Information systems Exam 1

What is strategic positioning?

(Contrasts with operational effectiveness)

What are enterprise softwares?

-Comprised of additional data beyond conventional purchase transactions. Include: --CRM: Customer relationship management systems --SCM: Supply chain management --ERP: enterprise resource planning

What are technical concepts associated with database systems?

-Table/File -Column/field -Row or record -Attribute

Input

Activity of gathering and capturing raw data

The value web is ______ driven

Customer driven

Which of the following is a way to recognize disruptive innovations?

Seeking the opinions of venture capitalists, research academics, and passionate internal engineering staff

Zara___ in size between 1996 and 2000.

Tripled

A value chain is a set of:

activities through which a product or service is created and delivered to customers.

E-commerce

the buying and selling of goods and services by using the internet.

Competitive advantage is measured by:

-Accounting profits -Stock price

How does IT enable competitive advantage?

-Be different -Product differentiation -Price discrimination -Lowering Costs

What is netflix's competitive advantage?

-Brand -Cinematch -Scale and long tail

What is Netflix's Cinematch

-Collaborative Filtering Customers viewing are mined; customers are asked to rate the programs they watched. Compared customer ratings to others. Recommended based on inventory.

What is the substitute for music CDs? What is the comparative sound quality of the substitute? Why would a listener accept an inferior product?

-Streaming services -Lower -due to convenience

Tech firms are among the best performing firms in the world. According to the chapter, which firm is the most valuable firm in the United States and has also posted some of the most profitable quarters of any business in any industry.

Apple

How does IT lower costs>

Automation/substitution, processing data is cheaper

Why did Google beat Yahoo! in search?

Because yahoo saw search as a commodity and something they could subcontract while google saw that as their business model

The six important business objectives of information system include:

Competitive advantage, survival, customer intimacy, improved decision making

Middle levels use:

Decision support systems (DSS)

Competitive advantage

Delivering better performance and responding to customers and suppliers in real time

What are disruptive innovations?

Don't need to perform better than incumbents; they simply need to perform well enough to appeal to the customers of the incumbents.

What is price discrimination?

Exists when sales of identical goods or services are transacted at different prices of the same provider. charging different customers different prices

What is text mining?

Extracting key elements from large unstructured data sets (sentiment analysis software - able to mine text comments in an e-mail message, blog, etc.)

A salesperson's ability to effectively bargain with his/her consumers is called viral marketing

False

According to Michael Porter, the reason many firms suffer from margin-eroding competition is because they have defined themselves according to strategic positioning rather than operational effectiveness

False

Bitcoin was created by a consortium of for-profit corporations hoping to fuel adoption of a beneficial new standard.

False

Incentives for U.S consumer adoption of bitcoin are quite high

False

Network externalities exist when a product or service becomes less expensive as more people use it.

False

The United States hold the number one ranking in home broadband access.

False

The strengthening of the euro relative to the dollar has insulated Zara against financial vulnerabilities.

False

What is sustainable competitive advantage?

Financial performance that consistently outperforms industry averages.

How does Fresh Direct enable a competitive advantage>

Fresh delivery service different from other competitors

Decision Support Systems (DSS) helps which level of employees in firms?

Help mid/upper level managers--> used by super managers

In two decades, the nation of ____ tech sector has grown from "almost nothing" to $120 billion industry, expanding even during the recent global recession.

India

Goal of information systems?

Info Systems serve various management levels in companies. The ultimate goal is to realize that one system helps serve other systems and working together all the systems serve the entire organization.

What kind of data does Decision Support Systems (DSS) use? And for what?

It combines external data with internal data to help various situations and helps with semi-structured decisions. -Interactive systems -Allows what if analysis

what is the Porters Five Forces Model?

It determines the relative attractiveness of an industry. Includes: Buyer power, supplier power, threat of substitutes, rivalry amoung existing competitors, and threat of new entrants.

What is supply chain management systems?

