Answers of the MIS revision questions

 Why are organizations trying to integrate their business processes? What are the four key enterprise applications? (class 3 + paper)  Organizations trying to integrate their business processes to become more flexible and productive by coordinating their business processes more closely by using enterprise applications. Enterprise applications are systems that span functional areas, focus on executing business processes across the business firm, and include all levels of management.  the four key enterprise applications: 1) Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems : Integrate information by collecting data from various business processes in manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and human resources and storing the data in a single central data repository (ex: mostawda3). This makes it possible for information that was previously fragmented in different systems to be shared across the firm and for different parts of the business to work more closely together. 2) Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems : Help businesses manage relationships with their suppliers. These systems provide information to help suppliers, purchasing firms, distributors, and logistics companies share information about orders, production, inventory levels, and delivery of products and services so that they can produce, and deliver goods and services efficiently. 3) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems : Focus on coordinating the firm's interactions with its customers in sales, marketing, and service to optimize revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. They consolidate customer data from multiple sources and communication channels to help firms identify profitable customers, acquire new customers, improve service and support, increase sales and target products and services more precisely to customer preferences. 4) Knowledge Management (KMS) Systems : Enable organizations to better manage processes for capturing and applying knowledge and expertise. These systems collect all relevant knowledge and expertise in the firm (about how to create, produce, and deliver products and services) and make it available whenever it is needed to improve business processes and management decisions.

 What are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and how do they benefit businesses? Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Integrate information by collecting data from various business processes in manufacturing and production, finance and accounting, sales and marketing, and human resources and storing the data in a single central data repository (zay mostawda3). This makes it possible for information that was previously fragmented in different systems to be shared across the firm and for different parts of the business to work more closely together. ERP speed communication of information throughout the company, making it easier for businesses to coordinate their daily operations. It also gives companies the flexibility to respond rapidly to customers requests while producing and stocking inventory only with what is needed to fulfill existing orders. It provides valuable information for improving management decision making as to analyze overall product profitability.  What are Supply Chain Management (SCM) Applications and how do they benefit businesses? Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems Help businesses manage relationships with their suppliers. These systems provide information to help suppliers, purchasing firms, distributors, and logistics companies share information about orders, production, inventory levels, and delivery of products and services so that they can produce, and deliver goods and services efficiently. The ultimate objective is to get the right amount of their products from their source to their point of consumption with the least amount of time and with the lowest cost. These systems increase firm profitability by lowering the costs of moving and making products and by enabling managers to make better decisions about how to organize and schedule sourcing, production, and distribution. SCM are one type of interorganizational system because they automate the flow of information across organizational boundaries.  What are Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and how do they benefit businesses? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems focus on coordinating the firm's interactions with its customers in sales, marketing, and service to optimize revenue, customer satisfaction, and customer retention. They consolidate customer data from multiple sources and communication channels to help firms identify profitable customers, acquire new customers, improve service and support, increase sales and target products and services more precisely to customer preferences.

 What are Knowledge Management (KMS) Applications and how do they benefit businesses? Knowledge Management (KMS) Systems enable organizations to better manage processes for capturing and applying knowledge and expertise. These systems collect all relevant knowledge and expertise in the firm (about how to create, produce, and deliver products and services) and make it available whenever it is needed to improve business processes and management decisions and also link the firm to external source of knowledge. KMS support processes for acquiring, storing, distributing, and applying knowledge, as well as processes for creating new knowledge and integrating it into the organization.  Explain how intranets and extranets promote business process integration and improve organizational performance Enterprise applications create so many changes in the way a firm conducts its business and they are very expensive to implement. So some companies do not have the resources to invest in enterprise applications but they still can achieve some measure of information integration by using intranets and extranets. Intranets and extranets are technology platforms than specific applications that firms use as tools to increase integration and accelerate the flow of information within the firm, and with customers and suppliers. Intranets are internal networks built with the same tools and communication standards as the internet and are used for the internal distribution of information to employees, and as repositories of corporate policies, programs, and data. Extranets are intranets extended to authorized users outside the company. For example, Swiss Air s corporate intranet which includes a sales ticket capability display bulletins (=official notice) about unfilled airplane seats around the world to help the sales staff work with colleagues and with travel agents who can help them fill those seats. Swiss Air uses extranet to provide travel agents with fare (price) data from its intranet electronically.  Explain how E-Business, E-Commerce, and E-Government are transforming relationships with customers, suppliers, government, and citizenship into digital relationships using networks and the Internet The systems and technologies are transforming relationships with customers, suppliers, government, and citizenship into digital relationships using networks and the Internet. So now business is based upon digital networks that we use the terms electronic business and electronic commerce frequently. E-business refers to the use of digital technology and the internet to execute the major business processes in the enterprise and includes activities for the internal management of the firm and for the coordination

