Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Assignment 4 HRM

In this activity, we were tasked to write our own view or opinion on how the university can help us achieve what we want to be in the future. In my previous assignments, I stated there to become a Database Administrator.

Being an IT student of University of Southeastern Philippines is a life-size opportunity for me. This university is equipped with high level standards of education which produces skilled and trained students.

In our department, Institute of Computing had good mentors, teachers, and instructors and a good facility, but there’s a big BUT, one of our problem is our laboratory. Whenever we had a computer laboratory we always had a hard time in choosing a good unit because some units in the laboratory are not working properly especially when you are in the middle of your work. And it can ruin your day because it can affect your grades. Regarding this, if we have good computers in our laboratory it is a big help to us to achieve our dreams in the future, within this we can improve or enhance our skills in dealing with our programs and other matters. I’m not saying this to devastate our department but to imply our government with our problem. In this difficulty, we are challenge to work very hard so that we can graduate on time and become professionals in the future.


God Bless us all..!

Assignment 1 HRM

We are tasked to identify a local organization/s and to discuss their best practices in Human Resource Department. In this activity, we undergo some actions such as: to choose the company, a letter for approval from our instructor Sir Randy S. Gamboa, and we have to ask some permission from the Human Resource Department so that we can conduct our research to their company. It is not easy to go to their good office because you have to wait for their approval from the Head of the said Department.

My Local Organization is one of the ultimate hotels and has a good ambiance and one of the popular hotels in Davao City. The Apo View Hotel, located at the J. Camus St. here in our City. And also we have to discuss their best practices in Human Resource. We provided some questions in their good office to know some of the good or high quality in their company.

Davao’s most popular address, The Apo View, has through the last 60 years, created a distinct brand of hospitality and excellence in service matched with the perfect blend of amenities for business and leisure.

The Apo View is nestled right in the heart of the city’s business and commercial district and is THE CONVENTION SPECIALIST of the south.

Some of their best practices in Human Resource Department:

1.) What are the Rules and Regulations of the company?

-Fair and equitable implementation of policies, rules &
regulations, open & direct communication with the line
people via daily visitation in their workplaces in the form
of "rounds" to the different operations. In
this way, line people can raise their concerns and problems
in the work floors with confidence and assurance of positive
action. Our HR's practice is to conduct a daily rounds
to all sections bringing an impression of reaching out the
line people. They feel comfortable, important, cared upon,
and guided with this approach. Basically, the HR acts as
mediator that bridges the gap between workers and
management, pacifier when tension, confusion,
misunderstanding arises, acts as disciplinarian to erring
workers by instituting corrective disciplinary action.

2.) What are the Advantages/Disadvantages of your HR management?

- Generally, the HR is always on the advantage side and
seldom being on the disadvantage. The HR office oversee the
general welfare of the workers ranging from employment and
salary status, benefits, privileges, health, inter-personal
relations, working conditions, and training for career
upgrading, work improvement, personality development so as
to achieve the corporate goals and objectives.

3.) What are the HR practices that can help the business?

-As I have said, the HR office acts as the mediator,
implementor, and disciplinarian in the company. No business,
big or small, can ever achieve success without policies,
rules & regulations that governs workers and this
implemented and enforced by the HR department. A company
without HR department will surely end-up divided or ruined.
Workers have different personalities, attitudes, and
characters, that is why managing line workers correctly and
accordingly is very vital to any business
establishment.

4.) What are the risks Human Resource changes in your company?


- the answer to question no 3 can be related to question no 4.


And that were the answers of the Head of the Human Resource Department. They sent these answers through e-mail.


Some of their services:

:BANQUETS EQUIPMENT & SERVICES
ο The GRAND BALLROOM accommodates 1,200 theater style or 800 conference set-up.
ο For Smaller Groups: 5 Medium sized function rooms can accommodate from 40-100 person and 3 smaller function rooms can accommodate from 10-30 persons.

::SPORTS and LEISURE
ο A swimming pool at the 3rd Floor and a concessionaire's area with shops.
ο Golf Packages and arrangements are also available.`
ο Mini Gym.

::ENTERTAINMENT
οLive entertainment at The Blue Room Jazz Bar & Entrée.

::TRANSPORTATION
ο Airport transfers are available for hotel guests.
ο The ride is approximately 20 minutes by car from the airport. Taxis are easily available.
ο Car rental services also available.

::BUSINESS CENTER
ο Photocopying
ο Facsimile
ο Computer Rental
ο Postal Service
ο Email Services
ο Internet Surfing/ Browsing (DSL)
ο Secretarial Services

::HOTEL SERVICES
ο Safety Deposit Box
ο Stand-by Generator
ο Laundry & Dry Cleaning
ο Basement Parking
ο Barber Shop and Massage
ο Gift Shop
ο Car Rental

::GUESTROOMS
ο Direct Dial Tel. (NDD/IDD)
ο Radio
ο Refrigerator
ο Hot & Cold Water
ο Electric Power (110/220 volts)
ο Air Conditioning
ο Cable Colored TV
ο Mini Bar
ο 24 Hrs. Room Service

::AUDIO-VISUAL EQUIPMENTS
ο Overhead/ Slide Projectors
ο Tape Deck
ο Video Equipment VCR/VHS
ο CD/VCD/DVD Player
ο Fixed/Wireless Microphones
ο 29" TV sets
ο LCD

references:

http://www.apoview.com/

http://www.apoview.com/Entree.php#images/Entree/entree_restaurant1.JPG

Assignment 2 MIS

ABS-CBN Corporation is the company we choose to conduct our Management Information System study.

Company Profile:

ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corporation. The Group's principal activity is that of a media and entertainment company. It is principally involved in television and radio broadcasting. It also produces television programming for domestic and international audiences and other related businesses. The Group has three business segments namely, Broadcasting, Cable and Satellite and Other Businesses. Broadcasting covers the production of television and radio programs that serve its target audience's needs for news, information and entertainment, and public service. Cable and Satellite develops and produces programs for cable television, including delivery of television programming outside the Philippines through its DTH satellite service, cable television channels and blocked time on television stations. Other businesses include movie production, consumer products and services. The Group operates in the Philippines, in the United States of America, Middle East, Europe and Australia.

ABS-CBN presented us their Information System and not only that thing but also the engineering department. We were accomodated nicely by Mr. Bobby C. Nolasco, engineer manager of engineering’s department, and with the maintenance engineer of it's department. Mr. Nolasco showed us everything in their IS, and described them very well. This things were very important to their company, without this things, we cannot have news in our T.V. from Manila or long distance places from us because these things are the means of data video/media transportation. Below were the different Systems which they use in their company.

