ITM Answers for the Question Bank 2012

7/30/2019 ITM Answers for the Question Bank 2012

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Q1 How does IT contribute towards increasing productivity and in doing business better?

Explain wrt different functions of an org. in detail.

1.

Cost reduction. Transaction processing is much faster; less paper is used (ideally), etc.

Locking in customers/suppliers: The new modes of communication can be used to strengthen

relations between a company and other parties.

Product/service differentiation: IT can be used to help differentiate products from those of

other companies, or even help develop new products.

2.

Information technology is transforming the way the business world works. It allows business to

be leaner and faster with smarter, more capable employees. Business and the workersemployed by it are more productive than ever before because of the tools information

technology allows them to have.

Today's market is a fast-paced highly competitive world. Businesses that use information

technology are more productive and their employees produce more at less cost.

Worker Performance

Worker:

The American worker is among the most productive in the world. According to the Bureau of

Labor Statistics, American workers have become 4 percent more productive every year since

1979. Part of that increase is due to the effect of information technology on the way work getsdone.

Information technology improves employee performance by allowing quick access to the

information needed to make important work decisions. Better decision making by managers

and employees translates into higher profits and lower costs.

Another area that information technology can improve is employee training. The company

Intranet, with all the training and employee development pages stored there, is a product of

information technology. Employees can access the training materials at work or often on their

laptops. Better-trained employees perform better and are more productive.Business Productivity

Projecting sales:

Information technology allows businesses to be more productive and perform better in several

ways. Using information technology permits businesses to maintain a tighter control over

inventory management and to make more accurate sales projections for the months ahead.


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Better sales projections allow companies to spend less money on holding inventory that is not

needed. More accurate inventory management reduces inventory losses from mismanagement,

miscounting and theft. Thus, the company reduces costs and can perform more competitively.

E-commerce:The United States Department of Commerce estimated total e-commerce sales for 2009 at

$134.9 billion. Eighty percent of that trade was business to business e-commerce. Companies

are buying and selling products to each other faster and cheaper than ever before.

Business on the Web is profitable and can improve the productivity of most companies. Instead

of having buyers and sales staff travel across the country business today utilizes the Internet.

Purchasing becomes less expensive, faster, and uses fewer staff.

Sales staff can utilize video conferencing and online catalogs and brochures that the customercan access with the touch of a computer key. Performance improves dramatically when you can

give presentations to clients anywhere in the world all in the same day without any travel

expense. Employees do more, do it better, for less cost.

3.

Technology is integrated into our society. Fifteen years ago, people around the world were just

scratching the surface of what email could do. The concept was called the "information

highway" because of the sharing of data and information. Technology during that time hasexploded into a phenomenon that is matched by the discovery of flight and automobile travel.

Small business owners over this time period have discovered that when applied correctly,

technology can improve productivity and performance.

Automation

1. Computer automation in many environments has cut down on the use of manual labor.

Computer systems and software have replaced tasks that were mundane and needed several

people to perform. Automation has affected every industry in the world and has increased

efficiency in manual labor-related areas. For example, if your business manually filed

documents, an audit could show that most documents were lost because of human error.

Through automation, documents are filed and stored on the computer, which cuts down the

manual process of filing paperwork.

Information and Data

2. With the push of a button, your business has access to thousands of documents, data and

information that was not available to the common business owner 20 years ago. Small

businesses can compete with their larger counterparts because the same information is being


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accessed and analyzed to make strategic business decisions. Having real-time information can

assist a business owner to make critical decisions concerning the operation of their business.

Customer Service

3. Computers can be used in business to assist with customer service. Most companies have

integrated their phone systems into a computer network to answer calls or customer service

questions without speaking to a live representative. This is made possible by having a phone

system that supports voice and data. For marketing purposes, computers are used to

automatically dial phone numbers of potential consumers to sell a product or service.

Computer Based Training (CBT)

4. Computer-based training software programs are designed to teach skills needed to perform a

task in a virtual environment. The software is programmed to create scenarios in the workplace

for employees to study and apply to daily responsibilities. Software can be programmed to test

employees on job knowledge. This software can assist with employee development, increase

awareness of job responsibility and improve productivity in areas, such as customer support,

employee relations and communication.

Workgroup Management

5. If you have more than two stores or offices with employees at those locations, computer

automation, through workgroup software can allow employees to work on the same project at

the same time via the Internet or dedicated modem. You no longer have to fax reports back and

forth. Workgroup management software increases productivity by having different workgroups

work on a section of a document or program that they are assigned to.

The workgroup management concept has been extended to music. Through computer

automation, you can record parts of a song and have a musician sign-on to a portal and play his

part in your virtual recording session from another country. That technology is available at

www.indabamusic.com. The workgroup management concept of a group working to achieve a

common goal has clearly expanded beyond the boundaries of administrative work.

4.

The past few decades have seen huge changes in the world of information technology and

some strong increases in productivity as a result. Computers and computer technology have

changed the way we work and have allowed us to be more productive on the job. From front-

line service workers and salespeople in the field to CEOs and business owners, everyone in the

business world has benefited from information technology in one way or another.

Working from Anywhere

1. One of the most significant impacts information technology has made on productivity is that it

allows employees to work from anywhere. Employees who were once forced to spend an hour

or more each day commuting to a distant office can now log on and work from the comfort of
http://www.ehow.com/computers/http://www.ehow.com/careers/http://www.ehow.com/business/http://www.ehow.com/business/http://www.ehow.com/careers/http://www.ehow.com/computers/


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their homes or even from the beach if they are so inclined. Remote access has come a long way

in a relatively short period of time, and the stability of the new products allows workers to be

just as productive--or even more so--than they would be in the office.

This remote access technology also allows companies to benefit in a number of important ways.

First there is the cost savings associated with lower office space requirements and lower leasing

costs. There is also the greater employee satisfaction and morale that working at home can

provide. Finally the technology involved can boost productivity as workers spend what would

have otherwise been their commuting time working and helping their employers succeed.

Working More Efficiently

2. Only a short time ago, processing paper documents required at least one person to file the

paper documents, another person to keep those files organized and up to date and still another

group of employees to go through the files looking for the information needed by the business.

Advances in information technology now allow all paper documents to be scanned into a

central database, where a single employee can easily search for just the records that are

needed by the organization. Work that once required an office full of employees can now be

accomplished by one or two dedicated workers.

This ability to streamline operations is one of the keys to the productivity gains that information

technology has provided over the last two decades. The last twenty years have seen incredible

gains in the productivity of the average worker and much of the increase can be attributed to

the growing importance of information technology in the workplace.

Exponential Storage Gains

3. When considering the impact information technology has had and continues to have on

productivity, we cannot overlook the importance of falling storage prices. The price pergigabyte,of storage has fallen sharply in recent years and that lower price has allowed

companies to keep more of their data online for longer periods of time.

When the price of hard drive and magnetic media storage was higher, companies were limited

in terms of how much data could be retained at any one time, but with prices of storage media

declining so sharply, those same companies can now keep years' worth of data on hand. That

means far fewer man-hours spent tracking down old data, resulting in strong productivity gains

and a more efficient workplace.

5.

