HND Management in IT Assignment

PART A

Maslow identified five levels of need, classified under two general headings: primary needs and secondary needs. Those needs are:

1. Physiological needs – these are basic needs to ensure survival (food, warms, shelter and etc.)
2. Safety need – these needs related to remaining safe; in the industrial content, job security may be one of them.
3. Social needs – these needs reflect a desire to feel loved and belong. A feeling of being accepted as part of the team is an industrial aspect of this need.
4. Esteem needs – the need to be held in esteem, a worthy and valuable colleague. Also need for self-esteem. To have status.
5. Self Actualisation – a psychologists “buzz phrase” which can be interpreted as ‘What a man can be, he must be’.

PART B

Decision Support Systems (DSS) are a class of computerized information system that support decision-making activities. DSS are interactive computer-based systems and subsystems intended to help decision makers use communications technologies, data, documents, knowledge and/or models to complete decision process tasks.

A decision support system may present information graphically and may include an expert system or artificial intelligence (AI). It may be aimed at business executives or some other group of knowledge workers.
Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present would be, (a) Accessing all information assets, including legacy and relational data sources; (b) Comparative data figures; (c) Projected figures based on new data or assumptions; (d) Consequences of different decision alternatives, given past experience in a specific context.
There are a number of Decision Support Systems. These can be categorized into five types:

• Communication-driven DSS 
  Most communications-driven DSSs are targetted at internal teams, including partners. Its purpose are to help conduct a meeting, or for users to collaborate. The most common technology used to deploy the DSS is a web or client server. Examples: chats and instant messaging softwares, online collaboration and net-meeting systems.
• Data-driven DSS 
  Most data-driven DSSs are targeted at managers, staff and also product/service suppliers. It is used to query a database or data warehouse to seek specific answers for specific purposes. It is deployed via a main frame system, client/server link, or via the web. Examples: computer-based databases that have a query system to check (including the incorporation of data to add value to existing databases.
• Document-driven DSS 
  Document-driven DSSs are more common, targeted at a broad base of user groups. The purpose of such a DSS is to search web pages and find documents on a specific set of keywords or search terms. The usual technology used to set up such DSSs are via the web or a client/server system. Examples:
• Knowledge-driven DSS: 
  Knowledge-driven DSSs or 'knowledgebase' are they are known, are a catch-all category covering a broad range of systems covering users within the organization seting it up, but may also include others interacting with the organization - for example, consumers of a business. It is essentially used to provide management advice or to choose products/services. The typical deployment technology used to set up such systems could be slient/server systems, the web, or software runnung on stand-alone PCs.
• Model-driven DSS 
  Model-driven DSSs are complex systems that help analyse decisions or choose between different options. These are used by managers and staff members of a business, or people who interact with the organization, for a number of purposes depending on how the model is set up - scheduling, decision analyses etc. These DSSs can be deployed via software/hardware in stand-alone PCs, client/server systems, or the web.

Abbreviated DSS, the term refers to an interactive computerized system that gathers and presents data from a wide range of sources, typically for business purposes. DSS applications are systems and subsystems that help people make decisions based on data that is culled from a wide range of sources.

For example: a national on-line book seller wants to begin selling its products internationally but first needs to determine if that will be a wise business decision. The vendor can use a DSS to gather information from its own resources (using a tool such as OLAP) to determine if the company has the ability or potential ability to expand its business and also from external resources, such as industry data, to determine if there is indeed a demand to meet. The DSS will collect and analyze the data and then present it in a way that can be interpreted by humans. Some decision support systems come very close to acting as artificial intelligence agents.
DSS applications are not single information resources, such as a database or a program that graphically represents sales figures, but the combination of integrated resources working together.
PART C
a)

Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people. Various business analysis techniques can be used in strategic planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ), PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological analysis),STEER analysis (Socio-cultural, Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory factors), and EPISTEL (Environment, Political, Informatic, Social, Technological, Economic and Legal).

Strategic planning is the formal consideration of an organization's future course. All strategic planning deals with at least one of three key questions:

1.   "What do we do?"