It helps businesses better manage relationships with suppliers with the objective to get the right ammount of product from the companies source to the point of consumption with the least amount of time and lowest cost.

What is the purpose of a data quality audit?

It is a structured survey of the accuracy and level of completness of the data in an information system.

Which is highlighted as a source of switching costs?

Learning costs, information and data, search costs, loyalty programs.

What often limits data utilization?

Legacy systems because they were not designed to share data, aren't compatible with newer technologies and aren't aligned with the firms current business needs.

What is Netflix's purpose moving from atoms to bits?

Netflix eliminates a huge chunk of its shipping and handling costs Bandwidth costs are minimal

Extranets

Networks that link business partners over the Internet by providing them access to certain areas of each other's corporate intranets.

What is an example of raw data from a class taught by Dr. Karake?

One additional student was granted exception to register late for the class.

What is strategic positioning?

Performing different tasks than your rivals. -Higher value/revenue

What are the dimension to product differentiation?

Physical attributes: color size, etc Intangible attributes: service, quality

Who uses Decision Support Systems (DSS)?

Professionals, staff managers

Data

Raw facts and figures

The three principal levels of hierarchies within a business organization are:

Senior management, middle management and operational management

Knowlege is

The insight of a manager from experience and expertise that stronger decisions can be made.

What is the goal of Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

To create computer programs that are able to mimic or improve upon functions that would otherwise require human intelligence

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley are credited as the founders of:

Youtube

Entities

an entity is a person, place, object, event or concept for which data has to be collected.

What is a column or field in a database?

defines the data that a table can hold.

Due to limited production, Zara customers:

visit the stores more often

How does KMS support business?

-Acquires, stores, distributing and applying knowledge. -manages and distributes documents, graphics and other digital knowledge objects -use intelligent techniques that codify knowledge and experience for use by other members of the organization and tools for knowledge discovery that recognize patterns and important relationships in large pools of data.

Set of factors that can lead to sustainable competitive advantage if?

-Affects the firm in a positive way, not too many competitors can intimitate it or keep up with it.

What role does technology play in enabling the other elements of Zara's counterintuitive strategy? Could the firm execute its strategy without technology? Why or why not?

-Allows for highly efficient supply chain and customization as well as getting new items to stores faster -No because there would be no way to record, send and analyze the data as efficiently

Customer and Supplier Intimacy

-Customers who are served well become repeat customers who purchase more. (Customer retention) -Close relationships with suppliers result in lower costs

What are the capabilities of Database Management Systems?

-Data definition language: specifies structure of database content. used to create tables and define characteristics of fields -Data dictionary: automated or manual file storing definitions of data elements and their characteristics -Data manipulation language: used to add, change, delete, retreive data from a database. ex. SQL

How did Netflix build brand?

-Distribution system allows fast reliable service -online system provides wide selection, good reccomendations -allow customers to set up a list so they can always send you something you want right away.

What are the secondary components of the value chain:

-Firm infrastructure: functions that support the whole firm, including general management, planning, IS and finance. -Human resource management: recruiting, hiring, training and development -Technology/research and development: new product and process design -Procurement: Sourcing and purchasing functions.

What are the primary components of the value chain?

-Inbound logistics: getting needed materials and other inputs into the firm from suppliers -Operations: turning inputs into products or services -Outbound logistics: delivering products or services to consumers, distribution centers, retailers or other partners. - Marketing and sales: customer engagement, pricing, promotion and transaction. -Support: Service, maintenance and customer support

How do firms use IT tactics to change its products or processes?

-Internal innovation: generate new knowledge -Internal growth-economies of scale -Mergers and acquisitions -Strategic alliances- partnerships with other companies

Function of Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

-Keep track of basic activities and transactions (any business related exchange) of organizations ex. sales, reciepts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions, payments to suppliers or employees

What are the sources of switching costs?

