48. A company developed a(n) ____ to allow its more than 50 department heads and executive managers
to use a Web browser to view sales results and distribution plans with a single click..
a.
corporate portal
b.
extranet
c.
SSL network
d.
virtual private network
e.
electronic data interchange
49. A(n) ____ uses internal and external sources of data to provide managers and executives the
information they need to monitor and analyze organizational performance.
a.
executive information system
b.
managerial information service
c.
expert system
d.
decision support system
e.
environmental information system
50. Intranets are ____.
a.
doors that allow managers to access transactions as they occur
b.
standardized protocols used to authenticate and authorize internal network users
c.
public networks that are only used for business-to-business transactions
d.
private company networks that allow employees to easily access, share, and publish
information using Internet software
e.
publicly funded networks designed for specific industries
51. Which of the following statements about intranets is true?
a.
Intranets require users to build a completely new network.
b.
Intranets are Web-based.
c.
The software required to set up an intranet is expensive.
d.
Intranets are difficult to use.
e.
All of these statements about intranets are true.
52. The goal of an executive information system (EIS) is to ____.
a.
replace the need for intuition in decision making
b.
create a link among authorized data and network users
c.
protect organizational data from hackers
d.
provide accurate, complete, relevant, and timely information to managers
e.
do none of these
53. A manufacturer of pharmaceuticals can access information about its sales and share new product
information with drug store chains through the use of ____.
a.
electronic data interchange (EDI)
b.
bar scanners
c.
SSL interchanges
d.
intranets
e.
Internet portals
54. ____ is the direct electronic transmission of purchase and ordering information from one company’s
computer system to another company’s computer system.
a.
Automated processing
b.
Electronic data interchange
c.
Transaction channeling
d.
Data manipulation
e.
Information exchange
55. The goal of an executive information system is to provide information that is accurate, complete,
relevant and ____.
a.
rich
c.
timely
b.
complex
d.
expedient
56. A(n) ____ allows companies to exchange information and conduct transactions by purposefully
providing outsiders with direct, Web browser-based access to authorized parts of a company’s intranet.
a.
extranet
b.
virtual portal
c.
Web service
d.
corporate portal
e.
secure logic system (SSL)
57. Companies that use electronic data interchange, extranets, and the Internet to gain a competitive
advantage have experienced ____.
a.
higher productivity
b.
increased costs
c.
worsening customer service
d.
faster authentication
e.
none of these
58. A company has built a(n) ____ that will automate its purchasing transactions and other e-commerce
activities with its small- to mid-size suppliers. It will provide thousands of the company’s suppliers
with secure access to critical trading partner information and will facilitate trading partner automation.
a.
extranet
b.
virtual portal
c.
Web service
d.
corporate portal
e.
secure logic system (SLS)
59. Which of the following statements about knowledge is true?
a.
Data and information are the same as knowledge.
b.
Knowledge resides in information.
c.
Knowledge is the understanding that one gains from information.
d.
Knowledge is easier to acquire than data and information.
e.
All of these statements about knowledge are true.
60. Unlike an executive information system, a decision support system (DSS) ____.
a.
speeds up and simplifies the acquisition of information
b.
does not process data
c.
helps managers understand problems and potential solutions by acquiring and analyzing
information with sophisticated models
d.
can be used to replace all managerial decision making
e.
removes decision-making bottlenecks by creating a problem organization table
61. A decision support system (DSS) ____.
a.
is broad in scope
b.
speeds up and simplifies the acquisition of information
c.
permits managers to retrieve all kinds of information
d.
is designed to deal with all types of problems
e.
allows managers to better understand a problem and its potential solutions
62. Just a teaspoon too much or too little of a single ingredient can turn a great cake into a mediocre cake.
The ability to know just how much to add, how long to stir, and how the cake should smell when it is
cooked is a skill that a long-time baker would have. Through the use of ____, others can capture this
specialized knowledge.
a.
electronic data interchanges
b.
pragmatic portals
c.
data mining
d.
expert systems
e.
