Chapter 8 A Guide to Computer User Support for Help Desk and Support Specialists

The weighted point evaluation method of product comparison attempts to treat

competing products equally and eliminate favoritism or bias among evaluators.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

Benchmark tests of competing technology products are widely used, but are often

influenced by the biases and personal opinions of product evaluators.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

Public organizations are often required to select technology products from

vendors who submit the most cost-effective bid or competitive response to an

RFP.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

Subjective evaluation criteria are those in which a neutral evaluator should be able

to reach the same conclusion as another evaluator.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

Which of these would you expect to find as members of a product standards

committee?

a. end users

b. managers

c. user support specialists

d. all of these

Selected Answer: d. all of these

In the 1980s, organizations often found that the larger the number of different

types of computers it owned, the larger the inventory of spare repair parts were

required.

True

False1

Selected Answer: True

An organization's acceptable use guidelines are the result of federal legislation to

regulate the flow of information on the Internet.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

In the weighted point product evaluation method, ease of learning and ease of use

are examples of which kind of criteria?

a. Support issues

b. Hardware/software features

c. End user needs

d. Cost

Selected Answer: c. End user needs

Organizations that can use off-the-shelf, industry-standard software may reduce

their support costs because support services and related products are widely

available for best-selling software.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

When a new product becomes an organization standard, support services for the

product it replaces usually continue during a transition period to allow users time

to convert.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

An objective test or measurement that technology product evaluators use to

compare two or more products is ____.

a. a benchmark

b. an industry standard

c. subjective criteria

d. evaluation software

Selected Answer: a. a benchmark

In the weighted point evaluation method, when two product evaluators disagree

about the score for a product, which of these is the least likely strategy?

a. Discuss the reasons for the difference in scores

b. Try to arrive at a consensus score

c. Drop the product from consideration

d. Compute an average score

Selected Answer: c. Drop the product from consideration

One factor that can be evaluated using the weighted point method is availability

of product support.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

A software evaluation copy is a trial version of a program that will automatically

delete itself from a PC after 30 days.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

When a support staff selects general office productivity software such as word

processors or spreadsheets, they often use which decision strategy?

a. Industry standard products

b. Benchmarks

c. Request for proposals

d. Weighted point evaluations

Selected Answer: a. Industry standard products

A purchasing procedure that invites vendors to submit product and prices for new

technology that meets a user's needs is called a ____.

a. Kepner-Tregoe process

b. weighted point method

c. request for proposal

d. bidding war

Selected Answer: c. request for proposal

An extraneous variable is one that could bias the results a benchmark test and

should be eliminated if possible.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

Which letter sequence represents the order of the following steps in the request for

proposal process?

a) send RFP to vendors

b) develop product specifications

c) evaluate RFP responses against criteria

d) define selection criteria

a. b, d, a, c

b. a, b, c, d

c. d, a, c, b

d. a, d, b, c

Selected Answer: a. b, d, a, c

In the early 1980s, significant differences between competing computer products

were thought by vendors to have ____.

a. competitive weaknesses

b. no impact on competition between computer vendors

c. competitive strengths

d. no real measurable differences between competing products1

Selected answer c. competitive strengths

When setting technology product standards, hardware standards are generally set

first, followed by software product standards.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

The larger the number of incompatible software packages an organization owns,

the greater the cost to train and retrain employees.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

The purpose of benchmarks and weighted point evaluation methods is to make the

product selection process as ____ as possible.

a. biased

b. quick

c. objective

d. subjective

Selected Answer: c. objective

Permitting employees to purchase whichever technology they need may maximize

purchasing flexibility, but it can increase support and maintenance costs to an

organization.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

A software evaluation copy is a limited, trial version that permits a user to try out

a product's features and assess its ability to meet user needs.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

While software vendors generally provide evaluation or demonstration copies of

their products, hardware vendors never provide evaluation products because of the

expense of hardware.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

Which of these product evaluation methods uses several criteria of predefined

importance to arrive at a numerical score for each competing product?

a. Weighted point method

b. Vendor-neutral method

c. Subjective criteria method

d. Industry standard method

Selected Answer: a. Weighted point method

When a new operating system is marketed by an organization like Microsoft, most

organizations adopt it immediately as a new standard in order to take advantage of

its productivity features for their employees.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

The weighted point evaluation method can be used to compare two products, but

is too complicated and confusing to use when more than two products are being

considered.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

In the weighted point evaluation method, the product that is usually selected is the

one with ____.

a. the lowest overall score

b. the score closest to the benchmark

c. the score with the lowest cost

d. the highest overall score

Selected Answer: d. the highest overall score

An ezine is a website that is easier to use than competing websites.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

