Business Intelligence Information Systems Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Business Intelligence Information Systems - Essay Example There are many other roles of business intelligence systems as well (Mulcahy, 2012). The reason why companies use business intelligence systems is for the reason that they collect a lot of data from their business operations. Data are then stored, and in order to maintain and keep a check on these data, the business needs a reliable software such as MS Word and Excel and many other data keeping software and applications. Maintaining such data becomes complicated if two or more applications are used. That is why businesses use business intelligence software which provides adequate maintenance of all the data (Mulcahy, 2012). This paper aims to discuss two business intelligence software products along with their features and a description of their manufacturers. Spotfire The real factor of success for a business in terms of exploiting information in order to gain a benefit is ‘reporting’. When the reporting software of a business is down, it means that the software is not relaying information to the right people at the right time due to which decision making problems arise. Spotfire is business intelligence software developed by TIBCO which contains all the necessary functions (TIBCO, 2011). ‘TIBCO Software Inc.’ is a software company which manufactures business intelligence software amongst other infrastructure software for large and small business organizations. The software manufactured by TIBCO is used on-premise and or as cloud computing setting. There are many customers which enjoy the products built by TIBCO Inc (TIBCO, 2011). ‘Spotfire’ is business intelligence software which provides much optimized intelligence analytical applications for the maintenance and efficiency of data. There are plenty of features of Spotfire; it offers analytical software combined with visuals and an interactive component which allows companies to exploit their data and retrieve whatever data they want to. The main feature of the Spotfire software system is the fact that you can actually view your intelligence and the interaction pertaining to your business’s intelligence due to the fact that Spotfire has a very good data visualization interface (TIBCO, 2011). Spotfire’s technical and intelligent approach to business intelligence is aiding various business enterprises in increasing their performance efficiently. Finance companies use Spotfire to maintain and keep a check on compliance and risk, manage various selection tasks and maintain attribution analysis (TIBCO, 2011). Necto ‘Necto’ is very good business intelligence software which is manufactured by Panorama. Necto is the latest in the line of business intelligence products and what sets it apart from other business intelligent programs is the fact that it is a socially enabled intelligence solution which has been never seen before. The Necto software has a wide variety of features which are very beneficial to business and other organi zations; it offers a very innovative, ingenious and simple way to link data, analysis of the data and the people working in the company. Necto is a new technology which is more efficient and much faster; it is a generation of

Taking Things for Granted Essay Example for Free

Taking Things for Granted Essay I remember that day as if it was yesterday. It started like any other day; I got up quickly grabbed a Twix ice cream bar for breakfast and went to the bus stop. Although Thanksgiving was a few days away, the air was still warm but crisp and I could not wait to get on the bus and talk with my friends about my plans for my birthday party. We arrived at school and I sat in my first period class environmental science. Everything seemed to be going just as it should. While doing my morning work suddenly my stomach sank and I knew something was not right. I arrived home from school later than normal, but my mom still had not arrived. I picked up the phone to call her, when she answered the phone she did not sound like herself. She had been crying and I knew something was wrong. What could it be? I asked if she was ok, she said she would be home later and the phone hung up. Later that day I would learn never to take your loved ones for granted. The doorbell ranged, my first thought was why my mom did not just walk in after all she had a key. I opened the door and was surprised to see my grandmother and my aunt. I wonder where my mother was. I was overjoyed to see my grandmother and aunt because they lived out of town. As soon as they arrived, we went to the grocery store so grandma could make her homemade biscuits and her marshmallow hot chocolate. While my grandmother was making her homemade biscuits, I got a phone call from a friend he told me that he was sorry for what happened to my dad. I laughed and replied nothing happened to my dad and that he had the wrong person. He told me my dad’s head was decapitated at work. I immediately hung up the phone and ran downstairs. I completely forgot about where my mom and dad were. It all made sense. That is why my grandma and aunt were here. I ran downstairs; I wanted to know why no one told me that my dad was dead. The color drained from my aunt and grandmothers face. They were speechless. The first question they asked was who told you that. They explained that it was not my dad’s head but his hand. They told me that he was in the hospital and was going to be in surgery for twenty hours. They did not know whether he would live or not. I cried. I never got the chance to say goodbye. Several days had passed and I finally got the opportunity to see my dad. As I walked down the hallway, my heart began to beat faster and faster. I did not know what I was going to see or how to react. I opened the door and there was my dad lying in the hospital bed. I had a flashback of every good time we ever had. I walked closer to the bed and called my dad’s name. He weakly replied that he loved me. I smiled as tears rolled down my face. My dad was still alive. The next few months were the toughest. I never imagined my dad trying to commit suicide, being depressed, or crying at night. When I thought of my dad, I thought tough and strong but I realized that anything could happen, even to the strongest of us. I almost lost my dad once and if it ever came to the point of me losing him for good, I would want to know that I never took for granted that I had a father who cared and would do anything for me. Today my dad is perfectly healthy. As a family, we have learned to adapt to his physical changes of not having a hand. This experience has had its difficulties but at the end of the day, we are still a family that supports one another. We have learned to take a day at a time.

