Management Information Systems Blog 9

I feel that having digital video cameras on every street corner  that uses facial recognition software brings a lot of ethical dilemmas into the situation.
Some include:

• Invasion of privacy
• Used without individuals consent
• Inaccuracies

With facial recognition software, it is secretly capturing every individuals face in a photograph to be put into a database without our knowledge. This is an ethical dilemma because it is being used without our knowledge and/or consent of individuals and therefore diving into our privacy.

There are room for inaccuracies using facial recognition software. Such inaccuracies include putting innocent people in jail for crimes they did not commit, based on the algorithm the software sifts through to pull out people who have similar characteristics of said criminal.


I feel facial recognition software is different from a store asking to see your driver's license when you use your credit card, because you are aware that it is happening and are giving your consent by handing your driver's license over. I don't think I am overly fond of the idea of having the government  putting up digital video cameras on ever street corner that uses facial recognition software to monitor our movements.  It would be good and helpful in some instances but overall I think I would have to adjust to the idea I am being watched 24/7 and having my "picture" taken without my knowledge, and put into a database.

Management Information Systems Blog 8

 In my opinion, I feel at any amount of income, that it still is not okay to use pirated software. Yes, it may take awhile and some money to get ahold of a legal copy, I still feel like no amount of income that an individual has, it still is not  okay to access and use pirated software.

 Technology is constantly evolving, and nations all across the globe are constantly developing and growing. Someone, somewhere, is always going to be one step behind the ever-growing industrialized world of technology.

Some approaches that I feel would help software companies in combatting the problem of pirated software, would be:

• Lower-priced models (restricted features, payable upgrades)
• Develop a form of payment plan
• Or offer basic software and have them buy "pieces"/updates of the software at a time\
• Figure out a database to store information or code for their software, such as a one time access code or some downloadable features in order to halt the solicitation of pirated software.

Management Information Systems Blog 7

  The web-centric metrics that would be important to an e-business like Amazon.com, would be:

• Unique visitors
• Conversion Rate
• Page Exposure
• Abandoned shopping carts

These would be important to an e-business like Amazon because they need to know who they are bringing in, how many times they are visiting their website,  how often they are visiting their site and actually buying something, and those individuals who are adding products to their showing carts and leaving before they checkout.

The web-centric metrics that a content provider like CNN would rely on would be:

• Total Hits
• Page exposure
• Cost-per thousand
• Unique Visitors

These web-centric metrics are going to be important to a content provider like CNN because they need to know how many exposures they are getting on their page, and what audience they are appealing to generate that traffic, and who is clicking on the ads that they have posted on their site.

Two e-businesses would have such different focuses on their web-centric metrics because they are focusing on different criteria for their businesses. With Amazon, a shopping website, they are driven to find out who is on there, how many times they are visiting, and if they are buying when they are on the website. While on CNN, who provides content, is more focused on how many hits they are getting, who is clicking on their advertisements, and how many different individuals are landing on their site.

Management Information Systems Blog 6

There are seven phases in the systems development life cycle:

1. Planning
2. Analysis
3. Design
4. Development
5. Testing
6. Implementation
7. Maintenance

 The phase that I feel is the hardest would be the planning stage. They have to come up with what is needed to be developed, how it will be developed, what their project scope is going to be, and what the project's plan and resources are going to be. Sometimes its the initial step that is the hardest.

The phase that I feel is the easiest would be the analysis stage. In this stage you must analysis your business's requirements for the system that will be built.

 The phase that I feel is most important is the testing phase. Because you have to make sure that the system is working properly and is maintaining the same expected outcome that the are wanting performed. If there are any faults or unexpected outcomes, the system then must go backwards into the design phase and must be fixed to yet again be tested to make sure it is performing efficiently and accurately.

The phase that I find least important through the system development life cycle would have to be none. I find that they are all  important and critical in the development of systems for businesses, and that none should be skipped. Without having the planning stage, you do not have a set idea of what the system should be and what tasks and resources the plan will have. If it does not have the analysis stage, then there is no vital information about what the system must have in order of requirement for the business, which therefore will be useless to have a system that does not target your needs and requirements. If you do not have the design stage, you do not achieve the models for the system or the required design to produce the needed architecture in the development stage, that is needed to support your new system. If you do not have the development stage, your system does not get the database it needs to store vital information nor the programs it needs to operate smoothly. If there was no testing stage, then who knows if your system is going to work properly  when needed? Or if there will be unexpected outcomes and issues that must be fixed.  If there was no implementation stage, there would not be individuals who know how to use the system since there is no training provided to its users. And lastly, if there was no maintenance, there would not be any changes to the system nor  support to help the system's users incase it is needed. Everything is constantly changing, so are businesses and their requirements to run efficiently, and with that their systems need to change along with it.

Management Information Systems Blog 5

B2C e-commerce businesses can utilize the internet to further enhance their CRM initiatives by using tools such as:

• customized products and services (recommended products, etc)
• social media (communication channels) to get feedback and knowledge about the consumer
• Differentiation of themselves and tailor their focus towards customers

With businesses going towards more of an e-commerce world, they will overall strive to cut down their costs while increasing their sales.

