MIS Midterm II
What is business intelligence system? Why has business intelligence become so popular nowadays?
1) Business Intelligence Systems: Use data created by other systems to provide reporting, sophisticated data modeling, and analysis for organizational decision making 2) Business Analytics: Uncovering unusual trends and non-obvious patterns by using data, statistical and quantitive analysis, explanatory and predictive models to drive decisions into actions Business intelligence has become so popular because there is much better connectivity of devices with new technology, causing less storage and computing devices costs with more results and analysis that can lead to competitive advantage by being able to predict the future (who? what? where? for products customers buy can be predicted)
What is data mining? What is the key difference between reporting tools and data mining tools?
1) Data Mining: The automated search in large databases for non-obvious patterns and relationships to anticipate events or predict outcomes (requires more human analysis and extensive research) 2) Reporting Tools: Software applications that make data extracted in a query accessible to the user which is a common reporting tool that makes a variety of information available on a single screen, in the form of charts, graphs, ordered lists and only sort the items 3) Data Mining Tools: Applications that you choose data to analyze, data mining techniques are applied, and then reports specific analysis or trends which actually find the patterns
What are the four major data mining techniques? If you are given an example, be able to know which type of data mining technique it belongs to.
1) Regression: Attempt to find a function which estimate the relationships among variables with the least error like "which group of customers spend more? twenties? thirties? forties?" 2) Association Detection: Determining when one event is correlated to another event including the Market Basket Analysis which determines what things go together in a shopping cart at the supermarket 3) Classification: When you have specific groups of people already set and finding patterns for each 4) Clustering: When you have a large set of data that you graph and then notice specific groups or patterns
Association Rule Factors and their Meanings
1) Support of a Product: The impact of that specific product meaning the probability that the product will be bought over all the products offered 2) Confidence Level: The rate at which the consequent will be bought given that the antecedent has already happened (how likely the cross-selling strategy will be successful) 3) Lift Ratio: Probability of the Consequent | Antecedent / Probability of Consequent which shows whether an association rule is useful because it compares the consequent being bought and the antecedent and the consequent being bought
What is database? Why do people use a database?
A database is a single table or a collection of related tables that have a lot of information. People use databases because they: 1) Eliminate data redundancy which can be seen in Excel with different tables 2) Retrieve Information from different tables at the same time for accurate results
What is chaotic storage? What are the benefits provided by chaotic storage? Understand how Amazon uses IT to enable its chaotic storage management.
Amazon also has technology-based operations that include: 1) Chaotic Storage: Allows for better accuracy of products by placing them randomly 2) Database: Tracks and monitors every single product that enters/leaves the warehouse to keep track of every shelf space with unique barcodes 3) Software: Informs the Amazon employee which path to take that is the quickest to shelf spaces along with the cardboard size and weight
What are Amazon's three major competitive advantages? How do these advantages reinforce with each other? Does Amazon create a two-sided market and if yes, how does this contributes to its wide selection of products?
Amazon focuses on 3 factors that make the online company stronger than its competitors throughout with the Amazon Wheel of Growth that connects all of them: 1) Large Selection: Focus on delivering as many products including those that may not be bought as often 2) Customer Experience: Customers make an account or even upgrade to Prime for fast shipping and even better preferences with saved card information and shipping addresses 3) Lower Prices: Because they ship directly from the supplier, Amazon prices tend to be cheaper than retailers who have to buy the location and other costs Amazon is a two-sided market throughout because it sells other supplier's products on their website for a percentage of their sell and marketing it throughout meaning that they have a much wider selection because they don't have to manufacture every product
How does Amazon use customer-related data to create greater customer experience? What is A/B test?
Amazon uses several factors for greater customer experience: 1) Product Reviews 2) Browsing (Click, Delay, Back, and Purchasing History) 3) A/B Testing: Amazon A/B Testing is when they have two situations in which they change the color of the buttons in the website for example and see which gets the greater customer response and constantly do these tests that compare A and B which are randomized to continue to improve the website design.
Why has Android been so successful?