with suppliers and other business partners. E-commerce is the part of e-business that deals with the buying and the selling of goods and services over the internet. It also includes activities supporting those market transactions, such as advertising, marketing, customer support, security, delivery, and payment. Governments are using internet technology to deliver information and services to citizens, employees, and businesses with which they work. E-government refers to the application of the internet and networking technologies to digitally enable government and public agencies relationships with citizens and businesses. In addition to improving delivery of government services, e-government can make government operations more efficient and also empower citizens by giving them easier access to information and the ability to network electronically with other citizens.  What are the five competitive forces described by the Michael Porter's Model to achieve competitive advantages for the firms. 1. Traditional competitors: all firms share market space with other competitors who are continuously devising new, more efficient ways to produce by introducing new products and services, and attempting to attract customers by developing their brands and imposing switching costs on their customers. 2. New market entrants: in free economy, new companies are always entering the marketplace but in some industries there are very low barriers to entry and otherwise in other industries is very difficult. New companies have several possible advantages: 1- they are not locked into old equipment 2-they often hire younger workers who are less expensive and more innovative 3- they are not stuck with old 4-worn-out(used-mosta3mala) brand names 5-they are more hungry (more highly motivated) than traditional occupants of an industry. The disadvantages: 1-they depend on outside financing for new plants and equipments which can be expensive 2-thry have a less experienced workforce 3-they have little brand recognition. 3. Substitute products and services: in every industry there are substitutes that your customers might use if your prices become too high. New technologies create new substitutes. For example, Internet telephone service can substitute for traditional telephone service. The more substitute products and services in your industry, the less you can control pricing and raise your profit margins. 4. Customers: a profitable company depends in large measure on its ability to attract and retain customers and charge high prices. The power of customers grows if they can easily switch to a competitor's products and services, or if they can force a business and its competitors to compete on price alone in a

transparent marketplace where there is little product differentiation and all prices are known instantly such as on the Internet. 5. Suppliers: the market power of suppliers can have a significant impact on firms profits, especially when the firms cannot raise prices as fast as can suppliers. The more different suppliers a firm has, the greater control it can exercise over suppliers in terms of price, quality, and delivery schedules.

 What are the four generic strategies, supported by information technology, used to manage Michael Porter's competitive forces to achieve competitive advantages for the firms? 1. Low-cost leadership: Use information systems to achieve the lowest operational costs and the lowest prices. A Supply Chain Management Enterprise Application (SCM) system can incorporate distribution and production and supply chains, helping lower inventory and distribution costs. The classic example is Wal-Mart, by keeping prices low and shelves well stocked using a inventory replenishment which sends orders for new merchandise directly to suppliers as soon as consumers pay for their purchases at the cash register. Point-of-sale terminals record the bar code of each item passing the checkout counter and send a purchase transaction directly to a central computer at Wal-Mart headquarters. The computer collects the orders from all Wal-Mart stores and transmits them to suppliers. Suppliers can also access Wal-Mart s sales and inventory data using web technology. The system enables Wal-Mart to adjust purchases of store items to meet customer demands. 2. Product differentiation: Enable new products and services or change customer convenience in using your existing products and services, by using information systems such as Customer Relationship Management Enterprise Application (CRM) to customize products and services to fit individual customers. For example Google continuously introduces new and unique search services on

