BSAT 518 Quizzes – Flashcards

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An overarching theme of lecture 1 is that:
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IT can provide a competitive advantage
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A social business strategy is designed to use social IT tools for all of the following EXCEPT:
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Excluding stakeholders
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In the digital economy:
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firms produce an intangible product
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L.L. Bean is an online/catalog retail company that aggressively uses tools like instant messaging to communicate with customers regarding potential purchases and uses Facebook for branding activities. This use of technology supports which strategy?
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Social business strategy
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As you walk out of WalMart, the receipt in your hand states that you purchased a book and a water. This is an example of:
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Data
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To remain competitive, an organization's business strategy must adapt and respond to all of the following variables. Which variable in particular does IS help to determine?
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The capabilities of the organization
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Companies that exist only on the Internet are referred to as:
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Pure Play
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This risk of using information resources must be carefully considered by managers due to the rapid spread of applications on smartphones and tablet devices.
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Mobile-based alternatives remove advantages
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Which model is best used to understand the ways in which information technologies allow a firm to both attain and sustain a competitive advantage?
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The Resource-Based View
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Zara's strategically uses information technologies to do all of the following EXCEPT:
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Build silos of responsibilities with limited interaction between store managers, designers and market specialists
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Google has disrupted a number of industries, particularly the advertising and software industries. Google's ability to quickly and aggressively provide new products and services is best described by:
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The Hypercompetition Model
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The business diamond identifies the crucial, interrelated components for designing an organization. The components include all of the following EXCEPT:
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Social Media
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Business strategies based on hypercompetition focus on customer satisfaction and profit maximization but also build in a component of business intelligence. Business intelligence helps an agile organization to:
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Predict and respond to new opportunities
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Porter's value chain framework suggests that a competitive advantage can stem from:
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Lowering costs and adding value
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Organizations seek to gain a competitive advantage by differentiation, cost, or _________.
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focus
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GE recognized that it could only sustain its competitive advantage for a limited time as competitors attempted to outmaneuver them. What was the model that Welch applied to help solve this problem?
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Destroy your business
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Facebook offers services that many individuals have adapted to, making it difficult for them to choose another social networking site. It can be said that Facebook has protected itself from which competitive force?
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Potential threat of new entrants
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Organizational, cultural, and control variables are considered the ________ used by decision makers to effect change in their organization.
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managerial levers
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This risk of using information resources must be carefully considered by managers due to the rapid spread of applications on smartphones and tablet devices.
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Mobile-based alternatives remove advantages
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Which part of the value chain includes the manufacturing of goods
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Operations
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The________________________ is a plan articulating where a business seeks to go and how it expects to get there.
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Business strategy
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When a company's business strategy and technology strategy are intertwined, this situation is known as _______.
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convergence
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Two automobile manufacturers are working together to develop hybrid technology. This type of relationship between the two automobile manufacturers is best described as:
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Co-opetition
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This framework is called the _____________ because it relates business strategy with IS strategy and organizational strategy.
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Information Systems Strategy Triangle
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A general manager should:
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Understand the use and consequences of technologies relevant to the business
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All of the following are identified causes of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill EXCEPT for:
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The alignment of the Information Systems Strategy Triangle
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Through the use of various technologies, a ski resort tracks the slopes each customer skis and the times he or she skis them. Skiers then have the ability to view the info online and can choose to seamlessly share their accomplishments on Facebook. IN addition, photographers positioned at the resort post pictures on Facebook for their skier. The ski resort has worked hard to develop a strong:
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Social business strategy
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Technology guru Tim O'reilly said this about the publishing industry, "To adapt, publishers need to cannibalize their own business, experimenting with new forms, new formats, and new business models" This statement is consistent with:
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Hypercompetition
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Partnering with a competitor is becoming more and more common in today's intergrated, technology-based environment. This type of collaboration with a competitor is uniquely described as:
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Co-opetition
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All of the following are new types of jobs created by the growing reliance on technology EXCEPT:
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Editors/writers
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activities at one time may want to have IM or VOIP available to them so that they can communicate with their colleagues and still work on other tasks.
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polyschronous
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IBM has implemented a social network analysis tool that maps the _________ and the connections of IBM employees, supporting innovation by allowing employees to find others in the company with particular skills, interests or expertise.
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Knowledge
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This is an approach that links a company with providers of the raw components it needs to make a product or service, manufacture that product or service, and delivers it to customers.
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Supply chain Management
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The major difference between an ERP and ERP II system is this feature.
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Information is made immediately available to external stakeholders using social and collaborative tools
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When would an organization elect to use BPR over TQM? Select one:
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When they need to attain aggressive improvement goals
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________________ is the process of analyzing data warehouses for "gems".
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Data mining
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Knowledge that has been identified, captured, and leveraged to produce higher-value goods or services or some other competitive advantage for the firm is called:
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Intellectual capital
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All of the following are examples of socialization EXCEPT for:
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Project management
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Programs used to build new application programs or specific information systems applications are:
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System Development Programs
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The qualities found in a successful remote worker include all of the following EXCEPT:
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Ineffective communicator
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Steve works for a pharmaceutical company and he specializes in marketing and sales. Steve travels often to customers and brings his "electronic office" with him when he goes. Steve also uses this same technology when he goes to the corporate office or works from home. According to the text, what type of worker is Steve?
