Chapter 3: Discussion Question

1)      What trends are occurring in the development and use of major types of computer system?

Þ    The computer system is a complete working computer. A computer is a system of information processing components that perform input, processing, output, storage, and control functions. Its hardware components include input and output devices, a central processing unit (CPU), and primary and secondary storage devices. Every computer system requires operating system to function. Each computer connected to the system can operate independently, but has the ability to communicate with other external devices and computers. Every computer system consists of input, processing and output functions.

There are several major categories of computer systems with a variety of characteristics and capabilities. Thus,

Computer systems are typically classified as:

a)      Mainframe computers

b)      Midrange computers

c)      Microcomputers

a)      Microcomputers

Microcomputers are the smallest but most important categories of computers systems for business people and consumers. They are also referred to as personal computers (or PCs). The computing power of current microcomputers exceeds that of the....... Click below to read all Answers

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Wachovia and Others: Trading securities at the speed of Light

1)      What competitive advantage can the companies described in the case derive from the use of faster technology and co-location of servers with the exchanges? Which would you say are sustainable and which ones temporary or easily imitable? Justify your answer.

By using faster technology in their work Wachovia corporate and investment bank made proper adjustments in their work cycle, reducing both time of the operation and cost of the production. They simplified the segments they were using for the faster connectivity from one system to another and made a very distinct and easy channel of network which consisted all the aspects of organization, from research to reporting. Speed was their main concern. The only thing they did from faster technological use was made the calculation procedure exact and accurate neglecting other business prospects of information technology, which increased their cost to some extent. Technological innovation has life cycle and there is no final thing on it. There, this thinking was temporary and easily imitable which may...... click below to read all Answers.

cost much later in future. Speed considering the availability, with the service and reliability is the positive aspects of using co relation of servers with the exchanges. These facilitate in networking and are sustainable benefits. It also enhances the productivity of the costumer.

2)      Tony Bishop of Wachovia stated that “Competitive advantage comes from your math, your workflow and processing through your systems.” Referring to what you have learned in this chapter, developing opposing viewpoints as to the role of IT, if any, in the development of competitive advantage. Use examples from the case to support your positions.

Knowing your figures always helps you to gain a competitive advantage. Calculations are very much necessary to make while deploying a technology in the business so that cost benefit can be ascertained. If a technology helps an organization to reduce the cost, by the proper and systematic management of the workflows inside an organization making a efficient processing possible then only it’s profitable to deploy technology in the business.

But competitive advantage is not only about accuracy of figures, if done only that it may not make organization competitive enough. Cost is not only the factor that ensures the competitive advantage of an organization along with costs there are lots of things that comes together to make information technology a competitive weapon. Quality of the products and services, new ideas and features included in the product and mass marketing as well is equally important to get the competitive advantage through the use of information technology. Costumer focused business structure, devoted to provide best quality products with unique features; in reasonable price covering the larger segment of market by using information technology to facilitate each function is important to gain competitive advantage. For example, in case of Wachovia calculation functions without coordination with WAN made it hard to attain desirable productivity from the use of technology.

3)      What companies in industries other than securities trading could benefit from technologies that focus on reducing transaction processing times? Provide several examples.

The organizations that have to perform in real time scenario with huge number of transactions can benefit from technologies that focus on reducing transaction processing times. When there is costumer waiting for the completion of process and there are lots of transactions that are to be performed then use of technologies that gives the speed to the process makes it easier to manage the function and ensure customer satisfaction. Organizations information system about customers should be accessed easily so that delays issues can be forbidden.

Hotel industry can benefit from technologies that focus on reducing transaction processing times. For reservations, cancellations and occupancies information should be processed fast and any delays in such processing may cost lots of customers to the organization. For guests information and their stay calculation as well as their other information faster technologies can be used to increase the efficiency of the organization through customer satisfaction by effective management and utilization of speedy information technologies.

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IT Leaders: Reinventing IT as a strategic Business Partner

1)      What are the business and political challenges that are likely to occur as a result of transformation of IT from support activity to a partner role? Use examples from the case to illustrate your answer.

