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Exam 2 sample with solutions, Exams of Accelerator Physics

Adams State CollegeAccelerator Physics

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CPS 603 Sample Exam 2 (Chapters 8 – 12)
The exam will consist of 10 short-answer questions. These questions will be taken from, or motivated by the following problems. Sample solutions appear below.
1) Discuss supply chain strategy.
2) How can DSS be used in customer relationship management?
3) Describe MIS and DSS and differentiate between them.
4) What are the benefits of ESS? What do you think would be required to make
them more helpful to today's senior management?
5) Discuss the concept of virtual reality, especially with regard to VRML and its
applications in the business arena.
6) Discuss the management challenges involved in digitally-enabling existing firms.
7) What is TCP/IP? Identify its layers.
8) What are at least five considerations management must examine to establish the
telecommunications needs of a company?
9) Distinguish between the two types of ISDN services and the two types of DSL
services.
10) What is a metric? Identify five metrics for measuring supply chain performance.
11) List and describe the three forms of wired transmission used in the
telecommunications industry, and give one advantage and one disadvantage for each.
12) List and describe the three major LAN topologies. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each?
13) Identify five benefits of customer relationship management systems.
14) What are at least three ways in which DSS, ESS, and GDSS can support
decision-making? How do you think the organization as a whole can benefit from
this? Support your position.
15) How might a company go about building an expert system?
16) Briefly describe the three major developments that have shaped contemporary
digital telecommunications systems.
17) Identify and briefly describe three major enterprise applications.
18) What is an information appliance? Identify five client platforms.
19) Briefly describe the two main wireless standards for accessing the Web.
20) List the five problems associated with managing the new information
technology infrastructure.
21) Distinguish between EDI and ATM.
22) What is knowledge management? Briefly outline the knowledge management
chain.
23) Distinguish between an analog signal and a digital signal.
24) What is an enterprise system? What is enterprise software?
25) How does the concept of "modeling" apply in using DSS capabilities?
26) How can DSS help in supply chain management?
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Download Exam 2 sample with solutions and more Exams Accelerator Physics in PDF only on Docsity!

CPS 603 Sample Exam 2 (Chapters 8 – 12)

The exam will consist of 10 short-answer questions. These questions will be taken from, or motivated by the following problems. Sample solutions appear below.

  1. Discuss supply chain strategy.

  2. How can DSS be used in customer relationship management?

  3. Describe MIS and DSS and differentiate between them.

  4. What are the benefits of ESS? What do you think would be required to make them more helpful to today's senior management?

  5. Discuss the concept of virtual reality, especially with regard to VRML and its applications in the business arena.

  6. Discuss the management challenges involved in digitally-enabling existing firms.

  7. What is TCP/IP? Identify its layers.

  8. What are at least five considerations management must examine to establish the telecommunications needs of a company?

  9. Distinguish between the two types of ISDN services and the two types of DSL services.

  10. What is a metric? Identify five metrics for measuring supply chain performance.

  11. List and describe the three forms of wired transmission used in the telecommunications industry, and give one advantage and one disadvantage for each.

  12. List and describe the three major LAN topologies. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

  13. Identify five benefits of customer relationship management systems.

  14. What are at least three ways in which DSS, ESS, and GDSS can support decision-making? How do you think the organization as a whole can benefit from this? Support your position.

  15. How might a company go about building an expert system?

  16. Briefly describe the three major developments that have shaped contemporary digital telecommunications systems.

  17. Identify and briefly describe three major enterprise applications.

  18. What is an information appliance? Identify five client platforms.

  19. Briefly describe the two main wireless standards for accessing the Web.

  20. List the five problems associated with managing the new information technology infrastructure.

  21. Distinguish between EDI and ATM.

  22. What is knowledge management? Briefly outline the knowledge management chain.

  23. Distinguish between an analog signal and a digital signal.

  24. What is an enterprise system? What is enterprise software?

  25. How does the concept of "modeling" apply in using DSS capabilities?

  26. How can DSS help in supply chain management?

  1. In what ways are expert systems fallible or problematic?

  2. Identify two aspects of customer relationships management.

  3. What is SCOR? Identify its five major processes.

  4. What are the principle methods for locating information on the Web. Provide example of each.

  5. Identify the three major types of knowledge management systems. Provide two examples of each.

  6. Identify three types of knowledge. What type of enterprise knowledge management system is needed to support each type?

