ACS 1803

FINAL STUDY QUESTIONS

(The following questions are intended to help guide your studying. Be sure to emphasize
understanding of how all the ideas fit together - until you feel that you can explain these ideas to
someone else.)

1. Explain what are enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Outline several of their key
characteristics.
2. Explain the supply chain management (SCM) philosophy and show how SCM systems help to
implement such a philosophy.
3. Explain the customer relationship management (CRM) philosophy and show how CRM systems
help to implement such a philosophy.
4. What are five common features of an Executive Information System? Explain clearly with an
example what drill-down reporting means in an EIS.
5. How does a Decision Support System differ from a management reporting system?
6. What are three main components of a typical DSS? What kind of decisions does such a system
support? Give a clear example of a DSS.
7. Give an example of “what-if” analysis in an Excel spreadsheet. Why might this be considered an
elementary DSS?
8. Understand some common DSS systems in various functional areas
9. What are the key facts about expert systems? Explain: ”knowledge base” and “decision rules”.
10. Why would an organization want to develop an expert system? Provide an example of an expert
system.
11. What are main components of a Geographic Information System (GIS)? Give examples of how
such a system can be used to help make decisions.
12. Describe the main features and benefits of collaborative information systems.
13. Why is a computer referred to as a system? What components make up the architecture of a
computer system?
14. What is the job of the central processing unit? What are the roles of the control unit and the
ALU? What are the basic properties of main memory? What is the microprocessor chip?
15. At the level of CPU workings, what is a machine language instruction? How is a program
consisting of several machine language instructions executed in the CPU?
16. What does it mean that all machine language instructions and data for these instructions must
be stored in electronic form? How can numbers be stored electronically?
17. What is a bit, a byte? What is "K bytes", "one Megabyte", one Gigabyte? Distinguish between
the terms "hardware" and "software".
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18. Although all programs, when they are executed in the CPU, must be in machine language,
programs are not normally written in machine language. What is assembly language? How does
it relate to machine language? Why is it called a low-level language?
19. What makes it possible to store "real world" characters other than numbers in electronic form?
How did this help in the invention of assembly language?
20. What is a third-generation, or high-level language? How does it relate to machine language?
21. Why are there different high-level languages available?
22. What is a fourth-generation language? How does it differ from a third-generation language?
Why is a 4GL appealing to people who are not computer specialists? What is a non-procedural
user-oriented applications "package" for the microcomputer?
23. What are the main differences between mainframes, minicomputers, microcomputers, and
supercomputers?
24. What is the difference between "system software" and "application software"?
25. What is an "operating system"? What are some of its main functions within a computer?
26. What is a "network" of computers? What is a file server?
27. What is the function of a modem?
28. What is a "local area network" (LAN) ? What are its advantages?
29. What components do we need to connect several computers into a network?
30. What is a “server” and what are “clients”?
31. Identify five types of transmission media that may be involved in connecting networked
computers
32. In what different ways can we arrange computers in a network?
33. What is a "network operating system"? Give an example of one such system.
34. What are basic properties of a wide-area network (WAN)?
35. What are the basic features of a value Added Network (VAN)?
36. What is the "Internet"?
37. Explain how the Internet uses packet switching. How is packet switching different from circuit
switching? What are the security risks of circuit switching?
38. What is TCP/IP?
39. Explain the differences between client server model and a peer based network.
40. What is the difference between a router and a modem?
41. Define three important concepts of the Internet.
42. Explain the structure and operations of the World Wide Web.

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43. Explain the difference between a web address and an Internet e-mail address.
44. Explain the concept of "hyperlinks", HTML and http.
45. What is cloud computing? What are its advantages?
46. What is the difference between guided medium and unguided medium?
47. What is electronic data interchange (EDI)? Give a detailed example of how it would be used.
48. What are advantages of extranet EDI?
49. What is the difference between E-Commerce and E-Business?
50. What is a disintermediation? How does it impact e-business strategy models?
51. What are the advantages of a Brick-and-Mortar Strategy versus a Click-Only Strategy?
52. What is the difference between B2C and B2B electronic commerce?
53. What is a revenue model in e-commerce? Outline four different revenue models.

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