Week 12- Project Management

Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.

The three primary variables in any project includes time, cost and scope. These three variables are independent and all projects are limited in some way by these constraints. The Project Management Institute calls the framework for evaluating these competing demands the triple constraint. 

Describe the two primary diagrams most frequently used in project planning

The two primary diagrams used in project planning includes:

PERT chart - A graphical network model that depicts a project's tasks and the relationships between those tasks. PERT charts define dependency between project tasks before those tasks are scheduled.



Gantt chart - a simple bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calender. A Gantt chart works well for representing the project schedule. It also shows actual progress of tasks against the planned duration.




Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success

Managing People: Resolving conflicts within the team and balancing needs of the project with the personal and professional needs of the team are two challenges facing project managers. Many times, the people management side of project management makes the difference in pulling off a successful project. Project managers not only need to 'manage' the stakeholders and the project, they need to manage the development team. 

Managing Change: Dynamic organisational change is inevitable and an organisation must effectively manage change as it evolves. With the numerous challenges and complexities that organisation's face in today's rapidly changing environment, effective change management thus becomes a critical core competency. 

Managing Communications: It is extremely helpful is a project manager plans what and how he or she will communicate as a formal part of the project management plan. A project manager distributes timely. accurate and meaningful information regarding project objectives that involve time, cost, scope, quality and status of each. The use of these aid in communicating information to the team about the project's status. 

Outline 2 reasons why projects fail and two reasons why projects suceed.

Projects Fail:

- Not understanding project planning

- Lack of organisational skills

Project Succeeds:

- Managing projects

- Good and effective use of communication

Week 10- CRM & BI

What is your understanding of CRM? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) involves managing all aspects of a customer's relationship with an organisation to increase customer loyalty and retention as well as an organisation's profitability. 

Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.

Operational CRM supports traditional transactional processing for day-to-day front-office operations or systems that deal directly with the customers.Analytical CRM supports back-office operations and strategic analysis that includes all systems that do not deal directly with the customers. 

Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments

Marketing departments are able to transform to a new way of using business by using CRM technologies that allow them to gather and analyse customer information to deploy successful marketing campaigns. The three primary operational CRM technologies a marketing department can implement to increase customer satisfaction are:

List Generators - compile customer information from a variety of sources and segment the information for different marketing campaigns.

Campaign Management Systems - guide users through marketing campaigns performing such tasks as campaign definition, planning, scheduling, segmentation and success analysis.  

Cross-Selling - is selling additional products or services to a customer. Up-selling is increasing the value of the sale. 


How could a sales department use operational CRM technologies?

Three primary operational CRM technologies a sales department can implement to increase customer satisfaction are:

1. Sales Management CRM Systems
2. Contact Management CRM Systems 
3. Opportunity Management CRM Systems

Describe business intelligence and its value to businesses

Business Intelligence (BI) - refers to applications and technologies that 

are used to gather, provide access to and analyse data information to support decision-making efforts. 

Explain the problem associated with business intelligence. Describe the solution to this business problem

The problem: Data Rich, Information Poor.
Companies have a lot of data, however they are not able to benefit from levering this information and turning it into useful data for analytical and strategic decision making. 

The solution: business intelligence.

To improve the quality of business decisions, managers can provide existing staff with BI systems and tools that can assist them in making better, more informed decisions. The result creates an agile intelligent enterprise. 

What are two possible outcomes a company could get from using data mining?

Data mining is the process of analysing data to extract information not offered by the raw data alone. Data mining can also begin at a summary information level (coarse granularity) and progress through increasing levels of detail (drilling down), or the reverse (drilling up). Data mining is the primary tool used to uncover business intelligence in vast amounts of data. 