Data Conversion and Migration Strategy

Data Conversion and Migration Strategy 1. Data Conversion Migration Strategy The scope of this section is to define the data migration strategy from a CRM perspective. By its very nature, CRM is not a wholesale replacement of legacy systems with BSC CRM but rather the coordination and management of customer interaction within the existing application landscape. Therefore a large scale data migration in the traditional sense is not required, only a select few data entities will need to be migrated into BSC CRM. Data migration is typically a ‘one-off activity prior to go-live. Any ongoing data loads required on a frequent or ad-hoc basis are considered to be interfaces, and are not part of the data migration scope. This section outlines how STEE-Infosoft intends to manage the data migration from the CAMS and HPSM legacy systems to the BSC CRM system. STEE-InfoSoft will provide a comprehensive data conversion and migration solution to migrate the current legacy databases of CAMS and HPSM. The solution would adopt the most suitable and appropriate technology for database migration, using our proven methodology and professional expertise. STEE-InfoSofts data migration methodology assures customers the quality, consistency, and accuracy of results. Table 11 shows STEE-InfoSoft data migration values proposition using our methodology. Table 11: STEE-Infosoft data migration values proposition Value Details Cost Effective STEE-InfoSoft adopts a cost-effective data migration solution. Minimal downtime can be achieved for the data migration. Extensive use of automation speed up work and makes post-run changes and corrections practical. Error tracking and correction capabilities help to avoid repeated conversion re-runs. Customization enables getting the job done the correct way Very Short Downtime Downtime is minimized because most of the migration processes are external to the running application system, and do not affect its normal workflow. It further reduces downtime by allowing the data conversion to be performed in stages. Assured Data Integrity Scripts and programs are automatically generated for later use when testing and validating the data. Control Over the Migration Process. Creating unique ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) scripts to run the extract and load processes in order to reduce the downtime of the existing systems. Merging fields, filtering, splitting data, changing field definitions and translating the field content. Addition, Deletion, Transformation, and Aggregation, Validation rules for cleansing data. 1.1. Data Migration Overview Data migration is the transfer of data from one location, storage medium, or hardware/software system to another. Migration efforts are often prompted by the need for upgrades in technical infrastructure or changes in business requirements Best practices in data migration recommends two principles which are inherent for successful data migration: Perform data migration as a project dedicated to the unique objective of establishing a new (target) data store. Perform data migration in four primary phases: Data Migration Planning, Data Migration Analysis and Design, and Data Migration Implementation, and Data Migration Closeout as shown in 1.1. In addition, successful data migration projects were ones that maximized opportunities and mitigated risks. The following critical success factors were identified: Perform data migration as an independent project. Establish and manage expectations throughout the process. Understand current and future data and business requirements. Identify individuals with expertise regarding legacy data. Collect available documentation regarding legacy system(s). Define data migration project roles responsibilities clearly. Perform a comprehensive overview of data content, quality, and structure. Coordinate with business owners and stakeholders to determine importance of business data and data quality. 1.2. STEE-Info Data Migration Project Lifecycle Table 12 lists the high-level processes for each phase of the STEE-Info Data Migration Project Lifecycle. While all data migration projects follow the four phases in the Data Migration Project Lifecycle, the high-level and low-level processes may vary depending on the size, scope and complexity of each migration project. Therefore, the following information should serve as a guideline for developing, evaluating, and implementing data migration efforts. Each high-level and low-level process should be included in a DataMigrationPlan. For those processes not deemed appropriate, a justification for exclusion should be documented in the DataMigrationPlan. Table 12: Data Migration Project Lifecycle with high-level tasks identified. Data Migration Planning Phase Data Migration Analysis Design Phase Data Migration Implementation Phase Data Migration Closeout Phase Plan Data Migration Project Analyze Assessment Results Develop Procedures Document Data Migration Results Determine Data Migration Requirements Define Security Controls Stage Data Document Lessons Learned Assess Current Environment Design Data Environment Cleanse Data Perform Knowledge Transfer Develop Data Migration Plan Design Migration Procedures Convert Transform Data (as needed) Communicate Data Migration Results Define and Assign Team Roles and Responsibilities Validate Data Quality Migrate Data (trial/deployment) Validate Migration Results (iterative) Validate Post-migration Results During the lifecycle of a data migration project, the team moves the data through the activities shown in 1.2 The team will repeat these data management activities as needed to ensure a successful data load to the new target data store. 1.3. Data Migration Guiding Principles 1.3.1. Data Migration Approach 1.3.1.1. Master Data (e.g. Customers, Assets) The approach is that master data will be migrated into CRM providing these conditions hold: The application where the data resides is being replaced by CRM. The master records are required to support CRM functionality post-go-live. There is a key operational, reporting or legal/statutory requirement. The master data is current (e.g. records marked for deletion need not be migrated) OR is required to support another migration. The legacy data is of a sufficient quality such so as not to adversely affect the daily running of the CRM system OR will be cleansed by the business/enhanced sufficiently within the data migration process to meet this requirement. Note: Where the master data resides in an application that is not being replaced by CRM, but is required by CRM to support specific functionality, the data will NOT be migrated but accessed from CRM using a dynamic query look-up. A dynamic query look-up is a real-time query accessing the data in the source application as and when it is required. The advantages of this approach are; Avoids the duplication of data throughout the system landscape. Avoids data within CRM becoming out-of-date. Avoids the development and running of frequent interfaces to update the data within CRM. Reduces the quantity of data within the CRM systems. 1.3.1.2. ‘Open Transactional data (e.g. Service Tickets) The approach is that ‘open transactional data will NOT be migrated to CRM unless ALL these conditions are met: There is a key operational, reporting or legal/statutory requirement The legacy system is to be decommissioned as a result of the BSC CRM project in timescales that would prevent a ‘run down of open items The parallel ‘run down of open items within the legacy system is impractical due to operational, timing or resource constraints The CRM build and structures permit a correct and consistent interpretation of legacy system items alongside CRM-generated items The business owner is able to commit resources to own data reconciliation and sign-off at a detailed level in a timely manner across multiple project phases 1.3.1.3. Historical Master and Transactional data The approach is that historical data will not be migrated unless ALL these conditions are met: There is a key operational, reporting or legal/statutory requirement that cannot be met by using the remaining system The legacy system is to be decommissioned as a direct result of the BSC CRM project within the BSC CRM project timeline An archiving solution could not meet requirements The CRM build and structures permit a correct and consistent interpretation of legacy system items alongside CRM-generated items The business owner is able to commit resources to own data reconciliation and sign-off at a detailed level in a timely manner across multiple project phases 1.3.2. Data Migration Testing Cycles In order to test and verify the migration process it is proposed that there will be three testing cycles before the final live load: Trial Load 1: Unit testing of the extract and load routines. Trial Load 2: The first test of the complete end-to-end data migration process for each data entity. The main purpose of this load is to ensure the extract routines work correctly, the staging area transformation is correct, and the load routines can load the data successfully into CRM. The various data entities will not necessarily be loaded in the same sequence as will be done during the live cutover Trial Cutover: a complete rehearsal of the live data migration process. The execution will be done using the cutover plan in order to validate that the plan is reasonable and possible to complete in the agreed timescale. A final set of cleansing actions will come out of trial cutover (for any records which failed during the migration because of data quality issues). There will be at least one trial cutover. For complex, high-risk, migrations several trial runs may be performed, until the result is entirely satisfactory and 100% correct. Live Cutover: the execution of all tasks required to prepare BSC CRM for the go-live of a particular release. A large majority of these tasks will be related to data migration. 1.3.3. Data Cleansing Before data can be successfully migrated it data needs to be clean, data cleansing is therefore an important element of any data migration activity: Data needs to be in a consistent, standardised and correctly formatted to allow successful migration into CRM (e.g. CRM holds addresses as structured addresses, whereas some legacy systems might hold this data in a freeform format) Data needs to be complete, to ensure that upon migration, all fields which are mandatory in CRM are populated. Any fields flagged as mandatory, which are left blank, will cause the migration to fail. Data needs to be de-duplicated and be of sufficient quality to allow efficient and correct support of the defined business processes. Duplicate records can either be marked for deletion at source (preferred option), or should be excluded in the extract/conversion process. Legacy data fields could have been misused (holding information different from what this field was initially intended to be used for). Data cleansing should pick this up, and a decision needs to be made whether this data should be excluded (i.e. not migrated), or transferred into a more appropriate field. It is the responsibility of the data owner (i.e. MOM) to ensure the data provided to the STEE-Info for migration into BSC CRM (whether this is from a legacy source or a template populated specifically for the BSC CRM) is accurate. Data cleansing should, wherever possible, be done at source, i.e. in the legacy systems, for the following reasons: Unless a data change freeze is put in place, extracted datasets become out of date as soon as they have been extracted, due to updates taking place in the source system. When re-extracting the data at a later date to get the most recent updates, data cleansing actions will get overwritten. Therefore cleansing will have to be repeated each time a new dataset is extracted. In most cases, this is impractical and requires a large effort. Data cleansing is typically a business activity. Therefore, cleansing in the actual legacy system has the advantage that business people already have access to the legacy system, and are also familiar with the application. Something that is not the case when data is stored in staging areas. In certain cases it may be possible to develop a programme to do a certain degree of automated cleansing although this adds additional risk of data errors. If data cleansing is done at source, each time a new (i.e. more recent) extract is taken, the results of the latest cleansing actions will automatically come across in the extract without additional effort. 1.3.4. Pre-Migration Testing Testing breaks down into two core subject areas: logical errors and physical errors. Physical errors are typically syntactical in nature and can be easily identified and resolved. Physical errors have nothing to do with the quality of the mapping effort. Rather, this level of testing is dealing with semantics of the scripting language used in the transformation effort. Testing is where we identify and resolve logical errors. The first step is to execute the mapping. Even if the mapping is completed successfully, we must still ask questions such as: How many records did we expect this script to create? Did the correct number of records get created? Has the data been loaded into the correct fields? Has the data been formatted correctly? The fact is that data mapping often does not make sense to most people until they can physically interact with the new, populated data structures. Frequently, this is where the majority of transformation and mapping requirements will be discovered. Most people simply do not realize they have missed something until it is not there anymore. For this reason, it is critical to unleash them upon the populated target data structures as soon as possible. The data migration testing phase must be reached as soon as possible to ensure that it occurs prior to the design and building phases of the core project. Otherwise, months of development effort can be lost as each additional migration requirement slowly but surely wreaks havoc on the data model. This, in turn, requires substantive modifications to the applications built upon the data model. 1.3.5. Migration Validation Before the migration could be considered a success, one critical step remains: to validate the post-migration environment and confirm that all expectations have been met prior to committing. At a minimum, network access, file permissions, directory structure, and database/applications need to be validated, which is often done via non-production testing. Another good strategy to validate software migration is to benchmark the way business functions pre-migration and then compare that benchmark to the behaviour after migration. The most effective way to collect benchmark measurements is collecting and analyzing Quality Metrics for various Business Areas and their corresponding affairs. 1.3.6. Data Conversion Process Mapped information and data conversion program will be put into use during this period. Duration and timeframe of this process will depend on: Amount of data to be migrated Number of legacy system to be migrated Resources limitation such as server performance Error which were churned out by this process The conversion error management approach aims to reject all records containing a serious error as soon as possible during the conversion approach. Correction facilities are provided during the conversion; where possible, these will use the existing amendment interface. Errors can be classified as follows: Fatal errors which are so serious that they prevent the account from being loaded onto the database. These will include errors that cause a breach of database integrity; such as duplicate primary keys or invalid foreign key references. These errors will be the focus of data cleansing both before and during the conversion. Attempts to correct errors without user interaction are usually futile. Non-fatal errors which are less serious. Load the affected error onto the database, still containing the error, and the error will be communicated to the user via a work management item attached to the record. The error will then be corrected with information from user. Auto-corrected errors for which the offending data item is replaced by a previously agreed value by the conversion modules. This is done before the conversion process starts together with user to determine values which need to be updated. One of the important tasks in the process of data conversion is data validation. Data validation in a broad sense includes the checking of the translation process per se or checking the information to see to what degree the conversion process is an information preserving mapping. Some of the common verification methods used will be: Financial verifications (verifying pre- to post-conversion totals for key financial values, verify subsidiary to general ledger totals) to be conducted centrally in the presence of accounts, audit, compliance risk management; Mandatory exceptions verifications and rectifications (on those exceptions that must be resolved to avoid production problems) to be reviewed centrally but branches to execute and confirm rectifications, again, in the presence of network management, audit, compliance risk management; Detailed verifications (where full details are printed and the users will need to do random detailed verifications with legacy system data) to be conducted at branches with final confirmation sign-off by branch deployment and branch manager; and Electronic files matching (matching field by field or record by record) using pre-defined files. 1.4. Data Migration Method The primary method of transferring data from a legacy system into Siebel CRM is through Siebel Enterprise Integration Manager (EIM). This facility enables bidirectional exchange of data between non Siebel database and Siebel database. It is a server component in the Siebel eAI component group that transfers data between the Siebel database and other corporate data sources. This exchange of information is accomplished through intermediary tables called EIM tables. The EIM tables act as a staging area between the Siebel application database and other data sources. The following figure illustrates how data from HPSM, CAMS, and IA databases will be migrated to Siebel CRM database. 1.5. Data Conversion and Migration Schedule Following is proposed data conversion and migration schedule to migrate HPMS and CAMS, and IA databases into Siebel CRM database. 1.6. Risks and Assumptions 1.6.1. Risks MOM may not be able to confidently reconcile large and/or complex data sets. Since the data migration will need to be reconciled a minimum of 3 times (system test, trial cutover and live cutover) the effort required within the business to comprehensively test the migrated data set is significant. In addition, technical data loading constraints during cutover may mean a limited time window is available for reconciliation tasks (e.g. overnight or during weekends) MOM may not be able to comprehensively cleanse the legacy data in line with the BSC CRM project timescales. Since the migration to BSC CRM may be dependent on a number of cleansing activities to be carried out in the legacy systems, the effort required within the business to achieve this will increase proportionately with the volume of data migrated. Failure to complete this exercise in the required timescale may result in data being unable to be migrated into BSC CRM in time for the planned cutover. The volume of data errors in the live system may be increased if reconciliation is not completed to the required standard. The larger/more complex a migration becomes, the more likely it is that anomalies will occur. Some of these may initially go undetected. In the best case such data issues can lead to a business and project overhead in rectifying the errors after the event. In the worst case this can lead to a business operating on inaccurate data. The more data migrated into BSC CRM makes the cutover more complex and lengthy resulting in an increased risk of not being able to complete the migration task on time. Any further resource or technical constraints can add to this risk. Due to the volume of the task, data migration can divert project and business resources away from key activities such as initial system build, functional testing and user acceptance testing. 1.6.2. Assumptions Data Access Access to the data held within the CAMS, HPSM and IA applications are required to enable data profiling, the identification of data sources and to write functional and technical specifications. Access connection is required to HPMS and CAMS, and IA databases to enable execution of data migrations scripts. MOM is to provide workstations to run ETL scripts for the data migration of HPMS and CAMS, and IA databases. There must not be any schema changes on legacy HPMS and CAMS, and IA databases during data migration phase. MOM is to provide sample of production data for testing the developed ETL scripts. MOM business resource availability; Required to assist in data profiling, the identification of data sources and to create functional and technical specifications. Required to develop and run data extracts from the CAMS HPSM systems. Required to validate/reconcile/sign-off data loads. Required for data cleansing. Data cleansing of source data is the responsibility of MOM. STEE-Info will help identify the data anomalies during the data migration process; however STEE-Info will not cleanse the data in the CAMS HPSM applications. Depending on the data quality, data cleansing can require considerable effort, and involve a large amount of resources. The scope of the data migration requirements has not yet been finalised, as data objects are identified they will be added on to the data object register.

Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka 1954 :: essays research papers

Brown vs. The Board of Education of Topeka 1954 Oliver Brown and 12 other plaintiffs (names undisclosed) brought suit against the Board of Education with the help of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). During this time in history segregation existed in some facets of our educational system. In the state of Kansas, to be more precise Topeka, segregation was dominant among elementary schools. A group consisting of Oliver Brown and 12 other parents (20 children involved) wanted equal educational rights and do away with segregation among the school system. Each person was to look for enrollment dates at the â€Å"white† schools in their neighborhood and take their children to be admitted. The all white school refused to enroll them because of their race. The families then reported to the NAACP, who they have recruited to help in this legal matter. The Board of Education was in direct violation of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which â€Å"guarantees all citizens equal protection under the law†, giving cause to file a class action suit. Oliver Brown was designated as the leader of the group because during this time men were dominant in society, having more power than women. On February 28, 1951, the NAACP filed their case against The Board of Education, naming it Oliver L. Brown et. al. Vs. The Board of Education of Topeka (KS). The District court ruled against Brown, resulting in an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States. When this case made it to the Supreme Court, it was combined with other â€Å"like† cases from Delaware, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. These combined cases became known as Oliver L. Brown, et. at. Vs. The Board of Education of Topeka, et. al. On May 17, 1954 at 12:52 p.m. the United States Supreme Court decided unanimously that The Board of Education acted unconstitutionally and that they violated the 14th Amendment by separated children if for no other reason than for their race. In the end, not only did the African Americans receive a victory in this aspect of the civil rights movement; they also received the memory of this victory in the form of a historical site.

