What is an information system? Distinguish between a computer, a computer program, and an information system. What is the difference between data and information?

An information system consists of interrelated components that work together to collect, process, store, and disseminate information to support decision making, coordination, control, analysis, and visualization in an organization. A computer system is the physical equipment used for input, processing, and output activities in an information system. Computer programs provide the computer with necessary instructions on how to process the data into information. Data are raw facts; these raw facts, in their current form, are not in a useful format. Information is data that have been processed into a useful, meaningful form.

It is important for students to recognize that computers and information systems are not equivalent. It is important to stress that information systems have management, organization, and technology dimensions. Computers and programs are technology components of an information system. Without addressing the organization and management dimensions, the technology components are relatively useless. For instance, you can purchase a computer and software, but unless you have determined how the technology will be used to help manage and organize your work, you essentially have a decorative box for your desk.

What are the functions of an information system from a business perspective? What role do they play in the business information value chain?

Information systems facilitate the acquisition, transformation, and distribution of information. Information systems can improve decision making, enhance organizational performance, and help increase firm profitability, thus contributing to corporate value.

How are information systems changing the management process?

Contemporary information systems are providing managers with powerful new tools for more precise planning, forecasting, and monitoring, allowing them to respond more quickly to changes in the market for a product or in production conditions. Systems also give managers new tools for communicating with their subordinates so that they can manage larger numbers of people across greater distances than in the past.

What is the relationship between the network revolution, the digital firm, electronic commerce, and electronic business?

The Internet and other networks have made it possible for the firm to replace manual and paper-based processes with the electronic flow of information. This change can enable many companies ultimately to become digital firms. The digital firm uses the Internet and digital technology to expedite the exchange of information and facilitates communication and coordination both inside the organization and between the organization and its partners. Without this linkage of buyers and sellers through networks and the Internet, there would be no way to transmit the many transactions of the electronic market, which would leave buyers and sellers to depend on paper transactions with their time delays, inaccuracies, and expenses. E-business, the use of Internet technologies to facilitate an organization’s internal processes, also facilitates e-commerce, the external transactions facilitated by Internet technologies. Together, e-business and e-commerce move firms closer to being truly digital.

Describe the capabilities of a digital firm. Why are digital firms so powerful? What are the four principal systems driving the movement toward digital firms?

Digital firms extensively use Internet technology for electronic commerce and electronic business to manage their internal processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, and other external entities. Core business processes, key corporate assets, and environmental responses are digitally managed. Because a digital firm relies heavily on information technology to enable, mediate, and streamline its internal and external operations, the firm is more flexible, profitable, competitive, and efficient than a traditional firm.

Supply chain management systems, customer relationship management systems, enterprise systems, and knowledge management systems are the four principal systems driving the movement toward digital firms. As the textbook suggests, these four systems are where corporations are digitally integrating information flows and making significant information systems investments.

What is an organization? Compare the technical definition of organizations with the behavioural definition.

The technical definition for an organization defines an organization as a stable, formal social structure that takes resources from the environment and processes them to produce outputs. The technical definition of an organization focuses on three elements: capital and labor, production, and products for consumption. The technical definition also implies that organizations are more stable than an informal group, are formal legal entities, and are social structures.

The behavioural definition states that an organization is a collection of rights, privileges, obligations, and responsibilities that are delicately balanced over a period of time through conflict and conflict resolution. This definition highlights the people within the organization, their ways of working, and their relationships.

The technical definition shows us how a firm combines capital, labor, and information technology. The behavioural definition examines how information technology impacts the inner workings of the organization. The behavioural definition is the more realistic of the two.

What features do all organizations have in common? In what ways can organizations differ?

Table 3-3 summarizes the common and unique features of organizations. Common features for organizations include formal structure, standard operating procedures, politics, and culture. Organizations can differ in their organizational type, environments, goals, power, constituencies, function, leadership, tasks, technology, and business processes.

What are the four stages of decision making described by Simon?

Simon's four stages of decision making include intelligence, design, choice, and implementation. During the intelligence stage, organizational problems are identified and understood. During the design stage, possible alternative solutions to the problem are conceived. During the choice stage, a choice is made from the possible alternatives. During the implementation stage, the decision is put into effect, and the solution's progress is reported.