•Aspera Enterprise Server
•ENR(Electronic News Room)
•Lotus Notes
•ITS(Issue Tracking System)
•SAP
•Lout

Just a brief description in each system:

-ITS(Issue Tracking System)

An issue tracking system (also called trouble ticket system or incident ticket system) is a computer software package that manages and maintains lists of issues, as needed by an organization. Issue tracking systems are commonly used in an organization's customer support call center to create, update, and resolve reported customer issues, or even issues reported by that organization's other employees. An issue tracking system often also contains a knowledge base containing information on each customer, resolutions to common problems, and other such data. An issue tracking system is similar to a "bugtracker", and often, a software company will sell both, and some bugtrackers are capable of being used as an issue tracking system, and vice versa.

A ticket is a file contained within an issue tracking system which contains information about support interventions made by technical support staff or third parties on behalf of an end user who has reported an incident that is preventing them from working with their computer as they would expect to be able to. Tickets are commonly created in a help desk or call center environment. Typically the ticket will have a unique reference number, also known as a case, issue or call log number which is used to allow the user or support staff to quickly locate, add to or communicate the status of the users issue or request.

These tickets are so called because of their origin as small cards within a typical wall mounted work planning system when this kind of support started. Operators or staff receiving a call or query from a user would fill out a small card with the user's details and a brief summary of the request and place it into a position (usually the last) in a column of pending slots for an appropriate engineer, so determining the staff member who would deal with the query and the priority of the request.

-Lotus Notes

Lotus Notes is a client-server, collaborative application developed and sold by IBM Software Group. IBM defines the software as an "integrated desktop client option for accessing business e-mail, calendars and applications on [an] IBM Lotus Domino server. The Notes client is mainly used as an email client, but also acts as an instant messaging client (for Lotus Sametime), browser, notebook, and calendar/resource reservation client, as well as a platform for interacting with collaborative applications.

-Aspera Enterprise System

Aspera is the creator of next-generation transport technologies that move the world’s digital assets at maximum speed regardless of file size, transfer distance and network conditions. Based on its patent-pending fasp™ protocol, only Aspera software fully utilizes existing infrastructures to deliver the fastest, most predictable file transfer experience. Aspera’s core technology delivers unprecedented control over bandwidth, complete security and uncompromising reliability. Hundreds of organizations across a variety of industries rely on Aspera for the business-critical transport of their digital assets. Aspera empowers individuals and corporations to dramatically increase productivity, minimize operational costs, expand revenues and explore new business models.

-Lout System

The Lout system reads a high-level description of a document similar in style to LaTeX and produces a PostScript file which can be printed on many laser printers and graphic display devices. Plain text output is also available. Lout offers an unprecedented range of advanced features, including optimal paragraph and page breaking, automatic hyphenation, PostScript EPS file inclusion and generation, equation formatting, tables, diagrams, rotation and scaling, sorted indexes, bibliographic databases, running headers and odd-even pages, automatic cross referencing, multilingual documents including hyphenation (most European languages are supported, including Russian), formatting of C/C++ programs, and much more, all ready to use. Furthermore, Lout is easily extended with definitions which are very much easier to write than troff of TeX macros because Lout is a high-level language, the outcome of an eight-year research project that went back to the beginning.

-SAP

I haven't found the SAP System description but as what Mr. Nolasko told us, they use this kind of system.


References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issue_tracking_system
http://wrightreports.ecnext.com/coms2/reportdesc_COMPANY_C60862750
http://www.asperasoft.com/en/company_sections
http://linux.maruhn.com/sec/lout.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_Lotus_Notes

Assignment 10 HRM

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


Personnel management:


1.) The function of a personnel manager usually begins with the staffing process.

Critique:

It determines how the company works. It also includes their own policies or procedures on how it works or setting their policies. When we say staffing process it includes the counseling sessions (time).

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-personnel-management.htm

2.) The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has the overall responsibility of administering the state's personnel system and establishing necessary policies, procedures and regulations to ensure system uniformity in accordance with state and federal law.

Critique:

Responsible for managing the organization and to assist. To provide opportunities for employees who are in need of counseling to receive support from the company.

http://www.arkansas.gov/dfa/personnel_mgmt/opm_index.html

3.) Personnel Management is the leader in outsourced human resources management.

Critique:

In all organizations, there should be someone concerned with the welfare and performance of persons who are a part of the operation.

http://www.hrpmsi.com/


4.) The Personnel Management Department mission is to provide efficient and effective personnel management to city departments which empower the users and facilitate the delivery of city services to the community.

Critique:

The needs of the company at each point in its growth, management can readily see to the addition to the Human Resources team over time. The department should provide resourceful or professionals in order to have a good service.

http://www.ci.palm-coast.fl.us/government/departments/employment/personnelmanagement.aspx

5.) Personnel management as simply an at need re-allocation of resources from one place to another according to the demands of the market for the product.

Critique:

As a company grows, it may be necessary to expand from a single personnel manager to a full-fledged personnel management.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070812185853AABvmx4



Human resource management:

1.) HR (Human Resource) Management
This is the science of allocating human resources among various projects or business units, maximizing the utilization of available personnel resources to achieve business goals.

Critique:

It includes the financial resources, inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology (IT). The efficient and effective deployment of an organization's personnel resources where and when they are needed, and in possession of the tools, training and skills required by the work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_management

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.

Critique:

Performing the activities that are necessary in the maintenance of that workforce through identification of staffing requirements, planning and oversight of payroll and benefits, education and professional development, and administering their work-life needs.

3.) Human resource management is responsible for how people are treated in organizations.

Critique:

It is accountable for getting people into the business or organization, by helping them in performing their work. And should have the potential to do the work. Organizational change impacts not only the business but also its employees.

http://www.answers.com/topic/human-resource-management

4.) Human Resource Management (HRM) is the function within an organization that focuses on recruitment of, management of, and providing direction for the people who work in the organization. Human Resource Management can also be performed by line managers.

Critique:

It deals with the managing the organization that provides their needs within the business. Also the performances of the organization. Human resources management can also be performed by line a manager that focuses on learning the skills, knowledge, and attitudes required to initially perform a job or task or to improve upon the performance of a current job or task

http://www.managementhelp.org/hr_mgmnt/hr_mgmnt.htm

5.) Human Resource Management has been rapidly evolving to address newly emerging and increasingly complex areas of responsibility within the profession.

Critique:

This is to notify that the human resource management has been rising. The specialists are working with these challenges in the organization. It provides a modern, complete, and practical basis in the most important functions of the human resource manager and prepares students to pursue a professional career in this challenging and rewarding field.


http://www.extension.ucsb.edu/certificates/HR.pdf

Assignment 8 HRM

On the assumption that you heard/read the SONA of the President last month (July 2009), identify at least 3 areas related to Human Resource Management and explain how these areas can improve our quality of life. (2000words)
HRM means employing people, developing their resources, utilizing, maintaining and compensating their services in tune with the job and organizational requirement.

