CHAPTER 14: ENTERPRISE COMPUTING

•       Enterprise computing involves the use of computers in networks, such as LANs and WANs, 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

•       Most traditional enterprises are organized in a hierarchical manner

•       In an enterprise, users typically fall into one of four categories:

•       Executive Management

•       Middle Management

•       Operational Management

•       Nonmanagement Employees

•       Enterprise information is the information gathered in the ongoing operations of an enterprise-sized organization

•       Business intelligence

•       Business process management

•       Business process automation

•       Managers coordinate resources by performing four activities

•       Planning

•       Organizing

•       Leading

•       Controlling

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
• Step 1: A user enters the nature of the problem.
• Step 2: Select a suggested solution from the list presented by the expert system.
• Step 3: Expert system displays details about the solution and additional options.
• Step 4: Expert system displays detailed steps when requested.
• ·        Integrated Information Systems
  o   Customer relationship management manages information about customers, interactions with customers, past purchases, and interests
  o   Enterprise resource planning provides centralized, integrated software to help manage and coordinate ongoing activities
  o   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

• 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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