Business Ethics
emma_94
FinalAssignment1.pdf
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NIZWA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
BUSINESS STUDIES DEPARTMENT
SEMESTER -2 / ACADEMIC YEAR 2019-2020
FINAL EXAM (ASSIGNMENT) COURSE CODE
BAEB 4200
COURSE NAME Management Information Systems
LEVEL B.Tech
TUTOR(S) Iram Fatima, Ramesh Krishna
SECTION(S) 4
DURATION:
DATE TIME
START 17th May 2020 9:00AM
END 19th may 2020 8:00AM
MARKS BREAK UP:
No. of Questions Marks for Each Question
1 10
2 10
3 10
4 10
5 10
TOTAL MARKS 50
INSTRUCTIONS:
1) The Final Assignment will be available in Moodle at 9:00 am on the date of examination.
2) This is an open resource examination; there are (7) pages. Students are allowed to refer any digital materials (Internet, Proquest, Masader, and OER) with proper referencing and citation for each answers.
3) Students has to answer the questions typewritten in the word (.docx) format. Figures / Diagrams, equations and solving of problems can be written by hand and added to the document as a picture/image.
4) Save the assignment file using the student ID & Course code.[ Eg : 22s1234 – BAEB4200]
5) Students should submit the answers through the turnitin link provided in moodle page. If any problem occurs, send it to the staff email [Email ; [email protected], [email protected]]
6) Students are encouraged to upload the answers in the moodle at least two hours before the deadline to avoid any technical issues.
7) In case of any technical problem in opening or submitting your assignment please contact your course tutor through email and copy the Department Head
8) Any form of cheating is punishable. Students involved in cheating will be treated according to the Plagiarism and Academic Integrity Policies.
9) Students are advised to write the answers in their own words. Based on the plagiarism policy and the department approved similarity level, the marks will be deducted for the plagiarized [Copied] answers.
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10) Students should complete their assignment within the given time. Assignments submitted after the deadline will be marked 0.
11) Assignment can be uploaded in the moodle ONLY ONCE, so please check your answers before uploading them. The teacher WILL NOT DELETE any assignment for any student to upload them again.
12) The Assignment consists of five (5) Cases with sub questions with total of 50 Marks.
13) All questions are compulsory and hence all must be answered.
14) 5, 6 marks questions must be answered in detail in NOT LESS than 200 words.
15) 10 marks questions must be answered in your own words in NOT LESS than 300 words.
16) Typography: i. Font style : Times New Roman
ii. Font size : 12 iii. Line spacing : 1.5 iv. Paper size : A4
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY & PLAGIARISM POLICY: The student should be ready to prove the authenticity of the work done. If any form of plagiarism/reproduction of answers are
discovered, student will be awarded zero marks.
DECLARATION:
I declare that the Final Exam (assignment) submitted is original and acknowledge that I am aware of the NCT’s Integrity and
Plagiarism Policies (January 2011) mentioned in moodle, and the disciplinary guidelines and procedures applicable to
breaches of such policy and regulations.
I AGREE TO THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS:
STUDENT NAME STUDENT ID DATE OF SUBMISSION
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Case 1:
Dreams Discount Center operates discount stores offering housing wares, cleaning supplies, clothing, health and
beauty aids with most items selling for RO 1. As you can see from the pricing strategy adopted by the business model
they want to reduce their operational cost as low as possible. They have used a labour saving information system in
their center to reduce the manpower. Although the company uses information systems it uses them very carefully
keeping expenditures to the minimum. The inventory management in the company is operated with manual method
currently. The managers experience is used as an advantage for the company to know the arriving of distribution
trucks to the location of the sales outlet of the company. The performance of inventory management services affected
sales of the company. Most of the time the customers did not get what they wanted from the store. Some products
were out of stock and some others were overstocked. The same problem was repeated for the company in most of its
sale outlets. Materials losses from theft or other accidents have been raising and now represent 3% of the total sales.
The total distribution system was disturbed if a manager is transferred as he lost the knowledge of location and
transport related data. The company is now seriously thinking about a solution for the problem.
Answer the following questions:
1a. Examine the objectives of using an information system for inventory management. (5 Marks)
1b. Evaluate the decisions that the company has to make before investing in an information system? (5 Marks)
Case 2:
ResortBook international provides services to companies that develop and own resort properties. Services include
time-share payments, loans, and handling credit-card transactions. Some companies build resort sites throughout the
world for individuals who wish to use them for vacations. The contract is usually for many years. In addition, property
owners sell customers other services such as car rentals and recreational activities.
Instead of dealing directly with sales and billing, many of these corporations hire services of companies like
ResortBook to bill customers and answer their questions. Property owners outsource this work to ResortBook because
the firm specializes in maximizing the revenue and the owners do not have to invest in information technology to
handle sales, billing and collections.
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ResortBook serves more than one million travelling customers. There were many consumer queries related to the
errors in their bills. Most of these responses are via email messages. The number of email messages increased. The
company later arranged two phone call centers. It still had to solve the email problem.
To solve these problems ReortBook installed a CRM software. This software provided a complete multi-channel
contact center. Not only members of all call center staff have access to the incident center information, but all
members of the firm. If the customer has a credit card issue the call center staff informs the incident to the finance
office. They can also keep a check on the finance office till the issue is solved.
The CRM system ensured accountability. Nobody in the organization can relax until an incident is solved. The
accountability gives each unit a purpose to resolve the matter fast. Every action in this process is recorded and
managers can follow the process from beginning to end. ResortBook’s internal e-mail decreased by 30%. The office
was made paperless by the information system used. Since most of the information is saved electronically, no need
to create or maintain paper documents. The CRM system maintains data that can also be used for future analysis.
