CSCI 321 Exam 1 Review questions

Why would a company want to have a CIO, CPO, and CSO?

A company would want a CIO to keep MIS aligned with the business goals and objectives as well as to oversee users of MIS, a CPO to keep legal use of information and to make sure all information is ethical, and a CSO to keep all information safe from potential hackers and or viruses so that information is not stolen or lost.

What is artificial intelligence? What are the five types of AI systems? What applications of AI offer the greatest business value?

AI is an attempt to simulate human thinking and behavior such as the ability to reason and learn. The five types of AI are Expert systems, neutral networks, generic algorithms, intelligent agents, and virtual reality. Expert systems offer the greatest business value because they fill the gap when human experts are difficult to find or retain.

Why is it important for a company to operate cross-functionally?

As described in the book businesses are like cars if one part is removed the car does not function properly. Likewise a business that does not operate cross-functionally does not integrate the operations of all departments and therefore cannot operate effectively.

Why would a manger need to review an As-Is and to be process model?

As-Is and To-Be process models may need to be reviewed by a manager in order to find out what improvements worked and which ones didn't work.

What technologies can a company use to safeguard information?

Biometrics, encryption, Intrusion detection software, and antivirus software are just a few of the many ways a company can safeguard its information with technology.

What are the benefits and challenges associated with Business 2.0?

Business 2.0 benefits include, content sharing through open sourcing, user contributed content, collaboration inside the organization, collaboration outside the organization. Its largest advantage is providing individuals with the ability to network. The challenges include technology dependence, information vandalism, violations of copyright and plagiarism.

How does e-business differ from Business 2.0?

Business 2.0 is a more mature distinctive communication platform that encourages collaborations and sharing while e-business is more focused on the exchange of real time information and activities related to business operations, both internal and external.

What are the differences among collective intelligence, knowledge management, and crowdsourcing?

Collective intelligence is the pooled knowledge of all employees, Knowledge management is capturing, classifying, and evaluating information in a way that makes it easy to make effective decisions and actions, Crowdsourcing is a part of collective intelligence that uses the "crowds" collective knowledge to make decisions.

What is the relationship between critical success factors and key performance indicators? How can a manager use them to understand business operations?

Critical success factors are element crucial for business strategy's success and key performance indicators are the quantifiable metrics a company uses to evaluate progress toward critical success factors. KPI's measure the progress of CFS's. Managers and use them to understand business operations by learning which factors and indicators work best and which ones need to be rethought.

Explain the difference between customer facing processes and business facing processes. Which one is more important to an organization?

Customer facing processes results in a product or service received by an organizations external customer, and business facing processes are invisible to the external customer but essential to the effective management of the business. Business facing processes are more important to an organization.

What is data and why is it important to a business?

Data is raw facts that describe the characteristics of an event or object. It is important to a business because, without it management decision would be based on intuition not facts which leaves space for misjudgments. Data helps to steer business decision into a profitable and logical direction.

What is the relationship between data, information, business intelligence, and knowledge?

Data, information, business intelligence, and knowledge are all used together in order to drive a business in the right direction by making analytical predictions. Armed with these tools manager can accurately make smart, and profitable decision.

Define decision support systems and describe the role they play in a business.

Decision support systems model information using OLAP which provides assistance in evaluating and choosing among different courses of action. Its role is to analyze complex relationships among thousands or even millions of data items to discover patterns.

What are the benefits and challenges associated with e-business?

E-business benefits include, increasing niche-product sale and expanding global reach, operating new markets, reducing costs, and improving effectiveness. The challenges include, identifying limited market segments, managing consumer trust, ensuring consumer protections, adhering to taxations rules.

What Is the difference between e-business and e-commerce?

E-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. E-Business includes commerce along with all activities related to internal and external business operations such as servicing customers' accounts, collaborating with partners, and exchanging real-time information.

Why are e-policies important to a company?

E-policies help to keep sensitive information from being misused on computer systems. They are basically a set of guide lines set to give employees expectations about the organizations practices and standards to protect the organization.

What are ethics and why are they important to a company?

Ethics are principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people, and they are important to a company because they help to keep employees on the straight and narrow. Information is therefore left up to the people/employees to be safeguarded and protected.

Define expert systems and describe the role they play in a business

Expert systems are computerized advisory programs that imitate the reasoning processes of experts in solving difficult problems. Is role is to make decisions based off a predetermined set of rules given a set of data.

Do you agree that MIS is essential for businesses operating in the information age? Why or why not?

I do agree that it is essential for businesses operation in the information age because every part of society is increasingly more reliant on technology, not to mention it is important for the growing global market.

What is the semantic web?

It is a component of web 3.0 that describes things in a way that computers can understand.

Why must business professional understand how MIS supports decision making and problem solving?

It is important for business professionals to understand MIS supports Decision making and problem solving because today there are large amount of information that needs to be sifted through in order to make these decisions and solve problems.

Why is it important for a business major to understand MIS?

It is my belief that it is important for a business major to understand MIS because it is likely that he/she will be using one of these systems in their future profession.

Explain MIS and the role it plays in a company and global business?

MIS is basically a way to keep track of all aspects in a business and transfer them throughout different departments in a business so that each department can make knowledgeable decisions. It incorporates systems thinking to help companies operate cross-functionally. Its role in global business is to keep a business that is in multiple locations across the work in touch with every part of the business everywhere.

How can a manager turn data into information?

Managers can turn data into information by using different analytical tools to make predictions about how well products will sale or how well sales representatives perform.

Explain porters five forces model and the role it plays in Decision making?

Porters five forces model analyzes the competitive parts in the environment to assess the potential for profitability. Its role is to help identify areas in an industry that can be improved to increase profitability.

What are porters three generic strategies and why would a company want to follow only one.

Porters three generic strategies are broad cost leadership, broad differentiation, and focused strategy. A company might follow only one of these three generic strategies because trying to be all things to all people is a recipe for destruction.

What is the correlation between privacy and confidentiality?

Privacy is the right to be left alone when you want to be, to have control over your personal possessions, and not to be observed without your consent. Confidentiality is the assurance that messages and information remain available only to those authorized to view them. The correlation between the two is that any employee making a decision about a privacy issue could result in the loss of confidentiality.

Why is security a business issue, not just a technology issue?

Security is a business issue and not just a technology issue because a business can be hindered by security issue that do not relate to technology.

Explain systems thinking and how it supports business operations?

Systems thinking is a way of keeping all operations on track by monitoring inputs and outputs and gathering feedback on each part. It is important to business operations because decisions can be made with regards to the entire system rather than from one department.

How can a company participating in e-business keep its information secure?

The first line of defense for keeping information secure is people. Keeping passwords private, logging off, before breaks and changing passwords every 30 days are just a few ways of keeping info secure. The second line of defense is technology. Authentication and Authorization can help in preventing identity theft, phishing and pharming scams. Using biometric technology for identifications and encryption are a few other ways to keep information secure with technology.

What is the relationship between information management, governance, and compliance?

The relationship between information management, information governance, and information compliance is that they are all ways of controlling and filtering information.

What are the three levels of management found in a company? What types of decisions are made at each level?

The three levels of management found in a company are, Operational, Managerial, Strategic. At the operational level, structured, recurring and repetitive decisions are made. At the Managerial level, semi structured ad hoc reporting decisions are made. At the Strategic level, unstructured nonrecurring, onetime decisions are made.

Define transaction processing systems and describe the role they play in a business.

Transaction processing systems are the basic business system that servers the operational level and assists in making structured decisions. Its role is to help make structured decisions or the operational level.