CAP 353: Information system

Homework No. 1
DoA: 10-02-10
DoS: 24-02-10
Submitted to:
Ms kuljeet kaur
Submitted by:
Tarun Baveja
MCA(hons)
Roll No 28
Reg No 10807675

Part A
Q1:->How can information technology support a
company’sbusiness processes and decision
making and give it a competitive advantage?
Give examples to illustrate your answer.
Sol Information technology (IT) refers to the management
and use of information using computer-based tools. It includes
acquiring, processing, storing, and distributing information.
Most commonly it is a term used to refer to business
applications of computer technology, rather than scientific
applications. The term is used broadly in business to refer to
anything that ties into the use of computers.

How it supports a company’s business

processes and decision making.
Mostly businesses today create data that can be stored and
processed on computers. In some cases the data must be input
to computers using devices such as keyboards and scanners. In
other cases the data might be created electronically and
automatically stored in computers.

Small businesses generally need to purchase software

packages, and may need to contract with IT businesses that
provide services such as hosting, marketing web sites and
maintaining networks. However, larger companies can consider
having their own IT staffs to develop software, and otherwise
handle IT needs in-house. For instance, businesses working with
the federal government are likely to need to comply with
requirements relating to making information accessible.

For example most retail stores now use computers to help

their employees record customer purchases, keep track of
inventory, pay employees.

Role of IT in decision making: it has drawn different

opinions – from “minor” to “vital”. The majority of responders
had agreed that this role very much depends upon the nature
of the problem. Several responses indicated the importance of
both the IT-supported information sources and analytical tools.
Other responses worth noting here are:

• IT helps reducing uncertainty;

• IT can transform decision data volumes into manageable
levels;
• IT has a potential to boost confidence and insure from fatal
decision mistakes;
• the rigid structure of IS in operation is a counterproductive
factor in providing decision support;
• IT is vital, but can hurt even more than help.
For example : In any sports goods business company has to
analyses the quality of wood. With the use of information
technology It can be easily found which wood of tree is better
for sport goods. Company has to find out which wood is
preferred by people for particular sport goods. After checking
the database of that particular wood it can be easily found.

Competitive advantage of information technology

Every information available in the organization can be

effectively converted into the fruitful result and attained
sustainable competitive advantage if the following steps are
observed.

1. Assess existing and potential information intensity of

product and process
2. Evaluate the likely impact of IT on their industry
structure
3. Identify the rank of activities that information first
affects
4. Quantify how information technology brings new
business
5. Generate a plan of action for taking advantage of IT

Q2:->Identify several basic competitive

strategies and explain how they can use
information technologies to comfront the
competitive forces faced by a business.
Sol basic competitive strategies:
1. Growth strategies : increasing a company’s capacity to
produce goods and services expanding into global
markets, diversifying into new products and services, or
integrating into related products and services.
2. Innovation strategy: finding new ways of doing
business. This strategy may involve developing unique
products and services or entering unique markets or
market niches. It may also involve marketing rdical
changes to the business processes for producing.

3. Differentiation Strategy : Developing ways to

differentiate a firm’s products and services from those of
its competitors or reduce the differentiation advantages of
competitors.

4. Cost leadership Strategy: becoming a low cost reducer

of products and services in the industry or finding ways to
help suppliers or customers reduce their costs or increase
the costs of competitors.

5. Alliance strategies: establishing new business linkages

and alliances with customers, suppliers, competitors,
consultants and other companies. These linkages ma
include mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, forming of
other marketing, manufacturing.

Use of information technology by competitive strategies to comfront

competitive forces
 Competitive forces faced by business

Use of information technology to avoid

competitive forces

1. To avoid Entry of competitors: Electronic

Advertisements like in television channel or on internet,
are used to avoid this kind of competitive forces.
2. To avoid Threat of substitutes. How easy can a
product or service be substituted, especially made
cheaper.
3. To avoid Bargaining power of buyers. The accurate
prices of the items are shown to the customers so that
they cannot bargain with sellers. For this company can use
internet or fax.
4. To avoid Bargaining power of suppliers: The same
thing for suppliers instead of prices they are shown the
accurate percentage of commission through internet or
fax etc(facility of information technology).
5. To avoid Rivalry among the existing players. Does a
strong competition between the existing players exist? Is
one player very dominant or are all equal in strength and
size.
Q3:-> Identify the major types and uses of
micro-computer, midrange and mainframe
computer systems?
Sol Micro computers are the most important category of
computer systems for both business people and consumers. It
is usually called a personal computer. A microcomputer is much
more than a small computer for use by an individual.

