4.  Business Application is a computer program used to fulfill a person’s need for regular occupation or commercial activity.  This means that business applications are software or set of software used by business people to automate various business activities, like sales, purchase, inventory, accounting, reporting etc.

5. Types of Business Applications Nature of processing BatchOn-lineReal-time Source of application In-housePurchasedLeasedMany more Nature of business SmallMediumLarge Functions covered AccountingSalesProductionMany more

6. 1 Accounting Applications 2 Office Management Software 3 Compliance Applications 4 CRM Software 5 Management Support Software 6 ERP Software 7 Product Lifecycle Management Software 8 Logistics Management Software 9 Legal Management Software 10 Industry Specific Applications

7.  Business Process Automation (BPA) is a strategy to automate business processes so as to bring benefit to enterprise in terms of cost, time and effort.  The primary reasons for BPA are:  Cost Saving  Fast service to customers  To remain competitive

8. Confidentiality IntegrityAvailability Timeliness

9. BPA Implementation Define why we plan to implement BPA Understand the rules to comply with Document the process to automate Define the objectives Engage BPA Consultant Calculate the ROI Development of BPA Testing BPA

10. Step 1: Define why we plan to implement a BPA? Errors in manual processes. Payment processes not streamlined, due to this duplicate or late payments, missing early pay discounts. Payment for goods and services not received. Poor debtor management leading to high invoice aging and poor cash flow. Not being able to find documents quickly during an audit. Lengthy or incomplete new processing of recording. Unable to recruit and train new employees, where employees are urgently required. Lack of management understanding of business processes. Poor customer service.

11. Step 2: Understand the rules to comply with?  This governance is established by a combination of internal corporate policies, external industry regulations and local, state, and central laws.  Entity needs to ensure that any BPA adheres to the requirements of law.

12. Step 3: Document the process  Collecting all the documents related to the process the following aspects need to be kept in mind : What documents need to be captured? Where do they come from? What format are they in: Paper, FAX, email, PDF etc.? Who is involved in processing of the documents? What is the impact of regulations on processing of these documents? Can there be a better way to do the same job? How are exceptions in the process handled?  Documentation gives following benefits – It provides clarity on the process. It helps to determine the sources of inefficiency, bottlenecks, and problems. It allows to re-design the process.

13. Step 4: Define the goals and objectives  Determine the key objectives of the process improvement activities. The goals need to be SMART ~  Specific: Clearly defined,  Measurable: Easily quantifiable in monetary terms,  Attainable: Achievable through best efforts,  Relevant: Entity must be in need of these, and  Timely: Achieved within a given time frame.

14. Step 5: Engage the business process consultant To decide as to which company/ consultant to partner with, depends upon the following:  Consultant’s understanding of entity situation.  Experience with entity business process?  Experienced in resolving critical business issues?  Whether the consultant is capable of recommending and implementing a combination of hardware, software and services to meet BPA requirements?  Does the consultant have the required expertise to clearly express the business value?

15. Step 6: Calculate the ROI for project Some of the justification of a BPA may include: – Cost Savings. – Reduction in required manpower and re-using the surplus staff. – Savings in employee salary due to reduction in number. – The cost of space reduced. – Eliminating fines to be paid due to delays being avoided. – Reducing the cost of audits and lawsuits. – Advantage of early payment discounts and eliminating duplicate payments. – Ensuring complete documentation for all new accounts. – New revenue generation opportunities. – Improving cash flow. – Superior levels of customer service. – Instant access to records.

16. Step 7: Developing the BPA  Test the new process to determine how well it works. The objective is to remove all problems during this phase.  Testing allows room for improvements prior to the official launch of the new process, increases user acceptance and decreases resistance to change. Step 8: Testing the BPA  Once the requirements have been document, ROI has been computed and top management approval to go ahead has been received, the consultant develops the requisite BPA.