2.   "For whom do we do it?"

3.   "How do we excel?"

In business strategic planning, the third question is better phrased "How can we beat or avoid competition?". (Bradford and Duncan, page 1).

In many organizations, this is viewed as a process for determining where an organization is going over the next year or more -typically 3 to 5 years, although some extend their vision to 20 years.

In order to determine where it is going, the organization needs to know exactly where it stands, then determine where it wants to go and how it will get there. The resulting document is called the "strategic plan."

It is also true that strategic planning may be a tool for effectively plotting the direction of a company; however, strategic planning itself cannot foretell exactly how the market will evolve and what issues will surface in the coming days in order to plan your organizational strategy. Therefore, strategic innovation and tinkering with the 'strategic plan' have to be a cornerstone strategy for an organization to survive the turbulent business climate.

b)

Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) is a computer based information system that can help organisations support their strategic planning and strategies. Strategic Information Systems Planning (SISP) is the process of aligning an organization's business strategy with effective computer-based information systems to achieve critical business objectives. SISP is a top concern of major executives and considerable resources (time and money) are spent in SISP activities. Many SISP initiatives are not successful due to the difficulty of implementing the recommendations. A significant problem is the Specification Gap between the description of the recommended systems and the detail needed for actual system implementation. Existing SISP methods do not provide sufficiently rigorous representations to specify detailed system recommendations. Box structures are proposed as a solution to this problem and a SISP process with embedded box structure methods is presented. We have used this innovative process in two SISP projects with large organizations. Partial results from one of the projects are presented as a case study to illustrate the use of box structures and their benefits.

PART D

a)

Information system has a lot of aspects and tools to help an organisation develop strategically. Web based collaboration tools like Basecamp of 37Signals helps developers/companies/organisations to share files and ideas, assign tasks, meet deadlines and centralize feedback. Backpack product of 37signals helps to publish and share the information within your team. Companies like Online50 give hosted services for all sorts of organisations and companies including financial companies. These service enable organisations do their business effectively without spending a lot of money and time.

b)

Web and Internet are the most important Information Technologies of our time. In our time web and Internet are more advanced and it came to the level that success of a Strategic Information System is an imaginable without them. Web and Internet create a lot of opportunities for strategic planning and deploying the computer application developed for the web.

Developing internet based applications is not that complicated and costly as it used to be. There are a lot of desktop and web based tools available to develop and deploy the applications on the Internet. There are a lot of tools available to develop, test, advertise and get feedback from people. Some examples of those tools are Blogging and Bloggers, Social Network; Intranet based Social Networks, Social groups (groups on Facebook, meetup.com) and so on.

Especially during the last decade many web application developing tools and approaches created. MVC (model-view-controller) is a modern approach for organising the code and data and keeping data separate from the logic. Lots of frameworks were being developed during the last decade. Some of them Django (Python programming language based framework), Zend Framework (PHP programming language based framework), Ruby on Rails (Ruby programming language based framework) and so on.

Web based collaboration tools like Basecamp of 37Signals helps developers/companies/organisations to share files and ideas, assign tasks, meet deadlines and centralize feedback. Backpack product of 37signals helps to publish and share the information within your team.
Source:
Web: http://www.gdrc.org/decision/dss-types.html
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/d/decision_support_system.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_planning
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/csdl/doi/10.1109/HICSS.2000.926735

HND Information Systems Assignment

PART A

Task:

Identify and explain four levels of Information Users in an Organisation and briefly describe the information requirements of these levels. Explain how the information systems help in making the decisions on a day to day basis.

Answers:

The four levels of information users in an organization are

1. Operational Level
2. Knowledge Level
3. Management Level
4. Strategic Level

Strategic Level: 

Provides a detailed description of the nature of their activities in the objects clause of their memorandum of association is the function of the top level management. Their most important role is establishing the goals of the organization. They are typically responsible for interacting with representing with representatives of the external environment, such as financial institutions, political figures and important suppliers and customers.

