Ethical issues surrounding information technology:


o Intellectual property

o Copyright

o Fair use doctrine

o Pirated software

o Counterfeit software



Describe a situation involving technology that is ethical but illegal.

Making two copies of a software package you purchased and keeping one for backup.



Describe and explain one of the computer use policies that a company might employ

Ethical computer use policy: contains general principles to guide computer user behaviour.

e.g. Internet use policy: contains general principles to guide the proper use of the Internet within an organisation.

Monitoring emails in and out of an employee’s email account.



What are the 5 main technology security risks?

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/

One way to reduce each risk.

 Human error: System Audits to track down malicious activity

 Natural disasters: Not storing technical equipment on the ground floor to avoid ruining them in a flood

 Technical failures: Backing up files on a regular basis and storing them somewhere safe

 Deliberate acts: Strong passwords

 Management failure: Having efficient/effective procedures in place



What is a disaster recovery plan, what strategies might a firm employ?

Disaster recovery is the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster.

• Backups made to tape and sent off-site at regular intervals (preferably daily)

• Backups made to disk on-site and automatically copied to off-site disk, or made directly to off-site disk

• Replication of data to an off-site location

• High availability systems which keep both the data and system replicated off-site, enabling continuous access to systems and data


An useful video on disaster recovery:

eBusiness

1. What is an IP Address? What is its main function?


Internet protocol, way in which data is transferred from one data to another, Each computer has a unique IP address, transfers between internet and networks, a communications protocol



Interesting:

How to find your IP Address

2. What is Web 2.0? How does it differ from 1.0?


Web 1.0

One way internet: sites that don’t allow user participation, just read content

Web 2.0

Social networking sites, collaboration, user builds content, users can update e.g. Facebook, Myspace, more business opportunity e.g. Wiki’s where users can update contents.

3. What is Web 3.0?

Web 3.0

Semantic web- data basing the internet, using metadata, through metadata we can build a database of the internet and search for different sorts of media



4. What is e-Business, how does it differ from e-Commerce?

E-business: much broader than ecommerce: looks at all the other business activities that is going on besides buying and selling, e.g. advertising and marketing online, making sure funds go securely from purchaser to company, packing of goods , commerce: buying and selling of goods, requested acknowledgement of a sale, ecommerce; buying and selling online,

5. List and describe the various e-Business models?

Purer ecommerce: exchange of digital services on the web, no physical goods e.g. buying off itunes, partial ecommerce: physical attribute to the business Porters value chain

6. List and describe the major B2B models?

Major B2B models:

Seller side: one seller and many buyers, e.g. ebay, works in a ‘forward auction model’, as time goes along cost goes up

Buyer side: as time goes along, price should go down, buyer puts out conditions to a number of sellers, sellers come back to that response, end price is lowest price for best service

Electronic exchange: e.g ebay, medium or website where buyers and sellers can come together to see each other’s offers/goods, they don’t have to build a website themselves to run the ecommerce



7. Outline 3 opportunities and 3 challenges faced by companies doing business online?

Opportunites:

1. Reach a large target (store can be accessed worldwide)
2. Can sell goods at cheaper rate. No 'middleman' costs. Direct from producer to customer
3. Flexibility- open 24hrs!
Challenges:

1. Converting leads to sales
2. Patent and copyright issues
3. Security issues



 

1. Define TPS & DSS, and explain how an organisation can use these systems to make decisions and gain competitive advantages


TPS- Transaction Processing Systems:

Involves elementary business activities, such as sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions and flow of materials. They are not specific to a single functional area, and are also transaction oriented. They manage these activities, and are usually fundamental to the operation of a business. Transactions can also be managed in various ways, eg. batch, online. They also replace repetitive tasks.

DSS- Decision Support System:

A computer-based information system that supports business or organisational decision-making activities. DSSs serve the management, operations, and planning levels of an organization and help to make decisions, which may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in advance.

2. Describe the three quantitative models typically used by decision support systems.

Sensitivity analysis: model is built and look at the impact in a particular change.

e.g. look at the impact of change in tax rate, decline in sales, will either have a large or small impact, if large the model is sensitive may hold back from proceeding,



What if analysis: what will happen if this changes, impact of the change

e.g. decline in units sold what would be the impact on our profit



Goal seeking analysis: right to left thinking, we start and follow a sequence until we get to the end, looks to the end, what we need to do in order to make it happen, finds all the inputs necessary to achieve the goals



3. Describe business processes and their importance to an organisation.

Set of activities to achieve a specific task, aims to convert inputs to outputs in an organisation. Hidden to the user by starting to look at a model business process, the technology becomes visible and see what data is moving around.


