Deck 11: Business Intelligence and Decision Support

Question 1

WildTrack is using a BI data analysis solution from SAS to track and monitor their constantly changing __________,which are endangered African rhinos.

A)accounts
B)inventory
C)raw materials
D)supply chain

Answer 1

B

Question 2

The term __________ started in the music world,but has been adopted by IT to mean an application that combines data from different sources into a new application.

A)analytics
B)mashup
C)visualization
D)dashboard

Answer 2

B

Question 3

__________ BI apps use real-time or near real-time data in order to support line managers who need to monitor performance of his or her business processes.

A)Strategic
B)Operational
C)Tactical
D)Traditional

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Managers rely on business intelligence,data mining,and the decision support systems in order to minimize __________.

A)business processes
B)inventory loss
C)customer dissatisfaction
D)uncertainty

Question 5

An advantage of __________ is that they are a way to access a particular view of data or to analyze what's happening.

A)OLAP
B)data mining
C)predictive analytics
D)queries

Question 6

DIRECTV's business model is based on great customer service,attracting new customers,and preventing __________,in which customers switch to a competitor's service.

A)SCM
B)CRM
C)customer churn
D)customer downsizing

Question 7

Three core functions of __________ are query,reporting,and analytics.

A)BI
B)OLTP
C)data warehousing
D)OLAP

Question 8

At Jamba Juice,poor quality data was damaging profits so traditional BI was deployed at the __________ level;and operational BI was deployed at the __________ level.

A)corporate;store
B)transaction;product
C)accounting;marketing
D)strategic;regional

Question 9

From an IT perspective,which of the following best describes BI and BI apps?

A)Stand-alone
B)Support a specific objective
C)A collection of ISs and technologies
D)Web-based systems designed for for-profits

Question 10

After data has been loaded into a data warehouse,data tables can be linked to form __________,which is another term for multidimensional databases.

A)data cubes
B)relational databases
C)OLAP
D)ETL

Question 11

Which of the following is not one of the three key business goals used to sell management on the need for a BI consolidation program?

A)Lowering total cost of ownership
B)Enabling businesspeople to analyze information
C)Increasing productivity
D)Improving consistency of and trust in information and analytics

Question 12

Data mining and __________ tools are used to find relationships that are not obvious,or to predict what is going to happen.

A)DSS
B)reporting
C)predictive analytic
D)queries

Question 13

In a tight economy with high interest and unemployment rates,any business project requiring a large financial investment needs to __________.

A)be economically justified
B)be approved by all senior managers
C)provide a competitive edge
D)improve operational efficiency

Question 14

As a manager,what type of problems would indicate that you could benefit from a BI solution?

A)Not having the right data
B)Low demand products
C)Slow network speeds
D)High fixed costs

Question 15

Which is not a characteristic or benefit of BI?

A)helps eliminate blindspots
B)integrates data silos
C)presents data in visual displays
D)implemented by end-users

Question 16

When you need to justify an IT investment,a(n)__________ is required to document your initiative and to move it through the approval and funding process.

A)budget
B)business case
C)ROI
D)payback analysis

Question 17

The value of __________ to managers is that these apps pull data from a data warehouse or other data store and then graphically depict the data in meaningful displays.

A)analytics
B)mashups
C)decision support systems
D)dashboards

Question 18

What levels of management can today's BI vendors' products and software-as-a-service (SaaS)packages support?

A)tactical or operational
B)strategic,tactical,or operational
C)strategic or operational
D)entry and middle

Question 19

What types or sizes of organization can afford today's BI packages?

A)Fortune 500 and national government agencies only
B)major global corporations only
C)major global and large corporations only
D)all sizes including small and medium enterprises

Question 20

The latest BI tools provide __________,which are reducing managers' dependence on analysts and tech staff.

A)a high degree of self-sufficiency
B)complex interfaces
C)programming languages
D)query languages

Question 21

Planning a BI implementation is a complex project and includes typical project management steps.Therefore,the first step in the BI planning process is to _____.

A)define the scope
B)define the budget
C)identify the resources needed
D)define the timeline

Question 22

A properly designed __________ is an interactive application to help decision makers compile data and then analyze the data using business models.

