Chapter 7: Discussion Question

1)                  Refer to the Real World Case on Cisco Systems in the chapter. How much of the potential success of their technology do you believe will rest on their ability to imitate life-like, in-person meetings, and how much on organizations reinventing the way they operate?

Bringing each corner of the globe and people interacting their to the common forum and helping them interact by creating real virtual environment is a wonderful concept in this emerging business scenario. Customers must first drive demand for this sort of product, and this demand will not come from pretty pictures but from business value.  For example, organizations using videoconferencing to reinvent the way they operate can offset the systems costs with the resulting cost savings.  Cisco's success will derive therefore derive first from the size of this market and then from their ability to win customers away from competitors.  In this, life-sized talking heads may help.  However, the case provided no reasons why Cisco's competitors cannot also provide this feature – unless the case meant to imply that current video standards cannot support this capability.  Ultimately, the system's "features" will win over clients.  Live-sized heads are one feature, but by using open standards, Cisco's competitors have set themselves up to

ensure they offer ongoing feature innovation. Since Cisco is being more primitive and standarazied may be this time Cisco will find it hard to on go with the same strategy. 

2)      Why is there a trend toward cross-functional integrated enterprise systems in business?

Cross-functional systems offer time benefits to organization by making things and process to happen smoothly and in short period considering the........click below to read all.

value of time which helps organization to be much time efficient and productive. Cross functional system also allows an organization to become cost effective by making things happen effectively and smoothly without errors in a very systematic way. Quality savings in this system integration is very high in compared to manually re-entering of data from one business function system into another system in a non-integrated environment. 

3)                  Which of the 13 tools for enterprise collaboration summarized in Figure 7.18 do you feel are essential for any business to have today?  Which of them do you feel are optional, depending on the type of business or other factor?  Explain. 

Essential Tools for enterprise collaboration are listed below:

·          Electronic mail

·          Voice mail

·          Faxing

·          Calendaring and scheduling

·          Voice conferencing

·          Document management

·          Workflow systems

·          Knowledge management

·          Task and project management

Optional:

·          Instant messaging

·          Chat systems

·          Discussion forums

·          Data conferencing

·          Electronic meeting systems

·          Videoconferencing

·          Paging

·          Web publishing

4)                  What other solutions could there be for the problem of information systems incompatibility in business besides EAI systems?

Alternatives to an EAI system should be the one, which comprises middleware between disparate business function-oriented systems, would be to purchase an integrated enterprise-wide suite.  Such suites are built to work together. 

Another solution might include opening the organizational datasets much the way Amazon, Google, and others have done.  By providing access to data via application programming interfaces (APIs), Dell would enable its customers to build their own interfaces on their own terms and with minimal assistance.

5)                  What are the most important HR applications a company should offer to its employees via a Web-based system?  Why?

The most important HR applications that a company should offer to its employees include timesheets: in order to discourage late arriving employees, policy references, so that employees can relate with other work functions, training materials in order to enhance productivity of employees, benefits information, career path guidance, work scheduling, and travel policies.  By offering this information online, organizations can reduce the workload on HR, increase employee productivity, enable employees to develop and manage their own careers, and improve the quality of HR information. It also facilitates organization by reducing turnovers

6)                  How could sales force automation affect salesperson productivity, marketing management, and competitive advantage?

Productivity:

·        Puts product and contract information at a salesperson's fingertips

·        Automates error checking

·        Flags process problems for timely attention

·        Automates order creation and processing

·        Helps optimize travel router.

Management:

·        Allows managers to assess marketing initiatives

·        Allows managers to assess salesperson performance

·        Helps managers identify process bottlenecks

·        Helps managers identify new or underserved markets

Competitive advantage:

·        Reduce transaction cycle time

·        Reduce product development cycle times

·        Enable superior customer responsiveness

7)                  How can Internet technologies be involved in improving a process in one of the functions of business?  Choose one example and evaluate its business value.

Internet technologies generally are accepted for improvements in data capture costs, data quality, cycle-time reductions, and increased information availability in an organizations.  A simple example might include a web-based form through which customers may place their own product orders.  Such a form would reduce transcription errors by shrinking the communications chain, enable real-time error checking, reduce telecommunications and labor costs, increase the organization's market space presence, and enable real-time transaction reporting. 

8)                  Refer to the Real World Case on strategic HRM technologies in the chapter. What are some of the most important HR applications a company should offer its employees? Why? Are any of them missing from the examples included above?

Important applications of HR applications in an organization are listed below:

a.     Work scheduling: In order to make clear about duties and responsibilities of each personnel.

b.     Benefits management: So that the deserving one always gets what he deserves to get and stay motivated. Retententation of employees increases because of this.

c.      Computer based training: To make the workforce much standard and competitive.

d.     Career management: To bring the sense of security in employees so that they become loyal to organization.

e.      Retirement planning: Employees trustworthiness increases and they become more responsible to organization.

9)                  What are several e-business applications that you might recommend to a small company to help it survive and succeed in challenging economic times?  Why?

 

Small organizations have limited business and a small network. Here I list some of the Recommendations of e-business applications to survive and succeed in challenging economic times :

·          Web publishing – to create current web presence, so that organization can have a global presence.

·          Online transaction processing – automating a fundamental workflow, show that less likely of errors and better working efficiency is achieved.

·          Workflow – for creating ad-hoc workflows and process monitoring, in order to make adjustments and control in time

·          Wiki – especially for product support, and HR policy publication, so that customers could feel well attended.

·          Sales force automation – to support sales in the field and sales management processes

10)             Refer to the example on General Electric in the chapter.  How do enterprise collaboration systems contribute to bottom-line profits for a business? 

 Logically, the most important reason for implementing collaborative tools in business is to enhance profit function of an organization. Collaborative tools must contribute to the bottom-line or they would not be in demanded by organizations.  Unlike business function-specific systems incorporating measurable throughputs for an individual activity, a collaborative system's contribution isn't so easily measured.  Managers value these systems to enhance organizational productivity, in the same way they value other utilities. We may think about usability of telephone, An appropriate answer would be:  we wouldn't be able to operate effectively without one, so it is about enhancing effectiveness of the functioning So it goes with collaborative systems.  

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