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What is Virtual Office and how it can be set up using Internet?

A virtual office typically functions over the Internet; this means that it does not have a physical location where its employer and employees go to work. Instead, they would only interact with each other using email or chat. It may not have a physical location, but it can still operate well due to the technology. The following discusses the details on how to accomplish that. 1. Choose an address that you will use as the formal business address of the virtual office. Get a mailbox number from your local post office or opt to use a mail receiving agency service. Having a business address would make the office you are about to establish sound more corporate and legitimate. Also, this would ensure that all paper communications will be mailed to one address. Make sure this address is convenient for you or whoever will be responsible for picking up the mail. 2. Prepare the location where you plan to work. The beauty about virtual offices is that you can practically work anywhere under the sun, so all you have to do is find a location that you can call your permanent workstation. Most people make their home their permanent workstation.Try to pick a spot with minimal distractions. Working where your boss or supervisor cant see you makes it hard to maintain self-discipline! 3. Invest and install required hardware to smoothly manage and do your work. You may want to invest on brand new desktop computers or even upgrade your old computer to a notebook computer so you will be able to become mobile and still be able to do your job. If a notebook is too much of a hassle to carry around, especially when traveling, consider getting a smart phone like iPhone or Blackberry or Android with an Internet data plan on it. This way, you will still be able to have Internet access and pull up all your communications easily while on the road. If you plan to get a fixed Internet service, like cable or DSL Internet, you should consider investing on a wireless router, provided that the computers you are using is also capable of wireless networking. These wireless routers often come free with your Internet service. If your computer is not capable of wireless connectivity, you can easily purchase a wireless network interface card which is fairly easy to install. 4. Check what alternatives and choices you can use for web connectivity and networking. Once you have decided on a physical location where you would centralize everything, i.e. your home, call an Internet Service Provider to set up Web access. This Internet access could practically be anything available in your area: cellular broadband, dial up, DSL, cable or satellite Internet. 5. Consider what software to use. If you have to communicate with many people, youll probably want ways to chat live, videoconference, and share documents. There is plenty of free software you can find for all of these needs. 2. Write a short note on ERP systems. RP is defines as an integrated software package which integrate all the department of an organization. Several department of an organization are marketing, sales, finance, production etc. Since an ERP package integrates these entire departments, thus the performance of an organization will be improved. It is used to manage the important part of business including product planning, purchasing, maintaining inventories, customer service etc. Every department has its own computer system optimized for their particular work but an ERP system combines them all together into a single computer through integrated system approach. In short ERP system provides a single database where business transaction are recorded, processed, monitored and reported. ERP system does not replace the computer of a particular department rather it integrates all the department of an organization into a single computer and provides a flexible database. Benefits of an ERP System or reasons for growth of ERP * Effective utilization of resources * Improvement in business performance * Reduction of inventory due to JIT approach * Integration of information i.e. integration of all the department of an organization. * Sharing of common data and information * Global Adaptation * Improvement in the quality of the product at the same price * ERP targeted all types of business organization whether large business or small business organization * Lowers the total cost in supply chain management through JIT approach.

* Eliminate limitation in legacy system i.e. traditional system * Order fulfillment improvement * Improvement in customer service. Evaluation of ERP Inventory control or Re-order point (1960): In 1960s most of the ERP system was concentrate on the inventory control ability also called re-order point system. Historical data were used to forecast future inventory demand. When an item falls below the predetermined level additional inventory is ordered. Material requirement planning (1970): In 1970s this system was introduced and it focused on demand based approach for planning and manufacturing of product and ordering inventory. Manufacturing resource planning (1980): In 1980s this approach was introduced. It was used for adding tool for sales promotion, customer satisfaction, customer order processing, production plan and focus on quality and reducing overhead cost and detailed reporting. Manufacturing resource planning-II with manufacturing executive system (MES) (1990): In 1990 this system was introduced. It provides ability to adapt production schedules to meet customer needs. Main focused was on ability and adopt new products and services to meet customer needs. ERP in late 1990 Hidden Cost of ERP System: * Training expenses * Customization: Core of ERP system is actual customization of ERP system itself. * Integration and testing * Replacing the staff * Implementation team can never stop * Wait for ROI Integrated System Approach ERP package integrate the different department of an organization with the help of integrated system approach. Integrated system approach requires successful implementation of re-engineering process for better result of an ERP system. Business re-engineering revolves around the IT and continues change. It is a fundamental rethinking of business process to improve the quality and output of the product or service. Designing Phase: The fundamental decision in the designing phase is whether re-engineering the business process or customize the ERP package. When the business process is re-engineered then team select commercial ERP package from the shelf and install it. The process is re-engineered in such a manner that it will: * Reduce the cycle time * There is no unnecessary to and fro of information In customizing team select a commercial ERP package and customize it according to their unique requirements. However poor customization is one of the reasons of the failure of ERP system while reengineering of the business process will give the full benefits of the ERP system. Customization has to take the following parameters: * End user requirement * Vision of the top management * Technical requirements of the products