Cost is usually not a factor in the weighted point evaluation method of technology

product comparison.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

Objective evaluation criteria are those where a neutral evaluator should be able to

reach the same or a similar conclusion as another evaluator.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

An electronic magazine organized like a print publication, but distributed via a

website, that may contain product reviews and comparisons is called ____.

a. an online magazine

b. a blog

c. a review periodical

d. an ezine

Selected Answer: d. an ezine

Subjective criteria should not be used when selecting among competing

technology products.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

A niche or vertical market for technology products is one that is highly

specialized, such as video rental stores or real estate offices.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

Benchmark tests on competing products can be used to select ____.

a. primarily hardware products

b. primarily software products

c. both hardware and software products

d. neither hardware nor software products

Selected Answer: c. both hardware and software products

During the 1980s, the lack of standard operating systems and standard

productivity software meant that workers had difficulty filling in for each other

during illness and vacations.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

Which of these would you least expect to find in an organization's acceptable use

guidelines?

a. illegal uses

b. list of approved vendors

c. unauthorized uses

d. permitted computer uses

Selected Answer: b. list of approved vendors

In order to avoid bias, product evaluation decisions are usually made by the user

support staff working independently of other employees.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

During the 1980s, the number of competing operating systems and software

packages had which effects on employee cross-training and productivity?

a. Hard to cross-train employees; productivity was decreased

b. Hard to cross-train employees; productivity was increased

c. Easy to cross-train employees; productivity was decreased

d. Easy to cross-train employees; productivity was increased

Selected Answer: a. Hard to cross-train employees; productivity was decreased

The best evaluation articles in technology publications are those that compare

several products against specific criteria and explain the pros and cons of each

product.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

In general, organizations that operate in the same industry are likely to have

similar technology requirements and often select the same products.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

During the 1980s, support costs were kept to a minimum in many organizations

by offering training courses that covered several different hardware and software

platforms in the same class.

True

False1

Selected Answer: False

Which of these statements is true of University of Texas Arlington's technology

support policies described in the chapter?

a. The recommended computers for faculty are different from the

one for students.

b. The support policies are designed to favor one vendor over

others.

c. The college offers a choice of PC and Macintosh computer

platforms.

d. The college will support any hardware or software products a

user purchases.

Selected Answer: c. The college offers a choice of PC and Macintosh computer

platforms.

Most computer industry product standards have evolved over time, but are now in

place, and future changes are unlikely.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

In an organization with technology product standards, if users must work around

the standards in order to get the products they need to do their jobs, the standards

are counterproductive.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

Benchmark tests can be used to evaluate both hardware and software products.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

When an organization adopts new support standards, support for existing products

should be terminated in order to reduce the cost to support both old and new

products.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

Best-selling technology products usually meet or exceed every user's specialized

requirements.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

As a general rule, dominance in the software industry does not change over time;

the best-selling products in the early 980s are still the best selling products today.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

The larger an organization, the more likely it is to need specialized or customized

software products to meet its special requirements.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

In a search for useful technology products, support specialists generally do not

consider products used by an organization's competitors because competitive

differences between organizations are large.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

If Tablet A has a higher score than Tablet B on a weighted point evaluation, Tablet

A scored higher than Tablet B on each of the evaluation criteria.

True

False

Selected Answer: False

In the weighted point product evaluation method, if more than one support person

evaluates competing products, the score a product receives is usually ____.

a. the highest score the product received from any evaluator

b. the average score of all evaluators

c. not calculated when there is disagreement between evaluators

d. the lowest score the product received from any evaluator

Selected Answer: b. the average score of all evaluators

Industry-standard technology products are those selected by a panel of industry

experts for use in organizations.

True

False

False

Software designed specifically for a highly specialized industry is called ____.

a. industry-standard software

b. mass-market software

c. horizontal market software

d. vertical market software

Selected Answer: d. vertical market software

During the 1980s, many organizations that purchased technology products viewed

incompatibilities among vendor products as a sign of a healthy, competitive

business climate.

True

False

Selected Answer: False1

A benchmark test of competing products is designed to use objective evaluation

criteria instead of an evaluator's personal opinions.

True

False

Selected Answer: True

RFP stands for ____.

a. required federal pricelist

b. regulated floating-point processor

c. request for proposal

d. relational forms procedure1

Selected Answer: c. request for proposal

Since an organization's computer culture is often subjective, historical patterns of

use should not influence an organization's current product and support

standards.

True

False

Selected Answer: False