CIS 2200 – Spring 2017

IN ANOTHER DOCUMENT, PLEASE COMPLETE EACH QUESTION TO THE BEST OF YOUR

ABILITY. PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO ANY SPECIFICS MENTIONED IN THE QUESTION. THE NUMBER IN THE BRACKETS NEXT TO EACH QUESTION REPRESENTS THE NUMBER OF POINTS THAT THE QUESTION IS WORTH.

1. A 30 year old manufacturing company, operating across 12 countries, has an organizational structure where each country is considered a separate division whose managers have been responsible for establishing and maintaining their own departmental and technology infrastructure.
   1. Clearly identify the potential information systems’ issues (at least two) that would have arisen as a result of this organizational structure. (4)
   2. Discuss the benefits of re-engineering the organization so that a single Enterprise

Resource Planning (ERP) system exists at the “center” of the organization. (5)

1. Identify two risks associated with implementing an ERP system in an organization of this sort, and suggest the ways in which these risks can be minimized. (6)

2. Consider the hypothetical situation where CUNY’s board of directors has asked a Chief Information Officer to investigate the possibility of implementing big data analytics as a main part of the application processes of each college.
   1. What benefits can the university’s colleges gain from the use of big data analytics during admissions decisions? (5)
   2. Explain the potential negative consequences that might occur through the use of big data analytics, and discuss how “thick data” can be used to compensate for these issues. (10)
3. Consider the previous question – CUNY’s upper management are conducting a yearly review of admission data & the academic performance of that year’s admitted students. In the yearly review, management desires to conduct a longitudinal analysis of admission/ performance data over a 30 year period. In solving this requirement, what is the role of data visualization, and how can it lead to an effective and efficient analysis? (5)
4. Uber is widely considered to be a disruptive platform, having challenged the profitability of the incumbent “yellow cab” transport systems present in many of the markets into which it entered. Uber, Google, Tesla, and a myriad of other companies have been pouring a consider volume of resources into the development of self-driving car technology. Would a business that successfully develops affordable self-driving car technology be considered disruptive innovation? Justify your answer. (5)
5. The sharing economy is one of the world’s fastest “economies”. Companies such as Uber, Airbnb and Snapgoods are encountering massive amounts of success as early entrants into an economy that they could be credited with making.
   1. What are the factors making the sharing economy as successful as it currently is? (6)
   2. Discuss two ways in which the sharing economy has been enabled by the advancement of Internet-related technology. (6)