1. Define groupwork.
Groupwork is “work done by two or more people together.”
2. List five characteristics of groupwork.
The text gives the characteristics listed below. A correct answer can consist of any five:
• A group performs a task (sometimes decision making, sometimes not).
• Group members may be located in different places.
• Group members may work at different times.
• Group members may work for the same organization or for different organizations.
• A group can be permanent or temporary.
• A group can be at one managerial level or can span several levels.
• There can be synergy (leading to process and task gains) or conflict in groupwork.
• There can be gains and/or losses in productivity from groupwork.
• The task may have to be accomplished very quickly.
• It may be impossible or too expensive for all the team members to meet in one place, especially when the group is called for emergency purposes.
• Some of the needed data, information, or knowledge may be located in many sources, some of which may be external to the organization.
• The expertise of non-team members may be needed.
• Groups perform many tasks; however, groups of managers and analysts frequently concentrate on decision making.
• The decisions made by a group are easier to implement if supported by all (or at least most) group members.
3. Describe the process of a group meeting for decision making.
The text lists the items listed below as “activities and processes” that characterize meetings. One could argue that some of the items in the list are neither an activity nor a process, but more of a description, though that would be nit-picking. Other answers, that are more descriptive of the meeting process, can also be correct. If you have specific requirements in this regard, it might be well to state them.
• The decision situation is important, so it is advisable to make [that decision] in a group in a meeting.
• A meeting is a joint activity engaged in by a group of people typically of equal or nearly equal status.
• The outcome of a meeting depends partly on the knowledge, opinions, and judgments of its participants and the support they give to the outcome.
• The outcome of a meeting depends on the composition of the group and on the decision-making process the group uses.
• Differences in opinions are settled either by the ranking person present or, often, through negotiation or arbitration.
• The members of a group can be in one place, meeting face-to-face, or they can be a virtual team, in which case they are in different places while in a meeting.
• The process of group decision making can create benefits as well as dysfunctions.
4. Describe five potential gains of group meetings.
The text gives the ones listed below. A correct answer can consist of any five, or of others students may be able to find in other sources. (As a technicality, one could argue that the list in the text is for groupwork in general, which is subtly different from group meetings, but as a practical matter this list is what the question refers to.)
• It provides learning. Groups are better than individuals at understanding problems.
• People readily take ownership of problems and their solutions. They take responsibility.
• Group members have their egos embedded in the decision, so they are committed to the solution.
• Groups are better than individuals at catching errors.
• A group has more information (i.e., knowledge) than any one member. Group members can combine their knowledge to create new knowledge. More and more creative alternatives for problem solving can be generated, and better solutions can be derived (e.g., through stimulation).
• A group may produce synergy during problem solving. The effectiveness and/or quality of groupwork can be greater than the sum of what is produced by independent individuals.
• Working in a group may stimulate the creativity of the participants and the process.
• A group may have better and more precise communication working together.
• Risk propensity is balanced. Groups moderate high-risk takers and encourage conservatives.
5. Describe five potential losses of group meetings.
The text gives the ones listed below. A correct answer can consist of any five. (Also see note at the beginning of the previous answer.)
• Social pressures of conformity may result in groupthink (i.e., people begin to think alike and do not tolerate new ideas; they yield to conformance pressure).
• It is a time-consuming, slow process (i.e., only one member can speak at a time).
• There can be lack of coordination of the meeting and poor meeting planning.
• Inappropriate influences (e.g., domination of time, topic, or opinion by one or few individuals; fear of contributing because of the possibility of flaming).
• There can be a tendency for group members to either dominate the agenda or rely on others to do most of the work (free-riding).
• Some members may be afraid to speak up.
• There can be a tendency to produce compromised solutions of poor quality.
• There is often nonproductive time (e.g., socializing, preparing, waiting for latecomers—air-time fragmentation).
• There can be a tendency to repeat what was already said (because of failure to remember or process).
• There is a high cost of meeting (e.g., travel, participation).
• There can be incomplete or inappropriate use of information.
• There can be too much information (i.e., information overload).
• There can be incomplete or incorrect task analysis.
• There can be inappropriate or incomplete representation in the group.
• There can be attention blocking.
• There can be concentration blocking.
6. Why do we use computers to support groupwork?
Because it can help a group follow a process, save cost, expedite decisions, support virtual teams, improve access to external experts, and improve the decision-making process overall.
7. Describe the components of the time/place framework.
The two components of the time/place framework are time and place. Either can be the same or different. The four combinations that result (same time/place, same time/different place, different time/same place, different time/place) define the framework.
8. What limitations do computers have in terms of supporting groupwork?
They are not good at communicating non-verbal information such as body language, which may convey 50 percent or more of what we mean. This is improving via work-around such as “smilies” (more formally emoticons), increased use of video, and new technologies. They also do not do well at communicating language subtleties and cross-cultural concepts.
9. List the major groupware tools and divide them into synchronous and asynchronous types.
Synchronous (real-time) groupware tools include all the items discussed in the answers to Questions 2–4: audio teleconferencing, videoconferencing, data conferencing, Web conferencing, whiteboards, screen sharing and instant video.
Asynchronous groupware tools include blogs, wikis, discussion groups, autoresponders, workflow software, interactive portals, and online workspaces. Other asynchronous communication tools, such as e-mail, can be useful to groupwork but are not true “groupware.”
10. Describe the various types of electronic teleconferencing, including Web-based conferencing.
There are four types of electronic teleconferencing:
Audio teleconferencing, where multiple people in multiple locations talk to each other. This term is sometimes used synonymously with telephone conference call. (Some people make the distinction that a telephone conference call must involve at least three locations from the telephone carrier’s point of view, whereas an audio teleconference can use equipment such as speakerphones and microphones to connect multiple people in conference rooms in two locations.)
Video teleconferencing (videoconferencing), where data, pictures, graphics, and animation can be shared along with voice.
Data conferencing, where groups can work on documents and exchange computer files during a teleconference.
Web conferencing, where multiple people can view the same thing on their computer screens while interacting via audio or messaging.
11. Describe whiteboards and screen sharing.
Whiteboards are a type of groupware. Computer-based whiteboards work like real-world whiteboards with markers and erasers, except for one big difference: Instead of one person standing in front of a meeting room drawing on the whiteboard, all participants can join in.
Screen sharing software lets group members work on the same document, shown on each participant’s screen. For example, two people can collaborate on one manuscript or spreadsheet. Changes can be made by using the keyboard or by touching the screen.
12. Describe instant video.
Instant video is linking people via both voice and audio, using video cameras and audio conferencing.