Information technology, or IT, involves the design, development and operation of computer-

based systems including software, hardware, Internet and mobile applications. IT improves

productivity by increasing the speed, convenience and accuracy of personal and business

activities.


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Automate Manual Processes

Information technology is used to automate processes that were previously manual and paper-

based, which can save time, improve efficiency and reduce errors.

Work Virtually

By leveraging remote access technology, employees can work from any location at any time.

The workday no longer has a hard stop at 5 p.m.

Collaborate Without Travel

Telephone and web-based conferencing technology allows workers to meet and collaborate

without the cost and time of domestic or international travel.

Solve Problems Faster

By accessing an online, knowledge database, with product, process and company information,

employees can solve problems and answer questions faster and more accurately.Communicate Instantly

With email, instant messaging and mobile technology, business and personal communication

can be instantaneous.

6.

How IT supports various types of organizational activities:

Operational Activities:

Operational activities deal with day to day activities of the organization such as assigning

employees to task and recording number of hours they work or placing a purchase order.

Operational activities are short term in nature. The information systems that support them are

mainly TPSs (Transaction Processing Systems), MISs and mobile systems. Operational systems

are used by supervisors (first line managers), operators and clerical employees.

Managerial Activities:

Managerial activities, also called as tactical activities or decisions, deal in general with middle

management activities such as short-term planning, organizing and control. Computerized

managerial systems are always equated with MISs because MISs are designed to summarize

data and prepare reports. Middle managers can also get quick answers to queries from such

systems as the need for answer arises. Managerial information systems are broader than

operational information systems.


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Strategic Activities:

Strategic activities are basically decisions that deal with situations that may significantly change

the manner in which business is done. Traditionally, strategic decisions involve long term

planning like launching a new product line, mergers or acquisitions or expanding business in

foreign country. Such strategies will be outlined for next 5 or 10 years. From this plan,

companies derive their short range planning, budgeting and resource allocation. In digital

economy, the planning period has been dramatically reduced to one or two years or even

months. These activities help companies in two ways.

First, these activities can respond to competitors activities or some other changes in

enterprises environment. Although they can be sometimes planned as a set of contingencies,

strategic responses are generally not included in long term plan because situations they

respond to are unpredictable. IT is often used to support the response or as a response itself.

For instance, when Kodak learned that a Japanese company was developing disposable camera,Kodak decided to develop one too. However, Kodak faced a time problem as the Japanese

company was already in the middle of the development process. By using computer aided

design and other information technologies, Kodak was able to cut its design time by half and

beat the Japanese in the race to be the first one to have cameras in retail outlets.


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Q3: What is System Software and Application software? Enumerate the various Sys soft. and

Appln soft. Which you have come across and explain their basic Functions.

A:

System Software:The software required to execute the users programs is called SystemSoftware. System software controls a computers internal functioning, chiefly through an

operating system, and also controls such peripherals as monitors, printers, and storage devices.

System Software has direct control and access to the computer hardware and memory

locations. It performs I/O operations on various memory locations, and controls the hardware.

System software helps use the operating system and computer system. It includes diagnostic

tools, compilers, servers, windowing systems, utilities, language translator, data

communication programs, database systems and more.

The purpose of system software is to insulate the applications programmer as much as possible

from the details of the particular computer complex being used, especially memory and other

hardware features, and such accessory devices as communications, printers, readers, displays,

keyboards, etc. Examples of Application software include Operating Systems (Windows, Linux,

Mac OS, etc), BIOS, Compilers, Loaders, Linkers, Device driver software, etc.

Application Software:

Application software is a subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a

computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform. Application

software are also known as end-user software.

Types of application software by license type:


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Types of Application Software by functionality:

* Word processing software: The main purpose of this software is to produce documents.

MS-Word, Word Pad, Notepad and some other text editors are some of the examples of word

processing software.

* Database software: Database is a collection of data. The purpose of this software is to

organize and manage data. The advantage of this software is that you can change way data is

stored and displayed. MS access, dBase, FoxPro, Paradox, and Oracle are some of the examples

of database software.

* Spread sheet software: The spread sheet software is used to maintain budget, financial

statements, grade sheets, and sales records. The purpose of this software is organizing

numbers. It also allows the users to perform simple or complex calculations on the numbers

entered in rows and columns. MS-Excel, Lotus 1-2-3, and Open Office cal are some of theexamples of spreadsheet application software.

* Multimedia software: Media players and real players are the examples of multimedia

software. This software will allow the user to create audio and videos. The different forms of

multimedia software are audio converters, players, burners, video encoders and decoders.

Copyrighted. If we don't pay for it, it is apunishable offence.

Commercial Software

Not Copyrighted. Free to be used by anyonePublic-DomainSoftware/freeware

Copyrighted, free to try, but user must buyafter a trail period to continue using it.

Shareware:

Free to use software. Source code available

for modification and customization.

Open Source


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* Presentation software: This software will be used to display the information in the form of

slide show. The three main functions of presentation software is editing that allows insertion

and formatting of text, methods to include graphics in the text and a functionality of executing

the slide shows. The best example for this type of application software is Microsoft Power

Point.

Examples in day to day life include:

MS Word : Microsoft word is a popular word processor under the Microsoft Office Suite. It

provides facility such as text editing, formatting, etc. Recent versions of the software include

features such as Smartart, tables, etc.

Adobe Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop is an Image editor which is used by photographers and

graphics artists to edit and manipulate images. It provides a wide range of tools including image

cropping, resizing, sharpening, etc.

Mozilla Firefox: Firefox is an open-source web-browser by Mozilla Corporation. It is used to

browse the Internet and download files. Firefox includes features such as tabbed browsing,

pop-up blocker, secure browsing, etc.


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Q5) Features and merits of DBMS over conventional file system and few eg of DBMS and RDBMS

Ans) ADVANTAGES OF DBMS :

1. The context and organization of database can be changed without affecting application

software.

2. Change of hardware/software doesnt have any effect on application s/w.

3. Sharing of data by multiple application programs, each program getting the view that data is

organized as per its requirement.

4. There is central control of data ensuring security and integrity of data.

5. System identifies common data and avoids duplication. However for better performance of

system some duplication is allowed.

6.

Relationship between data items should be specified.

7. System preserves consistency of data value and relationship by using various data editing

methods.

8. Access to data is controlled through access rights. Access can be for individual item or group of

items.

9. System maintains performance base to provide timely info.

10.Control over data for deletion, changes and additions to satisfy legal, accounting and auditing

requirements.

Few Examples of DBMS and RDBMS:

1. Library database is a typical eg of DBMS, wherein you can simply add or remove name of

any book if it is there in the library. Sybase and Foxpro.

2. RDBMS: SQL server and ORACLE.

Criteria RDBMS

Product maturity Relatively old and so very mature


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The use of SQL Extensive supports SQL

Advantages Its dependence on SQL, relatively

simple query optimization hence

good performance

Disadvantage Inability to handle complex

applications

Support from vendors It is considered to be highly

successful so the market size is

very large but many vendors are

moving towards ORDBMS

In case he asks the vendors, B ready with this.