The higher the degree of customization lower will be the benefit of ERP system because packaged software purchased and installed mainly to refine existing business process and to improve overall performance of the organization. Or we can say that higher the customization will not give the full benefits of ERP system. Implementation phase and steps of implementation Implementation includes addressing and configuration as it involves the migration the data from old system to new system, building interface, order processing, implementing reports and testing of package. Many companies take the help of expert from software supplier to assist implementation. The unwritten rule of implementation is synchronizing the existing company package with ERP package rather than changing the source code and customizing the ERP system to suit the company. Features that are to be considered for configuring ERP system: Data ownership: It includes that, which will be responsible for data integrity. Whether it is centralized responsibility or local responsibility. Distribution of procedures: It includes that which is to be centralized. Data management: Will ERP support centralized data management or local data management. Steps in implementation of an ERP package * Establishing securities * Migrating the data from old system to new system and ensure that data to be migrated is accurate and authentic. * Building interfaces to other system like office system. * User training: Training of the user can be started at the tine of test run and user of different department are to be trained in there respective areas. It includes: logging in and out, getting to know the system, trying sample transaction in the entire department. * Parallel run: Under this business transaction are carried on both new system as well as old system and the implementation team take care of any problem or errors which comes to the light of parallel run. * User documentation: It is different from general documentation. It includes how to carry out transaction. * Post implementation: It generally involves queries from user and minor changes can be possible in the formats. * System monitoring and fine tuning: IT peoples monitors system closely to see performance aspects so that end user can get the full benefits of ERP system.

3. Write a short note on CRM systems Customer relationship management (CRM) is a widely-implemented strategy for managing a companys interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processesprincipally sales activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support. The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new clients, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former clients back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and client service.[1] Customer relationship management describes a company-wide business strategy including customer-interface departments as well as other departments.[2] Benefits of CRM The use of a CRM system will confer several advantages to a company:[citation needed] Quality and efficiency Decrease in overall costs Decision support Enterprise agility Customer Attention Challenges Tools and workflows can be complex, especially for large businesses. Previously these tools were generally limited to contact management: monitoring and recording interactions and communications. Software solutions

then expanded to embrace deal tracking, territories, opportunities, and at the sales pipeline itself. Next came the advent of tools for other client-interface business functions, as described below. These tools have been, and still are, offered as on-premises software that companies purchase and run on their own IT infrastructure. Often, implementations are fragmentedisolated initiatives by individual departments to address their own needs. Systems that start disunited usually stay that way: siloed thinking and decision processes frequently lead to separate and incompatible systems, and dysfunctional processes. Business reputation has become a growing challenge. The outcome of internal fragmentation that is observed and commented upon by customers is now visible to the rest of the world in the era of the social customer, where in the past, only employees or partners were aware of it. Addressing the fragmentation requires a shift in philosophy and mindset within an organization so that everyone considers the impact to the customer of policy, decisions and actions. Human response at all levels of the organization can affect the customer experience for good or ill. Even one unhappy customer can deliver a body blow to a business 4. Write a short note on Data Warehousing A data warehouse (DW) is a database used for reporting. The data is offloaded from the operational systems for reporting. The data may pass through an operational data store for additional operations before it is used in the DW for reporting. A data warehouse maintains its functions in three layers: staging, integration, and access. Staging is used to store raw data for use by developers (analysis and support). The integration layer is used to integrate data and to have a level of abstraction from users. The access layer is for getting data out for users. This definition of the data warehouse focuses on data storage. The main source of the data is cleaned, transformed, catalogued and made available for use by managers and other business professionals for data mining, online analytical processing, market research and decision support (Marakas & OBrien 2009). However, the means to retrieve and analyze data, to extract, transform and load data, and to manage the data dictionary are also considered essential components of a data warehousing system. Many references to data warehousing use this broader context. Thus, an expanded definition for data warehousing includes business intelligence tools, tools to extract, transform and load data into the repository, and tools to manage and retrieve metadata.

