UNSW Business School

Information Systems and Technology Management

INFS1602 Digital Transformation in Business

Week 7
Decision Support and Business Intelligence
 Reminders

After midsession break WEEK 08:

LECTURES are ONLINE Week 8
Workshops for Week 8 ONLINE (due to ANZAC Day holiday)
Week 8 Quiz opens Monday 24 April 0900H and closes Saturday
April 29 1200H (1 day extension due to holiday)
 Quiz 04 Week 10 April 24-29, 2016

Quiz 04, 10 MCQs Covers Chapter 5 and Chapter 7.

Quiz 04 will open on Moodle on Monday, 24 April 2017 at

0900hrs and close on Saturday, 29 October 2016 at 1700hrs

No supplementary quiz allowed once quiz is closed

1 attempt (15 minutes) allowed for Quiz 04:

Questions are randomized for each attempt

Note: We license the quiz questions, and our license does not
allow us to share the answers to the quizzes with students

3
 Week 8 Online Workshop
Read the Opening Case Study: Managing in the Digital World: FBI and
CIA Gathering Intelligence Using Social Media (pp. 241 of the
textbook).
Conduct research of your own on the use of social media for business
intelligence.

1. How can government organisations analyse social media activities

to predict social upheavals? What business analytics and
visualization tools could be used in the above case to make sense
of the information? (300-400 words)

2. Based on your research, give an example of a problem in business

or society that utilized social media for business intelligence to
achieve a solution. Do you agree that the use of social media for
business intelligence is an effective method or could a solution be
better achieved using alternative methods? (300-400 words)

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 Format of Online Workshop
Task 01: Each INDIVIDUAL student should answer the Week 08 workshop
questions. Each answer should be 300 to 400 words (Total = 600 to 800 words).
Post your answers to the discussion forum set up for your workshop on Moodle
no later than 0900hrs (MORNING) on WEDNESDAY 26 April 2017. (note: NO
file uploads or attachments). Ensure that you put your FULL NAME and
STUDENT ID on every answer for easy record keeping.

Task 02: Each INDIVIDUAL student should prepare a critique of the answers
provided by AT LEAST ONE STUDENT in your workshop.
Post your critique as a reply to the answers posted the student in the
discussion forum no later than 0900hrs (MORNING) on FRIDAY 28 April 2017.
Your critique may be more than one post i.e. the thread may become a
discussion. Critiques are expected to be at least 300 words.
Your critique should include (a) arguments/ideas you are convinced by and (b)
at least 1 counterargument

Note: Attendance at Week 8 workshop will consist of completing ALL 2 TASKS in

previous slide. Tutors (your own )will participate in the discussion

COMBINED TARDINESS in completing all 2 tasks MUST NOT exceed 20 minutes

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 Format of Online Workshop
Example 01, if you complete:
Task 1 at 0910hrs on Wednesday 26 APR 2017
Task 2 at 0902hrs on Friday 28 APR 2017
Combined Tardiness = 12 minutes (10 + 2) PRESENT for
workshop

Example 02, if you complete:

Task 1 at 0910hrs on Wednesday 26 APR 2017
Task 2 at 0911hrs on Friday 28 APR 2017
Combined Tardiness = 21 minutes (10 + 11) ABSENT for
workshop

Give yourself ample time to maneuver. Technical issues will not be

accepted as excuses for tardiness.

DO NOT edit the title or any part of your answers (even if they are small
grammatical errors) AFTER the deadline as it will cause your timestamp
to be altered and you to be LATE and hence possibly ABSENT

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 Agenda for this Lecture

q Decision Support and Business Intelligence

Decision making in organizations
Structured, Unstructured and Semi-structured problems

Information Quality
Business benefits of high quality information

Business intelligence and big data

Information and knowledge discovery
Decision support systems
Information visualization

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 No IS = No Business Intelligence

q Organizational members
ALWAYS need to make decisions

q There is NO single correct

solution to most of the important
management decisions

q IS helps organizational members

make EDUCATED DECISONS in
a SYSTEMATIC and OPTIMAL
manner through proper data/
information management

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 Structured and Unstructured Problems

Structured problem: One in which an

optimal solution can be reached through a
routine series of steps

Unstructured problem: One for which

there is no single procedure to attain an
optimal solution
May not be enough information
May be a large number of potential factors
Unstructuredness is closely related to
uncertainty

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 Structured and Unstructured Problems
Semistructured problem: one that
is neither fully structured nor totally
unstructured
Professionals encounter
semistructured problems almost
daily in many different industries
The goal is to choose the one
alternative that will bring about
the best outcome.

