Quiz 7: Business Intelligence and Decision Making

Decisions made at the operational level involve long-term strategy and are undertaken by the leaders of the organization.

At the operational level, decision makers need more aggregated information, sorted and tallied in different ways, to monitor success and plan next steps compared to those at the strategic level.

Mid-level decisions undertaken by managers by drawing upon business intelligence to implement marketing plans and product development are made at the tactical level.

Strategic-level decisions involve direct interactions with customers and have predetermined policies and procedures that spell out how to handle different situations.

Building data warehouses often slows down operational systems.

Data warehouses offer an opportunity to combine the data housed in separate systems into one and then load it to a database optimized for complex queries.

External databases that are either purchased or publicly accessible are not considered reliable sources of business intelligence.

Companies use intelligent agents to extract useful business intelligence from private, inaccessible websites.

The online analytical processing system allows users to slice and dice massive amounts of data stored in data warehouses to reveal significant patterns and trends.

OLAP systems achieve their speed and their slice-and-dice capabilities by building multidimensional data cubes.

The market basket analysis examines relationships to reveal customer behavior patterns as they purchase multiple items.

Text mining is a discovery process in which unstructured text information is the source of business intelligence.

Text mining, which monitors web chatter, helps in managing customer relationships and spotting crises early.

What-if analysis allows a user to set a target value for a particular metric and tells the program which variable to change to try to reach the goal.

What-if analysis is also known as goal seeking because of the similarities between these two tools.

Optimization is an extension of goal seeking in which a user can change many variables to reach some maximum or minimum target, as long as the changes stay within the constraints the user identifies.

Clickstream data refers to every single click by every visitor on a website, along with associated data revealing customer behavior patterns.

Stickiness refers to how frequently users move from one related site to another.

A dashboard is a gateway that provides access to a variety of relevant information from many different sources on one screen.

Mashup is an approach to aggregating content from multiple internal and external sources on customizable web pages.

Employees working primarily at the ________ decision level deal directly with customers and handle all the routine transactions where their decisions follow predetermined policies and procedures that spell out how to handle different situations. A)strategic B)tactical C)operational D)directional

Which of the following best describes an operational-level decision? A)decisions undertaken at the highest level by leaders of an organization B)mid-level decisions undertaken by managers C)programmed decisions that deal directly with customers D)decisions that impact the entire organization and beyond

Clara Thomas is an employee at the Citizens Trade Bank. What type of decisions will she undertake if her responsibilities include receiving customer queries, fixing appointments for sales representatives of the bank, and tracking potential clients through call records? A)operational decisions B)tactical decisions C)strategic decisions D)directional decisions

Business intelligence is said to be used at the ________ if companies use it to bring meaningful, performance-related information to all employees. A)operational level B)directional level C)strategic level D)tactical level

Which of the following is a difference between operational-level and tactical-level decision making? A)Operational decisions are undertaken by managers, whereas tactical decisions are made by junior executives. B)Operational decisions impact the organization and its industry, whereas tactical decisions deal with routine transactions. C)Operational decisions mostly address issues like product development and marketing plans, whereas tactical decisions address issues such as investment and hiring policies. D)Operational decisions require detailed, structured information about actual transactions by customers, whereas tactical decisions need more aggregated information to monitor success and plan next steps.

People at ________ levels in an organization draw on business intelligence to make decisions related to marketing plans, product development, and departmental budgets. A)operational B)tactical C)strategic D)top

Which of the following best describes tactical-level decisions? A)decisions undertaken at the highest level by the leaders of an organization B)programmed decisions that involve routine transactions and deal directly with customers C)decisions that impact the entire organization and sometimes, even the industry D)mid-level decisions undertaken by managers on issues like product development and membership drives

Josh Lucas is a marketing manager at Grey Thompson, the largest advertising firm in Washington. What level of decision making would Josh be involved in if he undertakes decisions on promotional campaigns, guerilla marketing, and brand awareness? A)operational B)tactical C)strategic D)administrative

Which of the following is a characteristic of decisions made at an organization's strategic level? A)They involve predetermined policies and procedures that spell out how to handle different situations. B)They are mostly concerned with routine transactions directly involving customers. C)They make use of business intelligence to address issues such as product development and marketing plans. D)They have widespread effects which impact suppliers, customers, and the whole industry.

