Final Exam Preparation

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School

Sheridan College *

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Course

INFO20000D

Subject

Information Systems

Date

Dec 6, 2023

Type

docx

Pages

25

Uploaded by ColonelHeron1455

Report
Describe what a Transaction Processing System (TPS) is and the value it provides to a company. Choose a common business transaction and describe the transaction processing cycle for this transaction. Transaction processing systems (TPSs): o Systems that capture and process detailed data necessary to update the organization's records about fundamental business operations. o There functions include order entry, inventory control, payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable, general ledger, etc. o These systems provide valuable input to: Management information systems Decision support systems Knowledge management systems Transaction Process Systems Methods: o Batch Processing System: Business transactions are accrued over a period and prepared for processing as a single unit or a batch. There is a delay between an event and the processing of the related transaction to update the organization’s records o Online transaction processing (OLTP): Data processing in which each transaction is processed immediately The data in the online system reflects the current status Allows organizations to provide faster more efficient service o Transaction Process Systems Objectives: Capture, process, and update databases Ensure that the data is processed accurately and completely Avoid processing fraudulent transactions Produce timely user responses and reports Reduce clerical and other labor requirements Help improve customer service Achieve competitive advantage o Transaction Processing Cycle: Data Collection Data Editing Data Correction Data Processing
Data Storage Document Production Data Collection: o Capturing and gathering all data necessary to complete the processing of transactions o Data collection can be: Manual Automated via special input devices o Source data automation Involves capturing data at its source and recording it accurately in a timely fashion with minimal manual effort and in an electronic or digital form so that it can be directly entered into the computer. Example: a scanner reading a UPC code Data Editing: o Checking data for validity and completeness to detect any problems Data Correction: o Systems should provide error messages that alert those responsible for editing the data Error messages should specify the problem so proper corrections can be made o Data correction involves reentering data that was not typed or scanned properly Data Processing: o Performing calculations and other data transformation related to business transactions including: Classifying data Sorting data into categories Performing calculations Summarizing results Storing data in the organization’s database for further processing Document Production: o Involves generating output record, documents and reports Hard copy paper reports Displays on computer screens (soft copy) o Results from one transaction processing system can be input to another system o Most transaction processing systems provide other useful management information, such as:
Printed or onscreen reports that help managers and employees perform various activities Reports showing current inventory Reports required by local, provincial and federal agencies
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What are enterprise systems and why is their use valuable to a company? Define and describe Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems and discuss the four advantages of using ERP, providing a real-life business example for one of these. An enterprise system is central to individuals and organizations of all sizes o Ensures that information can be shared across all business functions and all levels of management to support the running and managing of a business The ultimate goal is to satisfy customers and provide significant benefits by reducing costs and improving service Businesses rely on enterprise systems to perform daily activities in areas such as: o Product supply and distribution o Sales and marketing o Human resources o Manufacturing o Accounting and taxes Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): o A set of integrated programs that manage a company’s vital business operations for an organization Business process: o A set of coordinated and related activities that takes one or more kinds of input and creates an output of value to the customer of that process Advantage of ERP Systems: o Improved access to quality data for operational decision making o Elimination of costly, inflexible legacy systems o Improvement of work processes o Opportunity to upgrade and standardize technology infrastructure Challenges of ERP Systems: o Tips for avoiding a failed implementation: Assign a full-time executive to manage the project Appoint an experienced, independent resource to provide project over- sight and to verify and validate system performance Allow sufficient time to transition from the old way of doing things to the new system and new processes Allocate sufficient time and money training people Define metrics to assess project progress and to identify project- related risks
Keep the scope of the project well defined and contained to essential business processes Be wary of modifying the enterprise system software to conform to your firm’s business practices
