INFYS 2800 Test 1

List and describe each of the components in the data hierarchy.

. The data hierarchy includes bits, bytes, fields, records, files, and databases. Data are organized in a hierarchy that starts with the bit, which is represented by either a 0 (off) or a 1 (on). Bits are grouped to form a byte that represents one character, number, or symbol. Bytes are grouped to form a field, such as a name or date, and related fields are grouped to form a record. Related records are collected to form files, and related files are organized into a database

The five steps in an ethical analysis

1. identify and describe clearly the facts 2. define the conflict or dilemma and identify the higher-order values involved 3. identify the stakeholders 4. identify the options that you can reasonably take 5. identify the potential consequences of your options

Name and briefly describe the capabilities of a DBMS.

A DBMS includes capabilities and tools for organizing, managing, and accessing the data in the database. The principal capabilities of a DBMS include data definition language, data dictionary, and data manipulation language. • The data definition language specifies the structure and content of the database. • The data dictionary is an automated or manual file that stores information about the data in the database, including names, definitions, formats, and descriptions of data elements. • The data manipulation language, such as SQL, is a specialized language for accessing and manipulating the data in the database.

Define business processes and describe the role they play in organizations.

A business process is a logically related set of activities that define how specific business tasks are performed. Business processes are the ways in which organizations coordinate and organize work activities, information, and knowledge to produce their valuable products or services. How well a business performs depends on how well its business processes are designed and coordinated. Well-designed business processes can be a source of competitive strength for a company if it can use the processes to innovate or perform better than its rivals. Conversely, poorly designed or executed business processes can be a liability if they are based on outdated ways of working and impede responsiveness or efficiency.

Define a database and a database management system and describe how it solves the problems of a traditional file environment.

A database is a collection of data organized to service many applications efficiently by storing and managing data so that they appear to be in one location. It also minimizes redundant data. A database management system (DBMS) is special software that permits an organization to centralize data, manage them efficiently, and provide access to the stored data by application programs. A DBMS can reduce the complexity of the information systems environment, reduce data redundancy and inconsistency, eliminate data confusion, create program-data independence, reduce program development and maintenance costs, enhance flexibility, enable the ad hoc retrieval of information, improve access and availability of information, and allow for the centralized management of data, their use, and security.

key field

A field in a record that uniquely identifies instances of that record so that it can be retrieved, updated, or sorted

Describe the roles of information policy and data administration in information management.

An information policy specifies the organization's rules for sharing, disseminating, acquiring, standardizing, classifying, and inventorying information. Information policy lays out specific procedures and accountabilities, identifying which users and organizational units can share information, where information can be distributed, and who is responsible for updating and maintaining the information. Data administration is responsible for the specific policies and procedures through which data can be managed as an organizational resource. These responsibilities include developing information policy, planning for data, overseeing logical database design and data dictionary development, and monitoring how information systems specialists and end-user groups use data. In large corporations, a formal data administration function is responsible for information policy, as well as for data planning, data dictionary development, and monitoring data usage in the firm.

Explain how enterprise applications improve organizational performance.

An organization operates in an ever-increasing competitive and global environment. The successful organization focuses on the efficient execution of its processes, customer service, and speed to market. Enterprise applications provide an organization with a consolidated view of its operations across different functions, levels, and business units. Enterprise applications allow an organization to efficiently exchange information among its functional areas, business units, suppliers, and customers.

Explain how intranets and extranets help firms integrate information and business processes.

Because intranets and extranets share the same technology and software platforms as the Internet, they are easy and inexpensive ways for companies to increase integration and expedite the flow of information within the company (intranets alone) and with customers and suppliers (extranets). They provide ways to distribute information and store corporate policies, programs, and data. Both types of nets can be customized by users and provide a single point of access to information from several different systems. Businesses can connect the nets to transaction processing systems easily and quickly. Interfaces between the nets and TPS, MIS, DSS, and ESS systems provide input and output for users.