What is the impact of the Internet on organizations and the process of management?

The Internet increases the accessibility, storage, and distribution of information and knowledge for organizations; nearly any information can be available anywhere at any time. The Internet increases the scope, depth, and range of information and knowledge storage. It lowers the cost and raises the quality of information and knowledge distribution; that is, it lowers transaction and information acquisition costs. By using the Internet, organizations may reduce several levels of management, enabling closer and quicker communication between upper levels of management and the lower levels. The Internet also lowers agency costs.

What is a strategic information system? What is the difference between a strategic information system and a strategic-level system?

A strategic information system is a computer system at any organizational level that fundamentally changes the goals, operations, products, services, or environmental relationships of organizations, in effect changing the very nature of the firm’s business. In contrast, strategic-level systems provide long-term planning information to senior executives. Strategic information systems are more far-reaching and deeply rooted and fundamentally transform the organization itself.

Describe appropriate models for analyzing strategy at the business level and the types of strategies and information systems that can be used to compete at this level.

Low-cost producer, product differentiation, and focused differentiation are three generic strategies available at the business level. If a business pursues the low-cost producer strategy, it can evaluate its value chain to identify primary and secondary activities where information technology can effectively help the business obtain a competitive advantage. Strategic information systems help a company offer its products and services at a lower cost than its competitors, or strategic information systems enable the company to provide more value at the same cost as its competitors. Strategic information systems enable the company to improve its internal value chain, as well as establish tight, efficient linkages with its suppliers, customers, and business partners. Additionally, a company can participate in a value web.

Firms pursuing a product differentiation strategy use information systems to create new products and services. These products and services are not easily duplicated by competitors, and therefore, the company does not need to compete on the basis of cost.

A company pursuing a focused differentiation strategy develops new market niches for its specialized products and services. The company competes in this target market by offering its products and services in a superior manner. A company can use strategic information systems to "mine" for information about a particular market or group of customers. The strategic information systems enable the company to analyze customer buying patterns, tastes, and preferences.

Companies can use their strategic information systems to establish tight linkages to customers and suppliers. Companies can use their strategic information systems to create efficient customer response systems, switching costs, and in some instances, stockless inventories.

How can the competitive forces model, information partnerships, and network economics be used to identify strategies at the industry level?

These industry-level models help a company answer the key strategic question of “How and when should we compete with as opposed to cooperate with others in the industry?”

Firms can form information partnerships and even link their information systems to achieve unique synergies. An information partnership enables companies to join forces without actually merging by sharing information. For example, these partnerships can help firms gain access to new customers as can be seen in the partnership between Air Canada and CIBC.

The competitive forces model explains the interaction of external influences (threats and opportunities) that affect an organization's strategy and ability to compete. The threats include new entrants into the market, pressure from substitute products and services, bargaining power of customers and suppliers, and positioning of traditional industry competitors. Information systems are used at this level to develop industry-wide standards for exchanging information or business transactions, create value webs, and create industry-wide, IT-supported consortia, symposia, and communications networks for coordinating activities.

Traditionally, the more any given resource is applied to production, the lower the marginal gain, until additional inputs do not produce additional outputs (the law of diminishing returns). However, some situations exist where adding additional participants adds almost nothing to costs. One common example is when the telephone company adds another person to its network. The company has almost no additional continuing costs. Finding such opportunities will benefit a company. For example, Microsoft Corporation supports a community of software developers around the world who support local companies in making better use of Microsoft products. Adding an additional developer, or many new developers, costs Microsoft almost nothing.

The network economics model suggests that in a network the addition of another participant entails zero marginal costs but can create much larger marginal gain. For instance, the Internet can be used to build "communities of users."

Identify and describe the four levels of the organizational hierarchy. What types of information systems serve each level?

From lowest to highest, the four levels of the organizational hierarchy are operational, knowledge, management, and strategic. Types of information systems include transaction processing systems, office systems, knowledge work systems, decision-support systems, management information systems, and executive support systems.

