Information Systems Test #2

Geographic Information Systems

A computer-based system for capturing, integrating, manipulating, and displaying data using digitized maps.

Hyperlink

A connection from a hypertext file or document to another location or file, typically activated by clicking on a highlighted word or image on the screen, or by touching the screen.

Drill Down

The ability to go to details, at several levels; it can be done by a series of menus or by clicking on a drillable portion of the screen.

HTTP

The communications standard used to transfer pages across the WWW portion of the Internet; defines how messages are formulated and transmitted.

Browsers

Software applications through which users primarily access the Web.

A _______ is a segment of computer code that spreads by itself and performs malicious actions without requiring another computer program.

Worm

Organizations are now able to combine and analyze structured and unstructured data from many sources in the form of Big Data. At this point, organizations integrate and

"clean" these data into data marts and data warehouses (see Chapter 3) through a process called extract, transform, and load (ETL). The data in the data warehouse are now available to be analyzed by a variety of analytics tools and techniques.

Data mining can perform two basic operations:

(1) predicting trends and behaviors and (2) identifying previously unknown patterns.

The absence of consistent or uniform standards for privacy and security obstructs the flow of information among countries

(transborder data flows).

The TCP performs three basic functions:

1) It manages the movement of data packets (see below) between computers by establishing a connection between the computers (2) it sequences the transfer of packets (3) it acknowledges the packets that have been transmitted.

Three fundamental points of network computing:

1. Computers do not work in isolation. (Rather, they constantly exchange data with one another). 2. This exchange of data provides companies with a number of very significant advantages. 3. This exchange can take place over any distance and over networks of any size.

5 Steps of General Ethical Framework:

1. Recognize the issue 2. Get the facts 3. Evaluate alternative options 4. Make a decision and test it 5. Act and reflect on the outcome of your decision

Privacy can be interpreted quite broadly. However, court decisions in many countries have followed two rules fairly closely:

1.) The right of privacy is not absolute. Privacy must be balanced against the needs of society. 2.) The public's right to know supersedes the individual's right of privacy.

Three types of Peer-to-peer processing:

1.The first type accesses unused CPU power among networked computers. An application of this type is SETI@home. 2. Real-time, person-to-person collaboration, such as Microsoft SharePoint Workspace 3. Advanced search and file sharing. This category is characterized by natural language searches of millions of peer systems.

To reach 80 percent of the world's Internet users, a Web site needs to support a minimum of

10 languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, German, Korean, French, Italian, Russian, and Portuguese.

Computing processing power doubles roughly every

18 months.

Only (blank) percent of U.S. households rely exclusively on a landline telephone

8%

Affinity Portal

A Web site that offers a single point of entry to an entire community of affiliated interests. Such as a hobby group or a political party.

Commercial (Public) Portal

A Web site that offers fairly routine content for diverse audiences; offers customization only at the user interface. It is intended for broad and diverse audiences, and it offers routine content, some of it in real time (e.g., a stock ticker).

Corporate Portal

A Web site that provides a single point of access to critical business information located inside and outside of an organization. Also known as enterprise portals, information portals, and enterprise information portals. In addition to making it easier to find needed information, corporate portals offer customers and employees self-service opportunities.

Industrywide Portal

A Web-based gateway to information and knowledge for an entire industry. Ex. www.truck.net

Portal

A Web-based, personalized gateway to information and knowledge that provides relevant information from different IT systems and the Internet using advanced search and indexing techniques.

Code of Ethics

A collection of principles intended to guide decision making by members of an organization. Ex. Association for Computing Machinery

Ethernet

A common local area network protocol.

Responsibility

A tenet of ethics in which you accept the consequences of your decisions and actions.

Accountability

A tenet of ethics that refers to determining who is responsible for actions that were taken.

Chat Room

A virtual meeting place where groups of regulars come to "gab" electronically.

The Internet grew out of an experimental project of the

Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense. The project began in 1969 as the ARPAnet. Its purpose was to test the feasibility of a WAN over which researchers, educators, military personnel, and government agencies could share data, exchange messages, and transfer files.

Presentation Tools

After applying BA models, the results are presented to users in visual formats such as text, graphics, and tables. This process, known as data visualization, makes IT applications more attractive and understandable to users.

Internet Protocol (IP) Address

An assigned address that uniquely identifies a computer on the Internet. The IP address consists of sets of numbers, in four parts, separated by dots. For example, the IP address of one computer might be 135.62.128.91. The two IP address schemes are IPv4 and IPv6

Digital Dossier

An electronic profile of you and your habits.

Software-defined networks (SDN)

An emerging technology that is becoming increasingly important to help organizations manage their data flows across their enterprise networks.

Blog

An informal, personal journal that is frequently updated and is intended for general public reading.

Privacy Policies (or Privacy Codes)

An organization's guidelines for protecting the privacy of its customers, clients, and employees.

What-If Analysis

Attempts to predict the impact of changes in the assumptions (input data) on the proposed solution.

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Attendance is critical to the success of zoos. Therefore, Point Defiance partnered with IBM (www.ibm.com) and analytics firm BrightStar Partners (www.brightstarpartners.com). The zoo compared its attendance records for the past several years with historical weather data collected by the National Weather Service (www.weather.gov). Now, for any given weekend, the zoo can estimate attendance with an impressive amount of accuracy. The zoo uses these predictions to flexibly schedule its staffing. How effective is this system? For Memorial Day 2014, the projected attendance was within 113 people of the actual attendance—that is pretty accurate. The analytics software doesn't just use weather data—it collects information on zoo guests to help target its marketing campaigns. For example, the system analyzed the zip codes of the most regular patrons and targeted membership discounts to them, which boosted membership by 13 percent in the first three months of 2014. Point Defiance sold $60,000 worth of memberships by spending just $4,000. Point Defiance also analyzed data about online ticket sales and found that many people bought tickets in the evenings and mornings when they weren't at work. As a result, the zoo implemented time-limited deals, which helped boost its online ticket sales by 771 percent since 2013. Even in-person ticket sales got a boost, setting records during the same time period.

The leading search engine in China is

Baidu.

Introduction

Be Introduced

Example of peer-to-peer file-sharing

BitTorrent

Surfing

Browsers provide a graphical front end that enables users to point-and-click their way across the Web.

Chapter 5

Business Analytics

Section 5.4

Business Analytics Models: Descriptive Analytics, Predictive Analytics, and Prescriptive Analytics

Section 5.3

Business Analytics Tools

Decision Support Systems

Business intelligence systems that combine models and data in an attempt to solve semistructured and some unstructured problems with extensive user involvement.

Communications Channels are comprised of two types of media:

Cable (twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable, or fiber-optic cable) Broadcast (microwave, satellite, radio, or infrared)

Web site

Collectively, all of the Web pages of a particular company or individual.

Unified Communications

Common hardware and software platform that simplifies and integrates all forms of communications—voice, e-mail, instant messaging, location, and videoconferencing—across an organization.

Broadcast Media (or Wireless Media)

Communications channels that use electromagnetic media (the "airwaves") to transmit data.

Data Confidentiality

Computer security procedures should be implemented to ensure against unauthorized disclosure of data. These procedures should include physical, technical, and administrative security measures. Third parties should not be given access to data without the individual's knowledge or permission, except as required by law. Disclosures of data, other than the most routine, should be noted and maintained for as long as the data are maintained. Data should not be disclosed for reasons incompatible with the business objective for which they are collected.

Network Access Points

Computers that act as exchange points for Internet traffic and determine how traffic is routed.

Servers

Computers that provide access to various network services, such as printing, data, and communications.

________________ are companies that collect public data and nonpublic data and integrate them to produce digital dossiers.