Two possible outcomes of Data Mining:

1. Customer Analysis: a technique used to divide an information set into mutually exclusive groups such as the members of each group are close together as possible to one another and the different groups are as far apart as possible.
2. Statistical Analysis: performs such functions as information correlations, distributions, calculations and variance analysis. Data-mining tools offer knowledge workers a wide range of powerful statistical capabilities so they can quickly build a variety of statistical models, examine the model's assumptions and validity, and compare and contrast the various models to determine the best one for a particular business issue. 

Week 9- Operations Management and Supply Chain

Define the term operations management

Is the management of systems or processes that convert or transform resources (including human resources) into goods and services.


Operations management is responsible for managing the core processes used to manufacture goods and produce services.




Explain operations management’s role in business

Operations management ranges across the organisation and includes activities such as:

1. Forecasting
2. Capacity Planning
3. Scheduling
4. Managing Inventories
5. Assuring Quality
6. Motivating Employees
7. Deciding where to locate facilities

Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology

Managers can use Information Technology to heavily influence Operations Management decisions including productivity, costs, flexibility, quality and customer satisfaction. One of the greatest benefits of IT on OM is in making operational decisions because OM exerts considerable influences over the degree to which the goals and objectives of the organisation are realised. 

Explain supply chain management and its role in a business

Supply Chain Management (SCM) involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximise total supply chain effectiveness and profitability. The five basic components of supply chain management are plan, source, make, deliver and return.

List and describe the five components of a typical supply chain

1. Plan - A company must have a plan for managing all the resources that go toward meeting customer demand for products or services.
2. Source - Companies must carefully choose reliable suppliers that will deliver goods and services required for making products. 

3. Make - This is the step where companies manufacture their products or services. This can include scheduling the activities necessary for production, testing, packaging and preparing for delivery. 

4. Deliver - During this step, companies must be able to receive orders from customers, fulfill the orders via a network of warehouses, pick transportation companies to deliver the products, and implement a billing and invoicing system to facilitate payments.

5. Return - Companies must create a network for receiving defective and excess products and support customers who have problems with delivered products. 

Define the relationship between information technology and the supply chain.


Information Technology's primary role in SCM is creating the integrations or tight process and information linkages between functions within a firm-such as marketing, sales, finance, manufacturing and distribution-and between firms, which allow the smooth, synchronised flow of information and product between customers, suppliers and transportation providers across the chain.
Information technology integrates planning, decision making processes, business operating processes and information sharing for business performance management. 

Effective and efficient supply chain management systems can enable a business organisation to:

• decrease the power of its buyers;
• increase its own supplier power;
• increase switching costs to reduce the threat of substitute products or services;
• create entry barriers thereby reducing the threat of new entrants;
• increase efficiencies while seeking a competitive advantage through cost leadership.

Week 8- Databases and Data Warehouses

1. List, describe, and provide an example of each of the five characteristics of high quality information.

Accuracy: checking if all the values are correct.
(E.g. are the names spelt correctly? Is the dollar amount recorded properly?)


Completeness:  checking if any of the values are missing.
(E.g. is the address complete including street, city, state, postcode?)


Consistency: checking to see if information is aggregate or summary information is in agreement with detailed information. (E.g. do all total fields equal the true total of the individual fields?)


Uniqueness: checking whether each transaction, entity and event represented only once in the information?
(E.g. are there any duplicate customers?"


Timeliness: checking whether the information current with respect to the business requirements?
(E.g. is the information updated weekly, daily or hourly?)

2. Define the relationship between a database and a database management system.

A 'database' maintains information about various types of objects (inventories), events (transactions), people (employees) and places (warehouses).

A 'database management system (DBMS) is a computer program used to manage and query a database.

3. Describe the advantages an organisation can gain by using a database.


Datacase information offers many advantages, including:


Increased flexibility: in allowing each user to access the information in whatever way best suits their needs.

Increased scalability and performance:  'Scalability refers to how well a system can adapt to increased demands. 'Performance' measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction.

Reduced information redundancy: redundancy is the duplication of information, or storing the same information in multiple places.

Increased information integrity: is the measure of the quality of information.

