Info Tech

Seminar 1 –

  1. Digital Firm vs. Traditional Firm
      a. Greater flexibility in organization management
        i. Time-shifting – Open 24/7
        ii. Space shifting – No longer confined to shopfront
      b. Manage business relationships, processes, assets digitally
  2. Why do companies invest in IT?
      c. 6 strategic business objectives
        iii. Operational excellence – IT increases efficiency and productivity
        iv. New products, services & business models – New business models require the use of IT
        v. Customer & supplier intimacy – SCM & CRM (Refer to Seminar 10 on Enterprise Systems)
        vi. Improved decision making – More accurate data captured = Better information
        vii. Competitive advantage – Give themselves a competitive advantage in terms of better performance e.g. responding to customers & suppliers in real time (JIT)
        viii. Survival – IT necessary for businesses due to industry-level changes e.g. introduction of ATMs by Citibank

Seminar 2 – Hardware & Software

Hardware
  1. Define IT infrastructure.
      a. Set of physical devices and software (hardware & software) along with the human resources required to operate the entire enterprise
  2. Identify the 7 components of IT infrastructure.
      i. Computer hardware platforms
      ii. Operating system platforms
      iii. Enterprise software applications
      iv. Data management and storage
      v. Networking/telecommunications platforms
      vi. Internet platforms
      vii. Consulting system integration services
  3. Identify and describe the 5 eras of IT infrastructure evolution
      b. General-purpose mainframe & minicomputer era: 1959-present
        i. 1958: centralized computing
            * 1 mainframe hook up to thousands of online remote terminals
        ii. 1965: decentralized computing
            * introduction of less expensive DEC minicomputers
      a.... [continues]

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