describe the technologies for managing and analyzing big data

Big data contains more patterns and interesting anomalies than smaller data sets. That creates the potential to determine new insights into customer behavior, weather patterns, financial market activity and other phenomena. Hadoop: Open-source software framework that enables distributed parallel processing of huge amounts of data across inexpensive computers. The software breaks huge problems into smaller ones, processes each one on a distributed network of smaller computers, and then combines the results into a smaller data set that is easier to analyze. It uses non-relational database processing and structured, semi-structured and unstructured data. In-memory computing: rather than using disk-based database software platforms, this technology relies primarily on a computer's main memory for data storage. It eliminates bottlenecks that result from retrieving and reading data in a traditional database and shortens query response times. Advances in contemporary computer hardware technology makes in-memory processing possible. Analytic platforms: Uses both relational and non-relations technology that's optimized for analyzing large datasets. They feature preconfigured hardware-software system designed for query processing and analytics.

List and describe the components of a contemporary business intelligence infrastructure.

Business intelligence (BI) infrastructures include an array of tools for obtaining useful information from all the different types of data used by businesses today, including semi-structure and unstructured big data in vast quantities. Data warehouses, data marts, Hadoop, in-memory processing, and analytical platforms are all included in BI infrastructures. Powerful tools are available to analyze and access information that has been captured and organized in data warehouses and data marts. These tools enable users to analyze the data to see new patterns, relationships, and insights that are useful for guiding decision making. These tools for consolidating, analyzing, and providing access to vast amounts of data to help users make better business decisions are often referred to as business intelligence. Principal tools for business intelligence include software for database query and reporting tools for multidimensional data analysis and data mining.

Explain how the Internet challenges the protection of individual privacy and intellectual property.

Contemporary information systems technology, including Internet technologies, challenges traditional regimens for protecting individual privacy and intellectual property. Data storage and data analysis technology enables companies to easily gather personal data about individuals from many different sources and analyze these data to create detailed electronic profiles about individuals and their behaviors. Data flowing over the Internet can be monitored at many points. The activities of Web site visitors can be closely tracked using cookies, Web beacons, and other Web monitoring tools. Not all Web sites have strong privacy protection policies, and they do not always allow for informed consent regarding the use of personal information.

Explain how text mining and Web mining differ from conventional data mining.

Conventional data mining focuses on data that have been structured in databases and files. Text mining concentrates on finding patterns and trends in unstructured data contained in text files. The data may be in email, memos, call center transcripts, survey responses, legal cases, patent descriptions, and service reports. Text mining tools extract key elements from large unstructured data sets, discover patterns and relationships, and summarize the information. Web mining helps businesses understand customer behavior, evaluate the effectiveness of a particular Web site, or quantify the success of a marketing campaign. Web mining looks for patterns in data through: • Web content mining: Extracting knowledge from the content of Web pages. • Web structure mining: Examining data related to the structure of a particular Web site. • Web usage mining: Examining user interaction data recorded by a Web server whenever requests for a Web site's resources are received

Describe how users can access information from a company's internal databases through the Web.

Conventional databases can be linked via middleware to the Web or a Web interface to facilitate user access to an organization's internal data. Web browser software on a client PC is used to access a corporate Web site over the Internet. The Web browser software requests data from the organization's database, using HTML commands to communicate with the Web server. Because many back-end databases cannot interpret commands written in HTML, the Web server passes these requests for data to special middleware software that then translates HTML commands into SQL so that they can be processed by the DBMS working with the database. The DBMS receives the SQL requests and provides the required data. The middleware transfers information from the organization's internal database back to the Web server for delivery in the form of a Web page to the user. The software working between the Web server and the DBMS can be an application server, a custom program, or a series of software scripts.

Define data mining, describing how it differs from OLAP and the types of information it provides.

Data mining provides insights into corporate data that cannot be obtained with OLAP by finding hidden patterns and relationships in large databases and inferring rules from them to predict future behavior. The patterns and rules are used to guide decision making and forecast the effect of those decisions. The types of information obtained from data mining include associations, sequences, classifications, clusters, and forecasts.

Explain why data quality audits and data cleansing are essential.

