BUSINESS APPLICATIONS:

cross-functional business process

E-BUSINESS SYSTEMS
REFERENCE:

MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM 10TH EDITION

James A. O'Brien (Northern Arizona University)
George M. Marakas (University of Kansas)

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E-BUSINESS
A term originally coined by Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM, is the use of the Internet
and other networks and information technologies to support e-commerce,
enterprise communications and collaboration, and Web-enabled business
processes, both within a networked enterprise and with its customers and
business partners.
E-business includes E-COMMERCE, which involves the buying and selling and
marketing and servicing of products, services, and information over the Internet
and other networks.
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS
Many companies today are using information technology to develop integrated
crossfunctional enterprise systems that cross the boundaries of traditional
business functions in order to reengineer and improve vital business processes
all across the enterprise.
These organizations view cross-functional enterprise systems as a strategic way
to use IT to share information resources and improve the efficiency and
effectiveness of business processes, and develop strategic relationships with
customers, suppliers, and business partners. See Figure 7.2 , which illustrates a

Companies first moved from functional mainframe-based legacy systems to

integrated cross-functional client/server applications.
This typically involved installing enterprise resource planning, supply chain
management, or customer relationship management software from SAP
America, PeopleSoft, Oracle, and others.
Instead of focusing on the information processing requirements of business
functions, such enterprise software focuses on supporting integrated clusters
of business processes involved in the operations of a business.
ENTERPRISE APPLICATION INTEGRATION
How does a business interconnect some of the cross-functional enterprise
systems? Enterprise application integration (EAI) software is being used by
many companies to connect their major e-business applications.
See Figure 7.4 . EAI software enables users to model the business processes
involved in the interactions that should occur between business applications.

HOW EAI WORKS?

ONLINE TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEMS play a strategic role in Webenabled businesses. Many firms are using the Internet and other networks
that tie them electronically to their customers or suppliers for online
transaction processing (OLTP).
Such real-time systems, which capture and process transactions immediately,
can help firms provide superior service to customers and other trading
partners. This capability adds value to their products and services, and thus
gives them an important way to differentiate themselves from their
competitors.

TRANSACTION PROCESSING SYSTEMS

Transaction processing systems (TPS) are cross-functional information systems
that process data resulting from the occurrence of business transactions.
TRANSACTIONS are events that occur as part of doing business, such as sales,
purchases, deposits, withdrawals, refunds, and payments. Think, for example, of
the data generated whenever a business sells something to a customer on
credit, whether in a retail store or at an e-commerce site on the Web.
Data about the customer, product, salesperson, store, and so on, must be
captured and processed.
This need prompts additional transactions, such as credit checks, customer
billing, inventory changes, and increases in accounts receivable balances, which
generate even more data.
Thus, transaction processing activities are needed to capture and process such
data, or the operations of a business would grind to a halt. Therefore, transaction
processing systems play a vital role in supporting the operations of most
companies today.

THE TRANSACTION PROCESSING CYCLE

DATA ENTRY
The first step of the transaction processing cycle is the capture of business
data. For example, transaction data may be collected by point-of-sale
terminals using optical scanning of bar codes and credit card readers at a
retail store or other business. Transaction data can also be captured at an ecommerce Web site on the Internet. The proper recording and editing of data
so they are

quickly and correctly captured for processing is one of the major design

ENTERPRISE COLLABORATION SYSTEMS

challenges of information systems.

Enterprise collaboration systems (ECS) are cross-functional information

systems that enhance communication, coordination, and collaboration

TRANSACTION PROCESSING

among the members of business teams and workgroups. The goal of

Transaction processing systems process data in two basic ways: (1) batch

enterprise collaboration systems is to enable us to work together more easily

processing, where transaction data are accumulated over a period of time and

and effectively by helping us to:

processed

periodically,

and

(2)

real-time

processing(also

called

online

processing), where data are processed immediately after a transaction occurs.

All online transaction processing systems incorporate real-time processing
capabilities. Many online systems also depend on the capabilities of fault tolerant
computer systems that can continue to operate even if parts of the system fail.

Communicate:Share information with each other.

Coordinate:Organize our individual work efforts and use of resources.
Collaborate:Work together cooperatively on joint projects and
assignments.

DATABASE MAINTENANCE
An organizations databases must be updated by its transaction processing
systems so that they are always correct and up-to-date. Therefore, transaction
processing systems serve to assist in maintaining the corporate databases of an
organization to reflect changes resulting from day-to-day business transactions.
For example, credit sales made to customers will cause customer account
balances to be increased and the amount of inventory on hand to be decreased.
Database maintenance ensures that these and other changes are
reflected in the data records stored in the companys databases.
DOCUMENT AND REPORT GENERATION
Transaction processing systems produce a variety of documents and reports.
Examples of transaction documents include purchase orders, paychecks, sales
receipts, invoices, and customer statements. Transaction reports might take the
form of a transaction listing such as a payroll register, or edit reports that describe
errors detected during processing.
INQUIRY PROCESSING.
Many transaction processing systems allow you to use the Internet, intranets,
extranets, and Web browsers or database management query languages to
make inquiries and receive responses concerning the results of transaction
processing activity. Typically, responses are displayed in a variety of prespecified
formats or screens. For example, you might check on the status of a sales order,
the balance in an account, or the amount of stock in inventory and receive
immediate responses at your PC.

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