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e. Telecommuter
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_________________________is an all-encompassing tool used for modeling, building, executing and monitoring business processes that go across organizational boundaries (and often systems).
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e. Business Process Management systems
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Enterprise systems are useful for organizations seeking to do all of the following EXCEPT:
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d. Encourage duplication of data
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Capital One found ________ in combination with business analytics to be a very low-cost way to design and develop new products and services for customers.
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b. Experimentation
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Business analytics fuel ________ decision making.
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e. fact-based
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16. The point in time when the organization struggles to acquire new customers and the organization plateaus is known as the:
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a. Strategic Inflection Point
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17. Which one of the following is NOT a factor driving the use of telecommuting?
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c. Stronger sense of company culture
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18. ERP systems are expensive for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:.
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c. They do not require business process redesign.
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19. Organizations use the enterprise system to drive the redesign of a business process (rather than the process driving the system implementation) for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:
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a. The organization has highly specialized processes that are not seen as best practices.
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20. This is the term used to describe the techniques and technology that make it possible to deal with very large volumes of information that are created and stored for analysis.
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Big data
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21.Unlike other baseball teams at the time, the Oakland A's used this to manage the team and carry themselves to the playoffs.
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Factual data
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22. By utilizing business analytics, a company can learn which one of the following?
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a. Who is buying the product and what price they're willing to pay
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23. Managers in today's global, virtual workforce must rethink how they break from traditional methods of managing, particularly in the all of the following ways EXCEPT:
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b. Setting strategic objectives
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24. The qualities found in a successful remote worker include all of the following EXCEPT
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Ineffective communication
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25. increasingly Which of the following would you expect from a ROWE (results oriented work environment)?
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a. An organization where employees can choose when and where they work as long as project goals are met
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26. Which one of the following enterprise systems is social IT increasingly integrating with?
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a. CRM
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27. If an organization were going to make substantial changes to its customer service department, it would use this type of transformation tool.
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d. Business Process Reengineering (BPE)
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28. ________________ is hard to structure, hard to transfer, and highly personal to the source.
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b. Tacit knowledge
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29. As discussed in our online synchronous case study discussion, one of the similarities between Mrs. Fields and Otisline is that they both:
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b. Centralized control of their IT
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30. The concept of "jobs" is being replaced with the concept of work, requiring a framework that links the IS Strategy with the organization strategy to answer all of the following EXCEPT:
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a. How can IT increase the ineffectiveness of workers?
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31.Businesses today link their customers and suppliers through a single network that optimizes cost and opportunities for all. This is possible because of the following reasons EXCEPT:
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The inability to coordinate workflow across organizational boundaries
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32. These are collections of data designed to support management decision-making, and sometimes serve as repositories of organizational knowledge.
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Data warehouses
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33. Which one of the following is NOT a quality associated with agile and dynamic business processes?
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Change requires significant redesign effort
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34. Knowledge management is the process that generates, captures, codifies and _________ knowledge across an organization in order to achieve a competitive advantage.
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Transfers
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35.Diversity in virtual teams increases the communication challenges. However, virtual teams with diversity have demonstrated which of the following?
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More creative solutions
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36. In this business structure the firm is a hierarchy organized around a set of functions. Each groups has a core competency that it concentrates upon.
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functional
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37. An organziations' only sustainable competitive advantage lies in:
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The employees' knowledge and how they apply that knowledge to business problems
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1. Benefits from standardizing on the SAP suite of products and reducing its reliance on multiple vendors
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b. Make realistic use of IT and know what to expect from IT.
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2. Critical to the business case is the identification of both _________ and ________.
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b. costs, benefits
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3. Mary is recommending IT investments in the neighborhood of $250 million for her company. However, the board is hesitant since it's such as capital-intensive project. If the project fails the company could go out of business. What financial calculation should they use?
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EVA
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4. This architecture is a complex framework whose main objective is to map how the organization's IT supports the business processes.
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Enterprise architecture
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5. The architecture that the large oil company Valero adopted enables the company to build applications from components and realize gains as a result of this flexibility. The architecture is called:
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c. Service-oriented
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6. This development methodology is more traditional and more structured than other approaches.
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d. Software development life cycle (SDLC)
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7. This financial calculation provides a percentage rate that measures the relationship between the amount the business gets back from an investment and the amount invested.
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ROI
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8. This is a plan designed to counter a manmade or natural disaster that could cripple an enterprise.
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a. Business Continuity Plan
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9. This is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.
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project
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10. This project cycle plan chart looks very much like a bar chart and is easy for management to read because of its visual nature.
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Grantt
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11. This project cycle plan tends to be used for projects that have direct relationships between time and resources.
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CPM
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12. This provides a blueprint for translating a business strategy into a plan for IS.
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b. IS architecture
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13. What is at the center of the project triangle?
