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it's so radical>>

2010-04-18T04:18:00.000-07:00

In the spectrum of organizational change, which is the most radical type of change: automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shifts? (you are expected to read an article about this question) .. at least 3000 words

Overview:

“What can we do to make our business survive and grow?”

This is the question that David Chaudron, PhD has considered as the most asked but leased answered question in business today. In his article Begin at the beginning in organizational change, he stated that the world is fast shifting into something he believed too hard to easily forecast with an attached hundred opportunities and pitfalls passing by each moment. “To add to this confusion, there are hundreds, if not thousands of techniques, solutions and methods that claim to help business improve productivity, quality and customer satisfaction. A company President, CEO or business owner has so many choices in these buzzwords, whether they are called Total Quality Management, Customer Satisfaction, Re-engineering or Teambuilding. They are like new shoppers in a giant grocery store: They are hungry, but there are so many brands, sizes and varieties you don’t know what to buy”, he said.
Chaudron said that in response to this confusion stated above, many had done nothing. Majority is often afraid of making the wrong choices, thus making them decide to do nothing at all. Some, as for alternative, change the strategies they bring into play every few months, using the “program du’jeur” – a method of organizational change otherwise known as MBS (Management by Best Seller) as he explain it. “Neither of these responses helps the organization in the long run. Changing nothing will produce nothing. Implementing a different buzzword (Total Quality, Just in Time, Re-engineering, etc.) every few months often creates a “whipsaw” effect that causes mass confusion among your employees. These buzzwords are often a hammer in search of a nail, techniques applied with no clear focus as to the why, expected results or return on investment”.
“One of the organizations we consulted with started on this path. Senior management proclaimed in a memo that Total Quality should be a way of life. One senior vice president declared that he wanted 25% of his organization using Total Quality tools within a year. This caused tremendous excitement in the organization, However, the follow-through was delayed, occasionally inappropriate and sometimes not there. Many employees became discouraged with the process and considered it just another management fad. With the next business downturn, virtually all training had stopped and little enthusiasm was left.
Other organizations clearly focus on technical problems and on improving what they had. They are initially successful, but become victims of their own success. I call this an improved, planned incremental approach. Their initial quality improvement teams may be so successful they rapidly create more teams, without the qualitative organization-wide changes (re-engineering) necessary to sustain a permanent effort.
One organization we worked with had over 70 quality improvement teams in a plan with only 300 employees. They had shown little results after their first successes, and asked us what their next steps should be. We suggested the union’s leadership in their efforts, look at restructuring their organization along more product-focused lines, and possibly start profit sharing. They were not interested in taking any of these actions. A few months later, its parent company shut down the site, partly because of its poor productivity.
Organizations need to move beyond the buzzwords into deciding what actions they need to perform that will help them grow and develop. In response to this problem, this article will provide you a framework for coping with organizational change independent of buzzwords or the latest management fad. Organizations must first decide on the framework their organizational change long before they choose a buzzword to implement”, he added.

Shaping and anticipating the future
This is he said as the first level of organizational change that one must consider. “Organizations start out with few assumptions about the business itself, what it is "good" at, and what the future will be like.”
Management generates alternate "scenarios" of the future, defines opportunities based on these possible futures, assesses its strengths and weaknesses in these scenarios changes its mission, measurement system etc. More information on this is in the next article, "Moving from the Future to your Strategy. ", Chauron stated.
Defining what business(es) to be in and their "Core Competencies
This second level is what he said that the many attempts at strategic planning start at this level, either assuming that:
1) the future will be like the past or at least predictable;
2) the future is embodied in the CEO's "vision for the future";
3) management doesn't know where else to start;
4) management is too afraid to start at level 1 because of the changes needed to really meet future requirements;
5) the only mandate they have is to refine what mission already exists.
After a mission has been defined and a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis is completed, an organization can then define its measures, goals, strategies, etc. More information on this is in the next article, "Moving from the Future to your Strategy."
Reengineering (Structurally Changing) Your Processes
This is the third level as Chaudron explained: "Either as an aftermath or consequence of level one or two work or as an independent action, level three works focuses on fundamentally changing how work is accomplished. Rather than focus on modest improvements, reengineering focuses on making major structural changes to everyday with the goal of substantially improving productivity, efficiency, quality or customer satisfaction. To read more about level 3 organizational changes, please see "A Tale of Three Villages".”.
Incrementally Changing your Processes
The level 4 organizational changes are focusing in making many small changes to existing work processes. Oftentimes organizations put in considerable effort into getting every employee focused on making these small changes, often with considerable effect. Unfortunately, making improvements on how a buggy whip for horse-drawn carriages is made will rarely come up with the idea that buggy whips are no longer necessary because cars have been invented. To read more about level 4 organizational changes and how it compares to level 3, please see "A Tale of Three Villages."

Chaudron said, “One organization we consulted with has had a more positive experience with the incremental approach. We trained an internal facilitator, helped them deliver training in a just-in-time fashion, and had them focus on specific technical problems. The teams management formed reduced initial quality defects by 48%.
The disadvantages of such an incremental approach include avoiding structural, system-wide problems, and assumes existing processes need modest improvement. In addition, using incremental approaches can be frustrating to employees and management if (pick a buzzword) does not catch on in the organization. As a result of these disadvantages, many organizations experience a high risk of failure in the long run.”
What level do I choose?
“These levels have much of the same goals: increasing customer satisfaction, doing things right the first time, greater employee productivity, etc. Despite these similarities, they differ substantially in the methods they use to achieve these goals.
Levels one through three, on one hand, focuses on "big picture" elements such as analysis of the marketplace, out-sourcing, purchase/sale of subsidiaries, truly out-of-the box" thinking and substantial change in the management and support systems of the company . In my experience, companies that use these methods tend to have a high need for change, risk-tolerant management, relatively few constraints and have substantial consensus among its management on what to do. Types of industries include those whose environment requires rapid adaptation to fast-moving events: electronics, information systems and telecommunication industries, for example”, he explained.
Companies using mostly incremental tools (level 4) have management that perceives only a modest need for change, is relatively risk-avoidant, has many constraints on its actions and only has a modest consensus among themselves on what to do. Instead of focusing on new opportunities, they wish to hone and clarify what they already do. Types of industries that often use these methods include the military, aerospace, and until recently, health care organizations. Those organizations whose strategic planning solely focuses on refining an existing mission statement and communicating the paragraph also fall into using incremental (level 4) methods.
When discussing the continuum of structural vs. incremental change, its important to realize that what labels companies use are not important here. One must carefully observe their actions. Many companies have slogans, "glitter" recognition programs and large budgets to provide "awareness" training in the buzzword they are attempting to implement. The key, however, is to note what changes they are really making. If management is mostly filling training slots with disinterested workers and forming a few process improvement teams, they are using level three methods. If they are considering changes in business lines, re-organizing by customer instead of by function, or making major changes in how the everyday employee is being paid, they are using level 3 methods.
Unfortunately, all of this discussion hinges in management's belief about how much change is necessary. This belief often hinges on their often unassessed beliefs of 1) how well the organization performs compared to other organizations (a lack of benchmarking); and 2) what the future will be.
As a result, my recommendation is that organizations conduct scenario/strategic planning exercises (level 1) anyway, even if they have already decided that level 4 (incremental) methods will suffice to solve their problems. This way management can be aware of the limitations of the lower-level methods they are using and realize when it is best to abandon these lower-level methods for something more substantive.
Based on this exercise, comparison of existing internal processes with world-class examples (benchmarking) and market analysis, management may come to realize how much change is necessary. The greater the gap between what the organization needs to be and how it currently operations and what businesses it is in, the more it suggests that greater change is necessary, and greater restructuring is necessary.
This decision is very important. IBM in the mid 1980’s felt that the future would be much like the past and a result didn't have to change much. They did not realize how much microcomputers would replace the functions of their bread-and-butter business, the mainframe. The net result was tens of thousands of people were laid off, with the company suffering the first losses in its history.
Goals
Based on whatever level work you are doing, the opportunities that are found need to be evaluated to determine which of them best suit the existing and future capabilities of the organization and provide the most "bang for the buck" in terms of improvement in your measures of success. In addition, goals need to have the resources and management determination to see to their success.
Goals also need to be SMART, that is:
Specific - concrete action, step-by-step actions needed to make the goal succeed
Measurable - observable results from the goal's accomplishment
Attainable - The goal is both possible and is done at the right time with sufficient attention and resources
Realistic- The probability of success is good, given the resources and attention given it.
Time-bound- The goal is achieved within a specified period of time in a way that takes advantage of the opportunity before it passes you by.

Some examples include:
• “We will expand into the polystyrene market within the next five years and achieve 20% market share”
• We will decrease the time from research to customer delivery by 50% within two years.
• We will increase the quality of our largest product by 20% in three years.
Strategies
Where goals focus on what, strategies focus on how. Some examples include:
“We will re-engineer our research and development process”
“We will evaluate and improve our sales and marketing department”
We will conduct a SWOT analysis and then define our core competencies

Additional examples of strategies are included in the "Moving from the Future to your Strategy" chapter. Wait a second. Aren't goals and strategies really the same. They are in one sense as they both need to be SMART. As what you might guess, the goals of a level are achieved by creating strategies at the lower levels.
The Measurement System
Without measures of success, the organization does not know if it has succeeded in its efforts. Someone once said, “What gets measured gets improved.” Someone else said, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”
For more information on measurement systems and their place in organizational change, please see the "Balanced Scorecard" article, along with a number of articles where employee surveys are used.
Implementation and Organizational Change
The success of any organizational change effort can be summed into an equation:

Success = Measurement X Method X Control X Focused Persistence X Consensus
Like any equation with multiplication, a high value of one variable can compensate for lower levels on other variables. Also like any equation with multiplication, if one variable equals 0, the result is zero.
On employee involvement
Some organizations involve employees right from the start, where they have significant influence in the strategic plan of the organization. This kind of involvement tends to reduce employees’ resistance, which is always a very important factor in the success of any organizational change. Such organizations as Eaton, Eastman Chemical and Rohm and Haas have used such an approach.
Such employee involvement, however, might also be threatening to management’s traditional power. Some organizations decide employee involvement will be limited to implementing the strategic decisions management makes, or further limit involvement to purely task-focused teams working on technical problems. Many aerospace organizations have used this approach.
Focused persistence, good project management and the sequence of implementation
The sequence of implementation is also an important factor. There are four basic options, with many variations of them. The first involves the entire organization from the start, with the whole organization intensively working at once on making the change. Ford Motor Company is currently restructuring its entire organization, moving from planning to implementation in nine months.
Another option is a more relaxed approach, in which divisions or business units of the organization go at their own pace. This option can often become an incremental approach like the first or second village. Many conglomerates or other companies with diverse operations try this approach.
A third option is similar to the previous one, with the focus being on individual business units doing the implementation. In this case, however, business units implement roughly the same things in roughly the same time schedule. Unisys, the computer company, is using this method on some of its organizational change efforts.
A fourth option is to create a pilot project in one division or business unit, learn from its mistakes, and then apply those lessons to the rest of the organization. Examples of this option include the Saturn car facility at General Motors and the Enfield plant of Digital Equipment Corporation. It’s important to note here that creating pilot projects is a high-risk business. In both cases, the lessons learned from these pilot projects have not gained widespread acceptance in their parent companies due to their heavily ingrained cultures.

Here's some information about the history of Paradigm Shifts:

According to Wikipedia "Paradigm shifts tend to be most dramatic in sciences that appear to be stable and mature, as in physics at the end of the 19th century. At that time, physics seemed to be a discipline filling in the last few details of a largely worked-out system. In 1900, Lord Kelvin famously stated, "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement." Five years later, Albert Einstein published his paper on special relativity, which challenged the very simple set of rules laid down by Newtonian mechanics, which had been used to describe force and motion for over two hundred years. In this case, the new paradigm reduces the old to a special case in the sense that Newtonian mechanics is still a good model for approximation for speeds that are slow compared to the speed of light. Philosophers and historians of science, including Kuhn himself, ultimately accepted a modified version of Kuhn's model, which synthesizes his original view with the gradualist model that preceded it. Kuhn's original model is now generally seen as too limited.

Kuhn himself did not consider the concept of paradigm as appropriate for the social sciences. He explains in his preface to "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" that he concocted the concept of paradigm precisely in order to distinguish the social from the natural sciences (p.x). He wrote this book at the Palo Alto Center for Scholars, surrounded by social scientists, when he observed that they were never in agreement on theories or concepts. He explains that he wrote this book precisely to show that there are no, nor can there be any, paradigms in the social sciences. Mattei Dogan, a French sociologist, in his article "Paradigms in the [Social Sciences]," develops Kuhn's original thesis that there are no paradigms at all in the social sciences since the concepts are polysemic, the deliberate mutual ignorance between scholars and the proliferation of schools in these disciplines. Dogan provides many examples of the non-existence of paradigms in the social sciences in his essay, particularly in sociology, political science and political anthropology."

Conclusion:
The automation, rationalization of procedures, business reengineering, or paradigm shift, as I understand through the help of those articles I have read, are all considered radical type of change that are present to any type of organizational transform. These are all to be observed, as these are inevitable, and be acted accordingly. But as I gone through my readings, as I for my own point of view and understanding, I would conclude that the most radical type of change is the paradigm shift. ^_^

References:

David Chaudron, PhD. Begin at the beginning in organizational change
http://www.organizedchange.com/decide.htm

Michael W. Durant, CCE, CPA. Managing Organizational Change.
http://www.crfonline.org/orc/pdf/ref4.pdf

the nature..

2010-04-18T04:11:00.000-07:00

Subject: Assignment 2 (Due: before November 29, 2009, 13:00hrs) Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:19 am
1. What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan? (at least 2000 words)

Business Plan
Business planning is about results. You need to make the contents of your plan match your purpose. Don’t accept a standard outline just because it’s there.A business plan is any plan that works for a business to look ahead, allocate resources, focus on key points, and prepare for problems and opportunities.
Unfortunately, many people think of business plans only for starting a new business or applying for business loans. But they are also vital for running a business, whether or not the business needs new loans or new investments. Businesses need plans to optimize growth and development according to priorities. A simple startup plan includes a summary, mission statement, keys to success, market analysis, and break-even analysis. This kind of plan is good for deciding whether or not to proceed with a plan, to tell if there is a business worth pursuing, but it is not enough to run a business with.
Is there a standard business plan?
A normal business plan (one that follows the advice of business experts) includes a standard set of elements, as shown below. Plan formats and outlines vary, but generally a plan will include components such as descriptions of the company, product or service, market, forecasts, management team, and financial analysis. Your plan will depend on your specific situation. For example, description of the management team is very important for investors while financial history is most important for banks. However, if you’re developing a plan for internal use only, you may not need to include all the background details that you already know. Make your plan match its purpose.
What is most important in a plan?
It depends on the case, but usually it’s the cash flow analysis and specific implementation details.
• Cash flow is both vital to a company and hard to follow. Cash is usually misunderstood as profits, and they are different. Profits don’t guarantee cash in the bank. Lots of profitable companies go under because of cash flow problems. It just isn’t intuitive.
• Implementation details are what make things happen. Your brilliant strategies and beautifully formatted planning documents are just theory unless you assign responsibilities, with dates and budgets, follow up with those responsible, and track results. Business plans are really about getting results and improving your company
Rationale for an Information Systems Plan
Many enterprises do not have model-based information systems development environments that allow system designers to see the benefits of rearranging an information systems development schedule. Consequently, the questions that cannot be answered include:
• What effect will there be on the overall schedule if an information system is purchased versus developed?
• At what point does it pay to hire an abnormal quantity of contract staff to advance a schedule?
• What is the long term benefit from 4GL versus 3GL?
• Is it better to generate 3GL than to generate/use a 4GL?
• What are the real costs of distributed software development over centralized development?
If these questions were transformed and applied to any other component of a business (e.g., accounting, manufacturing, distribution and marketing), and remained unanswered, that unit's manager would surely be fired!
We not only need answers to these questions NOW!, we also need them quickly, cost effectively, and in a form that they can be modeled and changed in response to unfolding realities. This paper provides a brief review of a successful 10-step strategy that answers these questions.
Too many half-billion dollar organizations have only a vague notion of the names and interactions of the existing and under development information systems. Whenever they need to know, a meeting is held among the critical few, an inventory is taken, interactions confirmed, and accomplishment schedules are updated.
This ad hoc information systems plan was possible only because all design and development was centralized, the only computer was a main-frame, and the past was acceptable prologue because budgets were ever increasing, schedules always slipping, and information was not yet part of the corporation's critical edge.
Rather than having centralized, long-range planning and management activities that address these problems, today's business units are using readily available tools to design and build ad hoc stop-gap solutions. These ad hoc systems not only do not interconnect, support common semantics, or provide synchronized views of critical corporate policy, they are soon to form the almost impossible to comprehend confusion of systems and data from which systems order and semantic harmony must spring.
Not only has the computing landscape become profoundly different and more difficult to comprehend, the need for just the right--and correct--information at just the right time is escalating. Late or wrong information is worse than no information.
Information systems managers need a model of their information systems environment. A model that is malleable. As new requirements are discovered, budgets modified, new hardware/software introduced, this model must be such that it can reconstitute the information systems plan in a timely and efficient manner.
Characteristics of a Quality ISP
A quality ISP must exhibit five distinct characteristics before it is useful. These five are presented in the table that follows.
Characteristic Description
Timely The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned.
Useable The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started.
Maintainable The ISP must be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates, technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away.
Quality While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly.
Reproducible The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned.

