" (Wu, 2005) III. INFORMATION Management as a Business FUNCTION

The work of Nancy K. Dwyer entitled: "Information Management as a Business Function" relates that many organizations primary product is 'information' and "even in manufacturing companies, many of the employees produce information which allows their factories to build and ship their products." (2005) the Business Information Model (BIM) is used by many companies to define the major business functions of the company and is a model that is divided into primary functions which include:

1) the functions needed to develop and deliver the products or services of the company; and 2) Support functions, which are the functions that are needed by companies to support the primary functions execution.

The following figure shows the Business Information Model.

Business Information Model

Source: Dwyer (2005)

Marilyn Chalupa, in a 'Book Review' of Regan and O'Connor's work entitled: "End-User Information Systems: Implementing Individual and Work Group Technologies" (2002) states that Regan and O'Connor's work 'expands the emphasis on training the ultimate users of systems to include not only how to plan for initial roll-out training..." But as well in relation to the Help Desk. The work of Regan and O'Connor emphasizes the use of technology in an effective manner requires more than "keeping pace with the newest and best solutions." (Chalupa, 2002) it is also related by Regan and O'Connor that it is a necessary issue of accounting that new technologies deliver "usable, relevant return on investment figures..." As cost justification "is often required when planning for new systems." (Chalupa, 2002)

IV. SUMMARY of BENEFITS LINKED to TECHNOLOGY-SAVVY Management

In order to completely understand the necessity of technology systems in business management processes one...

Integrated systems in a business will put product and service information in the hands of all managers organization-wide. When this is accomplished resulting are business processes and functions that are streamlined, quickly accessible, and relatively error-free and offering quick and satisfactory customer service. Management that has the capacity to access all company information across departments will also be able to track employees, tasks and projects. When technology is enabled to track costs by department, employee, project, task, and then by hour on each project filtered into an invoice, illustrating cost-savings for accounting purposes is relatively easily done because the information technology deployed in the company, following proper roll-out, training, and education offers the potential for great cutting of expenses within the organization or business.
Bibliography

Regan, Elizabeth a. & O'Connor, Bridget N. (2002). End-user information systems: Implementing individual and work group technologies. (2nd ed.) New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Wu, Jonathan (2005) Master Data: The Linkage between Business Functions and Business Processes. DM Review Magazine. August 2005. Online available at http://www.dmreview.com/issues/20050801/1033570-1.html

Dwyer, Nancy K. (2005) Information Management as a Business Function. Online available at http://www.dama-michigan.org/21%20Nancy%20Dwyer%20Article.doc

Chalupa, Marilyn R. (2002) Book Review: End-User Information Systems: Implementing Individual and Work Group Technologies. Information, Technology, Learning, and Performance Journal, Vol. 20, No. 3 Fall. 2002. Online available at http://www.osra.org/itlpj/chalupafall2002.pdf

Technology and Management Functions