MSIS 2103 Exam 3 Review

Exam 3 Review Notes

Chapter 10: Enterprise Systems

Traditional Transaction Processing Methods

• Batch Processing System:
  • Business transactions are accumulated over a period and processed as a single unit.
  • There is a delay between the event and processing to update records.
• Online Transaction Processing (OLTP):
  • Each transaction is processed immediately.
  • Data reflects the current status, enabling faster and more efficient service.

Enterprise Systems

• Central to individuals and organizations of all sizes.
• Ensures information sharing across all business functions and management levels for running and managing a business.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• A set of integrated programs that manage a company's vital business operations for the entire organization.
• Business Process: A set of coordinated and related activities that take input(s) and create valuable output for the customer.

Supply Chain Management (SCM)

• A system that includes planning, executing, and controlling activities involved in:
  • Sourcing and procurement of raw materials.
  • Converting raw materials to finished products.
  • Warehousing and delivering finished products to customers.
• Process for Developing a Production Plan:
  • Sales forecasting
  • Sales and operations plan (S&OP)
  • Demand management
  • Detailed scheduling
  • Materials requirement planning (MRP)
  • Purchasing
  • Production
  • Sales ordering
• ERP systems do not directly work with production machines; data are passed to ERP accounting modules to keep an accurate count of finished product inventory.
• Production quality data can be added based on the results of quality tests, typically including the batch identification number.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

• Helps a company manage all aspects of customer encounters, including marketing, sales, distribution, accounting, and customer service.
• Goal: Understand and anticipate the needs of current and potential customers.
• Primarily used in sales, marketing, and service organizations.
• Captures and views data about customers and improves communications.
• Key Features of a CRM System:
  • Contact management
  • Sales management
  • Customer support
  • Marketing automation
  • Analysis
  • Social networking
  • Access by mobile devices
  • Import contact data
• Retailers use CRM to monitor customer feedback on social networks due to the popularity of mobile devices for comparing products and prices.

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

• Enterprise business strategy that creates a common repository of product information and processes.
• Supports collaborative creation, management, dissemination, and use of product and packaging definition information.
• Product Lifecycle Management Software: Manages data and processes associated with various phases of a product's lifecycle.
• Computer-Aided Design (CAD): Software to assist in the creation, analysis, and modification of the design of a component or product.
• Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE): Software to analyze the robustness and performance of components and assemblies.
• Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM): Software to control tools and machinery in the manufacture of components and products.
• In manufacturing, CAD models verified in CAE can be entered into CAM software to control machine tools.
• Discrete Manufacturing: Production of distinct items (e.g., autos, airplanes, furniture, or toys) that can be decomposed into basic components.
• Process Manufacturing: Production of products from chemical processes (e.g., gasoline, pharmaceutical drugs) that cannot be easily decomposed.

Overcoming Challenges in Implementing Enterprise Systems

• Assign a full-time executive to manage.
• Appoint an experienced, independent resource to provide project oversight.
• Allow sufficient time to transition to the new system.
• Allocate sufficient time and money for training.
• Define metrics to assess project progress and identify risks.
• Keep the project scope well-defined and contained to essential business processes.
• Be wary of modifying the enterprise system software to conform to firm’s business practices.
• Focus on documenting existing workflows and working directly with key stakeholders.
• The best systems require little change to existing workflow as it relates to user input/effort while eliminating the biggest pain points.

Chapter 11: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automation

Vision Systems

• Hardware and software that permit computers to capture, store, and manipulate visual images and pictures.
• Augmented Reality (AR): A type of vision system used widely in the medical field.
• Vision system software superimposes computer-generated images on a user's view of the world using specialized glasses or goggles.

AI and Employment

• AI technology is being introduced rapidly across industries.
• Automation creates fear of job loss.
• The World Economic Forum suggests that AI could create up to 58 million new jobs by 2022.

Machine Learning Training

• Supervised Learning
• Unsupervised Learning
• Reinforced Learning
• Semi-Supervised Learning

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

• Involves computer understanding, analyzing, manipulating, and/or generating natural language for processing.
• Widely used in search engines to interpret user searches and return relevant results.
• Online translators require training beyond word-to-word translations; grammar and punctuation are critical.

Industrial Robots

• Designed for speed, accuracy, and safety.
• Size and appearance depend on the application.
• Cartesian Robots:
  • Take up a smaller footprint and move in straight lines.
  • Commonly used for 3D printing.
• Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA) Robots:
  • Easier to integrate into complex printing designs.
  • Have both lateral and rotary movement and can move faster than Cartesian models.
  • Often used in the biomedical field for faster movement and wider range.
• Articulated Robots:
  • Function like a human arm.
  • May have ten or more rotary joints.
  • Frequently used in industrial manufacturing, such as automotive lines, due to speed and precision.