RDBMS Vendors RDBMS

Computer Associates INGRES

IBM DB2

INFORMIX Software INFORMIX

Oracle Corporation Oracle

Microsoft Corporation MS Access

Microsoft Corporation SQL Server

MySQL AB MySQL

NCR Teradata

PostgreSQL Dvlp Grp PostgreSQL

Sybase Sybase 11


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Q6) What is internet, intranet and extranet? How is internet beneficial to a business org.?

Ans) What is Internet?

An Internet is a network of networks, joining many government, university and private

computers together and providing an infrastructure for the use of E-mail, bulletin boards, filearchives, hypertext documents, databases and other computational resources. It was conceived

by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. government in 1969 and was first

known as the ARPANet.

The vast collection of computer networks which form and act as a single huge network for

transport of data and messages across distances which can be anywhere from the same office

to anywhere in the world.

So from the business point of view it consists of communication that can be reached to masses

in shortest possible time and even the reach is immense. There are ways in which you can dothat with least investment.

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard

Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide that are linked by a broad

array of electronic and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of

information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World

Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support electronic mail.

Today, the Internet is a public, cooperative, and self-sustaining facility accessible to hundreds of

millions of people worldwide. Physically, the Internet uses a portion of the total resources ofthe currently existing public telecommunication networks. Technically, what distinguishes the

Internet is its use of a set of protocols called TCP/IP (for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet

Protocol). Two recent adaptations of Internet technology, the intranet and the extranet, also

make use of the TCP/IP protocol.

The most widely used part of the Internet is the World Wide Web (often abbreviated "WWW"

or called "the Web"). Its outstanding feature is hypertext, a method of instant cross-

referencing.


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WHAT IS INTRANET AND EXTRANET??

INTRANET:

An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet Protocol technologies to securely

share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that

organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and

instead refers to a network within an organization. Sometimes the term refers only to the

organization's internal website, but may be a more extensive part of the organization's

information technology infrastructure. It may host multiple private websites and constitute an

important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration.

Intranets may provide a gateway to the Internet by means of a network gateway with a firewall,

shielding the intranet from unauthorized external access. The gateway often also implements

user authentication, encryption of messages, and often virtual private network (VPN)

connectivity for off-site employees to access company information, computing resources and

internal communications.


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It is an inhouse Web site on the company's local area network (LAN) that serves employees

only, and almost every medium to large company has an intranet. Although intranet pages may

have links to Web sites on the Internet, the intranet is not exposed to, or is accessed by, the

general public. It provides a standard way to publish company policy, news, schedules, medical

and insurance forms and training manuals. The intranet is also a venue for publishing blogs,

wikis and social activities such as sports and exercise schedules.

EXTRANET:

An extranet is a computer network that allows controlled access from the outside, for specific

business or educational purposes. An extranet can be viewed as an extension of a company's

intranet that is extended to users outside the company, usually partners, vendors, and

suppliers. One of the differences in characteristic of an extranet is that its interconnections are

over a shared network rather than through dedicated physical lines.

An extranet can allow public access to employees, customers, clients or partners. The extranet

uses Internet protocols so users can navigate with a browser, but resides on the company's

private server rather than on a public Internet server. Extranet access from the Internet can becontrolled through various architectures that are password or username specific. In other

words, areas of the extranet will be available according to password credentials. This limits

users to extranet pages relevant to the business they might be conducting, while keeping other

areas of the extranet private and secure.

One very valuable application for an extranet is customer service. Online patches, upgrades,

downloads, knowledge bases, and an interactive Help Desk are just a few examples of ways to

serve a client base using an extranet. Extranet chat boards where customers help each otherwith company products can also build customer confidence and brand loyalty, while saving

valuable human resources.


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HOW IS INTERNET BENEFICIAL TO A BUSINESS ORGANISATION?

There are various benefits of internet to both small and large businesses.

Small Business

One of the benefits of the Internet for small businesses is that the Internet creates a

competitive marketplace in which small businesses have the opportunity to grow as much as

larger companies.

Firms that do have the potential to grow their business, earn greater revenue and save money

by opting to do a large percentage of their business online.

Marketing and Advertising

Creating a website benefits businesses because people can market their products and services

without using traditional marketing techniques such as fliers, mailings and newspaper ads.

Online marketing saves the company money that would otherwise be spent on traditional

means of advertising.

Larger Customer Base

A key benefit of the Internet for business is the potential for customer growth. A small business

without a website may be able to compete only with other local businesses.


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Mobile Internet:

Its the web for mobile devices. A mobile browser lets you view sites and services on your

phone, just like desktop browsers Firefox or Internet Explorer. Providing access to theInternet

via3G,GPRS(General Packet Radio Service) orCSD. Used for video calling, Gaming, Social

networking, Information, etc.

E-Commerce

eCommerce, or e-business consists of the buying and selling of products or services over

electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Conducted between B2B

as well as B2C customers. This is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies

such as Amazon.com, ebay.com.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing isWeb-basedprocessing, whereby shared resources, software, and

information are provided tocomputersand other devices (such assmartphones) on demand

over theInternet. The term "cloud" is used as a metaphor for the Internet, based on the cloud

drawing used in the past to represent the telephone network, and later to depict the Internet in

computer network diagrams as an abstraction of the underlying infrastructure it represents.

Typical cloud computing providers deliver common business applications online that are

accessed from another Web service or software like a Web browser, while the software and

data are stored on servers.

Other Benefits for Businesses : * Employee Finder * Voice Over IP * Market Research

*Communicate * References * Resources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Ghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Ghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Ghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPRShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPRShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPRShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphoneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphoneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphoneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internethttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smartphoneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSDhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPRShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3Ghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet


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Q7) What are the various options available for a company to establish network/connectivity

across its offices and branches? What are its advantages?

ANS: So, let us look at some of the popular options available for such geographically spread

enterprises to connect with other branches and the head office. We have given a brief overview

of

1) Managed Leased Lines and IPLC

Leased Lines have been traditionally a popular mode of connectivity between two branches or

multiple branches in different locations

Working:

Basically, companies lease a circuit (a particular amount of bandwidth in a circuit) from a

service provider. Companies could lease bandwidths as low as 64 Kbps (or its granular

increments). The service provider would take care of providing and maintaining the complete

circuit from one location to other location(s) which includes owning and operating all the

passive and active components required to maintain the Wide Area Network.

(The International Leased Lines are called IPLC International Private Leased Circuit) which

may be owned by a single service provider or jointly owned by multiple service providers

Cost is incremental with distance between location.


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Advantages :

private, secure, scalable and quite sufficient for basic data connectivity between different

branches.

Since this is a private circuit, security concerns are minimum.

Disadvantage :

From every location there is a connection to all other locations, this is network redundancy

2) MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) Circuits,

Working: MPLS Circuits are much like Leased Lines they are private circuits but the

transportation and switching is on common infrastructure which comprise of many MPLS Edge

and MPLS Core Routers

Even International MPLS circuits are possible (Actually by joining the MPLS networks of Service

provider in one country with another, which is taken care by the respective service providers inthe different countries).