Transaction processing systems, such as order tracking, payroll, machine control, and compensation, serve the operational level. Engineering workstations, word processing, graphics workstations, managerial workstations, document imaging, and electronic calendars are examples of knowledge work systems and office systems that serve the knowledge level. Sales region analysis, cost analysis, annual budgeting, and relocation analysis are examples of decision-support systems and management information systems. Many of these systems are programs that students learn in their management science or quantitative methods courses. Some are based on database management systems. Examples of executive support systems that serve the strategic level are sales trend forecasting, operating plan development, budget forecasting, profit planning, and manpower planning. What are the five types of TPS in business organizations? What functions do they perform? Give examples of each.

- Sale/Marketing Systems (eg. Sale management, customer service…)- Manufacturing/Production Systems (eg. Purchase order, scheduling,…..)- Finance/Accounting Systems (eg. General ledger, payroll…….)- Human Resources Systems (eg. Personnel records, training,…….)- Other types of TPS that are unique to a particular industry. (eg. University: admissions, grade

records,…..)

The five types of transaction processing systems include sales/marketing systems, manufacturing/production systems, finance/accounting systems, human resources systems, and other types. Figure 2-4 identifies and provides examples for each type of transaction processing system. Sales/marketing systems provide sales management, market research, promotion, pricing, and new product functions. Examples include sales order information systems, market research systems, and sales commission systems. Manufacturing/production systems provide scheduling, purchasing, shipping/receiving, engineering, and operations functions. Examples of manufacturing systems include machine control systems, purchase order systems, and quality control systems. Finance/accounting systems provide budgeting, general ledger, billing, and cost accounting functions. Examples of finance/accounting systems include general ledger, accounts receivable/payable, and funds management systems. Human resource systems provide personnel records, benefits, compensation, labor relations, training, and payroll functions. Examples include employee records, benefit systems, and career path systems. Other types include admissions, grade records, course records, and alumni for a university. Examples of transaction processing systems for a university include a registration system, student transcript system, and an alumni benefactor system.

What is ? What activities does it comprise? Why is it so important to businesses? How do information systems facilitate supply chain management?

Supply chain management is the close linkage of activities involved in the processes of buying, making, and moving a product. Supply chain management is important to a business because through its efficiency it can coordinate, schedule, and control the delivery of products and services to customers.

Supply chain management closely links and coordinates activities in buying, making, and moving a product. The system should lower costs and streamline the user’s business. Information systems make supply chain management more efficient by helping companies coordinate, schedule, and control procurement, production, inventory management, and delivery of products and services to customers. Information systems help organizations achieve great efficiencies by automating parts of these processes or by helping organizations rethink and streamline these processes.

What is customer relationship management? Why is it so important to businesses? How do information systems facilitate customer relationship management?

Customer relationship management is a business and technology discipline to coordinate all of the business processes for dealing with existing and potential customers. With the growth of the Web, potential customers can easily comparison shop for retail and wholesale goods and even raw materials, so better treatment of customers has become very important. Good CRM systems consolidate customer data from multiple sources and provide analytical tools for answering questions such as: What is the value of a particular customer to the firm over his or her lifetime? CRM tools integrate the firm’s customer-related processes and consolidate customer information from multiple communication channels, so that the firm can put one coherent face to the customer. 

What are the advantages of using the Internet as the infrastructure for electronic commerce and electronic business?

The Internet is an international network of networks connecting many millions of people from well over 100 countries. It is the largest information superhighway in the world. The Internet provides a universal and easy-to-use set of technologies and standards that can be adopted by all organizations, no matter what computer system or information technology platform they are using; provides a much lower cost and easier-to-use alternative for coordination activities than proprietary networks; reduces organizational transaction and agency costs; increases communication, including electronic mail, online forums, and chatting; provides access to increased information and information retrieval from many thousands of online databases around the world; and increases market potential with online offerings of information and products through the easy-to-use World Wide Web.

How is the Internet changing the economics of information and business models?

The Internet radically reduces the cost of creating, sending, and storing information while making that information more widely available. The Internet reduces search costs, allowing customers to locate products, suppliers, prices, and delivery terms. The Internet enables companies to collect and analyze more detailed and accurate information about their customers, allowing these companies to better target market their products and services. The Internet shrinks information asymmetry and has transformed the richness and reach of information. It can help companies create and capture profits in new ways by adding extra value to existing products and services. It also provides the foundation for new products and services.