Data that are inaccurate, incomplete, or inconsistent create serious operational and financial problems for businesses because they may create inaccuracies in product pricing, customer accounts, and inventory data, and lead to inaccurate decisions about the actions that should be taken by the firm. Firms must take special steps to make sure they have a high level of data quality. These include using enterprise-wide data standards, databases designed to minimize inconsistent and redundant data, data quality audits, and data cleansing software. A data quality audit is a structured survey of the accuracy and level of completeness of the data in an information system. Data quality audits can be performed by surveying entire data files, surveying samples from data files, or surveying end users for their perceptions of data quality. Data cleansing consists of activities for detecting and correcting data in a database that are incorrect, incomplete, improperly formatted, or redundant. Data cleansing not only corrects data but also enforces consistency among different sets of data that originated in separate information systems.

Describe the capabilities of online analytical processing (OLAP).

Data warehouses support multidimensional data analysis, also known as online analytical processing (OLAP), enables users to view the same data in different ways using multiple dimensions. Each aspect of information represents a different dimension. OLAP represents relationships among data as a multidimensional structure, which can be visualized as cubes of data and cubes within cubes of data, enabling more sophisticated data analysis. OLAP enables users to obtain online answers to ad hoc questions in a fairly rapid amount of time, even when the data are stored in very large databases. Online analytical processing and data mining enable the manipulation and analysis of large volumes of data from many perspectives, for example, sales by item, by department, by store, by region, in order to find patterns in the data. Such patterns are difficult to find with normal database methods, which is why a data warehouse and data mining are usually parts of OLAP.

Describe the characteristics of decision-support systems (DSS) and how they benefit businesses.

Decision-support systems (DSS) support nonroutine decision-making for middle managers. • DSS provide sophisticated analytical models and data analysis tools to support semistructured and unstructured decision-making activities. • DSS use data from TPS, MIS, and external sources, in condensed form, allowing decision makers to perform "what-if" analysis. • DSS focus on problems that are unique and rapidly changing; procedures for arriving at a solution may not be fully predefined. • DSS are designed so that users can work with them directly; these systems include interactive, user-friendly software.

Describe the characteristics of executive support systems (ESS) and explain how these systems differ from DSS.

Executive support systems (ESS) help senior managers address strategic issues and long-term trends, both in the firm and in the external environment. • ESS address nonroutine decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight because there is no agreed-on procedure for arriving at a solution. • ESS provide a generalized computing and communications capacity that can be applied to a changing array of problems. • ESS are designed to incorporate data about external events, such as new tax laws or competitors, but they also draw summarized information from information from internal MIS and DSS. • ESS are designed for ease-of-use and rely heavily on graphical presentations of data.

Explain how ethical, social, and political issues are connected and give some examples.

Figure 4-1 can be used to answer this question. Information technology has raised new possibilities for behavior for which laws and rules of acceptable conduct have not yet been developed. The introduction of new information technology has a ripple effect, raising new ethical, social, and political issues that must be dealt with on the individual, social, and political levels. Ethical, social, and political issues are closely related. Ethical issues confront individuals who must choose a course of action, often in a situation in which two or more ethical principles are in conflict (a dilemma). Social issues spring from ethical issues as societies develop expectations in individuals about the correct course of action. Political issues spring from social conflict and are mainly concerned with using laws that prescribe behavior to create situations in which individuals behave correctly. In giving examples, students can identify issues surrounding the five moral dimensions of the information age. These include: information rights and obligations, property rights and obligations, accountability and control, system quality, and quality of life.

Name and describe four quality-of-life impacts of computers and information systems.

Four quality of life impacts of computers and information systems include: • Jobs can be lost when computers replace workers or tasks become unnecessary in reengineered business processes. • Ability to own and use a computer may be exacerbating socioeconomic disparities among different racial groups and social classes. • Widespread use of computers increases opportunities for computer crime and computer abuse. • Computers can create health problems, such as repetitive stress injury, computer vision syndrome, and technostress.

List and describe the three operations of a relational DBMS.

In a relational database, three basic operations are used to develop useful sets of data: select, project, and join.