Changes are very critical so it’s very hard to manage a change. When an organization thinks about making a change then it has to face several challenges. Information technology with just 40 years of history has been integral part of organization. It used to be a supporting activity for the functioning of an organization, but as result of transformation of IT in recent years, from support activity to a partner role, it has been the .... Click below to read all questions Answers

backbone of an organization. This transformation has helped organization from decision making to implementation and maintenance of that decision. But along with this there are several challenges that come around. Among which business and political challenges are discussed below.

Business challenges

·         To produce goods efficiently and at a lower costs.

·         To increase sales and service facilities of the products at the highest possible margins.

·         To create new products and services.

·         Reinvention of business and designing completely different business models.

              Political challenges

·         Changing the traditional work pattern.

·         Issues of cost and taxes.

·         Development along with advancement.

2)      What implications does this shift in the strategic outlook of IT have for traditional IT workers and for the educational institutions that train them? How does this change the emphasis on what knowledge and skills the IT person of the future should have?

Traditionally, IT was very specific. Within IT as well the one who is aware about operational activities of an IT was never concerned about hardware portion of it. But now the time has changed and IT worker should not only know about the information technologies but also should know about all the aspects of organization.

In order to maintain their career traditional IT workers should develop ability to learn about every single segment of organization, where IT exists and should prepare them to make the best out of the IT provided in order to make worthy decisions in management and strategic level. IT is no more just a technical field, a managerial and operational function comes along with it so, IT workers should come being more responsible towards the organization and it’s every aspect.

Educational institutions who train them should make the teaching more elaborate and practical. They should focus in increasing both the technological and managerial skill of an individual, So that training can be effective in real working environment. Overall organizational knowledge and skill to use and analyze information technology in every aspects of organization should be taught by such educational institutions. Because Future IT person should have ability to find out creative ideas and strategies in order to operate and grow by making the efficient and effective use of information technology.

3)      To what extent do you agree with the idea that technology is embedded about everything a company does? Provide examples, other than those included in the case, of recent product introduction that could not have been possible without heavy reliance on IT.

Every organization follows certain way of collecting information, keeping those information’s and using that at the time of need. From telephone to sophisticated processing media everything falls under the title, Information Technology. Every aspect of organization uses information technology to make the systematic and accurate records. From production to marketing and sales to service information technology plays vital role in today’s business organizations. So we cannot deny that information technology is used in almost every aspects of organization.

Currently Kumari bank launched its new service package, Mobile cash. Here a costumer can only use this service of buying and paying only through mobile phones and organization as well has to maintain high network of information technology that facilitates the transaction. Idea and availability of this service provided by the bank is totally based on the information technology. Without the information technology this service cannot be used as well as delivered.

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GE Energy and GE Healthcare: Using Information Technology to create strategic Costumer Relationships

1)      What are the business benefits of using Information Technology to build strategic costumer relationships for GE Energy and GE healthcare? What are the business benefits for their customers?

 Information technology makes the business process much simpler and easier. Costumers are vital part of organization. Customer satisfaction is very important for an organization to grow. Information technology in strategic customer relationship management makes it systematic and reliable. Easy accessing facilities and prompt information’s make it more users friendly and communicative as a result customer satisfaction level and the goodwill of the organization rises resulting the increase in value and business of organization.

In case of GE energy, use of information technology to build strategic costumer relationships made the business much profitable due to high maintenance facilities. Quality of the service they provide upgraded and they enjoyed wonderful costumer relationships. As a result of costumer dependency for their products they were able to tie pricing benefit to their business. It also generated cross functional opportunities making greater work scope and building costumer trust towards their products and services.

As for GE Healthcare, Due to the investment in information technology for network monitoring, diagnostics and data analysis of the use of its products at customer sites throughout the world it saved its cost, improved the quality and uniformity of the information and goodwill of the organization throughout the world. And most importantly its costumer relation became stronger because of its ability to reach costumers at any..... click below to read all.

part of this world. Due to convenience of use and favorable policies costumer trust increased and organization enjoyed growth and profitability. Only because of use of information Technology the organization reengineered the whole process and made it possible for a costumer friendly payment estimates.

Because of use of information technology for strategic customer relationship management by these organizations, not only the organizations but costumers as well benefited a lot. Easy accessibility and on time support made them easy to perform their business without hassles. Costumers as well save their cost and increased the productivity and profitability of their business.

