Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
ACCT4540/5540
Accounting Information Systems
2010
Jim Marlatt
Fall
Sample Solution
I will assess your answers against a key and the quality of the work of your
peers. Unnecessary and/or redundant information will negatively impact
your score. Strive to be CLEAR, CONCISE AND COMPLETE.
Make sure to provide a specific example to support each answer.
Use only the space provided to answer each question. Do not write in the
margins, make sure your font is big enough to read easily (the font used for
the exam questions is a good reference).
Use the back of page five as scratch paper, this information will not be
reviewed or graded.
Question 3 (70 points): How do you determine what processes to map and what to
include in those process maps?
In order to make improvements to work being done in the business, you must first
understand what is being done (as-is processes) and identify ways to improve it (to-be
processes). Process maps help identify non-value added work. The processes to map
are determined by the scope of the project. What to include in the process map is
determined by the scope of the process.
Process maps describe events which are important to the business (as defined by
business objectives/KPIs), the resources affected by these events and the agents who
participate in these events. These process maps also help identify risks and the
corresponding controls to address these risks.
Example: A customer purchases gas using the payment processing function at the pump.
The current process accepts the credit card as long as it was not flagged by the credit
card processing company (over credit limit, stolen, etc.). Unfortunately more than 1% of
all transactions are later contested by credit card holders, reducing profits by a
significant amount. The existing process is modeled and it is determined that thieves
are able to create physical cards using stolen credit card information, but in most cases
dont have access to the cardholders address. A new process is created which requires
the credit cardholder to enter a zip code as part of the payment approval process, which
reduces the percent of contested charges by more than 80%.
Question 4 (70 points): How is a relational database used to collect and analyze
information?
A relational database is comprised of the following components:
Entities anything about which the organization wants to collect and report information (e.g. customers)
Attributes represent information about the entity (e.g. customer name, address, etc. Together these
attributes form records.
Relationships identify how entities relate to one another. For example, the entity customer relates to
another entity customer orders (answers the question, which orders are from which customer?)
Primary key each record must be unique in order to maintain data integrity. For example in the
customer table, a specific customer should only be represented once using a primary key to control this
(customer id).
Foreign key - is used to connect related entities to one another. For example, the primary key customer
id is placed in the order table for each order from that customer.
Data integrity by storing information in separate entities and making sure data is represented only once
in the system, this allows data to be inserted, updated and deleted with minimal redundancy and
inconsistencies.
Data sharing it is easier to share data with multiple applications and users.
Data reporting and flexibility the database can be searched easily to answer business questions,
produce reports, etc. These queries and reports can be reused or revised as needed by users.
Question 5: Using the data model on page 5, answer the following questions:
a. (30 points) Write the SQL query to answer the question For each date, list the orders received on that
date.
Select Orders.orderdate, Orders.orderid
From Orders
Group by orders.orderdate, orders.orderid;
b. (30 points) Which tables would need to be queried in order to answer the question - List the suppliers
company name for all products that customers have ordered during the last two weeks.
Suppliers
Suppliers_Products
Products
Order_Details
Orders