UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT FACULTY OF COMMERCE

COURSE TITLE:
BUSINESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS

STUDENT NAME:

TAFADZWA GWENA

STUDENT #:

R910455T

COURSE INSTRUCTOR:

ENG M MANUHWA

Question: Assignment # 1

Question (1) i )WHAT ARE EXPERT SYSTEMS

Expert systems is a computer program that attempts to replicate the performance of a human expert at some specialized reasoning task. Also known as knowledge based systems, expert systems are able to store and manipulate knowledge so that they can help a user solve problems and make a decision.

THE MAIN FEATURES OF AN EXPERT SYSTEMS ARE

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. They are limited to specific knowledge Domain i.e. Area of Expertise Typically rule based decision making process It can reason with uncertain Data ( User can respond with I dont know answers) It delivers advise It explains reasoning to the user

An expert system has the following Constituencies 1. The Knowledge base that contains the facts and rules provided by a human expert 2. Some means of using the knowledge ( I.E A computer program known as the inference engine) 3. A means of communicating with the user ( I.E the Human computer interfaces)

USES OF EXPERT SYSTEMS

Expert systems are used in organizations to make decisions using people that not very knowledgeable in the particular expert area. Organizations can also gain high competiveness since they can employ less people and still achieve high quality decisions.

ii) WHAT IS CASE-BASED REASONING AND HOW DOES IT DIFFER FROM AN EXPERT SYSTEM, HOW DOES IT SUPPORT KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Case based reasoning is a way of solving new problems by remembering the old occurrences of the same problems or similar. In reality CBR is not a technology but a methodology or an approach however in conjunction with todays computing technology very powerful CBR systems can be implemented using a combination of the fundamentals of CBR and databases to store the cases of previous occurrences. A typical example of CBR application are in the Financial sector an bankers wishing to provide a loan to someone may quickly be reminded of a similar case involving a person from the same company who eventually refused to repay his loan.

HOW CBRS DIFFER FROM EXPERT SYSTEMS

Expert systems basically capture the knowledge of a particular Expert area meaning that it tries to emulate a human expert such as an accountant basically and expert system captures knowledge by faculty where as CBR a much more inclusive into the organization so they capture knowledge pertaining to the whole company rather than individual expert. In summary Expert systems make continuous decisions based on the providing situation without being influenced from past history. Whereas CBR the database of knowledge actually grows within the organizations with knowledge cases being populated by the users within the company.

iii) WHAT IS NEURAL NETWORK AND HOW CAN NEURAL NETWORKS HELP COMPANIES WITH KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Neural Networks models are a series of algorithms of cognitive tasks such as learning and optimization. Which are loosely speaking derived from research into the nature of the human brain. A Neural Network is an information processing network that is modeled around the a way biological nervous systems or brain works and processes information. The key element of this approach to artificial intelligence is the unique structure of the information processing system. It is composed of a large number of highly interconnected processing elements known as neurons working in unison to solve specific problems. Neural Networks, like people, have a cognitive ability to learn. A Neural network can be configured for a specific application, such as pattern

recognition or data classification, through a learning process. Learning in biological systems involves adjustments to the synaptic connections that exist between the neurons. This is is also true in a Neural Network system. In practice neural networks are developed by simulating the neurons using software based algorithms.

iv) WHAT IS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Business intelligence (BI) is a deliberate approach to business where by technologies , software applications, artificial intelligence and other technological solutions are

collected and integrated to formulate the basis of analyzing, integrating, processing and presentation of business information. The purpose of business intelligence is to help managers and others responsible for business strategy better understand their organizations operations, make wiser, more informed business decisions, and manage operational performance. Business intelligence systems make use data that has been gathered into a data warehouse or a data mart to present historical, current, and predictive views of business operations. Operational data may also be used. The software components of a Business intelligence system support data mining, analysis, and reporting of information, providing detailed reports on production, sales and other financial reports. This information may further be compared to other data be it external historical or related in any othey way in order extract provide valuable benchmarks.