-Learning costs -information and data -Financial commitment -Contractual commitment -Search costs -Loyalty programs

Netflix global expansion

-MBA countries in Latin america -Expansion into Europe- original content in other languages

Who ran Gap in the 1990s? How did the executive perform prior to leaving Gap? Describe what happened to sales. Why?

-Micky Drexler -Very well until he missed on some style guesses and it went down hill

What does the global economy bring? What is the impact on information systems?

-New markets and more competitors -Need for multiple language support, currency exchanges, consolidation of international data

How is data captured in Zara stores? Using what types or classifications of information systems? How does the firm use this data?

-POS systems and PDAs-It uses it to customize its styles and store fronts to what the customers say they want

Who was the Gap's second CEO of this decade? How did sales fare under him? Why?

-Paul Pressler -Not well also bad style guesses

What is price transparency? What is information asymmetry? How does the Internet relate to these two concepts? How does the Internet shift bargaining power among the five forces?

-Price transparency is how much the consumer knows about the products and how much it should cost -information asymmetry is when the seller knows more than the buyer -The internet has allowed customers to know far more about products such as cars and understand the value much better giving the consumer much more power than they had before

Function of Management Information Systems (MIS)

-Provide middle managers with reports on firms performance. -Provide periodic information and reports to monitor performance in the future.

What are the benefits of CRM customer relationship management systems?

-Provides information to coordinate all the business processes that deal with customers in sales, marketing and service to optimize revenue, customer satisfaction and customer retention. -Consolidate customer data from multiple sources and provide analytical tools for answering questions. -Integrate a business's customer-related processes and consolidate customer information from multiple communication channels, giving the customer a consolidated view of the company. -Detailed and accurate knowledge of customers and their preferences helps firms increase effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and provide higher quality customer service and support.

Importance of Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

-Serve operational managers -Purpose is to answer routine questions and track the flow of transactions -Monitor status of internal operations and firms relationship with external environment

Technology plays a key role in creating and reinforcing assets for sustainable advantage by enabling an imitation-resistant value chain by:

-Strengthening a firms brand -Collecting useful data and establishing switching costs -creating a network effect -creating or enhancing a firms scale advantage; enabling product or service differentiation - offering an opportunity to leverage unique distribution channels

The fast follower problem exists when?

-When savvy rivals watch a pioneers efforts -learn from their successes and missteps - then enter the market quickly with a comparable or superior product at a lower cost before the first mover can dominate.

Would a traditional Internet storefront work well with Zara's business model? Why or why not?

-Yes if incorporated with the storefronts, but independently it would fail because so much of Zara's model is based on the traditional store front and getting feedback through this. -One downside of this would be it could be less efficient and cause them to straddle two markets

What factors account for a firm's profit margin? What does Gap focus on? What factors does Zara focus on to ensure a strong profit margin?

-cost of goods and operating -low costs of production -customer enjoyment

How does enterprise systems change the work flow of an organization?

-info flows seamlessly throughout an organization -Gives companies flexibility to respond rapidly to customer requests -Increases customer satisfaction by improving product shipments -increases decision making by improving the quality of information for all levels of management.

In what ways is the Zara model counterintuitive? In what ways has Zara's model made the firm a better performer than Gap and other competitors?

-it is vertically integrated rather than utilizing contract manufacturing -Better more customized to consumers stores and styles

How does technology spending at Zara compare to that of rivals? Advertising spending? Failed product percentages? Markdowns?

-lower -almost no advertising -10x lower -marks down less with 85 percent of its products at full price compared to the average 50

What risks are inherent in the conventional practices in the fashion industry? Is Zara susceptible to these risks? Is Zara susceptible to different risks? If so, what are these?

-products not being liked -no -yes, natural disasters and other out of your control issues in one part of the world could cause a major inventory issue around the world

What are key aspects of netflix Business Model for DVDs?

-videos arrive in red envelopes that also contain prepaid return -Customers make their veiwing choices online in their request queue. If a title isnt available netflix moves to the next title in the queue.