1. Analysis of the Knowledge Management at Tcs Using the Knowledge Management Value Chain Model.

1. Analysis of the knowledge management at TCS using the knowledge management value chain model. *Knowledge acquire -TCS has created communities of practices (CoPs) with an animator expert in an area of knowledge to gather best practice on different area of expertise using business case documenting problem and solution. -Then TCS tried to capture technology, processes and case studies called Process Asset Libraries. So their intent was more on capturing structure data in the first wave. In the implementation of Ultimatix, TCS tried to use captures of intelligent technics or knowledge work system meaning knowledge tools like wizard, templates for software productivity improvement, knowledge training modules and information on tools. *Â  Knowledge storage -Business cases with solutions. For example on mainframe around 1500 business cases. -Process Asset library permit exchanges of around 10000 documents on industry practices and 21000 services practices in six month during 2003. -Line of businesses, line of technology, and projectsTCS has disseminated knowledge by: -Customizing for each are of practice/technology, customer and industries. -Creating an initial training program and a continuous learning program for experience employees based on role and competence definition. -Encouraging people to move and go outside TCS to learn and bring back knowledge. -Using information letter per expert area and tip of day are used. *Marketing knowledge -To create business related document. It can be retrieved by searching similar business case. -To innovate and decide with a tool called TIP and IdeaStorm.The IdeaStorm process is in three steps one idea / question are submitted, people can brain storm on it and after vote. -Just ask process to get direct access to experts TCS has various Portals which permit a uniform access to knowledge. It can be accessed through queries or using taxonomies created by CoPs. Tools and activities were used for managing tacit knowledge: TCS h as created communities of practices (CoPs) with an animator expert in an area of knowledge to gather best practice on different area of expertise using business case documenting problem and solution. -Just ask process to get direct access to experts Encouraging people to move and go outside TCS to learn and bring back knowledge. -Using information letter per expert area and tip of day are used. Tools and acticities used for managing explicit knowledge: -Process Asset library permit exchanges of around 10000 documents on industry practices and 21000 services practices in six month during 2003. -To create business related document. It can be retrieved by searching similar business case. -To innovate and decide with a tool called TIP and IdeaStorm. The IdeaStorm process is in three steps one idea / question are submitted, people can brain storm on it and after vote. Then TCS tried to capture technology, processes and case studies called Process Asset Libraries. So their intent was more on capturing structure data in the first wave. -In the implementation of Ultimatix, TCS tried to use captures of intelligent technics or knowledge work system meaning knowledge tools like wizard, templates for software productivity improvement, knowledge training modules and information on tools LiveMeeting sessions during project for status meeting and after project lesson learned are recorded in the knowledge database 2.Some of the growth of knowledge management systems in TCS and how the sytems helped its business are listed as below KBASES AND GROUPWARE It is a knowledge repository in the corporate and branch servers accessible to all employees through the intranet. It contained wide range of information regarding processes, line of technology and the line of business. The groupware was a body which automated various in house systems such as training and many other functions. CLOSELY KNITS COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICES (COPS)Community of practices was a forum of organizational memor y where teams all over the organization at different times zones communicated and documented the best practices. PROCESS ASSET LIBRARIES (PALS) Process asset libraries was an information database related to technology, processes and case studies. These were made available to all development centers of TCS through the intranet. WEB-BASED ELECTRONIC KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PORTAL (EKM) Knowledge was made globally available. The PAL library, and Kbases hosted on the intranet were merged with Ultimatix.Sub-portals of quality management system, software productivity improvement, training materials and tools information were shared and easily accessed via EKM. COP members widely shared and exchanges industry and service practices. INTEGRATED COMPETENCY AND LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS (ICALMS) The system was deployed globally across all offices to promote a culture of learning and growth in the organization. Employees could enhance their skills in many areas. KNOWMAX Developed using Microsoft sharepoint portal server. It supported more than 60 knowledge assets and was accessible via Ultimatix to all TCS associates.Any associate could contribute their knowledge and information for sharing with employees. 3. Some collaboration tools which are need at TCS: IBM same time: client-server application on window that provide real-time, unified communications and collaboration for enterprise. IBM quick place: self-service for non-technical users to easily create a browser-accessible web-workspace to support a task, project. When TCS combine same time with quick place, it took easyly to exchange information on project, technlogy and preparation.Lotus: domino collaboration tools can provide multiple service: Thanks to use these tools, TCS can unprove collabaration among employees and collaboration of overseas and local office 4. Web 2. 0 tools help TCS to manage knowleadge and collaboration among it employees TCS used a wide variety of collaboration tools from taking on account arc hitectural aspects to the usage of Web 2. 0 tools. TCS's development centers have had a special attention to its architecture so that they could be divided into modules of a common area each with its own garden in order for the employees to have informal conversations during their breaks.Naturally TCS could also profit by the fact that many of those conversations were about their employees’ business problems. Propel sessions also brought together employees with similar interests so that they could balance their work and their life and hopefully integrate both as one. Aside from taking into account the employee's personal life TCS also implemented another methods to share knowledge. By recording all of their meetings with LiveMeeting application TCS could arrange a team where all the members knew what was discussed.Knowledge could also be shared directly from their experts by Knowledge Transition sessions and a Tip of the Day mail system. This way knowledge could flow from the ir experts to their beginner workers who in fact need to learn in order perform better for TCS. The implementation of Project Infinity brought alongside VOIP and video conference tools. Using these tools all TCS's branches could communicate and collaborate in realtime keeping focus to the same objective. However Project Infinity also brought along other tools such as Instant Messaging and a news broadcast system.Using these tools TCS could communicate in real time with all of TCS's offices in the world sharing data and knowledge other than using voice or video systems. TCS also used Web 2. 0 tools integrated in their own website such as a Just Ask system, a Blog Platform, TIP and MySite. As in one side The Just Ask system would directly be connected to TCS's business, on the other side The My site would be more related to one's personal life. 5. How do you think KM tools have changed some key operational processes at TCS, such as bidding for new projects, project development and imp lementation, customer service, and so on?TCS core business is to produce project in India to be delivered all around the world. TCS processes have been simplified and communication has been streamed with those KM tools. Three bricks are missing for a 100% effective knowledge sharing: -The collaboration inside a document. For example, during an offering, it is frequent that many people are working on the same document. -The search engine technology. Having Tera’s of document emphasize the need to have a good search engine in order to find relevant document. -The document life-cycle would permit to exclude outdated document.

