Week Eight Questions: Chapter 7

1.     Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology.

There have been numerous benefits to business through the use of wireless technology. It is able to carry information across geographical areas that cable and fibre optics cannot. Wireless technology has also fuelled a major market and technology disruption, which has permeated almost every consumer market worldwide. The domino effect of the success of wireless technology has resulted in a unique opportunity for innovation and creativity in technology, marketing, and business strategy.

2.     Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP

Voice Over IP (VoIP) uses TCP/IP technology to transmit calls over Internet technology. The benefits associated with VoIP have allowed the telecommunications industry for easier development, interoperability among systems and application integration.

3.     Compare LANs and WANs

A Local Area Network or LAN, is designed to connect a group of computers in close proximity to each other such as in an office building, a school or a home. A WAN or Wide Area Network, spans a large geographic area, such as a state, province or country. They can also connect multiple smaller networks (LAN’s).

4.     Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective.

RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification and are technologies that use active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers. They can cut costs by requiring fewer workers for scanning items and can also provide more current and more accurate information to the entire supply chain.

5.     Identify the advantages and disadvantage of deploying mobile technology?

Advantages	Disadvantages
Universal access to information and applications	Data loss
Automation of business processes	Flexibility and users ability to embrace change
User convenience	User’s knowledge of mobile technology can be limited
Africa has the largest growth rate of mobile phone subscribers in the world, its markets expanding nearly twice as fast as Asian markets. This has helped fuel growth in Africa.
Mobile phones are now being used to provide immediate notifications of natural disasters. In the event of an emergency, disaster response crews can locate trapped or injured people using the signals from their mobile phones. (This is evident in Japan, Australia, and Finland)