IT Roles, Systems, and Processing

Question 1

Information Technology

Answer 1

the electronic storage, retrieval, and manipulation of data; its conversion into human-usable form; and its transmission from one point to another

Question 2

Hardware

Answer 2

any physical item that comprises a computer systm

Question 3

Software

Answer 3

a combination of computer programs that manipulate data and instruct the hardware one what to do; provides instructions to the computer hardware and may also serve as input to other pieces of software

Question 4

Network

Answer 4

a collection of hardware devices that are interconnected so they can communicate among themselves (internet and intranets)

Question 5

Data

Answer 5

information, not instructions, that are stored in hardware

Question 6

Business Information Systems

Answer 6

any combination of hardware, software, data, people, and procedures employed to pursue an organizational objective

Question 7

Strategic Roles of BIS

Answer 7

support business processes and operations
support decision making
support managers in planning for the future

Question 8

Input

Answer 8

acquiring data from within or outside the entity

Question 9

Processing/Transformation

Answer 9

raw materials converted into knowledge useful for decision making

data –> information

Question 10

Output

Answer 10

communication of results to internal or external users

Question 11

Customer Relationship Management

Answer 11

practices, strategies, and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer life cycle

Question 12

Strategic Analysis Approaches

Answer 12

SWOT analysis
Porter’s five forces analysis
environmental scanning with the Internet
big data and analytics

Question 13

SWOT Analysis

Answer 13

structured planning method that evaluates the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a project or business venture

Question 14

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis

Answer 14

a framework that analyzes the level of competition within an industry and business strategy development

five forces determine the competitive intensity and attractiveness of an industry
horizontal - substitute products/services, established rivals, new entrants
vertical - bargaining power of suppliers and bargaining power of customers

Question 15

Environmental Scanning with the Internet

Answer 15

process that systematically surveys and interprets relevant data to identify external opportunities and threats

Question 16

Big Data and Analytics

Answer 16

a voluminous amount of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data that can be mined to reveal relationships and dependencies or to predict outcomes and behaviors

Question 17

Transaction Processing System

Answer 17

captures the fundamental data that reflect the economic life of an organization (accounting information system)

Question 18

Batch Processing

Answer 18

transactions are accumulated and submitted to the computer a single batch

Question 19

Online Processing

Answer 19

real-time systems; the computer processes each transaction individually as the user enters it; immediate processing/feedback

Question 20

Distributed Processing

Answer 20

decentralization of processing tasks and data storage and the assignment of these functions to multiple computers

Question 21

Centralization Advantages

Answer 21

better and more efficient security

consistent processing

Question 22

Decentralization Advantages

Answer 22

remote locations have increase accountability

remote locations can get data more quickly

Question 23

Data Capture

Answer 23

the process of entering data into an information system

Question 24

Management Information System

Answer 24

receives input from a transaction processing system, aggregates it, then reports it in a format useful by middle management in running the business

Question 25

Accounting Information System

Answer 25

subsystem of MIS that processes routine, highly structured financial and transactional data relevant to managerial as well as financial accounting

Question 26

Enterprise Resource Planning

Answer 26

integrates enterprise-wide information systems by creating one database linked to all of an organization’s applications

Question 27

Data Warehouse

Answer 27

a central database for transaction-level data from more than one of the organization’s transaction processing system; strictly a query-and-reporting system (in-memory analytics and search engine technology)

Question 28

Data Mining

Answer 28

searching for unexpected relationships among data

Question 29

Decision Support System

Answer 29

an interactive system that is useful in solving semi-structured problems

Question 30

DSS Components

Answer 30

database - raw data relevant to the decision
model - set of equations, comparisons, graphs, etc into which the data will be fed
dialog - user interface that allows the user to specify the appropriate model and set of data

Question 31

Artificial Intelligence

Answer 31

computer software designed to perceive, reason, and understand

Question 32

Types of AI

Answer 32

neural networks - collection of processing elements
case-based reasoning systems - learn from previous, similar experiences
rule-based expert systems - function on the basis of set rules
intelligent agents - apply a built-in or learned knowledge base to executive repetitive/predictable task
expert system - interactive system that attempts to imitate the reasoning of a human expert

Question 33

Executive Support System

Answer 33

high-level decision makers get the information they need to set and monitor progress of the organization’s long-term objectives

Question 34

Business Intelligence

Answer 34

gives upper management the information it needs to know where the organization is and how to steer it in the intended direction