Android has been so successful because of several factors including: 1) Many app developers throughout 2) Open Source Software 3) Designed to run Google apps
What is association detection? What are the key metrics to look at when you decide the best association rule?
Association Detection is when you determine the behaviors or outcomes that go together which is the probability of one action happening (consequent) after another past action (antecedent) When using association detection there is a table with different products and the number of times these products have been bought for each with different variables: 1) Support Count: Number of times that a certain product has been bought already 2) Support: Probability that certain products are bought through equation Support = Support Count / Number of Transactions 3) Confidence Level: The rate at which consequents will be found given that the antecedent has occurred through the equation P(Consequent | Antecedent) = P (Antecedent & Consequent) / P(Antecedent) When looking at the probabilities for several items like (Milk & Diapers & Water) then you count the number of rows that they all are bought together (consecutively) over the number of all transactions (rows)
What are the barriers to cloud computing adoption? When you decide if you want to get service from a particular cloud vendor, why should you consider the long-term viability of the cloud vendor?
Barriers to Cloud Computing Adoption: 1) Security: Threats to data confidentiality which is being trusted with another company and worries on whether the provider is providing good security for the data 2) Accessibility: There is more dependence on the internet which can crash at any second and also risk that there is a crash at the provider's infrastructure so loss or lack of data 3) Total Cost of Ownership: Providers can sell computing service per hour or per GB which can be bad for huge companies that spend a lot to rent and should instead buy/invest 4) Switching Costs: Large amounts of data are difficult to move from the cloud interface to another database 5) Interoperability with Systems: Out of date systems can be difficult to run on cloud software because they may be more up to date 6) Less Flexibility: There is less flexibility because cloud interference will keep updating so there is more training/learning costs which can't be avoided and customization can be limited to only specific settings on the cloud
What are the benefits to users from cloud computing? What are the benefits to vendors from offering cloud computing?
Benefits to Users from Cloud Computing: 1) Increased Efficiency: Reduce the firm's assets that can remain still and depreciate over time and reduce the IT maintenance and upgrade costs 2) Rapid Access: You can access these resources much faster for a company allowing more profit without time to deploy 3) Scalability: Adjust the amount of resources that you need which can increase with a larger customer base or even decrease if you want Benefits to Offering Cloud Computing: 1) Accessibility: There is more accessibility to anyone who is connected to the internet so there is a much larger customer base and more companies that can rent cloud services 2) Reduced Costs for Saas: There are less costs for Saas for users because it is available through different platforms and software piracy because now you can copy your software for no costs and rent to others
For a query task, be able to write the correct SQL statement or identify the correct one from a set of choices. Similarly, given a SQL statement, be able to identify the correct query output.
Boolean Operators: AND: results only when all conditions are true OR: results when any condition is true NOT: negates an expression that follows If all three order must be: NOT then AND then OR Use parentheses to change the operator condition to be evaluated first "#" is needed before and after dates when inserted When you have a condition between two numbers like BETWEEN 58000 AND 65000 then use the higher number last When using function to find the two number $58k and $65k only then the function will be IN (58000,65000) so it is not an interval
Be able to list the key areas where businesses are leveraging data mining.
Business throughout are using technology to make better predictions on sales to increase their profits: 1) Marketing and Promotion Targeting: Trying to decide which customers will respond positively to an offer through past data 2) Market Basket Analysis: Trying to decide which products customers buy together and the likelihood 3) Collaborative Filtering: Trying to make recommendations and personalize an individual customer's experience based on the trends and preferences shown by other similar customers
Understand how Caesars Entertainment collects data and uses data to understand its customers.
Caesars Entertainment is a casino entertainment company that has locations throughout the country. It collects data including personal information, betting patterns, frequency in visits and plays, and whether or not they stay or eat at the casino all through their Rewards Loyalty Card that many customers have through incentives. Through data mining, the large company found that 30% of their customers generate around 80% of their revenues which are the ones that live close to the casinos instead of tourists. This data mining has allowed them to focus more on poker chips and playing incentives than hotel and food sales for more revenue because locals are more likely to buy poker chips
Understand the difference between changing IT to fit with existing business processes and changing existing business process to fit with IT. Understand the benefits and challenges of each approach.
