IS 130 Exam 3

What is an organizational strategic plan, IT Strategic Plan?

Organizational strategic plan: identifies the firm's overall mission, goals that follow from that mission and step to reach these goals IT strategic plan: long range goals that describe the IT infrastructure and identify the major IT initiatives needed to achieve the organization's goal three objectives

Define Scope Creep; what is meant by a project being "frozen?"

Scope creep: adding functions after the project has been initiated, time frame exapans beyond agreed upon limit When systems specifications are approved by all participants

What are the reasons managers need IT support?

# of alternatives are constantly increasing, decisions must be made under pressure, increased uncertainty, expense of hiring experts and obtain information

What is Business Intelligence?

A broad category of applications, technologies and processes for gathering, stroing, accessing and analyzing data to help business users make more informed decisions

What is an IT Steering Committee?

A group of managers and staff who represent the various organizational units, created to establish IT priorities and to ensure that the MIS function is meeting the organization's needs

18. What's debugging?

A process that continues throughout the life of the system

What's Agile Development and End-User Development?

Agile development- delivers functionality in rapid iterations, which are usually measured in weeks, requires meeting & communications End user: is an approach in which the organizations end user develop their own applications with little or no formal assistance from the IT department

What's Supply Chain Management and the five basic components of SCM?

An activity in which the leadership of an organizations provides extensive oversight for the partnerships and the processes that compose the supply chain and leverage these relationships to provide and operational advantage 1. Plan- developing metrics to monitor the organization's supply chain to ensure that its efficient and it delivers high quality and value to customers for the lowest cost 2. Source- choosing a supplier for delivery, developing pricing, delivery and payment processes with suppliers 3. Make- manufacturing components, production, testing, packaging 4. Deliver- coordinate customer orders, develop network of warehouses, select carriers, invoicing 5. Return- receiving defective, returns or excess product

Define and know: Application Service Provider and Software-as-a-service (SAAS)

Application service provider: is an agent or vendor who assembles the software needed by enterprises and then packages it with services such as development, operations and maintenance SAAS: is a method of delivering software in which a vendor hosts the applications and provides them as a service to customers over a network typically the internet

Define Intelligent Systems and Artificial Intelligence TBD

Artificial intelligence: a subfield of computer science that is concerned with studying the throughout processes of humans and recreating the effects of those processes of humans and recreating the effects of those processes with machines such as computers

Define batch processing and Online Transaction Processing (OLTP)-

Batch processing: the firm collects data from transactions as they occur, placing them in groups or batches, the system then prepares and processes the batches periodically OLTP: business transactions are processed online as soon as they occur, the system performs these task in real time by ,eams of online technology

What are the benefits and limitations of and ERP systems?

Benefits: enables data to flow among different departments improves organizational flexibility- can respond quicker to changing business conditions , supports decision making- information on performance across areas for decision. Improves quality and efficiency- by integrating business processes, generating significant improvements in the quality of production, distribution and customer service Limitations: companies may need to change their existing business processes to fit the predefined ERP best practice system, can be extremely complex, expensive, time consuming, can bring company to complete failure it it fails Failure to involve affected employees in the planning and development phrases and in change management process Trying to accomplish too much too fast in the conversion process Insufficient training in the new work tasks required by the ERP system Failure to perform proper data conversion and testing for the new system,

What's a CRM, what's a CRM strategy?

CRM: designed to achieve customer intimacy, customer focused driven organizational strategy. CRM strategy: to improve a customer satisfaction, make the company's sales and service employee more productive and generates increased profits

What is Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)?

Communication standard that enables business partners to exchange routine documents, such a purchase product or group of products

What is an IS Operational Plan? And its elements?

Consists of a clear set of projects that the IS department and the functional area managers will execute in support of the IT strategic plan Mission: the mission of the IS function (derived from the IT strategy IS environment: summary of the information needs of the individual's functional areas and of the organization as a whole Objectives of the IS function: best current estimate of the goals of the IS function Constraints of the IS function: technological, financial, personable and other resource limitations on the IS function Resource allocation and project management: listing of who is going to do what, how and when

What is Sales force automation (SFA), cross-selling, upselling, and bundling?

Cross selling: marketing of additional related products to customers based on a previous purchase. Upselling: marketing product or service of greater value in place of or along with a customer initial product . bundling-a group of products or service at a lower price

What is data warehousing, data mart, and data mining?

