BA382

Crowdsourcing tools and question-and-answer sites like _____ allow firms to reach out for expertise beyond their organizations.

Quora

Amazon was started by

Jeff Bezos

Rising customer service standards can partly be attributed to the proliferation of ________

Social Media

Some of the racial changes brought about by new technologies include:

the creation of an unprecedented set of security and espionage threats.

Offered by the web to the field of

Marketing

Firms are increasingly shifting spending from the ____ to other media such as print, radio, and television as these are often easier to track and analyze

Web

A company uses Webex, a popular commercial application, to conduct training sessions for its employees who are spread across different countries. This is an example of the impact of technology in the area of

HUMAN SERVICES.

Today’s job seekers are writing resumes with key words in mind, aware that the first cut is likely made by a database search program, not a human being.

True

Many of the careers in accounting firms are highly tech-centric.

True

The rise of open source software has lowered computing costs for start-up and blue chip companies worldwide.

True

SEM, SEO, CRM, and personalization systems are all central components of the new ________ toolkit.

MARKETING

A company uses radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to keep track of its inventory. This is an example of the impact of technology in the area of

Operations

Technology experts in the area of user-interface design

work to make sure systems are easy to use.

The number of U.S. patent applications waiting approval has ________ in the past decade.

tripled

While process redesign, supply chain management and factory automation are all tech-centric operations, service operations are not.

False

Technology experts in the area of _______ specialize in technology for competitive advantage.

strategy

The rise of open source software has lowered computing costs for start-up and blue chip companies worldwide.

True

___________ is the third most popular social network in the United States and was founded by Catherine Cook

MyYearbook.com

A focus solely on technology is a definite recipe for success.

False

Changes that impact one industry do not necessarily impact other industries in the same way

True

When technology can be matched quickly, it is rarely a source of competitive advantage.

True

What are Porter’s five forces?

Also known as industry and Competitive Analysis. A framework considering the interplay between (1) the intensity of rivalry among existing competitors, (2) the threat of new entrants, (3) the threat of substitute goods or services, (4) the bargaining power of buyers, and (5) the bargaining power of suppliers.

Inventory turns

Sometimes referred to as inventory turnover, stock turns, or stock turnover. It is the numver of times inventory is sold or used during the course of a year. A higher figure means that a firm is selling products quickly.

Dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM)

A technology that increases the transmission capacity (and hence speed) of fiber-optic cable. Transmissions using fiber are accomplished by transmitting light inside "glass" cables. In DWDM, the light inside fiber is split into different wavelengths in a way similar to how a prism splits light into different colors.

Switching Costs

The cost a consumer incurs when moving from one product to another. It can involve actural money spent (e.g., buying a new product) as well as investments in time, any data loss, and so forth.

Price transparancy

The degree to which complete information is available.

What does Porter say about operational effectiveness?

Operational effectiveness is critical, yet dangerous because it relies on "sameness." Sameness can be duplicated by competitors quickly. For those that rely on technology for a competitive advantage, technology is easily acquired. This leads to the fast follower problem.

What does Porter say about strategic positioning?

While technology can be easily duplicated, using strategic positioning can make it hard on competitors to match.

Initial Public Stock Offering

Also known as "going public." The first time a firm sells stock to the public.

Pure Play

A firm that focuses on a specific product, service, or business model. An internet pure play is a firm that only operates through the Internet channel (i.e. with no physical stores or catalogs).

Long Tail

In this context, refers to an extremely large selection of content or products. The long tail is a phenomenon whereby firms can make money by offering a near-limitless selection.

Fixed Costs

A cost that does not vary according to production volume.

Collaborative Filtering

A classification of software that monitors trends among customers and uses this data to personalize an individual custormer’s experience.

Churn Rate

The rate at which customers leave a product or service.

Crowdsourcing

The act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined generally large group of people in the form of an open call.

Atoms to bits

The idea that many media products are sold in containers (physical products, or atoms) for bits (the ones and zeros that make up a video file, song, or layout of a book). As the internet offers fast wireless delivery to TV’s music players, book readers, and other devices, the "atoms" of the container aren’t neccessary. Physical inventory is eliminated, offering great cost savings.

