Exam 23: Extension: Using Technology to Manage Information

The most likely reason a firm would decide to establish an extranet would be the desire to:

Employees of a business ____________ when they work at home, using computers linked to their organization's office.

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's new project to provide a single entry point to his company's network that identifies users and allows them access to the areas of the network they need indicates that he is working on a(n):

Regina Williams works for Findabuck Finance Company, but she seldom sees the inside of Findabuck's offices. Instead, she does most of her work on a computer located in the spare bedroom of her home. The computer is linked to Findabuck's office, so her work is distributed as quickly and efficiently as if she were at the office. Regina is one of the increasing number of workers who:

The key difference between an intranet and an extranet is that an intranet:

The use of antivirus software completely eliminates the risk of downloading infected files.

A company that wanted to provide a single, unified entry point to its network that would allow different types of users access to different types of resources could do so by establishing a(n):

Heidi Luking has discovered that several of the sites she has visited recently downloaded small files to her computer's hard drive even though she did not request them. The files Heidi discovered are known as crackers.

Since 1988, Bigbux National Bank has tried to make use of new technologies to expand the services it offers to its customers. For example, depositors can obtain updated financial information about their accounts and handle certain types of transactions whenever they wish simply by visiting the bank's website and providing a user name and password. The type of technology Bigbux National Bank uses to provide these services is known as:

__________ refers to a variety of software applications that analyze an organization's raw data and obtain useful insights from it.

Bluprintz, a company that publishes home design software for personal computers, wants to set up a temporary link with another firm with which it wants to collaborate and share data on a short-term basis. Bluprintz wants to keep the cost of setting up this connection reasonable, but is concerned about hackers and wants to make sure its link is secure. The best way for Bluprintz to achieve its goal is to set up an extranet with dedicated lines.

The amount of information managers receive each day:

The primary role of business technology during the 1970s was to:

Enterprise portals are simply web pages with links to company-specific products and services.

Penny Pinchers Discount is a major discount store chain in the Southwest. The company wants to do a better job of finding sales patterns and trends that will help it customize the product offerings for different stores. Data mining is one technique that would help Penny Pinchers achieve this goal.

Most successful businesses utilize social media to communicate with customers. An important strategy for consideration is: Successfully implementing social media will ________.

Compared to intranets, one advantage of an extranet is that it protects a company's information from hackers.

One problem with most extranets is that they use public lines, which makes it possible for hackers to get into the network.

As businesses began using business intelligence, managers spent less time finding information and more time using it to make decisions.

When spyware is inadvertently downloaded to a user's computer the software tracks the user's online behavior. Spyware is installed without the user's knowledge and can infect the computer with a virus.