Changing the IT to fit with the new pharmacy fulfillment processes allowed for: Standardization: Business processes can be replicated and redistributed cheaply and quickly through different locations using technology Monitoring: Managers can get a precise and current picture of what's happening throughout the enterprise by observing the activities and events in different locations
What is clustering? What is the difference between classification and clustering? Understand the RFM analysis basics.
Classification: Arranging the data into predefined groups throughout like classifying credit applicants as low, medium, or high risk or customers as "loyal" or "likely to terminate contract" which can help by using a Decision Tree Analysis Clustering: When similar records or characteristics are grouped together throughout to find specific patterns in data through the RFM Analysis with different components addd together as R+F+M: 1) Recency: How often ordered 2) Frequently: How frequently bought 3) Money: How much money customer spends per order The difference is Classification depends on categories of customers that have already been defined and clustering does not rely on predefined categories but instead grouped together based on similarities
What is IaaS? For this service model, what are the resources the cloud vendor will provide/manage and what are the resources the cloud user will have a control? What basic question is it essentially addressing for a cloud user? Know that Amazon is the pioneer to officially offer IaaS to the public and Rackspace is also gaining an increasing market share of IaaS
Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) is when a user needs a server for processing power or storage by renting hardware and using their own software or applications throughout. The customer does not manage or control the cloud infrastructure but controls the operating systems and applications. An example would be Netflix that uses Amazon's servers for storage of their large movie selection or user information or other large companies like IBM, HP, and Dell that are now offering this service with their expensive and large hardware. NASDAQ Market Replay also uses Amazon Web Services to get more space for large amounts of on-demand data on trades and securities in the market. There are two types of cloud services: 1) Public Cloud: The cloud infrastructure is made available to the public that can be rented for services 2) Private Cloud: The cloud infrastructure is operated solely for a single organization
What is the content adjacency problem? Why does it occur? What can advertisers do to minimize the likelihood that a content adjacency problem will occur?
Content Adjacency occurs when a certain ad appears on an inappropriate website like a news articles on murders with diaper advertisements on the side. Advertisers can prevent this problem by choosing specific vendors, websites, and categories they want to avoid or even choosing negative keywords so they won't appear with those words
What is DBMS? What are the major DBMS products?
DBMS (Database Management System) is a software for creating and manipulating data. DBMS are used because they eliminate data redundancy and can create data reports and analysis for companies to improve their sells. The major DBMS products include Access from Microsoft (Personal) , SQL Server, and Oracle (Big Companies) which provide databases in the form of sofware
What are the potential data sources for an organization?
Data sources for an organization can come from several ways: 1) Surveys 2) Other Company Partners in Manufacturing or Retailing 3) Social Media Trends 4) Data Aggregators which are firms that resell data from real estate, census, credit reports 5) ERP Software that provides results on different sectors of a company 6) Transactional Processing System
What is the difference between data warehouse and data mart?
Data warehouse deals with the collection of enterprise-wide information into the database while data mart pertains to a single department or sector in the enterprise. While transactional databases are designed to be updated, data warehouses or marts are read only. 1) Data Warehouse: A set of databases designed to support decision making in an organization that includes the information from all sectors to make a decision 2) Data Mart: A database focused on addressing the concerns of a specific problem like improving product quality, increasing customer retention
Understand the key drivers for online ad growth. How can advertisers provide you targeted ads? What is a cookie? How are cookies used?
Digital advertising is the advertisement method that has continued positive growth when compared to TV, Newspapers, and Radio because: 1) Increasing User Time Online 2) Improved Measurement 3) Targeting: The targeting of customers has improved through cookies which is a line of identifying text assigned and retrieved by a given Web server and stored on your computer by your browser. Upon accepting this cookie your browser has been tagged, like an animal. As you surf around the firm's website, that cookie can be used to build a profile associated with your activities to reach your preferences with ads.
