Hello,
Please see below the attached files and let me know if any questions arise. I added reading materials for both weeks 1 and 2, just in case.
Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study.
MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 1
Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc.
Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC) is a successful Information Technology consulting firm
that utilizes proven IT and management methodologies to achieve measurable results for its
customers. Its customer base includes small to mid-tier businesses, non-profit organizations
and governmental agencies at the local, state and federal levels. MTC feels strongly that its
success is dependent on the combination of the talent of its IT consultants in the areas of,
Business Process Consulting, IT Consulting and IT Outsourcing Consulting and their ability to
deliver truly extraordinary results to their clients.
Corporate Profile
Corporate Name: Maryland Technology Consultants, Inc.
Founded: May 2008
Headquarters: Baltimore, Maryland
Satellite Locations: Herndon, Virginia; Bethesda, Maryland
Number of Employees: 450
Total Annual Gross Revenue: $95,000,000
President and
Chief Executive Officer (CEO): Samuel Johnson
Business Areas
MTC provides consulting services in the following areas:
• Business Process Consulting – Business process redesign, process improvement, and best
practices
• IT Consulting – IT strategy, analysis, planning, system development, implementation, and
network support
• IT Outsourcing Consulting – Requirements analysis; vendor evaluation, due diligence,
selection and performance management; Service Level Agreements
Business Strategy
MTC’s business strategy is to provide extraordinary consulting services and recommendations
to its customers by employing highly skilled consultants and staying abreast of new business
concepts and technology and/or developing new business concepts and best practices of its
own.
Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study.
MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 2
Excerpt from the MTC Strategic Business Plan
While the complete strategic plan touches on many areas, below is an excerpt from MTC’s
latest Strategic Business Plan that identifies a few of MTC’s Goals.
Goal 1: Increase MTC Business Development by winning new contracts in the areas of IT
consulting.
Goal 2: Build a cadre of consultants internationally to provide remote research and analysis
support to MTC’s onsite teams in the U. S.
Goal 3: Continue to increase MTC’s ability to quickly provide high quality consultants to
awarded contracts to best serve the clients’ needs.
Goal 4: Increase MTC’s competitive advantage in the IT consulting marketplace by increasing its
reputation for having IT consultants who are highly skilled in leading edge technologies and
innovative solutions for its clients.
Current Business Environment
MTC provides consultants on-site to work with its clients, delivering a wide variety of IT-related
services. MTC obtains most of its business through competitively bidding on Requests for
Proposals issued by business, government and non-profit organizations. A small but growing
portion of its business is through referrals and follow-on contracts from satisfied clients. MTC
anticipates it will win two large contracts in the near future and is preparing proposals for
several other large projects.
MTC, as a consulting company, relies on the quality and expertise of its employees to provide
the services needed by the clients. When it is awarded a contract, the customer expects MTC
to quickly provide the consultants and begin work on the project. MTC, like other consulting
companies, cannot afford to carry a significant e number of employees that are not assigned to
contracts. Therefore, they need to determine the likelihood of winning a new contract and
ensure the appropriately skilled consultants are ready to go to work within 60 days of signing
the contract. MTC relies on its Human Resources (HR) Department to find, research, and assess
applicants so that line managers can review and select their top candidates and hire
appropriate consultants to meet their needs for current new contracts. It is very much a “just
in time” hiring situation.
The Headquarters in Baltimore, Maryland, houses approximately 350 employees. Satellite
offices have been opened in the last two years in both Herndon, Virginia and Bethesda,
Maryland to provide close proximity to existing clients. It is anticipated that new pending
contracts would add staff to all locations. The management team believes there is capacity at
all locations, as much of the consultants’ work is done on-site at the clients’ locations.
Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study.
MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 3
Strategic Direction
As a small to mid-size business (SMB), MTC recognizes that it needs to carefully plan its future
strategy. Considering the competitive environment that contains many very large IT consulting
firms, such as Hewlett-Packard (HP), Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH), and Science Applications
International Corporation (SAIC), as well as numerous smaller companies with various skill sets,
market niches, and established customer bases, MTC will be evaluating how best to position
itself for the future and recognizes that its ability to identify its core competencies, move with
agility and flexibility, and deliver consistent high quality service to its clients is critical for
continued success. MTC’s plan for growth includes growing by 7% per year over the next five
years. This would require an increase in consulting contract overall volume and an expanded
workforce. One area that is critical to a consulting company is the ability to have employees
who possess the necessary knowledge and skills to fulfill current and future contracts. Given
the intense competition in the IT consulting sector, MTC is planning to incorporate a few
consultants in other countries to provide remote research and analysis support to the on-site U.
S. teams. Since MTC has no experience in the global marketplace, the Director of HR has begun
examining international labor laws to determine where MTC should recruit and hire employees.
Challenges
Increased business creates a need to hire IT consultants more quickly. Overall, the Director of
HR is concerned that the current manual process of recruiting and hiring employees will not
allow his department to be responsive to the demands of future growth and increased hiring
requirements. There are currently two contracts that MTC expects to win very soon will require
the hiring of an additional 75 consultants very quickly. He is looking for a near-term solution
that will automate many of the manual hiring process steps and reduce the time it takes to hire
new staff. He is also looking for a solution that will allow MTC to hire employees located in
other countries around the world.
Management Direction
The management team has been discussing how to ramp up to fill the requirements of the two
new contracts and prepare the company to continue growing as additional contracts are
awarded in the future. The company has been steadily growing and thus far hiring of new
employees has been handled through a process that is largely manual. The HR Director
reported that his staff will be unable to handle the expanded hiring projections as well as
accommodate the hiring of the 75 new employees in the timeframe required. The Chief
Information Officer (CIO) then recommended that the company look for a commercial off-the-
shelf software product that can dramatically improve the hiring process and shorten the time it
takes to hire new employees. The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) wants to ensure that all
investments are in line with the corporate mission and will achieve the desired return on
investment. She will be looking for clear information that proposals have been well researched,
provide a needed capability for the organization, and can be cost-effectively implemented in a
Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study.
MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 4
relatively short period of time to reap the benefits. The CEO has asked HR to work with the CIO
to recommend a solution.
Your Task
As a business analyst assigned to HR, you have been assigned to conduct an analysis, develop a
set of system requirements, evaluate a proposed solution, and develop an implementation plan
for an IT solution (applicant tracking system hiring system) to improve the hiring process. You
have begun your analysis by conducting a series of interviews with key stakeholders to collect
information about the current hiring process and the requirements for a technology solution to
improve the hiring process. Based on your analysis and in coordination with key users you will
produce a Business Analysis and System Recommendation Report (BA&SR) as your final
deliverable.
Interviews
In the interviews you conducted with the organizational leaders, you hear the comments
recorded below.
CEO: Samuel Johnson
“While I trust my HR staff to address the nuts and bolts of the staffing processes, what is
critically important to me is that the right people can be in place to fulfill our current contracts
and additional talented staff can be quickly hired to address needs of future contracts that we
win. I can’t be out in the market soliciting new business if we can’t deliver on what we’re
selling. Our reputation is largely dependent on having knowledgeable and capable staff to
deliver the services our clients are paying for and expect from MTC.”
CFO: Evelyn Liu
“So glad we’re talking about this initiative. As CFO, obviously I’m focused on the bottom line. I
also recognize it’s necessary to invest in certain areas to ensure our viability moving forward. I
recognize that the current manual hiring process is inefficient and not cost-effective. Having
technology solutions that improve current process and enable future functionality is very
important to MTC’s success. We must consider the total cost of ownership of any technology
we adopt. MTC is run as a lean-and-mean organization and support processes must be effective
but not overbuilt. We do want to think towards the future and our strategic goals as well and
don’t want to invest in technology with a short shelf-life. Along those lines, we currently have a
timekeeping and payroll system that requires input from the hiring process to be entered to
establish new employees; and to help support our bottom line financially, any new solution
should effectively integrate with, but not replace, those systems.
Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study.
MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 5
CIO: Raj Patel
“As a member of the IT Department, you have a good understanding of our overall architecture
and strategy; however, let me emphasize a few things I want to be sure we keep in mind for this
project. Any solution needs to be compatible with our existing architecture and systems as
appropriate. Obviously, we have chosen not to maintain a large software development staff so
building a solution from the ground up does not fit our IT strategic plan. Our current strategy
has been to adopt Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions that can be deployed relatively quickly
and leverage industry best practices at a low total cost. In addition, our distributed workforce
means we are very dependent on mobile computing – this brings some challenges in term of
portability, maintenance, and solutions that present well on mobile devices. We’ve been
expanding at a rapid rate and are seeking to expand internationally so any solution will need to
be viable globally. And last, but certainly not least, MTC’s success is largely dependent on our
ability to satisfy the requirements of our clients and maintain a reputation of high credibility,
reliability and security. Any security breach of our applicants’ data could have a devastating
effect to our ability to compete for new business as well as maintain current clients. Any
technology solution adopted by MTC must contain clear security measures to control access and
protect data and allow us to use our current security for mobile links. I recognize that MTC can
no longer rely on a manual hiring process to meet these needs.”
