 Welcome back. Unit 3 gave us an opportunity to learn about databases, metadata, data warehouses, and data management. Unit 3 began with a couple of excellent videos to help you learn about the decision-making process and databases. Ben Currin's video, Data-Driven Decisions, displays how data can help managers make choices that are best for their organization. Jason O'Donnell's video explained the differences between two broad types of databases and how each fits a business need. In Unit 4, you will learn about competitive advantage, Porter's Five Forces and Value Chain, Decision Support Systems, Electronic Data Interchange, Collaborative Systems, and Decision Support Systems. You will also watch a video about Decision Support Systems at Vancouver Coastal Health to supplement your reading. It's very important that you take note of the value chain. Each step of the chain contributes to the overall value of a product or service, which plays a role in competitive advantage through either primary or support activities. The primary activities are functions that directly affect the creation of the product or service, while the support activities are the functions that support and cut across all the primary activities. The primary activities consist of inbound and outbound logistics, operations, sales and marketing, and service. The support activities include firm infrastructure, human resource management, technology development, and procurement. Business processes are a large part of management information systems. Processes are series of tasks completed in order to accomplish a goal. In a business setting, processes include documentation, management, tracking, decision-making, implementation and execution of new processes, and more, required for daily business operations. In this unit, you will learn about ERP systems. Enterprise Resource Planning Systems are software applications with a centralized database used to run an entire company. ERPs include multiple modules designed for each department of an organization. You will learn more about the purpose of ERP systems as you complete the unit. Unit 4 will focus on several aspects of business processes and the software relating to business processes. The course includes Porter's Five Forces, which serve as a model framework developed for industry analysis to help organizations understand how competitive they are in an industry. You will also learn about business process management and business process re-engineering, which help organizations improve their effectiveness and quality of their products and services. You will also want to pay attention to the sections in Chapter 7 that cover electronic data interchange, collaborative systems and decision support systems, as they will enhance your understanding of the processes organizations go through to make decisions. Just a reminder, make sure to take notes as you're going through Unit 4. The final exam is fast approaching and it's time for you to start seriously considering your study plan. Enjoy Unit 4 and we'll see you here again at the beginning of Unit 5.