________ decisions affect the organization and beyond and are guided by the leadership of the organization toward a long-term strategy. A)Strategic B)Tactical C)Operational D)Specific

Which of the following is a difference between strategic-level and operational-level decision making? A)Strategic-level decisions involve regular interactions with customers, unlike operational-level decision making. B)Unlike operational-level decision making, strategic-level decision making mostly deals with routine transactions. C)Unlike operational-level decisions, strategic-level decisions follow predetermined policies and procedures and are programmed in nature. D)The business intelligence needed to make decisions is less structured at the strategic level than at the operational level.

Jane Adams is a director at Wilderness, a travel house in Manhattan. What type of decisions would she have to make if Wilderness decides to open a new branch of the company in Chicago? A)strategic-level decisions B)tactical-level decisions C)operational-level decisions D)mid-level decisions

Intelligent agents that extract business intelligence from publicly accessible websites are also known as ________. A)mashups B)bots C)servers D)androids

Which of the following functions do intelligent agents undertake in business intelligence? A)extracting useful business information from publicly accessible websites B)tracking the performance of employees in an organization C)retrieving information from data warehouses whenever required and reducing information overload D)tracking fraudulent transactions conducted by the employees of an organization

Which of the following is a function of bots? A)They retrieve information from offline sources. B)They monitor the productivity of employees in an organization. C)They build teamwork and interpersonal skills of employees. D)They collect data from web pages on behalf of a user.

Which of the following functions does an intelligent agent perform? A)classifying and indexing web pages for search engines B)collecting and sorting a company's sales data C)tracking Internet usage patterns of a company's employees D)monitoring the Internet to screen out malicious software and viruses

________ are used by infomediaries to retrieve current product prices from different vendors. A)Neural nets B)Bots C)Expert systems D)Dashboards

iTicket, an online event-ticketing site, recently discovered that most of its good seats for a widely anticipated concert were preemptively booked in bulk by brokers. This resulted in a shortage of tickets that the public could have bought themselves. Which of the following would have best helped the brokers to book tickets in such large numbers? A)neural nets B)dashboards C)bots D)mashups

Which of the following functions do intelligent agents perform in the context of search engines? A)retrieving downloadable files from online sources B)screening out malicious codes and viruses C)distributing third-party cookies D)monitoring information overload

Data mining approaches and statistical techniques used to predict future behavior, especially to unlock the value of business intelligence for strategy, are known as ________. A)optimization B)predictive analytics C)content management systems D)mashups

Which of the following statements accurately defines the term predictive analytics? A)data mining approaches and statistical techniques used to predict future behavior, especially to unlock the value of business intelligence for strategy B)software programs or "bots" that are sent out to conduct a mission and collect data from web pages on behalf of a user C)a gateway that provides access to a variety of relevant information from many different sources on one screen D)a technique that analyzes features in order to predict people present in photos and tag them to other photos on its own

Which of the following is a function of predictive analytics? A)to analyze people present in photos and tag them to other photos on its own B)to deal directly with customers and handle all routine transactions C)to unlock the value of business intelligence for strategy D)to follow predetermined policies and procedures

Which of the following is an accurate definition of online analytical processing? A)creating and using offline data by multiple users B)mimicking the reasoning of a human expert to arrive at a decision C)retrieving, examining, and drilling data into specific groups D)examining data from a single, consistent perspective

Which of the following methods categorizes massive amounts of data stored in data warehouses to reveal significant patterns and trends in the data? A)online analytical processing B)what-if analysis C)multiprocessing D)goal-seeking analysis