This technology is evolving extremely rapidly, especially among people of college age and younger. The wait-and-see attitude of the book (“This idea is still in its early stages,” etc.) is already dated. Many of your students are surely using this technology regularly in their personal lives. Some laptops priced under US $1,100 as of November 2006 include built-in cameras for this purpose as standard equipment. Today’s students will expect it on the job as a matter of course.
13. Describe the online workspace.
An extension of screen sharing that “allow[s] people to share documents, files, project plans, calendars, and so on in the same online place, though not necessarily at the same time.”
14. Define integrated collaboration suite.
A software suite is a set of programs designed to work together. Microsoft Office is a familiar example.
The term “integrated” implies that the programs in the suite were designed from the start to work with each other, rather than being assembled for marketing purposes with little true integration, but this term has no precise definition.
“Collaboration” refers to the suite’s function, in this case to support collaborative groupwork.
The concept as a whole, then, is an integrated set of programs that work together to support different aspects of groupwork.
15. Describe Lotus/Domino and its major capabilities.
Lotus Notes and Domino provide collaborative document management capabilities enhanced with a wide range of features for editing, discussing, routing, and generally working with those documents, all in one environment with a graphical user interface.
16. Describe Microsoft’s collaboration products.
Microsoft’s two major collaboration products are NetMeeting and Live Meeting.
NetMeeting is a real-time collaboration package that includes whiteboarding (i.e., support of relatively free-form graphics to which all participants can contribute simultaneously), application sharing (of any Microsoft Windows application document), remote desktop sharing, file transfer, text chat, data conferencing, and desktop audio- and videoconferencing. (A NetMeeting client is included in the Windows operating system.)
Live Meeting is a hosted Web conferencing tool.
17. What is unique about Groove?
Its major unique feature is its peer-to-peer architecture, which eliminates the need for professionally managed servers.
Students may find other things they consider unique about Groove. One possibility, though it is not the intent of this question, is that it was developed by the same person (Ray Ozzie) who designed Lotus Notes. After Microsoft purchased Groove Networks, Ozzie rapidly took on significant executive responsibilities at his new, and much larger, firm.
18. Describe the process of renting a place for a virtual meeting, using companies such as WebEx.
One simply signs up for the service. It is not necessary to rent a physical place for the purpose.
19. Define GDSS and list the limitations of the initial GDSS software.
A GDSS is “an interactive computer-based system that facilitates the solution of semistructured and unstructured problems by a group of decision makers.” Its goal is “to improve the productivity of decision-making meetings, either by speeding up the decision-making process, by improving the quality of the resulting decisions, or both.”
The initial GDSS software had these three major limitations:
1. Its use was limited to face-to-face meetings.
2. Its use depended on a special “decision room” facility. This was expensive.
3. It was designed to support a single, clearly defined, narrow task.
20. Define GSS and list its benefits.
A group support system (GSS) is “any combination of hardware and software that enhances groupwork either in direct or indirect support of decision making. GSS is a generic term that includes all forms of collaborative computing”.
GSS benefits are improving the productivity and effectiveness of meetings by streamlining and speeding up the decision-making process (efficiency) and/or improving the quality of the decision (effectiveness). This is achieved by providing support for group members in generating and exchanging ideas, opinions and preferences, using specific features such as parallelism and anonymity.
The book provides a list of twelve GSS support activities. Students may be attracted to this list to answer this question. This would be incorrect, since activities are not benefits.
21. Define EMS.
An electronic meeting system (EMS) is a form of GSS that supports anytime/anyplace meetings. While there was once a clear distinction between the two concepts, today they are synonymous since all GSS support such meetings as well as desktop videoconferencing (which once served to distinguish EMS).
22. List the steps of organizing a GDSS session.
Step 1: Meet with the facilitator to plan the meeting, select the software tools, and develop an agenda
Step 2: Participants meet in the decision room (or other facility), where the leader poses the problem
Step 3: Participants brainstorm by typing ideas and comments on other ideas; results are displayed
Step 4: Facilitator organizes the ideas into categories; results are displayed
Step 5: Leader starts a verbal or electronic discussion of the categorized ideas; participants prioritize
Step 6: Top five or ten topics are sent on following discussion
Step 7: Next steps—voting, repeating the process, etc.—vary with the situation and requirements
23. List GroupSystems’ major products.
GroupSystems’ major products are MeetingRoom and OnLine.
(If you want more from your students than just the list asked for in the question, you may want to be specific as to your requirements for a correct answer.)
24. List some success factors of GDSS/GSS.
These can be organized into two groups: factors that influence the success of any information system and factors that are unique to GDSS/GSS (or are at least not general to all IS).
Factors that affect the success of any information system, which you students may have studied in other courses, include organizational commitment, an executive sponsor or “champion,” an operating sponsor, user involvement and training, a user-friendly (the text uses “user-seductive” here) interface, and so on.
Factors that are unique to GDSS/GSS include a collaborative organizational culture, a well-trained and personable facilitator, having the right tools for the organization’s groupwork, supporting parallelism and anonymity, good planning, and demonstrable cost savings.
25. How can a company create a collaborative culture?
Through the three steps outlined and described further:
• Know what you want, and get the team to agree on that
• Determine resource constraints: the situation within which participants must collaborate
• Determine what technologies can be used to overcome these constraints
26. List three implementation issues of GDSS/GSS.
• The need to connect to business partners
• The need to connect collaborative tools to file and database management software
• Automatic language translation, where a team does not have a common language
• The need for a standard protocol to integrate new applications and for communication
27. Describe VoIP and its advantages.
VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, uses the Internet to transmit digitized sound waves representing a voice conversation. It can use the microphones and speakers that are built in to many computers (though that presents the possibility of annoying feedback from speaker to microphone) or specialized headsets or handsets that plug into a computer’s audio in and out ports. Some commercial firms use VoIP to provide inexpensive telephony services to consumers and businesses, but other applications of the technology simply let users of two computers talk to each other.
The benefit of VoIP over regular telephone conversations is that, since it uses the free Internet, it is more economical than a telephone for many types of calls. It is also convenient when users are already at their computers and online.
Computer software can provide call management features that surpass those of most telephone carriers. The text lists these benefits, originally from a Siemens Communications ad.