Explain why it is so difficult to hold software services liable for failure or injury.

In general, as far as computer software is part of a machine, and the machine injures someone physically or economically, the producer of the software and the operator can be held liable for damages. As far as the software acts like a book, storing and displaying information, courts have been reluctant to hold authors, publishers, and booksellers liable for contents (the exception being instances of fraud or defamation), and hence courts have been wary of holding software authors liable for book-like software. In general, it is very difficult (if not impossible) to hold software producers liable for their software products that are considered to be like books, regardless of the physical or economic harm that results. Historically, print publishers, books, and periodicals have not been held liable because of fears that liability claims would interfere with First Amendment rights guaranteeing freedom of expression. Software is very different from books. Software users may develop expectations of infallibility about software; software is less easily inspected than a book, and it is more difficult to compare with other software products for quality; software claims actually to perform a task rather than describe a task, as a book does; and people come to depend on services essentially based on software. Given the centrality of software to everyday life, the chances are excellent that liability law will extend its reach to include software even when the software merely provides an information service.

Describe the relationship between information systems and business processes.

Information systems automate manual business processes and make an organization more efficient. Data and information are available to a wider range of decision-makers more quickly when information systems are used to change the flow of information. Tasks can be performed simultaneously rather than sequentially, speeding up the completion of business processes. Information systems can also drive new business models that perhaps wouldn't be possible without the technology.

List and define three different regimes that protect intellectual property rights?

Intellectual property is subject to a variety of protections under three different legal traditions: • Trade secrets • Copyright • Patent law Traditional copyright laws are insufficient to protect against software piracy because digital material can be copied so easily. Internet technology also makes intellectual property even more difficult to protect because digital material can be copied easily and transmitted to many different locations simultaneously over the Net. Web pages can be constructed easily using pieces of content from other Web sites without permission.

explain how MIS differ from TPS and from DSS.

MIS differs from TPS in that MIS deals with summarized and compressed data from the TPS. Although MIS have 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 a long-term structured analysis inherent in MIS systems. MIS are generally not flexible and provide little analytical capabilities. In contrast, DSS are designed for analytical purposes and are flexible.

Describe the characteristics of management information systems (MIS)

Middle management needs systems to help with monitoring, controlling, decision-making, and administrative activities. • MIS provide middle managers with reports on the organization's current performance. This information is used to monitor and control the business and predict future performance. • MIS summarize and report the company's basic operations using data supplied by TPSs. The basic transaction data from TPS are compressed and usually presented in reports that are produced on a regular schedule. • MIS serve managers primarily interested in weekly, monthly, and yearly results, although some MIS enable managers to drill down to see daily or hourly data if required. • MIS generally provide answers to routine questions that have been specified in advance and have a predefined procedure for answering them. • MIS systems generally are not flexible and have little analytical capability. • Most MIS use simple routines, such as summaries and comparisons, as opposed to sophisticated mathematical models or statistical techniques.

Define and describe normalization and referential integrity and explain how they contribute to a well-designed relational database.

Normalization is the process of creating small stable data structures from complex groups of data when designing a relational database. Normalization streamlines relational database design by removing redundant data such as repeating data groups. A well-designed relational database will be organized around the information needs of the business and will probably be in some normalized form. A database that is not normalized will have problems with insertion, deletion, and modification. Referential integrity rules ensure that relationships between coupled tables remain consistent. When one table has a foreign key that points to another table, you may not add a record to the table with the foreign key unless there is a corresponding record in the linked table.

List and describe the problems of the traditional file environment.

Problems with the traditional file environment include data redundancy and confusion, program-data dependence, lack of flexibility, poor security, and lack of data sharing and availability. Data redundancy is the presence of duplicate data in multiple data files. In this situation, confusion results because the data can have different meanings in different files. Program-data dependence is the tight relationship between data stored in files and the specific programs required to update and maintain those files. This dependency is very inefficient, resulting in the need to make changes in many programs when a common piece of data, such as the zip code size, changes. Lack of flexibility refers to the fact that it is very difficult to create new reports from data when needed. Ad-hoc reports are impossible to generate; a new report could require several weeks of work by more than one programmer and the creation of intermediate files to combine data from disparate files. Poor security results from the lack of control over data. Data sharing is virtually impossible because it is distributed in so many different files around the organization.

