2024年1月1日发(作者：)

1. Which four reasons do make IT a difference to the success of a business?

Explain them simply. IT对于企业的成功有哪4个方面的原因，简单说说。

There are four reasons why IT makes a difference to the success of a business:

1) Capital management 资产管理

a) IT is the largest single component of capital investment in the United States.

b) About $1.8 trillion is spent each year by American businesses.

c) Managers and business students need to know how to invest this capital wisely.

d) The success of your business in the future may well depend on how you make

IT investment decisions.

2) Foundation of doing business 业务流程建设

a) Most businesses today could not operate without extensive use of information

systems and technologies.

b) IT can increase market share.

c) IT can help a business become a high-quality, low-cost producer.

d) IT is vital to the development of new products.

3) Productivity 生产力

a) IT is one of the most important tools managers have to increase productivity

and efficiency of businesses.

b) According to the Federal Reserve Bank, IT has reduced the rate of inflation by

0.5 to 1% in the last decade. For firms this means IT is a major factor in

reducing costs.

c) It is estimated that IT has increased productivity in the economy by about 1% in

the last decade. For firms this means IT is a major source of labor and capital

efficiency.

4) Strategic opportunity and advantage 战略机会和优势

a) Create competitive advantage: IT makes it possible to develop competitive

advantages.

b) New Business Models: Dell Computer has built its competitive advantage on an

IT enabled build-to-order business model that other firms have not been able to

imitate.

c) Create new services: eBay has developed the largest auction trading platform

for millions of individuals and businesses. Competitors have not been able to

imitate its success.

d) Differentiate yourself from your competitors: Amazon has become the largest

book retailer in the United States on the strength of its huge online inventory

and recommender system. It has no rivals in size and scope.

2. What are three dimensions of the IS? Explain them simply. 信息管理的3个维度是什么，请简单说说。

There are three Important Dimensions of Information Systems:

1) Organizations

a) People

b) Structure

c) Business processes

d) Culture

e) Politics

2) Managers

a) Sense makers

b) Decision makers

c) Planners

d) Innovators of new processes

e) Leaders: set agendas

3) Technology

a) Hardware: Physical equipment

b) Software: Detailed preprogrammed instructions

c) Storage: Physical media for storing data and the software

d) Communications technology: Transfers data from one physical location to

another

e) Networks: Links computers to share data or resources

3. Which kind of fields (approaches) would be involved for learning IS? Explain

them simply. 简单说说哪些领域需要学习信息系统。

1) Technical Approach

a) Computer science is concerned with establishing theories of computability,

methods of computation, and methods of efficient data storage and access.

b) Management science emphasizes the development of models for

decision-making and management practices.

c) Operations research focuses on mathematical techniques for optimizing

selected parameters of organizations, such as transportation, inventory control,

and transaction costs

2) Behavioral Approach

a) Sociologists study information systems with an eye toward how groups and

organizations shape the development of systems and also how systems affect

individuals, groups, and organizations.

b) Psychologists study information systems with an interest in how human

decision makers perceive and use formal information.

c) Economists study information systems with an interest in what impact systems

have on control and cost structures within the firm and within markets

4. According to different organizational levels, what are the major types of system?

What are their input, processing, output and users? 根据不同的组织层级，有哪些系统种类，他们的输入、过程、输出和用户。

1) Transaction Processing Systems (TPS)

a) Basic business systems that serve the operational level

b) A computerized system that performs and records the daily routine transactions

necessary to the conduct of the business

2) Management Information Systems (MIS)

a) Inputs: High volume transaction level data

b) Processing: Simple models

c) Outputs: Summary reports

d) Users: Middle managers

3) Decision-Support Systems (DSS)

a) Inputs: Transaction level data

b) Processing: Interactive

c) Outputs: Decision analysis

d) Users: Professionals, staff

4) Executive Support Systems (ESS)

a) Inputs: Aggregate data

b) Processing: Interactive

c) Outputs: Projections

d) Users: Senior managers

5. According to different organizational function, which systems are there? And

give two examples for each. 不同的组织模块有哪些系统，举两个例子说说。

1) Sales and Marketing Systems

a) Major functions of systems:

Sales management, market research, promotion, pricing, new products

b) Major application systems:

Sales order info system, market research system, pricing system

2) Manufacturing and Production Systems

a) Major functions of systems:

Scheduling, purchasing, shipping, receiving, engineering, operations

b) Major application systems:

Materials resource planning systems, purchase order control systems,

engineering systems, quality control systems

3) Financing and Accounting Systems

a) Major functions of systems:

Budgeting, general ledger, billing, cost accounting

b) Major application systems:

General ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, budgeting, funds

management systems

4) Human Resource Systems

a) Major functions of systems:

Personnel records, benefits, compensation, labor relations, training

b) Major application systems:

Payroll, employee records, benefit systems, career path systems, personnel

training systems

6. What is business process? List two examples for each function of the firm. 什么是业务流程，在公司业务模块中举两个例子说说。

1) Definition:

a) Manner in which work is organized, coordinated, and focused to produce a

valuable product or service

b) Concrete work flows of material, information, and knowledge—sets of activities

c) Unique ways to coordinate work, information, and knowledge

d) Ways in which management chooses to coordinate work

2) Example:

a) Manufacturing and production:

Assembling product, checking quality, producing bills of materials

b) Sales and marketing:

Identifying customers, creating customer awareness, selling

c) Finance & accounting:

Paying creditors, creating financial statements, managing cash accounts

d) Human resources:

Hiring employees, evaluating performance, enrolling employees in benefits

plans

7. Which main systems for enterprise-wide process integration are there? Explain

their characteristics. 在公司层级流程中，有哪些主要的系统，解释下他们的特性。

1) Enterprise applications: Designed to support organization-wide process coordination

and integration, it consist of:

a) Enterprise systems

b) Supply chain management systems

c) Customer relationship management systems

d) Knowledge management systems

2) Benefits of Enterprise Systems

a) Help to unify the firm’s structure and organization: One organization

b) Management: Firm wide knowledge-based management processes

c) Technology: Unified platform

d) Business: More efficient operations & customer-driven business processes

3) Challenges of Enterprise Systems

a) Difficult to build: Require fundamental changes in the way the business operates

b) Technology: Require complex pieces of software and large investments of time,

money, and expertise

c) Centralized organizational coordination and decision making: Not the best way

for the firms to operate

8. What are common features and unique features of organization? List possible

specialists in an information system department. 组织中有哪些独特的或者共同的特性，在信息系统部门列举一下

1) Common Features of Organizations

a) Formal structure

 Clear division of labor

 Hierarchy

 Explicit rules and procedures

 Impartial judgments

 Technical qualifications for positions

 Maximum organizational efficiency

b) Routines and Business Process

 Routines are patterns of individual behavior.

 Business processes are a collection of routines.

 Business firms are a collection of business processes.

 Business processes enable organizations to cope with all recurring

expected situations

c) Politics

 Divergent viewpoints lead to political struggle, competition, and conflict.

 Hamper organizational change

d) Culture

 What products the organization should produce

 How and where it should be produced

 For whom the products should be produced

2) Unique Features of Organizations

a) Structures

 Entrepreneurial structure: Small start-up business

 Machine bureaucracy: Midsize manufacturing firm

 Divisionalized bureaucracy: Fortune 500 firms

 Professional bureaucracy: Law firms, school systems, hospitals

 Adhocracy: Consulting firms

b) Surrounding environments

 Organizations and environments have a reciprocal relationship.

 Organizations are open to, and dependent on, the social and physical

environment.

 Organizations can influence their environments.

c) Ultimate goals

 Coercive goals (e.g., prisons)

 Utilitarian goals (e.g., businesses)

 Normative goals (universities, religious groups)

d) Different groups and constituencies

 Some primarily benefiting their members

 Some benefiting clients, stockholders, or the public

e) Nature of leadership

 More democratic

 More authoritarian.

f) Tasks and technology

 Another way organizations differ is by the tasks they perform and the

technology they use.

 Some organizations perform primarily routine tasks that could be

reduced to formal rules that require little judgment (such as

manufacturing auto parts)

 whereas others (such as consulting firms) work primarily with

non-routine tasks.