  7. Identify two supply chain models. Which is better?

  8. What are the two major management challenges facing those who are responsible for designing support systems for the digital firm?

  9. Describe a CDSS and how it might be used on the Web.

  10. How do the NGI and Internet2 differ from the Internet as we now know it? What do you think are the business needs that might be met by these new technologies?

  11. What is electronic commerce server software? What six essential functions should the software provide?

  12. Define "wireless transmission" and list at least two advantages and two disadvantages to its use.

  13. What are the benefits of enterprise systems? What are the challenges of enterprise systems?

  14. What is knowledge? Identify the four dimensions of knowledge.

  15. Describe the four strategies organizations must use to meet the challenges posed

by the new information technology infrastructure.

  1. Differentiate between each of the following pairs of words: neural networks and expert systems, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms, hybrid AI systems and intelligent agents.

  2. List and describe at least five of the major Internet services currently available.

  3. What are the goals of customer tracking and personalization tools?

  4. Identify three specific requirements of knowledge work systems.

  5. Why are knowledge workers so important to the digital firm? Which of the functions they perform do you feel is most critical to the success of the firm? Why?

  6. Briefly discuss Wi-Fi.

  7. What are the components of a DSS?

  8. List at least five ways in which specific types of organizations have used DSS.

  9. Identify two classifications for supply chain software. For each classification, identify five capabilities.

  1. Management should consider the following:
  1. Distance-are the needs of the company local or long-distance?
  2. Services-what range of services will be needed (e-mail, EDI, voice mail, videoconferencing, graphics transmission)? Do they need to be integrated?
  3. Points of access-how many different locations and users in the organization require access to the communications services and capabilities?
  4. Utilization-what frequency and volume of communications does your firm anticipate?
  5. Cost-how much can you spend and on what?
  6. Security-what level of security and reliability must be maintained?
  7. Connectivity-how much time, money, and effort will be required to make sure all the components of the network or multiple networks can communicate with each other?

  1. ISDN-stands for Integrated Services Digital Network, and is an international standard for dial-up network access that integrates voice, data, image, and video services in a single link. Basic rate ISDN can transmit data at a rate of 128 kilobits per second on an existing local telephone line. Primary rate ISDN offers transmission capacities in the megabit range and is designed for large users of telecommunications services. DSL-stands for Digital Subscriber Line, and also carry e-mail, data, image, and video services in a single link over regular copper phone lines, but they have higher transmission capacities than ISDN. ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line) supports 1.5 to 9 megabits per second when receiving data and up to 640 kilobits per second when sending data. SDSL (symmetric digital subscriber line) supports the same transmission rate and can receive data at up to 3 megabits per second.

  2. A metric is a standard measurement of performance. Ten metrics were identified in the textbook, including fill rate, on-time deliveries, average time from order to delivery, total supply chain costs, number of days of supply in inventory, asset turns, supply chain response time, forecast accuracy, source/make cycle time, and cash-to-cycle time.

  3. Twisted wire refers to strands of copper wire twisted in pairs. Most standard telephone lines are twisted pairs and have been for many years. Twisted pairs can be used for digital transmission as well as analog. Its main advantages are low cost and it is already in place. Disadvantages include relatively slow for transmitting data, and the problem of "crosstalk" in which the signal "bleeds" from one wire to another during high-speed transmission. Coaxial cable is thickly insulated copper wire, which can transmit a larger volume of data than twisted wire. Advantages include its speed and having less interference. Disadvantages include the cable is thick and heavy, and it is hard to install in many buildings. Also, it cannot support analog phone conversations. Fiber-optic cable consists of thousands of very thin strands of clear glass fiber, bound into a cable. Data are transmitted over each strand by pulses of light, which are sent by laser at very high speed. Fiber optic advantages include faster, lighter, more durable, and the ability to transfer large volumes of data quickly. Its disadvantages are that it is difficult to work with, expensive, and harder to install.

