BS230 Weekly Questions

BS230 WEEKLY BLOG QUESTIONS

Week 1: Chapter 1

Question (1):

The modern business environment is characterized by a global community which includes the integration of management and information technology.

Question (2):

A web based platform allows individuals to connect, compute, communicate, collaborate and compete everywhere and anywhere, anytime and all the time; to access limitless amounts of information , services and entertainment; to exchange knowledge and to produce and sell goods and services. This global platform allows boundary –less communication to take place and has affected business via globalization. Globalisation has therefore seen that businesses whom use the world wide web can compete, communicate and access information on a global scale.

Question (3):

The main pressures that characterize the modern global business environment are market pressures; which involve the global economy and strong competition; as well as the changing nature of the workforce and powerful customers. Secondly, technology pressures such as technological innovation and obsolescence and information overload. Lastly, societal, political and legal spheres are added market pressures. Issues including social responsibility, compliance with government regulations and deregulation and ethical issues are all pressures placed upon the market.

Question (4):

Organisational responses to these pressures include:
Strategic Systems: which provide organizations with advantages that enable them to increase their market share and/or profits, to better negotiate with suppliers, or to prevent competitors from entering their markets.
Customer focus: where the IT has been designed to keep the customer happy, the organisation wanting to provide superb customer service.
Make-to-order and Mass Customisation: providing customized products and services at a reasonable cost to satisfy customers needs and wants.
E-Business and E-Commerce: whereby business is carried out electronically.

Question (5):

The two are interrelated as, IT architecture integrates the physical facilities of the IT infrastructure which includes the IT components, services and management. An organisation’s IT architecture is a plan of the information and future directions and the IT infrastructure involves the physical facilities to carry these out.

Question (6):

The internet is a web-based information tool.

Week 2: Chapter 2:

Question (1):

The difference between an ‘application’ and a ‘computer-based information system’ is that; the application program is a computer program constructed to support a specific task or business process whereas a computer-based information system uses computer technology to perform some of its’ intended tasks.

Question (2):

An information system involves the combination of the following components:
Hardware
Software
Databases
Networks (both internal and external)
Procedures
People

Question (3):

Porter’s 5 forces:

(1) The threat of entry of new competitors: this threat is high when it is easy to enter the market and low when barriers of entry exist.
(2) The bargaining power of suppliers: supplier power is high when there a few choices for buyers to buy from, and low when buyers have many choices.
(3) The bargaining power of customers (buyers): buyer power is high when buyers have many choices from whom to buy and low when buyers have few choices
(4) The danger of substitute products or services: when there are many substitutes for an organization’s products or services the threat of substitutes is high.
(5) The rivalry among existing firms in the industry: threat from rivalry is high when there is intense competition among many firms in an industry.

Question 4:

Primary activities are business activities that are related to the production and distribution of the firm’s products and services which create value for which customers are willing to pay. These are narrowed down into 5 primary activities:
Inbound logistics (inputs)
Operations (manufacturing and testing)
Outbound logistics (storage and distribution)
Marketing and Sales
Services
Support activities are different to primary activities as they do not add value directly to the firm’s products or services but contribute to the firm’s competitive advantage by aiding and supporting these support activities.
Support activities consist of:
The firm’s infrastructure (accounting, finance, management)
Human resources management
Product and technology development
Procurement

Question (5):

In accordance with the organizational structure, the logic of building information systems is to help the business collect, process, store, analyse and disseminate information with high-speed and in volume. With the use of the information system, businesses are able to communicate and collaborate among other organizations, enabling them to a large source of available information which aids their work in a worldwide environment.

Question (6):

Overrall, the internet has largely affected the nature of competition. In reference to Porter’s competitive force model the internet has increased competition; which has a negative impact on profitability.

Week 3: Tech Guide 1
Question (1):

Hardware is the physical equipment used for the input, processing, output and storage activities of a computer system. It is made up of the following major components:
The Central processing unit
Primary Storage
Secondary storage
Input technologies
Output technologies
Communication technologies

Question (2):

Moore’s Law is used in reference to Gordon Moore’s prediction that microprocessor complexity would double approximately every two years. In relation to computers, this means that computers are rapidly increasing in technology and speed and as information processing tools they continue to improve.

Question (3):

The microprocessor is made up of many different parts that perform different functions;
The control unit: sequentially accesses programme instructions, decodes them and controls the flow of data to and from the ALU, the registers, caches, primary and secondary storage and various output devices.
The Arithmetic-logic Unit: performs the mathematic calculations and makes logical comparisons.