9. Which IS would be used to obtain the strategy in all three levels? Explain how to.哪一个信息系统包含了3个战略层面，解释下他们是怎么运作的。

Strategy usually takes place at three different levels:

1) Business. A single firm producing a set of related products and services

a) Business-Level Strategy:

i. The Value Chain Model

b) IT impact on the business strategy:

i. Value Web

ii. Differentiation

iii. New market niches

c) Supply Chain Management

d) Efficient Customer Response Systems

e) Switching Costs

2) Firm. A collection of businesses that make up a single, multidivisional firm

a) A business firm is typically a collection of businesses.

b) Often, the firm is organized financially as a collection of strategic business units,

and the returns to the firm are directly tied to strategic business unit

performance.

c) Information systems can improve the overall performance of these business

units by promoting

i. synergies

ii. core competencies

3) Industry. A collection of firms that make up an industrial environment or ecosystem

a) Firms together comprise an industry, such as the automotive industry, telephone,

television broadcasting, and forest products industries, to name a few.

b) Whereas most strategic analyses emphasize competition, a great deal of money

can be made by cooperating with other firms in the same industry or firms in

related industries.

c) The principal concepts for analyzing strategy at the industry level are

i. Information partnerships

ii. Competitive forces model

iii. Business ecosystems

iv. Network economics.

d)

10. Which three kinds of E-commerce are there? For B2C e-commerce, which main

methods are there? Explain three of them. 电子商务分成哪3种，B2C有哪些主要的方式，解释他们3个。

1) Business-to-customer (B2C): Retailing of products and services directly to

individual customers ()

a) Interactive Marketing

b) Web Personalization

c) Collaborative filtering

d) Blog

e) Customer self-service

2) Business-to-business (B2B): Sales of goods and services to other businesses

(, )

3) Consumer-to-consumer (C2C): Individuals using the Web for private sales or

exchange ( )

11. List eight payment systems for E-commerce.

列出电子商务的8个付款系统

1) Digital Credit Card Payment Systems

2) Digital Wallet

3) Accumulated balance Payment Systems

4) Stored Value Payment Systems

5) Digital Cash

6) Peer-to-peer Payment Systems

7) Digital Checking

8) Electronic Billing Presentment and payment systems

12. List three applications (intranets) in each function for E-business.

列出3个电子业务中的应用。

1) Finance and accounting

a) General ledger reporting

b) Project costing

c) Annual reports

d) Budgeting

2) Sales and marketing

a) Competitor analysis

b) Price updates

c) Promotional campaigns

d) Sales presentations

e) Sales contracts

3) Manufacturing and production

a) Quality measurements

b) Maintenance schedules

c) Design specifications

d) Machine outputs

e) Order tracking

13. What is the definition of IT infrastructure? What are three major level of

infrastructure? 什么是IT基础设施的定义，什么是3个基础设施的主要层级。

1) Definition

a) Includes hardware, software, and services

b) A set of physical devices and software applications that are required to operate

the entire enterprise

c) Your firm is largely dependent on its infrastructure for delivering services to

customers, employees, and suppliers.

2) Three major levels of infrastructure

a) Public

b) Enterprise

c) Business unit

14. Which five stages in the IT infrastructure evolution are there? IT基础设施革命中有哪五个阶段。

1) Electronic accounting machine era: (1930–1950)

2) General-purpose mainframe and minicomputer era: (1959 to present)

3) Personal computer era: (1981 to present)

4) Client/server era: (1983 to present)

5) Enterprise internet computing era: (1992 to present)

15. List five technology drivers of infrastructure evolution and explain them simply.列举5个基础建设革命中的技术驱动，并简单解释。

1) Moore’s law and micro-processing power

2) The law of mass digital storage

3) Metcalfe’s law and network economics

4) Declining communications costs and the Internet

5) Standards and network effects

16. List seven main infrastructure components and in U.S. what are percentage of

total expenditure for each component of them a year? 列举7个主要的美国IT基础设施组成部分，他们各占每年支出的百分比

1) Computer hardware platforms 109$B 13%

2) Operating system platforms 100$B 12%

3) Enterprise software applications 165$B 20%

4) Database management 70$B 9%

5) Internet platforms 32$B 4%

6) Consulting services and system integrators 180$B 22%

7) Networking and telecommunications hardware 155$B 19%

17. List three contemporary hardware platform trends and three contemporary

software platform trends, and explain them simply. 写出3个当代硬件平台趋势和3个现代软件平台趋势，并且简单解释下。

1) The Integration of Computing and Telecommunications Platforms

a) Increasingly computing takes place over the network.

b) Client level: integration of cell phones and PDAs

c) Television, video, and radio move toward digital production.

d) Server level: The integration of voice telephone and the Internet bring together

two historically separate and distinct global networks.

e) The network in many respects is the source of computing power.

