E-Supply Chains, Collaborative Commerce and Corporate Portals

Multiple Choice Questions (Circle the correct answer)

1) For a manufacturer, the supply chain ends ____________.

a. when the supplier delivers raw materials and component parts to the manufacturer
b. when the product is used up and disposed of
c. when the customer buys the product
d. when the customer decides he/she is satisfied with a product

2) The e-SCM process that includes integrated production and distribution processes is _____________.

a. supply chain replenishment
b. collaborative planning
c. e-procurement
d. e-logistics

3) When planning, designing and implementing integrated supply chain operations, management requires a holistic focus that takes into account all of the following primary factors except:

a. strategy, structure, and people.
b. location and revenues.
c. IT and business processes.
d. culture, including performance measurement, monitoring, and incentives.

4) ____________ is a business strategy that enables manufacturers to control and share product-related data as part of product design and development efforts.

a. Advanced planning and scheduling
b. Collaborative planning
c. Product lifecycle management
d. Internal commerce

5) All of the following are true about product lifecycle management (PLM) except:

a. PLM can have significant beneficial impacts in cycle time, design reuse, and engineering.
b. The demand for PLM is limited because it does not apply to products that have short life cycles or are complex.
c. PLM is a big step for an organization because it requires integrating different processes and systems.
d. PLM tools are offered by major IT companies such as SAP and IBM.

6) All of the following are types of communication and collaboration done in real time except:

a. blogging.
b. webinars.
c. instant messaging.
d. VoIP.

7) Infrastructure needed for groupware include all of the following except:

a. VoIP.
b. intranets.
c. extranets.
d. the Internet.

8) Mobile support systems include each of the following except:

a. mobile social networking.
b. mobile handset.
c. mobile VoIP.
d. mobile instant messaging.

9) ____________ are required to create a truly collaborative environment, to integrate different applications and for standardizing communication.

a. Web services
b. Portals
c. Protocols
d. Collaborative workflows

10) All of the following apply to instant video except:

a. it evolved from the spread of instant messaging and Internet telephony.
b. the idea is for a kind of video chat room that allows users to chat in real time and see the people they are communicating with.
c. it is the natural result of wanting to link people via both voice and audio.
d. the highest quality approach is to add video cameras to the participants' computers

Critical Analysis / Case Study Problems

The Critical Analysis questions are designed to help you gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter, develop an increased ability to apply what you have learned and integrate this knowledge into a greater understanding and appreciation for your field of study. Completion of the following questions will help you outline your answers and organize your thoughts within an appropriate framework. These practice questions will not be graded, but you should apply the same analytical skills and writing proficiencies that you will need for the unit essays. We suggest writing your answers on another piece of paper and comparing your results to the suggested answers at the end of this chapter to help you identify any areas you need to review.

1. Distinguish some major barriers to c-commerce.

2. Assess e-supply chain and discuss its importance in supporting organizational performance.

3. Compare and contrast a commercial portal (such as Yahoo!) with a corporate portal.

Multiple Choice Questions (Enter your answers on the enclosed answer sheet)

1) Paws ‘n Tails is an online pet shop that wants to influence what customers buy and build effective customer relationships and loyalty. What is the key to influencing behavior and building these relationships?

a. Understanding consumer online behavior and then influencing it through advertising and promotions
b. Understanding competitors' pricing strategy and then undercutting it
c. Identifying the wants and needs of major customer segments
d. Suggesting as many products as possible to online shoppers as soon as they visit the EC site

2) A(n) _____________ is someone whose advice or view carries some weight in making a final purchasing decision.

a. initiator
b. influencer
c. decider
d. buyer

3) The use of cookies ______________.

a. is one of the most controversial issues in EC
b. has not helped Internet marketers target their ads
c. is a widely used method for mass marketing
d. is being replaced by adware and spyware programs

4) Once a company knows a consumer's preferences, the company can predict, without asking the consumer directly, what other products or services that consumer might enjoy through ______________.

a. active web bugs
b. spyware
c. collaborative filtering
d. personalization

5) Which of the following is not a specific method for collecting online data?

a. Phone surveys to learn if there are too many products for the customer to look through
b. E-mail communication with individual customers
c. Moderated focus groups conducted in chat rooms
d. Tracking customers' movements on the Web

6) Two key factors limiting the use of personalization to more precisely target marketing efforts to individual customers are _____________.

a. matching profiles with product offerings and delivering those offerings
b. communication costs and filtering costs
c. privacy and trust issues
d. lack of customer loyalty and service customization costs

7) Which of the following statements about Web mining is false?

a. Web mining refers to the use of data mining techniques for discovering and extracting information from Web documents.
b. Web mining explores both Web content and Web usage.
c. Web mining uses customer data to infer or predict customer interest in other products or services.
d. Usage analysis is derived from clickstream data.