Question (4):

The clock speed: the preset speed of the clock that times all chip activities in megahertz and gigahertz.
Word length: is the number of binary units that the CPU can process in one machine cycle.
Bus width: the size of the physical paths down which the data and instructions travel as electrical impulses.
Line width: is the distance between transistors

Question (5):

The 4 main types of primary storage are:

(1) Registers
(2) Random access memory (RAM)
(3) Cache Memory
(4) Read-only Memory

Question (6):

The main types of secondary storage are:

(1) Magnetic tape: magnetic tape, sequential access and magnetic disks
(2) Optical storage devices: compact disk, digital video disk, holographic memory
(3) Flash Memory devices: memory cards, thumb drive

Question (7):

In terms of speed, cost and capacity; primary storage differs from secondary storage in the context that primary storage stores small amounts of data which is immediately used by the CPU. In comparison, secondary storage stores larger amounts of data and information for extended periods of time. Also, primary storage data has to travel a shorter distance to that of secondary allowing the information to be processed faster. In reference to expense, primary storage is more expensive to that of secondary.

Question (8):

Enterprise storage systems are independent, external systems that include two or more storage devices. They provide large amounts of storage, high-performance data transfer, a high degree of availability, protection against data loss and sophisticated management tools.

Question (9):

Human data input devices include keyboards or a mouse where it is required for a human to put a certain amount of effort in, to input the data. This is compared to source data information where devices input data with minimal human intervention. For example, barcode readers.

Week 4: Tech Guide 2

Question (1):

Systems software is a set of instructions which serves mainly as an intermediary between computer hardware and application programs. Systems software provides essential self-regulatory functions for computer systems, such as loading itself when the computer is first turned on and providing commonly used sets of instructions for all applications. This is different to application software which provides more specific functionality; its’ functionality can be as broad as a general word processing. Application software applies a computer to a certain need.

Question (2):

The two main types of system software are;
1) System control programs: which control use of the hardware, software and data resources of a computer system.
2) System support programs: which supports the operations, management and users of a computer system by providing a variety of support services. For example, performance and security monitors.

Question (3):

A proprietary addresses a company’s specific or unique business need. This can be developed either in-house by the organisation’s information systems personnel, or it may be commissioned from a software vendor. If a company develops such software, the company keeps the source code private. On the other hand, with open source software this code is available at no cost to developers and users. Open source software is copyrighted and distributed with license terms ensuring that the source code will always be available.

When selecting either software, a business needs to consider the following:

Proprietary software:
The restrictions of proprietary software such as its’ use, copying and modification.
The cost and time spent on developing proprietary software
The privacy and copyright advantages to proprietary software.

Open source software:
Open source software produces high-quality, reliable, flexible and low cost software.
Its’ reliability compared to other commercial software.
The concept that if an organisation does not have in-house technical experts will have to buy maintenance-support contracts from a third party.
This raises concern about the amount of time and expense needed to train users, and the compatibility with existing systems or with the systems of business partners.

Question (4):

When acquiring and using software in most business/organizations there are some legal issues that need to be considered.
1) Software licensing: Copying software is illegal and to protect their investment, software vendors must prevent their software from being copied and distributed. Businesses need to recognise that buying licensed software allows you to use it, not own it. Therefore businesses must ensure that they obtain this license and stay within its bounded restrictions.
2) Businesses must also be aware of what is happening in their organisation in relation to the use of illegal software. It is expected that company directors and managers know what is happening in their organisation and are held liable for any illegal piracy even if they are not directly involved.
3) Businesses must therefore consider the copyright and piracy legislations.

Question (5):

SaaS stands for Software-as-a-Service. SaaS is a method of delivering software in which a vendor hosts the applications. Customers then access these applications over a network, typically the Internet. AdvancedMD, OfficeEMR, Google and Amazon are all examples of Saas Software.

Week 5: Chapter 3

Question (1):

Ethical issues surround the concepts of privacy, accuracy, property and accessibility within the IT world. These four categories involve;
1) Privacy issues: involve collecting, storing, and disseminating information about individuals
2) Accuracy issues: involve the authenticity, fidelity, and accuracy of information that is collected and processed.
3) Property issues: involve the ownership and value of information
4) Accessibility issues: revolve around who should have access to information and whether they should have to pay for this access.

