PENTECOSTAL LIFE UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Level of Study 3rd YEAR
BACHELOR OF ARTS IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Course Name Business information Systems

Course Code ICT 312

Examination number BBM31/06020

Lecturer Hopeson Chagwira

Mode of Attendance WEEKEND Examination # ONE

Submission Date 15 June 2020 Due Date 15 June 2020

Student Signature Grade

(Official Use)
Question 2: Explain how Information Technology has impacted the business environment
and society.

Easy to reach customers - Social media and the internet, has made reaching customers easier
than ever. Using website tools and various social platforms, even the newest small business can
post goods and services that helps interested customers find them easily. Instead of paying
third parties for advertising in print or electronic media, today’s business owners oversee their
own customer outreach and there is no need to travel to search for new customers, because
researching and reaching out to potential customers can all be done online. The result is a
reduced cost that levels the playing field between large corporations and startups.

Providing Customer Satisfaction - Customer experience and satisfaction are crucial aspects of
all businesses. The key to customer satisfaction is a strong customer support team and its
availability to provide to the requirements of the customers.

Information technology provides the best tools for communicating with customers and solving
their problems in real time using facilities like Email, social media, and other messaging
platforms. This results into making customers happy and this results into growth of the business.

Impact on Operating Costs - Another area where the information technological environment
has leveled off things out is the costs associated with running a business. Companies sell their
items online, which means they do not need to have a shop where they will be paying rentals
and other operating costs. The cost of starting a new business has dropped dramatically in
recent years, since founders can now launch a venture from home using social media platforms
and others. And, instead of hiring staff to run the business, entrepreneurs find that software
handles all the early-stage functions they need.

Costly and time consuming - whenever new technology or new protocols are implemented at
the office, often several hours are spent training employees on the same. That can cost you a lot
in terms of actual man hours and money when you would be better off focusing the core business
of your venture.
Social relationships – Information Technology provides the facility to make contacts and
maintain
Social relationships – Information Technology has helped to create facilities to make contacts
and maintain relationships with people around the world in people’s daily routines. The use of
internet and other communications channels people connect on emails, social media networks
and cellphones. This is less expensive and saves a lot of time.

Education – New ways of learning are possible with Information Technology such as e -
learning distance learning, on-line materials, virtual learning, and interactive multi-media.
Students can be part of these various learning and teaching platforms from all over the world.
and teachers and students can log in on the learning sites at same time and the same pace for the
virtual classroom for e-learning. This is a smart investment the students future

Communication: We can communicate each other without boundaries. It becomes

Communication – We can communicate with each other without boundaries. It becomes quicker
because we can send an instant message in a fraction of time with the low cost
which saves costs and no manpower needed for delivery.

Job losses – Information Technology can lead to Job losses as manual operations are now being
replaced by automated gadgets.

Reduced face to face interactions – People nowadays like communicating online rather than
real conversations and people became more individualistic and closed. Another limitation is that
people are not able to express their real feelings or what they really want to say on email or on
social media networks.
Question 3: Explain the statement there are different types of topologies categorized
according to their physical layout

The term topology refers that way in which the end points, or stations, attached to the network
are interconnected or it is the arrangements of systems in a computer network. It can be either
physical or logical. A logical topology is how devices appear connected to the user. A physical
topology is how they are interconnected with wires and cables. For example, in a shared Ethernet
network that uses hubs rather than switches, the logical topology appears as if every node is
connected to a common bus that runs from node to node. However, its physical topology is a
star, in which every node on the network connects to a central hub.

The network topology can be categorized into bus, ring, star, and mesh.

Bus Topology - A bus topology is characterized using a multi-point medium. A long and single
cable acts as a backbone to connect all the devices in a network. In a bus topology, all computers
are stations attaching through an interfacing hardware to connect to the network and it connects
directly to the bus network. Data is transmitted and received to the bus, by the duplex actions
between the tap and the device. Devices in the bus topology send a broadcast message to the
other device for communications.