Increased information security: organisations must protect its information from unauthorised users or misuse. As systems become more complex and more available over the Internet, security becomes an even bigger issue. Databases thus offer security features such as passwords and access controls, etc.

4. Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model.

The 'relational database model' is a type of database that stores information in the form of logically related two-dimensional tables each consisting of rows and columns.

The relationional database fundamentals include:

- entities and attributes and keys and relationships

5. Describe the benefits of a data-driven website.

Development: allows the website owner to make changes any time- all without having to rely on a developer or knowing HTML programming.

Content management: a static website requires a programmer to make updates.

Future expandabilty: having a data-driven website enables the site to grow faster than would be possible with a static site. Changing layout, displays, etc is easier with data driven solution.

Minimising human error: a well designed, data driven website will have 'error trapping' mechanisms to ensure that required information is filled out correctly and that content is entered and displayed in correct format.

Cutting production and update costs: a data-driven website can be updated and 'published' by an competent data-entry or administrative person.

More efficient: with a data-driven solution, the system keeps track of the templates, so users do not have to. A data-driven infrastructure will improve the reliability and stability of a website, while greatly reducing the chance of 'breaking' some part of the site when adding new areas.

Improved stability: with a data-driven website, there is peace of mind, knowing that the content is never lost- even if your programmer is.

 

Week 7- Networks and Telecommunications

1. Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology

Wireless Fidelity (wi-fi) is a means of linking computers using infrared or radio signals. Wi-fi has many technological advantages for people on the move who would like access to the Internet in airports, restaurants and hotels. Wi-fi is also gaining acceptance as a home or neighbourhood network, oermitting an assortment of laptop and desktop computers to share a single broadband access point to the Internet. Employees are able to easily move their laptops from office to office and can connect to the network in places such as lunchrooms and patios.





2. Describe the business benefits associated with VoIp.

Voice over IP (VoIP) uses TCP/IP technology to transmit voice calls over Internet technology. VoIP uses existing network and Internet infrastructure to route telephone calls more efficiently and inexpensively than traditional telephone services.



Features available when using VoIP include:
- call waiting
- caller ID
- three way calling
- easy navigation
- calender integration


3. Compare LANS and WANS

A local area network (LAN) is designed to conect a group of computers in close proximity to each other such as in an office building, a school or a home. A LAN is useful for sharing resources like files, printers, games, or other applications.




A wide area network (WAN) spans a large geographic area, such as a state, province or country. WANS often connect multiple smaller networks, such as local area networks.

 4. Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective

Radio frequency identifications (RFID) technologies use active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique identifiers and relay this information to electronicn readers.


RFID can help make a supply chain more effective as when a tag is placed on an item, it automatically radios its location to RFID readers on shop shelves, checkout counters, loading-bay doors and shopping carts. With RFID tags, inventory is taken automatically and continuously. RFID can cut costs by requiring few workers for scanning items; they also can provide more current and more accurate information to the entire supply chain.


5. What is some new emerging technologies that could change a specific industry?

Satellite technologies: A communications satellite is a big microwave repeater in the sky; it contains one or more transponders that listen to a particular portion of electromagnetic spectrum, amplifying incoming signals and re-transmitting them back to Earth. A microwave transmitteruses the atmosphere (or outer space) as the transmission medium to send the signal to the microwave receiver. 

Week 6 Questions- Enterprise Architectures

What is information architecture and what is information infrastructure and how do they differ and how do they relate to each other?

Information Infrastructure - includes the hardware, software and telecommunications equipment that, when combines, provides the underlying foundation to support the organisation's goals. 

Information Architecture - identifies where and how important information, such as customer records, is maintained and secured. 

Describe how an organisation can implement a solid information architecture 

Back Up and Recovery: A backup is an exact copy of a system's information. Recovery is the ability to get a system up and running in the event of a system crash or failure and includes restoring the information backup.