2)      Which strategic uses of information technology is discussed in this chapter and summarized? Explain the reasons for your choices.

In the case of GE Energy and GE healthcare innovative use of information technology is followed. They came up with the new idea leading the market in their sector through the use of information technology. Their online facilities and different assumptions regarding the service provided made them distinct and successful in providing new type of services to its costumers reducing cost of both theirs and their customers. They also seem to follow Alliance strategy by creating the virtual image of their organization, reducing the cost and increasing the market share through the use of information technology in the most sophisticated way.

3)      How could other companies benefit from the use of IT to build strategic costumer relationships? Provide or purpose several examples of such uses. Explain how each benefits the business and its customers.

Information Technology has been so standardized and systematic that every single business can benefit from the use of IT to build strategic costumer relationships. Costumers are most important assets to every business organization so they need to prepare themselves with high maintenance and service facilities in order to keep their customers. By using Information Technology in strategic customer relationship management they can ensure their efficiency and effectiveness by living up to the expectations of their costumers, saving both cost and time of their customers as well as improving the quality of their products and services. Making costumer happy and satisfied is growing. So organizations can use IT to provide convenient service facilities to its costumers along with accurate information’s and facts about the products and services of organizations. So that costumer can be reliable towards organization and can increase the profitability of their business.

Here in Nepal, organizations like NTC are very famous for their inefficient customer relationship management. One of the major reason for their, increase in dissatisfied costumer number is their very tedious and irresponsible costumer relation management system. In order to enhance their service and regain the costumer trust they need to focus on effective management their system by making the optimum utilization of available resources. By the use of IT in costumer relationship NTC and its customers can have following benefits:

·         Increase in quality of information provided and decrease in cost of information management.

This makes the costumer assured and confident about the organization and they become loyal towards the organization. And organization could have the benefit of keeping its consumer and higher profitability due to efficient management of information.

·         Time saving and increased productivity.

Organization can save time of finding something out from a mess and costumer can enjoy the facility of quick location and solution of their problems.

·         Development of productive and user-friendly service packages. It benefits both the costumers and organization in terms of profitability and productivity.

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GE, Dell, Intel, GM and others: Debating the competitive Advantage of Information Technology

1)      Do you agree with the argument made by Nicholas Carr to support his position that IT no longer gives companies a competitive advantage? Why or why not?

Nicholas Carr thinks that Information technology is no longer an innovation. Taking strategic advantage from information technology is similar to taking strategic advantage from electricity or transportation in the business process. It’s been so common that everybody uses it and it’s the infrastructure that every business builds, in order to run a business. So, he believes rather than defining it as an important tool for organizational management it should be categorized as a basic business process. I think he could be right to some extent but it may not be fair to compare information technology with electricity and transportation. Because technologies keeps on being better and better everyday. Just because almost business organization uses it, it doesn’t mean that it has limited use and it cannot be developed and elaborated further more. He may be right saying that information technology is making a business much costly, but minimum investment for the desired result, and accomplishments of those results is the main point of using information technology in business. He has several worthy issues which are appreciable, but the most glaring flaws of his issues are complete disregard for the benefit, information technology has been providing to the business organizations and one sided understanding about information technology.

2)      Do you agree with the argument made by the business leaders in this case in support of the competitive advantage that IT can provide to a business? Why or why not?

Business leaders in the case are the ones, who have deployed information technology in their business in order to get competitive as well as other benefits from information technology. They have very strong and practical conviction about importance of information .......click below to read all.

technology for competitive advantage in business. As they pointed out, information technology is not only about what you are using it’s also about how you are using it. How much to spend in IT as well is the important question to answer before going for a technology. So, if decisions about IT are made in right time, for the right cause in a right way, only then it could be effective. Business cannot face the competition if it doesn’t have complete information about every single thing that matters and information technology makes it possible to get that information in systematic way when required. Since, there is always something new and big coming next day in this field so it would be foolish to underestimate the power of information technology in order to enhance the competitive advantage of business so I agree with the argument made by the business leaders in this case in support of the competitive advantage that IT can provide to a business.

