Week 5 Questions

Ethics and Security


1. Explain the ethical issues surrounding information technology.

Information ethics concern the thical and moral isssues arising from the development and use of information technologies, as well as the creation, collection, duplication, distribution and provessing of information itself -  with or without computer technologies. Individuals determine how to use information and hwo information affects them. How individuals behave towards each other, and how they handle information and technology, are largely influenced by their ethics. Ethical dilemmas usually arise not in simple situations but out of a clash between competing goals, responsibilities and loyalties. The decision making process has more than one socially acceptable 'correct' decision.

2. Describe a situation involving technology that is ethical but illegal.
 An example of a situation involving technology that is ethical but illegal is when an American, Joe Reidenberg, recieved an offer for a mobile phone service from AT&A Wireless. The offer revelaed that AT&A Wireless has used Equifax, a credit reporting agency, to identify Joe Reidenberg as a potential customer. This strategy seemed like good business as Equifax could generate additional revenue by selling infomration it already owned and AT&A Wireless could identify target markets and increase response rates. However, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in the US forbids repurposing credit information except when the information is used for 'a firm offer of credit or insurance'. In other words, the only product that can be sold based on credit information is credit.

3. Describe and explain one of the computer use policies that a complany might employee.
An Ethical Computer Use Policy contains general principles to guide computer use behaviour. For example, the ethical computer use policy may state that users should refrain from playing computer games during work hours. This policy ensures the users know how to behave at work and the organisation has a published standard by which to deal with their users. For example, after appropriate warning, a company might terminate an employee who spends significant amounts of time playing computer games at work.

 4. What are the 5 main technology security risks?

• Human Error
• Natural Disasters
• Technical Failures
• Deliberate Acts 
• Management failure 



5 Main Technology Security Risks



5. Outline one way to reduce each risk.

Human Error - Humans need to concentrate on what they are doing when using information technology. Individuals must concentrate on the information they are entering in order for human errors to be minimised.

Natural Disasters - Duplicate copies of information can be made as well as the information being copied onto a back up system to ensure that no information is lost if a natural disaster is to occur.

Technical Failures - Information should be copied regularly onto a hard drive or other type of back up system so that if a technical failure occurs no information is lost

Deliberate Acts - Strong security systems should be active at all time to ensure that information is kept safe and that only authorised users can access the information

Management Failure - Management should be a number fo policies and procedures in place to ensure that individuals know how to operate, in order to minimise security risks

6. What is a disater recovery plan, what strategies might a firm employ?

Every business should have an active disaster recovery plan, that is a written plan for the resumption of business after a disaster. A disaster recovery plan should involve:

• A Communications plan
• Alternative sites
• Business Continuity
• Location of Backup data
• Off site data kept in date order
• Well documented procedures
• Regular Recovery Testing

Week 4 Questions

eBusiness

1. Why has the web grown so dramatically?

The world wide web has grown dramatically for the following reasons:

• The microcomputer revolution made it possible for an average person to own a computer

• Advancements in hardware, software and media made is possible for business PCs to be inexpensively connected to larger networks

• Software such as Microsoft's Internet explorer gave computer users an easy-to-use graphical interface to find, download and display web pages

• The speed, convenience and low cost of email have made it an indispensable tool for business and personal communications

• Basic webpages are easy to create and very flexible

2. What is Web 2.0, how does it differ from 1.0?

Web 2.0 is a set of economic, social and technology trends that collectively form the basis for the next generation of the internet. A more mature, distinctive medium characterised by user participation, openness and network effects.

Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0

3. How could a web 2.0 technology be used in business?

Web 2.0 is a transformative force that is propelling companies across all industries towards a new way of doing business. Those who act on the Web 2.0 opportunity stand to gain an early-mover advantage in their markets. Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. The web is no longer just linking texts; it is linking people.

4. What is eBusiness, how does it differ from eCommerce?

e-Commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services over the internet. e-Business, derived from e-Commerce, is the conducting of business on the internet, including buying and selling, serving customers and collaborating with business partner. The main difference between e-commerce and e-business is that e-business also refers to online exchanges of information, such as a financial institution allowing it customers to review their banking, credit care and mortgage accounts.

