Week 4: Group Project and Web Services MIS5001: Management Information Systems

Week 4: Group Project and
Web Services
MIS5001: Management Information Systems
David S. McGettigan
Agenda

Group Project

Prior Lecture Recap

Web Services

Case study: Amazon

Next Week
2
Group Project Details


The completed report should be approximately 4-6 pages in length single spaced. Use 11 point
Times New Roman font and one-inch margins. Do not prepare a separate cover page, instead put
your group member names, the class section number (MIS5001), and the assignment name in the
top-left corner of the first page header. Number all pages.
The specific content sections should minimally include:

Executive Summary: one paragraph reiterating your key points (e.g., the elevator pitch).

Target Organization: description of the target organization for deployment (plus tables or
figures, if applicable). This can either be a fictional organization or a real organization.

Overview of Solution: description of the proposed IT solution (plus tables or figures, if
applicable).

Cost / Benefits Analysis: cost / benefits analysis for the proposed IT solution (plus tables).
Make reasonable estimates about costs and benefits based on whatever information you can
find publicly available for the IT deployment costs and based on your profiling of the target
organization as per 3) above.

Deployment Considerations: discussion of critical success factors for a successful IT
deployment including specific steps required to insure that expected benefits are realized

Alternatives: discussion of at least one alternative solution and why it is an inferior option.
The alternative could be “do nothing.” If so, enough detail needs to be provided about the
current situation (actual, assumed, or made up) for the reader to make a reasonable judgment
as to desirability of this option.

Bibliography and Reference List: 1/4 to 1/2 page list of additional resources to learn more;
this could include websites, articles, videos, etc.
Source: Professor Steven Johnson MIS 5001
3
Group Project Details

Initial sections can be arranged differently if you feel they make more sense in a different order for
your topic.

The key to a successful report is that enough detail is provided to convincingly explain what the
proposed solution is, how it will generate value for an organization, and what steps the
organization needs to take to realize that value.

Group Project Presentation

The PowerPoint presentation should follow the same structure, and also be approximately 4-6
slides in length. Of course, the format of the presentation should use bullets, graphics, and
abbreviated points to enable an effective presentation in class.

Citation Guidelines

If you use text, figures, or data created by others you must identify the source and clearly
differentiate your work from the material that you are referencing. If you fail to do so you are
plagiarizing. There are many different acceptable formats that you can use to cite the work of
others (see resources in the course syllabus). The citation format is not as important as the
intent. You must clearly show the reader what is your work and what is a reference to
someone else’s work.

Grading Criteria – Outlined in Syllabus
Source: Professor Steven Johnson MIS 5001
4
Prior Lecture Recap

Role of the CIO




System Development Lifecycle


Strategic Planning – Aligning the direction of IS with that of
the business
Operations – running the corporate information center
Project Governance – responsibility for large scale and
high cost technical initiatives
A structured step-by-step approach for developing
information systems
Change Management

The “change curve”
5
Web Services
I think frugality drives innovation, just like other
constraints do. One of the only ways to get out
of a tight box is to invent your way out.
Jeff Bezos
Web Services – Business Concept

A software concept and infrastructure — supported by
several major computing vendors (notably Microsoft and
IBM) — for program-to-program communication and
application component delivery.


The Web services concept treats software as a set of services
accessible over ubiquitous networks using Web-based standards
and protocols.
Specifically, a Web service is a software component can be
accessed by another application (such as a client, a server
or another Web service) through the use of generally
available, ubiquitous protocols and transports, such as
Hypertext Transport Protocol (HTTP).

Joint efforts between IBM and Microsoft, with the support of other
vendors such as Ariba and Iona Technologies, have produced
agreement on a basic set of XML-based standards for Web
service interface definition, discovery and remote calling.
Source: : Gartner
7
Web Services - Technology
o
A Web service is a software application identified by a
URL, whose interfaces and bindings are capable of being
defined, described, and discovered as XML artifacts. A
Web service supports direct interactions with other
software agents using XML based messages exchanged
via internet-based protocols.
Source: : World Wide Web Consortium
http://www.w3.org/TR/wsa-reqs
8
What’s a Web Service?

Delivering application functionality over the web


Allowing people to access that service by



Like object architecture
Sending information (inputs)
Receiving information (outputs)
Big Idea: Any vendor can make their services
available to any customer

Through an easily accessible software interface
9
A Web Service is not a Web Site
Using a web site
User
Google.com
(the site)
Google Search
Engine
(the service)
Using a web service
interacts directly with
Application
without human
intervention
Google Search
(the service)
10
What’s different about Web Services?

They are based on open standards


Application developers don’t need special expertise to
use a web service
Use “web protocols”
 HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)



Handle the transportation of data
Request web services like we request web pages
XML (Extensible Markup Language)


Formatting of messages
Structuring data so that it adheres to a standard format
11
A brief look at XML

Extensible Markup Language

Considered to be a future standard for sending
structured data over the web




From browser to person (business to consumer)
From application to application (business to
business)
Specification for defining your own tags for
formatting data
“Cousin” of HTML
12
Simple XML Example

If this table were an XML
document, it would look
like this:
<BEATLE>
<NAME>John</NAME>
<SSN>123456789</SSN>
< BIRTHDATE >9/16/45</ BIRTHDATE >
</BEATLE>
<BEATLE>
<NAME>Ringo</NAME>
<SSN>159487263</SSN>
<BIRTHDATE>11/11/72</BIRTHDATE>
</BEATLE>
<BEATLE>
<NAME>Paul</NAME>
<SSN>321654987</SSN>
<BIRTHDATE>2/20/50</BIRTHDATE>
</BEATLE>
and so on…
13
How does this help?




