructure because the central choke point delays the
spread of new and useful information. A totalitarian intranet will cause you to miss
too many opportunities.
2. A mini-Internet: multiple servers are online but are not coordinated, complete chaos
reigns, you have to use "resource discovery" methods like spiders to find out what is
on your own intranet, no consistent design (everybody does their own pages), no
information architecture. This approach might seem to increase opportunities for
communication across the company, but in reality does not do so since people will be
incapable of finding most of the information in an anarchy.
3. Managed diversity: many servers are in use, but pages are designed according to a
single set of templates and interface standards; the entire intranet follows a well-
planned (and usability-tested) information infrastructure that facilitates navigation.
This is my preferred approach.
 Managed diversity will probably characterize many aspects of the coming network
economy, but we have less experience with this approach than with more traditional
top-down management
1. Intranets solve the problem of information overload.
Ironically, too much information doesn't cause information overload, and the solution
isn't to reduce available information. Problems arise when individuals have little
control over the information that comes at them. They're buried under a mountain of
data. And it takes mental energy to filter, sort, store and later retrieve all this
information, most of which is irrelevant.

2. Intranets are cheap.

One advantage of using Internet tools to distribute company information is low cost.
Your networked PCs are all perfectly capable intranet clients, and browsers are cheap
or free. Even the server hardware, software and middleware is affordable. Any
employee with access to a TCP/IP backbone can publish. Perhaps best of all, roll out
can be gradual, modular and minimally disruptive.

3. Intranets are cross-platform.

Most organizations are as heterogeneous as hell on the client side. Macs here. UNIX
boxes there. A couple of OS/2 machines in the corner and, of course, Windows,
Windows everywhere (in all three flavors: 3.1x, 95 and NT). Intranets are the easiest
way to get everyone talking.

4. Intranets are robust.

Even though the Web is just seven years old, and the first graphical browser just
three, much of the underlying technology has been in use on the Internet for a
decade or two, and it's robust and reliable.

5. Intranets are fast.

You've seen Web sites with large, spectacular graphics, cool videos, neat Netscape
forms, and other bells and whistles. And you'd probably enjoy them even more if
they took seconds, rather than minutes, to download. That's one of the great
advantages of an intranet: Videos and sound can load in less than a second. You can
really push the envelope with the hottest available Web technologies without
worrying about performance.
6. Once companies discover how useful intranets are, they'll start thinking about
making some of the content available to customers on the Web. One shining example
is Federal Express, which has placed its package-tracking database online for all the
world to see. Even if you're not in the overnight delivery business, you still may be
able to reduce costs by letting customers get at your information themselves rather
than through a telephone operator you have to pay

SAP , Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

SAP understands that the only industry that matters to you is your industry. That's
why there's no such thing as a generic industry solution from SAP. Our business
services & solution sets are based on an in-depth knowledge of the processes that
drive your business. So you can make better, more informed strategic decisions in
the areas most important to you -- whether you want to gain greater visibility across
your enterprise, get closer to your customers, or reduce inefficiencies. And since SAP
has been working with businesses like yours for 30 years, we understand the
demands of your industry.

Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) integrate (or attempt to integrate) all
data and processes of an organization into a single unified system. A typical ERP
system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve
the integration. A key ingredient of most ERP systems is the use of a single, unified
database to store data for the various system modules.

The term ERP originally implied systems designed to plan the utilization of enterprise-
wide resources. Although the acronym ERP originated in the manufacturing
environment, today's use of the term ERP systems has much broader scope. ERP
systems typically attempt to cover all basic functions of an organization, regardless
of the organization's business or charter. Business, non-profit organizations, non
governmental organizations, governments, and other large entities utilize ERP
systems.

Following are implementation of ERP:

Finance & Accounting

Complete accounting of all finance and related transaction and generation online
balance sheet, Division-wise, cost-center-wise as well as consolidated for group
companies. Budget control with multiple options for controls. Cash/Fund projections
and planning. Costing and profitability accounting with respect to product, product-
group, so as well as for division.