8) ____________ is an advertising network that a B2B company can use as part of its advertising strategy to reach new customers.

a. Amazon.com
b. BBB Online
c. DoubleClick
d. WebMonkey

9) The popularity of Apple's iPhone and Application Store has made _____________ important to advertisers, who see social networking widgets, restaurant locators, mobile games, and other applications as prime targets.

a. stickiness
b. direct marketing
c. mobile advertising
d. banner ads

10) Banner advertising on Websites helps trigger a realization that there is a gap between reality and a desired state, which occurs in the _____________ stage of the EC purchase decision-making process.

a. need identification or recognition
b. information search
c. evaluation
d. product or merchant brokering

11) As the volume of customers, products, vendors, and information increases, it becomes uneconomical or impossible for customers to consider all relevant information and available products/services. The practical solution to handling such information overload is ______________.

a. to use permission marketing
b. to use software or intelligent agents
c. to increase the use of ad agencies
d. to design Websites with minimal content

12) Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust, which provided health-care services for almost 1 million people in the United Kingdom, cut back-office purchasing costs by ______________.

a. using online reverse auctions to purchase from suppliers at the the lowest mutually acceptable purchase price
b. implementing online catalogs
c. buying via its intranet
d. using collaborative commerce

13) B2B transactions that involve communication, design, planning, information sharing, and activities beyond financial transactions among business partners is referred to as _______________.

a. exchanges
b. collaborative commerce
c. trading communities
d. public marketplaces

14) The ________ consists of a number of interrelated subprocesses that extend from the acquisition of materials from suppliers to packaging it and moving it to distributors and retailers.

a. horizontal marketplace
b. vertical market
c. supply chain
d. production chain

15) Which of the following is not one of the major benefits of B2B for both buyers and sellers?

a. Expedites processing and reduces cycle time
b. Reduces procurement costs
c. Enables customized online catalogs with different prices for different customers
d. Increases opportunities for collaboration

16) All are benefits of B2B except:

a. creates new sales or purchase opportunities.
b. eliminates paper and reduces administrative costs.
c. increases channel conflict.
d. lowers search costs and time for buyers to find products and vendors.

17) EC companies will usually separate their B2C orders from their B2B orders because B2C and B2B orders have different _____________.

a. buying and delivery processes.
b. accounting and financial processes.
c. marketing processes.
d. order-fulfillment processes and pricing.

18) A company's acquisition Website that uses e-procurement methods such as reverse auctions, negotiations, or group purchasing to overcome the manual searching of e-stores is referred to as _____________.

a. desktop procurement method
b. buy-side e-marketplace
c. an intermediary
d. aggregated catalog

19) Denver Boards, a B2B manufacturer of snowboard equipment, can reach and target new retail customers in order to grow its online business by ______________.

a. hiring an affiliation service to drive traffic to its Website.
b. reviewing POS data.
c. mining data.
d. advertising in traditional media.

20) A company's internal operations and its relationships with suppliers and other business partners are frequently _____________.

a. as complex as customer-facing applications such as taking an order online.
b. much more complex than customer-facing applications such as taking an order online.
c. much less complex than customer-facing applications such as taking an order online.
d. replaced by customer-facing applications

21) The last fifteen orders from a manufacturer to its suppliers range from $100,000 to $8,750,000. This is an example of _____________.

a. the bullwhip effect
b. demand manipulation
c. supply inadequacy
d. order instability

22) A major block in the widespread implementation of collaborative commerce is ______________.

a. the theory of collaborative commerce hasn't been proven effective in real-world applications.
b. the technology needed isn't available.
c. collaborative commerce is extremely expensive.
d. the lack of universally accepted standards.

23) All of the following are true about product life cycle management (PLM) except:

a. PLM can have significant beneficial impacts in cycle time, design reuse, and engineering.
b. The demand for PLM is limited because it does not apply to products that have short life cycles or are complex.
c. PLM is a big step for an organization because it requires integrating different processes and systems.
d. PLM tools are offered by major IT companies such as SAP and IBM.

24) The Lotus Notes/Domino suite includes all of the following except:

a. instant video.
b. document management.
c. database.
d. communication support.

25) Infrastructure needed for groupware include all of the following except:

a. VoIP.
b. intranets.
c. extranets.
d. the Internet.

Please answer ONE of the following:

1) How can live Web events be used as advertising strategy? Explain three of the best practices for successful live Web events.

2) Evaluate the importance of customer loyalty and identify ways to increase e-loyalty.

3) Detail five major benefits of B2B for buyers or sellers or both.