3)      What are several ways that IT could provide a competitive advantage to a business? Use some of the companies mentioned in this case as examples. Visit their websites to gather more information to help your answer.

Information technology provides the complete information about what is to be known in order to take useful steps in business to face the growing competition. Information technology gives the clear picture of business trends and practices and helps in making the most appropriate decisions in consideration to competitive business environment. Through the use of information technology business organizations can benefit lots of competitive advantages. Some of them are listed below:

·         By using information technology organization can substantially reduce the cost of business process and enjoy the benefit of being low cost producer in an industry.

·          Information technology can help in developing new features to differentiate products and services so that organization could provide different products from its competitors.

·         Through new inventions and innovations from information technology business organization can create new and unique products and services along with new market niches. Innovation can also enhance the quality of their products and services.

·         Information technology helps the organization to expand volume of its production. It helps in making a global market and to diversify and integrate their products and services.

·         Organizations can use IT to create virtual organizations of business partners along with the benefit of establishing linkages and alliance with costumers, suppliers, competitors and consultants.

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Chapter 2: Discussion questions

1)      Suppose you are a manager being asked to develop e-business and e-commerce applications to gain a competitive advantage in an important market for your company. What reservations might you have about doing so? Why?

Using e-business and e-commerce applications to gain a competitive advantage is a very good idea. Doing this I can help my organization grow globally as well as increase the market of our products and services. But if it’s the first time I am using it in the business then I need to be alert and should undergo proper feasibility study of the marketplace because it may backfire. Big markets are not good to experiment at. It takes a huge risk to do so. And also e-commerce and e-business policy may be effective but it might not be the best option for the business I am into. Use of this information technology is profitable for the promotion of those products whose focused customers and users are within the reach of internet and computing facilities. Place and nature of product is very important to consider in order implementing best information technology to implement in order to get the competitive advantage.

As a manager I would have certain reservations about my product’s nature, my customer’s habit and size as well as nature of the market where I am using e-commerce and e-business as a tool for competitive advantage. Because without considering these things, I would not be able to benefit my organization and increase its competitive strength by the use of this sort of information technology. Analyzing all the sources and implementing the best source to gain competitive advantage would be my main concern.

2)      How could a business use information technology to increase switching costs and lock in its customers and suppliers? Use business example to support your answers.

Investment in information technology allows a business to lock its customers and suppliers as well as other competitors by building valuable and convenient new business relationship with them. Such relationship deters the parties from abandoning a company for its ........ Click below to read all.

competitor’s product or going for less profitable business arrangements. Focusing on quality of a product and services to customers and suppliers in a firm’s distribution, marketing, sales and service facilities is the main concerns of this aspect.

For example by maintaining unbeatable quality and providing numerous facilities in its PCs, MAC has been able to lock in its customers and suppliers. This has been possible due to high investments in information technology which facilitates in developing wonderful technology with high quality very distinct features.  Effective communication networks within its user’s, suppliers and organization have also helped the organization to be on top.

3)      How could a business leverage its investment in information technology to build strategic IT capabilities that serve as a barrier to entry by new entrants into its markets?

Information technology helps in making a strong organizational influence in market. Organization makes investment in information technology as per the financial status and necessity of the organization. The benefit of using information technology should always be higher than cost of deploying it so that organization can make the best out of what is used. Organization can use information technology to ensure strategic capabilities of organization which serves as a barrier for new entrants. By making investment on information technology to improve its operations or promote innovation a firm could discourage or delay other companies from entering a market.

 When an organization is doing very well focusing on its costumers and making them happy by using information technology to monitor and backup each and every aspects of organization it becomes hard for others who wants to join the same business. When the one playing in the field is very strong with everything managing so smoothly willing to be players find it hard to prepare themselves with all those sorts of things, so there’s very few chance for new entries. Besides, by using information technology organization can develop new products and services that would not be possible without strong IT capability.

4)      Refer to the Real world case on IT leaders and reinventing IT in the chapter. How would these ideas about the strategic positioning of IT apply to a small company? Do you think a small business would have a harder or an easier time aligning its business and IT organizations? Use an example to illustrate your answer.

