Finals Question #5

Finals Question #5

1. Describe or define Virtual office.
Answer:
Virtual Office is a workplace that is not based in one physical location but consists of employees working remotely by using information and communications technologies. A virtual office is characterized by the use of teleworkers, telecenters, mobile workers, hot-desking, and hoteling, and promotes the use of virtual teams. A virtual office can increase an organization's flexibility, cost effectiveness, and efficiency.

Virtual Office is ideal for international companies seeking to establish a presence in South Africa as well as for small businesses seeking a professional corporate image.

Benefits from using this solution include:

• No unnecessary capital outlay or staff costs

• Quick to set up

• Pay per use billing reduces costs

• Full office services at a fraction of the cost

2. Distinguish Virtual office from MIS.
Answer:
Virtual office has a provider it is a centralized office although the employees work at home or without physical contact with other employees it enables a network of co-workers to runs a business efficiently by using nothing other than online communication technologies. While in MIS Management Information System differs in different company or every company has their own MIS they are used to analyze other information systems applied in operational activities in the organization. MIS is a planned system of collecting, processing, storing and disseminating data in the form of information needed to carry out the functions of management. And the result is used in decision making of the top management.


3. Illustrate (give examples) how Virtual office can improve company's competitive advantage and organizational performance.
Answer:
Having worked online for a very long time,the virtual office advantage is by far the best aspect of the Internet.A virtual office gives you a huge advantage because you are not limited geographically. Your business should revolve around your laptop. If possible, you should try to store every bit of information online. Either way, the virtual office gives you flexibility because it is available at all times. What

Cite your reference:http://www.bpsupport.com
Student: Jessa Daquil

Finals Question #4

Finals Question #4

TOPIC: THE DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS (DSS)


1. Describe or define DSS.
Answer:Decision Support Systems (DSS) are a specific class of computerized information systems that supports business and organizational decision-making activities. A properly-designed DSS is an interactive software-based system intended to help decision makers compile useful information from raw data, documents, personal knowledge, and/or business models to identify and solve problems and make decisions.

2. Distinguish DSS from MIS.
Answer:The terms MIS and DSS stand for Management Information Systems and Decision Support Systems respectively. There has been a lot of talk regarding these two, whether they are actually the same thing or if there are any significant differences between the two.

MIS is basically a kind of link to facilitate communcation between managers across different areas in a business organization. MIS plays a pivotal role in enabling communications across the floor of an organization, between various entities therein.

DSS, many consider, is an advancement from the original MIS. However,this is not the sole difference between the two. While there may not be too much separating the two, the difference is still there,as is apparent when we say DSS is an advancement over MIS.

The essential difference between the two is in focus. DSS, as the term indicates, is about leadership and senior management in an organization providing good, reliable judgment as well as vision. MIS, on the other hand, is about focusing on the actual flow of information itself.

3.Illustrate (give examples) how DSS can improve company's competitive advantage and organizational performance.
Answer:DSS can create positive benefits for both the individual decision makers and the companies who will use the system.
1. Time Savings: Research has demonstrated that all categories of decision support systems reduce decision cycle time, increase employee productivity, and provide more timely information for decision making. DSS can also create a cost advantage by increasing efficiency or eliminating activities.
2. Improved Interpersonal Communication: Improved communication and collaboration between decision makers can be a result of DSS. Model-driven DSS allows users to share facts and assumptions. Data-driven DSS allows fact-based decision making by creating one version of the truth about company operations available to managers.
3. Increased Decision Maker Satisfaction: DSS can help reduce frustrations of decision makers by providing the perception that better information is being used.
4. Increased Organizational Control: Data-driven DSS often makes business transaction data available for performance monitoring. Such a system can provide users with an enhanced understanding of business operations, although the financial benefit from increasingly detailed data is not always immediately clear.
5. Targeted Marketing: DSS can be used to target a specific customer segment and gain an advantage in meeting needs in that particular segment. DSS can help track customers and make it easier to serve a specialized customer group.



