DSS Test 1
Amazon.com uses a customer profiling system whenever a customer visits its website. Using this system, Amazon can offer products tailored to that particular customer's profile and buying pattern. What is Amazon using to achieve this competitive advantage?
Product differentiation.
What consists of equipment designed to store large volumes of data for long-term storage?
Secondary storage
What is the primary goal of using As-Is and To-Be process models?
To determine what the problem is and then how to solve the problem
If a supplier has high power what can it do to influence its industry?
-Charge higher prices. -Shift costs to industry participants. -Limit quality or services. All of these.
Which of the below represents business processes you would find in the human resources department?
-Hiring employees -Enrolling employees in benefit plans -Tracking vacation and sick time All of these
What must managers be able to do to compete in today's global marketplace?
-Make decisions to gain competitive advantages -Make decisions that can help forecast future business needs -Make decisions that can help forecast future business -requirements All of these
Which of the below key terms represents the types of decisions made at the operational, managerial, and strategic levels of a company?
-Structured decisions -Unstructured decisions -Semistructured decisions All of these
Which of the following represents a reason why competitive advantages are typically temporary?
-The competitor will hire away your key employees. -The competitor quickly seeks ways to duplicate your business operations. -The competitor will purchase new technology. All of these.
Which of the below examples indicates when the time is right to initiate a business process change?
-The market being served makes a distinctive shift -The company is below industry benchmarks on its core processes -The company strategically passes or leapfrogs the competition on key decisions to regain competitive advantage All of these
Anne-Marie Cole runs the sales division for a local auto insurance firm. One of her key duties is to calculate her company's market share. When evaluating the prior year numbers, she found that her firm achieved total sales of $3 million and the entire industry had $30 million in sales. What is Anne-Marie's current market share?
10%
Which of the following offers an example where Porter's Five Forces are mostly strong and competition is high?
A dog walking business.
If you were thinking about an oven as a system which of the following represents the feedback?
A light indicating that the oven has reached the preheated temperature.
Decision support systems or DSS's model information using OLAP, which provides assistance in evaluating and choosing among different courses of action. Which of the below does not represent an example of a DSS in business?
A manufacturing digital dashboard showing visualizations of inventory and production
What performs all arithmetic operations (for example, addition and subtraction) and all logic operations?
ALU
The department within a company that records, measures, and reports monetary transactions is called _______________.
Accounting.
The banking industry has implemented several competitive advantages including ATM's, online bill pay services, and electronic statements. Of course, these competitive advantages were quickly duplicated by any competitor that wanted to remain in the banking industry. These were all examples of ___________ competitive advantages.
Acquiring new technology products and services
What is an input device designed for special applications for use by people with different types of special needs?
Adaptive computer devices
When analyzing the book store industry, some of today's businesses compete with different business strategies and cost strategies. Which of the following is using a broad market competitive scope along with a low cost strategy?
Amazon.com.
Which of the following offers an example where Porter's Five Forces are mostly weak and competition is low?
An international hotel chain purchasing milk.
What encompasses all organizational information and its primary purpose is to support the performance of managerial analysis or semistructured decisions?
Analytical information
What is the science of fact-based decision making?
Analytics
Which of the following licenses specialty software paid for on a license basis or per-use basis or usage-based licensing?
Application service provide license
Changing business processes with MIS outlines how to improve the three levels of business processes which include operational, managerial, and strategic. From operational to strategic, what are the three major improvement strategies that the author describes?
Automation - streamlining - reengineering
What occurs when resources reach full capacity and cannot handle any additional demands limiting throughput and impeding operations?
Bottlenecks
Which of the following should a business follow for success?
Business processes should drive technology choices
Sarah Schin was recently hired by Bank West as the Global Director of Human Resources. Her job duties include determining employment policies as well as overseeing all hiring, firing, and training of employees. What type of processes does Sarah's new job demonstrate?
Business-facing processes
Which of the following is considered a good?
Cars
What compiles information from multiple sources and tailors it to meet user needs?
Digital dashboard
What is software for data recovery and relieves the burden of reinstalling applications if a hard drive crashes or becomes irretrievably corrupted?
Disk image software
What software organizes information on a hard disk in the most efficient way?
Disk optimization software
What is an electronic book that can be read on a computer or special reading device? Some are small enough to carry around, while others are the size of a telephone booth.