20.Write a short Note on E-Commerce Payment systems An e-commerce payment system facilitates the acceptance of electronic payment for online transactions. Also known as a sample of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), e-commerce payment systems have become increasingly popular due to the widespread use of the internet-based shopping and banking. In the early years of B2C transactions, many consumers were apprehensive of using their credit and debit cards over the internet because of the perceived increased risk of fraud. Recent research shows that 90% of people in the United Kingdom still do not shop online because they do not trust online payment systems. However, 54% do believe that it is safe to shop online which is an increase from 26% in 2006.[1] There are numerous different payments systems available for online merchants. These include the traditional credit, debit and charge card but also new technologies such as digital wallets, e-cash, mobile payment and echecks. Another form of payment system is allowing a 3rd party to complete the online transaction for you. These companies are called Payment Service Providers (PSP). Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment Electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) is a fairly new technique that allows consumers to view and pay bills electronically. There are a significant number of bills that consumers pay on a regular basis, which include: power bills, water, oil, internet, phone service, mortgages, car payments etc. EBPP systems send bills from service providers to individual consumers via the internet. The systems also enable payments to be made by consumers, given that the amount appearing on the e-bill is correct. The original EBPP method is a direct withdrawal from a bank account through a bank such as Scotiabank. Other service providers such as Rogers Communications and Aliant additionally, accept major credit cards within the bill payment sections of their websites. Telpay Incrporated offfers "Telpay for Business", a software application that allows businesses to import electronically presented bills, pay them and store the presented image for audit purposes. The biggest difference between EBPP systems and the traditional method of bill payment, is that of technology. Rather than receiving a bill through the mail, writing out and sending a cheque, consumers receive their bills in an email, or are prompted to visit a website to view and pay their bills. Three broad models of EBPP have emerged. These are: 1. Consolidation, where numerous bills for any one recipient are made available at one Web site, most commonly the recipient's bank. In some countries, such as Australia, New Zealand and Canada, the

postal service also operates a consolidation service. The actual task of consolidation is sometimes performed by a third party and fed to the Web sites where consumers receive the bills. The principal attraction of consolidation is that consumers can receive and pay numerous bills at the one location, thus minimizing the number of login IDs and passwords they must remember and maintain. 2. Biller Direct, where the bills produced by an organization are made available through that organization's Web site. This model works well if the recipient has reasons to visit the biller's Web site other than to receive their bills. In the freight industry, for example, customers will visit a carrier's Web site to track items in transit, so it is reasonably convenient to receive and pay freight bills at the same site. 3. Direct email delivery, where the bills are emailed to the customer's inbox. This model most closely imitates the analog postal service. It is convenient, because almost everyone has email and the customer has to do nothing except use email in order to receive a bill. Email delivery is proving especially popular in the B2B market in many countries. Major providers of outsourced bill production services have developed facilities to process bills through consolidation, biller direct and email delivery services, thus enabling major billers to have all their bills, paper and electronic, processed through the one service. Niche service providers in many countries provide one or two of these models, but generally do not integrate with paper bill production. 19.Write a short Note on E-Commerce Applications.(EAI) Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is defined as the use of software and computer systems architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is an integration framework composed of a collection of technologies and services which form a middleware to enable integration of systems and applications across the enterprise. Supply chain management applications (for managing inventory and shipping), customer relationship management applications (for managing current and potential customers), business intelligence applications (for finding patterns from existing data from operations), and other types of applications (for managing data such as human resources data, health care, internal communications, etc.) typically cannot communicate with one another in order to share data or business rules. For this reason, such applications are sometimes referred to as islands of automation or information silos. This lack of communication leads to inefficiencies, wherein identical data are stored in multiple locations, or straightforward processes are unable to be automated. Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the process of linking such applications within a single organization together in order to simplify and automate business processes to the greatest extent possible, while at the same time avoiding having to make sweeping changes to the existing applications or data structures. In the words of the Gartner Group, EAI is the unrestricted sharing of data and business processes among any connected application or data sources in the enterprise.[1] One large challenge of EAI is that the various systems that need to be linked together often reside on different operating systems, use different database solutions and different computer languages, and in some cases are legacy systems that are no longer supported by the vendor who originally created them. In some cases, such systems are dubbed "stovepipe systems" because they consist of components that have been jammed together in a way that makes it very hard to modify them in any way.