IT leaders and reinventing IT is about broadening the scope of information technology from a specific subject matter to inclusive of every aspects of organizational understanding in order to facilitate the managerial process. This is a very fruitful concept which can help organization to increase productivity but it is also very hard to implement because it’s very tough to train everybody about every single procedure and functions of organization.

 Especially in small organizations where budget is minimum and which doesn’t have any definite pattern of performance, it becomes hard to go through this and manage everything as per this concept. For small skill based organization like handicraft business where production as well as sales is limited and there are different small procedures to be performed in order to complete a process. It becomes very hard for manufacturing department to learn about every other aspect, from marketing to service. And such organizations also can’t sustain the high cost of technology, which keeps on changing every next day. Generally in specialized business which is based on human skills it is very hard to apply this emerging concept of reinvention of Information Technology.

5)      What strategic role can information technology play in business process reengineering?

Business process reengineering is about rethinking and radical redesign of business process to achieve dramatic improvements in cost, quality, speed and service. Business Process Reengineering is also about making a strategy of promoting business innovation by making major improvements to business process so that company can become much stronger and successful.

Information technology plays major role in Business Process Reengineering. The speed, information processing capabilities and connectivity of computers and internet technologies can substantially increase the efficiency of business processes, as well a communication and collaboration among the people responsible for their operation and management. Through the use of information technology all the process of business can be brought together in a systematic structure, each process facilitating another process for efficient and effective results.

6)      How can internet technologies help to make a business from strategic alliances with its customers, suppliers and others?

Internet is a very wide network expanded around the world. If an organizations registers its site in an internet and informs all its concerned bodies about the registration, providing them the instructions to enter into it. All of them can come together at one time for the common discussion from the different parts of the world, together forming strategic alliances by sharing ideas and information’s, accessing and retrieving documents stored in internet. An organization can form separate as well as common alliance with its costumers, suppliers and others as per the policy of organization. Such kinds of alliances are very useful to maintain the organization with changing time and scenario.

7)      How could a business use the internet technologies to form a virtual company, or become an agile competitor?

Virtual company is an organization that uses information technology to link people, organizations, ideas and assets. Business organizations develop their virtual companies, and these virtual companies form virtual workgroups and alliances with business partners that are interlinked by internet, intranets and extranets. Through virtual company business organization develops alliances with suppliers, customers, subcontractors, competitors and all the external and internal bodies related with organization, making information sharing more smooth and easy. Business organization can form a virtual company through a strategic alliance of all its major business partners’ facilitating the communication process within the network of internet. Here all the parties get registered in internet and they share their ideas and values to provide a world class solution for customers in order to capture the market opportunity. In today’s growing market it may not always be possible to quickly exploit a new market opportunity by arranging resources to develop the manufacturing and distribution infrastructure, peoples and information technologies so during then virtual company helps an organization to make a quick effort.

Information technology helps an organization to become an agile competitor by supporting the mass customization, offering individualized products while maintaining high volumes of production. Agile companies are so very dependent in internet technologies to integrate and manage business processes, while providing the information processing power to treat masses of customers as individuals.

8)      Refer to the Real world case on Wachovia Corporation and Others in the chapter. How much of the competitive advantage described in the case come from the technology, and how much from the underlying processes developed by the organizations described there? Is one source of competitive advantage more important than other? Defend your answer.

Information technology cannot be effective if it is not synchronized with managerial functions and decisions of organization. Overall productivity of the organization depends upon the performance of all the factors of business process including information technology. Technology does makes the process go fast and reliable, reducing cost of production and increasing quality of products and services, which is very important to gain the competitive advantage but technology alone can’t help organization to take lead in market competition because technology is only one aspect to gain competitive advantage so all the other aspects should be equally strong and competitive to gain competitive advantage in market. Organization comprises of several departments, process and procedures so for an organization to be successful all these things should be managed and functioned effectively.

Actully, all the sources of competitive advantage are linked with each other. One source supports the existence of other. There is nothing like one is important and another is less important. But they could be used differently by different organizations as per the nature of the business. For example for consumer goods producing organization cost leadership may be the important source but for organizations like HP and Sony which deals with technology innovation might be the most important source.