Whenever a proposal for the development of an ISP is created it must be assessed against these five characteristics. If any fail or not addressed in an optimum way, the entire set of funds for the development of an ISP is risked.
The ISP Steps
The information systems plan project determines the sequence for implementing specific information systems. The goal of the strategy is to deliver the most valuable business information at the earliest time possible in the most cost-effective manner.
The end product of the information systems project is an information systems plan (ISP). Once deployed, the information systems department can implement the plan with confidence that they are doing the correct information systems project at the right time and in the right sequence. The focus of the ISP is not one information system but the entire suite of information systems for the enterprise. Once developed, each identified information system is seen in context with all other information systems within the enterprise.
Information Systems Plan Development Steps
Step Name Description
1. Create the mission model The mission model, generally shorter than 30 pages presents end-result characterizations of the essential raison d=etre of the enterprise. Missions are strategic, long range, and a-political because they are stripped of the Awho@ and the Ahow.@
2. Develop a high-level data model The high-level data model is an Entity Relationship diagram created to meet the data needs of the mission descriptions. No attributes or keys are created.
3. Create the resource life cycles (RLC) and their nodes Resources are drawn from both the mission descriptions and the high level data model. Resources and their life cycles are the names, descriptions and life cycles of the critical assets of the enterprise, which, when exercised achieve one or more aspect of the missions. Each enterprise resource Alives@ through its resource life cycle.
4. Allocate precedence vectors among RLC nodes Tied together into a enablement network, the resulting resource life cycle network forms a framework of enterprise=s assets that represent an order and set of inter-resource relationships. The enterprise Alives@ through its resource life cycle network.
5. Allocate existing information systems and databases to the RLC nodes The resource life cycle network presents a Alattice-work@onto which the Aas is@ business information systems and databases can be Aattached.@ See for example, the meta model in Figure 2. The Ato-be@ databases and information systems are similarly attached. ADifference projects@ between the Aas-is@ and the Ato-be@ are then formulated. Achievement of all the difference projects is the achievement of the Information Systems Plan.
6. Allocate standard work break down structures (WBS) to each RLC node Detailed planning of the Adifference projects@ entails allocating the appropriate canned work breakdown structures and metrics. Employing WBS and metrics from a comprehensive methodology supports project management standardization, repeatability, and self-learning.
7. Load resources into each WBS node Once the resources are determined, these are loaded into the project management meta entities of the meta data repository, that is, metrics, project, work plan and deliverables.
8. Schedule the RLC nodes through a project management package facilities. The entire suite of projects is then scheduled on an enterprise-wide basis. The PERT chart used by project management is the APERT@ chart represented by the Resource Life Cycle enablement network.
9. Produce and review of the ISP The scheduled result is predicable: Too long, too costly, and too ambitious. At that point, the real work starts: paring down the suite of projects to a realistic set within time and budget.
10. Execute and adjust the ISP through time. As the ISP is set into execution, technology changes occur that affect resource loadings. In this case, only steps 6-9 need to be repeated. As work progresses, the underlying meta data built or used in steps 1-5 will also change. Because a quality ISP is Aautomated@ the recasting of the ISP should only take a week or less.
If the pundits are to be believed, that is, that the right information at the right time is the competitive edge, then paying for an information systems plan that is accurate, repeatable, and reliable is a small price indeed.
It is precisely because enterprises have transformed themselves from a project to a release environment that information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained on an enterprise-wide basis are essential.
There are four major sets of activities within the continuous flow process environment. The user/client is represented at the top in the small rectangular box. Each of the ellipses represents an activity targeted to a specific need. The four basic needs are:
• Need Identification
• Need Assessment
• Design
• Deployment
ISP Summary
In summary, any technique employed to achieve an ISP must be accomplishable with less than 3% of the IT budget. Additionally, it must be timely, useable, maintainable, able to be iterated into a quality product, and reproducible. IT organizations, once they have completed their initial set of databases and business information systems will find themselves transformed from a project to a release environment.
The continuous flow environment then becomes the only viable alternative for moving the enterprise forward. It is precisely because of the release environment that enterprise-wide information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained are essential.

References:
Tim Berry.http://articles.bplans.com/writing-a-business-plan/what-is-a-business-plan/33
Michael M. Gorman. 1999. Information Systems Plan: The Bet-Your-Business Project. September 1, 1999. Available at: http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262

Assignment 9

2010-04-05T05:10:00.001-07:00

The pace of change seems to increase relentlessly, especially changes involving information technology. Using your crystal ball, identify and discuss three changes likely to have substantial impact on your school services in the next three years.
=====================================================================================================

There are a number of ways that technology can enhance service-learning programs while conserving program resources:

* Program management
For example, databases can help program staff to track student placements, community partner contact information and the academic calendar.

* Community partner participation
For example, a well-publicized web site can describe the service-learning programs, provide easy access to forms for registering a community project and highlight stories of positive community partner experiences.

* Curricular tools
For example, online modules and case studies can enhance classroom and community-based learning.

* Community service
Meaningful community service doesn’t necessarily have to involve regular or ongoing face-to-face contact between student and community partner. For example, after meeting with community students in a web design course with a service-learning component

* Reflection
For example, electronic discussion groups can enable students across different service-learning sites to regularly communicate, share their experiences and respond to reflective questions posed by faculty and one another.

* Program evaluation
For example, online surveys can enable students and community partners to respond to questions about their experiences and the impact of the program. Databases can facilitate the tracking and storage of program evaluation information.

Assignment 8

2010-04-05T05:08:00.002-07:00

fast forward... you were hired and have been tasked to develop a strategic information systems plan for a company. The company officers have extended an invitation for you to meet with them to discuss the direction of the company. Before this meeting, they have asked that you provide a list of questions with some explanation about the "why" of the question so they can be prepared, thus maximizing the output from this meeting.

Develop a list of questions you would ask the officers of the company and give an explanation and justification for each question. (1000 words)

Quick Overview:

Strategic Information System Planning as for any other system do begin with the identification of the needs- whether needs of the organization or need of the system itself. To be more efficient and effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need--whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. The mentioned planning for information systems is much akin to strategic planning in management.

Note that objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized. The systems development plan should identify specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. Furthermore, the strategic plan must be precise enough to make possible the understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also, it should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary in some cases. I am also referring to the need for continuously updating and improving IS architecture.

I have read that “SISP is the analysis of a corporation’s information and processes using business information models together with the evaluation of risk, current needs and requirements.” (Pant, Hsu, 1995). The result is an action plan showing the desired course of events necessary to align information use and needs with the strategic direction of the company (Battaglia, 1991).

The following are the questions I am going to raise during the said meeting. It is grouped according to the areas a question is concerned to.

1. Study Internal Business Environment
This is a prerequisite to determining the business IS needs. The following questions are to be considered.

a. What is the mission and objectives of the organization?

* It is important to know and understand the organization’s mission and objectives for me to be able to align the Strategic Information System Plan I am looking to work with.

b. What are the organization’s business strategies and plans? Define all of them. If possible, may I have a copy it. It would serve as my references.

* I would say that the organization’s business strategies and plans are considered requirements for supporting the overall IT strategy. Thus, it is really important in making the SISP.

c. What are the company’s major business activities?

* In my readings and as observed, there is a growing realization that the application of information technology (IT) to a firm’s strategic activities has been one of the most common and effective ways to improve business performance. But before it is made, I must consider the business’ major activities to be able to identify appropriate IT to use.
* It is also the basic block that is to be considered in the SISP formulation.
* It is a form of Business Activity Analysis which decomposes an enterprise into its parts. Information systems are derived from this analysis.

d. Define the organizational environment.

* This is a summary of needs of each major functional department. We need to document the overview of the present systems, assess effectiveness of the recent information services, review functional operations of the organization, and assess present operations. Also, evaluate competitive IT position.
* This assessment of present operations, architecture, and capacity would help me identify the constraints of our SISP.

e. What are the organization’s core competencies?

* It is referred to a Business and Competitive Assessment Study. I need this to know the competitive environment and to identify competitive information opportunities of the organization so that I can decide/analyze how to use information more competitively.

f. Define its critical success factors.

* These are applications which are critical for future success. Examples: computer-integrated manufacturing, links to suppliers, etc.)
* These are applications which may be of future strategic importance. Examples: electronic data interchange with wholesalers, electronic mail, etc.)
* These are applications which are critical to sustaining existing business. Examples: employee database, maintenance scheduling, etc.)

g. Label the internal value chain.

* I have read an article of Michael Porter (Porter, 1984) about value chain. He considered this as Value Chain Analysis. According to him, ‘every firm is a collection of activities that are performed to design, produce, and market, deliver, and support its product. All these activities can be represented using a value chain.”
* This helps in identifying critical points of inter-departmental collaboration. In such reason, this is vital to consider in making my SISP.

2. Study External Business Environment
The following questions I may throw under this area will help us or the organization to focus attention on the forces and pressure groups that the latter encounters. These external forces put forth an especially strong influence on the business strategy of the said organization.

a. What is the status of the organization about its competency against to the other industry? In a nutshell, what is your industry background? And what is the competitive position of your organization in the industry it belongs to?

* We should acknowledge limitations and hopefully initiate a corrective action if necessary. The parallel formulation of information systems development tasks is expected to formalize and structure these steps and provide automated support for carrying those alternative solutions out in an interactive manner. This will be included in the SISP.
* If competent, we should give strong consideration on it and involve these in making the SISP.

b. Does your management give the critical success factors significant attention?

* Critical Success Factor is an activity that should receive constant and careful attention from management. Rockart (1979) defines critical success factors as being ‘for any business the limited number of areas in which results, if they are satisfactory, will ensure successful competitive performance for the organization.’

c. How well is the relationship of the organization to its major buyers and suppliers? How do you deal to them during business transaction?

* We should also identify the relationship of the organization towards its major buyers and suppliers. Remember, it is true that they are involved in your future Information System. Thus, it should be reflected on in making my SISP.

3. Internal IS/IT Environment
This is mainly comprised of the current and planned applications portfolio that supports the business.
a. What is the structure of your present IS organization?

* I should be able to familiarize the organization structure of the present IS so I would be able to relate to it and know the people I should contact/deal with f there is any more concerns left behind.

b. How well it is organized? How effective is the structure? Are you willing to re-engineer it?

* This is to assess the current IS organization. The assessment would result to whether re-engineer the structure if there is any undesired arrangement for the benefit of the new IS that we are looking forward to.

c. Is the skills and attitudes of people in your organization would not hinder the implementation of the proposed new Information System?

* This is to identify the risk/likeliness of having resistance to the new IS. It is good to identify it as early as possible.

d. How much is the budget allocated in this project? How good is your IT environment?

* It is a need to know the overall budget of the project. This is to identify the constraint in implementing it. This is to identify whether the organization has a good or bad IT environment.

These systems, as embedded in the business process, need to cater to the strategic demands of organizations, i.e., serving the business goals and creating competitive advantage as well as meeting their data processing and MIS needs. According to Pant and Hsu, “Note that the key point here is that organizations have to plan for information systems not merely as tools for cutting costs but as means to adding value.”(Pant, Hsu, 1995).

An appreciation to:

Somendra, Pant and Cheng Hsu, 1995). Strategic Information Systems Planning: A Review. Information Resources Management Association International. January 1995.

Assignment 7

2010-04-05T05:08:00.001-07:00

Google is a highly successful Internet business. Recently they have broadened their scope with a multitude of new tools. Research Google’s business model and answer the following questions below. You may add additional information not included in these questions.

Questions:

Questions :
Explain Google’s business model.
1. Who are their competitors?
2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?
3. How competitive are they in the market?
4. What new services do they offer?
5. What makes them so unique?
6. How competitive are they in the international market?

Explain Google’s business model.

Google have combined software innovation with a brand new Internet business model. So basically the key to Google’s success has been and probably always will be the fact that they know how to make money without being evil. That is the part of their business model. Everyone is happy, while Google is making millions from the advertising links they put up, the owners of those links know that people are going to their websites, and the users get to enjoy a free powerful search engine which gives them the information that they want in a short amount of time and in an accurate way.

Not only is Google easy to use and fair to the public but it is also very fast. It only takes a fraction of a second to get the information that you need. Google has worked very hard on getting rid of excess bit and byte from their pages to make it go as fast as it possibly can, it has been breaking its own speed records. While other companies thought large servers would be the quickest way to deal with huge amounts of data Google realized that networked PCs were faster. While other search engines stuck with the speed limits for the search algorithms Google developed new algorithms which proved there was no limit as to how fast you could go. Google still is trying to make it faster.

1. Who are their competitors?

Yahoo Vs. Google
Yahoo and Google are battling over the same Web visitors and advertising dollars. There currently is an $8 billion global search advertising business, which is expected to rise to $22 billion in five years, according to Piper Jaffray. Worldwide online brand advertising is expected to increase twenty one percent this year from $11.3 billion to $18.2 billion, according to Goldman Sachs. These two companies are using very different approaches while going after the same advertising dollars. Yahoo uses human editors or “surfers” to organize web sites into categories. However humans cannot index everything so they are partnered up with a third party search engine to provide answers when its human – powered listing do not suffice. Google is about its search engine, done only with PageRank. There is no human indexing involved. Yahoo has been using a program called the “Idea factory” to promote inventive thinking in their company, staffers are supposed to improve everything from the company’s products to its campus. On the other hand, Google assumes inventive thinking. For example, the engineers of Google are required to spend a day a week on a personal project. This is how they come up with services such as Google News, which is now attracting quite a few number of people. “One company is building tools that reflect how people are expressing themselves. The other is building tools that will help find needles in haystacks. One is facilitating community development. The other is facilitating data retrieval,” said Matt McAlister. Yahoo owns the world’s most popular website and believes in a multidimensional approach as it tries its best to be all things for all people. First it will identify what the people want and from there figure out which products to build or buy in order to have the visitors stay on their site as long as possible. Google on the other hand owns the world’s leading online search engine, its mission is to transform the way today’s world is storing and finding information. They are taking a laissez faire approach toward innovation; before they start trying to figure out how everything will fit into a business plan they work on their new products and ideas first.
While Yahoo’s sales team is now focusing on traditional partnerships, handholding with ad agencies, and has an internal telemarketing group whose responsibility is to call small agencies and companies to work with Yahoo. Google believes in classifying advertising that is based on technology rather than relationships. Both companies are currently prospering but Yahoo’s market capitalization is $51 billion while Google’s is $76 billion. Financial analysts and industry watchers believe both companies can be part of the Internet economy however they worry that Google, just like Yahoo, will someday go through awkward years.

Microsoft Vs. Google
Microsoft is also competing with Google because Google is now a major threat to their dominance. While Google was launching all of its products for free, Microsoft was trying to catch up in search doing a project which they spent $150 million on but Google and Yahoo keep on getting ahead with new innovations such as complete maps and satellite photos. Bill Gates is worried about how much Google will hurt Microsoft’s core of franchise, control of what users will do when they first turn on their computers. Microsoft was always very powerful because it had control of the Windows operating system, they would decide which products and services consumers saw first. And so Microsoft did not have to make better products than its competitors, just about equal. It won because it went after competitors’ business models, not their technology. Now Microsoft’s strong points seem useless against Google. The people at Microsoft are worried that a “Google Office” will come out. And now that Google has come up with a desktop search there is no need for the start button in Windows. "Google is interesting not just because of web search, but because they're going to try to take that and use it to get into other parts of software," says Gates. You no longer need a PC to be on Google, you can use a cellphone, television, etc… Microsoft cannot cost less than Google because Google is free. There is no easy way to make Google’s online advertisers use another service. "Microsoft can play its old game to compete with Linux and Apple. It has to play Google's game to compete with Google,” says a former Microsoft executive. So Microsoft is thinking of now offering online services on top of their existing software lineup to compete with Google but some analysts are worried that this will cause Microsoft’s business model to go down the drain.

2. How have they used information technology to their advantage?

Google believes in classifying advertising that is based on technology rather than relationships. How does Google use information technology to their advantage? Google is a business. Besides trying its best to satisfy its users, it has to find ways of generating services that is highly technology-based thus utilizing the use of technology.

Googles’ technologies have been able to sort through a large amount of growing information on the web and deliver it to its users for free, a service which returns accurate information in a very short amount of time.

3. How competitive are they in the market?

Google is only becoming more powerful. It has a high competency in the market. It has a desktop search utility on the way, a shopping engine, news aggregator, and webmail services. Google is also hoping to offer a new browser (GBrowser). It would include all the Google properties such as Gmail, Froogle, Google News, Picasa, and Blogger. This means that the user could get all of his or her business done without ever having to leave the Google environment. This new browser would be another way to destination Google, meaning more revenue because more ads would be looked at by more users. It would also help Google control both data and applications, surpassing Microsoft. Google might also launch its own PC which would not need any Microsoft software.

Of course to make this all happen Google needs more talented employees. They have created a hiring machine which hires about ten employees a day. There are three hundred recruiters, and to find new talent Google has organized software-code writing contests and has many billboards with math problems. Google has paid to have “aptitute tests” included in tech magazines so that engineers will submit their answers to the questions and send their resumes. They have been offering free food to the engineering students so that they will pay attention to them and not their competition. Google will have to keep on prospering with the help of its talented engineers and its great ideas for future products. It will be able to beat competition by using its technologies and everyone around the world will be glad to use what it has to offer.

4. What new services do they offer?

Google is a business. Besides trying its best to satisfy its users it has to find ways of generating the most revenue. Google does this in a few different ways. The first one is the advertising which happens on the right side of the page when you search on Google, a program called AdWords. The second is offering its search technology to others, they do this with a program called AdSense which anybody on the web can start using. The third way in which they make money is through its Google Search Appliance which they sell to their customers. This appliance delivers accurate search results throughout a number of documents. Meaning your company would have its own search engine and it would work just as well as google.com.

However Google isn’t just a popular search engine it also does many other things that come in hand to many people around the world. Some of Googles’ services include Alerts where you receive news and search results by e mail, Blog Search which finds blogs on people’s favorite topics, Book Search to find text of any books, Images where you can find images on the web, Maps where you find maps and directions, and News where you can find many news stories. Some of Google’s tools include Blogger where you can express yourself online, Earth where you can explore the world from your PC, Translate where you can view web pages in other languages, and Talk where you can IM and call friends from your PC. Google is global, besides its main Google.com it includes one hundred and two other international domains such as Google.de, Googdle.fr, and Google.co.uk. One hundred different languages are available.

5. What makes them so unique?

There are many other search engines that we may use. What makes Google unique is on how they utilize technology and never stops in finding ways to make searching reliable, efficient and enjoyable.

A good way to get many users interested in the search engine is making it really easy to use. Google believes they should hide the complexity of their powerful search engine from their users so that they will be left with a simple, understandable way to get the information they need. So not only is the interface clear and simple, but the pages load instantly, the way the search results are placed is not sold to anybody, and the advertising it relevant content which does not get in the user’s way. Google really does provide the best user experience possible, it refuses to make any changes that would not benefit the users that go to their site. "The perfect search engine," says Google co-founder Larry Page, "would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want." Google likes to be fair meaning they refuse to make money through search result ranking or inclusion. All of the advertising has to be on the right of the page, none in the actual search results. Also Google only lets ads be displayed if they have something to do with the results page. Meaning certain searches might not include ads on the right. Google believes that these sponsored ads can help the user find what they want, which is why they have to be relevant to the search results. They want neutrality; there is no reason for one link to be before another one just because its owners paid more money. Unlike some of its competitors, Google provides inclusion and frequent updating in their sites for free. Meaning anybody’s website could be in the search results if their website is related to what the user typed in the search box. And this is great because it makes the search results completely accurate.

6. How competitive are they in the international market?

Google is really a giant in its field. I have read an article that states that Bill Gates wishes he could have combined software innovation with a brand new Internet business model like Google did. Just imagine that even one of the greatest company- Microsoft that was always very powerful because it had control of the Windows operating system, they would decide which products and services consumers saw first- was considering Google as its great competitor.

Google is global; besides its main Google.com it includes one hundred and two other international domains such as Google.de, Googdle.fr, and Google.co.uk. One hundred different languages are available. With this statistics, it is to be conclude that Google is really competitive in the international market.

Assignment 6

2010-04-05T05:07:00.000-07:00

Identify and discuss the steps for "critical success factors" approach? (at least 1,500 words)

Review:

In Critical Success Factors (CSF), you may identify the things that really matter for success of your institution.

So, what is a Critical Success Factor? Critical Success Factors (CSF’s) are the critical factors or activities required for ensuring the success your
business. The term was initially used in the world of data analysis, and business analysis.

Most smaller and more pragmatic businesses can still use CSF’s but we need to take a different, more pragmatic approach. Critical Success Factors have been used significantly to present or identify a few key factors that organizations should focus on to be successful.

As a definition, critical success factors refer to "the limited number of areas in which satisfactory results will ensure successful competitive performance for the
individual, department, or organization”.

I have read that so many important matters can compete for your attention in business that it's often difficult to see the "wood for the trees". What's more, it can be extremely difficult to get everyone in the team pulling in the same direction and focusing on the true essentials.

In That's where Critical Success Factors (CSFs) can help. CSFs are the essential areas of activity that must be performed well if you are to achieve the mission, objectives or goals for your business or project.

By identifying your Critical Success Factors, you can create a common point of reference to help you direct and measure the success of your business or project.

As a common point f reference, CSFs help everyone in the team to know exactly what's most important. And this helps people perform their own work in the right context and so pull together towards the same overall aims.

