Midterm Review Notes

4 Messerschmitt 3.1, Overview and exmaples

• Organizational Applications [Messerschmitt pp60-72]

– Departmental Applications
supports a single functional dept.
– Enterprise Applications
supports enterprise-wide processes and goals
– Commerce Applications
supports organizations engaging in commercial relationships w/ one another

• Customer Care or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) [see slides]

• Batch transaction processing [see slides]
Transactions are accumulated over a period of time and processed periodically

• On- line Transaction Processing(OLTP) [Messerschmitt 72-73]
Transactions are processed immediately

• Workflow [Messerschmitt 73-75]

• Human Resource Management (HRM) [see assignment #3]

5 Messerschmitt 3.3, Enterprise Applications

• Operations

• Business Transformation (Business Process Re-engineering, [O’Brien Ch2]) [Messerschmitt pp77-78]

• ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) [Messerschmitt pp79-81]

• Decision Support [Messerschmitt pp81]

• Knowledge Management (also in [O’Brien Ch2])

6 Messerschmitt 3.4, Electronic Commerce

• Electronic Commerce [Messerschmitt pp83-89]

• 3 types of e-commerce [Messerschmitt, Table 3.4, pp84]

• 4 steps in a typical e-commerce transaction [Messerschmitt, Table 3.5, pp85]

– Matching Buyers and Sellers
Catalog, Advertising, Intermediary Recommendation
– Negotiating Terms and Conditions
Auction, Fixed Price, Price Discrimination
– Consummation
Order, Fulfillment, Payment
– Customer Service

• Consumer Commerce (B2C)
eg. Amazon

• Inter-consumer Commerce (C2C)
eg. eBay

• Inter-enterprise Commerce (B2B) [Messerschmitt, pp92-95]

– Procurement
one enterprise purchases goods/services from another
* Direct Procurement [Messerschmitt, Table 3.7, pp92]
obtain raw materials/parts that are directly incorporated into products and service ongoing,
consistent and scheduled procurement focusing on long-term supply relationship
* Indirect Procurement [Messerschmitt, pp 95]
sporadic purchase of goods and services to support organizational objectives

– Supply chain Management (SCM)
– Mass Customization
eg. Dell, integrating business logistics.
– Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
replace paper invoices and purchase orders, together with FEDI (Financial EDI) automated
existing inter-enterprise business processes.

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
find users w/ similar interests/purchases/visits recommend products based on similarities between
customers

• Intermediaries
the role of intermediaries in e-commerce, B2C/C2C/B2B

7 Messerschmitt 4, Information Technology

• Data vs. Information [Messerschmitt pp108-112]

– Data
BIT ( BInary digiT ): 0/1 Data: collection of bits
– Information

* text, numbers , as well as other media.
* From application perspective, Information is defined from user’s perspective as patterns
or meaning that influence the user in some recognizable way.
* Within the context of Information Technology, Information is defined more narrowly, as
”structure and interpretation added to data ”.

• Information represented as data

– Information → Data : Representation
– Data → Information : Data Processing
Data processing is based on presumed structure and interpretation imposed on data, otherwise
the information could not be recover (at least correctly ) from the data.

• Regeneration

– Make a precise copy of the data (copy bit by bit). If the structure and interpretation (so-called
”Representation”) is known, then the information is actually replicated as well along w/ the
data
– Several implications (see slides)

8 Messerschmitt 4.3, System Architecture

• System/Subsystem

– System: a composition of subsystems that cooperate to accomplish some purpose
– Subsystem: an element within the system that performs some well-defined action on behalf of
that system

• System Architecture Elements [Messerschmitt pp115, Table 4.2]

– Decomposition: partitioning the whole system
– Functionality: specialized capabilities assigned to each subsystem
– Interaction: subsystems cooperate together to support the system’s goal

• Why architect systems in this way?

– Divide & conquer reduce complexity
– Reuse components
– In accordance w/ industry structure, etc.

• Emergence [Messerschmitt pp116]
Higher- order behavior emerges because the subsystems are composed.

9 Messerschmitt 4.4, Networked Computing Infrastructure

• Infrastructure Software Layering [Messerschmitt pp120-121, Figure 4.7]

• What is the benefit of architecting software with layers?

– Achieves additional capacity by incrementally adding to a specific layer without affect other
layers.
– The implementation of one layer is hidden from all other layers.
– Both of the above simplify the initial design and implementation ( Divide and Conquer ) and
further expansion.

• Operating System
Hide equipment details from layers above

• Middleware
– Sits between Application/Operating System.
– Isolating an application partitioned across hosts from differences among various operating
systems of their host.
– Hide OS details from applications.

• File System

– File

* A collection of data managed for the benefit of the application
* Size known, structure & interpretation is unspecified (which depends on the corresponding
application)

– A file system is part of every OS.
– Provides standard services related to files, such as creating, accessing, etc.

• Database Management System

– Database: a file containing interrelated data w/ specific predefined structure
– DBMS: manage multiple databases, basis of OLTP

• Network Functions [Messerschmitt pp122]
Allows hosts (computers connect to network) to communicate authorization/authentication; Message
↔ packets.

10 Messerschmitt 4.5, The Internet

• internet
“Inter-connected networks”, a network of networks standard ways to interconnect networks

• Internet
A specific internet the major global internet

• intranet private internet, for exclusive use within an enterprise

• extranet

– Composed of intranets connected through an unprotected domain (typically the Internet)
– Using encryption and other security technologies to protect confidentiality

11 Case Studies

Please read the case studies in the Reader and summarize answers for those question by yourself.

Frito-Lay Case

• What was the HHC?
Hand Held Computer, for each salesperson to carry around, log sale transaction data

• *What are the benefits of the HHC project?
Improve accounting; Reduce paper work; Segmentation and Miro-marketing; Replace optical scanners
(stopped support by IBM).

• What were the main reasons why Frito Lay deployed the HHC?

• What changes in marketing strategy did Frito-Lay believe the HHC data would help enable?
Micro-marketing (manage small brands, negotiate shelf space)

• How might the HHC project change Frito-Lay’s competitive position with its direct competitors,
new entrants, and its customers?

Cisco ERP

• What are some of the actions that Cisco took that contributed to the successful deployment of their
ERP?
Top personnel, cross- functional group ; Consulting KPMG; Locate “hungry” vendors; Priority management
policy; Rapid Iterative Prototyping.

• What mistakes did Cisco make?
Poor testing strategy; Inadequate hardware (yet, they’ve got a favorable hardware contract); Substantial
modifications later, more requirements than the vanilla version supported.

• What are the most important lessons that another company that wants to deploy ERP could learn
from Cisco’s experience?

Alibris Case

• How did Alibris plan to change Interloc’s revenue model?
Eliminate the listing fee of Interloc, yet, mark-up the price of the books.

• What were the potential benefits and risks of this change?

• How did Alibris plan to avoid becoming dis-intermediated?
More quality control; Order fulfillment facility.

• Why did Alibris abandon Thunderstone software, and why did it choose to switch Oracle?

• What made Alibris’ IT challenge particularly difficult compared to what other E-commerce companies
faced?