1. Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.
The triple constraint involves making tradeoffs between scope, time and cost for a project. It is inevitable in a project life cycle that there will be changes to the scope, time or cost of the project. These three variables are interdependent: You cannot change one without changing the others. Project management is the science of making intelligent trade-offs among time, cost, and scope.
2. Describe the two primary diagrams most frequently used in project planning
Two primary diagrams used in project planning include PERT and Gantt charts
1. PERT chart – a graphical network model that depicts a project’s tasks and the relationships between those tasks
2. Gantt chart – a simple bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calendar
3. Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success
A project manager must focus on managing three primary areas to ensure success:
1. Managing people
2. Managing communications
3. Managing change
4. Outline 2 reasons why projects fail and two reasons why projects succeed
Fail:
- Failure to align project with organizational objectives
CRM involves the managing of all aspects of customer relations with the intent of keeping customers and profits. The benefits of CRM is that it provides better customer service, improves call centre efficiency, cross-sells products better and helps sales staff close deals faster.
2) Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.
3) Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments
The marketing departments use a list generator which uses customer information for different marketing campaigns. There is the campaign management which guides the users through marketing campaigns such as through the tasks of planning and scheduling. And finally there is xcoss-selling and Up-selling. Cross-selling is the selling of additional products, whereas up-selling is increasing the value of the sale. The marketing department use CRM technologies to help them when considering the creating of a marketing plan. This is because it helps the business gain greater information on their customers.
The sale department use sale management CRM systems which automates some of the sale processes e.g. calendars etc. Sale also uses contact management CRM systems which maintains customer contact information e.g. features such as maintaining organisational charts and finally opportunity management CRM systems which helps target sale opportunities as it finds potential customers or companies for future sales. The sales department is then different to the marketing department as it does not focus the use of CRM on marketing campaigns but focus' on helping retain the customer and gain new ones.
4) How could a sales department use operational CRM technologies?
The sales department could use operational CRM technologies to:
• list generators - allowing them to provide information on a specific aspect
• campaign management - help schedule and segment the firms resources
• look for systems that cross-sell and up-sell
5) Describe business intelligence and its value to businesses
Business intelligence are the tools and technologies that help provide gather, provide access to and analyse data that will be used in strategic decision making e.g. tools such as data mining. Its value to the business is that it helps provide support for decision making that is based on data that has been analysed. This help the business as the decisions become more accurate as the analysed data benefits the decision, which will benefit them as employees gain knowledge.
6) Explain the problem associated with business intelligence. Describe the solution to this business problem
The problem associated with business intelligence is the idea of data rich, information poor. They don't know what the best tactical move for the business is as they have plenty of data but no solid information. The solution to this problem is the use of business intelligence. This would then allow the whole business to be aligned, which will result in more informed decisions. An example of using BI is in retail and sales where predicted sales and loss prevention are determined with the use of BI. The benefit of this is then that it reduces latency, making it quicker and more efficient when making a decision.
7) What are two possible outcomes a company could get from using data mining?
Two possible outcomes a business could gain from using data mining include:
Operations management refers to the management of systems, procedures or processes that are used to convert or transform resources into final goods and services. This notion is also attributed to ensuring business processes are efficient, in that they use as little resources as possible and are also effective; by ensuring customer requirements are met.
Explain operations management’s role in business
OM helps raise business profits by efficient management of systems that transform their resources into goods. This is done by ensuring a quality product is produced and delivered quickly while maintaining good customer service and the good at a low cost.
Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology
The correlation is strong as Operation Managers role is varied and the need for IT to provide them with visibility of the business. This will help show them where the processes are. This will also show them what resources will be needed and in what amounts, when it should be scheduled, ordered and when corrective management will be needed. It also helps with where the work will be performed (e.g. near transport and near available labour) and how will the good be designed while designating who will perform the work, either in-source or outsource.
Overall, it is greatly used in the Operation Managers role as it helps them make correct decisions that will influence the whole business. Decision support systems greatly help in this area as many decisions have many possible outcomes. This is done through the use of what-if-analysis, which will help determined the best outcome.
Explain supply chain management and its role in business
Supply Chain Management also known as SCM is the management of 'data flows' between the different segments/stages of a supply chain. by managing this information and allowing accurate communication between supply chain stages, supply chain efficiency can be greatly improved.
List and describe the five components of a typical supply chain
- Plan: Firm must have a plan for managing all resources that go towards meeting customer demand for goods and/or services
- Source: Firms must carefully choose reliable suppliers
- Make: Manufacturing stage
- Deliver: Known as logistics: set of processes that plans for and controls the efficient and effective transportation and storage of goods
- Return: Most problematic step in supply chain – firms must create networks for receiving defective and excess products and support customers w/ problems with their goods
Define the relationship between IT and the supply chain
IT plays a crucial role in the supply chain. IT enables the integration of process and information linkages between functions of a firm or between other firms, suppliers, customers etc to be analysed. IT also enables firms to monitor their supply chain and through the information gathered from this stage create informed forecasts and plans for future business goals and objectives. SCM heavily relies on IT to make accurate decisions regarding inventory, need for business processes, reducing costs etc. Without IT, it would be impossible to accurately monitor a large supply chain.
1. Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology.
The benefits of using wireless technology are:
- Ability to have mobile machines
- Less hardware/IT infrastructure required
- Increased productivity as processes/systems are available 24/7
- Greater convenience
- Universal accessibility
2. Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP
VOIP proves to be very beneficial for firms as it uses TCP/IP technology to transmit phone calls using internet technology enabling calls to be transferred at a faster rate. VOIP does not require traditional cooper wire running through the users’ house and prevents consumers from being reliant on Telstra or other telecommunication providers for voice traffic. Also, the use of VOIP as it disintermediates the use of a phone line proves to be much cheaper than traditional methods of calling people. Therefore, VOIP proves to be beneficial for most firms as it involves cheaper telephones and lower operating costs. VOIP services are also easier to relocate for if a firm moved its business and convergence provides lower cost WAN connectivity.
3. Compare LANs and WANs
Local area network (LAN): designed to connect a group of computers in proximity of each other
- enables sharing of resources e.g. files, printers through authentication and authorisation
- connects to other LANs and to the internet
Wide area network (WAN): spans a large geographic area e.g. state or country & connect multiple smaller networks e.g. local area networks
• data communication links between companies and suppliers or customers successfully enable strategic advantage e.g. in Notre Dame network systems in Perth are connected with systems in Sydney
LANs connect computers in close proximity to each other, whereas, WANs are able to connect computers dispersed over a large geographical region.
4. Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective.
Radio Frequency Identification uses active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers. Such RFID tags are often smaller than a grain of sand and combine tiny chips with an antenna. RFID can be used to help make a supply chain more effective as because RFID’s are regularly used in the tracking of inventory, they will be able to replace barcodes and enable the transmission of stronger and more accurate data.
5. Identify the advantages and disadvantage of deploying mobile technology
Advantages:
+ Convenience and Flexibility: Access to data almost anywhere/anytime.
+ May be individually customised.
+ helps businesses make critical, time important decisions.
Disadvantages:
- Not always in real-time, therefore data may not have up to date accuracy.
1. List, describe, and provide an example of each of the five characteristics of high quality information.
There are several characteristics of high quality information.
1. Accuracy. eg. are all the values correct? Is the name spelled correctly? Is the dollar amount recorded properly?
2. Completeness. Is the data missing any relevant information? For example, is the address complete, including street, city, state, and zip code?
3. Consistentcy. eg. Is summary information in agreement with detailed information? Put simply do all total fields equal the true total of the individual fields?
4. Uniqueness. eg. Is each transaction, entity, and event represented only once in the information? ‘are there any duplicate customers?’
5. Timeliness – is the information current with respect to the business requirements? eg. is information updated weekly, daily, or hourly?
2. Define the relationship between a database and a database management system.
The relationship between a database and a database management system can be broken down into two distinct categories. This first of these being direct interaction allows the user to interact directly with the Data Base Management System, which then in turn, obtains the information from the database. The second category, the indirect interaction allows the user to interact with an application such as a sales application. This application then interacts with the data base management system which subsequently obtains the information from the database.
3. Describe the advantages an organisation can gain by using a database.
There are six advantages that an organization can gain from using a database. The first advantage of using a database is that it increases flexibility as a well-designed database should be able to handle changes quickly and easily while providing its users with different views while further maintaining only one physical view. It should however have multiple logical views. The second advantage is linked with the third, these being an increased scalability and performance which will allow an organizations database to meet increased demand, while maintaining acceptable performance levels. The fourth advantage of using a database is that it prevents data redundancy, that is, it stops the same data being stored in many places. The fifth advantage ensures the organization that its data meets constraints such as student grade averages cannot be negative. Put simply, it helps ensure the quality of information. The final advantage of an organization using a database is that it increases its information security, that is, it keeps the organisation’s data safe from theft, modification, and/or destruction.
4. Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model.
The fundamental concept behind the relational database model concerns itself with a collection of tables from which data can be accessed in many different ways without having to reorganize the database tables. That is, once relationships are created, tables can “talk” to each other. We can link the tables to find such things as which teacher is teaching each subject and which item is selling the most on Friday’s. The tables are 2 dimensional that related to each other in order to allow flexibility and visibility over the business. Each table consists of both columns and rows.
5. Describe the benefits of a data-driven website.
- Development
- Content management
- Future expandability
- Minimising human error
- Cutting production and update costs
- More efficient
- Improved stability
6. Describe the roles and purposes of data warehouses and data marts in an organization
Data warehouses: collection of databases that collect business analysis and decision making tasks. The primary purpose is to aggregate information throughout an organisation into a single area in order to make decisions simpler.
Data mart: smaller subset of a database
The purpose of these is to move away from transactional data to get information and visibility across whole firms and produce all data across all functional areas.
1. What is information architecture and what is information infrastructure and how do they differ and how do they relate to each other?
