C724 - Book Quiz - Info Systems Management

A sales manager is looking to analyze regional sales data, forecast future sales, and visualize data trends.

Which information system supports the sales manager's job function?

Decision support system (DSS)

A cashier at a retail store is responsible for recording daily sales, processing payments, and issuing receipts.

Which information system is tailored to support the cashier's job function?

Transaction processing system (TPS)

A manager of a global retail shoe store noticed sales of their products declined in a specific region of the country.

Which type of information system would best help the manager understand why?

Management information system (MIS)

A copier company has 30 field technicians who have access to information to assist with challenging service calls while out in the field.

Which system should be used to consolidate the relevant information and experience?

Knowledge management system (KMS)

A highly successful advertising company is about to expand nationally. It is very important to find a way to store and disseminate the clients' branding and style guides throughout the organization. These guides are updated regularly and include multiple image files and text documents.

Which system should be used to meet the needs of the organization?

An extranet with knowledge management system (KMS) capabilities

A business communications consulting firm that services many clients in different industries across the United States is looking to improve its business processes and financial performance. The company provides customized written recommendations about how to use a client's existing resources to improve the client's internal communications.

Which information system should the firm implement?

Extranet

An organization has noticed a change since it implemented a strategic information system. Management has decided to conduct an analysis of the organization's change.

Which three components do strategic information systems change?

Products, services, and operating procedures

A company has maintained a competitive advantage in its industry through innovation. However, it has noticed that it has been facing major competition.

What are the reasons why the competitive advantage of strategic systems does not last long?

Competitors can copy strategic systems, and customer expectations change.

A new competitor has entered the market and is offering a similar product to the company. The company has decided to implement a new system to maintain a competitive advantage.

Which question should managers ask to identify the systems that provide a strategic advantage to their firms?

What are the business and industry value chains for this company?

Which function describes a role of a management information system (MIS)?

Providing leaders with current performance reports

Which function describes a role of a decision support system (DSS)?

Focusing on unique and rapidly changing problems for leaders in the middle of the hierarchy

Which scenario demonstrates a situation for which a transaction processing system (TPS) should be used?

A retail manager is responsible for determining how many units of a new product were sold last quarter.

Which information system is related to answering the question, "What is the effect on the return on investment if a factory shuts down for three months?"

Decision support system (DSS)

What is the purpose of an enterprise system (ES)?

Integrating processes in manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and human resources

Which goal represents an appropriate use of an enterprise system (ES)?

Create a single comprehensive data repository for the business as a whole

Which task should be accomplished using a customer relationship management (CRM) system?

Integrate information to better identify, attract, and retain the most profitable buyers of company products

A company wants to incorporate synchronous and colocated collaboration to enhance work team communication.

Which form of collaboration fits this requirement?

Roomware, because it occurs at the same place and the same time

Which mistake do companies make that results in poor alignment of IT with business objectives?

Ignoring IT and its possibilities

Which strategy do successful firms use to overcome challenges with IT alignment?

Performing a strategic systems analysis

How does the business value chain model help firms overcome competitive challenges?

By identifying how information systems can be used to improve operational efficiency

An organization understands computing has changed significantly in the last few decades.

Which of the following represents the chronological evolution of computing in business?

Mainframe, minicomputers, microcomputers

An organization decides to streamline its business processes.

Which type of software will support the organization's decision?

Middleware

An individual contacts a company to report an issue with an item that was ordered. The employee is able to view the status of the order.

Which type of software allows the employee to check on the status of the order?

Customer relationship management

An organization implemented new accounting software. Since the software was implemented, employees have begun using paper files to keep track of the company's transactions.

Which type of behavior are the employees displaying?

User resistance

An organization implemented a new human resources information system. However, the system does not contain a module for tracking employee benefits.

Which type of impact is the company facing?

Economic

An organization is determining the advantages of implementing a new supply chain management system.

What is an advantage of a new internet-based supply chain management system?

Access to suppliers worldwide

An organization implemented a technology to improve customer satisfaction. The organization required the new technology to answer customers' inquiries in real time as part of the requirements.

Which emerging technology did the organization deploy?

Artificial intelligence

An organization is determining whether a product that it currently sells is a viable solution.

Which emerging technology should the company use to determine whether customers will continue to purchase the product?

Predictive analytics

A company makes and sells custom scooters. The company decides to offer a new service that allows customers to view their customized scooters prior to the company building the product.

Which emerging technology should the company implement to provide this service to customers?

Virtual reality

Which aspect of information systems does decision-making fall under?

Management

A company has decided to create an IT department with a new IT infrastructure.

Which category should be considered as one of the seven major components of IT infrastructure?

Computer hardware platforms

An organization is installing a new mainframe.

What is one purpose of having a mainframe as an IT component?

Handling very large volumes of transactions

An organization implemented a new information system to replace a legacy system.

Which area should the organization expect to be impacted by the new information system?

Overall productivity

Which organizational aspect of a company is impacted by information systems?

High-level manager capacity

Which IT trend is responsible for greater employee flexibility but more company exposure to risk?