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Quality
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14. What is the process of assisting people to make an alteration in their working environment?
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Change management
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15. Which type of computer/IT architecture is limited to a central computer system?
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Mainframe
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16.While a relatively simple method for funding, corporate budgeting ______________
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b. may result in an IT organization that is less end-user oriented.
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17. All of the following are qualities of a dashboard EXCEPT:
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Raw Data
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18. Using a cloud service from Amazon.com, the New York Times was able to:
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c. Quickly digitize old articles without needing to purchase additional infrastructure components.
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19. Which one of the following software products is NOT an open source software release?
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Microsoft Office
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20. Scorecards provide a summary of information gathered over a period of time. Another common IT monitoring tool is the _____________.
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d. dashboard
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21. Scope may be divided into product scope and __________ scope.
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project
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22. Denise works for a company where the IT department charges her department for actual usage of a SharePoint server, determining how often users log in and how much storage space her department consumes. What type of IT funding model is the company deploying?
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Chargeback method
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23. Google Maps is a web mapping service that provides street maps and directions. A Google Maps component can be added to a business's web site to provide customers directions to the business location. This use of Google's service by a business is an example of __________.
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c. Service-oriented architecture
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24. Valuing an IT investment is difficult because:
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a. Many IT investments are necessities and payback is hard to calculate.
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25. In today's hypercompetitive business environment, firms that have strong project management skills have a higher likelihood of success because they are able to:
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b. Adapt processes and systems and therefore innovate faster than their competitors.
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26. An IT dashboard provides:
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d. Current and critical measurements for the organization in an easy to read manner.
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27. Understanding the life span of the IT infrastructure and architecture is called?
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b. Strategic timeframe
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28. Which of the following should a manager expect from the IS organization?
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e. All of the above
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29. What type of software is released under a license approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI)?
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d. Open Source Software (OSS)
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30. All of the following are reasons why a company may choose to use cloud computing for its IT infrastructure EXCEPT:
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c. Reduce dependency on third-party suppliers
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31. Open source software __________.
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a. is free.
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32. What does PMO stand for?
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e. Project Management Office
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"33. Reuse" is a benefit of service-oriented architecture because it supports:
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b. The breaking apart of functionality into small services that can be used by many different systems
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34. A local marketing firm is considering launching a new and extensive social media marketing campaign. This investment of resources is being looked at through the length of the project since it is anticipated to last at least 5 years. What financial calculation should be used to compute the time value of money?
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NPV
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35. Mary from sales is asking about the plan to implement Salesforce.com's application. You explain to her that you are in the process of getting technical specifications and pricing so that you can move forward with the rollout. This would be part of which of the following plans?
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b. IT infrastructure
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36. A successful project begins with a ____________ that articulates the purpose and details of the project and identifies stakeholders and the required resources.
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c. business plan
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37. All of the following are new roles found in an organization today EXCEPT:
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e. Database administrator
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38. Increasing project success requires gaining commitment from stakeholders. All of the following help to sustain that commitment for the life of the project EXCEPT:
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d. Surprising the stakeholders by keeping the system's workings a secret
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39. All of the following are IT platforms EXCEPT for the _________.
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d. MS Office platform
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40. Which dimension of the balanced scorecard answers the question "How do customers see us?"
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a. Customer perspective
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41. Sam has just purchased 10 new high speed color laser printers for his company. He is very excited because he got a 40% discount and paid only $2,990 for each unit. His boss, Joe, wants to know things such as operating costs, support, overhead, etc. for the printers. Joe wants to know this value:
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b. TCO
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42. This architecture is a complex framework whose main objective is to map how the organization's IT supports the business processes.
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e. Enterprise architecture
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43. The components of enterprise architecture are: shared data, the linking and automation technology used to share the data, the people who are served by the system and ______________.
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d. Core business processes
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44. Open source software __________.
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is free
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45. Valero's growth required a change to its IT architecture. SOA was chosen by Valero because Valero:
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a. Needs flexibility to efficiently integrate new applications with existing independent systems
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46. A CIO must spend part of the day performing _____ tasks and the some part of the day working on operational tasks. Rarely can a CIO focus on just one task in any given day.
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Strategic
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47. The balanced scorecard:
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b. Is a method used to evaluate the health of an organization by looking at all value drivers such as the customers, the workforce, the financials and business processes.
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48. To reduce risk, a project should have which one of the following qualities.
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High Clarity
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49.Marketing has repeatedly asked the IT department about the possibility of aligning the new marketing plan with the company's web site. They would like the new web site to be able to support more active content and permit customers to query an online catalog. You let them know that this is currently being considered and that you're determining if this new business strategy can be translated into a viable plan of action. This would be part of which of the following?
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IT architecture
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50. The type of architecture where larger software programs are broken down into services which are then connected to each other, in a process called orchestration, is called:
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SOA
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51. According to our synchronous case discussions, which of the following is not accurate?
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When the new CEO came to Siemens he made ShareNet a top priority
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52. Risks associated with cloud computing include all of the following EXCEPT:
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Scalability
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52. Risks associated with cloud computing include all of the following EXCEPT:
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Flexibility
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54. The method of IT funding is the most equitable, as the costs associated with the IT are based on use. However, it can be difficult and tedious to calculate the usage costs.