The following are the areas related to HRM that was stated by our President during her SONA 2009:

1.) Education

Ang magandang edukasyon ay susi sa mas magandang buhay, the great equalizer that allows every young Filipino a chance to realize their dreams.
‘Education para sa Lahat’ pagdating ng 2015
Lahat ng nasa tamang edad ay dapat nasa primary school. Halos walang bansang makakatupad nito. Ngunit nagsisikap pa rin tayo. Nagtayo tayo ng mga paaralan sa higit sanlibong barangay na dati walang eskwelahan upang makatipid ng gastos sa pamasahe ang mga bata. Tinanggal natin ang miscellaneous fees para sa primary school. Hindi na kailangan ang uniporme sa mga estudyante sa public school. In private high schools, we financed half of the students.
Our educational system should make the Filipino fit not just for whatever jobs happen to be on offer today, but also for whatever economic challenge life will throw in their way.

We should not value education as a means to prosperity, but prosperity as a means to education. Only then will our priorities be right. For education, unlike prosperity is an end in itself. .. power and influence come through the acquisition of useless knowledge. . . irrelevant subjects bring understanding of the human condition, by forcing the student to stand back from it.- Roger Scruton

Education is a very important aspect in our life. This is one way in improving our life and to have a better tomorrow. So that, all the children of this country have a chance to education in order to be able to make it in life on their own because when children are supported to understand their strengths and limitations at an early age, they operate from a strong foundation and are better prepared to advocate for themselves. The government should produce a good teaching method. To give relevant knowledge that a student can understand, retain and pass to others. Today, many children are not educated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education
http://www.famousquotesandauthors.com/topics/education_quotes.html


2.) Cheaper Medicine

Dahil dumarami na naman daw ang pamilyang nagugutom, mamumuhunan tayo ng panibago sa ating hunger mitigation program na sa nakaraan ay napatunayang mabisa. Tulungan niyo ako dito, Kongreso.

Mula pa noong 2001, nanawagan na tayo ng mas murang gamut. Nagbebenta tayo ng gamut
na kalahating presyo sa libu-libong Botika ng Bayan at Botika ng Barangay sa maraming dako ng bansa. Our efforts prodded the pharmaceutical companies to come up with low-cost generics and brands like RiteMed. I supported the tough version of the House of the Cheaper Medicine Law, I supported it over the weak version of my critics. The result: the drug companies volunteered to bring down drug prices, slashing by half the prices of 16 drugs. Thank you, Congressmen Cua, Alvarez, Biron, Locsin.

Cut the costs of medicines. Pass the Affordable Medicines Act Now! Affordable medicines from abroad, and to help generics firms to develop quality and affordable generic medicines. With these affordable medicines, it is a big help to us.
The Senate adopted the bicameral committee report that would, among others, allow the parallel importation of patented medicines from other countries where these were more affordable.
The law, officially the "Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008," seeks to:

• allow the government use of patented drugs when the public interest is at stake;
• strengthen the BFAD so that it could ensure the safety of medicines, by allowing it to retain its revenues for upgrading of its facilities, equipment and human resources; and
• ensure the availability of affordable medicines by requiring drug outlets to carry a variety of brands for each drug, including those sourced from "parallel importation," to give the consumer more choices.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20080429-133435/UPDATE-Congress-ratifies-cheaper-medicines-bill


3.) OFW’s

Sa hirap at ginhawa, pinapatatag ang ating bansa ng ating overseas Filipinos. Iyong padala nilang 16 billion dollars noong isang taon ay record. Itong taon, mas mataas pa.

I know that this is not a sacrifice joyfully borne. This is work where it can be found in faraway places, among strangers with different cultures. It is lonely work, it is hard work. Kaya nagsisikap tayong lumikha dito sa atin ng mga trabahong maganda ang sahod, so that overseas work will just be a career choice, not the only option for a hardworking Filipino.

Meanwhile, we should make their sacrifices worthwhile. Dapat gumawa tayo ng mas epektibong proteksyon at pagpapalawak ng halaga ng kanilang pinagsikapang sweldo. That means stronger consumer protection for overseas Filipinos investing in property and products back home. Para sa kanila, pinapakilos natin ang Investors Protection Task Force.
Filipinos are generally hardworking, innovative, and law-abiding. The government should be concern about our workers outside because they are big help in our country. And they should provide a safety of our OFW’s. Because being an OFW is not an easy job, you do not know what will happen to you in the other country, or you don’t know what life will may come to you. We should be proud of our OFW’s; they also help our economic standing to be better in the future. So, we should give them a good treatment.

Source:
http://www.theofwonline.com/

Assignment 7 HRM

Make a reflection on this statement

"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" (1500words)


Human being is the most central or essential of association because they are responsible for the intentional progress of the organization with the help of the other resources.


The Human Truth


In the world of the one great spirit there is no such thing as a single human being for here all humans are all one; we are all enjoined in our spirit being human. In the world we call Earth the human spirit becomes the many minds. The individualized self then strives for identity on several levels: individual, family, community, national, planetary. These points of identity represent the level of purpose that guides the actions of the individual. All levels are necessary for the health of the individual. Thereby the broader a person's world view, the higher one's purpose and the truer the humanness of the spirit being human.
The native peoples have been under attack the last several centuries from the technocratic society. The opportunity in these battles technology is the mingling of the one-hearted and two-hearted peoples. Thoughts and ideas are being exchanged. But this exchange does not have to be made a war; it does not have to be made with Evil battling Good. This exchange can have far more finesse than this. Humans can make this exchange what they want. The Peace Corps or World WarIII the choice is ours. The struggle for a higher level of purpose exists in the constant struggle between good and evil within the human mind and within the human society. The quest for good empowers the spirit while the agenda for evil drains the life force out of the spirit. On the other hand, to relinquish one's thoughts, power, salvation and redemption to an idol, person or idealogy that is outside of one's self results in separating the individual from the rest of life and leaves the soul empty and the mind vulnerable to evil.



Human resource is a term used to refer to how people are managed by organizations.

Human beings has the ability to think, analyze and understand.


Every employee wants to feel as if they are working on the right things - tasks that matter in the larger scheme of their organization. This is so important to employees that failure to provide clear direction is the number one failing of a bad boss. Along with bullying behaviors, the themes of poor direction, little feedback, clueless behavior, and failure to reward and recognize employees are frequently the focus of readers' stories about their bad bosses.


Leaders and managers need to have:

• The capacity to accurately forecast human resource needs in order to deliver services to the public;
• A workforce whose training and education are consistent with client needs and with the management needs of their programs;
• The ability to assign staff to the geographic areas where they are needed;
• Positive relationships with union officials;
• A workforce amenable to change in the workplace.

In the process of working with some of the best run companies in the world, we have learned a great deal about how the world's finest organizations unleash the power of their human systems and how the worst fail to do so.


