Business Management
Information System
Lecture 1


Professor Dr. Sajjad Mohsin
n

Ph.D.
¨ Division

of Production, Information and
Systems Engineering, Muroran Institute of
Technology, Hokkaido. JAPAN

n

M.E.
¨ Dept.

of Computer Science and Systems
Engineering,
Muroran Institute of

Technology, JAPAN
n M.Sc.

Computer Science

¨ Department

of Computer Science, Quaid-iAzam University Islamabad, Pakistan


Experience
n

Professor & Dean FIST, COMSATS Institute of
Information Technology Islamabad Pakistan,
April 2011 to date

n

Dean FIST & Chairman CS (Associate
Professor)COMSATS Institute of Information
Technology Islamabad Pakistan, Nov 2010 to
August 2011

n

Chairman & Head (Associate Professor)
Department of Computer Science, COMSATS
Institute of Information Technology Islamabad
Pakistan, July 2009 to Nov 2010.


Experience
n

Head (Associate Professor), Department of Computer
Science, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology

Islamabad Pakistan, January 2008 to July 2009

n

Associate Professor, COMSATS Institute of Information
Technology Abbottabad Campus, Pakistan, April 2005January 2008

n

Research Assistant with Prof. Yukinori Suzuki, MIT
Japan, 2004 to 2005
¨ Research Project: A study on Telecommunication
Network Modeling.


Experience
n

Research Assistant with Prof. Yukinori Suzuki, MIT
Japan. Research, 2003-2004
¨

n

Teaching Assistant with Dr. Yasushi Honda, MIT
Japan. Oct 2002, to Feb 2003
¨

n


Project: A study on Congestion Control of
Telecommunication Network.

Subject: Information Engineering Basic Practice B.

Researcher with Prof. Yukinori Suzuki at the MIT
Japan, Oct 1998 to March 2000.


Experience
n

Systems Analyst, Central Telecom
Research Laboratories
(CTRL),PakistanTelecommunication
Corporation Ltd. (PTCL), Islamabad.
Pakistan, July 1992 – Sep. 2003

n

Systems Analyst, National Institute of
Electronics (NIE), Islamabad. Pakistan,
Jun. 1987 – Jul. 1992


Grants
n

2007 – Present
¨ Higher


Education
Commission,
Pakistan
approved & funded research project "High
Performance Image Processing using Genetic
Algorithms
on
Auto-Load
Balancing
Symmetric Multi-Processing Platform" worth
more than (Pakistan Rs.) 0.6 million

n

2011 – 2013
¨ National

ICT R&D Fund approved and funded
the research project titled “3D Graphical
Imagery Therapy for Healing Brain Tumors in
Children” worth more than 11 million PKR.


HONORS
Distinguish Professor of COMSATS
n Member Editorial Board of the “IEEE
Transaction of The Fuzzy Systems”
Journal
n Member Editorial Board of the World

Information Technology Journal
n Member Editorial Board of the Information
Technology Journal
n Approved PhD Supervisor of Higher
Education Commission for Pakistan
n Member Australian Computer Society
n


Honors
Awarded Japanese Government, Ministry
of Education Scholarship for Ph.D. April
2002- March 2005
n Awarded Japanese Government, Ministry
of Education Scholarship for M.E. April
2000 –March 2002
n Awarded Japanese Government, Ministry
of Education Scholarship as Research
Student. Oct 1998- March 2000.
n Awarded Merit Scholarship by the Quaid-iAzam University Islamabad for M.Sc. Jan.
1985 – Dec. 1986
n


Course Theme
n

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The importance of Information System
Management
Leadership Issues (The Top is Job)
Strategic Uses of information Technology
Information System Planning
Distributed Systems The Overall Architecture
Managing Telecommunications
Managing Information Resources
Managing Operations


Course Theme
Technologies for Developing Systems
n Management Issues in System
Development
n Supporting Decision Making
n Supporting Collaboration
n Supporting knowledge Work
n The Challenges Ahead
n


Introduction
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Information Technology (IT) -computers
and telecommunications - is having the
kind of revolutionary, restructuring impact
that has been expected and promised for
years

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Rapid advances in speed and capacity +
pervasiveness of Internet, wireless,
portable devices etc. = making major
changes in the way we live and work

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‘Go Back’ – 5, 10, 15 years


Introduction cont…..
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Due to the growth and pervasiveness of IT, organizations
are operating in a different environment from just a few
years ago

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Themes this unit emphasizes:
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Globalization
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E-enablement
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The world seems to be getting smaller
Backlash – local needs Vs. ‘standard’
Jobs to stay ‘local’
IS executives need ‘balancing act’
Internet has become a hub for conducting business
Interconnectivity plus!