Name and describe six Internet business models for electronic commerce. Distinguish between a pure-play Internet business model and a clicks-and-mortar business model.

Table 4-2 identifies eight Internet business models. These models are virtual storefront, information broker, transaction broker, online marketplace, content provider, online service provider, virtual community, and portal. Virtual storefronts sell physical products directly to consumers or individual businesses. Information brokers provide product, pricing, and availability information to individuals and businesses; they generate revenue from advertising or from directing buyers to sellers. The transaction broker saves users money and time by processing online sale transactions and generates a fee each time. The online marketplace provides a digital environment where buyers and sellers meet, search for and display products, and establish prices for those products; it can provide online auctions and reverse auctions. A content provider creates revenue by providing digital content, such as digital news, music, photos, or video over the Web. The online service provider provides online services for individuals and businesses and generates revenue from subscription or transaction fees and from advertising. The virtual community provides an online meeting place where people with similar interests can communicate and find useful information. The portal provides an initial point of entry to the Web along with specialized content and other services.

A pure-play business model is based purely on the Internet. A clicks-and-mortar business model has a Web site that is an extension of a traditional bricks-and-mortar business.

Name and describe the various categories of electronic commerce.

The three major types of electronic commerce are business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and consumer-to-consumer (C2C). Business-to-consumer involves retailing products and services to individual shoppers. BarnesandNoble.com is an example of business-to-consumer electronic commerce.

Business-to-business involves the sale of goods and services among businesses. Millpro.com provides business-to-business electronic commerce. Consumer-to-consumer involves consumers selling directly to consumers. An example of consumer-to-consumer electronic commerce is eBay.com.

Electronic commerce transactions can also be classified based on the participants’ physical connections to the Web. Participants can use wired networks or mobile commerce.

How can the Internet help provide customer service?

Customer service starts with the ease customers have in researching products themselves and then the ease of purchasing. Then, when the product has arrived (whether it is a digital product delivered over the Internet or a physical product delivered by mail or express delivery), the customer can obtain help on its usage over the Internet, often very easily. As was noted in question 5, FAQs provide support for easy questions, such as instructions for assembly or use of products or services. Answers to questions can be e-mailed from the Web site without making customers wait for telephone support. Many customers are happy with an answer even if it takes eight hours to receive as long as they know they are going to get it. Further, with chat or Internet telephony linked to the site, customers can talk to representatives. Many vendors, such as Dell, have people assigned to answer the questions or complaints of users. The Internet is also an easy, fast way to place orders because it reduces conversation, misunderstanding, errors, and time.

How can Internet technology support business-to-business electronic commerce?

Business-to-business transactions can occur via a company's Web site, net marketplace, or private exchange. Web sites make it easy to sell and buy over the Internet, compare suppliers, products, and prices, and even find out how others feel about the product. Further, supply chain linkages through intranets and extranets can support JIT, reduce cycle times, and support other practices of continuous improvement. Because of the ease and efficiencies brought by the Internet, business-to-business participants can save a significant amount of money and time.

How can companies use Internet technology for supply chain management?

Companies can use Internet technology for supply chain management to simplify, integrate, and electronically coordinate business processes that span more than one functional area or span the business processes of other companies; integrate procurement, production and logistics processes to supply goods and services from their source through to delivery to the customer; improve the coordination among their internal supply chain processes, as well as coordinate the shared supply chain processes of business partners; support the instant communication between all members of the supply chain; provide online collaboration; provide a quicker, more accurate response to customer demand; tap into suppliers’ systems to see inventory and production capabilities; monitor customers’ order status; share production, scheduling, inventory, forecasting and logistics information; communicate up-to-date manufacturing information to suppliers; and obtain customer feedback.

Describe the management challenges posed by electronic commerce and electronic business on the Internet.

Electronic commerce and electronic business pose several management challenges, including inadequate security, given the sensitive and proprietary nature of information that people might want to communicate through the Net; e-commerce and e-business require careful orchestration of the firm’s divisions, production sites, and sales offices, as well as closer relationships with customers, suppliers, and other business partners in its network of value creation; technology problems, including the lack of standards, the growing need of bandwidth, inadequate telecommunications facilities in many less developed countries, and the abundance of data without the technical ability yet to search for and locate it quickly and easily; lack of clarity on many critical legal questions that affect the transmission of data nationally and internationally; unproven business models; and control and coordination problems, particularly in extranets and business-to-business sites.

