Essential Business and Technology Concepts Defined
Service Level Agreement (SLA)
Is a formal contract between
Adhocracy
Task force organization that
Agency Theory
The firm is viewed as a “nexus
Android
Is an open source operating
Apps
Small pieces of software that
Autonomic Computing
Is an industry-wide effort to develop
Benchmarking
Involves comparing the efficiency
Best Practices
Are usually identified by consulting
Blade Servers
Computers consisting of a circuit board
Business Ecosystem
Is another term for these loosely
BYOD
Is one aspect of the consumerization of IT,
Measured Service
Charges for cloud resources are based
Client/Server Computing
Desktop or laptop computers
Cloud Computing
Refers to a model of computing that provides
Ubiquitous Network Access
Cloud resources can be accessed using standard
Cloud-Based Software and Data
Are hosted on powerful servers in data centers and can
Competitor Firm IT Infrastructure Investments
Benchmark your expenditures for IT infrastructure against your competitors.
Core Competency
Is an activity for which a firm is a world-class leader
Customers
A profitable company depends in large measure
Customers’ Bargaining Power
Availability of global price and product
Disruptive Technologies
Substitute products that perform as well as
Efficient Customer Response System
Directly links consumer behavior to distribution and production and supply chains.
Entrepreneurial Structure
Young, small firm in a fast-changing environment.
Focus on Market Niche
Use information systems to enable a specific
Google’s Chrome OS
Provides a lightweight operating system for
Green Computing
Refers to practices and technologies for designing,
HTML5
It solves this problem by making it possible
Hybrid Cloud
Combination of private and public cloud services that remain separate entities
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
Is an operating system-independent, processor-independent, object-oriented programming language
Information Systems
Have fundamentally altered the economics
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Customers use processing, storage, networking,
iOS
Is the operating system for the phenomenally popular Apple iPad,
Web Browser
Is an easy-to-use software tool with
Business Ecosystems
Is another term for these loosely
IT Infrastructure
Consists of a set of physical devices and software
Law of Mass Digital Storage
The amount of digital information is roughly
Legacy Systems
Are generally older transaction processing systems
Location-Independent Resource Pooling
Computing resources are pooled to serve
Low-Cost Leadership
Use information systems to achieve the lowest
Machine Bureaucracy
Exists in a slowly changing environment
Mass Customization
This ability to offer individually tailored
Metcalfe’s Law
The value or power of a network grows exponentially
Michael Porter Competitive Forces Model
This model provides a general view of the firm, its competitors,
Minicomputers
Offered powerful machines at far lower prices than IBM mainframes,
Moore’s Law
This law would later be interpreted in multiple
Multicore Processor
Is an integrated circuit to which two or more processor cores
Nanotechnology
Uses individual atoms and molecules to create computer
Network Economics
Refers to market situations where the economic
Open Source Software
Is software produced by a community of several
Organization
Is a stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the
Organizational Culture
Set of assumptions about what products the organization
Personal Computer (PCs)
Appeared in the 1970s (the Xerox Alto, the MITS Altair
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Customers use infrastructure and programming tools
Platforms
Are composed of information systems, technologies, and services that
Primary Activities
Are most directly related to the production and distribution of
Private Cloud
Cloud infrastructure operated solely for a single organization and
Product Differentiation
Use information systems to enable new products and
Quantum Computing
Is an emerging technology with the potential to dramatically
Rapid Elasticity
Computing resources can be rapidly provisioned, increased, or
Routines
Sometimes called standard operating procedures. Are precise rules,
Scalability
Refers to the ability of a computer, product, or system to expand to serve
Software Outsourcing
Enables a firm to contract custom software development or
Software Package
Is a prewritten commercially available set of software programs
Storage Area Networks
Connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed
Strategic Transitions
A movement between levels of sociotechnical systems. Such
Strengthen Customer and Supplier Intimacy
Use information systems to tighten linkages with suppliers
Substitute Products or Services
Enables new substitutes to emerge with new approaches to meeting
Suppliers
Can have a significant impact on firm profits, especially when
Suppliers’ Bargaining Power
Procurement over the internet tends to raise bargaining power over they.
Support Activities
Make the delivery of the primary activities possible and consist
Switching Costs
The cost of switching from one product to a competing product
Synergies
Is that when the output of some units can be used as inputs to other units
Technology Standards
Specifications that establish the compatibility of products
Traditional Competitors
All firms share market space with other competitors who
Transaction Cost Theory
Firms and individuals seek to economize on transaction
Unix and Linux
Are scalable, reliable, and much less expensive than mainframe
Value Chain Model
Highlights specific activities in the business where competitive.
Value Web
Is a collection of independent firms that use information technology to
Virtual Company Model
Another network-based strategy uses the model of a
Virtualization
Is the process of presenting a set of computing resources (such as
Web Server
Will serve a web page to a client in response to a request for service
Web Services
Refer to a set of loosely coupled software components that exchange
Your Firm’s Business Strategy
Analyze your firm’s five-year business strategy and
Your Firm’s IT Strategy, Infrastructure, and Cost
Examine your firm’s information technology plans for the next five years and assess its alignment with the firm’s.