Q18) c. )Digital Signatures A digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered in transit. Digital signatures are commonly used for software distribution, financial transactions, and in other cases where it is important to detect forgery or tampering. Digital signatures are often used to implement electronic signatures, a broader term that refers to any electronic data that carries the intent of a signature,[1] but not all electronic signatures use digital signatures.[2][3][4] In some countries, including the United States, India, and members of the European Union, electronic signatures have legal significance. However, laws concerning electronic signatures do not always make clear whether they are digital cryptographic signatures in the sense used here, leaving the legal definition, and so their importance, somewhat confused. Digital signatures employ a type of asymmetric cryptography. For messages sent through a nonsecure channel, a properly implemented digital signature gives the receiver reason to believe the message was sent by the claimed sender. Digital signatures are equivalent to traditional handwritten signatures in many respects;

properly implemented digital signatures are more difficult to forge than the handwritten type. Digital signature schemes in the sense used here are cryptographically based, and must be implemented properly to be effective. Digital signatures can also provide non-repudiation, meaning that the signer cannot successfully claim they did not sign a message, while also claiming their private key remains secret; further, some non-repudiation schemes offer a time stamp for the digital signature, so that even if the private key is exposed, the signature is valid nonetheless. Digitally signed messages may be anything representable as a bitstring: examples include electronic mail, contracts, or a message sent via some other cryptographic protocol.

Q 18 b. Data Encryption
"Encrypt" redirects here. For the film, see Encrypt (film). This article is about algorithms for encryption and decryption. For an overview of cryptographic technology in general, see Cryptography. In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information (referred to as plaintext) using an algorithm (called cipher) to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key. The result of the process is encrypted information (in cryptography, referred to as ciphertext). In many contexts, the word encryption also implicitly refers to the reverse process, decryption (e.g. software for encryption can typically also perform decryption), to make the encrypted information readable again (i.e. to make it unencrypted). Encryption has long been used by militaries and governments to facilitate secret communication. Encryption is now commonly used in protecting information within many kinds of civilian systems. For example, the Computer Security Institute reported that in 2007, 71% of companies surveyed utilized encryption for some of their data in transit, and 53% utilized encryption for some of their data in storage. [1] Encryption can be used to protect data "at rest", such as files on computers and storage devices (e.g. USB flash drives). In recent years there have been numerous reports of confidential data such as customers' personal records being exposed through loss or theft of laptops or backup drives. Encrypting such files at rest helps protect them should physical security measures fail. Digital rights management systems which prevent unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted material and protect software against reverse engineering (see also copy protection) are another somewhat different example of using encryption on data at rest. Encryption is also used to protect data in transit, for example data being transferred via networks (e.g. the Internet, e-commerce), mobile telephones, wireless microphones, wireless intercom systems, Bluetooth devices and bank automatic teller machines. There have been numerous reports of data in transit being intercepted in recent years.[2] Encrypting data in transit also helps to secure it as it is often difficult to physically secure all access to networks. Encryption, by itself, can protect the confidentiality of messages, but other techniques are still needed to protect the integrity and authenticity of a message; for example, verification of a message authentication code (MAC) or a digital signature. Standards and cryptographic software and hardware to perform encryption are widely available, but successfully using encryption to ensure security may be a challenging problem. A single slip-up in system design or execution can allow successful attacks. Sometimes an adversary can obtain unencrypted information without directly undoing the encryption. See, e.g., traffic analysis, TEMPEST, or Trojan horse. One of the earliest public key encryption applications was called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). It was written in 1991 by Phil Zimmermann and was purchased by Network Associates (now PGP Corporation) in 1997. There are a number of reasons why an encryption product may not be suitable in all cases. First, e-mail must be digitally signed at the point it was created to provide non-repudiation for some legal purposes, otherwise the sender could argue that it was tampered with after it left their computer but before it was encrypted at a gateway. An encryption product may also not be practical when mobile users need to send e-mail from outside the corporate network.[3] Q 18) a) firewall A firewall is a device or set of devices designed to permit or deny network transmissions based upon a set of rules and is frequently used to protect networks from unauthorized access while permitting legitimate communications to pass. Many personal computer operating systems include software-based firewalls to protect against threats from the public Internet. Many routers that pass data between networks contain firewall components and, conversely, many firewalls can perform basic routing functions. 13.Write a short note on Nolan Stage Model? Richard L. Nolan developed the theoretical Stages of growth model (SGM) during the 1970s. This is a general model, which describes the role of information technology (IT), and how it grows within an organisation.