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 Decision Making Process
1. Intelligence phase: What is the
problem/opportunity, why it exists
and where? Impact on
organization?

2. Design phase: Exploring possible

solutions/responses to problem/
opportunity

3. Choice phase: Select a choice

from the presented options

4. Implementation phase:
Operationalizing the chosen
decision and monitoring it

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 THE BUSINESS BENEFITS OF HIGH-QUALITY
INFORMATION INFORMATION

LEVELS, FORMATS AND GRANULARITIES OF INFORMATION

Copyright 2013 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd

 INFORMATION QUALITY

Business decisions are only as good as the

quality of the information used to make the
decision.
You never want to find yourself using
technology to help you make a bad decision
faster.
Characteristics of high-quality information?
Information type: Transactional or Analytical

Transactional information - the information

contained within a single business process or
unit of work. Its primary purpose is to support
the performing of daily operational tasks
Analytical information - organisational
information, its primary purpose is to support
the performing of managerial analysis tasks
 Information type:
transactional or analytical continued

Copyright 2013 McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd

 Interrelationships Among Systems

The various types of systems in the organization have interdependencies. TPS are major
producers of information that is required by many other systems in the firm, which, in turn,
produce information for other systems. These different types of systems are loosely
coupled in most business firms, but increasingly firms are using new technologies to
integrate information that resides in many different systems.

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 From Database to Data Warehouse

q Databases:
Collections of related data organised in a way
that facilitates data searches
Transactional databases are not suitable for
business analysis
Contain only current, not historical data

q Data warehouse:
A large repository database that supports
management decision making
Stores current and historical data from many core
operational transaction systems
Consolidates and standardizes information for
use across enterprise, but data cannot be altered
Data warehouse system will provide query,
analysis, and reporting tools

q Data marts:
Subset of data warehouse
Summarized or highly focused portion of firms
data for use by specific population of users
Typically focuses on single subject or line of Image: jignyasa.net
business

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 Business Intelligence
Why is Business Intelligence so
HOT?

From lack of data to Big Data

From limited processing power to

super computers

From retrospective analysis to

real-time analysis
http://www.sitescout.com/rtb/?
ref=adw_search_real%20time%20bidding&gclid=CPrIkYzaisACFV
UHvAodi6gAtg

19
 Big Data 6 Vs

1. Volume

2. Variety

3. Velocity

4. Veracity

5. Variability

6. Value Proposition

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SUPPORTING DECISIONS WITH BI
How BI can answer tough questions
 SUPPORTING DECISIONS WITH BI

q Analysis Paralysis - the state of over-analyzing (or overthinking) a

situation so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing
the outcome.
 Business Intelligence Components

1. Information and Knowledge Discovery

2. Business Analytics to Support Decision Making

3. Information Visualization
 Information and Knowledge Discovery
q Finds hidden patterns,
relationships in large
databases and infers rules to
capture existing
undiscovered relationships

q E.g. Finding patterns in

customer data for one-to-one
marketing campaigns or to
identify profitable customers.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-
pregnant-before-her-father-did/#291b23a934c6
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Business Analytics to Support Decision Making

q Business Analytics augments business intelligence by using

predictive analysis to help identify trends or predict business
outcomes; whereas business intelligence is good for knowing what is,
predictive analysis helps in forseeing what will be.

q Decision Support Systems (DSS) is a special purpose information

system designed to support organisational decision making related to
a particular recurring problem.
 Information Visualization

qDisplay of complex data

Using a variety of graphical
methods

qMany information
visualization tools

qInsufficient research
conducted to make
definitive claims

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Business School
Information Systems, Technology and Management

Thank You
and
Enjoy Your Break!