Director of HR: Joseph Cummings
“Thanks for talking with me today. I see this effort as very important to the success of
MTC. While the recruiting staff has done an excellent job of hiring top IT consultants, the rapid
growth to date and future plans for expansion have pushed our recruiting staff, and we
recognize we can no longer meet the hiring and staffing demands with manual processes. I’m
also interested in solutions that are easy-to-use and can interface with our existing systems and
enhance processes. I’m willing to consider a basic system that can grow as MTC grows and
provide more capabilities in the future. I’m sure Sofia, our Manager of Recruiting, can provide
more specifics.”
Manager of Recruiting: Sofia Perez
“You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to begin the process of finding a technology
solution to support our recruiting processes. In addition to myself, there are 2-3 full-time
recruiters who have been very busy keeping up with the increased hiring at MTC; and there are
no plans to increase the recruiting staff. It goes without saying that a consulting company is
dependent on having well-qualified employees to deliver to our customers. We’re in a
competitive market for IT talent and want to be able to recruit efficiently, process applicants
quickly, and move to making a job offer to the best candidate before the competition snaps
him/her up. When I talk with my colleagues in other companies, they mention applicant
tracking systems that have enabled them to reduce their hiring time by 15-20%. I’m so envious
of them and look forward to having our new solution in place before the next set of contracts
are won and we need to hire 75 (to as many as 150) staff in a 2-month period. I do not think my
Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study.
MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 6
team can handle such an increase in an efficient and effective manner. On-going growth at
MTC will continue to increase the demands to hire more consultants quickly. It really seems like
there would be a rapid return on investment in a technology solution to support and improve
the hiring process.”
Recruiters: Peter O’Neil (along with Mike Thomas and Jennifer Blackwell)
“This project should have happened 2 years ago but glad it’s finally getting some attention. As a
recruiter, I’m sort of the middleperson in this process. On one hand, we have the job applicant
who is anxious to know the status of his/her application and fit for the advertised position. It’s
important that the recruiters represent MTC well, as we want the best applicants to want to
come to work for us. Then we have the actual hiring manager in one of our business areas who
has issued the job requisition and wants to get the best applicant hired as quickly as possible.
Obviously recruiting is not the hiring manager’s full-time job, so we’re always competing for
time with other job responsibilities, so we can keep things moving as quickly as possible. They
provide us with job descriptions to meet the needs of clients and look to us to screen resumes
and only forward the best qualified applicants to them so they can quickly identify their top
candidates. Working with Tom, our administrative assistant, we need interviews to be
scheduled to accommodate everyone’s calendars. After the hiring managers make their final
selections of who they would like to hire, it is our task to get the job offers presented to the
candidates – hopefully for their acceptance. Everything is very time sensitive, and the current
process is not nearly as efficient as it could be. Applications and resumes can get lost in
interoffice mail or buried in email; and, when a hiring manager calls us, we often cannot
immediately provide the status of where an applicant is in the process. This can be very
frustrating all around. Speaking for myself and the other recruiters, I have high expectations for
this solution. We need to really be able to deliver world-class service to MTC in the recruiting
and hiring areas to meet the business goals.”
Administrative Assistant: Tom Arbuckle
“I support the recruiters in the hiring process. After the recruiters screen the resumes and select
the best candidates for a position, my job is to route those applications and resumes via
interoffice mail to the respective functional/hiring manager, receive his or her feedback on who
to interview and who should be involved in the interviews, schedule the interviews based on
availability of applicants and the interview team members, collect the feedback from the
interview team and inform the assigned recruiter of the status of each candidate who was
interviewed. In addition to preparing the job offer letter based on the recruiter’s direction, after
a job offer has been made and accepted, I coordinate the paperwork for the new hire with HR
and Payroll to ensure everything is ready to go on the first day. As you can imagine when hiring
volume is up, I’m buried in paperwork and trying to keep all the applicants and their resumes
straight, track their status in the process, and ensure everyone has what they need is very
challenging. I love my job, but want to ensure I can continue to keep on top of the increased
hiring demands and support the recruiting team effectively. Any tool that would help the
workflow and enable many steps in the process to be done electronically would be wonderful.”
Maryland Technology Consultants is a fictitious company created for the IFSM 300 Case Study.
MTC Case Study 11/23/2019 Ver. 1 7
Hiring Manager (in functional area; this person would be the supervisor of the new employee
and would likely issue the job requisition to fill a need in his/her department/team):
“While it’s a good problem to have – new business means new hires — the current method for
screening applications, scheduling interviews, identifying the best qualified applicants, and
getting a job offer to them is not working. My team is evaluated on the level of service we
provide our clients, and it is very important that we have well-qualified staff members to fulfill
our contracts. Turnover is common in the IT world and that along with new business
development, makes the need for hiring new staff critical and time-sensitive. I confess that
sometimes I’m not as responsive to HR as I should be; but although hiring new consultants for
the contracts I manage is important to successfully meet the clients’ needs, this is only one of
several areas for which I’m responsible. I look to the recruiters to stay on top of this for me. In
the ideal world, I’d like an electronic dashboard from which I can see the status of any job
openings in my area, information on all qualified candidates who have applied and where they
are in the pipeline. Electronic scheduling of interviews on my calendar would be a real time
saver. It’s important that we impress candidates with our technology and efficiency – after all
we are an IT consulting company—and using manual processes makes us look bad. And, this
system must be easy to use – I don’t have time for training or reading a 100-page user’s
manual. Just need to get my job done.”
How Organizations Use
Information Systems Strategically
So far you’ve learned about what is meant by information system and
how IT matters in organizations, as well as how businesses align their
strategy with the use of information technology. It’s important to keep in
mind that organizations have basically two ways to increase profits
—either raise prices or reduce expenses (or a combination of the two).
Organizations can’t just focus on money coming in because there are
expenses that must be paid out of that income resulting in a net income
(Gross Income ₋ Expenses = Net Income). Even governmental agencies
and nonprofit companies need to take in money (governmental budgets,
taxpayers, donations, etc.), pay the expenses incurred in achieving the
organization’s mission, and have money left over to reinvest in the
business.
In the section Does IT Matter?, the concept of the value chain was
presented. Each of the five primary areas of the value chain along with
the support activities (frequently referred to as back‐office functions)
provide opportunities to improve profitability and identify where
technology can help improve processes. Each business would define
specifically what its primary activities are and then analyze where there
are opportunities within each area.
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Porter’s Value Chain
Series of activities that contribute to the overall value of a product or service
Does IT Matter? also introduced Porter’s Five Forces, a framework to
help organizations assess its environment. Understanding how the five
forces impact the organization can help organizations determine where to
focus to increase their competitive advantage. For example, if operating
in a highly competitive environment (many companies offering the same
or very similar products or services), then the company could establish a
strategy to provide its goods and services at a lower cost or to target a
specific market niche. When a company has decided its strategy, then it’s
time to look at how to achieve that strategy. Here’s where the use of
information technology and information systems can come into play.
Improving the ability to deliver goods and services at a lower cost or in a
unique way can be enabled by information systems.
Licenses and Attributions
Chapter 7: Does IT Matter? (https://bus206.pressbooks.com/chapter
/chapter‐7‐does‐it‐matter/) from Information Systems for Business
and Beyond by David T. Bourgeois is available under a Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (https://creativecommons.org
/licenses/by/3.0/) license. © 2014, David T. Bourgeois. UMGC has
modified this work and it is available under the original license.
© 2023 University of Maryland Global Campus
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https://bus206.pressbooks.com/chapter/chapter-7-does-it-matter/
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All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the
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Business Strategy
This section presents a high‐level overview of the strategic planning
process for business. All companies want to formulate technology
solutions that effectively support the business and its objectives. To do
so, the company must first understand its business model, the
fundamentals of its business type (manufacturing, finance, service, etc.),
and its strategy. Only once the company has understood these, should it
begin to focus on its systems. Information systems are only tools that are
used to support a business; therefore, if the tools are not aligned with
business requirements, then its resources (time, money, and people) may
be wasted, triggering an undesirable outcome.
Many businesses establish an overall mission or vision statement—Why
are we in business? Following is a list of companies with their mission
statements:
Amazon—”to be earth’s most customer‐centric company, to build a place
where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to
buy online.” (Amazon Jobs, 2018)
Marriott—”to be the world’s favorite travel company” (Marriott Investor
Relations).
Google—“to organize the world’s information and make it universally
accessible and useful” (Google.com, 2018).
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As you can see, these mission and vision statements are very broad and
overarching; however, to achieve these, organizations need more specifics
with actionable areas to accomplish to help support the mission/vision. In
order to define the goals and objectives, first organizations scan the
environment looking at several factors, such as competition, business
environment, customers, employees, and location. This analysis helps
identify threats and opportunities. A frequent tool used in business is
SWOT Analysis: identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and
Threats. The section Does IT Matter? also looks at further methods to
analyze the competitive environment.
This analysis can result in organizations defining business goals and
objectives and the specific actions needed to be successful. When these
objectives are defined, opportunities can be identified to use information
technology to help reach those objectives.