For the CVS case, understand the role of IT in ensuring both ex-ante compliance and ex-post compliance by its employees.
Enterprise IT was a powerful tool for ensuring compliance with the new implementation to its fulfillment process because it allows you to analyze the overall transaction data to see if there is improvement in wait times and medication purchases. New Process was measured for different locations and implemented if happening during rush hour and not an hour after.
What is classification? Understand how to interpret a classification tree, i.e., be able to describe the classification process if you are given a classification tree.
For classification, you look at the table and take the probability of a consequent occurring when an antecedent has happened to create a Classification Tree that has several factors like "Income" "Education Level" and "Family Size" which go in order and show the different probabilities of each happening until you reach the end and predict whether or not a customer will do a certain action like taking a loan based on these different characteristics
What is foreign key? When given a set of tables and certain assumptions, understand how to identify foreign key.
Foreign Key is an attribute or set of attributes that are in a relation in a database that serves as the primary key of another relation in the same database. Helps link different relations or tables in a relational database. A specific key or column can be both a primary key and a foreign key for one or the other in two different tables
What is the major difference between Google's AdWords and Google's AdSense?
Google AdWords is displayed in the Google Search Results in their website but Google AdSense pays a small amount to website owners to display ads on their website to help the outside company gain revenue
Why does Google invest in Android?
Google developed its own platform for its many apps to promote their online free products and increase presence in mobile industry against other companies and even make agreements for sponsorship
What is organic search? How does Google decide the rank of organic search results?
Google does not accept money for placement of links in Organic Search Result and uses relevance to place the best websites at the top which have 34% clicks (double than second option) and PageRank software that uses algorithms and other factors in which other sites are sending the user to the same website. Most of these algorithms are kept in secret to prevent companies from placing at top through SEO (Search Engine Optimization) in which they pay organizations to improve ranking
Why does Google give Android for free?
Google gives Android for free because it gives it a competitive advantage against other companies throughout in all three layers of network carries, handset manufacturers, and content providers. This allows for greater bargaining power with other companies in the mobile industry
How does Google decide the rank of sponsored ads? What factors influence ads' quality score?
Google uses Google AdWords that places advertisement ads at the top of the search results that are ranked by the formula of AdRank Score = Maximum CPC (Cost per Click) the advertiser is willing to pay x Quality score of the advertisement in relevance by Google Companies bid specific amounts on keywords they would like to trigger the display of the add which is the Cost Per Click they are willing to pay with Ad Quality Score taking into account many factors: 1) Relevance of ad with text 2) History of click performance for the keywords for other users 3) Click-Through-Rate (CTR) which is the number of times users clicked over number of searchers 4) Assessment of user experience on the landing page of advertisement On average, advertisers usually pay $0.3 to $1 per click throughout but competitive industries pay way more like Lawyers up to $60
Before Android was launched, what were the key challenges to handset manufacturers and content/app providers? Has Android addressed these challenges?
Handset manufacturers have fierce competition on technical design, functionality, and performance against other companies that manufacture innovative phones. They must also give money to carriers to sell their phones. They must also offer a compelling combination of hardware and software by either: 1) Develop OS & Apps Indoor 2) Develop OS Indoor & Apps Outdoor 3) Develop OS Outdoor & Apps Outdoor Android has addressed these challenges by making their OS free to any handset company to sell and any app developers to create apps
Be able to decide the correct service model (among IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS) if given a scenario.
If comparing the different cloud services these are the needs of the customers: 1) Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas): Customer just needs a server as processing power or storage for their applications and operating system they have provided 2) Platform as a Service (Paas): I have developed or acquired an app and need a place to run it with a provider's operating system and storage 3) Software as a Service (Saas): Customer wants access to the software or application through a web browser which can be accessed
What basic functions should an ERP system provide to an educational institution? What are the major problems in ERP implementation in educational industry in general and what are the unique problems for the San Diego City Schools (SDCS) in particular?