Data Aggregators

Data Collection

Data should be collected on individuals only for the purpose of accomplishing a legitimate business objective. Data should be adequate, relevant, and not excessive in relation to the business objective. Individuals must give their consent before data pertaining to them can be gathered. Such consent may be implied from the individual's actions (e.g., applications for credit, insurance, or employment).

DSSs stands for?

Decision Support Systems

Disadvantages of Fiber-optic Cable

Difficult to work with (difficult to splice)

_____ signals convey information in binary form, whereas _____ signals convey information in wave form.

Digital, analog

There are several concerns about the information you provide to these record keepers. Some of the major concerns are as follows:

Do you know where the records are? Are the records accurate? Can you change inaccurate data? How long will it take to make a change? Under what circumstances will the personal data be released? How are the data used? To whom are the data given or sold? How secure are the data against access by unauthorized people?

The Capabilities of Dashboards

Drill Down Critical Success Factors (CSFs) Key Performance Indicators Status Access Trend Analysis Exception Reporting

Collaboration

Efforts by two or more entities—that is, individuals, teams, groups, or organizations—who work together to accomplish certain tasks.

Types of Electronic Communication

Electronic Mail Web-Based Call Centers Electronic Chat Rooms Voice Communication Unified Communications Telecommuting

Presence services

Enable users to know where their intended recipients are and if they are available, in real time.

The two major protocols:

Ethernet Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.

Most LANs today use

Ethernet. A connecting cable that links all of the computers in the network to one another.

Section 6.1

Ethical Issues

Chapter 6

Ethics and Privacy

Types of Network Processing

FUN.

Privacy is an absolute right in the United States. True/False?

False

What is unethical is illegal. True or False?

False

Why Computer Networks are Essential to Modern Organizations:

First, networked computer systems enable organizations to become more flexible so that they can adapt to rapidly changing business conditions. Second, networks allow companies to share hardware, computer applications, and data across the organization and among different organizations. Third, networks make it possible for geographically dispersed employees and workgroups to share documents, ideas, and creative insights.

Some of the U.S. companies are moving their call center operations back to the United States, for several reasons.

First, they believe they have less control of their operations when the centers are located overseas. They must depend on the vendor company to uphold their standards, such as quality of service. A second difficulty is language differences, which can create serious communication problems. Third, companies that manage sensitive information risk breaching customer confidentiality and security. Finally, the call center representatives typically work with many companies. As a result, they may not deliver the same level of customer services that each company requires.

Telecommuting offers a number of potential advantages for employees, employers, and society.

For employees, the benefits include reduced stress and improved family life. In addition, telecommuting offers employment opportunities for housebound people such as single parents and persons with disabilities. Benefits for employers include increased productivity, the ability to retain skilled employees, and the ability to attract employees who do not live within commuting distance.

Client/Server Computing

Form of distributed processing in which some machines (servers) perform computing functions for end-user PCs (clients).

What does GUI stand for?

Graphical User Interface

Harrah's Entertainment (a brand of Caesars Entertainment; www.caesars.com) provides a good example of this analytics target.

Harrah's developed a customer loyalty program known as Total Rewards. To implement the program, Harrah's created a data warehouse that integrated data from casino, hotel, and special event systems (e.g., wine-tasting weekends) across all the various customer touchpoints (e.g., slot machines, table games, and Internet).

Backbone Networks

High-speed central networks to which multiple smaller networks (e.g., LANs and smaller WANs) connect.

Advantages of Coaxial Cable

Higher Bandwidth than twister-pair. Less susceptible to electromagnetic interference.

Which of the following would be a particularly strong password from a human hacking standpoint?

HoSP4P42!

"Which of the following represent the most dangerous employees, from a security standpoint?"

Human Resources and IT

HTTP Stand for?

Hypertext Transport Protocol

The European Union (EU), for one, has taken steps to overcome this problem.

In 1998 the European Community Commission (ECC) issued guidelines to all of its member countries regarding the rights of individuals to access information about themselves. The EU data protection laws are stricter than the U.S. laws and therefore could create problems for the U.S.-based multinational corporations, which could face lawsuits for privacy violations.

Advantages of Twisted-Pair Wire

Inexpensive Widely Available Easy to Work With

Coaxial Cable

Insulated copper wire; used to carry high-speed data traffic and television signals.

Economist Herbert Simon (1977)2 described decision making as composed of three major phases:

Intelligence Design Choice

Embedded LANs

LANs that connect to the backbone WAN.

WANs typically connect multiple

LANs. They are also generally provided by common carriers. Ex. AT&T, Telekom, NTT Communications

Fat Clients

Large storage and processing power and therefore can run local programs (such as Microsoft Office) if the network goes down.

Opening Case

Large telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Verizon Communications want to get rid of their twisted-pair copper wire networks and to replace them with Internet Protocol (IP) systems that will use the same wired and wireless broadband networks that provide Internet access, cable television, and telephone service to your home.

Section 5.1

Managers and Decision Making

Thin Clients

May have no local storage and only limited processing power. Thus, they must depend on the network to run applications. For this reason, they are of little value when the network is not functioning.

Cable Modems

Modems that operate over coaxial cable—for example, cable TV.

Communications and Media Channels

More to know.

ISPs connect to one another through

NAPs.

Virtual Universities

Online universities in which students take classes via the Internet either at home or in an off-site location.

The three categories of Nature of Decisions:

Operational control: Executing specific tasks efficiently and effectively Management control: Acquiring and using resources efficiently in accomplishing organizational goals Strategic planning: The long-range goals and policies for growth and resource allocation

Landlines give emergency operators immediate access to you location, while wireless networks do not.

Operators can respond more effectively to emergency calls from POTS networks than to calls from IP networks.

Communications Channel

Pathway for communicating data from one location to another.

(Blank) are the next step in data reduction.

Predictive Analytics

Section 6.2

Privacy

Ethical Issues of expanding IT (4):

Privacy Issues Accuracy Issues Property Issues Accessibility Issues

The BA Process

Problems - Data Management - Analytics Tools and Technologies - Analytics Models - Presentation Tools - Actionable Business Decisions

Automatic Translation

Products that translate language off of the internet and web pages.

Opt-in Model

Prohibits an organization from collecting any personal information unless the customer specifically authorizes it.

Workgroup

Refers specifically to two or more individuals who act together to perform some task.

MANs

Relatively large computer networks that cover a metropolitan area. MANs fall between LANs and WANs in size.

Exception Reporting

Reports highlight deviations larger than certain thresholds. Reports may include only deviations.

Goal-Seeking Analysis

Represents a "backward" solution approach. Goal seeking attempts to calculate the value of the inputs necessary to achieve a desired level of output.

Fundamental tenets of ethics include:

Responsibility Accountability Liability

Accessibility Issues

Revolve around who should have access to information and whether they should pay a fee for this access.

Data Accuracy

Sensitive data gathered on individuals should be verified before they are entered into the database. Data should be kept current, where and when necessary. The file should be made available so that the individual can ensure that the data are correct. In any disagreement about the accuracy of the data, the individual's version should be noted and included with any disclosure of the file.

Other examples of predictive analytics include understanding how sales might close at the end of the year, predicting what items customers will purchase together, and forecasting inventory levels based on a large number of variables.

Sentiment analysis is another type of predictive analysis. The input to this type of model is plain text (e.g., ratings, recommendations, tweets, Facebook posts) and the output of the model is a sentiment score. This score can be positive or negative. This score could also be a number between −1 and +1, indicating the degree of positivity or negativity.

Trend Analysis

Short-, medium-, and long-term trend of KPIs or metrics, which are projected using forecasting methods.

PANs

Short-range networks—typically a few meters—that are used for communication among devices close to one person. They can be wired or wireless.

Models

Simplified representations, or abstractions, of reality.