Knowledge Sharing and Knowledge Management
n
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Between people
Out of people’s heads and into ‘lasting’ things e.g. systems, policies
and procedures etc.



Introduction cont…….
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Management of Information Systems
¨
1.

2.
3.

3 Major Trends
Governance of IT = a collaborative effort from IS
executives and all other members of Senior
Management
Role of IS is shifting from application delivery to
system integration and infrastructure development
Outsourcing – total / selective
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Developing and managing contracts and relationships


Introduction cont.
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Historically, managing IT has been the job
of ‘technical managers’

n


NOW = increasingly becoming an
important part of the responsibilities of:
¨ Senior

executives
¨ Line managers
¨ Employees at all levels of an organization


The ‘Key’ (What’s it all about?)
§

Technology is configured into
systems that help manage
information to improve organizational
performance


What is Information?
Information is created by defining and
organizing relationships among data.
n Defining different relationships results in
different information.
n

Example: Different Designs of 
wood depicting different shapes 
of information!



What is Information?
cont…
n All individuals, companies and, in general, all
organizations are continuously capturing data,
many of which are of no significance to them at
all. However, other data are available that would
afford them a better understanding of their own
environment and of themselves. These data –
what we know as information – enable them to
make more accurate decisions. For this reason,
the right amount of information at the right time
is a key factor for every organization.


n

n

Company managers take decisions, prepare plans and
control their company’s activities using information that
they can obtain either from formal sources or through
informal channels such as face-to-face conversations,
telephone calls, social contacts, etc.
Managers are challenged by an increasingly complex
and uncertain environment. In these circumstances,
managers should theoretically be able to define and
obtain the type of information they require. However, this
is not what happens in practice; rather, the way
managers perform their work depends on the available
information that they have access to. Most decisions are

therefore made in the absence of absolute knowledge,
either because the information is not available or
because access to it would be very costly.


n

Although the terms data and information are sometimes
used indiscriminately, they do have different meanings.
Data are non-random symbols that represent the values
of attributes or events. Hence, data are facts, events and
transactions stored according to an agreed code. Data
are facts obtained through reading, observation,
calculation, measurement, etc. The amounts and other
details on an organization's invoices, cheques or pay
slips, etc, are referred to as data, for example. Data are
obtained automatically, the result of a routine procedure
such as invoicing or measurement processes.


n

Information is a set of data transformed in such a way
that it helps to reduce future uncertainty and, therefore,
contributes to the decision-making process. Information
is data transformed in a way that makes sense to the
person who receives it; in other words, it has a real or
perceived value for that person when he or she acts or
takes decisions. Information, moreover, is data that have
been interpreted and understood by the recipient of the

message. The relationship between data and information
is similar to that of raw materials and the finished
product. Information will be meaningful insofar as it
provides useful raw material for taking a specific
decision.


Characteristics of a Valuable
information
n
Good information provides value.

n

Information should posses following characteristics,
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Accurate
Complete
Economical
Flexible
Reliable
Relevant



Cont…..
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Simple
Timely
Verifiable
Accessible
Secure
Punctuality
Comprehension


Accurate
n

n

Information must be sufficiently accurate for
managers’ purposes. No information is totally
accurate, and spending more on information in
pursuit of greater accuracy does not always
result in more valuable information.
The degree of accuracy should be coherent with
the importance of the decision to be taken and

will vary according to the decision-maker’s level
in the hierarchy. The degree of information
accuracy required will depend on the
hierarchical level in question.


Complete
n

In an ideal world, all the information
required to take a decision would be
available; however in reality this is not
possible. Information is considered to be
completed if it informs us on the key points
of the problem we are analyzing.