Term
| What is electronic commerce |
|
Definition
| Commerce accelerated and enhanced by IT, in particular the Internet |
|
|
Term
| How can use you a B2B e-marketplace to reduce your dependency on a particular supplier? |
|
Definition
| You can use a B2B e-marketplace to find other suppliers and also participate in reverse auctions to find the best supplier with the best price. |
|
|
Term
| How do convenience and specialty items differ in the B2C e-commerce business model? |
|
Definition
| Convenience items are lower-priced but something needed on a frequent basis. Specialty items are higher-priced, ordered on a less frequent basis, and often require customization. |
|
|
Term
| Why do commodity-like and digital items sell well in the B2C e-commerce business model? |
|
Definition
| Commodity-like items work well because they are the same no matter where you buy them. Digital products work well because there is no real associated shipping or storage costs. |
|
|
Term
| What is mass customization? |
|
Definition
Mass customization is the ability of an organization to give its customers the opportunity to tailor its product or service to the customer’s specifications.
|
|
|
Term
| How does a reverse auction work? |
|
Definition
| In a reverse auction, you place a request for products and/or services and suppliers continually submit lower bids until there is only one supplier left. |
|
|
Term
| How are vertical and horizontal e-marketplaces different? |
|
Definition
| Vertical e-marketplaces connect buyers and sellers in a given industry while horizontal e-marketplaces connect buyers and sellers across many industries. |
|
|
Term
| What can a marketing mix include for a B2C e-commerce business? |
|
Definition
| A marketing mix for a B2C business can include registering with search engines, online ads, viral marketing, and affiliate programs. |
|
|
Term
| What are the major types of B2C e-commerce payment systems? |
|
Definition
| The major types of B2C e-commerce payment systems include credit cards, smart cards, financial cybermediaries, electronic checks, and Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment. |
|
|
Term
| . What is the difference between a client-side digital wallet and a server-side digital wallet? |
|
Definition
| You keep a client-side digital wallet on your personal computer while a server-side digital wallet is stored on a Web server. |
|
|
Term
| How are Secure Sockets Layers (SSLs) and Secure Electronic Transactions (SETs) different? How are they the same? |
|
Definition
| SSLs and SETs are different in that SETs also provide a mechanism for ensuring the legitimacy of the user of the payment device. They are both the same in that they create a secure connection between the client and the server computers. |
|
|
Term
| What are the three primary groups of people who undertake the systems development process? |
|
Definition
| The three primary groups of people who undertake the systems development process are in-house IT specialists (insourcing), end users (selfsourcing), and another organization (outsourcing). |
|
|
Term
| What is the systems development life cycle? |
|
Definition
| The SDLC is a structured step-by-step approach for developing information systems. |
|
|
Term
| What are scope creep and feature creep? |
|
Definition
| Scope creep occurs when the scope of the project increases beyond its original intentions. Feature creep occurs when developers (and end users) add extra features that were not part of the initial requirements. |
|
|
Term
| How do the four implementation methods differ? |
|
Definition
| Parallel implementation uses both the old and new systems until the new system is verified. Plunge implementationimmediately ceases using the old system and begins using the new system. Pilot implementation converts only a group of users until the new system is verified. Phased implementation converts only a portion of the system until it can be verified. |
|
|
Term
| What is component-based development? |
|
Definition
| Component-based development is a general approach to systems development that focuses on building small self-contained b locks of code (components) that can be reused across a variety of applications within an organization. |
|
|
Term
| How are component-based development and a service-oriented architecture related? |
|
Definition
| Component-based development (CBD) is a technical implementation of a service-oriented architecture (SoA). The SoA is a holistic perspective of how an organization views and treats resources such as information and technology. CBD focuses on building small self-contained blocks of code called components which can be re-used in a variety of applications. Service-oriented architecture (SoA) also focuses on blocks of code called services. If an organization chooses to use the SoA approach to software development, it would use the same re-useable components that are available from CBD. |
