Unit 6: Business Computer Applications

What is the main difference between merchant service providers (ISOs) and merchant service aggregators?

Aggregators work with banks to let small businesses accept credit cards.

Marketing manager Zia needs to know if increasing the firm's social media advertising budget will result in a higher return-on-investment. She uses a decision support system (DSS) to determine how much of a budget increase is needed to achieve a targeted sales increase. Later, if actual sales data do not match the DSS determination, Zia will rely on the system to adjust its recommendations. What does this example demonstrate?

DSS is a form of artificial intelligence.

Creating efficiencies by ensuring that nearly all aspects of the firm's operations coordinate with each other is why many corporations integrate a SCM system with their

ERP system.

True or false? A business intelligence (BI) system's interface allows the user to choose, based on its business goals, which decisions the system will support. In this respect, a BI system can be said to have artificial intelligence.

False A business intelligence system (BI) typically adapts its processes based on the success of every prior decision, which is how artificial intelligence works.

Who are some of the major suppliers of supply chain management software? More than one answer may be correct. Oracle (Fusion) SAP Blue Yonder Rovio

Oracle (Fusion) SAP Blue Yonder

Which company was formed after Elon Musk's X.com and Peter Thiel's Confinity Inc. merged, when the software that allowed Palm Pilot users to transfer funds to each other had evolved to allow payment transfers over the Internet?

PayPal

Which of the following are manufacturers of enterprise resource planning system software? More than one answer may be selected. Sage Group Microsoft Oracle Adobe

Sage Group Microsoft Oracle

Who are well-known manufacturers of customer relationship management software? More than one answer may be correct. Salesforce HubSpot Freshsales Electronic Arts

Salesforce HubSpot Freshsales

Which company sells an inexpensive "Stand" point-of-sale terminal that combines an iPad, a cash drawer, a thermal printer, and a chip/swipe/contactless reader?

Square

Which company was formed by Jack Dorsey, cofounder and CEO of Twitter, to provide small business owners with aggregator services and a credit card payment system they could operate through their iPhones?

Square

Which business software company develops software known to integrate well with existing apps, competes in the same environment as PayPal, and had both Elon Musk and Peter Thiel as early investors?

Stripe

How can picturing a long series of "if-then" statements best explain how the model of a decision support system works?

The DSS model adapts its processes based on the success of every prior decision.

An executive notices that while the company is on track to meet its sales goal for the year, it is not on track to make their bottom line number. How could she use the information provided in the EIS dashboard to figure out where the problem is? More than one answer may be selected. The executive could drill down into specific areas of the organization to see where spending is higher than budgeted for. The executive could view the graphs to quickly see which departments are underperforming. The executive could annotate information on the dashboard, requesting more information from subordinates who work in those departments. The executive could see how similar, competitive businesses were on track to meet their numbers.

The executive could drill down into specific areas of the organization to see where spending is higher than budgeted for. The executive could view the graphs to quickly see which departments are underperforming. The executive could annotate information on the dashboard, requesting more information from subordinates who work in those departments.

Computer application systems that seek to help firms track existing customers and target future customers are customer relationship management systems.

True

True or False? Oracle's NetSuite software is an example of executive information systems applications that focus on manufacturing operations management.

True

True or False? PayPal changed its name from X.com after surveys indicated that many consumers thought X.com referred to a pornographic site.

True

List the way/s supply chain management (SCM) software can be offered. More than one answer may be correct. as a stand-alone application cloud-based delivery on-premise, user-hosted individually licensed

as a stand-alone application cloud-based delivery on-premise, user-hosted

Accepting payment to complete a transaction is called "ringing up a sale" because whenever the till was opened on a(n) ________, a bell would be struck.

cash register

Which of the following has made enterprise resource planning system software available for smaller businesses? More than one answer may be selected. cloud-based systems offered by large, well-known software companies the ability to scale the size of a system to meet the need of any company the declining prices on the hardware needed to run an ERP volume discounts available to companies that purchase all of their planning systems software from one vendor

cloud-based systems offered by large, well-known software companies the ability to scale the size of a system to meet the need of any company

The element of the supply chain management system that may include payment and demand management, customer service management, and returns management is

customer relationship management element.

Which business computer application system combines information regarding the customer's buying habits with other data such as contact information so that the management team can better anticipate customer preferences and needs?

customer relationship management system

It is far less expensive to retain an existing customer than it is to acquire a new customer. This is the concept behind the use of which business computer application systems?

customer relationship management systems

Providing visibility means that the user interface of any SCM remains a critical component. Typically, a user interface comes in the form of a

dashboard.

Recommendations can be made with DDS software using artificial intelligence (AI) because

each process advances according to the accuracy of the previous one.

The methodology for making decisions in a decision support system (DSS) is known as its

model.

Which major category of executive information system application would focus on the process a software company used to launch a new application?

operations management

Of the following business computer applications, which one offers the manager a single dashboard that integrates reports from multiple logistics software products?

supply chain management (SCM) application

A logistician for an oil company receives an alert from the software she uses that a supertanker has been delayed. In addition, she receives a choice of reasonable actions to take. What software is she likely using?

supply chain management software

What piece of the executive information system has become more vital as organizations have become increasingly geographically dispersed?

the communications element

Explain why managers use customer relationship management systems. More than one answer may be correct. to target profitable customers to customize marketing messaging to improve pricing decisions to speed the supply chain

to target profitable customers to customize marketing messaging to improve pricing decisions

Because it determines which decisions are implemented, the ________ of the DSS is arguably its most important component.

user interface