Disintermediation

Removing an organization or business from a firm’s distribution channel. Disintermediation collapses the path between supplier and customer.

Bandwith cap

A limit, imposed by the ISP on the total amount of traffic that a given subscriber can consume (usually per each billing period).

Open Source Software

Software that is free and where anyone can look at and potentially modify teh code.

Marginal Cost

The cost of producing one more unit of a product.

Java

A programming language, initially developed by Sun Microsystems, designed to provide true platform independence (write once, run anywhere) for application developers.

Scripting Language

Programming tool that executes within an application. Scripting languages are interpreted within their application, rather than compiled to run directly by a microprocessor.

Integrated development environment

An application that includes an editor (a programmer’s word processor), debugger, and compiler, among other tools.

Even though Netflix is now mainly focused on digital distribution, it continues to offer the DVD-by-mail service in its base-price product.

False

Grid computing is a type computing in which:

special software is installed on several computers enabling them to work together on a common problem.

In 1995, the largest corporate database was one terabyte in size

True

Netflix has used the long tail to its advantage, crafting a business model that creates close ties with film studios. What do film studios stand to gain from these ties with Netflix?

A cut of the subscription revenue from every disk sent out by Netflix.

Which of the following statements is a valid reason for chip manufacturers carrying minimal inventory?

Products with a significant chip-based component rapidly fall in value, and can cause huge losses when overproduced.

In terms of percentage of revenue spent on advertising, Zara has possibly the lowest figures in the whole industry.

True

The biggest inefficiency in the movie industry is:

matching content with customers.

In an industry where nearly every major player outsources manufacturing to low-cost countries, Zara is highly _____, keeping huge swaths of its production process in-house.

vertically integrated

Moore’s Law originally stated that chip performance per dollar doubles every twenty-four months.

True

Firms that use contract manufacturers do not directly employ the workers who produce the requested goods.

True

Moore’s Law has been in force over all the five waves of computing.

False

Collaborative filtering is a classification of software that

monitors trends among customers to personalize an individual customer’s experience.

Due to limited production runs, Zara’s customers

visit the stores more often.

Price elasticity refers to the

rate at which demand for a product or service fluctuates with price change.

Which of the following represents an advantage enjoyed by Netflix over traditional video stores?

Lower energy costs

Much of Zara’s products are stitched together through a network of local cooperatives that have worked with Inditex long enough to operate without written contracts.

True

Which of the following factors is considered key to Zara’s ability to maintain a winning business formula?

Keen understanding of how information systems can enable winning strategies

The third wave of computing was characterized by the introduction of:

personal computers.

How do Netflix’s scale economies affect competition from established firms?

Established firms that challenge Netflix straddle markets, unable to gain full efficiencies from their efforts.

Priceline.com is a company and a commercial website that helps users obtain discount rates for travel-related purchases such as airline tickets and hotel stays. The company facilitates the provision of travel services by its suppliers to its customers. People can directly access a complete array of schedules and fares. This process has, to a great extent, eliminated the travel agency as a middle man. This is an example of:

disintermediation.

The strengthening of the euro relative to the dollar has insulated Zara against financial vulnerabilities.

False

Zara’s limited production runs are not attractive for most customers, as they would rather wait for the products to go on sale.

False

Grid computing, though faster and more efficient, is an expensive alternative to supercomputers.

False, it is cheaper.

What problem is faced by multicore processors running older software written for single-brain chips?

Multicore processors usually run older software by using only one core at a time.

An internal team at Netflix developed a prototype set top box to enable the direct streaming of content to customers’ television sets. However, the idea of offering it to Netflix customers was dropped because:

of the brutally competitive nature of the consumer electronics business.

With the entry of Wal-Mart and Blockbuster into the DVD-by-mail market, Netflix was forced to:

cut prices and increase spending on advertising.

Netflix’s decision to unbundle the single fee for its $10 base service into two separate $8 plans for DVD-by-mail and streaming over the Internet proved to be beneficial to the firm.

False

One of the advantages of solid state electronics is that:

they consume less power.