Describe the Fair Factories Clearinghouse. Which firm thought of this effort? Why did they give the effort away? What happens as more firms join this effort and share their data?

-way of analyzing contract manufacturers and making sure they are safe -To ensure everyone in the industry was supporting proper human rights -it becomes better and more accurate

Technology drivers for Information Systems

1. Networks and internet 2. Mobile and Wireless Technologies 3. Object Technologies 4. Enterprise Applications

Six strategic business objectives

1. Operational excellence 2. New products, services, and business models 3. Customer and supplier intimacy 4. Improved decision making 5. Competitive advantage 6. Survival

What are the two characteristics that make disruptive technologies threatening?

1. They come to the market with a set of performance attribute that existing customers dont value. 2. Overtime the performance attribute improve to the point where they invade established markets.

How has the rise of the Internet impacted each of the five forces for music retailers?

1. the existing competitors largely became irrelevant due to itunes and other music streaming services 2. The threat of new entrants is much higher because companies like pandora have much less barriers to entry 3. The threat of substitute goods and services is higher than ever also because companies can undercut each other with the same product 4. Buyers have much more bargaining power because there is more price transparency and comeptition 5. The bargaining power of the suppliers is down because of the price transparency

Computer-Based Information System (CBIS)

A single set of hardware, software, databases, telecommunications, people, and procedures that are configured to collect, manipulate, store, and process data into information. Ex. companys payroll system, order entry system, inventory system

What is Dense Wave Division Multiplexing? (DWDM)

A technology that increases the transmission capacity (speed) of fiber-optic cable. Transmissions using fiber are accomplished by transmitting light inside glass cables. In DWDM the light inside fiber is split into different wavelengths in a way similar to how a prism splits light into different colors.

What is augmented-reality?

A technology that superimposes content, such as images and animation on top of real-world images.

What is the value web?

A value web is a collection of independent firms that use information technology systems to coordinate their value chains. Theyre flexible and adapt to changes in supply and demand.

What is the effect of switching costs on buyer bargaining power?

Companies are more likely to make switching costs higher so that consumers dont leave to a cheaper service

What is the "conventional wisdom" of the fashion industry with respect to design, manufacturing, and advertising?

Create a fashion line guessing the next season

Which of the following statements about technology is true?

Technological improvements can often be copied by rivals, leading to profit-eroding arms race.

What are disruptive technologies?

Technologies that come to the market with performance attributes not demanded by existing customers, but performance improves overtime to the point where these new innovations can invade established markets.

Does technology lower barriers to entry or raise them? Do low entry barriers necessarily mean that a firm is threatened?

Technology lowers barriers to entry due to how easy it is to create a website and all, but just because they can enter does not mean that they are threatening major firms. Major firms have such a large market share that it is difficult but not impossible to overtake a big firm.

Competitive Advantage

The ability of a firm to outperform its competitors in financial markets

What is Buyer Power?

The ability of buyers to affect the price of an item

What plays a critical role in differentiation?

Data

What do data lakes do?

Data lakes provide access to a large pool of data that may be structured or in its "raw" form. Data lakes also include tools for access and analysis which sets them apart from inaccessible and unusable "data swamps".

What are to key techniques of databases that improve business performance?

Data warehousing and data mining

What is a resource-based view of competitive advantage?

The strategic thinking approach suggesting that if a firm is to maintain sustainable competitive advantage, it must control an exploitable resource or set of resources, that have four identical characteristics. These resources must be 1) valuable, 2) rare, 3) imperfectly imitable, 4) non substitutable

What is supplier power?

The suppliers' ability to influence the prices they charge for supplies

How does brand affect competitive advantage?

The symbolic embodiment of all the information connected with the product lowers search costs. Proxies quality and inspires trust.

The acronym VoIP is considered to be a disruptive innovation and refers to:

The technology used in internet telephony

What are customer management systems?

