Question No.

1 (a)
What is a transaction? Provide several examples of different types of organizational transactions.

Answer: What is transaction?

A transaction is any activity in business that involves money. It occurs when something of value is exchanged with something else of value. The act of recording transactions is called bookkeeping. In computer programming, a transaction usually means a sequence of information exchange and related work (such as database updating) that is treated as a unit for the purposes of satisfying a request and for ensuring database integrity. For a transaction to be completed and database changes to made permanent, a transaction has to be completed in its entirety. A typical transaction is a catalog merchandise order phoned in by a customer and entered into a computer by a customer representative. The order transaction involves checking an inventory database, confirming that the item is available, placing the order, and confirming that the order has been placed and the expected time of shipment. If we view this as a single transaction, then all of the steps must be completed before the transaction is successful and the database is actually changed to reflect the new order. If something happens before the transaction is successfully completed, any changes to the database must be kept track of so that they can be undone. A program that manages or oversees the sequence of events that are part of a transaction is sometimes called a transaction monitor. Transactions are supported by Structured Query Language, the standard database user and programming interface. When a transaction completes successfully, database changes are said to be committed; when a transaction does not complete, changes are rolled back. In IBM's Customer Information Control System product, a transaction is a unit of application data processing that results from a particular type of transaction request. In CICS, an instance of a particular transaction request by a computer operator or user is called a task.

Less frequently and in other computer contexts, a transaction may have a different meaning. For example, in IBM mainframe operating system batch processing, a transaction is a job or a job step.

Different types of organizational transactions. Organizational transactions are financial actions that affect the resources of a company. These can be within the business or business-to-business transactions, business-toconsumer transactions or business-to-government transactions. Every time a company agrees to take some action -- such as make a payment in exchange for anything of value -- it creates a legal contract. Therefore, organizational transactions are also contracts.

Inter-Organizational Transactions
Inter-organizational transactions pertain to events that take place within the organization. This can include partnership agreements, technology and software licensing, trademarks and copyrights, non-disclosure agreements and employment contracts. Partnership agreements take place when two or more parties decide to start a business. Non-disclosure agreements and employment contracts are normally human resources transactions.

Business to Business
Business to business, or B2B, transactions can take place between for-profit organizations or nonprofit organizations. Types of common B2B transactions are buy and sell agreements, commercial leases, sales contracts, real estate transactions and franchise agreements. Companies are required to keep a journal, which is a book in which business transactions are recorded and shown on supporting documents. Some companies have to keep separate journals for transactions that occur frequently.

Business-to-Consumer Transactions
This includes everyday buying and selling of retail goods and services. It also includes the buying and selling of stock shares. Oral agreements between a business and consumer can also be treated as a legal transaction and therefore can be a legal, binding contract.

Busines- to-Government Transactions

The federal government is the largest contractor in the country. It contracts various businesses for products and services pertaining to government needs. The government contracts for many different departments, including military and day-to-day operations. Examples could be toothpaste for the military or toilet paper for the justice department building.

Question No.2 (b)

What are some major problems associated with manual transaction processing systems? What are the benefits of computer based transaction processing?

Answer:
Problem of manual transaction processing system.

Cost- time is money and employees Data duplication: The same data gets repeated over and over since the workers find it hard to keep track of the documents, information and transactions Lack of security: Since data is stored in filing cabinets it is freely available to anyone. If information falls into the wrong hands it can be used against the company and customers and can blackmail them. Common errors: When entering data customers might have accidentally switched details and data since it is hand written. Inconsistency of data: There will be an unavailability for future use, since data might get misplaced during manual filing.so data wont be preserved properly for future use. Repetition of work: If there are any changes to be made, the data will have to be entered again.at times the worker would forget to make the changes or forget that they had already altered it and might redo it again, its again time consuming. Too much paper work: Since everything and every details is written down manually in paper there will be too much paper work! Space consuming: Since the data and paper is stored in filing cabinets it consumes too much place, as the amount of work done on paper increases the filing cabinets too increases. Slow retrieval of data: The information of customers and details are stored in different parts of the site and so takes a long time to retrieve the data.it takes a long time to find the

information about a relevant person.in case of a Delivery, th e delivery will be held back.this results in a shrp drop in sales, unhappy customers and a bad impression on the company.

Benefits of computer based transaction system. A computerized accounting system has many benefits, including: Improved Reporting To Funders - many projects have more than one funding source, each with specific and different requirements; Assisting with compliance with charity regulations e.g. SORP;

Minimal sing Mathematical Errors - with computers doing the maths, errors are virtually eliminated (unless the data is keyed in improperly in the first instance); Better Record Keeping - whilst human error can still corrupt your data e.g. entering figures in wrong fields, a good package will reduce this possibility and ensure that there is a reference for all transactions e.g. for every cheque or receipt entered/created. However, this does not eliminate all manual work. Vouchers, invoices, receipts etc. will still need to be filed in a logical order and details of what was entered onto the system should also be recorded on paper. This will help when you need to track errors, in the annual audit and if disaster strikes and you have to re-enter all transactions;

Saving Time - with fewer errors and the software automatically generating reports, time will be saved in the long run; Saving Money - even though there will be the immediate cost of the software, you are potentially saving the costs of unnecessary audits as well as saving money through time saved.

Question No.3 (a) What is a decision support system? What are the primary components of a decision support system? Answer: Decision Support System (DSS): A decision support system (DSS) is a computer program application that analyzes business data and presents it so that users can make business decisions more easily. It is an "informational application" (to distinguish it from an "operational application" that collects the data in the course of normal business operation).Typical information that a decision support application might gather and present would be: Comparative sales figures between one week and the next Projected revenue figures based on new product sales assumptions The consequences of different decision alternatives, given past experience in a context that is described A decision support system may present information graphically and may include an expert system or artificial intelligence (AI). It may be aimed at business executives or some other group of knowledge workers.

Components of Decision Support System: Traditionally, academics and MIS staff have discussed building Decision Support Systems in term of four major components. The User Interface The Database The models and analytical tools The DSS architecture and network

This traditional list of components remains useful because it identifies similarities and differences between categories and types of DSS. The DSS framework is primarily based on the different emphases placed on DSS components when systems are actually constructed. Data-Driven, Document-Driven and Knowledge-Driven DSS need specialized database components. A Model-Driven DSS may use a simple flat-file database with fewer than 1,000 records, but the model component is very important. Experience and some

empirical evidence indicate that design and implementation issues vary for Data-Driven, Document-Driven, Model-Driven and Knowledge-Driven DSS. Multi-Participant systems like Group and Intee-Organizational DSS also create complex implementation isseus.