9)      Information Technology can’t really give a company a strategic advantage, because most competitive advantage don’t last more than a few years and soon become strategic necessities that just raise the stakes of the game. Discuss.

When a successful thing comes into the market and when our competitor realizes that our technology is working they soon deploy that technology in their business as well, as a result the next day there comes several products in market similar to ours to replace our products. Copying is a human nature, we can’t avoid this. But it doesn’t mean that technology cannot give competitive advantage to the organization. There is always a privilege of being first. Whatever may come tomorrow but people will always remember the first product as a trend setter. There are several brands of iPods but apple is the synonym to it. And in case of technology, technology keeps on growing everyday. It doesn’t have the end. If others follow our current technology to imitate we can always go for the advancement and develop something new. There is always something new coming up. Partly it is true that after sometime it becomes the necessity that just raise the stake of games but that what is development about. If our folks had thought the same thing after inventing typewriter then today we wouldn’t have been using laptops.

10)  MIS author and consultant Peter Keen says: “We have learned that it is not technology that creates a competitive edge, but the management process that exploits technology.” What does he mean? Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Technology is a human invention. It runs as per the instructions provided by us. There are several technologies available and it’s the management that decides which one to go for by analyzing the need and requirement of the business. Management decides what to use, where to use and why to use so that everything happens systematically in a process. Use of technology enhances the productivity, quality and availability of good and services. Management governs the functioning of information technology in every ways. Sometimes simple technology makes a great impact and sometimes costly and huge technology makes no impact at all. The reason for this is the decision of management about the use of technology. If management understands the technology and provide instructions of operation as per the nature of technology in a right place and right time then the technology becomes useful, if not technology becomes failure. It’s management’s decision that makes a technology effective or useless so I agree with the authors saying.

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Chapter 1 - Discussion Question

1)      How can information technology support a company’s business processes and decision making and give it a competitive advantage? Give example to illustrate your answer.

In an organization number of transactions occurs every day. It’s almost impossible to keep the record of these transactions manually. So in order to keep the systematic record of day to day transaction, considering the value of time, in the most accurate form, organizations use Information Technology. Use of information Technology has made a workplace more productive and scientific. During the entire business process from dealing with supplier to reaching a costumer, information technology plays a very important role to make things happen smoothly. Business decisions are based on the data’s and information provided to decision makers and information technology ensures the accuracy and reliability of the information collected. In this competitive business environment it’s very important that decisions taken are as per the scenario and in the favor of organization considering the competitors around so here we can see the direct impact of information technology in decision making. Through the use of information technology, data’s and information are to be collected and are to be supplied to all the sectors of organization as per the importance. Decision making department uses these data’s to evaluate the performance of organization and all the plans and policies are made as per the information and data’s provided. If the decision making department is provided the accurate data then the department takes the appropriate policy and plans as per the need of the situation. When the decisions are taken, through the use of information technology they can be implemented effectively and also it becomes easy to control the decision, since outcomes of decision can be monitored systematically. This way efficiency of the decision becomes more. When your decisions are appropriate and efficient, you can be able to face the competition with appropriate strategies to win the war.

2)      How does the use of internet, Intranets and extranets by companies today support their business processes and activities?

Directly or indirectly organizations have been using intranets and extranets in order to support their business activities since so long. Intranet is the communication network inside the organization, which provides information about what is happening inside the organization. Its about knowing yourself.Extarnet is about communication network among various stakeholders who are not exactly in the organization but are related to....... click below to read all answers.

organization in some ways. Extranet provides information about suppliers, customers and competitors which facilitates the process of planning and decision making. Organizations used to decide and perform as per the information collected through these two different networks. And now, past 10 years internet has been one of the most important sources of information for the organization to operate in this global environment. Internet has made it possible to know about everything going around the globe, sitting in the couch. Internet has made the business easier. Websites, blogs, email and many more, collecting information was never so easy before. Today to know about Microsoft Inc. you shouldn’t visit America. Besides, because of use of internet we are able to know about what are the recent business trends, what are our competitors doing ,where’s our business heading and lot more so that we can manage and plan our activities as per all these things. Organizations are using internet in their every aspect, from production to promotion.