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Advantages:

a) MPLS gets over the disadvantage of leased lines.. In MPLS only one MPLS connection per

site is required regardless of the number of sites. huge benefit for organizations that

have a large number of branches and are expanding.

b) Dynamic bandwidth allocation

c) MPLS allows for dynamic bandwidth allocation and has robust security built in using VPN

Tunnels thereby eliminating any VPN equipments from the customer end.

d)

MPLS is a connection oriented network (which makes it more reliable) and protocolindependent (that makes it suitable to carry any type of payload)

e) QoS factors for end to end voice and video data delivery can be easily set up. It basically

requires increased bandwith

3) VPN (Virtual Private Network) Over Internet Leased Lines/ fixed and mobile

broadband,


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One major difference between the above two networks (Leased Line, MPLS) and this one

(Internet Leased Line/ Broadband) is that, in the former, you can just connect to your

companies servers or transfer data between multiple locations of your own company its a

private network

VPN over internet leased lines

Internet Leased Line/ Broadband basically connects you to the public network Internet. Since

this is not a private network, it is not secure to exchange sensitive information about

projects/customers etc as they are transmitted in clear text over the Internet (meaning, its

possible to sniff the data by outsiders).

But If you use technologies like VPN which are basically encryption technologies you can

encrypt data and make it secure..i.e no one can sniff or intercept and interpret, thereby making

the network virtually private. Devices like Routers, UTM(FIrewalls), VPN Concentrators are

used for this shit.

VPN over mobile broadband

Even roaming users / home users can establish VPN connectivity to the enterprise network

through VPN Software clients which are loaded on their PCs / Laptops etc, over the Internet

(Through fixed broadband/ mobile broadband High Speed CDMA/ 3G/ EDGE etc).

Advantages:


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a) VPN over internet and broadband is killing private leased line. This is because private

leased lines are darn expensive. Internet costs are reducing due to wide acceptance,

economies of scale and competition. Many companies and broadband individuals are

adopting to VPN technologies so the costs of vpn as a network solution is decreasing.

Disadvantages:

a) not all companies are ready to send their confidential data and information on public

networks as the data is not 100% secure.

b) End to End QoS parameters are very difficult to set up on public networks

c) broadband networks always offer good download speeds but the upload speeds are

very less which hinders data transfers from the broadband networks.

4) Metro Ethernet.In the bigger cities, huge industrial districts, IT/ Technology parks etc, some service providers

might provide 100 Mbps (or) 1 GE Ethernet connectivity (Over IP) using Fiber Cable

Infrastructure and specialized Metro Ethernet Switches/ Routers.

..1GE is kinda the latest thing..

This is almost like extending your LAN to the other office but over fiber cables running across

the roads, and these fiber cables are owned and maintained by the service providers.

Advantages :

a)very useful for companies with hugh data transfer load

disadvantage:


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a) Due to fiber we can guess the technology to be expensive

5) Wireless Back-haul connectivity and

Point to Point Wireless Network:

Can be used to connect branches not more than 50 kb apart .. i.e Line of sight .. so there shdnt

be any buildings or opague objects in the way.. as s slon we build the towers high enough.


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There are other technologies like Wi Max they do not need LOS

6) Satellite based VSATGeo-Synchronous Orbit Satellites technology is used to give connectivity to disperse locations

based the satellite communications network .

This is hugely beneficial to the companies which require to connect their remote locations that

are not covered by the terrestrial networks (Eg. Ships, Hill tops etc). More recently, VSAT

technology has found its way in to the more mainstream applications as well (Like connecting

various Bank ATM Machines across the country, Remote Video Conferencing, Tele-medicine

etc).

Eg DTH service

Advantages :

a) Service costs are independent of distance between the locations.. independent of

geography and terrain

Disadvantages :

a) higher procurement and maintenance costs, limited support for bandwidth and the

availability of service and trained personnel in a region.


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Q8) What is ERP system? What functions does such a system perform? Merits and Demerits.

1) Information in large business organizations is accumulated on various servers across many

functional units and sometimes separated by geographical boundaries. Such information islandscan possibly service individual organizational units but fail to enhance enterprise wide

performance, speed and competence.

2) ERP, which is an abbreviation for Enterprise Resource Planning, is principally an integration of

business management practices and modern technology.

3) Information Technology (IT) integrates with the core business processes of a corporate

house to streamline and accomplish specific business objectives.

4) Consequently, ERP is an amalgamation of three most important components; Business

Management Practices, Information Technology and Specific Business Objectives.

5) It is a massive software architecture that supports the streaming and distribution of

geographically scattered enterprise wide information across all the functional units of a

business house.

6) It provides the business management executives with a comprehensive overview of the

complete business execution which in turn influences their decisions in a productive way.

7) The term ERP originally referred to the way a large organization planned to use its

organizational wide resources. Formerly, ERP systems were used in larger and more industrial

types of companies. However, the use of ERP has changed radically over a period of few years.Today the term can be applied to any type of company, operating in any kind of field and of any

magnitude.

Functions of ERP System

An ERP system would qualify as the best model for enterprise wide solution architecture, if it

chains all the below organizational processes together with a central database repository and a

fused computing platform.

Manufacturing

Engineering, resource & capacity planning, material planning, workflow management, shop

floor management, quality control, bills of material, manufacturing process, etc.


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Financials

Accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, general ledger, cash management, and

billing (contract/service)

Human Resource

Recruitment, benefits, compensations, training, payroll, time and attendance, labour rules,

people management

Supply Chain Management

Inventory management, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, claim processing, sales

order administration, procurement planning, transportation and distribution

Projects

Costing, billing, activity management, time and expense

Customer Relationship Management

Sales and marketing, service, commissions, customer contact and after sales support

Data Warehouse

Generally, this is an information storehouse that can be accessed by organizations, customers,

suppliers and employees for their learning and orientation

Advantages of ERP Systems

There are many advantages of implementing an EPR system. A few of them are listed below:

A perfectly integrated system chaining all the functional areas together

The capability to streamline different organizational processes and workflows

The ability to effortlessly communicate information across various departments\

Improved efficiency, performance and productivity levels

Enhanced tracking and forecasting


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Improved customer service and satisfaction

Disadvantages of ERP Systems

While advantages usually outweigh disadvantages for most organizations implementing an ERP

system, here are some of the most common obstacles experienced:

The scope of customization is limited in several circumstances

The present business processes have to be rethought to make them synchronize with

the ERP

ERP systems can be extremely expensive to implement

There could be lack of continuous technical support

ERP systems may be too rigid for specific organizations that are either new or want to

move in a new direction in the near future


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Q9) What is Data warehouse, and how is it diff. from a traditional database used to support

OLTP? Discuss benefit of data warehouse to business.

Ans) Database management systems are widely used by organizations for maintaining data thatdocuments their everyday operations. In applications that update such operational data,

transactions typically make small changes (for example, adding a reservation or depositing a

check) and a large number of transactions must be reliably and efficiently processed. Such

online transaction processing (OLTP) applications have driven the growth of the DBMS industry

in the past.

Data warehouses contain consolidated data from many sources, augmented with summary

information and covering a long time period. Warehouses are much larger than other kinds ofdatabases; sizes ranging from several gigabytes to terabytes are common. Typical workloads

involve ad hoc, fairly complex queries and fast response times are important. These

characteristics differentiate warehouse applications from OLTP applications, and different

DBMS design and implementation techniques must be used to achieve satisfactory results. A

distributed DBMS with good scalability and high availability (achieved by storing tables

redundantly at more than one site) is required for very large warehouses.