Define and describe what a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is and the key goal of a CRM system. Discuss three of the key features of a CRM system and provide a real-life example of how each of these features would be used. Customer relationship management (CRM) system: o Helps a company manage all aspects of customer encounters, including marketing, sales, distribution, accounting, and customer service o The goal of CRM is to understand and anticipate the needs of current and potential customers o Primarily used in sales, marketing and service organizations to capture and view data about customers and to improve communications o CRM software automates and integrates the functions of sales, marketing and service in an organization. o Key features of a CRM system include: Contact management Sales management Customer support Marketing automation Analysis Social networking Access by smartphones Import contact data
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Describe Business Analytics and Business Intelligence (BI). There are seven main tools used in BI. List as many of these as you can, and for one of them provide details on what it is and how it works (including a real-life example). Business analytics: o The extensive use of data and quantitative analysis to support fact- based decision making within organizations o Business analytics can be used to: Gain a better understanding of current business performance Reveal new business patterns and relationships Explain why certain results occurred Optimize current operations Forecast future business results Business intelligence (BI): o Includes a wide range of applications, practices, and technologies for the extraction, transformation, integration, visualization, analysis interpretation, and presentation of data to support improved decision making o Data used in BI is often pulled from multiple sources and may come from sources internal and external to the organization Data can be used to build large collections of data called data warehouses and data marts o Components include: Existence of a solid data management program, including data governance Data governance defines the roles, responsibilities, and processes for ensuring that data can be trusted and used by the entire organization Creative data scientists Management team Must have a strong commitment to data-driven decision making o BI Tools: Spreadsheets Data visualization tools Online analytical processing (OLAP) Drill-down Analysis Linear regression Data Mining
Dashboards Define electronic commerce (eCommerce) and discuss three reasons why a business activity might be a strong candidate for conversion to e-commerce. Discuss both the advantages of eCommerce as well as the challenges that are faced. Electronic commerce: conducting business activities electronically over computer networks o Includes any business transactions executed electronically o Business activities that are strong candidates for conversion to e- commerce are: Paper based Time-consuming Inconvenient for customers Advantages: o Reach new customers o Reduce the cost of doing business o Speed the flow of goods and information o Increase the accuracy of order-processing o Improve the level of customer service Challenges: o Dealing with consumer privacy concerns-About one-third of all adult o Internet users will not buy online due to privacy concerns o Overcoming consumers' lack of trust in online sellers o Overcoming global issues-Cultural, language, time and distance, infrastructure, currency, and legal challenges
Define electronic commerce (eCommerce) and describe the four subsets/forms of eCommerce, providing a real-life example for each of these subsets/forms. Electronic commerce: conducting business activities electronically over computer networks o Includes any business transactions executed electronically o Business activities that are strong candidates for conversion to e- commerce are: Paper based Time-consuming Inconvenient for customers 4 Subsets: o Business to Business o Business to Customer o Customer to Customer o eGovernment o Business to Business: o Largest subset of ecommerce o All participants are organization o Useful tool for connecting business partners in virtual supply chain to cut supply time and reduce costs o Many organizations: Buy side e-commerce to purchase goods and services from suppliers Sell side e-commerce to sell products to their business customers o Business to Customer: o Customers deal directly with an organization and avoid intermediaries (disintermediation) o Reasons for steady growth: Less expensive goods and services via the web Online shoppers can design personalized products Use of social media networks to promote products and reach customers
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o Customer to Customer: o Electronic transaction between consumers are facilitated by a third party o Popular sites include: eBay Craigslist Kijiji o Companies and individuals involved in C2C must comply with all the rules of the various legal jurisdictions o eGovernment: o The use of information and communications technology to: Simplify the sharing of information Speed up formerly paper-based processes Improve the relationship between citizens and government o Forms of eGovernment: Government to Consumer: Income tax Government to Business: Business performing a service for government (request for proposal/bid) Government to Government: one government purchasing commodities (such as oil) from another