Ebook
What types of metrics measure customer satisfaction?
Effectiveness MIS metrics
What type of metrics measure throughput, transaction speed, and system availability?
Efficiency MIS metrics
Drew Savage is an MIS manager for an international consulting firm. Drew travels to different European countries where he implements news response tracking systems. Some of the metrics he uses to track the performance of his system include tracking the response time it takes to respond to Twitter posts mentioning the news station, as well as the speed and accuracy of content posted on numerous websites and social media sites. What type of metrics is Drew using to measure his system?
Efficiency metrics
What system is used in computer appliances and special-purpose applications, such as an automobile, ATM, or media player and are used for a single purpose?
Embedded operating system
Which of the following represents the types of data commonly found in the human resource department?
Employee Data
Your boss, Ty Jacob, has asked you to analyze the music industry using Porter's Five Forces model. Which of the following represents supplier power in the music industry?
Established record labels like EMI, Sony, Universal.
What is the arithmetic logic unit?
Performs all arithmetic operations (for example, addition and subtraction) and all logic operations (such as sorting and comparing numbers)
What occurs in situations in which no procedures or rules exist to guide decision makers toward the correct choice?
Unstructured decisions
When considering the graph depicting the interrelationships between efficiency and effectiveness, where does an organization ideally want to operate?
Upper right-hand corner
What is application software?
Used for specific information processing needs, including payroll, customer relationship management, project management, training, and many others
What provides additional functionality to the operating system?
Utility software
Which of the following demonstrates a company that has implemented a low cost, broad market strategy?
Walmart
What is similar to a desktop but has more powerful mathematical and graphics processing capabilities and can perform more complicated tasks in less time?
Workstation
Which of the following is not a technology company but used technology to revamp the business process of selling shoes?
Zappos.
What is a type of CPU that can recognize as many as 100 or more instructions, enough to carry out most computations directly?
CISC
CSFs and KPIs are the two core metrics used within a business to track progress or success. What is the relationship between CSFs and KPIs?
CSFs are business strategy elements where KPIs measure the progress of the CSFs
Which of the following is not considered a core driver of the information age?
Competitive Intelligence.
What is hardware?
Consists of the physical devices associated with a computer system
What software contains course information such as a syllabus and assignments and offers drop boxes for quizzes and homework along with a grade book?
Course management software
Cheryl Steffan is the operations manager for Nature's Bread Company, which specializes in providing natural products for health conscious individuals. Cheryl is responsible for compiling, analyzing, and evaluating daily sales numbers to determine the company's profitability and forecast production for the next day. Which of the following is an example of a piece of data Cheryl would be using to successfully perform her job?
Craig Newmark is customer number 15467.
Which of the below statements is accurate?
Critical success factors can have several key performance indicators
Which of the following is considered a core driver of the information age?
Data
Review the below statements. Which one does not represent an example of a structured decision?
Deciding to enter a new market
As companies move from data to knowledge they will start to include more and more variables for analysis resulting in better, more precise support for which of the following?
Decision making and problem solving.
What is a computer that sits on, next to, or under a user's desk and is too large to carry around?
Desktop computer
What type of measurement is using market share as a KPI?
External measurement
Which of the following is not a core driver of the information age?
Fact
Which of the below is considered the output in the systems thinking example of a DSS?
Forecasts
What is the number of billions of CPU cycles per second?
Gigahertz
Assume you are in the business of producing and selling cars. If you could produce more cars with the same input what would happen to your productivity and profits assuming the price of your cars remains the same?
Increase in productivity, increase in profits
Assume you are in the business of producing and selling hamburgers. If you could produce more hamburgers with the same input what would happen to your productivity and profits assuming the price of your hamburgers remains the same?
Increase in productivity, increase in profits
As a manager for your company some of your responsibilities include measuring metrics and overseeing company strategies. You observe some critical success factors and see large increases in productivity. What would you suspect would be the primary reason for the large increases in productivity?
Increases in effectiveness
Which of the below offers a disadvantage for working virtually?
Increases in feelings of seclusion
Kevin Campbell is an incoming freshman at your college. Kevin is frustrated by the cost of books, tuition, and expenses and he also needs to purchase a rather expensive laptop. In an effort to save money, Kevin beings a Facebook group finding other college students who need to purchase laptops. Soon, Kevin's Facebook group has close to 100,000 students. Kevin decides to collectively approach different computer companies to see if his group qualifies for a special discount. What business strategy is Kevin using to purchase laptops?