I feel that it could become easier or harder to maintain relationships with customers as business moves toward more electronic commerce. It depends on the business and how well they are keeping up with the customers needs and interacting with them to maintain a connection that they would feel through personal face-to-face experiences. If they do maintain these connections and needs of the customer, then I feel businesses would succeed because with electronic commerce, they would:

• Make sure that the business is tailoring specific product towards customer's needs.
• Maintain fluent and consistent interaction between customer and businesses.
• Dive into focusing on maintaining open knowledge of the business's products.

If they do not maintain the connections and needs of the customer, then I feel businesses would not succeed with electronic commerce, because they would:

• Lack in connecting personally with consumers.
• Lacking in maintaining constant interaction with  consumers.
• Lacking in keeping an established relationship with consumers.

Management Information Systems Blog 4

AI systems are relatively new approaches to solving business problems.   Since they are some new approaches, some difficulties with these new IT approaches would be validity. Since they are so new, they are not fully understood how these approaches will affect business problems. Also some difficulties would be in the value that these approaches are offering, such as solving one problem but creating another.

Some advantages with AI

• Can replace human decision making by imitating closely to human thinking and behavior
• No emotional blockades that can affect decision making
• Is more cost effective
• Can be used to do a wide variety of tasks as well as be developed in a wide number of businesses and organizations all over the world..

Some disadvantages with AI over traditional business process:

• Can replace human connections
• Loss of jobs
• Potential hazard for information loss, due to machinery breaking down.

EX.
If I were selling specialty teas and had brick and click stores, I don't think I would use the same type of Ai system for each part of the business. There are some similar aspects of the AI system that would share such as expert systems and agent based technologies.

In small specialty businesses, I believe that there is a  place for decision support and artificial intelligence techniques. They just have to be adapted differently. It will still provide information for the business and make it easier for certain data to be obtained and operated by the business, it just needs to have a different scale compared to larger corporations.

DSS and AI systems would be value reducing  according to Porter’s value chain theory, by reflecting an overall generic business. If a majority of businesses are using DSS and AI systems, then it is unclear whether a particular business is going to stand out amongst its competitors with the same systems.
Some major differences between running a mammoth concern and a small specialty business would be how well they are going to connect with the customer, as well as how they would use their artificial intelligence systems in their businesses. With smaller, specialty businesses, it is really dialed down in obtaining the information they want.

Management Information Systems Blog 3

Considering my school's registration database that enforces the integrity constraint of enrolling in a certain class, to complete the listed prerequisite,  the way to get around it without having to have a prerequisite would be to alter the databases primary keys. The primary key and foreign key provide logical and restrictive relationships between the databases files. With certain keys, it restricts the relationships that can be created.

I feel like this would not be an instance to override an integrity constraint. There are certain classes that are needed in order to gain the knowledge to be able to advance to the next. The downsides of being able to override the integrity constraint would be that you are not only affecting yourself and your ability to get into a class, but you are also affecting how other student's classes that they need to take. It is also affecting how the school's relationships in the database are being set up.

Management Information Systems Blog 2

In searching for ERP vendors that focus on small-to-medium sized businesses,  I found on Software Insider,  was a list of a vast amount of ERP vendors according to the size of business.

The top most, and highly rated ERP Vendor I chose was MasterTools. What I found interesting was that this software is a proprietary license, which is a closed source software (and cannot be modified by anyone). This software is bought "as-is", and the business must work with this vendor because it offers a vast amount of features, and working with the business and vendor will help accomplish what is needed for their particular business and what will make sense.  I really liked how simple their website was set up. They made it clear to anyone who viewed their website what their business cliental consisted of, and what components their software can offer each business.

Another ERP vendor I found was Interprise Suite. They are also a proprietary license and require vendor to business contact, to provide the appropriate features for their business. I noticed that this software is offered on a variety of platforms, such as mobile, online, and on premise.

I like how using Software Insider you can actually see where their functionality ratings are, which can help business that are looking for critical criteria. With the functionality ratings for Interprise Suite's, their accounting and CRM is very high, unlike their maintenance and manufacturing components which are extremely low.

Open source software is software that is publicly available, and  modifiable to anyone. In searching for open-source software, I found Datamation, which lists the open source software list of 2015. The list ranges from education office tool software, to website editors. Such open source softwares that I found and recognize were: TurboCASH, Audacity, and WordPress.

Management Information Systems Blog 1

Although the our textbook talks about having the three key management information systems (people, information, and information technology) all working together in synergy, there is one key resource that seems to be more important, which is people.

People are the tools in which to initiate information and grow technology. People are the ones who set aspirations and decide what and when something needs to be done. People can provide an environment where it is technologically sound and dependable.

 The least important among the three key resources in management information systems would be information technology. I believe that it is the least important among three because it mainly relies on any computer-based tool. We are progressing into more of a technological era, but I believe that the information itself is more important than the tools that we could use with it. We were once able to use our information gathered without the dependency and "need" of the technological aspect.