For businesses:
• Allows CIOs to explore different deployment options for company’s communications needs
• Lowers total cost of ownership through voice/data convergence
• Lowers operational costs through use of integrated applications
• Reduces hardware requirements on the server side for certain applications (e.g., VoIP)
• Provides a holistic approach to security, enhanced by encryption and identity management
• Helps streamline workflows by empowering companies to communications-enable different business processes
• Enables optimized conferencing tools to replace business travel
For users:
• Eliminates unwanted interruptions and unproductive actions by intelligently filtering communications
• Provides access to real-time presence information, which helps decisions get made faster
• Initiates ad hoc conferencing/collaboration sessions without the need to prearrange separate audio- or videoconferencing bridges
• Enables participation in conferencing sessions quickly and easily via a variety of mobile devices
28. Define collaborative workflow.
Collaborative workflow refers to software products that address project-oriented and collaborative processes. They are administered centrally yet are capable of being accessed and used by workers from different departments and even from different physical locations. The goal of these tools is to empower knowledge workers by allowing workers to communicate, negotiate, and collaborate within an integrated environment.
29. Define wiki and wikilog.
A wiki is a Web site in which users can freely create and edit content, using any Web browser, via special server-based software. A wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross-links between internal pages on-the-fly. It is especially suited for collaborative writing. (The word “wiki” means “quick” in Hawaiian.)
A wikilog (or wikiblog, also known as a bliki) is essentially a blog that allows everyone to participate as a peer (a combination of wiki and blog). Anyone may add, delete, or change content. It is like a loose-leaf notebook with a pencil and eraser left in a public place. Anyone can read it, scrawl notes, tear out a page, and so on. Creating a wikilog is a collaborative process. Information in it can be changed or deleted by anyone (though many wikis preserve previous copies of posted contributions in the background). Articles added to a wiki are at the editorial mercy of its other participants.
30. Define collaborative hub.
A collaboration hub is used by members of a B2B supply chain to improve effectiveness among manufacturing companies, their suppliers, and contract producers by reducing inventory, improving flexibility, and increasing supply-chain transparency through the Internet.
31. Define corporate (enterprise) portal.
A corporate (enterprise) portal is a gateway to a corporate Web site that enables communication, collaboration, and access to company information. It is a personalized, single point of access via a Web browser to business information located inside and outside an organization. In contrast with commercial portals such as Yahoo! and MSN, corporate portals provide a single point of access to information and applications available in a specific organization.
32. Define CPFR and describe its process.
CFPR stands for Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment. This is an industry-wide project in which suppliers and retailers, often driven by one major player in that industry, agree to collaborate in planning and demand forecasting. The purpose is to ensure that members of a supply chain will have the raw materials and finished goods they need when they need them.
33. Define VMI.
VMI (vendor-managed inventory) allows retailers to make suppliers responsible for determining when to order and how much to order. The retailer provides the supplier with real-time information (e.g., point-of-sale data), inventory levels, and a threshold below which orders are to be replenished. The supplier ships what the retailer needs, when the retailer needs it.
34. Describe the benefits of collaboration to project management.
Any project too large to be completed by one person requires collaboration of some type. Any tools that improve collaboration, such as those described in this chapter, will help the project. The specific benefits will depend on the nature of the project and of the tool.
35. Define creativity.
“The human trait that leads to the production of acts, items, and instances of novelty.”
“The use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work” (Oxford American Dictionary)
“A mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas and concepts” (Wikipedia)
“The quality or ability to create or invent something; originality” (Wiktionary)
Students may find other, equally correct, definitions.
36. Relate creativity to collaboration and problem solving.
Creativity relates to problem solving because the second stage of problem solving involves generating alternatives. Creativity generates of more, often better, alternatives to choose from.
The connection between collaboration and creativity is in the other direction. Creativity does not enhance collaboration; collaboration enhances creativity. When two or more people try to generate ideas together, they often stimulate each other to generate ideas that they would never have generated working individually for the same amount of time.
37. List software categories of creativity enhancement.
Other than electronic brainstorming, which helps human beings produce creative results, there are two major software categories for creativity enhancement. One category includes software that exhibits creative behavior on its own (see next question). The other is software that facilitates human creativity, often by overcoming factors that block it.
38. Describe software programs that exhibit intelligent behavior.
There is a definitional issue here: does “exhibit intelligent behavior” mean that the behavior must be intelligent, whatever that means, or that it must be a behavior which, if we saw it in biological creatures, we would consider intelligent? The first option raises too many philosophical issues to attempt an answer here. We will therefore assume the second.
The field of artificial intelligence is devoted to applications whose behavior, if were we to see it in a person, would be considered “intelligent.” Software in this field includes expert systems, natural language interpretation, speech recognition (not the same thing), robotics (beyond pre-programmed mechanical actuators) and more. One example is the DARPA challenge to designers of automated cars. The problem of driving across a desert, avoiding natural obstacles en route to a stated objective, was solved in 2006; they have moved on to driving in traffic.
The text does not describe AI in this way. Instead, it notes that intelligence is often characterized by creativity. It then goes on to describe computer programs that exhibit that. If you prefer that interpretation of this question, you might want to make that clear to your students.
39. How does groupware attain its primary objective?
It obtains its primary objective by supporting groups doing their work, ideally in a comprehensive way.
40. What is nonverbal communication? Explain why it is important in human-to-human interaction. What methods are currently being used to incorporate nonverbal communication into collaborative computing?
Nonverbal communication includes body positioning and actions, voice inflections, eye motion, and so on. It is important because over 50 percent (some social scientists say 70 percent) of human communication occurs through nonverbal means. Nonverbal communication is enabled in collaborative computing through such features as Web cams and streaming video.
41. Explain why it is useful to describe groupwork in terms of the time/place framework.
Because the type of information system needed to support the groupwork depends on where the work is in terms of this framework.
42. Describe the kinds of support that groupware can provide to decision makers.
The support can be divided into three categories:
General (can be either synchronous or asynchronous)
• Built-in e-mail, messaging system
• Browser interface
• Joint Web-page creation
• Sharing of active hyperlinks
• File sharing (graphics, video, audio, or other)
• Built-in search functions (by topic or keyword)
• Workflow tools
• Use of corporate portals for communication, collaboration, and search
• Shared screens
• Electronic decision rooms
• Peer-to-peer networks
Synchronous (same-time)
• Instant messaging (IM)
• Videoconferencing, multimedia conferencing
• Audio conferencing
• Shared whiteboard, smart whiteboard
• Instant video
• Brainstorming
• Polling (voting), and other decision support (consensus builder, scheduler)
Asynchronous (different times)
• Workspaces
• Threaded discussions
• Users can receive/send e-mail, SMS
• Users can receive activity notification alerts, via e-mail or SMS
• Users can collapse/expand discussion threads
• Users can sort messages (by date, author, or read/unread)
• Auto responder
• Chat session logs
• Bulletin boards, discussion groups
• Use of blogs, wikis, and wikilogs
• Collaborative planning and/or design tools
• Use of bulletin boards
43. Compare GDSS and noncomputerized group decision making.
GDSS provide many benefits. One potential problem, that a group might feel less cohesive due to the technology, was proven false at least in one experiment using four meetings over a four-week time period. GDSS let people work faster and tends to get better results.
