Exam 23: Extension: Using Technology to Manage Information

Your online shopping trail provides information that indicates your personal preferences.

__________ is a process that allows software-based networked computers to run multiple operating systems and programs, and share storage.

Jason Hart was recently informed by his bank that someone illegally broke into the bank's computer system and gained access to information about customer account numbers and ATM access codes. The bank is recommending that Jason and other customers change their account numbers and access numbers for security reasons. The bank and Jason are victims of a:

A common use of an extranet is to extend an intranet to outside customers.

Because cloud computing is often too expensive for small businesses, it is rarely used.

A computer virus is a piece of programming code that is inserted into other programming code with the intention of causing some unexpected, and usually undesirable, event for the user of the software.

There are three types of cloud computing; private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid clouds.

Which of the following is the best assessment of the impact extranets have had on the way small businesses operate?

A(n) ___________ serves as an entry point to a variety of resources on an organization's information network.

The advantages of electronic data interchange are no longer limited to large companies, because even small firms can exchange and process data such as orders, invoices, and payments using:

Which of the following observations would be the strongest evidence that Kaytee Corporation has adopted knowledge technology?

Data mining looks for previously unknown relationships among vast amounts of data.

Widebeam is the term used to refer to technologies that give users continuous access to the Internet and greatly increase the speed at which data flows to and from their Internet connection.

Mini-Case Cy Burspace first began working for Qwikbilt Enterprises in the mid-1970s as a business technology specialist. Today, he is the department head for the company's information systems department. Cy is well known and respected by everyone in the company, and his coworkers recently threw a party to honor his 30th year with Qwikbilt. Cy did a lot of reminiscing at the party, telling the newer employees how things were done in the "old days," and comparing them to newer methods. "I'm still amazed at how things have changed. When I first came to Qwikbilt, we had a central computer to handle everything. It took up a whole room, but all it really did was generate financial reports for management," said Cy. "Today, most employees have their own personal computer, and all these PCs are hooked up to a network. All of this connectivity has led to big improvements in our operations. For example, if a production worker wants to find out how many units of a particular component we have in inventory, or wants the name and address of a particular supplier who sells us that component, he or she can get the information in the blink of an eye. In fact, we have even given our suppliers and customers access to our network so that we can share information and provide them with better service. That change has really helped us compete against the bigger firms." "Now," Cy continued, "Most of the workers in my department don't even have to be at the office to be connected. We have cellular phones, laptop computers, PDAs with Wi-Fi technology, and pagers so we can do much of our work from home or while we are on the road." A new employee asked Cy if he was ready to retire. "No way," he said. "I'm in the middle of a major project right now. We're trying to design a single entry point for people to use when logging on to the Qwikbilt network. We want to set it up so that the log-on procedure identifies different types of users and automatically gives them access to the types of resources they need. For example, customers who logged on would be allowed to place orders, check on the status of previous orders, and interact with our technical support staff, but would not have access to other, more proprietary parts of our network. We think this approach will be more convenient for everyone. And," he continued, "once I finish that project, the marketing department has asked me to work on developing better ways to store and analyze the vast amounts of data we collect. So my work is cut out for me for quite a while yet." -People in marketing want Cy's help because they are convinced that many hidden patterns and unexpected relationships could be found in the mountains of data the company accumulates. They think that discovering these relationships might help them develop new marketing strategies. This suggests that Cy's next project will be concerned with:

NASDAQ is an example of how information technology can:

Business intelligence is any variety of software applications that analyze an organization's raw data and take useful insights from it.

Business intelligence (BI) changes the traditional flow of information so that the database goes to the individual rather than the individual going to the database.

The first step in avoiding information overload is to identify four or five key goals and focus only on information that is related to those goals.

The three types of cloud computing are:

Mini-Case Cy Burspace first began working for Qwikbilt Enterprises in the mid-1970s as a business technology specialist. Today, he is the department head for the company's information systems department. Cy is well known and respected by everyone in the company, and his coworkers recently threw a party to honor his 30th year with Qwikbilt. Cy did a lot of reminiscing at the party, telling the newer employees how things were done in the "old days," and comparing them to newer methods. "I'm still amazed at how things have changed. When I first came to Qwikbilt, we had a central computer to handle everything. It took up a whole room, but all it really did was generate financial reports for management," said Cy. "Today, most employees have their own personal computer, and all these PCs are hooked up to a network. All of this connectivity has led to big improvements in our operations. For example, if a production worker wants to find out how many units of a particular component we have in inventory, or wants the name and address of a particular supplier who sells us that component, he or she can get the information in the blink of an eye. In fact, we have even given our suppliers and customers access to our network so that we can share information and provide them with better service. That change has really helped us compete against the bigger firms." "Now," Cy continued, "Most of the workers in my department don't even have to be at the office to be connected. We have cellular phones, laptop computers, PDAs with Wi-Fi technology, and pagers so we can do much of our work from home or while we are on the road." A new employee asked Cy if he was ready to retire. "No way," he said. "I'm in the middle of a major project right now. We're trying to design a single entry point for people to use when logging on to the Qwikbilt network. We want to set it up so that the log-on procedure identifies different types of users and automatically gives them access to the types of resources they need. For example, customers who logged on would be allowed to place orders, check on the status of previous orders, and interact with our technical support staff, but would not have access to other, more proprietary parts of our network. We think this approach will be more convenient for everyone. And," he continued, "once I finish that project, the marketing department has asked me to work on developing better ways to store and analyze the vast amounts of data we collect. So my work is cut out for me for quite a while yet." -Cy is excited about the ability of customers to obtain access to information on Qwikbilt's network so that the company can provide them with better service. This suggests that Qwikbilt is making use of a(n):