Data mart: Data mining: searching valuable business information, in large databases, data warehouses, or data marts, identifying previously unknown patterns

Be familiar with information systems for human resources-

Deal primarily with transaction processing system such as managing benefits and keeping records of vacation days. to track vacation, sick leaves, benefits; recruitment - finding potential employees, evaluating , training, education credits. HR functions: recruitment- finding employees testing them and deciding which ones to hire, HR maintenance and development, and HR planning and management.

Be familiar with a drill-down, key indicator, and comparative report

Drill down: display a greater level of detail. Key indicator: summarize the performance of critcia; activities Comparative reports: compare performance of different business units or of a single unit during different times

What is an ERP system, ERP II?

ERP- business process that integrates the planning management and use of all of an organization's resource, employing a common software platform and database . ERP II- interorganizational systems that provide web-enabled link among a common key business systems such as inventory production, customers, suppliers, distributors

What's an Intranet and an Extranet?

Extranet: link business partners over the internet by providing them access to certain areas of each others corporate intranet

What are the causes for failure?

Failure to involve employees in planning/development process, insufficient training, trying to do too much too fast in the conversion process, failure to perform proper data conversion and test system

10. What's an information silo?

Functional area information systems were developed independently of one another

What is Data Visualization and Geographic Information System (GIS)

GIS: a computer based system for capturing, integrating, manipulating and displaying data using digitized maps

Define and know the implementation conversions we discussed: direct, pilot, phased, and parallel

Implementation: the process of converting from an old computer system to a new one Direct: implementation process in which the old system is cut off and the new system is turned on at a certain point in time Pilot: implementation process that introduces the new system in one part of the organization on a trial basis, when the new system is working properly, it is introduced in other parts of the organization Phased: implementation process that introduces components of the new system in stages, until the entire new system is operational Parallel: in which the old and new systems operate is totally simultaneously for a time

What is an expert system?

Information systems that attempt to mimic human experts by applying expertise in a specific domain

What are: Intelligent Agent, Personal Agents, Information Agents, Monitoring and User Agent?

Intelligent agents: a software program that assists you, or acts on your behalf, in performing repetitive, computer related task Personal agents: Information agents: a type of intelligent agent that searches for information and displays it to user Monitoring agents: intelligent agents that constantly observe and report on some item of interest user agents:intelligent agents that take action on your behalf

What are the three basic roles managers perform?

Interpersonal- figurehead, leader, liaison informational - monitor, disseminator, spokesperson, analyzer Decisional- entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator

What is the Feasibility Study and the three possible outcomes?

Investigation that gauges the probability of success of a proposed project and provides a rough assessment of the projects feasibility

What is meant by lifetime value, customer churn, low-end and high-end CRM?

Lifetime value: the customers potential revenue stream over a number of years. Customer churn: overtime all organizations inevitably lose a certain percentage of customers. Low end CRM systems: for enterprises with many small customers. High end CRP systems: for enterprises with a few large customers (boeing)

Define Management and Decision

Management: process by which an organization achieves it goals through the use of resources (people, money, material, information) Decision: a choice among two or more alternatives that individuals and groups make

What are the three flows of information in supply Chain?

Material flows: are physical products, raw material , supplies that flow along the chain Information flow: consists of data related to demand, shipment, orders, returns and schedules as well as changes in any of these data Financial flow : involve money transfers, payments, credit cards infroamtions and suhtorizations, payment schedules, e-payment and credit related data

What are the three objectives and IT Strategic Plan must meet?

Must be aligned with the organization's strategic plan It must seamlessly network user, applications, databases It allocates IS development resource among competing projects can be completed on time and within budget and still have the required functionality

Know and define the four common approaches to conducting the Cost-Benefit Analysis (NPV, ROI, Break Even analysis, business case approach)

Net present value: method to convert future values of benefits to their present value equivalent by discounting them at the organization's cost of funds, they can then compare the present value of the future benefits with the cost required to achieve those benefits to determine whether the benefits exceed the cost Return on investment; measures management's effectiveness in generating profits with its available assets. Its calculated by dividing the net income generated by a project by the average assets invested in the project, is a percentage and the higher the percentage return the better Break even analysis: determines the point at which the cumulative dollar value of the benefits from a project equals the investment made in the project Business case:system developers write a business case to justify funding one or more specific applications or projects

What are neural networks and what are some applications they are used for?

