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ASAP M Tute02 Answers Guide
ASAP M Tute02 Answers Guide
BEFORE TUTORIAL 2
Read the material indicated below and attempt answers to the questions that follow.
Material to read:
MyUni>Data Analytics – Microsoft Power BI Material>Topic 1 –
Introduction to Power BI.pdf
Key aim of Topic 1 is to familiarise students with Power BI, key parts
and differences, major building blocks, and concepts of data modelling
and visualisations. Topics that follow include hands-on, practical work
using Power BI Service and Power BI Desktop.
Questions to attempt:
- What is Power BI and what are the key parts of Power BI
environment?
- What are the key, major building blocks of Power BI?
- What are the key differences between Power BI Service and Power
BI Desktop?
- What is data modelling and visualisation?
Question 1
Give three examples each of advantages and disadvantages of an ERP system
with a centralized database. How can you increase the change of a successful
ERP implementation?
Question 2
Some individuals argue that accountants should focus on producing financial
statements and leave the design and production of managerial reports to
information systems specialists. What are the advantages and disadvantages of
following this advice? To what extent should accountants be involved in
producing reports that include more than just financial measures of
performance? Why?
The main disadvantage of this is that accountants would ignore much relevant
information about the organization’s activities. To the extent that such
nonfinancial information (e.g., market share, customer satisfaction, measures of
quality, etc.) is important to management, the value of the accounting function
would decline. Moreover, accountants have been trained in how to design
systems to maximize the reliability of the information produced. If relevant
information is not produced by the AIS, there is danger that the information may
be unreliable because the people responsible for its production have not been
trained in, or adequately aware of, the potential threats to reliability and the best
measures for dealing with those threats.
Business processes are defined in the text as a series of interlocking activities that
work together, across the organisation, to achieve an organisational goal. The design
of the business process will be influenced strongly by the use of an ERP system. ERP
systems represent a business process perspective that has been captured in
organisational software, with the design philosophy of the ERP system being the
support of business processes rather than a functional perspective. At best, ERP
systems can drive the design of a business’s processes by virtue of the fact that the
processes incorporated into the ERP system represent ‘best practice’. For
organisations adopting ERP systems, it is usually recommended that they change the
existing processes to match those encapsulated in the ERP system. Thus ERP systems
can have a strong influence on the design of business processes.
Question 4
James McFarlane is the manager of a medium-sized manufacturing company.
His company is looking at improving the design of its sales and manufacturing
processes and one employee has suggested that it considers adopting an ERP
system. The employee said something about the benefit of best practice in ERP
systems. James is not sure which way to go. He believes that the organisation’s
current practices are basically sound, unique in the industry and that, with a
little modification, they could be even more of a distinguishing factor for the
business. He has reservations about ERP systems. Advise James on the risks and
benefits an organisation faces in adopting the processes in an ERP system.
Should his company go ahead with the ERP system? Explain your reasoning.
Question 5
What kinds of documents are most likely to be turnaround documents? Do an
Internet search to find the answer and to find example turnaround documents.
• Utility bills
• Meter cards for collecting readings from gas meters, photocopiers, water
meters etc
• Subscription renewal notices
• Inventory stock cards
• Invoices
• Checks (banks encode account info on the bottom of checks)
• Annual emissions inventory forms
(http://www.deq.state.ok.us/aqdnew/Emissions/TurnAroundDocs.htm)
DURING TUTORIAL 2