Their Main objectives are:

• 
  Setting key objectives, policies and identifying factors essential for the development of the enterprise.
• Efficient accomplishment of goals in the enterprise and maintaining strategic balance in all actions taken by the authorities in higher level.
• Making appointments to the top position in the enterprise such as managers, department heads etc.
• Reviewing the work of different personnel’s in all levels.
  
  

Information Needed:

Information about external factors affecting the organization such as Political, Economical, Social and Technological are needed for this level.

System Required:

Executive Support Systems (ESS) are used by senior managers to make decisions. ESS addresses non-routine decisions requiring judgement, evaluation and insight because there is no agreed-on procedure for arriving at a solution. It is designed to incorporate data about external events and it employs the most advanced graphics software and can deliver graphs and data from many sources immediately to senior executive’s office or to a boardroom.

Management / Tactical Level: 

Tactical Level Management implements strategic objectives and monitor operations. It is this level which administers most of the well-known conventional control systems. This includes budgetary control, production control, inventory control etc. To avoid rigidity, it is important that the Information System incorporates more than one level of feedback thus:

1. Conventional feedback is used for routine reporting which initiates corrective action if deviations occur.
2. Adaptive feedback causes the amendment of short-term plans or budgets where the Information System indicates that conditions have changed sufficiently for small-scale corrections to be inappropriate.
3. Crisis feedback is responsible to substantial or uncontrollable deviations from plans which may indicate changes to long-term plans.

 Much of the information used by the Tactical Level comes from informal sources and is gathered, assessed, analysed and judged by the manager personally. In addition, the manager is supported by Formal Information Systems which are increasingly computer based. Four types of Formal information systems can be identified:

1. Control Systems

2. Database Systems

3. Enquiry Systems

4. Decision Support Systems.

  

Knowledge Level

Knowledge Management Level is defined as the management function responsible for the regular selection, implementation and evaluation of goal-oriented knowledge strategies that aim at improving an organisation's way of handling knowledge internal and external to the organisation in order to improve organisational performance. The implementation of knowledge strategies comprises all person-oriented, organisational and technological instruments suitable to dynamically optimise the organisation-wide level of competencies, education and ability to learn of the members of the organisation as well as to develop collective intelligence.

Operational level

Operational Level is concerned with the implementation and control of the day-to-day activities of the organisation. Their activities are highly dependant on Formal Information System dealing almost exclusively with the internal information. Effective and efficient information processing is essential since controls are numerous, monitoring is constant, data volumes are high and response is needed rapidly, often in real time. Hence, virtually all operational informational systems are computer based.

At the operational level, many decisions are structured and frequently incorporated into computer-based systems. Because the circumstances are well-defined, optimising techniques such as linear programming are frequently used.

Linear Programming (LP) is probably the most used optimising model and LP packages are widely available for all computer systems.

LP is used where it s required to optimise the value of a single objective (e.g. maximise contribution where the factors involved (e.g. labour hours, machine capacity, etc.) are subject to some constraints or limitation). It can be used to solve problems which:

A. Can be stated in numeric terms

B. Involve factors having linear relationships

C. Permit a choice between alternatives

D. Have one or more restrictions on the factors involved.

LP is used for numerous problems including production planning, least cost mix problems in food, fertilisers and so on. It will be apparent that the closely defined requirements for the use of LP and other optimising techniques are more likely to be found at the operational level, less so at the tactical level and not at all at the strategic level where uncertainties abound.

PART B

a)

Different sorts of statistics can be used to evaluate the information gathered both automatically and by customer service operators. Using the information gathered automatically companies can understand which computer-generated messages listened most, what sort of users called most, from which geographical areas, which season of the year or the time and similar sort of questioned can find their answers. According to the results companies or operators can make a decision. Similar approach can be used in strategic decision-making using customer service operators’ results. For example; if users from Scotland calling with a specific problem, the companies should take it serious and could improve the service in those areas. That way, they will gain a competitive advantage.

b)

Using implementation framework:

Because a call centre would provide the public with a point of contact to an insurance company, it would give a public a great accessibility to the insurance company’s services. By using computer-generated messages companies can deal with client’s simple inquiries or Frequently Asked Questions or by using call centre operators companies can sell more insurance products to the end users. Companies can easily inform the end users or increase their satisfaction. Doing some inquiries, using statistics insurance companies can gather information about which products sell most or could possibly sell better or get how to increase sales force.