XML facilitates standards
XML is self-describing
XML is flexible
Industries can decide on a standard schema


All messages can follow that standard
Makes sending data between
companies easier


Order processing
Airline reservations
14
Example: Fixed Length Records
Versus XML
Using Fixed Length Records:
David
Schuff
123456789Fox School
01234567890123456789012345678901234567890
First Name, Characters 0-9
Last Name, Characters 10-19
SSN, Characters 20-28
School Name, Characters 29-40
You have to hard code where
the fields start and their length,
so the application knows which
characters belong to which
fields.
What if I have a 15 character
last name?
What if the last name is
provided before the first
name?
15
Example: Fixed Length Records
Versus XML
Using XML:
<PERSON>
<NAME>
<FIRST>David</FIRST>
<LAST>Schuff</LAST>
</NAME>
<SSN>123456789</SSN>
<SCHOOL>Fox School</SCHOOL>
</PERSON>
Because I have the schema
and use tags to match
characters with data fields:
I don’t care how long each
piece of data is.
I don’t care what order it
arrives in.
Extra fields can be included – I
just retrieve a modified
schema.
16
Web services example:
PriceGrabber.com

What they do




Aggregates prices from
vendors
Presents them in one place
for comparison
Provides customer ratings
of vendors
The problem

How do you easily interact
with multiple vendors?
17
Without web services
“computer-to-computer”
(no human intervention)
“browser-tocomputer”
(human
intervention)
Custom software
to communicate
with J&R
Custom software
to communicate
with Best Buy
Custom software
to communicate
with MacMall
PriceGrabber’s
computer system
Custom software
to communicate
with TigerDirect
J&R’s computer system w/
price information
Best Buy’s computer system w/
price information
MacMall’s computer system w/
price information
TigerDirect’s computer system
w/ price information
18
With web services
“computer-to-computer”
(no human intervention)
J&R’s computer system w/
price information
“browser-tocomputer”
(human
intervention)
PriceGrabber’s
computer system
Single approach to
communication
across businesses
Best Buy’s computer system w/
price information
MacMall’s computer system w/
price information
TigerDirect’s computer system
w/ price information
19
Without standard messages
“computer-to-computer”
(no human intervention)
“browser-tocomputer”
(human
intervention)
Software to
translate data
from J&R
J&R’s computer system w/
price information
Price: $120
Quantity: 100
Shipping: $4.00
Software to
translate data
from Best Buy
Software to
translate data
from MacMall
PriceGrabber’s
computer system
PriceGrabber’s required
information from vendors:
Price:
Quantity:
Shipping cost:
Best Buy’s computer system w/
price information
Price: 150
In-stock: Yes
Shipping: 12
MacMall’s computer system w/
price information
Shipping: 5%
Cost: $143
Qty: 200
Software to
translate data
from TigerDirect
TigerDirect’s computer system
w/ price information
$125, 200, $5
With standard messages
“computer-to-computer”
(no human intervention)
“browser-tocomputer”
(human
intervention)
PriceGrabber’s
computer system
PriceGrabber’s required
information from vendors:
Price
Quantity
Shipping cost
Software which can
“decode” XML and
interacts with ANY
web service
Web
service
J&R’s computer system w/
price information
<Price>120</Price>
<Qty>100</Qty>
<Ship>4</Ship>
Best Buy’s computer system w/
Web
price information
service
<Price>150</Price>
<Qty>75</Qty>
<Ship>12</Ship>
MacMall’s computer system w/
price information
<Qty>200</Qty>
Web
<Price>143</Price>
service
<Ship>7.15</Ship>
TigerDirect’s computer system
w/ price information
Web
service
<Ship>5</Ship>
<Qty>200</Qty>
<Price>125</Price>
Standard Messaging – Another
Example

Scenario:

A large retailer wants to




Maintain optimal inventory levels
Order from multiple vendors
Dynamically adjust product mix
A vendor wants to


Service multiple suppliers
Maintain service level
22
Summary of Web Services

Web services use web-based standards
(XML, HTTP)

These standards make it easier to develop
standard formats for business messages


XML is an easy, standard way to define data
HTTP is an easy, standard way to exchange data
23
Case Discussion – Amazon

Describe the four major web services described in the case offered
by Amazon.com. What does each service do? Why would a
company use these services from Amazon instead of maintaining
their own infrastructure? Compare the pros and cons.

Assume you are the CIO of a hospital. Would you recommend
using Amazon, or other similar, cloud-based services, to host your
applications and data? Justify your answer. If you used these
services, what precautions would you take to protect yourself
against failures?

Discuss how Amazon’s Web Services represent a disruptive
business strategy. Which companies and industries are they
disrupting? How are those companies and industries being
disrupted? Who are their competitors? Are they well-positioned
against them?
24
Next Week
Disruptive Technology