Cite your reference.www.wikiAnswers.com
www.google.com
Student: Jessa Daquil

Finals Question #3

Finals Question #3

Identify and describe one company that adopts an MIS. Include in your discussion how MIS helps and supports the company, its managers and other employees, in their problem solving and decision-making.

Do this in two paragraphs at least. COPYING OF TEXTS IS DEFINITELY NOT ACCEPTABLE.
Answer: Healthlite Yogurt Company
Healthlite Yogurt Company was faced into several problems . and these are: Centralize the problems of the Healthlite Yogurt Company and New information system... But then, one subsistent tools to support them. One of IS is the database processing system. There are four components involved in it: User's Application Programs, The DataBase Administrator, The DataBase and Data Base Management System. This system located in the corporate headquarters and adept star network topolopy of LAN.

The other IS is the EDI in which transmit computer data from the corporate headquarter to the outlets and vice versa. The terminals in which are located in each outlet by the Healthlite Yogurt Company to each sales representative. They carry the portables with them as they cobra their territories and enable them to do their job better.

Student: Jessa Daquil

Finals Question #2

Finals Question #2

A company may adopt specific computerized database system according to their unique needs after thorough MIS planning. However, it has to be noted that MIS if properly planned, and implemented, benefits can be immeasurable on the other hand, if this is misused, then it may mean information or financial losses and opportunity and resources wasted.

From this, answer the following.

Question #1.0.a Research one international company from the Internet and describe their MIS strategic plan in 1-2 paragraphs.
Answer: International CommunicationUnion
The Strategy Creation of a Business Management Information System that empowers employees to access and analyze current business information using Web-based reporting tools.
The Results Managers can now handle their own reporting and business intelligence needs, with little or no help from the IT department. More than 200 reports for almost 20,000 employees are quickly accessible via the internet, reducing costs by 50 percent.remains at the top of its field for two simple reasons: relentless innovation and a commitment to superior customer service. In the highly competitive insurance industry, data analytics play an important role in the decision

Question #1.0.b Discuss too the impact of this strategic plan on the company's management,competitors, customers and the company as a whole.
Answer:

Entrepreneurs and business managers are often so preoccupied with immediate issues that they lose sight of their ultimate objectives. That's why a business review or preparation of a strategic plan is a virtual necessity. This may not be a recipe for success, but without it a business is much more likely to fail. A sound plan should:

• Serve as a framework for decisions or for securing support/approval.
• Provide a basis for more detailed planning.
• Explain the business to others in order to inform, motivate & involve.
• Assist benchmarking & performance monitoring.
• Stimulate change and become building block for next plan.

Question #2.0.a Evaluate how can this strategic plan be applied to any local company in the Philippines.
Answer:
to apply this strategic plan to our local company in the philippines by using management information system in terms of their promotion and transacting to the customers and giving fast services to the consumers for their satisfaction so that your company achieve their goals to become profitable.

Question #2.0.b Discuss too the possible effect on the company.
Answer:
The strategic use of technology based information systems (IS/IT) is a fundamental issue for every business. This is particularly true in the case of firms that engage in international business activities. The present paper is part of an empirically oriented project to investigate the impacts of strategic alignment on organizational performance, especially in the case of European International Companies. We use Structural Equation Modeling to apprehend the strategic alignment concept as an emergent variable derived from the co variation of two components: (1) business strategy; and (2) the IS/IT strategy. Then, we explore the role of this emergent concept as a determinant of organizational performance. We use data from a large database constructed due to survey instruments to assess the usage of IS/IT among European firms. 505 questionnaires have been exploited in this study. The results obtained will be presented and discussed in this paper.

Question #3.0.a What is an Accounting Information System?
Answer:
Accounting Information System can be defined as a group of elements that are formed and interact to achieve goals or objectives. You spend all your life with systems – your home, your work, your family, the school you attended. An organization is a system in which a number of people work together to achieve particular objectives.

