Information Technology and Systems (MB231) : January 2004 Section B and C

Section B : Caselets (50 Marks)
This section consists of questions with serial number 1 – 7.
Answer all questions.
Marks are indicated against each question.
Detailed workings should form part of your answer.
Do not spend more than 110 - 120 minutes on Section B.
Caselet 1
Read the caselet carefully and answer the following questions:
1. What are the advantages provided by using a relational DBMS? What are the various steps you would undertake
to design such a database?
(3 + 10 = 13 marks) <>
2. What are the features of a Windows NT Operating System and what are its advantages over Windows 95 and
Windows 98 operating systems?
(3 + 4 = 7 marks) <>
3. Do you think Scott Realtors could have built an adequate system using off-the-shelf software? What are the costs
and benefits of trying this approach?
(5 marks) <>
John L. Scott Realtors
John Scott Realtors is a small real-estate firm headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, with a total of 25 offices in
Western Washington. The firm purchased a Hewlett-Packard minicomputer in 1989 to keep track of properties and
commissions. Over time, the company acquired 250 personal computers. Given the declining prices of personal
computers, staff began the process of converting to a client-server local area network, with personal computerbased
servers installed in major offices.
With the old system, data was stored in proprietary formats for each application package. As a result, managers
and agents could only retrieve information that is printed on the standard reports. Although most of the users had
personal computers, they could transfer the data they wanted from the minicomputer to their spreadsheets and
other applications. The real estate offices are also connected to several local Multiple Listing Services (MLS)
databases. Each MLS database has a different system to identify property features and agents. Combining
information from the various databases typically requires manually reentering the data.
Nathan McCoy, the computer-services director, wanted to replace the minicomputer with several smaller personal
computer-based servers running Microsoft’s Windows NT. The objective was to tie the servers together with the
users’ personal computers on a local area network. Servers would be located in major offices. The network would
provide the physical link between the machines.
To make it easier for users to find the data they need, McCoy planned to implement a relational DBMS. His goal
was to provide easy access to the internal and external data. First, he needed to redesign all the existing
applications. Yet he knew that as a small company, the firm could not afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars in
consulting fees to design the new system.
Mr. McCoy decided to involve the users directly and design the new database himself. After reviewing database
design textbooks, he created a 25-person database design team that met regularly with end-users. Initially, he tried
to design the system with the traditional “normalization” approach to database design. He noted that he would start
thinking right away in terms of primary keys. He wondered where he would put a particular field.
To simplify the design process, the team purchased a visual modeling tool that enabled them to specify the data
and relationships as diagrams. The software then converted the diagrams into a complete database specification. In
six months, the team designed four major applications: an agent master file, commissions processing, trust
accounting and transactions/sales management. McCoy estimates that the team saved $20,000 by not having to pay
for approximately 200 hours of time from outside consultants.
The next step was to hire an outside team to actually build the applications. As the basic design work was
completed and users seemed to agree on the system design, the next step should be straightforward.
Caselet 2
Read the caselet carefully and answer the following questions:
4. What potential security problems exist with the network? What will be the major types of controls that will be
needed to ensure quality and security of such an information system?
(2 + 6 = 8 marks) <>
5. What are the various types of transmission cables used in telecommunication networks?
Here, Chicago's police Emergency Communications Center Network uses fiber optic cable for data transmission.
What are the advantages of fiber optic cable over other types of cables?
(3 + 3 = 6 marks) <>
Chicago's New 911 System
Chicago has implemented a new, state-of-the-art police Emergency Communications Center Network. Costing
more than $215 million dollars, the system enables dispatchers to quickly transmit detailed historical and event
data to police officers responding to emergencies and crimes in progress. This provides police officers with much
more information about a situation before they must confront it. The new network also links firefighters and
emergency medical service technicians to help them respond to emergencies.
The system promises that 99 per cent of all calls to Chicago's 911 emergency number will be answered within one
or two rings - most in 1.2 seconds. Under the previous manual system, only 60 per cent of the 911 calls were
answered within two rings. Calls took an average of three times as long to be processed.
From a technological standpoint, the secure communications network will use 155 Mbps and 655 Mbps
Synchronous Optical Network (Sonet) backbones. This is the standard for high-speed data transmission over fiber
optic cable. The link between the emergency dispatchers and the administrative personnel are 185 Ascom-
Timeplex routers from Digital Equipment Corporation. Unix-based workstations and a Microsoft Windows NT
version 3.51 connects 215 firehouses, police stations and public safety facilities. The Microsoft server was chosen
for its ability to handle large Oracle databases.