Disadvantages of Twisted-Pair Wire

Slow (low bandwidth) Subject to interference Easily Tapped (low Security)

What does SDN Stand for?

Software-defined networks (SDN)

PEQ 10

Take it

PEQ 11

Take it

PEQ 7

Take it

PEQ 9

Take it

Chapter 4

Telecommunications and Networking

Hypertext

Text displayed on a computer display with references, called hyperlinks, to other text that the reader can immediately access.

Section 5.2

The Business Analytics Process

In general, there are three specific analytics targets that represent different levels of change:

The Development of One or a Few Related Analytics Applications The Development of Infrastructure to Support Enterprisewide Analytics Support for Organizational Transformation.

Many people equate the Internet with the World Wide Web. However, they are not the same thing.

The Internet functions as a transport mechanism, whereas the World Wide Web is an application that uses those transport functions.

Critical Success Factors

The factors most critical for the success of business. These can be organizational, industry, departmental, or for individual workers.

There are two major types of chat programs:

The first type is Web based, which allows you to send messages to Internet users by using a Web browser and visiting a Web chat site. The second type is e-mail based (text only); it is called Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

Domain Name System (DNS)

The system administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names (ICANN) that assigns names to each site on the Internet.

Broadband

The transmission capacity of a communication medium faster than 4 Mbps. As defined by the FFC: The transmission capacity of a communications medium (discussed later in this chapter) faster than 25 megabits per second (Mbps) for download (transmission speed for material coming to you from an Internet server, such as a movie streamed from Netflix) and 4 Mbps for upload (transmission speed for material that you upload to an Internet server such as a Facebook post). The definition continues and will continue to change.

Bandwidth

The transmission capacity of a network, stated in bits per second.

Packet Switching

The transmission technology that breaks up blocks of text into packets.

Virtual Collaboration (E-Collaboration)

The use of digital technologies that enable organizations or individuals who are geographically dispersed to collaboratively plan, design, develop, manage, and research products, services, and innovative applications.

Teleconferencing

The use of electronic communication technology that enables two or more people at different locations to hold a conference.

Internet Telephony (VOIP)

The use of the Internet as the transmission medium for telephone calls.

"The World Wide Web is a system with universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information via a client/server architecture" True or False

True

A hot site is a fully functional back up computer facility. True or False?

True

Packet-switching involves breaking a message into parts and sending those parts, or "packets" through different routes on a network. True/False?

True

Social engineering is an attack using social skills to trick a person into giving out sensitive information. True or False?

True

TCP/IP represents the set of communication protocols for the Internet. True/False?

True

What is unethical is not necessarily illegal. True/False?

True

XML makes it easier to exchange data among applications. True or False

True

No central agency manages the Internet. True or False?

True The costs of its operation are shared among hundreds of thousands of nodes.

POTS

Twisted-pair copper wire networks.

In addition, two-thirds use software to block connections to inappropriate Web sites, a practice called

URL Filtering.

What does UTP Stand for?

Unshielded Twisted-Pair Wire.

Advantages of Fiber-optic cable

Very high bandwidth Relatively inexpensive Difficult to tap (Good Security)

What does VOIP stand for?

Voice of Internet Protocol

The internet is an example of a

WAN

Web-based Call Centers (Customer Care Centers)

Web-based customer support.

Blog stands for

Weblog

Section 4.1

What is a Computer Network

Each packet travels independently across the network and can be routed through different paths in the network.

When the packets reach their destination, they are reassembled into the original message.

Decision

a choice among two or more alternatives that individuals and groups make.

World Wide Web (The Web, WWW, or W3)

a system of universally accepted standards for storing, retrieving, formatting, and displaying information via a client/server architecture. The Web handles all types of digital information, including text, hypermedia, graphics, and sound.

In essence, BA achieves this goal. Business analytics systems provide

actionable business results that decision makers can act on in a timely fashion.

Prescriptive analytics requires a predictive model with two additional components:

actionable data and a feedback system that tracks the outcome produced by the action taken.

Most Universities use a(n) (blank) portal for their alumni.

affinity

Early information systems primarily supported the informational roles. In recent years, however, information systems have been developed that support

all three roles.

version-control systems provide each team member with

an account that includes a set of permissions.

Electronic chat

an arrangement whereby participants exchange conversational messages in real time

The U.S. public telephone system (called the plain old telephone system or POTS) was originally designed as an

analog network.

The Web is truly democratic in that

anyone can post information to it.

Business analytics encompasses not only

applications, but also technologies and processes. It includes both "getting data in" (to a data mart or warehouse) and "getting data out" (through BA applications).

crowds can explore problems—and often resolve them—

at relatively low cost, and often very quickly. Second, the organization can tap a wider range of talent than might be present among its employees. Third, by listening to the crowd, organizations gain firsthand insight into their customers' desires. Finally, crowdsourcing taps into the global world of ideas, helping companies work through a rapid design process. Let's look at some examples of crowdsourcing.

DSL (Digitial Subscriber lines) and Cable to your homes and dorms are both forms of

broadband connections.

Note that in most cases the purpose of data mining is to identify a

business opportunity in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage.

Products that provide version management track

changes to documents and provide features to accommodate multiple people working on the same document at the same time.

Every day we see more and more electronic bulletin boards, newsgroups, electronic discussions such as

chat rooms, and social networking sites. These sites appear on the Internet, within corporate intranets, and on blogs.

What are the four types of portals?

commercial affinity corporate industrywide.

What is the most popular type of portal?

commercial (public) portal Ex. Lycos.com, MSN.com

Webcrawlers

computer programs that browse the Web and create a copy of all visited pages. Search engines then index these pages to provide fast searches.

To actually begin the BA process, an organization must have

data (and lots of it!).

In a structured decision, the first three phases of the decision process—intelligence, design, and choice—are laid out in a particular sequence, and the procedures for obtaining the best (or at least a good enough) solution are known. These types of decisions are candidates for

decision automation.

In the design phase,

decision makers construct a model for addressing the situation. They perform this task by making assumptions that simplify reality and by expressing the relationships among all of the relevant variables. Managers then validate the model by using test data. Finally, decision makers set criteria for evaluating all of the potential solutions that are proposed.

This chapter describes information systems (ISs) that support decision making. Essentially all organizational information systems support

decision making.

Organizations can apply analytics tools and techniques to data in the form of three possible analytics models:

descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics.

Descriptive analytics are the first step in data reduction. Industry analysts estimate that the majority of business analytics are

descriptive. Common examples of descriptive analytics are reports that provide historical insights regarding an organization's production, financials, operations, sales, finance, inventory, and customers.

Analog signals were converted into digital information via

dial-up modems, which are virtually extinct today.

Today, computer networks communicate via

digital signals

E-learning is not the same as

distance learning, but they do overlap.

The biggest disadvantage of conference calls is that they

do not allow the participants to communicate face to face nor can they see graphs, charts, and pictures at other locations.

The amount of information on the Web can be overwhelming, and it

doubles approximately each year.

The fourth major category of network applications consists of

education applications.

All of the good privacy intentions in the world are useless unless they are supported and enforced by

effective security measures.

Electronic surveillance is conducted by

employers, the government, and other institutions.

Predictive analytics provide

estimates of the likelihood of future outcomes.

A common LAN protocol is the

ethernet.

Sensitivity Analysis

examines how sensitive an output is to any change in an input while keeping other inputs constant. Sensitivity analysis is valuable because it enables the system to adapt to changing conditions and to the varying requirements of different decision-making situations.

Web-based call centers are sometimes located in

foreign countries such as India. Such offshoring is an important issue for the U.S. companies.

In addition, a significant change is taking place within the BA environment. In the past, organizations used BA only to support management. Today, however, BA applications are increasingly available to

front-line personnel (e.g., call center operators), suppliers, customers, and even regulators. These groups rely on BA to provide them with the most current information.