5. What is pure and partial eCommerce

Pure e-commerce concerns businesses whose transactions are largely carried out on the internet. Whereas, partial e-commerce on the other hand concerns businesses in which a large part of the transaction takes place in the off-line real world.

6. List and describe the various eBusiness models?

An e-business model is an approach to conducting electronic business on the Internet. The various eBusiness models include:

• Business-to-business (B2B) applies to businesses buying from and selling to each other over the Internet. Online access to data, including expected shipping date, delivery date and shipping status, provided either by the seller or a third-party provider, is widely supported by B2B models. Electronic marketplaces represent a new wave in B2B e-Business models.

• Business-to-consumer (B2C) applies to any business that sells its products or services to consumers over the internet. Corporate Express is a leading B2C distributor of business products, including IT products, office supplies, furniture, print, promotional products, and canteen and facilities supplies.

• Consumer-to-business (C2B) applies to any consumer that sells a product or service to a business over the Internet. Examples of this e-business model are a web master offering advertising services on Amazon.com. The demand for C2B e-Business will increase over the next few years due to customers' desire for greater convenience and lower prices.

7. List and describe the major B2B models?

Business-to-business (B2B) applies to businesses buying from and selling to each other over the internet. Online access to data, including expected shipping date and shipping status, provided either by the seller or a third party provider, is widely supported by B2B models. Electronic marketplaces represent a new wave in B2B e-business models. E-marketplaces are interactive business communities providing a central market where multiple buyers and sellers can engage in e-business activities. The present structures for conducting commercial exchange, consolidating supply chains and creating new sales channels. Their primary goal is to increase market efficiency by tightening the relationship between buyers and sellers.

An e-Marketplace

8. Outline 2 opportunities and 2 challenges faced by companies doing business online?

Opportunities	Challenges
Highly accessible - businesses can operate 24/7, 365 days a year.	Protecting consumers - consumers must be protects from unsolicited good and communication, illegal or harmful goods, invasion of privacy and cyber fraud
Increased customer loyalty - additional methods of contacting, responding to and accessing customers improves customer loyalty	Increasing liability - e-business exposes suppliers to unknown liabilities as internet commerce law differs from country to county and is vague. Issues raised include identity theft and information manipulation.

Week 3 Questions

Strategic Decisions Making

1. Define TPS & DSS, and explain how an organisation can use these systems to make decisions and gain competitive advantages

A transaction processing system (TPS) is the basic business system that serves the operational level in an organisation, with the most common example of a TPS being an operational accounting system such as a payroll system. A decision support-system (DSS) models information to support manager and business professionals during the decision making process. A business can use these systems to make decisions and gain competitive advantages as TPS and DSS allow a business to improve their operations, make better and reliable decisions and thus improve the overall function of an organisation.

 2. Describe the three quantitative models typically used by decision support systems.

Three models commonly used by DSS include sensitivity analysis, what-if analysis and goal-seeking analysis. Sensitivity analysis is the study of the impact that changes in one or more parts of the model have on other parts of the model. What-if analysis checks the impact of change in an assumption on the proposed solution. Users repeat this analysis until they understand all the effects of various situations. Lastly, goal-seeking analysis finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output. It sets a target value for a variable and then repeatedly changes other variables until the target value is achieved.

3. Describe business processes and their importance to an organisation.

Businesses gain a competitive advantage when they minimise costs and streamline their business processes. The best way a company can satisfy customers and generate profits is by completely understanding all of its business processes. The process steps are the activities the customer and store personnel do to complete s transaction. A business process is a standardised set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customer's order. Business processes transform a set of inputs into a set of outputs (goods or services) for another person or process by using people and tools.

Business processes are of immense importance to an organisations as they help a business to anticipate bottle necks, eliminate duplicate activities, combine related activities and identify smooth-running processes. Developing logical business processes can help an organisation achieve it's goals.

4. Compare business process improvement and business process re-engineering.

Business process improvement attempts to understand and measure the current process and make performance improvements accordingly. Organisations must improve their business processes because customers are demanding better products and services and if customers do not receive what they want from one supplier, they will have many other choices as to where they purchase their products. However, Business Process re-engineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises. BPR relies on a different school of thought than business process improvement. BPR may assume that the current process is irrelevant, does not work, or is broken and must be overhauled from scratch.

