© steven alter, 2010 all rights reserved 02/03/10 emerging technology assignment – any questions?...

© Steven Alter, 2010 all rights reserved

02/03/10

• Emerging technology assignment – any questions?

• More about basic concepts in the work system framework (Summary of WSM, Chap. 4)

• Cases for today, including first work system snapshot assignment

• Database introduction (continued)• Another exercise on fundamental

limitations of information technology


Things to remember in the emerging technology

assignment• Discuss limitations in usage.• Discuss something about cost, which

includes cost of purchase, cost of set-up, and cost of usage. Any of those may be a great interest in some cases and little interest in others.

• Try to include specific metrics for the current and future versions of the technology.

• Mention human and ethical issues, if any


Customers

• Individuals, groups, or organizations that receive benefits created by activities performed within the work system

• Types of customers– Internal vs. external customers– Direct customers vs. indirect beneficiaries– Intermediate vs. end customers– Voluntary vs. involuntary customers– Paying vs. non-paying customers– Contracting customers– Other stakeholders


Products & Services• Combination of information, service, and

physical things• Received and used by customers

– Customer value is outside of the work system• Evaluated by customer(s)

– Functions and features– Cost to customer– Quality, responsiveness, reliability– Aesthetics and emotional response– Conformance to standards


Processes and activities - (work practices)

• Work practices should add value • “Theoretical” business processes (part of the

work practices in a work system)– Have a beginning and end– Described as discrete steps

• Idealized business process (in the manual) vs. actual business process (including workarounds, confusions, exceptions, rework, etc.)

• Other aspects of work practices: communication, decision making, coordination, information processing, etc.


Participants

• Different participants may perform roles differently• Incentives, commitment, involvement• Not just technology users• Better work system participants may not matter• Customers may or may not be participants• Managers may or may not be participants in a work

system they manage• Software developers typically are NOT participants

in work systems that use software that they develop.


Information

• Hard information– predefined, formalized

• Soft information– not computerized– often very important

• information vs. knowledge• Better information may not matter.


Technologies

• Techniques combined with tools– Techniques: checklists, control charts– Tools: laptops, displays, pencil and paper

• Visible (or at least apparent) to work system participants

• Distinct from the work practices and business processes

• Better technology may not matter


Infrastructure

• used by the work system• owned and managed outside the

work system• shared by various work systems• human, technical, information

components


Technical infrastructure

• Fuzzy line between technology inside a work system and technical infrastructure

• Network effects• Critical mass of adoption• Dependence on standards


Environment

• Organizational culture• Recent organizational history• Organizational policies and practices• Laws, regulations, and industry

standards• Competitive environment• Demographics


Strategies

• Strategy of the work system. Examples:– control vs. empower– emphasize conformance vs. improvisation– case manager vs. assembly line– centralized vs. decentralized

• Strategy of the organization• Strategy of the firm


Cases from classes #1 (highlighting technology)

• Management/ societal tradeoffs related to:– Use of passwords– Distractions related to use of technology– Infrastructure failure – Skype outage– Permanence of electronic records even when

erased … expunging of criminal records


3 more cases highlighting failures or unintended

consequences

• Comair• Mizuho• Click fraud


1.5. Comair

• What happened?• How is it possible that a bug in a

computer program could halt flights in a well managed airline?

• Was this story related to a technology-based innovation?


1.6 Mizuho

• What happened?• Why did the losses occur?• What could have been done to

avoid the losses?• If something could have been

done, why wasn’t it done?• Was any of this related to

technology-based innovations?


1.7 Click Fraud

• How does it occur?• In what sense was it an IT-enabled

innovation?


Cases for today: Success stories (mostly)

• 2.1. Apple’s App Store• 2.3. Cirque du Soleil• 2.4. Harrah’s• 2.5. TradeBot• 2.6. SevenEleven• 2.7. JetBlue• 2.8. Airplane software glitches• 2.9. CRM and “IT’s Hardest Puzzle”


2.1. Apple’s work system for accepting new apps

• Which aspects of work system performance would an Apple manager care about?

• Metrics – what is the quantitative measure of performance for each aspect of performance that might matter?

• Identify five types of metrics that might be relevant (See WSM, p. 60)

• Compare work system snapshots – Any interesting differences?


App Store example: Organizational application of IT

typically requires:

• Detailed specification of IT functions and capabilities

• Testing• Standardization• Additional investments


2.3. Cirque du Soleil

• How does IT contribute to the operation of a circus?

• If it is so important, why was the extensive IT system introduced only fairly recently?


2.4. Harrah’s database and customer loyalty

• What data is collected through Harrah’s loyalty cards?

• How does Harrah’s use that information to learn about its customers and to increase customer loyalty?