Define electronic commerce (eCommerce) and briefly describe four of the different areas where applications of eCommerce are used. For one of these areas, provide a real-life example of how eCommerce is being used. Electronic commerce: conducting business activities electronically over computer networks o Includes any business transactions executed electronically o Business activities that are strong candidates for conversion to e- commerce are: Paper based Time-consuming Inconvenient for customers Areas in which applications are used: o Retail and wholesale o Manufacturing o Marketing / advertising-Bartering o Retargeting o Price comparison o Couponing o Investment and finance / banking Market segmentation: the identification of specific markets to target them with advertising messages o Divides the pool of potential customers into subgroups usually defined in terms of demographic characteristic Online banking customers can: Check balances of their savings, chequing, and loan accounts Transfer money among accounts Pay their bills Deposit cheques Transfer money to others o Many banks enable customers to perform online banking activities via mobile phone Retargeting: o An average of 74% of all online shopping carts are abandoned.
o Retargeting is used by advertisers to recapture those shoppers by using targeted and personalized ads to direct shoppers back to a retailer's site Advertising; o Methods of buying mobile ad impressions Cost per thousand (CPM) Cost per click (CPC) Cost per action (CPA) o Three main measures of success Number of users reached Click through rate (CTR) Number of actions users take Retail and Wholesale: o Electronic retailing (e-tailing): the direct sale from business to consumer through electronic storefronts o Wholesale e-commerce: Spending on manufacturing, repair, and operations (MRO) goods and services Price Comparison: o Mobile phone apps enable shoppers to compare prices and products online
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Define and describe what a Knowledge Management (KM) is and the value it can provide to a company. Briefly describe the benefits of KM as well as best practices for implementing KM. Knowledge Management comprises a range of practices concerned with increasing awareness, fostering learning, speeding collaboration and innovation, and exchanging insights It is used by organizations to enable individuals, teams, and entire organizations to collectively and systematically create, share, and apply knowledge in order to achieve objectives Knowledge: o Explicit: Documented, stored or codified Objective Can be measured and documented in reports, papers, and rules o Tacit: Embedded in personal experience Hard to measure and document Typically, not objective or formalized Benefits: o Foster innovation by encouraging the free flow of ideas Among employees, contractors, suppliers, and other business partners o Leverage the expertise of people across the organization New employees or employees moving into new positions are able to get up to speed more quickly o Capture the expertise of key individuals before they retire Permanent loss of expertise related to core operations can result in a significant loss of productivity and a decrease in the quality of service over time Implementing: o Connect KM to goals and objectives -> Start with small pilot (start up) -> Identify valuable tacit knowledge -> get employee buy in
Define and describe what is meant by Artificial Intelligence (AI), discussing three of the different characteristics that indicate intelligent behaviour. List and briefly describe the major branches of AI. For one of these branches, provide a real-life example of how either business or societal value has been gained through the use of AI. Artificial Intelligence (AI): computers with the ability to mimic or duplicate the functions of a human brain Artificial intelligence systems include: o The people, procedures, hardware, software, data, and knowledge needed to develop computer systems and machines that can simulate human intelligence processes including: Learning Reasoning Self-correction AI is a complex interdisciplinary field o Involves biology, computer science, linguistics, mathematics, neuroscience, philosophy, and psychology The Turing Test attempts to determine whether a computer can successfully impersonate a human o No computer has yet passed the Turing Test Intelligent behavior includes the ability to: o Learn from experiences and apply knowledge acquired from experience o Handle complex situations o Solve problems when important information is missing o Determine what is important o React quickly and correctly to a new situation o Understand visual images o Process and manipulate symbols o Be creative and imaginative o Use heuristics Robotics is a branch of engineering that involves developing and manufacturing mechanical devices o Organizations use robots to perform dull, dirty, and/or dangerous jobs Vision Systems: o Hardware and software that permit computers to capture, store, and manipulate visual images and pictures
o Applications: Increased accuracy and speed in industrial inspections of parts Identifying people based on facial features Natural Language Processing o Involves the computer understanding, analyzing, manipulating, and/or generating “natural” languages such as English o Voice recognition o Converting sound waves into words o After the conversion, natural language processing systems react to words by performing a variety of tasks Learning Systems o A combination of software and hardware that allows the computer to change how it functions or reacts to situations based on feedback it receives o Learning systems software Feedback on results of actions or decisions is required Feedback must indicate whether results are desirable or undesirable Neural networks o Computer systems that can recognize and act on patterns or trends that it detects in large sets of data o Employs massively parallel processors in a mesh like architectural structure
