Week 3 Flashcards

1
Q

What is IT budgeting?

A

the proces of allocating monetary resources to various IT programs

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2
Q

What is a chargeback system?

A

The managament practice of billing business departments for services provided by an in-house information technology

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3
Q

What are the seven objectives of a chargeback system? and what do they mean?

A

1: Cost recovery (recovering all IT costs in a year and each product/service must recover its own cost)
2: Resource allocation (scarce resources can be allocated where really needed)
3: Efficient utilization of IT resources (ensure that a BU doesn’t waste money on unnecessary IT services)
4: IT performance evaluation (internal prices can be benchmarked)
5: IT planning assistance (BU can predicts future requirements)
6: Increase user awareness (BU are more aware of service usage)
7: Increase IT staff awareness (Motivates IT departments to perform their work more cost-effective)

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4
Q

What are the two types of NON-Chargeback systems? describe them and name a advantage/disadvantage

A
  1. Unallocated cost
    - costs are not allocated to BU’s
    - advantage: used in organisations with little experience in the use of IT
    - disadvantage: all issues with not having a chargeback system
  2. Simple cost allocation
    - not based on BU’s actual usage, but based on revenue
    - advantage: easily calculated
    - disadvantage: unfair to large BU’s that do not heavily use IT
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5
Q

What are the five types of Chargeback systems and describe them

A
  1. Cost recovery - average cost pricing
    - average unit costs calculated at the end of an accounting period
  2. Cost recovery - standard pricing
    - Determined in advance of use
  3. Cost recovery - flexible pricing
    - charges high rates for services in higher demand
  4. Profit center - Fixed pricing
    - IT negotiates a detailed contract with each BU
  5. Profit center - Market based pricing
    - A market price is suggested by IT
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6
Q

How can we categorize every form of chargeback systems? (Fixed/Flexible and Recovering cost/Profit making)

A

Fixed: cost recovery - standard cost (recovering cost), Profit center - fixed pricing (profit making)

Flexible: Cost recovery- average cost (recovering cost), cost recovery - flexible cost (recovering cost), profit center- market based pricing (profit making)

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7
Q

What are chargeback systems used for?

A
  • IT cost control
  • IT demand control
  • IT resource allocation
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8
Q

How can we increase the effectiveness of a chargeback systems?

A
  • Involvement of BU’s in budget preperation
  • Accountability of BU’s for meeting the IT budget
  • Cost variability of the changes
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9
Q

Why is it difficult to measure IT value?

A
  • IT doesn’t bring revenue

- only creates value for internal customers

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10
Q

How can we measure IT value?

A
  • Find capabilites that competiters could not match (VRAINN)

- Measure how much capability there would be without IT (total of orders taken per day)

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11
Q

What are the pitfalls of measuring IT?

A
  • Only measuring IT investments based on competitive advantage
  • Calculating the ROI to early
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12
Q

Name the difference between compete and qualifier investments

A

Compete investments give you a potential edge over other companies, and qualifier investments keep you in business

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13
Q

Name the two components of McFlaran’s strategic grid

A
  1. Strategic dependence (how long can the business continue without the system)
  2. Strategic impact (how important is the system for value creation and competitive advantage)
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14
Q

What is IT value?

A

Refers to the organizational performance impact of IT

Organizational performance can be divided into efficiency (internal) and effectiveness (external)
E.g. Productivity, profitability, cost reduction, competitive advantage, inventory reduction, market share

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15
Q

What is the IT value creation model?

A

Combination of IT resources and complementary organizational resources –> improve business processes –> improve organizational processes

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16
Q

What are the three different options for firms to create value for customers?

A
  1. Operational excellence
  2. Customer intimacy
  3. Product leadership
17
Q

What are the five business performance measures?

A
  1. Supplier relations (operational excellence)
  2. Production & operations (operational excellence)
  3. Product & service enhancement (product leadership)
  4. Sales & marketing support (customer intimacy)
  5. Customer relations (customer intimacy)
18
Q

What are the advantages/ disadvantages of the Cost recovery - Average cost pricing?

A

advantage: recovers 100% of the costs
disadvantage: significant price fluctuation, difficult for BU’s to budget

19
Q

What are the advantages/ disadvantages of the Cost recovery - Standard cost pricing?

A

advantage: no periodic fluctuation, BU’s budget more accurate
disadvantage: must have reliable forecast of total cost and demand

20
Q

What are the advantages/ disadvantages of the Cost recovery - Flexible cost pricing?

A

advantage: control the demand for scarce resources
disadvantage: complex to administer

21
Q

What are the advantages/ disadvantages of a profit center - Fixed pricing?

A

advantage: IS department is operated as a profit center
disadvantage: handling changes to the requirements for system development and maintenance

22
Q

What are the advantages/ disadvantages of a profit center - market-based pricing?

A

advantage: IS department is operated as a profit center
disadvantage: Market price is difficult to ascertain

23
Q

What factors are also an influence to a company’s performance

A
  1. Industry characteristics
  2. Trading partners and business processes
  3. Country characteristics