1.Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.
‘The triple constraint involves making trade-offs between scope, time and cost for a project. It is inevitable in a project life-cycle that there will be changes to the scope, time or cost of the project.’ (Lecture slides: C.Maker, ‘Project management’, 2011).
The triple constraint involves:
§Increase in scope. This means that there is an increase in cost and an increase in time.
§Tight time. This involves an increase in costs and a reduce in scope
§Tight budget. This involves an increase in time and a reduce in scope
2.Describe the two primary diagrams most frequently used in project planning
The two primary diagrams are the PERT chart and the Gantt chart.
The PERT chart is a ‘graphical network model that depicts a project’s tasks and the relationships between those tasks’ (Lecture slides: C.Maker, ‘Project management’ 2011).
The Gantt Chart is a ‘simple bar chart that depicts project tasks against a calendar’ (Lecture slides: C.Maker, ‘Project management’ 2011).
3.Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success
The three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success is managing people, managing communications and managing change.
§Managing people is a process of skills that the project manager must have, to have a successful project outcome.
§Managing communications includes the systematic coordination of planning, implementation, monitoring and revision of the channels of communication that are involved in the management of a project.
§Managing change is the final and fundamental key to ensure success within a project. Managing change consists of managing the team so that there is an ability to move towards a new part of the project.
Managing people
Managing Communications
Managing Change
4.Outline 2 reasons why projects fail and two reasons why projects succeed
Projects fail because of two main reasons, there has been a failure to align the project with organizational objectives and there has been poor scope. There are a number of other reasons as to why the projects fail but the two examples above are often the most common reasons.
Why IT Projects Fail
There are many reasons why projects succeed. The reasons for success include the right mix of team players and good communication, both an essential and important aspect of project success.
Team Players are a key to successful business projects because they work for their team to determine a successful outcome whilst not being motivated by ultierior motives that can negatively affect a tem. Effective communication will allow for the group to succeed because they are all on the 'same page' and are aware of what the group is doing and where the project is at. Good and effective communication is discussed in the video below.
Customer relationship management is the managing of ones customer’s relationships within a company in a way to enhance and increase the customer loyalty whilst also retaining the customer and the company’s profitability.
Definintion of CRM
2.Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.
Operational customer relationship management ‘supports traditional transactional processing for day-to-day front office operations or systems that deal directly with the customers.’ (Baltzan et al, 2010)
Analytical customer relationship management ‘supports back office operations and strategic analysis and includes all systems that do not deal directly with the customers.’ (Baltzan et al, 2010)
Analytical customer relationship deals with the back office operations such as accounting, HR and database warehousing, whilst operational customer relationship management deals with the front office operations systems including sales, customer service and billing.
3.Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments
Source: Lecture Slides, C.Maker 2011
Marketing departments use customer relationship marketing technologies such as a list generator, campaign management and cross-selling and up-selling.
§List generator: A list generator ‘compiles customer information from a variety of sources and segments the information.’ (Baltzan et al, 2010)
§Campaign management: Campaign management ‘guides users through marketing campaigns.’ (Baltzan et al, 2010)
§Cross-selling and up-selling: Cross selling involves ‘selling additional products or services’ whereas up-selling involves ‘increasing the value of the sale’ (Baltzan et al, 2010)
Marketing departments and the CRM technology they use differentiate from that of the sales department because they use different technologies within the broader customer relationship marketing and utilise them to their respective goals.
Sales customer relationship management technologies include sales management, contact management and opportunity management. Where:
§Sales management is the ‘automation of each phase of the sales process helping individual sales representatives coordinate and organise all of their accounts.’ (Baltzan et al 2010, adapted from www.csulb.edu/~paustin/is300/ch9.ppt)
§Contact management ‘maintains customer contact information and identifies prospective customers for future sales.’ (Baltzan et al 2010, adapted from www.csulb.edu/~paustin/is300/ch9.ppt)
§Opportunity management ‘targets sales opportunities by finding new customers or companies for future sales.’ (Baltzan et al 2010, adapted from www.csulb.edu/~paustin/is300/ch9.ppt)
4.How could a sales department use operational CRM technologies?