In an ideal ERP system for a school district many different components throughout large districts are integrated into a large database including a district's financing, human resources, food services, health services, delivery, and student tracking information. However, there were many problems with implementing ERP software successfully with 50% failure rate and only 50% functionality: 1) Limited Budgets: Because districts have a low budget for IT development, they tended to choose cheaper options that were not as successful and couldn't hire consultants/maintenance 2) Under-Qualified Personnel: Districts did not hire the IT professionals for ERP for a long time to keep up with maintenance and fix complications 3) Changing Leadership: Superintendents tend to leave their position often which is bad for the implementation that takes years The major problems included slow processing times without communications between different sectors of the district
What were the reasons for Keda to involve top departmental representatives in process design?
Keda decided to involve top departmental representatives into the planning for the process design of the ERP software instead of the IT specialists because they have a comprehensive understanding of the operations and needs of the departments. His approach emphasized user involvement as a critical success factor instead of just focus on IT specialists.
Why did Keda decide to embark an ERP implementation project?
Keda is a ceramic manufacturing company that had strong reasons for deciding to do an ERP implementation: 1) Little information flowed between departments making it hard to make timely decisions when delivering quotes to large companies 2) There was a lot of inaccurate inventory and pricing information because of little information for large amount of raw materials 3) Increasing competition within the production industry so they needed to make well-informed decisions with better technology
What were the key strategies used by Keda in terms of vendor selection?
Keda would plan out with potential ERP providers to see which companies were the most invested in this implementation and interested in research. They also visited other clients to see how their ERP systems were functioning and whether or not they were satisfied with SAP implementation of software
For association detection, what does lift ratio indicate? What does a lift ratio less than 1 imply? What does confidence indicate? What does support count indicate? Suppose you plan to launch a cross-selling campaign and are given a set of selling strategies (deriving from association rules), be able to identify and argue which strategy you would go with.
Lift Ratio: An indicator of whether or not an association rule will be useful which will compare the confidence of a consequent occurring. Then equation for Lift Ratio = P (Consequent | Antecedent) / P(Consequent) with P(Consequent) = Number of Transactions with Consequent / Number of Transactions in Database. A lift ratio that is less than 1 means that the presence of the antecedent occurring causes a reduction in the probability of the consequent being bought
Given certain task, be able to design/evaluate the query under "Design View" in MS Access.
Look at past homework or examples done
Understand how to establish relationships among tables. Given a set of tables, understand how to draw relationships, as what you do using MS Access in the lab session and in the homework.
Look at past homework or examples done
What is cloud computing? What are the essential characteristics of cloud computing?
Model enabling on-demand network access to shared pool of configurable computing resources including servers, storage, and applications that can be rapidly personalized with minimum service provider interaction which have different factors including these characteristics: 1) On-Demand Self Service: A consumer can be provided with cloud computing without having any human interaction with the service provider at any time 2) Broad Network Access: Any device that is connected to the internet is able to use the cloud service and work on it for more collaboration 3) Resource Pooling: Multi-Tenancy Model because multiple people can share the same resources and Location Independence because user doesn't know where his data is being stored 4) Measured Service: The cloud computing usage can be measured throughout and monitored, reported, controlled, allowing both users transparency 5) Rapid Elasticity (Scalability): If you need more resources you can easily buy more with more customers or profit for a specific company There are pros and cons to adapting cloud service: 1) Benefits: More flexible, cheaper without buying expensive hardware and servers which is more scalable because you can increase at any time with more flexibility and access 2) Challenges: Dependent on another company for software and apps and how they are functioning, threat of security from data, IP address not specifically known, less customization options
What is NPV? Understand how to calculate NPV given an IT investment scenario.
Money right now is worth more in the future. NPV tells us the value of the same money in the future with the formula which is 12 x (1+0.08)^2 (how much it will be worth in 2 years) and also formula of 1 / (1+r)^2 (how much our current money will be worth if you go back 2 years). The r is the discount rate
How do online systems track customer behavior? Why do we say online systems would give organizations more insights than traditional transaction processing systems?
