Understanding Software A Primer for Managers 11 29 2012 Software what makes PCs run set of instructions that tells hardware what to do In cell phones tvs everywhere Computer hardware the physical components of information technology Files are saved to the hard drive Operating system the collection of programs that control the hardware Applications can range from simple ones like Office to complex ones to manage inventory Operating system can be in ipods Nintendo apple products etc User interface examples scrollbars menus Apple has become the most versatile mobile computing device Firmware control programs stored on chips o Usually the OS in tvs ipods etc Embedded systems special purpose technology is starting to be embedded in cars frames photocopiers etc Application software Platform the basis of a product so programmers can write additional applications application software are directly interested in accomplishing perform the work that users and firms Desktop software applications installed on a personal computer ex Office photo editors computer games Enterprise software applications that address the needs of multiple simultaneous users in an organization or work group Software package a software product offered commercially by a third party Enterprise resource planning ERP software packages that serve software packages o Sales system verifies credit card history applies discounts and calculates price o Inventory system checks product availability o Manufacturing when customer confirms order system notifies factory to ramp production for model ordered Understanding Software A Primer for Managers 11 29 2012 o Human resources high demand notifies manager that the office may need more workers to keep up o Purchasing system tracks raw material inventory o Order tracking customer can track where the product is going o Decision support management can see system and plan further marketing decisions Customer relationship management CRM system used to support customer related sales and marketing activities Supply chain management SCM system helps firm manage aspects of its value chain Business intelligence system BI uses data created by other systems to provide reporting analysis Database management system DBMS stores and receives data that an application creates and uses Distributed computing computers in different locations can communicate with one another Server a computer configured to support other computer requests OR a program that fulfills requests Client a person makes a request and the server fulfills the request system Application server houses business logic for a distributed Web services programmed to perform different tasks returning calculation accessing database making request Application programming interfaces standard method for other programs to request it to perform a task Service oriented architecture organizations with a robust set of web services around their processes and procedures Electronic data interchange a set of standards for exchanging information between computer applications Extensible markup language technologies replacing EDIs Writing software Programming language specific writing software C Java Integrated development environment place to write codes includes a text editor debugger and programming tools o Will compile codes and turn them into high level instructions with low level codes Java programming code to control interface or interact with the display and other hardware Understanding Software A Primer for Managers 11 29 2012 Scripting language executes application Script languages interpreted within their applications Total cost of ownership Cost of tech failure Total cost of ownership tasks associated with owning an information system includes training support backup of files Capability maturity model integration gage an organization s process maturity capability in areas critical to developing and deploying technology products EDI electronic data interchange a set of standards for exchanging messages containing formatted data between computer applications most often used as a way to send the electronic equivalent of structured documents between different organizations Using EDI each element in the electronic document such as a firm name address or customer number is coded so that it can be recognized by the receiving computer program EDI is very old standard XML extensible markup language a tagging language that can be used to identify data fields made available for use by other applications Most APIs and web services send messages where the data exchanged in wrapped in indentifying XML tags
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