They enable a business to better manage its relationships with existing and potential customers. With the growth of the web, the potential customer can easily comparison shop for retail and wholesale goods and even raw materials, so treating customers better have become very important

What are knowledge management systems?

They enable organizations to better manage processes for capturing and applying knowledge and expertise. these systems collect all relevant knowledge and experience in he firm, and make it available wherever and whenever it is needed to improve business processes and management decisions. They also link the firm to external sources of knowledge.

What are incumbent technologies?

They satisfy a sweet spot of consumer needs and often improve overtime even overshooting the performance needs of the market.

MIS uses data from what processing system?

Transaction Processing System

Systems for different levels of management

Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) Management Information Systems (MIS) Executive/Decision Support Systems (ESS)

Disruptive technology is also called disruptive innovation.

True

ESS are designed to serve the middle management of the organization

False

Firms are increasingly shifting spending from the Web to other media such as print, radio, and television as these are often easier to track and analyze

False

What type of data does Management Information Systems (MIS) use?

Internal data only Weekly, monthly and annual results -not very flexible with little analytic capability

How has the internet intensified competitive rivalry?

Internet is based on universal standards that any company can use, making it easy for rivals to compete on price alone and for new competitors to enter the market. Because information is available to everyone, the internet raises the bargaining power of customers who can quickly find the lowest cost provider on the web.

In what ways is the online music buying experience superior to that of buying in stores?

It is more convenient and has more songs

What is a data warehouse and why would a business want to implement one?

It stores current and historical data from many core operational transaction systems, then consolidates and standardizes information for use across enterprise, but data cannot be altered.

What is the value chain?

Its a connected series of activities, each of which adds value or supports the addition of value to the firms goods and services.

what is the imitation-resistant value chain?

Its a way of going about business in a way that competitors struggle to replicate

An example of a business using information systems for supplier intimacy is:

JCpenney's information system that allows its contract manufacturers to see what garments have been sold and need to be replaced

What do you suppose are the factors that helped Gap to at one point rise to be first in sales in the fashion industry?

Low prices and ad campaigns on tv

How IT enables differentiation on the demand side?

Lower search costs thanks to the internet

How does MIS and TPS differ?

MIS differ from TPS in that MIS deal with summarized and compressed data from the TPS.

How does MIS management information system and DSS differ?

MIS has an internal orientation, DSS will often use data from external sources, as well as data from TPS and MIS. DSS supports "what-if" analyses rather than long-term structure analysis of MIS. MIS are generally not flexible and provide little analytical capabilities. DSS are designed for analytical purposes and are flexible.

Making seasonal apparel decisions is a challenge because it often involves making predictions on what customers will be interested in, months in advance of clothing appearing on store shelves

True

Many of the careers in marketing are highly tech-centric

True

More recently, Apple has leveraged its iTunes platform as a distribution channel to launch a new subscription service. Just nine months after launching the Apple music, the firm had attracted over 13 million paying subscribers

True

The rise of open source software has lowered computing costs for start-up and blue chip companies worldwide.

True

Total revenue for Walmart in 2019 surpassed half a trillion dollars

True

Zara encourages employee use of technology by tying employee salaries to sales performance

True

Zara's clothing look like high fashion, but are comparatively inexpensive

True

More than 25% of critical data in Fortune 100 company databases are inaccurate or incomplete. T/F

True. Data problems stem from faulty input (GIGO)

The VRIS framework to achieving Sustainable competitive advantage? Resource based theory

Valuable Rare Not easily Intimitated Not easily substitutible

System parameter

Value or quantity that cannot be controlled Ex. Cost of raw material, legislations

What is the difference between system variables and parameters?

Variables are controlled by the decision maker while parameters cannot be controlled

Two types of product differentiation:

Vertical: Build better product, products differ in quality Horizontal: position yourself in a product space away from competitors

What is a one-to-many relationship?

an instance on one side of the relationship can have related instances, but an instance on the other side will have a maximum of one related instance

What is an attribute in databases?

each characteristic or quality describing an entity. ex. attributes date or grade belong to entity: course.