Define and describe an entity-relationship diagram and explain its role in database design.

Relational databases organize data into two-dimensional tables (called relations) with columns and rows. Each table contains data on an entity and its attributes. An entity-relationship diagram graphically depicts the relationship between entities (tables) in a relational database. A well-designed relational database will not have many-to-many relationships, and all attributes for a specific entity will only apply to that entity. Entity-relationship diagrams help formulate a data model that will serve the business well. The diagrams also help ensure data are accurate, complete, and easy to retrieve.

RSI

Repetitive stress injury (RSI) is avoidable. Three management actions that could reduce RSI injuries include: • Designing workstations for a neutral wrist position, using proper monitor stands, and footrests all contribute to proper posture and reduced RSI. • Using ergonomically designed devices such as keyboards and mice are also options. • Promoting and supporting frequent rest breaks and rotation of employees to different jobs.

Describe how the information systems function supports a business.

The information systems department is the formal organizational unit responsible for information technology services. The information systems department is responsible for maintaining the hardware, software, data storage, and networks that comprise the firm's IT infrastructure.

Define a relational DBMS and explain how it organizes data.

The relational database is the primary method for organizing and maintaining data in information systems. It organizes data in two-dimensional tables with rows and columns called relations. Each table contains data about an entity and its attributes. Each row represents a record and each column represents an attribute or field. Each table also contains a key field to uniquely identify each record for retrieval or manipulation.

List and describe the key technological trends that heighten ethical concerns.

There are four key technological trends responsible for heightening ethical concerns. These trends include: • Computing power doubles every 18 months • Data storage costs rapidly declining • Data analysis advances • Networking advances and the Internet Increasing computer power, storage, and networking capabilities including the Internet can expand the reach of individual and organizational actions and magnify their impacts. The ease and anonymity with which information can be communicated, copied, and manipulated in online environments are challenging traditional rules of right and wrong behavior.

Explain why non-relational databases are useful.

There are four main reasons for the rise in non-relational databases: cloud computing, unprecedented data volumes, massive workloads for Web services, and the need to store new types of data. These systems use more flexible data models and are designed for managing large data sets across distributed computing networks. They are easy to scale up and down based on computing needs. They can process structured and unstructured data captured from Web sites, social media, graphics. Traditional relational databases aren't able to process data from most of those sources. Non-relational databases can also accelerate simple queries against large volumes of structured and unstructured data. There's no need to pre-define a formal database structure or change that definition if new data are added later.

List and describe the principal causes of system quality problems?

Three principle sources of poor system performance are: • Software bugs and errors • Hardware or facility failures caused by natural or other causes • Poor input data quality Zero defects in software code of any complexity cannot be achieved and the seriousness of remaining bugs cannot be estimated. Hence, there is a technological barrier to perfect software, and users must be aware of the potential for catastrophic failure. The software industry has not yet arrived at testing standards for producing software of acceptable but not perfect performance. Although software bugs and facility catastrophes are likely to be widely reported in the press, by far the most common source of business system failure is data quality. Few companies routinely measure the quality of their data, but individual organizations report data error rates ranging from 0.5 to 30 percent.

Describe the characteristics of transaction processing systems (TPS) and the roles they play in a business.

Transaction processing systems (TPS) are computerized systems that perform and record daily routine transactions necessary in conducting business; they serve the organization's operational level. The principal purpose of systems at this level is to answer routine questions and to track the flow of transactions through the organization. • At the operational level, tasks, resources, and goals are predefined and highly structured. • Managers need TPS to monitor the status of internal operations and the firm's relationship with its external environment. • TPS are major producers of information for other types of systems. • Transaction processing systems are often so central to a business that TPS failure for a few hours can lead to a firm's demise and perhaps that of other firms linked to it.

