Management Information System (managing the digital firm)


1.
Distinguish between decision-support systems and executive support systems
Your Answer:
Distinguish between decision-support systems and executive support systems
  Decision-support systems address problems where a procedure for arriving at the solution may not be fully predefined in advance. They use mostly internal information but can bring in data from external sources. They have more analytical power than other systems. They are interactive and user-friendly.
Executive support systems are not designed primarily to solve specific problems, but to address nonroutine decisions requiring judgment, evaluation, and insight because there is no agreed-on procedure for arriving at a solution. They are designed to incorporate data about external events, and they also draw summary information from internal MIS and DSS. They employ the most advanced graphics software and tend to make less use of analytical models.

2.
What are "business processes"? What purposes do they serve in the firm?
Your Answer:
What are "business processes"? What purposes do they serve in the firm?
  "Business processes" are the manner in which work is organized, coordinated, and focused to produce a valuable product or service. They are concrete workflows of material, information, and knowledge – sets of activities. They also refer to the unique ways in which organizations coordinate work, information, and knowledge, and the ways in which management chooses to coordinate work. They can be a source of competitive strength if they enable the company to innovate better or to execute better than its rivals. They can also be a liability if they are based on out-dated ways of working back in key organizational responsiveness and efficiency. Many business processes support the major functional areas of the firm. Others are cross-functional, cutting across traditional organizational structures, grouping employees from different functional specialties to complete a piece of work.

3.
Describe at least two challenges in using enterprise systems.
Your Answer:
Describe at least two challenges in using enterprise systems.
  First, they are very difficult and costly to build, and require large technology investments as well as fundamental changes in the way the business operates. Second, they require complex pieces of software and large investments in time, money, and expertise. Enterprise software is deeply twined with corporate business processes, and it might take three to five years to fully implement the system. Third, enterprise systems are integrated, so it is difficult to make changes in only one part of the business without affecting other parts as well. This can lead to a brittle and hard-to-change system that will bind the firm to outdated business processes and systems. Fourth, the Company may fail to achieve benefits from enterprise systems if integrating business processes using the generic models provided by standard ERP software prevents the firm from using unique business processes that have been sources of advantage over competitors.

4.
What is the function of a CRM system?
Your Answer:
What is the function of a CRM system?
  Today, businesses are viewing their customers as long-term assets to be nurtured through customer relationship management (CRM). The ideal CRM system provides end-to-end customer care from the receipt of an order through product delivery and beyond, focusing on managing all of the ways that a firm deals with its existing and potential customers. To do this, all information about any specific customer is consolidated across the company.
There are five objectives: present a unified view of the customer, get a consistent message to the customer, care for the customer from one end of the transaction to the other, nurture long-term customer relationships, and identify and reward the best customers.

5.
What is the role of knowledge management systems in the organization?
Your Answer:
What is the role of knowledge management systems in the organization?
  Creating knowledge—these systems provide knowledge workers with graphics, analytical, communication, and document management tools as well as access to internal and external sources of data to help them generate new ideas.

Discovering and codifying knowledge – artificial intelligence systems can elicit and incorporate expertise from human experts or find patterns and relationships in vast quantities of data.

Sharing knowledge – group collaboration systems can help employees access and work simultaneously on the same document from many different locations and coordinate their activities.

Distributing knowledge – office systems and communications tools can distribute documents and other forms of information among information and knowledge workers and link offices to other business units outside and inside the firm.


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