Name and explain the type of information that the company's MIS can provide to help the supervisors on the factory floor, the manager of each factory and the executives of the company.

Maryola Pasha

Student No: 2458310

( I ) Name and explain the type of information that the company’s MIS can provide to help the supervisors on the factory floor, the manager of each factory and the executives of the company.

MIS is a formal information network that uses Electronic Data Processing and Data Communications capabilities to provide management with information necessary for decisions making.

Its aim is to provide information at the right time, tight cost and with a great degree of accuracy.

Executives (Top Level)

The Executives are accountable for the overall management of the organisation. Middle management implements top management goals. Supervisors direct the actual work of the organisation at the operating level.

Manager (Middle Level)

In contrast, managers spend most of their time on the functions of planning and organising. The manager determines the mission and sets the goals for the organisation. Manager’s primary function is long-range planning.

Supervisors (lower level)

Activities are carried out as a result of directive from middle level management. It provides the foundation to the data processing for the whole organisation. Any fault in the system will affect the entire decision making of the Middle and Top levels

Management. Supervisor’s major functions emphasize directing and controlling the work of employees in order to achieve the team goals. Most of the supervisor's time is allocated to the functions of directing and controlling.

( II )In your opinion, what type of information should the company has available, over its Internet Intranet, and it’s Extranet.

Internet

Internet is a worldwide collection of interconnected networks. The company should have information about company’s background, special offers, news letters and financial information.

Intranet

Intranets promote the sharing of knowledge and ideas and provide a single, secure, reliable access to a company’s private information. An intranet improves a company’s ability to manage its information and it can also streamline document distribution. Intranets can result in higher productivity because of better access to quality information. They also allow reuse of existing information and can reduce the cost of information sourcing, printing and distribution.

In some large companies intranets are used as the primary way for employees to obtain and share work-related documents, share knowledge, collaborate on designs, access e-learning and learn about company news.

Extranet

Then it is an extranet. Extranets are networks that connect companies with customers and partners. When it comes to extranets, a company has to work with the other organizations on the network, so that it’s available to specific people or groups outside of an organization. Extranets require more security and technical consideration because they have to send private information securely over public networks.

( III ) ...

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Extranet

( III ) The company wishes to upgrade its computer network so that it will have a higher bandwidth. What is bandwidth and why would the company wish to increase it?

Bandwidth is the number of bits a line can transmit per second. Domestic channel capacities vary from 56,00 bits per second (bps), or 56 K bps (thousands of bits, or kilobits, per second. The reason for company to increase its bandwidth is

Saving money on leased line costs by adding traffic capacity for only the absolute minimum period required
Improving overall corporate-wide network through-put while saving money on network services
Allowing sites in multiple time zones to cost-effectively share network resources at different times of day
High Speed internet access
More bandwidth is also significantly reducing the amount of travelling.

( IV ) Discuss any data security, consideration for data protection Acts and software licensing issues that would be relevant to the company’s activities.

This legislation sets out to define the rights of organisations and individuals in terms of how personal information is gathered, stored, processed and disclosed. One of the most important aspects of the Act is a focus on the individual’s rights to view the information stored on them and ensure that it is accurate.

1984 Act of Parliament guaranteeing certain rights to individuals and control of the use of personal data held on a computer. The most well known of the rights is that of examining a computer record held by a company by the individual in the data record.

Federal copyright law automatically protects software from the moment of its creation. The Copyright Law 1974 gives the owner of the copyright the exclusive rights to reproduce the copyrighted word. The general rule is one software package per computer. Also the software Rental Amendments Act of 1990 prohibits rental, leasing, or lending of copyright software. The unlawful duplication of proprietary software, called software piracy, is making companies venerable to legal action by the affected vendors.

Choose an up-to-date microcomputer system and discuss its main hardware specifications and its suitability for use in a small size Software producing company. Also include software and other hardware components/items that would consider as essential part of the system for the company.

The microcomputer is the smallest and expensive of the three types of system available. For a small size Software Company it needs the Control Unit (C.P.U), this controls all the computer’s functions. Also it needs the Arithmetic and Logic Unit (A.L.U) which performs all the required calculations. The third one is the Memory Unit; this is the internal memory which stores the current data and the program in use. Types of internal memory are RAM, this is also known as volatile memory short term memory. There are different types of RAM available in the market. For a use in a small company I would recommend SD Ram (Synchronous Data RAM) at 100, 133.

RAM also comes in the form of DIMMS containing a memory chip that plug into the Motherboard. Cache memory is another memory in which frequently used data values are duplicated for quick access.

For Small size Software Company I would recommend Level 2 Cache memory.

Level 2 Cache Memory –A memory cache usually not always on a motherboard that uses Intel Processor cache contains 512K or higher memory space. It is faster than the system RAM but slower than the L1 cache built the CPU chip. (Reference; Lecture Notes)

With the help of suitable examples, briefly explain the role of ASCII characters in modern computing and information technology.

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange – pronounced “AS-key”) was the most popular character encoding system for PCs and data communication through the 1990s. For example 01000010 is an arbitrary ASCII code that refers to the letter B. When you tap the letter B on the keyboard, the B is sent to the processor as a coded string of binary digits (01000010 in ASCII). The characters are decoded for output to a printer or monitor so we can interpret them.

The ASCII character set uses just 7 for each character. There are several larger that use 8 bits, which gives them 128 additional characters. The extra characters are used to represent non-English characters, symbols, and mathematical symbols. Several companies and organizations have proposed extensions for these 128 characters.

How would using a computer be different if it had no operating system? Explain.

Without operating system there would be no control over the computer resources such as processing and storage capabilities.

There will be no facilitating communication between linked computer systems. The operating system enables users such tasks as making back up copies of disks erasing dish files making inquiries about files on a particular dish. Without an operating system the computer won’t be able to keep track of all files.

Which must be loaded first into the computer’s Random Access Memory (RAM, the operating system or software application? Explain

The first thing loaded to a computer is RAM. RAM is essentially a high-speed holding area for data and programs. All programs must be transferred to RAM from an input device such as a keyboard. As a matter of fact nothing happens in a computer system until the program instructions and data are moved from RAM o the processor. The second thing loaded into a computer is Operating system. Operating system is the software that controls everything that happens in a computer such as processing and storage capabilities. The third thing loaded to a computer is Software Application. An ASP is a company that provides software-based services and solutions to customers via the internet from a central service computer. (Reference; Lecture Notes)

Identify and briefly explain three areas for spreadsheet software.

Cell References

This is the most widely used type of cell reference in formulas. Relative cell references are basic cell references that adjust and change when copied or when using AutoFill.

Absolute Cell References

Situations arise in which the cell reference must remain the same when copied or when using AutoFill. Dollar signs are used to hold a column and/or row reference constant.

Charts

A chart is a graphic presentation of worksheet data. Microsoft Excel offers numerous types of charts. When you create a chart, Microsoft Excel plots the chart based on the shape of the selected range of data and on the types of data in the row and columns.

Q5 Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using the Internet to help with the running of a business of your choice.

Benefits

Can communicate with customers or clients via email
Can send emails to other businesses to order products and services
It can sell company’s products or services through website
Can use the Web to find information such as prices, phone numbers and reviews of products
Can use your website as a means of managing the information in the business
It can reach more customers and markets - can help broaden your customer base at a relatively low cost with great potential to expand.
Internet can make it easier for people to do business with you - this could be customers, members, visitors, suppliers, distributors or associates.
It can improve marketing and promotion - a well-designed and maintained website can be an effective and complementary form of promotion.
It meets the needs and expectations of customers - enables you to service your customers 7 days a week, twenty-four hours a day.