________ systems allow users to interactively retrieve meaningful information from data, examining it from many different perspectives, and drilling it down into specific groupings. A)Forecasting B)Online analytical processing C)What-if analysis D)Goal-seeking

Which of the following is a function of online analytical processing? A)mimicking the reasoning of a human expert to arrive at a decision B)organizing and summarizing information vital to an individual's role in an organization C)feeding vast amounts of information into data warehouses D)helping organizations spot suspicious activity

Which among the following software tools is commonly used as the front end for data retrieval and analysis in most business intelligence tools? A)MS Outlook B)MS Excel C)MS Word D)MS PowerPoint

James, who works in the marketing department of the Whistlewoods Hotel, has been given the responsibility of identifying patterns in the preferences of guests who have repeatedly visited the hotel in the past ten years. Which of the following would best help him categorize the massive amounts of data to reveal preferences of guests, such as type of suite, room service, etc.? A)online analytical processing B)goal-seeking analysis C)forecasting analysis D)what-if analysis

Which of the following analyses is used by Amazon to show sections titled "Frequently Bought Together" in their product screens? A)risk analysis B)competitor analysis C)predictive analysis D)market basket analysis

Danielle, searching online for a hair fall control shampoo, entered the HairCare website. She noticed that the HairCare web page for shampoos also showed conditioners, hair gels, and hair dryers in the "Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought" section in its product screens. Which of the following techniques does HairCare use in order to cross-sell its products? A)market basket analysis B)predictive analysis C)what-if analysis D)goal-seeking analysis

________ is a statistical technique that reveals customer behavior patterns as they purchase multiple items. A)What-if analysis B)Competitor analysis C)Market basket analysis D)Goal-seeking analysis

Which of the following is a function of market basket analysis? A)understanding behavior patterns of customers as they buy multiple items B)helping retailers group customers from a certain geographical area C)understanding strengths and weaknesses of competitors in the market D)improving quality of a product after analyzing a competitor's high-in-demand product

Shirley Yearwood is an analyst at a retail outlet and is required to assess customer data to understand which items are more likely to be bought together. What analysis process will best help her to analyze purchasing habits of customers who bought gum boots along with umbrellas, ties along with shirts, and hair clips along with headbands among other related products? A)online analytical processing B)market basket analysis C)what-if analysis D)goal-seeking analysis

Which of the following is an accurate definition of text mining? A)a discovery process which derives low-quality data from text B)a discovery process in which unstructured text information is the source of business intelligence C)a discovery process in which users can change many variables to reach a maximum or minimum target D)a discovery process which relies heavily on sociograms, pie charts, and spin networks

________ is a discovery process which relies on semantic structures, linguistic relationships, and common phrases to extract meaningful information. A)Forecasting B)What-if analysis C)Text mining D)CAPTCHA

Which of the following is a function of what-if analysis? A)establishing relationships between many variables and changing some of the variables to see how others are affected B)establishing relationships between different variables by keeping them constant C)collecting data from web pages on behalf of a user D)establishing a target value for a particular metric and telling the program which variable to change to try to reach the goal

________ is a simulation model, often constructed using Excel, which calculates the relationships between many variables; users can change some variables to see how others are affected. A)Goal-seeking analysis B)What-if analysis C)Market basket analysis D)Data aggregation

Which of the following is a tool that supports decision making in organizations? A)goal-seeking analysis B)uniform resource locator C)AJAX D)bot

Which of the following statements is true of goal-seeking analysis? A)It is a process of setting a target value for a particular variable and telling the program which variable to change to reach the goal. B)It is a process that analyzes historical and seasonal trends and then takes into account existing and predicted business conditions to estimate goals. C)It is a process that involves software tools that rely on keywords, semantic structures, linguistic relationships, and common phrases to extract meaningful information. D)It is a process that involves revealing customer behavior patterns by analyzing their purchase of multiple items.

