Foundations of Management Information Systems Exam 1 Review Ch 1 The Information Age in Which You Live What is MIS MIS 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 The real focus of MIS is on how people use technologies to work with and massage information to help an organization achieve its goals What are the three key resources that MIS focuses on MIS deals with the coordination and use of three very important organizational resources information people and information technology What defines the Information Age context in which it is used Knowledge is power Information can take on many forms depending on the What is the difference between data information knowledge and business intelligence Data raw facts that describe a particular phenomenon such as the current temperature the price of a movie rental or your age Information information is data that have a particular meaning within a specific context The current temperature becomes information if you re deciding what to wear in deciding what to wear the data describing the price of a movie rental are not pertinent information and therefore only data in that context Knowledge facts information and skills acquired by a person through experience or education the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject Business Intelligence collective information about your customers your competitors your business partners your competitive environment and your own internal operations that gives you the ability to make effective important and often strategic decisions How does technology support these things Technology allows us to gather record organize and analyze all of these types of information in a way that lends to the success and efficiency of our business What are the key components of Porter s Five Forces Buying 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 it can yield many people choose to use Porter s model because it helps business people understand the relative attractiveness of an industry and the industry s competitive pressures in terms of the five forces What are Porter s 3 generic strategies to beat the competition 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 Differentiation offering a product or service that is perceived as being unique in the marketplace Focus offering products or services to 1 a particular market segment or buyer group 2 within a segment of a product line and or 3 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 is any computer based tool that people use to work with information and support the information processing needs of an organization Whereas MIS 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 is hardware Hardware consists of the physical devices that make up a computer for instance keyboard mouse modem flash memory drive or a printer What are the different categories of hardware Input input devices are tools you use to enter information and commands Output Output devices are tools you use to see hear or otherwise recognize the results of your information processing requests Storage Storage devices are tools you use to store information for use at a later time 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 Telecommunications A telecommunications device is a tool you use to send information to and receive it from another person or computer in a network 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 Software is the set of instructions your hardware executes to carry out a specific task for you such as creating a graph and surfing the Web What are the different categories of software Application software that enables you to solve specific problems or perform specific tasks Ex PowerPoint System software handles tasks specific to technology management and coordinates the interaction of all technology devices System software includes both operation system software Ex Microsoft Windows and utility software Ex Anti virus software What are the different sizes of computers Smartphones Tablet PC s Slates and E Readers Notebook Computers Desktop Computers Minicomputers Mainframe Computers and Supercomputers What are these different sizes of computers used for Smartphones cell phone with additional features such as a camera Internet connectivity note taking capabilities GPS capabilities and digital music and video players Tablet PC s Slates and E Readers A tablet PC is a slim line handheld computer that is about the size of a notebook or smaller with a touchscreen and that has functioning capabilities of notebooks or desktop computers A Slate is lighter slimmed down version of a tablet without a dedicated physical keyboard Recently the terms tablet and slate are becoming interchangeable E readers are portable computers designed specifically for reading digitized books and periodicals Notebook Computers A notebook or laptop is a small portable fully functional battery powered computer equipped with all of the features of a large desktop computer Desktop Computers the most popular choice for personal computing needs Minicomputers Mainframe Computers and Supercomputers A minicomputer is designed to meet the computing needs of several people simultaneously in a small to medium size business environment They are more powerful than desktop computers A mainframe computer is a computer designed to meet the needs of hundreds of people in a large business environment A supercomputer is the fastest most powerful and most expensive type of computer Used by NASA and the National Weather Service What is the difference between a bit vs byte vs kilobyte vs