Deck 14: Hardware

Question 1

You are the controller of a textile company. One of your major customers manufactures high fashion women's apparel. The customer has a very short lead time in getting its product to the market before consumer taste changes. You have an idea that will help your company get fabrics to the apparel manufacturer more quickly-EDI. You have been given a few minutes at the next vice-president's planning committee meeting to explain the basics of EDI.
Required:
What would you cover in your short presentation?

Answer 1

Basics of Electronic Data Interchange are given below:
1. What is EDI - EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange. It is electronically exchange of the business information in standard formats.
2. Who uses EDI - EDI is widely used in manufacturing, warehousing, pharmaceuticals, construction, health care, and food processing industries.
3. Trading partners - These are businesses which agrees to exchange the business information electronically.
4. Advantages - It helps in decreasing manual efforts, reduction in errors and cost saving in documentation.
5. EDIFACT- It stands for Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport. It is an international standard developed by United Nations.
6. VAN - It is Value Added Network. It handles electronic exchange of information between users through EDI.

Question 2

If a retail chain implements EDI for purchasing, it is likely to:
a. increase the number of suppliers.
b. decrease the number of suppliers.
c. not change the number of suppliers.

Answer 2

b. Decrease the number of suppliers.
If a retail chain implements EDI for purchasing it is likely to decrease the number of suppliers. By reducing the number of suppliers, company increases the volumes for those suppliers that are remaining with the company. This increased volume puts the company in a better position to negotiate more favorable pricing. Decrease in the number of suppliers does not only decrease price of the products, but the costs to get that inventory into the warehouse decreases as well. More volume shipped means a lower per unit freight cost.
Decrease in the number of suppliers helps to increase competition among those suppliers. Companies are therefore able to benefit from their increased economies of scale. This in turn helps to reduce costs as suppliers compete and will offer more aggressive pricing and discount packages to the business.

Question 3

A hospital issues 300 purchase orders a day for medical supplies, drugs, and other items. Purchases arc made from more than 100 active vendors.
Required:
What factors should be considered before the hospital administration decides to implement an EDI system for transmitting purchase order data to vendors?

Answer 3

Following factors should be considered before implementing an EDI system for transmitting purchase order data to vendors:
1. Compatibility - Compatibility of software, hardware and data format must be there. Incompatibility in any of these factors can prevent the process of implementation of EDI.
2. Complexity - While implementing EDI, the matter of complexity should be considered. The technology should be easy to understand.
3. Cost of implementation - This is one of the major factors which should be considered before implementing EDI. Evaluation of cost should be done against the benefits before implementing.
4. Involvement of trading partners - Successful implementation of EDI also depends on trading partners. Here, vendors should have positive frame of mind regarding EDI system.
5. Training and support - Lack of training is a barrier to successful implementation of EDI. Proper training and on-going support should be provided to employees.

Question 4

How would you convince your client to integrate EDI and XML? Start by listing advantages and disadvantages of each.

Question 5

Discuss some of the security issues related to e-business.

Question 6

The advantage to users of EDI of using a VAN rather than point-to-point communications with trading partners is that:
a. communications and/or EDI programs used by the two trading partners may be different.
b. the times of day that the two trading partners computers are available to send and receive messages may not be the same.
c. there may not be a free port at the receiving partner's computer when the sending partner desires to transmit.
d. all of the above are advantages of using a VAN.

Question 7

Why is repudiation an issue in electronic business?

Question 8

What recommendations would you make to encourage smaller vendors to take advantage of the e-business opportunities offered by EDI and XML?

Question 9

Explain the difference between a firewall and a proxy server.

Question 10

What are the functions of a value-added network?

Question 11

Using the Internet, access the websites of two companies that develop accounting software. Using the information on the websites, determine the extent to which the accounting products permit adopters to use the Internet for electronic commerce.
Required:
a. Prepare a written description of your findings.
b. Be prepared to discuss your findings in class.

Question 12

Why has 7 th Online continued with EDI?

Question 13

EDI is most closely associated with:
a. activity costing.
b. just-in-time inventory stocking.
c. bar coding.
d. optical character recognition.

Question 14

What is the difference in the EDI standards X.12 and EDIFACT?

Question 15

The standard electronic formats for F.DI documents an? referred to as:
a. document standards.
b. transaction sets.
c. event specifications.
d. transmission standards.
e. the electronic format.

Question 16

For a chain retailer such as Walmart, EDI has its most obvious application in:
a. general ledger.
b. accounts receivable.
c. accounts payable.
d. inventory.
e. payroll.

Question 17

Which of the following is correct concerning the attributes of Code 39 include:
a. Data are represented with black bars only; white spaces have no information content.
b. Code 39 is widely used outside of the grocery industry.
c. Code 39 represents only numerical data.
d. Three of die bars are narrow and six are wide.

Question 18

Which of the following is true for the digits 26900 90920 at the bottom of a UPC bar code?
a. The fields, taken together, Identify the specific product.
b. The first field identifies the product class and the second identifies the specific product.
c. The first field identifies the company manufacturing the product and the second identifies the specific product.
d. The first field identifies the size and type of container and the second identifies the specific product.

Question 19

A bar code symbology that includes both numerical and alphabetical characters is:
a. Code 39.
b. Uniform Product Code.

Question 20

In bar code specifications, the X-dimension is the:
a. width of smaller bars.
b. width of smaller liars and spaces.
c. length of the bars.
d. width of the entire bar code.
e. width of the bar code plus a quiet zone on each end.

Question 21

Discuss the three approaches to supporting EDI over the Internet.