A sales department could use operational customer relationship management technolog to enhance its sales, customer and opportunity management techniques and the way in which it undertakes its operation.The operational customer relationship technologies could be used by sales representatives to help combat the overwhelming amounts of customer account information that they need to maintain. Operational management can also be used with struggling companies and the issue that has arisen of the vital customer and sales information required to be known and understood by their sales representatives.
CRM in sales
5.Describe business intelligence and its value to businesses
What is Business Intelligence?
Business intelligence is the ‘applications and technologies used to gather, provide access to, and analyse data and information to support decision making efforts.’ (Baltzan et al 2010). Business intelligence is a valuable decision making process application that can be used by businesses.
The Value Of Business Intelligence
As many businesses struggle to meet the needs and wants of different customer segments, business intelligence will then provide valuable information, such as:
§‘Determine who are the best and worst customers thereby gaining insight into where it needs to concentrate more for its future sales.
§Identify exceptional sales people
§Determine whether or not campaigns have been successful
§Determine in which activity they are making or losing money.’ (Baltzan et al, 2010)
Business intelligence also has operational value in which it ‘shortens the latencies so that the time frame for opportunistic influences on customers, suppliers and others is faster, more interactive, and better positioned.’ (Baltzan et al 2010)
Source: Lecture Slides, C. Maker 2011
6.Explain the problem associated with business intelligence. Describe the solution to this business problem
The problems associated with business intelligence include the fact that many businesses are data rich and information poor. That is, businesses do not understand their strengths and weaknesses which then leads to business intelligence issues.
A solution for this can be seen in this video clip:
7.What are two possible outcomes a company could get from using data mining?
Data mining is simply ‘the application of statistical techniques to find patterns and relationships among data and to classify and predict’ (Baltzan et al 2010)
Using data mining can allow a business to use cluster analysis and statistical analysis giving them two possible outcomes that could be used.
§Cluster analysis is a ‘technique used to divide an information set into mutually exclusive groups such that the members of each group are as close together as possible to one another and the different groups are as far apart as possible’ (Baltzan et al, 2010). The outcome this gives businesses is that they can clearly identify and see the different groups and the mutually exclusive groups.
§Statistical analysis allows business to ‘perform such functions as information correlations, distributions, calculations and variance analysis.’ (Baltzan et al 2010). By using forecasts and time-series information, statistical analysis gives a positive outcome to business as they can clearly see all the statistics that are used within their business.
Operations management is the management of systems or processes that convert or transform resources into goods and services.
Definition of Operations Management
2. Explain operations management’s role in business
Operations management role in business is a fundamental one, encompassing many aspects of business life. It uses such things as production, production management, and transformation processes.
Source: Lecture Slides, C.Maker 2011
3. Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology
The correlation between operations management and information technology is that managers use I.T to heavily influence the operations management decisions that need to be made. (Source: Lecture Slides) These include questions such as:
§What: What resources will be needed and in what amounts?
§When: When should the work be scheduled?
§Where: Where will the work be performed?
§How: How will the work be done?
§Who: Who will perform the work?
4. Explain supply chain management and its role in a business
Supply Chain management involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximise total supply chain effectiveness and profitability. (Baltzan et al, 2010)
Source: Lecture Slides, C.Maker 2011
Supply Chain management plays a fundamental role in business as it allows the business to track and fully understand where their products are and what is happening to them. This essential aspect of business, allows a company to fully utilise their supplies and understand where there products are going and where the inputs are coming from. It enables ‘customers to order from retailers, who in turn order from distributors, who in turn order from manufactures, who in turn order from suppliers.’ (Baltzan et al 2010)
5. List and describe the five components of a typical supply chain
Source: Lecture Slides, C.Maker 2011
The five components of a typical supply chain are:
§Plan: the strategic portion of supply chain management. A plan must be in place to manage all the resources that go towards meeting customer demand. This includes using the metrics to monitor the supply chain to ensure that the supply chain is both cost effective and effective with high quality and value delivered to its customers.
§Source: The source in the supply chain includes the suppliers. A company must choose its suppliers carefully to ensure that deliveries are made on time. This includes developing a series of plans on pricing, delivery and payment for the suppliers.
§Make: the make step in the supply chain is the actual manufacturing of the products/services. This may involve scheduling activities that are needed for production, packaging and delivery.