Overview
Ledger Creation

Group Creation
Voucher Entry -- Authorization – Payment
Balance Sheet
Profit & Loss Accounts
Trial Balance
Pending Voucher Entry
Multi Voucher Printing
Day Book
Group Summary
Ledger Summary
Ledger Daily Balance
Consolidated Group
Negative Ledgers
Memorandum Vouchers
Temporary Deleted Vouchers

Inventory, Sales & Purchase

Material Requirement Planning Based Inventory management, Total inventory
management for sales, purchase and stock management. Total Logistic Management
with Lot tracking, pack control, bin-management, controlled stock movement for
storage specification requirement. Inventory with warehouse management.
Features Overview

Purchase Order Processing

Bill Passing
Stock Management
Sales Order Processing
Export / Import
Sales & Distribution Management
Sales Order Inquiry - Order
Distribution Management
Pre Sales Follow-up
Post-Sales Support
Multiple site support for centralized sales orders
Customer item numbers for sales orders and invoice
Commission splits by line item, margin-based commissions
option
Supports non-stock items & drops shipment
Sales tracking by customer type & channel
Discounting by quantity, product lines and across combined
orders
Automatic best-price calculation
Re-pricing option
Product Groupings
Stock Accounting
Expiry Breakage Accounting
Stock Transfer
Commission & Incentive Accounting for Middlemen as well as for Employee
Debit Note / Credit Note for Incentive & Loss due to Mis-handling
Credit Control Management
Proportion so for Short-Supply Stock
Payment Terms
Bad Party Control
Near Expiry/Expired Stock Analysis
Sales Return Management
Barcode Interface

HR & PAYROLL

Payroll software helps manage the financial record of employees' salaries, wages,
bonuses, and deductions. Payroll software is often included in accounting software
bundles

Overview

Employee details
Advance details
Deductions
Benefits
Leave details
PF details
Attendance register
Salary payment
 Duty Roaster
Reports
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT

Production Planning & Control

Flexible configurable bill of process, Scrap, recovery & rework accounting

Suitable discrete as well as process manufacturing with make to stock as well as
make order based planning provision
Provision for open integration with AutoCAD as well as other automation

Implementation wise Workflow

MRP - I
MRP - II
Production Monitoring and Control
Production Data
Product Configuration
Product Costing
Technical Documents
Project Monitoring
Rough Cut Capacity Planning
Capacity Requirement Planning
Manufacturing Order Processing
Production Statistics & Costing
Supports discrete, repetitive process and mixed-mode environment & continuous as
well as batch process manufacturing
Supports co-product and by-product manufacturing
Component availability checking and ability to substitute items
Detailed labour, WIP and Sub Contract tracking with variance calculations
Daily productions scheduling by item, site and production line
Finite loading and forward scheduling for production line schedules
Optional pick list for stocking point-of-use in discrete or repetitive environments
Quality test results prompted at selected production operations
Cumulative Item Cost and Work Center Productivity reporting
Product Structures and routing effective dates
Scrap factors for use by Materials Requirements Planning (MRP)
Product structure routing copy
Option to include yield in cost
Cumulative lead time calculations
Where-used Inquiry
Product Change Control System

QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Manufacturing and Purchasing quality tracking

Automatically prompts for test results in Shop Floor Control and Repetitive
Multiple steps in procedures, each with characteristics and tolerances
Tolerances by range, less than, greater than or specific values
Pass / Fail grade assigned to each test
Test Result entry in Shop Floor Control, Repetitive, or Quality Management
Real-time notification of out-of-tolerance conditions
Unlimited quality comments on each test
Complete History of each test
Sampling patterns for quality orders (random, interval, expiry date related)
 Certificate of Analysis for lots passing all tests
Manufacturing and Purchasing quality tracking
Master Specifications define standard testing procedures
Quality order tracking (for inventory sampling)
Quality analysis with parotid charts
MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT
Overview
Preventive Maintenance Schedule
Break-Down Management
Maintenance Materials Tools Management
Maintenance Contract Monitoring

Video Conferencing

This briefing paper has been written to provide an introduction to video conferencing,
the technologies behind it, current hardware and software and the likely impact video
conferencing will have on the higher education community in the near future. It
draws heavily on a number of reports on video conferencing written as part of the
Support Initiative for Multimedia Applications project.