A typical data warehousing architecture is illustrated


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Data is extracted from operational databases and external sources, cleaned to minimize errors

and fill in missing information when possible, and transformed to reconcile semantic

mismatches. The cleaned and transformed data is finally loaded into the warehouse. Additional

preprocessing such as sorting and generation of summary information, indexing for efficiency is

carried out at this stage. After data is loaded into a warehouse, additional measures must betaken to ensure that the data in the warehouse is periodically refreshed to reflect updates to

the data sources and to periodically purge data that is too old from the warehouse.

Data warehouses are optimized for speed of data analysis. Frequently data in data warehouses

are denormalised via a dimension-based model. Also, to speed data retrieval, data warehouse

data are often stored multiple timesin their most granular form and in summarized forms

called aggregates. Data warehouse data are gathered from the operational systems and held in

the data warehouse even after the data has been purged from the operational systems.

Applications of Data warehouse -

Decision support

Trend analysis

Financial forecasting

Churn Prediction for Telecom subscribers, Credit Card users etc.

Insurance fraud analysis

Call record analysis

Logistics and Inventory management


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Q10) What is data mining? What is OLAP? How are they different? Discuss the benefit of data

mining to business?

Ans) There are systems that support a class of stylized queries that typically involve group-by

and aggregation operators and provide excellent support for complex Boolean conditions,

statistical functions, and features for time-series analysis. Applications dominated by such

queries are called online analytic processing, or OLAP.

Multidimensional model

In the multidimensional data model, the focus is on a collection of numeric measures. Each

measure depends on a set ofdimensions.

E.g. Measure is sales for a particular product , at a particular location at a

particular time . Product, Location and Time are dimensions.

Relation which relates the dimensions to the measure of interest is called fact table

For each dimension, the set of associated values can be structured as a hierarchy. E.g. Location

attributes like Cities, states, countries etc. form a hierarchy.

Each dimension can have a set of associated attributes.

These relations are much smaller than the fact table in a typical OLAP application; they are

called the dimension tables..

OLAP systems that store all information, including fact tables, as relations are called relational

OLAP (ROLAP) systems.

OLAP systems that use arrays to store multidimensional datasets are called multidimensional

OLAP (MOLAP) systems.

Data Mining

Data Mining consists of finding interesting trends or patterns in large datasets, in order to guide

decisions about future.

Subarea of statistics called Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and also closely related to subarea

of artificial intelligence called Knowledge Discovery and Machine Learning.


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Four classes of tasks in Data Mining -

Clustering - is the task of discovering groups and structures in the data that are in some way or

another "similar", without using known structures in the data.

Classification - is the task of generalizing known structure to apply to new data. For example,an email program might attempt to classify an email as legitimate or spam. Common algorithms

include decision tree learning, nearest neighbor, naive Bayesian classification, neural networks

and support vector machines.

Regression - Attempts to find a function which models the data with the least error.

Association rule learning - Searches for relationships between variables. For example a

supermarket might gather data on customer purchasing habits. Using association rule learning,

the supermarket can determine which products are frequently bought together and use this

information for marketing purposes. This is sometimes referred to as market basket analysis.

Data Mining applications in business

CRM - Rather than randomly contacting a prospect or customer through a call center or sending

mail, a company can concentrate its efforts on prospects that are predicted to have a high

likelihood of responding to an offer. Data clustering can also be used to automatically discover

the segments or groups within a customer data set.

Data mining can also be helpful to human-resources departments in identifying the

characteristics of their most successful employees. Information obtained, such as universities

attended by highly successful employees, can help HR focus recruiting efforts accordingly.

Market basket analysis, relates to its use in retail sales. If a clothing store records the purchases

of customers, a data-mining system could identify those customers who favor silk shirts over

cotton ones.

Data mining v/s OLAP

OLAP tools provide multidimensional data analysis that is, they allow data to be broken down

and summarized.

OLAP technology basically comes down to the operation of data.


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Data mining, on the other hand, is about ratios, patterns and influences in a data set. As such,

data mining is division

E.g., OLAP can tell you about the total number of widgets sold in all the ZIP codes in the

country. Data mining can tell you about the factors influencing the sales of the widgets in those

ZIP codes.


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Q.11 What are some of the business opportunities presented by e-commerce? What are

some of the key issues?

E-Commerce as we know has become an integral part of every business today. Every majorbusiness has a presence on the internet and has its presence in the virtual world. E-

commerce consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems

such as the Internet and other computer networks.

The business opportunities that e-commerce presents us with are vast and still highly untapped

even after having so many businesses operating online. Today, we can buy anything and

everything through the click of a button. The best example for that case can be that of

Amazon.com. One can go to the website looking for any product and not only find it but also

compare it with the other options available. The website also encourages users to rate the

sellers so that the prospective buyers know about the trustworthiness of the seller. For the

Indian context a very recent example of Futurebazaar.com can be cited.

Apart from selling products, E-commerce has also wide applications in selling of services online.

A unique example can be cited here about the online tutoring sites that actually deliver tuitions

to students across countries online. The tutor maybe situated in say India and the student

studying in the U.S. This gives rise to a win win situation where the student gets tutored in the

comfort of his home or gets a one to one attention, while the tutor gets paid higher.

Talking about challenges E-commerce faces, these are many for a developing country like

ours.These challenges can be broadly classified as below:

I.Cultural issues

1. Lack of online culture

Electronic way of doing business is a new concept for the societies of the developing nations.

People usually buy and sell on face-to-face basis. They see and touch (physically) what they

want, negotiate on best deals, and buy. This is the type of business activity they are familiar

with, which is entirely different from online way of doing it. The idea of buying goods and

services that cannot be seen and touched physically is not the type of risk they can afford. They

are not confident also whether online merchants are trust worthy enough to deliver products

and services as promised.

Merchants as well are afraid to sell their products over the Internet. Considering the lack of

online buying habits of the society, and because of the reason that electronic way of doing

business is not well-known, they think it is a high business risk to take. They usually are not


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willing to invest on online ventures. Thus, this extremely damages the growth of Ecommerce in

these nations.

2. Lack of Trust

Basically, trust is a major issue in online business environment. As I mentioned earlier, people inthe developing nations are not confident with online way of doing business, by which one of

the major reasons is trust. Because Ecommerce is not a practice in these countries, and

business is usually done on face-to-face bases, people usually raise trust issues. They are

obliged to think how could they trust people they do not see and may be found thousands of

kilometers away? Besides, because there are no Ecommerce policies and laws in most of

developing countries, they are afraid where to go in case of disputes.

II.Infrastructural issues

1. Limited access of Telecommunication infrastructure and high cost of Internet

Ecommerce requires technological foundations. One of the major ones is access to the Internet.

To run an online business one needs an Internet connection with stable and high connection

speed. However, mostly the Internet connection type in the developing nations is a dial up

connection, which is very limited and slow. Besides, the cost of possessing it is high. This is

another challenge Ecommerce faces in the developing nations.

2. Limited access to Personal Computers

Another major technological facility Ecommerce needs is Personal computers. Possessingcomputers is expensive in the developing nations because they usually are imported products

from the developed nations; which is another major challenge for the growth of Ecommerce in

these countries.