Sarbanes-Oxley requires publicly held companies to

implement financial controls and company executives to personally certify financial reports.

Once the choice is made, the decision is

implemented

As the carriers' revenues decrease due to the falling number of POTS subscribers, the costs of maintaining the old POTS network are

increasing. Landlines are becoming less and less profitable.

Privacy rights apply to

individuals, groups, and institutions. The right to privacy is recognized today in all the U.S. states and by the federal government, either by statute or in common law.

The decision-making process starts with the intelligence phase, in which

managers examine a situation and then identify and define the problem or opportunity.

Collaboration can be synchronous

meaning that all team members meet at the same time.

Before we begin our discussion of the BA process, let's emphasize the importance of the technologies that enable the entire process (see Figure 5.3). These technologies, all of which are improving exponentially, include

microprocessors, storage, and networks.

The purpose of predictive analytics is not to tell decision makers what will happen in the future. Predictive analytics can only forecast what

might happen in the future, because predictive analytics are based on probabilities.

Emerging technologies such as low-cost digital cameras, motion sensors, and biometric readers are helping to increase the

monitoring of human activity. In addition, the costs of storing and using digital data are rapidly decreasing. The result is an explosion of sensor data collection and storage.

Dashboards are the

most common BA presentation tool.

WANs have large capacity and they typically combine

multiple channels. (e.g., fiber-optic cables, microwave, and satellite)

Predictive analytics does not predict one possible future, but rather

multiple future outcomes based on the decision maker's actions. Prescriptive analytics attempt to quantify the effect of future decisions in order to advise on possible outcomes before the decisions are actually made.

Every device in the LAN has a

network interface card (NIC) that allows the device to physically connect to the LAN's communications medium.

Distributed Processing is a type of processing

network.

Privacy advocates prefer the

opt-in model of informed consent.

Many organizations give their customers some voice in how their information is used by providing them with

opt-out choices.

Before data are transmitted over the Internet, they are divided into small, fixed bundles called

packets.

The entire BA process begins with a business problem, known as

pain points to practicing managers.

Videoconferencing

participants in one location can view participants, documents, and presentations at other locations.

Google and Facebook encourage users to assign names to people in photos, a practice referred to as

photo tagging.

One solution to information overload is to use

portals.

POTS does not require

power for landline phones to work. This advantage is critical in the event of a natural disaster.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), tracking people's activities with the aid of information technology has become a major

privacy related problem.

Various types of decisions can be placed along two major dimensions:

problem structure and the nature of the decision. (See figure 5.2 for examples)

A manager's success often is measured by the

ratio between the inputs and outputs for which he or she is responsible. This ratio is an indication of the organization's productivity.

In fact, it is not an exaggeration to assert that for many firms, BA is now a

requirement for competing in the marketplace.

the essential goal of information systems is to provide the

right information to the right person, in the right amount, at the right time, in the right format.

WANs also contain

routers.

The choice phase involves

selecting a solution or course of action that seems best suited to resolve the problem. This solution (the decision) is then implemented. Implementation is successful if the proposed solution solves the problem or seizes the opportunity. If the solution fails, then the process returns to the previous phases.

Decision support systems can enhance learning and contribute to all levels of decision making. DSSs also employ mathematical models. Finally, they have the related capabilities of

sensitivity analysis, what-if analysis, and goal-seeking analysis, which you will learn about next. You should keep in mind that these three types of analysis are useful for any type of decision-support application. Excel, for example, supports all three.

The carriers want to eliminate their existing POTS networks, but the

service guarantee makes that process extremely difficult.

Descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics are essentially

steps in data reduction.

Decisions are diverse and are made continuously. Decision making is a

systematic process.

Data reduction

the conversion of raw data into a smaller amount of more useful information.

The four widely used standards of ethics:

the utilitarian approach the rights approach the fairness approach the common good approach.

This medium described in the above flashcard is typically

unshielded twisted-pair wire (UTP).

Translating all of this information is

very expensive. 20 cents or more per word.

collaborate asynchronously

when team members cannot meet at the same time.

Business analytics applications typically provide users with a view of what has happened; data mining helps to explain

why it is happening, and it predicts what will happen in the future.

Internet Service Provider

A company that provides Internet connections for a fee. Ex. Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc.

Search Engine

A computer program that searches for specific information by keywords and reports the results.

Knowledge workers are being called the distributed workforce, or

"digital nomads." This group of highly prized workers is now able to work anywhere and anytime. Distributed workers are those who have no permanent office at their companies, preferring to work at home offices, in airport lounges, or client conference rooms, or on a high school stadium bleacher. The growth of the distributed workforce is driven by globalization, extremely long commutes to work, rising gasoline prices, ubiquitous broadband communications links (wireline and wireless), and powerful laptop computers and computing devices.

To bridge the different privacy approaches, the U.S. Department of Commerce, in consultation with the European Union, developed a

"safe harbor" framework to regulate the way that the U.S. companies export and handle the personal data (e.g., names and addresses) of European citizens.

File Server

(also called network server) A computer that contains various software and data files for a local area network and contains the network operating system.

Business Intelligence (BI)

A broad category of applications, technologies, and processes for gathering, storing, accessing, and analyzing data to help business users make better decisions. Many experts argue that the terms should be used interchangeably.

Dashboards

A business analytics presentation tool that provides rapid access to timely information and direct access to management reports. Dashboards evolved from executive information systems, which were information systems designed specifically for the information needs of top executives. It is user friendly, it is supported by graphics, and, most importantly, it enables managers to examine exception reports and drill down into detailed data.

Twisted Pair Wire

A communications medium consisting of strands of copper wire twisted together in pairs.

Fiber-Optic Cable

A communications medium consisting of thousands of very thin filaments of glass fibers, surrounded by cladding, that transmit information via light pulses generated by lasers.

Router

A communications processor that routes messages from a LAN to the Internet, across several connected LANs, or across a wide area network such as the Internet.

TCP/IP

A file transfer protocol that can send large files of information across sometimes unreliable networks with assurance that the data will arrive uncorrupted. The protocol of the internet.

Liability

A legal concept that gives individuals the right to recover the damages done to them by other individuals, organizations, or systems.

Internet ("the Net")

A massive global WAN that connects approximately 1 million organizational computer networks in more than 200 countries on all continents, including Antarctica, and features in the daily routine of almost 2 billion people. Participating computer systems include smartphones, PCs, LANs, databases, and mainframes.

Opt-Out Model

A model of informed consent that permits a company to collect personal information until the customer specifically requests that the data not be collected.

Intranets

A network located within a single organization that uses Internet software.

Local Area Networks (LAN)

A network that connects communications devices in a limited geographic region, such as a building, so that every user device on the network can communicate with every other device.

Extranet

A network that connects parts of the intranets of different organizations. It enables business partners to communicate securely over the Internet using virtual private networks (VPNs)

Wide Area Networks

A network, generally provided by common carriers, that covers a wide geographical area.

Internet2

A new, faster telecommunications network that deploys advanced network applications such as remote medical diagnosis, digital libraries, distance education, online simulation, and virtual laboratories. Note that Internet2 is not a separate physical network from the Internet.

Intranet

A private network that uses Internet software and TCP/IP protocols. Easy and inexpensive to search.

Management

A process by which an organization achieves its goals through the use of resources (people, money, materials, and information).

Crowdsourcing

A process in which an organization outsources a task to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.

Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)

A protocol that automatically communicates privacy policies between an electronic commerce Web site and visitors to that site. P3P enables visitors to determine the types of personal data that can be extracted by the sites they visit. It also allows visitors to compare a site's privacy policy to the visitors' preferences or to other standards, such as the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) Fair Information Practices Standard or the European Directive on Data Protection.