Video conferencing has been around for sometime, and is now gaining in popularity. It
cannot replace person to person completely, but in many situations being able to see
and hear remote co-workers, does improve communication and cut down on travel
time and costs.
Technology
Video conferencing actually encompasses a range of technologies used in a wide
range of situations, often it is not just video and audio that is transmitted, but also
data, allowing collaborative working though shared applications. Video conferencing
may be:-
• One-to-one meetings, also known as point to point communications, usually involving
full two-way audio and video.
• One-to-many involving full audio and video broadcast from the main site, where other
sites may be able to send audio. For example in a lecture situation, students could
ask questions.
• Many-to-many, known as multi-point communication, provides audio and video
between more than two sites. With most multi-point systems only one site in a
conference can be seen at time, with switching between sites either controlled
manually or voice activated (i.e., the loudest site is on screen).
 Physically, the most common scenarios of video conferencing are:
• desktop video conferencing - usually a small camera is located on top of the PC or
workstation monitor. The actual video is usually displayed in a small window, and
shared applications, such as a shared whiteboard are often used.
• studio-based systems - a studio is specially equipped for video conferencing. This will
normally include one or more cameras, microphones, one or more large monitors,
and possibly other equipment such as an overhead camera for document viewing.
Usually used for more formal meetings
In practice a 'studio' may not be a dedicated room, but a standard seminar room with
portable equipment that can be set up when required

DeskTop Video Conferencing

The basic hardware components are:

• camera, usually attached to the top of the monitor
• microphone
• speakers - even where speakers are built in to a workstation, external ones will
provide better quality audio. Alternatively headphones may be useful, particularly in
a shared office.
• video board - to capture the signal from the camera and convert it to digital form
• network card - usually an Ethernet card for connection to the LAN, or an ISDN card
. Uses of Video Conferencing
Video conferencing is used for a variety of purposes, including:
• Personal communication. Informal communication would normally use desk top
systems. More formal meetings with several participants at each site would probably
use dedicated studio settings.
• Collaborative work between researchers using shared applications
• Presentations
• Education. Teaching usually involves one to many connections. The student sites may
receive audio and video but only send audio.
Video Conferencing is very useful whenever there is a clear communication need, and
the benefits described by those using video conferencing systems include:
• reduced travel costs
• face to face rather than telephone meetings
• better quality teaching
• easier collaborative working
Examples
Desktop video conferencing using Apple Macintosh computers and the CUSeeMe
program is being used at the University of Derby. The computers are mainly
connected over a LAN with a 64K Internet connection. The system is used to link
students with tutors, small group meetings between different sites, and informal
contact between dispersed colleagues. Livenet at the University of London provides
videoconferencing to several of its colleges over three ISDN 2 lines. A range of
equipment allows the system to be used for one to one meetings through to lectures.

Managing the Digital Firm

Why Information System?

Today it is widely recognized that information systems knowledge is essential for

managers, because most organizations need information systems to service and
proper.
The Competitive Business Environment and the Emerging Digital Firm.

Four powerful worldwide changes have altered the business environment.

• Emergence of the Global Economy

Today, information systems provide the communication and analytical power that
firms need for conducting trade and managing business on a global scale.
Globalization and information technology also bring new threats to domestic business
firms.

• Transformation of Industrial Economies

In a knowledge and information based economy, knowledge and information are key
ingredients in creating wealth. Knowledge and information are becoming the
foundation for many new services and products.

• Transformation of the Business Enterprise

The traditional business firm was and still is a hierarchical, centralized, structured
arrangement of specialist that typically relied on a fixed set of standard operating
procedures to deliver a mass-produced produced product.

• The Emerging Digital Firm

The intensive use of information technology in business firms since the mid 1990s,
coupled with equally significant organizational redesign, created the condition for a
new phenomenon in industrial society. The digital firm is organization where nearly all
significant business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, and
employees are digitally enabled, and key corporate assets are managed through
digital means. Business processes refer to the unique ways in which organizations
coordinate and organization work activities, information, and knowledge to produce a
product or service.

What is an Information System?