3. Lack of Electronic payment facilities for enabling transfer of funds

Banking is another major facility needed to do Ecommerce. And in most cases, the developing

nations lack this major facility. Online merchants in these countries are obliged to use banking

facilities offshore if they are going to do business over the net.

4. Imperfect legal system and policy barriers

To do Ecommerce, perfect legal system and policy is required. Without them it is impossible to

do business online. However, these nations usually lack these major systems which in turn

could make doing Ecommerce difficult.


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However, even though doing business online in the developing nations is difficult, it is not

impossible at all. It can be done given the circumstances. It could take more effort to be

successful though. In addition, the industry needs time to utilize its potentials.

Thus, realizing the potential of Ecommerce in the developing nations, there are concerned

bodies by which their co-operation can make a big difference. They are government,

professionals, online merchants, banks and customers. If they can work together and

collaborate, they can fully avoid all the above mentioned obstacles and can benefit their

nations from the outputs of Ecommerce.

Q.12 what is EDI? Why are companies using it? Explain with examples.

Answer:

Electronic data interchange (EDI) is the structured transmission of data between organizations

by electronic means. It is used to transfer electronic documents or business data from one

computer system to another computer system, i.e. from one trading partner to another trading

partner without human intervention. It is more than meree-mail; for instance, organizations

might replacebills of lading, evenchequeswith appropriate EDI messages, purchase orders,

invoices, inventory data and various types of confirmationsbetween organizations or trading

partners in standardized formats.

EDI also is used within individual organizations to transfer data between different divisions or

departments, including finance, purchasing and shipping. With digital currency, electronic

catalogs, intranets and extranets, EDI is a major cornerstone of e-commerce overall.

Two characteristics set EDI apart from other ways of exchanging information. First, EDI only

involves business-to-business transactions; individual consumers do not directly use EDI to

purchase goods or services. Secondly, EDI involves transactions between computers or

databases, not individuals. Therefore, individuals sending e-mail messages or sharing files over

a network does not constitute EDI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mailhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_ladinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_ladinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_ladinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chequehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chequehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chequehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chequehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_ladinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail


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BENEFITS OF EDI

"EDI saves money and time because transactions can be transmitted from one information

system to another through a telecommunications network, eliminating the printing and

handling of paper at one end and the inputting of data at the other," Kenneth C. Laudon and

Jane Price Laudon wrote in their book Management Information Systems: A Contemporary

Perspective. "EDI may also provide strategic benefits by helping a firm 'lock in' customers,

making it easier for customers or distributors to order from them rather than from

competitors." EDI was developed to solve the problems inherent in paper-based transaction

processing and in other forms of electronic communication. In solving these problems, EDI is a

tool that enables organizations to reengineer information flows and business processes. It

directly addresses several problems long associated with paper-based transaction systems:

Time delaysPaper documents may take days to transport from one location to another, while

manual processing methodologies necessitate steps like keying and filing that are renderedunnecessary through EDI.

Labor costsIn non-EDI systems, manual processing is required for data keying, document

storage and retrieval, sorting, matching, reconciling, envelope stuffing, stamping, signing, etc.

While automated equipment can help with some of these processes, most managers will agree

that labor costs for document processing represent a significant proportion of their overhead.

In general, labor-based processes are much more expensive in the long term EDI alternatives.

AccuracyEDI systems are more accurate than their manual processing counterparts because

there are fewer points at which errors can be introduced into the system.

Information AccessEDI systems permit myriad users access to a vast amount of detailed

transaction data in a timely fashion. In a non-EDI environment, in which information is held in

offices and file cabinets, such dissemination of information is possible only with great effort,

and it cannot hope to match an EDI system's timeliness. Because EDI data is already in

computer-retrievable form, it is subject to automated processing and analysis. It also requires

far less storage space

EDI example

Here is an example of how the electronic data interchange process works. A buyer prepares an

order in his or her purchasing system and has it approved.

Next, the EDI order is translated into an EDI document format called an 850 purchase order.

The EDI 850 purchase order is then securely transmitted to the supplier either via the internet

or through a VAN (Value Added Network).


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If the purchase order is sent using a VAN, then the buyers VAN interconnects with the

suppliers VAN. The VANs make sure that EDI transactions are sent securely and reliably. The

suppliers VAN ensures that the supplier receives the order.

The suppliers computer system then processes the order. In the case of CovalentWorks

clients, we provide VAN transportation and our servers provide all of the software and

hardware required to process EDI documents. Only internet access and email are needed.

Data security and control are maintained throughout the transmission process using passwords,

user identification and encryption. Both the buyers and the suppliers EDI applications edit and

check the documents for accuracy.


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13. Supply chain management in manufacturing

Keeping this in mind, this paper focuses upon broad processes of supply chain inside a

manufacturing facility. The overall processes involved in any end-to-end supply chain, i.e., right

from supplier to customer are numerous as well as complex,

Assumptions

1. Company has an ERP system.

2. Company follows "Make to Order" strategy, i.e., goods are manufactured when

purchase order is received from customer.

Supply chain process inside a manufacturing company starts from receiving a customer

purchase order, subsequently requisite raw material in desired quantity is arranged as per the

production plan of manufacturing, after which it is packed and dispatched.

Following is a broad flow chart of supply chain inside a manufacturing facility: -

1) Customer Purchase Order Input in ERP System: Once the sales department gets the

customer purchase order, they verify if prices, payment terms, specification of the product are

as per the prior agreement with the customer. If everything is OK, then

these details are entered in ERP system, which further becomes an input to production

planning department as what is to be made and in what quantity. Based on this input,

production planning department does the raw material planning.


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Entering customer purchase order in ERP is a very critical process; since any wrong input at this

stage will lead to erroneous information to production planning department, as a result

erroneous raw material planning will happen resulting in procurement of raw material, which is

actually not required, and due to this, inventory will start piling up, which is actually not

required.

At the same time, due to wrong input in this process, right material will not be procured; hence,

manufacturing will not be able to produce the finished product as a result dispatches will not

happen which will further worsen the relationship with customer.

2) MRP: Material Requirement Planning is done based on the Customer Purchase Order

entered by sales department in ERP system.

In this process, Bill of Material of the products for which planning is to be done is exploded to

identify which raw material is required.

Net quantity of raw material to be procured is calculated after considering raw material (stock

in hand + raw material quantity on order).

3) Release of Purchase Requisitions: Based on calculation during MRP, purchase requisitions

are released by production planning department containing the details of part number,

quantity to be procured and the dates at which a particular raw material is required in factory.

The purchase requisitions released are for further action for procurement department.

4) Release of Purchase Orders on Vendors: Based on the purchase requisitions released,procurement department sends RFQ (Request For Quotation) to the relevant vendors. The

responses of RFQ are compiled, negotiated with vendors are done and best offers are

identified. Subsequently, purchase orders are placed on vendors.

5) Raw Material Received in Factory: Though this process seems to be mundane, but its an

important process. It is at this point that the raw material is inspected for quality and observed

whether it is meeting the desired specifications. If

this process is not followed strictly, then inferior quality raw material will get in factory which

will hamper the quality of finished product.

Also a unique storage location is assigned to raw material, which enables easy identification

and retrieval of raw material.