Consumerization of IT

Which trend of emerging information technology has resulted in the provision of computer processing, storage, and software as virtualized resources over a network?

Cloud computing

Which outcome has resulted from green computing as a trend of emerging information technology?

The design and use of hardware in a way to minimize impact on the environment

What is the information system dimension that includes resource allocation?

Management

Which factor mediates the interaction between information technology and an organization?

Business culture

An organization has requested a method to access information on how often data specific to the human resources (HR) department is stored and retrieved.

Which element will help the organization access this information?

Data dictionary

A retail clothing business noticed their customers are receiving two copies of the same catalog from their organization with a little variation in the first name on the address label.

What enables a database management system (DBMS) to reduce data redundancy and inconsistency?

Ability to minimize isolated files with repeated data

An organization wants to implement data mining.

What is the purpose of data mining?

Turning data into information

An organization needs to implement policies and procedures to manage the data quality and integrity of their data assets.

Which strategy should the organization implement to achieve this goal?

Data governance

Distributors for a furniture manufacturer are complaining that the billing for goods they order is frequently not correct, and sometimes are sent to the wrong email and postal addresses.

What are the first steps to improve the quality of data in the manufacturer's databases?

Perform a data quality audit and data cleansing.

An organization needs a strategy on how the data within the company are to be organized, maintained, and who is allowed to view the data or change them.

Which database management strategy will help the organization?

Information policy

A multinational corporation is looking to expand its product line and wants to understand market preferences.

Which method gathers business intelligence on market preferences?

Deploying customer feedback surveys

A restaurant chain aims to optimize its menu based on customer preferences.

Which method gathers business intelligence?

Analyzing sales data of menu items

A tech firm wants to identify which of its products are most likely to succeed in the next fiscal year.

Which method gathers intelligence for product success prediction?

Analyzing feedback from user forums

A research institution collects vast amounts of data daily and wants to ensure that the data is free from errors and inconsistencies.

Which technique ensures the quality of collected research data?

Data normalization

A research institution is collaborating with multiple partners and wants to ensure that the shared data is of high quality.

Which technique ensures the quality of data in a collaborative environment?

Data normalization

A financial institution is analyzing transaction data to predict future market trends.

How does data quality affect the institution's predictive analytics?

Enhances accuracy of market predictions

A national health organization collects data from various hospitals and clinics to monitor the spread of a new viral outbreak.

How does data quality impact the organization's ability to respond to the outbreak?

Improves the accuracy of outbreak tracking

Which problem of the traditional file environment is solved by database management systems ensuring that every occurrence of repeated data has the same values?

Inconsistency

Which case demonstrates the need for a blockchain database management system?

Creating and verifying transactions instantaneously without central authority

A company needs a database management system for managing forms of data that are difficult to analyze with traditional tools.

Which type of database management system should this company use?

Nonrelational

In order to better handle the volume of data from online operations, a company is implementing a database management system. The company wants to prioritize data normalization.

What should this company do to prioritize normalization?

Divide information into related tables

A large organization is working on implementing a relational database management system and wants to have efficient data retrieval.

Which action should this organization take to improve retrieval efficiency?

Create indices on specific table columns

Which method is used to uncover trends in large sets of information using machine learning?

Data mining

Which business intelligence objective is accomplished with the use of prescriptive analytics?

Recommending actions based on raw data

What do companies use reporting tools to accomplish?

Representing data in a way that is easy to comprehend

A company has the goal of improving data quality within its information systems, especially data accuracy.

Which characteristic of data should be prioritized to improve data accuracy?

Data correctly represents what it is intended to model.

What should a company ensure to address data usability?

Data can be easily understood and utilized.

A business is looking to expand across the United States. The business is looking to determine the type of computer network to support its expansion.

Which computer network will support the business' expansion?

Wide area network (WAN)

A business owner operates a home-based business and must establish an internet connection to be able to access the web and communicate through business email accounts.

Which entity should the business owner research to set up email accounts and obtain a website domain?

Internet service provider (ISP)

A company needs to communicate with its customers and access customer information from anywhere.

How will telecommunication technologies support the company's needs?

By allowing the use of email, messaging, and video conferencing

A company's IT team needs to monitor and troubleshoot issues with the corporate network.

How will network performance tools enable the IT team to monitor and troubleshoot network issues?

By providing insight into network traffic and utilization

A retailer needs to ensure reliable performance for its customer-facing applications.

How will network monitoring tools enable the retailer to manage critical applications?

By generating alerts when network latency increases

A hospital needs to minimize the impact of network issues on critical medical systems.

How will network analysis tools enable hospital IT staff to safeguard critical systems?

By correlating infrastructure problems with system errors

A university notices slow internet speeds during peak usage times.

How will network monitoring tools enable university IT staff to resolve internet slowdowns?

By revealing network bottlenecks causing performance lags

An organization heavily relies on real-time communication between employees at different office locations.

Which type of network architecture facilitates real-time communication among geographically dispersed employees?

Client/server

A company needs to efficiently transfer large datasets between its regional offices.

Which network architecture optimizes the transfer of large datasets across regional office locations?