Online systems track customer behavior by making the customers create an account for data on their preferences, payment methods, and shipping address making it more efficient for the customer and seller. Traditional Transaction Processing Systems only track the amount of sells of each product and not to who. Because of this, online systems work better because they can add more analysis to the type of people buying a specific product and patterns in preferences for increased sells and marketing
What is PaaS? For this service model, what are the resources the cloud vendor will provide/manage and what are the resources the cloud user will have a control? What basic question is it essentially addressing for a cloud user? Know that Windows Azure, force.com, and Google app engine are all examples of PaaS vendor.
Platform as a Service (PasS) is when a company uses their own application or acquired application on a server's operating system throughout. by using the programming languages and tools provided by the provider. The customer does not manage the operating system, network, or storage but does have control over the applications. Examples of this would be force.com, Amazon, Windows, and Google App Engine that allow cloud service for applications. FB does not provide Paas because although it has cloud service to allow app developers it does not provide the hosting or processing power for the application
What is primary key? What is the difference between simple primary key and composite primary key? When given a table and certain assumptions, understand how to identify primary key.
Primary Key: An attribute or set of attributes that uniquely identifies each horizontal row from each other using SSN or Student ID or Employee Numbers which serve as unique identifiers for a specific record that is being looked for. There can be two types of primary keys: 1) Simple Primary Key: When an attribute vertical column can distinguish all the rows because the SSN is not the same for any (one value distinguishes) 2) Composite Primary Key: When you use multiple primary key columns because using one (SSN or Customer ID) will give you several rows so you distinguish each with more attributes or columns like "Date" and "Product" until none of the rows are completely equal when using primary keys
What is SQL?
Structured Query Language (SQL): A code language used for databases that retrieves information by running a query on the database from the requirements set. It is the international standard language for database requests and all major database products use this language. An example would be finding all the employees (Employee_ID, Name) that have a salary below $9,000 to retrieve a list of results.
Test will cover:
Textbook: 1) Chapter 3 (all sections) 2) Chapter 7 (all sections) 3) Chapter 14 (sections 6 to 13) 4) Chapter 15 (all sections) 5) Chapter 18 (all sections) Cases: 1) The San Diego City Schools: ERP Return on Investment 2) Keda 3) CVS 4) Google's Android
Where were the key strategies used by Keda in dealing with issues related to the "big bang" implementation approach?
The "Big Bang" implementation is when the new system is implemented in all sectors at the same time throughout which has characteristics: 1) Pros: Faster Implementation for Faster Profits, No need to process huge amounts of data twice when revising 2) Cons: High risk failure throughout and high training costs all at the same time Because Keda was doing a risky "Big Bang" implementation they chose to: 1) Implement during months with the least amounts of revenue because these are cold/slow seasons so there is less risk of losing money 2) Notifying senior management about any bugs or complications as soon as they happen to repair instead of allowing future mistakes with better communication 3) Adding incentives to those that took part in the implementation and firing those who were resistant to the ERP change
What is the "conventional wisdom" of fashion industry with respect to design? What counterintuitive actions has Zara taken? What are the roles played by IT for its product design, in terms of both the idea-gathering process and the idea implementation process?
The Conventional Wisdom of the Fashion Industry is the process in which firms look at fashion shows to create designs, have cheap labor in developing countries with very large quantities but long shipping times throughout and ethics issues with sweatshops and child labor. However, because manufacturing takes so much time, the clothes tend to be out of style and not trendy causing unsolved inventory. Zara changes this with IT by having manager send customer preferences to HQ and then rapidly produced in limited quantities with machines
Be able to list the major steps of ERP implementation process.
The ERP system included many steps but with proper planning were able to implement the system efficiently: 1) Identified Need: 2) Vendor Selection: 3) Process Redesign: 4) Implementation: 5) System Rollout:
Why did SDCS choose to implement a "human resource management" module as a starting point?
The district decided to implement a Human resource Management module instead of the whole ERP system because it involved less risks and costs and the Human Resources Head had implemented the same module at another district and Student Information System (SIS) only had 50% functionality so there were more risks involved
What are the key challenges faced by network operators in the mobile industry?