describe a supportive organization culture and business process for collaboration

a collaborative culture relies on teams of employees to implement and achieve results for goals set by senior managers. Policies, products, designs, processes, and systems are much more dependent on teams at all levels of the organization to devise, to create, and to build. Rather than employees being rewarded for individual results, they are rewarded based on their performance as a team. The function of middle managers in a collaborative business culture is to build the teams, coordinate their work, and monitor their performance. In a collaborative culture, senior management establishes collaboration and teamwork as vital to the organization, and it actually implements collaboration for the senior ranks of the business as well.

liability

a feature of political systems in which a body of laws is in place that permits individuals to recover the damages done to them by other actors, systems, or organizations

Accountability

a feature of systems and social institutions. It means that mechanisms are in place to determine who took responsible action

Responsibility

a key element of ethical actions. Responsibility means that you accept the potential costs, duties, and obligations for the decisions you make

entity

a person, place, thing, or event on which information is obtained

attribute

a piece of information describing a particular entity

fair information practices

a set of principles governing the collection and use of information about individuals. FIP principles are based on the notion of a mutuality of interest between the record holder and the individual

join operation

combines relational tables to provide the user with more information than is otherwise available.

select operation

creates a subset consisting of all records in the file that meet stated criteria.

project operation

creates a subset consisting of columns in a table, permitting the user to create new tables that contain only the information required

Big data

describes datasets with volumes so huge they are beyond the ability of typical database management systems to capture, store, and analyze.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems

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

Knowledge management systems (KMS)

enable organizations to better manage processes for capturing and applying knowledge and expertise. These systems collect all relevant knowledge and experience in the 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.

supply chain management (SCM) systems

help businesses better manage relationships with their suppliers. Objective of SCM: Get the right amount of products from the companies' source to their point of consumption with the least amount of time and with the lowest cost. 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. SCM helps organizations achieve great efficiencies by automating parts of these processes or by helping organizations rethink and streamline these processes. SCM is important to a business because through its efficiency it can coordinate, schedule, and control the delivery of products and services to customers.

Enterprise systems

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.

Social business

part of an organization's business structure for getting things done in a new collaborative way. it uses social networking platforms to connect employees, customers, and suppliers. The goal of social business is to deepen interactions with groups inside and outside a company to expedite and enhance information-sharing, innovations, and decision-making

technostress

stress induced by computer use: symptoms include aggravation, hostility toward humans, impatience, and fatugue

Privacy

the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations, including the state. Claims of privacy are also involved at the workplace

Collaboration

working with others to achieve shared and explicit goals. it focuses on task or mission accomplishment and usually takes place in a business, or other organizations, and between businesses. Collaboration can be short lived or longer term, depending on the nature of the task and the relationship among participants. It can be one-to-one or many-to-many

CRM system business benefits

• CRM systems provide information to coordinate all the business processes that deal with customers in sales, marketing, and service to optimize revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. This information helps firms identify, attract, and retain the most profitable customers; provide better service to existing customers; and increase sales. • CRM systems consolidate customer data from multiple sources and provide analytical tools for answering questions such as: What is the value of a particular customer to the firm over his/her lifetime? • CRM tools 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 the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and provide higher-quality customer service and support.

Collaboration and social business are important because

• Changing nature of work. More jobs are becoming "interaction" jobs. These kinds of jobs require face-to-face interaction with other employees, managers, vendors, and customers. They require systems that allow the interaction workers to communicate, collaborate and share ides. • Growth of professional work. Professional jobs in the service sector require close coordination and collaboration. • Changing organization of the firm. Work is no longer organized in a hierarchical fashion as much as it is now organized into groups and teams who are expected to develop their own methods for accomplishing tasks. • Changing scope of the firm. Work is more geographically separated than before. • Emphasis on innovation. Innovation stems more from groups and teams than it does from a single individual. • Changing culture of work and business. Diverse teams produce better outputs, faster, than individuals working on their own.

SCM systems business benefits

• Decide when and what to produce, store, and move • Rapidly communicate orders • Track the status of orders • Check inventory availability and monitor inventory levels • Reduce inventory, transportation, and warehousing costs • Track shipments • Plan production based on actual customer demand • Rapidly communicate changes in product design

Identify and describe six ethical principles.