Virtual private network (VPN)

A multinational corporation requires a network architecture that can efficiently handle data transfer between its headquarters and remote branches located in different countries.

Which core components of a network architecture are leveraged to ensure efficient data transfer between a multinational corporation's headquarters and its remote international branches?

Load balancers and content delivery networks

A global manufacturing company wants to establish a network architecture that can handle real-time monitoring and control of its production processes across multiple factories.

Which core components of a network architecture enable real-time monitoring and control of production processes across the factories?

Distributed systems and Internet of Things devices

What is a situation in which a local area network (LAN) should be used?

A company needs to set up an office network for one floor of an office building.

A university needs to set up a network to connect systems among its many offices, classroom buildings, and dorm buildings.

Which type of computer network is appropriate for this need?

Campus area network (CAN)

Which scenario demonstrates the need for a metropolitan area network (MAN)?

A firm has one warehouse and three offices spanning five miles and needs to set up a network to share information among the locations.

An organization has offices in several states and needs to set up a network connecting the offices.

Which type of computer network is appropriate for this need?

Wide area network (WAN)

Which network performance component results in a lack of data transfer when experiencing issues?

Latency

Which purpose do network performance monitoring tools serve?

Monitoring network traffic

Which statement describes how network performance monitoring tools improve the performance of networks?

They monitor website speed.

An organization needs to implement a computer network for devices within an office building. The organization decided that it wants a decentralized approach.

What is the appropriate network architecture for the computer network?

Peer-to-peer

A firm needed a smaller network with direct device-to-device information sharing. The firm chose a peer-to-peer architecture.

Which disadvantage should the firm expect from using this architecture?

Each device needs to be configured separately.

A company is setting up a server for a network.

Which purpose does the server have?

Performs functions and stores data for client computers

A consultant for the information technology division of a state university is facilitating the design of a new system for handling paper-based college applications. The consultant would like to set up a system by which prospective students can apply online.

Which process develops a detailed description of the functions that a new information system must perform?

Systems analysis

A consultant for the information technology division of a state university is facilitating the design of a new system for handling paper-based college applications. The consultant would like to set up a system by which prospective students can apply online.

Which document will provide a blueprint and specification for the functionality of this information system solution?

Systems Design Document

A consultant for the information technology division of a state university facilitated the design of a new system for handling paper-based college applications. The new information system allows prospective students to apply online.

Which approach characterizes the direct cut over conversion strategy?

The new system replaces the old one on an appointed day.

A research and development team requires a methodology that supports continuous experimentation and adjustments based on research findings.

Which methodology supports continuous experimentation and adjustments in development?

Agile development

A software developer for a large online retailer needs to be able to quickly update its production systems with new software.

Which approach should be recommended for managing the software infrastructure?

DevOps

A government agency must develop a highly secure and scalable database for citizen information.

Which methodology ensures the secure and scalable development of the citizen database?

DevOps

An IT project manager for an advertising company wishes to create an online tool that will be used to survey focus group reactions to products in development. The most important consideration for the company is being able to offer the tool as soon as possible as a new corporate service. Many of the senior managers have difficulty in understanding technical or software development issues and are likely to change their requirements during development.

Which development method should be used for this project?

Prototyping

The manager for Zen company was asked to implement enterprise software for a manufacturer of kitchen appliances.

What is the manager's initial step in selecting the appropriate decision-support tool?

Identify the specific decision or problem that needs support.

An e-commerce company wants to optimize pricing using competitor data and market trends.

Which decision-support tool should the e-commerce company use for price optimization?

Competitive intelligence software

An environmental organization needs to analyze large datasets related to climate change and conservation efforts.

What decision-support tool should the environmental organization use for effective data analysis in climate research?

Geographic information system

In a large manufacturing corporation, the senior executive team requires real-time access to critical performance metrics and strategic insights.

Which decision-making tool should the senior executive team use for this purpose?

Dashboards

A retail chain is upgrading its point-of-sale (POS) systems.

How will the retailer validate that a new POS system will meet business needs?

By piloting the system in select stores

A hospital is replacing its outdated patient monitoring systems.

How will the hospital confirm that new patient monitoring systems suit clinical requirements?

By surveying doctors, nurses, and technicians

A company's middle management has been struggling to effectively monitor and control the business. Reports on the current performance of the company have been inaccurate at times or untimely, resulting in confusion or ineffective changes. The company has decided to consider implementing a new management information system and is currently establishing a clear understanding of system needs.

Which stage of the systems development process is the company working on?

Analysis

Through the aid of a third party, a company has found that performance in the area of customer management is poor. It has been recommended that the company implement a new customer relationship management system. The company is currently creating and documenting system specifications.

Which step of the systems development process is the company in currently?

Design

An organization has hired a vendor to create a custom decision-support system to replace the existing system. Once the new system is ready, the new system will be introduced in stages, either by organizational units or by functions.

Which strategy of conversion is the organization going to use?

Phased

A retail company needs to develop a new information system for one of its departments. The company wants the process of developing the new system to be relatively quick. In order to speed up the process, the plan is to split the project into smaller mini projects, each handled by a cross-functional team that works face-to-face.

Which development method should be used for this project?

Agile development