An information system can defined technically as a set of interrelated components

that collect, process, store, and distribute information to decision making,
coordination, and control in an organization. Information systems contain information
about significant people, places, and things within the organization or in the
environment surrounding it. Data is streams of raw faces representing events
occurring in organization or the physical environment before they have been
organized and arranged into a form that people can understand and use.

Three activities in an information system produce the information that organizations

need to make decisions, control operations, analyze problems, and create new
products or services. These activities are input, processing, and output. Input is the
capture or collection of raw data from within the organization or from its external
environment for processing in an information system. Processing is the conversion,
manipulation, and analysis of raw input into a form that is more meaningful to
humans. Output is the distribution of processed information to the people who will
use it or to the activities for which it will be used. Information systems also require
feedback, which is output that is returned to the appropriate members of the
organization to help them evaluate or correct input.

The interest in formal, organizational computer based information systems(CBIS) is

information systems that rely on computer hardware and software for processing and
disseminating information. Formal system is system resting on accepted and fixed
definitions of data and procedures, operating with predefined rules.

A Business Perspective on Information Systems

Broad based understanding of information system that includes behavioral

knowledge about organizations and individuals using information systems as well as
technical knowledge about computers, as information system literacy. Computer
literacy, in contrast, focus on knowledge about information technology, focusing on
understanding of how computer based technology work.

Organization

Information systems are an integral part of organizations. The key elements of an

organization are its people, structure, operating procedures, politics, and culture. The
major business functions, consist of specialized task performed in a business
organization, including manufacturing and production, sales and marketing, finance,
accounting, and human resources. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are formal
rules for accomplishing task that have been developed to cope with expected
situations.

Organizations require many difference kinds of skills and people. In addition to

manager, knowledge workers are people, such as engineers or architects, who design
products or service and create knowledge for the organization. Data workers are
people, such as secretaries or bookkeepers, who process the organization’s
paperwork. And production or service workers are people who actually produce the
products or services of the organization.

Management

Information technology con play a powerful roles in redirecting and redesigning the
organization. It is important to note that managerial roles and decisions vary at
different levels of the organization. Senior managers are people occupying the
topmost hierarchy in an organization who are responsible for making long rang
decisions. Middle managers are people in the middle of the organizational hierarchy
who are responsible for carrying out the plans and goals of senior management.
Operational managers are people who monitor the day-to-day activities of the
organization.

Technology

Information technology is one of many tools managers use to cope with change.
Computer hardware is physical equipment used for input, processing, and output
activities in an information system. Computer software consists of detailed,
preprogrammed instruction that control and coordinate the work of computer
hardware components in an information system. Storage technology includes both
physical media and software governing the storage and organization of data for use
in an information system. Communications technology consist both physical device
and software that link various computer hardware components and transfer data
from one physical location to another. A network is the link of two or more computers
to share data or resources, such as a printer.

All of these technologies represent resource that can be share throughout the
organization and constitute the firm’s information technology (IT) infrastructure.

Contemporary Approaches to Information System.

Information systems are sociotechnical systems. Through they are composed of

machines, devices, and “hard’ physical technology, they require substantial social,
organizational, and intellectual investments to make them work property.

• Technical Approach

The technical approach to information systems emphasizes mathematically based

models to study information systems, a well as the physical technology and formal
capabilities of these systems.

• Behavioral Approach

An important part of the information systems field is concerned with behavioral

issues that arise in the development and long-term maintenance of information
systems. Issues such as strategic business integration, design, implementation,
utilization, and management cannot be explored usually with the model used in the
technical approach.

MIS combined the theoretical work of computer science, management science, and
operations research with a practical orientation toward building systems and
applications. Technology must be changed and designed in such way as to fit
organizational and individual needs. At times, the technology may have to be “de-
optimized” to accomplish this fit.

Toward the Digital Firm: the New Role of Information Systems in

Organizations

Manager cannot ignore information systems because they play such a critical role in
contemporary organizations. Responsibility for systems cannot be delegated to
technical decision makers.

• The Widening Scope of Information Systems

The interdependence between organizations and information systems, in

contemporary systems there is a growing interdependence between organizational
business strategy, rule, and procedures and the organization’s information systems.