its web site, such as Google Maps. Apple created iPod, a unique portable digital music player. 3. Focus on market niche: use information systems to enable a specific market focus, and serve this target market better than competitors. Information systems support this strategy by producing and analyzing data for finely tuned sales and marketing techniques. Information systems enable companies to analyze customer buying patterns and preferences closely so that they efficiently to set up advertising and marketing campaigns to smaller and smaller target markets. 4. Strengthen customer and supplier intimacy: Use information systems to tighten (=to makes or become tighter) linkages(=a set of links) with suppliers and develop intimacy with customers. Strong linkages to customers and suppliers increase switching costs (the cost of switching from one product to a competing product) and loyalty to your firm. For example, Chrysler Corporation uses information systems to facilitate direct access form suppliers to production schedule, and even permits suppliers to decide how and when to ship suppliers to Chrysler factories. This allows suppliers more lead time in producing goods.  What is The Internet Impact on Competitive Advantage The Internet has nearly destroyed some industries and has severely threatened more. The Internet has also created entirely new markets and formed the basis for thousands of new businesses. The first wave or step is e-commerce and the second wave eight new industries: telephone services, movies, television, jewellery, real estate, hotels, bill payment and software. The internet has enabled new products and services, new business models from eBay and Amazon to iTunes and Google. In this sense, the internet is transforming entire industries to change how they do business. Internet technology is based on universal standards, making it easy for rivals (competitor) to compete on price alone and for new competitors to enter the market. Because information is available to everyone, the Internet raises the bargaining power of customers, who can quickly find the lowest-cost provider on the Web. Some industries, such as the travel industry and the financial services industry, have been more impacted than others. However, the Internet also creates new opportunities for building brands and building very large and loyal customer bases, such as Yahoo!, eBay, and Google.

 Describes the key technology trends that heightened the ethical stresses on existing social arrangements and laws  Advances in data storage techniques have been responsible for the multiplying database on individuals maintained by private and public organizations. These advances in data storage have made the routine violation of individual privacy both cheap and effective. There are cheap enough for local and regional firms to use in identifying customers. Which means that customer intentions become the natural targets of private firms looking for market advantage, government agencies and private investigators.  Advances in data analysis techniques enable companies and government agencies use profiling to determine detailed information about individual's habits and tastes and create dossiers of detailed information from credit cards purchases, telephone cells... . For example, a new data analysis technology called nonobvious relationship awareness (NORA) has given both the government and the private sector more powerful profiling capabilities. NORA can take information about people from many disparate sources to find obscure hidden connections that might help identify criminals or terrorists.  Advances in networking, include the internet, promise to reduce the cost of moving and accessing large quantities of data, permitting an invasion (=to attack) privacy on a large scale.  Elaborate on the three moral dimensions of information systems, Privacy, Intellectual Property and Computer Crime/Abuse 1. Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone, free from surveillance or interference. The Internet poses new challenges to the protection of individual privacy because information can easily be monitored, captured, and stored as it passes through its network of computer systems.  Companies can record a user's on-line activities, such as what files were accessed or which Web sites were visited. Web sites can learn the identity of their visitors if the visitors voluntarily register at the site or they can capture information about visitors without their knowledge using "cookie" technology.  Cookies are tiny files deposited on a computer hard drive when a user visits certain Web sites that track visits to the Web site. Some companies use Web bugs, which are tiny graphic files embedded into e-mail messages and Web pages to monitor who is reading the e-mail message or Web page and to transmit that information to another computer.  Some e-commerce sites add opt-out selection boxes to their privacy statement.

