Midterm Exam Review Guide ISM 50, Spring 2009 Summary of reading material covered Topic Source Pages IT History Reader, R. Nolan pp. 3 – 33 Bus. I.S. Foundations Reader, O’Brien I 35 – 70 Competing with IT Reader, O’Brien II 71 – 93 Frito Lay Case Reader 95 – 115 Information Management Textbook 38 – 50 IT Applications Textbook 59 – 82 Cisco Case Reader 117 – 135 Electronic Commerce Textbook 83 – 98 Alibris Case Reader 137 – 147 IT Architecture Textbook 107 – 132 Client-Server Computing Textbook 139 – 154 Sun Case Reader 149 – 168 List of eight short cases from O’Brien that may be on the exam Organization Page Key point, lesson, or example 1 Royal Carribean 50 IT systems unproductive without leadership or business process co-design 2 Cisco Case 53 Virtual manufacturing/SCM exemplar; 70% gross margins 3 Clariant 68 IROR for an IT project can be 30% to 40% 4 Hershey 69 Due to complexity, IT projects can fail if rushed or not planned properly 5 Wesco 73 Example of an e-procurement ERP system that gave a huge ROI 6 Staples 81 “Clicks and bricks” ecommerce model, all coming together at the cash register 7 GE 87 Famous example of Total Quality Management (TQM)8 Siemens AG 91 Knowledge management makes an agile company: Denmark – Malaysia teams Net present value and the rate of return Know the definitions of NPV, ROR, IROR, and ROI as we used them in class. Know the mathematical expression for the NPV for a series of cash payments, and be able to calculate it as a function of i or of d (d is the discount factor). Know how to solve the inverse problem of computing d given the NPV and the series of payments. IT History What distinguished the Data Processing Era? What distinguished the Micro Era from the Networking Era? Why did Data Processing Era managers feel threatened in the Micro Era? O’Brien Chapter 2 Porter’s competitive model. Why is it useful? Porter’s strategy model. Differentiation and cost leadership are primary strategies; innovation, growth, and alliances are the three secondary strategies. We classify companies by a primary strategy--secondary strategy pair. For example, many high tech startup companies may be characterized as following a differentiation-innovation strategy. Porter’s value chain model, business functions, and business processes (which may span multiple functions). Switching costs and lock-in effects Barriers to entry Business process streamlining (or business improvement) vs. Business Process Reengineering (BPR) (BPR is called business transformation in Messerschmitt 3.3.1) Knowledge management Messerschmitt 2 Data, information, knowledge, wisdom Search, browse, navigate Push vs. pull Index, metadata, hyperlink, recommender Messerschmitt 3.1, 3.2 Departmental applications Enterprise applications Commerce applications Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Transaction Processing Systems (TPS) – see also lecture slides Online Transaction Processing (OLTP) Workflow Human resource management (see Homework 3) Messerschmitt 3.3 Operations Business processes Business transformation Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Decision support Knowledge management (also in O’Brien, Chapter 2) Messerschmitt 3.4 Electronic commerceInter-enterprise commerce (B2B) Direct procurement Indirect procurement Supply chain management (SCM) Mass customization Electronic data interchange (EDI) Consumer commerce (B2C) Inter-consumer commerce (C2C) Four typical steps in e-commerce transactions: (1) matching buyers and sellers; (2) negotiating terms and conditions; (3) consummation; (4) customer service Ways to match buyers and sellers: catalogs, advertising, and intermediary recommendations Negotiating terms and conditions: auctions, fixed prices, and price discrimination Consummation steps: order, fulfillment, payment Intermediaries, escrow agents Messerschmitt 4.1, 4.2 Data vs. information Information represented as data Digital data needs structure and interpretation for its meaning to be recovered Regeneration, replication Messerschmitt 4.3 System architecture elements: decomposition, functionality, interaction. Why do we architect systems in this way? Emergence Hierarchy Messerschmitt 4.4, 4.5 Software layering What is the benefit of architecting software with layers? Operating System (OS), middleware, file system, Database Management System (DBMS) Network functions Messages and packets Internet, extranet, intranet Ethernet, LAN Messerschmitt 5 Client-server architecture Peer-to-peer architecture Two-tier and three-tier architectures Shared data (server), application logic (server), presentation (client) Fat client vs. thin client CGI books4u.com software architecture diagram flowers4u.com software architecture diagram Frito-Lay Case What was the HHC? What were the main reasons why Frito-Lay deployed the HHC? What changes in marketing strategy did Frito-Lay believe the HHC data would help enable? How might the HHC project change Frito-Lay’s competitive position with its direct competitors, new entrants, and its customers? Cisco ERP What are some of the actions that Cisco took that contributed to the successful deployment of ERP? What mistakes did Cisco make?What are the important lessons that another company that wants to deploy ERP could learn from Cisco’s experience? Alibris Case How did Alibris plan to change Interloc’s revenue model? What were the potential benefits and risks of this change? How did Alibris plan to avoid being disintermediated? Why did Alibris abandon Thunderstone software, and why did it choose to switch to Oracle? What made Alibris’ IT challenge particularly difficult compared to what other ecommerce companies faced? Sun Case How much time did Sun estimate developers could save when writing new applications by reusing Java objects? Name one or two key differences between the 3-tier architecture and Sun’s 4-tier architecture. What benefits are provided to Sun’s customers by the 4-tier architecture? What is meant by a “high-latency servlet?” Which is more expensive: Sun’s application server, or the ongoing maintenance of heterogeneous software applications on diverse platforms? What advantage did Microsoft have over Sun in dealing with line of business managers in customer firms? (See p. 158) Why does Bill Joy think Java is a superior programming language? (p. 162) On the other hand, some problems with Java: it can