Disaster Recovery Plan: a detailed process for recovering information or an IT system in the event of a catastrophic disaster such as a flood or fire. A comprehensive disaster plan considers the location of the backup information.

Describe the five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture.

1. flexibility- systems must be flexible enough to meet all types of business changes.

2. scalability- refers to how well system can adapt to increased demands.

3. reliability- ensures all sytems are functioning correctly and providing accurate information.

4. availability- addresses when systems can be accessed by users. 'High Availability' refers to a system or component that is continuously operational for a desirably long length of time.

5. performance- measures how quickly a system performs a certain process or transaction (in terms of efficiency IT metrics of both speed and throughput).

Describe the business value in deploying a service oriented architecture 

Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) is a business-driven IT architectural approach that supports integrating a business as linked, repeatable tasks or services.

What is an event? 

Events are the eyes and ears of the business expressed in technology- they detect threats and opportunities and alert those who can act on the information.

What is a service? 

Services are the software products than they are coding projects.

They must appeal to a broad audience, and need to be reusable if they are going to have an impact on productivity.

Early forms of services were defined too low a level in the architecture to interest the business, such as a simple "Print" and "Save".

New services now are being defined at a higher level; such as "Credit Check" "Process Payment" etc.

What emerging technologies can companies can use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively?

Virtualisation is a framework for dividing the resources of a computer into multiple execution environments. Its is a way of increasing physical resources to maximise the investment in hardware. Generally, this process is done with virtualisation software, running on the one physical unit that emulates multiple pieces of hardware. 

Grid Computing is an aggregation of geographically dispersed computing, storage and network resources, coordinated to deliver improved performance, higher quality service, better utilisation and easier access to data. 

Organisations pay special attention to computing basics since these form the underlying foundation that supports a firm's information systems. A solid underlying infrastructure is a necessity for ensuring the security, reliability, quality and responsiveness of a firm's information systems. These systems are the tools that companies utilise and heavily rely upon to run their businesses and compete in today's competitive environment. 

Week 5 Questions- Ethics and Security

Explain the ethical issues surrounding information technology.

Technology-related ethical issues:

- Intellectual Property (The collection of rights that protect creative and interllectual effort)
- Copyright (Exclusive right to do, or omit to do, certain acts with intangible property)
- Fair use doctrine (Certain situations, it is legal to use copyrighted material)
- Pirated software (Unauthorised use, duplication, distribution, or sale of copyrighted software)
- Conterfeit software (Software that is manufactured to look like the real thing and sold as such)

Describe a situation involving technology that is ethical but illegal.

The ethical issues surrounding copyright infringement and intellectual property rights are consuming the e-business world. Advances in technology make it easier for people to copy everything from music to pictures. Technology poses new challenges for our ethics - the principles and standards that guide our behaviour toward other people. 

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.
- For example: ethical computer use policy may state that users should refrain from playing computer games during working hours. The policy basically ensures how users should behave at work, etc.
- There are variations in how organisations expect their employees to use computers, in any approach, the overriding principle when seeking appropriate computer use should be informed consent.

What are the 5 main technology security risks?

1. Authentication
2. Authorisation
3. Prevention
4. Resitance
5. Detection and Response

Outline one way to reduce each risk.

1. Authentication: a method for confirming user's identities. Once a system determines the authentication of a user, it can then determine the access privileges (or authorisation) for that user.  
2. Authorisation: - is the process of giving someone permission to do or have something. 3. Prevention : technologies to stop intruders from accessing intellectual capital.
For example, Sony Inc installed an advanced intrusion detection system allowing it to monitor all of its network activity including any potential security breaches. 
4. Resitance: technologies to stop intruders from accessing intellectual capital.
For example, Sony Inc installed an advanced intrusion detection system allowing it to monitor all of its network activity including any potential security breaches. 
5. Detection and Response: The most common type of defence within detection and response technologies is antivirus software. 

