Midterm

Question 0

Cost of data communications and data storage is

Answer 0

Essentially zero

Question 1

Moore’s Law

Answer 1

As power increases, cost will decrease

Question 2

Managing information resources is difficult because

Answer 2

• IS (Information Systems) has an enormous strategic value to organizations
• IS’s are very expensive to acquire, operate, and maintain
• evolution of the MIS function within the organization

Question 3

Information Systems are used for managing

Answer 3

People (individuals, groups, or organizations)
Procedures (design, development, and documentation)
Data (info for decision making)
Software
Hardware
(Last three are IT; procedures and people are unique to IS)

Question 4

Major capabilities of IS

Answer 4

Perform high speed, high volume numerical computations
Provide fast, accurate communication and collaboration within and among organizations
Store huge amounts of info in an easy to access, yet small space
Allow quick and inexpensive access to vast amounts of info, worldwide
Interpret vast amounts of data quickly, and efficiently
Automate both semiautomatic business processes and manual tasks

Question 5

Breadth of support of IS- FAIS

Answer 5

Functional Area Information Systems

• accounting
• finance
• production and operations management
• marketing
• HR

Question 6

Breadth of support of IS- 2 ISs support the entire system

Answer 6

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems
-provide communication among functional area ISs (general)

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)
-support the “real-time” monitoring, collection, storage, and processing of data from the organization’s day to day operations

Question 7

Importance of Information Systems to society

Answer 7

IT affects our quality of life
The robots revolution is here now
Improvements in healthcare

Question 8

How does IT impact organizations?

Answer 8

IT reduces the number of middle managers
IT changes the manager’s job
Will IT eliminate jobs?
IT impacts employees at work

Question 9

Development and use of ISs

Answer 9

Need to take active role in the development

• specifying the system’s requirements
• helping to manage the development project
• using the IS

Question 10

Achieving business goals with IS

Answer 10

ISs exist to help ppl in business achieve goals and objectives of that business

Question 11

What is business process?

Answer 11

A network of activities, resources, facilities, and information that interact to achieve some business function

Question 12

ISs vital role in three areas of business processes

Answer 12

Executing the process
Capturing and storing excess data
Monitoring process performance

Question 13

ISs help execute the business processes by

Answer 13

Informing employees when it is time to complete a task
Providing required data
Providing a means to complete the task

Question 14

Capturing and storing process data

Answer 14

Processes generate data
-dates, times, production numbers, quantities, prices, addresses, names, employee actions
ISs capture and store process data (aka transaction data)
Capturing and storing data provides immediate, ‘real-time’ feedback

Question 15

Monitoring process performance

Answer 15

IS evaluates info to determine how well a process is being executed
Evaluations occur at two levels
-process level
-instance level
Monitoring identifies problems for process improvement

Question 16

Measures of excellence in executing business processes

Answer 16

Customer satisfaction
Cost reduction
Cycle and fulfillment time reduction
Quality
Differentiation
Productivity

Question 17

Business Process Reengineering (BPR)

Answer 17

A radical redesign of an organization’s business processes to increase productivity and profitability
Examines business processes with a “clean-slate” approach

Question 18

Business Process Improvement (BPI)

Answer 18

An incremental approach to move an organization toward business process centered operations
Focuses on reducing variation in process outputs by identifying the underlying cause of the variation

Six Sigma is a popular methodology

Five basic phases of successful BPI

1. Define
2. Measure (is it doing what it is supposed to do?)
3. Analyze
4. Improve
5. Control

Question 19

Business Process Management (BMP)

Answer 19

A management system used to support continuous BPI initiatives for core business processes over time

Important components

• process modeling
• web-enabled technologies
• business activity monitoring (BAM)

BPM Suite
-an integrated set of applications used for BPM

Emerging trend of social BPM
-technologies enabling employees of collaborate across functions internally and externally using social media tools

Question 20

Business Pressures

Answer 20

Market pressures
-global economy, intense competition, changing nature of the workforce, and powerful customers
Technology pressures
-technological innovation and info overload (to embrace, need training; takes time)
Social pressures
-social responsibility, gov. regulation, deregulation, social problem

Question 21

Globalization

Answer 21

The integration nod interdependence of the economic, social, cultural, and ecological facets of life, made possible by rapid advances in IT

Stages

1. 1492-1800; focus on countries
2. 1800-2000; focus on companies
3. 2000-present; focus on groups and individual

Question 22

Changing nature of the workforce

Answer 22

Workforce becoming more diverse
-women 
-single parents
-minorities
-persons with disabilities
IT is enabling telecommunicating with employees

Question 23

Powerful customers

Answer 23

Increasing customer sophistication and expectations
Consumer more knowledgeable about
-products and services
-price comparisons 
-electronic auctions
Customer relationship management

Question 24

Technology pressures

Answer 24

Technological innovation and obsolescence
-rapid development of both new and substitute products and services

Information overload

• vast stores of data, info, and knowledge
• difficulties in managing data for decision making

Question 25

Porter’s competitive forces model

Answer 25

Threats of new entrants
-high when easy to enter
-low when difficult to enter (patent, start up costs)
Supplier power (bargaining power of supplier)
-high when buyers have few choices
-low when many choices
Threats of substitute products or services
-high when many substitutes
Buying power (bargaining power of buyer)
-high when buyer has many choices
Competing organizations
-high fierce competition

Question 26

Porter’s value chain model

Answer 26

A sequence of activities through which the org’s inputs are transformed into valuable outputs

Question 27

Five primary activities for manufacturing

Answer 27

1. Inbound logistics (inputs)
2. Operations (manufacturing and testing)
3. Outbound logistics (storage and distribution)
4. Marketing and sales
5. After sales services

Question 28

Four support activities

Answer 28

1. Firm’s infrastructure (accounting, finance, management)
2. HR management
3. Product and technology development
4. Procurement

Question 29

Six characteristics of business-IT alignment

Answer 29

1. IT viewed as an engine of innovation continually transforming the business and often creating new revenue streams
2. Organizations view their internal and external customers and their customer service function as supremely important
3. Organizations rotate business and IT professionals across departments and job functions
4. Organizations provide overarching goals that are completely clear to each IT and business
5. Organizations ensure that IT employees understand how the company makes (or loses) money
6. Organizations create a vibrant and inclusive company culture

Question 30

Major reasons business-IT alignment does NOT occur

Answer 30

Business managers and IT managers have diff objectives
The business and IT departments are ignorant of the other group’s expertise
A lack of communication