1.

Organizational Change

• Organizational Change is the process of shifting a company’s structure or other

significant elements to improve operations and meet new challenges.

• Most organizations are constantly undergoing change, both minor and major. The
need for organizational change can be caused by internal factors, such as those
initiated by employees at all levels, or external factors, such as activities wrought by
competitors, stockholders, new laws, community regulations, natural occurrences
(such as hurricanes) and general economic conditions.

• Change can be sustaining or disruptive :

Sustaining change such as new or cheaper production equipment can help an
organization improve its operations.
Disruptive change, on the other hand, often harms an organization’s performance or
even puts it out of business.

• Strategies to contain costs are outsourcing, on-demand computing and downsizing.

Outsourcing involves contracting with outside professional services to meet specific

business needs. Often, companies outsource a specific business process, such as
recruiting and hiring employees, developing advertising materials, promoting product
sales or setting up a global telecommunications network. Organizations often
outsource a process to focus more closely on their core business and target limited
resources to meet strategic goals.

On-demand computing is an extension of the outsourcing approach, and many

companies offer on-demand computing to business clients and customers.On-demand
computing, also called on-demand business and utility computing, involves rapidly
responding to the organization’s flow of work as the need for computer resources
varies. It is often called ‘utility computing’ because the organization pays for
computing resources from a computer or consulting company just as it pays for
electricity from a utile Disruptive change, on the other hand, often harms an
organization’s performance or even puts it out of business.

Downsizing involves reducing the number of employees to cut costs. The term
‘rightsizing’ is also used. Rather than pick a specific business process to downsize,
companies usually look to downsize across the entire company. Downsizing clearly
reduces total payroll costs, although employee morale can suffer. Employers need to
be open to alternatives to reducing the number of employees and use layoffs as the
last resort. It’s simpler to encourage people to leave voluntarily through early
retirement or other incentives.
Organizational learning is closely related to organizational change. According to the
concept of organizational learning, organizations adapt to new conditions or alter their
practices overtime. Assembly-line workers, secretaries, shop assistants, managers and
executives all learn better ways of doing business and incorporate them into their day-
to-day activities. Collectively, these adjustments based on experience and ideas are
called ‘organizational learning’. In some cases, the adjustments can be a radical
redesign of business processes, often called ‘reengineering’. In other cases, these
adjustments can be more incremental, a concept called ‘continuous improvement’.

Reengineering and Continuous Improvement

To stay competitive, organizations must occasionally make fundamental changes in the

way they do business. In other words, they must change the activities tasks or
processes they use to achieve their goals. Reengineering, also called ‘process redesign’
and ‘business process reengineering’ (BPR), involves the radical redesign of business
processes, organizational structures, information systems and values of the
organization to achieve a breakthrough in business results. Reengineering can reduce
delivery times, increase product and service quality, and enhance customer
satisfaction, and increase revenues and profitability.

The idea of continuous improvement is to constantly seek ways to improve business

processes and add value to products and services. This continual change will increase
customer satisfaction and loyalty and ensure long-term profitability. Manufacturing
companies make continual product changes and improvements. Service organizations
regularly find ways to provide faster and more effective assistance to customers.By
doing so, these companies increase customer loyalty, minimize the chance of customer
dissatisfaction and diminish the opportunity for competitive inroads.
 2. Data mining & Business Intelligence(BI)

Data Mining
• Data mining is the process of analyzing data to try to discover patterns and
relationships within the data.

• Typically, a data warehouse is mined. Like gold mining, data mining sifts through
mountains of data to find a few nuggets of valuable information.

• Association rules algorithms are used to find associations between items in the data.

• Rattle is an extremely powerful data mining application which can be used within the
programming language R.

• Data mining is used extensively in marketing to improve customer retention, identify

cross selling opportunities, manage marketing campaigns, market, channel and
pricing analysis, and customer segmentation analysis.

• E-commerce presents another major opportunity for effective use of data mining.
• As a result, companies are gathering data on user traffic through their websites and
storing that data in databases. This data is then analyzed using data-mining techniques
to personalize and customize the website, and develop sales promotions targeted at
specific customers.

• The most frequent applications for data mining :

1. Customer chum – Predict current customers who are likely to switch to a
competitor.
2. Direct Marketing – Identify prospects most likely to respond to a direct marketing
campaign.
3. Fraud Detection – Highlight transactions most likely to be deceptive or illegal.
4. Market basket analysis – Identify products and services that are most commonly
purchased at the same time.
5. Market segmentation – Group customers based on who they are or what they
prefer.
6. Trend Analysis – Analyze how key variables (sales, spending , promotions) vary
over time.
Business Intelligence
• Business intelligence (BI) involves gathering enough of the right information in a
timely manner and usable form, and analyzing it so that it can be used to have a
positive effect on business strategy, tactics or operations.

