Also, Enterprise computing involves the use of computers in networks, such as LANs and WAN, or a series of interconnected networks that encompass a variety of different operating systems, protocols, and network architectures .
Types of enterprises include:
- Retail
- Manufacturing
- Service
- Wholesale
- Government
- Educational
- Transportation
- Executive management.
- Middle management.
- Operational management.
- Non-management employess.
- Executive Management
- Middle Management
- Operational Management
- Nonmanagement Employees
- Business intelligence
- Business process management
- Business process automation
- Planning
- Organizing
- Leading
- Controlling
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Information Systems in the Enterprise
An information system is a set of hardware, software, data, people, and procedures that work together to produce information
Functional units within an enterprise might include:
- Enterprise
- Accounting and Finance
- Human Resources
- Engineering or Product Development
- Manufacturing
- Marketing
- Sales
- Distribution
- Customer Service
- Technology
- Accounting software manages everyday transactions
- Billing software helps the company reconcile purchases with customer payments
- Financial software helps managers budget, forecast, and analyze
- A human resources information system (HRIS) manages one or more human resources functions.
- Employee relationship management systems manage communication between employees and the business.
- Computer-aided design (CAD) uses a computer and special software to aid in engineering, drafting, and design.
- Computer-aided engineering (CAE) uses computers to test product designs.
- Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) is the use of computers to control production equipment.
- Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) uses computers to integrate the many different operations of the manufacturing process.
- Material Requirements Planning (MRP) uses software to help monitor and control processes related to production.
- Manufacturing Resource Planning II (MRP II) is an extension of MRP and also includes software that helps in scheduling.
- A quality control system helps an organization maintain or improve the quality of its products or services.
- A marketing information system serves as a central repository for the tasks of a marketing department.
- Sales force automation (SFA) software equips traveling salespeople with the electronic tools they need to be more productive.
- Distribution systems perform the following functions:
- Provide forecasting for inventory control
- Manage and track shipping of products
- Provide information and analysis on inventory in a warehouse
- Customer interaction management (CIM) software manages the day-to-day interactions with customers.
- The information technology (IT) department makes technology decisions for the enterprise.
- Whether to build or buy new information systems
- When a computer or information system has outlived its useful life
- Web site management programs collect data designed to help organizations make informed decisions regarding their Web presence
- General purpose information systems generally fall into one of five categories.
- Office Information System
- Transaction Processing System
- Management Information System
- Decision Support System
- Expert System
- Batch processing vs. online transaction processing.
- A Sample Expert System In Windows 7 Help and Support
- A user enters the nature of the problem.
- Select a suggested solution from the list presented by the expert system.
- Expert system displays details about the solution and additional options.
- Expert system displays detailed steps when requested.
- Integrated Information Systems
- Customer relationship management manages information about customers, interactions with customers, past purchases, and interests
- Enterprise resource planning provides centralized, integrated software to help manage and coordinate ongoing activities
- Content management systems are information systems that combine databases, software, and procedures.
Enterprise-Wide Technologies and Methodologies
- Some technologies used in enterprises include:
- Portals - A portal is a collection of links, content, and services presented on a Web page that are interesting for a particular job function.
- Data warehouses - A data warehouse is a huge database that stores and manages the data required to analyze historical and current transactions.
- Electronic data interchange - EDI is a set of standards that controls the transfer of business data and information among computers both within and among enterprises.
- Extranets - An extranet is the portion of a company’s network that allows customers or suppliers of a company to access parts of an enterprise’s intranet.
- Web services - Web services allow businesses to create products and B2B interactions over the Internet. In a service-oriented architecture, information systems provide services to other information systems in a well-defined manner over a network.
- Document management systems - A document management system (DMS) allows for storage and management of a company’s documents
- Stored in a repository
- Workflow - A workflow is a defined process that identifies the specific set of steps involved in completing a particular project or business process.
- Workflow application
- Virtual private networks - A virtual private network (VPN) provides mobile users, vendors, and customers with a secure connection to the company network server. Virtualization and Cloud Computing
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Virtualization is the practice of sharing or pooling computing resources.
- Server virtualization - Provides the capability to divide a physical server logically into many virtual servers.
- Storage virtualization - Provides the capability to create a single logical storage device from many physical storage devices.
- Cloud computing is an Internet service that provides computing needs to computer users.
- Grid computing combines many servers and/or personal computers on a network to act as one large computer.
Enterprise Hardware
- Enterprise hardware allows large organizations to manage and store information and data using devices geared for:.
- Heavy use
- Maximum availability
- Maximum efficiency
- RAID duplicates data and implements duplication in different ways.
- Network attached storage (NAS) is a server that provides storage to users and information systems attached to the network.
- A storage area network (SAN) is a high-speed network that provides storage to other servers to which it is attached.
- An enterprise storage system is a strategy that focuses on the availability, protection, organization, and backup of storage in a company.
- Goal is to consolidate storage.
- A blade server packs a complete computer server on a single card (called a blade) rather than a system unit.
- The individual blades insert in a blade server chassis.
- A thin client is a small terminal-like computer that mostly relies on a server for data storage and processing.
- The processing for a thin client usually is done on a server.
High Availability, Scalability, and Interoperability
- A high-availability system continues running and performing tasks for at least 99 percent of the time.
- May include hot-swapping and redundant components.
- When a component fails, another component takes over and the system continues to function.
- Scalability is a measure of how well computer hardware, software, or an information system can grow to meet increasing performance demands.
- Interoperability is the ability for an information system to share information with other information systems within an enterprise.
Backup Procedures
- Continuous data protection provides automatic data backup whenever data is changed in an enterprise.
- A disaster recovery plan is a written plan describing the steps a company would take to restore computer operations in the event of a disaster.
- Contains four major components.
- Emergency plan
- Backup plan
- Recovery plan
- Test plan
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