I have read the idea of CSFs that was first presented by D. Ronald Daniel in the 1960s. It was then built on and popularized a decade later by John F. Rockart, of MIT's Sloan School of Management, and has since been used extensively to help businesses implement their strategies and projects.

Inevitably, the CSF concept has evolved, and you may have seen it implemented in different ways. This article provides a simple definition and approach based on Rockart's original ideas.

Rockart defined CSFs as: "The limited number of areas in which results, if they are satisfactory, will ensure successful competitive performance for the organization. They are the few key areas where things must go right for the business to flourish. If results in these areas are not adequate, the organization's efforts for the period will be less than desired."

He also concluded that CSFs are "areas of activity that should receive constant and careful attention from management."

Critical Success Factors are strongly related to the mission and strategic goals of your business or project. Whereas the mission and goals focus on the aims and what is to be achieved, Critical Success Factors focus on the most important areas and get to the very heart of both what is to be achieved and how you will
achieve it. Using the Tool: Summary Steps

In reality, identifying your CSFs is a very iterative process. Your mission, strategic goals and CSFs are intrinsically linked and each will be refined as you developthem. Here are the summary steps that, used iteratively, will help you identify the CSFs for your business or project:
Step One:
Establish your business's or project's mission and strategic goals (click here for help
doing this.)

Step Two:
For each strategic goal, ask yourself "what area of business or project activity is essential to achieve this goal?" The answers to the question are your candidate CSFs.

Step Three: Evaluate the list of candidate CSFs to find the absolute essential elements for achieving success - these are your Criticial Success Factors.
As you identify and evaluate candidate CSFs, you may uncover some new strategic objectives or more detailed objectives. So you may need to define your mission,
objectives and CSFs iteratively.

Step Four:
Identify how you will monitor and measure each of the CSFs.

Step Five:
Communicate your CSFs along with the other important elements of your business or project's strategy.

Step Six:
Keep monitoring and reevaluating your CSFs to ensure you keep moving towards your aims. Indeed, whilst CSFs are sometimes less tangible than measurable
goals, it is useful to identify as specifically as possible how you can measure or monitor each one.

Key Points

Critical Success Factors are the areas of your business or project that are absolutely essential to its success. By identifying and communicating these CSFs, you can help ensure your business or project is well-focused and avoid wasting effort and resources on less important areas. By making CSFs explicit, and communicating them with everyone involved, you can help keep the business and project on track towards common aims and goals.

The following are main aspects of critical success factors and their use in analysis CSF's are tailored to a firm's or manager's particular
situation as different situations.

The Industry Critical success factor	Industry: There are some CSF's common to all companies operating within the same industry. Different industries will have unique, industry-specific CSF's An industry's set of characteristics define its own CSF's Different industries will thus have different CSF's, for example research into the CSF's for the Call centre, manufacturing, retail, business services, health care and education sectors showed each to be different after starting with a hypothesis of all sectors having their CSF's as market orientation, learning orientation, entrepreneurial management style and organizational flexibility. In reality each organization has its own unique goals so while thee may be some industry standard - not all firms in one industry will have identical CSF's. Some trade associations offer benchmarking across possible common CSF s.
Competitive strategy and industry position Critical success factor	Competitive position or strategy: The nature of position in the marketplace or the adopted strategy to gain market share gives rise to CSF's Differing strategies and positions have different CSF's Not all firms in an industry will have the same CSF's in a particular industry. A firm's current position in the industry (where it is relative to other competitors in the industry and also the market leader), its strategy, and its resources and capabilities will define its CSF's The values of an organization, its target market etc will all impact the CSF's that are appropriate for it at a given point in time.
Environmental Factors Critical success factor	Environmental changes: Economic, regulatory, political, and demographic changes create CSF's for an organization. These relate to environmental factors that are not in the control of the organization but which an organization must consider in developing CSF's Examples for these are the industry regulation, political development and economic performance of a country, and population trends. An example of environmental factors affecting an organization could be a de-merger.
Temporal Factors Critical success factor	Temporal factors: These relate to short-term situations, often crises. These CSF's may be important, but are usually short-lived. Temporal factors are temporary or one-off CSF's resulting from a specific event necessitating their inclusion. Theoretically these would include a firm which \"lost executives as a result of a plane crash requiring a critical success factor of rebuilding the executive group\". Practically, with the evolution and integration of markets globally, one could argue that temporal factors are not temporal anymore as they could exist regularly in organizations. For example, a firm aggressively building its business internationally would have a need for a core group of executives in its new markets. Thus, it would have the CSF of \"building the executive group in a specific market\" and it could have this every year for different markets.
Managerial Position Critical success factor	Managerial role: An individual role may generate CSF's as performance in a specific manager's area of responsibility may be deemed critical to the success of an organization. Managerial position. This is important if CSF's are considered from an individual's point of view. For example, manufacturing managers who would typically have the following CSF's: product quality, inventory control and cash control. In organizations with departments focused on customer relationships, a CSF for managers in these departments may be customer relationship management.

A Critical Success Factor Method
Start with a vision:

Mission statement
Develop 5-6 high level goals
Develop hierarchy of goals
and their success factors
Lists of requirements,
problems, and assumptions
Leads to concrete
requirements at the lowest level of decomposition (a single, implementable idea) Along the way, identify the problems being solved and the
assumptions being made Cross-reference usage scenarios and problems with requirements
Analysis matrices
Problems vs. Requirements
matrix
Usage scenarios vs.
Requirements matrix
Solid usage scenarios
Relationship to Usage
Scenarios
Usage
scenarios or "use cases"; provide a means of determining:
- Are the requirements
  aligned and self-consistent?
- Are the needs of the
  user being met as well as those of the enterprise?
- Are
  the requirements complete
Results of the Analysis

Reference:
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_80.htm
http://rapidbi.com/created/criticalsuccessfactors.html

Assignment 4

2010-04-05T05:06:00.000-07:00

Review on Strategic Information Systems Planning

Information Systems were thought to be synonymous with corporate data processing and treated as some back-room operation in support of day-to-day mundane tasks. In the 80’s and 90’s until this generation, however, there has been a growing realization of the need to make information systems of strategic importance to an organization. Consequently, strategic information systems planning is a critical issue.

Planning for information systems, as for any other system, begins with the identification of needs. In order to be effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need--whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. Such planning for information systems is much like strategic planning in management. Objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized.

The systems development plan should identify specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. The plan must be specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary.

The Perspective of Strategic Information Systems Planning

In order to put the planning for strategic information systems in perspective, the evolution of information systems according to the three-era model of John Ward, et al.(1990) is pertinent. According to this model there are three distinct, albeit overlapping, eras of information systems, dating back to the 60’s. The relationship over time of the three eras of information systems is shown in table 1:

Era Characteristics

Table 1: The Three Era Model of IS [Adapted from Ward (1990) ]
Applications in the overall Data Processing (DP), Management Information Systems (MIS)
and Strategic Information Systems (SIS) area need to be planned and managed according to their existing and future contribution to the business.
Traditional portfolio models consider the relationship of systems to each other and the tasks being performed rather than the relationship with business success.

Some characteristics of strategic IS planning are:

• Main task: strategic/competitive advantage, linkage to business strategy.
• Key objective: pursuing opportunities, integrating IS and business strategies
• Direction from: executives/senior management and users, coalition of users/management and information systems.
• Main approach: entrepreneurial (user innovation), multiple (bottom-up development, top down analysis, etc.) at the same time.

Strategic Information Systems Planning in the present SIS era is not an easy task because such a process is deeply embedded in business processes. These systems need to cater to the strategic demands of organizations, i.e., serving the business goals and creating competitive advantage as well as meeting their data processing and MIS needs. The key point here is that organizations have to plan for information systems not merely as tools for cutting costs but as means to adding value. It is information technology alone which will carve multiple ‘virtual corporations’ simultaneously out of the same physical resources and adapt them without having to change the actual organizations. Thus, it is obvious that information technology has indeed come a long way in the SIS era, offering unprecedented possibilities, which, if not cashed on, would turn into unprecedented risks

Strategic Information Systems Planning Methodologies

The task of strategic information systems planning is difficult and often time organizations do not know how to do it. Strategic information systems planning is a major change for organizations, from planning for information systems based on users’ demands to those based on business strategy. Also, strategic information systems planning changes the planning characteristics in major ways. For example, the time horizon for planning changes from 1 year to 3 years or more and development plans are driven by current and future business needs rather than incremental user needs. Increase in the time horizon is a factor which results in poor response from the top management to the strategic information systems planning process as it is difficult to hold their attention for such a long period.

Other questions associated with strategic information systems planning are related to the scope of the planning study, the focus of the planning exercise – corporate organization vs. strategic business unit, number of studies and their sequence, choosing a strategic information systems planning methodology or developing one if none is suitable, targets of planning process and deliverables. Because of the complexity of the strategic information systems planning process and uniqueness of each organization, there is no one best way to tackle it. Vitale, et al. (1986) classifies SISP methodologies into two categories: impact and alignment. Impact methodologies help create and justify new uses of IT, while the methodologies in the “alignment” category align IS objectives with organizational goals. These two views of SISP are shown in figure 1.

I have searched problems that an IS manager typically face and found one interesting study. It detailed list of problems in implementing SISP methodologies classified as (1) resource, (2) planning process, or (3) output related problem associated with the three methodologies.

According to this survey, the most severe problem identified by IS managers is the failure to secure top management commitment for carrying out the final plan. The second most severe problem identified is the requirement for substantial further analysis after the completion of the IS plan.

Both these problems are related to the output of the planning process. Besides these top two, six of the next top eight problems are related to the resources required to carry out the strategic information systems planning (success of the plan depends on the team leader, difficulty in finding the team leader meeting the criteria specified in the study, methodology lacking computer support, planning exercise taking long time, etc.). Among the top ten problems encountered while implementing one of these methodologies (or, even while implementing an in-house methodology), three are common: difficulty in obtaining top management commitment for implementing the outputs, the requirement of substantial further analysis and difficulty in finding a good team leader.

The results of this survey suggest that IS planners are not particularly satisfied with their methodologies. If the objective of the SISP exercise is to align IS objectives with business goals, then detailed, lengthy and complex SISP may be of limited value. Where the objective is to use IT to impact a business strategy, these methodologies may not generate useful ideas for that purpose. Bergeron et al. (1990), however, point out that the value chain analysis and Wiseman’s strategic methodologies do help in achieving that purpose. Barlow (1990) suggests that the large number of methodologies that have been developed can often ‘add confusion rather than clarity to the (IS) planning process.’

Conceptual Framework for SISP
A conceptual framework for SISP is necessary both from a theory building perspective as also providing a basis for undertaking SISP. The latter is expected to answer the following questions frequently encountered by the practitioners in this area:

• What is involved in SISP and how to go about doing it?
• How to link the products of SISP to systems analysis, design and implementation in a timely manner?
• Is one SISP methodology more suitable than another in a given context?
• How to evaluate alternative information systems plans?

The theory building perspective of SISP is expected to contribute to research in this area, which, being in its infancy has been largely anecdotal. Based on the literature in this area and a careful study of the current methodologies, certain generic steps in a typical SISP formulation can be identified. These are:

• Study Internal Business Environment. This is a prerequisite to determining the business IS needs. The internal business environment is comprised of mission of the organization, its objectives, strategies and plans, business activities, the organizational environment, core competencies, its critical success factors and the internal value chain.

• Study external business environment. This helps an organization focus attention on the forces and pressure groups it encounters. These external forces exert a very strong influence on the business strategy of an organization. Factors to be considered here are the industry that the organization is in and that industry’s critical success factors, competitive position of the organization in the industry, relationship with major buyers and suppliers.

• Study internal IS/IT environment. This is mainly comprised of the current and planned applications portfolio that supports the business. Other aspects to be considered here are the present
IS organization, skills and attitudes of people in the organization, IT environment and the IS/IT budgets.

It is also hypothesized that the above model will provide an organization a third alternative to develop applications based on either a comprehensive systems development life cycle or rapid prototyping. Either after the completion of the top level model or even during its completion, some critical vertical flows can be identified - for example those based on the critical success factors, or some competitive advantage/threat. Applications can then quickly be developed, tested and implemented along those critical/competitive flows. The rest of the model can await completion and subsequent implementation while the organizational resources are concentrated on developing applications demanded by the exigencies of the current situation.

Developing a Theoretical Perspective

Hsu and Rattner (1993) developed a theory of information integration in CIM environment.
This theory developed a concept of parallel paradigm of integration which asserts that by the sharing of information between processes interdependent decisions are pooled into concurrent processes. This parallel formulation of processes is a major change from the traditional sequential formulation of processes. In traditional CIM formulation, functions are supported by isolated decision spaces.

That is, only the information pertaining to that decision is handled as a variable. Other information is inherited as a constraint. For example the part cycle inherits the information processed by the production cycle as a constraint which in turn is constrained by the information processed at the product development cycle. One can look at the degree of non-integration as the number of constraints a decision space inherits. The extent to which these constraints can be converted into variables represents the degree of integration. For instance, the design function in sequential formulation will constraint the process planning function. Because of the isolation of decision spaces, a mere interfacing between these two functions will require repeated iterations. Integration of the functions, will, however, provide for real-time interaction between these functions.

From an enterprise point of view, parameterized decision spaces are fragmented and their existence prevents the associated set of functions from operating as an information-processing and decision-making whole, since results reflect a sequence of discrete decisions. Hsu and Rattner’s work suggests that while such functions operate as though they are using local variables, they are in fact tightly coupled (through, perhaps second or third order relationships) to many other apparently local variables. Part of the difficulty in achieving integration stems from the obscured local vs. global distinction.

Another distinction which needs to be made here is that between local and global optimality. Since constraints from both higher levels and from peer-level are inherited as constraints, they are not evaluated in local decisions. Therefore, it is possible that while an enterprise may try to achieve local optimality, it may prevent global optimality of enterprise performance. This is further explained with reference to figure 8.
Figure 8(a) depicts a traditional, sequential formulation of manufacturing functions. Each oval represents a decision space . Within each level in the hierarchy, the arrows depict the explicit flow of information between pairs of peer functions. Between hierarchy levels, the arrows symbolize the assertion of constraints.

In contrast, manufacturing functions can be organized in parallel; i.e., to explicitly share unified decision spaces. The extent to which parameters and constraints are converted to decision variables is a measure of integration strength among sub-functions. The implication is that by explicitly managing global decision variables as such, each local function supports global performance objectives.

The impact of optimizing global performance is ultimately measurable from the firm’s production function. The paradigm is rooted in the premise that local productivity is largely irrelevant and that an enterprise achieves competitive success if it achieves optimal global productivity. Formulating tasks in parallel is a means towards that end. The paradigm alters the decision-making hierarchy so that peer functions operate in parallel. Thus, all decisions are made in support of explicit global requirements. In this way, decisions contribute to synergy. Figure 8(b) depicts the concept of parallel formulation. Each oval again represents a decision space and each arrow represents the flow of constraints (downward) and feedback (upward) between hierarchy levels. There is no longer a need for explicit flows among peer functions since such iterations (sequential iterations) have been replaced by a comprehensive decision space.

The three level approach to information systems development can also be brought into the ambit of the above theoretical framework. The decisions at the planning level constraint those at the analysis level and from there down to the design level. The task here is to convert these constraints into variables which can be manipulated as the need arises. For example, the critical success factors at the planning level constraint the analysis, design and implementation of a particular application.

In a parallel formulation this constraint would become a variable - that is not only do CSFs determine applications to support them but the CSFs set itself will be altered depending on the realities of an enterprise’s information system. This provides a new perspective on SISP – the bottom up planning here the planning level variables (at least some of them) are manipulated by the ‘state of the IS’ in the organization. Where these variables can not be manipulated, for example those reflecting the external environment (competitors, technology available, etc.), this bottom-up approach will explicitly acknowledge those limitations and hopefully initiate a corrective action. It is not that organizations are not doing some or all of the things suggested here. The parallel formulation of information systems development tasks is expected to formalize and structure these steps and provide automated support for carrying them out in an interactive manner.

This parallel formulation of IS development tasks will also help organizations tide over a major limitation of SISP methodologies: planning is unnecessarily detailed and takes a long time. When the entire hierarchy of tasks related to developing down to implementing a plan is modeled in terms of its explicit information flows and data and knowledge classes, information systems can be developed quickly along the preferred paths (flows) without having to develop the entire system. Systems so developed will be different from those developed in an ad hoc manner in response to exigencies of the situation - these systems will be integrated with the overall system at the logical level as they are developed out of the shared information, data and knowledge spaces.

This concept has its parallel in Physics. Holographic images are made up of a multitude of images where each individual image is derived from and contains the big image. In the same way, individual systems will be derived from the overall system and will in turn holistically support the overall system. To conclude this theoretical perspective, it offers a viable alternative to the SISP process. Although not as well defined as in the CIM scenario, there is a structure to the SISP process. The literature and the analysis of existing methodologies, as mentioned earlier, does point to certain generic tasks and information flows required for SISP. This will provide the starting point for building a framework for a parallel formulation of SISP tasks.

Information-Gathering Techniques
Any, or a combination, of the following techniques can be used in gathering information relevant to the IT system within its operational boundary:

• Questionnaire. To collect relevant information, risk assessment personnel can develop a questionnaire concerning the management and operational controls planned or used for the IT system. This questionnaire should be distributed to the applicable technical and nontechnical management personnel who are designing or supporting the IT system. The questionnaire could also be used during on-site visits and interviews.

• On-site Interviews. Interviews with IT system support and management personnel can enable risk assessment personnel to collect useful information about the IT system (e.g., how the system is operated and managed). On-site visits also allow risk assessment personnel to observe and gather information about the physical, environmental, and operational security of the IT system. Appendix A contains sample interview questions asked during interviews with site personnel to achieve a better understanding of the operational characteristics of an organization. For systems still in the design phase, on-site visit would be face-to-face data gathering exercises and could provide the opportunity to evaluate the physical environment in which the IT system will operate.

• Document Review. Policy documents (e.g., legislative documentation, directives), system documentation (e.g., system user guide, system administrative manual, system design and requirement document, acquisition document), and security-related documentation (e.g., previous audit report, risk assessment report, system test results, system security plan5, security policies) can provide good information about the security controls used by and planned for the IT system. An organization’s mission impact analysis or asset criticality assessment provides information regarding system and data criticality and sensitivity.

• Use of Automated Scanning Tool. Proactive technical methods can be used to collect system information efficiently. For example, a network mapping tool can identify the services that run on a large group of hosts and provide a quick way of building individual profiles of the target IT system(s).

Information gathering can be conducted throughout the risk assessment process, from Step 1
(System Characterization) through Step 9 (Results Documentation).

Control Analysis

The goal of this step is to analyze the controls that have been implemented, or are planned for implementation, by the organization to minimize or eliminate the likelihood (or probability) of a threat’s exercising a system vulnerability.

To derive an overall likelihood rating that indicates the probability that a potential vulnerability may be exercised within the construct of the associated threat environment (Step 5 below), the implementation of current or planned controls must be considered. For example, a vulnerability
(e.g., system or procedural weakness) is not likely to be exercised or the likelihood is low if there is a low level of threat-source interest or capability or if there are effective security controls that can eliminate, or reduce the magnitude of, harm.

A. Control Methods
Security controls encompass the use of technical and nontechnical methods. Technical controls are safeguards that are incorporated into computer hardware, software, or firmware (e.g., access control mechanisms, identification and authentication mechanisms, encryption methods, intrusion detection software). Nontechnical controls are management and operational controls, such as security policies; operational procedures; and personnel, physical, and environmental security.

