E-Commerce Unit IV

UNIT IV
2 Marks
1. What is operational picture?
Managers and workers need to obtain information regarding their own situation,
including the customers, suppliers, and other department in the areas of interest and, of
course, the disposition of a competitor through market intelligence. The totality of the
information relevant to manager can be referred to as the operational picture.
2. What are the challenges faced by a companies in handling data?
The challenges are:
i. To pull together the technology for amassing operational information
ii. To maximize the utility of existing information to managers
3. What were/was expected to help improve a company’s competitive position in the
1990s to manage information overload?
a. Decision Support Systems(DSS)
b. Management Support Systems(MSS)
c. Visual Information Access and Analysis(VIAA)
d. Data/Information Warehouses
e. Structured Document and Imaging Databases
f. Executive Information Systems(EIS)
g. Business Intelligence Systems(BIS)
h. On-line Analytical Processing(OLAP)
i. Multidimensional databases(MDD)
4. Write the three key decision support trends
1. Digital information infrastructure consisting of documents and data.
2. Better utilization of information in strategic and operational decision making,
which involves effective on-line information search and retrieval in a
distributed environment.
3. Architecture for implementing decisions through workflow automation and
business process integration.
5. What is an “infosphere”?
Millions of transactions and oceans of multimedia data will flow through the network
every day. This creates an “infosphere”.
6. What are the two types of on-line transactions?
Two types of on-line transactions are:
i. On-line transaction processing(OLTP)
ii. On-line analytic processing(OLAP)
7. What are the two activities related to navigating the infosphere?
Navigating the infosphere involves two related activities:
i. Information search, discovery, and retrieval
ii. Presentation or visualization of the retrieved information
8. List few document management schemes
i. Ad hoc documents
ii. Process-specific documents
iii. Knowledge-oriented documents
9. Give some examples for Ad-hoc documents.
i. Letters
ii. Financial reports
iii. Manuals
10. Write about Process-specific documents
Some of the process specific documents are invoices and purchase orders. They
are typically created, constructed, and distributed by support personnel. These are often
forms-based: context and appearance undergo virtually no alteration and context varies
only slightly according to well-articulated rules.
11. What are Knowledge-oriented documents?
Knowledge-oriented documents encompass documentation, catalogs of product
information, and design documents.
12. What are User models?
User models are interposed between the user interface and information sources to
filter the available information according to the needs of the task and the user. These
models can be customized.
13. List the types of digital documents
· Document imaging
· Structured documents
· Hypertext documents
· Active documents
14. What are the steps involved in document oriented processes?
· Document creation
· Document media conversion
· Document production and distribution
· Document storage and retrieval
15. Write notes on document imaging.
Document imaging emulates microfiche and microfilm. An imaging system
passes a paper document through a scanner that renders it digital and then stores the
digital data as a bit-mapped image of the document. Keywords are used for indexing and
retrieval of document.
16. Write brief notes on hypertext documents.
Hypertext is a way of making document based information more mobile.
Relationships between documents can be represented through hypermedia links.
17. Write notes on active document.
Active documents (or compound documents) represent what is known as
document-oriented computing. Active documents provide an interactive interface where
all documents, applications, and data related to a particular task are assembled, arranged,
and interlinked in such a manner that the user can focus on the task at hand and be
shielded from nontask-related issues like access, storage, data formats, location,
computing, or delivery mechanisms.
18. Name the activities involved in document-based work flows
· Document modeling
· Transformation
· Synthesizing
· Business modeling
19. List the advantages of structured documents.
· Allows document formatting
· Documents can be edited, linked to graphics, video, photo etc.
· Easy to search and query documents.
20. Name the types of data warehouses.
· Physical data warehouse
· Logical data warehouse
· Data library
· Decision support systems
21. List the elements in building data warehouse
· Back end: Accessing and organizing data easily from disparate
sources.
· Preparing data for analysis: Querying, searching, and governing
the data.
· Front end: Providing means for effective analysis of the
information.
22. What are the advantages of data warehouses?
· Users can manage and access large volumes of information in
one cohesive framework.
· Managers can distribute information on a variety of platforms.
· Enables faster access and decision making.
· Increases flexibility.

16 Marks
1. Explain in detail the dimensions of internal electronic commerce systems.
Infosphere- complexity of data-technological architecture for internal commerce(figure)-
key areas-user modeling interaction-Effective utilization of information-Types of On-line
transactions-Navigating the infosphere-Electronic Brokerages and Work Flow
Automation
2. What is a document library? Explain in detail about business can be promoted to meet customer’s needs by improving document management support with an example.
Definiions-Challenges in an organization-Corporate digital library as a core of document
management (figure)-Digital document management-issues and concerns.
3. Explain the types of digital documents.
· Document imaging
· Structured documents
· Hypertext documents
· Active documents
4. Explain the elements in building data warehouse
· Back end: Accessing and organizing data easily from disparate
sources.
· Preparing data for analysis: Querying, searching, and governing
the data.
· Front end: Providing means for effective analysis of the
information.
5. Explain the issues behind document infrastructure.
· Document constituencies
· Document-oriented processes
· Document-based work flows