17. Automation of Purchase order generation process in a Manufacturing company Case Study on BPA

18. Step 1: Define why we plan to go for a BPA?  The company has been facing the problem of non- availability of raw material which is leading to production stoppages and delay in delivery.  Delay in delivery has already cost company in terms of losing customer and sales. Step 2: Understand the regulation to comply with?  As such the item is not covered by regulation, but to keep cost at minimum company has calculated EOQ for which orders are placed.

19. Step 3: Document the process  The present process is manual where the orders are received by purchase department from stores department.  Stores department generates the order using manual stock register, based on item’s re-order levels. Step 4: Define the objectives of BPA  The objective behind the is to ensure that there are no production losses due to non-availability of items of inventory. This shall automatically ensure timely delivery of goods to customer.

20. Step 5: Engage the business process consultant  ABC Limited has been engaged for the same. The consultant has prior experience and knowledge about entity’s business. Step 6: Calculate the ROI for project  The opportunity loss for the project comes to around Rs. 100 lakhs per year.  The cost of implementing the whole BPA shall be around Rs. 50 lakhs.  It is expected that the opportunity loss after BPA shall reduce to Rs. 50 lakhs in year one, Rs. 25/- lakhs in later years for the next five years.

21. Step 7: Developing the BPA  Once the top management says yes, the consultant develops the necessary BPA. The BPA is to generate purchase orders as soon as an item of inventory reaches its re-order level. Step 8: Testing the BPA  Before making the process live, it should be thoroughly tested.

22. TALLY It is an accounting cum inventory application that helps to automate transactions processing of accounts and inventory. It has features such as Remote Access, Tax Audit and Cost centre A/Cing, Excise for Manufacturers, Multilingual Support, VAT, TDS, Real Time Processing, Unique Drill-Down Facility, Unlimited Companies and Periods of Accounting.

23. SAP R/3 It is an ERP software, which allows to integrate business processes, better utilization of the resources and achieve better business performance. It has the features such as time management, budget monitoring, workflow approval, sales management, leave management, travel management, Costing, HR management, Production Planning and Controlling etc.

24. MS Office These are various office automation software which include MSWord, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint, MS Access, etc. Each of these software help to achieve automation of various tasks in the office. It has features such as customized ribbon, built-in graphics toolset, enhanced security, superior editing and formatting, mail-merge, database management etc.

25. Attendance Systems These applications help entity to automate the process of attendance tracking and report generation. It has features such as supervisor login access, holiday pay settings, labour distribution, employee scheduling, employee view time card, overtime settings, employee database etc. It also employ biometric device to take employees attandance.

26. Vehicle Tracking System These applications allow entity to track their goods while in transit. Few applications are high end, allowing owner of goods to check the temperature of cold stored goods while in transit. It has features such as GPS based location, route accuracy while device is moving, real-time vehicle tracking, SMS & e-mail notifications.

27. Automated Toll Collection Systems As India progresses through quadrilateral project, many toll booths have been built to collect tolls. It has features such as real-time toll plaza surveillance system, automatic vehicle identification system, license plate recognition, zoom capability on captured images, laser based transaction processing etc.

28. Department Stores Systems Two critical elements for managing departmental stores have been automated in India; they include the billing processes and inventory management. It has features such as point of sale terminals, multi-channel operation, supplier database, products database, purchase ordering, management reporting, loyalty schemes, stock control and inventory management.

29. Travel Management Systems

30. Educational Institute Management Systems A lot of automation has been achieved in the education institution, including student tracking and record keeping. A student based on his/her registration number can file many documents online including exam forms. It has features such as student’s registration, student’s admission, fee collection, student’s attendance, result management, library management, HR management, staff attendance, payroll system, timetable management, financial accounting, assets management and MIS.

31. File Management System With increasing inventory of office files and records, many file management systems have been developed. These allow office records to be kept in soft copy and easy tracking of the same. It has features such as web access, search, Microsoft office integration, records management, electronic forms, calendar, document version control, document scanning and imaging, virtual folders and document linking etc.