Within each system there are smaller systems. The one everyone knows is the solar system. Within it, each of the planets is, itself, a system. Taking Earth, each country is a system, and so on. Another one you will recognize is you – you yourself are a system, full of subsystems such as your respiratory system and your nervous system. Within a business, there are sub-systems called departments which, themselves, can be broken down into smaller systems right down to individual employees.

All systems are themselves located within an environment – even the solar system, which has the universe as its environment. Input enters a system from something located in its environment. (The space shuttle entering the earth's atmosphere from outer space is an example of an input to the earth from its environment.) A system processes its input and then sends its output to something located in its environment. A business receives inputs to its system in the form, for example, of raw materials from suppliers, payments from customers, etc. It then converts the inputs into goods and services and sends its outputs (goods and services) into its environment (to its customers). It records these activities in its accounting information system.

Question #3.0.b Identify or list down different accounting information systems used.
Answer:An accounting information system (AIS) is the system of records a business keeps to maintain its accounting system This includes the purchase, sales, and other financial processes of the business. The purpose of an AIS is to accumulate data and provide decision makers (investors, creditors, and managers) with information to make decision While this was previously a paper-based process, most modern businesses now use accounting software
on System personnel need knowledge of database management and programming language .In an Electronic Financial Accounting system, the steps in the accounting cycle are dependent upon the system itself, which in turn are developed by programmers. For example, some systems allow direct journal posting to the various and others do not.

Question #3.0.c What are the benefits by the management, users and customers derived from these AIS?
Answer:There is a variety of applications that can benefit from the ability to find optimal or good solutions to a proposed problem, automatically. The artificial intelligent (AI) community has been actively involved in efficient problem-solving in complex domains such as military or spacecraft problems with successful results. In this paper, we describe the integration of AI planning techniques with an existing workflow management system. We show how these techniques can improve the overall system functionality and help automate the definition of business processes. The work is based on a short study carried out at BT research laboratories as part of a larger programme that aims to provide technologies for a new generation of business support systems.

Question #3.0.d Cite any threat or misuse of these AIS by a specific company. How were the threats addressed? What were the damages?
Answer:
Threats to accounting information systems come from a variety of sources. If ignored, they can destroy the relevance and reliability of financial information, leading to poor decisions by various stakeholders. (For specific examples, the Sidebar lists the top 10 concerns identified by a 2006 AICPA survey.)
At the point of data collection, it is important to establish security controls that ensure that transaction or event data are valid, complete, and free from material errors. Masquerading (pretending to be an authorized user) and piggybacking (tapping into telecommunications lines) are examples of hacker activities that can seriously impact valid data collection.

reference: www.google.com
Student: Daquil, Jessa

Finals Question#1

Finals Question#1

Question:For those who are working, interview your IT in-charge and ask him/her to describe the computer database systems used in the company. Write your answer in 1-2 paragraphs. Further, ask also the benefits and/or disadvantages derived from these database systems.

For those who are not working, research one company in the net who is using computerized database systems. Describe the use and/or nature of these systems and describe too the benefits/disadvantages from these systems. Include your reference.

Answer:

VoiceTronix

VoiceTronix builds a range of Computer Telephony hardware products. We supply solutions to your telephony needs, not just hardware components. For example build a fully featured small office PABX/PBX phone system using our OpenSwitch hardware and our free OpenPBX application software.

For OEM customers this means we have taken the pain out of your custom product development - use our free applications as a starting point to accelerate your product development. End users can now build advanced but affordable telephony systems themselves.

They offer developers the choice in using their favourite open source application or project. CT Their hardware supports all the leading open source telephony projects including OpenPBX, CT Server, Asterisk and Logger.

They focus on the ultra-stable Linux operating system. As well as Linux, Their hardware runs on Windows and FreeBSD, offering customers the luxury of delivering these solutions on their preferred choice of operating system.

They provide free unlimited high quality support with all purchases. Their global distribution network provides customers with local access to our technology.