3)      Refer to the real world case on sew what? In the chapter. In the company’s early years, Megan Duckett lost a major contract because a prospective client said that without a web site, her business “lacked credibility.”Does this hold true today for all business? Why or why not?

Business is not just about buying and selling of a product. Moreover it’s about trust. Costumer should be able to trust you if you are to sell your product. Costumer trusts you as per the information you provide about yourself and the way you show responsibility towards them. If your company has a website, it shows that you are up-to-date with changing time and you are responsible towards your costumer so that you are considering the convenience of your costumer .This sense of responsibility can be the basis of trust among you and your costumer resulting the business relation among the parties.

Today people have many choices. They have many options to go for. The only reason they will choose you from the many is the trust they have in you. The more they know about you, more it becomes easy for them to trust you. So, definitely in today’s complex business environment it matters a lot to have credibility in order to be successful. If people don’t know about you they won’t be able to trust you. Also Internet is very convenient that a costumer can use it from anywhere to get the detail information. So in order to explain yourself and be familiar to people along with moving with people’s perception and changing technological advances, it is important to have website today in all business.

4)      Why do big companies still fail in their use of information technology? What should they be doing differently?

When things are big it’s hard to organize them together and adjust all of it in one single system. Same goes with big organizations. Every department is distinct and they have their own distinct way of communicating, keeping records and managing their data’s. Information technology is only effective if it’s managed to use in a systematic way. Input should be accurate, uniform and in order to get the accurate output. And in big organizations it’s almost impossible to make everything uniform. Also in country like ours, where almost 60% of people are unaware about information technology and IT is very recently brought into practice, big organizations have been following the certain pattern of doing things manually, and it’s hard to change the habit so old.  Along with all these, Cost factor at the beginning as well restricts the organizations to implement IT in their business. Neglecting the information management system as well could be the reason of organizations failure to make the best use of IT. The things these big organizations needs to consider making the best of Information technology are as follows:

*Big organizations should start with being more responsible and sensitive towards data management issues.

*They should divide whole the organization into considerable units of similar departments, which performs the functions in similar pattern so that it becomes easy to implement information technology in work.

*Cost factor should be considered since it will be profitable in long run.

*They should be serious towards moving with time and living the people’s expectations by increasing the quality of their product and services, from the efficient utilization of information technology.

5)      How can a manager demonstrate that he or she is a responsible end user of information system? Give several examples.

Information’s are the basis of planning, organizing, controlling and decision making to managers. The main motive of information system is to facilitate management with effective decision making. Information system is the storehouse of all the information’s arranged in systematic way which can be retrieved easily at the time of need. Information system’s responsibility is to provide accurate information whereas manager using that information is responsible to make the best out of that information and decide in favor of the information provided. Keeping the information for future reference and maintaining its secrecy as per the need as well is the responsibility of manager using it as end user. If I am the manager, I would be using information system to know about everything I need to know, in order to perform my obligations. My responsibility towards that information system I am using it would be,

*To maintain the system and watch out if everything is in order, so as to get accurate information.

*To be responsible towards the information provided and use it in the best possible way to formulate effective plans and policies.

*To maintain the secrecy of the information provided.

*To keep it properly for the future reference and evidence.

*To convey the information in logical way to whom it may concern.

6)      Refer to the real world case on Jet blue and the VA in the chapter. How could a process be designed such that these domino effects can be avoided or to some extent controlled? Define your proposal.

Technologies are boon to organizations if they are used and controlled properly but if they are not looked after properly it can be the matter of failure and loss to an organization. As in case of JetBlue and Veterans Administration, whole the system was about to get down making the organization amputated. But we can’t make the assumption of each and everything that may happen to the system and get prepared for that. Accidents are inevitable; technologies we are using may stop functioning any time.  In such cases, there is nothing much we can do if we don’t have a proper back up plan to handle such crisis.

The kind of situation faced by JetBlue and VA cannot totally be prevented but by following a system of monitoring and control may be we could be more prepared and confident to face such kind of situations. Technologies are machines and the software we use in them are their brain, so in order to keep them fit and fine we need to take very good care of them. Regular updates and checking the functionality of machines is very important in order to avoid such accidents. Monitoring the whole system and making a change whenever it requires it is one of the most important steps in order to avoid such domino steps. Regular backup practice in an identical and distinct system could be other options that whatever happens in the interconnection data’s and information will be safe and can be used later on. Bigger the interconnection, Harder it is to control it, so may be maintaining a specific interconnection system, up to which it becomes easy to control is much better.