B. Control Categories
The control categories for both technical and nontechnical control methods can be further classified as either preventive or detective. These two subcategories are explained as follows:

• Preventive controls inhibit attempts to violate security policy and include such controls as access control enforcement, encryption, and authentication.
• Detective controls warn of violations or attempted violations of security policy and include such controls as audit trails, intrusion detection methods, and checksums.

C. Control Analysis Technique
As discussed in Section 3.3.3, development of a security requirements checklist or use of an available checklist will be helpful in analyzing controls in an efficient and systematic manner. The security requirements checklist can be used to validate security noncompliance as well as compliance. Therefore, it is essential to update such checklists to reflect changes in an organization’s control environment (e.g., changes in security policies, methods, and requirements) to ensure the checklist’s validity.

Incremental Change
Depending on how dire your situation is, you may not have the luxury of being entirely ready when you launch your new offering. For that reason, the safest approach is not to pull out all the stops immediately. "Go for small successes," says Davis. Rinaldi isn't courting would-be business buyers aggressively. Instead, he's working with "clients who walk in through the door," and says it will be take at least six months of testing before he decides how hard he'll go after this new market.
There's always room for fine-tuning. "We weren't 100% ready when we started," says Matheson Shedrick of mySpaShop. Over the past three months, she's added more products, such as odometers and jump ropes, and advice from experts in Chinese herbal medicine and feng shui. She hired three new employees, but relies on staff from her consulting firm to work at both operations. That has meant divvying up assignments based on employees' strengths, weaknesses, and schedules, and she has already had to rejigger the workload once. "It's been a bit of trial and error," Matheson Shedrick says. But with your company's future at stake, you may have no choice but to keep trying.

Qualitative Factors

Cost

Access is not just about availability. Cost affects usage. High cost is still a barrier. While prices have definitely come down the cost of access is still too high to have a transformatory impact.
Poor electricity supply
Epileptic power supply increases the cost of access. Supply of electricity needs to be optimal to enable businesses and banks to provide seamless online services through local areas networks, wide area networks and the Internet. Inefficiency is the word to describe a situation where everybody has to depend on power generators, as the primary, reliable power supply. This constitutes a barrier to growth and sustainable development. The growth of real e-business cannot take place or be of any significance in an environment with unreliable public power supply.

Quality of service

While availability has grown, this has not been matched by quality of service. It is not enough to have cheap lines and low cost bandwidth. Efficiency and accessibility of telecoms service should be paramount. Most operators have a lot of work to do in QoS especially in the areas of congestion and support.

IS Improvement

Companies wanting to optimize their IS/IT resources (e.g. the hardware, software, networks, people) have a strategic intent of IS improvement. They are focused on reducing costs, improving service quality, and bringing in new technical and management expertise. They believe outside specialists can better handle new technologies and provide superior processes and management methods.

This strategy’s success comes from achieving economies of scale, implementing cost reduction and service improvement, and bringing in technical expertise. Unfortunately, this strategy can also lead to failure if the company does not get the skills it requires, there are cost shifts instead of real cost reductions, and coordination costs exceed the savings from outsourcing. Management control mechanisms (contract type, performance measures, reward and penalty schemes, and decision structures) need to focus on IS/IT services (e.g. network provision, datacenter operations, applications program maintenance, and new systems development. Performance metrics include network response time, problem-resolution cycle time, cost per user, and function points.

Vendor compensation is typically based on a pricing schedule for technology services. It is often difficult to determine future costs, so it is critical to create a very competitive vendor selection process to ensure costs are competitive. Companies also need to incorporate frequent benchmarks into the contract to allow renegotiation if there is a substantial change in business and technology conditions.

The relationship should depend on the risks and uncertainty associated with delivering the outsourced services. When requirements are well defined and outcomes observable, the relationship should focus on contractual elements. However, when there is uncertainty about requirements, a partnership approach may be more desirable
The requirement for success is to strike the right balance between risk and reward for both the vendor and client, and ensure that the client is significantly involved in any improvement initiatives. Transferring ownership and responsibility for IS/IT assets from the customer to the outsourcing vendor is extremely important as ownership provides the incentive to continue investing in those assets.

Shift to Virtual

Some of the driving forces behind this shift to the virtual include a shortage of skilled workers, an expanding global economy, and significantly increased competition. To survive in this extremely fluid environment, companies need to quickly identify, design, and engineer new IS/IT products and services. Unfortunately, no single company can do this on its own and no single vendor can do it for them. The only way to compete is by creating a constantly shifting network of alliances and partnerships to achieve a dynamic set of corporate objectives. With the explosion of technology, outside vendors can see significant dollar amounts waiting if they are able to fill the gap brought on by the changing business environment. Because it often takes too long to develop technology in-house, vendors is often the answer.

Use Process Models as Guide

The first general reason why one must use software process modeling is that real-world organizational processes can be surprisingly complex. As a result, it requires considerable effort to weave together the various components of the process into a cohesive whole.

To detail, Process Models are processes of the same nature that are classified together into a model. Thus, a process model is a description of a process at the type level. Since the process model is at the type level, a process is an instantiation of it. The same process model is used repeatedly for the development of many applications and thus, has many instantiations. One possible use of a process model is to prescribe how things must/should/could be done in contrast to the process itself which is really what happens. A process model is roughly an anticipation of what the process will look like. What the process shall be will be determined during actual system development. Each process model follows a particular life cycle in order to ensure success in process of software maturity.

Think like a user

Let me repeat the key aspect of business modeling: lump processes of the same type into a model so you can see how those processes work together. This is an important fact to understand. For some reason, a good many business analysts try to make the process more difficult than it is. They might try to lump dissimilar processes together, for instance, to prove that an entire architecture needs an overhaul. They bite off more than they can chew doing something like that, and they run the risk of alienating potential allies during the process. Business modeling isn't rocket science: It's a straightforward process with the ultimate goal of understanding whether modifications are needed in a specific process and, if they are, what those modifications should be.

Speak for the user

As a business analyst, your biggest role is to speak for the user—to create processes that work with users instead of against them. When you're modeling new business processes, it's imperative that you intimately understand what that user will experience with any change in the process. Writing user stories and use cases will help you do this and will also help you essentially speak for the user when the business modeling process gets underway. Although some say that user stories and use cases are technically pieces of the requirements process, I'm going to address them in this section.

Get the tools for the job

If you're in the requirements stage, check out IBM Rational RequisitePro®. It's integrated with Microsoft® Office Word, so if you use Microsoft Office products, you'll see a familiar environment. It also helps you write strong use cases with a database infrastructure that lets you easily organize requirements, trace them in processes, and analyze what needs to happen in a business process.

Information-based enterprises must be planned in an integrated way whereby all stages of the life cycle are engaged to bring about agility, quality, and productivity. This integration is similar in nature to the integration of product life cycle for an enterprise. The existing methodologies, however, tend to support information planning as an island separated from the wealth of the enterprise’s information resources.

A needed new approach would tap into these resources which capture and characterize the enterprise to allow for integration of the planning stage with information systems development stages and support a shortened and adaptive cycle. This paper is a small first step towards a big task: developing a framework and a theory for strategic information systems planning. The need for such a framework is established by the existing problems in implementing SISP methodologies and also by what these methodologies themselves lack. A possible approach to building a framework is traced to the theoretical work of Hsu and Rattner (1993) and that is where
the thrust of this line of research is expected to lie.

Conclusions

I would say that the task of strategic information systems planning is difficult and often time organizations do not know how to do it. Planning is not an easy task because such a process is deeply embedded in business processes. These systems need to cater to the strategic demands of organizations, i.e., serving the business goals and creating competitive advantage as well as meeting their data processing and MIS needs (in my case, the task to meet the needs of our university).

I (should I say ‘we’) must remember that planning for information systems, as for any other system, begins with the identification of needs. In order to be effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need--whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels.

One must remember, as what was stated above, that the plan must be specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary.

References:

Somendra Pant and Cheng Hsu. 1995. Strategic Information Systems Planning: A Review
Information Resources Management Association International Conference, May 21-24, Atlanta, Georgia .
[January 1995]

Slack, S.E. 2008. Understanding business process modeling: Learn what it is, how it works, and why it's a must for any organization
IBM [Aug. 28, 2008]

Gary Stoneburner, Alice Goguen, and Alexis Feringa. 2002. Risk Management Guide for
Information Technology Systems: Recommendations of the National Institute of Standards and Technology
1Booz Allen Hamilton Inc .[July 2002]

Assignment 3

2010-04-05T05:01:00.000-07:00

What are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan? Note: you are required to interview an IS professional/s for your answer ...(at least 3000 words)

Review:

Information System Planning, as for any other system, begins with the identification of needs. In order to be effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need--whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. Such planning for information systems is much like strategic planning in management. Objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized. The systems development plan should identify specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. The plan must be specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary.

The task of strategic information systems planning is difficult and often time organizations do not know how to do it. Strategic information systems planning is a major change for organizations, from planning for information systems based on users’ demands to those based on business strategy? Also, a strategic information system planning changes the planning characteristics in major ways. For example, the time horizon for planning changes from 1 year to 3 years or more and development plans are driven by current and future business needs rather than incremental user needs. Increase in the time horizon is a factor which results in poor response from the top management to the strategic information systems planning process as it is difficult to hold their attention for such a long period. Other questions associated with strategic information systems planning are related to the scope of the planning study, the focus of the planning exercise – corporate organization vs. strategic business unit, number of studies and their sequence, choosing a strategic information systems planning methodology or developing one if none is suitable, targets of planning process and deliverables. Because of the complexity of the strategic information systems planning process and uniqueness of each organization, there is no one best way to tackle it.

A conceptual framework for Information System Plan is necessary both from a theory building perspective as also providing a basis for undertaking ISP. The latter is expected to answer the following questions frequently encountered by the practitioners in this area:

• What is involved in ISP and how to go about doing it?
• How to link the products of ISP to systems analysis, design and implementation in a timely manner?
• Is one SISP methodology more suitable than another in a given context?
• How to evaluate alternative information systems plans?

The theory building perspective of ISP is expected to contribute to research in this area, which, being in its infancy has been largely anecdotal. Based on the literature in this area and a careful study of the current methodologies, certain generic steps in a typical SISP formulation can be identified. These are:

• Study Internal Business Environment. This is a prerequisite to determining the business IS needs. The internal business environment is comprised of mission of the organization, its objectives, strategies and plans, business activities, the organizational environment, core competencies, its critical success factors and the internal value chain.

• Study external business environment. This helps an organization focus attention on the forces and pressure groups it encounters. These external forces exert a very strong influence on the business strategy of an organization. Factors to be considered here are the industry that the organization is in and that industry’s critical success factors, competitive position of the organization in the industry, relationship with major buyers and suppliers.

• Study internal IS/IT environment. This is mainly comprised of the current and planned applications portfolio that supports the business. Other aspects to be considered here are the present
IS organization, skills and attitudes of people in the organization, IT environment and the IS/IT budgets.

It is also hypothesized that the above model will provide an organization a third alternative to develop applications based on either a comprehensive systems development life cycle or rapid prototyping. Either after the completion of the top level model or even during its completion, some critical vertical flows can be identified - for example those based on the critical success factors, or some competitive advantage/threat. Applications can then quickly be developed, tested and implemented along those critical/competitive flows. The rest of the model can await completion and subsequent implementation while the organizational resources are concentrated on developing applications demanded by the exigencies of the current situation.

Considerations that causes frustration:

These are some factors or barriers that make IS professionals suffer from frustration while working on the Information System Plan. It is considerable that not all IS professionals encounter this but the majority.

Organizational Culture Barriers
Culture of physical/paper records
Their workflow is designed for paper.
Paper provides them a sense of security.
Paper provides proof of action.

Paper is readily available (cheap) .
Culture of organization type
The company is a construction industry and most of its data is on paper .
Staff education lacks priority in organizational plans
because they focus on the fields (sites) .

Technology and Standards Barriers
There is a technical challenge to assure user authentication and successful use of system. The interface for retrieving records would have to be standardized so that providers would not be trying to learn each individual system . There are far more users of information system than there are technical assistants
available to address technical issues . According to them, technical documentation for information system is usually long and not user friendly .Staff maynot receive proper training in user authentication and system use .

Organizationslack adequate infrastructure and role delineation for the development and
enforcement of security, privacy, and information management policies and
procedures No IT personnel .

In-house Resources for Information Management Barriers
There are variations between shifts in both practices and available resources
Shift variation in practice is related to the educational barrier listed previously

. All staff needs to be educated on appropriateness of information, procedures for access and security of the
records .

There is massive data that must be considered .

There is a lack of ways to share IT
educational materials
Some IT educational materials may be proprietary .
There are ways of sharing educational material, but a lack of information/leadership to
execute …
There are insufficient resources for language diversity to assure provision of
information, and comprehension of information given
The personal record needs to be accessible to everyone in order to be successful …

Again,the company is a construction company which means that some of their staff is not
that good in understanding the system technically .
There are variations in resource availability from organization to organization
Providers without the appropriate resources will not be able to participate in the shared
record. These resources could be defined as monetary or technical .
There is a lack of funds and/or resources in some branches .

Resources are limited in rural areas where the project sites are located .
Resources are limited in poor communities where some project sites are located .
There are variations in information technology development from organization to
organization

Som organizations do not have any form of electronic data in which to interface .Most organizations do not have a full EMR implemented yet.

There is a lack of funds for across the board information technology development .
Some organizations lack the ability to attract professional resources due to
geographic

Privacy and Security Leadership Development Barriers
Organizations have dual functions in legal counsel and privacy officer, which spreads staff too thin for effectiveness
Appropriate policies and procedures for privacy and security may not get created or adhered to without proper attention . This could lead to security breaches or inappropriate access .

Organizations exclude privacy experts in information technology solutions up front, and instead include them in the back end of the solutions process. It is always more effective to build privacy and security into a solution than to
tack it on after implementation. These implementations often have other flaws that cannot be addressed after the implementation has been completed .

There is a lack of awareness of who are the privacy experts i.e. HIM Professionals, other .
There is a general lack of security officers for information technology.
The expertise in IT security is essential to performing risk analysis and mitigation . This is a rapidly evolving field that requires people with a detailed knowledge of information security . The potential for security breaches will increase substantially without oversight from these types of professionals .

The security officers’ concept/position is still evolving .
There is a lack of centralized authority or organization for the privacy and security of
construction information.
The policy decisions concerning security protocols around a combined record need to be centralized so that the associated risks can be properly identified and managed . It would cause conflicts to have a violation in one county be allowable in another for example .

Privacy and security are still legal matters and very complex .

Laws are constantly changing .
There is a lack of organizational infrastructure for information edit checks, audits, and general quality assurance of construction information. There would need to be some type of random audit checking to determine if access to a record was appropriate . Providers would need to have a construction need to
view information or there would be violations from the curious to the criminal
. How many people would access the records of a VIP if they were available
electronically?

There are multiple construction information quality assurance systems .
There are multiple people involved in the development of quality assurance of construction information .

Key players are often missing in the planning strategy for quality assurance of construction information .
Legal expertise resides in organizations outside of construction information management staff

Provider staff need education on the operational privacy and security procedures that directly affect them . They will be making the daily decisions that affect the privacy and security of construction information . These decisions may not be appropriate or in line with policies and procedures if the expertise is not available to them .

Construction information management staff often times do not have direct access to the legal expertise .

Construction information management may have to go through two or more persons to access legal expertise .

Legal expertise costs money and is expensive .

The Interview:

In God’s grace, we were able to interview the EMCOR’s current Information Systems Analyst together with their current Manager. Through our course of discussion, we are able to visualize what are those two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan. These are explained and discussed further by the following:
1. Beginning in organizational change
The world is rapidly changing into something too hard to easily predict, with a hundred opportunities and pitfalls passing by every moment. To add to this confusion, there are hundreds, if not thousands of techniques, solutions and methods that claim to help business improve productivity, quality and customer satisfaction. A company President, CEO or business owner has so many choices in these buzzwords, whether they be called Total Quality Management, Customer Satisfaction, Re-engineering or Teambuilding. They are like new shoppers in a giant grocery store: They are hungry, but there are so many brands, sizes and varieties you don’t know what to buy.
In response to this confusion, many do nothing, often afraid of making the wrong choices. Others change the techniques they use every few months, using the “program du’jeur” method of organizational change, otherwise known as MBS (Management by Best Seller). Neither of these responses help the organization in the long run. Changing nothing will produce nothing. Implementing a different buzzword (Total Quality, Just in Time, Re-engineering, etc.) every few months often creates a “whipsaw” effect that causes mass confusion among your employees. These buzzwords are often a hammer in search of a nail, techniques applied with no clear focus as to the why, expected results or return on investment.

One of the organizations we consulted with started on this path. Senior management proclaimed in a memo that Total Quality should be a way of life. One senior vice president declared that he wanted 25% of his organization using Total Quality tools within a year. This caused tremendous excitement in the organization, However, the follow-through was delayed, occasionally inappropriate and sometimes not there. Many employee became discouraged with the process and considered it just another management fad. With the next business downturn, virtually all training had stopped and little enthusiasm was left.
Other organizations clearly focus on technical problems and on improving what they had. They are initially successful, but become victims of their own success. I call this an improved, planned incremental approach. Their initial quality improvement teams may be so successful they rapidly create more teams, without the qualitative organization-wide changes (re-engineering) necessary to sustain a permanent effort.
One organization we worked with had over 70 quality improvement teams in a plan with only 300 employees. They had shown little results after their first successes, and asked us what their next steps should be. We suggested the union’s leadership in their efforts, look at restructuring their organization along more product-focused lines, and possibly start profit sharing. They were not interested in taking any of these actions. A few months later, its parent company shut down the site, partly because of its poor productivity.
Organizations need to move beyond the buzzwords into deciding what actions they need to perform that will help them grow and develop. In response to this problem, this article will provide you a framework for coping with organizational change independent of buzzwords or the latest management fad. Organizations must first decide on the framework their organizational change long before they choose a buzzword to implement.
2. The major decisions
Instead of grasping for the latest technique, I suggest instead that organizations should go through a formal decision-making process that has four major components:

Levels, goals and strategies
Measurement system
Sequence of steps
Implementation and organizational change

The levels of organizational change
Perhaps the most difficult decision to make is at what "level" to start. There are four levels of organizational change:

shaping and anticipating the future (level 1)
defining what business(es) to be in and their "core competencies” (level 2)
reengineering processes (level 3)
incrementally improving processes (level 4)

First let's describe these levels, and then under what circumstances a business should use them.

Level 1- shaping and anticipating the future
At this level, organizations start out with few assumptions about the business itself, what it is "good" at, and what the future will be like.
Management generates alternate "scenarios" of the future, defines opportunities based on these possible futures, assesses its strengths and weaknesses in these scenarios changes its mission, measurement system etc. More information on this is in the next article, "Moving from the Future to your Strategy."

Level 2 - defining what business(es) to be in and their "Core Competencies
Many attempts at strategic planning start at this level, either assuming that 1) the future will be like the past or at least predictable; 2) the future is embodied in the CEO's "vision for the future"; or 3) management doesn't know where else to start; 4) management is too afraid to start at level 1 because of the changes needed to really meet future requirements; or 5) the only mandate they have is to refine what mission already exists.
After a mission has been defined and a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis is completed, an organization can then define its measures, goals, strategies, etc. More information on this is in the next article, "Moving from the Future to your Strategy."