• The Network Revolution and the Internet

The world’s largest and most widely used network is the Internet. The Internet is an
International network of networks that is a collection of private and public networks.
World Wide Web is of special interest to organizations and managers. Information is
stored and displayed as electric “page” that can contain text, graphics, animations,
sound, and video. All of the Web page maintained by an organization or individual are
called a Web site.
New Options for Organizational Design: the digital firm and the networked
enterprise

• Flattening Organization

In digital firms, hierarchy and organizational levels do not disappear. But digital firms
develop “optimal hierarchies” that balance the decision-making load across an
organization, resulting in flatter organizations.

• Separating Work from Location

Communications technology has eliminated distance as a factor for many types of

work in many situations. Collaborative teamwork across thousands of miles has
become a reality as designers work on a new product together even if they are
located on different continents.

• Reorganizing Workflows

Redesigned workflows can have a profound impact on organizational efficiency and

can even lead to new organizational structures, products, and services.

• Increasing Flexibility of Organizations

Large organizations can use information technology to achieve some of the agility
and responsiveness of small organizations. Mass customization is use of software and
computer networks to finely control production so that products can be easily
customized with no added cost for small production runs.

The Changing Management process

Information technology is recasting the management process, providing powerful

new capabilities to help managers plan, organize, lead, and control.

Redefining Organizational Boundaries

A key feature of the emerging digital firm is the ability to conduct business across
firm boundaries almost as efficiently as it can conduct business within the firm.
Interorganizational systems is information system that automate the flow of
information across organizational boundaries and link a company to its customers,
distributors, or suppliers.

The Digital Firm: electronic commerce and electronic business

Electronic market is a marketplace that created by computer and communication

technologies that link many buyers and sellers. Companies are also taking advantage
of the connectivity and ease of use of Internet technology to create internal corporate
networks called intranets that are base on Internet technology. Private intranet
extended to authorized users outside the organization are called extranets and firm
use such networks to coordinate their activities with other firm for electronic
commerce and electronic business.

Learning to Use Information System: New Opportunities with Technology

The Challenge of Information System: Key Management Issues

Although information technology is advancing at a blinding pace, there is nothing

easy or mechanical about building and using information systems. There are key
challenges confronting managers:

The Strategic Business Challenge: Realizing the Digital Firm. How can businesses use
information technology to become competitive, effective, and digitally enabled?

Despite heavy information technology investments many organizations are not

obtaining significant business benefits, nor are they becoming digitally enabled. They
will have to make fundamental changes in organizational behavior, develop new
business models, and eliminate the inefficiencies of outmoded organizational
structures.

The Globalization Challenge: How can firm understand the business and system
requirements of a global economic environment?

To develop integrated, multinational information systems, business must develop

global hardware, software, and communications standards and create cross-cultural
accounting and reporting structures.

The Information Architecture and Infrastructure Challenge: How can organizations

develop an information architecture and information technology infrastructure that
can support their goals when business conditions and technologies are changing so
rapidly?

Meeting the business and technology challenges of today’s digital economy requires
redesigning the organization and building a new information architecture and
information technology (IT) infrastructure. Information infrastructure is the particular
design that information technology take in a special organization to achieve selected
goals or functions.

The Information Systems Investment Challenge: How can organizations determine

the business value of information systems?

A major problem raised by the development of powerful, inexpensive computers

involves not technology but management and organizations. It’s one thing to use
information technology to design, product, deliver, and maintain new products.

The Responsibility and Control Challenge: How can organization ensure that their
information systems are used in an ethically and socially responsible manner?

Information systems have provided enormous benefit and efficiencies; they have also
introduced new problems and challenges of which managers should aware. Managers
will also be faced with ongoing problems of security and control.

Integrating Text with Technology: new opportunities for learning

In addition to the changes in business and management that we have just described,
we believe that information technology creates new opportunities for learning that
can make the MIS course more meaningful and exciting.

Key System Applications in the Organization

Because there are different interests, specialties, and levels in an organization, there
are different kinds of systems. No single system can provide all the information an
organization needs. Systems are built to serve these different organizational
interests.