What is channel conflict? Why is it becoming a growing problem in electronic commerce?

Channel conflict is competition between two or more different distribution chains used to sell the products or services of the same company. For example, channel conflict occurs when a company with an established sales force begins to sell over the Internet. Needless to say, the sales staff will be loath to sell or support the products of a company that directly competes with them. More and more organizations are feeling pressure to offer direct sales over the Internet by the purchasers of their products and by competitive pressure.

Students may see that this will not be limited to for-profit firms alone but may be a problem for not-for-profit organizations also. The local Habitat for Humanity or Red Cross chapter may not be happy or even able to function if local donors are giving to the national Habitat for Humanity or Red Cross instead of the local charities.

What are the key technological trends that heighten ethical concerns?

Table 5-1 identifies the four key technology trends. These trends include computer power doubling every 18 months, the rapid decline in data storage costs, data analysis advances, and networking advances and the Internet.

The doubling of computing power every 18 months is creating a growing dependence on systems and a consequent vulnerability to system errors, poor data quality, and failure of critical systems. Advances in data storage techniques and rapidly declining storage costs provide for massive data storage capabilities on individual systems and enable the routine violation of individual privacy. Advances in datamining techniques for large databases allow those who are able to dominate supercomputing capacity (large businesses and governments) to increase their power over individuals through the analysis of massive amounts of data about individuals. Advances in telecommunications infrastructure allow the movement of massive amounts of data at greatly reduced cost, permitting the duplication and use of data and, as a result, the invasion of privacy on a scale and precision unimaginable to us now.

What are the differences between responsibility, accountability, and liability?

Responsibility means that you accept the potential costs, duties, and obligations for the decisions you make. Accountability is a feature of systems and social institutions that allows the determination of who is responsible. Liability is a feature of political systems that permits individuals to recover damages done to them by responsible individuals or organizations.What are meant by "privacy" and "fair information practices”?

Privacy is the claim that individuals have the right to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference from other individuals or organizations, including the state. Claims to privacy involve the workplace as well as the home. Information technology threatens individual claims to privacy by making the invasion of privacy cheap, profitable, and effective.

Fair information practices (FIP) is a set of principles governing the collection and use of information about individuals. The five FIP principles are: (1) notice/awareness; (2) choice/consent; (3) access/participation; (4) security; and (5) enforcement.

What role can informed consent, legislation, industry self-regulation, and technology tools play in protecting individual privacy of Internet users?

Informed consent means that the Web site visitor knowingly permits the collection of data about his or her and his or her visit to the company's Web site. Federal privacy laws help regulate the collection, usage, and disclosure of information in Canada. Table 5-3 lists several of the federal privacy laws in the United States. Businesses have taken some steps, including publishing statements about how their information will be used and sometimes offering an opt-out right. However, few businesses offer an opt-in approach. Several technology tools are available to combat privacy invasion. Technical solutions enable e-mail encryption, anonymous e-mailing and surfing, and cookie rejection. Table 5-4 lists several privacy tools. Of particular interest is the P3P standard that allows the user to have more control over personal information that is gathered on the Web sites that he or she visits.

Name and describe four "quality of life" impacts of computers and information systems.

The textbook describes eight "quality of life" impacts of computers and information systems. These include balancing power, rapidity of change, maintaining boundaries, dependency and vulnerability, computer crime and abuse, employment, equity and access, and health risks.

Balancing power describes the shift toward highly decentralized computing, coupled with an ideology of "empowerment" of thousands of workers and decentralization of decision making to lower organizational levels. The problem is that the lower-level worker involvement in decision making tends to be trivial. Key policy decisions are as centralized as in the past.

The rapidity of change impact suggests that information systems have increased the efficiency of the global marketplace. As a result, businesses no longer have many years to adjust to competition. Businesses can now be wiped out very rapidly, and along with them, jobs.

The maintaining boundaries impact suggests that portable computers and telecommuting have created the condition where people can take their work anywhere with them and do it at any time. As a result, workers find that their work is cutting into family time, vacations, and leisure, weakening the traditional institutions of family and friends and blurring the line between public and private life.