The main challenge faced by network operators including T Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and Sprint that have to pay extremely high investments on cell towers throughout and new interferences for better phones and speed. They later gain revenue by selling customer information and location to companies and advertisers along with sells of service
For the CVS case, what was the pharmacy fulfillment process when the case was written and what were the major problems? Why did the old process work well at some point in the past?
The pharmacy fulfillment process including different steps that all functioned together: Drop Off > Data Entry > DUR (Drug Utilization review) > Insurance Check > Production > Quality Insurance > Pick-Up However, there were many problems with the fulfillment process: 1) Many of the steps of the process had unexpected complications including the DUR (20% of prescriptions) and Insurance Check (17%) 2) Problem Identification occurs too late usually when customers arrive to pick up with long wait times and find out their medication is not covered by insurance and have to pay more with angry customers These problems with the fulfillment process were less apparent because there were lower volumes of prescriptions, regulations, and insurance policies which have all grown throughout
Be able to list the three value disciplines and list example firms that focus on each value discipline and discuss why.
The three value disciplines were made that a company can focus on one specific discipline to be most successful throughout and distinguish themselves from competitiors: 1) Operational Excellence: Zara, Walmart and FreshDirect all have operations and supply chains that are very efficient with the use of advanced technology 2) Product Leadership: Apple and Intel are always trying to be more innovative with their products and seclude themselves from competitors with their innovative designs people like 3) Customer Intimacy: Companies like FreshDirect and Amazon that collect the data of customer's history and background to offer the best recommendations and products to be customized
Understand the meaning of Comparison operators, Boolean operators (AND, OR), BETWEEN... AND..., In (... , ...) operators.
There are different operators that assist with queries (requests) for SQL: 1) Comparison Operators: = , >= , < , != 2) Boolean Operators: AND, OR, NOT, BETWEEN _____ AND _____ , IN (_____,______) Comparison Operator Query: Find employees (id, names) that work in the Marketing department WHERE Dept = "Mktg" Boolean Operator Query: Find employees that work in the Sales department and have salary greater or equal to $60k WHERE Dept = "Sales" AND Salary > 60000
What is the difference between Zara's supply chain and the conventional supply chain in fashion industry? What are the roles played by IT for Zara's manufacturing and logistics?
There are many different processes that Zara uses that distinguish the firm through vertical integration: 1) Product Design: Has point-of-scale system that ranks clothing by sales, Personal Digital Assistant that send customer input to headquarters (IT), hiring young designers for designs sent online (IT) 2) Manufacturing: Technology-enabled manufacturing by robots mainly produced by Zara themselves and producing limited quantities (IT) to specific locations with demand
What are the major participants in the mobile industry?
There are many participants in the mobile industry that interact with one another: 1) Network Operators/Carriers: T Mobile, Sprint, Verizon Wireless 2) Handset Manufacturers & OS Providers: Apple, Samsung, HTC 3) Content & Application Providers: Apple, Google, Youtube, Netflix
What is the rationale for Zara to offer most products in limited run?
There are many reasons for limited production done by Zara throughout: 1) Create a feeling of exclusive clothes because there is such limited supply 2) Encourage customers to buy right away at full price because it won't be there in future 3) Encourage customers to visit more often to find better clothes 4) Reduce the risk of mistakes to 1% failed products and unsold inventor y
Be able to list at least three major reasons on why companies often fail their IT implementation.
There are many reasons why IT implementation of ERP software tend to fail for large companies: 1) Resistance to Change 2) Lack of Sponsorship from Others 3) Unrealistic Expectations 4) Poor Project Management 5) Change not Compelling 6) Project Team Lacked Skills 7) No Change in Management Program
Suppose now your company wants to adopt an enterprise software application (e.g., CRM, ERP) and you have two options - buying some packaged enterprise software or using software-as-a-service model (i.e. getting on-demand enterprise software). What are the benefits of buying the packaged one and what are the benefits of getting the on-demand one? Understand how the size of your organization affects your choice.