It’s important that technology support the business objectives rather than
drive the objectives. For example, looking back at Amazon’s mission
statement, specific goals and objectives would need to be defined (e.g.,
How can customer‐centric be increased?). One approach is customizing
the user experience so customers feel valued and that Amazon really
“knows” them. A strategic goal might be to maximize the customer’s
experience through personalization of the online shopping
experience.
With technology, information regarding customers’ browsing and
shopping habits can be stored and retrieved when a customer returns to
the Amazon site, prompting with messages such as “Hello John—
Recommended Links for You” or “John—Buy it Again,” followed by a list of
recent purchases John has made. The benefits of the information
technology can be increased sales and increased customer loyalty, which
give Amazon a competitive advantage in the online retail arena.
This information would then be documented for everyone in the company
to understand and be able to do their part to support the business
strategy. For example, Amazon might document as follows:
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Mission/Vision: Our vision is to be earth’s most customer‐centric
company, to build a place where people can come to find and discover
anything they might want to buy online.
Business Strategy (derived from the Mission/Vision): to be earth’s most
customer‐centric company, to build a place where people can come to
find and discover anything they might want to buy online.
• Technology Support: A robust online shopping system would
accommodate millions of customers and products and focus on the
individual customer’s searches and buying habits.
• Competitive Advantage: Availability of millions of products would
increase sales, and a focus on the customer would increase customer
loyalty.
Strategic Goal 1: Increase customer‐centricity by maximizing the
customer’s experience through personalization of the online shopping
experience.
Objective: Provide customer with at least five other items they might be
interested in based on previous purchases by the end of the first quarter.
Technology Support: The system would store each customer’s purchases
and retrieve that information when the customer returns to the Amazon
site, and present a message such as “Hello, John – Recommended for
you” with icons of several items related to his recent purchases.
Strategic Goal 2: Increase the number of items available.
Objective: Add 10% more items to the inventory.
Technology Support: The system would provide the ability to store and
retrieve items for display to customers.
To achieve success, an organization should translate its high‐level mission
into specific objectives so it can align its technology support to those
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objectives. The alignment can provide clear direction and enable all levels
of the organization to work towards maximizing their investments in
information technology.
References
Amazon Jobs (2018). Retrieved from https://www.amazon.jobs
/en/working/working‐amazon
Google.com/About. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.google.com
/about/
Marriott. (2018). Marriott investor relations: Frequently asked questions.
Retrieved from https://marriott.gcs‐web.com/investor‐faqs
© 2023 University of Maryland Global Campus
All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the
validity or integrity of information located at external sites.
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What Is an Information System?
Introduction
If you are reading this, you are most likely taking a course in information
systems, but do you even know what the course is going to cover? When
you tell your friends or your family that you are taking a course in
information systems, can you explain what it is about? Sometimes when
students are asked what they think an information system is, they give
answers such as “computers,” “databases,” or “Excel.” These are good
answers, but definitely incomplete ones. The study of information
systems goes far beyond understanding some technologies. Let’s begin
our study by defining information systems.
Defining Information Systems
Almost all programs in business require students to take a course in
something called information systems. But what exactly does that term
mean? Let’s take a look at some of the more popular definitions, first from
Wikipedia and then from a couple of textbooks:
• “Information systems (IS) is the study of complementary networks of
hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect,
filter, process, create, and distribute data (“Information Systems,”
2012).
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• “Information systems are combinations of hardware, software, and
telecommunications networks that people build and use to collect,
create, and distribute useful data, typically in organizational settings
(Valacich & Schneider, 2010).
• “Information systems are interrelated components working together
to collect, process, store, and disseminate information to support
decision making, coordination, control, analysis, and visualization in
an organization (Laudon & Laudon, 2012).
As you can see, these definitions focus on two different ways of
describing information systems: the components that make up an
information system and the role that those components play in an
organization. Let’s take a look at each of these.
The Components of Information Systems
Many students understand that an information system has something to
do with databases, spreadsheets, computers and e‐commerce. And they
are all right, at least in part: information systems are made up of different
components that work together to provide value to an organization.
Information systems are made up of five components: hardware,
software, data, people, and process. The first three, fitting under the
category technology, are generally what most students think of when
asked to define information systems. But the last two, people and
process, are really what separate the idea of information systems from
more technical fields, such as computer science. In order to fully
understand information systems, students must understand how all of
these components work together to bring value to an organization.
Technology
Technology can be thought of as the application of scientific knowledge
for practical purposes. From the invention of the wheel to the harnessing
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of electricity for artificial lighting, technology is a part of our lives in so
many ways that we tend to take it for granted. As discussed before, the
first three components of information systems—hardware, software, and
data—all fall under the category of technology. Each will be discussed in
more detail in later sections, but we will take a moment here to introduce
them so we can get a full understanding of what an information system is.
Hardware
Information systems hardware is the part of an information system you
can touch—the physical components of the technology. Computers,
keyboards, disk drives, iPads, and flash drives are all examples of
information systems hardware.
Software
Software is a set of instructions that tells the hardware what to do.
Software is not tangible—it cannot be touched. When programmers
create software programs, what they are really doing is simply typing out
lists of instructions that tell the hardware what to do. There are several
categories of software, with the two main categories being operating‐
system software, which makes the hardware usable, and application
software, which does something useful. Examples of operating systems
include Microsoft Windows on a personal computer and Google’s Android
on a mobile phone. Examples of application software are Microsoft Excel
and Angry Birds.
Data
The third component is data. You can think of data as a collection of facts.
For example, your street address, the city you live in, and your phone
number are all pieces of data. Like software, data is also intangible. By
themselves, pieces of data are not really very useful. But aggregated,
indexed, and organized together into a database, data can become a
powerful tool for businesses. In fact, all of the definitions presented at
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the beginning of this section focused on how information systems
manage data. Organizations collect all kinds of data and use it to make
decisions. These decisions can then be analyzed as to their effectiveness
and the organization can be improved. The reading, Data and Databases,
will cover their uses in organizations.
Networking Communication: A Fourth Technology Piece?
Besides the components of hardware, software, and data, which have
long been considered the core technology of information systems, it has
been suggested that one other component should be added:
communication. An information system can exist without the ability to
communicate—the first personal computers were stand‐alone machines
that did not access the internet. However, in today’s hyper‐connected
world, it is an extremely rare computer that does not connect to another
device or to a network. Technically, the networking communication
component is made up of hardware and software, but it is such a core
feature of today’s information systems that it has become its own
category.
People
When thinking about information systems, it is easy to get focused on the
technology components and forget that we must look beyond these tools
to fully understand how they integrate into an organization. A focus on
the people involved in information systems is the next step. From the
frontline help‐desk workers, to systems analysts, to programmers, all the
way up to the chief information officer, the people involved with
information systems are an essential element that must not be
overlooked.
Process
The last component of information systems is process. A process is a
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Characteristics of Quality Data
People depend on the systems they use to contain high‐quality data. If
they find the data to be wrong, outdated, or incomplete, they begin to
distrust the system and will likely stop using it. If the data in the system is
personally important to the individual, such as the data in payroll or
medical systems, then there is a strong need to have it corrected as
quickly as possible.
What are the characteristics of good‐quality data? There are a variety of
characteristics, but we will focus on six. Let’s look at the data that may be
in a payroll system and how each of the characteristics of quality data are
important, and consider an example of each.
• Accuracy – Is the information correct? For example, is the annual
salary correct?
• Completeness – Is all the information there? For example, if overtime
was worked, is it included?
• Timeliness – Is the information current and pertaining to a specific,
identified time period? Does the payroll data pertain to the current
pay period? For example, is old, outdated data used, which could
change the amount paid to the employee?
• Uniqueness – Does each record have its own individual identifier
(often referred to as a unique identifier)? Does the payroll record
apply to a specific individual? For example, does a specific payroll
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record pertain to a specific employee?
• Validity – Is the information appropriate for defined parameters? Is
the data in the payroll record based on the acceptable ranges? For
example, is the hourly rate within the accepted range and is the
number of hours worked reasonable?
• Consistency – Does the data correctly align with other data in the
system? For example, if the employee is a salaried employee does the
payroll record reflect that vs. hourly employee data?
It is important that the data in information systems is of high quality. As
systems are developed, the testing should include ensuring that the
quality of data is maintained throughout the system, from its source to
the final output. Therefore, data needs to have these characteristics when
it is entered into the system. The data entry process should include
validation that it meets these quality attributes, and then it needs to be
protected as it resides in and flows through the system. If any of these
characteristics are missing, the system must be analyzed to discover
where the problem lies. The correction may be as simple as fixing an
individual record; or, if it is not clear where the problem lies, the system
may be considered unreliable overall and may need to be taken offline
until corrections are applied. When migrating data to a new system, it is
also important to maintain accuracy and integrity. Inconsistency or
redundancy in data will reduce the acceptance of a new system by users.
Part of a system implementation plan should include specifics about how
data will be transferred, entered, and verified to ensure a high degree of
accuracy (often referenced as a data migration plan).
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How Information Supports
Decision Making
Now that you have been introduced to the basics of data, how it can be
stored, and the importance of data quality, let’s look at how data
transformed into information supports organizational decision making. In
their simplest form, information systems are all about getting the right
information in the most usable format to the right people, at the right
time and place. Advances in integrated software applications, the
internet, and better data management practices provide businesses with
better tools to support that goal.