2) Grid Computing

a) Involves connecting geographically remote computers into a single network

capable of working in parallel on business problems that require short-term

access to large computational capacity

b) Rather than purchase huge mainframes or super computers, firms can chain

together thousands of smaller desktop clients into a single computing grid

c) Most computers in the world are loafing, and at night they are sleeping.

d) It is estimated that from 25% - 50% of the computing power in the United States

is unused.

e) Grid computing saves infrastructure spending, increases speed of computing,

and increases the agility of firms

3) On-Demand Computing (Utility Computing)

a) Firms off-loading peak demand for computing power to remote, large-scale data

processing centers

b) Developed by IBM, SUN, and HP

c) Firms pay only for the computing power they use, as with an electrical utility.

d) Excellent for firms with spiked demand curves caused by seasonal variations in

consumer demand, e.g. holiday shopping

e) Example: CIBCHP, Harry and DavidIBM

f) Saves firms from purchasing excessive levels of infrastructure

4) Autonomic Computing : Window on Management: On-Demand Computing at

Qantas Airways and Ford Motor Company Europe

a) Computer systems (both hardware and software) have become so complex that

the cost of managing them has risen.

b) Thirty to fifty percent of a company’s IT budget is spent preventing or recovering

from system crashes.

c) Operator error is the most common cause of crashes

5) Edge Computing

a) Edge computing is a multitier, load-balancing scheme for Web-based

applications.

b) Processing load is distributed closer to the user and handled by lower-cost

servers.

c) Lowers cost of hardware

d) Increases service levels

e) Provides firm greater flexibility in responding to service requests

f) Seasonal spikes in demand can be off-loaded to other edge servers

Case Study 案例分析

1. Window on Technology: UPS Competes Globally with Information Technology技术窗口：UPS公司的信息技术

United Parcel Service (UPS), the world’s largest air and ground package Distribution

Company, started out in 1907 in a closet-sized basement office.

Jim Casey and Claude Ryan—two teenagers from Seattle with two bicycles and one phone— promised the ―best service and lowest rates.‖

UPS has used this formula successfully for more than 90 years and is now the world’s

largest ground and air package-distribution company.

Today UPS delivers more than 13.6 million parcels and documents each day in the United States and more than 200 other countries and territories.

The firm has been able to maintain leadership in small-package delivery services despite stiff competition from FedEx and Airborne Express by investing heavily in advanced information technology.

During the past decade, UPS has pouredbillions of dollars into technology and systems to boost customer service while keeping costs low and streamlining its overall operations.

Using a handheld computer called a Delivery Information Acquisition Device (DIAD), a

UPS driver can automatically capture customers’ signatures along with pickup, delivery, and time-card information.

The driver then places the DIAD into the UPS truck’s vehicle adapter, an information-transmitting device that is connected to the cellular telephone network.

Package tracking information is then transmitted to UPS’s computer network for storage and processing inUPS’s main computers in Mahwah, New Jersey, and Alpharetta, Georgia.

From there, the information can be accessed worldwide to provide proof of delivery to customers or to respond to customer queries.

Through its automated package tracking system, UPS can monitor packages throughout the delivery process.

At various points along the route from sender to receiver, bar-code devices scan shipping information on the package label; the information is then fed into the central computer.

Customer service representatives can check the status of any package from desktop computers linked to the central computers and are able to respond immediately to inquiries from customers.

UPS customers can also access this information from the company’s Web site using their own computers or wireless devices such as pagers and cell phones.

Anyone with a package to ship can access the UPS Web site to track packages, check delivery routes, calculate shipping rates, determine time in transit, and schedule a pickup.

Businesses anywhere can use the Web site to arrange UPS shipments and bill the shipments to the company’s UPS account number or to a credit card.

The data collected at the UPS Web site are transmitted to the UPS central computer and then back to the customer after processing.

UPS also provides tools that enable customers such Cisco Systems to embed UPS functions, such as tracking and cost calculations, into their own Web sites so that they can track shipments without visiting the UPS site.

A capability called UPS Campus Ship allows employees in multiple offices of a business to process and ship from their computers and has shipping procedures controlled by a central administrator set up by the business.

