1. Introduction
Managing Information
Systems
Lee SCHLENKER – EMLYON
Newcastle Business School
April 17th, 2012

2. Dr. Lee Harris SCHLENKER
puts enterprise IT to work in supporting your customers’
success stories
• Focuses today on use scenarios of how innovative forms of IT
can help management engage business differently
• Has directed missions for firms including Apple, Ernst & Young,
IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP in the manufacturing,
telecommunications, public works and service industries
• Author of three books, several dozen articles, has facilitated fifty
corporate workshops and conferences throughout Europe
• Chair of Emerging Economies and Technologies at EMLYON
• Managing Director of LHST sarl
http://leeschlenker.com
www.lhstech.com • Visiting Professor at the University of Newcastle
www.emlyon.com
LHST : The Value Architects™

3. What is an information system?
What is our organizational
focus?
What are we trying to
improve?
What knowledge do we need to
capture?
What can we leverage to
Focus Improve Knowledge Leverage Measure improve the system?
? ? ? ? ?
How will we measure the
results?
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2010 EMLYON

4. Course Agenda
What is our organizational
Focus Improve Knowledge Leverage Measure focus?
Process ? ? ? ? ? What are we trying to do?
Centric
What knowledge do we need
Social ? ? ? ? ?
Networks to capture?
Search ? ? ? ? ?
What can we leverage to
improve the system?
Mobility ? ? ? ? ?
How will we measure the
results?
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2010 EMLYON

5. What does the data mean?
Frame
Cloud
Figure (s)
Oracle
Antonello da Messina
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2010
©2012 EMLYON

6. Via.me
This visual exercise will explore your perspective on how IT can impact
organizational performance
•What is the frame
(beliefs, prejudices, experience) that
determines what we see?
•How do the figures interact (aptitudes and
competences)?
•What is the role of technology (in this case
technology) : to do it for us,? tell us what
to do? to provoke discussion?
•What determines the horizon (one, two or
three point perspective of how we measure
Pictures, videos, activity streams
progress in moving forward)?
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

7. What role does IT play in innovation?
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2010 EMLYON

8. IT Doesn’t Matter
• Nicolas Carr compares IT to previous tech revolutions such as
railroads and electricity. In what ways is IT different?
• What proof can you offer that information technology in
business no longer provides competitive advantage?
• Does the pervasiveness of IT mean there will be less innovation
now?
• Hasn't competitive advantage come from unique use of the
technology, not just from the technology itself? What examples
can you give?
• Do recent advances in Cloud Computing and Mobile
Applications confirm or contradict Nicolas Carr's claims?
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet

9. The objectives
©2012 EMLYON

10. Understand the basics
• Study the fundamentals of an
Information System
• Analyze the constraints and possibilites
of « structured » information
• Explore how the potential links between
an IS and organizational learning
• Analyze the potential value of 2.0
technologies
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2010 EMLYON

11. Why is studying IS important?
• Understanding the implications
between « structured » and
« unstructured data »
• Analyzing the difference between the
data and reality
• Understanding how the data fits
together
• Exploring the difference between data
and action
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2010 EMLYON

12. Evaluation
• One group and one individual
assignment
• A group mashup highlighting the
conflicts, aptitudes, roadmap and
metrics of using IT in a professional
setting – 30 percent
• An original case study presenting your
analysis of how information technology
has impacted organizational
performance – 70 percent
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet

13. The Problem
©2012 EMLYON

14. Trends in the workplace
• Economic transformation: The transformation from a manufacturing-
based economy to a services-based economy now underway throughout
the developed world will accelerate.
• One World of Business. Political and economic dynamics are forging a
single global market, a global workforce, global customers, partners, and
suppliers.
• Always On, Always Connected. The challenges of the “always on, always
connected” world will be converting information into insights; managing time
and staying focused on high priority tasks
• The Transparent Organization. The systems that make organizations
more agile also make them more accountable.
• NetGen Meets Baby Boom. Workers who will be delivering the innovations
and productivity growth of tomorrow, this technology not only won’t come as
a surprise, it will be a positive expectation.
• Competing for Talent in a Shrinking Workforce: Because demographics
show an aging, shrinking workforce in most of the developed world over the
next 50 years, maximizing the productivity of the workers that are available
is critical.
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2006 LHST sarl

15. Convergence?
• Globalization : the increasingly
circulation of information across borders.
• Technical progression: the
transformation of communication
« atoms to bits »
• Economic integration: vertical and
horizontal integration to profit from
economies of scale
• Social innovation: human attempts to
create new forms of expression
• Multitasking : individual efforts to use
multiple communication platforms
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet Henry Jenkins
©2012 EMLYON

16. The management of meaning
• The assumption of order
• The assumption of rational
choice
• The assumption of
intentional capacity
• The assumption of identity
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2006 LHST sarl

17. Commoditisation
• Over the last 70 years we have
repeatly seen proof of innovation in
IT : the spreadsheet, the ERP
system, Social Network
Applications
• In the early days, companies
created their own legacy systems
to put these ideas into practice
• As the technologies matured,
companies editors standardized
these applications in the form of
Simon Wardley, "Cloud Computing - Why IT Matters"
products.
• Inevitably these products become
simple commodities

18. Information
©2012 EMLYON

19. Data, Knowledge and Action
The ladder of initiatives™
Results
Drive Measures
Actions
Require Decisions
Knowledge
Define Interprets
Context
Obtain Process
Data
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