A key competitive advantage of an organization is the ability to react to
changes quickly. Being able to make the right decision to address a
potential threat or seize an opportunity could make the difference in
whether or not the company stays in business or continues to
increase
profits. The key to making good decisions is having the relevant
information readily available in the form that is needed. There are three
basic levels of decision making in an organization: operational,
managerial, and strategic as illustrated below.
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Let’s look at the process of creating an invoice. An invoice contains
several pieces of data, such as customer name, number, address,
shipping
method, items ordered, and quantities. This data is required at an
operational level to update inventories, handle logistics, add to accounts
receivable, and so forth. At the mid‐level of our pyramid, the management
level, the data from each individual invoice are not as important as the
cumulative information that many invoices can provide. For example,
sales have increased 25% on product A, orders for product B are shipping
consistently behind schedule, and shipping costs with shipper X are
increasing more than with other shippers. With this information on trends
or patterns, management can investigate further and make decisions on
production schedules, supplier relationships, or preferred shipping
vendors.
At the senior or executive level of an organization, the company
leadership is less concerned than middle management about the trends or
patterns—their concerns are strategic. Senior management looks at
information, both from within the organization and external. For example,
suppose a key component needed in the manufacturing process is
petroleum‐based. Rising oil prices, coupled with industry forecasts that
prices will continue to rise, call for addressing this situation at a strategic
level. Senior management might consider whether a price increase can be
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justified, how much of an increase the market can bear, or whether there
are alternatives that would not degrade the product.
A primary advantage of an information system is its ability to support and
improve decision making throughout the organization by turning data into
useful information. However, the system is just a tool and does not
replace the human factor; people are still required to make the choices
involved in the decisions. Individuals at all levels of the organization can
use the information provided by the system as they make their decisions.
In the invoice example above, the creation and use of the invoice data
could all be done by hand, using paper invoices. However, the use of a
system to capture, store, and share that information throughout the
organization significantly increases the efficiency and effectiveness of the
process and makes the information immediately and readily available to
those who need it to make their decisions.
We can see that information moves through the organization and is
viewed for different purposes by different levels within the organization.
However, the data are captured at the operational level (transaction‐
processing systems) and made available in appropriate forms (summary of
product, customer, geographic distribution differences, and so on) at the
various managerial levels.
It is important to note that information can flow both up and down the
levels within an organization. Information that is useful for monitoring
(“How are we doing?”) typically flows from the operational level upward.
Control information (“Is business going as planned?”) typically flows from
the top level downward. For example, a senior manager notes that sales
figures are declining. She queries down through the organization to find
more information to control the declining sales. From mid‐level
management, she may learn that only the Midwest region is experiencing
a decline. From the operational level, she may learn that the sales force in
that region has had significant turnover and that 40 percent of its sales
representatives have fewer than six months of experience.
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More specifically, let’s look at some examples of possible types of
information and decisions different levels of the organization based on
information from an invoice processing system based on the graphic
above.
Level
Types of
Informatio
n
Area of
Focus or
Concern
Decision
Example
Supportin
g
Informatio
n from the
IT System
Strategic Overall sales
figures
Amount of
increase in
market
share.
Monitor
sales volume
vs.
projected
sales.
Decide to
discontinue
under‐
performing
products.
The system
could
produce a
report of
products
where the
sales volume
is not
meeting the
projected
volume.
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Level
Types of
Informatio
n
Area of
Focus or
Concern
Decision
Example
Supportin
g
Informatio
n from the
IT System
Strategic Overall Sales
Figures
Determine
manufacturi
ng capacity
requirement
s and
resource
utilization.
Identify
increasing
costs of raw
materials
due to
increased oil
prices.
Decide
whether to
reduce
production
of products
that use
significant
petroleum‐
based
ingredients.
The system
could
provide a
report on
products
that include
more than
10%
petroleum‐
based
ingredients.
Managerial Monthly
Invoices
Plan
monthly
production
schedule.
Schedule
employees.
Plan
maintenance
schedules.
Manage
inventory.
Decide to
increase
production
schedule to
meet
increased
demands on
certain
products.
The system
would
provide
product
sales volume
information
to indicate
high‐
demand
products.
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Level
Types of
Informatio
n
Area of
Focus or
Concern
Decision
Example
Supportin
g
Informatio
n from the
IT System
Managerial Monthly
Invoices
Impact on
monthly
payroll;
overtime
hours
worked.
Decide to
increase
number of
employees
in certain
departments
to reduce
excessive
overtime.
The system
could
provide a
report
indicating
where sales
exceeded
projected
demand by
15%.
Operational Invoice Data Update
inventory,
schedule
production.
Coordinate
shipping.
Decide to
negotiate
shipping
rates with
most‐used
shippers.
The system
could
produce a
report of the
volume of
shipping
done with
each
shipping
vendor and
their
shipping
rates.
To provide a more personal example, think about the information you can
gain from your online bank account system. The system can show your
current balance, total of deposits, total of withdrawals, pending payments
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(if you use online bill paying), etc. Then based on information the system
provides, you can make more informed decisions about your budgeting
and spending. If the system showed information that last month your
total withdrawals at ATM machines had increased significantly, on
average you were hitting the ATM machine 3 or 4 times each week, and
the withdrawals averaged $50 per withdrawal, you could decide to limit
yourself to once‐a‐week ATM withdrawals of no more than $100. Further
analysis of your spending habits could show a significant amount of
money being spent daily on eating lunch out. You could then decide to
pack your lunch two days a week. This shows how you could make fact‐
based decisions supported by information from the banking information
system.
Keep in mind that information technology is simply a tool. Knowing how
to use the tool correctly is instrumental to overall effectiveness. The key
to using IT successfully is knowing what data an information system
contains and how the data can be converted into useful information to
support decision making at each level in the organization. This helps
organizations achieve their business strategy and maintain or increase its
competitive advantage.
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Data
This week we will take a closer look at data, how it is stored and used,
and how it is organized. While it is not expected that you will become
database experts, it is critical that you understand the fundamentals of
how data is stored, arranged, classified, linked together, and secured for
efficiency in providing information. Data is the key to information
systems. Data is the raw facts collected from various transactions and
events throughout an organization. Individually, the data represents a
specific item such as a product code, customer address, invoice amount,
etc. Collectively, information systems transform the data into useful
information. For example, collecting the totals of all the invoices for a
given month lets us know how much was sold. Therefore, if information is
derived from data, it is critical that the data be correct both in content
and format. Accuracy and data integrity enable the organization to rely on
the information to effectively manage, control, plan, and oversee what’s
going on in the business.
In today’s business environment, there is tremendous power in linking
databases throughout the enterprise to get the right information to the
right people at the right time. In addition, databases can provide strategic
business intelligence to effectively support decision making. However, it’s
important to emphasize that ultimately it is the ability of employees and
managers to interpret the information, understand how to apply it
effectively, and use their experience and knowledge that maximizes the
value of the information in their decision making.
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Data and
Databases
Introduction
You have been introduced to the five key components of information
systems. However, two components, hardware and software, by
themselves do not make a computer useful. Imagine if you turned on a
computer, started the word processor, but could not save a document.
Imagine if you opened a music player, but there was no music to play.
Imagine opening a web browser, but there were no web pages. Without
data, hardware and software are not very useful.
Data, Information, and Knowledge
Data is the raw bits and pieces of information with no context. If I told
you, “15, 23, 14, 85,” you would not have learned anything. But I would
have given you data.
Data can be quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative data is numeric, the
result of a measurement, count, or some other mathematical calculation.
Qualitative data is descriptive. “Ruby Red,” the color of a 2013 Ford
Focus, is an example of qualitative data. A number can be qualitative too:
If I tell you my favorite number is 5, that is qualitative data because it is
descriptive, not the result of a measurement or mathematical calculation.
By itself, data is not that useful. To be useful, it needs to be given context.
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Returning to the example above, if I told you that “15, 23, 14, and 85″ are
the numbers of students that had registered for upcoming classes, that
would be information. By adding the context—that the numbers represent
the count of students registering for specific classes—I have converted
data into information.
Once we have put our data into context, aggregated and analyzed it, we
can use it to make decisions for our organization. We can say that this
consumption of information produces knowledge. This knowledge can be
used to make decisions, set policies, and even spark innovation.
The final step up the information ladder is the step from knowledge
(knowing a lot about a topic) to wisdom. We can say that someone has
wisdom when they can combine their knowledge and experience to
produce a deeper understanding of a topic. It often takes many years to
develop wisdom on a particular topic, and requires patience.
Information Ladder
Progression of the
usefulness of data with
information, knowledge,
and wisdom
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Examples of Data
Almost all software programs require data to do anything useful. For
example, if you are editing a document in a word processor such as
Microsoft Word, the document you are working on is the data. The word‐
processing software can manipulate the data: create a new document,
duplicate a document, or modify a document. Some other examples of
data are an MP3 music file, a video file, a spreadsheet, a web page, and an
e‐book. In some cases, such as with an e‐book, you may only have the
ability to read the data.