Level 3 - Reengineering (Structurally Changing) Your Processes
Either as an aftermath or consequence of level one or two work or as an independent action, level three work focuses on fundamentally changing how work is accomplished. Rather than focus on modest improvements, reengineering focuses on making major structural changes to everyday with the goal of substantially improving productivity, efficiency, quality or customer satisfaction. To read more about level 3 organizational changes, please see "A Tale of Three Villages."
Level 4 - Incrementally Changing your Processes
Level 4 organizational changes are focusing in making many small changes to existing work processes. Oftentimes organizations put in considerable effort into getting every employee focused on making these small changes, often with considerable effect. Unfortunately, making improvements on how a buggy whip for horse-drawn carriages is made will rarely come up with the idea that buggy whips are no longer necessary because cars have been invented. To read more about level 4 organizational changes and how it compares to level 3, please see "A Tale of Three Villages."

One organization we consulted with has had a more positive experience with the incremental approach. We trained an internal facilitator, helped them deliver training in a just-in-time fashion, and had them focus on specific technical problems. The teams management formed reduced initial quality defects by 48%.
The disadvantages of such an incremental approach include avoiding structural, system-wide problems, and assume existing processes need modest improvement. In addition, using incremental approaches can be frustrating to employees and management if (pick a buzzword) does not catch on in the organization. As a result of these disadvantages, many organizations experience a high risk of failure in the long run.

These frustrations are the two most frequently experienced causes of frustration of IS professionals and users while working on an IS plan. These may be common while working plan, yet the concerned and involved human resource must be prepared.

http://www.organizedchange.com/decide.htm
http://www.crfonline.org/orc/pdf/ref4.pdf

I'm gonna be..

2009-11-22T21:34:00.000-08:00

Yes, we all know that the IT industry offers a wide range of positions that vary in their requirements and expectations. To start an IT career, you should have a reasonable idea of the requirements of the area you're interested in. In this case, I am hoping to see my self as a SOFTWARE PROFESSIONAL in which interests me the most. To discuss..

THE SOFTWARE PROFESSIONAL

According to the artice I've read, Software professionals develop software that drives the hardware. Popular titles are Programmer, Systems analyst or System Developer. These individuals create, manage and maintain software programs. To create such programs you need to learn and master the art using programming languages (code). Popular programming languages are Visual Basic, C++ and Java. It involves gathering requirements, coding and testing.

Programmers create software products based on identified market needs, and or specific user requirements. This allows a lot of room for creative ability and innovative thinking while working to specifications and standards. In performing systems analysis, you interact with users, observe their workflow and attempt to create models that will satisfy the user. It means a certain degree of conceptualization is required. To give the user what the user wants, the analyst must know the working requirements of the user, sometimes to the minute details. You need to love paying attention to details.

Analysts in some organizations may not necessarily start out with a computing background. Often people bring their previous job experience to work with the programming team in understanding user requirements. A programmer may be involved in analysis, or may strictly focus on programming, or both. This depends entirely on the working environment.

Programming, just like engineering design requires logical thinking, attention to detail and the ability to focus for long periods. Although programming routines tend to be more predictable than jobs with a fair amount of troubleshooting, it can be quite intensive with regard to self-development. You must be ready to keep learning programming languages/tools/updates because of continuous enhancements in the way programs are written.

Reference:
http://www.jidaw.com/myitcareer.html

Journal 1:NEVER PLAN to FAIL

2009-11-16T23:08:00.000-08:00

Journal

2009-10-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

Oct. 17,2009-The end.
Proposed Information System Needs Assessment for NekenFab, Inc. submitted.

Oct. 16,2009- Finalization!
We finalized the paper- bookbound!

Oct. 15,2009- Consultation
Our recommendation did not address all the problems, thus, candidate for revision.

Oct. 03,2009- Revision
We had finally revised the paper and printed it out, ready for consultation.

Oct.01,2009- Consultation
Gosh.. Lots of revisions to be made! Thank God that Sir RSG gave us time extention for the submission..

Sept.30,2009-The Second Interview
Despite the pressure of the deadline,we never losed hope and never missed the moment to conduct the second interview to NEkenFAb,Inc. for follow-up questions. The same day,we submitted the paper ^_^.

Sept.29,2009-First Interview at NekenFab, Inc.
right after the letter approval,we sent the letter to NekenFab and conducted an interview.

Sept.29,2009- New Letter to lift up our spirit
WEeeeeh...Sir RSG approved our letter for NekenFab,Inc.

September20,2009- Interview please..
We asked comfac to give us chance to have the interview at least online,but then they could not spare us at least even a minute.

Surprise Visit(Sept.02,09
Out of desperation,we decided to conduct ambush visit but then they declined.

Aug.29,2009- Second Sceduled Visit
We went to Comfac,but they were too busy with several projects so again the scheduled visit is cancelled.

Ag.22,2009- First Company visit cancelled
This day is ought to be our first interview to Comfac Global Groups but unfurtunately,it is Kadayawan festival so it is cancelled.

Aug.19,09- Think of Questions
We formulated possible questions for our first interview at Comfac Groups.

Aug.18,2009- Module Review
To get ready for our coming company visit, we reviewed the modules and gathered data so that we would be ready for the interview.

Aug.17,2009- Approval
Today,our teacher RSG approved our letter for Comfac Global Groups. Right then we submit it to the company and waited for approval from the company.

_aiai_

2009-10-16T23:06:00.001-07:00

A 3000-word essay?!

I was awfully bothered reading this thread last two weeks. I did found it very hard to identify an information environment. To help myself, I read all the threads in this forum regarding this topic. I won’t deny that... I know majority of my mates did the same! In my observation, I would conclude that the answers found herein vary on how we understand the question. So I came to think that maybe I was right with my first chosen Information Environment.

To begin with . . .

I am one of those what they call “probinsiyana” and I am swollen with pride to say that. I believe that most of us, when we hear province, the instant idea of the scenario would be the same as what we always see in the televisions and movies. Many would assume that there are farm animals wandering and working around, rice or corn fields flourishing the area, houses surrounded by trees and are made of wood, roads not concrete, the means of transportation is hard and the technological development is poor.

Yes, the above pre-assumption is close to the truth. Some provinces may have these characteristics but please do not apply sweeping generalization! Along the way towards my hometown- Municipality of New Bataan, Compostela Valley Province (New Bataan is a 2nd class municipality in the province of Compostela Valley, Philippines. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 42,549 people in 8,592 households.), you’ll notice prospering farms with expected farm animals. But, unlike what’s state above, not all houses are made of wood. In fact, huge concrete houses are observed and the roads are concrete and some are wide. Thus, the means of transportation is good. However, sadly, I would not contradict that there, the technological development is crawling.

I’ve found a statement in this thread that would relate to my answer: “We are in the age of information environment wherein changes are constant…”

Oh … that’s really factual. I won’t contradict that! The information age has made technology, particularly information and communications technology, indispensable. What has been the Information Technology (IT) and Telecommunications situation in my hometown?

It’s true that telecommunication infrastructure remains one of the major issues affecting technology deployment required for growth and development in New Bataan. There has however, been massive improvement in agriculture over the past few years. But how about technological advancement? Yes, as stated above, changes are constant… but how fast? or should I say how sluggish?

I would say that the agricultural market is large. Opportunities abound! But more needs to be done to encourage investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), especially in the knowledge and creative areas. This is the mere reason why I chose my hometown as the information environment to review.

It is a dark era characterized by slow Internet links, poor service, high cost, lack of infrastructure and an unprogressive telecoms monopoly. I hate to admit that my hometown is in this state.

Last month, I had gone home. Like any other Information Technology student, I am passionate of browsing the internet most of the time. So missing the internet, I went to some “cyber café” available in our area. Luckily, I found two! At least! But, I was sad to find out that there are only five units and only two units connected to the internet. Lucky, perhaps, to have two units. But in the fast changing, dominating and blooming technology, still, my hometown is positioned behind. (1) That’s my first concern, more “cyber café’s” in New Bataan.

To address this, I would encourage the owners of these cafés, which are friends of mine, to invest more in their business. Oh.. I know their financial capacity! I know they can afford more units. I know they can invest more! I think all they need is encouragement. Having them aware of the benefit it gives to the students, to the municipality, to other concerns and to their business would be a help. I found this nice text relevant to my topic: "if information is power, then the internet must be the easiest way of empowering those that have traditionally been left behind.” .

I had gone also to our Information Center. It is our Municipal library located besides our Municipal office. I am happy to know that the books there had increased in number. But, no matter how many books you’ll find, you can never find as many as the internet can offer. Sadly, there is no single e-learning you can find there. (2) That’s my second concern, an E-library.

I’d like our Information Center offer an E-library that aims to allow discovery, access and use of resources for research and learning irrespective of their location. By simply writing a proposal in the suggestion box (as far as I could remember, there is a suggestion box in our Municipal Information Center). I am not expecting that my suggestion to have this e-learning/e-library would be approved and be implemented right away. What am I after is to awaken our local government about this area that is left unnoticed. I want to theme to remember that the improvement in the telecom situation in the said municipality will create significant impact in all sectors - commerce, social and educational.

I, or should I say, we are looking forward that few years from now, "cyber café" (An internet café or cybercafé is a place where one can use a computer with Internet access, most for a fee, usually per hour or minute; sometimes one can have unmetered access with a pass for a day or month, etc. It may serve as a regular café as well, with food and drinks being served.)won’t be a strange word in our municipality. That someday, cyber cafés will exist in virtually every neighborhood especially in the rural centers; that although the cost of ICT is still relatively high for most individuals and rural areas, the cyber cafe will significantly improved accessibility to the Internet in them.

I got to think that depending on how dire your situation is, you may not have the luxury of being entirely ready when you launch your new offering. For that reason, the safest approach is not to pull out all the stops immediately. The facts are there for all to see. There has been substantial improvement in access to telecom facilities and unprecedented growth in the telecoms network. So has night turned to day? Not quite. In view of New Bataan’s size and requirements telecommunications infrastructure is still grossly inadequate. But does size determine quality? It should be more about growth and qualitative infrastructure than just having a big or the fastest growing market. Furthermore, with the opening up of the telecoms space further dramatic growth is expected as service and reliability demands increase. However, in-depth penetration and qualitative infrastructure growth is critical.

Cost
Access is not just about availability. Cost affects usage. High cost is still a barrier. While prices have definitely come down the cost of access is still too high to have a transformatory impact. There are presently price competition battles going on involving providers, which are steps in this direction. The provision of Internet is also helping. But more needs to be done about bringing down call tariffs and rates not just communications acquisition cost. The aim should be low cost Internet and phone service.

Technologies are commendable and should be encouraged. However, because most of the computer hardware in use in the said municipality must be imported, high computer prices are barrier to access. E-business, Telecommunication Infrastructure is incomplete without affordable computing facilities. Although just like the phone and Internet costs, computer prices have been falling, more people, not just businesses, need to have access to reasonably priced computers for education, recreation, business and other creative activities.

Poor electricity supply

Epileptic power supply increases the cost of access. Supply of electricity needs to be optimal to enable businesses and banks to provide seamless online services through local areas networks, wide area networks and the Internet. Inefficiency is the word to describe a situation where everybody has to depend on power generators, as the primary, reliable power supply. This constitutes a barrier to growth and sustainable development. The growth of real e-business cannot take place or be of any significance in an environment with unreliable public power supply.

Quality of service

While availability has grown, this has not been matched by quality of service. It is not enough to have cheap lines and low cost bandwidth. Efficiency and accessibility of telecoms service should be paramount. Most operators have a lot of work to do in Quos especially in the areas of congestion and support.

ICT Incentives

As what I have stated above, the market is large – the biggest in Africa! Opportunities abound! But more needs to be done to encourage investment in ICT, especially in the knowledge and creative areas. There is a need for a combination of incentives: reduction of import duties on ICT equipment, tax incentives for ICT companies, tax incentives for investment in ICT research, development and training efforts, local manufacture of telecommunications equipment and infrastructure. Again the essence of these incentives is to encourage growth and reduce access cost. If most ICT providers are faced with the problem of multiplicity of taxes, as is the case now, is this in sync with the growth that is needed? (ICT: Information and communication technologies (ICT) is an umbrella term that covers all technical means for processing and communicating information. The term has gained popularity partially due to the convergence of information technology (IT) and telecom technology. ICT defines a broad range of technologies, including methods for communication (communication protocols, transmission techniques, communications equipment, media (communication)), as well as techniques for storing and processing information (computing, data storage, etc.);There are claims that the expression "information and communication technology" should not refer only to contemporary or automated technological artifacts; paper-based writing, being itself a technology ontologically, can be included as pre-digital means of generating information (or communication). The term ICT has been incorrectly associated only with digital technologies - analogue and even mechanical systems can be considered as ICT, although the use of the expression in that context is rare and limited. Another shortcoming, particularly in education, is that the term ‘ICT’ is used synonymously with the term computer technology, and is not usually applied with the rest of the technologies that are used in our daily lives - cell phones, cameras, satellite receivers, media players, game consoles, etc.)

Building expertise

More efforts should be invested in encouraging the development of IT and Telecoms expertise in New Bataan. "The biggest market", "the fastest growing teledensity" or just "the biggest consumers"? Consumption alone cannot engender growth. There is a need to develop human capacity in areas such as: technical, management, research and development, security, strategic and operational. For example, while there has been a cyber café boom, management has been a major source of concern for cyber café businesses. Also with the many IT and Telecoms projects that are taking off, project management skills will be required to get benefit.

Human development in ICT can be encouraged through increased awareness of opportunities and capabilities in ICT. The environment should encourage ICT education and provide incentives especially for those investing in research, development, training, software and other creative efforts. Acquiring infrastructure is great but it is serious investment in education that will bridge the digital divide and enhance the quality of infrastructure, the quality of access, the quality of usage, the quality of growth.

Initiatives from profit-driven members of the private sector should be encouraged, but such schemes are on their own not enough to make Nigeria an ICT-capable country or a key player in the global ICT revolution.
An emphasis on infrastructure would widen access to ICT facilities. Nigeria can't afford the luxury of ignoring the multiplier effects of access to ICT. New BAtaan has not done well so far in improving infrastructure capacity in "record time", it's time to start focusing on it.

At the end of the day, infrastructure is not just about access, it's about what you do with access.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_and_communication_technologies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Bataan,_Compostela_Valley

2009-10-16T23:03:00.001-07:00

Yeah! sa wakas..!

>>Insource or Outsource?

2009-10-16T22:53:00.000-07:00

As a student, you were invited by the Dean of the Institute of Computing to attend a seminar-workshop on information systems planning with some of the faculty members. In one of the sessions, a discussion of outsourcing came up. You have been asked to present your evaluation about outsourcing the information systems functions of the school.

Required: You are to take a position- outsource or in-source and justify your position. (3000words)

================================================

Review on terms:

Information Systems Planning is an important topic for managers and researchers alike. Advances in information provision have led organizations to attempt to develop IS/IT strategies which interrelate with their business strategies and which together support corporate missions. Strategic information systems planning (SISP) has become an accepted part of the overall corporate strategic planning process. The proliferation of methods and the variations in satisfaction indicate a need to provide a framework for classifying and comparing SISP approaches which will provide guidance on use and to explain why certain approaches are more commonly used than others. Develops a classification framework based on complexity and describes tools for using the framework and provides indication as to the nature of a complete classification and comparison method for SISP based on complexity, scope and fit.

Insourcing is a business practice in which work that would otherwise have been contracted out is performed in house. Insourcing often involves bringing in specialists to fill temporary needs or training existing personnel to perform tasks that would otherwise have been outsourced. An example is the use of in-house engineers to write technical manuals for equipment they have designed, rather than sending the work to an outside technical writing firm. In this example, the engineers might have to take technical writing courses at a local college, university, or trade school before being able to complete the task successfully. Other challenges of insourcing include the possible purchase of additional hardware and/or software that is scalable and energy-efficient enough to deliver an adequate return on investment (ROI).
Insourcing can be viewed as outsourcing as seen from the opposite side. For example, a company based in Japan might open a plant in the United States for the purpose of employing American workers to manufacture Japanese products. From the Japanese perspective this is outsourcing, but from the American perspective it is insourcing. Nissan, a Japanese automobile manufacturer, has in fact done this.

Outsourcing is an arrangement in which one company provides services for another company that could also be or usually have been provided in-house. Outsourcing is a trend that is becoming more common in information technology and other industries for services that have usually been regarded as intrinsic to managing a business. In some cases, the entire information management of a company is outsourced, including planning and business analysis as well as the installation, management, and servicing of the network and workstations. Outsourcing can range from the large contract in which a company like IBM manages IT services for a company like Xerox to the practice of hiring contractors and temporary office workers on an individual basis.

Outsourcing/Insourcing Assessment:

Outsourcing
Outsourcing began in the early eighties when organizations started delegating their non-core functions to an external organization that was specialized in providing a particular service, function or product. In outsourcing, the external organization would take on the management of the outsourced function.
Most organizations choose outsourcing because outsourcing offers a lot of advantages. When organizations outsource to countries like India, they benefit from lower costs and high-quality services. Moreover organizations can concentrate more on core functions once they outsource their non-core functions. Outsourcing can also help organizations make better use of their resources, time and infrastructure.
In outsourcing, the outsourcer and the outsourcing partner have a greater relationship when compared to the relationship between a buyer and a seller. In outsourcing, the outsourcer trusts the outsourcing partner with vital information. Outsourcing is no longer confined to the outsourcing of IT services. Outsourcers in the US and UK now outsource financial services, engineering services, creative services, data entry services and much more.
Most organizations are opting to outsource because outsourcing enables organizations to access intellectual capital, focus on core competencies, shorten the delivery cycle time and reduce costs significantly. Organizations feel outsourcing is an effective business strategy to help improve their business.

The Advantages of Outsourcing

• Outsourcing your non-core activities will give you more time to concentrate on your core business processes
• Offshoring can give you access to professional, expert and high-quality services
• With outsourcing your organization can experience increased efficiency and productivity in non-core business processes
• Outsourcing can help you streamline your business operations
• Offshore outsourcing can help you save on time, effort, manpower, operating costs and training costs amongst others
• Outsourcing can make your organization more flexible to change
• You can experience an increased control of your business with outsourcing
• Your organization can save on investing in the latest technology, software and infrastructure as your outsourcing partner would be investing in these
• Outsourcing can give you assurance that your business processes are being carried out efficiently, proficiently and within a fast turnaround time
• Offshoring can help your organization save on capital expenditures
• By outsourcing, your company can save on management problems as your offshore partner will be managing the team who does your work
• By outsourcing, you can cater to the new and challenging demands of your customers
• Outsourcing can help your organization to free up its cash flow
• Sharing your business risks is possible with outsourcing
• Outsourcing can give your business a competitive advantage as you will be able to increase productivity in all the areas of your business
• Outsourcing can help your organization to cut is operational costs to more than half
If you want your organization to stay ahead of competition, concentrate on core competencies and make use of the latest technologies, then outsourcing can help your organization achieve all this and more. In outsourcing, the advantages of outsourcing are more than the disadvantages of outsourcing. The pros of outsourcing have driven more organization to step into offshoring and experience the benefits that it has to offer.