Morris, Schneider and Prior LLC, a top law firm serving the financial services industry,

uses this capability to track and control shipping costs.

This firm is constantly sending time-sensitive documents from three different locations to clients throughout the United States.

UPS tools automate the allocation and reporting of this firm’s shipping costs and even itemize and detail shipping expenses for each client.

Information technology helps UPS reinvent itself and keep growing.

UPS is now leveraging its decades of expertise managing its own global delivery network to manage logistics and supply chain management for other companies.

It created a UPS Supply Chain Solutions division that provides a complete bundle of standardized services to subscribing companies at a fraction of what it would cost to build their own systems and infrastructure.

These services include supply chain design and management, freight forwarding, customs brokerage, mail services, multimodal transportation, and financial services, in addition to logistics services.

Birkenstock Footprint Sandals is one of many companies benefiting from these services.

Birkenstock’s German plants pack shoes in crates that are barcoded with their U.S. destination.

UPS contracts with ocean carriers in Rotterdam to transport the shoe crates across the Atlantic to New Jersey ports instead of routing them through the Panama Canal to Birkenstock’s California warehouses.

UPS trucks whisk each incoming shipment to a UPS distribution hub and, within hours,

to 3,000 different retailers.

By handing this work over to UPS, Birkenstock has cut the time to get its shoes to stores by half.

Along the way, UPS uses barcode scanning to keep track of every shipment until the

merchant signs off on it.

UPS also handles Internet orders for Jockey International, laptop repairs for Toshiba America, and X-ray machine installation in Europe for Philips Medical Systems.

2. Window on Organizations: E-Commerce North and South of the Border组织窗口：电子商务的南北边缘

Internet shopping may be flourishing in the United States, but it is not equally popular in

other countries. Let’s look at e-commerce in the United States’ closest neighbors-Canada to

the north and Mexico to the south.

Canada is definitely a major user of the Internet, with more per capita users than the

United States. About 35 percent of Canadian households using the Internet do so through

high-speed connections. In addition 51 percent of Canadian Net users do their banking

through the Internet, compared with only 33 percent of U.S. Internet users. About 3.2 million

Canadian households engaged in e-commerce in 2003. Yet Canadians use the Internet much

less than Americans for retail shopping, spending only $3 billion in online purchases in 2003.

The reasons are unclear.

Canadian retail companies have responded accordingly, investing less in e-commerce

Web sites than their U.S. counterparts. One famous department store organization, the

Hudson’s Bay Company, operates some of the most popular Canadian department store

brands, including the Bay, Zellers, and Home Outfitters. However, its Web site() only

offers less than 10 percent of its bricks-and- mortar products online. Moreover, consumers

seem primarily interested in sale items, so makes marked-down items its primary

focus. Michael LeBlanc, HBC’s coordinator of Web sites, does believe its online strategy is

successful for increasing Hudson’s Bay’s store traffic. He points out, for example, that the

company offers its Web customers the ability to pick up purchases at one of HBC’s

bricks-and-mortar stores.

Robert Sartor, the CEO of the Forzani Group, the owner of seven sporting goods brands,

believes that one reason for Canadians’ lower interest in online shopping is that Canadians are

taxed more heavily than are Americans, Leaving Canadians with less disposable income.

Moreover, e-commerce shopping usually leaves the shopper “having to pay for shipping and

handling online, and if you return it, you have to pay that again”, according to Sartor. Forzani

has successfully used the Internet to build an e-mail list to support its bricks-and-mortar stores.

However, its attempt at online selling has failed. In1999, Forzani built an e-commerce

enterprise, but closed it after one and one-half years because it had generated too little growth.

“At the rate of growth we were seeing”, explains Sartor, “it’d be 12,13,14 years before we got

the returns we’re used to”.

Nor are Canadian consumers doing their purchasing on foreign Web sites. In 2003, nearly

70 percent of Canadian purchases over the Internet were spent at domestic Web sites.

“Canada is among the top countries worldwide in Internet usage…,but to date that has

not translated into e-commerce leadership”, observes Jeffrey Grau, a senior analyst for

e-Marketer. Selling online in Canada is especially difficult for U.S. companies because of this

slow adoption of e-commerce combined with regulatory complications when purchasing goods

foreign entities.