Chapter 2 Global E-Business and Collaboration Review Questions 2-1 What major features of a business are important for understanding the role of information systems? Define a business and describe the major business functions. A business is a formal organization whose aim is to produce products or provide services for a profit. That is, to sell products at a price greater than the costs of production. Every business, large or small, has these four major functions Manufacturing and production; sales and marketing, human resources, and finance and accounting Define business processes and describe the role they play in organizations. A business process is a logically related set of activities that define how specific business tasks are performed. Business processes are the ways n which organizations coordinate and organize workactivities, information, and knowledge to produce their valuable products or services. Business processes for the manufacturing and production area include product assembling, quality checking, and producing bills of materials. For the sales and marketing area, business processes include identifying customers, making customers aware of the product, and selling the product. For finance and accounting, business processes include paying creditors, creating financial statements, and managing cash accounts. For human resources, business processes include hiring employees, evaluating employees' job performance, and enrolling employees in benefits plans. Identify and describe the different levels in a business firm and their information needs. From highest to lowest, the three levels of the organizational hierarchy are senior, middle, and operational management. Senior managers need summary information that quickly informs them about the overall performance of the firm, such as gross sales revenues, sales by product group and region, and overall profitability Middle managers need more specific information on the results of specific functional areas and departments of the firm, such as sales contacts by the sales force, production statistics for specific factories or product lines