8th Edition, Pearson, 2017. — 560 p. — ISBN-10 0134635205; ISBN-13 978-0134635200.
Audience
Information Systems Today, Eighth Edition, is primarily for the undergraduate introductory information systems course required of all business students. The introductory information systems course typically has a diverse audience of students majoring in many different areas, such as accounting, economics, finance, marketing, general management, human resource management, production and operations, international business, entrepreneurship, and information systems.
This book was also written for students studying topics outside of business, especially in the growing and broad area of information sciences. Given the range of students taking this type of course, we have written this book so that it is a valuable guide to all students, providing them with the essential information they need to know. Therefore, this book has been written to appeal to a diverse audience.
Information Systems Today, Eighth Edition, can also be used for the introductory course offered at the graduate level — for example, in the first year of an MBA program. Such usage would be especially appropriate if the course heavily focused on the diverse set of cases provided in each chapter.
What’s New to the Eighth Edition
Our primary goal for Information Systems Today, Eighth Edition, was to emphasize the importance of information systems to all business students as the role of information technology and systems continues to expand within organizations and society. Most notably, we extensively examine how five big megatrends — mobile, social media, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and Big Data — are transforming individuals, organizations, and society. Given this clear focus, we are better able to identify those topics most critical to students and future business professionals. Consequently, we have made substantial revisions to the basic content of the chapters and pedagogical elements as well as introduced several new elements that we believe help achieve this goal. New or expanded chapter topics include the following:
■■ An extensively revised chapter — Chapter 1, “Managing in the Digital World” — focuses
not only on defining what an information system consists of but also provides new content
on globalization and societal issues in the digital world as well as the role of five IT megatrends
in fueling and addressing these issues.
■■ An extensively revised chapter — Chapter 2, “Gaining Competitive Advantage Through
Information Systems” — provides new content describing how information systems play a
key part in enabling different types of innovation and innovative business models.
■■ A revised chapter — Chapter 3, “Managing the Information Systems Infrastructure and
Services” — provides updated content on the need for a reliable, adaptable, and scalable
infrastructure to support the needs of today’s organizations as well as on essential infrastructure
concepts related to hardware, software, storage, networking and the Internet, data
centers, and cloud computing.
■■ A revised chapter — Chapter 4, “Enabling Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce” — provides updated content related to e-commerce involving the end consumer as well as new
and expanded coverage of e-finance, fintech, and related issues.
■■ A revised chapter — Chapter 5, “Enhancing Organizational Communication and Collaboration
Using Social Media” — centers around various topics related to the need for organizational
communication and provides updated content on how individuals and organizations
use both traditional communication and collaboration tools and social media for communication,
collaboration, cooperation, and connection.
■■ An extensively revised chapter — Chapter 6, “Enhancing Business Intelligence Using Big
Data and Analytics” — provides extended coverage on business intelligence and advanced
analytics and greatly expanded content on machine learning, predictive modeling, artificial
intelligence, unstructured data analytics, and spatial decision support.
■■ A revised chapter — Chapter 8, “Strengthening Business-to-Business Relationships via
Supply Chain and Customer Relationship Management” — provides updated content
on business-to-business electronic commerce and supply chain management as well as
customer relationship management (CRM).
■■ A revised chapter — Chapter 9, “Developing and Acquiring Information Systems” — provides updates to various topics and extended content on alternative system development
methodologies.
■■ A revised chapter — Chapter 10, “Securing Information Systems” — provides an update to
all topics and deeper coverage on industrial espionage and cyberterrorism.
■■ A revised Technology Briefing covers foundational concepts related to various information
technologies. The Technology Briefing provides the foundations for a deeper understanding
of the topics introduced in Chapter 3 and is intended for use in more technically
oriented courses. Each section of this briefing was designed to stand alone — it can be read
with or without the other sections.
In addition to the changes within the main chapter content, we have also added two new
features to each chapter — Green IT and Security Matters. Green IT presents environmental issues
arising from the use of information systems. For example, in Chapter 4, we discuss the environmental
impacts of online shopping. Security Matters presents some current issues and threats
arising from the ubiquitous use of information systems. For example, in Chapter 5, we discuss
how hacktivists challenged the extramarital dating website Ashley Madison.