|
|
Term
| Why do organizations prototype? |
|
Definition
| Organizations prototype for a variety of reasons: (1) to gather requirements, (2) to help determine requirements, (3) to prove that a system is technically feasible, and (4) to sell the idea of a proposed system. |
|
|
Term
| What are the advantages of self-sourcing? |
|
Definition
| The advantages of selfsourcing are many including: improving requirements determination, increasing end user participation and sense of ownership, increasing speed of systems development, and reducing the invisible backlog. |
|
|
Term
| What is the difference between a selling prototype and a proof-of-concept prototype? |
|
Definition
| A selling prototype is used to convince people of the worth of a proposed system while a proof-of-concept prototype is used to prove the technical feasibility of a proposed system. |
|
|
Term
| What is the role of a service level agreement (SLA) in outsourcing? |
|
Definition
| A service level agreement in outsourcing defines the work to be done, the time frame, the metrics that will be used to measure the success of the systems development effort, and the costs. |
|
|
Term
| What are the three geopolitical forms of outsourcing? |
|
Definition
| The three geopolitical forms of outsourcing include onshore outsourcing, nearshore outsourcing, and offshore outsourcing. |
|
|
Term
| How can a service-oriented architecture (SoA) be used to guide the organization of the future? |
|
Definition
| A service-oriented architecture (SoA) can guide the organization of the future by enabling it to respond more adeptly to customers, end users, software development, information needs, and hardware requirements. |
|
|
Term
| How have ERP systems evolved over the last 30 years? |
|
Definition
ERP starts in the 1970s as basic material requirements planning systems. They then moved into an MRP II stage in which decision support and executive support capabilities were added. In the early 1990s, financials and accounting functions were integrated. Today finally, they are called ERP II, a complete integration of resource planning driven by customer relationship management and supply chain management activities.
|
|
|
Term
| Why is interoperability important? |
|
Definition
Interoperability provides the capability for two or more computing components to share information and other resources, even if they are made by different manufacturers.
|
|
|
Term
| What are the main differences between a decentralized infrastructure and a centralized infrastructure? |
|
Definition
| A decentralized infrastructure involves little or no sharing of IT and IT-related resources, while a centralized infrastructureinvolves the complete sharing of IT and IT-related resources (albeit from one centrally-control location). |
|
|
Term
| How does a client/server infrastructure work? |
|
Definition
| A client/server network works by having one or more computers that are servers, provide services to other computers, called clients. |
|
|
Term
| What are the four types of a tiered infrastructures? |
|
Definition
| The four types of tiered infrastructures are 1-tier (presentation), 2-tier (application), 3-tier (data), and n-tier (business logic). |
|
|
Term
| How do efficiency and effectiveness metrics differ? |
|
Definition
| Efficiency focuses on doing something right, such as reducing time or number of errors, while effectiveness focuses on doing the right things, such as making the right decisions. |
|
|
Term
| What are some commonly used infrastructure-centric metrics? |
|
Definition
| Commonly used infrastructure-centric metrics include throughput, transaction speed, system availability, accuracy, response time, and scalability. |
|
|
Term
| What are some commonly used Web-centric metrics? |
|
Definition
Commonly used Web-centric metrics include unique visitors, total hits, page exposures, conversion rate, click-through, cost-per-thousand, abandoned registrations, and abandoned shopping carts.
|
|
|
Term
| Why are service level agreements important when contracting the services of an application service provider (ASP)? |
|
Definition
| A service level agreement (SLA) would provide the quantifiable measures by which the ASP must provide services. |
|
|
Term
| What is a business continuity plan? |
|
Definition
| A business continuity plan is a step-by-step guideline defining how the organization will recover from a disaster or extended disruption of its business processes. |
|
|
Term
| Why do organizations implement a disaster recovery plan before testing it? |
|
Definition
Organizations implement a disaster recovery plan before testing it because organizations cannot test their disaster recovery plans until the plan is implemented.