________ is a decision support tool, often based on an Excel model, in which the user sets a target value for a particular variable, such as profit/ loss, and tells the program which variable to change to try to reach the objective. A)Goal-seeking analysis B)Goal harvesting C)Market basket analysis D)Data aggregation

Which of the following is a distinctive feature of optimization? A)It enables a user to control the output of a process by changing only a single variable. B)It analyzes historical and seasonal trends to optimize productivity. C)It allows a user to change many variables to reach its maximum or minimum target. D)It allows a user to "slice and dice" or drill down massive amounts of data stored in data warehouses.

________ is an extension of goal-seeking analysis in which the user can change many variables to reach some maximum or minimum target, as long as the changes stay within the constraints the user identifies. A)What-if analysis B)Predictive analysis C)Forecasting D)Optimization

________ refers to analyzing historical and seasonal trends and then taking into account existing and predicted business conditions to estimate some variable of interest. A)Optimization B)What-if analysis C)Forecasting D)Goal-seeking analysis

Which of the following is a function of forecasting? A)setting a target value and telling the program which variable to change to reach the goal B)using semantic structures and linguistic relationships to extract meaningful business intelligence C)calculating relationships between variables and allowing users to change some variables to see how others are impacted by it D)analyzing seasonal trends, using statistical decision support tools, to predict the future

The analysts at Swirlees, a brand of ice-cream, are asked to assess revenue generated over the past five years to observe seasonal and historical trends so that they can make a business estimate for the next year. After extensive analysis, they arrive at the conclusion that the sales were highest during the months of July and August, the summer months in the country, and an all-time low during January, the peak of winter. Which of the following tools would best help them in making an estimate for the upcoming year? A)goal-seeking analysis B)forecasting C)market basket analysis D)what-if analysis

The term "artificial intelligence" describes the ________. A)capability of some machines that can mimic human intelligence B)intellectual development synthetically induced in human infants C)ability of some humans to imitate machine-like actions D)level of pervasion of technologies in everyday human life

________ is a test created by software developers to thwart software bots that the visitor must pass before continuing to register or enter the site. A)HTML B)CAPTCHA C)OLAP D)SMTP

Which of the following is an accurate definition of CAPTCHA? A)a tool that helps social bots mine user data B)a test that a visitor must pass before registering into a site C)a type of software that tracks user activity on the Internet D)a tool to assign Internet addresses to various users

Johanna wishes to enroll for TryMail's email service. Which of the following actions should TryMail ask Johanna to take in order to establish that she is not a software bot? A)enter a sequence of letters and numbers from an image B)provide her contact details and Social Security Number C)upload her photo and provide visible identification marks D)provide an alternative email address

Which of the following is a reason why CAPTCHA may no longer be widespread? A)technological developments leading to expert systems mimicking the reasoning of human experts B)technology that makes images fuzzy and fonts irregular so that bots and humans have equal difficulty deciphering them C)technology that can discriminate between the mouse movements and keystrokes of bots and humans D)the taking over of artificial intelligence by intelligent agents

Which of the following is a drawback of the growing power of artificial intelligence? A)It does not facilitate interaction with humans, and learning exchanges are not possible. B)Its contributions in areas of financial monitoring and customer behavior are inconsequential. C)Its techniques are used by scammers to gain access to sites. D)It does not operate with a built-in operating system but with automatic override options.

Software that mimic the reasoning and decision making of human professionals, drawing from a base of knowledge about a particular subject area developed with the assistance of the skillful, are known as ________. A)neural networks B)emulator experts C)expert systems D)intelligent agents

Which of the following statements is true of expert systems? A)They are built with OLAP as the foundational base. B)They mimic the reasoning of human professionals. C)They learn from training data selected by humans that contain cases defining the paths from input to output. D)They are widely used to detect patterns in data from massive data sets and report such patterns.

Which of the following is a characteristic of neural nets? A)They imitate service robots on rescue missions. B)They imitate the reasoning of a robot in decision-making processes. C)They come to a decision by drawing from the knowledge base of the particular subject area. D)They mimic the way a human brain works.