Increasing buyer power.
Jessica Ulta works as an employee for City Service Credit Union and is responsible for consulting on loans, talking clients through the loan process, and providing loans to members. What type of processes does Jessica primarily work with?
Industry-specific customer facing processes
What is an older secondary storage medium that uses a strip of thin plastic coated with a magnetically sensitive recording medium?
Magnetic tape
What is a computer designed to meet the computing needs of hundreds of people in a large business environment?
Mainframe computer
What are goods?
Material items or products that customers will buy to satisfy a want or need.
What contains high-capacity storage that holds data such as captured images, music, or text files?
Memory card
What are measurements that evaluate results to determine whether a project is meeting its goals?
Metrics
When a company is the first to market with a competitive advantage, this is called a first-mover advantage. All of the following companies were first-movers except ____________.
Microsoft - Bing Search Engine.
What is a computer designed to meet the computing needs of several people simultaneously in a small to medium-size business environment?
Minicomputer
Which of the following represents the types of data commonly found in the accounting department?
Monetary data.
What allows more than one piece of software to be used at a time?
Multitasking
Jennifer Bloom is writing a paper and she must determine which of Porter's three generic strategies The Museum Company has implemented. Jennifer finds out that The Museum Company offers specialty products found only in museums around the world to affluent customers. What would Jennifer determine The Museum Company is using as its generic strategy?
Narrow market, high cost.
MIS can add value to both primary and support activities within a business. Which of the following is not an example of a company adding value by the use of MIS in a support activity?
Netflix creating a business strategy for the video rental market that delivers videos via the mail.
Which license enables anyone on the network to install and use the software?
Network user license
Which of the below is similar to focused strategy versus broad strategy?
Niche market versus large market.
What software controls the application software and manages how the hardware devices work together?
Operating system software
Andy Benton works at the local Starbucks coffee shop and his responsibilities include taking orders, fulfilling orders, and ringing in sales. At what level of the organizational pyramid would you categorize Andy?
Operational
At which level of an organization do employees develop, control, and maintain core business activities required to run the day-to-day operations?
Operational level
What is a small handheld computer that performs simple tasks such as taking notes, scheduling appointments, and maintaining an address book and a calendar?
PDA
Which of the below represents the structure of a typical organization?
Pyramid
Review the below list of key terms and determine which one typically occurs during strategic business process improvement.
Reengineering
Which of the below represents an internal KPI that indicates the earning power of a project?
Return on investment
As the product manager for the eatery division at Whole Foods, Jerry is responsible for analyzing sales data to help him manage his team. Today Jerry is analyzing his data using many different perspectives to identify different ways to improve his division. Which of the following common digital dashboard capabilities is Jerry using to analyze his department's success?
Slice-and-Dice
When considering the 5-steps of the order-to-delivery business process, creating campaigns and checking inventory are included in which of the following?
Step 1 - Marketing
What is productivity?
The rate at which goods and services are produced based upon total output given total inputs
Imagine you are creating a new product to sell in an up-and-coming market. Which of the below statements indicates that it would be easy for you as the new entrants to compete in this market?
The threat of new entrants force is high in the up-and-coming market.
Which one of Porter's Five Forces is high when it is easy for new competitors to enter a market and low when there are significant entry barriers to joining a market?
Threat of new entrants.
Which of the following explains why a company would implement a BPR strategy?
To create value for the customer
Paula Logston is the owner and operator of a high-end online custom clothing company. Paula has never heard of Porter's Five Forces model and she wants to understand why she would perform an analysis using it. If you were tasked with explaining Porter's Five Forces model to Paula what would be the primary reason she would want to use this type of analysis?
To help Paula evaluate the attractiveness of the clothing industry.
What is the business process model that ensures the process is fully and clearly understood before the details of a process solution are decided upon?
To-Be process model
What is a form of a stationary mouse on which the movement of a finger causes the pointer on the screen to move?
Touch pad
Which of the following represents the types of data commonly found in the sales department?
Transactional data.
Which of the following is a type of efficiency MIS metric?
Web traffic
Which of the following provides an example of information?
What is my worst-selling product?
Which of the following provides an example of data?
Who is customer number 12345XX?