Type and use of micro computer

• Desktop computers: A desktop computer is a personal
computer (PC) in a form intended for regular use at a
single location, as opposed to a mobile laptop or portable
computer.
• Laptop and notebook computers: A laptop is a
personal computer designed for mobile use and small and
light enough to sit on a person's lap while in use.[1] A
laptop integrates most of the typical components of a
desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a
pointing device

Palmtop computers : A personal digital assistant (PDA),

also known as a palmtop computer, is a mobile device which
functions as a Personal information manager and connects to
the internet. The PDA has an electronic visual display
enabling it to include a web browser, but some newer models
also have audio capabilities, enabling them to be used as
mobile phones or portable media players

Midrange computer: These are primarily high-end network

servers and other types of servers that can handle the large-
scale processing of much business application. Although not
as powerful as mainframe computers, they are less costly to
buy, operate, and maintain than mainframe systems and
thus meet the computing needs.

Midrange computers, or midrange systems, are a class of

computer systems which fall in between mainframe
 computers and microcomputers. The range emerged in the
1960s and was more generally known at the time as
minicomputers. Notable midrange computer lines include
Digital Equipment Corporation (PDP line),

Mainframe computer:

The term mainframe computer was created to distinguish the

traditional, large, institutional computer intended to service
multiple users from the smaller, single user machines. These
computers are capable of handling and processing very large
amounts of data quickly. Mainframe computers are used in
large institutions such as government, banks and large
corporations.

Mainframes are measured in integer operations per second or

MIPS. Mainframes are built to be reliable for transaction
processing as it is commonly understood in the business world:
a commercial exchange of goods, services, or money.

Midrange computers have been sold to small to medium-sized

businesses as their main computer, and to larger enterprises
for branch- or department-level operations.

Part B

Q4:->Outline the major technologies and

uses o computer peripherals for input ,
output and storage?
Sol Technologies for input
Pointing devices: keyboards are still the most widely used
devices for entering data and text into computer systems.
However, pointing devices are a better alternative for issuing
commands, making choices and responding to prompts
displayed on your video screen.

Pen based computing : these technologies are still being

used in many handheld computers and personal digital
assistants. They have a pressure sensitive layer, similar to that
of a touch screen, under their slate-like liquid crystal display
screen.

Speech recognition :it may be the future of data entry and

certainly promises to be the easiest method for word
processing, application navigation, and conversational
computing because speech is the easiest, most natural means
of human communication.

Speech recognition systems digitize, analyse, and classify your

speech and its sound patterns. The software compares you
speech patterns to a database of sound patterns in its
vocabulary and passes recognized words to your application
software.

Optical scanning : These devices read text or graphics and

convert them into digital input for your computer. Thus, optical
scanning enables the direct entry of data from source
documents into a computer system.

Output technologies
Video Output: Video displays are the most common type of
computer output. Many desktop computers still rely on video
monitors that use a cathode ray tube(CRT) technology similar
to the picture tubes used in home television sets.
The another video output technology is liquid crystal displays
has been to provide a visual display capability for portable
microcomputers and PDAs.

Printing : printing information on paper is still the most

common form of output after video displays. Thus, most
personal computer systems rely on an inkjet or laser printer.
Printed output is still a common form of business
communicaitons and is frequently required for legal
documentation.

Storage technologies:
Primary storage

Semiconductor memory : the primary storage of your computer

consists of microelectronic semiconductor memory chips. Some
of the major attractions of semiconductor memory are its small
size, great speed, and shock and temperature resistance.

There are two types of this kind of memory

1. RAM(random access memory): these memory chips

are the most widely used primary storage medium. This
memory is volatile because as the power turn off the
contents in this memory are erased.
2. ROM(read only memory):as the name suggests we can
only read this memory we can not write in this memory.
The boot strap loader is found in this memory which
causes the operating system to load into RAM.
Secondary storage:

1. Magnetic storage:
Q5:-> What trends are occuring in the
development and use of the major types of
computer systems?
Sol
Computer systems are acting like one of us and working with
us like any other human working along us. Computer System
these days are very much faster, reliable and safer rather than
the past.. Many trends are occurring in Computer System like
at first the computers were very stiff to maintain but now-a-
days software’s have made it very simple to sustain computers.
We can call them smarter or intelligent. Also people of today’s
world like to use that computer whose execution time is fast,
having lesser faults or crashes etc.
The major trends or changes taking place in Computer System
are:

1) Computer Systems are used for all kind of business

application.