44. Explain why meetings can be so inefficient. Given this, explain how effective meetings can be run.
Almost all of the reasons involve people. Some don't take meetings seriously. Other issues are that a large amount (perhaps as high as 90 percent) of the information discussed at a meeting is either not remembered or remembered incorrectly. (This might make you wonder why we teach classes in an essentially meeting manner!) This could become an open-ended answer if you let the students describe their meeting experiences.
How can effective meetings be run? Some items that might be included are: have an agenda, keep to the subject, record the minutes of each meeting, send out a meeting notice, and to ask meeting participants to summarize results.
45. Explain how GDSS can increase some of the benefits of collaboration and decision making in groups and eliminate or reduce some of the losses.
GDSS provides support to reduce the negative effects of group decision making and increase the positive effects. For example, anonymity means more equal participation, whereas parallelism saves time. By moving quickly, people get the urge to contribute. There might be less free-riding. There are many more benefits.
46. The original term for group support system (GSS) was group decision support system (GDSS).Why was the word decision dropped? Does this make sense? Why or why not?
Because GSS can help even when there is no decision to be made. For instance, it can help group members communicate. Many meetings are not held to make a formal decision. Researchers noticed this and changed the name of the technology to reflect reality.
47. Discuss how parallelism and anonymity can produce improvements in group processes.
Parallelism allows everyone at a meeting to contribute simultaneously. This can substantially cut down on idea generation time. For example, 10 people contributing for 10 minutes each in a traditional meeting would take 100 minutes. In a GSS, parallelism cuts this down to 10 minutes. (Total meeting time is not reduced in the same ratio, since the time it takes the group to evaluate the ideas that were generated remains the same, but time savings are still substantial.)
Anonymity allows shy people to contribute. It also levels the playing field. Rank in an organization has no effect. Also, assertive (“pushy”) people do not take over the meeting as much.
48. Describe the three technologies through which GSS is deployed. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
The three options for deploying GSS technology are: (1) a special-purpose decision room; (2) a multiple-use facility; and (3) Web-based groupware running wherever the group members are.
Advantages and disadvantages include:
Special-purpose decision room
Advantages: meets the need for face-to-face communication at meetings; can double as videoconference room; provides a pleasant environment; secure because software runs locally on a LAN.
Disadvantages: expensive to construct and use; limited to same time/same place meetings.
Multiple-use facility
Advantages: provides many of the decision room benefits and doubles as a computer lab or for a similar use.
Disadvantages: again, limited to same time/same place meetings.
Web-based groupware
Advantages: provides group support for anytime/anyplace meetings; can be used in the office, at home, or on the road; relatively inexpensive to develop and use; anonymity maximized, which might be especially desirable in a distance learning environment.
Disadvantages: there are problems with facilitation and the isolation of participants (people like to know with whom they are working), a facilitator is still needed; new methods must be developed for managing meetings.
49. Explain in detail what creativity is and how it relates to decision support.
Creativity is a complex concept to define formally, but very easy to know when you see it. Formally, creativity may be defined either as a trait or achievement. As a trait, creativity is a dispositional variable characteristic of a person, leading to the production of acts, items, and instances of novelty. As an achievement, we refer to the creative product, e.g., the output of a process, like the “quality” of the ideas generated in an electronic brainstorming session.
Creativity relates to decision support because the second stage of decision making involves generating alternatives. While these are in some cases obvious (a factory is to produce a certain number of product A and product B, the decision is the number of each) in other cases they are less so. Creativity enables the generation of more, and often better, alternatives to choose from.
50. Explain how GSS can support creativity.
The best way (so far) is through idea generation support, either by directly using a GSS with others, or with a random idea generator, or with an intelligent agent acting as a facilitator.
51. Explain how idea generation (i.e., electronic brainstorming) works.
Electronic brainstorming gathers ideas and comments in an unstructured manner. Groups work rapidly in generating a free flow of ideas. Participants contribute simultaneously (parallelism) and anonymously. The brainstorming software can assist them by presenting a random selection of other participants’ ideas, by presenting random words to encourage free association, by offering suggestions on ways in which previous ideas could be modified, and more.
52. Can computers be creative? Why or why not? Discuss.
This is an open-ended, philosophical question. Computers running certain AI programs can produce creative output in the sense that the developers of those programs could not have foreseen. In that sense, yes, they can be creative. (Whether or not their creativity involves anything we might call “thinking” is a separate—and even more philosophical—question, which this IM will not attempt to answer.)
53. Discuss the benefits of CPFR to retailers and suppliers.
For the retailer, collaborative forecasting means fewer out-of-stocks and resultant lost sales and less stored inventory. For the manufacturer (supplier), collaborative forecasting means fewer expedited shipments, optimal inventory levels, and optimally sized production runs.
54. Discuss the improvements to supply-chain management that result from using CPFR and VMI.
These and similar approaches, under the overall term “collaborative planning,” can synchronize production and distribution plans and product flows, optimize resource utilization over an expanded capacity base, increase customer responsiveness, and reduce inventories.
55. Explain the potential benefits of wikis to a director of marketing.
This is an open-ended question, as there are many possible benefits.
One benefit is in the area of developing a marketing plan. Through use of a wiki, people can draft sections within their own specialties, comment on and perhaps alter other sections, contribute according to their own skills (a copywriter might come up with creative slogans, a copy editor might fix their grammar) and more. The net result is a better plan, arrived at more quickly, compared to what could be achieved without the wiki.
Other areas where the marketing function could use a wiki effectively include all areas where collaborative writing is called for: marketing communications, competitive analysis and more.
56. Discuss the benefits of collaborative design.
The design of anything more complex than a doghouse usually requires the skills of more than one person; in other words (or word), collaboration. Collaborative design allows each person to contribute to part of the project and for that person’s contributions to be integrated with the others to create the overall design.
While collaborative design as a concept is ancient, and its benefits have been understood for centuries, the use of information technology to facilitate it is new. For example, the wing box for the Boeing 787 was designed in Japan while the fuselage was designed in the United States. Collaborative design tools made this practical without an inordinate (and inordinately expensive) number of physical meetings between the two design groups.
57. Relate CPFR to decision support.
CPFR relates to decision support because the ordering and replenishment decisions involved were previously made individually by people. With the CPFR approach, people make policy decisions instead. Information systems then follow those policies in making programmed operational decisions.
