Issue 18/08/2011 Revision Date 25/06/2018 Ref No. ECT-ACAF-ACAFO- FRM.

027

Assignment #1

Date /04/2020 Time: Total Mark:

25

Student’s Name

Student’s ID

Course Name Management Information Systems

Course Code BIT203

Semester Spring 2020

Instructor’s Name Dr. Bilel Elayeb, Dr. Nazia Shehzad, Dr. Myriam Bounhas

Questions 1 2 3 Total

Points 8 10 7 25

Student Mark
Note: This Assignment
accounts for 25% of the student’s final grade.

1
Instructions1:

- You are required to accomplish your work individually.

- The Soft copy of the Word file should be uploaded to the Turnitin Moodle Website
(https://lms.ectmoodle.ae).

Answer the following questions:

Question 1: (8 marks)
Detail the roles of emerging computer hardware and software platforms in a management information
system via an example of a real-life firm. Your answer should include:
- Only one example of a real-life firm. (1 mark)
- Emerging computer hardware in this firm such as: hardware for networking, hardware for storage
and backup, distance-working hardware, etc. (3.5 marks)
- Emerging computer software in this firm such as: LAN/MAN software, security software,
distance-working software, etc. (3.5 marks)

Question 2: (10 marks)

Demonstrate the interrelationship of working of TPS, MIS, DSS and ESS using a real-life example of a
firm. Your answer should include:
- Only one example of a real-life firm. (1 mark)
- Transaction processing systems (TPS) in this firm. (2 marks)
- Management information systems (MIS) in this firm. (2 marks)
- Decision support systems (DSS) in this firm. (2 marks)
- Executive support systems (ESS) in this firm. (2 marks)
- Interrelationship between all of them in this firm. (1 mark)

Question 3: (7 marks)
How databases and information management (IM) can improve business performance and support
decision-making? Discuss your response in case of a real-life firm. Your answer should include:
- Only one example of a real-life firm. (1 mark)
- The improvement of business performance in this firm. (3 marks)
- The support of decision-making in this firm. (3 marks)
Answers:
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This Assignment is Dr. Bilel Elayeb's own original production. No one is allowed to use it, in its entirety, or use parts of it
without Dr. Bilel Elayeb's prior written consent.
2
Question 1:

Chess database, or ChessBase as it is commonly referred to is the company that produces training
and preparation materials for chess players from all over the world. They develop video tutorials,
computer engine programs that can calculate a position with 48 moves depth, and various training
materials for use in improving a chess player’s skill. Their products are also employed by chess
professional teachers to aid them in their teaching various chess concepts.
Chessbase is one of the biggest companies in chess enterprise and as such they are composed of
multitudes of employees. Because of this they needed a method in monitoring and tracking their
employees’ attendance. Thus, they use an attendance monitoring system where each and every one of
their employees’ work hours are recorded. From the time they started to the time they end their work for
the day. They have a feature in their programs called “live book” and “live database” wherein different
people all across the globe share their chess opening books and chess game database to other people who
use the same program as well. As such, they have huge databanks where every bit of data their users
send are kept and also multiple servers to help redistribute the data to those who are trying to access it.
As they are employing chess masters from all over the world to create video tutorials or make some
commentary to some chess game or topic, they are using wireless WAN.
For softwares, they have a cloud storage that saves all the information regarding chess. These
varies from various computer analysis, to most recent chess games. These are stored and interpreted by
their chess programs (i.e Chessbase, Fritz 17 etc. ) to help the managers and their statisticians in
predicting the next opening trends or the most popular chess mistakes so they can focus their video
tutorials and articles towards those topics. One feature of their chess programs also shows the popularity
of their chess video tutorials and chess articles. These information is also interpreted in a graphical
method and is used by the executives in their decisions for the future.

Question 2:
Real-life firm: The Chessbase Company sells various chess engines, books, and video lessons regarding
everything about chess. The company also features a website with all the latest trends about chess in it.
TPS – Sales tracking system. This records daily routine transactions made in Chessbase by its users.
MIS – Sales and marketing system. This is used to process the data that the sales tracking system has and
store it in a database, and possibly compile it all to generate a relatively brief coherent presentation or in
a tabled-manner of the gathered data when needed.

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DSS – Predictive analytics. The trends in the chess world changes so much due to modern chess engines
being much more powerful in terms of calculation, bringing forth countless novelties everyday to the
game. Chessbase has to cope with this change and produce products that conform to these trends, thus
the use of predictive analytics.
ESS – The ESS is tasked with providing a summary of all the data and information gathered by all other
levels of organizations to the executives of the company.
In short, the TPS is used to record transactions, then the MIS will process the data which will
then be used by the DSS to create accurate predictions, and all of these information is then summarized
and presented to the higher-ups by the ESS.

Question 3:
In 1985, Frederic Friedel, invited Garry Kasparov, then world chess champion, to his house to
discuss about how a chess database would make life easier for Kasparov seeing as he can prepare for
opponents much easily. Friedel and his colleagues then began their work on the first chess database, the
ChessBase 1.0. It stored hundreds of thousands of chess games, making it very popular at the time and
even now. And with the import of chess engines in their program, most notably Frans Morsch’s Fritz,
the company saw a large success in their business. In December 1996, Mark Uniacke’s Hiarcs 6 chess
engine was recruited by ChessBase, adding it to its product line up. And in March 1998, Chessbase also
added Junior 4.6 and Dr. Christian Donninger’s Nimzo99 to their product line-up. But in 1999, Stefan
Meyer-Kahlen’s Shredder still was able to triumph against Chessbase’s chess engines by winning the
world computer chess championship. Previous data proved that Chessbase’s strategy of incorporating
various chess engine creators in their company was best, so instead of creating a stronger engine than
Shredder, Chessbase snagged Meyer-Kahlen when his contract with Millenium 2000 expired. And with
it, they were able to absorb shredder to their product line, integrating it to a Fritz style graphical user
interface (GUI).