An IT example of the above is the privacy-related problem recognized by the ACLU. Here, employees have concerns in relation to their privacy as their employers can use electronic surveillance to monitor their work and what sites they visit. Work databases are also being implemented in some organizations to provide user authentication to employees and to make sure that the information they use/receive is valid. This also affects accessibility issues to make sure that information is only received and/or read by the intended audience.

Question (2):

1) Unintentional acts:

E.g. Human errors. Factors such as laziness, carelessness or lack of information security awareness pose a large problem for organizations. Poor education and lack of training can be sources of human error occurrences.
2) Natural Disasters

E.g. Include floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados and in some cases fires. To avoid such losses companies must engage in proper planning for backup and recovery of information systems and data.
3) Technical failures

E.g. Include problems with hardware and software. The most common hardware problem being the crash of a hard disc drive. The most common software problem is errors or bugs in computer programs.
4) Management failures

E.g. Involve lack of funding for information security efforts and a lack of interest in those efforts. Such lack of leadership will cause the information security of the organization to suffer.
5) Deliberate acts

E.g. Deliberate acts by organizational employees account for a large number of information security breaches. For example, identify theft and information extortion.

Question (3):

Software attacks have evolved from the outbreak era where malicious software tried to affect as many computers as possible.
For example,

1) Virus: segment of computer code that performs malicious actions by attaching to another computer program.
2) Worm: Segment for computer code that performs malicious actions and will replicate, or spread, by itself (without requiring another computer program).
3) Trojan Horse: software programs that hide in other computer programs and reveal their designed behaviour only when they are activated.

Question (4):

1) Physical controls
Prevent unauthorized individuals from gaining access to a company’s facilities. Common physical controls include walls, doors, fencing, gates and locks. Information systems are also protected by physical barriers such as acceptable login times and login locations. These also limit the number of allowed login attempts.
2) Access controls

Restrict unauthorized individuals from using information resources. These controls involve two major functions, authentication and authorization. Authentication identifies the identity of the individual requiring access and authorization determines which actions, rights, or privileges the person has based on their identified identity.
3) Communication controls

Secure the movement of data across their works. They consist of firewalls, anti- malware systems, intrusion detection systems, encryption, virtual private networking (VPN) and vulnerability management systems.
4) Application controls

Application controls are security counter-measures that protect specific applications. The three major categories of these controls are input, processing and output controls.

Question (5):

Information system auditing involves not only the installation of controls in the original system but for sufficient security, a task of ‘information systems auditing’ needs to take place. This process examines the information systems, their inputs, outputs and processing. Auditing can be performed both internally and externally.

Question (6):

Authentication determines the identity if the person requiring access whilst authorization determines which actions, rights, or privileges the person has, based on verified identity. Both authentication and authorization are imperative to e-Commerce as it aids organizations in knowing who the user is, and what the user has, does and knows. Authentication is a necessary platform within e-Commerce in which is prevents fraudulent behaviour; whilst authorization provides e-Commerce the essential knowledge of whom is using certain programs or performing which transactions correctly and who is deemed responsible for the transaction.

Week 6: Chapter 4 Questions

Question (1):

In relation to managing data, many difficulties can arise. These include;
As data is continually added and saved; the amount of data that needs to be managed grows.
Individuals use numerous methods and devices in which to store this data as it (data) is scattered throughout the organisation.
As much of the new data is unstructured, their content cannot be truly represented in a computer record making it difficult to manage.
As companies grow and change frequently; it can be challenge to ensure new employees do not jeopardize data. Also, over time data decays e.g. customers move to new addresses.
Legal requirement also make data management difficult. As these laws are different within each company; data security and integrity can be easily jeopardised.

Question (2):

The various sources of data include Internal Data, External Data and Personal Data.

Question (3):

A primary key is the identifier field or attribute that uniquely identifies a record. A secondary key is whereby the identifier field or attribute has some kind of identifying information, but typically does not identify the file with complete accuracy.

Question (4):

An entity involves a person, thing, place or event where information is maintained in a record. It is the number of entities in which make up a relationship and the degree of the relationship. The main types of relationships include binary, one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many.

Question (5):

Relational databases are usually designed with a number of related tables; where each of these tables contains records (listed in row) and attributes (listed in columns). An advantage of relational databases include allowing users great flexibility in the variety of queries they can make; a disadvantage to this though as large scale databases can be composed of many interrelated tables, the overall design can be complex creating slow access times.