Human Resource is the most important:


A comprehensive human resource system provides managers with a framework and tools to achieve higher levels of staff performance and employee satisfaction on a systematic and sustainable basis. At the national level, this involves developing health-sector strategies, policies, and practices to ensure a workforce that is balanced in numbers of staff, qualifications, and placement. The term human capital is recognition that people in organizations and businesses are an important and essential asset who contributes to development and growth, in a similar way as physical assets such as machines and money. The collective attitudes, skills and abilities of people contribute to organizational performance and productivity. Any expenditure in training, development, health and support is an investment, not just an expense.
Human Being is the most potent

Each individual in an organization has the ability to expand, in a way of satisfying the organizational purpose. The progress of each individual will promote the individual and the organization. At the organizational level, a successful Human Resources Development program will prepare the individual to undertake a higher level of work, “organized learning over a given period of time, to provide the possibility of performance change” (Nadler 1984). In these settings, Human Resources Development is the framework that focuses on the organizations competencies at the first stage, training, and then developing the employee, through education, to satisfy the organizations long-term needs and the individuals’ career goals and employee value to their present and future employers. Human Resources Development can be defined simply as developing the most important section of any business its human resource by, “attaining or upgrading the skills and attitudes of employees at all levels in order to maximize the effectiveness of the enterprise” (Kelly 2001).


Human Resource is the most critical

Human Resource is a factor that has become part of the very essence of modern business and development, among other important factors. It is the combination of traditionally administrative personnel functions with the acquisition and application of skills, knowledge and experience; the base of this great asset is quite naturally, people.

If competitive advantage is to be defined as something that sets a business and its product apart from the rest, it can be argued that technology and marketing, rather than Human Resources per say, are highly important factors that would determine the uniqueness of the quality of an organisation's product. However, technology and marketing, though initially of quality that is decided by a company's financial status, can in fact only be innovated and developed by Human Resources.
A critical factor is one that implicates it possesses the ability to change the course of ordinary company processes depending on its absence or presence. Despite the fact that a combination of many resources are necessary in order for a system, project or organization to work, it is an undeniable fact that Human Resources have been, or most often still are, an integral part of almost every one of those resources.


Yet the least understood and the worst managed of its resources


They have an individual sense to make their own decision and conclusion. Human beings share similarities but think differently. Human beings hunger for power and pursue it whatever the cost. We make more laws but lawlessness increases. Human beings strive to eliminate hunger, poverty, crime, violence, and suffering by writing more laws designed to solve them but they usually fail in their purpose. Personality is defined as the enduring personal characteristics of individuals. The more laws created, the more atrocities are committed by human beings. Human beings hate to be corrected. We think that we can do everything right in our own eyes. We shun anyone who wants to get in the way. We fight and show our ugly side. We do anything just to prove the other person that we are right even if we are wrong. You have to understand each personality. All of us have a unique mind. Especially in the company, each one of the members has different views and opinion when they are discussing some important matters that will tend to be misunderstood that is why it is hard to manage. An individual's personality is an aggregate conglomeration of decisions we've made throughout our lives.

Human resources management trends and influences


In organizations, it is important to determine both current and future organisational requirements for both core employees and the contingent workforce in terms of their skills/technical abilities, competencies, flexibility etc. The analysis requires consideration of the internal and external factors that can have an effect on the resourcing, development, motivation and retention of employees and other workers. The external factors are those largely out-with the control of the organization and include issues such as the economic climate, current and future trends of the labor market e.g. skills, education level, government investment into industries etc. On the other hand internal influences are broadly within the control of the organization to predict determine and monitor, for example the organizational culture underpinned by management behaviours (or style), environmental climate and the approach to ethical and corporate social responsibilities.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_resources

http://www.sundayobserver.lk/2009/05/31/fin11.asp

http://www.bukisa.com/articles/72313_how-to-understand-human-nature

Assignment 6 HRM

What do you think will the 21st -century corporations look like? (1000words)


A corporation is created (incorporated) by a group of shareholders who have ownership of the corporation, represented by their holding of common stock. Shareholders elect a board of directors (generally receiving one vote per share) who appoint and oversee management of the corporation. Although a corporation does not necessarily have to be for profit, the vast majority of corporations are setup with the goal of providing a return for its shareholders. When you purchase stock you are becoming part owner in a corporation.

A legal entity that is separate and distinct from its owners. Corporations enjoy most of the rights and responsibilities that an individual possesses; that is, a corporation has the right to enter into contracts, loan and borrow money, sue and be sued, hire employees, own assets and pay taxes.

http://www.answers.com/topic/corporation


From time to time our corporation here in our country grew in larger. In which, it is more improving now. Corporations are, in fact, involved in virtually every type of human activity today, legal and otherwise.


The 21st -century corporations look like are the following:
• Economical power have emerged
• Landmarks are moving
• Trade is global
• Technology is overall
• Economical models are rising
• Innovation is the number one priority
• Foster individual creativity
• Make innovation everybody’s business

How?

• To promote personal and unformed interactions
• To give input and issue proportions
• Multiply interactions opportunities within implement collaborative platforms
• Build and join clusters and networks
• Social networks or networking
• Set up a global vision


The most important aspect of a corporation is limited liability. That is, shareholders have the right to participate in the profits, through dividends and/or the appreciation of stock, but are not held personally liable for the company's debts. Globalisation is the new buzzword that has come to dominate the world since the nineties of the last century with the end of the cold war and the break-up of the former Soviet Union and the global trend towards the rolling ball. The frontiers of the state with increased reliance on the market economy and renewed faith in the private capital and resources, a process of structural adjustment spurred by the studies and influences of the World Bank and other International organisations have started in many of the developing countries. Also Globalisation has brought in new opportunities to developing countries. Greater access to developed country markets and technology transfer hold out promise improved productivity and higher living standard. But globalisation has also thrown up new challenges like growing inequality across and within nations, volatility in financial market and environmental deteriorations. Another negative aspect of globalisation is that a great majority of developing countries remain removed from the process. Till the nineties the process of globalisation of the Indian economy was constrained by the barriers to trade and investment liberalisation of trade, investment and financial flows initiated in the nineties has progressively lowered the barriers to competition and hastened the pace of globalisation


A thousand years from now, our time will be remembered as the Second Dominion of the Corporation. During the early 20th century, enterprises bearing imprimaturs like Corp., Ltd., AG and S.A. gained control of the vast physical wealth in what used to be called the Free World.
Then with the advent of new economic policies in the Soviet Union and China during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the corporate conquest neared completion. Virtually the entire planet had become organized and regimented -- in short ruled -- by corporations.
This accomplishment is beyond the power of any individual or any other type of organization in human history. It not only overshadows the authority of the world's social, political and religious forces, it transcends them, so that all people may find utility in its embrace. While most business and management schools continue to teach the functions of a corporation separately—production, marketing, finance, personnel—the reality is that for a corporation to endure each division must work with the others to create an effective system.


