1a.Mobile banking features have added several advantages for customers however; there are security risks that come with them. Determine the security risks with respect to phishing, smishing, vishing, cloning, and a lost or stolen smartphone that have been experienced by the financial services industry as a result of mobile banking.

1b.Personal data assistants (PDAs), iPads, and e-Readers have the capability to wirelessly connect to online stores so that their users can purchase books, music, games, read e-Books, read the news, and perform a myriad of other tasks. Describe and assess the impact of these devices on newspapers, paper books, music CDs, gamesDVDs, etc.

2a.Crowd sourcing has been predicted to be the future of marketing, advertising, product design etc. Companies that have used crowdsourcing include Starbucks, Incentive, Inc., test, etc. Compare and contrast the traditional marketing, advertising, product testing, and product design to corresponding crowdsourcing-based methods. Determine the method you would use and why.

2b.Social networking has forced businesses to amend some of their employees’ conditions of employment and company expectations. Employees could disclose an employer’s proprietary information on social networks. They can post information that could be detrimental to the company’s image. Suggest three techniques companies could use to prevent employees from using social networking to harm a company’s reputation.

Week 7 Discussion Question

1a.Just-in-time (JIT) software is unable to foresee delivery problems resulting from bad weather, labor strikes, etc. Assess how a company using JIT inventory management software should mitigate delivery problems.

1bAn increasing number of retailers have installed self-checkout machines. Justify the installation of these machines in terms of costs management, efficiency, productivity, and trustworthiness of customers

2a.Loyalty programs are programs that recognize customers who repeatedly use services or buy products offered by a company. Examples include BI-LO’s Bonus Card, Kroger’s VIP card, frequent flyers, etc. Determine the risks associated with loyalty programs and identify the risk that is of most concern to you and why.

2b.From the e-Activity, imagine you are a CTO of a large enterprise and have been tasked with choosing an ERP system for your organization. Compare and contrast commercial ERP systems to open source ERP systems focusing on flexibility and extensibility, supported platforms, support, and intellectual property issues. Describe the one you would choose and why.

Week 8 discussion question

1a.From the e-Activity, determine the strategic advantages and disadvantages of using Customer Relations Management (CRM), services provided by vendors, such as Salesforce.com, with regard to analytics and forecasting, infrastructure maintenance, data mining, and availability for a business that cannot implement its own CRM system.

1b.Businesses that employ CRM, Supply Chain Management (SCM), and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for better decision making have a competitive advantage over businesses that do not. Assume that you are CTO of a large retail company that doesn’t use these tools. As part of the company’s IT strategic plans, the CEO would like to implement them. Suggest to the CEO how to effectively integrate these tools into the company.

2a. Software development can be a considerable part of a company’s software budget. Software may be developed in-house or outsourced. Outsourced development may be on shore or offshore. There have been heated debates on the best strategy of developing software. Take a strategic position on this debate. Create an argument for which method (in-house, onshore, and offshore software development) is the best in terms of cost, security, reliability, and intellectual property protection. Support your response.

2b. IT governance is concerned with organizational investments in IT and to ensure that the IT strategy delivers full value. The avoidance or prevention of IT strategic failures is the biggest part of IT governance. Describe at least two issues that drive IT governance.