• Social benefits of this use of technology?


2.5 Tradebot

• What happened?• What was the technology-based

innovation in the story?• Why is technological progress

important to companies engaged in trading stocks?

• Did the innovation create sustainable competitive advantage?


2.5 Tradebot, continued

• What is the purpose of corporate stock, stock exchanges, and stock trading?

• How does Tradebot’s innovation fit with those purposes?


Database Introduction (continued)

• What does a database look like?• What are the advantages of using

database software?• Northwind Traders - a hypothetical

distributor of gourmet food products• Great example of a database application

– Not trivial, but not too complicated– Master date is filled in– Transaction data is filled in


Database exercise using a spreadsheet as a database

• Download the Excel database • Add a new product• Add a new customer• Enter an order for the new customer.

– 12 units of Grandma’s Boysenberry Spread

– 16 units of Tofu– 25 units of your new product


What are the limitations of storing this data in a

spreadsheet?

• Data integrity issues?• Data retrieval issues?• Efficiency issues?• Control issues?• Reporting issues?


Database ideas

• Define the database in advance• Build in rules to support desired transaction

logic• Minimize redundant data

– E.g., Company name and product name appear only once in the database, but can be displayed on many forms and queries.

• Use existing database information to maintain integrity of new information

• Define queries and reports • Reuse queries and reports• Create new queries and reports


Structure of organizations (example)

• CEO and President– CFO

• Accounting manager• Payroll manager

– VP of Manufacturing• Factory manager• Logistics manager

– VP of sales• Domestic sales manager• International sales manager


Structure of a computerized calculation

• Produce pay check– Calculate gross pay for each employee

• Retrieve hours worked for each employee• Retrieve wage rate for each employee• Gross pay = hours * wage rate

– Calculate net pay• Calculate federal tax• Calculate state tax• Calculate other taxes and deductions• Net pay = gross pay – federal tax – state tax – other

taxes and deductions

– Print pay check • Print …..


Structure of a (relational) database

• Tables of information– Customers, supplies, employees, orders

• Relationships– An order has one customer– A customer may have multiple orders– A product has one supplier.– A supplier may supply multiple

products.


Second look at the information that Harrah’s (2.4) collects,

stores, and uses

• What is Harrah’s database?• What information does Harrah’s

collect about customers?– What is the source data?– What is the derived data?

• Assume it is a relational database:– Which tables of information?– What items (attributes) within each

table?


2.6. Seven Eleven’s use of a database

• What are the major business challenges that Seven Eleven faces?

• What information is in the database? How is that information collected?

• How do information systems help Seven Eleven satisfy customer needs?


2.7. JetBlue

• What happened on Feb. 14, 2008?• How did the availability and use of

computerized data affect the situation?• Assume that JetBlue’s database consists

of multiple tables of data. Identify the tables and how they might be related.

• How much should corporate officers understand about the content and availability of corporate databases?


2.8. Autopilots on airplanes

• What are some of the problems?• What are the implications related to:

– automated control of transportation? – automated decision making in general?

• Identify several guidelines for situations in which automated decision making is justified, other things being equal


Next step in the autopilot example

• How would you feel if you heard the following announcement from the flight attendant?

• “Congratulations, you are on the first totally automatic flight from SF to LA. An autopilot will control the takeoff, flight, and landing. One of your flight attendants is a trained pilot who will take over if the autopilot detects any problems.”


2.9. CRM – customer relationship management and

“IT’s Hardest Puzzle”• What is CRM?• Is CRM fundamentally about customer

relationship management?• What is the work system (or work systems)

in the case study “IT’s Hardest Puzzle” ?• What went wrong in the story and what

might have been done to avoid the problems discussed in the case?

• See Figure 7.1 and 7.2


Group exercise about central challenges in software

• The year is 2020• Your home robot greets you as you come home

and asks whether you would like something.• You are hungry and would especially like

spaghetti and meatballs• How would you communicate your request to the

robot? • How would the robot fulfill the request? (Please

explain what the robot’s programs would do.)


More about the robot

• Physically it appears similar to a human• Using radar adapted from cave-dwelling bats, it can

determine the precise location, shape, and identity of any object in a room

• It can capture sounds accurately and can understand speech to some extent via voice recognition software.

• Its physical movements include human-like walking, bending, grasping, lifting, etc.

• All of these capabilities must be controlled by computer programs that do not work like a human mind because even in the year 2020 no one knows exactly how a human mind works


More about the kitchen

• It is like your current kitchen, with your current appliances and cooking utensils.

• The steps in preparing food in your 2020 kitchen are similar to those of today.

© steven alter, 2010 all rights reserved 02/03/10 emerging technology assignment – any questions?...

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