Management Information Systems, 14e (Laudon)
Chapter 2 Global E-Business and Collaboration
1) A business process in the ________ function is producing bills of material.
A) finance and accounting
B) human resources
C) manufacturing and production
D) research and development
E) sales and marketing
2) An example of a cross-functional business process is
A) identifying customers.
B) transporting the product.
C) creating a new product.
D) assembling a product.
E) paying creditors.
3) Identifying customers is a business process handled by the human resources function.
4) One example of a business process is shipping a product to a customer.
5) A(n) ________ is a set of logically related activities for accomplishing a specific business
result.
6) What is the connection between organizations, information systems, and business processes?
7) What are cross-functional business processes? Give an example.
8) Your aunt has asked you for your suggestions to make her business, a local sandwich shop,
more efficient. Describe at least three types of business processes that a sandwich shop has. Can
any be better coordinated through the use of information systems?
9) The ________ function is responsible for identifying customers.
A) finance and accounting
B) human resources
C) manufacturing and production
D) sales and marketing
E) distribution and logistics
10) If your main supplier was late in delivering goods, which type of system would you use to
update your production schedule?
A) ESS
B) TPS
C) MIS
D) DSS
11) You have been hired by a non-profit agency to implement a system to handle their donations.
The system must be able to handle and record telephone, SMS, and Internet donations, provide
up-to-the-minute reports, and create highly customizable mailing lists. In addition, event
fundraisers need to be able to quickly access a donor’s information and history. Which of the
following systems will best meet these needs?
A) TPS
B) TPS with DSS capabilities
C) TPS with MIS capabilities
D) TPS with ESS capabilities
E) DSS with MIS capabilities
12) To monitor the status of internal operations and the firm’s relations with the external
environment, managers need ________ systems.
A) decision-support
B) knowledge
C) transaction processing
D) management information
13) A(n) ________ is typically a major source of data for other systems.
A) transaction processing system
B) management information system
C) executive support system
D) decision-support system
E) knowledge management system
14) The term “management information systems” designates a specific category of information
systems serving
A) integrated data processing throughout the firm.
B) transaction process reporting.
C) employees with online access to historical records.
D) the information technology function.
E) middle management functions.
15) You would use a(n) ________ in order to determine which of your suppliers has the best and
worst records for keeping to your production schedule?
A) MIS
B) TPS
C) UPS
D) DSS
E) CRM
16) A relocation control system that reports summaries on the total moving, house hunting, and
home financing costs for employees in all company divisions would fall into the category of
A) knowledge management systems.
B) transaction processing systems.
C) executive support systems.
D) management information systems.
E) decision support systems.
17) Non-typical business problems with causes and effects that are rapidly changing are typically
handled by which type of information system?
A) MIS
B) TPS
C) ESS
D) DSS
E) KMS
18) ________ systems are especially suited to situations in which the procedure for arriving at a
solution may not be fully defined in advance.
A) Management information
B) Transaction processing
C) Decision-support
D) Knowledge management
E) Resource planning
19) Which type of system would you use to forecast the return on investment if you used new
suppliers with better delivery track records?
A) ESS
B) TPS
C) MIS
D) CRM
E) DSS
20) Which level of the organization are ESS specifically designed to serve?
A) operational
B) end-user
C) middle management
D) senior management
E) knowledge workers
21) Executive support systems are information systems that support the
A) long-range planning activities of senior management.
B) knowledge and data workers in an organization.
C) decision making and administrative activities of middle managers.
D) day-to-day processes of production.
E) transactional needs of the organization.
22) Which of the following systems would you expect to deliver integrated, personalized
business content through a Web portal interface?
A) transaction processing systems
B) executive support systems
C) management information systems
D) decision-support systems
E) supply chain management systems
23) To forecast trends in your supplier’s industry that could affect your firm over the next five
years, you would use a(n)
A) ESS.
B) TPS.
C) MIS.
D) DSS.
E) KMS.
24) Which of the following is a highly structured decision?
A) creating a new product
B) estimating the effect of changing costs of supply materials
C) calculating the best trucking routes for product delivery
D) granting credit to a customer
E) forecasting new industry trends
25) Using the Internet to buy or sell goods is called
A) e-commerce.
B) e-business.
C) an intranet.
D) an extranet.
E) digital commerce.
26) Transaction-level information is essential for operational management to be able to direct the
day-to-day operations of the business.
27) Cross-functional systems are being phased out in favor of systems that support business
processes within a single functional group, such as human resources.
28) Decision-support systems are most commonly used by the operations management level of
an organization.
29) You would use an MIS to help determine if your business should introduce a new product
line.
30) For nonroutine decision making, senior managers rely on management information systems.
31) Most TPSs use sophisticated mathematical models or statistical techniques.
32) DSS are used by managers to make decisions about problems that are unusual and not easily
specified in advance.
33) DSS use internal information as well as information from external sources.
34) An organization’s MIS and DSS supply an ESS with summarized information.
35) Operational managers use ESS primarily to solve specific problems.
36) Business ________ applications allow managers to interactively work with current and
historical data to discover patterns and trends to help their decision.
37) An ESS’s digital ________ displays an array of charts and graphs of a business’s key
performance indicators.
38) A Web interface used to present integrated personalized business content to users is called
a(n) ________.
39) ________ applications integrate information from multiple functions and business processes
to enhance the performance of the organization as a whole.
40) Supply chain management systems are described as a(n) ________ system because they
manage information that flows between different companies.
41) The retail home improvement chain you work for, DIY Discount, has noticed that one of its
brands of faucets is not selling nearly as well as anticipated. What information systems of the
business will you use to determine the reason for the poor sales? Discuss what information you
will retrieve from which system. Which of the information systems will be most important for
your analysis? Which of the systems will be least important?
42) Identify and discuss the major types of information systems that serve the main management
groups within a business. What are the relationships among these systems?
43) Apex Vacuum, a family-owned manufacturer of budget vacuums, has grown exponentially
over the last few years. However, the company is having difficulty preparing for future growth.
The only information system used at Apex is an antiquated accounting system. The company has
one manufacturing plant located in Arkansas; and three warehouses, in Arkansas, Delaware, and
California. The Apex sales force is national, and Apex purchases about a third of its vacuum
parts and materials from a single overseas supplier. You have been hired to recommend the
information systems Apex should implement in order to maintain their competitive edge.
However, there is not enough money for a full-blown, cross-functional enterprise application,
and you will need to limit the first step to a single functional area or constituency. What will you
choose, and why?
44) You have been hired to work with 10 salespeople from different branches of a national
business in creating an online training site for new sales employees. Identify six collaboration
tools that are available to help the team work together. Which single tool would be the most
helpful for the project, in your opinion, and why?
45) What is the most important function of an enterprise application?
A) increasing speed of communicating
B) enabling business functions and departments to share information
C) enabling a company to work collaboratively with customers and suppliers
D) enabling cost-effective e-business processes
E) enabling inventory and supply chain management
46) Which of the following systems is designed to support organization-wide process
coordination and integration?
A) decision-support systems
B) management information systems
C) CRM systems
D) enterprise applications
E) supply chain management systems