executive information systems
63. A system that is designed to manage farm field irrigation and farming pest management decisions,
based on 20 years of scientific research and data then advise farmers how much to irrigate and when to
check soil temperatures is called a(n) _______.
a.
electronic data interchange
b.
pragmatic portal
c.
data mining
d.
expert system
e.
executive information system
64. A(n) ____ is an information system that helps managers understand problems and potential solutions
by acquiring and analyzing information with sophisticated models and tools.
a.
intranet
b.
executive information system
c.
expert system
d.
decision support system
e.
extranet
65. Most ____ work by using a collection of “if-then” rules to sort through information and recommend a
course of action.
a.
expert systems
b.
decision support systems
c.
executive information systems
d.
RAID systems
e.
trend analyses
Jupiter Communications
An entrepreneur developed Kibu.com as an online fashion magazine for girls between the ages of 13
and 18. The messages from Kibu’s advertisers were tailored for and intriguing to a teenage audience.
Revenue came from companies that sponsored various channels and features on the site, such as the
Fashion Channel. Kibu had a loyalty program, the kPoints xChange, which gave site visitors an
incentive to communicate with the site and its sponsors. Each time they did, they earned points that
could be exchanged for merchandise such as CDs, movie tickets, or beaded jewelry. Visitors who
filled out surveys could win one of the 10,000 Kibu Boxes. Box recipients got still more points if they
went to the Box Channel and filled out forms telling one to three of the participating companies how
they liked the products inside. By September 2000, however, the site closed, and its founders returned
the remaining start-up capital to investors.
66. Refer to Jupiter Communications. An individual’s unprocessed response to a Kibu survey would be an
example of ____.
a.
information
b.
knowledge
c.
raw data
d.
mining statistics
e.
personal statistics
67. Refer to Jupiter Communications. The developer of Kibu and his investors created the first company to
offer both content and chat rooms aimed at girls between the ages of 13 and 18. They hoped this would
give them a ____.
a.
first-mover advantage
b.
market aggregation
c.
comparative promotional point
d.
differential benefit
e.
synergistic benefit
68. Refer to Jupiter Communications. The information Kibu.com collects would be stored in ____.
a.
large mainframes
b.
data warehouses
c.
information mines
d.
knowledge adjacencies
e.
information processing servers
69. Refer to Jupiter Communications. Kibu.com collected survey information for itself and its sponsors
and then looked for behavior patterns that could provide useful market information for its advertisers.
Kibu was engaged in ____.
a.
environmental scanning
b.
prospect collecting
c.
electronic scanning
d.
data mining
e.
prospect monitoring
70. Refer to Jupiter Communications. If a cosmetics manufacturer learned from analyzing the data that
teenage girls who buy more than six bottles of nail polish monthly also like to dress up their pets to
match their outfits, it would have used the survey results to identify a(n) ____ pattern. (The
manufacturer could use this information to develop a line of pet nail polish.)
a.
sequence
b.
cluster
c.
stratified
d.
association
e.
loyalty
71. Refer to Jupiter Communications. Kibu.com would use firewalls to ____.
a.
identify data patterns
b.
protect its internal organizational network from hackers
c.
offer security as one of its differential advantages
d.
prevent anyone except girls between the ages of 13 and 18 from visiting the site
e.
create chat rooms
City of London
For over a century, the city of London, England has had the worst traffic in Europe. Drivers spend half
of their time not moving in their vehicles, and the average speed is 9 mph, down from 12 mph in 1903
when traffic consisted of horses and carriages instead of cars and trucks. To improve traffic, Ken
Livingstone, the mayor of London, imposed a “Congestion Zone” fee of £8 (about $13) per day for
any vehicle that enters the eight square miles of central London between 7 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. on
weekdays. Drivers who come into the zone but don’t pay will be fined any where from £60 ($96) to
£180 ($290).
The Transport for London and the consultants it hired broke the project into several different
steps. First, 688 cameras were used in 203 locations to take accurate pictures of vehicles entering the
congestion zone. At each camera site, a color and a black and white camera were used for each lane of
traffic that was being monitored. In general, the cameras are only 90% accurate in reading the license
plate numbers on the cars. But, with 688 cameras in total, multiple pictures are taken of each car, and
partial pictures of license plates are matched with complete pictures, with the former tossed and the
latter retained.