Multidimensional Analysis or Online Analytical Processing

A set of capabilities for "slicing and dicing" data using dimensions and measures associated with the data. OLAP involves "slicing and dicing" data stored in a dimensional format, drilling down in the data to greater detail, and aggregating the data.

Internet Protocol (IP)

A set of rules responsible for disassembling, delivering, and reassembling packets over the Internet.

A protocol is:

A standard set of rules and procedures for the control of communications in a network

Computer Network

A system that connects computers and other devices (e.g., printers) via communications media so that data and information can be transmitted among them.

Carrier of Last Resort

A telecommunications provider that is required by law to provide service to any customer in a service area who requests it, even if serving that customer is not economically viable at existing rates

Home Page

A text and graphical screen display that usually welcomes the user and provides basic information on the organization that has established the page. Organizations that wish to offer information through the Web must establish a home page.

Massive Open Online Courses

A tool for democratizing higher education. Several factors have contributed to the growth of MOOCs, including improved technology and the rapidly increasing costs of traditional universities. MOOCs are highly automated, complete with computer-graded assignments and exams.

Prescriptive Analytics

A type of business analytics that recommend one or more courses of action and showing the likely outcome of each decision.

Descriptive Analytics

A type of business analytics that summarize what has happened in the past and allow decision makers to learn from past behaviors.

Predictive Analytics

A type of business analytics that utilize a variety of analytics tools to examine recent and historical data in order to detect patterns and predict future outcomes and trends.

Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Processing

A type of client/server distributed processing that allows two or more computers to pool their resources, making each computer both a client and a server. A type of client/server distributed processing where each computer acts as both a client and a server.

Telecommuting

A work arrangement whereby employees work at home, at the customer's premises, in special workplaces, or while traveling, usually using a computer linked to their place of employment.

Virtual Group (team)

A workgroup whose members are in different locations and who meet electronically.

Which of the following is/are fundamental to a system of ethics:

All of these

Privacy Policy Guidelines

All pertaining to data.

Swarming

All users to share little pieces of a file at the same time.

Proposed Solutions

Although the FCC frequently denies permission to companies to eliminate POTS, it does allow carriers to experiment with the removal of landline telephones. To protect the universal service guarantee, however, carriers must meet certain FCC standards during these trials: Public safety communications must be available regardless of which technology is used; All Americans must have access to affordable communications services; Competition in the marketplace must provide choice for consumers and businesses; Consumer protection must be paramount.

Rights Approach

An ethical action is the one that best protects and respects the moral rights of the affected parties. Moral rights can include the rights to make one's own choices about what kind of life to lead, to be told the truth, not to be injured, and to enjoy a degree of privacy. An ethical organizational action would be one that protects and respects the moral rights of customers, employees, shareholders, business partners, and even competitors.

Enterprise Networks

An organization's network composed of interconnected multiple LANs and WANs.

TCP/IP functions in four layers:

Application Layer - enables client application programs to access the other layers, and it defines the protocols that applications use to exchange data. Includes HTTP. Transport Layer - provides the application layer with communication and packet services. Includes TCP and other protocols. Internet Layer - responsible for addressing, routing, and packaging data packets. The IP is one of the protocols in this layer. Network Interface - places packets on, and receives them from, the network medium, which can be any networking technology.

Cable Media (or Wireline Media)

Communications channels that use physical wires or cables to transmit data and information.

Clients

Computers, such as users' personal computers, that use any of the services provided by servers.

Nodes

Computing devices that are connected to the network.

Coaxial Cable

Consists of insulated copper wire. It is much less susceptible to electrical interference, and it can carry much more data. commonly used to carry high-speed data traffic as well as television signals (thus the term cable TV). More expensive and more difficult to work with than twisted-pair wire. It is also somewhat inflexible.

Fiber Optics

Consists of thousands of very thin filaments of glass fibers that transmit information via light pulses generated by lasers. Cable is surrounded by cladding, a coating that prevents the light from leaking out of the fiber. Significantly smaller and lighter than traditional cable media. They also can transmit far more data, and they provide greater security from interference and tapping. Fiber-optic cable is typically used as the backbone for a network, whereas twisted-pair wire and coaxial cable connect the backbone to individual devices on the network.

Analog Signals

Continuous waves that transmit information by altering the amplitude and frequency of the waves.

Twisted-pair wire and coaxial cables are made of (blank), and fiber-optic cable is made of (blank).

Copper Glass

Which of the following is not a communication channel? a) Fiber-optic cable b) Satellite transmission c) Twisted-pair wire d) Integrated circuits e) Cellular radio d) Integrated circuits

D. Integrated Circuits

Give an example of collaboration?

Crowdsourcing

_________ is the practice of buying domain names on the Internet and then holding them for your own purposes.

Cybersquatting

Internet Connection Methods

Dial-Up -Still used in the United States where broadband is not available DSL - Broadband access via telephone companies Cable Modem - Access over your cable TV coaxial cable. Can have degraded performance if many of your neighbors are accessing the Internet at once Satellite - Access where cable and DSL are not available Wireless - Very convenient, and WiMAX will increase the use of broadband wireless Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) - Expensive and usually placed only in new housing developments

Four Network Applications

Discovery Communication Collaboration Education.

Digital Signal

Discrete pulses that are either on or off, representing a series of bits (0s and 1s).

The Least Connected Country on Earth

Eritrea of East Africa is the least connected country on earth. They are allowed to make phone calls and use the internet, but only 1 percent have landlines and only 5.6 percent have cell phones. POOR INFRASTRUCTURE. The only telecommunications provider is run by the government. The last country to establish satellite connection to the internet.

Esurance Uses Analytics to Provide Personalized Quotes

Esurance (www.esurance.com) sells automobile insurance directly to consumers online and over the telephone. The firm offers services to almost 90 percent of the U.S. population in 40 states. The insurer also functions as a shopping and comparison site for customers in the 10 remaining states. Esurance is a wholly owned subsidiary of Allstate (www.allstate.com). The CRE integrates and analyzes data from two sources. First, Esurance staff members formulate business rules by analyzing queries against the historical information in the firm's database and by talking with Esurance's agents, who assist customers online, over the phone, and in person. The insurer spent about 18 months adding business rules to the CRE. Second, the CRE relies on the answers from a questionnaire filled out by customers. These answers produce about 55 variables that the CRE can utilize to modify the initial package presentation. By analyzing the two types of data, the CRE can provide almost unlimited customization—up to 8 billion possible packages of coverage. The company added a button on its site that asked customers before completing their transaction if they wanted to add towing to their policies. If not, they just completed their purchase. With this new feature, many customers did select the towing option, just like with in-person sales. Descriptive analytics help Esurance to instantly customize and present the packages and options that are most likely to succeed with the customer. The company continuously monitors how well the CRE is doing by comparing the numbers of customers who buy a policy with those who leave the site without making a purchase. Although the CRE platform cost $1 million to develop and implement, the company has saved between $500,000 and $1 million annually in further IT costs, including any subscriptions to analytics software-as-a-service (SaaS).

Fairness Approach

Ethical actions treat all human beings equally, or, if unequally, then fairly, based on some defensible standard. For example, most people might believe it is fair to pay people higher salaries if they work harder or if they contribute a greater amount to the firm. However, there is less certainty regarding CEO salaries that are hundreds or thousands of times larger than those of other employees. Many people question whether this huge disparity is based on a defensible standard or whether it is the result of an imbalance of power and hence is unfair.

Do You Have the Right to Be Forgotten?