Question 2 i)DEFINE AND DESCRIBE IS FUZZY LOGIC FOR WHAT KINDS OF APPLICATIONS IS IT SUITED

Fuzzy logic or Fuzzy systems is another approach to Artificial intelligence that makes use of fuzzy sets or rules in order to make decisions. The important aspect of fuzzy logic is they fuzzy rules tolerate imprecision Unlike in Boolean Logic Fuzzy Logic is not based precise and deterministic results such 0 or 1 in Boolean algebra, but rather on approximate quantities. Fuzzy sets are based on vague definitions of sets although they are not random. Fuzzy logic is not imprecise rather, it is a formal mathematical technique of handling imprecise data. Given the similarity in which fuzzy logic to human decision making. Fuzzy logic has been adopted in business to assist in making decisions especially where human like decision making is required.For instance, given various weather conditions to process such as, stormy, rainy, cloudy, sunny, ordinary logic would assign one of these values to any weather condition being observed. People however would recognize all sorts of shades in between theses states such as dull or drizzle etc. This is exactly what fuzzy logic can do. What is more impressive is that fuzzy logic offers a way of processing these decisions so that a final result is still correct.

ii)GENETIC ALGORITHIMS A genetic algorithm (GA) is a method of programming and problem solving using algorithms that mimics the process of natural evolution. This method of programming is generally known as evolution programming (EA). These algorithms are routinely used to generate useful solutions to optimization and search problems Precisely put a genetic algorithm (GA) is a programming technique that emulates

biological evolution similar to (Darwinian science) as a problem-solving strategy. Given a specific challenge to solve, the input to the GA is a set of potential solutions to that problem, encoded manner , and a metric also known as fitness function allows each candidate to be quantitatively evaluated. These candidates may be solutions already known to work, with the aim of the GA being to improve them, but more often they are just generated randomly.

The GA then evaluates each candidate according to the fitness function. In a pool of randomly generated candidates, of course most will fail at birth, and these will be deleted. However, purely by chance, a few may survive and continue to show activity, though at times weak and imperfect activity with regards to solving the problem. These surviving candidates are kept and allowed to reproduce. Multiple copies are made of them, but the copies are not perfect; random changes are introduced during the copying process. These digital offspring are then allowed to proceed to the next generation, forming a new pool of candidate solutions, and are subjected to the next round of fitness test. Those candidate solutions which were worsened, or made no better, by the changes to their code are again deleted; but again, purely by chance, the random variations introduced into the population may have improved some individuals, making them into better, more complete or more efficient solutions to the problem at hand. Again these winning individuals are selected and copied over into the next generation with random changes, and the process repeats. The expectation is that the average fitness of the population will increase each round, and so by repeating this process for hundreds or thousands of rounds, very good solutions to the problem can be discovered. iii)WHAT ARE INTELLIGENT AGENTS Intelligent Agents are computer algorithms that act as task agents. These virtual entities can communicates, co-operates and negotiates with each other. They have the ability to take over human tasks and interact with people in human like ways. They are bringing technology into a new dimension simplifying the use of computers, allowing humans to move away from complex programming languages creating a more human interaction a typical application is development of computer games such as chess intelligent agents but more complex business solutions are possible. A more definitive description of intelligent agents are software entities that carry out some set of tasks on behalf of a user or another program with a certain degree of independence or autonomy, and in so doing, employ some knowledge or representation

of the users goals or desires. As mentioned above, advanced agents collaborate and negotiate with other

iv)KNOWLEDGE TECHNOLOGY.

MANAGEMENT

IS

BUSINESS

PROCESS,

NOT

Knowledge management is basically a means collection of processes for capturing, sharing, organizing, finding and using knowledge regardless of the form that the

knowledge takes. It is not a technology however technology is more often used to implement Knowledge management systems. In the form of networks, Databases and Intranets and extranets. QUESTION 3 i)THE INTERNET MAY NOT MAKE CORPORATIONS OBSOLETE, BUT THEY WILL HAVE TO CHANGE THEIR BUSINESS MODELS. DO YOU AGREE? Indeed the internet is the current state of doing business in todays world. In this regard corporations are faced with the challenge of either to conform or to ship out. It has happened before in history and it may happen again. You just can not challenge technology when it arrives. A company called Pony express is a classical failure in the face of the fax machine. And Today companies are facing a similar challenge in the face of internet. At one time email was just a luxury or something for the youthful mind but today its a necessity. As you may know already, email is a subset of the Internet. As we speak now a company website is now a must for a company to operate. To this end for companies today, it is either shape-up or ship-out. The Internet has not come to destroy the current businesses however they will need to conform and abide by the new rules of doing business the Internet way.. ii)DESCRIBE THE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES POSED BY ELECTRONIC COMMERCE AND ELECTRONIC BUSINESS AND SUGGEST SOME SOLUTIONS As the information technology industry moves towards the creation of an open, competitive Electronic Marketplace it is important to note that the infrastructure must

