1.6 - Assignment: Module Review
Part 1: Answer the Module Review Questions listed below. These questions were chosen to demonstrate your understanding and help you assess your progress.
1. How can information technology support a company’s business processes and decision making and give it a competitive advantage? Give examples to illustrate your answer.
Companies can use databases to record purchase transactions and develop metrics from the data to help define emerging buying trends. When the trend is identified, that information can be used to increase production of the "hot" product while reducing production of the slower moving merchandise. The use of a central database allows larger companies to identify different buying patterns in different geographical areas. For instance, if you have stores in Wisconsin and Florida, the clothing items sold in each store will be vastly different due to the climate, but other goods like school supplies and food could be very similar.
2. How does the use of the Internet, intranets, and extranets by companies today support their business processes and activities?
Intranets are networks used to communicate inside organizations and shares information about what is happening inside the company. They are for helping the employees work together. The use of Intranets allows employees to share information about the company and collaborate on projects through sharepoints. It also allows them to learn how the company operates and places a myriad of resources at their fingertips. Hours spent in company libraries searching for information has been reduced to seconds using databases and search engines.

Extarnets are communication networks between various stakeholders who are not in the organization, but are linked through business dealings. Extranets share limited information from Intranets with vendors, suppliers and select customers, which helps the different organizations plan and collaborate in their decision making.

The Internet is becoming the most important source of information a company can use to operate in a global environment. The interconnectivity and instantaneous feedback provided by the Internet makes it possible to know what is happening around the globe and allows companies to react rapidly to stay competitive.

3. How can a manager demonstrate that he or she is a responsible end user of information systems? Give several examples.

A manager must ensure all data is adequately protected from malicious activity through the use of proper security measures in software and hardware.
Access to sensitive information should be given to as few people as necessary in order to maintain the smallest chain of responsibility as possible while still providing the highest customer service possible. A code of ethics should be in place before an incident occurs.
Anyone with access needs to know what is expected of them and what is and is not allowed in the handling of information.

Part 2: Read the Analysis Exercise at the end of the chapter and complete the questions after the summary.
#5 Career in IS: Disaster Recovery (p. 41) * Failure to save work in progress frequently.
Data could be lost during a power outage or computer/program crash. The best way to avoid this would be to set up your program to periodically save your work.

* Failure to make a backup copy.
Data could be lost during system upgrades or network restructuring. Many programs have the ability to save a backup copy at the same time you save your working copy.

* Failure to store original and backup copies in different locations.
Different locations can mean two different things; Backing up data on different mediums (tape, external drives, or a separate drive on the same machine) or keeping a backup in a different geographical location, there are companies that provide secure offsite backup storage of data to guard against fire and natural disasters.
Data could be lost during normal network clean up; companies with huge amounts of data will routinely go through their network drives and delete outdated files. Even though employees are given opportunity to protect their data, mistakes happen. The best thing to do is to maintain a copy on a removable media, if possible or at a minimum on a separate drive on the network.

References O'Brien, M. (2013). Introduction to Information Systems. 16th ed. Mcgraw-Hill Irwin. New York, NY. IT Disaster Recovery Plan, retrieved October 23, 2015 from http://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/IT https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extranet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intranet