Fedex Analysis Essays

Fedex Analysis Essays Fedex Analysis Essay Fedex Analysis Essay TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARYII TABLE OF CONTENTSIII LIST OF FIGURESV LIST OF TABLESV 1INTRODUCTION1 PART 1: TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTIC INDUSTRY2 2EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS2 2. 1TECHNOLOGICAL2 2. 2ECONOMICAL2 2. 3MARKET2 2. 4POLITICAL AND LEGAL2 2. 5ENVIRONMENTAL3 2. 6SOCIETAL3 2. 7DEMOGRAPHIC3 3INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS4 3. 1PORTER’S FIVE FORCES MODEL4 3. 1. 1Threat of new entrants (Low)4 3. 1. 2Threat of substitutes (Low – medium)5 3. 1. 3Bargaining power of buyers (High)5 3. 1. 4Bargaining power of suppliers (Medium – high)5 3. 1. 5Intensity of rivalry (High)5 4CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR6 4. STRONG AND TRUSTWORTHY BRAND6 4. 2ADVANCED IN IT SYSTEMS6 4. 3INTEGRATION TO CUSTOMERS SUPPLY CHAIN6 4. 4LOCATION AND ACCESSIBILITY6 PART 2: FEDEX CORPORATION7 5COMPANY ANALYSIS7 5. 1PRODUCTS AND SERVICES7 5. 2STRUCTURE7 5. 3STRATEGY7 5. 4GENERIC POSITIONING7 5. 5KEY STAKEHOLDERS8 5. 6PERFORMANCE8 5. 6. 1Marketing8 5. 6. 2Operations8 5. 6. 3Human resources8 5. 6. 4Research and development8 5. 6. 5Information Technology8 5. 6. 6Finance8 6COMPETITORS ANALYSIS10 7SWOT ANALYSIS11 7. 1STRENGTHS11 7. 2WEAKNESSES11 7. 3OPPORTUNITIES12 7. 4THREATS12 7. 5POSITIONING OF FEDEX13 8RECCOMMENDATION14 8. 1CORPORATE LEVEL14 . 2BUSINESS LEVEL15 8. 3FUNCTIONAL LEVEL15 8. 4NETWORK LEVEL16 8. 5SUGGESTED IMPLEMENTATION PLAN16 9CONCLUSION17 REFERENCES18 LIST OF FIGURES This is the complete listing of all the figures used throughout the report. FIGURE 1 ILLUSTRATES PORTERS FIVE FORCES MODEL FOR TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTICS INDUSTRY. 3 FIGURE 2 ILLUSTRATES POSITION OF FEDEX IN SWOT. 7 LIST OF TABLES This is the complete listing of all the tables used throughout the report. TABLE 1 ILLUSTRATES IMPLEMENTATION PLAN OF SUGGESTED RECOMMENDATION13 1INTRODUCTION FedEx is the world leader in transportation and logistic industry. It was founded in 1971 as Federal Express which provides only express delivery services. Over the decades, it has transformed it self to a global logistic and supply-chain management company (Express, Ground, Freight, etc. ) through massive investment in its IT infrastructure and acquisition of Caliber systems, Inc (Figure 1) 1971 1994 Now Figure 1. FedEx Brand Transformation FedEx has always been an innovator in changing how the world works and lives. Today’s FedEx is a network of companies, worth $34 billion, offering the right mix of transportation, e-commerce and business solutions. While each company has a unique history, collectively they exhibit the â€Å"absolutely, positively† dedication to providing specialised solutions for every shipping, information and global trade needs that the world has come to expect from FedEx. But as every cloud has a silver lining, so does FedEx Corporation. Through the reading and analysis of the case study of FedEx Corp. in 2000, provided in De Wit and Meyer (2004, pp. 647-662), some recommendations have been made to address the key issues concerning the organisation, in the context of its structural transformation through e-business. : PART 1: TRANSPORTATION AND LOGISTIC INDUSTRY 2EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS 2. 1Technological The development of information technology (IT) has dramatically changed the way businesses operate in express transportation and information industry. It gives organizations the ability to share information within and between organizations, and hence, promote more time and cost effective operations which leads to shorter order-to-payment cycle and better cash flow. With the use of e-commerce in transportation and logistics, the consumer can now even track the progress of the courier at any point of time, at any given hour. 2. 2Economical The globalization of world’s economy has trigger enormous demand for transportation and logistic industry. As businesses expand itself into other countries, whether for seeking the new market or cost reduction, the transportation of goods or raw-material and management of information pertaining with them are essential. To cater to this need, as of 2000, FedEx now operates in 210 countries managing over 10 million square feet of warehouse space worldwide. Other than globalization, there are more economic factors that affect the transportation and logistics industry, for example economic rates, fuel price and economic growth. Economic rates, such as interest rate, inflation rate and currency exchange rate, and fuel price affect the price management of this industry. While economic growth affects the industry in terms of the demand of the services from customers. 2. 3Market Globalization has broadened market for all industry, from nationwide to world wide. The speed and accuracy has become the critical success factors not only for transportation and logistic company but also for their customers as well. As a result, fast and reliable service is not considered as values anymore, it becomes norm which customers expected from every transportation and logistic company. Therefore, to be competitive in this industry, companies must provide value-added-services which create great satisfaction to its customers. 2. 4Political and Legal The transportation and logistic industry is greatly affected by political stability, government policies, and regulations in each country. The deregulation and trade agreement has eliminated boundaries between countries such as U. S and Mexico, and hence, encourage transportation and logistic companies to easily establish and operate within those country. In addition, the regulations on airline and trucking industry also play vital roles on this industry because it directly impacts the core operation of industry. 2. 5Environmental Weather and climate change have great impact on transportation and logistic industry due to the fact that this industry is deeply associated with travel of airplanes, truck, freighter, and other vehicles. The ability to understand and predict weather and climate change can save company from delay, loss of its fleets, all of which is directly proportional to its reputation. 2. 6Societal Social mobility affects this industry in some way. It refers to the dollars consumers are willing to spare at the cost of time; as the most important asset in today’s cut-throat world is time. One of the most important social factors for the transportation and logistics industry is the labour part which helps the organisation carry out the day to day operations and keep the cash charts ringing. 2. 7Demographic The demographic is one external environment that affects transportation and logistics industry, especially the location of the stores; distribution centres hubs and so on. INDUSTRY ANALYSIS FedEx Corporation has been operated in the transportation and logistic industry which mainly involve in delivery, and managing and controlling of goods, information, and other resources like products. 3. 1Porter’s five forces model Figure 1 illustrates Porters five forces model for transportation and logistics industry. 3. 1. 1Threat of new entrants (Low) To be competitive in t his industry, businesses must have their own freighter, airplanes, trucks, etc. This result in very large capital investment required in order to start a business. Moreover, brand awareness is also very crucial. Without strong brand, particular company would not be able to gain trust, which is very important in this industry, from customers. For newly established company in this industry where there are already many strong players, it is not easy to create and strengthen its brand image. As a result, the entry barrier is considered very high. 3. 1. 2Threat of substitutes (Low – medium) Emergent of internet and email do reduce the necessity of express delivery of documents. There are also some moving and shipping services which target private households when they have to move aboard, or international students moving from or to their origin. But these are still in different market segment. There are still no potential alternatives which can fully replace service of FedEx. 3. 1. 3Bargaining power of buyers (High) Since there are many of companies which offer the same service as FedEx and with the increasing contribution of IT in logistics industry, buyers can easily compare prices and offers from different companies and choose the one that cheapest and most suit their needs. FedEx should provide significant service to its customers and have high differentiate products. 3. 1. 4Bargaining power of suppliers (Medium – high) The main suppliers of FedEx are fuel and other energy provider, aircraft manufacturer, and truck manufacturer. The bargaining of vehicles manufacturer is considerably medium because even though FedEx is a big organization which requires big fleet of vehicles and continuous maintenance service, but vehicle manufacturers still has other choice of buyers from various industries. 3. 1. 5Intensity of rivalry (High) The intensity of rivalry is considerably high due to the three strong competitors which are UPS, DHL, and TNT. Need more 4CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTOR 4. 1Brand The reliability and accountability is the most important factor in this industry. Even though the company can make the very low price with easy access and user friendly service, but if the company could not guaranteed the speed and accuracy of its services, customers would not take the risk. 4. 2IT systems The advancement of IT systems leads to more efficient operations which again lead to faster and more accurate services with lower cost. In present, from the comfort of ones home, they can use most of the services offered by FedEx, booking a delivery or tracking the progress of the courier and so on so forth. 4. 3Service quality By providing services which integrate into customers’ supply chain, the company built up barrier to protect its customer from its competitors, as FedEx delivers almost anything anywhere at the quickest time possible, which is not really exclusive but with the continuous innovation and creativity, it helps in customer retention. 4. 4Location and accessibility Location of hub has massive impact on the speed of services. Proper distributed hub location according to geographic and intensity of demand could leads to faster and more responsive services. The accessibility such as customers care centre or user friendly systems also promote more pre and post sales. PART 2: FEDEX CORPORATION 5COMPANY ANALYSIS 5. 1Products and services FedEx corporation start the business with express delivery services as Federal express and the transform it self in to a global logistics and supply-chain management company. At present, FedEx offers wide range services which include express delivery, business to business ground small package delivery, special express delivery, less than truck freight, integrated logistics and warehousing solutions, supply chain management solutions. 5. 2Structure FedEx has been through many transformation of its organization structure with the goal to make it easier and faster for its customer and also to improve efficiency of its operations. Currently FedEx Corporation consists of six subsidiaries which independently operate but collectively compete with its competitors. 