  4. Star, bus, and ring are the three major LAN topologies. The star topology consists of a central host computer connected to a number of smaller computers or terminals. It is useful for applications where some processing must be centralized and some can be performed locally. All communications between points in the network must pass through the central computer. One problem with this topology is that everyone in the network goes down if the central computer fails for any reason. The bus topology links a number of computers by a single circuit made of twisted wire, coaxial cable, or fiber-optic cable. All signals are broadcast in both directions to the entire network, with special software to identify which components receive each message. There is no central computer controlling the network. If one of the computers fails, none of the others are affected, and work can continue. However, since the channel can handle only one message at a time, performance can degrade if there is a high volume of network traffic. The ring topology like the bus network does not rely on a central host and will not necessarily break down if one of the component computers malfunctions. Each computer in the network can communicate directly with any other computer, and each processes its own applications independently. However, in a ring topology, the connecting wire forms a closed loop, and all data flows in one direction around the loop.

  5. Benefits include increased customer satisfaction, reduced direct marketing costs, more effective marketing, lower costs for customer acquisition and retention, and increased sales revenue. Table 10-6 in the textbook identifies additional benefits.

    1. They can automate certain decision procedures.
  1. They can provide information about the different aspects of the decision situation and the decision process.
  2. They can stimulate innovation in decision making by helping managers question existing decision procedures or explore different solution designs.
  1. An AI development team is chosen, composed of one or more experts, who have a thorough command of the knowledge base, and one or more knowledge engineers, who can translate the knowledge described by the expert into a set of rules or frames. The team members select a problem appropriate for the expert system. The project will balance potential savings from the proposed system against the cost. The team members develop a prototype system to test assumptions. Next, they develop the full-scale system, focusing mainly on the addition of a very large number of rules. The complexity of the system grows with the number of rules, so comprehensibility may be threatened. The system is then

edited and pruned to achieve simplicity, elegance, and power. The system is tested against the performance criteria established earlier. Once tested and accepted, the system is then integrated into the data flow and work patterns of the organization.

  1. The textbook mentions client/server computing, packet switching, and TCP/IP as the three major developments. Client/server computing is a model of computing that divides the processing between client computers and servers on a network. The tasks are assigned to the machine most able to perform the tasks. Packet switching breaks messages into small, fixed bundles of data and routes them in the most economical way through any available communications channel. Packet switching enables packets to be transmitted independently through various communications channels. TCP/IP is the connectivity model of the Internet, providing a universally agreed-on method for breaking up digital messages into packets, routing them to the proper addresses, and then reassembling them into coherent messages.

  2. Enterprise systems, customer relationship management, and supply chain management are three enterprise applications. Enterprise systems are based on a suite of integrated software modules and a common central database. Enterprise systems utilize enterprise software to support financial and accounting, human resources, manufacturing and production, and sales and marketing processes. Enterprise systems provide many benefits including an enterprise-enabled organization, improved management reporting and decision making, a unified information systems technology platform, and more efficient operations and customer-driven business processes. Supply chain management systems help an organization better manage its supply chain, including planning, sourcing, making, delivering, and returning items. Supply chain management software can be categorized as a supply chain planning system or as a supply chain execution system. A supply chain planning system enables a firm to generate demand forecasts for a product and to develop sourcing and manufacturing plans for that product. A supply chain execution system manages the flow of products through distribution centers and warehouses to ensure that products are delivered to the right locations in the most efficient manner. Supply chain management benefits include improved customer service and responsiveness, cost reduction, and cash utilization. Customer relationship management systems help firms maximize the benefits of their customer assets. These systems capture and consolidate data from all over the organization and then distribute the results to various systems and customer touch points across the enterprise. Customer relationship management systems can be classified as operational or as analytical. Operational CRM refers to customer-facing applications, such as sales force automation, call center and customer service support, and marketing automation. Analytical CRM refers to customer relationship management applications dealing with the analysis of customer data to provide information for improving business performance. Benefits include increased customer satisfaction, reduced direct marketing costs, more effective marketing, and lower costs for customer acquisition and retention.

  3. An information appliance is a device that has been customized to perform a few specialized computing tasks well with minimal user effort. Table 9-1 in the textbook identifies seven platforms, including PC, Net PC, smart phone, video game console, PDA, and wireless e-mail handheld, and TV Internet receiver.

  4. Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and I-mode are two wireless standards for accessing the web. WAP is a system of protocols and technologies that lets cell phones and other wireless devices access Web-based information and services. WAP uses WML and is optimized for tiny displays. I-mode is a standard developed by Japan's NTT DoCoMo mobile phone network for enabling cell phones to receive Web-based content and services. I-mode uses compact HTML and packet switching. I-mode allows users to be constantly connected to the network, and it can handle color graphics.