Advantages

 Bus topology can install very easily on a network.

 Cabling will be less compared to other topologies because of the main backbone cable
laid efficiently in the network path.
 Bus topology is suited for a small network.
  If one computer fails in the network, the other computers are not affected they will
continue to work.

Disadvantages

 The cable length is limited and thereby limiting the number of stations.
 If main cable fails, then the entire network will fail.
 It is very difficult to trouble shoot.
 Maintenance cost is very high in a long run.

Ring Topology - The ring topology is the network consists of dedicated point to point
connection and a set of repeaters in a closed loop. Signals passing through ring in a single
direction until they reach to its destination. It may be clockwise or anti clockwise. Data is
transmitted in the form of frames.

Advantages

 It performs better than star topology under heavy workload

 There is no need for a network server.
 It is cheaper than star topology because of less wiring.

Disadvantages

 A failure or break in the ring can disable the entire network.

 It is much slower than an Ethernet network with under normal load.

Star Topology - Star topology is the network in which each station is directly connected to a
central connecting node called hub. In star topology all the devices are not directly connected to
one another. All the devices are connecting to the central server (switching hub). This topology
does not enable the direct traffic between the devices in the network. A controller act as the
interface between the devices.

Advantages

 If anyone connection is fails in the network, it will not affect the entire network. Only
that connection or link will be affected.
 It is easy to identify the fault and fault isolation.
 Easy to expand the network in the star topology.
 No failure to the network when connecting or removing devices.
 It is very easy to manage because of its simplicity in the function

Disadvantages

 In a star topology, if the central connecting device goes down, the entire network will
fail.
 It requires more cable length compared to the linear bus topology.
 Star topology is more expensive than bus topology because of the connection ports like
hub

Mesh Topology - In a mesh topology, every device is connected to each other or a dedicated
point to point link to every other device. (Dedicated term means that the traffic links only
between the two devices it connects).
Advantages

 There is no traffic problem because of the dedicated link in the mesh network.
 Mesh topology is very strong. If any link becomes not active it does not deactivate the
entire system.
 Point-to-point links make full identification and fault isolation easy.
 Security or privacy for data travels along the dedicated line.
 Network can be expanded without any disruptions to the users.

Disadvantages

 Installation and reconnection are difficult.

 Mesh topology required more cabling and the number input/output ports comparing with
other network topologies.
 The hardware required to connect each link can be prohibitively expensive.
Question 4: Every Information System is prone to threats. Explain which approaches you
would use to prevent data loss inline with their corresponding threats

Natural disasters – The threat of natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, heatwaves, and
storms can lead to data loss.

The loss of data due to natural disasters can be prevented by:

 Use fire, water and tamper-proof vaults and safes to store credentials of digital assets if
they are being stored on a paper
 Store hard drives in a dry, temperature controlled environment with multiple backups at
various locations
 Using digital assets such as online banking credentials, Sensitive employer data, email
list, client’s information, statistics on growth, profits, and assets

Human error – Accidents like inaccurate data entry, failure to comply with IT procedures of the
organization and attempts to carry out tasks beyond the ability of the employee.

Data loss due to human error can be prevented by:

 One important measure to prevent human error in data handling is proper training. Ensure
your employees understand how data processing within the company works and how the
backup systems functions. This can be as simple as knowing if the documents will be
backed up automatically or if they must manually save files while they are working.
 Mistakes from human error can also be minimized through several software means.
Automation minimizes the amount of human interaction with data, which reduces the risk
of deletion or overwriting. An optimized workflow will also leave little room for human
error to occur while saving employees time and making mistakes easier to spot. Backup
systems should also be used to preserve previous data states.
 Recovering accidentally deleted or overwritten data due to human error can sometimes be
as simple as searching through the computer’s recycle bin. Other times, it is possible to
access previously saved versions of a document. When lost data is not as easy to retrieve,
recovery software can be a great tool. File recovery software scans computer’s hard drive
to identify and restore lost data.
Viruses and malware – viruses can lead to data loss since they can steal and delete swaths of
data or bring business operations to a crawl, destroying company functionality. A computer often
gets a virus from an email-based attack or through phishing that tempts an employee to click on a
corrupted link. This link then allows the virus or malware to enter the computer system to
damage or steal files.