Which of the following is true of neural networks? A)They imitate service robots using neural networks. B)They aim to achieve higher productivity by imitating robots in domestic operations. C)They borrow a human's approach by using neural signals instead of digital ones. D)They work the same way as the human brain by reinforcing memory.

Which of the following holds true of neural nets? A)They borrow a human's approach by using neural signals instead of digital ones. B)They imitate service robots using neural networks. C)They borrow the brain's approach, using digital signals in place of neural ones. D)They aim to achieve higher productivity by imitating robots in domestic operations.

Which of the following is true about neural networks? A)They mimic the way a robot thinks. B)They are far simpler than the human brain. C)They borrow a human's approach by using neural signals instead of digital ones. D)Their success is inversely related to the number and quality of the cases they can learn from.

Which of the following statements is true of clickstream data? A)It indicates clicks made by visitors who could not access the site. B)It indicates clicks made by every visitor in a site. C)It indicates the total number of links to a site shown in search engine results. D)It indicates the transfer of data from one website to another.

The term ________ refers to data associated with revealing customer behavior patterns, such as time spent on the page, the URL the visitor just left, and the visitor's IP address. A)packet data B)Internet traffic C)keystroke log D)clickstream data

Escapade Holidays is a travel house in New Jersey that recently created a website to attract travel clientele for the company. It is vital that the company is able to track time spent on each page by visitors, which helps Escapade understand the destinations and offers that customers seek. Which of the following will best help the company understand customer behavior patterns as well as reveal the URLs left by visitors? A)real-time data B)keystroke logging C)clickstream data D)mangled packets

Which of the following is an accurate definition of the web metric "unique visitors"? A)the number of first time visitors to a site B)the number of repeated visitors to a site C)the number of visitors who could not access a site D)the expected number of visitors during a day

In web metrics, which of the following best describes depth of visit? A)the forecasted number of page visits estimated around peak hours B)the number of page views at a competitor's website C)the comparison between page visits made in the past and current year D)the number of page views per visit

________ is a web metric that refers to the percentage of visits in which the user left the site from the same page he or she entered it. A)Churn rate B)Attrition rate C)Bounce rate D)Attach rate

What does bounce rate mean in the context of web metrics? A)percentage of visits in which a user stays on the homepage for longer than sixty seconds B)percentage of visits in which a user moves from a website's homepage to its subpage C)percentage of visits in which the user leaves the site from the same page he or she entered it D)percentage of visits in which a user moves from a website's subpage to its homepage

Which of the following is an accurate definition of a top landing page? A)the number of links on a web page that directs a user into a related website B)the number of entrances to a site for each page C)the number of relevant results thrown up by a search engine D)the number of pages that sponsor ads

Which of the following is an accurate definition of conversion rate? A)the ratio of visitors who complete some activity divided by the total number of visitors B)the ratio of clicks on an ad divided by the number of times the ad was delivered C)the ratio of people who have not revisited the site for over 30 days divided by the number of total visitors D)the ratio of clicks by advertisers divided by total number of visitors

The ratio of visitors who buy a product from a website divided by the total number of visitors can be referred to as the ________. A)churn rate B)conversion rate C)clickthrough rate D)attach rate

In e-commerce metrics, ________ refers to the amount an advertiser pays each time a visitor clicks on the ad to navigate to the advertiser's site. A)cost per impression B)cost per clickthrough C)cost per conversion D)cost per acquisition

________ refers to how long visitors remain at a particular website. A)Volatility B)Convergence C)Content adjacency D)Stickiness

Which of the following is stickiness a measure of? A)how long visitors linger at a website B)how relevant a particular site's content is C)how many clicks it takes for a user to arrive at a particular site D)how many ads are delivered to a single user at any given time

Which of the following best describes keyword advertising? A)text ads that are displayed on walls and sidewalks using popular lingo and words B)visual ads in which the focal point is an image and occupies the maximum space in the ad C)visual ads using flyers or posters in crowded places where a single word draws the attention of passersby D)text ads that appear as sponsored links along with the results of a particular word search in a search engine

