SHORT QUESTIONS:
Q1. a) Define what is meant by ‘Business Process Management’ (BPM) and briefly explain the role of various technologies in assisting BPM achieve its objectives.
b) Brynjolfsson and Hitt (1998) suggest that the “greatest benefits of computers appear to be realised when computer investment is coupled with other complimentary investments”. Briefly discuss this statement.
c) Define what is meant by ‘IS Evaluation’ and explain the difference between ex-ante and ex-post evaluation.
d) “Only projects with a positive NPV should be considered and projects with a negative NPV should be discarded”. Briefly discuss this statement.
e) Define what is meant by ‘Value Analysis’. Briefly discuss the steps to applying Value Analysis.
f) Define what is meant by ‘Charge-back’. Briefly discuss how it might be used and list examples of charges that might be included.
g) Define what is meant by recovery point objective (RPO) and recovery time objective (RTO). Briefly discuss the relationship between both concepts.
LONG QUESTIONS:
Q2. a) Briefly describe two strategic businesses- IT alignment perspectives, proposed by Henderson and Venkatraman (1993), where the IT strategy is the “enabler” of business strategy. For each perspective identify a firm that is representative of the perspective and briefly explain the reasons for your choice of firm.
b) Nicholas Carr (2003) suggests that the “technology’s potential for differentiating one company from the pack – its strategic potential – inexorably declines as it becomes accessible and affordable to all”. Discuss this statement by paying particular attention to the Resource Based View. Provide examples to illustrate your answer.
Q3. a) In their case study of Vicro Communications Paper et al (2003) identify a “set of factors that should be useful to other organisations facing similar problems” in Business Process Reengineering (BPR). List and discuss the set of factors identified by the authors.
b) Define what Soh and Sia (2005) mean by the “Vanilla” approach to implementing enterprise systems. Explain how their framework might be used to assist in deciding whether a firm should choose package modification or organisational change when implementing enterprise systems.
Q4. a) “Diffusion of innovation theory is relevant to software, where software is considered as an innovation. In particular, the elements of diffusion, the innovation decision process and the relationship between the attributes of an innovation and its rate of adoption are very informative.” Discuss this statement. Provide examples to illustrate your answer.
b) Many attempts have been made to categorise IS benefits, including the work of Gammelgard et al (2006). Present a categorisation of IS benefits. Provide examples to illustrate your answer.
Q5. a) Mc Shea (2006) suggests that “multidimensional IT evaluation approaches correct for purely financial technique weaknesses by adding dimensions to the value problem”. List three of the multidimensional approaches identified by McShea. Describe one of these approaches in detail.
b) Briefly present and describe the Technology Acceptance Model. Discuss how practitioners might use the Model in explaining and predicting system use.
Q6. a) In 1999 a computer failure a t a US chocolate-manufacturing company prevented it from shipping Halloween products costing the company a drop of 19% in its third-quarter net income. Planning should have been in place to safeguard against such a loss. Describe the plan that should have been in place and outline the steps that should have been undertaken to create such a plan. Briefly discuss the topics to be considered.
b) Discuss the role virtualisation and cloud computing might play in the ‘Green IT’ agenda of firms.
SHORT QUESTIONS
a) Define what is meant by Option Valuation for IS investments. Outline what is aims to achieve.
b) Briefly discuss the observation that incremental innovations favour the incumbents whereas disruptive innovations favour new entrants. Refer to examples from the financial services industry.
c) Briefly describe the Technology Transformation Perspective as proposed by Henderson and Venkatraman (1993). Identify a firm that is representative of the perspective.
LONG QUESTIONS:
Q1. Compare and contrast the following terms: Process Re-engineering and Continuous Improvement. Discuss the differences between a ‘clean slate’ and a ‘technology enabled’ approach to Business Processing Re-engineering (BPR).
Q2. a) Explain what the dependent variable referred to by Delone and McLean (2005) is and how it is depicted. Outline how practitioners might use the Delone and McLean framework to analyse the rynair.com website.
b) In Competing Today While Preparing for Tomorrow (1999), Derek F. Abell states that in order to sustain excellence organisations need dual strategies – one for the present and one for the future. Discuss this statement by referring to the case study of Vicro Communications.
Q3. Discuss the movement of a technology of your choice through the Market Development Life Cycle presented by Geoffrey A. Moore in Darwin and the Demon: Innovating within established enterprises (2004).
SHORT QUESTIONS:
Q1. a). briefly discuss under what circumstances IS resources might provide the firm with a sustainable competitive advantage.
b). Define what is meant by ‘IS Evaluation’ and explain the difference between ex-ante and ex-post evaluation.
c). Describe the ‘Total Cost of Ownership’ (TCO) concept. List the different elements making up the cost of a system.
LONG QUESTIONS:
Q1. (a) When measuring the returns on technology investments, Douglas Hubbard (2007) argues that "Everything Is Measurable". Discuss this statement in relation to an organisation’s decision to invest in a new enterprise system by explaining how his approach could be used to measure the return from improved customer satisfaction owing to implementation of the system.
(b) Erik Brynjolfsson (1993) observes that when it comes to a return on IT investments, “researchers and consultants have increasingly emphasized the theme of reengineering work”. Discuss this statement by making reference to the Vicro Communications Case Study (as outlined in Paper et al., 2003).
Q2. (a) When it comes to very complex investment decisions, Bannister and Remenyi (2000) argue that management teams often rely on methods which do not fall with in the traditional boundaries of so-called ‘rational decision making’.
Discuss this statement by making reference to the decision making process they propose.
b) Peppard et al. (2007) state that IT benefits management is the “process of organizing and managing so that the potential benefits from using IT are actually realized”. Discuss the steps that are required to produce a benefit realisation plan for a bank looking to deepen relationships with its customers through investment in a customer relationship management (CRM) system.
Q3. (a) Discuss the movement of a technology of your choice through the ‘Market Development Life Cycle’ presented by Geoffrey A. Moore (2004) in Darwin and the Demon: Innovating within Established Enterprises.
(b) Demonstrate how service blueprinting (as per Bitner et al., 2007) may be used to represent the customer service experience for a single night stay in a hotel and the role of information systems in the service.