By knowing your business process, the more efficient you make your business, the higher your operating profit, maximising your efficiencies



4. Compare business process improvement and business process re-engineering.

Reengineering: assumes the current process is there, doesn’t work anymore and needs to be fixed, scarps the current process.



5. Describe the importance of business process modelling (or mapping) and business process models.

• Exposes the process in a controlled manner

• Controls consciousness, people know what we are actually doing

• Enables them to do analysis

 
Some related and interesting links:
 
Why do companies need BPM?
 

 

IBM Business Process Management
 

 

Compare Porter’s three generic strategies?


1. Cost Leadership Strategy

The first strategy suggests that a firm either sells their products at either average industry prices to earn higher profit than that of rivals, or below industry average prices to gain market share.

2. Differentiation Strategy

The second strategy suggests developing the product or service so that they offer unique attributes valued by customers and that customers perceive to be better than or different from the products/services offered by the competition. The value added by the uniqueness of the product may allow the firm to charge a premium price for it.

3. Focus Strategy

Lastly, the focus strategy concentrates on a narrow segment and within that segment attempting to achieve either cost advantage or differentiation. The premise is that the needs of the group can be better serviced by focusing entirely on it. A firm using a focus strategy often enjoys a high degree of customer loyalty, and this entrenched loyalty discourages other firms from competing directly.

http://www.mindtools.com/media/Diagrams/GenericStrategies.jpg

More specifically:

 (Baltzan, Philips, Lynch & Blakey, Business Driven Information Systems (Australian/New Zealand edition)

Describe the relationship between business processes and value chains?


A business process is a standardised set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer’s order. To evaluate the effectiveness the of the business processes Michael porters value chain process can be used

Value creation is the result of effective business processes and efficient value chains

The value chain approach views an organisation as a series of processes, each of which adds value to the product or service for each customer. To create a competitive advantage, the value chain must enable the organisation to provide unique value to its customers

e.g.

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://inclusive.com/value-chain/images/val_chn_def.jpg&imgrefurl

Business process:

A standardised set of activities that accomplish a specific task

Value chain:

Views an organisation as a series of processes, each of which adds value to the product or service

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http://www.12manage.com/images/picture_porter_value_chain.gif&imgrefurl

 
A easy to understand video on Porter's Value Chain:

Another good one:

 

Some visual examples:

From Information Technology (IT) To Business Technology (BT)

 

The seven things Forrester Research Chairman and Chief Executive Officer George Colony would tell your CEO. George's list revolves around a central theme: the evolution of IT to BT (Business Technology). May 15, 2007 in Nashville.





Explain information technology’s role in business and describe how you measure success?


Global businesses use technology and information systems to increase their profitability, gain market share, improve their customer service, and manage their daily operations. Information systems provide the foundation for business.

List and describe each of the forces in Porter’s Five Forces Model

1. The threat of entry of new competitors


The threat of new competitor entry is high when it is easy to enter your market and low when significant barriers to entry exist. An entry barrier is a product or service feature that customers have learned to expect from organisations in a certain industry. This feature must be offered by a competing organisation for it to survive in the marketplace.

2. The bargaining power of suppliers

Supplier power is high when buyers have a few choices from who to buy and low when buyers have many choices. Therefore, organisations would rather have more potential suppliers to be able to better negotiate price, quality and delivery terms.

3. The bargaining power of customers (buyers)

Buyer power is high when buyers have many choices from whom to buy and low when buyers have few choices.

4. The threat of substitute products or services

If there are many substitutes for an organisations product or services, then the threat of substitutes is high. If there are few substitutes then the threat is low. Today new technologies create substitute products very rapidly.

5. The rivalry among existing firms in the industry

The threat from rivalry is high when there is intense competition among many firms in an industry. The threat is low when the competition is among fewer firms and is not as intense.




The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy

An Interview with Michael E. Porter, Professor, Harvard University. Porter's five competitive forces is the basis for much of modern business strategy. Understand the framework and how to put it into practice.