What is a one-to-one relationship?

each instance in the relationship will have one related instance

In retail in general and fashion in particular, having ___ is considered the kiss of death

excess inventory

Senior levels use:

executive support systems (ESS)

What does the concept network effects mean?

exist when a product or service becomes more valuable as more people use it. The value of a product or service increases as its number of users expands.

What are switching costs?

exists when consumers incur an expense to move from one product or service to another

Tangible assets are:

factories, products

What is a major factor limiting business intelligence initiatives?

getting data into a form where it can be used. Incompatible systems: some data cant be used.

How does the Internet impact bargaining power for providers of rare or highly differentiated goods? Why?

helps them because they have more buyers now

Explain why environments are important for understanding a business

Business environments are constantly changing. NEw developments in technology, politics, customer preferences and regulations happen all the time.

Why do businesses often fail in result to the environment?

Businesses fail because they failed to respond adequately to changes in their environments. A firm must monitor changes in its environment and share information with key entities in that environment in order to stay in business.

Globalization and Business

Global economy expands markets and introduces new competitors. Globalization accelerates the change of technology. Technology is the forefront of the modern world creating new jobs, innovations and networking sites to allow global connection.

How does SCM benefit businesses:

Helps -Decide when and what to produce, store, move. -Rapidly communicate orders -track the status of orders -Check inventory availability and monitor inventory levels -Reduce inventory, transportation and warehousing costs -track shipments

What is rivalry among existing competitors?

High when competition is fierce in a market and low when competitors are more complacent

What is the threat of new entrants?

High when it is easy for new competitors to enter a market and low when there are significant entry barriers

Zara's staff members regularly collect data from customers at its stores. This data is used to:

Inform designers on customer preferences and staff on store sales results

Explain how the value web helps businesses identify opportunities for strategic information systems

Information systems enable value webs that are flexible and adaptive to changes in supply and demand.

What are NoSQL technologies and which firms tend to use it?

NoSQL avoid SQL and rigid structure of relational databases. These technologies are especially popular with internet firms that rely on massive, unwieldy and disparately structured data, often at the heart of what are characterized as "big data" efforts.

How can you achieve Competitive advantage?

Operational Effectiveness and Strategic Positioning

What are netflix's plans moving forward?

Original content, Global expansion, Challenges and opportunities.

A(n) ___ is a transaction process that captures customer purchase information.

POS

What is the most popular database format?

Relational Databases: whereby tables (files) are related based on common keys.

Intangible assests are:

Reputation

How does information flow in supply chain management systems (SCM)?

SCM provide information to help suppliers, purchasing firms, distributors and logistics companies share information about orders, production, inventory levels and delivery of products and services so that they can source, produce and deliver goods and services efficiently.

From highest to lowest, the three levels of organizational hierarchy are:

Senior, middle and operational management

Database Management Systems (DBMS)

Software for creating, maintaining and manipulating data. Database software

A firm is said to be ___ when it attempts to match the benefits of a successful position while maintaining its existing position.

Straddling

____ refers to performing different tasks than rivals or same tasks in different way.

Strategic positioning

What are data marts?

Subsets of data warehouse that typically focus on single subject or a line of business

Some of the radical changes brought about by new technologies include:

The creation of an unprecedented set of security and espionage threats.

Describe how the internet has changed competitive forces and competitive advantage.

The internet has created entirely new markets and formed the basis of thousands of new businesses. The internet has enabled new products and services, new business models and new industries to rapidly develop.

What is the long tail phenomenon in which provides Netflix with leverage?

The long tail is a phenomenon whereby firms can make money by offering a near-limitless selection. -the demand exists even though products aren't popular enough for stores to carry them.

System intergration

The process of building unified information system out of diverse components of purchases software

Is there such a thing as the first-mover advantage? Why or why not?