Answer the following questions:
2a. Examine the problems faced by ResortBook before the system was implemented. (2 Marks)
2b. Critically analyze the role of CRM software in improving the operational efficiency of ResortBook. Justify your
answer with valid reasons and examples? (8 Marks)
Case 3:
Instead of taking that 6:30 A.M. plane to make a round of meetings in Qatar, wouldn’t it be great if you could attend
these events without leaving your desktop? It is possible today with the help of applications used for conducting
meetings and conferences online. A June 2018 report issued by the Global Investor Magazine estimated that up to 20
percent of business travel could be replaced by virtual meeting technology.
A videoconference allows individuals at two or more locations to communicate at the same time through two-way
video and audio transmissions. Most companies think videoconferencing a poor substitute for face-to-face meetings.
But. major changes in these applications have changed many company’s perceptions. The annual rate of growth of
video conferencing is around 30%.
Many users of this technology claim that it does more than simply reduce costs. It allows for “better” meetings as
well: it is easier to meet with partners, suppliers and colleagues from within the office or around the world on a more
frequent basis, which may not have achieved if people traveled. Some contacts which may not be reachable physically
may also be contacted using video conferencing technology. For example, a recruiting firm Talent Search
International uses video interviews to screen potential candidates for jobs.
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Innovations in technology have bought major changes in the system. The system is now able to display high definition
images. The top-of the- line videoconferencing technology is known as Virtual meet. Virtual meet tries to make users
feel as if they are actually present in a location different from their own. You can sit across a table from a large screen
showing someone who looks quite real and life-size, but may be in China or Singapore. However, physical handshake
and cards exchanging will be missed.
Virtual meet products provide the highest- quality videoconferencing available on the market to date. Cisco Systems
has installed Virtual meet systems in more than 500 organizations around the world.
Many companies using this technology have experienced huge savings. For example, technology consulting firm
Sasken reports that it eliminated expenditures for 240 international trips and 120 domestic flights in a single month.
Considerably more number of customers and partners were being accessible. Other business travelers report ten times
increases in the number of customers and partners they are able to reach for a fraction of the previous price per person.
However, these products are not very reasonable for small businesses. There are even some free Internet-based
options like Skype videoconferencing and Zoom. These products are of lower quality than traditional
videoconferencing products, but they can only talk to others using that very same system. Most videoconferencing
and virtual meet products are able to interact with a variety of other devices. Companies are using these tools also
for training and sales presentations. These products enable participants to share documents and presentations along
with audio conferencing and live video via Webcam.
Before setting up videoconferencing or Virtual meet, it’s important for a company to make sure it really needs the
technology to ensure that it will be a profitable. There are still plenty of times when face-to-face interaction is more
desirable, and often traveling to meet a client is essential for clients and closing sales.
Answer the following questions:
3a. Critically analyze the value chain process related to virtual meet application. (5 Marks)
3b. Imagine that Nizwa College of Technology is subscribing for virtual meet. Illustrate how this technology will add
value to the below mentioned processes in the college. (5 Marks)
i. Advising and registration
ii. Teaching and learning
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Case 4:
Al Abbasi group of companies are supplying different types of information systems that is required for all the types
of business They are located in Saudi Arabia but they have offices in 55 countries in middle east Europe and Asia.
They had a data warehouse in Saudi Arabia which was used by the company management in all these countries to
improve customer satisfaction and marketing. The data in the data warehouse was updated from all these 55 countries.
There was full of inaccurate data in the data warehouse. The data entered were mainly phone numbers, customer
addresses, emails pin code or zip code etc. There were complaints from the sales and marketing group that the data
recorded is not accurate when they search for particular customer’s data, it was not complete or updated twice with
different spellings. Some of the pin codes were three digits and some others were six digits. The phone numbers also
had similar type of issue. The addresses had issues too. The system and services sold by the company was mainly
order entry related customer data. There were different services for companies selling cars and mobile phones. Al
Abbasi group is the market leader in making order entry systems. Many organizations who were using Al Abaasi
group’s services were complaining that the data they provide is troubling their business operations.
Assume that you are the information officer of the Al abbasi group keeping these points in mind, answer the following
questions.
Answer the following questions:
4a. Discuss any two risks that your business will face due to data error. (5 Marks)
4b. Propose a solution to avoid these errors from the data base. (5 Marks)
Case 5:
OmanDATA website is linked to huge databases that combine personal data on millions of people. There was data
available for sales on people who purchased different products with their location. Based on the price quoted by the
seller they were also selling the age, gender, financial status, and nature of interest of the customers. If you click on
‘Consumer Leads’ to order a customer list, you can find the names, addresses and sometimes phone numbers of
potential customers in a specific location and purchase a list of those names. One should use this capability to obtain
a list, for example, for everyone in Nizwa, making more than RO 25,000 or more per year. This information was
given to the required promoters and advertisers so that they can use it wisely to target the customer group. The luxury
apartment builders wanted to know the potential buyers in a location they could buy the data from this data broker.
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There were even small buyers of data like travel and tourism companies wanted to know the tourist arrived in a
particular place. Five star hotels collected the data of potential travelers and tourists arrived in a particular area. The
insurance companies were in need of data whose insurance policies were going to be expired. The data brokers earned
big money from the customized services they have created. The data segments like real estate, insurance tourism etc
had different type of price bands. Many car companies collected data of luxurious car buyers in a particular area to
conduct promotional activities.
Answer the following questions:
5a. Examine any five privacy issues raised by brokers like Oman DATA. (10 Marks)