Question (6):

Knowledge management is a useful concept whereby it aids organizations in an attempt to manipulate important information that is part of the organisaation’s memory. This is normally in an unstructured format. For a particular organisation to be successful in relation to capital, knowledge must exist in an exchangeable format.

Question (7):

Tacit knowledge involves ‘the cumulative store of subjective or experiential learning; highly personal and hard to formalize knowledge’. This is comparably different to explicit knowledge which is objective rather than subjective, and is also rational with technical types of knowledge.

Week 7: TG4 Questions

Question (1):

The main wired communication channels consist of; twisted-pair wire, coaxial cable and fiber-optic cable.
Twisted-pair wire is the most inexpensive, widely available and unobtrusive. In saying this though, it does have a low bandwidth and low security in comparison to coaxial cable and fiber-optic cable. Coaxial cable has a better bandwidth than twisted-pair wire but can be relatively expensive and inflexible. In comparison, Fiber-optic cable carries the higher bandwidth, good security and relatively inexpensive but can be somewhat difficult to work with.

Question (2):

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) and the Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL), enable users to send high-volume data over any network. ISDN is the older of the two which uses existing telephone lines to transfer voice, video, image and data simultaneously. ADSL enables data transmission over telephone lines made up of copper in a faster manner.

Question (3):

The main business reasons for using networks are;
To adapt to the constantly changing business environment
Flexibility
Networks enable companies to share hardware, computer applications and data across and amongst organizations.
The sharing of documents amongst geographically dispersed employees and workgroups.
Improve innovation, teamwork and efficiency

Question (4):

A Local Area Network (LAN) connects two or more devices in a limited geographical region, usually within the same building so that every device on the network can communicate with every other device. In comparison, Wide-Area Networks (WANs) cover large geographic areas and centrally connect multiple LANs.

Question (5):

A network protocol is made up of computing devices that are connected to the network access and share the network to transmit and receive data. The components work together and adhere to the set of rules and procedures that govern transmission across a network.

Question (6):

The Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), is the protocol of the internet.
The TCP has three functions
1) To manage the movement of packets between computer by establishing a connection between the computers
2) It sequences the transfer of packets
3) Acknowledges the packets that have been transmitted.
The internet protocol is responsible for dissembling, delivering, and reassembling the data during transmission.

Question (7):

There are numerous ways in which a connection to the internet can be made. These include;
Dial up connection
Broadband connection
Cable and DSL connections

Question (8):

The parts of an internet address include:
Application layer: enables client application programs to access the other layers and defines the protocols that applications use to exchange data. Hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) is one of these protocols which defines how messages are formulated and transmitted.
Transport layer: provides the above layer with communication and packs services. This layer includes TCP.
Internet layer: responsible for addressing, routing, and packaging data packets.
Network interface layer: places packets on and receives them from the network medium, which could be any networking technology.

Question (9):

The role of browsers is to decode and display the HTML code which was sent from a server. This is then displayed on an individual’s personal computer.

Question (10):

The main difference between the Internet and the World Wide Web is that the internet is collectively a networking infrastructure which connects millions of computers globally. In comparison, the World Wide Web is a form of accessing information over the internet. Essentially, it is a form of information sharing which is built upon the Internet.

Week 8: Chapter 5 Questions:

Question (1):

The three Network applications include Discovery, Communication and Collaboration.
Discovery: as the Internet allows users to access information located world-wide databases, the capability of Internet discovery is high. With search and Metasearch engines, individuals can access billions of web pages. Also, there is a vast amount of information that is publicized in foreign languages allowing a broader audience.
Communication: through applications such as electronic mail, web-based call centres, electronic chat rooms and voice communication; a worldwide networking sphere has evolved.
Collaboration: is whereby two or more entities come together to collaborate and perform work. Through workflow technologies, groupware, collaboration tools and electronic teleconferencing, people can at different times and locations interact and collaborate with one another.

Question (2):

Due to the forever growing and changing business conditions, videoconferencing and other interactive networking tools now have a high importance. It allows people at any time and location to connect which is of high need within today’s current business environment. It also enables participants to share data along with voice and video, allowing them to work on documents together and exchange computer files.