PART C

Types of Information Systems:

·         Executive Support Systems (ESS)

·         Decision Support Systems (DSS)

·         Management Information Systems (MIS)

·         Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS):

Basic Business Systems that serve the operational level. A computerized system that performs and records the daily routine transactions necessary to the conduct of the business.

System Example: Payroll system

Input	Process	Output
Time cards, Employee Lists, Wages and Salary Data	Calculating Pay, calculating cost of benefits, calculating cost of taxes and withholdings, updating ledger and databases	Pay checks and receipts, account balances, management reports

Management Information Systems (MIS)

An MIS provides managers with information and support for effective decision making, and provides feedback on daily operations. MIS provides information to the users in the form of reports. Output or reports are usually generated through accumulation of transaction processing data. MIS is an integrated collection of subsystems, which are typically organized along functional lines within an organization.

System Example is an Annual Budgeting.

Decision Support Systems (DSS)

It is designed to the individual and ties CEO to all levels. It is very expensive to keep up the extensive support staff.

Example could be Contract Cost Analysis.

Executive Support Systems (ESS)

This happens in the Strategic Level. Users are Senior Managers. It takes aggregate data, processes it interactively and outputs projections. An example could be a 5-year operating plan.

a)

There are many advantages of Internet technology to an expanding company. Some of them are: Online Banking, Social Media, Social Networks and etc.

Using online banking all Bank customers can access their accounts and transfer money or spend online. Social Media on Internet is the biggest advertising platform for the new and expanding businesses. Using Social Media businesses can approach to the whole world, create a fan groups, followers. Blogging can help businesses to be well-known to the Internet users. Business can create groups on Social Networks like Facebook. Businesses can create application or widgets and make available to the users on Social Networks. That way they can create user base or fans.

b)

Intranet has a very similar functionality to the Intranet but in a smaller scale or focused in organisational based. Intranet helps company staff to share information, to discuss some specific topics related to their job or responsibilities. Intranet can serve as a group emailing, but more efficiently and secure. Company employees can create interest groups and share and support each others on Intranet.

PART D

Internet, Automated messaging service for call centres, Intranet, statistical analysing tools.

Automated messaging service will help the business cut the cost. Internet will help them expanding their businesses and conducting it efficiently, make it easy to communicate and access to the customers and gather information from customers and evaluate it. Intranet will help to share the information and support the staff.

Aggregation, surfing, calculating are the information methods used in Information systems.

An example for the case of aggregated combinatorial data for the study of composition, processing, structure, and property relationships of transparent conducting oxides by applying data mining techniques such as principal component analysis. Data mappings of mined results are shown to effectively enable visualization of data trends, identification of anomalies in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy patterns, and scientifically interesting libraries and spectral regions.

Calculating all transactions in the banking system. Surfing the Internet to gather information.

PART E

If we look at the challenges in evaluation of information systems from sceptics and enthusiasts perspective, it will give us an idea about a new information system. Because the information system is new or not applied in that environment yet, lots of people would oppose to a change. Biggest challenge is the unwillingness to the change, because of security reasons, risk in the investment and so on. A lot of people are happy with an existing old system.

Resources/References:

Web: http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Information-System/176194

Web: http://www.slideshare.net/mannyardales/types-of-information-systems

Book: Management information systems By Terence Lucey

Book: Knowledge management systems: information and communication technologies for ... By Ronald Maier

Human Computer Interface (HCI) Assignment

Part A

Describe a brief history of Human Computer Interface since its first inception as an important factor in IT.

Human Computer Interface is a study of interaction between users and computers.

HCI is a multidisciplinary area. People with different backgrounds contributed to its success.  It is the intersection of many study fields like behavioral sciences, computer science, design, operating systems, programming languages, linguistics, cognitive psychology, social sciences perceptual psychology, artificial intelligence, anthropology and many more.