European Union's highest court had ruled that citizens have a "right to be forgotten" on the Web and can therefore force Google and other search engines to remove outdated or "irrelevant" links about their personal histories from search results. The "right to be forgotten" is the right for individuals to request that information about them be taken offline after it's no longer relevant. The ruling also does not require that embarrassing material—revealing photographs, court documents, gossip—be erased from the Internet, just from search results. As of September 2015, it was not clear how search engines such as Google needed to comply with the EU ruling. Google has a page that allows users to request that certain links be deleted, based on copyright and similar claims. In March 2016, Google announced that it would apply the right to be forgotten to all European Union searches. Google informed the French regulators in September 2015 that it would not implement "right to be forgotten" requests on a worldwide basis. The company argued that although the right to be forgotten is the law in Europe, it is not the law globally. Further, content that is declared illegal under the laws of one country can still be legal in other countries.

There are numerous analytics tools and techniques available to decision makers. These tools include

Excel, decision-support systems, online analytical processing (OLAP), data mining, machine learning, deep learning, and neural networks.

A variety of BA tools for analyzing data are available. They include

Excel, multidimensional analysis (also called OLAP), data mining, and decision-support systems.

However, telecommuting also has some potential disadvantages.

For employees, the major disadvantages are increased feelings of isolation, possible loss of fringe benefits, lower pay (in some cases), no workplace visibility, the potential for slower promotions, and lack of socialization. Telecommuting employees are 50 percent less likely to receive a promotion than onsite workers. The researchers concluded that a lack of "face time" with bosses caused careers to stall.

E-learning has some drawbacks:

For one, students must be computer literate. Also, they may miss the face-to-face interaction with instructors and fellow students. In addition, accurately assessing students' work can be problematic because instructors really do not know who completed the assignments.

The Common Good Approach

Highlights the interlocking relationships that underlie all societies. This approach argues that respect and compassion for all others is the basis for ethical actions. It emphasizes the common conditions that are important to the welfare of everyone.

The average price of a smartphone has increased 17 percent since 2000.

However, the phone's processing capability has increased by 13,000 percent during that time, according to technology market research firm ABI Research.

What are the enablers of Business Analytics

Increasingly Powerful Chips Cheaper, higher volume storage Increasingly faster broadband Internet Neural Networks Texts in Full: Microprocessors (or chips) are becoming increasingly powerful (see Plug IT In 2). For example, specialized graphics processing units (GPUs) are essential to neural networks, an analytics tool that we discuss in Plug IT In 5. Digital storage capacity and access speed are both increasing exponentially. These advances are driving the cost of storage down exponentially as well. Transmission speed (bandwidth; see Chapter 4) in computer networks, particularly the Internet, is also increasing exponentially. As a result, decision makers are able to collaborate on difficult, time-sensitive decisions regardless of their locations.

What does IP stand for?

Internet Protocol

What does ISP Stand for?

Internet Service Provider (ISP)

Today, more than three-fourths of organizations routinely monitor their employees'

Internet Usage.

The plain old telephone service (POTS) has been largely replaced by

Internet telephony.

All managers perform three basic roles:

Interpersonal roles: Figurehead, leader, liaison Informational roles: Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, analyzer Decisional roles: Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator

Privacy Issues

Involve collecting, storing, and disseminating information about individuals.

Accuracy Issues

Involve the authenticity, fidelity, and correctness of information that is collected and processed.

Property Issues

Involve the ownership and value of information.

TaKaDu's Dashboard Helps to Conserve Water

Israel is a desert nation that has been dealing with a drought caused by record-low rainfall since 2008. Therefore, freshwater sources in Israel and the surrounding region are precious. Israelis use water from three sources: recycled wastewater (about 85 percent); a reservoir, filled by pipelines from the Sea of Galilee 90 miles to the north (some 10 percent); and desalination (approximately 5 percent). About one third of water distributed by utilities around the world is lost to leaks. Consequently, the ability to detect leaks instantly is the most valuable conservation technology. In 2008, startup TaKaDu (www.takadu.com) designed cloud-based analytics software that utilizes raw data from smart sensors placed in the pipes of the water network. (See our discussion of the Internet of Things in Chapter 10.) These sensors monitor the flow rates, pressure, and quality of the water, and they identify problems in the meters, valves, pipes, and other system equipment. TaKaDu provides its results in the form of dashboards on employee smart phones. By scanning the dashboards, company employees monitor whether the meters are accurate, the water quality and pressure are optimal, the water flow is normal, and the pumps are operating properly. Network-wide, Unitywater saved more than one billion liters of water in the first 12 months of implementing the TaKaDu system, with a value of more than $2 million. The utility saves not only money, but time, because it now takes 60 percent less time to repair problems. In mid-2015, Israel even enjoyed a water surplus, some of which (about 150 million cubic meters per year) it pumps to Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.

Distance Learning

Learning situations in which teachers and students do not meet face-to-face.

E-learning

Learning supported by the Web; can be done inside traditional classrooms or in virtual classrooms.

Examples of data aggregators/profilers.

LexisNexis ChoicePoint Acxiom These companies collect public data such as real estate records and published telephone numbers, in addition to nonpublic information such as Social Security numbers; financial data; and police, criminal, and motor vehicle records. They then integrate these data to form digital dossiers on most adults in the United States. They ultimately sell these dossiers to law enforcement agencies and companies that conduct background checks on potential employees.

Automobile Insurance

Life Insurance Only 44 percent of households in the United States own individual life insurance policies, a 50-year low. Life insurance policies are typically underwritten using a snapshot of a person's medical status at the time they apply for the policy. In this way, life insurance is a "one and done" process, unlike health insurance, which requires ongoing medical information to adjust premiums annually. Similar programs implemented by Vitality in other countries, including Australia, South Africa, and Singapore, have shown impressive results: policyholders are motivated to improve their fitness to bring down their life insurance premiums. Vitality found in a 2014 study that participants who had not been exercising but who underwent a fitness regime for three years reduced their health risk factors by 13 percent. Those who were active before the study but increased their fitness activities cut their health risk factors by 22 percent over the three years. Holders of the John Hancock life insurance policy through Vitality earn points for various fitness activities that are expected to increase their longevity. The more points they earn, the bigger the discount they receive on their premiums. Participants receive a free Fitbit monitor and they may choose to upload their data to the insurance company. Policyholders receive 1,000 points for being a nonsmoker; 1,000 points for each reading in the "normal" range of cholesterol, glucose, and blood sugar; 3,120 points over a year for doing a standard workout three times a week or an advanced workout twice a week; and 400 points for getting a flu shot. Ten percent of earned points can be carried over to the next year. Automobile Insurance: If you have a clean driving record, you may be paying too much for car insurance. That's because auto insurance companies base rates on statistical averages for characteristics such as age, sex, marital status, location, and the type and age of car. Some drivers get a discount based on how long they have gone accident-free. Technology now enables drivers to get a break on their auto insurance premiums based on how they actually drive, rather than on statistics. The strategy, called usage-based insurance, lets auto insurers track your driving in exchange for an annual discount on your insurance premium, depending on your driving habits. Participation is voluntary. The technology works like this. Drivers plug a device into the diagnostic ports in their cars. The tool collects data from the car's computer, such as the time of day, mileage, speed, and acceleration and braking rates. The tool then sends this data to the auto insurance via a cellular network. Progressive's usage-based insurance program has been tried by more than 1.4 million people, and about one-third continued with it. Of those who continued, about two-thirds received a discount, usually from 10 to 15 percent. The program currently provides approximately 10 percent of the company's revenue.

To help achieve this goal, the dashboard graphically displays KPIs and information relating to critical success factors on the walls of a meeting room called the

Management Cockpit Room.

A unique and interesting application of dashboards to support the informational needs of executives is the

Management Cockpit. Essentially, a Management Cockpit is a strategic management room containing an elaborate set of dashboards that enable top-level decision makers to pilot their businesses better. The goal is to create an environment that encourages more efficient management meetings and boosts team performance via effective communication.