Database Systems Corp. provides both digital and analog phone systems. PACER and WIZARD phone systems are outbound phone dialers and inbound answering systems that process calls for a wide variety of call centers. Phone calls are either initiated by the phone system or accepted from the outside and distributed in an intelligent fashion to telephone service representatives using our award winning Interactive Voice Response software. The phone systems also include voice broadcasting and call recording and monitoring capability.

Using industry standard components, the PACER and WIZARD phone systems have features and functions that can only be found in large scale PBX’s and both include predictive dialing capability that cannot be found in most of these larger phone systems.

These phone systems can connect calls to employees who are working at home or in a local or remote offices. Our intelligent phone systems communicate with applications written on Unix, Linux, or PC servers over a LAN.



Reference: www.google.com
Student: Jessa Daquil

Midterm Question #3 Internet if properly maximized can be used as a medium to the advantage of the company. However, risks and threats are there. Thus

Midterm Question #3

Internet if properly maximized can be used as a medium to the advantage of the company. However, risks and threats are there. Thus, research the following:

Question#1. Identify the possible risks and threats (eg. virus) that can potentially attack a company with internet connection.
Answer:

There are ten of the most prevalent threats covered here. Either go through them all, or click on the links below for those you are particularly interested in:

1. Viruses and Worms
2. Trojan Horses
3. Rootkits
4. Crackers and Hackers
5. Spam
6. Web Bugs
7. Child Security
8. Pop-Up/Under Ads
9. Tracking Cookies
10. Spyware

What Is A Virus?
A virus is a man-made computer program that infects a file or program on our computers. Each time the infected program is run, the virus is also triggered. It spreads itself by infecting other programs on the same computer.

What Is A Worm?
A worm is also a man-made program that replicates itself. However, unlike a virus, it does not infect other program files on the computer. Instead, a worm spreads itself automatically to other computers through email, over a network and via Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

What Is A Trojan Horse?

Although Trojan horse programs are categorized as viruses, they are not true viruses, since they do not replicate. But, like viruses, they are one of the most destructive of the Internet risks covered in 'How Do You Stay Safe On The Internet?' and are favored by crackers and spyware writers.

What Is A Rootkit?
Rootkits are not destructive in their own right... but they are designed to conceal the presence of malicious programs on a computer.

What Is A Hacker/Cracker?
The term "hacker" is a misused term. We should really be referring to a "cracker" to describe those who break security on a computer system.

The original term "hacker" refers to computer enthusiasts who enjoy learning everything about a computer system.

What Is Spam?
Spam is defined in Dictionary.com as, "Unsolicited e-mail, often of a commercial nature, sent indiscriminately to multiple mailing lists, individuals, or newsgroups; junk e-mail".

Spammers peddle pornography, sexual aids, diet pills and get-rich-quick schemes... in fact, anything that has a perceived value.

Spam is no longer just a frustration, nuisance and time-waster... it has now become a major Internet security risk to those of us who want to know, how do you stay safe on the Internet?

What Is A Web Bug?
It is an image file, usually 1x1 pixel, hidden on a web page or in an HTML e-mail and will be of interest to those who ask 'How Do You Stay Safe On The Internet?'

What Are PopUp/Under And Banner Ad?
A pop-up ad appears as a separate window on top of the web page we are viewing, whereas pop-under ads appear under the page being viewed, becoming visible when the web page is cancelled. A banner ad is immediately on view on a web page and can be animated or stationary.

What Are Tracking Cookies?
When we browse web sites, the web server for the web site sends a cookie to our web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer), which it then stores on our computer hard drive.

What Is Spyware?
Spyware has surpassed viruses as the number one computer Internet security risks facing us today. Most estimates report that 80-90 percent of computers already have been infiltrated by spyware.

Spyware is software that is installed on our hard drive to gather information about us and our computer habits. It then transmits it through our Internet connection to a third party, usually without our knowledge or consent.