 Opt-out model of informed consent permits the collection of personal information until the consumer specifically request that the data not be collected. Privacy advocates (=support) would like to see wider use of an opt-in model of informed consent in which businesses are prohibited from collecting information unless specifically allowed by the consumer to approve information collection and use.  Spyware is small applications that can secretly install itself on an Internet user's computer by piggybacking on larger applications. Once installed, the spyware calls out to Web sites to send banner ads and other unsolicited material to the user, and it can also report the user's movements on the Internet to other computers.  New technologies are available to protect user privacy during interactions with Web sites, including encrypting email, for making e-mail or surfing activities appear anonymous, for preventing client computers from accepting cookies, and eliminating spyware.  The Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) provides a standard for communicating a Web site's privacy policy to Internet users to help them select the level of privacy they wish to maintain when interacting with the Web site. 2. Intellectual Property: Contemporary information systems have severely challenged existing law and social practices that protect private Intellectual Property. y Intellectual Property is the intangible property created by individuals or corporations. Information technology has made it difficult to protect intellectual property because computerized information can be so easily copied or distributed on networks. y Intellectual Property is subject to a variety of protections under 3 different legal traditions: trade secrets, copyright, and a) Trade Secret: Any intellectual work product (formula, device...) can be classified as a Trade Secret which is not based on information in the public domain. y Trade Secret laws that protects the actual ideas in a work product, not only their manifestation. However, in the case of computer software, it is difficult to prevent the ideas in the work from falling into the public domain when the software is widely distributed.

b) Copyright: is written a law that protects creators of intellectual property from having their work copied by others for any purpose during the life of the author plus an additional 70 years after the author s death. y For corporate-owned works, copyright protection lasts for 95 years after their initial creation. Copyright protection to books, lectures drams, motion pictures.... . y Copyright protects against copying of entire software programs or their parts. However, the ideas behind a work are not protected, only their manifestation in a work. A competitor can use your software, understand how it works, and build new software that follows the same concepts without infringing on a copyright. For example, Apple s Macintosh interface and claiming that the defendants copied the expression of overlapping windows. c) Patents (7aq el melkeya el fekreya): A Patent grants the owner an exclusive monopoly on the ideas behind an invention for 20 years. The key concepts in patent law are originality, novelty (=new), and invention. y The strength of patent protection is that it grants a monopoly on the underlying concepts and ideas of software. The difficulty is passing stringent (=severe which must be obeyed) criteria of nonobviousness (=not obvious- clear), novelty and invention, as well as year of waiting to receive protection. y Illegal copying of software and music and video files is rampant worldwide. While protecting against copying of software program code, copyright protection can't prevent another person from using the underlying ideas behind a piece of software and developing software that follows the same concepts. The Internet makes it even easier to copy intellectual property and transmit it freely around the world. d) Computer Crime and Abuse: Computer Crime is the commission of illegal acts through the use of a computer against a computer system, computers can be the object of the crime and also the instrument of the crime. Computer Abuse is the commission of acts involving a computer that may not be illegal but are considered unethical are primarily committed by people inside the organization. y Spam is un-requested junk e-mail sent by organization or individual to thousands of Internet users who have expressed no interest in the product or service.

Information systems enable to "do anything anywhere" in work environment that erase the traditional boundaries between work and family life, and reducing the time individuals can devote to their families and personal lives. The negative social costs of introducing new information technologies are beginning to raise (become bigger). By creating more efficient organizations, information systems threaten to eliminate many mid-level managers and clerical workers to lose their jobs. Information technology may help intensify (=to become more intense) the cleavage (=a division) between rich and poor classes, causing a digital divide which means in schools in high-poverty areas there is no computers or there are but unskilled, and otherwise in schools in rich areas there is a high-quality educational technology (access to computers are inequitably distributed among social classes. The most important occupational disease today is repetitive stress injury (RSI). RSI occurs (happens) when muscles are forced through repetitive actions. The single source of RSI is computer keyboards. Computer vision syndrome (CVS) refers to any eyestrain condition related to computer display screen use, it symptoms are blurred vision and fatigue. The newest computer-related malady is technostress which is stress induced by computer use. Technostress symptoms include aggravation, hostility toward humans, impatience, and fatigue.