6) Manufacturing: Important thing is to manufacture the product as per the specifications but

also important is to manufacture the product at the time when it is required. Hence,


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manufacturing needs a close coordination with production planning department to make sure

that the product manufacturing date meets the date as per production plan.

7) Dispatch: After the goods are manufactured, they are inspected packed and dispatched.

During dispatch it should be ensured that invoicing of finished product is happening as per the

taxes and duties as agreed with customers. Also it is to ensured that all relevant document e.g. -

Road permit accompanies the shipment.

Though the above processes are fairly simple to understand and follow but there are lot many

operational issues which arise during executing these processes. These issues will vary from

organization to organization. To have a holistic view of an organizations supply function one

has to deeply go through these processes and then only he will able to gauge what actually it

require for a supply chain to deliver the best.

14) What is CRM? How CRM benefits business organization and customer?

What is CRM?

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. It is a process or methodology used to

learn more about customers' needs and behaviors in order to develop stronger relationships

with them. There are many technological components to CRM, but thinking about CRM in

primarily technological terms is a mistake. The more useful way to think about CRM is as aprocess that will help bring together lots of pieces of information about customers, sales,

marketing effectiveness, responsiveness and market trends.

CRM helps businesses use technology and human resources to gain insight into the behavior of

customers and the value of those customers.

CRM Software

Sales Force Automation

Contact management

Contact management software stores, tracks and manages contacts, leads of an

enterprise.

Lead management

Enterprise Lead management software enables an organization to manage, track and

forecast sales leads. Also helps understand and improve conversion rates.


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eCRM or Web based CRM

Self Service CRM

Self service CRM (eCRM) software Enables web based customer interaction, automation

of email, call logs, web site analytics, campaign management.

Survey Management Software

Survey Software automates an enterprise's Electronic Surveys, Polls, Questionnaires and

enables understand customer preferences.

Customer Service

Call Center Software

Help Desk Software

Partner Relationship Management

Contract Management Software

Contract Management Software enables an enterprise to create, track and manage

partnerships, contracts, agreements.

Example: Upside Software, Accruent Software, diCarta, I-Many.

Distribution management Software

ADVANTAGES OF CRM

Using CRM, a business can:

Provide better customer service

Increase customer revenues

Discover new customers

Cross sell/Up Sell products more effectively

Help sales staff close deals faster


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Make call centers more efficient

Simplify marketing and sales processes

The advantages can be summarized according to the Feature

Marketing

Make intelligent business decisions with enhanced customer insights

Increase marketing velocity and speed to market

Maximize visibility into and control of your entire marketing process

Drive customer demand

Increase returns on your marketing investments

Sales

Grow profitable relationships

Maintain focus on productive activity

Eliminate barriers to productivity

Improve sales efficiency Service

Transform service into a profitable line of business

Increase customer loyalty

Drive revenue

Reduce costs of customer service and field service

Decrease service giveaways

Web channel enablement

Drive revenue and extend market reach

Increase customer convenience and satisfaction

Reduce the cost of sales and support

Build lasting customer loyalty


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Improve sales and service profitability

Running an interaction center

Increase customer satisfaction

Improve credibility with your customers

Increase revenue and productivity

Manage the customer interaction life cycle

Partner channel management

Boost revenue through channel collaboration

Reduce indirect channel support costs

Increase partner satisfaction and ease of doing business

Maximize value to your customers by enabling your partners

The types of data CRM projects collect

Responses to campaigns

Shipping and fulfillment dates

Sales and purchase data

Account information

Web registration data

Service and support records

Demographic data

Web sales data

Marketing

CRM aligns marketing processes and drive customer demand using functionality to enhance

management of marketing resources, segments and lists, campaigns, leads, trade promotions,

and marketing analytics.

Sales


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CRM enables you to acquire, grow, and retain profitable relationships with functionality for

sales planning and forecasting and the management of territories, accounts, contacts, activities,

opportunities, quotations, orders, product configuration, pricing, billing, and contracts.

Service

CRM can drive service revenue and profitability with support for service sales and marketing.

More effectively manage service orders, contracts, complaints and returns, in-house and depot

repairs, warranties, resource planning, e-service, and service analytics. Functionality to support

call centers, field service, and e-service provides flexible delivery options.

Partner channel management

With CRM you can attain a more profitable and loyal indirect channel by managing partner

relationships and empowering channel partners. Improve processes for partner recruitment

and management, communications, channel marketing and forecasting, collaborative selling,partner order management, channel service, and analytics for partners and channel managers.

Running an interaction center

Customer interaction centers are places where you meet your customer face to face. With

CRM, you can maximize customer loyalty, cut costs, and boost revenue by transforming your

interaction center into a strategic delivery channel for marketing, sales, and service efforts

across all touch points. Effectively handle activities such as telemarketing, telesales, customer

service, human resources, IT support, and interaction center management.

Web channel enablement

Increase sales and reduce transaction costs by turning the Internet into a valuable sales,

marketing, and service channel for businesses and consumers. Increase profitability and reach

new markets with a fully integrated Web channel, including support for e-marketing, e-

commerce, e-service, and Web channel analytics.

Business communications management


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Manage inbound and outbound contacts across multiple locations and channels. Integrate

multichannel communications with customer-facing business processes to provide customers

and partners with seamless, consistent experiences across all channels, including voice, text

messaging, the Web, and e-mail.

Real-time offer management

Turn all customer interactions into opportunities to build customer relationships and generate

revenue. Plan, develop, and execute cross-selling, up-selling, and retention offers; service-level

agreements; and more. Take appropriate subsequent actions to enhance customer

relationships and ensure relevant and personalized customer interactions.

Trade promotion management

CRM will boost a company's brand presence and profits with visibility into and control of all

trade related processes. Increase accounting accuracy of trade and financial results with back-office integration. Gain key business insights to help you optimize trade activities. Increase your

trade promotion success with analytics and enhanced management of trade funds, promotions,

claims, and retail execution.

.


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Q15) Internet technologies and Electronic commerce has brought the manufacturers and

customers very close to each other. This should result into better Customer Relationship

Management and Supply Chain Management. Explain.

-

CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, is a company-wide business strategy designed to

reduce costs and increase profitability by solidifying customer loyalty. True CRM brings together

information from all data sources within an organization (and where appropriate, from outside

the organization) to give one, holistic view of each customer in real time. This allows customer

facing employees in such areas as sales, customer support, and marketing to make quick yet

informed decisions on everything from cross-selling and upselling opportunities to target

marketing strategies to competitive positioning tactics.

- So with E-commerce and Internet, Companies can interact directly with the customer

enabling them to form stronger relationships.

- The overall delivery time can be reduced to a great extent to help companies promise

better service.

- Customer service, which has come up a very important tool in retaining customers, can

be handled efficiently by using these two facilities making CRM better.

- Middlemen are removed while using E-commerce which means that customer can be in

touch with the company directly and company can use this to provide the personal

touch to the service.

- Online payment has been considered very important these days as customer can order

online and pay it from there itself making it easier to shop without having to leave

home.

