Exam 18: Using Advanced Information Technology to Increase Performance

Rinaldo receives monthly reports from the accounting department that reflect his company's current financial condition. The report Rinaldo receives would be considered

Whereas a decision-support system organizes important information for managers, an operations information system gives managers model-building capability and the ability to manipulate information in a variety of ways.

You have been asked to compile a summary of your company's current competitive position for a specific product line. The report will be used as a key input to business and product goal setting for the coming year. Define the four factors you will need to consider to ensure the usefulness of the report and provide an example of how you could incorporate each factor.

Large companies that need immense processing power have a ________ computer at the center or hub of the network that can quickly process vast amounts of information.

Managers use an operations information system for nonroutine decision-making tasks.

You are the product manager for a next generation automobile, and the new vehicle is about to launch. Identify each stage of the product life cycle and explain your expectations with respect to market demand.

A breakthrough technology is now available that will enable manufacturers to considerably reduce the size and weight of laptop computers. This will cause current products to enter the ________ stage of the product life cycle.

Managers cannot effectively plan, organize, lead, or control without access to

During the ________ of the product life cycle the demand, and therefore sales, for a product are at the lowest levels.

A computer software program that is developed for preparing graphs of sales performance over a required period of time is an example of ________ software.

Top managers often use a(n)________ system, which provides summary graphics and a user-friendly interface that aids in decision analysis.

Define the concept of real-time information and explain its value. Provide an example.

________ information correlates to current conditions.

________ systems are multimodule application software packages that coordinate the various functional activities of organizations.

Discuss the four steps of the "control process" that managers use within organizations. Give a specific example of each of these steps in a business decision situation.

Using a traditional organizational hierarchy to gather information and control activity

Executives in a company use an interactive system that analyzes transactional data and generates multiple potential scenarios to help inform market and product development strategies. The executives are using a(n)________ system.

The language used by computers is characterized as

Alfred works in the human resources department, and he uses a management information system to find applicants' résumés on the web and filter them to match needed skills. The type of MIS that recruiters use is a(n)________ system.

Expert systems are NOT required to