Essentials of Business Processes and Information Systems

Essentials of Business Processes and Information Systems bridges the gap between the fundamentals of how businesses operate (processes) and the tools that business people use to accomplish their tasks (systems). The authors have developed this supplement text for an introductory MIS or general business course to establish a fundamental understanding of business processes. Business students, regardless of their functional discipline, will be able to apply the real-world concepts discussed in this text immediately upon entering the workforce. As more and more businesses adopt enterprise systems globally, it becomes increasingly important for business schools to offer a process-based curriculum to better reflect the realities of modern business. Given the integration of business operations and enterprise systems, Magal and Word have designed this text to reflect, in a practical and accessible format, how real-world business processes are managed and executed.

Simha R. Magal, Ph.D. is Professor of Management (MIS) and Director, ERP initiative, in the Seidman College of Business, Grand Valley State University, Michigan.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Georgia.  His primary research interests include e-business and enterprise systems.  His articles have appeared in such publications as MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, and Information and Management, among others.  He is Editor of AISWorld Net  aisworld.org and has served on the editorial boards of several journals.  He served as co-chair of the inaugural conference of the Midwest Association for Information Systems (MWAIS) in 2006 and as the president of MWAIS during 2008-2009.

Jeffrey Word, Ph.D., is vice president of product strategy at SAP AG. He is responsible for defining SAP's future product strategy and for fostering product innovation within SAP. Dr. Word has worked for several Global 1000 companies in the high-tech industry for nearly 20 years, specializing in business and IT strategy. At SAP, he has driven the evolution of the company's enterprise technology strategy, with a special focus on corporate process improvement initiatives and services-based IT architecture design. Dr. Word earned his Ph.D. in information systems at Manchester Business School in England.