Chapter 7 Summary

A business process is a network of activities by putting inputs into outputs. There are two broad categories for process: structured process and dynamic process. Structured process is a standardized process that consist of everyday operations such as making an order, accepting returns, purchase materials, ect… Whereas dynamic processes are informal and adaptive processes that are often used in managerial decisions. Dynamic processes requires human judgement as they are strategic decisions. A workgroup process helps a department fulfills the charter and goals. An example would be the doctor’s office. Enterprise processes multiple departments such as hospitals. They often have 100-1000 users. Inter-enterprise span two or more independent organizations.

Process can be improved by 3 ways: change the process structure, change the process resources, change both process structure and resources. Changing the process might be efficient if the company just need to reorganize the process by switching the order of the steps. For example. Instead of checking inventory first, we can change to checking customer’s credit first so company doesn’t waste money on credit checking customer that got denied. If the process is not effective because it takes to long, then change the resources or add more resources. If there is a long wait at cash register, then we should add more cashier to make business more effective. Process efficiency is the ratio of output to inputs. Process effectiveness is how well a process achieve organizational strategy. Information system can improve process quality by performing an activity, augmenting a human who is performing an activity, and controlling data quality and process flow.

Business process re-engineering (BPR) is the activity of altering existing and designing new business processes to take advantage of new information system. Create more effective linkages in value chains. It is known for difficulty, slow and expensive. Inherent processes are predesigned procedures for using the software products, saved organizations from the expense, delays, and risks of business process reengineering. Customer life cycle inlcudes marketing (attract), customer acquisition(sell), relationship management(support and resell), and loss/churn (categorize). CRM database functions includes lead management apps, sales apps, relationship management apps, customer support apps. This design eliminates duplicated data and removes the possibility of inconsistent data.This database will allow the company to know not to provide $1000 labor support to a $300 customer. Enterprise resource planning is suite of apps called modules and a set of inherent processes for consolidating business operations into a single and consistent platform. It Includes functions of CRM system but also incorporate accounting, manuf, inventory, and HR apps.

ERP apps programs by ERP vendors design apps programs to be configurable so that development teams can alter them to meet an organization’s requirement without changing program code. ERP Databases develop ERP solution includes a database design as well as configuration data. Business Process Procedure is a set of inherent procedures that implement standard business processes. Training and consulting are necessary because of its complexity, ERP vendors have developed training curricula and classes.Enterprise apps integration are developed to solve those problems especially in manufacturing companies. Function of EAI includes connect system island via new layer of software/system, enable existing apps to communicate and share data, provides integrated info, leverage existing systems-leaving function apps as is but provide integration layer, enables a gradual move to ERP. When the CRM apps send data to the manufacturer app system, the CRM system sends its data to an EAI software program. EAI makes the conversion

Industry-specific solution allows ERP vendors to provide starter kits for specific industries. These solutions contain program and database configuration files as well as process blueprints that apply implementations in specific industries. Challenges of implementing enterprise information system includes collaborative management, requirement gaps, transition problems, employee resistance, new technology. Some of the problems of information Silos are data duplicated, inconsistency, isolated, disjointed processes. It is Inefficient as decisions are made in isolation. Also Increase cost. To fix the problem companies need to integrate into single database, revise apps, allow isolation manage.

Chapter 6 Summary

Before 2010, most organizations use their own computing infrastructure to support emails, web sites, e-commerce sites, applications, ect...Recently, they have been moving towards using the cloud. The cloud is almost like renting a house but you are renting space to store your datas. It can be defined as the elastic of pooled computer resources over the internet. The reason clouds are pooled because many organizations use the same physical hardware. They are being shared through virtualization. Cloud vendors provide servers according to the amount of demand during a specific time. A company may needs more servers during a popular time where they know there will be millions of site visits, so they need to pre-provision the servers ahead of time.

The cloud use resources “ over the internet”. This means that the cloud vendors can provide services solely over the internet by a set of standards ways of requesting and receiving.

Cloud servers are preferred over in-house hosting for many reasons. Cloud requires minimal capital costs with superior flexibility and is able to fluctuate to demands. There is no obsolescence and create speedy development. While an in-house benefit is simply having control of data location and possibly disaster preparedness. In-house have a long list of why it is negative such as having a high cost, significant development effort, annual maintenance costs, ongoing support costs, increased management requirements, difficult to accommodate fluctuating demand, and obsolescence.

The four basic types of network technology are personal area networks, local area networks, wide area networks and the internet. A PAN or personal area network is a device connected around a single person. PAN devices can connect within 10 meters. A LAN or a local area network connects computer in the same location. The unique characteristic of LAN is that it is a single location. A WAN or wide area network connects computers in different locations. If the company is located in different locations, then they must use a WAN to connect their computers. The internet is defined as a network of networks. The Internet is networks that is public where internet is where networks that is used privately within an organization.

So how does a cloud work? In order for the cloud to operate, we need the internet. For example, if you are making reservation on a website, you are using the cloud by hopping from network to network. Hop is a term used by cloud vendors to describe provisioning servers to minimize hops. Big internet carriers such as Sprint, AT&T, Verizon Business, and XO communication are able to exchange traffic freely without charging each other fees through “peering” agreement. One of the big problem of peering is that some companies use more bandwidth than others. Netflix, Ebay, Yahoo!, and Amazon argue for net neutrality principle, where all data are treated equally. IP address is a set of numbers that identifies a particular device in a location. A URL or uniform resource locator is an address for websites over the internet. A three-tier architecture is  a design in which users computer consist of 3 tiers: computers, phones, and mobile devices. SOA or service-oriented architecture is a design philosophy use for the cloud. This philosophy enables all the pieces of the cloud to connect together. SOA principles are very standardized and formal. Each department would send requests and receive requests as promise without personal contact. No departments need to know who will work in another department nor how they do their work. SOA is applied the same way to cloud. Each service request the data, the data will return. JAvascript is part of the web page an invokes the service. Cloud service divides into 3 categories: Software as a service, platform as a service, infrastructure as a service.

Content delivery network or CDN is a system of software and hardware that store data for users from different locations. These datas are readily available when users request them. An example for CDN usage would be a news organization using CDN to store copies of its news articles.

A virtual private network or VPN is private connection using the internet. VPN is made possible by connecting to public internet first, then create a tunnel as a private pathway over the shared network from the VPN client to the VPN server. Virtual private cloud is a public cloud that is restricted to the public. VPC is build on top of public cloud infrastructure in an organization to store sensitive datas.