Groupwork is “work done by two or more people together.”
2. List five characteristics of groupwork.
The text gives the characteristics listed below. A correct answer can consist of any five:
• A group performs a task (sometimes decision making, sometimes not).
• Group members may be located in different places.
• Group members may work at different times.
• Group members may work for the same organization or for different organizations.
• A group can be permanent or temporary.
• A group can be at one managerial level or can span several levels.
• There can be synergy (leading to process and task gains) or conflict in groupwork.
• There can be gains and/or losses in productivity from groupwork.
• The task may have to be accomplished very quickly.
• It may be impossible or too expensive for all the team members to meet in one place, especially when the group is called for emergency purposes.
• Some of the needed data, information, or knowledge may be located in many sources, some of which may be external to the organization.
• The expertise of non-team members may be needed.
• Groups perform many tasks; however, groups of managers and analysts frequently concentrate on decision making.
• The decisions made by a group are easier to implement if supported by all (or at least most) group members.
3. Describe the process of a group meeting for decision making.
The text lists the items listed below as “activities and processes” that characterize meetings. One could argue that some of the items in the list are neither an activity nor a process, but more of a description, though that would be nit-picking. Other answers, that are more descriptive of the meeting process, can also be correct. If you have specific requirements in this regard, it might be well to state them.
• The decision situation is important, so it is advisable to make [that decision] in a group in a meeting.
• A meeting is a joint activity engaged in by a group of people typically of equal or nearly equal status.
• The outcome of a meeting depends partly on the knowledge, opinions, and judgments of its participants and the support they give to the outcome.
• The outcome of a meeting depends on the composition of the group and on the decision-making process the group uses.
• Differences in opinions are settled either by the ranking person present or, often, through negotiation or arbitration.
• The members of a group can be in one place, meeting face-to-face, or they can be a virtual team, in which case they are in different places while in a meeting.
• The process of group decision making can create benefits as well as dysfunctions.
4. Describe five potential gains of group meetings.
The text gives the ones listed below. A correct answer can consist of any five, or of others students may be able to find in other sources. (As a technicality, one could argue that the list in the text is for groupwork in general, which is subtly different from group meetings, but as a practical matter this list is what the question refers to.)
• It provides learning. Groups are better than individuals at understanding problems.
• People readily take ownership of problems and their solutions. They take responsibility.
• Group members have their egos embedded in the decision, so they are committed to the solution.
• Groups are better than individuals at catching errors.
• A group has more information (i.e., knowledge) than any one member. Group members can combine their knowledge to create new knowledge. More and more creative alternatives for problem solving can be generated, and better solutions can be derived (e.g., through stimulation).
• A group may produce synergy during problem solving. The effectiveness and/or quality of groupwork can be greater than the sum of what is produced by independent individuals.
• Working in a group may stimulate the creativity of the participants and the process.
• A group may have better and more precise communication working together.
• Risk propensity is balanced. Groups moderate high-risk takers and encourage conservatives.
5. Describe five potential losses of group meetings.
The text gives the ones listed below. A correct answer can consist of any five. (Also see note at the beginning of the previous answer.)
• Social pressures of conformity may result in groupthink (i.e., people begin to think alike and do not tolerate new ideas; they yield to conformance pressure).
• It is a time-consuming, slow process (i.e., only one member can speak at a time).
• There can be lack of coordination of the meeting and poor meeting planning.
• Inappropriate influences (e.g., domination of time, topic, or opinion by one or few individuals; fear of contributing because of the possibility of flaming).
• There can be a tendency for group members to either dominate the agenda or rely on others to do most of the work (free-riding).
• Some members may be afraid to speak up.
• There can be a tendency to produce compromised solutions of poor quality.
• There is often nonproductive time (e.g., socializing, preparing, waiting for latecomers—air-time fragmentation).
• There can be a tendency to repeat what was already said (because of failure to remember or process).
• There is a high cost of meeting (e.g., travel, participation).
• There can be incomplete or inappropriate use of information.
• There can be too much information (i.e., information overload).
• There can be incomplete or incorrect task analysis.
• There can be inappropriate or incomplete representation in the group.
• There can be attention blocking.
• There can be concentration blocking.
6. Why do we use computers to support groupwork?
Because it can help a group follow a process, save cost, expedite decisions, support virtual teams, improve access to external experts, and improve the decision-making process overall.
7. Describe the components of the time/place framework.
The two components of the time/place framework are time and place. Either can be the same or different. The four combinations that result (same time/place, same time/different place, different time/same place, different time/place) define the framework.
8. What limitations do computers have in terms of supporting groupwork?
They are not good at communicating non-verbal information such as body language, which may convey 50 percent or more of what we mean. This is improving via work-around such as “smilies” (more formally emoticons), increased use of video, and new technologies. They also do not do well at communicating language subtleties and cross-cultural concepts.
9. List the major groupware tools and divide them into synchronous and asynchronous types.
Synchronous (real-time) groupware tools include all the items discussed in the answers to Questions 2–4: audio teleconferencing, videoconferencing, data conferencing, Web conferencing, whiteboards, screen sharing and instant video.
Asynchronous groupware tools include blogs, wikis, discussion groups, autoresponders, workflow software, interactive portals, and online workspaces. Other asynchronous communication tools, such as e-mail, can be useful to groupwork but are not true “groupware.”
10. Describe the various types of electronic teleconferencing, including Web-based conferencing.
There are four types of electronic teleconferencing:
Audio teleconferencing, where multiple people in multiple locations talk to each other. This term is sometimes used synonymously with telephone conference call. (Some people make the distinction that a telephone conference call must involve at least three locations from the telephone carrier’s point of view, whereas an audio teleconference can use equipment such as speakerphones and microphones to connect multiple people in conference rooms in two locations.)
Video teleconferencing (videoconferencing), where data, pictures, graphics, and animation can be shared along with voice.
Data conferencing, where groups can work on documents and exchange computer files during a teleconference.
Web conferencing, where multiple people can view the same thing on their computer screens while interacting via audio or messaging.
11. Describe whiteboards and screen sharing.
Whiteboards are a type of groupware. Computer-based whiteboards work like real-world whiteboards with markers and erasers, except for one big difference: Instead of one person standing in front of a meeting room drawing on the whiteboard, all participants can join in.
Screen sharing software lets group members work on the same document, shown on each participant’s screen. For example, two people can collaborate on one manuscript or spreadsheet. Changes can be made by using the keyboard or by touching the screen.
12. Describe instant video.
Instant video is linking people via both voice and audio, using video cameras and audio conferencing.