Supply chain management (SCM) is the oversight of materials, information, and finances as they

move in a process from supplier to manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer. Supply

chain management involves coordinating and integrating these flows both within and amongcompanies. It is said that the ultimate goal of any effective supply chain management system is

to reduce inventory (with the assumption that products are available when needed). As a

solution for successful supply chain management, sophisticated software systems with Web

interfaces are competing with Web-based application service providers (ASP) who promise to

provide part or all of the SCM service for companies who rent their service.


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- SCM involves multilevel suppliers for a company. This could be time consuming and

inefficient as well. But with the help of Internet the time can be reduced down to a

great extent making them material available for the production faster and help

eliminate certain intermediate suppliers even.

-

SCM involves a lot of risks which are there due to transport of material and delay in

delivery from warehouse to distributor and then distributor to the retailer. But Internet

and E-commerce has made the process simpler by in some case eliminating the

intermediates between company and customer as product goes directly to consumer.

Also as product transport is less, delivery time is reduced and also the risks.

- Bullwhip effect can also be reduced as companies can forecast the demand in a better

way lowering down the chances of making huge mistakes in demand forecast or

aggravating the mistakes as they go up the supply chain.

-

Information flow is very important in SCM and with internet this flow has become a lot

faster and companies can respond to a situation a lot quicker than it was earlier.

- Internet can also provide useful data for people to work faster in order to respond to

the market conditions efficiently.


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Q 16) What is E- Governance? Benefits

Ans) E-Governance

It is creating a comfortable, transparent, and cheap interaction between government and

citizens (G2C government to citizens), government and business enterprises (G2Bgovernment to business enterprises) and relationship between governments (G2G inter-

agency relationship).

It is essentially betterment of governce through use information and communication

technology.

E-Governance focuses on the following things

1. The use of Information and Communication Technologies, and particularly the Internet,

as a tool to achieve better government

2. The use of information and communication technologies in all facets of the operations

of a government organization

3. The continuous optimization of service delivery, constituency participation and

governance by transforming internal and external relationships through technology, the

Internet and new media

E-Governance seeks to provide to citizens with the following information effectively and

efficiently

1. The way the government works

2. Information

3. Government services

The following the basic components of an E-Governance Solution

1. Strategy :- This is the first step towards effective governance. The need/service to be

addressed is identified alongwith the best way to address it

2. Enabling technologies :- These include the 1. Integration tools 2. Hardware 3.

Applications 4. Databases and 5. Connectivity Infrastructure required to implement the

E-Governance Solution

Benefits of E-Governance


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1. Effectiveness :- Information and Commucation Technology is a very effective tool for

dessimating knowledge and information

2. Efficiency :- It enables efficient delivery of government services by reducing the overall

time required to provide the service

3. Productivity :- Effective and efficient delivery of the service increases the overall

productivity

4. Reach :- With help Infromation Technology it is possible to connect even to most

remotes parts. Morever because of internet people are able to access the information in

their house leading to better governance due to involvement of greater number of

people

5. Sharing of information :- Information can be shared to quickly, effectively, efficiently

and to a greater number of people in a shorter period creating greater involvement andbetter governance

6. Service delivery :- Due better knowledge people know what is due to them leading to

better service delivery

7. Transperancy :- This is probably the most important benefit of e governance.

Information is available freely leading to an informed citizen leading to betterment of

governance

8.

Welfare :- The overall effect of e-governance is welfare of the society.

Eg. SETU programme of Government of Maharashtra

SETU stands for Society promotion ofExcellence and Transperency in public administration for

better Understanding of the requirements of the citizens in their interface with Government.

1. These centers can initially start as a single window system of the collectorates to

facilitate and issue certificates, permits, affidavits, etc. (94 such certificates/permits &

18 affidavits have so far been identified).

2.

It can quickly expand its work to register and redress public grievances.

3. Issuing Property cards as well as 7/12 could be taken up as soon as the records are

computerised.

4. The work of issue of ration cards, addition, deletion of names, etc can also come to

these centers (including in Mumbai, Thane).


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5. These centers can handle the work of registration of sale documents of IGR. Sale of

stamps will also be part of this centers activity. Market value assistance from

Registration Department can also be provided.

6. These could act as collection centres for entertainment duty, permissions for minor

minerals extraction, etc.

7. These centres could also take up the work of issuing photo identity cards to the voters.


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Q17)What is Knowledge Management?

Knowledge Management is the discipline of enabling individuals, teams and entire

organizations to collectively and systematically create, share and apply knowledge, to better

achieve their objectives

- Ron Young, CEO/CKO Knowledge Associates International

Knowledge management is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its

associated processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion, use and exploitation. It

requires turning personal knowledge into corporate knowledge than can be widely shared

throughout an organization and appropriately applied

Analyzing the 2nd

definition, it identifies some critical aspects of any successful knowledge

management programme:

Explicit Surfacing assumptions; codifying that which is known

Systematic Leaving things to serendipity will not achieve the benefits

Vital KnowledgeYou need to focus; you dont have unlimited resources

Processes Knowledge management is a set of activities with its own tools and

techniques

The last phrase in the definition is important. If you cannot link the activities to the

achievement of business goals, then it is not knowledge management.

Can Knowledge be managed

The words management and knowledge at first sight appear uneasy bedfellows. Knowledge is

largely cognitive and highly personal, while management involves organizational processes.

Many knowledge workers do not like to be managed in the traditional sense. However, the

answer to the question is yes, it can be managed. Knowledge is increasingly recognized as a

crucial organizational resource the gives market leverage. Its management is therefore too

important to be left to chance.

Issues and Challenges

The Biggest Challenge reported by the practitioners is that changing of the culture form

Knowledge is power to Knowledge sharing is power


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Other common obstacles are:

Finding time with so many initiatives vying for attention, it is easy to sideline more

challenging issues like knowledge management. However, those organizations that have

committed resources and have knowledge champions have achieved outcomes that far

surpass the levels of inputs

Introversion afraid to learn from outsiders or expose internal operations to customers

Too focused on detailed process rather than the big picture and the more chaotic

process of knowledge creation

Treating it as one-off project or quick-win - knowledge management is a commitment

to the long term: the organizations future prosperity depends on it

Individual disciplines and turf wars knowledge management goes beyond the remitof any single function or discipline. All functions must collaborate.

Organizational recognition and rewards systems do not sufficiently recognize

knowledge contributions. They are linked to traditional financial measures.

None of these challenges are insurmountable. Implementing successful knowledge

management requires a systematic change and project management approach. However, it is

more than just a project. Over time knowledge management changes the way that people work

so that their individual knowledge is more effectively harnessed for the benefit of all.

Benefits of Knowledge management:

1) Superior Efficiency

One does not have to reinvent the wheel every time he starts to do something new. Probably in

the past his colleague has done a similar project, information about which can be very much

useful to him. Thus one doesnt have to start from scratch every time. This results in increase in

personal productivity and quality of output.

2) Sharing and building best practices

Employees in an organization can share the practices they have been using. Through

discussions and comments, this existing practice can be improved upon to build best practice.

3) Building capabilities for enabling growth


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Knowledge about organizations customers, competitors, technology, supply chain,

manufacturing, etc helps building capabilities like brand management, high volume

manufacturing, research and development & distribution network.

4) Managing expertise turnover

Suppose tomorrow a key person in a company leaves. A new person in

ITM Answers for the Question Bank 2012

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