The dependency and vulnerability impact suggests that businesses, governments, schools, and private associations are becoming more and more dependent on information systems, and so they are highly vulnerable to the failure of those systems.

The computer crime and abuse impact suggests that computers have created new opportunities for committing crimes and have themselves become the target of crimes.

The employment impact suggests that redesigning business processes could potentially cause millions of middle-level managers and clerical workers to lose their jobs. Worse, if reengineering actually works as claimed, these workers will not find similar employment because the demand for their skills will decline.

The equity and access impact suggests that access to computer and information resources is not equitably distributed throughout society. Access is distributed inequitably along racial, economic, and social class lines (as are many other information resources). Poor children

attending poor school districts are less likely to use computers at school. Children from wealthy homes are five times more likely to use PCs for schoolwork than poor children. White children are more likely to use computers at home for schoolwork than Native children. Potentially, we could create a society of information haves and have-nots, further increasing the social cleavages in our society.

Health risks have been attributed to computers and information technologies. For instance, business now spends $20 billion a year to compensate and treat victims of computer-related occupational diseases. Those illnesses include RSI (repetitive stress injury), CVS (computer vision syndrome), and technostress.

What is technostress, and how would you identify it?

Technostress is defined as stress induced by computer-use. Its symptoms are aggravation, hostility towards humans, impatience, and enervation.

What are the components of a contemporary computer system?

The major components of a contemporary computer system are the central processing unit (CPU), primary storage, secondary storage, input devices, output devices, and communication devices. Figure 6-1 shows the hardware components of a computer system.

Name the major components of the CPU and the function of each.

The control unit and the arithmetic-logic unit are the major CPU components. The control unit of the CPU coordinates and controls the other parts of the computer system. It reads a stored program and directs other components of the computer system to perform the tasks required by the program. The arithmetic-logic unit performs the principal logical and arithmetic operations of the computer. It can add, subtract, and determine when one quantity is greater or lesser than another quantity, or when they are equal.

What is the difference between batch and online processing? Diagram the difference.

Batch processing involves grouping transactions together and then processing these transactions at some later point to update a master file. Online processing involves entering a transaction directly into the computer and processing it immediately. With online processing, information in the system is always up-to-date and current. Figure 6-6 compares and contrasts batch and online processing.

What is the difference between a mainframe, a minicomputer, a server, and a PC? Between a PC and a workstation?

The difference between these machines depends, to some degree, on size. The mainframe is bigger and faster, has more storage, and can allow more users than a PC. Big AS/400s are really mainframes. A big, fast PC with superior graphics capability is not much, if any, different from a workstation. Midrange computers are middle-sized and have larger memory, storage, and are multi-user. PCs are for single users, as are workstations. A server can be a mainframe or desktop computer, but specialized server computers are often used in the role. Servers store and process shared data. They also perform back-end functions not visible to users. An example is managing network activities. Workstations have faster speeds, better

graphics capability, and bigger monitors than PCs. As the text explains, the lines between the types of computers are blurring.

Compare the client-server, network computer, and peer-to-peer models of computing.

The term client-server refers to a model for computing that splits processing between "clients" and "servers" on a network, assigning functions to the machine most able to perform the function. Figure 6-7 shows how client-server works. A network computer is a thin client with minimal memory, storage, and processor power. A network computer does not store software or data. The peer-to-peer computing model is a form of distributed processing that links computers via the Internet or private networks so that they can share processing tasks. Each computer, or peer, is considered equal in terms of responsibilities, and each acts as a server to the others in the network. Unlike the client-server model, a dedicated file server is not required. However, network performance is generally not as good as with the client-server, especially under heavy loads.

What are the major types of software? How do they differ in terms of users and uses?

The major types of software are system software and application software. System software is concerned with the operating system, a special set of computer programs to manage and control the central processing unit and its peripheral equipment. System software acts as an intermediary between other software and the physical computer. Application software is a set of programs for accomplishing specific tasks or business functions required by end users. End users use application software to perform activities such as word processing, Web page development, and data management.List and describe the major application programming languages for business. How do they differ from fourth-generation languages?