By the end of the 19th century the forces of limited liability, state and national deregulation, and vastly increasing capital markets had come together to give birth to the corporation in its modern-day form.The well-known Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad decision began to influence policymaking. The decline of restrictions on mergers and acquisitions encouraged a wave of corporate consolidation: from 1898 to 1904, 1800 U.S. corporations were consolidated into 157. The modern corporate era had begun.
The 20th century saw a proliferation of enabling law across the world, which helped to drive economic booms in many countries before and after World War I. Starting in the 1980s, many countries with large state-owned corporations moved toward privatization, the selling of publicly owned services and enterprises to corporations. Deregulation (reducing the regulation of corporate activity) often accompanied privatization as part of a laissez-faire policy. Another major postwar shift was toward the development of conglomerates, in which large corporations purchased smaller corporations to expand their industrial base. Japanese firms developed a horizontal conglomeration model, the keiretsu, which was later duplicated in other countries as well.



http://www.slideshare.net/Jeanyveshuwart/whats-a-21st-century-global-corporation?type=powerpoint

http://www.astonisher.com/archives/corporation_intro.html

Assignment 5 MIS

Based on our adopted company, we are tasked to identify and discuss barriers in their IS/IT implementation.


Barriers in IS/IT Implementation

Before I gave you these barriers, first i will define what barrier means and its causes to every organizations or companies.

What is Barrier?

a structure or object that impedes free movement
any condition that makes it difficult to make progress or to achieve an objective; "intolerance is a barrier to understanding"
anything serving to maintain separation by obstructing vision or access

I've read this article about some facts in company barriers and I've gathered some informations about this article.
These are some facts and information I've gathered:

The Six Most Common Barriers To Sales Success

There are a variety of reasons and excuses behind poor sales lead management because the $10 to $2000 companies spend to generate each business to business inquiry largely go to waste. I call them Barriers To Sales success. Here are six of the most common which plague businesses today.

1.SENIOR MANAGEMENT DOES NOT CARE

Paid to lead the organization in the big picture issues of market strategy, quality and customer satisfaction, senior managers are tempted to dismiss operational fundamentals and assume all is well. They are not aware of the tactical need for complete lead follow up, rapid inquiry fulfillment, accurate qualification practices or actual measurement of communications and sales performance.

2.SALES PEOPLE REMAIN UNINFORMED.

Unless they understand the potential value of qualified leads, salespeople (an independent minded breed) think they do not need help. Sales managers who fail to insist on follow up imply that leads are at best an option for slow days. Marketing departments that fail to qualify leads in advance will most likely contribute to the problem, giving leads a poor reputation.

3.POOR COORDINATION HOBBLES MARKETING AND SALES

Marketing and marketing communications people frequently have little idea of the quotas salespeople must meet, the timing of their sales contests, their need for seasonal boosts in lead volume, the products needing extra lead support and the geographical balance need to apportion leads sensibly among sales territories. Meanwhile ,the sales force does not understand why lead follow up reports are essential if marketing is to fine tune its advertising, mail and other promotion tools.

4.THE COMPANY MISMANAGES ITS PROSPECT LIST

Inquiries become orphans in a netherworld between marketing and sales. As a result, the company sends wrong information to inquirers, sends it late and does not tailor it to inquirers' specific interests. Marketing collects limited and uninformative data and updates them frequently. Marketing rarely compares separate databases - one for orders and one for inquiries, for example - and even more rarely merges them into a marketing information system.

5.MANAGEMENT DOE NOT HOLD SALESPEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE

Sales management does not insist on follow up and new prospect status reporting, even though it fusses and gripes over detailed expenses and call reporting.

6.MANAGEMENT DOES NOT HOLD MARKETING PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE

Chief marketing officers do not hold subordinates accountable for lead handling performance.They do not insist ohm program return on investment reports, for example, evidence that inquiry generation ties in with company sales goals or analyses of inquiry source productivity.

All six barriers are the product of poor communications, inattention, lack of knowledge, human frailties and the sublime dysfunctionalities that lurk within all organizations. None is the result of weak strategies, poorly designed products, sloppy manufacturing, competitive pressures, government regulations or inadequate capital the classic management issues that pre- occupy most companies in the world today.


Sources:

htmlhttp://www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/1374/business_and_finance/the_six_most_common_barriers_to_sales_success.html
www.wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Assignment 8 MIS

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)
Given a chance to be invited by the Dean of the Institute of Computing to attend a seminar-workshop on information systems planning with some of the faculty members, I will present an evaluation about Outsourcing. I will discuss to them the benefits about outsourcing, the advantages and disadvantages.

Lets identify first the outsourcing and in sourcing.

Outsourcing vs. In-sourcing

Outsourcing - refers to a company that contract with another company to provide services that might otherwise be performed by in-house employees. Many large companies now outsource jobs such as call center services, e-mail services, and payroll. These jobs are handled by separate companies that specialize in each service, and are often located overseas.

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.


Why Outsourcing?.....

Outsourcing in general can be defined as passing of service provision or production to another internal or external party. The chief reason of outsourcing is to reduce capital expenditure over a business process. Also management gets more time to concentrate over core competencies. This also reduces the dependency upon internal resources and increases the flexibility to meet the changing business and commercial conditions.
Outsourcing allows companies to focus on other business issues while having the details taken care of by outside experts. This means that a large amount of resources and attention, which might fall on the shoulders of management professionals, can be used for more important, broader issues within the company. The specialized company that handles the outsourced work is often streamlined, and often has world-class capabilities and access to new technology that a company couldn't afford to buy on their own. Plus, if a company is looking to expand, outsourcing is a cost-effective way to start building foundations in other countries. 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.
There are some disadvantages to outsourcing as well. One of these is that outsourcing often eliminates direct communication between a company and its clients. This prevents a company from building solid relationships with their customers, and often leads to dissatisfaction on one or both sides. There is also the danger of not being able to control some aspects of the company, as outsourcing may lead to delayed communications and project implementation. Any sensitive information is more vulnerable, and a company may become very dependent upon it’s outsource providers, which could lead to problems should the outsource provider back out on their contract suddenly.
While outsourcing may prove highly beneficial for many companies, it also has many drawbacks. It is important that each individual company accurately assess their needs to determine if outsourcing is a viable option.
There are many reasons that companies outsource various jobs, but the most prominent advantage seems to be the fact that it often saves money. Many of the companies that provide outsourcing services are able to do the work for considerably less money, as they don't have to provide benefits to their workers and have fewer overhead expenses to worry about.
In this journal, How Outsourced IT Provided Wireless for the Citizens Cut the Crime Rate, and Helped Minneapolis during a Crisis. This explains the relationship's goal was to make IT valuable to the city's agencies and voters. The City of Minneapolis wanted to outsource its IT infrastructure, which eventually included management of its security cameras and 911 applications; everything was past end of life. The city also needed to build a tier-3 data center.
Only a limited number of suppliers responded to the city's original RFP because the city council required the supplier to hire up to 20 of its staff and locate the data center in Minnesota. "Those requirements reduced the number of finalists to two suppliers that could provide the service," says Willenbring.
Outsourcing in general can be defined as passing of service provision or production to another internal or external party. The chief reason of outsourcing is to reduce capital expenditure over a business process. Also management gets more time to concentrate over core competencies. This also reduces the dependency upon internal resources and increases the flexibility to meet the changing business and commercial conditions.
Lessons from the Outsourcing Journal:
• Technology can improve safety and the quality of life in a community. Suppliers become deeply involved in these types of outsourcing relationships because they see the palpable results and take pride in their work.
• Investing in futuristic IT infrastructure helps cities deal with unexpected disasters. Having an outsourcing supplier there to help contributes to a successful intervention.
• Second-generation outsourcing contracts often attack strategic projects after the first generation tackled the tactical issues.