5. 3Strategy Base on case study, FedEx has always emphasis on shear innovation, industry leadership and IT development and use it as its key competitive advantages and also use it as the tools to help its customers take advantages of international market. Moreover, FedEx is the first company in the industry which owns all transportation fleet and expands its business through acquiring more trucks and planes. 5. 4Generic positioning . 5Key stakeholders FedEx works in the B2B as well as B2C model, which makes the customers as well as the organisations that it caters to as its key stakeholders. Moreover, its employee from all subsidiaries; its suppliers, such as fuel provider and packaging suppliers, and environmental activist group also constitute a large share of stakeholders. 5. 6Performance 5. 6. 1Marketing FedEx has a strong marketing presence but need to market all of its subsidiaries to gain a bigger market share as only FedEx Express is the dominant one amongst all. It uses the print media as well as TV campaigns to attract customers as well as create awareness for its excellent supply chain systems. 5. 6. 2Operations FedEx’s operation was one of the critical issues in the company as learnt from the case study, where it does not operate efficiently as a whole company. Not only it had different operations department for each division, it also added to the operation costs to great extent, which otherwise could be minimalised by sharing the available resources. 5. 6. 3Human resources FedEx failed in utilisation of its HR as one person was assigned one work only, irrespective of their maximum capabilities. 5. 6. 4Research and development FedEx allocates excessive resources to its RD division in order to keep itself updated with the every-day increasing IT developments in logistics field. But it still stands a fair level in terms of the services offered for customers. 5. 6. 5Information Technology FedEx was the first logistic company which introduce the use of IT to the business in 1984, by using the first PC-based automated shipping system. Since then, FedEx has been always implementing and improving its IT system, from barcode labelling, websites, software, e-Business and so on. FedEx IT has become its competitive advantage for years comparing to its competitors. The information about a package is as important as the delivery of the package itself. - Frederick W. Smith (1979) 5. 6. 6Finance In 1998, FedEx was listed as a US$10 billion company and it used US$1 billion annually on IT developments plus millions more on capital expenditure. And in 1999, it spent US$1. billion on IT from US$17 billion annual revenue. On 31 May year ending sheet, the company out-performed the projections and posted record earnings on 73 percent increasing the net income to US$221 million. Financially, FedEx spent about US$100 million for the reorganization over three years in 2000. In simpler terms, companies operating income as well as net income has been going down since first quarter ending 31 August, 1999. 6COMPETITORS ANALYSIS 6. 1UPS oStrong in logistic and delivery, especially in US. oIT developed as well (spent $9 billion on IT) Formed 5 alliances in 1997 to disseminate its logistics software to e-commerce users oFormed a strategic alliance with Open Market Inc to deliver a complete Internet commerce solution oWorking with IBM and Lotus to standardize formats on the websites oShipped more than 55% of goods ordered over internet and offered over full range of logistics solutions to its customers oOnly market 1 brand UPS 6. 2DHL oStrong in logistic and delivery, especially in Europe. o1993 DHL announced a 4 year US$1. 25 billion capital spending programme aimed at investing in handling system, automation, facilities and computer technology. Launched website in 1995 o25% owned by Deutsche Post and 25% owned by Lufthansa Airlines oDominated UK market oProjected an increase in worldwide turnover of 18% to US$5. 26 billion 6. 3TNT oOnly provide express delivery service. oLaunched website in 1998 oLaunched the first global price checker service on its website that allow customers to calculate the price of sending a consignment from one place to another anywhere in the world o1999, TNT launched QuickShipper, nonstop online access to TNT entire range of distribution services SWOT ANALYSIS 7. 1Strengths Innovation and creativity. Strong and well established research and development centre for IT systems to promote more efficient operation. Very advanced â€Å"Global Operation Command Centre† which allows FedEx to prioritise hundreds of variables (eg. world event, weather patterns, and real time movement of its freighter) involved in the successful operation. Excellent reputation in the industry. Own all transportation fleets. Strong business networks in the US. 7. 2Weaknesses Historical image of the company makes customers perceive FedEx as just an express delivery service company. Complex and inefficient organization structure. There are too many part of organization that duplicates each o ther. Entirely reliant on manual labour to a great extent, which can be a prospective weakness in some circumstances Insufficient promotion of the other sectors and fields where FedEx offers its services Disproportionate branching of FedEx subsidiaries thereby increasing the operating costs which can be otherwise be reduced by sharing the resources. . 3Opportunities Government deregulation of airline industry, permitted the landing of larger freight planes, thus reducing operating cost of FedEx Deregulation of the trucking industry, which allowed FedEx to establish a regional trucking system to lower costs further on short haul trips Trade deregulation in Asia Pacific, which opened new market to FedEx, expanding globally became a priority for FedEx Technological breakthroughs and applications innovations promoted significant advances for customer ordering, package tracing and process monitoring. Rising inflation and global competition gave rise to greater pressures on businesses to minimize the costs of operation, including implementation of JIT inventory management system and created demands for speed and accuracy in all aspects of business. 7. 4Threats FedEx advantages were quickly eroding as newer technologies became more powerful, developed faster, and less expensive – more affordable for its competitors. Potential financial crisis due to too much fixed cost, such as aircrafts, vehicles and other heavy equipments. On the lines of blue ocean strategy, CHEP is a possible/prospective threat to FedEx as it explores altogether new approach in the supply chain industry. Rocketing fuel prices which increase the transporting cost to sky-end. 7. 5Positioning of FedEx Figure 2 illustrates position of FedEx in SWOT. Base on the SWOT analysis, even though FedEx has many strong points but its historical brand image has put limit on almost all of its strength. Due to this constraint, it is known only as Express Delivery Company. As a result, FedEx is currently located in weaknesses-opportunities quadrant. If FedEx could widen the perception of its current and potential customers, and fully utilize its own strength to pursue its opportunities, it would be one of the strongest in its industry. 8RECCOMMENDATION 8. 1Corporate level Get slim: FedEx could shrink down its structure by integrating some division of its subsidiaries together to reduce cost and time caused by duplication of works. And by doing so, it would encourage lateral flow of information between each business unit. And as a result, its operations would be more efficient which leads to more flexible profit margin and more customers’ satisfaction. Add pic Acquire CHEP: CHEP is a global leader in pallet and container pooling services. It is not actually a logistics company. It provide and manage, returnable and reusable supply chain packaging solutions (such as pallets and containers) to help customers to store, protect and move their products through the supply chain in a cost-effective, safe and environmentally sound way. By acquiring CHEP, FedEx will benefit from immediate horizontal expansion of its company and also its customer base. Moreover, acquisition of CHEP will also allow FedEx to integrate more into its customers supply chain and hence create strong barrier from its competitors and substitutes. Take serious concern on environment: Due to the fact that the nature of FedEx businesses required extensive amount of transportation activities which results in largely emission of green house gas that create global warming effect. Therefore, in order to get strong support from community and environmental activist such as Greenpeace, FedEx should then come up with the environmental concern vision to make its fleet cleaner and be more environmental friendly. This could be done by modifying its fleet or support or joint-research with any car company or institute to develop an alternative cleaner power source. Moreover it could establish its own manufacturing plant for shipment package and protection (such as cardboard boxes, paper envelope, bubble wrap, shredded paper) by emphasis on recycle of material. 8. 2Business level Promote brand awareness of all FedEx subsidiaries: Now FedEx is struggling with its historic image which narrows customers’ perception to FedEx as only an express delivery company. To deal with this problem, FedEx should promote all of its services by strong marketing campaign. This could be done by advertisements in television, its website, or major video clip website such as Youtube. Alternatively FedEx could collaborate with 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks Picture to create a film, which represent all the of its services, as it was done before in â€Å"Cast Away†, 2000. 8. 3Functional level Developing and training for multi-task oriented employees: In order to successfully shrink down company structure as proposed before in corporate level recommendation, FedEx should develop a training program for its employee to be multi-task oriented. By doing so, FedEx encourage its staffs to be able to work in more than one job. This does not means that FedEx should overworks its staff, but it should be able to rotate its staff around for different roles such that one staff could delivery a package to customers and in the same time pick up another couple of packages which one suppose to be sent by ground and another one by express air. Create strong marketing division FedEx should establish a separate marketing division which in charge in creating strong marketing strategy for all of its subsidiaries. FedEx should allocate some portion of budget from its research and development to its marketing division in order to support strong marketing strategy which is very vital for creating brand awareness for all of its subsidiaries. 8. 4Network level Alliance with companies in IT industry: The research development and advance in IT systems are one of FedEx competency. But with too high budget allocation, this could cause adverse effect to the company. FedEx should make strategic alliance with IT systems company such as IBM or HP in order to reduce their cost of operation. 8. 5Suggested implementation plan Table 1 illustrates implementation plan of suggested recommendation