• The company uses Business Objects to produce graphic displays of construction

supplies, including concrete and asphalt. BI turns data into useful information that is
then distributed throughout an enterprise.

• Competitive intelligence is one aspect of BI and is limited to information about

competitors and the ways that knowledge affects strategy, tactics and operations.
Competitive intelligence is a critical part of a company’s ability to see and respond
quickly and appropriately to the changing marketplace. Competitive intelligence is not
espionage: the use of illegal means to gather information.
 3. Systems Software

Operating Systems
• An operating system (OS) is a set of programs that controls the computer hardware
and acts as an interface with applications.
• Operating systems can control one or more computers, or they can allow multiple
users to interact with one computer.
• The role of operating system is to act as an interface between application software
and hardware.

• Single computer with a single user : This system is commonly used in a personal
computer, tablet computer or a smartphone that supports one user at a time.
• Single computer with multiple simultaneous users : This system is typical of larger
server or mainframe computers that can support hundreds or thousands of people, all
using the computer at the same time.
• Multiple computers with multiple users : This type of system is typical of a network
of computers, such as a home network with several computers attached or a large
computer network with hundreds of computers attached supporting many users,
sometimes located around the world.
• Special-purpose computers : This type of system is typical of a number of computers
with specialized functions, such as those that control sophisticated military aircraft,
space shuttles, digital cameras or home appliances.

• The set of programs that make up the OS performs a variety of activities, including the
Following :
1. Performing common computer hardware functions.
2. Providing a user interface and input/output management.
3. Providing a degree of hardware independence.
4. Managing system memory.
5. Managing processing tasks.
6. Sometimes providing networking capability.
7. Controlling access to system resources.
8. managing files
Overview of Application Software
• Proprietary software and off-the-shelf software are important types of application
software. Proprietary software is one-of-a-kind software designed for a specific
application and owned by the company, organization or person that uses it.

• Proprietary software can give a company a competitive advantage by providing

services or solving problems in a unique manner, better than methods used by a
competitor. Off-the-shelf software is mass-produced by software vendors to address
needs that are common across businesses, organizations or individuals.
 4. Green Computing

• Green computing , also known as green technology, is the use of computers and other
computing devices and equipment in energy-efficient and eco-friendly ways.
• Green computing is concerned with the efficient and environmentally responsible
design, manufacture, operation and disposal of IS-related products, including all types
of computers, printers and printer materials such as cartridges and toner.

• Business organizations recognize that going green is in their best interests in terms of
public relations, safety of employees and the community at large.
• They also recognize that green computing presents an opportunity to substantially
reduce total costs over the lifecycle of their IS equipment.
• Green computing has three goals : reduce the use of hazardous material, allow
companies to lower their power-related costs, and enable the safe disposal or
recycling of computers and computer-related equipment.

• One of the earliest initiatives towards green computing in the USA was the voluntary
labelling programme known as Energy Star.
• It was conceived by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1992 to promote energy
efficiency in hardware of all kinds.
• This programme resulted in the widespread adoption of sleep mode for electronic
products.

The green computing strategies for companies :

1. Deployment of smart technology : Organizations can use internet of things and
artificial intelligence(AI) monitoring tools to collect and analyze information about
data centers and create a power usage model.
2. Powering down IT equipment when it isn’t in use : Servers, CPUs and other devices
can be turned off during extended periods of inactivity.
3. Strategic scheduling of computer use : Do computer related tasks in dedicated blocks
of time, leaving hardware off at other times.
4. Automated power management : These features can be set to automatically power
down hard drives and monitors after several minutes of inactivity.
5. Electronic waste disposal : Dispose of e-waste according to federal , state and local
regulations.

The importance of green computing :

• The key mission of green computing is to reduce energy consumption. This not only
cuts energy costs for organizations , but it also reduces carbon footprints, particularly
of IT assets. In addition to the cost saving ,green approaches to computing can help
organizations on regulatory compliance and potentially give them a marketing edge
over competitors with both customers and investors.
5. Software Development Life Circle (SDLC)

• A software development life circle is : a roadmap for working on building high quality
software , in other words SDLC is a blueprint designed for a team to create ,
maintain, and fix a software.

1. Systems Investigation and Analysis :

• The goal of the systems investigation is to gain a clear understanding of the problem
to be solved or opportunity to be addressed.
• The next step, systems analysis, defines the problems and opportunities of the
existing system.
2. Systems Design, Implementation :

• Systems design determines how the new system will work to meet the business
needs defined during systems analysis.
• Systems implementation involves creating or acquiring the various system
components (hardware, software, databases, etc.)
3. Maintenance and Review :

• The purpose of systems maintenance and review is to check and modify the system
so that it continues to meet changing business needs.