________ refers to the use of relevant text ads that appear as sponsored links along with the results of a particular word search in a search engine. A)Product placement B)Keyword advertising C)Flyposting D)Banner advertising

Just Cazuals, a brand of street wear in California, recently advertised its newly launched line of clothing. The firm pays Spydrware, a search engine, for delivering the link to its website as the top search result to Internet users when they search for words such as "jeans" and "fashion." This is an example of ________. A)product placement B)flyposting C)keyword advertising D)direct marketing

A ________ is a graphical user interface that organizes and summarizes information vital to the user's role and the decisions that user makes. A)mashup B)tool bar C)dashboard D)portal

Which of the following best describes an IT dashboard? A)an interface which monitors every click by visitors entering a site B)an interface which distinguishes and separates the key performance indicators C)a textual user interface that aggregates content from multiple sources on customizable web pages D)a graphical user interface that organizes information vital to a user's role and decisions that user makes

Which of the following best describes the term key performance indicator? A)quantifiable metrics most important to an individual's role and an organization's success B)qualitative metrics to measure growth indicators of a country C)abstract qualitative metrics to measure an individual's role and an organization's success D)abstract qualitative metrics to measure and compare the success of industries

The term ________ refers to quantifiable metrics used to evaluate an organization or an individual's success in a particular activity. A)dashboards B)key performance indicators C)mashups D)portal

Which of the following steps should be undertaken while designing a dashboard? A)using seven or fewer graphs, charts, maps, or tables on one dashboard B)avoiding the use of visual displays that combine real images with data C)using 3D animations and as many other animations as possible to make them interactive D)including intricate graphical tools such as pie charts for all available data

The term ________ refers to gateways that provide access to a variety of relevant information from many different sources on one screen. A)dashboard B)portal C)mashup D)data cube

Which of the following statements is true of portals? A)They are gateways that provide access to a variety of relevant information from many different sources on one screen. B)They are quantifiable metrics that measure an individual's contribution to his organization's success. C)They mimic the reasoning of a human expert, drawing from a base of knowledge about a particular subject area to come to a decision or recommendation. D)They are graphical user interfaces that organize and summarize information vital to a user's role and the decisions that user makes.

________ refer to each bit of content or functionality that a user can customize and add to the display. A)Mashups B)Dashboards C)Portlets D)Pixels

Sam Reid is a web designer at a publishing firm in Minnesota. He wants to use a process to aggregate a wide array of information like book reviews, customer feedback, awards won, and company details on the firm's public website. Which of the following should he use in order to bring together all this information from multiple internal and external sources onto the firm's customizable web pages? A)mashup B)portal C)dashboard D)pixel

Which of the following is an accurate definition of a mashup? A)a software tool that allows users to feed information into a system using different view modes B)a measurement of how long visitors linger at a website C)an approach to aggregating content from multiple sources on customizable web pages D)a type of software that tracks user activity over the Internet

The term ________ refers to an approach to aggregating content from internal and external sources on customizable web pages that relies on Web 2.0 technologies. A)mashup B)neural network C)expert system D)portal

A standardized and regularly updated output from a publisher that can be embedded in a customized mashup is known as a ________. A)dashboard B)pixel C)web feed D)portlet

What are the three key types of decision-making levels?

What are the major differences between the key levels of decision making?

What are the different functions performed by bots or intelligent agents?

What is an online analytical processing system and how does it work?

What are the different processes used to analyze patterns, trends, and relationships in data mining?

What is text mining and how does it work?

How is goal-seeking analysis different from what-if analysis and how do they function?

What is optimization in the context of decision support systems and how does it function?

What is forecasting and how does it work?

What is artificial intelligence and how is it an integral part of the decision support system?

Discuss how expert systems function and the challenges faced by developers in building it.

Discuss the purpose of neural nets and their functions.

Write a brief note on keyword advertising.

What are the six key design tips recommended for designing a dashboard?

Discuss how dashboards, portals, and mashups support the decision-making process.