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Artificial Intelligence Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Artificial Intelligence - Research Paper Example In this scenario, our capacity to merge knowledge from all these areas will eventually promote our progress in the pursuit of making an AI creature (Champandard) and (Russell and Norvig). This paper presents a detailed overview of artificial intelligence. This paper will also discuss various concepts that are associated with artificial intelligence. Background of Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the aspect of computer science which focuses on developing diverse machines that can carry out activities which people can think. Additionally, the idea to build intelligent machines has conspired individuals since earliest times and nowadays with the arrival of the computer technology along with fifty years of comprehensive study into artificial intelligence practices of programming, the vision of elegant and intelligent machines is turning out to be a certainty. ... Moreover, according to various researchers, AI has gone beyond far away from its preliminary derivation. In this scenario, the initial stages of artificial intelligence have gone reverse earlier than electronics field to mathematics as well as thinkers like that Boole and others who have been speculating the principles that were used as the foundation of the logic of artificial intelligence. Historically, the idea of artificial intelligence was first used in 1943 with the creation of the computer machine. More than the next 4 decades, regardless of numerous tentative obstructs; artificial intelligence has developed from several investigators, to thousands of diverse engineers as well as a lot of capacity building experts (ThinkQuest) and (Champandard). Furthermore, artificial intelligence has forever been on the revolutionary side of computer science technology. In this scenario, higher level languages of computer, as well as computer interfaces and word processing owe their continua tion to the study into AI. In addition, the hypothesis and perception produced by artificial intelligence research will put the development in the prospect of computer field. Moreover, a lot of products accessible nowadays are just bits and portions of what are presently to pursue, however they are considered as a progress in the direction of the upcoming era of AI. The developments in the pursuit intended for AI have, and will persist to influence our business processes, lives, education and other fields of life extensively (ThinkQuest) and (Champandard). History of Artificial Intelligence The development of AI myths can be drawn back to early Egypt, however with the creation of the electronic computer during the year 1941; the

Airline Sales Plunge Blame Low Fares Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Airline Sales Plunge Blame Low Fares - Essay Example Unlike the demand curve, the supply is positively related to the price hence the higher the price, the higher the quantity supplied to the market. At market equilibrium, the quantity demanded is equal to the quantity supplied hence there is absence of excess demand or excess supply in the market (Wessels 28). The quantity demanded is determined by several factors which include the income levels of the consumers, the price of the commodity, the price of related commodities, the future expectations of changes in price and the population. The quantity of commodity supplied in the market is determined by the price of the commodity, technology and the prices of inputs of production. The supply is also determined by subsidies and government taxation (Wessels 58). This paper will discuss the airline sales plunge which may have been blamed on the low fares. The paper will examine the effect of the recession on the airline industry. Research questions and methodology The paper will answer the questions on what were the causes of decrease in the quantity demanded of airline tickets. The paper will also answer the question on the effect of the fares charged on the cost or price which was actually paid by passengers. The paper will review articles on the impact of low fares on profitability of Airline industry during the recession. The airline passenger sales revenues declined by 19 percent in September year-to-year which was not attributed to lack of business but the low passenger prices for the fares. The number of passengers who travelled during the period also declined slightly by 2 percent according to the Air transport association while the average price per one mile of flying declined substantially by 18 percent (Smith 2). The scenario can be explained by the low demand in the airline industry. The fees which started to be charged on services which came free initially include the checked baggage fee, pet travel, non-alcoholic drinks and food. The extra fee accumulat ed to $ 1.15 in 2009.bsome of the major carriers like U.S Airways, Delta Airlines and Continental Airlines gained about $ 10 surcharge revenues for holiday travels while maintaining their normal fares. The decline in Airline industry profitability was also affected by the increasing prices of crude oil (Smith 2). The decline in the quantity demanded of the Airline industry fares during the recession can be attributed to the decline in consumer income levels. A reduction in the income levels would lead to reduction in the quantity of goods demanded especially goods which are not basic. The recession led to decrease in the number of tourism travels and other leisure related travel hence the Airline industry had to lower their prices in order to attract and retain customers during the recession. The low fares partly attracted demand since the passenger volumes fell by 2 percent but it negatively affected business profitability since prices of inputs like crude oil increased. The prices of other related transport services like ship transport did not increase hence the airline industry had to lower their prices so as to maintain their customer base (Smith 4). The recession negatively affected the global economic and business environment whereby major multi-national companies scaled down their operations hence the volumes