  5. The five problems are loss of management control, connectivity and application integration challenges, organizational change requirements, hidden costs of enterprise computing, and scalability, reliability, and security.

  6. ATM is "asynchronous transfer mode" and is capable of seamlessly switching voice, data, images, and video between users using computers from different vendors. EDI is the computer-to-computer exchange between two organizations of standard transaction documents such as invoices, bills of lading, and purchase orders.

  7. Knowledge management is the set of processes developed in an organization to create, gather, store, disseminate, and apply the firm's knowledge. The five steps in the knowledge management chain include acquisition, storage, dissemination, application, and management and organizational activities.

  8. An analog signal is a continuous waveform passing through a communications medium. Analog signals handle voice communications and reflect variations in pitch. A digital signal is a discrete, rather than a continuous waveform, using only two states, 1-bits and 0-bits representing either/or conditions or on-off electrical pulses. Standard telephone lines speak analog; computers speak digital. To communicate, the digital signal either 1) must be changed to an analog signal as it travels the medium, then changed back to a digital signal for the computer at the other end, or 2) sent in digital pulses over a medium that is also digital.

  9. Enterprise systems focus on integrating the key internal business processes of the firm. Enterprise software is used by enterprise systems and is a set of integrated software modules for finance and accounting, human resources, manufacturing and production, and sales and marketing that allows data to be used by multiple functions and business processes.

  10. A model is an abstract representation that illustrates the components or relationships of a phenomenon. It can be physical, mathematical, or verbal. Each DSS is built for a

designed to handle the massive quantities of information and data now flowing through the networks of the world, and it is in danger of slowing as it becomes clogged by traffic. The Internet2 infrastructure is based on a series of interconnected gigapops, which are regional high-speed points-of-presence that serve as aggregation points for traffic from participating institutions. These gigapops are in turn connected to backbone networks with very high bandwidths. Work is also being done in testing a more advanced version of the IP and finding new ways to broadcast messages, among these a protocol for permitting different quality-of- service levels.

  1. Electronic commerce server software provides functions essential for running B2C e-commerce Web sites. Essential features include (1) setting up electronic storefronts and electronic catalogs to display product and pricing information; (2) designing electronic shopping carts so customers can collect the items they wish to purchase; (3) making and tracking shipping arrangements; (4) linking to electronic payment processing systems; (5) displaying product availability; and (6) connecting to back-office systems where necessary.

  2. Wireless transmission sends signals (using the electromagnetic spectrum) through air or space without any physical tether. Common technologies for wireless transmission include microwave transmission, communication satellites, pagers, cell phones, personal communication services, smart phones, personal digital assistants, and mobile data networks. Advantages include no limitation on where communications may take place, since the signal can be bounced off satellites to line-of-sight towers and no limitation of the movement of the persons communicating, because no wires are involved. Disadvantages include being more expensive, slower, and more error prone than wired networks. Security and privacy are difficult because wireless transmissions are easily intercepted. Different wireless networks cannot transmit data seamlessly if they use incompatible standards or different frequencies.

  3. Benefits include creating an enterprise-enabled organization, providing firmwide knowledge-based management processes, providing a unified information system technology platform and environment, and enabling more efficient operations and customer-driven business processes. Challenges include a daunting implementation process, surviving a cost-benefit analysis, inflexibility, and realizing strategic value.

  4. Knowledge refers to the concepts, experience, and insight that provide a framework for creating, evaluating, and using information. Knowledge has asset, different form, location, and context dimensions.

    1. Managing the change by planning for the reengineering of the infrastructure. Management must address the organizational issues that arise from shifts in staffing, function, power, and organizational culture.
  1. Education and training to help end users overcome problems resulting from lack of management support and understanding of networked computing; training for technical specialists.
  2. Organizations must systematically identify where their data are located, which group is responsible for maintaining each piece of data, and which individuals and groups are allowed to access and use that data. They need to develop specific policies and procedures to ensure data accuracy, availability to authorized users, and backup.
  3. Senior management must take a long-term view of the firm's IT infrastructure and information architecture, making sure they can support the level of process and information integration for current and future needs. The firm will also need to establish enterprise-wide standards for other systems and applications than those connected to the Internet, to ensure connectivity and continuing efficiency.