Neutral networks: a set of virtual neurons, placed in layers, which work in parallel in an attempt to simulate the way the human brain works, although in a greatly simplified form. Assigns numerical values, or weights to connection between the neurons

What is Online Analytical Processing (OLAP), Data Mining,

OLAP- the ability to manipulate and analyze large volumes of data simultaneously (slicing and dicing) from multiple perspectives (dimensions) Data mining- searching for valuable business information , in large databases, data warehouse, or data marts , identifying previously unknown patterns

What's an interorganizational process?

Originate and conclude within the company

What's a portal, procurement portal, and distribution portal?

Procurements portals- for company's suppliers, automate the business processes involved in purchasing or procuring products between a single buyer and multiple suppliers Distribution portals- for company's customers to automate the business processes involved in selling or distributing products from a single supplier to multiple buyers

What's Prototyping, Computer-aided Software, Component-based and Object-oriented development?

Prototyping- defines an initial list of user requirements, builds a model of the system, and then refones the system Components based development- components are reusable applications that generally have one specific function, such as a shopping cart, user authentication or a catalog Object oriented development- an object oriented OO system begins not with the task to be performed, but with the aspect of the real world that must be modeled to perform that task

What is a Dashboard?

Provides easy access to timely information and direct access to management reports, designed specifically for the information needs of top executives

List the strategies for acquiring IT Applications

Purchase a pre written application Customize a prewritten application Lease the application Use application service providers and software as a service vendors Use open source software Use outsourcing Employ continuous development Employ custom development

Differentiate between the push and pull models

Push model: companies manufacture products based on forecast (make-to-stock), which predicts the products that customers will want as well as the quantity of each product Pull model- companies manufactures products based on customer order (make-to-order),

Be familiar with information systems for production and information management-

Responsible for the processes that transform inputs into useful outputs as well as for the overall operations of the business. Responsible for managing the organization's supply chain . POM functions: in-house logistics and materials management, inventory management-when to order new inventory how much to order and how much inventory to keep in stock, quality control- controlling defects in incoming materials and goods produced, planning production and operations, computer integrated manufacturing- a manufacturing approach that integrates several computerized systems such as computer assisted design CAD computer assisted manufacturing CAM MRP and JIT , and product lifecycle management- business strategy enables manufacturers to collaborate on product design and development efforts using the web

Be familiar with customer touch applications: search and comparison, technical, information services, customized product/service, etc.

Search and comparison: it is often difficult to find what they want from vast array of product and services available on the web. To assist customers many online stores and malls offer search and comparison capabilities Technical and other information and services: many organizations offer personalized experiences to induce customers to make purchases oe to remain loyal Customized products and services: a process through which customers can configure their own products

Define: Sensitive Analysis, What-If Analysis, Goal-Seeking Analysis?

Sensitive analysis: examines how sensitive an output is to any change in an input while keeping other inputs constant, enables the system to adapt to changing conditions and to the varying requirements of different decisions making situations What is analysis: attempts to predict the impact of changes in the assumption ( input data) on the proposed solution Goal-seeking: represents a backward solution approach, attempts to calculate the value of the inputs necessary to achieve a desired level of output

What's Saas and EAI?

Software-as-a-service: Enterprise application integration: integrates existing systems by providing software called middleware that connects multiple applications; allows existing applications to communicate and share data. Enabling organizations to use existing applications while eliminating many of the problems caused by isolated Information systems

What's Supply Chain and Supply Chain Visibility?

Supply chain: the flow of materials, information, money, and services from raw material suppliers, through factories and warehouses, to the end customers. Also included the organizations and processes that create and deliver products, information, and services to the end customers Supply chain visibility: refers to the ability of all organizations within a supply chain to access or view relevant data on purchased materials as these materials move through their suppliers productions processes and transportation networks to their receiving docks

How does TPS process data?

System processes data in one of two basic ways: batch processing and online processing

What is a TPS system?

Supports the monitoring, collection,storage and processing data from the organization's basic business transaction; collects data continuously and in real time . it provides the input data for the corporate databases

What is Systems Analysis, Systems Designs?

System analysis: the process whereby systems analysts examine the business problem that the organization plans to solve with an information system System design: describes how the system will resolve the business problem

What's technical feasibility, Economic Feasibility, and Behavioral feasibility?

Technical: determines whether the company can develop or otherwise acquire the hardware, software and communications components needed to solve the business problem . also determines whether the organization can use its existing technology to achieve the projects performance objective Economic: determines whether the project is an acceptable financial risk and if so whether the organization has the necessary time and money to successfully complete the project Behavioral: addresses the human issues of the systems development project

What are operational CRMs and who do they support?