Databases
The goal of many information systems is to transform data into
information in order to generate knowledge that can be used for decision
making. In order to do this, the system must be able to take data, put the
data into context, and provide tools for aggregation and analysis. A
database is designed for just such a purpose.
A database is an organized collection of related information. It is an
organized collection, because in a database, all data is described and
associated with other data. All information in a database should be
related as well; separate databases should be created to manage
unrelated information. For example, a database that contains information
about students should not also hold information about company stock
prices. Databases are not always digital—a filing cabinet, for instance,
might be considered a form of database. For the purposes of this text, we
will only consider digital databases.
Relational Databases
Databases can be organized in many different ways, and thus take many
forms. The most popular form of database today is the relational
database. Popular examples of relational databases are Microsoft Access,
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MySQL, and Oracle. A relational database is one in which data is
organized into one or more tables. Each table has a set of fields, which
define the nature of the data stored in the table. A record is one instance
of a set of fields in a table. To visualize this, think of the records as the
rows of the table and the fields as the columns of the table. In the
example below, we have a table of student information, with each row
representing a student and each column representing one piece of
information about the student.
Relational Database
Students’ names and information about the students
In a relational database, all the tables are related by one or more fields, so
that it is possible to connect all the tables in the database through the
field(s) they have in common. For each table, one of the fields is identified
as a primary key. This key is the unique identifier for each record in the
table. To help you understand these terms further, let’s walk through the
process of designing a database.
Designing a Database
Suppose a university wants to create an information system to track
participation in student clubs. After interviewing several people, the
design team learns that the goal of implementing the system is to give
better insight into how the university funds clubs. This will be
accomplished by tracking how many members each club has and how
active the clubs are. From this, the team decides that the system must
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keep track of the clubs, their members, and their events. Using this
information, the design team determines that the following tables need to
be created:
• Clubs: This table will track the club name, the club president, and a
short description of the club.
• Students: The table will contain student name, email, and year of
birth.
• Memberships: This table will correlate students with clubs, allowing
us to have any given student join
multiple clubs.
• Events: This table will track when the clubs meet and how many
students showed up.
Now that the design team has determined which tables to create, they
need to define the specific information that each table will hold. This
requires identifying the fields that will be in each table. For example, Club
Name would be one of the fields in the Clubs table. First Name and Last
Name would be fields in the Students table. Finally, since this will be a
relational database, every table should have a field in common with at
least one other table (in other words: They should have a relationship
with each other).
In order to properly create this relationship, a primary key must be
selected for each table. This key is a unique identifier for each record in
the table. For example, in the Students table, it might be possible to use
students’ last name as a way to uniquely identify them. However, it is
more than likely that some students will share a last name (like Rodriguez,
Smith, or Lee), so a different field should be selected. A student’s email
address might be a good choice for a primary key, since email addresses
are unique. However, a primary key cannot change, so this would mean
that if students changed their email address, we would have to remove
them from the database and then re‐insert them—not an attractive
proposition. Our solution is to create a value for each student—a user
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ID—that will act as a primary key. We will also do this for each of the
student clubs. This solution is quite common and is the reason you have
so many user IDs.
You can see the final database design in the figure below:
Student Clubs Database
A user ID is the primary key that relates one table to another
With this design, not only do we have a way to organize all of the
information we need to meet the requirements, but we have also
successfully related all the tables together. Here’s what the database
tables might look like with some sample data. Note that the Memberships
table has the sole purpose of allowing us to relate multiple students to
multiple clubs.
Clubs Database Table
Club ID Club Name President Short desc
1 Cheese Club 14 To talk about our
love of cheese.
2 Chess Club 1 To learn how to
become better
chess players.
Sample data on specific clubs
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Club ID Club Name President Short desc
Sample data on specific clubs
3 Archery Club 6 To compete in
archery.
Students Database Table
ID
First
Name Last Name Email
Year of
Birth
1 Peter Lee plee@university.edu1992
2 Jonathan Edwards jedwards@university.edu1994
3 Marilyn Johnson mjohnson@university.edu1993
6 Joe Kim jki@university.edu1992
12 Haley Martinez hmartinez@university.edu1993
14 John Mfume jmfume@university.edu1991
15 David Letty dletty@university.edu1995
Sample data on students
Memberships Database Table
Club ID Student ID
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Club ID Student ID
1 1
1 2
1 14
2 1
2 3
2 5
2 6
3 1
3 6
3 12
3 14
3 15
Sample data on memberships
Events Database Table
Club ID Event name Date Attendance
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Club ID Event name Date Attendance
1 Cheese promo 1/10/2013 6
2 MLK Tournament 1/21/2013 17
3 January meeting 1/22/2013 12
2 January meeting 1/28/2013 10
Sample data on events
Normalization
When designing a database, one important concept to understand is
normalization. In simple terms, to normalize a database means to design
it in a way that: 1) reduces duplication of data between tables and 2)
gives the table as much flexibility as possible.
In the Student Clubs database design, the design team worked to achieve
these objectives. For example, to track memberships, a simple solution
might have been to create a Members field in the Clubs table and then
just list the names of all of the members there. However, this design
would mean that if a student joined two clubs, then his or her information
would have to be entered a second time. Instead, the designers solved
this problem by using two tables: Students and Memberships.
In this design, when a student joins their first club, we first must add the
student to the Students table, where their first name, last name, email
address, and birth year are entered. This addition to the Students table
will generate a student ID. Now we will add a new entry to denote that
the student is a member of a specific club. This is accomplished by adding
a record with the student ID and the club ID in the Memberships table. If
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this student joins a second club, we do not have to duplicate the entry of
the student’s name, email, and birth year; instead, we only need to make
another entry in the Memberships table of the second club’s ID and the
student’s ID.
The design of the Student Clubs database also makes it simple to change
the design without major modifications to the existing structure. For
example, if the design team was asked to add functionality to the system
to track faculty advisors to the clubs, we could easily accomplish this by
adding a Faculty Advisors table (similar to the Students table) and then
adding a new field to the Clubs table to hold the Faculty Advisor ID.
Data Types
When defining the fields in a database table, we must give each field a
data type. For example, the field Birth Year is a year, so it will be a
number, while First Name will be text. Most modern databases allow for
several different data types to be stored. Some of the more common data
types are listed here:
• Text: for storing non‐numeric data that is brief, generally under 256
characters. The database designer can identify the maximum length
of the text.
• Number: for storing numbers. There are usually a few different
number types that can be selected, depending on how large the
largest number will be.
• Yes/No: a special form of the number data type that is (usually) one
byte long, with a 0 for “No” or “False” and a 1 for “Yes” or “True.”
• Date/Time: a special form of the number data type that can be
interpreted as a number or a time.
• Currency: a special form of the number data type that formats all
values with a currency indicator and two decimal places.
• Paragraph Text: data type that allows for text longer than 256
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characters.
• Object: data type that allows for the storage of data that cannot be
entered via keyboard, such as an image or a music file.
There are two important reasons that we must properly define the data
type of a field. First, a data type tells the database what functions can be
performed with the data. For example, if we wish to perform
mathematical functions with one of the fields, we must be sure to tell the
database that the field is a number data type. So if we have, say, a field
storing birth year, we can subtract the number stored in that field from
the current year to get age.
The second important reason to define data type is so that the proper
amount of storage space is allocated for our data. For example, if the First
Name field is defined as a text(50) data type, this means 50 characters are
allocated for each first name we want to store. However, even if the first
name is only 5 characters long, 50 characters (bytes) will be allocated.
While this may not seem like a big deal, if our table ends up holding
50,000 names, we are allocating 50 * 50,000 = 2,500,000 bytes for
storage of these values. It may be prudent to reduce the size of the field
so we do not waste storage space.
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The Difference Between a Database and a Spreadsheet
Many times, when introducing the concept of databases to students,
they quickly decide that a database is pretty much the same as a
spreadsheet. After all, a spreadsheet stores data in an organized
fashion, using rows and columns, and looks very similar to a database
table. This misunderstanding extends beyond the classroom:
spreadsheets are used as a substitute for databases in all types of
situations every day, all over the world.
To be fair, for simple uses, a spreadsheet can substitute for a
database quite well. If a simple listing of rows and columns (a single
table) is all that is needed, then creating a database is probably
overkill. In our Student Clubs example, if we only needed to track a
listing of clubs, the number of members, and the contact information
for the president, we could get away with a single spreadsheet.
However, the need to include a listing of events and the names of
members would be problematic if tracked with a spreadsheet.
When several types of data must be mixed together, or when the
relationships between these types of data are complex, then a
spreadsheet is not the best solution. A database allows data from
several entities (such as students, clubs, memberships, and events) to
all be related together into one whole. While a spreadsheet does
allow you to define what kinds of values can be entered into its cells,
a database provides more intuitive and powerful ways to define the
types of data that go into each field, reducing possible errors and
allowing for easier analysis.
Though not good for replacing databases, spreadsheets can be ideal
tools for analyzing the data stored in a database. A spreadsheet
package can be connected to a specific table or query in a database
and used to create charts or perform analysis on that data.