This technology is evolving extremely rapidly, especially among people of college age and younger. The wait-and-see attitude of the book (“This idea is still in its early stages,” etc.) is already dated. Many of your students are surely using this technology regularly in their personal lives. Some laptops priced under US $1,100 as of November 2006 include built-in cameras for this purpose as standard equipment. Today’s students will expect it on the job as a matter of course.
13. Describe the online workspace.
An extension of screen sharing that “allow[s] people to share documents, files, project plans, calendars, and so on in the same online place, though not necessarily at the same time.”
14. Define integrated collaboration suite.
A software suite is a set of programs designed to work together. Microsoft Office is a familiar example.
The term “integrated” implies that the programs in the suite were designed from the start to work with each other, rather than being assembled for marketing purposes with little true integration, but this term has no precise definition.
“Collaboration” refers to the suite’s function, in this case to support collaborative groupwork.
The concept as a whole, then, is an integrated set of programs that work together to support different aspects of groupwork.
15. Describe Lotus/Domino and its major capabilities.
Lotus Notes and Domino provide collaborative document management capabilities enhanced with a wide range of features for editing, discussing, routing, and generally working with those documents, all in one environment with a graphical user interface.
16. Describe Microsoft’s collaboration products.
Microsoft’s two major collaboration products are NetMeeting and Live Meeting.
NetMeeting is a real-time collaboration package that includes whiteboarding (i.e., support of relatively free-form graphics to which all participants can contribute simultaneously), application sharing (of any Microsoft Windows application document), remote desktop sharing, file transfer, text chat, data conferencing, and desktop audio- and videoconferencing. (A NetMeeting client is included in the Windows operating system.)
Live Meeting is a hosted Web conferencing tool.
17. What is unique about Groove?
Its major unique feature is its peer-to-peer architecture, which eliminates the need for professionally managed servers.
Students may find other things they consider unique about Groove. One possibility, though it is not the intent of this question, is that it was developed by the same person (Ray Ozzie) who designed Lotus Notes. After Microsoft purchased Groove Networks, Ozzie rapidly took on significant executive responsibilities at his new, and much larger, firm.
18. Describe the process of renting a place for a virtual meeting, using companies such as WebEx.
One simply signs up for the service. It is not necessary to rent a physical place for the purpose.
19. Define GDSS and list the limitations of the initial GDSS software.
A GDSS is “an interactive computer-based system that facilitates the solution of semistructured and unstructured problems by a group of decision makers.” Its goal is “to improve the productivity of decision-making meetings, either by speeding up the decision-making process, by improving the quality of the resulting decisions, or both.”
The initial GDSS software had these three major limitations:
1. Its use was limited to face-to-face meetings.
2. Its use depended on a special “decision room” facility. This was expensive.
3. It was designed to support a single, clearly defined, narrow task.
20. Define GSS and list its benefits.
A group support system (GSS) is “any combination of hardware and software that enhances groupwork either in direct or indirect support of decision making. GSS is a generic term that includes all forms of collaborative computing”.
GSS benefits are improving the productivity and effectiveness of meetings by streamlining and speeding up the decision-making process (efficiency) and/or improving the quality of the decision (effectiveness). This is achieved by providing support for group members in generating and exchanging ideas, opinions and preferences, using specific features such as parallelism and anonymity.
The book provides a list of twelve GSS support activities. Students may be attracted to this list to answer this question. This would be incorrect, since activities are not benefits.
21. Define EMS.
An electronic meeting system (EMS) is a form of GSS that supports anytime/anyplace meetings. While there was once a clear distinction between the two concepts, today they are synonymous since all GSS support such meetings as well as desktop videoconferencing (which once served to distinguish EMS).
22. List the steps of organizing a GDSS session.
Step 1: Meet with the facilitator to plan the meeting, select the software tools, and develop an agenda
Step 2: Participants meet in the decision room (or other facility), where the leader poses the problem
Step 3: Participants brainstorm by typing ideas and comments on other ideas; results are displayed
Step 4: Facilitator organizes the ideas into categories; results are displayed
Step 5: Leader starts a verbal or electronic discussion of the categorized ideas; participants prioritize
Step 6: Top five or ten topics are sent on following discussion
Step 7: Next steps—voting, repeating the process, etc.—vary with the situation and requirements
23. List GroupSystems’ major products.
GroupSystems’ major products are MeetingRoom and OnLine.
(If you want more from your students than just the list asked for in the question, you may want to be specific as to your requirements for a correct answer.)
24. List some success factors of GDSS/GSS.
These can be organized into two groups: factors that influence the success of any information system and factors that are unique to GDSS/GSS (or are at least not general to all IS).
Factors that affect the success of any information system, which you students may have studied in other courses, include organizational commitment, an executive sponsor or “champion,” an operating sponsor, user involvement and training, a user-friendly (the text uses “user-seductive” here) interface, and so on.
Factors that are unique to GDSS/GSS include a collaborative organizational culture, a well-trained and personable facilitator, having the right tools for the organization’s groupwork, supporting parallelism and anonymity, good planning, and demonstrable cost savings.
25. How can a company create a collaborative culture?
Through the three steps outlined and described further:
• Know what you want, and get the team to agree on that
• Determine resource constraints: the situation within which participants must collaborate
• Determine what technologies can be used to overcome these constraints
26. List three implementation issues of GDSS/GSS.
• The need to connect to business partners
• The need to connect collaborative tools to file and database management software
• Automatic language translation, where a team does not have a common language
• The need for a standard protocol to integrate new applications and for communication
27. Describe VoIP and its advantages.
VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, uses the Internet to transmit digitized sound waves representing a voice conversation. It can use the microphones and speakers that are built in to many computers (though that presents the possibility of annoying feedback from speaker to microphone) or specialized headsets or handsets that plug into a computer’s audio in and out ports. Some commercial firms use VoIP to provide inexpensive telephony services to consumers and businesses, but other applications of the technology simply let users of two computers talk to each other.
The benefit of VoIP over regular telephone conversations is that, since it uses the free Internet, it is more economical than a telephone for many types of calls. It is also convenient when users are already at their computers and online.
Computer software can provide call management features that surpass those of most telephone carriers. The text lists these benefits, originally from a Siemens Communications ad.
For businesses:
• Allows CIOs to explore different deployment options for company’s communications needs
• Lowers total cost of ownership through voice/data convergence
• Lowers operational costs through use of integrated applications
• Reduces hardware requirements on the server side for certain applications (e.g., VoIP)
• Provides a holistic approach to security, enhanced by encryption and identity management
• Helps streamline workflows by empowering companies to communications-enable different business processes
• Enables optimized conferencing tools to replace business travel
For users:
• Eliminates unwanted interruptions and unproductive actions by intelligently filtering communications
• Provides access to real-time presence information, which helps decisions get made faster
• Initiates ad hoc conferencing/collaboration sessions without the need to prearrange separate audio- or videoconferencing bridges
• Enables participation in conferencing sessions quickly and easily via a variety of mobile devices
28. Define collaborative workflow.
Collaborative workflow refers to software products that address project-oriented and collaborative processes. They are administered centrally yet are capable of being accessed and used by workers from different departments and even from different physical locations. The goal of these tools is to empower knowledge workers by allowing workers to communicate, negotiate, and collaborate within an integrated environment.
29. Define wiki and wikilog.
A wiki is a Web site in which users can freely create and edit content, using any Web browser, via special server-based software. A wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and cross-links between internal pages on-the-fly. It is especially suited for collaborative writing. (The word “wiki” means “quick” in Hawaiian.)
A wikilog (or wikiblog, also known as a bliki) is essentially a blog that allows everyone to participate as a peer (a combination of wiki and blog). Anyone may add, delete, or change content. It is like a loose-leaf notebook with a pencil and eraser left in a public place. Anyone can read it, scrawl notes, tear out a page, and so on. Creating a wikilog is a collaborative process. Information in it can be changed or deleted by anyone (though many wikis preserve previous copies of posted contributions in the background). Articles added to a wiki are at the editorial mercy of its other participants.
30. Define collaborative hub.
A collaboration hub is used by members of a B2B supply chain to improve effectiveness among manufacturing companies, their suppliers, and contract producers by reducing inventory, improving flexibility, and increasing supply-chain transparency through the Internet.
31. Define corporate (enterprise) portal.
A corporate (enterprise) portal is a gateway to a corporate Web site that enables communication, collaboration, and access to company information. It is a personalized, single point of access via a Web browser to business information located inside and outside an organization. In contrast with commercial portals such as Yahoo! and MSN, corporate portals provide a single point of access to information and applications available in a specific organization.
32. Define CPFR and describe its process.
CFPR stands for Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment. This is an industry-wide project in which suppliers and retailers, often driven by one major player in that industry, agree to collaborate in planning and demand forecasting. The purpose is to ensure that members of a supply chain will have the raw materials and finished goods they need when they need them.
33. Define VMI.
VMI (vendor-managed inventory) allows retailers to make suppliers responsible for determining when to order and how much to order. The retailer provides the supplier with real-time information (e.g., point-of-sale data), inventory levels, and a threshold below which orders are to be replenished. The supplier ships what the retailer needs, when the retailer needs it.
34. Describe the benefits of collaboration to project management.
Any project too large to be completed by one person requires collaboration of some type. Any tools that improve collaboration, such as those described in this chapter, will help the project. The specific benefits will depend on the nature of the project and of the tool.
35. Define creativity.
“The human trait that leads to the production of acts, items, and instances of novelty.”
“The use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work” (Oxford American Dictionary)
“A mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new associations between existing ideas and concepts” (Wikipedia)
“The quality or ability to create or invent something; originality” (Wiktionary)
Students may find other, equally correct, definitions.
36. Relate creativity to collaboration and problem solving.
Creativity relates to problem solving because the second stage of problem solving involves generating alternatives. Creativity generates of more, often better, alternatives to choose from.
The connection between collaboration and creativity is in the other direction. Creativity does not enhance collaboration; collaboration enhances creativity. When two or more people try to generate ideas together, they often stimulate each other to generate ideas that they would never have generated working individually for the same amount of time.
37. List software categories of creativity enhancement.
Other than electronic brainstorming, which helps human beings produce creative results, there are two major software categories for creativity enhancement. One category includes software that exhibits creative behavior on its own (see next question). The other is software that facilitates human creativity, often by overcoming factors that block it.
38. Describe software programs that exhibit intelligent behavior.
There is a definitional issue here: does “exhibit intelligent behavior” mean that the behavior must be intelligent, whatever that means, or that it must be a behavior which, if we saw it in biological creatures, we would consider intelligent? The first option raises too many philosophical issues to attempt an answer here. We will therefore assume the second.
The field of artificial intelligence is devoted to applications whose behavior, if were we to see it in a person, would be considered “intelligent.” Software in this field includes expert systems, natural language interpretation, speech recognition (not the same thing), robotics (beyond pre-programmed mechanical actuators) and more. One example is the DARPA challenge to designers of automated cars. The problem of driving across a desert, avoiding natural obstacles en route to a stated objective, was solved in 2006; they have moved on to driving in traffic.
The text does not describe AI in this way. Instead, it notes that intelligence is often characterized by creativity. It then goes on to describe computer programs that exhibit that. If you prefer that interpretation of this question, you might want to make that clear to your students.
39. How does groupware attain its primary objective?
It obtains its primary objective by supporting groups doing their work, ideally in a comprehensive way.
40. What is nonverbal communication? Explain why it is important in human-to-human interaction. What methods are currently being used to incorporate nonverbal communication into collaborative computing?
Nonverbal communication includes body positioning and actions, voice inflections, eye motion, and so on. It is important because over 50 percent (some social scientists say 70 percent) of human communication occurs through nonverbal means. Nonverbal communication is enabled in collaborative computing through such features as Web cams and streaming video.
41. Explain why it is useful to describe groupwork in terms of the time/place framework.
Because the type of information system needed to support the groupwork depends on where the work is in terms of this framework.
42. Describe the kinds of support that groupware can provide to decision makers.
The support can be divided into three categories:
General (can be either synchronous or asynchronous)
• Built-in e-mail, messaging system
• Browser interface
• Joint Web-page creation
• Sharing of active hyperlinks
• File sharing (graphics, video, audio, or other)
• Built-in search functions (by topic or keyword)
• Workflow tools
• Use of corporate portals for communication, collaboration, and search
• Shared screens
• Electronic decision rooms
• Peer-to-peer networks
Synchronous (same-time)
• Instant messaging (IM)
• Videoconferencing, multimedia conferencing
• Audio conferencing
• Shared whiteboard, smart whiteboard
• Instant video
• Brainstorming
• Polling (voting), and other decision support (consensus builder, scheduler)
Asynchronous (different times)
• Workspaces
• Threaded discussions
• Users can receive/send e-mail, SMS
• Users can receive activity notification alerts, via e-mail or SMS
• Users can collapse/expand discussion threads
• Users can sort messages (by date, author, or read/unread)
• Auto responder
• Chat session logs
• Bulletin boards, discussion groups
• Use of blogs, wikis, and wikilogs
• Collaborative planning and/or design tools
• Use of bulletin boards
43. Compare GDSS and noncomputerized group decision making.
GDSS provide many benefits. One potential problem, that a group might feel less cohesive due to the technology, was proven false at least in one experiment using four meetings over a four-week time period. GDSS let people work faster and tends to get better results.
