MIS Midterm Review

1. What is MIS? What is a business analyst? An information system is a set interrelated business components that create, collect, process, store, distribute and produce information. Information produced by information systems help organizations in a variety of ways to support business transaction, learning, innovation and decision making. The BA is the link between business requirements (the client) and the software solution (the development team). 2. What are the components of the Information Systems Triangle? 1) business processes that determine how we do business, 2) information technologies (IT) (hardware and software) that support and enable business processes, and of course 3) people that use and manage these systems. 3. What is the focus of MIS professionals? The MIS profession focuses on using the system development lifecycle (SDLC) to enable businesses to achieve optimal performance and compete strategically. 4. List and explain the various types of enterprise systems and their business purpose? Customer relationship management is a customer-centered strategy businesses adopt to develop stronger relationships with customers. A supply chain presents the group of suppliers, manufacturers and distributors that manufacture and deliver a product to the customer. Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems integrate inbound and outbound logistics activities across the various suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and customers. An ERP system is software that integrates functional systems into a single system supported by one database to serve the needs of all functional areas in a business (see figure 5). ERP systems support business processes across various functional areas in both primary and secondary (support) activities of the value chain. 5. How are enterprise systems best utilized for in business? Are those systems that integrate ALL key organizational functions across functional areas, thus breaking down traditional departmental silos. They also involve the consolidation of data from many (often times hundreds!) standalone systems and functional systems into one centralized database. Enterprise systems facilitate the activities within various functional areas in an integrated fashion across all steps of business processes. This is why they are sometimes referred to as process-based systems. 6. What strategic benefits could a business gain from applying, ERP, SCM, and CRM systems? The benefits of ERP are first from the IT itself as it integrates data from various functional areas into a centralized database. This means that employees from various functional areas see the same data and often have access to all data relevant to their function, which serves to:  eliminate data inconsistencies  provide reports with a complete business process view of the various activities across the enterprise and the status of the business  lead to more cost effective customer service and inventory management, since data about orders and status of products is readily available