1. How Well Is IT Supporting the Business Goals of an Organization? Explain

1. How well is IT supporting the business goals of an organization? Explain. 2. Explain major roles of business applications of Information systems? 3. How does the use of Internet, Intranet and Extranets by a business enterprise support their E-commerce activities. 4. Why do big companies still fail in their use of Information Technology? What should they be doing differently? 5. Can the business use of Internet Technologies help a company gain a competitive advantage? Give an example to illustrate your answer. 6. What are some of toughest management challenges in developing IT solutions to solve business problems and meet new business opportunities? 7. Are web-enabling business processes a cost effective strategy? Why or why not? 8. How could a business use information technology to increase switching costs and lock in its customers and suppliers? Use examples to support your answer. 9. What strategic role can information play in business process reengineering and total quality management? 10. How can Internet technologies help a business form strategic alliances with its customers, suppliers and others? 11. How could a business use Internet technologies to form a virtual company or become an agile competitor? 12. “We have learned that it is not technology that creates a competitive edge, but the management processes that exploits technology?” What does it mean? Do you agree or disagree? Why? 13. What are the most important HR applications a company should offer to its employee via a Web-based system? Why? 14. How do you think sales force automation affects sales person productivity, marketing management, and competitive advantage? 15. How can Internet technologies be involved in improving a process in one of the functions of business? Choose one example and evaluate its business value. 16. Can collaboration systems improve the quality of the products that are designed, as well as reducing the cost and time of the design process? Why or why not? 17. What are several e-business applications that you might recommend to a small company to help its survive and succeed in challenging economic times? Why? 18. How do enterprise collaboration systems contribute to profits for a business? 19. What are the benefits to a business and its customers of a Customer Relationship Management system? 20. What are the main reasons companies experience failures in implementing Enterprise Resource Planning systems? 21. What are the several key things companies should do to avoid Enterprise Resource Planning systems failures? Explain the reasons for your proposals. 22. Should every company become a customer-focused business? Why or why not? 23. Should companies continue to use Electronic Data Interchange(EDI) systems? Why or why not? 24. What challenges do you see for a company that wants to implement collaborative Supply Chain Management systems? How could you meet such challenges? 25. Why can both large and small businesses cut costs and increase revenue by moving their supply chains online? 26. What is the difference between the ability of a manager to retrieve information instantly on demand using Management Information System and the capabilities provided by a DSS? 27. What are some of the most important applications of Artificial Intelligence in business? Defend your choices. 28. What are the some of the limitations you see in the use of Artificial intelligent technologies? What could be done to minimize such effects? 29. Planning is a useless endeavor, because developments in e-business and e- commerce and in the political, economic and societal environment are moving too quickly nowadays. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? 30. “Planning and budgeting processes are notorious for their rigidity and irrelevance to management action.” How can planning be made relevant to the challenges facing a business? 31. How can a company identify, measure and compare the business/IT innovation as well as the profitability of IT projects in their planning process? 32. What are several e-business and e-commerce strategies and applications that should be developed and implemented by many companies today? Explain your reasoning. 33. “Many companies plan really well, yet few translate strategy into action”. Do you think this statement is true? Why or why not? 34. What major business changes beyond e-business and e-commerce do you think most companies should be planning for in the next ten years? Explain your choices. 35. Why has prototyping become a popular way to develop business applications? What are prototyping’s advantages and disadvantages? 36. What are the three most important factors you would use in evaluating computer hardware? Computer software? Explain why. 37. What is the difference between the parallel, plunge, phased, and pilot forms of Information System conversion? Which conversion strategy is best? Explain why. 38. What are several key factors in designing a successful e-commerce or intranet website? Explain why the design factors you chose are important to Web success. 39. What can be done to improve e-commerce security on the Internet? 40. What artificial intelligence techniques can a business use to improve computer security and fight computer crime? 41. What are your major concerns about computer crime and privacy on the Internet? What can you do about it? Explain. 42. What is disaster recovery? How could it be implemented in an organization? 43. Is there an ethical crisis in business today? What role does information technology play in unethical business practices? 44. What are several business decisions that you will have to make as a manager that have both an ethical and IT dimension? Give examples to illustrate your answer. 45. What has been the impact of information technologies on the work relationships, activities and resources of managers? 46. How are Internet technologies affecting the structure and wrok roles of modern organizations? 47. Should Information System function in a business be centralized or decentralized? 48. How will the Internet, intranets and extranets affect each of the components of global information technology management? 49. How might cultural, political or geoeconomic challenges affect a global company’s use of the Internet? 50. What are your major concerns about computer crime and privacy on the Internet? What can you do about it? 51. Define ERP. How can some of the spectacular failures of ERP systems in business be avoided? Explain. 52. What do you mean by CRM? Why would systems like CRM that enhance a company’s relationships with its customers have such a high rate of failure? 53. What is SCM? Describe how SCM software and Internet technologies can help companies re-engineer and integrate the functional SCM processes that support the supply chain life cycle? 54. Explain the role of a Database Management System in an E-business information system.