BMIT5103/MAY06-F/AY

INSTRUCTION: There are SEVEN (7) questions in this part. Answer FIVE (5) questions only.

Question 1 The role of information technology (IT) in supporting business activities has tremendously improves due to continuous general and network computing developments and trends. Information technologies have exercised a major role in providing communication support in organizations. However, organization must determine the IT technologies that could be used to provide communication support to its specific needs or group of users. Information architecture however, provides the conceptual foundation for building the information infrastructure and specific applications. It maps the information requirements as they relate to information resources. a. What are the major technological development and trends with respect to network computing? [8 marks] b. Describe briefly the following THREE different types of information architecture i. ii. iii. Mainframe Environment PC Environment Distributed Computing Environment [6 marks] c. Explain briefly THREE major factors that influence selection decisions relating to communication technologies? [6 marks] [Total: 20 marks]

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Question 2 With advance development of communication technology and mobile computing, pervasive computing can be realized and purchased. In purchasing materials, products or services, transactions can be easily automated and performed over the intranet, extranet or Internet. a. Discuss FOUR mechanisms of electronic payment systems used in B2C. Which one you prefer and why? [12 marks] b. Discuss major properties of pervasive computing and TWO ways that pervasive computing can be used in the home. [8 marks] [Total: 20 marks]

Question 3 Information systems application can support many activities in the organizations. The backbone of most information systems applications is the transaction processing system (TPS), which keeps track of the routine, mission central operations of the organization. CRM application on the other hand focuses on the enterprise effort to automate acquisition and retention of organizations customers. a. What are the objectives of a TPS? With example, distinguish between batch and online TPS. [10 marks] b. Discuss FIVE major reasons for CRM failures. [10 marks] [Total: 20 marks]

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Question 4 All businesses need to measure the benefits and impact of their IT investments. Systems (IOS) and Global IOS. This

includes the investment on Knowledge Management, Interorganizational Information Multinational, international and virtual companies need global IOS for their B2B operations. However, the task of designing an affective IOS is complicated. It is even more complex when the IOS is a global system. a. Discuss FIVE issues that escalate the complexity of designing global IOS. [10 marks] b. What is knowledge management and explain why is it hard to evaluate the impacts of knowledge management? [10 marks] [Total: 20 marks] Question 5 Some big organizations have resorted to using Expert System (ES) and knowledge discovery to expedite their businesses. Knowledge discoverys major objective is to identify valid, novel, useful, and understandable patterns in data. a. Discuss the following FOUR recent technologies that make knowledge discovery achievable? i. ii. iii. iv. Data Storage Retrieval Mining Data Analysis [10 marks] b. What do you understand by an Expert Systems (ES) and discuss FOUR major components of ES? [10 marks] [Total: 20 marks]

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Question 6 People in organizations use IT to add value to the organizations and help them make better decisions compared to without using IT. However, the economic justification of IT investment becomes more difficult due to the increase of intangible benefits of IT. a. Explain how IT can add value to a company in both direct and indirect ways. [10 marks] b. What is an intangible benefit of information technology? Give TWO examples in your answer and discuss the different approaches to evaluating intangible benefits. [10 marks] [Total: 20 marks] Question 7 Application Service Provider (ASP) is a vendor who assembles the software needed by enterprises and packages it. Companies can lease IT systems including e-commerce applications from ASPs. However, many companies are concerned with the adequacy of protection offered by the ASP against hackers, theft of confidential information, and virus attacks. Therefore, a company must use an organized way of controls to prevent or detect security problems. a. Discuss the benefits of leasing IT applications from an ASP. [10 marks] b. Discuss FIVE major categories of general security controls. [10 marks] [Total: 20 marks]

QUESTION PAPER ENDS HERE