Data loss due to viruses and malware can be prevented by:

 Guard against malware with appropriate anti-virus software. By keeping the anti-virus
systems constantly updated and regularly run scans viruses can be catch before they can
do any serious damage.
 Making regular data backups just in case a malicious program wrecks the data. Often
backed up data is the only way to recover lost data from malware or viruses.
 Blocking all authorized access to some websites using system firewall.

Hackers - making good cyber security measures is essential. Unauthorized guests in a network
can cause serious damage to data, deleting and stealing any data they wish. They can even
damage entire network processes if they have sufficient access to the system.

Data loss due to hackers can be prevented by:

 Using firewalls in the system to keep out hackers.

 Using strong passwords which are not easy to guess
 Using servers with tight security

Theft – this can either be physical theft of hardware and software or data theft which is making
copies to the most important files without harming the original files.

Data loss due to theft can be prevented by:

 Ensure that computers are kept in locked rooms that only employees authorized to use
them have access to.
  Installing anti-theft software on computers with valuable information. This software has
an option remotely wiping the data.
 setting up auditing on files and folders that contain sensitive data so that one can see who
accessed the data and when

Question 1: Explain whether to go for a single file system or database system for the
company’s data storage
A database system is used for storing related, structured data with well defined data formats in an
efficient manner, providing options for insert, update and retrieval of data while a single file
system is more unstructured data storage system for storing arbitrary and probably unrelated
data. The main difference between file system and DBMS is that the file system helps to store a
collection of raw data files into the hard disk while the DBMS helps to easily store, retrieve, and
manipulate data in a database. For example in a single file system, employee records which were
stored cannot be edited to reflect changes, if records were capture in 1990 they will be as the are
in 2020 while in database system records can be edited anytime to reflect changes over time.
Tasks such as storing, retrieving, and searching are done manually in a file system. Therefore, it
is difficult to manage data using a file system. On the other hand, operations such as updating,
searching, selecting data is easier in DBMS because it allows using structured query language.

Disadvantages of single file system are:

Data redundancy: Data redundancy refers to the duplication of data, for say we are managing
the data of a college where a student is enrolled for two courses, the same student details in such
case will be stored twice, which will take more storage than needed. Data redundancy often leads
to higher storage costs and poor access time.

Data inconsistency: Since there is repetition of date store, if data is changed on one file, there is
need to change the other file as well. If the data on one file is not changed to reflect changes,
there will be data inconsistency.

Data Isolation: Because data is scattered in various files, and files may be in different formats,
writing new application programs to retrieve the appropriate data is difficult.

Dependency on application programs: Changing files would lead to change in application

programs.

Data Security: Data should be secured from unauthorized access, in an organization employee
should not be able to see payroll of the organization, such kind of security constraints are
difficult to apply in file processing systems.

Advantage of database management system over file system

No redundant data: Redundancy removed by data normalization. There is no data duplication,
this saves storage and improves access time.

Data Security: It is easier to apply access constraints in database systems so that only authorized
user can access the data. Each user has a different set of access thus data is secured from the
issues such as identity theft, data leaks and misuse of data.

Easy access to data – Database systems manages data in such a way so that the data is easily
accessible with fast response times.

Easy recovery: Since database systems keeps the backup of data, it is easier to do a full recovery
of data in case of a failure.

Flexible: Database systems are more flexible than file processing systems.

Disadvantages of database management system:

 DBMS implementation cost is high compared to the file system

 Complexity - Database systems are complex to understand
 Performance - Database systems are generic, making them suitable for various
applications.