Different Kinds of Systems

Four main types of information system serve different organizational levels:

1. Operational-level systems support operational managers by keeping track of the
elementary activities and transactions of the organization, such as sales, receipts,
cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions, and the flow of materials in a factory.

2. knowledge-level systems support the organization’s knowledge and data workers.

The purpose of knowledge-level systems is to help the business firm integrate new
knowledge into the business and to help the organization control the flow of
paperwork.

3. Management-level systems serve the information systems that support the

monitoring, controlling, decision-making, and administrative activities of middle
managers.

4. Strategic-level systems help senior management tackle and address strategic

issues and long-term trend, both in the firm and in the external environment.
Information systems also serve the major business functions, such as sales and
marketing, manufacturing, finance, accounting, and human resources.

Six Major Types of Systems

1. Transaction Processing Systems

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) are the basic business systems that serve the
operational level of the organization. A transaction processing system is a
computerized system that performs and records the daily routine transactions
necessary to conduct the business.

2. Knowledge Work and Office Systems

Knowledge Work System (KWS) and office systems serve the information needs at
the knowledge level of the organization. knowledge workers are people who hold
formal university degree and who are often members of a recognized profession,
such as engineers, doctors, lawyers, and scientists. Data workers typically have less
formal, advanced educational degrees and tend to process rather than create
information.

Word processing refer to office system technology that facilitates that creation of
documents through computerized text editing, formatting, storing, and printing.
Desktop publishing refer to technology that produces professional-quality document
combining output from word processors with design, graphics, and special layout
features. Document imaging systems refer system that convert documents and
images into digital form so that they can be stored and accessed by the computer.

3. Management Information Systems

The term management information systems (MIS) also designates a specific category
of information systems serving management-level functions. Management
Information Systems (MIS) refer information systems at the management level of an
organization that serve the functions of planning, controlling, and decision making by
providing routine summary and exception reports.

4. Decision-Support Systems
Decision-Support Systems (DSS) also serve the management level of the
organization. DSS help managers make decisions that are unique, rapidly changing,
not easily specified in advance. They address problems where the procedure for
arriving at a solution may not be fully predefined in advance.

5. Executive Support Systems

Senior managers use executive support systems (ESS) to make decisions. ESS serve
the strategic level of the organization. ESS are design to incorporate data about
external events such as new tax laws or competitors, but they also draw summarized
information from internal MIS and DSS.

6. Relationship of Systems to One Another

TPS are typically a major source of data for other systems, whereas ESS are primarily
a recipient of data from lower-level systems. The other types of systems may
exchange data with each other as well. Data may also be exchanged among systems
serving different to a manufacturing system as a transaction for producing or
delivering the product specified in the order.

Systems from a Functional Perspective

Information systems can be classified by the specific organizational function they

serve as well as by organizational level.

Sales and Marketing Systems

The sale and marketing function is responsible for selling the organization’s products
or services. Marketing is concerned with identifying the customers for the firm’s
products or services, determine what they need or want, planning and developing
products and services to meet their needs, and advertising and promoting these
products and services.

Manufacturing and Production Systems

The manufacturing and production function is responsible for actually producing the
firm’s goods and services. Manufacturing and production activities deal with the
planning, development, and maintenance of production facilities; the establishment
of production goals; the acquisition, storage, and availability of production materials;
and the scheduling of equipment, facilities, materials, and labor required to fashion
finished products.

Finance and Accounting Systems

The finance function is responsible for managing the firm’s financial assets, such as
cash, stocks, bonds, and other investments, in order to maximize the return on these
financial assets. The finance function is also in charge of managing the capitalization
of the firm. In order to determine whether the firm is getting the best return on its
investments, the finance function must obtain a considerable amount of information
from sources external to the firm.

Human Resources Systems

The human resource function is responsible for attracting, developing, and
maintaining the firm’s workforce. Human resources information systems support
activities such as identifying potential employees, maintaining complete records on
existing employees, and creating programs to develop employees’ talents and skills.

Strategic-level human resources system identify the employee requirements (skills,

educational level, types of positions, number of positions, and cost) for meeting the
firm’s long term business plans.