• Something the user knows, such as a user ID and password.
• Something the user has, such as a smart card or token.
• Something that is part of the user, such as a fingerprint or voice signature.

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

The process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organisation after a naturla or human disaster.


Control measures such are steps or mechanisms that can reduce or eliminate various threats for organisations. The types of measures:
1. Preventive measures- these controls are aimed at preventing an event from occuring.
2. Detective measures- these controls are aimed at detecting or discovering unwanted events.
3. Corrective measures- these controls are aimed at correcting  or restoring the system after disaster or event.


A firm may employ strategies such as back-ups for data protection.

Week 4 Questions- E-Business

Why has the web grown so dramatically?

- The internet was restricted to non-commercial activities, and it's users included employees, government, researchers and so on. The World Wide Web has changed the purpose and use of the Internet.  

Reasons for growth of the World Wide Web

- The microcomputer revolution made it possible for an average person to own a computer.

- Advancements in networking hardware software and media made it possible for business PCs to be inexpensively connected to larger networks.

- Browser software such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator gave computer users an easy-to-use graphical interface to find, download and display webpages.

- The speed, convenience and low cost of email have made it an indispensable tool for business and personal communications.

- basic wed-pages are easy to create and extremely flexible.

What is Web 2.0, how does it differ from 1.0?

Web 2.0 is a set of economic social and technology trends that colletively form the basis for the next generation of the Internet. It is a more mature distinctive medium characterised by user participation, openness and network effects.

The Web 2.0 refers to changes in the way software developers and end-users use the web as a platform. Web 2.0 is a transformative force that is propelling companies scross all industries towards a new way of doing business.


Web 2.0 includes user-driven online services such as Myspace, Wikipedia, and Youtube. These technologies which rely on user collaboration, include Web services, peer to peer networking, blogs podcasts, and online social networks.

 How could a web 2.0 technology be used in business?

 Businesses aren't relying on the best-known web 2.0 trends such as blogs, instead they place the importance on technologies that enable automation and networking. Businesses can use social network websites

What is eBusiness, how does it differ from eCommerce?

E-commerce: commercial transactions conducted electronically on the Internet.
E-business: any business that draws majority of its income from selling products or services in an online format.

What is pure and partial eCommerce

Pure e-commerce: concerns business whose transactions are largely carried out on the Internet.

Partial e-commerce: concerns business in which large part of transaction takes place in the off-line real world. (E.G. Amazon sells books online, but stored in warehouses and delivered.)

List and describe the various eBusiness models?

Business-to-business (B2B) - applies to businesses buying from and selling

to each other over the internet.

Business-to-consumer (B2C) - applies to any business that sells its products or services

to consumers over the Internet.

Consumer-to-business (C2B) - applies to any consumer that sells a product or

service to a business over the Internet.

Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) - applies to sites primarily offering goods and services to assist consumers interacting with each other over the Internet.

List and describe the major B2B models?

E- Distributor:
company that supplies products and services directly to individual businesses.
owned by one company seeking to serve many customers
revenue through sale of goods


E-Procurement
create and sell access to digital electronic markets.
it is the B2B purchase and sale of supplies and services over the Internet.


Exchanges (B2B hubs)
an electronic digital marketplace where suppliers and commercial purchasers can conduct transactions.
usually owned by independent firms whose business is making a market
generate revenue by charging transaction fees

Outline 2 opportunities and 2 challenges faced by companies doing business online?


E-business benefits and challenges


E-business benefits
- Highly accessible (Busines can operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year)
- Increased customer loyalty
- Improved information content
- Increased convenience
- Increased global reach
- Decreased Cost


E-business challenges
- Protecting consumers
- Leveraging existing systems
- Increasing liability
- Providing security
- Adhering tazation rules

Week 3 Questions- Strategic Decision Making

1. Define TPS & DSS, provide some exapmples of these systems in business


Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) manage business activities, this including sales receipts and payroll and used for the operation of businesses. They provide the foundation for other business systems, usually those who convey impressions about the quality of the business to the customers.