Chapter 12: Strategic Planning and Project Management

Strategic Planning

• Provides a framework and direction for decision-making.
• Ensures effective use of resources by focusing on key priorities.
• Enables proactive responses to opportunities and trends.
• Fosters collaboration toward common goals.
• Provides measures for judging organizational and personal performance.
• Improves communication with stakeholders.

Analyze Situation

• Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model: Used for assessing competition.
• Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats (SWOT) Matrix: Used to analyze an organization's internal assessment and external environment.

User Satisfaction and Technology Acceptance

• Technology Acceptance Model (TAM):
  • Specifies factors leading to better attitudes about using a new information system, as well as higher acceptance and usage.
  • Perceived usefulness (U) and perceived ease of use (E) strongly influence IS adoption; management can improve perception through demonstrations and training.

Diffusion of Innovation Theory

• Developed by E.M. Rogers to explain how a new idea or product gains acceptance and spreads through a population.
• Adoption does not happen all at once; it is a drawn-out process with different adoption rates.

Project Variables

• Scope:
  • Defines which tasks are included and which are not.
• Cost:
  • Includes all capital, expenses, and internal cross-charges.
• Time:
  • Timing is a critical constraint; projects often have fixed completion dates.
• Quality:
  • The degree to which the project meets user needs.
• User Expectations:
  • Stakeholders form expectations about the project's conduct and impact.

Schedule Management

• Defining an achievable and acceptable completion date
• Developing a workable project schedule
• Ensuring the timely completion of the project
• Identifying specific tasks
• Sequencing these tasks
• Estimating resources required
• Estimating elapsed time to complete each task
• Analyzing all data to create a project schedule
• Controlling and managing changes

Time Management

• Gantt Chart: A graphical tool used for planning, monitoring, and coordinating projects, listing activities and deadlines.
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): Outline of the work to be done to complete the project.

Project Resource Management

• Activities to identify, acquire, and manage project resources; estimating, acquiring equipment, materials, and staff; improving team communication; tracking performance; resolving issues
• Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing-Adjourning Model: A useful model to describe how teams develop and evolve; forming an effective team is a challenge.

Chapter 13: System Acquisition and Development

Subscribe vs. Buy vs. Build

• Subscribe:
  • Pros: Cost-effective for small, temporary needs; vendor handles updates and support.
  • Cons: Cannot be modified; recurring licensing costs.
• Buy:
  • Pros: Quick deployment; can test drive before acquiring.
  • Cons: May not match needs perfectly; maintenance costs can be excessive.
• Build:
  • Pros: Customized; potential competitive advantage.
  • Cons: High cost; long deployment time.
• System Development: Activities involved in building information systems to meet user needs, ranging from small to large projects.

Waterfall System Development Process

• Sequential, multistage process where each stage must be completed and approved before the next begins.
• Six Phases:
  • Investigation
  • Analysis
  • Design
  • Construction
  • Integration and Testing
  • Implementation

System Investigation

• Purpose: Gain a clear understanding of the problem or opportunity.
• Review systems investigation request
• Identify and recruit team leader and members
• Develop budget and schedule for investigation
• Perform investigation
• Joint application development
• Functional decomposition
• Perform preliminary feasibility analysis
• Technical economic, legal, operational, and schedule
• Prepare draft of investigation report
• Review results of investigation with steering team

Agile Development

• Iterative process with sprints lasting two weeks to two months, maximizing the team's ability to deliver quickly and respond to emerging requirements.
• Scrum: Method to keep the Agile system development effort focused and moving quickly.
• The Scrum master coordinates all activities.

Chapter 1: Information Systems: People, Technology, Processes, and Structure

Leavitt’s Diamond

• Proposes that every organizational system operates within a context composed of people, technology infrastructure, processes, and human structure.
• People:
  • The most important element of information systems.
  • Employee requirements: Training, understanding, motivation, and access to support.
• Technology Infrastructure:
  • Includes hardware, software, databases, networks, facilities, and third-party services.
  • Required to meet the needs of customers, suppliers, partners, regulatory agencies, and employees.
  • Forms the foundation of every computer-based information system.
• Processes:
  • A structured set of related activities that takes input, adds value, and creates an output.
  • Procedure describes steps to follow to achieve a specific end result.
  • Using an information system involves setting up and following many procedures.
• Structure:
  • Defines relationships between organization members, necessary roles, responsibilities, and lines of authority.
  • Employees must understand and accept their roles and responsibilities.
  • Roles and responsibilities often change with the introduction of a new information system.