32.  Information is the data that has been transformed into the form which is useful to the user.  The effort to create information from raw data is known as Information Processing.  Information processing is classified into two categories : Manual Information Processing Automated information Processing

33. [A] Manual Information Processing – These are the system where man power is behind all the activities of processing. – Example : Valuation of exam papers, Operations in operation theatres, ticket checking by railway staff in trains etc. – Components of manual information processing include: INPUTPROCESSOUTPUT

34. [B] Automated Information Processing – These are systems where computers are used at every stage of data processing. The components of a automated data processing include: Input: Entering data into the computer; Processing: Performing operations on the data; Storage: Saving data, programs, or output; Output: Presenting the results. STORAGE INPUTPROCESSOUTPUT

35.  IT refer to the mode through which information or products are delivered to users.  In practice, more than one delivery channels will be needed, to reach specific user groups.  Delivery channels for products include:  Buying from a shop;  Home delivery of products;  Buying from a departmental store; and  Buying online, and making payment on delivery.

36. 1 Intranet 2 E-mail 3 Internal newsletters and magazines 4 Face-to-Face communications 5 Notice boards 6 Manuals and other printed resources 7 Hand-held devices 8 Social networking sites

37. [1] More than just the intranet  Staff should be allowed to use whichever methods, they find, are easiest and most efficient to obtain information.  Any attempt to move to the intranet, may fail, unless the intranet is easier than the current methods.  For example, it may be effective to put a notice on the notice board in a canteen, rather than putting the same on intranet.

38. [2] Understand staff needs & environment  Job roles and work environments,  their level of PC access,  their amount of computer knowledge, and  their geographic location.  For example, there may only be a single PC in an enterprise and people may have no time available in the day to access the intranet anyway. In this situation, face-to-face communication may be better.

39. [3] Traditional Channel need to be formalized Instead of attempting to eliminate existing information sources in favour of the intranet, it may be more beneficial to formalize the current practices. For example, staff may have key details pinned to the walls of their cubicles or work locations.

40. Selection of Product Delivery Channels  Customers are now going for online shopping. They not only get wide range of products but also have a shopping experience of a large store. Many physical retailers have to bring themselves on internet.  The change is other way round also. Many online travel sites have opened retail office in cities and towns, to meet their customers.  The key words are “convincing” and “capturing” the customer. So, any delivery channel shall work till it convinces customer.

41.  Enterprises are increasingly relying on IT for business information and transaction processing.  There is a need to ensure that all information is accurate, complete and reliable for decision making, hence there is a requirement for proper controls.  Control is defined as policies, procedures, practices and organization structure that are designed to provide reasonable assurance that business objectives are achieved and undesired events are prevented or detected and corrected.

43. [1] Application controls – Application controls are the controls that cover all phases of data processing from source to destination. – Application controls cover all activities in transaction processing such as – Input, Storage, Processing, Output and Communication. – These are built into the application software ensure accurate and reliable processing. – Application controls ensure that all transactions are authorized, complete and accurate.

44. [2] Internal controls  These are policies, practice and procedures to assist in achieving the safeguarding of assets, prevention of fraud and error, accuracy and completeness of the records, and the timely preparation of reliable information.  The internal control offers following benefits :  Transactions are processed according to the policy;  All transactions are recorded so as to permit preparation of financial information within a framework of policies and statutory requirements.  Assets are protected from unauthorized access;  The recorded transactions are compared with the existing database and appropriate action is taken with regard to any differences.

45. Based on the time at which controls are applied, they may be categorized as follows: Preventive Detective Corrective

46. Boundary Controls Cryptogra phy Password PIN Identificati on Cards Input Control Source Document Data Coding Batch Validation Process Controls Run-to- Run Reasonable -ness verification Edit check Field intitializati on Exception reports Recovery Output Controls Storage of sensitive forms Logging of program execution Printing Report distribution RetentionRecovery Database Controls Sequence check Entire file processing Multiple processing of transaction

48.  Source Document Controls ~ Use pre-printed Sr. Documents. Use pre-numbered Sr. documents. Keep them in safe custody after use.  Data Coding Controls ~ Type of errors ~ Addition:54329543219 Truncation : 543295439 Transcription :5432955329 Transposition :5432945329 Double transposition :5432952349 Controls:11-modulo Check Digit

