Total No. of Questions 08] [Total No. of Pages 03
EXECUTIVE M.B.A. DEGREE EXAMINATION, MAY 2018
First and Second Years
MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Time 3 Hours Maximum Marks :70
SECTION A
Answer any three questions. x 5 15)
Q1) Information resource management.
Systems design.
Accounting software.
Expert systems.
Structured decisions.
File management.
SECTION B
Answer any three questions. x 15 45)
Q2) Explain the pace of computerization in IFFCO.
Q3) Describe the organization of relational database management system.
Q4) What are the various considerations in the design of operating system?
Q5) What are the various functions of data communication software?
Q6) Describe H.A. Simons decision making process.
Q7) State the impact of nationalization on database storage and performance.
SECTION C
(Compulsory)
Q8) Case Study:
Sandal, shoe, and bootmaker Deckers Outdoor Corporation recently switched to
an Internet networking technology called Virtual Private Networks to
interconnect their global company.
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) use the power of the Internet instead of using
private telecommunications lines or other network links. A virtual private
network is a secure and encrypted connection between two points across the
Internet. It transfers information by encrypting and encapsulating
telecommunications traffic into packets and sending the packets over the
Internet. Most VPNs are built and run by Internet service providers. Companies
that go with a VPN from an Internet service provider essentially outsource their
networks to save money on having to acquire and manage their own wide area
network equipment and bandwidth requirements.
Deckers is a $100 million company whose 20-person office in Hoek Van
Holland, the Netherlands, collaborates on product development with its staff in
Goleta, California. The VPN cost roughly $31,000 to implement and saves
Deckers $10,000 per month compared with leasing their previous high-speed
network connections.
"We needed a network that would serve as the foundation for out international
expansion," says Steve Miley, MIS director at Deckers. "It will be critical…
because our offices will use it to make sure projects are done on time".
Employees at the two sites use the VPN to update the status of product
development projects through Lotus Notes groupware databases. The VPN
supports Notes' ability to replicate databases of project information at each work
site, which is crucial to groupware support of project team collaboration.
VPN performance "is slow but workable for interactive Notes database access",
Miley says. And as the quality of Internet service improves, VPN performance
can only improve, be adds.
Security, a reported shortcoming of virtual private networks, is improved with
NetFortress software from Fortress Technologies. It automatically changes
encryption keys every 24 hours. "We feel very secure with their products on out
network", he says.
Offices for production management in Hong Kong, Mexico, and Macao will be
added to the VPN this year, Miley says. Those sites currently use expensive
international telephone calls to access servers in Goleta. Desktop
videoconferencing over the VPN, to cut international travel costs, is also
planned.
Deckers doesn't mind being among the first to implement a virtual private
network. "VPNs are here to stay", Miley says. "And we're on the leading edge,
not the bleeding edge".
Questions:
What are the business benefits of Deckers' switch to a virtual private
network?
What can be done to overcome several limitations of virtual private
networks?
Does it make business sense for any company to use the internet as their
private telecommunications network? Why or why not?