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Structured Query Language
Once you have a database designed and loaded with data, how will you
do something useful with it? The primary way to work with a relational
database is to use Structured Query Language, SQL (pronounced
“sequel,” or simply stated as S‐Q‐L). Almost all applications that work with
databases (such as database management systems, discussed below)
make use of SQL as a way to analyze and manipulate relational data. As
its name implies, SQL is a language that can be used to work with a
relational database. From a simple request for data to a complex update
operation, SQL is a mainstay of programmers and database
administrators. To give you a taste of what SQL might look like, here are a
couple of examples using our Student Clubs database.
• The following query will retrieve a list of the first and last names of
the club presidents:
SELECT “First Name”, “Last Name” FROM “Students” WHERE
“Students.ID” = “Clubs.President”
• The following query will create a list of the number of students in
each club, listing the club name and then the number of members:
SELECT “Clubs.Club Name”, COUNT(“Memberships.Student ID”)
FROM “Clubs” LEFT JOIN “Memberships” ON “Clubs.Club ID” =
“Memberships.Club ID”
An in‐depth description of how SQL works is beyond the scope of this
introductory text, but these examples should give you an idea of the
power of using SQL to manipulate relational data. Many database
packages, such as Microsoft Access, allow you to visually create the query
you want to construct and then generate the SQL query for you.
Other Types of Databases
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The relational database model is the most used database model today.
However, many other database models exist that provide different
strengths than the relational model. The hierarchical database model,
popular in the 1960s and 1970s, connected data together in a hierarchy,
allowing for a parent/child relationship between data. The document‐
centric model allowed for a more unstructured data storage by placing
data into “documents” that could then be manipulated.
Perhaps the most interesting new development is the concept of NoSQL
(from the phrase “not only SQL”). NoSQL arose from the need to solve the
problem of large‐scale databases spread over several servers or even
across the world. For a relational database to work properly, it is
important that only one person be able to manipulate a piece of data at a
time, a concept known as record‐locking. But with today’s large‐scale
databases (think Google and Amazon), this is just not possible. A NoSQL
database can work with data in a looser way, allowing for a more
unstructured environment, communicating changes to the data over time
to all the servers that are part of the database.
Database Management Systems
To the computer, a database looks like one or more files. In order for the
data in the database to be read, changed, added, or removed, a software
program must access it. Many software applications have this ability:
iTunes can read its database to give you a listing of its songs (and play the
songs); your mobile‐phone software can interact with your list of
contacts. But what about applications to create or manage a database?
What software can you use to create a database, change a database’s
structure, or simply do analysis? That is the purpose of a category of
software applications called database management systems (DBMS).
DBMS packages generally provide an interface to view and change the
design of the database, create queries, and develop reports. Most of
these packages are designed to work with a specific type of database,
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but generally are compatible with a wide range of databases.
For example, Apache OpenOffice.org Base (see screenshot) can be used
to create, modify, and analyze databases in open‐database (ODB) format.
Microsoft’s Access DBMS is used to working with databases in its own
Microsoft Access Database format. Both Access and Base have the ability
to read and write to other database formats as well.
Apache OpenOffice.org Base
Database management system
Microsoft Access and Open Office Base are examples of personal
database‐management systems. These systems are primarily used to
develop and analyze single‐user databases. These databases are not
meant to be shared across a network or the internet, but are instead
installed on a particular device and work with a single user at a time.
Enterprise Databases
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A database that can only be used by a single user at a time is not going to
meet the needs of most organizations. As computers have become
networked and are now joined worldwide via the internet, a class of
database has emerged that can be accessed by two, ten, or even a million
people. These databases are sometimes installed on a single computer to
be accessed by a group of people at a single location. Other times, they
are installed over several servers worldwide, meant to be accessed by
millions. These relational enterprise database packages are built and
supported by companies such as Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM. The open‐
source MySQL is also an enterprise database.
As stated earlier, the relational database model does not scale well. The
term scale here refers to a database getting larger and larger, being
distributed on a larger number of computers connected via a network.
Some companies are looking to provide large‐scale database solutions by
moving away from the relational model to other, more flexible models.
For example, Google now offers the App Engine Datastore, which is
based on NoSQL. Developers can use the App Engine Datastore to
develop applications that access data from anywhere in the world.
Amazon.com offers several database services for enterprise use, including
Amazon RDS, which is a relational database service; and Amazon
DynamoDB, a NoSQL enterprise solution.
Big Data
A new buzzword that has been capturing the attention of businesses
lately is big data. The term refers to such massively large data sets that
conventional database tools do not have the processing power to analyze
them. For example, Walmart must process over one million customer
transactions every hour. Storing and analyzing that much data is beyond
the power of traditional database‐management tools. Understanding the
best tools and techniques to manage and analyze these large data sets is
a problem that governments and businesses alike are trying to solve.
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Data Warehouse
As organizations have begun to utilize databases as the centerpiece of
their operations, the need to fully understand and leverage the data they
are collecting has become more and more apparent. However, directly
analyzing the data that is needed for day‐to‐day operations is not a good
idea; we do not want to tax the operations of the company more than we
need to. Further, organizations also want to analyze data in a historical
sense: How does the data we have today compare with the same set of
data this time last month, or last year? From these needs arose the
concept of the data warehouse.
What Is Metadata?
The term metadata can be understood as “data about data.” For
example, when looking at one of the values of Year of Birth in the
Students table, the data itself may be “1992.” The metadata about
that value would be the field name Year of Birth, the time it was last
updated, and the data type (integer). Another example of metadata
could be for an MP3 music file; information such as the length of the
song, the artist, the album, the file size, and even the album cover
art, are classified as metadata. When a database is being designed, a
“data dictionary” is created to hold the metadata, defining the fields
and structure of the database.
The concept of the data warehouse is simple: extract data from one or
more of the organization’s databases and load it into the data warehouse
(which is itself another database) for storage and analysis. However, the
execution of this concept is not that simple. A data warehouse should be
designed so that it meets the following criteria:
• It uses nonoperational data. This means that the data warehouse is
using a copy of data from the active databases that the company
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uses in its day‐to‐day operations, so the data warehouse must pull
data from the existing databases on a regular, scheduled basis.
• The data is time‐variant. This means that whenever data is loaded
into the data warehouse, it receives a time stamp, which allows for
comparisons between different time periods.
• The data is standardized. Because the data in a data warehouse
usually comes from several different sources, it is possible that the
data does not use the same definitions or units. For example, our
Events table in our Student Clubs database lists the event dates
using the mm/dd/yyyy format (e.g., 01/10/2013). A table in another
database might use the format yy/mm/dd (e.g., 13/01/10) for dates.
In order for the data warehouse to match up dates, a standard date
format would have to be agreed upon and all data loaded into the
data warehouse would have to be converted to use this standard
format. This process is called extraction‐transformation‐load (ETL).
There are two primary schools of thought when designing a data
warehouse: bottom‐up and top‐down. The bottom‐up approach starts by
creating small data warehouses, called data marts, to solve specific
business problems. As these data marts are created, they can be
combined into a larger data warehouse. The top‐down approach suggests
that we should start by creating an enterprise‐wide data warehouse and
then, as specific business needs are identified, create smaller data marts
from the data warehouse.
Benefits of Data Warehouses
Organizations find data warehouses quite beneficial for a number of
reasons:
• The process of developing a data warehouse forces an organization
to better understand the data that it is currently collecting and,
equally important, what data is not being collected.
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• A data warehouse provides a centralized view of all data being
collected across the enterprise and provides a means for determining
data that is inconsistent.
• Once all data is identified as consistent, an organization can generate
one version of the truth. This is important when the company wants
to report consistent statistics about itself, such as revenue or number
of employees.
• By having a data warehouse, snapshots of data can be taken over
time. This creates a historical record of data, which allows for an
analysis of trends.
• A data warehouse provides tools to combine data, which can provide
new information and analysis.
Data warehouse process (top‐down)
Data Mining
Data mining is the process of analyzing data to find previously unknown
trends, patterns, and associations in order to make decisions. Generally,
data mining is accomplished through automated means against extremely
large data sets, such as a data warehouse. Some examples of data mining
include:
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• An analysis of sales from a large grocery chain might determine that
milk is purchased more frequently the day after it rains in cities with
a population of less than 50,000.
• A bank may find that loan applicants whose bank accounts show
particular deposit and withdrawal patterns are not good credit risks.
• A baseball team may find that collegiate baseball players with
specific statistics in hitting, pitching, and fielding make for more
successful major league players.
In some cases, a data‐mining project is begun with a hypothetical result in
mind. For example, a grocery chain may already have some idea that
buying patterns change after it rains and want to get a deeper
understanding of exactly what is happening. In other cases, there are no
presuppositions and a data‐mining program is run against large data sets
in order to find patterns and associations.
Privacy Concerns
The increasing power of data mining has caused concerns for many,
especially in the area of privacy. In today’s digital world, it is becoming
easier than ever to take data from disparate sources and combine them to
do new forms of analysis. In fact, a whole industry has sprung up around
this technology: data brokers. These firms combine publicly accessible
data with information obtained from the government and other sources
to create vast warehouses of data about people and companies that they
can then sell.