The Disadvantages of Outsourcing

• At times, it is more cost-effective to conduct a particular business process, rather than outsourcing it
• While outsourcing services such as payroll processing services and tax preparation services, your outsourcing provider will be able to see your company’s confidential information and hence there is a threat to security and confidentiality in outsourcing
• When you begin to outsource your business processes, you might find it difficult to manage the offshore provider when compared to managing processes within your organization
• Offshoring can create potential redundancies for your organization
• In case, your offshore service provider becomes bankrupt or goes out of business, your organization will have to immediately move your business processes in-house or find another outsourcing provider
• The employees in your organization might not like the idea of you outsourcing your processes and they might express lack of interest or lack of quality at work
• Your outsourcing provider might not be only providing services for your organization. Since your provider might be catering to the needs of several companies, there might be not be complete devotion to you and your company
• By outsourcing, you might forget to cater to the needs of your valuable customers as your focus will be on the business process that is outsourced
• In outsourcing, you may lose your control over the process that is outsourced
• Outsourcing, though cost-effective, might have hidden costs, such as the legal costs incurred while signing a contract between companies. You might also have to spend a lot of time and effort in getting the contract signed
• With outsourcing, your organization might suffer from a lack of customer focus
• There can be several disadvantages in outsourcing, such as, renewing contracts, misunderstanding of the contract, lack of communication, poor quality and delayed services amongst others.
The disadvantages of offshoring give organizations an opportunity to think about what they are stepping into. However the disadvantages of outsourcing are less than the advantages of offshore outsourcing. When outsourcing, you might not experience any of these disadvantages of offshoring, if you find a reliable outsourcing partner. Before outsourcing take the interests of your customers and employees into consideration and then make an informed decision. If your organization is genuinely interested in outsourcing, let not the disadvantages of outsourcing stop you.

Insourcing

The opposite of outsourcing can be defined as insourcing. When an organization delegates its work to another entity, which is internal yet not a part of the organization, it is termed as insourcing. The internal entity will usually have a specialized team who will be proficient in the providing the required services. Organizations sometimes opt for insourcing because it enables them to maintain a better control of what they outsource. Insourcing has also come to be defined as transferring work from one organization to another organization which is located within the same country. Insourcing can also mean an organization building a new business centre or facility which would specialize in a particular service or product.
Organizations involved in production usually opt for insourcing in order to cut down the cost of labor and taxes amongst others. The trend towards insourcing has increased since the year 2006. Organizations who have been dissatisfied with outsourcing have moved towards insourcing. Some organizations feel that they can have better customer support and better control over the work outsourced by insourcing their work rather than outsourcing it.
• With the insourcing team managing the overall and technical project issues, the project life cycle is different:
• Requirements are defined with use cases again.
• We use QuickWebWorkshops to build small, proof of concept prototypes that teach the in house staff how to do development and validate the user requirements clearly.
• The custom application engineering for the company's project beats generic best practices solutions by lowering total development hours dramatically in many situations.
• In design, we use all the company's existing software that can be reused along with IBM tools for iSeries such as JTOpen and WDSC and a wide variety of open-source and other third-party tools.
• Instead of a few big code drops during the project, we have smaller, iterative drops for user testing and feedback with the in house staff providing tighter control to the project.
• During the development stages, the in house staff is actively involved both in design, lending their application knowledge to our designers, and developing significant portions of the application.
• With tighter communication, the company is involved in most of the engineering and design detail decisions even where we are building the frameworks.
• Throughout the project, the in house staff that will inherit the application is involved in documenting and testing it using automated tools wherever possible.
• Leveraging the broad market of open-source tools lowers the total project hours a lot and provides no-charge, flexible licensing for software components.
• If we have large amounts of application coding that can't be done by in house staff we have the option of doing that with hourly offshore resources under the control of the insourcing team to keep costs low.

We all know that a significant portion of business processes and activities in most organizations depends completely on information systems, and could not function without them. But a question always take place is that what Information system to use, Insource or Outsource Information System.

In our situation, I would suggest that our school will Insource its Information System. Aside from the reviews on Insource Informastion system above, my concern is on our faculty. We have competitive faculty which I am sure will amke our system in its best. It will help both sides: extra income to the faculty and insurance to the security, affordability, fuction satisfaction of USEP's IS.

Reference:
http://www.theoutsourcerzone.com/why.htm
http://www.theoutsourcerzone.com/it.htm
http://www.theoutsourcerzone.com/application.htm
http://www.theoutsourcerzone.com/hr.htm
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1185946,00.html
http://www.outsource2india.com/why_outsource/articles/advantages-disadvantages-outsourcing.asp
http://search400.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid3_gci996709,00.html

>>finally

2009-10-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

Bweeeeeeeeeeee!
Whew!
For an array of company rejections...finally, one outstanding construction industry entertained us!
We greatly appreciated the time the NekenFab, Inc. Davao Branch Manager shared to us.
Thank You sir!

the Lane Systems visit..>>

2009-09-22T00:51:00.000-07:00

Lane Systems is a software development, business solutions, and IT outsourcing company located at J.P. Laurel Avenue Pryce Business Park , Davao City..
(upper left)The Lane Systems building
(upper right)My Group and Ms. Lyzel Abuzo, the web developing manager
(lower center)Kate, Jovelyn, Michelle, and Ailaine(That's me!)

Sentiment to SONA>>

2009-09-22T00:34:00.000-07:00

On the assumption that you heard/read the SONA of the President last month, (July 2000), identify at least 3 areas related to ICT and identify how these areas can improve our quality of life.

I have here what I consider areas that are related to ICT during the President’s SONA last July 2009.

Quote 1: The Telecommunications Sector

“Sa telecommunications naman, inatasan ko ang Telecommunications Commission na kumilos na tungkol sa mga sumbong na dropped calls at mga nawawalang load sa cellphone. We need to amend the Commonwealth-era Public Service Law. And we need to do it now.”

I suppose majority of Filipino people are interested about this. Because visibly, Filipinos are avid mobile phone user I would say. Thus, making the telecommunication agencies benefit the most. Furthermore, issues like drop calls, stolen loads (as people term it) and complaints are dominant. So I was glad that the administration has finally addressed this problem by commanding the Telecommunications Commission to decipher this problem and make solutions. Thank you that recently, Telecommunication Commission found an alternative solution- the extension of load expiration. Not mentioned above, but this is one of the hassles that we, users, complain about. This is a great help especially to those who use their load for emergencies only (less worry about losing the load for nothing and benefiting from it).

PS: I do not believe that this will cause a great lose to the telecommunications industry. Business is business… I know they will still generate profit from it. ^_^

Quote 2: The BPO

“In the past if the electronics sector grew, today we’re creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth. Electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall with the state of the world economy but BPO remains resilient. With earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity… Let us have a Department of ICT.”- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

We were aware that Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) nowadays bloomed to the extent that even crisis did not impede it. President Arroyo’s decision to have an ICT Department is a great help to the Philippine Economy. This does give opportunity to many Filipinos. I have read that the recent growth in the outsourcing industry in the Philippines has been fueled not by traditional low-value-added call centers but more higher-end outsourcing such as legal services, web design, medical transcription, software development, animation, and shared services. President Arroyo’s decision to have this Department of ICT is a great step towards the development and promotion of BPO- Philippines. If properly implemented, managed and developed, this will be an economic wealth growth that Filipinos will benefit the most.

Below is an excerpt from a site that states why many clients outsource in the Philippines.

“The Philippines has now stepped out of India’s shadow to become a competitive KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing) and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) destination. The latest growth spurt in the Philippines’ outsourcing industry doesn’t just come from a mushrooming number of call centers but also from higher-end services such as web development, software development, legal services, medical transcription, animation and other services. When you choose to outsource I.T. to the Philippines, you reduce and control your operating costs, gain access to world-class capabilities and maximize your productivity.” [www.outsourceit2philippines.html]

Quote 3: The 2010 Automated Election

“As the seeds of fundamental political reform are planted, let us address the highest exercise of democracy, voting! In 2001, I said we would finance fully automated elections. We got it, thanks to Congress.”

I was quietly interested way back those days that the automated election was just hearsay. In a one-dimensional thinking, I would say, because I am an IT student, that I would enjoy and benefit this type of election. Maybe I could volunteer myself as watcher or so whatever. But that was before.

I have read articles and forums about the coming 2010 elections. And I found lots of sentiments that I was not able to realize ahead of: fraud that may happen, illiterate ones may refrain from voting, some teachers are worrying about the extra income they may not have in an automated election, the expected huge power consumption during the Election event, etc. I hope these concerns are analyzed and considered by the administration.

But the decision is final! We will be having our 2010 automated election. Optimistically, this would create a big step towards technological advancement. By means of a system that uses appropriate technology for voting and electronic devices to count votes and canvass/consolidate with a potentially greater accuracy is what we’re expecting and hoping. The important is that we will be able to exercise our democracy, voting, in an election with less fraud.

References:
http://ikuwaderno.com/transcript-of-arroyos-sona-july-27-2009.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commission_on_Information_and_Communications_Technology_(Philippines)

If ever..

2009-09-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

If you were hired by the university president as an IT consultant, what would you suggest (technology, infrastructure, innovations, steps, processes, etc) in order for the internet connectivity be improved? (3000words)

***********************************

IT consultant work review:

Today IT consulting has become a major opportunity for many IT professionals who want to work for themselves. It is no longer only the domain of the high-flying international organization. In fact, tens of thousands of IT professionals are leaving their regular jobs to set up as IT consultants on their own. Although there are many consulting opportunities available, it is quite a challenge to make a success of your own IT consulting business.

My stand:
If ever I were hired by the university president as an IT consultant, I would recommend the establishment and maintenance of security requirements necessary to protect university information, computing and network resources, and minimize susceptibility to attacks on USEP resources against other sites.

My first suggestion would be the request for a university’s local Department of Information and Network Technology (DINTech) or whatever name the university prefer. It would be an entity that is responsible for the planning, coordinating, implementing, regulating, and administrating the information and network technology. It will promote, develop, and regulate integrated and strategic information and communication technology systems and reliable and cost-efficient communication facilities and services. During this entire article, we will be able to realize the importance of this department I would say. This department must have its own office for security and integrity purposes.

Secondly, I would like to strengthen the security requirements. Security shall be in place for the protection of the privacy of information, protection against unauthorized modification of information, protection of systems against the denial of service, and protection of systems against unauthorized access. Users are reminded that all usage of USEP's information technology resources is subject to all University policies.

I would suggest that university information, computing, and network resources may be accessed or used only by individuals authorized by the university. The university encourages the use of computing and network resources and respects the privacy of users. Nonetheless, the university may access information stored on the University's network of computers for the purposes listed below. I got these lists from an article so as an IT consultant (in this case), I point out the type of users who can do such privileges.

a. Troubleshooting hardware and software problems- This must be limited to network administrator and computer technicians.
b. Preventing unauthorized access and system misuse- There are some cases in our school that students encounter a problem with the computer they are using. And so, to solve the problem, they modify the properties of the hardware and software in our virtual libraries by themselves that causes another worse problem.
c. Retrieving University business related information- This must be limited to the officer-in-charge of the business.
d. Investigating reports of violation of university policy- There must be a special force that must look (in-charge) this area. This may include the illegal distribution of software from the resource of the university. This also includes the unauthorized charging of notebooks (laptops) and any electronic devices in the university outlet, and etc.
e. Complying with legal requests for information
f. Rerouting or disposing of undeliverable mail- This must be the look-out of the network administrator. This is an important issue that the net-admin must consider.

g. Addressing safety or security issues

To the greatest extent possible in a public setting individuals' privacy should be preserved. However, privacy or confidentiality of documents and messages stored on University-owned equipment cannot be guaranteed. Users of electronic mail systems should be aware that, in addition to being subject to authorized access, electronic mail in its present form cannot be secured and is, therefore, vulnerable to unauthorized access and modification by third parties.

Systems that are found to pose a threat to the integrity of the information, computing and network resources may have their access to these resources be suspended. The suspension of services will continue until the problem has been remedied and the system validated by Department of Information and Network Technology (this is the department that I want our university to have..at least) for operation within the USEP information, computing and network resources environment. The University reserves the right to invoke emergency suspension of services without prior notification if the situation poses a serious threat to the information technology environment.

Persons in violation of this policy are subject to the full range of sanctions, including the loss of computer or network access privileges with or without notification, disciplinary action, dismissal from the University, and legal action. Some violations may constitute criminal offenses, as outlined in USEP statutes and other local, state, and federal laws; the University will carry out its responsibility to report such violations to the appropriate authorities.

I would suggest that the university must recheck its system and analyze its weakness and strength. The university must check if it meets the minimum requirement that a good internet and information system must possess. To guide the university doing this, I have here below an excerpt from an article in the internet that would help.

Initial Network Hook-up:
Each system must be capable of passing a test for vulnerabilities to hacker attacks and relaying of unsolicited email prior to being attached to USEP’s information, computing and network resources. System testing will be the responsibility of the Departmental/Unit or University Security Officer. [ in our case it would be the Department of Information and Network Technology]

Password Specification:
Password Policy: All passwords on any system, whether owned by USEP or by an individual, directly connected to University network must adhere to the following standards when technically possible. This includes devices connected to the campus network with a direct wired connection, wireless, dial-in modem, remote access software (e.g., Windows Remote Desktop), use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN), and the like. This policy applies to all passwords - eID, system, user, database, application, etc. Any system that does not comply may have its network access blocked without prior notification

Password Standards:
a. Passwords must have a minimum of 7 characters.
b. Passwords must contain characters from 3 of the 4 following categories:
i. Uppercase letters
ii. Lowercase letters
iii. Numbers
iv. Special Characters (for example: !,@,#,$,%,^,&,*, etc. But be aware if traveling outside the U.S. that some symbols, like the U.S. dollar sign, may not be available on international keyboards)
c. Passwords cannot be the same as the USEP eID and not easily guessed (for example: no variants of the USEP eID, dictionary words, family names, pet names, birthdates, etc.).
d. Passwords must be changed at least twice a year (eID password changes are during a designated time at the beginning of the fall and spring semesters).
e. Passwords must be changed significantly and cannot repeat more frequently than every two years.
f. Passwords that are written down or stored electronically must not be accessible to anyone other than the owner and/or issuing authority.
g. The same password used to access Kansas State University Systems (for example, your eID password) must not be used for accounts or other forms of access to non-USEP systems or applications such as online shopping, banking, etc.
h. Passwords must not be shared unless explicitly permitted by the issuing authority. eID passwords must not be shared under any circumstances.
i. Anyone who believes their password has been compromised must immediately notify their departmental or college IT support, or the IT Help Desk to evaluate possible risks.
j. Default passwords in vendor-supplied hardware or software must be changed during initial installation or setup.
k. The eID password must never be transmitted over the network in clear text (i.e., it must always be encrypted in transit). It is also strongly recommended that other types of passwords be encrypted in transit.

Unattended Computers
To protect against unauthorized access to data on computers left unattended, the following precautions are required:
a. Enable password protection on the screen saver for all university computers with the exception of special-purpose computers designed for public access, such as information or registration kiosks, public computers in the library, or computer labs where locking is undesirable due to the risk of a user monopolizing a shared computer. The length of time before the password-protected screen saver comes on should be set to 20 minutes or less. For lab situations, it is recommended that computers be set to automatically logout after at the most 30 minutes of idle time.
b. Never leave your computer unattended and unprotected. Before leaving your computer, lock the display or log out in a manner that requires a password to gain access.
Protection from Malicious Software and Intrusions:
Malicious software, or "malware", comes in many forms - viruses, worms, Trojan horses, denial of service attacks, botnets, spyware, adware, spam relays, etc. All pose a security risk, some of which are a very serious threat to the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of USEP's information and technology resources. Appropriate precautions must be taken to protect USEP systems and information from compromise by malware. To that end, USEP may require the installation of essential security software on computers connected to the USEP campus network or accessing USEP information and technology resources. The following sections define specific requirements for antivirus, spyware/adware, personal firewalls, and e-mail. Assuring the validity of malware protection software is the responsibility of each user, the department/unit security representative, and the USEP Security Officer.

Virus Protection
a. The following computers must use the university-supplied antivirus software configured in a managed mode ("managed mode" allows a server to monitor and configure the antivirus protection on the client computer and push updates to the client on demand):
i. Any university-owned computer
ii. Student-owned computers in USEP residence halls
iii. Users of USEP's wireless or wired network if it is a university-owned computer or one that belongs to a current USEP faculty, staff, or student.
b. All other computers accessing the USEP campus network or information technology resources must be running active, up-to-date virus protection software. Current USEP faculty, staff, and students may run the university-supplied antivirus software on their home computers at no cost to meet this requirement.
c. Antivirus software must be activated when the computer boots up and remain active at all times during its operation.
d. Real-time file scanning must be enabled where files are scanned for malicious anomalies before they are written to the hard drive.
e. The version of the antivirus software (i.e., the antivirus program or engine) must be no more than one version behind the current version offered by the vendor or the version endorsed by USEP, and must be supported by the vendor.
f. f. Virus definition files (i.e., the database in the antivirus software that identifies known malware) must be up-to-date with the most current version available from the vendor.
g. Checking for and installing updates to virus definition files and antivirus software must be automated and performed at least daily.
h. Comprehensive virus scans of all local hard drives must be performed at least weekly.
Spyware/Adware Protection
a. All computers connected to the campus network must run active spyware/adware protection software.
b. Spyware/adware definition/detection rules must be up-to-date with the most current version available from the vendor.
c. Scans of all local hard drives for spyware/adware must be performed at least weekly.
Personal Firewall Protection
a. All computers using the university-supplied security software (which includes virus, spyware, intrusion, and firewall protection) must have the firewall enabled.
b. Any other computer connected to the campus network must run a personal firewall. Microsoft Windows Firewall is an acceptable personal firewall.
E-mail Protection
a. All campus e-mail servers must provide antivirus protection that detects and mitigates infected e-mail messages.
b. Infected messages must be discarded or quarantined, not returned to the sender.

Security Patches
All systems connected to the campus network and the applications and databases running on those systems must have the latest security patches available from the respective vendors applied. Any system or application with known vulnerabilities for which a patch is not available must take appropriate measures to mitigate the risk, such as placing the system behind a firewall. Kansas State University may block access to the network for systems that have not been patched.

College/Departmental Systems
Colleges, departments, or other USEP units may institute their own distributed computing system, as these provide valuable specialized services to users. These servers, in order to protect the University resources to which they are connected, must be kept no more than one version behind the current vendor-supported version of the operating system and application software and comply with all security requirements and standards set forth in this policy.
Campus units with qualified IT support staff may run their own security management environment with the university-supplied security software that provides virus, spyware, intrusion, and firewall protection. The unit security management system must be configured to provide reports to the central security management system to facilitate comprehensive campus-wide reporting. In the absence of qualified IT support staff, units must use the central security management services for malware protection.
Assurance of server protection is the responsibility of the Department of Information and Network Technology.

Enforcement
Enforcement of these policies and associated standards is the responsibility of the Department of Information and Network Technology or designee. Any system that does not comply with security policies and standards, is susceptible to a known vulnerability, or is compromised may have its network access blocked immediately and without prior notification to protect the integrity of other systems and data.

Any device directly connected to the campus network (i.e., with a direct wired or wireless connection, dial-in modem, remote access software like Windows Remote Desktop, use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN), and the like) may be scanned and assessed by designated DINTech or security staff at any time to determine compliance with security policies and standards, or detect anomalous activities, vulnerabilities, and security compromises. Firewalls must be configured to permit this remote scanning function. Scanning may only be performed to the extent necessary to detect and assess the risk.