There are two categories of spyware... surveillance or monitoring spyware and advertising spyware, or adware.

Question#2. Case research and analysis:
Question#2.a Identify one company that had experienced an attacked from the internet.
Answer:Blue Frog company

Question#2.b Describe the attack.
Answer:they deal with attacks on a regular basis, and this was an order of magnitude larger than what they are used to seeing. For the first part of the attack, this was seen as a network problem, because it caused connectivity issues for two of our three upstream providers.

Question#2.c Identify the damages done and the solutions adopted to reverse the damages and to protect the company from future threats.
Answer:

The company's service, Blue Frog, enabled nearly a half million users to automatically opt-out of unsolicited bulk e-mail messages, or spam, by each sending a single message back to the advertiser. Collectively, the automated opt-out messages inundated the clients of spammers forcing six of the top-10 bulk e-mail groups to agree to use the company's filtering software to cleanse their mass-mailing lists of any Blue Frog users, according to the firm.

However, one spammer decided to attack back instead. Starting May 1, the spammers--who Blue Security identified as PharmaMaster--attacked the company's Web site and spammed Blue Frog users with even more mass mailings. The attacks not only disrupted Blue Security's operations but knocked out the Web blog hosting service Six Apart and a handful of Internet service providers, including Tucows.

While the company had started recovering from the initial attacks, the spammer promised more to come, said one company source. Those threats and the collateral damage led the firm to decide to shutdown its service.

The closure marks a sudden end to a controversial service and highlights the importance of spam as a source of cash for the underground Internet economy. In December 2005, spam e-mail message accounted for half of all e-mail sent, according to security firm Symantec. (SecurityFocus is owned by Symantec.) While spammers cost companies an estimated $20 billion, they only netted roughly $20 million to $30 million in profits in 2003, according to estimates by analyst firm Ferris Research.

The attacks also underscore the power that criminals can still wield on the Internet, especially through large networks of compromised computers known as bot nets. Bots have become the tool of choice for many online criminals to extort money from legitimate companies by threatening a hard-to-stop denial-of-service (DoS) attack; other criminals use the controller software to install adware on the compromised PCs to earn affiliate fees from the advertising networks.

The success of the attacks also reveals that, despite e-commerce companies' assertions that the Internet has become safe for business, the worldwide network has progressed merely from the Wild West to the equivalent of the 1920s mob-controlled urban centers, said Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University and a member of the advisory board of Blue Security. To fight the online gangs of the Digital Age will take concerted efforts on behalf the U.S. government and other countries, he said.

"This attack was from an organized crime ring on the Internet," Swire said. "The rising amount of extortion on the Internet is a symptom of under-enforcement. It takes concentrated effort to break up any mob, and legitimate companies are at risk of extortion attacks unless enforcement and other cybersecurity measures improve."

reference: www.google.com
student: Jessa Daquil

Midterm Question #2

Question #1: Research Philippine company and 1 international company that have employed e-commerce.
Answer:
Philippine company:Aboitiz Equity Ventures
International company:Netpack Company

Question #2: Describe how e-commerce operate in these companies.
Answer:These companies not only handle their customer's orders via the traditional methods, i.e. post, telephone, fax and e-mail they also support orders over the internet linked to your e-commerce website.

As more and more mail order customers are looking to the internet for a fast and convenient option for ordering their goods.

These companies has the experience to handle all of your e-commerce needs; with your customers' payments banked direct to your account, a swift response to all online orders received, dedicated administration staff and their unique Fulfillment allowing them to compile comprehensive stock control and marketing reports to your specification.

Question #3: Identify the benefits/ constraints derived by these companies from e-commerce.
Answer:
here are the benefits of e-commerce to their business:

• No need for a premises or assistant.
• Pre-sales queries instantly answered.
• Reduce your order processing costs.
• Reach a global market 24 hours a day.
• Resolve banking issues.
• Attract a more loyal customer.
• Gain vital sales and marketing statistics.

student: Jessa Daquil