Beyond the chapter content and features, we have also made substantial changes and refinements
to the end of each chapter. In particular, we carefully revised many of the end-of-chapter
problems and exercises to reflect content changes and new material. Further, we have carefully
updated the end-of-chapter cases about contemporary organizations and issues to illustrate the
complexities of the digital world. Each case mirrors the primary content of its chapter to better
emphasize its relevancy within the context of a real organization. All these elements are discussed
more thoroughly next.
Our goal has always been to provide only the information that is relevant to all business
students, nothing more and nothing less. We believe that we have again achieved this goal with
Information Systems Today, Eighth Edition. We hope you agree.
Key Features
As authors, teachers, developers, and managers of information systems, we understand that in
order for students to best learn about information systems with this book, they must be motivated
to learn. To this end, we have included a number of unique features to help students quickly and
easily assess the true value of information systems and their impact on everyday life. We show
how today’s professionals are using information systems to help modern organizations become
more efficient and competitive. Our focus is on the application of technology to real-world, contemporary
situations. Next, we describe each of the features that contribute to that focus.
Pedagogy — A Multitiered Approach
Each chapter provides a list of learning objectives to lay the foundation for the chapter content,
followed by an opening case to highlight how contemporary organizations are utilizing information
systems to gain competitive advantage, streamline organizational processes, or improve
customer relationships or how information systems fuel societal change. In addition, throughout
each chapter, various short pedagogical elements are presented to highlight key information systems
issues and concepts in a variety of contexts. These elements help to show students the
broader organizational and societal implications of various topics. At the end of each chapter, the
Key Points Review repeats the learning objectives and describes how each objective was achieved;
a variety of questions and exercises helps students assess their understanding of the chapter material
and encourages them to synthesize and apply the concepts learned. A list of references
appears at the end of each chapter.
OPENING CASE — MANAGING IN THE DIGITAL WORLD. Each chapter begins with an opening
case describing a real-world company, technology, and/or issue to spark students’ interest in the
chapter topic. We have chosen engaging cases that relate to students’ interests and concerns by
highlighting why information systems have become central for managing in the digital world.
Each opening case includes a series of associated questions the students will be able to answer
after reading the chapter contents. The organizations, technologies, or issues highlighted in
these cases are as follows:
■■ The rise of open innovation
■■ How information systems fuel startups and new business models
■■ Google’s meteoric rise and its transition to Alphabet
■■ How Chinese e-commerce company Taobao became a leader in the world of e-commerce
■■ How Facebook has emerged as one of the most successful and powerful social media sites
■■ Intelligence through drones
■■ Amazon.com’s use of its sophisticated infrastructure to automate the supply chain for both
large and small customers
■■ How Walmart became a leader in managing its global supply chains
■■ The rise of the maker movement
■■ How the hacking group “Anonymous” uses various tactics to further its ideological goals
Green IT Case
Climate change and resource scarcity are among the most pressing issues societies face. To highlight
the role of information systems in this context, each chapter includes a Green IT case. This new
feature discusses important issues related to the environmental impacts of information systems as
well as how information systems can be used to reduce negative environmental impacts. The Green
IT cases are embedded in the text of the chapter and highlight concepts from the surrounding chapter
material. The issues and organizations highlighted in these cases are as follows:
■■ Green IT and the Internet of Things
■■ How the U.S. Navy is using alternative energy sources to address power consumption of its
fleets
■■ How Alphabet uses renewably energy to power its data centers
■■ The environmental impacts of online shopping
■■ How green IT is fueling the use of renewable energy
■■ How the Internet of Things, Big Data, and analytics fuel greener facilities
■■ Why your ERP system should be in the cloud
■■ How Nike builds a greener supply chain
■■ How companies are trying to reduce the carbon footprint of modern data centers
■■ How Anonymous protests the killing of dolphins and whales in Japan
Security Matters
With information systems becoming ever more ubiquitous, security is of growing concern, not
only for organizations but also for individuals. While we dedicate an entire chapter to issues surrounding
securing information systems, this new feature presents some current issues and threats.