USEP must have a defined procedures for restoring network access after the vulnerable or compromised system has been repaired The Chief IT Security Officer will determine whether the repair will require the computer to be reformatted and the operating system and all software and data re-installed, depending on the nature of the compromise.

Security Personnel Responsibilities:
University IT Security Officer: The University employee who leads the IT security program to protect USEP's information, computing, and network resources. Responsibilities include assisting with university-wide IT security policies, controls and procedures; developing and maintaining security architecture, standards, and guidelines; monitoring compliance with IT security policies and standards; risk assessment; coordinating responses to security incidents; communication with organizations outside the University; chairing the Security Incident Response Team; and promoting training and awareness of the secure use of information, computing and network resources.
IT Security Analyst: Technical personnel in central information technology units assigned with responsibility for the secure operation of information, computing and network security at the enterprise level. Responsibilities include monitoring the state of information, computing and network security; detection and remediation of security incidents, implementation of preventative measures, configuration and management of security technology (for example, firewalls and intrusion detection systems), and communication of alerts and remedies to departmental/unit security representatives.

Security Incident Response Team (SIRT): A team with representatives from each academic college and major administrative unit that provides advisory, proactive, and reactive support for USEP's IT security program. Responsibilities include coordinating the campus-wide response to major security incidents; coordinating implementation of preventative measures in their colleges/units; communicating threats and best practices to their colleges/units; approving requests for restoring network access to vulnerable or compromised computers; participating in the development of IT security policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures; and assisting with IT security training and awareness efforts. SIRT duties should constitute no more than 30% of an individual's job responsibilities.

Departmental Security Representatives: The primary point of contact for departments for IT security matters. The departmental security representative serves as a liaison between SIRT and the department by assisting with communication, facilitating implementation of preventative measures in the department, and coordinating the response to security incidents involving technology or data within the department.

Deans and Department Heads: Responsibilities include authorizing access to computer systems in their units, ensuring that System Users understand and agree to comply with University and unit security policies, and ensuring that the technical and procedural means and resources are in place to assist in maintaining the security policies and procedures outlined above.

System Users: Responsibilities include agreeing to and complying with all applicable University and unit security policies and procedures; taking appropriate precautions to prevent unauthorized use of their accounts, software programs, and computers; protecting university data from unauthorized access, alteration, or destruction; representing themselves truthfully in all forms of electronic communication; and respecting the privacy of electronic communication.

Appropriate use of information technology resources includes instruction; independent study; authorized research; independent research; and official work of the offices, units, recognized student and campus organizations, and agencies of the University.

Authorized users are: (1) faculty, staff, and students of the University; (2) anyone connecting from a public information service; (3) others whose access furthers the mission of the University and whose usage does not interfere with other users' access to resources. In addition, a user must be specifically authorized to use a particular computing or network resource by the campus unit responsible for operating the resource.

It is my responsibility as a consultant to be aware of the potential for and possible effects of manipulating information, especially in electronic form, to understand the changeable nature of electronically stored information, and to continuously verify the integrity and completeness of information that you compile or use. I am responsible for the security and integrity of University information stored on your individual computing desktop system.

Appropriate use of information technology resources includes instruction; independent study; authorized research; independent research; and official work of the offices, units, recognized student and campus organizations, and agencies of the University.

All of my proposals and suggestions above are sill useless if it will not be put into operation. But most of all, this must be considered : appropriate use of information technology resources includes instruction; independent study; authorized research; independent research; and official work of the offices, units, recognized student and campus organizations, and agencies of the University. Everybody, from the top to the lowest must be aware.

Reference:
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/bookdescription.cws_home/679850/description#description
http://www.wikipedia.com

_aiai_

Green Campus Computing

2009-08-18T04:06:00.000-07:00

Find three(3) URL's that talk's about "green campus computing" and suggest ways how the university can adopt this concept.

1. http://ecenter.colorado.edu/energy/projects/green_computing.html

Computer Operating Costs
Computers generate heat and require additional cooling which adds to energy costs.
How Much Energy Does Your Computer System Use?

A typical desktop PC system is comprised of the computer itself (the CPU or the “box”), a monitor, and printer. Your CPU may require approximately 100 watts of electrical power. Add 50-150 watts for a 15-17 inch monitor, proportionately more for larger monitors. The power requirements of conventional laser printers can be as much as 100 watts or more when printing though much less if idling in a “sleep mode.” Ink jet printers use as little as 12 watts while printing and 5 watts while idling.

How a user operates the computer also factors into energy costs. First let’s take the worst case scenario, continuous operation. Assuming you operate a 200 watt PC system day and night everyday, direct annual electrical costs would be over $125 (at $0.075/kWh). In contrast, if you operate your system just during normal business hours, say 40 hours per week, the direct annual energy cost would be about $30 – plus, of course, the cost of providing additional cooling.

Considering the tremendous benefits of computer use, neither of the above cost figures may seem like much, but think of what happens when these costs are multiplied by the many thousands of computers in use at CU. The energy waste dollars add up quickly.

Energy Efficient Computing
Here are some tested suggestions that may make it possible for you to reduce your computer energy consumption by 80 percent or more while still retaining most or all productivity and other benefits of your computer system, including network connectivity.

>>>> Screen savers save no energy
If screen saver images appear on your monitor for more than 5 minutes, you are wasting energy! Screen saver programs may save the phosphors in your monitor screen, but this is not really a concern with newer monitors, especially LCD screens. And they do not save any energy.

>>>> Enable power management features
Thanks to the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA), personal computer systems purchased today can be easy on energy. These “Energy Star” computers and monitors can be programmed to automatically “power-down” to a low power state when they are not being used. These efficiency gains can be achieved without any sacrifice in computing performance.
The EPA has estimated that providing computers with “sleep mode” reduces their energy use by 60 to 70 percent – and ultimately could save enough electricity each year to power Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, cut electric bills by $2 billion, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of 5 million cars.
Follow these simple steps to access computer and monitor power management features for Macintosh and Windows.

>>>> You Can Turn Your Computer Off!
The common misconception that a computer’s life is shortened by turning it on and off has led some to leave computers on all the time. Others are reluctant to switch their computers on and off a couple times during their workday despite only using this equipment for a fraction of that time. Desktop computers are designed to protect the internal circutry from power damage from on/off switching. Turning PC equipment off at night or on and off a few times a day will not appreciably affect its useful life. Electronic equipment life is a function of operating hours and heat — both these factors are reduced when equipment is switched off. Modern hard drives are designed and tested to operate reliably for thousands of on/off cycles.
Thus, you CAN turn off your computer (and monitor and printer)! The inconvenience of waiting a minute or two for a computer to reboot or peripheral to come on line may be trivial compared to the energy savings achieved by keeping computer equipment off when not in use.

<***************************************************>

2. http://www.colorado.edu/its/docs/energy.html

Suggestions for turning off computer components after a period of inactivity:

Component	Time period
Monitor	20 minutes
Hard disks	30 minutes
System standby or hibernation	90 minutes

>>>> What about group printers and servers?
Group printers should not be turned off unless no one will be using them for an extended period of time such as overnight or over a weekend. Most group printers also have a power save mode that can be configured according to the needs of the group that it serves. For group printers ITS recommends setting the standby time to 30 minutes.
Servers should not be turned off; however, the monitor on the server is rarely needed and can be turned off when not in use to conserve energy.
In summary, configuring computer components to automatically save energy is the best thing that can be done to conserve energy without impacting your ability to get your job done. It saves energy and money, and is beneficial to the environment. These settings are a matter of personal preference. Select the settings that balance your computer usage with energy savings.

<***************************************************>

3. http://www.it.utah.edu/leadership/green/basics.html

Office Computer-Generated Waste
Important steps toward green computing include modifying paper and toner use, disposal of old computer equipment and purchasing decisions when considering new computer equipment.

>>>> Paper Waste
• Print as little as possible. Review and modify documents on the screen and use print preview. Minimize the number of hard copies and paper drafts you make. Instead of printing, save information to disks, or USB memory sticks.
• Recycle waste paper, have a recycle bin at each community printer and copier location.
• Buy and use recycled paper in your printers and copiers. From an environmental point of view, the best recycled paper is 100 percent post-consumer recycled content.
• Save e-mail whenever possible and avoid needless printing of e-mail messages.
• Use e-mail instead of faxes or send faxes directly from your computer to eliminate the need for a hard copy. When you must fax using hard copies, save paper using a "sticky" fax address note and not a cover sheet.
• On larger documents, use smaller font sizes (consistent with readability) to save paper.
• If your printer prints a test page whenever it is turned on, disable this unnecessary feature.
• Before recycling paper, which has print on only one side, set it aside for use as scrap paper or for printing drafts.
• When documents are printed or copied, use double-sided printing and copying. If possible, use the multiple pages per sheet option on printer properties.
• When general information-type documents must be shared within an office, try circulating them instead of making an individual copy for each person. Even better, make the document electronically available to the audience and display it on a projector.

>>>> Electronic Waste
• Use the campus network where possible to transfer files. This avoids the need to write CDs or DVDs or use floppy diskettes.
• Use USB memory sticks instead of CDs, DVDs, or floppies.
• Use re-writable CDs and DVDs.
• There are hopes of the University Recycling program addressing e-waste in the near future

<***************************************************>

Suggestions/ Comments:

I have read that research reveals that most personal desktop computers are not being used the majority of the time they are running and many personal computers nationwide are needlessly left on continuously. With no preconception, our university does belong to this practice- needlessly turning on computers continuously.

I myself had seen computers in our Laboratory computers that are left turned on. The worst thing is that it was not just once but a couple of times and counting! In this act, I would propose that these computers must be turned off or put to sleep if in idle mode.

For a couple of time, I had also noticed one of the computers in our laboratory that is frequently in “screen saver’s mode”. In contrast to its name, as stated above, Screen savers save no energy. I am alarmed not on that single computer but on the one using it. I am sorry to know that that computer is exclusive for the technicians and administrators use. See? This campus is pursuing the Green Campus Computing but the mentioned are not setting as examples. I would propose that these staffs must undergo some seminars or orientation regarding this. This does not excuse the administration at higher ranks. We’re referring to all staffs, faculty, and administration end-user’s here. Peace… ^_^

This does not excuse the role of the students. Remember that it’s not just the number of computers that is driving energy consumption upward. The way that we use computers also adds to the increasing energy burden. Let’s all help. Let’s do tha “Enable power management features” stated above. The inconvenience of waiting a minute or two for a computer to reboot or peripheral to come on line may be trivial compared to the energy savings achieved by keeping computer equipment off when not in use. In this matter, the university must held a seminar/orientation with regards to green campus computing.

“You're not alone in your effort to create a sustainable campus; you just need to bring your stakeholders together and put the pedal to the metal.” Dian Schaffhauser- 04/01/09

“…going for small wins through grassroots projects "creates a level of confidence that can get the attention of the president." Michael Crowley

Comfac Global Groups..>>the answer

2009-08-18T02:54:00.000-07:00

For an untiring (atik lang) company search, finally, last August 11, 2009, we were accepted. Now is the start of the proposal proper(aw?). ^_^ Thank to God.

Below is the business profile of our adopted company.

The Comfac Global Group: The convergence of technology, workspace and people.

Dr. 4 Belle Fran Arcade E. Palma Gil St., Bo. Obrero Davao City
(082) 221.9347 ; 300.6928
rparaiso@comfacgroup.com

The Comfac Global Group is one of the Philippines' leading systems integrator/total fit-out contractor for workspace facilities. To the Comfac Global Group, the vision is to provide total customer satisfaction from one single source, thru global solutions that is truly world class in terms of products and technologies vis-a-vis functionality and reliability.

The Comfac Global Group has three companies with complementary core competencies namely Comfac Corporation (Technology), Cornersteel Systems Corporation (Workspace facilities) and Energy Specialist Company or ESCO (Security Systems). With the integration of the three companies' products and services, the Comfac Global Group has successfully implemented turn-key projects for corporate offices, contact centers, BPOs, data centers and disaster recovery sites, mobile offices and other non-traditional business centers, providing products and sercvices like modular furniture, custom-made furniture, IT support systems, security systems, and other workspace facilities.

I hope we'll learn something useful and different.

God Bless on our study.

2009-07-20T03:59:00.001-07:00

2. Imarflex!

2009-07-20T03:58:00.001-07:00

>.the company search>>

2009-07-20T03:38:00.000-07:00

1. lapanday visit!

MIS assignment # 3

2009-07-08T02:51:00.000-07:00

<===== Comelec assures automated polls. =====>

After a long process of bidding that the Commission on Elections had gone through, it finally awarded the poll automation contract to Smartmatic and Total Information Management - the only bidder to pass the evaluation. This will ensure that the 2010 national and local elections will be computerized. The Comelec resolves to approve report of Special Bids and Awards Committee confirming Total Information Management-Smartmatic as bidder with lowest calculated bid and award contract to them for the automation of elections on May 10, 2010.

However, the Despite the rumors about the cancellation of the 2010 Presidential Election, Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said that the election will push through next year as the poll body is not bothered at all by to amend the 1987 Constitution and rumors about a "no- election" scenario. But the issue at this point is that if the 2010 election be automated.

The Comelec official said he was hoping there will be no more obstacles to the implementation of the P7.2- billion poll automation project following the reconciliation of Smartmatic International and its partner Total Information Management Corporation (TIMC).

<===== Human intervention. =====>

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is confident to say that technology won’t be the main cause of 2010 automation failure, but “human intervention” will. Yes, it's true. I believe that if failure will still occurr, it would not be merely because of the machines but because of those people with terrible intentions to cheat in some ways. There are doubts about poll automation. People fear that during the transmission of voting results from precincts to Comelec, problems like sabotaging transmission networks or cellsites might take place. “The laws of probability will apply here. If there will be machines that will be sabotaged or ballots snatched, I think of the 80,000 machines, not all will fail—probably less than or about a hundred but not all,” said Comelec chairman Jose Melo.

<===== My encounter. =====>

During our seminar in COMDDAP last July 2, 2009, an American facilitator from the Microsoft Corporation site some issues and facts that must be consider in pursuing the automated election this coming 2010. First, he stated two options regarding the type of source codes that is to be used in the creation of the election-program-software.. whether we may use open sourcee or proprietary software.

Furthermore, in a technical point of view, he point out that we must also consider the situation of the programmers who are tasked to do the program of the said automated election. That includes the security of the programmers himself and to their family. This is not just for the concern of the programmer but also for the credibility of the end product. The outer interferences, connections and political issues (political manipulations) must be avoided. In a dirt politics, consider the fact that the ones making such program are candidates to threat (that is unavoidable). The above views are just some of the many factors that must be consider in using the automated poll election this coming 2010. But, in spite of that complex part, I do not oppose the automated elections. :-)

<===== Poll computerization technologies review. =====>

1. Optical Mark Reader (OMR)

An optical reader is a device found within most computer scanners that captures visual information and translates the image into digital information the computer is capable of understanding and displaying. An example of optical readers are marksense systems for elections where voters mark their choice by filling a rectangle, circle or oval, or by completing an arrow. After the voting a tabulating device reads the votes using "dark mark logic", whereby the computer selects the darkest mark within a given set as the correct choice or vote.

2. Direct Recording Electronic (DRE)

The most recent configuration in the evolution of voting systems are known as direct recording electronic, or DRE’s. They are an electronic implementation of the old mechanical lever systems. As with the lever machines, there is no ballot; the possible choices are visible to the voter on the front of the machine. The voter directly enters choices into electronic storage with the use of a touch-screen, push-buttons, or similar device. An alphabetic keyboard is often provided with the entry device to allow for the possibility of write-in votes. The voter’s choices are stored in these machines via a memory cartridge, diskette or smart-card and added to the choices of all other voters.

There are many other poll computerization technologies available in the market that are not mentioned above..but, on the contrary, there are also many factors that one should consider in using any of these technologies.

Learnings/Reflections # 2

2009-07-07T00:27:00.000-07:00

COMDDAP- Davao
Grand Ballroom, Apo View Hotel
Davao City
July 2-4, 2009

< ========= The Scenario ======= >

July 2, 2009- The day we took part to the COMDDAP- Davao as part of our subject Management Information System (MIS) out-of-campus educational activity. There were many and different technologies showcased in the venue- Grand Ballroom, Apo View Hotel, Davao City. The visitors and students were busy roaming around, taking pictures, exploring and trying the high technology products; some are even purchasing products taking advantage to the discount while some are enjoying the freebies! What am I pointing about is that we, visitors and students, obviously do get pleasure and entertainment from such products- technology.

< ========= The Experience ======= >

I arrived at 1:00 P.M. (not exactly) with my classmates and friends. I was quite amazed on how the staffs welcomed us. We were given a sticker as as a sign of our participation as students. There are any other students from other schools who participated the event. Like us, they are requested to attend by their teachers (I am not telling that I attended that seminar because I was compelled, in fact I was excited to be there! And I am really thankful that we were invited/requested). In the technologies showcased, we enjoyed the most is the touchscreen product where me and my friend spend touching/exploring/laughing before the seminar formally started. There were surveillance cameras, printers, laptops, LCD monitors, digital cameras, and any electronic accessories and cleaner-products in the expo. We did enjoy it.

< ========= The Seminar ======= >

To be honest, the session was quite boring at first. What I perceived that time is that they are trying to sell us their product… some sort of sales talk. Also, they were talking ‘bout their system w/c is quite complex and is hard to understand considering the time limit for discussion. But as we continued, the succeeding sessions became quite interesting.

In that seminar, an American facilitator from the Microsoft Corporation site some issues and facts that must be consider in pursuing the automated election this coming 2010. First, he stated two options regarding the type of source codes that is to be used in the creation of the election-program-software.. whether we may use open sourcee or proprietary software.

Furthermore, in a technical point of view, he point out that we must also consider the situation of the programmers who are tasked to do the program of the said automated election. That includes the security of the programmers himself and to their family. This is not just for the concern of the programmer but also for the credibility of the end product. The outer interferences, connections and political issues (political manipulations) must be avoided. In a dirt politics, consider the fact that the ones making such program are candidates to threat (that is unavoidable). The above views are just some of the many factors that must be consider in using the automated poll election this coming 2010. But, in spite of that complex part, I do not oppose the automated elections. :-)

< ========= The End ======= >

The session ended with the giving of Snitch chocolates to the us who remained 'till the end of the whole-seminar-sessions. That was yummy!

Journal # 1: The actual hunting has started.

2009-06-26T00:04:00.000-07:00

We encountered a problem.

Yesterday, June 24, 2009, we were supposed to have our letter signed by our adviser. However, there are some revisions needed, so, we need to present it again today. But unfortunately this day,He is in his out-of-school campus appointments, thus, making our letter remain unsigned.

Go for our alternative solution.

Despite of lack of approval, we decided to make a phone call to our chosen companies. Gladly, one of them had positive response.

We were glad.

As we visited their site, we finally had a conversation (though through their local phone only) with the Human Resource Department Head of Phoenix Philippines Davao Branch located at Stella Hizon, Reyes Road, Barangay Pampanga, Davao City. Since our concern is about the company’s Information System/ Information Technology practices, we are redirected us to their Management Information System In-Charge. The interview to the said personnel is to be done as soon as our letter is ready.

Be in motion.

We will still push in to our trip- the company hunting. ^_^

<====== no names are mentioned above as we were instructed ========>

Learnings/Reflections #1

2009-06-22T19:30:00.000-07:00

BACKGROUND:

I heard some definitions 'bout MIS from my higher-year-level classmates who had under gone the subject. But, one thing is for sure then, I poorly understand the subject concept. Question

Idea It was just during our first discussion of MIS that I, somehow, got an array of idea about it. Idea

TO DETAIL:

Arrow Management Information System. Yes, Management, as stated in the class is planning, directing, organizing, and controlling something. Everyday, a man manages something consciously or unconsciously. But, one thing is stressed out, a man can never manage a man. Leading would be the right term.