Here are other advantages of outsourcing that go beyond money. Here are the top seven advantages of outsourcing.

1. Focus On Core Activities
In rapid growth periods, the back-office operations of a company will expand also. This expansion may start to consume resources (human and financial) at the expense of the core activities that have made your company successful. Outsourcing those activities will allow refocusing on those business activities that are important without sacrificing quality or service in the back-office.
Example: A company lands a large contract that will significantly increase the volume of purchasing in a very short period of time; Outsource purchasing.

2. Cost And Efficiency Savings
Back-office functions that are complicated in nature, but the size of your company is preventing you from performing it at a consistent and reasonable cost, is another advantage of outsourcing. Economies of scale save money when unit costs go down as volumes increase. External service providers can achieve economies of scale unavailable to individual firms when they combine the volumes of multiple companies.
In manufacturing, for example, an external vendor may have a shop that specializes in a certain type of machining. The machinery represents a significant capital investment. If larger machines are more efficient, and if they can be used to produce any sort of parts for any customer, then this vendor may very well produce parts at a lower cost than a firm could by setting up such a shop internally.
Economies of scale are not limited to physical processes. Other precious assets -- including money, relationships, and people -- may be shared.
The pharmaceuticals industry can be used to illustrate economies of scale in relationships. Clinical trials of experimental drugs require just the right patients -- healthy in most all respects but the one indication being treated, and willing to submit themselves to experimentation. It takes a significant investment of time and money to develop relationships with the hospitals and clinicians (and the triage nurses in their emergency rooms) that supply patients for the trials.
Clinical trials also require just the right medical investigators -- doctors and medical researchers who are well respected in their industries. Again, it takes size to attract the best investigators. The most sought-after investigators look for organizations that can supply them with interesting and publishable research projects and with support services (such as data collection and well-managed processes) that make their jobs easier and their results more reliable.
And so a lucrative outsourcing industry has evolved to manage clinical trials of experimental drugs for pharmaceutical companies. [The author thanks Patricia Seymour, Covance Biotechnology Services, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, for this case study.]

To be specific, there are three conditions that must be met before outsourcing saves money:
1. Economies of scale must exist. That is, there must be some economic advantage to larger size or greater numbers before outsourcing can pay off; for example, unit costs must drop as volumes increase.
2. The economies must be accessible across corporate boundaries. That is, savings only occur if outsourcers can combine the volumes of multiple clients.
For example, it's easy for many companies to share the huge fixed costs of a telecommunications infrastructure owned by long-distance carriers. Laying one's own fiber or leasing a private satellite channel is unlikely to be economic, so outsourcing is an obvious choice.
However, outsourcing an IT computer center may not work as well, since hardware may not offer significant economies of scale and many software licenses are corporation-specific.
3. The savings must be sufficient to outweigh the additional cost of paying other shareholders a profit.
Some executives have said that at least a 20% savings (after vendor profit margins) is necessary to compensate the firm for the legal costs and the risks of long-term dependence on people you can’t control.


Example: A small doctor’s office that wants to accept a variety of insurance plans. One part-time person could not keep up with all the different providers and rules. Outsource to a firm specializing in medical billing.
3. Reduced Overhead
Overhead costs of performing a particular back-office function are extremely high. Consider outsourcing those functions which can be moved easily.
Example: Growth has resulted in an increased need for office space. The current location is very expensive and there is no room to expand. Outsource some simple operations in order to reduce the need for office space. For example, outbound telemarketing or data entry.

4. Operational Control
Operations whose costs are running out of control must be considered for outsourcing. Departments that may have evolved over time into uncontrolled and poorly managed areas are prime motivators for outsourcing. In addition, an outsourcing company can bring better management skills to your company than what would otherwise be available.
Example: An information technology department that has too many projects, not enough people and a budget that far exceeds their contribution to the organization. A contracted outsourcing agreement will force management to prioritize their requests and bring control back to that area.

5. Staffing Flexibility
Outsourcing will allow operations that have seasonal or cyclical demands to bring in additional resources when you need them and release them when you’re done.
Example: An accounting department that is short-handed during tax season and auditing periods. Outsourcing these functions can provide the additional resources for a fixed period of time at a consistent cost.

6. Continuity & Risk Management
Periods of high employee turnover will add uncertainty and inconsistency to the operations. Outsourcing will provided a level of continuity to the company while reducing the risk that a substandard level of operation would bring to the company. Internal staff has a history with the firm that provides them with a better understanding of clients' businesses, strategies, people, cultures and politics. And with the expectation of continuity, people know they'll be around to deal with the consequences of their actions. All else being equal, this results in improved partnerships, which pay off in both greater client satisfaction and improved strategic alignment.
Example: The human resource manager is on an extended medical leave and the two administrative assistants leave for new jobs in a very short period of time. Outsourcing the human resource function would reduce the risk and allow the company to keep operating.

7. Develop Internal Staff
A large project needs to be undertaken that requires skills that your staff does not possess. On-site outsourcing of the project will bring people with the skills you need into your company. Your people can work alongside of them to acquire the new skill set.

Well-managed outsourcing can enhance the development of employees. Two strategies can accomplish this:
1. Contractors can be used to off-load less interesting "commodity" or end-of-life work, or to handle peak loads. This leaves staff free to pursue new, developmental opportunities.
On the other hand, contractors should never be used to perform new, growth-oriented activities while internal staff is left with obsolescent work. This would deny staff learning opportunities, while building dependence on the vendor. Perhaps worse, it sends a message to staff that the company is not willing to invest in their professional growth.
2. Consultants and vendors can be used to bring in new ideas and to train internal staff.
It might be useful to distinguish two terms: External "consultants" transfer their skills and methods to improve employees' effectiveness; they teach staff, often while working together on real projects. Consultants may be used by anyone whenever justifiable, since the benefits are lasting.
There are many cases that meet these four criteria where outsourcing pays off. But each case must be examined carefully to make sure the fundamentals are there. Remember: Paying other shareholders a profit margin makes outsourcing inherently more expensive. It's only worthwhile if these other benefits compensate the firm for its added costs.
Example: A company needs to embark on a replacement/upgrade project on a variety of custom built equipment. Your engineers do not have the skills required to design new and upgraded equipment. Outsourcing this project and requiring the outsourced engineers to work on-site will allow your engineers to acquire a new skill set.