The topics discussed in this element are as follows:
■■ How computer criminals use ransomware to extort money from organizations and everyday
people
■■ How attackers use the SWIFT system to conduct virtual bank robberies
■■ How attackers can remotely hack into a car’s onboard systems
■■ How even small companies are not immune from being targeted
■■ How terrorism is winning the social media battle
■■ How hacktivists challenged the extramarital dating website Ashley Madison
■■ How companies have to weigh the benefits and dangers of not updating ERP systems
■■ How VTech’s attackers disclosed the customer data of the most vulnerable
■■ How attackers use mobile malware to steal online banking users’ login credentials
■■ How analog may be the future of securing critical infrastructure
Coming Attractions
We worked to ensure that this book is contemporary. We cover literally hundreds of different
current and emerging technologies throughout the book. This feature, however, focuses on
innovations that are likely to soon have an impact on organizations or society. The topics discussed
are as follows:
■■ Storing the history of humankind in memory crystals
■■ CITE — a city-sized test lab for innovations
■■ Extending the human lifetime indefinitely
■■ Using artificial intelligence to manage hedge funds
■■ Dissolvable electronics to fight bacteria
■■ Emotion aware gaming
■■ Transforming ERP and organizations using the Internet of Things
■■ Reducing supply chain problems using augmented reality
■■ Harvesting human energy
■■ Using brainwaves to verify people’s identities
When Things Go Wrong
Textbooks don’t usually describe what not to do, but this can be very helpful to students. This
feature enables students to learn about a real-world situation in which information systems did
not work or were not built or used well. The topics and issues discussed are as follows:
■■ The negative effects of technology addiction
■■ The pains of Uber in China
■■ Dirty data centers and the environmental impact of cloud computing
■■ How companies are trying to rig “likes” to gain reputation on social networking sites
■■ Crowdfunding failures
■■ How Twitter can quickly disseminate misinformation, with unforeseen consequences
■■ How a software error freed prisoners early
■■ How a supply chain failure caused SpaceX rocket failure
■■ Top security threats
■■ How the “heartbleed” bug almost killed the Internet
Who’s Going Mobile
Mobile technologies have become pervasive throughout society. New opportunities and issues
have emerged with the growing importance of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets,
which are in people’s immediate reach 24/7. Related to each chapter’s content, this feature examines
topics related to the growth in mobile device usage throughout the world. The topics discussed
are as follows:
■■ The rise of wearable technologies
■■ How information systems support the lifestyle of the digital nomads
■■ How mobile payment systems have transformed developing countries
■■ The rise of mobile payments
■■ Going SoLoMo: Yelp
■■ Identifying malaria hotspots using mobile phone data
■■ Managing businesses on the road using mobile ERP
■■ Developing mobile CRM apps for customers
■■ How to succeed in mobile app development
■■ Backdoors in mobile phones
Ethical Dilemma
Ethical business practices are now a predominant part of contemporary management education
and practice. This feature examines contemporary dilemmas related to the chapter content and
highlights the implications of these dilemmas for managers, organizations, and society. Discussion
questions are provided to seed critical thinking assignments or class discussions. The topics
discussed are as follows:
■■ The social and environmental costs of the newest gadgets
■■ The ethics of the sharing economy
■■ The ethics of publishing street photography on the web
■■ The ethics of reputation management
■■ Anonymity, trolling, and cyberharassment
■■ The Orwellian Internet of Things
■■ Privacy issues of radio frequency identification
■■ Using CRM systems to target or exploit consumers
■■ Ethical app development
■■ The ethics of cyberwar
Industry Analysis
Every industry is being transformed by the Internet and the increasing use of information systems
by individuals and organizations. To give students a feel for just how pervasive and profound these
changes are, each chapter presents an analysis of a specific industry to highlight the new rules for
operating in the digital world. Given that no industry or profession is immune from these changes,
each Industry Analysis highlights the importance of understanding information systems for every
business student, not only for information systems majors. Discussion questions help students
better understand the rapidly changing opportunities and risks of operating in the digital world.
Chapter 1 examines how the digital world is transforming the opportunities for virtually all business
professions. Subsequent chapters examine how globalization and the digital world have
forever transformed various industries, including education, entertainment, retail, travel, health
care, automobile, manufacturing, broadcasting, and law enforcement. Clearly, we are in a time of
tremendous change, and understanding this evolution will better equip students to not only survive
but also thrive in the digital world.
End-of-Chapter Material
Our end-of-chapter material is designed to accommodate various teaching and learning styles. It
promotes learning beyond the book and the classroom. Elements include the following:
■■ Key Terms — Highlight key concepts within the chapter.
■■ Review Questions — Test students’ understanding of basic content.
■■ Self-Study Questions — Enable students to assess whether they are ready for a test.
