AppB
1. (p. 596) Though the types of technology used by businesses have changed over the last several decades, the role
of business technology has remained remarkably constant.
2. (p. 596) In the 1970s business technology was known as data processing.
3. (p. 596) Data and information are two different names for essentially the same thing.
4. (p. 596) Information is data that has been processed and organized so that it can be used for managerial
decision-making.
5. (p. 596) During the 1970s, the purpose of data processing was to support the existing business by improving the
flow of financial information.
6. (p. 596) During the 1970s business technology employees often dealt directly with customers.
7. (p. 596) During the 1980s, the role of business technology changed from supporting business to doing business.
8. (p. 596) In the late 1980s and early 1990s, businesses began to emphasize finding ways to employ new
technologies to improve existing methods of doing business.
9. (p. 596) During the 1980s business technology began to emphasize the use of technology to change how
business was conducted by introducing new methods.
10. (p. 596) Today the role of the chief information officer is to help the business use technology to communicate
better with others while offering better service and lower costs.
11. (p. 596) Information technology has made firms less dependent on location.
12. (p. 596) In today’s technological environment, the typical chief information officer (CIO) spends the majority
of his or her time overcoming glitches and making sure the organization’s information system is up and
running.
13. (p. 597) Information technology brings work to people instead of requiring people to go to work.
14. (p. 597) Virtualization refers to the movement toward the use of supercomputers to simulate complex business
environments.
15. (p. 597) Virtualization involves the use of cellular phones, laptop computers, pagers, and personal digital
assistants (PDAs).
16. (p. 597) Instant messaging is now a popular real-time business communication tool.
17. (p. 598) Knowledge Technology (KT) changes the traditional flow of information so that the data goes to the
individual rather than the individual going to the database.
18. (p. 597) One disadvantage of knowledge technology (KT) is that the information it provides is unfiltered, so
the user may have to spend a lot of time sorting through unnecessary information.
19. (p. 598) In the coming years, successful information management will be more concerned with achieving and
maintaining stability and predictability, and less concerned with adapting to change.
20. (p. 598) Knowledge technology is a more sophisticated version of business intelligence.
21. (p. 598) Data mining is included in business intelligence.
22. (p. 598) Information technology has changed the staffing and customer relations of businesses.
23. (p. 598) Business intelligence is any variety of software applications that analyze an organization’s raw data
and take useful insights from it.
24. (p. 596) Katie Prescott’s assistant just handed her a report that summarizes and organizes many raw facts and
figures into a few key measures that will help her judge whether her department is meeting its key objectives.
The summary measures included in the report are information, while the raw facts and figures used to compute
25. (p. 596) Over time, business technology has become much more sophisticated, but its basic application has
remained to support the existing operations of businesses by providing key financial information.
26. (p. 596–597) The experiences of the past several decades show that, while improvements in technology
frequently enhance the efficiency of basic business operations, such improvements never actually change the
fundamental way that businesses operate.
27. (p. 597) A drawback of the move toward virtualization is that it requires people to spend too much time at the
office.
28. (p. 598) As businesses begin using knowledge technology, managers will spend less time finding information
and more time using it to make decisions.
29. (p. 596) Kent Uchi is the CIO for a major corporation. Kent’s job will require him to have an extensive
knowledge of the hardware and software his company uses, but he will seldom be concerned about the methods
and procedures used by specific departments.
30. (p. 599) Business process information includes all transaction data gathered at the point of sale.
32. (p. 599) Public data includes electronic traces that people leave when posting to the Internet and sending
email.
33. (p. 599) Your Internet shopping trail provides information that indicates your personal preferences.
34. (p. 600) A basic truth in management is that you can never have too much information.
35. (p. 600) In this age of the Internet, cellular phones, fax machines, pagers and e-mail, managers can easily
become buried in information “infoglut.”
36. (p. 600) Useful information has three defining characteristics: (1) it is easily accessible, (2) it is efficiently
organized, and (3) it is simple to manipulate.
37. (p. 600) The quality of management information depends on its accuracy and reliability.
38. (p. 600) Timeliness is one of the characteristics of useful management information.
39. (p. 600) Subjectivity is one of the four characteristics of useful information.
40. (p. 600) Relevance is one of the key characteristics of useful information.
41. (p. 600) Redundancy is one of the four characteristics of useful information.
42. (p. 600) The first step in avoiding information overload is to identify four or five key goals and focus only on
information that is related to those goals.
43. (p. 601) The purpose of a data warehouse is to store old information that is no longer needed on a regular basis,
but that might be needed for legal or historical reasons.
45. (p. 601) Major retail firms such as Wal-Mart have used data mining to customize the product offerings for each
store.
47. (p. 600) The key to improving management decision-making is to provide the manager with as much
information as possible.
48. (p. 600) In order for information to be useful to managers, it must satisfy only two criteria: it must be timely,
and it must be easy to manipulate.
49. (p. 600) Manager Minnie Hope is overwhelmed by information overload. Unfortunately, in this day of the
Internet, cell phones, and instant messaging, there is little she can do to control this problem.
50. (p. 601) Penny Pinchers Discount is a major discount store chain in the Southwest. The company wants to do a
better job of finding sales patterns and trends that will help it customize the product offerings for different
stores. Data mining is one technique that would help Penny Pinchers achieve this goal.