Yes, but it is not just being the first mover, but being able to capitalize on the advantage you have is the key factor. Just being first does not make you the one to capitalize. You have to make sure the infrastructure is in place and you dont have a major flaw like gmail did with its capacity or how Holywood Movie created basically netflix, but the internet was not good enough for it to work yet.

Under what conditions can the Internet strengthen supplier bargaining power? Give an example.

Yes, it gives the supplier far more buyers if they have a rare item-Shoe industry and ebay

What is a table or file in a database?

a list of data -either a single table or a collection of related table

Structured Query Language (SQL)

a nonprocedural, declarative language used to manipulate databases. You need to tell the system what to do but not how to do it.

What is data cleansing?

a software designed to detect and correct data that are incorrect, incomplete, improperly formatted or redundant. Ex. Enforces consistency among different sets of data from separate information systems.

What is machine learning?

a type of AI often broadly defined as software with the ability to learn or improve without being explicitly programmed.

Processing

converting or transforming data into useful outputs

Internal business environmental forces include:

customers, suppliers, stockholders, regulations and competitors.

Operational Excellence

improvement of efficiency to attain higher profitability

What is a many-to-many relationship?

instances on both sides of the relationship can have many related instances on the other side.

Zara hold a competitive advantage over its rivals in spite of:

keeping large portions of its production processes in-house

Role of the middle managers

need more specific information on the results of specific functional areas and departments of the firm, such as sales contacts by the sales force, production statistics for specific factories or product lines, employment level and costs and sales revenues for each month or even each day

Roles of the senior managers

need summary information that quickly informs them about the overall performance of the firm, such as gross sales, revenues, sales by product group and region, and overall profitability.

Operational managers

need transaction-level information, such as the number of parts in inventory each day or the number of hours logged on tuesday by each employee.

The e-commerce strategy that blends online and offline sales is called ______

omnichannel

Feedback

output used to make changes to processing or input activities

What is operational effectiveness?

performing the same tasks better than rivals perform them. (Lower cost)

Intranets

private internet designed for use of employees

Converting raw data into a more meaningful form is called

processing

Output

production of useful information usually in form of documents and reports

Operational managers include help from

production or service workers that actually produce the product and deliver the service.

System Variable

quantity or item controlled by the decision maker

The E-R Model constructs

relationships between entities

What is a row or record in a database?

represents a single instance of whatever the table keeps track of. ex. Each row of the "Students" table represents a student, each row of the "Enrollment" tabkke represents the enrollment of a student in a particular course.

Database:

single table or collection of related tables. List of data.

How IT enables differentiation on the supply side?

technologies lower cost of providing variety

External business environmental forces include:

technology and science, economy, international change and politics

What are distribution channels?

the path through which products or services get to customers.

What is data mining?

the process of analyzing data to extract information not offered by the raw data alone. ex. finding patterns in customer data for one-to-one marketing campaigns.

What is the threat of substitutes?

the threat of limiting the potential returns of an industry by placing a ceiling on the prices that firms in that industry can profitably charge without losing too many customers to substitute products

E-Business

the use of the internet to conduct support day to day business activities

What are enterprise systems?

they integrate the key business processes of an organization into a single central data repository. This makes it possible for information that was previously fragmented in different systems to be shared across the firm and for different parts of the business to work more closely together.

Operational levels use:

transaction processing IT

An information system consists of hardware, software, telecommunications, data, procedures and the people who interact with and are impacted by the system

true

Disruptive innovations don't need to perform better than incumbents: they simply need to perform well enough to appeal to their customers

true

The Fair Factories Clearinghouse is subject to network effets

true

Dell's present struggles:

underscore the importance of continually assessing a firm's strategic position among changing market conditions

What is predictive analysis?

uses data warehouses and complex algorithms to forecast future events, based on historical trends and calculated probabilities

In an industry where nearly every major player outsources manufacturing to low-cost countries, Zara is highly ___, keeping huge swaths of its production process in house

vertically integrated