As the world’s largest chain of coffee houses, Starbucks sources most of its raw materials such as coffee beans and vegetables from suppliers owned by it. It also holds equal or majority stakes in most of the foreign direct investment it carries out in other countries to set up franchisee coffee shops. Based on this information, Starbucks can be said to be:

vertically integrated.

Costs that do not vary according to production volume are called _____.

fixed costs.

_____ is a phenomenon where electrons slide off their pathways, and presents an obstacle to the continuance of Moore’s Law.

Quantum tunneling

Layers

Hardware, Operating System, Application, User

Desktop Software vs. Enterprise Software

Desktop software are software applications installed on a personal computer, typically by a single user. Enterprise software are applications that address the needs of multiple users throughout an organization or work group.

Employees, at their own initiative, can go to SocialText or Google Sites and set up a wiki, WordPress to start blogging, or subscribe to a SaaS offering like SalesForce.com, all without corporate oversight and approval. This _____ of technology is one of the challenges associated with the adoption of SaaS models.

consumerization

Ensuring that an organization’s systems operate within required legal constraints, and industry and organizational obligations results in:

compliance.

Firms using SaaS products can dramatically lower several costs associated with the care and feeding of their information systems.

True

A PC, laptop, or any other small computer can be set up to run server software.

True

The customization options that managers and businesses demand in computers are provided by the:

flexibility of the hardware/software layer cake.

Which of the following is one of the benefits enjoyed by SaaS vendors?

Lower distribution costs, limiting development to a single platform, tighter feedback loop with clients, instant deployability to fix bugs, reduced risk of software piracy.

Java is not optimized to take advantage of interface elements specific to the Mac or Windows operating systems. As a result:

Java is unsuitable for desktop applications.

_____ refer(s) to special-purpose software designed and included inside physical products.

Embedded systems

_____ and ____ are some of the commercial equivalents of SugarCRM and Asterix respectively.

Salesforce.com; Cisco

Which of the following is one of the functions of firmware?

Loading a computing device’s operating system from disk

_____ is a language used to create and manipulate databases.

SQL

SaaS offerings usually work well when the bulk of computing happens at the client end of a distributed system.

False

Which of the following factors should a manager consider while making a make, buy, or rent decision?

Contingency plans for vendor failure

All of the costs associated with the design, development, testing, implementation, documentation, training and maintenance of a software system are collectively termed as:

total cost of ownership.

Vendors who use open source as part of their product offerings can expect to bring new products to the market faster because:

they can skip whole segments of the software development process.

What are the implications for firms without common database systems with consistent formats across their enterprise?

They struggle to manage their value chain efficiently.

An application server is software that

houses and serves business logic for use by multiple applications.

Firms that adopt software as a service actually buy a system’s software and hardware, so these systems become a fixed operating expense.

False

Standardizing business processes in software that others can buy means that those functions are difficult for competitors to match.

False

Salesforce.com offers systems that organize, automate, and synchronize activities related to sales, marketing, and client support. These systems serve the purpose of:

customer relationship management

Which of the following languages are interpreted languages?

Scripting languages

The more application software that is available for a platform, the less valuable it potentially becomes.

False

_____ is an application that includes an editor that serves as a programmer’s word processor, a debugger, and a compiler, among other tools.

Integrated development environment

One of the risks associated with SaaS is the:

dependence on a single vendor.

Linux is one of the most used operating systems in desktop computers, but can be found only in a tiny fraction of mobile phones, and consumer electronics.

False

The LAMP stack of open source products is used:

to power many of the Internet’s most popular Web sites.

Complete the analogy: Server- Apache HTTP Server; Client- _____

Internet Explorer

A server running _____ can create smaller compartments in memory that each behave as a separate computer with its own operating system and resources.

virtualization software

A _____ refers to a firm that offers third-party software-replacing services that are delivered online.

hosted software vendor

The cost of producing an additional unit of a product is known as its:

marginal cost

Benefits of OSS

cost (free), reliability, security, scalability, agility and time to the market

Heirarchy of data sizes:

bit, byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte

LAMP

Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl