Ans.-1.

BPR and Information Technology

Business Process Re-engineering has rapidly developed towards a new management philosophy. The
inherent business process orientation changes the perspective of international management from a
structural to that of a process view. The re-engineering of business processes is only one aspect of the
management of business processes. In particular, the re-engineering of international business processes
needs special attention, because the multi-faceted structure of multinational corporations increases the
complexity of business processes, there by influencing the options for redesign. Business Process Reengineering has rapidly developed towards a new management philosophy based upon predecessors like
Total Quality Management, Overhead Value Analysis, Kanban or Just-In-Time-Management. Business
processes can be re-engineered by redesigning the steps, by changing the logical and temporal sequence
of the steps, or by changing any other characteristics of the process. The role of IT is discussed in
contradictory way. Advocates of information systems favor the view that the new technology is an enabler
of process re-engineering. IT has to be monitored constantly to determine whether it can generate new
process designs or contribute to the performance of a business process. The breakthrough of BPR is
closely connected with IT, which opens new dimensions of process reorganization. Moreover, those who
take the initiative in process improvement/redesign, influence the role of IT. If the data processing
department initiates the process change, then IT will have more of a generator function for new process
redesigns. If on the other hand, the top management sets off the change process, then the process will be
first restructured and later optimized through IT.

Ans.-2.

Contemporary

approaches

to

MIS

When an information system is being developed, much importance should be given

to the structure of the organization, culture of the organization, etc. But along with
these, especial attention should also be given to the technical side of MIS. The
various contemporary approaches to MIS development can be summarized as
1.The
a)

Based

b)

Physical

Technical
on

the

technology

mathematical
forms

the

Approach
and

back

the

bone

of

normative
such

an

models.
approach.

c) Such an approach mainly finds much needed contributions from the disciplines
like

computer

science,

2.

management

The

science,

operations

Behavioral

research

etc.

Approach

a) Based on the impact of the behavior and also on the response of the people in
the

organization.

b) Motivational Feasibility forms a very important and demanding part of such an

approach towards MIS development.
3.

The

Socio

Technical

Approach

a) In the beginning, this approach was finding it hard to survive but now it is
being accepted worldwide and is also being implemented at a very large scale.
b) Involves key involvement of both of the above explained approaches.
c) Improves the performance of the information system as a whole.
Porter

Millar

postulates

Porter and Millar were the ones, who explained the affect of the information
technology on the competition. According to them information technology is

affecting

competition

in

the

following

ways:

a) Causes changes in the structure of the industry and as a result of this, rule of
competitions

are

altered.

b) Spawning of the whole new business takes place, and in much of the cases it
is

caused

from

within

the

companys

existing

operations.

c) Competitive advantage is created usually because of the new ways; the

companies get to outperform their rivals.

(a). Technical Approach

The technical approach emphasises scientific modelling of businesses, technology and
capabilities of systems. Management science emphasises models of decision-making and
management. Combining this with an understanding of technical issues and computer
science, this provides the technical approach to modern management.

Business modelling,
Computer science,
Operations research

(b). Behavioural Approach

The behavioural approach looks at the psychological, sociological and economic aspects of
the system. This approach deals with issues of:
Design,
Implementation,
Business integration,
Management.
The sociological approach looks at these aspects from the point of view of how groups work
together and the nature of organisations.
The psychological approach looks at how people perceive and use information systems, especially
with respect to decision making.
The economic approach looks at how IT systems affect control structures and costs both within a
company and in markets.

Ans-3.
Q.
What are the benefits & limitations of the relational database model for business application today?
Why is the object-orienteddatabase model gaining acceptance for developing application and
managing the hypermedia database at the business website?
A.

Relational Database Model is based on tables and for management purposes. This model was
invented by Edgar F. Codd in 1969.Edgar at that time was working at IBM. In the relational model of a
database, all data is represented in terms of tuples & grouped into relations. A database organized
in terms of the relational model is a relational database.

Benefits of Relation base model.

Relational Database Model is widely used around the world, as its:
1.Easy to use:In Relational model data is easily presented & visible. So revision becomes quite easy
as the information is stored insimple tables & rows. Such data is attractive for the first time user.
2.Flexibility:An operator or a user can easily link & extract the data & can get the desired information
easily.
3.Precision: The usage of relational algebra and calculus in the manipulation of the relations between
the tables ensures that here is no ambiguity (doubtfulness or uncertainty), which may otherwise come
while establishing the links in a complicated network type database.
4.Security:Security control & authorization can be implemented on various tables, which gives a
sense of control to the created of the table. If someone requires the protective data then he needs to
have the permission from the creator.
5.Data Independence: Data independence is achieved more easily with normalization structure used in
a relational database than in the more complicated tree or network structure.6.
Data Manipulation Language: The possibility of responding to query by means of a language based
on relational algebra and relational calculus e.g SQL is easy in the relational database approach. For
data organized in other structure the query language either becomes complex or extremely limited in
its capabilities.
Limitations of relational database model
1.Performance:A major constraint in the use of relational database system is machine performance.
If there is an enormous data in the tables then the performance gets affected in responding to the sql
queries.
2.Physical Storage Consumption: With an interactive system, for example an operation like join
would depend upon the physical storage also. It is, therefore common in relational databases to tune
the databases and in such a case the physical data layout would be chosen so as to give good
performance in the most frequently run operations. It therefore would naturally result in the fact that
the lays frequently run operations would tend to become even more shared.
3.Slow extraction of meaning from data: If the data is naturally organized in a hierarchical manner
and stored as such, the hierarchical approach may give quick meaning for that data. Object-oriented
database model gaining acceptance for developing application and managing the hypermedia
database at the business website because its innovative. Multimedia-web based applications for
internet & corporate intranets/ extranets have become a major application area for object technology.
Object-oriented database model can handle complex data such as graphics, pictures, voice & text,
better than the old structure. They are easy to use & they are the key technology being used in
multimedia based applications for Internet & corporate extranets. As well as they support inheritancenew objects which can be automatically created by replacing some or all the characteristics of one or
more parent objectives.