week 3 weekly I.T questions

1.       Define TPS & DSS, and explain how an organisation can use these systems to make decisions and gain competitive advantages

TPS stands for transaction Processing system, and DSS stands for decision support system. TPS is the basic business system that serves the operational level in an organisation. A common example of a TPS in a business is an opperational accounting system such as a payroll system. Hence through the use of a TPS system businesses can structure and locate particular data and information within the business, this pushes towards a competitive advantage because business the a TPS system in place may be able to accept and easily document large orders of materials as opposed to company's who do not have TPS. Similarly, DSS is used in organisations to promote information models or to find specific pieces of information froma large list of data, the three quantitative models often used by DSS include: sensitivity analysis, What-if analysis and Goal-seeking analysis. through the use of these 3 models businesses may obtain a competitive advantage by accurately locating, summarising and analytically interpreting both data and information quicker than competitors.

2.       Describe the three quantitative models typically used by decision support systems.

The three quantitative models include: (1) sensitivity analysis, (2) What-if analysis, and lastly (3) goal-seeking analysis. The first element in the three-model theory is sensitivity analysis; this element explores the study of the impact that changes in one (or more) parts of the model. Hence users change one variable and monitor the affect it had on other variables. Secondly, what-if analysis checks the impact of a change in an assumption on the proposed solution. For example, “what will happen to the supply chain if a cycloe off Brisbaine reduces holding inventory from 30 to 10 percent?” Typically users repeat this analysis until they have exhausted all possibilities. The last of the quantitative models, goal-seeking analysis finds the inputs necessary to achieve a particular goal such as a desired level of output. Instead of observing how changes in a variable affect other variables as in what-if analysis, goal-seeking analysis sets a target value (a goal) for a variable and then repeatedly changes other variables until the target value is achieved.

3.       Describe business processes and their importance to an organisation.

Businesses gain a competitive edge when they minimise costs and streamline their business processes. Ultimately, the best way an organisation can satisfy customers and spur profits is by completely understanding all of its business processes. The definition of a business process is “a standardised set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a customers order”. Business processes are important in an organisation because by examining this process helps an organisation to anticipate bottlenecks, eliminate duplicate activities, combine related activities, and identify smooth running processes.

4.       Compare business process improvement and business process re-engineering.

Business process improvement is where businesses attempt to understand and measure the current process and make performance improvements accordingly. During business improvement, organisations begin by documenting what they do; they establish a way to measure the process, follow the process, measure the performance and, finally, identify improvement. Alternatively, business process re-engineering (BPR) is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises. In radical cases, BPR assumes that the current process does not work, or is broken and must be overhauled from scratch. Such a clean slate is then governed by factors such as; what should the process look like? What do customers want it to look like? What do other employees want it to look like? And so on.

5. Describe the importance of business process modelling (or mapping) and business process models.

Business process modelling is the activity of creating a detailed flow chart or process map of a work process, showing its inputs, tasks and activities in a structured sequence. However, on the other hand a business process model is a graphic description of a process, showing the sequence of process tasks, which is developed for a specific purpose and from a selected viewpoint. Both business process modelling and models are highly important in business operations because they both simplify and improve the As-is processes. Hence, successful process improvement efforts result in positive answers to the key process design or improvement question: is this the most efficient and effective process for accomplishing the process goals?