A)TPS
B)MIS
C)SOP
D)DSS

Question 23

The strategic objective of __________ is to optimize the overall performance of an enterprise.

A)analytics
B)business performance management (BPM)
C)dashboards
D)reporting

Question 24

Today,BI ranks near the top of many companies' IT purchase plans.What is the underlying reason for this interest in BI?

A)Costs and complexity of BI software have dropped significantly.
B)Managers are more IT and database literate.
C)Inflation and energy prices are cutting into profit margins and consumers' disposable income.
D)All of the above

Question 25

Managers rely on decision models because they __________ the situation or problem.

A)simplify
B)detail
C)solve
D)explain

Question 26

__________ is used to understand customer online behavior,evaluate a Web site's effectiveness,and quantify the success of a marketing campaign.

A)Text analytics
B)Visualization
C)Clickstream
D)Web mining

Question 27

__________ is the ability to get to data details at several levels,which can be done by a series of menus or by query.

A)Ad hoc analysis
B)Key performance indicator
C)Critical success factor
D)Drill down

Question 28

Why does UPS use data analysis and visualization as part of its tactical and strategic planning process?

A)Delivery time is mission-critical
B)Workers need to quickly adjust operations as new information is received
C)To build a single version of the truth
D)a and b

Question 29

Decision makers go through four systematic phases.Which is the first phase?

A)choice
B)design
C)intelligence
D)knowledge

Question 30

In a __________,you are trying to find what others have prepared.With __________,you are trying to discover new patterns that may not be obvious or known.

A)query;Web mining
B)query;data mining
C)search;text mining
D)search: reporting

Question 31

Data mining is important in detecting __________,especially in insurance claims and credit card use.

A)fraudulent behavior
B)errors
C)prospective customers
D)alerts

Question 32

Extracted data,particularly when it's extracted from multiple sources,is not in usable format.Because of this problem,__________ tools have to map the field names of the same data types;and then reformat the data itself into a standard format.

A)data transformation and loading
B)data extraction and transformation
C)data query and reporting
D)data visualization

Question 33

Planning new services to be offered,hiring an executive,predicting markets,or choosing a set of research and development projects for next year are examples of __________ decisions.

A)structured
B)semistructured
C)unstructured
D)operational

Question 34

The IT architecture that is needed for BI depends on each of the following factors except:

A)the number of event-driven alerts
B)the number and type of data sources or ISs
C)how much data extraction and transformation needs to be done
D)the reporting timeliness that's needed

Question 35

Text from documents,electronic communications,and e-commerce activities needs to be codified,which is typically done with __________.

A)HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
B)Java
C)C++
D)XML (eXtensible Markup Language)

Question 36

Which is not one of the characteristics or objectives of data mining?

A)The miner is often an end user.
B)Business sections that most extensively use data mining are manufacturing.
C)Data mining tools are readily combined with spreadsheets.
D)Sophisticated tools help to remove the information buried in corporate files.

Question 37

A key benefit of DSSs is that they make it easy for manager to perform __________,which is the study of the impact that changes in one or more parts of a model have on the outcome.

A)sensitivity analysis
B)comparisons
C)pivots
D)goal seeking

Question 38

An advantage of more advanced dashboards is that they present KPIs,trends,and exceptions using __________.

A)Adobe Flash animation
B)Excel
C)Powerpoint
D)PDF

Question 39

Formal business procedures,cost minimization,profit maximization and algorithms,such as those used by eHarmony to match its members,are example of __________ decisions.

A)structured
B)semistructured
C)unstructured
D)operational

Question 40

Managers' roles can be put into three categories based on Mintzberg.Which is not one of those categories?

A)Interpersonal role
B)Informational role
C)Strategic role
D)Decisional role

Question 41

Managers can better meet demands from customers,shareholders,and policymakers for environmentally-friendly business practices by using BI dashboards.

Question 42

It's tough for managers to fully understand BI because BI apps are not stand-alone systems nor do they support a specific objective,as do SCM systems.

Question 43

Powerful devices using 3G IP-based networks combined with easy-to-use software are unifying communications.