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Define and describe what an Expert System is and the value it can provide to an organization. Describe the five components of an Expert System and how they work together. Expert system: o Hardware and software that stores knowledge and makes inferences, similar to a human expert o Computerized expert systems use heuristics, or rules of thumb, to arrive at conclusions or make suggestions o Consists of a collection of integrated and related components: Knowledge base Inference engine Explanation facility Knowledge base acquisition facility User interface Knowledge Base: o Stores all relevant information, data, rules, cases, and relationships that the expert system uses o Rule: a conditional statement that links conditions to actions or outcomes o Rules may be stored as IF-THEN statements Inference Engine: o Main purpose is to seek information and relationships from the knowledge base o To provide answers, predictions, and suggestions like a human expert Explanation Facility: o Allows a user or decision maker to understand how the expert system arrived at certain conclusions or results o Indicates all the facts and rules that were used in reaching the conclusion Knowledge Acquisition Facility o Provides convenient and efficient means of capturing and storing all components of the knowledge base o Knowledge acquisition software stores information and relationships in the knowledge base User Interface: o Makes an expert system easier for users and decision makers to develop and use
People and Expert Systems: o Domain Expert: The person or group with the expertise or knowledge the expert system is trying to capture o Knowledge engineer: A person who has training or experience in the design, development, implementation, and maintenance of an expert system o Knowledge User: Person or group who uses and benefits from the expert system o
Describe the alternative approaches organizations have when sourcing Information Systems. Define and describe three different factors involved in the decision and describe the details for each of these factors for the alternative approaches. o Make vs Buy: Traditional information system sourcing decision was "make" versus "buy" o Make: Develop the system within your organization using internal resources o Buy: Purchase the system from an external organization 3 Factors Involved in the decision of “make” vs “buy” o Cost: o the cost to make a system is hard to estimate but is generally higher than buying off the shelf. o The cost to buy a system is also difficult to estimate (because you are not going to know everything that needs to be purchased from the start), but this method is less expensive than building your own system o Needs: o Custom software is more likely to satisfy your needs. o OTS (off the shelf) might not get what you need o Staffing and support o Custom requires in-house skilled resources to build and support a custom-built solution. o OTS requires paying the vendor for support. o Speed: o Making your own software can take years o OTS software can be acquired immediately o
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Describe the six steps of the Waterfall system development process, being sure to highlight at least one activity that takes place in each step. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this approach to systems development? Waterfall system development process o A sequential, multistage system development process o Work on the next stage cannot begin until the results of the current stage are reviewed and approved or modified as necessary o There are six phases: Investigation Analysis Design Construction Integration and Testing Implementation
Define and describe Agile Development and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using this systems development method. Provide a specific example where the development of an information system would benefit from using Agile Development methods. An iterative system development process that develops the system in "sprint" increments lasting from two weeks to two months o Concentrates on maximizing the team's ability to deliver quickly and respond to emerging requirements Scrum: a method to keep the agile system development effort focused and moving quickly-The scrum master coordinates all activities Advantages: o For appropriate projects the approach puts an application into production sooner than any other approach. o Documentation is produced as a byproduct of completing tasks. o Agile forces teamwork and lots of interaction between users and stakeholders. Disadvantages: o It is an intense process that can burn out systems developers and other project participants. o This approach requires systems analysts and users to be skilled in agile systems dev tools and techniques. o Agile requires larger percentage of stakeholders and users time than any other approach.
There are over a dozen different common types of exploits (i.e., computer attacks). Clearly define and describe three of these exploits including the effects they can have on an organization and personal effects on the individual computer user. Types of exploits: o Ransomware o Viruses o Worms o Trojan horses o Blended threat o Spam o Distributed denial-of-service attacks o Rootkits o Advanced persistent threat o Phishing, spear-phishing, smishing and vishing o Identity theft o Cyberespionage and cyberterrorism Spam: o The use of email systems to send unsolicited email to large numbers of people o Also an inexpensive method of marketing used by many legitimate organizations and CAPTCHA software generates and grades tests that humans can pass and all but the most sophisticated computer programs cannot Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks: o An attack in which a malicious hacker takes over computers via the Internet and causes them to flood a target site with demands for data and other small tasks o Keeps target so busy responding to requests that legitimate users cannot get in o Botnets are large groups of computers, controlled from one or more remote locations by hackers, without the consent of their owners, sometimes called zombies Phishing: o The act of fraudulently using email to try to get the recipient to reveal personal data