developed in an infrastructure that supports the seamless location, transfer, and integration of business information in a secure and reliable manner. This Marketplace will be used by all application domains to procure commodities and order supplies. As such management must see to it the electronic commerce applications will require easyto-use, robust, security services, a full suite of middleware services, and data and protocol conversion services. Using E-Commerce it will be possible for a purchasing agent to competitively procure supplies from manufacturer. However the issue of network security and availability will have to addressed first. . iii)WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GRID COMPUTING, CLUSTER COMPUTING AND THE WEB?
When two or more computers are used together to solve a problem, it is called a computer cluster . Then there are several ways of implementing the cluster, but basically it is just cooperation between computers in order to solve a task or a problem. Cluster Computing is then just the thing you do when you use a computer cluster. Grid computing is something similar to cluster computing, it makes use of several computers connected in one way or another, to solve a given challenge. There is often some confusion between grid vs. cluster computing. The difference is that a cluster is homogenous while grids are heterogeneous. Homogenous basically means the single units have identical operating environments while heterogeneous means they can be different environments all together Linux, Windows, Unix for example. The computers that are part of a grid can run different operating systems and have different hardware whereas the cluster computers all have the same hardware and OS. A grid can make use of spare computing power on a desktop computer while the machines in a cluster are dedicated to work as a single unit and nothing else. Grid are inherently distributed by its nature over a LAN, metropolitan or WAN. On the other hand, the computers in the cluster are normally contained in a single location or complex. Finally the Web is just a collection of Heterogeneous computers interconnected computers not necessarily cooperating on a common task but typically sharing information although web computing is also becoming possible with technologies such as cloud computing.

iv)DESCRIBE THE CAPABILITIES OF ONLINE ANALYTICAL PROCESSING (OLAP) AND DATA MINING.

Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) allows business users to slice and dice data at will, also known as data mining. Normally data in an organization is distributed in multiple data sources and are incompatible with each other. A retail example: Point-of-sales data and sales made via call-center or the Web are stored in different location and formats. It would a time consuming process for an executive to obtain OLAP reports such as - What are the most popular products purchased by customers between the 15 to 30 years of age.

QUESTION 4 i)TCP/IP Means Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol This a suite of protocols that allow data to be transmitted reliably within the Internet. It is the basis on which the Internet is based. E-Commerce, although defined quite separately from the internet, is most commonly implemented based on the Internet Topology there relies quite heavily on the underlying TCP/IP protocol ii)XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a flexible way to create common information formats and share both the format and the data on the Internet, intranets, and elsewhere. For example, retailers might agree on a standard or common way to describe the information about a certain retailed products such toys shoes or computers and then describe the product information format with XML. Such a standard way of describing data would enable a user to send an intelligent agent (a program) to each retailers Web site, gather data, and then make a valid comparison. XML can be used by any individual or group of individuals or companies that wants to share information in a consistent way especially for E-commerce purposes.

iii)(WAP) The Wireless Application Protocol is the de-facto world standard for the presentation and delivery of wireless information and telephony services on mobile phones and other wireless terminals. The WAP Forum has published a global wireless protocol specification, based on existing Internet standards such as XML and IP, for all wireless networks. The WAP specification is developed and supported by the wireless telecommunication community so that

the entire industry and most importantly, its subscribers, can benefit from a single, open specification. WAP is designed to work with most wireless networks such as CDPD, CDMA, GSM was thus born with a desire to establish a common format for Internet transfers to mobile telephones, without having to customize the Internet pages for the particular display on every different mobile telephone or personal organizer. WAP allows Software developers to create ECommerce Applications for Mobile Devices. iv)VOICE OVER IP. This is simply the transmission of voice traffic over the Internet Protocol IP-based networks. The Internet Protocol (IP) was originally designed for data networking. The success of IP in becoming a world standard for data networking has led to its adaption to voice networking. Voip is particularly useful because of its cost effectiveness and reliability and quality over the analog telephone. VOIP because it is digitally based allows Business to use it as E-Commerce Tool in an effective way. Question 5 i)

ii)

REFERENCE 1) Expert Systems Research Trends (A.R. Tyler) Nova Science publishers 2007 2) Introduction to Genetic Algorithms (S.N. Deepa & S.N. Sivanandam) Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007 3) Successful Case-Based Reasoning Applications-1 (Stefania Montani & Lakhm C.Jain (Eds.) Verlag Berlin Heildelberg 2010 4) Neural networks theory (Aleksandr Ivanovic Galushkin) Springer- Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007