§Deliver: The Delivery, or logistics, encompasses a set of process that plans for the efficient and effective transportation and storage of the products. Customers are able to place orders with the business, which can then be fulfilled during this step.
§Return: this step can have problematic implications for the supply chain. Businesses must ensure that there is a network established for receiving products that may be viewed as defective or excess. They then must offer customer services in the form of supporting those customers who have returned an item to the business.
6. Define the relationship between information technology and the supply chain.
Information and technology has enhanced and furthered the supply chain and its five components. An advance in information technology has created a way in which the three segments of supply chains (Upstream, Internal and Downstream) can further be enhanced, allowing for quality products being delivered within an efficient time. It has also allowed for the development of new software to enhance the supply chain. This new software includes:
§‘Demand planning software: generates demand forecasts using statistical tools and forecasting techniques.
§Supply Chain planning software – uses advanced mathematical algorithms to improve the flow and efficiency of the supply chain.
§Supply chain execution software – automates the different steps and stages of the supply chain.’ – Source: (Baltzan et al 2010)
The five characteristics of high quality information is accuracy, completeness, consistency, uniqueness and timeliness.
§Accuracy: if the data we have is inaccurate it means that the organisation will not have high quality information. Accuracy prevents data entry errors so that high quality information is available to the organisation.
§Completeness: when there is incomplete data within a database the information is not of high quality to the organisation. When the data is complete the data is accurate and of high quality.
§Consistency: the data within a database must be consistent so that when the data is shared among different departments there are no errors, therefore leaving the organisation with high quality information.
§Uniqueness: the data that is entered into the database must be unique so that the reliability of the organisation is held because the same data is shared within different departments allowing the business to have high quality data that differs from other organisations.
§Timeliness: data needs to be updated within a timely manner so that the business has up to date and reliable information that can be used within the organisation, so that it is of high quality.
2.Define the relationship between a database and a database management system.
The relationship between database and a database management system is profound. A database is defined as ‘… the heart of an organisation, it stores key business information such as:’ (Baltzan et al 2010)
²Sales data – Customers, sales and contacts
²Inventory data – Orders, stock and delivery
²Student data – Names, addresses and grades.
A database management system is a ‘group of programs that manipulate the database.’ (Baltzan et al 2010). It provides businesses with a line between the database and the users that is has within an organisation and other application programs.
The relationship between the two, database and database management system, allows for business organisations to have an effective and useful database. The database management system are able to monitor and manipulate the already existing database to co-exist with users and other programs.
3.Describe the advantages an organisation can gain by using a database.
When using a database approach an organisation can gain many advantages. These advantages include data security, data integrity and data independence.
²Data security – data security from the data base approach ensures that the organisations data is safe from theft, destruction or modification. This allows for the organisation to ensure that their data is of higher quality than that of their competitors.
²Data integrity – data integrity is an advantage gained from the database approach and includes the data meeting all limitations placed upon the organisation.
²Data independence – data independence is another advantage gained by organisations using the database approach. Data independence means that the data and the applications used are independent of each other. This allows the data to be accessed by many different applications.
4.Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model.
A rational database is a collection of tables that stores information and data and can be accessed in many different ways but does not have to reorganise the tables used within the database.
The fundamental concepts of a rational database model are:
²‘Content: What data should be collected and at what costs?
²Access: What data should be provided to which users and when?
²Logical structure: How should data be arranged so that it makes sense to a given user?
²Physical organisation: Where should data be physically located?’ (Baltzan et al, 2010)
Relational database model. Source: Google.com
5.Describe the benefits of a data-driven website.
A data driven website uses databases to store information that is taken from users when using the internet and is constantly updated and uses the database to identify the customer’s needs.
The benefits of a data-driven website include:
²‘Development
²Content management
²Future expandability
²Minimising human error
²Cutting production and update costs
²More efficient
²Improved stability
²Real time information like stock levels and price changes.’ (Baltzan et al, 2010)
6.Describe the roles and purposes of data warehouses and data marts in an organization
A data mart is defined as the access level of a data warehouse. The data warehousing and data mart allow a business organisation to store a large amount of their data to be easily sorted, anaylsed and accessed by the organisation. This is useful for organisations as it allows them to make decisions without disturbing the activites wiithin the business organisation. Both the data warehousing and data marts are implemented to make it easier for organisations to make decisions.