Integrating Functions and Business Progresses: Enterprise Systems and

Industrial Network
Organizations are finding benefits from using information systems to coordinate
activities and decisions spanning multiple functional area entire firms and even entire
industries.

Business processes and information systems

The systems we have described support flows of work and activities call business
process. Business processes refer to the manner in which work is organized,
coordinated, and focused to produce a valuable product or service.

Customer Relationship Management and Supply Chain Management

Electronic commerce, global competition, and the rise of digital firms have made
companies think strategically about their business processes for managing their
relationships with customers and suppliers.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Instead of treating customers as exploitable sources of income, business are now
viewing them as long-term assets to be nurtured through customer relationship
management (CRM). Customer Relationship Management (CRM) focuses on
managing all of the ways that a firm deals with its existing and potential new
customers.

Supply Chain Management

To deliver the product more rapidly to the customer at lower cost, firms are also
trying to streamline their business processes for supply chain management. Supply
chain management is the close linkage of activities involved in buying, making, and
moving a product. The supply chain is a network of facilities for procuring materials,
transforming raw materials into intermediate and finished products, and distributing
the finished products to customers.

Enterprise Systems
A large organization typically has many different kinds of information systems that
support different functions, organizational levels, and business processes. Many
organizations are also building enterprise systems, also known as enterprise resource
planning (ERP) systems, to provide firm wide integration. Benefits and

Enterprise systems promise to integrate the diverse business processes of a firm into
a single integrated information architecture but they present major challenges.
Benefits of Enterprise Systems
Enterprise systems promise to greatly change four dimensions of business: firm
structure, integrated information architecture but they present major challenges.

Firm Structure and Organization: One Organization

Companies can use enterprise systems to support organizational structures that were
not previously possible or to create a more disciplined organizational culture.

Management: Firm wide Knowledge-based Management Process

In addition to automating many essential business transactions, such as taking
orders, paying suppliers, or changing employee benefit status, enterprise systems
can also improve management reporting and decision making.

Technology: Unified Platform

Enterprise systems promise to provide firms with a single, unified, and all-
encompassing information system technology platform and environment. Enterprise
systems promise to create a single, integrated repository that gathers data on all the
key business processes.

Business: More Efficient Operations and Customer-driven Business Process

Enterprise systems can help create the foundation for a customer-driven or demand
organization. By integrating discrete business processes such as sales, production,
finance, and logistics, the entire organization can efficiently respond to customer
requests for products or information, forecast new products, and build and deliver
them as demand requires.

The Challenge of Enterprise Systems

Although enterprise systems can improve organizational coordination, efficiency, and
decision making, they have proven very difficult to build. Employees must take on
new job functions and responsibilities. Enterprise systems require complex pieces of
software and large investment of time, money, and expertise.

Daunting Implementation
Enterprise systems bring dramatic changes to business. They require not only deep-
seated technological changes but also fundamental changes in the way the business
operates.

High Up-front Cost and Future Benefits

The costs of enterprise systems are large, up-front, highly visible, and often politically
changed. Although the costs to build the system are obvious, the benefits often
cannot be precisely quantified at the beginning of an enterprise project. One reason
is that the benefits often accrue from employees using the system after it is
completed and gaining the knowledge of business operations heretofore impossible
to learn.

Inflexibility
Enterprise system software tends to be complex and difficult to master, with a
worldwide shortage in people with the expertise to install and maintain it. The
software is deeply intertwined with corporate business.

Realizing Strategic Value

Companies may also fail to achieve strategic benefits from enterprise systems if
integrating business process processes using the generic models provided by
standard ERP software prevents the firm from using unique business processes that
had been sources of advantage over competitors.

Extended enterprises and industrial network

In some industries, companies are extending their enterprise systems beyond the
boundaries of the firm to share information and coordinate business processes with
other firms in their industry. Industry networks, which are sometimes called extended
enterprises, link together the enterprise systems of firms in an entire industry.

There are two kinds of industrial networks. Vertical industrial networks integrate the
operations of the firm with its suppliers and can be used for supply chain
management. Horizontal industrial networks link firms across an entire industry
including competitors.