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Chargeback
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55.This project cycle plan tend to be used for projects that have direct relationships between time and resources
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CPM
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56. Walmart, the word's largest retailer, uses RFID tags to track movement of goods across its intense supply chain. One identifiable benefit is that pallets of goods no longer manually logged by a worker when received. Instead , an information system automatically logs the goods as they arrive. This benefit is identified as
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cessation
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58.The architecture that the large oil company Valero adopted enables the company to build applications from components and realize gains as a result of flexibility. The architecture is called:
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service-oriented
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59.Which of the following best describes cloud computing?
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Computing services that can be accessed on demand across the internet
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A small company is Des Moines wants to set up an IT architecture for its workforce. The company ...?.... communication architecture makes most sense for this company
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Wireless
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1. This newer organizational design is designed to be highly flexible so that resources can be configured quickly to respond to changing demands.
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d. Zero time organization
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2. All of the following help to develop informal networks that play an important role in an organization EXCEPT for:
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Performance Reviews
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3. A networked organizational structure feels both like a_______ and a_______ organizational structure because it supports a rigid structure with well-connected communication networks.
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c. flat, hierarchical
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4. In which type of organizational structure is power centralized and the type of environment best supported stable and certain?
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Hierarchical
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5. Outsourcing to a company located in the same time zone is referred to as this type of sourcing.
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c. Nearshoring
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6. What is it called when a company brings IS capabilities that were previously outsourced back in-house?
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Backsourcing
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7. Outsourcing decisions can be difficult and expensive to reverse because of: (p. 282)
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c. The complicated infrastructure and staffing considerations.
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8. organization uses contractor services, or even builds its own data center in a distant land.
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a. Offshoring
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9. In East Asia, a small cluster of countries, namely China, Malaysia and Korea, are creating a reputation for this type of outsourcing.
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Nearshoring
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10. Organizations chose to outsource IT activities for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:
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a. To create a core competency
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11. Traditional organizations have one of four types of organizational design. What are these four structure types?
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c. Hierarchical, flat, matrix, networked
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12. The organizational structure of Tata Consulting Services (TCS) is a ___________ organizational structure.
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d. hierarchical
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13. Which of the following makes countries attractive for offshoring?
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a. All of the above.
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14. The functions of an entire data center can be replaced by which one of the following cloud computing providers?
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d. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
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15. Outsourcing providers have more experience dealing with a large number of IS staff and as a result, are often good at doing all of the following EXCEPT:
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b. Retaining IT workers for short-term employment
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16. Which one of the following is a driver for outsourcing?
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b. Ease of transition to new technologies
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17. Zara's store managers place orders that reflect their localized needs. However, order fulfillment is ultimately the responsibility of the commercial team in headquarters because:
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Store managers do not have visibility into regional demands but the commercial team does.
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18. Cognizant's organizational structure was _________, but realized as its organizational grew and its services became more complicated that a ______ structure for the organization was more appropriate.
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Hierarchical, matrix
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19. In which type of organizational structure will employees report to two or more supervisors?
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Matrix
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20. This type of organizational structure is based upon the concepts of division of labor, specialization, and unity of command. Key decisions are made at the top and filter down through the organization.
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Hierarchical
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21. The newest sourcing for today's IT organizations is:
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Cloud computing
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22. iCloud is an example of which one of the following?
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Cloud computing
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23. This is a type of captive center that performs core business processes for a parent company and outsources noncore work offshore.
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Hybrid captive
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24. The initial reason organizations outsourced IT was which one of the following?
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Cost reduction
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25. In which type of organizational design do middle managers do the primary information processing and communication function, telling subordinates what to do and then reporting the outcome to senior management?
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Hierarchical
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26. Ensuring a cultural fit with an outsourcing provider is especially important when an organization is considering which one of the following?
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Offshoring
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27. All of the following are risks associated with IS outsourcing EXCEPT:
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Realized cost savings
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29. In which type of organizational structure is power distributed, and the ideal environment flexible and adaptable?
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d. Networked
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30. To provide potential customers an idea of an outsourcing provider's development capabilities, the Software Engineering Institute developed this rating.
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e. CMM
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31. IS plays three important roles in management control processes. These processes are data collection, evaluation, and _______________.
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e. communication
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32. All statements below are true about a matrix organization structure EXCEPT:
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a. Worker's jobs are loosely defined
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33. The purchase of a good or service that was previously provided internally, or that could be provided internally, is called:
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d. Outsourcing
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34. The most common driver for insourcing is to:
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keep core competencies in-house
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35. Outsourcing providers have more experience dealing with large number of IS staff and as a result, are often good at doing all of the following EXCEPT:
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Retaining IT workers for short-term employment
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This allows individuals to own their creativity and innovation in a way similar to owning physical property
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Intellectual property
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An effective workflow diagram should do all of the following Except?
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Try to make the steps of a business process
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What looks and act like the Internet, but it is comprised of information used exclusively with a company and unavailable to the internet community as a whole?