There are pros and cons to adapting cloud service: 1) Cloud Computing: More flexible, cheaper without buying expensive hardware and servers which is more scalable because you can increase at any time with more flexibility and access 2) Packaged ERP: More customization for the company with no continuous costs and integration of different sectors. A smaller company will tend to rent cloud service because there are less needs with less number of customers that can be bought every month compared to large companies that will invest money to stop paying very high costs every month.
Know the order of SELECT, FROM, WHERE in SQL statement
There are specific parts to SQL (Standard Query Language) which uses different parts in order to find a query which can be "Find employees (id,name) that have salary below $59,000": 1) SELECT: Emp_id, Last_name, Firs_name (columns or keys being evaluated) 2) FROM: EMPLOYEE_INFO (the name of the table that is being seen) 3) WHERE: Salary (column key) < 59000
How did you make decisions on whether to adopt the "off-the-shelf" solution or "fully customized" solution? What decision did Keda make and why?
There are two different types of ERP Softwares with specific characteristics and Keda decided to do Off-The-Shelf Implementatio : 1) Off-the-Shelf: ERP software that is already packaged and not as customizable that tends to be much cheaper and faster to implement into a company 2) Fully Customized Solution: This ERP software is much more customizable to work better for a company and is much more expensive and takes more time to implement Keda decided to implement an off-the-shelf ERP system from SAP because having an off-the-shelf ERP system allowed for a faster transition and cheaper pricing.
In terms of the measurement of online advertising, what is PPC? What is PPA? What is PPM? Understand the difference between the three measures.
There has been improved measurement with advertisements through these factors: 1) Pay per Click (PPC): How often users click on the ad once shown the ad paid through PPC as the Click Through Rate 2) Pay per Impressions (PPM): The number of times an ad is shown on the website throughout 3) Pay per Action (PPA): Paying based on the activity of the customer once they are on the landing page and whether or not they buy the product
How does Google's search engine work? When you perform a search via Google, do you actually search over the Web?
There is a google query with keywords and then is sent to google servers then index servers and then doc servers and then back to google. Meaning that you don't actually search the entire web but just google servers throughout
Where were the benefits of leveraging key users in designing and implementation process?
There were three main roles: the key users, the consultants, and the IT officers. The key users were at the core, the consultants acted as coaches, and the IT officers provided task support to users and consultants. Success or failure hinged on the key users, since they dictated the future workflow and also had the best understanding of specific sectors of the company
Based on the SDCS case, what are the intangible benefits from the ERP investment? Understand the importance of incorporating intangible benefits (including productivity increase and soft benefits) into investment on return analysis.
There would be cost savings from staff reductions, reduced overtime, less printing costs and processing errors along with more productivity. However, there were intangible benefits that were difficult to value/measure including improved employee morale and productivity, improved recruiting efforts, and improved management access to critical data
What is relational database? Understand the meaning of the following terms in relational database context: records, attributes, fields. What are the requirements for a table in relational database?
When a database has many tables that are related through common keys to avoid repetition. There are different terms for a relational database that include: 1) Records: Are the rows that show the data horizontally that must all be different from one another with a defining feature for each 2) Attributes or Fields: Are the vertical columns that must have unique names and each include different characteristics or details about records 3) Table: A collection of information or data that must have a unique name to identify from other tables and can be connected through key fields
What is SaaS? For this service model, what are the resources the cloud vendor will provide/manage? What basic question is it essentially addressing for a cloud user? Know that the cloud user will usually not manage or control the cloud infrastructure, operating systems, and even individual application capabilities, with the possible exception of limited user-specific configuration settings.
When customer uses the provider's application on their own computer through a thin client interface like a web browser. The customer does not control the cloud infrastructure, network, servers, operating system, storage, or even the application with only limited user-specific application settings. Examples of this cloud service would be Email through gmail or Google apps including Google Docs/Sheets and Amazon Cloud Player for Videos or even ERP software provided online by Microsoft and salesforce.com