The component of CRM that supports the front office business processes that directly interact with customers; sales, marketing and service

What's an application portfolio?

The set of recommended applications resulting from the planning and justification process in application development

What is the System Development life Cycle and its six steps?

The traditional systems development method that organizations use for large scale IT projects that consists of sequential processes by which information systems are developed Systems investigation Systems analysis Systems design Programming and testing Implementation Operations and maintenance

Define Customer Touch Points, 360 degree view, and collaborative CRM?

Touch points: interactions with customers, telephone, mailing, physical, email, web site,and text messages. Any interaction between a customer and an organization 360 degree view: all customers related data available to every unit in the business via a data warehouse . collaborative CRM: provides effective and efficient interactive communication with the customer throughout the entire organization

Think of examples of "transactions" a firm could have during normal operations

Transaction: any business event that generates data worthy of being captured and stored in a database EX: product manufactures, service sold, person hired, payroll check generated, checking out of a walmart

What are some problems and solutions along the supply chain?

Uncertainties is the demand forecast. Demand can be influenced by numerous factors such as competition, pricfe, whether conditions, technological development, and customers general confidence. Another uncertainty is delivery times Need to coordinate multiple activities, internal units and business partners Solutions: justin time inventory system: deliver the precise number of parts to be assembled into a finished product at precisely the right time Information sharing: electronic data interchange and extranets, to improve demand forecast Vendor - the supplier, rather than the retailer, manages the entire inventory process for a particular product or group of products

What are some of the people/employees involved in the SDLC?

Users, system analyst, programmers, and technical specialists

What are the three strategic approaches to implementing ERP systems

Vanilla approach: company implements a standard ERP package, using the packages built in configuration options, this approach can enable the company to perform the implementation more quickly however the extent to which the software is adapted to the organization's specific processes is limited. Provides general functions that can support the firm's common business processes with relative ease Custom approach: implements a more customized ERP system by developing new ERP functions designed specifically for that firm. It is expensive and risky because computer code must be written and updates every time a new version of the ERP software is released Best of breed approach: combines the benefits of vanilla and customized system while avoiding extensive costs and risk associated with complete customization

What is a Decision Support System (DSS)-

combine models and data to analyze semi structured problems and some unstructured problems

4. Be familiar with information systems for accounting and finance-

manage money flow within and out of organizations. Information systems are very diverse and comprehensive. Financial planning and cost of money, budgeting- allocates financial resources among participants and activities, capital busigritng- financial asset acquisitions, managing financial transaction, handling multiple currencies, virtual close- the ability to close the books at any time on short notice, investment management- managing organizational investments in sticks, bonds, real estate, and other investment vehicles, budgetary control- monitoring expenditures and comparing them against the budget, auditing- ensuring the accuracy of the organizations financial transactions and assessing the condition of the organization's financial health, payroll

What are other types of customer relationship management: on demand CRM, mobile CRM, open source, Social CRM, etc.

on demand CRM: hosted by an external vendor in the vendors data center, less expensive, no maintenance. Mobile CRM: enables organizations to conduct communications related to sales, marketing and customer service activities through a mobile medium to maintain relationship with its customers. Open Source CRM: system whose source for open source software is available to developers and users at no cost. Social CRM: enable organizations to engage their customers in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value. Use of social media technology and service to enable organizations to engage their customers in a collaborative conversation in order to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent manner Real time CRM: organizations are able to respond to customer product search, request, complaints, comments, ratings, reviews and recommendations in near real time

Be familiar with the procurement, fulfilment, and production processes

procurement : which originates in the warehouse department (need to buy) and ends in the accounting department (send payment) Fulfillment: which originates in the sales department (customer request to buy) and ends in the accounting department (receive payment( Production: which originates and ends in the warehouse department (need to produce and reception of finished goods) but involves the production department as well

Define Analytical CRM systems-

provides business intelligence by analyzing customer behavior and perceptions, also creates statistical model of customer behavior and the value of customer relationship over time as well as forecast about acquiring, retaining and losing customers

Know and define a routine, ad hoc, and Exception report-

routing: produced at scheduled intervals, like one a week. They range from hourly quality control to daily reports on absenteeism rates Ad hoc: out of routine. Non Routine reports that often contain special information that is not included in routine reports. Can include request for the following types of info: drill down reports, key indicator reports and comparative reports Exception: only information that falls outside certain standards.