Assignment:
Review chapter Data Resource Management Beyond Street Smarts:
Data-Driven Crime Fighting
1. What are some of the most important benefits derived by the law enforcement agencies mentioned in the case? How do these technologies allow them to better fight crime? Provide several examples.
2. How are the data-related issues faced by law enforcement similar to those that could be found in companies? How are they different? Where do these problems come from? Explain.
3. Imagine that you had access to the same crime-related information as that managed by police departments. How would you analyze this information, and what actions would you take as a result?
1. What are the benefits that result from implementing the technologies described in the case? How are those different for hospitals, doctors, insurance companies and patients? Provide examples of each from the case.
2. Many of the technologies described in the case require access to large volumes of data in order to be effective. At the same time, there are privacy considerations involved in the compiling and sharing of such data. How
do you balance those?
3. What other industries that manage large volumes of data could benefit from an approach to technology similar to the one described in the case? Develop at least one example with sample applications.
1. How should a business store, access, and distribute data and information about its internal operations and external environment?
2. What role does database management play in managing data as a business resource?
3. What are the advantages of a database management approach to the file processing approach? Give examples to illustrate your answer.
4. Refer to the Real World Case on Data-Driven Crime Fighting in the chapter. Given the very decentralized nature of law enforcement, with more than 18,000 units in the United States alone, what can be done to encourage sharing information across organizational boundaries?
Would an ad-hoc approach suffice, or is a central coordinating body needed? What are the implications of creating such an organization?
5. What is the role of a database management system in a business information system?
6. In the past, databases of information about a firm's internal operations were the only databases that were considered important to a business. What other kinds of databases are important for a business today?
7. Refer to the Real World Case on Medical IT in the chapter. What do these automated or semi-automated technologies spell for the future of medicine? How much of this discipline can be captured using these algorithms. What about pharmacy?
8. What are the benefits and limitations of the relational database model for business applications today?
9. Why is the object-oriented database model gaining acceptance for developing applications and managing the hypermedia databases on business Web sites?
10. How have the Internet, intranets, and extranets affected the types and uses of data resources available to business professionals? What other database trends are also affecting data resource management in business?
Review chapter Telecommunications and Networks
1. Implementing telepresence seems to have other, less tangible, advantages beyond travel cost savings. What are some of those? How do you quantify them to make the case for investing in the technology? Provide at least two fully developed examples.
2. DLA Piper, MetLife, and the other companies featured in the case are very optimistic about the technology. However, other than its cost, what are some potential disadvantages of implementing telepresence in organizations?
3. Do you think meetings conducted through telepresence technology will be similar to face-to-face ones as the technology becomes more pervasive? How would the rules of etiquette change for telepresence meetings? Which type of meeting would you like best?