Enterprise architectures (EA) include the plans for how an organisation will build, deploy, use and share its data, processes and IT assets. A successful enterprise architect can make IT cheaper, strategic and responsive. Enterprise architectures contain three components: information architecture, infrastructure architecture, and application architecture.
i) Information architecture a general plan of how IT is to be used by an organisation in order to meet objectives and future goals. The three primary areas of information architecture: is backup and recovery, disaster recovery plan and information security.
ii) Information infrastructure the actual implementation that will provide effective Information Systems, including the hardware, software, services and people involved.
Thus, the information architecture is the planning for all resources, and how IT will be used primarily to achieve future goals and objectives. The information infrastructure is the use of hardware, software, services and people to reach these future goals and objectives of the business and providing an effective information system. Furthermore, both are fundamental steps in reaching an end target for the organization.
2. Describe how an organization can implement solid information architecture
Information architecture - a general plan of how IT is to be used by an organisation in order to meet objectives and future goals.
Solid information architecture should focus on:
1. Backup and recovery - creating an exact copy of a systems information, and the ability for a system to recover from any failure. There are various backup and recovery media systems, which are available, including, storage serves, tapes, disks, CDs, DVDs. All these systems are available and reliable and the only difference is the speed and cost. An organization should choose the appropriate recovery and backup strategy that is in line with its business goals and objectives.
2. Disaster recovery - a detailed process for recovering information or an IT system in an event of a disaster eg flood, bushfire, Natural disasters. A hot site is where an organization can move after a disaster, it is fully equipped and separate allowing a business to continue business. A cold site is an empty space without any facilities but a business can move there after a disaster.
3. Information security - managing user access such as updating and securing passwords, updating antivirus software and patches, implementing firewalls regularly.
These plans are used to ensure data and systems aren’t lost within an organization and are secure in the event of a failure in the system, or natural disaster. By implementing these systems, an organization can experience solid information architecture through the use of backup, recovery systems and information security.
3. List and describe the five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture.
4. Describe the business value in deploying service oriented architecture
Service oriented architecture (SOA) the architecture is the plan for how the organisation will build, deploy and manage its IT assets to achieve business strategies. A service is a piece of software that performs a task, like a "credit check" for instance, this service can be re-used by many systems without having to completely develop new systems as market demands and business requirements change. So, the service orientated architecture is one that is built on by bringing various services together to meet a certain business requirement, as the business requirement changes, then different services can be pulled together to meet a new demand. SOA helps businesses ensure IT systems adapt quickly, easily and economically to support rapidly changing business needs. It helps businesses increase the flexibility of their processes, strengthen their underlying IT architecture, and reuse their existing IT investment by creating connections among disparate applications and information sources. Using meta-data and existing applications, users can re-use applications (services) many times for different tasks, making development cheaper and more flexible. The key technical concepts of SOA are; services, interoperability, loose coupling.
5. What is an event?
Event – is an electronic message indicating that something has happened, detecting threats and opportunities and alerting those who can act on the information. For example; a credit monitoring system automatically alerts a credit supervisor and shuts down an account when the system processes a $7000 charge on a credit card with a $6000 limit.
6. What is a service?
Service – being a business task, such as checking a potential customer’s credit rating when opening a new account. A service is a set of related commands that can be re-used if they are going to have an impact on productivity. Once an event has been triggered then the service e.g. checks the person’s credit.
7. What emerging technologies can companies use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively?
Virtual machine - Traditionally, one physical computer ran one copy of example, Windows (the operating system), and could be used by only one user. However, as computers have advanced and become so powerful, it is now possible for the computer to run many operating systems at the same time, for instance, the computer could run both Windows and Mac OSX at the same time, these run in virtual sessions - thus, it’s a collection of separate computers (virtual machines) on one physical computer. VMware are best known maker of business virtual computing products. Virtual machines reduce capital cost by increasing energy efficiency.
Grid Computing - occurs when many remote computers are joined together via networks (like the internet) to work together to perform large computing tasks. Google works in this way; they have many servers around the planet that work together to perform searches. Grid computing allows for improved performance, higher
1. Explain the ethical issues surrounding information technology.
2. Describe the relationship between an ‘email privacy policy’ and an ‘Internet use policy’. An email privacy policy details the extent to which email messages may be read by others. An internet use policy contains the general principles to guide the proper use of the Internet.
3. Summarise the five steps to creating an information security plan
1. Develop information security policies
2. Communicate these policies with staff 3. Identify the critical information, assets and risks
4. Test and re-evaluate the risks
5. Obtain the support of stakeholders
4. What do the terms; authentication and authorization mean, how do they differ, provide some examples of each term.
Authentication is a method of confirming users identities whilst authorisation is the process of giving someone permission to do or have something. Authentication involves something the user knows, such as a password; has, such as a smart card; or is, such as fingerprint for biometrics. Once a system determines the authentication of a user, it can then determine the access privileges, for that user. Authorisation is the process of giving someone permission to do or have something.
5. What are the Five main types of Security Risks, suggest one method to prevent the severity of risk?
All information sourced from:
- Baltzan, P., Phillips, A., Lynch, K., & Blakey, P. (2010). Business Driven Information Systems. Sydney: McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Ltd
- Lecture Slides