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Intranet
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personnel policies about responding to changes in the organization
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Organizational Strategy
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ncludes the org's design as well as the choices it makes to define, set up, coordinate, and control its work processes; is a plan that answers the question--- how will the firm achieve its goals and implement its business strategy
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Organizational Strategy
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a plan the organization uses to provide information services; allows a company to implement its business strategy; a set of systems to monitor, manage, and abort drilling processes in a crisis
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Informational strategy
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a plan articulating where a business seeks to go and how it expects to get there
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Business Strategy
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Interrelated components working together to collect, process, store, and disseminate information to support decision making, coordination, control, analysis, and visualization of an organization
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Information System
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IS is now a ________ of the organiziation
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Strategic partner
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How can Information systems be informal?
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I tell you the information; not structured
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How can IS be formal
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Rests upon structures of the organization; can the process be computerized or not?1
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safe and conservative; both systems are used for a time; the old system may stop running as soon as the new system is installed; the safest way to convert from a new to an old system b/c if the new system fails, users easily can revert to the old system
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Parallel strategy
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risky; one system replaces the other on a given day; the new system may be installed in stages across locations or in phases; the riskiest approach b/c there is no backup system to turn to in the event of problems with the new system
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Direct cutover
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system is brought into individual BU's and operates until system is successful
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Pilot testing
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System is brought in one functional unit at a time
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Phased
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What are the factors that dictate whether an IS project will be successful or not?
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User involvement and influence Management support Complexity/risk Management of implementation process
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can encourage others to accept new technology
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Super-User
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the employee usually takes on the attitude of his boss regarding technology
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Naked Effect
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An application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements; always involves continual trade-offs and, it's the manager's job to manage them
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project management
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composed of a balance of time, cost, and scope; quality is at its center; shows areas where trade-offs sometime occur
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Project triangle
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Who makes sure the entire project is executed appropriately and coordinated properly; defines the project scope realistically and then manages the projects so that it can be completed on time and within budge
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Project Manager
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breaks a project into tiny phases, and developers cannot continue on to the next phase until the first phase is complete
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Extreme programming (XP) Methodology
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Implementation of technology requires corresponding changes in the structure of the organization, task, and people
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Social-Technical Systems Theory
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Modification of software package to meet organization's unique requirements without destroying the software's integrity
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Customization
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______by itself does not provide competitive advantage; it is how you use and leverage IT gives competitive advantage
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Software
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During the maintenance phase of SDLC, where does IT spend most of its time? In regards to DEBUGGING
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20%
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During the maintenance phase of SDLC, where does IT spend most of its time? In regards to UPGRADES
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20%
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During the maintenance phase of SDLC, where does IT spend most of its time? In regards to Adding new functionality?
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60%
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the amount of work a person can be expected to complete in a month
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Man month
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an elaborate and systematic plan of action; high level statement of what the firm intends to do; Typically set by the CEO and other top executives; Tool- SWOT analysis
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Strategy
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Locates and maintains a secure niche in a relatively stable product or service area Offers limited range of products or services Protects domain by offering higher quality, superior service and lower prices Not usually at the forefront of developments in the industry Tends to ignore industry changes that have no direct influence on current areas of operations Concentrates on doing the best job possible in a limited area Not as aggressive; like a soldier that stands its ground and maintains position (eg. a clothing boutique) Has the mentality that it won't move or change; focus is on what it does best
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Defender Corporation
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Operates within a broad product-market domain that undergoes periodic redefinition Values "first in" in new-product and market areas Even if efforts are not highly profitable Organization responds rapidly to early signals concerning areas of productivity Responses often leads to a new round of competitive actions Organization may not maintain market strength in all areas it enters Like a kamikaze soldier on the battlefield- see opportunities and rush in to take it Great firm to work in; will Rush in to establish a niche to create new industry Eg. Amazon
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Prospector Corporation
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Attempts to maintain a stable, limited line of products or services Moves out quickly to more promising new developments in the industry Seldom a major competitor in areas compatible with its stable product-market base Is frequently "second in" with a more cost-efficient product or service Comes in to try to change the nature of competition by using technology to drive down costs Eg. Google after Yahoo established the market for search engines Watches the kamikaze go in first to feel out the scene, then enters the market
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Analyzer Corporation
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Does not appear to have a consistent product-market orientation Not as aggressive in maintaining established products and markets as some of its competitors Not risk takers Not willing to take as many risks as other competitors Responds in those areas where it is forced to by environmental pressures Reacts based on pressure Not trying to be proactive but Reactive Similar to defender in lack of aggression Eg. Blockbuster when hit by Redbox & Netflix ... didn't change until these two companies came out... Blockbuster wasn't really trying to adjust to new technology
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Reactor Corporation
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Initial introduction of computers to the organization. Batch processing to automate clerical operations to achieve cost reduction, operational systems focus, lack of management interest, and centralized development
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INITIATION (Nolan's Stages of Growth)
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Centralized rapid growth as users demand more applications based on high expectations of benefits, move to online systems, trying to satisfy user demands. Little control if any. IT expenses increase rapidly.