"Human-computer interaction is a discipline concerned with the design, evaluation and implementation of interactive computing systems for human use and with the study of major phenomena surrounding them."  Association for Computing Machinery .

Research in HCI started as exploratory work at universities and government and industrial research labs. The researches, first, started at universities in 1960s, and then later it spread to the industrial research and then in 1980s commercial products started coming.

Since the first demonstration of the direct manipulation interface by Ivan Sutherland in Sketchpad, many technological products employed some interface techniques like iconic representations, gesture recognition, dynamic menus, and selection of icons by pointing, and moded and mode-free styles of interaction in those early days.

Then Hypertext, Windows Managers and UIMS and Toolkits, Computer Aided Design systems and Video Games emerged. Early window managers such as Smalltalk and InterLisp came with a few widgets, such as popup menus and scrollbars. The Xerox Star was the first commercial system to have a large collection of widgets and to use dialog boxes. The Apple Macintosh was the first to actively promote its toolkit for use by other developers to enforce a consistent interface.

Many years of productive HCI research have led to the successful interfaces of today. Some of them are drawing programs, paint programs, animation systems, text editing, spreadsheets, multimedia, 3D, virtual reality, interface builders, event-driven architectures, usability engineering and many more.

A number of diverse methodologies outlining techniques for human–computer interaction design have emerged since the rise of the field. Early methodologies of HCI treated users' cognitive processes as predictable and quantifiable and encouraged design practitioners to look to cognitive science results in areas such as memory and attention when designing user interfaces. Modern models tend to focus on a constant feedback and conversation between users, designers, and engineers and push for technical systems to be wrapped around the types of experiences users want to have.

Describe why Human Computer Interface so important nowadays in development of systems and what can happen if this is ignored. Illustrate your answer with examples.

Nowadays users expect highly effective interfaces, elegant and clear design, easy to use and easy to learn systems. Developers and manufacturers also realized the importance of the User Interface. Surveys show that over 50% of the design and programming effort on projects is devoted to the user interface.

Lots of innovative technological products were a financial failure in the early days of the HCI. HCI reduces the users’ resistance to learn new technologies. User base of those products increase quickly and as a result it brings financial success to the manufacturers and developers. IPod is a good example of this.

If HCI is ignored in development of systems, it might even bring catastrophe. There are well-known catastrophes that have resulted from not paying enough attention to the human-computer interface. For example, the complicated user interface of the Aegis tracking system was a contributing cause to the erroneous downing of an Iranian passenger plane, and the US Stark's inability to cope with Iraqi Exocet missiles was partly attributed to the human-computer interface. Problems with the interfaces of military and commercial airplane cockpits have been named as a likely cause for several crashes, including the Cali crash of December 1995. Sometimes the implementation of the user interface can be at fault. A number of people died from radiation overdoses partially as a result of faulty cursor handling code in the Therac-25.

Part B

What are the health and safety considerations that should be given to computers users and why it is important?

Health and Safeties of the computer users should be taken into account in development of the HCI to prevent accidents and injures. Safety considerations should be applied in system acquisition to minimize the potential for accidental injury of personnel and mission failure. System Safety and Health Hazards issues should be carefully observed and applied. Health Hazard categories include acoustic energy, biological substances, chemical substances, oxygen deficiency, radiation energy, shock, temperature extremes and humidity, trauma, vibration, and other hazards. Health hazards include those areas that could cause death, injury, illness, disability, or a reduction in job performance. Ignorance of those issues mentioned above may cause human injures and casualties. For example, using Cathode Ray Tube Monitors may cause eye injuries or sitting on non ergonomic chairs may cause back injuries.

What are the cost implications and user considerations when choosing a Human Computer Interface?

Users may consider all sorts aspects of the HCI; User-friendliness, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn, elegance and clarity of the design, legible/audible display, documentation, display of information and interaction related to security and privacy especially on ecommerce systems, transaction clarity and transparency of the transactions on ecommerce systems, affordable price and etc.

Giving attention to the usability of the HCI can result in significance cost savings. First system based on usability engineering Xerox Star cost $12,000. Later Apple Lisa cost $10,000. By the time HCI methods improved and later 1984 Apple Macintosh cost $2,500.