49.  Batch Controls A batch control sheet is prepared with following details : Batch number, Date, Voucher type; Total Monetary Amount Total Items Total Documents Hash Totals

50.  Validation Controls Level 1: Field Interrogation Limit Check Picture Checks Valid Code Checks Check Digits Arithmetic Check Cross Checks Level 2: Record Interrogation Sequence Checks Format Completeness Checks Redundant Data Checks Password

51.  Validation checks to identify errors during processing.  Enforced through DBMS and front end application system. Controls: Run-to-Run total Reasonableness verification Edit check Field initialization Exception report Recovery control

52.  Output delivered to users are presented, formatted, delivered in secured manner. Controls: Storage of sensitive, critical forms – letter heads Logging of output program execution Control over printing – print queue, printer selection Report distribution control – Retention control – period of retention of output Recovery control – backup of the output

53.  To protect the integrity of the database. Sequence check – Entire file processing control – Control for multiple processing of a single transaction –

54. Network Virtualization Grid Computing Cloud Computing

55.  Virtualization is the process of creating logical computing resources from available physical resources.  This is accomplished using virtualization software.  Network Virtualization allows a large physical network to be provisioned into multiple smaller logical networks  This behavior allows administrators to improve network traffic control and security.

56.  Server Consolidation  Virtual machines are used to consolidate many physical servers into fewer servers  Each physical server is reflected as a virtual machine "guest" residing on a virtual machine host system.  This is also known as “Physical-to-Virtual” or 'P2V' transformation.

57.  Disaster Recovery  Virtual machines can be used as "hot standby" environments for physical production servers.  This changes the classical "backup-and-restore" philosophy, by providing backup images that can "boot" into live virtual machines.  Testing and Training  Hardware virtualization can give root access to a virtual machine.  This can be very useful such as in operating system courses.

58.  Portable Applications  Portable applications are needed when running an application from a removable drive, without installing it on the system's main disk drive.  Virtualization stores temporary files, windows registry entries and other information in the application's installation directory and not within the system's permanent file system.  Portable Workspaces  Recent technologies have used virtualization to create portable workspaces on devices such as virtual drive.

59.  Grid Computing is a computer network in which each computer's resources are shared with every other computer in the system.  In the ideal grid computing system, every resource is shared, turning a computer network into a powerful supercomputer.  With the right user interface, accessing a grid computing system would look no different than accessing a local machine's resources.

60.  An insurance company mines data from partner hospitals for fraud detection.  An application service provider reduce excess load to a processing service provider.  An enterprise configures internal & external resources to support e-Business workload.  Large-scale science and engineering are done through heterogeneous computing resources, and instruments, all of which are geographically and organizationally dispersed.

61.  The term cloud computing is used for computation done through the Internet.  Cloud Computing is the use of various services, such as software development platforms, servers, storage, and software, over the Internet, often referred to as the "cloud."  The ability to pay on-demand and scale quickly is largely a result of cloud computing.

62. 1 Elasticity and Scalability 2 Pay-per-Use 3 On-demand 4 Resiliency 5 Multi Tenancy 6 Workload Movement

63. [A] IaaS Provides virtual machines, other resources and storage required to host the services. Cloud clients install operating-system and their application software on the cloud infrastructure. [B] SaaS Provides users to access large variety of applications that are hosted on service provider’s infrastructure.

64. [C] PaaS It gives us the platform to create, edit, run and manage the application programs. Deliver a computing platform including operating system, programming language, execution environment, database, and web server.

65. Advantages of Cloud Computing Cost Efficient 1 Almost Unlimited Storage 2 Backup and Recovery 3 Automatic Software Integration 4 Easy Access to Information 5 Quick Deployment 6

66. Even the best cloud service providers run into the trouble of technology outage. Technical Issues Surrendering all the sensitive information to a third-party cloud could potentially put the company to great risk. Security in the Cloud Storing information in the cloud could make the company vulnerable to external hack attacks and threats. Prone to Attack