■■ Problems and Exercises — Push students deeper into the material and encourage them to
synthesize and apply it.
■■ Application Exercises — Challenge students to solve two real-world management problems
using spreadsheet and database applications from a running case centered on a university
travel agency. Student data files referenced within the exercises are available on the book’s
website: www.pearsonhighered.com/valacich.
■■ Team Work Exercise — Encourage students to keep up with, discuss, visualize, and present
interesting, important trends and forecasts related to Internet usage within a variety of
contexts.
We have extensively updated these elements to reflect new chapter content and the natural
evolution of the material.
End-of-Chapter Cases
To test and reinforce chapter content, we present two current real-world cases at the end of each
chapter. Like the Opening Cases of each chapter, these cases are taken from the news and are
contemporary. However, these are longer and more substantive than the Opening Cases. Sources
for these cases include BusinessWeek, CIO magazine, InformationWeek, Wired, and various websites.
They too are followed by discussion questions that help the student apply and master the
chapter content. The organizations, products, and issues highlighted in these cases are as
follows:
■■ Apple’s rise, fall, and reemergence as a global technology giant
■■ How electronic health records are transforming healthcare
■■ How Groupon achieved a first-mover advantage by reinventing the business model of
group buying
■■ How streaming video is disrupting the movie rental and TV broadcasting industries
■■ How Amazon Web Services are a catalyst for innovation
■■ How the dark web fuels illegal activities
■■ How web analytics are providing unprecedented insights into online consumer behavior
■■ How Rocket Internet aims to become a European Internet giant by cloning business models
■■ How algorithms determine news feeds
■■ How scammers use like farming and clickbait to game Facebook’s newsfeed algorithms
■■ How the National Security Agency, or NSA, is being viewed as the National Surveillance
Agency
■■ How companies gather social intelligence through social media
■■ How software as a service has enabled small and medium-sized organizations to utilize
enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems
■■ How Amazon’s order fulfillment fuels technological unemployment
■■ How natural disasters disrupt global supply chains
■■ How companies attempt to use information systems to efficiently deliver products to the
“last mile”
■■ How the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security joined
forces in developing a comprehensive database of biometric information to better track and
apprehend criminals
■■ How Hadoop and MapReduce fuel the use and analysis of Big Data
■■ How the National Security Agency is attempting to stop insider leaks
■■ How China limits information exchange within its society through its “great firewall”
Organization
The content and organization of this book are based on our own teaching as well as on feedback
from reviewers and colleagues throughout the field. Each chapter builds on the others to reinforce
key concepts and allow for a seamless learning experience. Essentially, the book has been structured
to answer three fundamental questions:
1. What are contemporary information systems, and how are they being used in innovative
ways?
2. Why are information systems so important and interesting?
3. How best can we build, acquire, manage, and safeguard information systems?
The ordering and content of our chapters were also significantly influenced by the “IS 2010
Curriculum Guidelines for Undergraduate Degree Programs in Information Systems”1; these
guidelines, written by prominent information systems scholars, define the information systems
core body of knowledge for all business students. By design, the content of Information Systems
Today, Eighth Edition, carefully follows these guidelines, and we are, therefore, very confident
that our book provides a solid and widely agreed-on foundation for any introductory information
systems course.
The chapters are organized as follows:
■■ Chapter 1: Managing in the Digital World — Information systems are fueling change in the
digital world. Here, we help students understand what information systems are, the pressing
issues societies in the digital world are facing, how five IT megatrends — mobile, social
media, the Internet of Things, cloud computing, and Big Data — influence organizations
and society, and how information systems have become a vital part of modern organizations.
We walk the student through the technology, people, and organizational components
of an information system, and lay out types of jobs and career opportunities in information
systems and in related fields. We also focus on how technology is creating countless ethical
concerns.
■■ Chapter 2: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Information Systems — Given the
rapid advancement of new technologies, we explain why and how companies are continually
looking for innovative ways to use information systems for competitive advantage, and
how information systems support organizations’ business strategies. Here, we discuss how
companies from GE to Uber can use information systems for automation, organizational
learning, and strategic advantage by creating new and innovative business models.