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o Con artists send legitimate-looking emails urging recipients to take action to avoid a negative consequence or to receive a reward o Spear-phishing is a variation of phishing where fraudulent emails are sent to a certain organization's employees Much more precise and narrower Designed to look like they came from high-level executives within organization o Smishing and Vishing Smishing is a variation of phishing that involves the use of texting Vishing is similar to smishing except the victims receive a voice mail message telling them to call a phone number or access a Web site Identity Theft: o The theft of personal information which is used without permission o Data breach is the unintended release of sensitive data or the access of sensitive data by unauthorized individuals, often resulting in identity theft o Most e-commerce Web sites use some form of encryption technology to protect information as it comes from the consumer
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Describe what is involved in a strong security program, including the reaction plan if an intrusion occurs. How can users help to protect an organization’s information systems? A strong security program begins by: o Assessing threats to the organization’s computers and network o Identifying actions that address the most serious vulnerabilities o Educating users about the risks involved and the actions they must take to prevent a security incident If an intrusion occurs, there must be a clear reaction plan that addresses: o Notification o Evidence protection o Activity log maintenance o Containment o Eradication o Recovery Users can protect an organization’s information systems by: o Guarding their passwords to protect against unauthorized access to their accounts o Prohibiting others from using their passwords o Applying strict access controls (file and directory permissions) to protect data from disclosure or destruction o Reporting all unusual activity to the organization’s IT security group o Taking care to ensure that portable computing and data storage devices are protected (hundreds of thousands of laptops are lost or stolen per year) Firewall o A system of software, hardware, or a combination of both that stands guard between an organization’s internal network and the Internet and limits network access based on the organization’s access policy Next-generation firewall (NGFW) o A hardware or software-based network security system that is able to detect and block sophisticated attacks by filtering network traffic dependent on the packet contents
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o Goes deeper to inspect the payload of packets and match sequences of bytes for harmful activities Antivirus software: o Scans for specific sequence of bytes, known as a virus signature, that indicates the presence of a specific virus o If virus is found: Antivirus software informs the user and may clean, delete, or quarantine any files, directories, or disks affected by the malicious code o It is crucial that antivirus software be continually updated with the latest virus signatures User accounts that remain active after employees leave a company are a potential security risk o IS staff must promptly delete computer accounts, login IDs, and passwords of departing employees Create roles and user accounts so that users have the authority to perform their responsibilities and nothing more Intrusion detection system (IDS): o Software and/or hardware that monitors system and network resources and activities o Notifies network security personnel when it detects network traffic that attempts to circumvent the security measures of a networked computer environment Knowledge-based IDS o Contain information about specific attacks and system vulnerabilities B ehavior-based IDS o Models normal behavior of a system and its user from reference information collected by various means
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Describe what privacy is and how it is different from security. What steps can you take to help protect your personal privacy? Finally, discuss your right to privacy at work, including your justified beliefs as to whether or not companies should have the right to monitor their employees’ activities. Privacy typically refers to the user’s ability to control, access, and regulate their personal information, and security refers to the system that protects that data from getting into the wrong hands, through a breach, leak, or cyber-attack. To protect personal privacy: o Find out what is stored about you in existing databases o Be careful when you share information about yourself-Be proactive to protect your privacy o Take extra care when purchasing anything from a Web site Employers use technology and corporate policies to manage worker productivity and protect the use of IS resources o Employers are concerned about inappropriate Web surfing Organizations monitor employees' email and Instant Messaging (IM) o More than half retain and review messages Most employers have a policy that explicitly eliminates any expectation of privacy when an employee uses any company-owned computer, server, or e- mail system
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