44. Explain why meetings can be so inefficient. Given this, explain how effective meetings can be run.
Almost all of the reasons involve people. Some don't take meetings seriously. Other issues are that a large amount (perhaps as high as 90 percent) of the information discussed at a meeting is either not remembered or remembered incorrectly. (This might make you wonder why we teach classes in an essentially meeting manner!) This could become an open-ended answer if you let the students describe their meeting experiences.
How can effective meetings be run? Some items that might be included are: have an agenda, keep to the subject, record the minutes of each meeting, send out a meeting notice, and to ask meeting participants to summarize results.
45. Explain how GDSS can increase some of the benefits of collaboration and decision making in groups and eliminate or reduce some of the losses.
GDSS provides support to reduce the negative effects of group decision making and increase the positive effects. For example, anonymity means more equal participation, whereas parallelism saves time. By moving quickly, people get the urge to contribute. There might be less free-riding. There are many more benefits.
46. The original term for group support system (GSS) was group decision support system (GDSS).Why was the word decision dropped? Does this make sense? Why or why not?
Because GSS can help even when there is no decision to be made. For instance, it can help group members communicate. Many meetings are not held to make a formal decision. Researchers noticed this and changed the name of the technology to reflect reality.
47. Discuss how parallelism and anonymity can produce improvements in group processes.
Parallelism allows everyone at a meeting to contribute simultaneously. This can substantially cut down on idea generation time. For example, 10 people contributing for 10 minutes each in a traditional meeting would take 100 minutes. In a GSS, parallelism cuts this down to 10 minutes. (Total meeting time is not reduced in the same ratio, since the time it takes the group to evaluate the ideas that were generated remains the same, but time savings are still substantial.)
Anonymity allows shy people to contribute. It also levels the playing field. Rank in an organization has no effect. Also, assertive (“pushy”) people do not take over the meeting as much.
48. Describe the three technologies through which GSS is deployed. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?
The three options for deploying GSS technology are: (1) a special-purpose decision room; (2) a multiple-use facility; and (3) Web-based groupware running wherever the group members are.
Advantages and disadvantages include:
Special-purpose decision room
Advantages: meets the need for face-to-face communication at meetings; can double as videoconference room; provides a pleasant environment; secure because software runs locally on a LAN.
Disadvantages: expensive to construct and use; limited to same time/same place meetings.
Multiple-use facility
Advantages: provides many of the decision room benefits and doubles as a computer lab or for a similar use.
Disadvantages: again, limited to same time/same place meetings.
Web-based groupware
Advantages: provides group support for anytime/anyplace meetings; can be used in the office, at home, or on the road; relatively inexpensive to develop and use; anonymity maximized, which might be especially desirable in a distance learning environment.
Disadvantages: there are problems with facilitation and the isolation of participants (people like to know with whom they are working), a facilitator is still needed; new methods must be developed for managing meetings.
49. Explain in detail what creativity is and how it relates to decision support.
Creativity is a complex concept to define formally, but very easy to know when you see it. Formally, creativity may be defined either as a trait or achievement. As a trait, creativity is a dispositional variable characteristic of a person, leading to the production of acts, items, and instances of novelty. As an achievement, we refer to the creative product, e.g., the output of a process, like the “quality” of the ideas generated in an electronic brainstorming session.
Creativity relates to decision support because the second stage of decision making involves generating alternatives. While these are in some cases obvious (a factory is to produce a certain number of product A and product B, the decision is the number of each) in other cases they are less so. Creativity enables the generation of more, and often better, alternatives to choose from.
50. Explain how GSS can support creativity.
The best way (so far) is through idea generation support, either by directly using a GSS with others, or with a random idea generator, or with an intelligent agent acting as a facilitator.
51. Explain how idea generation (i.e., electronic brainstorming) works.
Electronic brainstorming gathers ideas and comments in an unstructured manner. Groups work rapidly in generating a free flow of ideas. Participants contribute simultaneously (parallelism) and anonymously. The brainstorming software can assist them by presenting a random selection of other participants’ ideas, by presenting random words to encourage free association, by offering suggestions on ways in which previous ideas could be modified, and more.
52. Can computers be creative? Why or why not? Discuss.
This is an open-ended, philosophical question. Computers running certain AI programs can produce creative output in the sense that the developers of those programs could not have foreseen. In that sense, yes, they can be creative. (Whether or not their creativity involves anything we might call “thinking” is a separate—and even more philosophical—question, which this IM will not attempt to answer.)
53. Discuss the benefits of CPFR to retailers and suppliers.
For the retailer, collaborative forecasting means fewer out-of-stocks and resultant lost sales and less stored inventory. For the manufacturer (supplier), collaborative forecasting means fewer expedited shipments, optimal inventory levels, and optimally sized production runs.
54. Discuss the improvements to supply-chain management that result from using CPFR and VMI.
These and similar approaches, under the overall term “collaborative planning,” can synchronize production and distribution plans and product flows, optimize resource utilization over an expanded capacity base, increase customer responsiveness, and reduce inventories.
55. Explain the potential benefits of wikis to a director of marketing.
This is an open-ended question, as there are many possible benefits.
One benefit is in the area of developing a marketing plan. Through use of a wiki, people can draft sections within their own specialties, comment on and perhaps alter other sections, contribute according to their own skills (a copywriter might come up with creative slogans, a copy editor might fix their grammar) and more. The net result is a better plan, arrived at more quickly, compared to what could be achieved without the wiki.
Other areas where the marketing function could use a wiki effectively include all areas where collaborative writing is called for: marketing communications, competitive analysis and more.
56. Discuss the benefits of collaborative design.
The design of anything more complex than a doghouse usually requires the skills of more than one person; in other words (or word), collaboration. Collaborative design allows each person to contribute to part of the project and for that person’s contributions to be integrated with the others to create the overall design.
While collaborative design as a concept is ancient, and its benefits have been understood for centuries, the use of information technology to facilitate it is new. For example, the wing box for the Boeing 787 was designed in Japan while the fuselage was designed in the United States. Collaborative design tools made this practical without an inordinate (and inordinately expensive) number of physical meetings between the two design groups.
57. Relate CPFR to decision support.
CPFR relates to decision support because the ordering and replenishment decisions involved were previously made individually by people. With the CPFR approach, people make policy decisions instead. Information systems then follow those policies in making programmed operational decisions.
