ISM3003 Midterm Study Guide Ch 1 The Information Age in Which You Live What is MIS Management Information Systems deals with the planning for development management and use of information technology tools to help people perform all tasks related to information processing and management What role does MIS play in organizations how people can use different technologies to work with and massage information to help an organization achieves its goals What are the three key resources that MIS focuses on Information people and information technology people use information technology to work with information What defines the Information Age aka the digital age meaning knowledge is power What is the difference between data information knowledge and business intelligence Data raw facts that describe a particular phenomenon eg temperature price of a movie rental age Information data that have a particular meaning within a specific context eg temperature becomes information if you re deciding what to wear Business Intelligence collective information about your customers your competitors your business partners your competitive environment and your own internal operations Knowledge facts information and skills acquired by a person through experience or education How does technology support these things What are the key components of Porter s Five Forces Porter s Five Forces helps business people understand the relative attractiveness of an industry s competitive pressures in terms of the following five forces Key components buyer power supplier power threat of substitute products or services threat of new entrants rivalry among existing competitors Why is it important to understand Porter s Five Forces when making technology decisions to assess technology and the competitive advantage providing a product or service in a way that customers value more than what your competition is able to do it can yield What are Porter s 3 generic strategies to beat the competition 1 Overall cost leadership offering the same or better quality product or service at a price that is less than what any of the competition is able to do 2 Differentiation offering a product or service that is perceived as being unique in the marketplace 3 Focus focusing on offering products and services to a particular market segment or buyer group within a segment of a product line and or to a specific geographic market Extended Learning Module A Computer Hardware and Software What is IT and how is it different from MIS Information Technology IT any computer based tool that people use to work with information and support the information and information processing needs of an organization What is hardware Hardware consists of the physical devices that make up a computer eg keyboard mouse modem flash drive printer What are the different categories of hardware 1 Input input devices are tools you use to enter information and commands 2 Output output devices are tools you use to see hear or recognize the results of your information processing requests 3 Storage storage devices are tools you use to store information for use at a later time 4 Processing the central processing unit CPU is the actual hardware that interprets and executes the software instructions and coordinates the operation of all other hardware random access memory RAM is a temporary holding area for the information you re working with as well as the system and application software instructions that the CPU currently needs 5 Telecommunications a telecommunications device is a tool you use to send information to and receive it from another person or computer in a network 6 Connecting connecting devices include such things as USB ports into which you would connect a printer and connector cords to connect your printer to the port What is software the set of instructions your hardware executes to carry out a specific task What are the different categories of software application software enables you to solve specific problems or perform specific tasks and system software handles tasks specific to technology management and coordinates the interaction of all technology devices system software includes operating system software controls your application software and manages how your hardware devices work together and utility software provides additional functionality to your operating system software What are the different sizes of computers size is related to power and speed and thus price smartphone tablet pc e book reader notebook laptop desktop computer minicomputer mid range computer designed to meet the needs of several people simultaneosly in a small to medium size business environment mainframe computer computer designed to meet the computing needs of hundreds of people in a large business environment and supercomputer fastest most powerful and most expensive type of computer What are these different sizes of computers used for size is usually related to power and speed and thus price What is the difference between a bit vs byte vs kilobyte vs petabyte Bit binary digit smallest unit of information that your computer can process Byte group of eight bits that represent one natural language character Kilobyte 1000 bytes Megabyte 1 million bytes Gigabyte 1 billion bytes Terabyte 1 trillion bytes Petabyte 1 quadrillion bytes What is a CPU Central Processing Unit CPU the actual hardware that interprets and executes the software instructions and coordinates the operation of all other hardware What is the difference between a control unit vs ALU vs cache vs RAM vs clock vs system bus Control Unit component of the CPU that directs what happens in your computer sends to RAM for instructions and the information it needs Arithmetic Logic Unit ALU component of the CPU that performs arithmetic as well as comparison and logic operations Cache type of memory on the CPU where instructions called up by the CPU wait until the CPU is ready to use them Random Access Memory RAM a temporary holding area for the information you re working with as well as the system and application software instructions that the CPU currently needs Clock frequency at which CPU is running System Bus consists of electrical pathways that move information between basic components of the motherboard including between RAM and the CPU What are the different ways devices attach to computers Port place on your system unit monitor or keyboard through which information and instructions flow to and from your computer