Arrow On the other hand, IS refers to the Hardware (HW), Software (SW), and Peopleware (PW) sort of combinations.

Arrow An issue was thrown during our class- is MIS a right subject title? It’s regarding the “Management-Peopleware” issue. Some said it’s a “No.”, some said it’s a “Yes”. Well, I stand on a the latter.

Arrow The main reason for those who opposed is that you can never manage people (that’s what management means from the word itself). I do agree on that. But, let’s look it this way... Management does not only manage. As stated earlier, it also direct or lead. Viewing the concept with connotation would help us understand the issue further. It’s all on your understanding now.

PS: Some of these grounds are shallow..but this is what I got so far. PEACE ^_^

lol! www.gibitok-pitokpitok.blogspot.com

expect?

2009-06-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

I expect this subject to focus on applications and not just on mere theory in Management Information System. We will be spending most of our time outside our campus and doing some research (paper works) and field works. The experience that we had from our previous subject, Human Resource Management, would be a help.

Furthermore, based on my experience in HRM, I do believe, “Time Management” is the superstar throughout his subject! But regardless of that, I do expect that this would bring more fun than just sitting and having conversation inside a classroom!

Let’s be prepared! How? Dunno..

>>HRM definition>>

2008-10-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

Look for various definitions of personnel management and human resource management and their authors and sources (minimum of 5). Critique each.

(1) Personnel management is more administrative in nature, dealing with payroll, complying with employment law, and handling related tasks. Human resources management, on the other hand, is responsible for managing a workforce as one of the primary resources that contributes to the success of an organization. HRM is said to incorporate and develop personnel management tasks, whileseeking to create and develop teams of workers for the benefit of the organization. Reference:Written by N. Madison

As I understand, PM uses such things as compensation, bonuses, rewards, and the simplification of work responsibilities and other legal terms to motivate employees while HRM uses the human resources itself, work groups, effective strategies formeeting challenges and job creativity as the primary motivators that gives benefits to the organization.

(2) The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations.Reference:Assembled by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

This may be broad definition of Human Resources Management. This states that HRM also covers the technical aspects of the company regarding its staffing and employee relations.

(3) New and ever-changing challenges notwithstanding, human resource management continues to be crucial for the success of a firm. It was the people who had made Binny a household name 50 years back. It is Azim Premji and his team of 43,880 employees who have made WIPRO a successful company today. A book on people management will continue to be relevant and useful as long as the human resource endures to be crucial for a firm. Reference:Author: K ASWATHAPPA

I included this article as one definition of HRM. It is the practical example of what will happen if proper HRM is implied in a firm. Surely, that firm has its potential for success.

(4) Human Resource Management is based on ideas and techniques developed to enhance worker motivation, productivity and performance. The HRM emphasizes:
• the need to search for new ways of working
• the central role of managers in promoting change
• the treatment of workers as individuals rather than part of a collective workforce
• the encouragement of workers to consider management as 'partners' rather than as opponents - 'us and us', rather than 'us and them' Reference: HRM

Yeah..I do agree that the HRM should consider the workers as individuals..but they should also consider them as part (not just part) of the workforce! I also agree ‘bout the idea of encouragement of workers to consider management as 'partners' rather than as opponents.

(5) Human resources are the people that staff and operate an organization. Human resource management can therefore be defined as the management of an organization’s human capital. Effective human resource management enhances organizational performance by improving employee's opportunities to be effective and productive. It involves the productive use of people in achieving the organization’s objectives as well as satisfying individual employee needs. Reference: Gov

This definition fits to my own understanding of HRM. I do believe in this: “Human resource management can therefore be defined as the management of an organization’s human capital.” written above.

In any organization, there has to be someone concerned with the welfare and performance of persons who are a part of the operation. When an individual or a team of individuals takes on this task of seeing to programs and setting policies that impact everyone associated with the company, they are engaged in the process of personnel management, sometimes referred to as human resources management.
wisegeek

>>the RSG consultation #3

2008-10-02T01:57:00.000-07:00

huh!

muntikan na!

I believe Sir RSG almost lost his temper last Tuesday-September 30 during our 3rd consultation.
huhuhu..sorry na sir.. :-(

He was dismayed because most of us did not follow our ghantt chart (or just even tried!).. in addition, it was almost 5pm in the afternoon when we (with the other group) came to his office.

We even heard that all of us will automatically receive an INCOMPLETE grade! We did not believe it..and we were glad after we figured out that it was not true. (Thank you Sir!)

In our case, we felt so sad because we could not present him the papers we lack last consultation since we failed to contact Sir Mahedy (Concentrix HR Manager,one who's heliping us) for preliminary consultation..thus, we failed to follow our ghantt chart.But, again, we were so blessed
to know that we could still present our papers 'tiil October 10.! :-)

Hope we could do this ahead of time! :-)

>>the RSG consultation #2

2008-10-02T01:46:00.000-07:00

Yehey! Thank God!

We were so happy when Sir RSG marked 75% on our HRIS paper during our second consultation.
Anyway,...it was uplifting! Yeah!

He said that our paper lack some parts(ERD)..huhuhu..so we're going to work it out!yeah!

PS: maygale buotan ako mga groupmates..!yehey!

Kalas jud keu ug ink no..tsk tsk stk..colored man gud..tsk tsk tsk..

GodBlessUsAll!

>>the RSG consultation #1

2008-10-02T01:14:00.000-07:00

Jajay..layo pa daw mi sa tinuod according to sir..! :-(

We lack ERD. Hmmm...at first, I admit,am a quiet uncertain bout what ERD does sir is reffering to..but as he explained further..I was enlightened(char!). (Hmm..parehas jud xa s DB!)

But, that's fine! At least.. now we know what to do.

Hope we could cope all this out! jejeje

>>assg#8:The HR Manager interview..

2008-09-27T02:31:00.001-07:00

Interview a personnel/human resource manager on his concept on the nature, scope and role of human resource management. Do you agree with him? Explain. Is his concept similar to that of the management of his organization? If not, ask him how the differences are settled.

We are supposed to conduct an interview about the EMCOR's Human Resource Information System (for additional info. only). The personnel we interviewed was the EMCOR's Human Resource Manager - Mr. Alex Somera. But, sad to know..he admit that he had only a bit of idea about what does HRIS is all about..but in heaven's disguise, he detailed us informations and experiences he had being the EMCOR's Manager for a long years (If I'm not mistaken, he's 8 years in service).

According to him, HRM is the very important factor in a firm's way to success. HRM Department is responsible in (1)catering the company's employees (even the Head's of the departments)need; (2)helping the employees in reaching their potentials that would do better for themselves and for the company as well; (3)It also concerns the company's recreational activities dedicated to the employees for the latter's socialization. Moreover, (4)it also serves as a bridge in connecting the head's and the ordinary employees.
Furthermore, (5)HRM also covers the compensation and benefits of the employee, their security inside the firm. (6)HRM also provides the solution to the problems an employee may encounter (only within the company's and in some other cases).(7)Aside from those inner functions, HRM is also responsible for the outsourcing/recruitment.

Yes, definitely. I do agree on his view about the industry’s success- “HRM is the very important factor in a firm's way to success”. It is true that the organization's most valued assets - the people functioning individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.(His view is parallel to that of the organization's.)

>>..the HR interface making..

2008-09-22T03:14:00.000-07:00

hmmm...last Sept.20 this year of course, Saturday was "the day"..!.I mean the .."the night"!!???"

As what I had expected since before..it took us a day and a night in my group mate's house (john's) just to complete some part of our case study-the interface making! Hmm......We were tired and sleepy at that moments but still continued ding those stuffs..!tsk tsk tsk.. (..pero relax2 pud mi gamay usahay uy..)...

At least the product of our "graveyard work" (jejeje)..was cool! jejeje..it was worthy! At least 30++ pages!So, we presented those to si RSGamboa this morning...yeah..it's not complete he said..some ERD are needed. But the fact that is was somehow accepted and is correct is enough price fro our effort!jjejeje,,..>>TENKYU2 SIR<<

PS: Sept.21 -Sunday is John's birthday! To cut it off..Our dinner prepared by his mama was deliciouso! Especially the bonggang bonggang CHICKEN ADOBO! yummy..!! Thanks ante..

??the industry consultation..>>

2008-09-17T01:16:00.000-07:00

Yehey!!

We've been to Concentrix (our chosen company) last Tuesday for consultation . The visit was clool..(as what they are from the very beginning)! Our interviewee was a jolly person!jeje..and the data he gave was well-explained.God Bless to their company!jejej..

Yup yup…I know we’re still so far in the “finale” of this study..but at least we are on our looooong looooong journey! Yeah!

God Bless to us all!

>>the IC festival ..Yehey!***

2008-09-05T23:49:00.000-07:00

whew!
yesterday 'till today is our festival! yeah!
ammm..actually,I did enjoy yesterday's activities esp. the evening event- the musical..(though it's raining outside..."aren't they?"..aw?)

It's a kinda boring this morning..most of the ICeans came at past 10:00am! hmm..maybe I'm just ahead of ICeans time==since i came at 8:30 in the morning! aaayp!

Well, I hope we'll/I'll enjoy this afternoon's activities..

PS: I played volleyball yesterday! It was really fun!

>>..the BPO forum!

2008-09-05T22:14:00.000-07:00

Last Sept.30 this year, we joined a BPO
(Business Process Outsourcing) forum and at the same time a sort of a job fair held at the Legislative Building, Davao City.

It was nice..!

One of the things that amazed me during that forum is that one of their speaker is a differently-able (I dunno if the term is right)person..he is blind. Sorry but, i just can't remember his name.But, guess what?..Hmm...He's working as a "Medical Transcriptionist"!!See??I mean..imagine??..he's working with the computer and encode wooooords without seeing them! How come? :-?
But my question was answered..he is using a JAWS (Job Application With Speech<If I'm not mistaken,it's a software that is used by blind people to asses them in using the computer and even surfing the internet..special keys are used and etc.>).

Whew..that's how amazing technologies can do!
Hmm...there's a lot more interesting things happened during that day!
I applied for a job!jeje..just a trial..(no follow-ups!)

That day was great!!..++..at least I learned..++..

..gantt chart of my life..

2008-09-05T21:54:00.000-07:00

At last!
Yehey!

We made it! Our gantt chart was finally posted in the
"precious faculty wall" yesterday...and for me it's a bit of success..yeah!

Congrats to us! (..hmmm...at least!..)

(..I know this is just the start..)

2008-08-06T04:42:00.001-07:00

STATE OF THE NATION ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO DURING THE 2ND REGULAR SESSION OF THE 14TH CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES, 28 July 2008

I read an article about this and found some interesting areas that I think would do something about the Human Resource...:

First, we must have a targeted strategy with set of precise prescriptions to ease the price challenges we are facing.

"price challenges" or should I say the price hike of almost all of our commodities are obviosly making us Filipinos suffer! Yes... this is a sort of global crisis (as they say)..and the government is doing actions regarding this. i just hope that appropriate moves will be implemented as soon as possible.

Second, food self-sufficiency; less energy dependence; greater self-reliance in our attitude as a people and in our posture as a nation.

Definitely!Food self-sufficiency, less energy dependence, greater self-reliance...woow..if only (only if only!)all Filipinos would have this characteristics everybody would be happy! Yeah..I think we need everybody's help.

Third, short-term relief cannot be at the expense of long term reforms. These reforms will benefit not just the next generation of Filipinos, but the next President as well.

"short-term relief cannot be at the expense of long term reforms."..whatever it is..I hope it will be realise..

LOVE THIS O:
Leadership is not about doing the first easy thing that comes to mind; it is about doing what is necessary, however hard.
- PGMA (SONA 2008

Reference:
SONA 2008
SONA_givernment

..!!..the industry hunting...

2008-07-20T03:45:00.000-07:00

Huh!! For over a dozen of letters given to our prospect companies...at last! One positive response! At least now,there's the precious word "PAG'ASA!"

Watt'a exhausting journey!

at lasT!

It's the :

Concentrix Corporation US-based Company

Formerly Link2Support

Damosa I.T. Park, Lanang, Davao City

Tel. 235-5000 /235-5012

(I know this is just the start!..)

==when exams are fast approaching!...

2008-07-18T04:33:00.000-07:00

Hala! Prelim na!Can i read all of this??

++the day I was absent..

2008-07-18T04:19:00.000-07:00

Ow..I heard that the sharers of module 4 presented their ideas very well...but sad to say, I was absent that time for unexpected reason..

Ow..How I wish they could publish their reports in their own personal blogs...huhuhu

(Looking forward for their positive response!hehe)

...human beings and the org...

2008-07-16T17:24:00.000-07:00

I would never contradict on this well-defined status of human beings:

"Human beings are the most important, potent and critical, resource of any organization, and yet the least understood and the worst managed of its resources"

Though given the power and ability to govern over any other creatures, yet never did consider himself as the most powerful RESOURCE. Yes, human beings as the most important, potent and critical, resource of any organization, still least understood and worst managed since they seemed MAXIMIZING ITS SCOPE OVER EACH OTHER.

I do believe, and it is really obvious, that an organization can never stand without human resources involved. Bear in mind that proper management of human resource would lead to any organizations goal. But, it is so sad to know that the strongest resource-the human resource- is understood to its lowest sense.

I found an interesting article related to this topic. It was asked- "What are human beings . . .?" And then, to which query, an array of answers was given. A human is:

An animal
A physico-chemical being
A creature occupying a small place in space and time
One of the extraordinary diversity and profusion of living forms
Highest form of life
A creature at the highest level of animal development characterized especially by a highly developed brain.
Occupant of an infinitesimally small body in the solar system

Notice that one of the answer states that human beings are characterized by a highly developed brain. Because of that highly developed brain, human beings are considered as a human capital. See? Human being is a great capital in any organization! Therefore, it should be managed and understood to its broadest sense.

PS: "What are human beings Question " is the question that arises when we struggle with life and find no purpose and meaning.

HRM and my course...

2008-07-08T18:02:00.000-07:00

The course subject, Human Resources Management, allows us to understand the hiring process of most major companies, and how to market ourselves in the future.

Also, hether we like it or not, once we enter a certain industry in the future, we are also entering the scope of its Human Resource Management Department. Thus, we are the subject of its administration.

Furthermore,an aspiring leader should have enough background about this HRM considering that proper management of human resources keeps employees performing at optimal levels gives the company a competitive advantage.

Also, an aspiring employee should be aware enough about HRM to be able to practice his rights and duties as the major factor of the industry’s advancement.

Therefore, the HRM curriculum is really a need in our courses.

the 21st corporations

2008-07-07T03:35:00.000-07:00

21st century? Hmm…
Considering the pace of technology,.. I believe that corporations would reach into the point that transactions would involve high technology gadgets. Corporations had therefore the potential to become very powerful.

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. ... corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

-U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: “The Lincoln Encyclopedia”, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

That's the trouble that threatens me!! Hmmpppp!

As a result of progress coming from economic freedom and globalization, the company in recent years has seen an increase in its strength compared to governments and other institutions,
while at the same time proving itself to be the main generator of wealth, progress and development.
Corporations therefore start the 21st century with more power than ever previously enjoyed.

References:
globalissues
barcelona2004

DOWNSIZING...tsk tsk

2008-06-26T21:06:00.000-07:00

DOWNSIZING- In a business enterprise, downsizing is reducing the number of employees on the operating payroll. Some users distinguish downsizing from a layoff, with downsizing intended to be a permanent downscaling and a layoff intended to be a temporary downscaling in which employees may later be rehired. Businesses use several techniques in downsizing, including providing incentives to take early retirement and transfer to subsidiary companies, but the most common technique is to simply terIBM lays off another 1,500 workers Tech firm has cut 3,700 jobs this year as part of restructuring.

BOSTON - IBM Corp. laid off 1,570 people

Tech firm has cut 3,700 jobs this year as part of restructuring

May 30, 2007 (Wednesday), primarily from an ongoing overhaul of operations in its giant technology services unit.The Armonk, N.Y.-based company carried out a similar level of job cuts at the beginning of the month, for a total of 3,023 in this quarter and 3,720 for the year, according to IBM spokesman Edward Barbini.That amounts to roughly 1 percent of the company, which employed 355,000 people at the beginning of the year. But even these small numbers reflect a big project inside IBM to transform its business.S

ervices is IBM’s biggest division by revenue, but the advent of lower-cost competition overseas has forced IBM to work harder to improve the unit’s profit margins. In the first quarter, pretax income for IBM’s tech services fell 19 percent, even as revenue rose 7 percent.Wednesday’s job cuts were largely part of the company’s response. Although IBM did not disclose where the layoffs were being made, the company had blamed the first-quarter profit shortfall on problems in its U.S. outsourcing business.

IBM executives say they expect no more layoffs this quarter. But other shifts like this — IBM calls it “rebalancing” — figure to follow from time to time.minate the employment of a certain number of people.

References:
http://www.bitpipe.com/tlist/Downsizing.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18938937/

5 online jobs! (the summary)

2008-06-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

*Online Sales and Operations Associate

Manage customer inquiries by phone, e-mail and/or live chat
Troubleshoot technical problems and escalate bug reports, proactively identify customer problems

and develop creative solutions

**Enterprise Technical Writer - Mountain View

Research, write, maintain, and publish high-quality documentation and online content, and ensure

material is accessible and available to customers.
Investigate customer and partner use cases, support statistics, and documentation usage metrics to focus

priorities and develop documentation solutions.

***Senior Web Designer/Art Director

This position is responsible for creating online design solutions that integrate brand guidelines, user

experience best practices and ecommerce business goals
Create visual concepts and online solutions for a variety of ecommerce scenarios .

****Business/Data Analyst

Managing and monitoring of program launches
Serving as a Project Manager and Business Analyst for program launches and enhancement requests

Communicating and resolving issues tracked through resolution management software

*****HTML Coder/Designer

You will be responsible for content ideation - delivering online content, segments and online integration

of marketing/shows/ad sales on time and to the specs!

This person will be a primary coordinator with online news organizations to track news and outreach

efforts and coordinate to the web

I prefer to have the HTML coder/designer. I just like it!

...future job...

2008-06-21T05:52:00.000-07:00

I wanna be:

JUNIOR PROGRAMMER AND WEB DESIGNER

20-25 yrs.old Php 20,000/monthly starting salary

Philippine Based

Description:

*Junior Programmer- knows how to create and develop program codes for more efficient business functioning.

*Web designer- creative enough to create websites purposely made for Internet marketing and promotions.

Qualifications (both):

Graduate of BSIT/BSCS/BSIS or any closely related courses.

Should have his own Desktop or Laptop at home (for assignment purposes)

Most probably always online.

Knows well how to deal with clients.

Note:

Should be willing to undergo some practical studies the administration should provide.
Salary increases as the time of service increases.

[intro]

2008-06-20T17:46:00.000-07:00

Halo to all!
I think this subject will force me to explore the internet (actually I do like it!). This would be very interesting! I love it! I know I'll learn more 'bout this course. Sir,please guide us!hehe

MANINGKAMOT INTAWN MI...

AILAINE S. ADAPTAR BSIT-3

atik atik lang!

2008-06-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

Ang mukaon ug dukot...ang buhok magkulot-kulot!