The hub for the network's 176 miles of fiber optic cable is the Madison Avenue 911 emergency headquarters. The
Ascom-Timeplex routers provide speed and redundancy. They are also able to integrate a wide variety of disparate
network protocols. The devices also use Express Routing Software. This enables the emergency network to
prioritize the various data traversing the network to deliver maximum bandwidth with the least amount of
overhead.
The 108 Dispatchers used Digital Unix computer-aided dispatch workstations to access electronic databases
containing detailed maps of city streets and buildings.
The procedure is as follows:
i. Telephone calls to the 911 Emergency Communications Center are routed through the 176-mile, cityowned
fiber optic Integrated Services Digital Network. Callers are connected in less than 1.2 seconds to
one of 108 emergency 911 dispatchers.
ii. Telephone calls are logged and answered. The caller's name and address are displayed on a Digital
Unix-based workstation. The 911 operator verifies the information and transfers the call to the police or
fire dispatcher.
iii. The 911 dispatcher accesses the Oracle database to call up detailed graphic maps of any street and
building in Chicago. The maps give dispatchers instant access to exact street locations, the best routes to
get there, and detailed building descriptions. These include entrances, closest cross streets, nearest fire
hydrant, owner's name and whether hazardous materials are stored on the property.
iv. Domestic disturbance records indicate previous criminal records. Separate computer screens display
telephone numbers and addreses of municipal and governmental agencies. Touching the screen will dial
the selected agency.
v. Information is transmitted through the routers and backbone to computer terminals in squad cars and
fire engines and hand-held devices carried by officers, firefighters and other personnel.
Caselet 3
Read the caselet carefully and answer the following questions:
6. The marketing director is anxious to improve sales next year. For this purpose, he has asked his salespeople to
make interesting and effective presentations using a suitable presentation graphics software.
As the salesperson of the company, what software would you choose for the aforesaid purpose? What are the
salient features of a presentation graphics software?
(1 + 4 = 5 marks) <>
7. The marketing director now desires to hold conferences during every new product introduction, without having to
bring every salesperson back to the home office. In this regard, what technology would you adopt? Explain briefly.
(6 marks) <>
Feinstein Publishing Company
Feinstein Publishing Company publishes various textbooks for the collegiate market. The company has a
particularly good reputation in the field of quantitative business texts. It markets textbooks throughout the United
States, maintaining a large sales force whose members typically live in the city, state or region they serve.
Salespeople visit the faculty at various colleges and universities to discuss the firm's texts and to take orders for
examination copies of text from faculty members. The firm also sets up booths at various business conferences
during the year. The booths are filled with the firm's textbooks and are staffed by sales people who live in the area
of the conference. Salespeople at these conferences also spend most of their time taking orders from faculty for
examination copies. Many faculty members also request examination copies by completing pre-stamped and preaddressed
forms detached from textbook advertising brochures. If everything goes well, requests for examination
copies will eventually turn into book orders issued from college bookstores.
As the sales force is far-flung, the firm holds a sales conference at the home office only once a year. At that time,
new products are introduced and explained to the salespeople, and salespeople get a chance to discuss successful
sales tactics they have used during the previous year. However, the firm also introduces new products at several
other points in the year, and salespeople receive written sales documents that explain the new products. The firm
has never been happy with this tactic. But it does not wish to spend the money to bring every salesperson back to
the home office for several sales conferences each year.
END OF SECTION B
Section C : Applied Theory (20 Marks)
This section consists of questions with serial number 8 - 9.
Answer all questions.
Marks are indicated against each question.
Do not spend more than 25 -30 minutes on Section C.
8. One of the strengths of C programming language is that C functions are easy to define and use. The users can
themselves define functions for their convenience, and these functions may then be used by many other programs.
This means that a C programmer can build on what others have already done, instead of starting over, from
scratch.
With reference to the above context, briefly explain various types of user-defined functions in C programming
language, with suitable examples.
(10 marks) <>
9. The Unix 'Shell' can understand quite a lot by seeing a few lines of code. For an easy understanding, one can think
of the 'Shell' as an intelligent and efficient Secretary, who understands the Boss's directive from just the gestures,
and carries them out by specially devised means or ways, which even the Boss is not aware of. But a 'Shell' is
much more than that and it makes Unix a very powerful operating system.
Explain in detail the roles of 'Shell' as a 'Command Interpreter' and as a 'Programming Language'.
(10 marks) <>
END OF SECTION C
END OF QUESTION PAPER