■■ Chapter 3: Managing the Information Systems Infrastructure and Services — With the
ever-increasing complexity of maintaining a solid information systems infrastructure, it
becomes increasingly important for organizations such as Google to design a reliable,
robust, and secure infrastructure. Here, we provide an overview of the essential information
systems infrastructure components and describe why they are necessary for satisfying an
organization’s informational needs. We also examine the rapid evolution toward the delivery
of infrastructure capabilities through a variety of cloud-based services.
■■ Chapter 4: Enabling Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce — Perhaps nothing
has changed the landscape of business more than the use of the Internet for electronic commerce.
Here, we describe how firms such as Amazon.com, Dell, or Taobao; governments;
financial services providers; and e-finance startups use the Internet to conduct commerce
in cyberspace. Further, we describe the requirements for successful e-commerce websites
and discuss Internet marketing and mobile commerce as well as consumer-to-consumer
and consumer-to-business e-commerce. Finally, we discuss payment and legal issues in
e-commerce.
■■ Chapter 5: Enhancing Organizational Communication and Collaboration Using Social
Media — Social media have forever changed how people interact. In addition to enabling
various business opportunities, social media have also enabled companies to better harness
the power and creativity of their workforce. Here, we provide an overview of traditional
communication and collaboration tools and examine how different social media can
enhance communication, collaboration, cooperation, and connection within organizations
but also between organizations and their customers. Further, we discuss the importance of
carefully managing the use of social media within organizations. Finally, using examples
such as Twitter and Facebook, we describe how companies can deal with potential pitfalls
associated with social media.
■■ Chapter 6: Enhancing Business Intelligence Using Big Data and Analytics — A key to
effective management in a global, highly competitive, and rapidly changing environment
is high-quality and timely information to support decision making in order to realize the
strategic goals of the organization. Here, we first describe the need for enhanced decision
making and explain how databases serve as a foundation for gaining business intelligence.
We then discuss concepts related to business intelligence and advanced analytics, including
data mining, machine learning, and predictive modeling. Finally, we discuss how knowledge
management and geographic information systems help organizations make better
business decisions.
■■ Chapter 7: Enhancing Business Processes Using Enterprise Information Systems — Enterprise systems have become a critical technology in a broad range of organizations,
both large and small, to integrate information and span organizations’ boundaries to better
connect a firm with customers, suppliers, and other partners. Here, we focus on foundational
concepts related to enterprise systems, walking students through various core business
processes, and then examine how enterprise resource planning systems can be applied
to improve these processes and organizational performance.
■■ Chapter 8: Strengthening Business-to-Business Relationships via Supply Chain and
Customer Relationship Management — Two additional types of enterprise systems, supply
chain management systems and customer relationship management systems, are being used
to facilitate various business processes between suppliers and customers. Here, we begin
by introducing business-to-business electronic commerce. Next, we examine how supply
chain management systems can support the effective management of supply networks.
Finally, we examine customer relationship management systems and their role in attracting
and retaining customers and, using examples from companies such as Dell, discuss how
organizations can integrate social media in their CRM efforts.
■■ Chapter 9: Developing and Acquiring Information Systems — Nearly every organization
needs to develop or acquire information systems. Here, we begin by describing how to formulate
and present the business case to build or acquire a new information system. We then
walk the student through the traditional systems development approach and explain how
numerous other approaches, such as agile development, can be utilized depending on the
situation. Finally, we examine the steps followed when acquiring an information system
from an outside vendor.
■■ Chapter 10: Securing Information Systems — With the pervasive use of information systems,
new dangers have arisen for organizations, and the interplay between threats, vulnerabilities,
and potential impacts has become a paramount issue within the context of global
information management. Here, we contrast several types of computer crime and discuss
the growing significance of cyberwar and cyberterrorism. We then highlight the primary
threats to information systems security and explain how systems can be compromised and
safeguarded. We conclude this chapter with a discussion of the role of auditing, information
systems controls, and the Sarbanes–Oxley Act. Note that some instructors may choose
to introduce this chapter prior to the discussion of the information systems infrastructure in
Chapter 3.
■■ Technology Briefing — In addition to these 10 chapters, we include a Technology Briefing
that focuses on foundational concepts regarding hardware, software, networking and the
Internet, and databases. While Chapter 3, “Managing the Information Systems Infrastructure
and Services,” provides a more managerial focus to these enabling technologies, this
foundational material provides a more in-depth examination of these topics. By delivering
this material as a Technology Briefing, we provide instructors the greatest flexibility in
how and when they can apply it.