Business Intelligence and Business Analytics
With tools such as data warehousing and data mining at their disposal,
businesses are learning how to use information to their advantage. The
term business intelligence is used to describe the process that
organizations use to take data they are collecting and analyze it in the
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hopes of obtaining a competitive advantage. Besides using data from their
internal databases, firms often purchase information from data brokers to
get a big‐picture understanding of their industries. Business analytics is
the term used to describe the use of internal company data to improve
business processes and practices.
Knowledge Management
We end the chapter with a discussion on the concept of knowledge
management (KM). All companies accumulate knowledge over the course
of their existence. Some of this knowledge is written down or saved, but
not in an organized fashion. Much of this knowledge is not written down;
instead, it is stored inside the heads of its employees. Knowledge
management is the process of formalizing the capture, indexing, and
storing of the company’s knowledge in order to benefit from the
experiences and insights that the company has captured during its
existence.
Summary
We have learned about the role that data and databases play in the
context of information systems. Data is made up of small facts and
information without context. If you give data context, then you have
information. Knowledge is gained when information is consumed and
used for decision making. A database is an organized collection of related
information. Relational databases are the most widely used type of
database, where data is structured into tables, and all tables must be
related to each other through unique identifiers. A database management
system (DBMS) is a software application that is used to create and
manage databases and can take the form of a personal DBMS, used by
one person, or an enterprise DBMS that can be used by multiple users. A
data warehouse is a special form of database that takes data from other
databases in an enterprise and organizes it for analysis. Data mining is the
process of looking for patterns and relationships in large data sets. Many
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businesses use databases, data warehouses, and data‐mining techniques
in order to produce business intelligence and gain a competitive
advantage.
Study Questions
1. What is the difference between data, information, and
knowledge?
2. Explain in your own words how the data component relates to
the hardware and software components of information systems.
3. What is the difference between quantitative data and
qualitative data? In what situations could the number 42 be
considered qualitative data?
4. What are the characteristics of a relational database?
5. When would using a personal DBMS make sense?
6. What is the difference between a spreadsheet and a database?
List three differences between them.
7. Describe what the term normalization means.
8. Why is it important to define the data type of a field when
designing a relational database?
9. Name a database you interact with frequently. What would
some of the field names be?
10. What is metadata?
11. Name three advantages of using a data warehouse.
12. What is data mining?
Licenses and Attributions
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/Information%20Systems%20for%20Business%20and%20Beyond )
from Information Systems for Business and Beyond by David T. Bourgeois
is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) license. © 2014, David
T. Bourgeois. UMGC has modified this work and it is available under the
original license.
© 2023 University of Maryland Global Campus
All links to external sites were verified at the time of publication. UMGC is not responsible for the
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Stage 1: Strategic Use of Technology (4 Pages)
Before you begin work on this assignment, be sure you have read the Case Study on Maryland Technology Consultants (MTC). MTC is a fictional company created for IFSM 300’s Case Study. It is also recommended that you review the additional Stages (2, 3 and 4) as well as the vendor brochure provided for Stage 4. This will help you understand the overall report and potential solution.
Overview
As a business analyst in the Chief Information Officer’s (CIO’s) department of Maryland Technology Consulting (MTC), you have been assigned to conduct an analysis, develop a set of system requirements, evaluate a proposed solution, and develop an implementation plan for an IT solution (applicant tracking or hiring system) to improve the hiring process for MTC. This work will be completed in four stages, and each of these four stages will focus on one section of an overall
Business Analysis and System Recommendation (BA&SR) report to be delivered to the CIO.
Section
I. Strategic Use of Technology
(Stage 1) – The first step is to look at the organization and explain how an IT system could be used to support MTC’s strategies and objectives and support its decision-making processes.
Section II. Process Analysis (Stage 2) – Next you will evaluate current processes and workflow and explain how MTC can use IT to improve its processes and workflow.
Section III. Requirements (Stage 3) –Then you will identify key stakeholder expectations for the new technology solution to support MTC’s hiring process and develop a set of requirements.
Section IV. System Recommendation (Stage 4) – Finally, you will review the provided Vendor brochure for a proposed applicant tracking system and explain how it meets the requirements and what needs to be done to implement the system within MTC.
The sections of the BA&SR will be developed and submitted as four staged assignments. For stages 1, 2, and 3, only the material associated with that stage will be graded. The stage 2, 3, and 4 submissions will include the stage that is due, which will be graded according to the assignment requirements and rubric criteria, as well as include all previously submitted stages with any revisions made. It is recommended that when preparing stages 2, 3, and 4, you review any feedback from previous assignments to help improve the effectiveness of your overall report and increase the likelihood of a well-written final submission. For stage 4, the complete BA&SR submission includes grading criteria for evaluating if the document is a very effective and cohesive assemblage of the four sections, is well formatted across all sections and flows smoothly from one section to the next.
Assignment – BA&SR:
Introduction
and Section I. Strategic Use of Technology
Write an appropriate Introduction to the entire BA&SR Report (guidelines are provided below). Section I of the BA&SR document contains an organizational analysis and identifies ways in which an information system to improve the hiring process can help MTC, the organization in the case study, meet its strategic goals and meet the information needs of various levels of management.
Using the case study, assignment instructions, Content readings, and external research, develop your Introduction and Section I. Strategic Use of Technology. To start, review the readings in Weeks 1 and 2. The case study tells you that the executives and employees at MTC have identified a need for an effective and efficient applicant tracking or hiring system.
As you review the case study, use the assignment instructions to take notes to assist in your analysis.
Use the outline format, headings and tables provided and follow all formatting instructions below. For Stage 1, create a title page and reference page that will be used for all 4 stages.
Apply specific information from the case study to address
each area.
Introduction
Begin your report with a clear, concise, well organized introduction to explain why you are writing and what is to come in the complete BA&SR report (not just Stage 1). This should briefly set the context for MTC – business purpose, environment, and current challenges related to hiring. Then
specifically provide what is to come in the full report. Keep your audience in mind – this is an internal report for the CIO of MTC. Provide an introduction in
one paragraph that engages the reader’s interest in continuing to read your report.
Strategic Use of Technology
A.
Business Strategy – In this section, you should clearly present – at a broad level – what MTC’s business strategy is (refer to case study information), then what issues the current manual hiring process may present that interfere with achieving that strategy, and how improving the hiring process will benefit MTC and support its business strategy. (Use two to three strong sentences that explain how the system would support the strategy and justify your position with specifics from the Case Study.)
B.
Competitive Advantage – First, provide an overview of the competitive environment that MTC is currently operating in based on information from the case study. Then explain how and why MTC can use the new hiring system to increase its competitive advantage and help achieve its overall business strategy. Your explanation should demonstrate your understanding of what competitive advantage is as well as how improving the hiring process will help achieve MTC’s competitive advantage. Include how MTC can use the type of data or information that will be in the hiring system to improve its competitive advantage. (Paragraph of 4-5 sentences)
C.
Strategic Objectives- Review the four Strategic Goals presented in the Strategic Business Plan section of the MTC Case Study. The CIO has asked you to come up with an example of an objective to help meet each goal and explain how a new hiring system would help achieve that objective. As you can see from the example provided in the table below, an objective is a statement that is clear (not vague) and is something that can be measured or evaluated to determine whether it has been met or not. An important part of setting objectives is that they are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound). In order to evaluate whether an objective has been achieved, it’s important to be able to measure it. Consider this difference – Student wants to get a degree (non-specific and not measurable) vs. Student wants to earn a degree in Information Systems Management by May 2020. (This objective provides specific what and when.) First, insert an introductory opening sentence for this table. Then, for each of the rows listed below, complete the table with the requested information. (Provide an introductory sentence and copy the table. Create an objective for each of the 3 remaining goals and explain using 2-3 complete sentences for each.)
Note: This is not about an objective to implement a hiring system or broad business goals but rather the focus is on objectives that would be supported by the use of a technology solution to support/improve the hiring process.
Strategic Goal
(from case study)
Objective
(clear, measurable and time-bound)
Explanation
(2-3 sentences)
Increase MTC Business Development by winning new contracts in the areas of IT Consulting
Build a cadre of consultants internationally to provide remote research and analysis support to MTC’s onsite teams in the U. S.
EXAMPLE PROVIDED – (Retain text but remove this label and gray shading in your report)
Increase international recruiting efforts and employ 5 research analysts in the next 12 months.
The new hiring system would allow applicants from around the world to apply online, increasing the number of international applicants. It would enable the recruiters to carefully monitor the applications for these positions, identify the necessary research and analysis skills needed, and screen resumes for these key skills. Recruiters could quickly view the number of applicants and identify when additional recruiting efforts are needed to meet the objective.
Continue to increase MTC’s ability to quickly provide high quality consultants to awarded contracts to best serve the clients’ needs
Increase MTC’s competitive advantage in the IT consulting marketplace by increasing its reputation for having IT consultants who are highly skilled in leading edge technologies and innovative solutions for its clients
D.