7)      What are some of the toughest management challenges in developing IT solutions to solve business problems and meet new business opportunities?

Information technology is not something that we once implement and keep on using it rest of our life. It’s a very dynamic field which keeps on changing. In today’s era of technological advances where everyday new innovations come to our knowledge it’s a challenge to move with it. *Management has a challenge to find out the best technology in order to solve business problems. *There are several technologies available so it’s very important to find out the most appropriate   technology for the organization as per the nature of work of the organization.

*Everything comes with price and information technologies are one of the expensive things to decide for. With the best product Management should also consider the best price to pay for it as per the financial position of organization.

*Owning a best information technology is not enough. It’s very much important to decide where to use it, how to use it, for what to use it and who to use it.

*Information technologies are a bit complicated to start and hard to understand the functions first, so management should make the proper arrangement of human resources to use it.

*Update is required in order to make it reliable so management should consider about updating it as per the changing time.

8)      Why are there so many conceptual classifications of information systems? Why they are typically integrated in the information systems found in real world?

There is no any sure and certain way of information system which is perfect to each and every kind of organizations. Different nature of organizations has different ways of doing things and keeping the datas.As per the functions performed in organization information’s are kept in different formats and order. So there are different conceptual classifications of information systems which vary as per the size, functions and structure of organization. These conceptual information systems help the management of the organization to decide about which system to follow in their organization, considering their functions, size and structure.

These concepts of information systems are scientific and systematic as well as effective to use, in order to manage the information’s available in the organization for the future prospect. In real world organizations need to analyze and store data’s and information in order to use them at the time of need so they typically integrate these concepts of information system in their business so as to have reliable and smooth information management system which is more favorable to their kind of organization.

9)      In what major ways have information systems in business changed during the last 40 years? What is one major change you think will happen in the next 10 years?

It’s not been so long that information system has been so advanced. Before 40 years organizations were having the traditional way of managing information’s in written formats, manually. Development of computers made a very remarkable impact in managing information system. Mainframe computers were just in existence but they were very expensive that every organization couldn’t afford it. Only big banks and corporate houses used to use computers in very limited number. After that mini computers and microcomputers changed the definition of information system and slowly computers became information systems. During 80s and 90s lowering cost of personal computers and their compatible size changed the whole scenario and computers became the most important aspects of organizations in order to manage the information system along with overall performance of an organization. During 90s internet came into existence, which included the whole world in a small box. After that there’s been no looking back. Every year new technologies are discovered, facilitating the information system to be more reliable, accurate and efficient.

I think in next 10 years computers would have artificial intelligence as well which will allow them to think by themselves. Scientists are working on it so may be in a very near future we would be able to communicate with computers in more natural ways.

10)  Refer to real world example of Hershey Foods in the chapter. Are the failure and success described due to managerial or technological challenges? Explain.

Basically, failure or success of business cannot be attributed to only one aspect of organization. Technological and managerial, both aspects of organization are equally responsible for the position of organization. To be in particular in the real world example of Hershey Foods, I think its technological challenge which is much important than managerial challenge, they faced in order to grow up from an organization to successful organization.

As mentioned in the example, during the initial phase ERP was not as efficient as it is now. Lots of organizations were having problem with it because they didn’t know how to use it. At beginning Hershey food as well had problem using technology in its business as a result they were not doing well. Their failure could be the result of their weak technological strategy. But later on, Hershey foods found out the effectiveness of EPS modified it the way they needed and used it efficiently by upgrading it which helped them to increase their productivity. They deployed EPS in such an effective way that it reduced their cost, time of processing and increased the quality of their products by 100%. All this became possible because they Enhanced whole their system  and made it more powerful by including material management invoice verification along with credit processing for distributors, bringing everything together in an organized schedule which resulted in better functioning and cost savings. It was Information Technology that changed whole the picture and helped them taste the success. So this time as well it was technological opportunity which helped them rise.

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