Vertically integrated information systems then are key to many company's competitive advantage in being able to respond quickly to the needs of their distribution channel partners and customers. Supply chains are the most complex type of vertically integrated information system in manufacturing firms.

3. What is a client/server system? What is a client? What is a server? Why would an organization choose to implement a client/server system?

A client/server system is also referred to as a client/server network as it relies on a series of integrated systems in which the processing power is distributed between a central server and a number of client computers (Brown, DeHayes, Hoffer, Martin, Perkins, 2009). A client can be either an application, as is the case with Salesforce.com accessing customer data for example on a remote server through a Web browser, or a complete computer system accessing a server. Increasingly clients are Web browser-based and...
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