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Contagion (expansion): (NOLANS STAGES OF GROWTH
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In response to management concern about cost vs. benefits, systems projects are expected to show a return, plans are produced, and methodologies/standards enforced. Planning controls are introduced.
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Control (Nolans Stages of Growth)
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Considerable expenditure on integrating (via telecommunications and databases) existing systems. User accountability for systems established and IT provides a service to users. At this time, there is a transition to supporting knowledge workers and from data processing
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Integration: (Nolans stages of growth)
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Information requirements rather than processing drive the applications portfolio and information is shared within the organization. Database capability is exploited as users understand the value of the information and are willing to share it
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Data administration (Nolans stages of growth)
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The planning and development of IT in the organization is closely coordinated with the business development. Corporate wide systems are in place. The IT department and the users share accountability regarding resources. IT is a strategic partner.
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Maturity (Nolans stages of growth)
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Describes a process whereas an organization decides to contract-out or sell the firm's IT assets, people and/or activities to a third party vendor, who in exchange provides and manages these assets and services for an agreed fee and over an agreed time period.
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IT Outsourcing
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Why do Firms Outsource?
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Reduced IT costs Improved technology and services Business focus Downsizing and rightsizing Access to knowledge Reduced capital expenditure Vendor value proposition Outsourcing Options
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Outsource ALL IT
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Total
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Outsource some aspect of IT
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Selective
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Outsource legacy systems while working on new systems
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Transitional
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How do firms gain a competitive advantage?
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An advantage gained over competitors by offering consumers value Either by lower price or greater benefits and service that justifies higher service A company that has a competitive advantage is more profitable than its' rivals
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True or False? Managers should not rely on experts to analyze all the aspects of IS and to make the best decisions for the organization
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TRUE
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True or False? Managers today need to know about their organization's capabilities and uses of information as much as they need to understand how to obtain and budget financials resources
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True
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IS managers need a _______to explain how technology will impact the business and what the tradeoffs are
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business view
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Managers must Know how to mesh ______&_______to create effective work process
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technology and people
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What facilitates the work that people do and the way they interact with each other ?
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Technology
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individuals who have grown up completely fluent in the use of personal technologies and the Web, also increase the rate of adoption of new technologies beyond the pace of traditional organization
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Digital Natives
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Who is in charge of the information systems within the organization?
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IS, MIS, AND IT
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Failure to consider IS strategy when planning business strategy and organizational strategy leads to 3 business consequences:
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1) IS that fail to support business goals 2)IS that fail to support organizational systems 3Misalignment between business goals and organizational capabilities
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3 Managerial Skills
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Visionary Information/interpersonal Structual
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Planning Organizing Leading Controlling
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4 Assumptions about Management
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Figurehead, Leader, Liaison describe
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Interpersonal management
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Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson
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Informational management
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Entrepreneur, Disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator
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Decisional
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Streams of raw facts representing events occurring in organizations or the physical environment before they have been organized and arranged into a form that people can understand and use
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DATA
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Examples of data
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Simple observations of the state of the world Set of specific, objective facts or observations, such as "inventory contains 45 units" Standing alone, such facts has no intrinsic meaning but can easily be captured, transmitted, and stored electronically
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Who are the owners of data?
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Data administrators
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Data endowed with relevance and purpose, data in a context; data that have been shaped into a form that is meaningful and useful to human beings. Data that have been processed Requires unit of analysis Human mediation necessary
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Information
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Electronic representation of the numbers and texts Easily structured Easily captured on machines Often quantified Easily transferred Mere facts
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Data
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daily inventory report of items that are below economic order quantity levels sent to inventory manager... Is an example of what?
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Information
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used for applications that combine data from different sources to create new application on the web
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Mashup
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To be relevant and have purpose - information must be considered within the context that it is____&____
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received and used
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activities are narrow in scope and focused on production or the execution of business's basic transactions
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Superficial level (Information)
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True or False? Information is focused on day-to-day activities that are internally oriented and accurately defined in a detail manner
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TRUE
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broader in scope Performs LT planning and needs information that is aggregated externally oriented, and more subjective
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Senior Management (Information)
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Fall between supervisors & senior management
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Middle management
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information that is synthesized and contextualized to provide value (has most value) Information that has been organized and processed to convey understanding, experiences, accumulated learning, and expertise as it applies to a particular problem or process A central productive and strategic asset; only true form of competitive advantage Mix of contextualized info, values, experiences, and rules Richer and deeper than information and more valuable Hard to structure; Difficult to capture on machines; Often tacit; Hard to transfer Computers work well for managing data, but are less efficient at managing information
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KNOWLEDGE
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Information from the human mind (includes......
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reflection, synthesis, context
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inventory manager knowing which items need to be reordered in light of daily inventory report, anticipated labor strikes, and a flood in Brazil that affects the supply of a major component Is an example of what???