Table 6-5 summarizes the major application programming languages, including COBOL, C, C++, FORTRAN, BASIC, Pascal, and assembly language.

COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language) was developed in the early 1960s. It was designed with business in mind. It is used for processing large data files with alphanumeric characters and for performing repetitive tasks such as payroll. It is poor at complex, mathematical calculations. C and C++ are powerful and efficient languages developed at AT&T’s Bell Labs. They combine machine portability with tight control and efficient use of computer resources. C++ is object-oriented. FORTRAN (FORmula translator) is useful in processing numeric data and is used primarily for scientific and engineering applications. BASIC and Pascal are used primarily in the teaching of programming. Assembly language resembles machine language, but it substitutes mnemonics for 1s and 0s, making it easier to program (although it is perhaps the most difficult language). Assembly language is designed for a specific machine and specific microprocessors.

Fourth-generation languages are sophisticated languages that enable end users to perform programming tasks with little or no professional programmer assistance. They also enhance the productivity of professional programmers. For example, very high-level programming languages, query languages, or application generators have features that can be employed by end users or less skilled programmers and can dramatically increase application development productivity.

The seven categories of fourth-generation tools are PC software tools, query languages, report generators, graphics languages, application generators, application software packages, and very high-level programming languages. Table 6-6 provides a brief description of these categories.

The main differences between fourth-generation tools and conventional programming languages are the degree of user-friendliness and the ability to perform the same functions with fewer lines of program instructions. Many fourth-generation languages are nonprocedural or less procedural than conventional languages.

Name and describe the kinds of software that can be used for enterprise integration.

Enterprise software, middleware, and enterprise application integration software are kinds of software that can be used for enterprise integration. Enterprise software consists of a set of interdependent modules for applications such as sales and distribution, financial accounting, investment management, materials management, production planning, plant maintenance, and human resources that allow data to be used by multiple functions and business processes for more precise organizational coordination and control. The modules can communicate with each other directly or by sharing a common repository of data. Contemporary enterprise systems use a client-server computing architecture. Major enterprise software vendors include SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Baan. These vendors are now enhancing their products to provide more capabilities for supply chain management and exchange of data with other enterprises. Middleware connects two disparate applications, allowing them to communicate with each other and to exchange data. Enterprise application integration software ties together multiple applications to support enterprise integration. Enterprise application integration software allows system developers to graphically model systems and define rules that the applications should follow to make the processes work. Then the software will generate the underlying program instructions to link the existing applications to each other.

What is knowledge management? List and briefly describe the information systems that support it and the kind of information technology (IT) infrastructure it requires.

Knowledge management is the set of processes developed in an organization to create, gather, store, maintain, and disseminate the firm's knowledge. The major information systems that support knowledge management are office systems, knowledge work systems, group collaboration systems, and artificial intelligence systems. Office systems are systems designed to increase the productivity of information workers in the office. Examples of office systems include word processing, desktop publishing, imaging and Web publishing, electronic calendars, and desktop database.

Knowledge work systems are information systems that aid knowledge workers in the creation and integration of new knowledge in the organization. Examples of knowledge work systems include CAD, virtual reality, and investment workstations. Group collaboration systems facilitate communication, collaboration, and coordination. Examples of group collaboration systems include groupware, teamware, and intranets. Artificial intelligence is the development of systems that behave as humans. Examples of artificial intelligence systems include expert systems, neural nets, fuzzy logic, genetic algorithms, and intelligent agents. Natural language, robotics, perceptive systems, expert systems, and intelligent machines are artificial intelligence initiatives.

Describe the roles of the office in organizations. What are the major activities that take place in offices?

Offices are where data reside and where most knowledge work takes place. Offices coordinate the flow of information throughout the entire organization. Offices coordinate the work of local professionals and information workers, coordinate work in the organization across levels and functions, and couple the organization to the external environment. The major activities of an office are managing documents, scheduling for individuals and groups, communicating with individuals and groups, and managing data about individuals and groups.

What are the principal types of information systems that support information worker activities in the office?

Group collaboration systems, office systems, artificial intelligence systems, and knowledge work systems are types of information systems that support information worker activities in the office. For this question, students should also mention that a variety of office systems are available to support office activity. Table 14-1 identifies several types of office systems.