5. Describe the importance of business process modelling (or mapping) and business process models.

Business process modelling (or mapping) is the activity of cresting a detailed flowchart or map or work process, showing inputs, tasks and activities in a structured sequence. A business process model is a graphic description of a process, showing the sequence of process tasks, which is developed for a specific purpose and from a selected viewpoint.

Business process modelling usually begins with an As-Is process model which represents the current state of the operation that has been mapped. The next step is to build a To-Be process model that displays how the process problem will be solved or implemented.

A business process model is important as it can expose process detail gradually and in a controlled manner, encourage conciseness and accuracy in describing the process model, focus attention on the process model interfaces and provide a powerful process analysis and consistent design vocabulary.     

Week 2 Questions

Information Systems in Business

1. Explain information technology’s role in business and describe how you measure success?
Information technology's role in business is to improve communication accross an organisation, to allow businesses to access global markets, to provide efficient and effective operating procedures and to increase business intellegence. Information technology allows individuals within a business to contact each other via the internet, thus allowing communication between cities, countries and even continents. IT also provides businesses with new and innovative business opportunities via technologies such as softwears and specially designed systems.

Information Technology's success is difficult to measure. Whether something is successful or unsuccessful is determined by the needs and uses of that particular thing at any given time. If a business is to install a software that costs them more than what it generates in profit, then the installation of that particular product is genereally unsuccessful. However, if the software costs the business $15,000 to install, and within a month or so of operating has generated $100,000 then the installation has been a success for the business.

2. List and describe each of the forces in Porter’s Five Forces Model?

Porter's five forces model looks at how attractive an industry is by highlighting the forces of buyer power, supplier power, the threat of substitutive products or services, the threat of new entrants, and rivalry among existing competitors.

1. Buyer PowerBuyer power is higher when buyers have a high number of sellers to purchase from and it is low when there are very few choices for a buyer to buy from. Buyers have a large power of businesses through their ability to impact the price of an item by what they are willing to pay. One way that a business can limit buyer power is through a loyalty program. Loyalty programs will reward a customer based on how much buying they do from an individual business.
2. Supplier Power
   Supplier Power is high when a company has power of a particular industry as it means that buyers have a limited choice as to who they buy from. When supplier power is high the supplier can charge higher prices, limit quality and services and shift costs to industry participants.
3. Threat of substitute products and servicesThis is high when there are many options available for a particular product or service (such as milk) and low when there are limited alternatives available to choose from. A business aims to be in a market where there are few alternatives, however when this is not possible a business can use switching costs to make a customer reluctant to switch products or services.
4. Threat of new entrantsThe threat is high when new competitors can enter a market with ease (online stores), and low when there are barriers deferring new entrants. An entry barrier is a product or service that reflects consumers' expectations and thus must be offered by an organisation in order for that business to survive.
5. Rivalry among existing competitorsThis is high when competition is strong in the market and low when competition is content. There is a trent towards increased competition if just about every industry - more so in some industries than others. Switching costs can be used by businesses to stay competitive within a market.

Porter's Five Forces Model

3. Describe the relationship between business processes and value chains?

The business process and the value chains of a particular business plays an integral role in implementing and executing strategies. Effective business processes and efficient value chains lead to value creation. A Business process is a set of activites that once completed will accomplish a specific task. The Value chain approach views the series of processes within an organisation and how each process adds value to a product or service.

4. Compare Porter's three generic strategies?

An organisation can follow one of Michael Porter's three generic strategies whilst entering a new market. These three strategies include broad cost leadership, broad differentiation or focused strategy. The broad strategies target a large market segment where as the focused strategies target a niche market.

In a broad market, cost leadership strategies look at implementing low costs in order to break into a market. Differentiation is high cost however, still reaches a broad market as the products and services available are different from those of which they are competing within that market.
The focused strategy is successful in a narrow market even though it can be of high cost to a business as it allows an organisation to have a competitive advantage over those business in a broad market.