A first draft of the model was made in 1973, consisting of only four stages. Two stages were added in 1979 to make it a six-stage model. There were two articles describing the stages, which were first published in the Harvard Business Review. The structure of the final, six-stage model is depicted in the diagram below:

Figure 1: Diagram showing the SGM continuum for growth/maturity The diagram above shows six stages, and the model suggests that: Stage 1: Evolution of IT in organisations begins in an initiation stage. Stage 2: This is followed by expeditious spreading of IT in a contagion stage. Stage 3: After that, a need for control arises. Stage 4: Next, integration of diverse technological solutions evolves. Stage 5: Administration/management of data is necessitated, to allow development without chaotic and increasing IT expenditures. Stage 6: Finally, in the maturity stage, constant growth will occur Structure of the Model Stage 1 Initiation In this stage, Information Technology is first introduced into the organisation. According to Nolans article in 1973, computers were introduced into companies for two reasons: (a) The first reason deals with the company reaching a size where the administrative processes cannot be accomplished without computers. Also, the success of the business justifies large investment in specialized equipment. (b) The second reason deals with computational needs. Nolan defined the critical size of the company as the most prevalent reason for computer acquisition. Due to the unfamiliarity of personnel with the technology, users tend to take a "Hands Off" approach to new technology. This introductory technology is simple to use and cheap to implement, which provides substantial monetary savings to the company. During this stage, the IT department receives little attention from management, and works in a "carefree" atmosphere. Stage 1 key points: user awareness "Hands Off". IT personnel are "specialized for technological learning". IT planning and control is lax. emphasis on functional applications to reduce costs. Stage 2 Contagion Even though computer systems are recognised as process change enablers in Stage 1, Nolan acknowledged that many users become alienated by computing. Because of this, Stage 2 is characterised by a managerial need to explain the potential of computer applications to alienated users. This leads to the adoption of computers in a range of different areas. Stage 2 presents some difficulties: Project and budgetary controls are not developed, leading to unavoidable a saturation of existing computer capacity and more sophisticated computer systems being obtained. System sophistication requires employing specialised professionals, and, due to the shortage of qualified individuals, employing these people results in higher salaries.

for the growth of computer systems is necessary. Stage 2 key points: proliferation of applications. users superficially enthusiastic about using data processing. management control even more lax. rapid growth of budgets. management regard the computer as "just a machine". rapid growth of computer use throughout the organisation's functional areas. computer use is plagued by crisis after crisis. Stage 3 Control Stage 3 is a reaction against excessive and uncontrolled expenditures of time and money spent on computer systems, and the major problem for management is the organization of tasks for control of computer operating costs. In this stage, project management and management report systems are organised, which leads to development of programming, documentation, and operation standards. During Stage 3, a shift occurs from management of computers to management of data resources. This shift: is an outcome of the analysis of how to increase management planning, control and expenditure for data processing operations. provides flexibility in data processing that is needed to meet managements new controls. The major characteristic of Stage 3 is the reconstruction of data processing operations. Stage 3 key points: no reduction in computer use. greater importance of the IT division to the organisation. centralised controls put in place. applications often incompatible or inadequate. use of database and communications, often with negative general management reaction. increasing end-user frustration with the IT services provided. Stage 4 Integration Stage 4 features the adoption of new technology to integrate systems that were previously separate/disparate entities. This creates further data processing (IT) expenditure at rates similar to that of Stage 2. In the latter half of Stage 4, exclusive reliance on computer controls leads to inefficiencies. The inefficiencies associated with rapid growth may simultaneously create another wave of problems. This is the last stage that Nolan acknowledged in his initial (1973) draft of the stages of growth. Stage 4 key points: rise of control by the users. large data processing budget growth. demand for on-line database facilities. data processing department operates like a computer utility. formal planning and control within data processing. users more accountable for their applications. use of steering committees, applications financial planning. data processing has better management controls, standards, project management. Stage 5 Data Administration Nolan determined that four stages were not enough to describe the proliferation of IT in an organization and so added Stage 5 in 1979. Stage 5 features a new emphasis on managing corporate data rather than IT. Like the proceeding Stage 4, it is marked by the development and maturity of the new concept of data administration. Stage 5 key points: data administration is introduced. identification of data similarities, its usage, and its meanings within the whole organisation. applications portfolios are integrated into the organisation. data processing department serves more as an administrator of data resources than of machines. use of term IT/IS rather than "data processing". Stage 6 Maturity In Stage 6, the application portfolios - tasks like order entry, general ledger, and material requirements planning - are completed according to a structure that mirrors the organisation and its information flows. During this stage, tracking sales growth becomes an important aspect. Typically:

The budget for the computer organisation rises significantly, and causes management concern. Although the price of Stage 2 is high, it becomes increasingly evident that planning and control

10% of the work relates to batch and remote job entry. 60% of the work relates to dedicated database and data communications processing. 5% of the work relates to personal computing. 25% of the work relates to minicomputer processing.

Management control systems are estimated as being 40% of Stage 6. There are three aspects of management control; manufacturing, marketing and financial: Manufacturing control requires forecasting future needs. Marketing control strictly deals with research. Financial control requires forecasting future cash flow requirements. Stage 6 exercises a high degree of control, by compiling all of the information from Stages 1 through to 5, inclusive. This allows the organisation to function at relatively high levels of efficiency and effectiveness. Stage 6 key points: systems that reflect the real information needs of the organisation. use of data resources to develop competitive and opportunistic applications. data processing organisation viewed solely as a data resource function. data processing emphasis on data resource strategic planning. ultimately, users and DP department jointly responsible for the use of data resources within the organization. manager of IT system takes on the same importance in the organisational hierarchy as (say) the director of finance or director of HR. 11.What are the constraints in operating MIS Following constraints come in the way of operating an effective MIS: 1. Non availability of qualified staff: The most important requirement for operating an effective MIS is that of qualified system and management staff. These officers should understand the views of their fellow officers. Moreover, experts should be capable of understanding the objectives of the organization and provide a desired direction for installing and operating system. This problem may be overcome by grooming internal staff. The grooming of staff should be preceded by proper selection and training. 2. Selection of Sub system of MIS: Experts usually face the problem of selecting the sub system of MIS to be installed and operated upon. This constraint could be overcome by identifying the need and importance of the fun ction for which MIS can be installed first. 3. Non Cooperation from staff: This is a very crucial problem. It should be handled carefully and tactfully. This problem may be solved by educating the staff about the utility of MIS. The task should be carried out by organizing lectures, showing films and explaining the utility of the system. Besides this, some persons from staff should also be involved in the development and implementation of the system. 4. High turnover of MIS experts: High turnover is on account of several factors such as pay packet, promotion chances, future prospects, behaviour of top managers etc. This problem can be handled by creating the better working conditions and paying at least at par with similar organizations. 5. Non-standardised approach: Due to varied objectives of the business organizations, the approach adopted by experts for designing and implementing MIS is a non standardized one. Though in this regard, nothing can be done at the initial stage, but by and by standardization may be arrived at, for the organizations in the same industry. 6. Difficulty in qualifying the benefits of MIS: Due to the difficulties in quantifying the benefits of MIS, the justification of the cost involved is difficult. Therefore, this raises the questions by departmental managers about the utility of MIS. They forget that MIS is a tool which is essential to fight out competition and the state of uncertainty that surrounds business today.

10.What are the characteristics of effective MIS? Five important characteristics for a good management information system are briefly discussed below: 1. Management Oriented: It means that effort for the development of the information system should start from an appraisal of management needs and overall business objectives. A good management information system is not necessarily meant for top management only, it may also meet the information requirements of middle level or operating levels of management as well. 2. Management directed: Because of management orientation of MIS, it is necessary that management should actively direct the systems development efforts. Mere one time involvement is not enough. For systems effectiveness, it is necessary for management to devote their sufficient time not only at the stage of designing