51. (p. 601) Hunter Mixon is an information management specialist for a large corporation. He believes that his
company could benefit from data mining techniques, and is looking for ways to implement data mining in his
company. One key to Hunter’s success will be finding ways to integrate and access data from different divisions
and departments of his company.
52. (p. 602) An intranet is a company-wide network that is based on Internet technology, but closed to public
access.
53. (p. 602) Intranets use a different, less sophisticated, type of technology than the Internet.
54. (p. 602) The software or hardware barrier that a business uses to prevent unauthorized users from gaining
access to their intranet is known as a tripware.
55. (p. 602) Firewalls can be constructed using software, hardware, or a combination of both.
56. (p. 602) The most productive way for firms to use intranets is to publish information that can be accessed by all
employees within an organization.
57. (p. 602) Firms that create interactive applications for their intranets generally enjoy a higher rate of return than
firms that simply publish information on their intranets.
58. (p. 602) Interactive intranet applications can save money and increase revenue by reducing paper handling and
enabling faster decision-making.
59. (p. 602) The extranet is the next stage in the evolution of the Internet, consisting of a revolutionary new fiber
optic technology that will enable computer users throughout the world to send and receive data up to 256 times
faster than they can using the Internet technology of the early 2000s.
60. (p. 602) A common use of an extranet is to extend an intranet to outside customers.
61. (p. 602) Compared to intranets, one advantage of an extranet is that it protects a company’s information from
hackers.
62. (p. 602) One problem with most extranets is that they use public lines, which makes it possible for hackers to
get into the network.
63. (p. 602) Extranets now allow small firms to share and process data much as large firms have been able to do
using electronic data interchange.
64. (p. 603) Virtual private networks are quick and easy to set up, but they are less secure than extranets.
65. (p. 603) Virtual private networks create secure connections over regular Internet lines.
66. (p. 603) A virtual private network allows information managers to simulate a real intranet in order to identify
possible security problems and technical glitches before the company sets up the actual private network.
67. (p. 603) Enterprise portals are simply web pages with links to company-specific products and services.
68. (p. 603) Enterprise portals have the ability to identify users and give them access to specific areas of an
organization’s intranet depending on their relationship to the organization.
69. (p. 603) Widebeam is the term used to refer to technologies that give users continuous access to the Internet
and greatly increase the speed at which data flows to and from their Internet connection.
70. (p. 603) Bandwidth is the term used to describe the rate at which data flows through the Internet.
71. (p. 604) Internet2 runs more than 22,000 times faster than a 56Kbs modem.
72. (p. 604) Initially, the very high speed Backbone Network Service was set up to connect government
supercomputer centers with a select group of universities.
73. (p. 604) Users of Internet2 each pay the same fee for their connection and share bandwidth equally.
74. (p. 602) The main purpose of an intranet is to allow a company to keep in close contact with its customers.
75. (p. 603) Bluprintz, a company that publishes home design software for personal computers, wants to set up a
temporary link with another firm with which it wants to collaborate and share data on a short-term basis.
Bluprintz wants to keep the cost of setting up this connection reasonable, but is concerned about hackers and
wants to make sure its link is secure. The best way for Bluprintz to achieve its goal is to set up an extranet with
dedicated lines.
76. (p. 602) The On-The-Green Golf Company currently has an intranet, and is considering making use of an
extranet. One of the main reasons On-The-Green may want an extranet is to allow a select group of outside
customers to have access to information on its intranet.
77. (p. 602) The fact that electronic data interchange technology is so expensive that only large firms can afford to
use it puts small firms at a severe disadvantage when it comes to sharing information.
78. (p. 603) The main reason for setting up an enterprise portal is to ensure that only employees of an organization
have access to the information on its intranet.
79. (p. 603) Information managers at Sezhu Industries want to provide a single, seamless interface that will make it
easier for customers, suppliers, and employees to gain access to the parts of its intranet that they need. Sezhu
could achieve this result by setting up an enterprise portal.
80. (p. 604) A major reason for the creation of Internet 2 was that private businesses wanted to establish a network
that was free from government regulation.
81. (p. 604) Highbrow University just obtained a link to Internet 2. Researchers at Highbrow intend to make very
heavy use of their new link for various forms of collaboration, for videoconferencing and for running complex
simulations. Unlike the regular Internet, the more bandwidth Highbrow’s researchers use on Internet 2, the more
the University will have to pay.
82. (p. 604) Moore’s Law says that the capacity of computer chips doubles every year or so.
83. (p. 604) Personal computers today are much smaller, cheaper, simpler to operate, and more flexible than the
mainframe computers of the 1970s, but they do not have as much raw processing power.
84. (p. 604) Hardware includes spreadsheets, databases, and PIMs.
85. (p. 604) According to Gordon Moore, the capacity and power of computer chips will continue to increase
rapidly for many more decades.
86. (p. 605) A major trend today is a move away from desktop PCs to increasing reliance on laptop computers and
wireless handheld devices.
87. (p. 605) Wi-Fi refers to a new type of computer processor technology that enables more than one instruction to
be processed at the same time.
88. (p. 605) The current trend in business is to move from networked computer systems toward more centralized
information management systems that rely on powerful mainframe computers.
89. (p. 605) In older computer systems, a central computer performed all of the computational tasks and sent the
results to dumb terminals that could not perform the tasks themselves.
90. (p. 605) One advantage of a network computing system is that it gives employees access to detailed
information.