  1. A neural network attempts to emulate the processing patterns of the biological brain. It results in a program that can "learn" by comparing solutions to known problems to sets of data presented to it. An expert system works by a system of IF-THEN rules against a knowledge base. By answering a series of yes/no questions, the program arrives at a "diagnosis" or "conclusion". Fuzzy logic uses nonspecific terms called "membership functions" to solve problems by comparing the ranges into which various specifications fall and reaching a conclusion based on rules covering the various relationships. Genetic algorithms are problem-solving methods that use the model of living organisms adapting to their environment. Possible solutions are evaluated, the "best" choices are made, then more possible solutions are created by combining the factors involved in those first "best" choices, and choosing again. The process continues until an optimum solution is reached. Hybrid AI systems use multiple AI technologies in a single application, taking advantage of the best features of each. This is a new field, and has great promise for business applications. Intelligent agents are software programs that use a built-in or a learned knowledge base to carry out specific, repetitive, and predictable tasks for a user, business process, or software application.

  2. Table 9-2 of the text identifies e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, LISTSERVs, chatting and instant messaging, Telnet, FTP, and the World Wide Web. E-mail is person-to-person messaging and document sharing. Usenet newsgroups are discussion groups on electronic bulletin boards. LISTSERVs are discussion groups using e-mailing list servers. Chatting

involves interactive conversations. Telnet allows a user to log on to one computer and do work on another. FTP allows a user to transfer files from computer to computer. The World Wide Web enables users to retrieve, format, and display information (including text, audio, graphic, and video) using hypertext links.

  1. Customer tracking and personalization tools collect and store data on the behavior of online customers, and combine that data with data already stored in the company's back- office systems. They analyze the data in order to better understand the behavior of online customers, and they identify customer preferences and trends.

  2. Knowledge work systems must give knowledge workers the specialized tools they need, such as powerful graphics, analytical tools, and communications and document- management tools. Knowledge work systems must provide a user-friendly interface to the KWS. These user-friendly interfaces save time by allowing the user to perform needed tasks and get to required information without having to spend a lot of time learning to use the computer. Knowledge work systems must be carefully designed to optimize the performance of the specific tasks of the pertinent knowledge worker.

  3. Knowledge workers create new products or find ways to improve existing ones. Without them, the firm would stagnate and become less competitive in an environment that is always changing and is increasingly more competitive. In the modern economy, knowledge is truly power. The three major functions of knowledge workers are: keeping the organization up-to-date in knowledge as it develops in the external world, serving as internal consultants regarding their areas of knowledge and its opportunities, and acting as change agents as they evaluate, initiate, and promote new projects.

  4. Wi-Fi is the emerging standard for wireless LANs. The 802.a standard transmits up to 54 Mbps in the unlicensed 5-Ghz frequency range and has an effective distance up to 30 meters. The 802.11b standard transmits up to 11 Mbps in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band and has an effective distance up to 50 meters. The 802.11g standard transmits up to 54 Mbps in the 2.4 GHz range. Wi-Fi systems can operate either in infrastructure or ad-hoc mode. When operating in infrastructure mode, wireless devices communicate with a LAN through access points. In ad-hoc mode, wireless devices communicate directly and do not use access points.

  5. They include a database of data used for query and analysis, a software system with models, datamining, and other analytical tools and a user interface.

  6. Table 12-2 in the textbook provides several examples including: General Accident Insurance-customer buying patterns and fraud detection. Bank of America-customer profiles. Frito-Lay, Inc.-price, advertising, and promotion selection. Burlington Coat Factory-store location and inventory mix. KeyCorp.-targeting direct mail marketing customers. National Gypsum-corporate planning and forecasting. Southern Railway-train dispatching and routing. The Gap-inventory stocking and merchandising. Texas Oil and Gas Corporation-evaluation of potential drilling sites. United Airlines-flight scheduling, passenger demand forecasting. U.S. Department of Defense-defense contract analysis.

  7. Supply chain planning systems and supply chain execution systems are two classifications for supply chain software. Supply chain planning systems enable a firm to generate demand forecasts for a product and develop sourcing and manufacturing plans for that product. Capabilities include order planning, advanced scheduling and manufacturing planning, demand planning, distribution planning, and transportation planning. Supply chain execution systems manage the flow of products through distribution centers and warehouses to ensure that products are delivered to the right locations. Capabilities include order commitments, final production, replenishment, distribution management, and reverse distribution.