If the outsourcing disadvantages outweigh the advantages of outsourcing, then you should avoid outsourcing those operations.
Disadvantages of Outsourcing
• Lose of control
• Quality problems
• Slow response time
• Can't understand foreign accents
• >Slow resolution times
• Can't produce desired results
• Reduced sales
• Irritated customers
• >Irritated employees, unions, people within community

1. Loss Of Managerial Control

Whether you sign a contract to have another company perform the function of an entire department or single task, you are turning the management and control of that function over to another company. True, you will have a contract, but the managerial control will belong to another company. Your outsourcing company will not be driven by the same standards and mission that drives your company. They will be driven to make a profit from the services that they are providing to you and other businesses like yours.


2. Hidden Costs
You will sign a contract with the outsourcing company that will cover the details of the service that they will be providing. Any thing not covered in the contract will be the basis for you to pay additional charges. Additionally, you will experience legal fees to retain a lawyer to review the contacts you will sign. Remember, this is the outsourcing company's business. They have done this before and they are the ones that write the contract. Therefore, you will be at a disadvantage when negotiations start.
3. Threat to Security and Confidentiality
The life-blood of any business is the information that keeps it running. If you have payroll, medical records or any other confidential information that will be transmitted to the outsourcing company, there is a risk that the confidentiality may be compromised. If the outsourced function involves sharing proprietary company data or knowledge (e.g. product drawings, formulas, etc.), this must be taken into account. Evaluate the outsourcing company carefully to make sure your data is protected and the contract has a penalty clause if an incident occurs.
4. Quality Problems
The outsourcing company will be motivated by profit. Since the contract will fix the price, the only way for them to increase profit will be to decrease expenses. As long as they meet the conditions of the contract, you will pay. In addition, you will lose the ability to rapidly respond to changes in the business environment. The contract will be very specific and you will pay extra for changes.

5. Tied to the Financial Well-Being of Another Company
Since you will be turning over part of the operations of your business to another company, you will now be tied to the financial well-being of that company. It wouldn't be the first time that an outsourcing company could go bankrupt and leave you holding-the-bag.

6. Bad Publicity and Ill-Will
The word "outsourcing" brings to mind different things to different people. If you live in a community that has an outsourcing company and they employ your friends and neighbors, outsourcing is good. If your friends and neighbors lost their jobs because they were shipped across the state, across the country or across the world, outsourcing will bring bad publicity. If you outsource part of your operations, morale may suffer in the remaining work force.
Another disadvantage is that outsourcing can also prove to be a threat to the security and confidentiality of issues of a company. If your company is outsourcing business process such as payroll, confidential information such as salary will be known to the outsourcing service provider. Therefore one must be very careful in choosing which business process to outsource and which one not.
Outsourcing may also result into the possible loss of flexibility in reacting to changing business conditions, lack of internal and external customer focus and sharing cost savings. Loss of internally generated talent is yet another problem associated with the outsourcing as it may hamper the growth of an employee by depriving him from the experience he would have gained by handling the business issue himself then by passing it over to some other external party.
Thus before a company decides to outsource its business process, it must examine all the factors carefully. It may not happen that outsourcing becomes a reason for company to regret later.



http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-outsourcing.htm
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci1185946,00.html
http://www.softwareprojects.org/disadvantages-outsourcing.htm
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=disadvantages+in+sourcing&fr=yfp-t-152&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fp_ip=PH

Assignment 7 MIS

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.

1.) Kung noong nakaraan, lumakas ang electronics, today, we
are creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional
engines of growth. Electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall in
accordance with the state of the world economy. But BPO remains resilient. With
earnings of six billion dollars and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon
speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity. Let us have a
Department of ICT.

Business process outsourcing (BPO)
is a form of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and
responsibilities of a specific business functions (or processes) to a
third-party service provider, it is a distinct from
information technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a third-party
company or service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application
management and application development, data center operations, or testing and
quality assurance.
These outsourcing deals frequently involve multi-year
contracts that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

. Outsourcing
can supply an unbending with improved flexibility in its source management and
might reduce times to main environmental changes. An
additional way in which BPO contributes to a company’s flexibility is that a
company is to be able to meet on its foundation without being loaded by the
demands of practical chains.

One of the prime key returns of BPO is the line of attack
in which it helps to boost a company’s flexibility. Still, several sources have
different ways in which identify managerial flexibility. As a result, business
process outsourcing enhances the flexibility of an organization in different
ways.

2.) 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.

This
issue is common to us because everyone is using cell phones and other gadgets.
Nowadays, cell phone is a major means of communication. But, the problem is the
concern of loss of cell phone loads. As we observe, Telecommunication companies
do have great agreement of promos, they have unlimited text and calls but then troubles
occur when loads unexpectedly loss and end in advance. And it is a good
initiative of our President now that she planned this kind of proposal because
it really helps us in communicating other people in far places.

3.) Isa sa pinakamahirap sa Millennium Development Goals ay
yung ‘Education para sa Lahat’ pagdating ng 2015. Ibig sabihin, lahat ng nasa
tamang edad ay dapat nasa primary school. Halos walang bansang makakatupad
nito. Ngunit nagsisikap pa rin tayo. Nagtayo tayo ng mga paaralan sa higit sanlibong
barangay na dati walang eskwelahan upang makatipid ng gastos sa pamasahe ang
mga bata. Tinanggal natin ang miscellaneous fees para sa primary school. Hindi
na kailangan ang uniporme sa mga estudyante sa public school. In private high
schools, we financed half of the students.

Education is very important to us. It is the process by
which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values
from one generation to another through institutions. The government should do
some action about this because in supporting this, it can help our country to
produce more professionals and to avoid jobless or out-of-schol youth in the
future.


http://www.op.gov.ph/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=25765&Itemid=38


Visit my blog: http://neilreyniere.blogspot.com/

Assignment 6 MIS

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)

(1st post):

Introduction:

In the IT consultation world, there are many business skills you need beyond computer skills to succeed. Before you start your own IT consultation firm, you need to become aware of the following required business skills: marketing skills; networking skills; financial skills; written communication skills; and presentation skills. While you don't need to have all these skills initially, you need to be prepared to learn them for the future to make your IT consultation firm work.

Marketing

During the first year, your business will revolve around marketing and sales. You can hire a marketing consultant at the beginning if this is not one of your strong suits and then learn as the IT consultation business develops.

