Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology

Table of Contents

• Licensing Information

• Preface

• Chapter 1: Zara: Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems

  • Introduction
  • Don’t Guess, Gather Data
  • Moving Forward

• Chapter 2: Strategy and Technology

  • Introduction
  • Powerful Resources
  • Barriers to Entry, Technology, and Timing
  • Key Framework: The Five Forces of Industry Competitive Advantage
  • Key Framework: The Value Chain

• Chapter 3: Netflix: David Becomes Goliath

  • Introduction
  • Tech and Timing: Creating Killer Assets
  • From Atoms to Bits: Opportunity or Threat?

• Chapter 4: Moore’s Law and More: Fast, Cheap Computing and What It Means for the Manager

  • Introduction
  • The Death of Moore’s Law?
  • Bringing Brains Together: Supercomputing and Grid Computing
  • E-waste: The Dark Side of Moore’s Law

• Chapter 5: Understanding Network Effects

  • Introduction
  • Where’s All That Value Come From?
  • One-Sided or Two-Sided Markets?
  • How Are These Markets Different?
  • Competing When Network Effects Matter

• Chapter 6: Peer Production, Social Media, and Web 2.0

  • Introduction
  • Blogs
  • Wikis
  • Electronic Social Networks
  • Twitter and the Rise of Microblogging
  • Other Key Web 2.0 Terms and Concepts
  • Prediction Markets and the Wisdom of Crowds
  • Crowdsourcing

• Chapter 7: Facebook: Building a Business from the Social Graph

  • Introduction
  • What’s the Big Deal?
  • The Social Graph
  • Facebook Feeds—Ebola for Data Flows
  • F8—Facebook as a Platform
  • Advertising and Social Networks: A Work in Progress
  • Beacon Busted
  • Predators and Privacy
  • Walled Garden or Open Field?
  • Is Facebook Worth It?

• Chapter 8: Google: Search, Online Advertising, and Beyond…

  • Introduction
  • Understanding Search
  • Understanding the Increase in Online Ad Spending
  • Search Advertising
  • Ad Networks—Distribution beyond Search
  • More Ad Formats and Payment Schemes
  • Customer Profiling and Behavioral Targeting
  • Profiling and Privacy
  • Search Engines, Ad Networks, and Fraud
  • The Battle Unfolds

• Chapter 9: Understanding Software: A Primer for Managers

  • Introduction
  • Operating Systems
  • Application Software
  • Distributed Computing
  • Writing Software
  • Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Tech Costs Go Way beyond the Price Tag

• Chapter 10: Software in Flux: Partly Cloudy and Sometimes Free

  • Introduction
  • Open Source
  • Why Open Source?
  • Examples of Open Source Software
  • Why Give It Away? The Business of Open Source
  • Cloud Computing: Hype or Hope?
  • The Software Cloud: Why Buy When You Can Rent?
  • SaaS: Not without Risks
  • The Hardware Cloud: Utility Computing and Its Cousins
  • Clouds and Tech Industry Impact
  • Virtualization: Software That Makes One Computer Act Like Many
  • Make, Buy, or Rent

• Chapter 11: The Data Asset: Databases, Business Intelligence, and Competitive Advantage

  • Introduction
  • Data, Information, and Knowledge
  • Where Does Data Come From?
  • Data Rich, Information Poor
  • Data Warehouses and Data Marts
  • The Business Intelligence Toolkit
  • Data Asset in Action: Technology and the Rise of Wal-Mart
  • Data Asset in Action: Harrah’s Solid Gold CRM for the Service Sector