• Golden Rule—Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. • Immanuel Kant's Categorical Imperative—If an action is not right for everyone to take, it is not right for anyone. • Descartes' rule of change—If an action cannot be taken repeatedly, it is not right to take at all. • Utilitarian Principle—Take the action that achieves the higher or greater value • Risk Aversion Principle—Take the action that produces the least harm or the least potential cost. • "No free lunch" rule—Assume that virtually all tangible and intangible objects are owned by someone else unless there is a specific declaration otherwise.

enterprise systems business benefits

• Information flows seamlessly throughout an organization, improving coordination, efficiency, and decision making. • Gives companies the flexibility to respond rapidly to customer requests while producing and stocking only that inventory necessary to fulfill existing orders. • Increases customer satisfaction by improving product shipments, minimizing costs, and improving a firm's performance. • Improves decision making by improving the quality of information for all levels of management. That leads to better analyses of overall business performance, more accurate sales and production forecasts, and higher profitability.

List and describe the various types of collaboration and social business tools

• Internet-based collaboration environments like Lotus Notes, Groove, and WebEx provide online storage space for documents, team communications (separated from email), calendars, and audio-visual tools members can use to meet face-to-face. • Email and Instant Messaging (IM) are reliable methods for communicating whenever and wherever around the globe. • Cell phones and wireless handhelds give professionals and other employees an easy way to talk with one another, with customers and vendors, and with managers. These devices have grown exponentially in sheer numbers and in applications available. • Social networking is no longer just "social." Businesses are realizing the value of providing easy ways for interaction workers to share ideas and collaborate with each other. • Wikis are ideal tools for storing and sharing company knowledge and insights. They are often easier to use and cheaper than more proprietary knowledge management systems. They also provide a more dynamic and current repository of knowledge than other systems. • Virtual worlds house online meetings, training sessions, and "lounges" where real-world people meet, interact, and exchange ideas. • Google Apps/Google sites and cloud collaboration allow users to quickly create online group-editable Web sites that include calendars, text, spreadsheets, and videos for private, group, or public viewing and editing. • Microsoft SharePoint software makes it possible for employees to share their Office documents and collaborate on projects using Office documents as the foundation.

KMS business benefits

• KMS support processes for acquiring, storing, distributing, and applying knowledge, as well as processes for creating new knowledge and integrating it into the organization. • KMS include enterprise-wide systems for managing and distributing documents, graphics, and other digital knowledge objects; systems for creating corporate knowledge directories of employees with special areas of expertise; office systems for distributing knowledge and information; and knowledge work systems to facilitate knowledge creation. • KMS 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.

List and describe the business benefits of collaboration and social business

• Productivity: people working together accomplish tasks faster, with fewer errors, than those working alone. • Quality: people can communicate errors and correct them faster when working together versus working alone. • Innovation: people working in groups can generate more innovative ideas than if they were working alone. • Customer service: people working in teams can solve customer complaints and issues faster and more effectively versus working in isolation. • Financial performance: collaborative firms have superior sales, sales growth, and financial performance.

Compare the roles played by programmers, systems analysts, information systems managers, the chief information officer (CIO), chief security officer (CSO), and chief knowledge officer (CKO).

• Programmers are highly trained technical specialists who write the software instructions for computers. • Systems analysts constitute the principal liaisons between the information systems groups and the rest of the organization. The systems analyst's job is to translate business problems and requirements into information requirements and systems. • Information systems managers lead teams of programmers and analysts, project managers, physical facility managers, telecommunications mangers, or database specialists. • Chief information officer is a senior manager who oversees the use of information technology in the firm. • Chief security officer is responsible for information systems security in the firm and has the principle responsibility for enforcing the firm's information security policy. The CSO is responsible for educating and training users and IS specialists about security, keeping management aware of security threats and breakdowns, and maintaining the tools and policies chosen to implement security. • Chief knowledge officer helps design programs and systems to find new sources of knowledge or to make better use of existing knowledge in organizational and management processes.