Question (3):

Some of the technologies, applications and types of Websites that comprise Web 2.0 include:
AJAX: allows sections of Web pages to reload with fresh data instead of requiring the entire Web page to reload.
Tagging: whereby users can describe meaningful information to them through tagging it.
Blogs and Blogging: whereby a person can enter a site and express his or her feelings.
Wikis: are where material can be posted, and changes can be made to other material.
Really Simple Syndication (RSS): allows users to customize information, receive this information when they want it and without having to surf thousands of web sites.
Podcasts and Videocasts: are digital audio files that are used for example, to build relationships with customers (as Cheerios did).
Social Networking: websites which allow users to upload their content to the Web in the form of text, voice, images and videos. It is an easy and interactive way to communicate and collaborate.

Question (4):

The major function of Web Services is that they permit the sharing of data and services without needing humans to translate. Web services can also be used in a variety of environments over the Internet, performing a wide variety of tasks for businesses.

Question (5):

Service-orientated architecture (SOA), allows the construction of business applications through using Web services. These web services can be reused across an organisation in other applications.

Chapter 6 Questions:

Section 6.1

Question (1):

E-Commerce is the process of buying, selling, transferring, or exchanging products. Services or information via computer networks, including the Internet. This is different to E-Business which has a broader context. E-business adds to the above processes as it also refers to servicing customers, collaborating with business partners and performing electronic transactions within an organisation.

Question (2):

B2C is where the sellers are organizations and the buyers are individuals. This is different to B2B transactions whereby both the sellers and the buyers are business organizations. Furthermore, C2C the individual sells products or services to other individuals. In comparison, in B2E, an organisation uses electronic commerce internally to provide information and services to its employees.

Question (3):

Some of the major benefits to E-Commerce is its’ easy accessibility and ability to lower costs. This in turn has benefitted organizations, minimizing costs of processing, distributing and retrieving information. Furthermore, the customer has benefitted through being able to access a vast number of products and services any time and at any location. On a whole, society can now benefit through e-commerce’s delivery of information, services and products to people in cities, rural areas and developing countries.
With these benefits though, E-commerce has its’ drawbacks. These limitations include the lack of universally accepted security standards, expensive accessibility and insufficient telecommunications bandwidth.

Section 6.2

Question (1):

The major issues relating to e-tailing are channel conflict and order fulfillment. Channel conflict is where conflict may occur for companies with their regular distributors when selling online to customers. This has forced some companies to withdraw from online sales. Channel conflict can arise in areas such as pricing of products, services and resource allocation.
Order fulfillment can occur at any given time where a company sells to customers directly and is involved in a variety of other order-fulfillment activities. Activities may include shipment of products, the packaging and collection of money from each customer. Within the holiday season, they are especially faced with problems as late deliveries and the delivery of the wrong item can occur.

Question (2):

Spamming is the flooding and excessive distribution of electronic ads that do not consider the permission of the receiver. This unsolicited flooding continues to increase every year. Permission marketing is whereby the consumer is asked for their permission in acceptance of online advertising and e-mail. Lastly, viral marketing is derived from the concept of individuals forwarding on messages and advertisements to others for them to ‘check it out’. Viral marketing is also considered ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing.

Section 6.5

Question (1):

Electronic payment mechanisms include electronic checks, electronic credit cards, purchasing cards and electronic cash.
Electronic checks are generally used in B2B. This is where a customer wishes to use e-checks and established a checking account with a bank. Electronic credit cards allow customers to charge online payments to their credit card account. Thirdly, purchasing cards are normally used for unplanned B2B purchases. Here, corporations normally limit the amount per purchase. Lastly, electronic cash appears in forms such as stored-value money cards, smart cards, person-to-person payments and digital wallets.

Question (2):

Micropayments are defined as small payments of a few dollars or less for goods that are purchased over the internet. Normally these payments are transferred with a lower security.

Section 6.5

Question (1):

A major ethical issue involves threats to privacy. For example, most electronic payment systems know who their customers are. Here, it is necessary for identification protection. Tracking is also a privacy problem as an individual’s activities on the internet can be tracked by cookies. Ethical questions are also raised when dealing with employees, brokers or agents. For example,
Ø How should the company handle the layoffs?
Ø Should companies be required to retrain employees for new positions?
Ø How should the company compensate or otherwise assist the displaced workers?

Question (2):

Legal issues of EC include;
Ø Fraud on the Internet: For example, the internet allows stock promoters to falsely mislead and spread positive rumours about the prospects of the companies they recommend in order to boost the stock price.
Ø Domain Names: problems arise when companies with similar names compete over a domain name. As companies who sell goods and services want customers to find them easily over the internet; the most effective way in doing so is where the domain name matches the company’s name.