Ch 2: Global E-business and Collaboration

Question 1

Business Process

LO 2-1

Answer 1

Related set of activities that represent the unique ways in which an organization coordinates work, information, and knowledge in order to produce a good or service.

-Ch 1, p. 43

Question 2

Describe the role business processes play in organizations.

LO 2-1

Answer 2

Determine how well the organization can execute its business and can be a strategic advantage.

• Examples: Automate steps, replace sequential steps with simultaneous ones, improve accessibility to information, eliminate delays in decision making, supports new business models.*
• Ch2, p. 45

Question 3

Describe the relationship between information systems and business processes.

LO 2-1

Answer 3

Many business processes are cross-functional. Information systems automate parts of business processes, and they can help organizations redesign and streamline these processes.

Buzz term: cross-functional business process

-Ch 2, p. 44

Question 4

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems

LO 2-2

Answer 4

Coordinates all business processes surrounding customer interaction

Ex. sales, marketing, service

Question 5

Enterprise Applications

LO 2-2

Answer 5

Systems that can coordinate activities, decisions, and knowledge across many different functions, levels, and business units in a firm. Include enterprise, supply chain, and knowledge management systems.

Question 6

Explain how enterprise applications improve organizational performance.

LO 2-2

Answer 6

Integrates the key internal business processes of a firm into a single software system to improve coordination and decision making.

There are four major enterprise applications: enterprise systems, supply chain management systems, customer relationship management system, and knowledge management system.

Question 7

Enterprise Systems

LO 2-2

Answer 7

Integrated enterprise-wide information systems that coordinate key internal processes of the firm into a single software system to improve coordination and decision making.

Question 8

Executive Support Systems (ESS)

LO 2-2

Answer 8

Information systems at the organization’s strategic level designed to address unstructured decision making through advanced graphics and communications.

Question 9

Explain how intranets and extranets help firms integrate information and business processes.

LO 2-2

Answer 9

Intranets and extranets are private corporate networks based on Internet technology that assemble information from disparate systems. Intranets are only available to employees whereas extranets make portions of private corporate intranets available to outsiders.

Question 10

Knowledge Management Systems (KMS)

LO 2-2

Answer 10

Systems that support and enable firms to optimize the creation, capture, storage, and dissemination of firm expertise and knowledge.

Question 11

Management Information Systems (MIS) as System

LO 2-2

Answer 11

A specific category of information systems serving middle management.

Question 12

Explain how the difference and flow of TPS, MIS, DSS, and ESS.

LO 2-2

Answer 12

Question 13

Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems

LO 2-2

Answer 13

Information systems that automate the flow of information and positively manage the relationship between a firm and its suppliers in order to optimize the planning, sourcing, manufacturing, and delivery of products and services.

Question 14

Describe the characteristics of transaction processing systems (TPS) and the roles they play in a business.

LO 2-2

Answer 14

Serves operational management and track the flow of the daily routine transactions necessary to conduct business. An example is payroll.

Question 15

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

LO 2-2

Answer 15

Computerized systems that perform and record the daily routine transactions necessary to conduct the business; they serve the organization’s operational level.

Question 16

Describe business processes for collaboration.

LO 2-3

Answer 16

Teams-Centric Execution: Senior managers are responsible for achieving results but rely on teams of employees to achieve and implement the results.

Team-Centric Structure: Policies, products, designs, processes, and systems are much more dependent on teams at all levels of the organization to devise, to create, and to build.

Reward System: Teams are rewarded for their performance, and individuals are rewarded for their performance in a team.

Team-Building Emphasis: The function of middle managers is to build the teams, coordinate their work, and monitor their performance.

-Ch 1, p. 61

Question 17

Collaboration

LO 2-3

Answer 17

Working with others to achieve shared and explicit goals.

Question 18

List and describe the various types of collaboration and social business tools.

LO 2-3

Answer 18

General Collaboration Systems: e-mail and instant messaging, wikis, virtual meeting systems, virtual worlds, cloud-based file-sharing services

Corporate Collaboration Systems: MS SharePoint, IBM Notes, and ERP

Social Business Tools: Chatter, FB, Twitter, Yammer, Jive, and IBM Connections.

Question 19

Social Business

LO 2-3

Answer 19

Use of internal and external social networking platforms, to engage employees, customers, and suppliers in order to enhance collaborative work.

Question 20

List and describe the business benefits of collaboration and social business.

LO 2-3

Answer 20

Question 21

Explain why collaboration and social business have become so important in business today.

LO 2-3

Answer 21

1. Decentralization of decision making
2. Emphasis on innovation
3. Globalization
4. Growth in jobs where interaction is professional jobs where collaboration is the primary value-adding activity

-Ch 2, pp. 57-58

Question 22

Describe a supportive organizational culture.

LO 2-3

Answer 22

Senior management establishes collaboration and teamwork as vital to the organization from the operational to the strategic level.

-Ch 1, p. 61

Question 23

Chief Data Officer (CDO)

LO 2-4

Answer 23

Responsible for enterprise-wide governance and utilization of information to maximize the value the organization can realize from its data.

Question 24

Chief Information Officer (CIO)

LO 2-4

Answer 24

Senior manager in charge of the information systems function in the firm.

Question 25

Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO)

LO 2-4

Answer 25

Senior executive in charge of the organization’s knowledge management program.

Question 26

Chief Security Officer (CSO)

LO 2-4

Answer 26

Heads a formal security function for the organization and is responsible for enforcing the firm’s security policy.

Question 27

Describe how the information systems function supports a business.

LO 2-4

Answer 27

Enables firms to manage all their information, make better decisions, and improve the execution of their business processes. Essential to this task is the is the Information System Departments mission to maintain the hardware, software, data storage, and networks that comprise the firm’s IT infrastructure.

-Ch 2, pp. 43,

Question 28

Information Systems Department

LO 2-4

Answer 28

The formal organizational unit that is responsible for the information systems function in the organization. It is responsible for maintaining the hardware, software, data storage, and networks that comprise the firm’s IT infrastructure.

Question 29

Information Systems Managers

LO 2-4

Answer 29

Leaders of the various specialists in the information systems department.

Question 30

Programmers

LO 2-4

Answer 30

Highly trained technical specialists who write computer software instructions.

Question 31

Systems Analysts

LO 2-4

Answer 31

Specialists who translate business problems and requirements into information requirements and systems, acting as liaison between the information systems department and the rest of the organization.