Decision Support Sytems (DSS) assist decision making to complex problems. It portrays information to help support managers when they are making decisions.


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


Quantitative models sometimes used by DSS include:


Sensitivity analysis: study of the impact that changes in one (or more) parts of the model have on other parts of the model. The user can change value of one variable as many times as they want and look at the changes in the other variables.


What-if analysis: checks the impact of a change in an assumption on the proposed solution.


Goal-seeking analysis: finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output. Instead of observing how changes in variables affect others this analysis sets a goal for a variable and changes the other variables until the goal is achieved.

3. Describe a business processes and their importance to an organisation, outline and example of how they are used.


Business process:
- a standardised set of activities that accomplish a specific task.
- it transforms a set of inputs into a set of outputs (e.g. customer checkout services) a business can satisfy


The best way a business can satisfy customers and spur profits is by understanding all of its business processes.


E.G.
A supermarket uses checkouts, which is the "process", and the purpose of it is to pay for and pack groceries. The process starts when the customer is in line, and ends when the customer receives the receipt.


SAMPLE BUSINESS PROCESSES.


Accounting/ Finance Business Processes
- Accounts payable
- Accounts receivable


Environmental Business Processes
- Environmental protection
- Hazardous waste management

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


Business process improvement: attempts to understand and measure the current process and make performance improvements accordingly.

Business process re-engineering: analyses and redesigns workflow within and between enterprises.

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


Business process modelling (or mapping) is the activity of creating a detailed flowchart ot process map of a work process. Within it showing its inputs, tasks and activities in a structured sequence.


A business process model is a graphic description of a process showing the sequence of process tasks which is developed for a specific purpose and from a selected viewpoint. This model usually displays activities as boxes and uses arrows to represent data and interfaces.


The purpose of a process model is to:
- expose process detail gradually and in a controlled manner.
- encourage consiceness and accuracy in describing the process model.
- focus attention on the process model interfaces.
- provide a powerful process analysis and consistent design vocabulary.


Example:

Week 2 Questions- Information Systems in Business

Explain information technology’s role in business?

Information Techonology is everywhere in the business world. Customer service, finance, sales and marketing, and human resources are areas in business that can all benefit from implementation of information technology. It's roles within a business is facilitating communication and increasing business intelligence. Information technology can aenable departments to perform more efficiently and effectively with their business operations.

What are Efficiency and Effectiveness Metrics? Provide some examples of each.

Effiency IT metrics measure the performance of the IT system itself.

- This includes: speed and availability.

Effectiveness IT metrics measure the impact IT has on business processes and activities,

- This includes: customer satisfaction and conversion rates.

What does Porter’s Five Forces Model attempt to explain?

The Five Forces Model helps to determine the relative attractiveness of an industry, and includes the following forces:

1. buyer power (when  buyers have many sellers to choose from. and is low when their choices are limited. Buyer power is the ability of a buyer to impact the price they are willing to pay for a certain item)

2. supplier power (when one company has power over an industry. If the supplier power is high, they are able to impact and influence the industry by charging high prices and limiting services and quality)

3. threat of substitute products or services (high threat when there are other alternatives to a product or service, and low when there is limited alternatives to choose from)

4. threat of new entrants (threat is high when new competitors easily enter a market. Low threat when there are barriers to a market that make it hard for competitors to enter)

5. rivalry among existing customers (this is high when there is strong competition in a certain market and is low when competition isn't as high)

How does the internet affect the model?


The internet allows for more buyer power, which affect the markets and competitors. Buyers are able to get online and buy cheaper items to that of the original value being sold by retail stores, etc.

Describe the relationship between business processes and value chains?


A business process is standardised set of activities that accomplish a specific task (i.e. customer's orders)


The value chain is an approach that views a business as a series of processes, of which adds value to the service or product for each customer.