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Knowledge
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4th level in the information hierarchy
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Wisdom
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is knowledge, fused with intuition and judgment that facilitates the ability to make decisions
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Wisdom
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ability to balance different and conflicting elements together in ways that are only learned through experience
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Aristotle's view on wisdom
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a new way of doing things that initially do not meet the needs of customers; customers must learn to adapt to the new way of doing things; after they learn to adapt they're appreciative of the new method Category of technology
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Disruptive
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Shrinkage of Information
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asymmetry
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produces improved product customers are eager to buy Category of technology
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Sustaining
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use of internet and other digital technology for organizational communication and coordination and the management of the firm
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E-Business
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the process of buying and selling goods and services electronically, involving transactions using the internet, networks, and other digital technologies
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E-commerce
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The elimination of organization or business process layers responsible for certain intermediary steps in a value chain
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Disintermediation
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How does one establish direct contact between the producer/supplier and the end user/consumer?
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By eliminating the middleman/companies so suppliers can deal with customers directly
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Example of disintermediation
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Manufacturer--> Consumer
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What is the purpose of Disintermediation?
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To reduce the final cost of the product to the consumer Enabled and facilitated by internet
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to provide value as a middleman to avoid disintermediation; shifting intermediary function in a value chain to a new source, such as "service hubs"
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Reintermediation
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Example of Reintermediation..
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Pay Pal... trusted parties to bring two parties together.
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Situation where bargaining power of two parties in a transaction is determined to one party having more information essential to the transaction than the other party
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Information asymmetry
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How has the Internet changed the power dynamic?
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Before the internet, it wasn't as easy for consumers to shop around for better prices Now, the consumer has a lot of power right at his fingertips Now with internet can be anywhere to shop and compare prices Disintermediation: fewer intermediaries between consumer and manufacturer
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What is B2C?
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Business (Eg Kmart) selling To the Consumer (Eg. me buying a tv)
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What is B2B?
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Business (Sony) --> Business (Kmart-distributor)
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What is C2c?
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Consumer selling to Consumer (Example Ebay)
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In the Early days E-commerce focused on
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B2C relations
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E-commerce has now focused to ____ in recent times
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B2B relationships
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Benefits of the E-World:
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Shrinkage of information asymmetry Changing relationships Business conducted 24/7 Extended global reach of corporation Can reduce transaction costs
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When a company integrates off line
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bricks
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When a company integrates online presence
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clicks
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During the early days of e-commerce, predominated by
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Pure-play
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Recent days of e-commerece
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now shifting toward clicks and mortar or pure-play aligning with clicks-and-bricks
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E-firms have made technology the
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basis of their organization
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E-firms have made technology
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a basis for completion
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Today's economy characterized by
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immediate access -"right now"; no physical boundaries -"global economy"
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IT has changed commerce
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"the economy"
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Information moves electronically
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digital economy
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The depth and detail of information that a business can supply to (or can collect from) a customer; eg. The Ritz Carlton
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Richness
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how much people can a business can connect with and how many products it can offer those people; eg. Walmart
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Reach
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resources flow through a transformation process
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Systems Theory
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Bad output is either caused by
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bad input or transformation is bad
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The capture or collection of raw data from within the organization or from its' external environment for processing in an information system
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Input
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The conversion, manipulation, and analysis of raw input into a form that is more meaningful to humans
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Processing
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the distribution of processed information to the people who will use it or to the activities for which it will be used
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Output
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Output that is returned to the appropriate members of the organization to help them evaluate or correct input
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Feedback
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What is the central and productive asset for firms today?
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Knowledge
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IT used to perform existing work more quickly and efficiently (eg. Industrialization aka automation)
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Industrial Economy
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IT used to manage work better
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Information Economy
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IT makes pervasive changes in the structure and operation of: work; business practices; organizations; industries; & the "Global Economy"
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Digital Economy
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products are cheaper and the market is broad
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Cost leadership strategy
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products are cheaper and the market is narrow
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Cost Focus
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Products are unique and the market is broad
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Differentiation
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Products are unique and the market is narrow
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Differentiation Focus
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most directly related to production & distribution of product/service 60% value adding activities Is what type of activity according to Michale Porter
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Primary
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firm are related to production (40.3%) and distribution of the product (6.6%)
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Most value added activities With primary
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make delivery of firm's primary activities possible; 40% value-adding activities
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Support (secondary)
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How does technology give firms a competitive advantage?