|
|
|
Term
| What are ethics and how do ethics apply to business? |
|
Definition
| Ethics are the principles and standards that guide our behavior toward other people. Ethics are indispensable to anyone who wants to have a good career. Business involves commercial interaction between people and so, naturally, how people treat each other is important in business. |
|
|
Term
| What situation would qualify as an exception to the copyright law? |
|
Definition
| A teacher copying a diagram out of a book for instructional purposes. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Privacy is the right to be left alone when you want to be, to have control over your own personal possessions, and not to be observed without your consent. |
|
|
Term
| What is pirated software? |
|
Definition
| Pirated software is the unauthorized use, duplication, distribution, or sale of copyrighted software. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Identity theft is the forging of someone’s identity for the purpose of fraud. |
|
|
Term
| What does a key logger do? |
|
Definition
| There are two types of key loggers: key logger software and hardware key loggers. They both record the input actions of the person using the computer. Key logger or key trapper, software is a program that, when installed on a computer, records every keystroke and mouse click. A hardware key logger is a hardware device that captures keystrokes on their journey from the keyboard to the motherboard. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Spyware or sneakware or stealthware is malicious software that collects information about you and your computer and reports it to someone without your permission. |
|
|
Term
| What is a denial-of-service attack? |
|
Definition
A denial-of-service (DoS) attack floods a network or server with so many requests for service that it slows down or crashes.
|
|
|
Term
| What is public key encryption? |
|
Definition
| Public key encryption (PKE) is an encryption system that uses two keys: a public key that everyone can have and a private key for only the recipient. |
|
|
Term
| How will software-as-a-service (Saas) make use of a personal application service provider? |
|
Definition
| The SaaS model requires that a personal ASP provide you with software (and potentially storage space) over the Internet so you can take advantage of it while using portable technologies that do not contain the software you need. |
|
|
Term
| How does push technology differ from spam? |
|
Definition
| Information coming via push technology will be personalized whereas spam is designed as generic information to be pushed to the masses. |
|
|
Term
| What is disintermediation? How does the F2b2C e-commerce model support disintermediation? |
|
Definition
| Distintermediation is the use of the Internet as a delivery vehicle, whereby intermediate players in a distribution channel are bypassed. The F2b2C model basically makes the Web business into an insignificant intermediary between the factory and the consumer. |
|
|
Term
| What exciting applications are associated with the Web 2.0? |
|
Definition
| Some applications include wikis, social networking sites, blogs, RSS feeds, and podcasting. |
|
|
Term
| How does automatic speech recognition work? |
|
Definition
| Automatic speech recognition works in three steps: (1) feature analysis which captures your words and eliminates background noise, (2) pattern classification which matches your spoken phonemes to phonemes stored in a database, and (3) language processing which attempts to make sense of what you’re saying by comparing your word phonemes with a language model database. |
|
|
Term
| What are the devices commonly associated with virtual reality? |
|
Definition
Devices commonly associated with virtual reality include gloves, headsets, and walkers.
|
|
|
Term
| What role do haptic interfaces play? |
|
Definition
| Haptic interfaces add the sense of touch to an environment that previously only had visual and textual elements. |
|
|
Term
| What is the best form of personal identification? |
|
Definition
| The best form of personal identification includes three things: (1) what you have to know, (2) what you have, and (3) who you are, or a biometric. |
|
|
Term
| How can you expect cell phones to change in the future? |
|
Definition
| Cell phones will be become very small computers with CPUs, RAM, disk storage, and support for things like video. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| RFID uses a microchip in a tag or label to store information, and information is transmitted from, or written to, the tag or label when the microchip is exposed to the correct frequency of radio waves. |
|
|
Term
| How does nanotechnology differ from traditional manufacturing? |
|
Definition
| Nanotechnology starts with the smallest element (an atom) and builds up from there. Traditional manufacturing starts with something big and presses, squeezes, slices, and dices to make something small. |
|
|