Resources:

Web:

http://www.wikipedia.org

HND Website Design Assignment Q&A

Task: Evaluate several existing musical e-business website's selling digital sheet music or digital books. Note this is an evaluation of the whole website. Using suitable software analyse these websites and write short (up to 1000 words) report on what you think distinguishes good of not so good sites.
Introduction
As it is outlined on the “Task” part of the assignment we are evaluating 3 existing musical e-business websites which sell digital sheet music or digital books. I chose 3 websites for this purpose. I will evaluate them in terms their features, usability, functionalities and etc.
Main
Good Design and Usability are the most important part of any website. Potential customers would spend more time and money on easy to use and nice looking websites. But they are not enough themselves to make a successful musical e-business website. Some useful features of the musical e-business website below:
• Good Design
Good design, neat and modern web colours are crucially important to attract potential customers to the website. Customers should easily be able to find what they are looking for.
• Scalability
When potential customers come to your musical e-business website, the whole website should be loaded quickly. Search results should be displayed quickly.
• Categorised Links
Categorised Links make it easy to find what you are looking for. The links could be categorised according to the music instruments that were used to make that specific music.
• Personal Sign In on top of the website
This is one of the useful features of the e-business. As an e-business owner, you can gather information about your customers and what they buy and search. And display those products they might buy. Discounts and promotions could be offered to the registered users.
• Download Sheet Music
Nowadays, you can buy and download the music you like. You do not have to buy the whole CD. You choose the music you like and pay and download it. No packing and shipping involved. Your favourite music is on your personal computer or device in a few seconds after the purchase.
• Search for Sheet Music
Gives you the opportunity to find the music you are looking for quickly.
• List of Top Downloads
It makes it easy for customers to find the most favourite music on the main page.
• Recently Added Sheet Music
Good advertising and selling technique.
• Sales or Discount Banners on the main page
Offering the discounted price you can sell off the product you do not sell well or sell more music making your product more affordable.
• Recent Blog posts and Feedbacks about some Sheet Music
Good way of interacting with your existing customers and attracting new customers. You can improve the quality of the service getting customer feedbacks.
• Security Signature Certificate Logos or Signs
It has been probably the top issue in e-business. Customers want to make secure payments. Displaying the Secure Certificate Signs on your website, you can attract more customers.
• Music samples to listen before the purchase
Most music selling websites have this facility, nowadays. That way, customers can listen to the music before they decide what to buy. This is a very useful tool to increase the sales.

Case studies for 3 highly visited online sheet music selling websites.
Case Study 1
http://www.sheetmusicdirect.com
One of the mostly visited websites about selling digital music sheets. When you type the domain name of the website, the first thing it asks you is your location. Instead of asking your location, it could get the location from the IP address and display the relevant results in UK.

Pluses:
• It displays the accepted payment methods.
• More than one currency can be used to pay.
• You can register to the website and create your personal account with them.
• Free Downloads
• Simple search and Advanced search capabilities.
• Get a free sheet music viewer.
• Bestsellers list
• Affiliate Programme (sign up and start selling digital sheet music on your website)
Minuses:
• Not a good categorised links.
• Simple Design.
Case Study 2
http://www.musicnotes.com
This website appears on top of the list on Google search results.
Pluses:
• Register and have your personal account.
• Good Design
• Well categorised links
• Search facility
• Top Downloads and Recent Entries Lists
• Free Downloads
• Sales and Discount Banners
• Secure Payment Certificate Logos and Signs
• Accepted Payment methods
• It automatically guesses your location, but can be changed manually.
Case Study 3
http://www.everynote.com
The website says that it is the world’s largest digital music library.
Pluses:
• Search facilities
• Probably the biggest digital music library
• Create your personal account
• Categorised Links
Minuses:
• Amateur Design
• No secure payment certificate signs or logos
• No accepted payment methods
Conclusion
I evaluated positive and negative sides of 3 digital music sheet selling websites’ using an approach of the most common ways of building an online business.