Next, the pictures from the cameras are sent via a dedicated fiber-optic cable to an “image
management store.” Fiber–optic cables were needed because they’re the biggest and fastest “pipes”
available for sending data from one place to another. The lines were also dedicated so that the system
was completely closed and secure. If other systems or networks went down, the congestion zone
network would be unaffected. An “image management store” is basically a huge farm of networked,
redundant servers. If one server goes down, you’ve got multiple backup servers running live with the
same data. A huge farm of network servers was needed because the city anticipated processing a
million pictures a day (again, remember that multiple pictures are taken of the 250,000 cars entering
the zone each day).
Once the pictures are snapped, transported via fiber-optic cable, and placed in the image
management store, the next step is reading the license plate in the picture and then turning that image
into readable text that actually matches license plate records already stored in government databases.
Transport of London uses software that scans digitized documents—in this case, digital pictures—into
ASCII text and then matches and compares multiple pictures of the same license plate. For example,
imagine that a license plate is 12345678 and that the congestion cameras get three partial pictures
(12345, 34567, and 5678) and one complete picture (12345678). The software had to be able to know
that all four pictures were from the same vehicle, and then it had to know that it should use the last
picture (12345678) and not the partial pictures when converting the picture to text. Finally, once the
license plate was converted to text, the license plate number would then be matched with an existing
license plate already recorded in a government database. At that point, congestion zone charges are
linked with whoever owns the vehicles.
72. Refer to City of London. The City of London located 688 cameras in 203 locations to take accurate
pictures of vehicles entering its “Congestion Zone.” Multiple pictures are taken of each car, and partial
pictures of license plates are matched with complete pictures, with the former tossed and the latter
retained. The cumulative store of all the photographs would be classified as ____. Once the pictures of
individual cars were matched and the irrelevant photos tossed, ____ was created.
a.
information; raw data
b.
raw data; perceived knowledge
c.
perceived knowledge; raw data
d.
raw data; information
e.
influential knowledge; perceived knowledge
73. Refer to City of London. What basic method of capturing information does the City of London use to
identify and fine automobile drivers that enter the city’s “Congestion Zone”?
a.
manual
b.
intranet
c.
electronic
d.
virtual
e.
private networks
74. Refer to City of London. What kind of technology is used to turn the license plate number captured by
a photograph into readable text that actually matches license plate records already stored in
government databases?
a.
virtual private networks
b.
SSL encryption
c.
private encryption codes
d.
optical character recognition software
e.
RFID software
WWYD Delta
Airlines lose bags. They need to handle thousands of bags per day and then rush them to connecting
planes or baggage carousels. The challenging logistics, however, doesn’t make up for the impact of
delays on passengers. In all, 31 million bags are delivered late worldwide each year. In the U.S., 7
people per 1,000 passengers, or roughly 1 per plane, don’t get their luggage on time, and they file 7.5
million mishandled baggage reports a year. Over the last decade, the three largest airlines, American,
United, and Delta, have been the worst. Delta is 30% worse compared to the best airlines. Second,
28% more bags are delayed today compared to a decade ago. No wonder passengers are frustrated,
especially when charged a handling fee for checked bags. Nothing like paying extra to have the airline
lose your bags, especially when Delta brings in $952 million a year in bag fees! Passengers are
beginning to realize that bag fees bring in much more than the cost to deliver bags, so they have every
right to expect Delta to do a better job delivering bags. After all, if Amazon can send emails and texts
notifying customers when their orders leave the warehouse, arrive at their local airports, and are
delivered to their homes, then why can’t Delta do the same thing with luggage that’s supposed to never
leave the airport?