Networking

In the IT consultation business you have to cultivate relationships with other consultants and people that can hire you, but you need to be willing to have a balance. If you push your business too hard, you might breed negativity.
Financial Management Skills
You might be wise to hire an accountant if you are not good with money. You should evaluate your abilities with finances very honestly using a system that will best gauge your money management skills.

Written Skills

You will need to submit written materials often in the IT consultation business. These materials will include proposals, progress reports and contracts, and being good at writing will allow you to work very productively. If you have intimate knowledge of the art of writing, you will be able to turn out proposals and reports quickly and efficiently.

The Art of Presentation

Public speaking will become a large part of your IT consultation business, as clients often need a group presentation before they will accept a project proposal. If you are not good at speaking, enroll in a public speaking class to improve your communication skills and help your future business.
You need to examine all your skills before you start your IT consultation firm and hire consultants or employees that can make up for the weak areas. If you are prepared to learn about skills you might currently lack, you have a better chance at succeeding in the future.

Work of an IT Consultant:

IT consultants may be involved in a variety of activities, including marketing, project management, client relationship management and systems development. An IT consultant works in partnership with clients, advising them how to use information technology in order to meet their business objectives or overcome problems. Consultants work to improve the structure and efficiency and of an organization’s IT systems.
They may also be responsible for user training and feedback. In many companies, these tasks will be carried out by an IT project team. IT consultants are increasingly involved in sales and business development, as well as technical duties.

Task typically involves:
• meeting with clients to determine requirements;
• working with clients to define the scope of a project;
• planning timescales and the resources needed;
• clarifying a client's system specifications, understanding their work practices and the nature of their business;
• travelling to customer sites;
• liaising with staff at all levels of a client organisation;
• defining software, hardware and network requirements;
• analysing IT requirements within companies and giving independent and objective advice on the use of IT;
• developing agreed solutions and implementing new systems;
• presenting solutions in written or oral reports;
• helping clients with change-management activities;
• project managing the design and implementation of preferred solutions;
• purchasing systems where appropriate;
• designing, testing, installing and monitoring new systems;
• preparing documentation and presenting progress reports to customers;
• organising training for users and other consultants;
• being involved in sales and support and, where appropriate, maintaining contact with client organisations;
• identifying potential clients and building and maintaining contacts.

Internet technology has become a dominant factor in business, academia, and everyday life. E-commerce and e-services are fueling a market sea change, with practically any business anyplace nurturing its equivalent on the Internet. The change began with advertisements and news, followed by entertainment (with music and movies) and traditional businesses, such as retail sales, financing, brokerage, and auctions. Now, entirely new businesses and services are created on and for the Internet. As a consequence, Internet service providers and application service providers have created a
revolutionary new model for driving new applications, hardware, and software development.


IT has come to represent virtually anything connected with computers, and nearly everything is connected to computers. If I am hired as an IT consultant by the University President, I would put forward the Infrastructure.


Why Infrastructure?

• Improve the performance, scalability, interoperability of Internet security services.
• Expedite the development and adoption of protection mechanisms for core Internet naming and routing infrastructure services.
• Research and develop techniques to exploit emerging programmable data planes to improve the survivability of Internet infrastructures.

Infrastructure is the basic, underlying framework or features of a system or organization. Can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function. The term typically refers to the technical structures that support a society, such as roads, water supply, sewers, power grids, telecommunications, and so forth. Viewed functionally, infrastructure facilitates the production of goods and services; for example, roads enable the transport of raw materials to a factory, and also for the distribution of finished products to markets. In some contexts, the term may also include basic social services such as schools and hospitals.

Administration

The overall responsibility for managing Internet Protocol address or domain names at upper levels is vested in the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which delegates the actual administration of most functions to other bodies.
At global regional levels, the principal bodies providing allocation and registration services that support the operation of the Internet globally are:
• RIPE NCC (Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre)
• ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers)
• APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre)
• LACNIC (Latin American and Caribbean IP address Regional Registry)
• AfriNIC (African Regional Registry for Internet Number Resources)

Internet Operations

Internet operations are coordinated worldwide through the Internet Engineering Planning Group (IEPG), an Internet operational group intended to assist Internet Service Providers to interoperate within the Global Internet. At global regional levels, bodies active in coordinating operations include the:
• American Registry for Internet Numbers
Manages the Internet numbering resources for North America, a portion of the Caribbean, and sub-equatorial Africa.
• Asia Pacific Networking Group (APOPs)
Promotes the Internet and the coordination of network inter-connectivity in the Asia Pacific Region.
Internet Security
Internet network security is significantly facilitated by a number of Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) in eight countries and within a number of service provider operations and private networks. They were formed to continually monitor the network for security incidents, serve as a repository for information about such incidents, and develop responsive advisories. The CERTs are coordinated by the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams.
Internationalisation
• Alis Technologies
Founded in 1981, Alis Technologies Inc. develops standards for Multilingual Information Management Solutions (MIMS )with the IETF (Internet Engeneering Task Force), the Unicode Consortium, W3C and LISA.
• Internationalized Domain Names (IDN) Committee
Working group to study making domain names available in character sets other than ASCII.
• MINC (Multilingual Internet Names Consortium)
A non-profit, non-governmental, international organization. It focuses on the promotion of multilingualisation of Internet names, including Internet domain names and keywords, internationalization of Internet names standards and protocols, technical coordination and liaison with other international bodies.
• CNNIC (China Network Information Center)
(site is in Chinese)
• KRNIC (Korea Network Information Center)
Established the system for managing Internet address resources in Korea.
• TWNIC (Taiwan Network Infomation Center)
The unique neutral and non-profit organization that takes charge of the domain name registration and IP address allocation in Taiwan.
• The Unicode Consortium
Responsible for defining the behavior and relationships between Unicode characters, and providing technical information to implementers. The Consortium cooperates with ISO in refining the specification and expanding the character set.
Internet Connectivity
• Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC)
Database about international networking developments and Internet connectivity providers, with major emphasis on countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East, and Oceania. Information is available on country-by-country basis and includes connectivity providers, networking infrastructure, and other country-specific information.
• Connectivity Table from University of Wisconsin's FTP server.
Lists entities with and without international network connectivity. Shows countries (with ISO two letter country code (ISO 3166)) which have:
o international IP Internet links
o domestic UUCP sites which are connected to the Global Multiprotocol Open Internet, and
o domestic FIDONET sites which are connected to the Global Multiprotocol Open Internet.
o Connectivity Maps
• Internet Hosts Map
Shows the millions of Internet hosts worldwide as of January 1999.



http://ezinearticles.com/?IT-Consultation:--Do-You-Have-the-Required-Business-Skills?&id=290641

http://www.prospects.ac.uk/p/types_of_job/it_consultant_job_description.jsp

http://www.howstuffworks.com/internet-infrastructure.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_design#Characteristics_of_Service_Design