Question 44

Knowing how to interpret and act on the results from queries,reports,or analytics depends on BI capabilities.

Question 45

Sensitivity analysis is extremely valuable in DSSs because it makes the system flexible and adaptable to changing conditions and to the varying requirements of different decision-making situations.

Question 46

According to Morgan Stanley's Global Mobile Internet Report (2009),__________ may be the fastest growing and most disruptive technology we have ever seen.

A)PCs
B)client/server
C)mobile computing
D)Google

Question 47

The speed with which Apple's iPhone and iTouch have sold is an indicator that MI (mobile intelligence)apps will be in high demand.

Question 48

Basic components of a DSS include each of the following except:

A)database
B)model base
C)user interface and users
D)network

Question 49

Given that approximately 20 percent of all collected/stored information is in text or nonnumeric format,text mining and Web mining are major growth areas.

Question 50

For-profit and nonprofit enterprises are getting more value from BI and existing data by extending information to all managerial levels and to employees.

Question 51

Integrating data for BI apps is complex because when data is extracted from multiple sources,the data are not in usable format.

Question 52

Since the 1960s,there have been five major generations,or cycles,of computing.Which represents those generations in order?

A)mainframes,miniframes,PCs,desktop Internet computing,mobile computing
B)minicomputers,servers,PCs,wired computing,wireless computing
C)mainframes,supercomputers,PCs,mobile computing,Internet computing
D)PCs,laptops,netbooks,mobiles,embedded processors

Question 53

Regarding mobile intelligence,__________ are locations such as the commuter train,aisle in a store,line in a factory,or retail floor where business people can make decisions without delay.

A)data centers
B)decision sweet spots
C)RFID
D)Wi-Fi

Question 54

When you search for a certain book on Amazon.com,the site uses predictive and visualization tools to cross-sell by presenting to you a list of books purchased by customers who had bought that book.

Question 55

The BI capabilities of TRAC2ES include integrating data to give military decision makers a clear view of all the paths leading toward resolving resource allocation problems in order to save lives.

Question 56

Customer satisfaction,profitability,and sales per employee are examples of CSFs.

Question 57

Data mining techniques are well-suited to analyze financial time series data to find patterns,detect anomalies and outliers,recognize situations of chance and risk,and predict future demand,prices,and rates.

Question 58

BI systems have eliminated a common organizational problem,which is simultaneously having too much data but somehow not enough.

Question 59

The __________ is the infrastructure for new generations of Web and mobile apps.

A)cloud
B)broadband network
C)3G network
D)4G network

Question 60

Twitter,Foursquare,and other real-time media add to or leverage capabilities of smartphones--improving your ability to be well-informed in real-time.

Question 61

__________ are areas in which managers fail to notice or to understand important information-and as a result make bad decisions or do nothing when action is needed.

Question 62

Multidimensional (3D)views of data,such as sales revenue data,are referred to as __________.

Question 63

__________ decisions are so well-defined that they can be automated or become standard operating procedures (SOPs)and do not require a DSS to solve.

Question 64

Justifying an IT investment is also known as making a __________ for it.

Question 65

__________ techniques are well-suited to analyze financial time series data to find patterns,detect anomalies and outliers,recognize situations of chance and risk,and predict future demand,prices,and rates.

Question 66

Explain data mining.List three characteristics or objectives of data mining.

Question 67

Identify three data-related business problems,or difficult situations,which indicate that an organization could benefit from improved intelligence from BI tools.

Question 68

__________ refers to a collection of ISs and technologies that support managerial decision making or operational control by providing information on internal and external operations.

Question 69

__________ devices are becoming the world's dominant computing platform.

Question 70

In the __________ era,businesses that don't yet exist may evolve into industry leaders as did Facebook,YouTube,and Twitter.

Question 71

A decision __________ is a simplified representation,or abstraction of reality.

Question 72

__________ tools,e.g. ,dashboards and mashups,are the user-interfaces that help people understand the numbers.

Question 73

Describe the mobile intelligence infrastructure.What factors are driving MI? Describe a MI app that you would find valuable as a manager.