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Technology alone does not lead to a competitive advantage Systems can be a differentiator, but not necessarily a competitive advantage
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By leveraging the power of the network, IT can bring together the
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resources and leverage capabilities to create distinctive competencies
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Deciding how to carry out specific tasks specified by upper and middle management and establishing criteria for completion and resource allocation Monitors elementary activities and transactions of the firm
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Operational Level
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computerized systems that perform and record daily routine transactions necessary to conduct the business Input: transactions, events Processing: Sorted, listed, merged, updated Output: Detailed reports, lists, summaries Users: Operations personnel, supervisors Examples: A/P, A/R , Payroll order tracking & processing
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TPS: Transaction Processing Systems (operational level)
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(Knowledge workers): system supports knowledge and data workers Evaluating new ideas for products, services, ways to communicate new knowledge, and ways to distribute information throughout the organization
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Tactical level
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Designed to increase the productivity of data workers Work processing (eg. Microsoft Word), desktop publishing (eg. Microsoft Publisher); Document imaging systems
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OAS : Office automated systems Tactical level
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SQL
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Sequel /Structured query language`
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XML
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Extendable markup language
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is an aggregation of all of the databases; a logical collection of information, gathered from many different operational databases, used to create business intelligence
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Data Warehouse
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information that people use to support their decision-making efforts
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Business Intelligence
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subset of a data warehouse in which only a focused portion of the data warehouse information is kept
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Data mart
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Techniques to find hidden patterns, relationships in large pools of data to infer rules for predicting future trends. If we want to leverage our Warehouse we will use data mining:
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Data Mining
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strategic in nature; gotta build a high level of technology for sharing of data; requires a connection between business and IT
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Architecture
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Plans for how an organization will build, deploy, use, and share its data, processes, and IT assets
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Enterprise Architecture:
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Person grounded in technology, fluent in business, a patient diplomat, and provides the important bridge between IT and the business
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Enterprise Architect (EA
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Backup, Recovery, and Information Security are all a part of a company's
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Information Architecture
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An exact copy of a system's information
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Backup
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The ability to get a system up and running in the event of a system crash or failure and includes restoring the information backup
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Recovery
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The ability of a system to cope with internal hardware problems (eg, a disk drive failure) and still continue to operate with minimal impact
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Fault tolerance:
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The transfer of operation from a failed component to a redundant component to ensure uninterrupted data flow
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Failover
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detailed process for recovering information or an IT system in the event of a catastrophic disaster (eg. flood, fire, hurricane)
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Disaster recovery plan
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The typical measure used in conversation is the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies that can be transmitted
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bandwidth?
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Fiber Optic
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fastest
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Microwave
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slowest
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network that encompasses a limited distance, usually one building or several buildings in close proximity
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Local Area Network (LAN):
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Spans a large geographical distance (eg. network on ULL campus)
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Wide Area Network (WAN)
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the user-point-of-entry for the required function Typically a desktop, workstation, or laptop computer
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Client
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A computer that stores and processes shared data and performs back-end functions not visible to users, such as managing network activities
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Server
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Provides the blueprint for translating business strategy into a plan for IS Strategic in nature; there must be a high level technology strategy for sharing data Creation of architecture requires communication between IT and business
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Architecture
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Everything that supports the flow and processing of information in an organization, including hardware, software, data and network components Consists of components, chosen and assembled in a manner that best suits the plan and enables the overarching business strategy Refers to specific technology that is used to enable architecture A collection of compatible hardware and software arranged to communicate information from one location to another Specific routers, hubs, servers used to implement architecture
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Infrastructure:
question
Five primary characteristics of a solid infrastructure architecture:
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Flexibility Scalability Reliability Availability Performance
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is software that ties together multiple applications to support enterprise integration; similar to ERP's but EAI is a commercial attempt to do the same
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Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
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stand inside of organization or integrate applications through the internet
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Middleware solutions
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enable two web based applications to exchange data
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Web services
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twisted copper wires (e.g. telephone) Some refer to this as Category 1 to Category 7 untwisted or shielded twisted pair
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Twisted pair:
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thickly insulated copper wire (e.g. TV cable) 56kbps to 200 Mbps
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Coaxial cable
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thin strands of clear glass fiber bound into cables (eg. LUS Fiber) Fastest: 500 kbps to 6+ tbps
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Fiber-optic
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sending data without cables (e.g. microwaves or satellites; WiFi) The total amount of information that can be transmitted through the channel is measured in bits per second The typical measure used in conversation is the difference between the highest and lowest frequencies that can be transmitted- the bandwidth; the higher the bandwidth, the quicker the transmission
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Wireless
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connects networks that do not use the same protocol (aka speak the same language)
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Gateway
question
sends data from one network to another
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Router
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language on a network; if two different protocols are spoken, a gateway must be used (websites map domain names to IP addresses)
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Protocol
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Internet Protocol Address; unique- assigned by your ISP (internet service provider - Cox Cable; AT&T)
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IP address
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hypertext transport protocol
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http
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every time you get on the internet, you get a different address
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Dynamic IP address
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Domain Name System
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DNS server
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Server translates
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URL (Uniform Resource Locater) to IP address
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If our server knows the address
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routes the information to the appropriate location
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If our server does not know
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it routes request to another DNS to figure it out
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a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the internet (eg. translates human-friendly computer host names to an IP address)
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DNS
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The standard for wireless networks =
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802.11 - the wireless protocol to govern internet connections
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Standard for networks created by the
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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
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a traditional tool for developing information systems, or for implementing software developed by an outsourcing provider or software developer
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SDLC = Systems Development Life Cycle
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SDLC can be used in one of two ways
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systems analysis or systems development
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The analysis of the business problem that the organization will try to solve with an information system
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Systems analysis
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The activities that go into producing an information systems solution to an organizational problem or opportunity
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Systems development
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elements that are critical to the system being successful
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Critical success factors)
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