Types of Information Systems

• Personal Information System: Improves productivity of individual users.
• Workgroup Information System: Enables people to work together effectively.
• Enterprise Information System: Facilitates organization-wide business needs.
• Interorganizational IS: Enables the sharing of information across organizational boundaries.

Chapter 2: Secure Information Systems

Types of Attack Vectors

• Advanced Persistent Threat: An intruder gains access to a network and stays there undetected to steal data over a long period.
• Blended Threat: Combines features of viruses, worms, Trojan horses, and other malicious code.
• Phishing: Fraudulently using email to get the recipient to reveal personal data.
• Rootkit: Enables a user to gain administrator-level access without consent; obscures presence from administrators.
• Smishing: Phishing using texting.
• Social Engineering: Deception to trick individuals into divulging data.
• Spam: Sending unsolicited email to large numbers of people.
• Trojan Horse: A seemingly harmless program with hidden malicious code.
• Virus: Programming code that causes a computer to behave unexpectedly.
• Vishing: Similar to smishing, using voice mail messages.
• Worm: Harmful program that resides in memory and duplicates itself without human intervention.

The CIA Security Triad

• CIA Security Triad: Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability
• Layered security solution design makes cyberattacks difficult; the attacker eventually gives up or is detected before harm is inflicted.

Implementing CIA at the Network Level

• Authentication Methods:
  • Something you know (password)
  • Something you possess (smart card)
  • Something you are (biometrics)
• Use two-factor authorization
• Biometric Authentication: Physiological or behavioral measurements are used, requiring a reference model of unique characteristics stored digitally.
• Encryption: Scrambles messages or data; only authorized parties can read it.
  • Encryption key: A value applied to plaintext to produce ciphertext; required to decipher ciphertext.
  • Encryption algorithms: Symmetric and asymmetric.
  • Advanced Encryption Standard (AES): Common symmetric algorithm, used by the WPA2 security protocol.

Chapter 4: Hardware and Software

Current Operating Systems

• Server Virtualization: Logically dividing a single physical server’s resources to create multiple logical servers.
• Virtual machines act as their own dedicated machines.
• Hypervisor: A virtual server program that controls the host processor and resources, allocates resources to each virtual machine, and ensures that they do not disrupt each other.

Software as a Service (SaaS)

• Third-party provider hosts applications and makes them available to subscribers over the Internet.
• Advantages: Available from any computer or device; SaaS provider handles upgrades and patches; lower software licensing costs; SaaS provider manages service levels and availability.

Chapter 5: Database Systems and Data Management

Database Activities

• Storing and Retrieving Data: DBMS function; interface between application program and database.
• Concurrency Control: Addresses situations where multiple users or applications access the same record simultaneously.

SQL Databases

• SQL: Special-purpose programming language used for accessing and manipulating relational database data.
• SQL databases conform to ACID properties (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability).
• Guarantees reliable processing of database transactions and ensures data integrity.

Chapter 6: Business Intelligence: Big Data and Analytics

Big Data

• Enormous (terabytes or more) and complex (sensor data to social media data).
• Traditional processes are incapable of dealing with them.
• Key Characteristics: Volume, Velocity, Value, Variety, Veracity.

Chapter 7: Networks: An Interconnected World

Client/Server Architecture

• Many clients request and receive services from servers on the network.
• Domain Name System (DNS): Maps the name people use to locate a Web site to the IP address that a computer uses to locate a Web site.
• Uniform Resource Locator (URL): Web address specifying the exact location of a Web page using letters and words that map to an IP address and a location on the host.

Chapter 8: Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT)

• A network of physical objects (i.e., things) embedded with sensors, processors, software, and network connectivity capability.
• Enables data exchange with the manufacturer of the device, device operators, and other connected devices.
• Sensor: A device capable of sensing something about its surroundings (pressure, temperature, humidity, pH level, motion, vibration, or level of light).
• Business Benefits of IoT: Reduce costs, deepen understanding of consumer behavior, improve customer service, and improve workplace safety.

Chapter 9: E-Commerce

Electric Payment Systems

• Authentication Technologies: Used by many organizations to confirm the identity of a user requesting access.
• Digital Certificate: An attachment to an e-mail message or data embedded in a Web site that verifies the identity of a sender or Web site.
• Certificate Authority (CA): Trusted third-party organization that issues digital certificates.S