Business performance improvement is a core goal of organizations. They develop core capabilities that drive a sustained transformation to achieve the set strategic objectives. Further, high-performance firms adopt policies for change management and adaptation to remain competitive in an unpredictable business environment. One capability that impact organizational performance is information technology (IT). Significant competitive gains are linked to superior IT resources that support digital business. Strategic integration of IT into organizational processes is seen as a way to promote greater digitization and transform a firm. IT-driven transformation encompasses the competitive capabilities drawn from information technology. The transformational potential of IT is seen in business processes, relations, consumer experience, clients, and disruption. Thus, a fundamental characteristic of digital transformation is the ability to change traditional models or confer new capabilities. The technologies should alter firm operations, support expansion to different markets or customers, and yield competitive gains. Conceptually, digital transformation encompasses Continue reading
Business Information Systems
The Benefits and Challenges of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Information management systems play a crucial role in ensuring that the organisation becomes efficient and effective, but companies need enterprise planning to centralize data collection, storage and data processing. Enterprise resource planning is a technology that deploys computer technology to integrate various organisational resources—such as human resources, assets, information resources –across the organisation. The intention of ERP systems is to streamline an organisation’s data access, information sharing, business continuity, and revamping the decision-making processes. When ERP systems were invented in the mid-1990s, organisations shifted their attention to embrace the capabilities of ERP components; and a decade later this technology still moves on strong. However, during their early days, ERP systems enjoyed acceptance from large manufacturers, a trend that has since shifted dramatically. ERP systems have grown from mainframe computers to more flexible, robust, and seamless applications. Today, small businesses are able to deploy robust ERP systems in virtually every operational Continue reading
Benefits of Blockchain Technology for Business
Blockchain is a technology for recording and storing information, first introduced by a person or a group of people under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. Initially, this technology was developed as a fundamentally new way of working with data that would not be subject to retroactive modification. This principle of operation was necessary to protect the data stored in blockchains. However, on the market, blockchain was presented as a system that allows you to work with cryptocurrencies – the latest invention of digital money with a decentralized deposit guarantee system. In terms of technology, a blockchain is a list of records, each of which is formed into a block and contains information, a cryptographic hash, about the previous block. In the case of cryptocurrencies, this is the timestamp and transaction data, which is usually represented as a Merkle tree. The timestamp ensures that the previous and current transaction data Continue reading
Case Study of Amazon: Management Information Systems for Business Growth
Globalization can be credited for causing significant alterations in the way business is conducted and the increasingly competitive and constantly changing business environment. In many large corporations, it is not easy to detect strategic issues that confront business operations. It is also difficult to develop sustainable programs that steer organizational success. However, the advent of computers and information technology makes it easy to prepare strategic plans that facilitate the growth and success of companies. An ‘MIS’ is a strategic system that aids in collecting, analyzing, disseminating, and storing organizational data in the mode of information required to implement management functions. Management Information Systems (MIS) are concerned with planning for, development, management, and use of information technology tools to help people perform all tasks related to information processing and management. MIS aids in planning by offering the necessary information that assists in firm decision-making, especially in large organizations where the managers Continue reading
Case Study: Analysis of Information Systems Application at Walmart
Walmart is one of the world’s largest retailers that make up high amounts of profits. The business organization has grown top great extends from a single store to a large retail store with branches in many parts of the world. The main purpose of the business organization has been to provide value to its customers as well as empowering its employees to perform effectively in the business activities. The business organization is committed to meeting the needs of its customers effectively as well as providing quality products and services. The business operations and management at the Walmart promotes a culture that is based on obtaining effective information that is most current. The information is usually based on the customers needs and wants in the market, obtaining the best business ideas from the employees on how to run the business operations effectively and ways of maximizing profits. The way in which Continue reading
Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) – Definition, Architecture and Functionality
OLAP Council (1997) define Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) as a group of decision support system that facilitate fast, consistent and interactive access of information that has been reformulate, transformed and summarized from relational dataset mainly from data warehouse into Multi-Dimensional Databases (MDDB) which allow optimal data retrieval and for performing trend analysis. OLAP is an important concept for strategic database analysis. OLAP have the ability to analyze large amount of data for the extraction of valuable information. Analytical development can be of business, education or medical sectors. The technologies of data warehouse, OLAP, and analyzing tools support that ability. Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) enable discovering pattern and relationship contain in business activity by query tons of data from multiple database source systems at one time. Processing database information using OLAP required an OLAP server to organize and transformed and builds MDDB. MDDB are then separated by cubes for client OLAP Continue reading