"Consider this domain name, www.business.uc.edu. The uc is the ______"

Name of the organization. (Highly recommend taking a look at the breakdown of a web address)

Ranges of bandwidth

Narrowband (relatively high network capacity) to Broadband (relatively high network capacity)

What does NAPs stand for?

Network Access Points

Section 4.6

Network Applications: Collaboration

Section 4.5

Network Applications: Communication

Section 4.4

Network Applications: Discovery

Section 4.7

Network Applications: Educational

Section 4.2

Network Fundamentals

Distributed Processing

Network architecture that divides processing work between two or more computers, linked together in a network.

Volkswagen and the "Diesel Dupe"

On September 18, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a notice of violation of the 1970 Clean Air Act to VW. The agency charged that VW had installed software in millions of its diesel cars that could detect when the cars were undergoing emissions testing and then could alter the performance in order to meet federal standards. Approximately 11 million cars worldwide, manufactured between model years 2009 and 2015 included this programming, known as a "defeat device." The consequences of the scandal, which became known as the "Diesel Dupe," have been severe. The carmaker earmarked $18 billion to settle the worldwide costs of the recall, fines, and other repercussions. Of this total, $10 billion were for the company's settlement with car owners in the United States. By the end of that month, the resale value of the affected cars in the United States had declined between 5 and 16 percent, based on used car auction prices listed in the Kelley Blue Book.

Opening Case: Rent the Runway

On average, an American woman buys 64 new pieces of clothing per year—half of which she will wear only one time. Moreover, fashion industry analysts note that new fashion trends in women's apparel emerge on average every 10 weeks A major trend in today's economy is a transition from ownership to subscribing and sharing. At least one company has implemented this business model in the fashion industry. Located at the intersection of the sharing economy, Facebook, and Instagram, Rent the Runway (RTR; www.renttherunway.com) buys designer dresses wholesale and rents them over the Web for a night or two, charging only a fraction of the price of the dress. To accomplish the firm's goals, every day RTR algorithms analyze more than 65,000 dresses and 25,000 earrings, bracelets, and necklaces as they move around the country among the firm's five million members. The algorithms enable RTR to ship out 60 percent of the dresses the same day they arrive. In 2014 the total value of RTR dress and accessory rentals exceeded $800 million, and the company earned $50 million in revenue. Revenue is expected to increase to $80 million in 2015. The number of customers, amount of repeat business, and rental volume doubled in 2014 and are projected to double again in 2015. By mid-2015, RTR had raised $116 million in venture capital funding.

Twiddy & Company

Over the years, Twiddy had used spreadsheets to accumulate operational data. The company invested $40,000 in BA tools from SAS (www.sas.com) to integrate these data into an analyzable format. Before implementing SAS analytics, about the only thing that Twiddy could tell its homeowners was what dates their homes were available to rent. Now, Twiddy can analyze data on market and seasonal trends, and property locations and sizes, to suggest optimal prices to homeowners for any particular week. Twiddy bookings increased and the size of its property inventory rose by more than 10 percent after the company began using SAS. While revenues increased, costs decreased by 15 percent, thanks to a reduction in invoice processing errors and the automation of service schedules. The total savings? About $50,000 since using the SAS analytics.

Computer Networks from smallest to largest (Worldwide)

PAN - Personal Area Networks LAN - Local Area Network MAN - Metropolitan Arean Network WAN - Wide Area Network

What does POTS stand for?

Plain old telephone systems.

The Collaboration Environment at Raytheon

Raytheon - a U.S. defense contractor that manufactures weapons and military and commercial electronics The models are displayed on S3D screens called Cave Automatic Virtual Environments, or CAVE. A CAVE is a series of 72 ultrahigh-definition 3-D television sets, stacked eight feet high and arranged in a panorama that stretches over 320 degrees. The technology has allowed Raytheon to avoid potential design and mock-up errors, saving considerable amounts of time and money. It's shaved countless hours off the time to engineer and manufacture products. It's cut down on the amount of travel for Raytheon engineers to visit suppliers. It's enabled Raytheon to review and complete designs faster. And it's helped identify potential mechanical defects that might have gone undetected until the product was on the production line.

Disadvantage of Coaxial Cable

Relatively expensive and inflexible Easily tapped (low to medium security) Somewhat difficult to work with

Networks comprise among three objectives:

Speed Distance Cost

Utilitarian Approach

States that an ethical action is the one that provides the most good or does the least harm. Ex.The ethical corporate action would be the one that produces the greatest good and does the least harm for all affected parties—customers, employees, shareholders, the community, and the physical environment.

Network Protocols

Staying Legal

Types of Problem Structures

Structured - Routine and repetitive problems for which standard solutions exist, such as inventory control. Semistructured - Only some of the decision-process phases are structured. Semistructured decisions require a combination of standard solution procedures and individual judgment. (Ex. evaluating employees, setting marketing budgets, capital acquisition analysis, and trading bonds) Unstructured - There is no standardized procedure for carrying out any of the three phases. In making such a decision, human intuition and judgment often play an important role. (Ex. offering new services, hiring an executive, choosing an R&D project)

The StingRay

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC; www.fcc.gov) has authorized the Harris Corporation (www.harris.com), a defense contractor, to sell a surveillance device that tracks cellphones. The StingRay, the size of a suitcase, acts like a cell tower, emitting signals that can dupe phones up to one mile away into sending identifying information. The device can also capture texts, calls, e-mails, and other data. Harris routinely refuses to discuss the StingRay. StingRays are popular among local law enforcement agencies, which have spent millions on them, using part of the more than $35 billion in grants from the Department of Homeland Security. The StingRay technology is a closely guarded secret. The FBI says it must be kept confidential or else criminals and terrorists could try to circumvent it. Until 2015 police officers could use the devices without informing anyone or having to obtain approval from judges, as they would have to do to obtain phone records. About one-third of cases involving evidence from StingRays are thrown out, even those involving stolen cellphones. Only half of those who were prosecuted are convicted. In September 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ; www.doj.gov) mandated that federal agencies had to obtain search warrants to use StingRays. To enhance privacy protections, the policy requires that data gathered via a StingRay be deleted as soon as the cell phone is located. Further, all data must be deleted at least once per day.

Which of the following statements concerning wide-area networks is true?

The Internet is an example of a wide-area network. A false statement would be that they are provided by single companies.

Darden Restaurants

The company needed a more effective strategy to gather data about what was happening in individual restaurants than simply calling restaurant managers on the telephone at the end of every day. As a result, Darden implemented a Check-Level Analytics system to improve decision making. The system collects information about patrons from the time they arrive until they settle the bill. The restaurant chain analyzes these types of data, among others: How long it takes for a guest to be seated or given a wait time. The length of the cook time. Darden calculates cook times for each menu item so that each restaurant can pace both the meal and the food preparation. The name of the server who served the guest. What time the customer paid the check. How much time the guest spent in the restaurant. Darden links all of these data to the guest satisfaction survey, should the guest complete it. In this way, Darden can get a better picture of what its customers experience in all of its restaurants. Darden's goal is to better understand its guests. Darden's use of analytics has produced results. The restaurant company has saved at least $20 million.

What is the ultimate WAN

The internet

Electronic Mail

The largest-volume application running over the Internet. Studies have found that almost all companies conduct business transactions via e-mail, and the vast majority confirm that e-mail is tied to their means of generating revenue. On the other hand, the amount of e-mail that managers receive has become overwhelming.

Status Access

The latest data available on KPI or some other metric, often in real time.

Telepresence

The latest version of videoconferencing enables participants to seamlessly share data, voice, pictures, graphics, and animation by electronic means.