Delta Airlines’ historically poor job of handling baggage is clearly related to Delta trailing its
competitors in the use of information technology to track and manage baggage handling. While Delta
catches up with its competitors in terms of high-tech baggage handling systems, it is the first airline to
offer real-time tracking of passengers’ bags. Not unlike tracking an Amazon shipment, Delta’s
real-time tracking allow passengers to know precisely where their bags are from check-in, to the flight
on which they’re loaded, to the baggage carousel when they’re hopefully waiting. Passengers receive a
tracking number for each bag and can track its whereabouts using their smartphones. Should a bag be
delayed, that tracking number is easily entered into baggage claim forms on Delta’s Web site.
The challenge for airlines such as Delta, which have begun or are considering self-tagging
systems, is not capturing information or processing information, but protecting information. All
airlines use bar codes on boarding passes, either printed from your home computer or from the
check-in kiosk at the airport. An increasing number of airlines, including Delta, now send electronic
boarding passes containing barcodes via e–mail to passengers’ smartphones to be scanned in place of
bar codes on printed boarding passes. The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says
that paperless boarding passes are more secure “and will prevent fraudulent paper boarding passes that
could be created and printed at home.” Why? Because instead of physically examining a printed copy
of a boarding pass, TSA agents will scan the bar code on the electronic boarding pass to ensure its
validity at the checkpoint. Passengers will still be required to show photo identification so officers can
validate that the name on the boarding pass matches the name on the ID.”
75. Refer to WWYD Delta. Delta’s real–time tracking of passengers’ checked baggage is an example of:
a.
raw data
b.
information
c.
first-mover advantage
d.
Moore’s law
e.
an expert system
76. Refer to WWYD Delta. Delta’s new real-time tracking system, in which each bag is assigned and
tracked via a unique bag code, is an example of turning _____into ____ for passengers.
a.
raw data / meaningful information
b.
raw data / first-mover advantage
c.
information / sustainable competitive advantage
d.
information / profit
e.
Moore’s law / satisfaction
77. Refer to WWYD Delta. If Delta and other airlines install surveillance cameras in the bellies of their
planes, they would be able to _____ information about what happens to bags in transit.
a.
protect
b.
process
c.
capture
d.
generate
e.
detect
78. Refer to WWYD Delta. When a TSA employee scans an electronic boarding pass, it is considered:
a.
manual capture of information
b.
electronic conversion of information
c.
supervised data mining
d.
electronic capture of information
e.
data mining
79. Refer to WWYD Delta. When its agents require passengers to present identification, TSA is protecting
the information encoded on the boarding pass using the technique of:
a.
authorization
b.
authentication
c.
personal firewall
d.
biometrics
e.
two-factor authentication
SHORT ANSWER
1. What is a first-mover advantage?
2. According to the resource-based view of information technology, what are the three critical issues that
companies need to address in order to sustain a competitive advantage through information
technology?
3. Define data mining. Briefly describe the two general approaches to data mining.
4. What does it mean when someone says that an organization protects its information? Why it is
important to do so? What are the basic steps to properly securing data and data networks?
5. Describe the two critical steps that can be used to ensure that an organization’s data can be accessed
only by authorized users. How does biometrics relate to this process?
6. Which type of personal computer security measure would salespeople who are on the road dealing
with customers’ questions want the company to use? Why?
7. Briefly distinguish between knowledge and information.
8. A master brewer knows the exact ingredients to add to make a dark beer, a lager, or an ale. He
understands the nuances of the fermentation process and when a batch reaches perfection. How can
technology capture this specialized knowledge?
ESSAY
1. Assume that, as a member of the student governing body at your college or university, you have
unlimited resources to tackle a challenge that has been posed to you by students, some faculty, and the
administration at your school: develop a database that will allow students to identify the quality of
instructors before signing up for their courses. Using this challenge as a running example, differentiate
between raw data and information. Then identify and discuss the characteristics and costs of useful
information as they apply to this challenge.
2. Discuss the issues, advantages, and risks associated with using information to gain or maintain
strategic advantage.
ANS:
3. What are the two basic methods of capturing information? Comment on the advantages and
disadvantages of each.
ANS:
4. What is data mining? Describe the two kinds of data mining. How can data mining be used to invade
the privacy of individuals, given the large amount of data that is collected and stored electronically on
people in their everyday transactions?
5. Compare and contrast executive information systems, decision support systems, and expert systems.