CHAPTER 5 : DATA RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

REAL WORLD CASE 1 : Beyond Street Smarts: Data-Driven Crime Fighting

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What are some of the most important benefits derived by the law enforcement agencies mentioned in the case? How do these technologies allow them to better fight crime? Provide several examples.

2. How are the data-related issues faced by law enforcement similar to those that could be found in companies? How are they different? Where do these problems come from? Explain.

3. Imagine that you had access to the same crime-related information as that managed by police departments. How would you analyze this information, and what actions would you take as a result?

SECTION II : Managing Data Resources

Data Resource Management

REAL WORLD CASE2 : Duke University Health System, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and Others: Medical IT Is Getting Personal

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What are the benefits that result from implementing the technologies described in the case? How are those different for hospitals, doctors, insurance companies and patients? Provide examples of each from the case.

2. Many of the technologies described in the case require access to large volumes of data in order to be effective. At the same time, there are privacy considerations involved in the compiling and sharing of such data. How do you balance those?

3. What other industries that manage large volumes of data could benefit from an approach to technology similar to the one described in the case? Develop at least one example with sample applications.

Discussion Questions

1. How should a business store, access, and distribute data and information about its internal operations and external environment?

2. What role does database management play in managing data as a business resource?

3. What are the advantages of a database management approach to the file processing approach? Give examples to illustrate your answer.

4. Refer to the Real World Case on Data-Driven Crime Fighting in the chapter. Given the very decentralized nature of law enforcement, with more than 18,000 units in the United States alone, what can be done to encourage sharing information across organizational boundaries? Would an ad-hoc approach suffice, or is a central coordinating body needed? What are the implications of creating such an organization?

5. What is the role of a database management system in a business information system?

6. In the past, databases of information about a firm's internal operations were the only databases that were considered important to a business. What other kinds of databases are important for a business today?

7. Refer to the Real World Case on Medical IT in the chapter. What do these automated or semi-automated technologies spell for the future of medicine?How much of this discipline can be captured using these algorithms. What about pharmacy?

What are the benefits and limitations of the relational database model for business applications today? Why is the object-oriented database model gaining acceptance for developing applications and managing the hypermedia databases on business Web sites?

How have the Internet, intranets, and extranets affected the types and uses of data resources available to business professionals? What other database trends are also affecting data resource management in business?

REAL WORLD CASE 3 : Cogent Communications, Intel, and Others: Mergers Go More Smoothly When Your Data Are Ready

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Place yourself in the role of a manager at a company undergoing a merger or acquisition. What would be the most important things customers would expect from you while still in that process? What role would IT play in meeting those expectations? Provide at least three examples.

2. Focus on what Andi Mann in the case calls "tribal knowledge." What do you think is meant by that, and why is it so important to this process? What strategies would you suggest for companies that are faced with the extensive presence of this issue in an acquired organization? Develop some specific recommendations.

3. Most of the discussion on the case focused on hardware and software issues. However, these are essentially enablers for underlying business processes developed by each of the companies involved. What different alternatives do companies have for merging their business processes, and what role would IT play in supporting those activities? Pay particular attention to data management and governance issues.

REAL WORLD CASE 4 : Applebee's, Travelocity, and Others: Data Mining for Business Decisions

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. What are the business benefits of taking the time and effort required to create and operate data warehouses such as those described in the case? Do you see any disadvantages? Is there any reason that all companies shouldn't use data warehousing technology?

2. Applebee's noted some of the unexpected insights obtained from analyzing data about "back-of-house" performance. Using your knowledge of how a restaurant works, what other interesting questions would you suggest to the company? Provide several specific examples.

3. Data mining and warehousing technologies use data about past events to inform better decision making in the future. Do you believe this stifles innovative think-ing, causing companies to become too constrained by the data they are already collecting to think about unex-plored opportunities? Compare and contrast both view-points in your answer.

CHAPTER 6 : TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKS

REAL WORLD CASE 1 : DLA Piper, MetLife, PepsiCo, and Others: Telepresence Is Finally Coming of Age

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Implementing telepresence seems to have other, less tangible, advantages beyond travel cost savings. What are some of those? How do you quantify them to make the case for investing in the technology? Provide at least two fully developed examples.

2. DLA Piper, MetLife, and the other companies featured in the case are very optimistic about the technology.
However, other than its cost, what are some potential disadvantages of implementing telepresence in organizations?

3. Do you think meetings conducted through telepresence technology will be similar to face-to-face ones as the technology becomes more pervasive? How would the rules of etiquette change for telepresence meetings? Which type of meeting would you like best?

Management Information System Case Studies (Link Below)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0v7lg98qxs2dfy0/MIS%20Case%20Studies%2811-10-17%29.rar?dl=0