Excel

The most popular BA tool by far is Excel. For years, BA vendors "fought" against the use of Excel. Eventually, however, they decided to "join it" by designing their software so that it interfaces with Excel.

Twisted Pair Wire

The most prevalent form of communications wiring—twisted-pair wire—is used for almost all business telephone wiring. Consists of strands of copper wire twisted in pairs. Relatively inexpensive to purchase, widely available, and easy to work with. It is relatively slow for transmitting data, it is subject to interference from other electrical sources, and it can be easily tapped by unintended receivers to gain unauthorized access to data.

Workflow

The movement of information as it progresses through the sequence of steps that make up an organization's work procedures.

Domain Names

The name assigned to an Internet site, consisting of multiple parts, separated by dots, which are translated from right to left.

Even when information is available, however, decision making is difficult due to the following trends:

The number of alternatives is constantly increasing. Most decisions must be made under time pressure. Due to increased uncertainty in the decision environment, decisions are becoming more complex. It is usually necessary to conduct a sophisticated analysis. Bringing everything together quickly and inexpensively represents a serious challenge.

Webmaster

The person in charge of an organization's Web site

Internet Backbone

The primary network connections and telecommunications lines that link the computers and organizational nodes of the Internet.

Ethics

The principles of right and wrong that individuals use to make choices to guide their behaviors.

Business Analytics (BA)

The process of developing actionable decisions or recommendations for actions based on insights generated from historical data.

Profiling

The process of forming a digital dossier.

Data Mining

The process of searching for valuable business information in a large database, data warehouse, or data mart.

Productivity

The ratio between the inputs to a process and the outputs from that process.

Privacy

The right to be left alone and to be free of unreasonable personal intrusions.

Information Privacy

The right to determine when, and to what extent, information about you can be gathered and/or communicated to others.

Top-level domain (TLD)

The rightmost part (or zone) of an Internet name Ex. (.com), (.edu), (.gov), (.org), etc.

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

The set of letters that identifies the address of a specific resource on the Web.

Protocol

The set of rules and procedures governing transmission across a network. Nodes require protocols to communicate with one another.

Key Performance Indicators

The specific measures of CSFs.

Which of the following is a concern or risk of cloud computing?

These are all issues with cloud computing

Customer Intimacy

They also sell them to companies that want to know their customers better.

The Development of One or a Few Related Analytics Applications

This target is often a point solution for a departmental need, such as campaign management in marketing. Sponsorship, approval, funding, impacts, and benefits typically occur at the departmental level. For this target, organizations usually create a data mart to store the necessary data. Organizations must be careful that the data mart—an "independent" application—does not become a "data silo" that stores data that are inconsistent with, and cannot be integrated with, data used elsewhere in the organization.

The Development of Infrastructure to Support Enterprisewide Analytics

This target supports both current and future analytics needs. A crucial component of analytics at this level is an enterprise data warehouse. Because it is an enterprisewide initiative, senior management often provides sponsorship, approval, and funding. In addition, the impacts and benefits are felt throughout the organization.

Electronic Surveillance

Tracking people's activities with the aid of computers.

TCP/IP stands for?

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol

WANs

Typically cover large geographical areas; in some cases they can span the entire planet.

What does WAN stand for?

Wide Area Network

MOOCs in India

With 3.2 million students enrolled in India's universities, there are simply not enough professors to teach everyone in person. Significantly, Indian professors have noted several limitations in MOOCs. They maintain that making the technology work is the easy part. The greater challenge is to rearrange university priorities so that India's best instructors have enough discretionary time to build MOOCs. Another problem is schools' reluctance to provide academic credit for online learning.

Support for Organizational Transformation

With this target, a company uses business analytics to fundamentally transform the ways it competes in the marketplace. Business analytics supports a new business model, and it enables the business strategy. Because of the scope and importance of these changes, critical elements such as sponsorship, approval, and funding originate at the highest organizational levels. The impact on personnel and processes can be significant, and the benefits accrue across the organization.

Simpa Networks Provide Solar Energy to India's Poor

Worldwide, approximately 1.6 billion people do not have access to electricity, and another 1 billion have only unreliable access. Moreover, these same people often earn less than $10 per day, and they spend up to 30 percent of their incomes on inefficient and expensive means of accessing electricity. The lack of electricity is particularly acute in India, with 75 million families not having access. Consequently, these people rely on "dirty" fuels such as kerosene, which they use in lamps. There is hope, however. There are effective alternatives to electricity, such as solar power, which can meet the needs of homes and small businesses. Simpa's customers use the "Progressive Purchase" pricing model. Under this model, the consumer makes a series of payments, each of which unlocks the solar home system for a specified amount of energy consumption. When the prepaid consumption is exhausted, the solar home system is temporarily disabled until the customer makes another payment. Simpa's problem is that, because it has limited resources, it must be selective in deciding which families and businesses to support. As a result, the company turned to DataKind for help. DataKind (www.datakind.org) is a nonprofit organization that connects data scientists with organizations working to address humanitarian issues. DataKind's scientists used Simpa's historical data on customer energy usage and payment behavior as inputs into a credit-scoring model that helps Simpa better assess new customers. The objective is to offer the most appropriate services and support. That is, the model enables Simpa to become "smarter" in selecting customers. The model also enables Simpa to take risks when lending to rural farmers who cannot turn to banks for loans. Prior to Simpa's system, approximately 80 percent of energy-poor individuals suffered eye irritation from fumes. After customers deployed the system, that number fell to 28 percent. Further, fire accidents dropped to zero. The system also helps increase sales in shops that can stay open longer thanks to cheaper energy. By mid-2015, Simpa's clean, reliable energy could be found in more than 63,000 rural households and small businesses in India. The credit-scoring model helped Simpa provide its system to the optimal mix of customers. In that way, the company was able to receive an excellent return on its investment and, in turn, help additional families and businesses.

Today, it is difficult to state that certain organizational information systems support certain cells in the decision matrix. The fact is that the increasing sophistication of information systems means that

essentially any information system can be useful to any decision maker, regardless of his or her level in the organization or function in the organization. As you study this chapter, you will see that business analytics is applicable across all cells of the decision matrix.

Another example of how new devices can contribute to electronic surveillance is

facial recognition technology.

Although it is not required, many LANs have a

file server or network server.

Its most distinguishing characteristic is that every record or digital object has an identified geographical location. This process, called

geocoding, enables users to generate information for planning, problem solving, and decision making. In addition, the graphical format makes it easy for managers to visualize the data.

These resources are considered to be (blank). Achieving the organization's goals is the (blank) of the process.

inputs outputs

Fiber-to-the-home (FTTH)

involves connecting fiber-optic cable directly to individual homes.

Opening Case: Marriott Blocks Guests' Wi-Fi Access

n many ways, technology is disrupting profitable services that hotels previously provided to their guests, causing hotels to lose these sources of revenue. Wireless connection rates for Marriott start at $14.95 per day. For $19.95, guests receive "enhanced high-speed Internet," which includes video chatting, downloading large files, and streaming video. The FCC launched an investigation. In 2014, the agency concluded that Marriott had blocked personal hotspots and was therefore in violation of the Communications Act. The FCC fined the hotel chain $600,000 for these violations. In addition, Marriott had to submit compliance reports to the agency for three years. The commission fined Smart City Holdings (www.smartcity.com) $750,000 for blocking Wi-Fi access at a number of convention centers served by the company in order to force customers to utilize the company's own, expensive Wi-Fi options.

Researchers assert that if Internet bandwidth is not improved rapidly,

then within a few years the Internet will be able to function only at a much reduced speed. The Internet sometimes is too slow for data-intensive applications such as full-motion video files (movies) and large medical files (X-rays).

Virtual Meetings

they "meet" electronically.

Two computers using TCP/IP can communicate even if

they use different hardware and software.