Decision Making – In the reading, “How Information Supports Decision Making,” you were introduced to the information requirements of various levels of the organization. First, insert an introductory opening sentence for this section. Then, for each of the management roles listed below, complete the table with the
appropriate level (as defined in the reading – one word is all that is required in this column), an example of a
specific decision
supported by the Hiring System to be made at that level, and
what type of information from the hiring system would be needed to support that decision. Think about what information the hiring system could provide about applicants, etc., and then identify an example of a decision that might be made by each level of management. A decision is a choice or conclusion that the management might make about business operations or future planning. This is not about the decisions about implementing a new technology solution or about general responsibilities of each role.
Example: A decision example could be stated as:
CEO decides to expand MTC’s services to include cybersecurity. He can make this decision because the hiring system provides information that many applicants have the needed skills, certifications and experience to enable MTC to easily recruit IT consultants in this area.
(Provide an introductory sentence then copy the table and insert information within, writing in complete sentences.)
Role
Level as defined in Course Content Reading
Example of Possible Decision Supported by Hiring System
Example of Information the Hiring System Could Provide to Support Your Example Decision
Senior/Executive Managers
(Decisions made by the CEO and the CFO at MTC supported by the hiring system.)
Middle Managers
(Decisions made by the Director of HR and the Manager of Recruiting supported by the hiring system.)
Operational Managers
(Decisions made by the line managers in the organization who are hiring for their projects supported by the hiring system.)
Formatting Your Assignment
Consider your audience – you are writing in the role of an MTC business analyst and your audience is MTC and your boss, the CIO. Don’t discuss MTC as if the reader has no knowledge of the organization. Also do not reference “stage #” or “case study” – these are class terms and would not be in a business report.
Use third person consistently throughout the report. In third person, the writer avoids the pronouns I, we, my, and ours. The third person is used to make the writing more objective by taking the individual, the “self,” out of the writing. This method is very helpful for effective business writing, a form in which facts, not opinion, drive the tone of the text. Writing in the third person allows the writer to come across as unbiased and thus more informed.
· Create a
title page that includes: The title of report, company name, your name, Course and Section number and date (revise date with each submission).
· In Stage 1, you are preparing the first part of a 4-stage report. Use the structure, headings, and
outline format provided here for your report. Use the numbering/lettering in the assignment instructions as shown below.
Introduction
I. Strategic Use of Technology
A. Business Strategy
B. Competitive Advantage
C. Strategic Objectives
D. Decision Making
· Write a short concise paper: Use the recommendations provided in each area for
length of response. It’s important to value
quality over quantity.
Assignment should not exceed 4 pages excluding title and reference pages.
· Content areas should be
double spaced; table entries should be
single-spaced.
· To
copy a table
: Move your cursor to the table, then click on the small box that appears at the upper left corner of the table to highlight the table; right click and COPY the table; put the cursor in your paper where you want the table and right click and PASTE the table.
· Ensure that each of the
tables is preceded by an
introductory sentence that explains what is contained in the table, so the reader understands
why the table has been included.
·
Use
at least two
resources with
APA formatted citation and reference
. Use at least one external reference and one from the course content. Course content should be from the class reading content, not the assignment instructions or case study itself. Refer to
APA Requirements for IFSM 300 Classes that is posted under Content>Course Resources>Writing Resources for specifics related to citing from the class content. For information on general APA format, refer to Content>Course Resources>Writing Resources.
· Begin a
Reference Page for resources required for this assignment. Additional research in the next stages will be added to this as you build the report. The final document should contain all references from all stages appropriately formatted and alphabetized. Use APA format for your reference page.
· Running headers are
not required for this report.
· Compare your work to the
Grading Rubric below to be sure you have met content and quality criteria.
· Submit your paper as a
Word document, or a document that can be read in Word. Keep tables in Word format – do not paste in graphics.
· Your submission should include
your last name first in the filename:
Lastname_firstname_Stage_1
GRADING RUBRIC:
Criteria
Far Above Standards
Above Standards
Meets Standards
Below Standards
Well Below Standards
Possible Points
Introduction
Describes the organization and provides an introduction to the overall Report
16 points
14.4-16 Points
The introduction is very effective; is clear, logical, derived from the Case Study; and demonstrates a sophisticated level of writing.
13.6 points
13.6 Points
The introduction is clear, logical, and derived from the Case Study.
12points
12 Points
The introduction is adequate and is derived from the Case Study.
10.4 Points
10.4 Points
The introduction is not clear, logical and/or derived from the Case Study.
0 points
0-8 Points
Content missing or extremely incomplete, did not reflect the assignment instructions, showed little or no originality, demonstrated little effort, is not derived from the Case Study; and/or is not original work for this class section.
16
Strategy
How the system will support the organization’s strategy as derived from the case study
32 points
28.8 – 32 Points
The explanation is clear, logical and fully supported with information from the Case study and using a sophisticated level of writing.
27.2 points
25.6 – 27.2 Points
The explanation is clear, logical and supported with information from the Case study.
24points
22.4 – 24 Points
The explanation is provided and supported with information from the Case Study.
20.8 Points
19.2 – 20.8 Points
The explanation is not clear, logical and/or supported with information from the Case Study.
0 points
0 – 17.6 Points
Content missing or extremely incomplete, did not reflect the assignment instructions, showed little or no originality, demonstrated little effort, is not supported with information from the Case Study; and/or is not original work for this class section.
32
Competitive Advantage
Explanation of how the system and its data can be used for competitive advantage
24 points
20.8 – 24 Points
Clear, complete, logical, derived from the Case Study, and demonstrates sophisticated analysis and writing.
20.4 Points
20.4 Points
Complete and accurate; derived from the Case Study, demonstrates analysis and effective writing.
17.52 Points
16-17.6 Points
Explanation is provided and related to the Case Study, may lack specifics and/or clear logic.
14.4 Points
14.4 Points
Explanation is not clear, logical and/or supported with information from the Case Study.
0 points
0-12.8 Points
Content missing or extremely incomplete, did not reflect the assignment instructions, showed little or no originality, demonstrated little effort, is not supported with information from the Case Study; and/or is not original work for this class section.
24
Strategic Objectives
Three objectives derived from Strategic Goals in Case Study with explanation of how new hiring system would help achieve.
Generally, 0-5 points per objective. Both quantity and quality evaluated.
24 Points
20.8 – 24 Points
Objectives are clear, measurable and time-bound and are strongly and fully explained using a sophisticated level of writing.
20.4 points
20.4 Points
Objectives are clear, measurable and time-bound, and are clearly explained.
17.52 Points
16-17.6 points
Objectives are somewhat clear, measurable and time-bound, and are explained.
14.4 Points
14.4 Points
Objectives are not clear, measurable and/or time-bound, and/or are not explained.
0 points
0-12.8 Points
Content missing or extremely incomplete, did not reflect the assignment instructions, showed little or no originality, demonstrated little effort, is not supported with information from the Case Study; and/or is not original work for this class section.
24
Decision-Making
Types of decisions supported by the system for each of the three levels of the organization
Generally, 0-5 points per decision example. Both quantity and quality evaluated.
24 Points
20.8 – 24 points
Identified correctly and fully, clearly and logically explained; are derived from the Case Study; and demonstrate sophisticated analysis and writing.
20.4 Points
20.4 Points
Identified correctly and clearly and logically explained; are derived from the Case Study; and demonstrate analysis and effective writing.
17.52 Points
16-17.6 Points
Identified correctly and explained and are derived from the Case Study.
14.4 Points
14.4 Points
Not all provided; and/or are not correct and/or not derived from the Case Study.
0
0-12.8 Points
Content missing or extremely incomplete, did not reflect the assignment instructions, showed little or no originality, demonstrated little effort, is not supported with information from the Case Study; and/or is not original work for this class section.
24
Research
Two or more sources–one source from within the IFSM 300 course content and one external (other than the course materials)
16 points
14.4-16 Points
Required resources are incorporated and used effectively. Sources used are relevant and timely and contribute strongly to the analysis. References are appropriately incorporated and cited using APA style.
13.6 points
13.6 Points
At least two sources are incorporated and are relevant and somewhat support the analysis. References are appropriately incorporated and cited using APA style.
12 points
12 Points
Only one resource is used and properly incorporated and/or reference(s) lack correct APA style.
10.4 points
10.4 Points
A source may be used, but is not properly incorporated or used, and/or is not effective or appropriate; and/or does not follow APA style for references and citations.
0 points
0-8 Points
No course content or external research incorporated; or reference listed is not cited within the text.
16
Format
Uses outline format provided; includes Title Page and Reference Page
24 points
20.8-24 Points
Well organized and easy to read. Very few or no errors in sentence structure, grammar, and spelling; double-spaced, written in third person and presented in a professional format.
20.4 points
20.4 Points
Effective organization; has few errors in sentence structure, grammar, and spelling; double-spaced, written in third person and presented in a professional format.
17.52 points
16-17.6 Points
Some organization; may have some errors in sentence structure, grammar and spelling. Report is double spaced and written in third person.
14.4 points
14.4 Points
Not well organized, and/or contains several grammar and/or spelling errors; and/or is not double-spaced and written in third person.
0 points
0-12.8 Points
Extremely poorly written, has many grammar and/or spelling errors, or does not convey the information required.
24
TOTAL Points Possible
160
Stage 1: Strategic Use of Technology 03/19/2020 1
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Formatting
Title Page
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Outline