20. The defintion of information
• From an objective point of view,
information refers to date in context that
conveys meaning to an individual.
• From a subjective point of view, we
could suggest that it’s the individual’s
perspective of the data that implies
meaning.
• Given these definitions what meaning
do Wikileaks, Twitter, or Facebook
have?
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

21. Structured data
• Structured data refers to data that
cabn be easily represented in
textual/numeric form and stored in a
database.
• Structured data is often logically
organized around a data model or
data object.
• Such models permit companies to
compare and aggregate data in
databases, datamarts and data
warehouses.
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

22. Non-structured data
• Data is considered « non-structured » if we
can’t predefine its attributes and store it in
a table or data base
• Examples of this kind of data include press
clippings, videoclips, and songs
• In reality, this data isn’t « non-structured »
- its just that its attributes involve
« complex » relationships
http://jean.marie.gouarne.online.fr/bi.html
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

23. ©2010 LHST sarl
Information
Systems
EMM MIS
©2012 EMLYON

24. Defining an Information System
A business information system is an organized set of
resources (platforms, applications, procedures, data and
people) that capture the meaning of work
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

25. The objectives of an IS
Actionnaires
 Actifs
 Demandes en temps réel
 ...
Employées Société
 Compétition
 Mobilité
 “made in” “made by”
 Valorisation des tâches
 ...
 ...
L’organisation
Clients Partenaires
 Fidélité ?  Peu de barrières d’entrée
 Vrai coûts  Acquisitions, OPA
 ...  ...
To help us understand the motivations, experience and objectives of the
internal and external clients of the organization
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

26. The traditional description of an IS
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

27. Are information systems mirrors of the
organizational chart ?
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

28. Are information systems mirrors of
key processes?
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

29. Are information systems mirrors of
organizational skills and competencies?
Technicity
Method Reflection
Action Imagination
Cooperation
John Holland
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2010 EMLYON

30. Information Systems are a question of
perspective
• The financial perspective
(entreprise resource planning)
• The logistics perspective
(supply chain management)
• The client perspective(client
relationship management)
• The community
perspective(social media)
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

31. ©2010 LHST sarl
The Internet
EMM MIS
©2012 EMLYON

32. The Internet
500 million users
more than 3 billion pages
WWW
URL HTML, HTTP
Internet: "The Big Picture"
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

33. Programming the Web
I. Static web pages (HTML)
II. Web enabled applications
(Dynamic Web Pages,
ASP, JSP, PHP, ...)
III. Web services
Towards the semantic Web
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

34. The Web as a set of information flows
• The Internet is only one
component of the Web
• Web sites and portals are
only isolated endpoints of
information flows
• We capture the information
flows on Twitter, Deezer,
Facebook and Netvibes
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

35. Digital footprints and clickstreams
• Before the Web we assumed that our
digital footprint was as ephemeral as a
phone
• Clickstreams can provide a level of
intelligence about how people use the
Web
• Innovative companies have figured out
how to deliver great Web-based services
by divining clickstream patterns
• We have yet to aggregate the critical mass
of clickstreams in a database of intentions
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
Prof. Lee SCHLENKER
©2012 EMLYON

36. ©2010 LHST sarl
Workshop
EMM MIS
©2012 EMLYON

37. How would you build a workspace?
• Cecile Balmond – Informal
• (Work) spaces aren’t bound by
technology but by vision
• Rules aren’t boundaries, just
considerations
• Vision, actors, events,
outcomes, gateways
©2012 EMLYON

38. A Mashup
Main features Dashboards
What is a Dashboard? Private & Public
Registration Dashboards
Simple Registration App View
Facebook Connect Reader View
Profile Settings
Sign In Themes
Edit your account info Keyboard Shortcuts
Change profile image Sharing
Email settings Mobile Versions Specifics
Change password Sign-in
Manage Dashboards iPhone, Android
Netvibes is a mash-up that allows you to Backup Feeds version
construct a personalised page filled with Third Party Services Wap version
near real time content on the subject of
your choice
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

39. Add in information flows
• Four groups : Conflicts,
aptitudes, roadmap, metrics
• Each page : Public Page
(text), Via.Me, Mindmap,
Pearltrees,, Videos..
• Communicate the URL of the
public page to
research@lhstech.com
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

40. The Journey to Value
Business Intelligence A Plot
The Journey to Value Hi Nikos! Signout Switch
1. The Confict
2. The Characters
3. The Roadmap
4. The Metrics
Execute
Revise
©2012 EMLYON

41. Plotting a path to value
The Business Value Roadmap™
©2007 LHST sarl

42. Case Study
The case study presents your analysis of how information technology has
impacted organizational performance.
• Conflict and opportunity – is there a
business problem to solve?
• Knowledge and skills – what is the
organization trying to learn?
• The Roadmap– how does technology
provide a vision of « better »
• The Happy End – how do we best
measure the results
The paper will be an orginal work of 1800 to 2100
words and respect university standards
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON

43. Resources
EMM MIS
©2012 EMLYON

44. Collaborative Platform
• Administrative details
• Recommended readings
• Course support
• Current events
• Discussion forum/help desk
http://www.valuearchitect.org/
Objectives Problem IS Information Internet
©2012 EMLYON