Essentials of Business Processes and Information Systems

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Organizations, Business Processes, and Information Systems

Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter, you should be able to:

• Understand that work in organizations is completed in processes that consist of many steps.
• Compare and contrast the functional and process views of organizations and identify the negative consequences of the traditional functional organizational structure.
• Discuss and describe the various flows in a process – physical, data, document, and information.
• Explain how enterprise systems enable organizations to execute and manage processes.

Based on the fact that you are taking a college or university course that uses this book as part of the curriculum, it is safe to assume that you are planning some sort of career in business. You might be considering a career in marketing, finance, or accounting, or you might even start your own business. Alternatively, you might not have any idea of what you want to be when you “grow up,” and this course sounded like something that would be a good introduction to business—“just in case.” Either way, you are probably wondering what business processes are and why they are important enough for your instructor to include them in this course. You also might be curious regarding the types of information and communication technology (ICT) that companies use to run their businesses. Briefly, business processes are the ...