As mentioned in this week’s reading, Introduction to Information Systems (Week 1 Content), understanding how businesses use information technology effectively is a critical skill in today’s business world. Often a position is established for the role of a business analyst, which may reside either within a functional department or the Information Technology (IT) department. Throughout this course, you will be approaching a Case Study and series of staged assignments from the role of a Business Analyst in the IT Department. Think of the business analyst role as the liaison between a functional department and IT who helps analyze business processes, gather requirements from key stakeholders, and identify technology solutions to benefit the business. Aligning technology solutions or information systems to help the organization achieve its business strategy is an important part of maximizing the investment in IT.

Provide a reply to these 3 posts.

-Facebook has a company mission of giving people the power to build community and bring the world closer together. (Wu, 2021, The Facebook Trap, para. 1) This has been and continues to be the overall goal that the company strives to meet and improve upon. Currently, Facebook uses a combination of many different systems in order to make one big information system, including both software and hardware. This is especially important for the company, as their information system allows them to collect user data and analyze it to improve. This system allows the company to collect and then analyze user data to better improve their application and service.

For example, Facebook developed their own software program, HipHop, in order to increase performance benefits of their servers. This allows software of any language and on any platform to be combined and run simultaneously. Their information system allows the company to better operate and perform better to help bring people together and allow them to stay connected. (Smolaks, 2022, What kind of, para. 1) Beyond this, by collecting and then analyzing user information, Facebook is able to curate a list of suggested friends for each user. This better connects each user with people they may have lost contact with or people they would like to connect with.

References:

Smolaks, M. (2022). The Facebook Data Center FAQ. Data Center World. Retrieved from https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/data-center-faqs/facebook-data-center-faq-page-2

Wu, A. (2021). The Facebook Trap. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2021/10/the-facebook-trap#:~:text=Founded%20in%202004%2C%20Facebook’s%20mission,express%20what%20matters%20to%20them.

-As online communication becomes increasingly popular, social media companies are forced to compete against one another, with hopes of attracting new users to expand their networks even further. One of these social media platforms is Instagram, an app where users can message one another, view content, or create new content for others to enjoy.

Instagram uses information systems to help users have a better experience by upgrading or changing certain features based on information they have collected about those that use the app. When users view, like, or share posts, information systems are used to store this data to suggest what kind of content a person may like to have on their explore feed. There are also programs within the system that use “a machine learning technique termed word embedding” (Rangaiah, 2020) to help get more accurate results by collecting posts that individuals may be interested in. It does this by comparing words found in posts the user of an account has already viewed with new posts they have not seen in order to pick out the most relevant content for them to see according to personal interests. This system allows users located across the world to have their own unique feeds, and is useful as people from different countries usually have different cultures and interests, and one genre of content would not be able to suit all of them.

Instagram also stores data to see how they can continue to improve as a social media platform. For example, when the app first started out, it contained many features that caused it to be more complicated than it should have been. These were removed or changed based on information they gathered and stored about their users, which indicated what features were or were not being used (Garber, 2014). Instagram found that messaging was used the most, and this was enhanced so users would continue to enjoy using the app, and eventually evolved to become the social media platform that exists today.

Garber, M. (2014, July 2). Instagram was first called ‘Burbn’. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/instagram-used-to-be-called-brbn/373815/

Rangaiah, M. (2020, Feb 17). How Instagram uses AI and big data technology. Analytic Steps. https://www.analyticssteps.com/blogs/how-instagram-uses-ai-and-big-data-technology

-While Microsoft was mentioned in the weekly readings, I believe a lot of information regarding Microsoft was omitted. Microsoft is a formidable company which builds and operates software, hardware, applications and more. Microsoft continually uses information system for strategic purposes to achieve their mission statement which is “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more (Microsoft, N.d. 2022).” Microsoft’s strategic goal is improving their ability to empower employees, engage customers and partners, optimize operations, and transform their products. Microsoft builds information systems which allow for easy business flow from department to department and assists with supporting a clear targeted vision. Internally, Microsoft has developed Custom Information Systems, this allows them to move data where they store their data in a Data Lake, a warehouse that contains dimensions such as devices or applications. Microsoft also develops information systems for others to use such as Azure, Access, and Outlook, just to name a couple. Their business plan and success are based off IT continuing to be transformational and innovative. Azure is at the core of their products they are actively managing and is used to automate Microsoft’s process, unify tools, and improve engineering productivity which has enabled company growth and helped Microsoft to improve platforms. These digital improvements and innovations are center priority and helps Microsoft to create a strong customer loyalty. Microsoft considers themselves product-based, using innovation as a key to develop and keep customer and employee loyalty. Microsoft’s entire company success is strategically built on information system and technology is the core of their business objectives and innovation drives the business goals and objectives, which is why Microsoft considers themselves product focused. As stated in the readings, “”Information systems (IS) is the study of complementary networks of hardware and software that people and organizations use to collect, filter, process, create, and distribute data (“Information Systems,” 2012).” Microsoft has a strong focus on hardware, software, data, people, and process; and uses information systems to achieve their mission on a global scale.

Reference:

About. (n.d.). Microsoft. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about

University of Maryland Global Campus. (n.d.). Week 1: Information Systems in Organizations. Document posted in UMGC IFSM 300 6380 online classroom, archived at https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/683118/viewContent/26074794/View

University of Maryland Global Campus. (n.d.). Week 1: Information Systems in Organizations. Document posted in UMGC IFSM 300 6380 online classroom, archived at https://learn.umgc.edu/d2l/le/content/683118/viewContent/26074799/View