the system but for its review as well, to ensure that the implemented system meets the specifications of the designed system. In brief, management should be responsible for setting system specifications and it must play a key role in the subsequent trade off decisions that occur in system development. 3. Integrated: Development of information should be an integrated one. It means that all the functional and operational information sub-systems should be tied together into one entity. An integrated information system has the capability of generating more meaningful information to management. The word integration here means taking a comprehensive view or a complete look at the inter locking sub-systems that operate within a company. 4. Common data flows: It means that the use of common input, processing and output procedures and media whenever possible is desirable. Data is captured by system analysts only once and as close to its original source as possible. They, then, try to utilise a minimum of data processing procedures and sub-systems to process the data and strive to minimize the number of output documents and reports produced by the system. This eliminates duplication in data collections and documents and procedures. It also simplifies operations and produces an efficient information sytem. However, some duplication is necessary in order to insure effective information system. Accuracy Effective MIS may be electronic or manual, but, above all, the data contained within the system must be accurate. Accurate data allow managers and board executives to analyze the information for real risks to the company. Decisions made on accurate data provide for timely decisions to steer the direction of the company. Inaccurate data waste management's time chasing red-herring problems and incompetency. Consistency MIS must disseminate complex information throughout the company. An effective MIS will be used to make relevant decisions at all managerial levels so long as the information contained is consistently added. Companies need to establish input and data collection procedures that all relevant employees follow to ensure uniformity. Establishing a data collection monitoring system will reduce inconsistencies. Communicate all changes in data collection procedures to appropriate compilers. Objectivity The information collected and entered into the MIS must be consistent, accurate and objective. Data compilers cannot selectively input information that purposely skews managerial decisions one way or another. The effective MIS contains a methodology for objective recording and assemblage of information. Completeness All data recorded in an MIS must be complete. All angles of an issue need to have corresponding data to provide decision-makers with a full view of complex issues and problems. Where reports can be generated, information summaries must not be myopic in scope, to effect positive results. Q 15 )c. Software as a service (SaaS) Software as a service (SaaS,) typically pronounced [ss]), sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally (typically in the (Internet) cloud) and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet. While practically every Internet service (such as Web search engine or web-based Email) is driven by some underlying software, the term Software as a Service (SaaS) is often used in the context of business applications, and in some cases even more narrowly as software in a category which has on-premise software; i.e., equivalent applications that are installed in businesses' computer networks or personal computers. SaaS has become a common delivery model for most business applications, including accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, human resource management (HRM), content management (CM) and service desk management.[1] By now, SaaS has been incorporated into the strategy of all leading enterprise software companies.[2] Q15 ) d) End-user development End-user development (EUD) is a research topic within the field of computer science and human-computer interaction, describing activities or techniques that allow end-users to program computers. People who are not professional developers can use EUD tools to create or modify software artifacts (descriptions of automated behavior) and complex data objects without significant knowledge of a programming language. The most popular EUD tool is the spreadsheet.[1] Early attempts in End-user development were centered around adding simple scripting programming languages to extend and adapt an existing application, such as an office suite.

More recent research tries to bring programming closer to the needs of end users. The Programming by example (PbE) approach reduces the need for the user to learn the abstractions of a classic programming language. The user instead introduces some examples of the desired results and/or operations that should be performed on the data, and the PbE system infers the correct abstractions corresponding to a program that produces this output. New data may then be introduced to the automatically created program, and the user can correct any mistakes made by the program in order to improve its definition. There are two basic reasons why EUD has become popular.[citation needed] One is because organizations are facing delays on projects and using EUD can effectively cut the time of completion on a project. The second reason is that software tools are more powerful and easier to use. Q 15) b) software license A software license (or software licence in commonwealth usage) is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law) governing the usage or redistribution of software. All software is copyright protected, except material in the public domain. Contractual confidentiality is another way of protecting software. A typical software license grants an end-user permission to use one or more copies of software in ways where such a use would otherwise constitute copyright infringement of the software owner's exclusive rights under copyright law. Some software comes with the license when purchased off the shelf or an OEM license when bundled with hardware. Software can also be in the form of freeware or shareware. Software licenses can generally be fit into the following categories: proprietary licenses and free and open source licenses, which include free software licenses and other open source licenses. The features that distinguishes them are significant in terms of the effect they have on the end-user's rights. A free open source license makes software free for inspection of its code, modification, and distribution. Some free licenses, like the GNU General Public License, allow the product and/or derivative to be commercially sold. Other characteristics In addition to granting rights and imposing restrictions on the use of software, software licenses typically contain provisions which allocate liability and responsibility between the parties entering into the license agreement. In enterprise and commercial software transactions these terms (such as limitations of liability, warranties and warranty disclaimers, and indemnity if the software infringes intellectual property rights of others) are often negotiated by attorneys specialized in software licensing. The legal field has seen the growth of this specialized practice area due to unique legal issues with software licenses, and the desire of software companies to protect assets which, if licensed improperly, could diminish their value.

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