2) Computer System are now-a-days have too much of

suppleness.

3) Computer System is now used for day-to-day deeds.

4) Computer System is used for security purposes.

5) Now-a-days Computer Systems are also used for robbing.

Persons use software’s like Microsoft Outlook Express, Yahoo

Messenger, MSN Messenger, Orkut etc. for daily
communication. Security systems in banks, offices, courts, etc.
are now-a-days being computerized. Some peoples, who know
a lot about Computer System now-a-days also, are using them
in wrong manner and robbing banks and other organisation, by
breaking their security systems. This kind of robbing is known
as Hacking. People are expected that in future, we don’t need
mouse and keyboard to input the instruction in them. Computer
System will read our brain and understand what we want.

Q6:-> Explain the following terms:

(a)DTP:
End users and organizations can use desktop publishing (DTP)
software to produce their own printed materials such as
newsletters, brochures, manuals, and books with several type
styles, graphics, and colors on each page.
Typically text material and graphics can be generated by word
processing and graphics packages and imported as text and
graphics files. Optical scanners may be used to input text and
graphics from printed material. You can also use files of clip art,
which are predawn graphic illustrations provided by the
software package or available from other sources. These
packages can also convert documents to HTML format.

(b)Presentation Graphics:
Presentation graphics are used to convert numeric data into
graphics displays such as line charts, bar graphs, pie charts,
and many other types of graphics. Most of the top packages
also help you prepare multimedia presentations of graphics,
photos, animation, and video clips, including publishing to the
World Wide Web

Presentation graphics have proven to be much more effective

than tabular presentations of numeric data for reporting and
communicating in advertising media, management reports, or
other business presentations.

Presentation graphics software packages give you many easy-

to-use capabilities that encourage the use of graphics
presentations (slide shows), which contain many integrated
graphics and multimedia displays.
(c)Software licensing
When a company buys a software application they have not
buying right of ownership. Rather than they have purchase the
license to use the software under the term and conditions of
software licensing agreement. The license often prohibits
reverse engineering, modifying, disclosing or transferring the
software .They also do not provide the right of reselling
multiple copies of the software. When the software is obtained
from the ASP the license to dispense use of software is
generated to the ASP and in return the ASP agrees to pay
royalty to software vendor.

Irrespective of whether a software application is purchased cost

or accessed via an ASP ,the software must be licensed for use.
Software licensing is a contract of agreement between the
software publisher and the end user

(d)RAID

RAID (redundant array of independent disks; originally

redundant array of inexpensive disks) is a way of storing the
same data in different places (thus, redundantly) on multiple
hard disks. By placing data on multiple disks, I/O (input/output)
operations can overlap in a balanced way, improving
performance. Since multiple disks increases the mean time
between failures (MTBF), storing data redundantly also
increases fault tolerance

There are at least nine types of RAID plus a non-redundant

array (RAID-0):

• RAID-0
• RAID-1:
• RAID-2RAID-3
• RAID-4
• RAID-5
• RAID-6
• RAID-7
• RAID-10
(e) Application service providers

Application service providers are the corporations that function

and maintain application software and the computer system
resources. These corporations charge their customers on a per-
use or on a monthly or annual fee basis.

ASP’S provide the software’s at lower cost and take short time.

Numbers of companies purchase the application software they

need to run their business from ASP’S.

They also manage companywide software patches and

upgrades.

(f)Programming languages:

A programming language is an artificial language designed to

express computations that can be performed by a machine,
particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used
to create programs that control the behaviour of a machine, to
express algorithms precisely, or as a mode of human
communication .Many programming languages have some form
of written specification of their syntax (form) and semantics

The language used by the processor is called machine code.

The code that reaches the processor consists of a series of 0s
and 1s known as (binary data).

Machine code is therefore difficult for humans to understand,

which is why intermediary languages, which can be understood
by humans, have been developed. The code written in this type
of language is transformed into machine code so that the
processor can process it.