Managing enterprises with advanced ICT

Introduction

The purpose of this wikibook is to explain basic terms from the fields: informatics, information systems, system analysis, information technologies. Its primary learning objective is to prepare a student (a future manager) to assess, analyze, select, acquire, manage and maintain an information system for his/her company.

The target group of these selected chapters are students of management study programmes of business schools or applied science faculties.

Basic terms

A manager who want to manage their company with the support of information technologies should be familiar with basic terms such as:
  • Information system
  • Information technology
  • Information and communications technology
  • Enterprise software
  • Application software
  • Web application
  • Mobile application

Software and business models

A manager is often confronted which type of software to use. Which is better, proprietary or open-source?
See more:
  • Proprietary software
  • Open-source software
Outsourcing IT-related services is often a good choice for a manager, especially if there is no IT department within the company.
See more:
  • Managed services

Types of information systems:

Each part of a company requires different type of an information system. The most common types of information systems are:
  • Management information system
  • Enterprise resource planning
  • Document management system
  • Customer relationship management
  • Human resource management system
  • Business intelligence
  • Business process management

Data & computing

When it comes to acquiring a software and hardware, a manager should decide whether to build their own IT / data center or lease already established one:
  • Cloud computing
  • Data center

IT strategy & processes

A manager's primary responsibility is to establish a technology strategy for their organization:
  • Technology strategy
A modern company includes IT related activities and services such as Service desk, Incident management and similar. A set of good practices was developed and it can be reused also for your organization:
  • ITIL

Business & requirements analysis

Requirements gathering and analysis is one of the first steps of the company's digital transformation:
  • Requirements analysis
  • Software requirements specification

Business continuity and IT Security

A manager's primary responsibility is to ensure the company's continuous delivery of products or services at pre-defined acceptable levels following a disruptive incident:
  • Business continuity
Protecting computer systems from information disclosure, theft or damage:
  • Computer security