Auditing2 case analysis Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Auditing2 analysis - Case Study Example Therefore for a business to address this issue, it has to put in place control measures that will reduce the number of risks the business is exposed to. This is not a fool proof measure but rather ways of mitigating the extent of loss in case the business suffers. This paper therefore seeks to identify the inherent risks in the case presented, point out internal control weaknesses, the best sampling techniques to use in testing the reasonableness of the various departments. 1. In the case given, the CFO and CEO worked together in the previous company. There is an inherent risk that they are incompetent in discharging their duties and had to leave the company. This is a risk that HFC needs to be aware of and put in place measures to identify and mitigate any loss that may arise due to their incompetence. The order and shipping department has the potential to incur inherent risk whereby the quality of the goods may not meet the required standards to satisfy customers. Another risk is in credit approval. Currently, once a customer is approved, they remain credit worthy until the cease doing business. The inherent risk here is that the customer may leave a bad and irrecoverable debt to the company. This clearly is a risk that can be mitigated by introducing an internal control policy to do a background check on customers before approval. The company can also set limits to the amount that a customer can be advanced by the business. 2. An internal weakness simply means the possibility of the internal checks to detect or deter any fraudulent activities either willingly or not willingly. There are several weaknesses in the company such as placing orders over the internet and via phone calls. It poses a threat to loss of stock since this is an asset with high liquidity. With the advancement of technology, there is a risk of receiving fake orders coupled with the weak controls in credit approval, and consequently loosing cash in form of stocks.

Artificial Intelligence Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Artificial Intelligence - Research Paper Example In this scenario, our capacity to merge knowledge from all these areas will eventually promote our progress in the pursuit of making an AI creature (Champandard) and (Russell and Norvig). This paper presents a detailed overview of artificial intelligence. This paper will also discuss various concepts that are associated with artificial intelligence. Background of Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the aspect of computer science which focuses on developing diverse machines that can carry out activities which people can think. Additionally, the idea to build intelligent machines has conspired individuals since earliest times and nowadays with the arrival of the computer technology along with fifty years of comprehensive study into artificial intelligence practices of programming, the vision of elegant and intelligent machines is turning out to be a certainty. ... Moreover, according to various researchers, AI has gone beyond far away from its preliminary derivation. In this scenario, the initial stages of artificial intelligence have gone reverse earlier than electronics field to mathematics as well as thinkers like that Boole and others who have been speculating the principles that were used as the foundation of the logic of artificial intelligence. Historically, the idea of artificial intelligence was first used in 1943 with the creation of the computer machine. More than the next 4 decades, regardless of numerous tentative obstructs; artificial intelligence has developed from several investigators, to thousands of diverse engineers as well as a lot of capacity building experts (ThinkQuest) and (Champandard). Furthermore, artificial intelligence has forever been on the revolutionary side of computer science technology. In this scenario, higher level languages of computer, as well as computer interfaces and word processing owe their continua tion to the study into AI. In addition, the hypothesis and perception produced by artificial intelligence research will put the development in the prospect of computer field. Moreover, a lot of products accessible nowadays are just bits and portions of what are presently to pursue, however they are considered as a progress in the direction of the upcoming era of AI. The developments in the pursuit intended for AI have, and will persist to influence our business processes, lives, education and other fields of life extensively (ThinkQuest) and (Champandard). History of Artificial Intelligence The development of AI myths can be drawn back to early Egypt, however with the creation of the electronic computer during the year 1941; the

Auditing2 case analysis Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Auditing2 analysis - Case Study Example Therefore for a business to address this issue, it has to put in place control measures that will reduce the number of risks the business is exposed to. This is not a fool proof measure but rather ways of mitigating the extent of loss in case the business suffers. This paper therefore seeks to identify the inherent risks in the case presented, point out internal control weaknesses, the best sampling techniques to use in testing the reasonableness of the various departments. 1. In the case given, the CFO and CEO worked together in the previous company. There is an inherent risk that they are incompetent in discharging their duties and had to leave the company. This is a risk that HFC needs to be aware of and put in place measures to identify and mitigate any loss that may arise due to their incompetence. The order and shipping department has the potential to incur inherent risk whereby the quality of the goods may not meet the required standards to satisfy customers. Another risk is in credit approval. Currently, once a customer is approved, they remain credit worthy until the cease doing business. The inherent risk here is that the customer may leave a bad and irrecoverable debt to the company. This clearly is a risk that can be mitigated by introducing an internal control policy to do a background check on customers before approval. The company can also set limits to the amount that a customer can be advanced by the business. 2. An internal weakness simply means the possibility of the internal checks to detect or deter any fraudulent activities either willingly or not willingly. There are several weaknesses in the company such as placing orders over the internet and via phone calls. It poses a threat to loss of stock since this is an asset with high liquidity. With the advancement of technology, there is a risk of receiving fake orders coupled with the weak controls in credit approval, and consequently loosing cash in form of stocks.

The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished Essay Example for Free

The Death Penalty Should Be Abolished Essay The death penalty should be abolished as a form of punishment. This paper intends to shine some light on the death penalty in order to help the reader understand what issues face the system today and what problems can be corrected. This paper achieves this by: (1) pointing out the wrongful sentencing of innocent people and the use of DNA testing in attaining their freedom; (2) emphasizing the unjustness of the Capital Punishment system due to the arbitrary, racial and geographically biased nature of the process; And also (3) It shows that the evidence backing up deterrence as a major benefit of the death penalty is exaggerated and unsubstantiated. With a specific look at how â€Å"future dangerousness† plays a part in keeping the death penalty around and how to change that. Last it will look at the rising costs associated with Capital Punishment. The death penalty risks too many innocent lives. DNA testing is currently the single greatest savior of unjustly sentenced death row inmates. It aided in the exoneration of 133 prisoners between 1973 and 2009. (Schmalleger, 2011) But up until the 1960s DNA exoneration by science wasn’t even thought up. This leads us to wonder how many death row inmates are actually innocent today. In most cases, there is no DNA evidence left behind leaving only the account of eyewitnesses to validate the crime. The only issue with that is witnesses have been wrong before. One notable death row case involving an eyewitness’s misconception was DeLuna v. Texas 1983. Carlos DeLuna was wrongfully executed for killing a single mother at his local gas station even after the real killer, who bear a striking resemblance to DeLuna, was captured and placed in a cell underneath his own. The person who helped unwind this web of DeLuna is the notable Columbia law professor James Liebman. In 2001 one of Liebman’s study revealed an error rate of 68% in Capital cases.(William W Berry, 2010) the extinguishing of an innocent human beings life is an irrevocable mistake that could be avoided with a sentence of Life without the Possibility of Parole (LWOP). Imbalanced justice system Part of the definition of Justice is â€Å"fairness or reasonableness, especially in the way people are treated or decisions are made† when you relate this to the death penalty you are presented with many divergence’s to that same logic. The following are a few examples of how the death penalty is unfair to certain groups: first the system is arbitrary in nature. The rich are able the attain some of the best defense attorneys in order to greatly increase their chance of avoiding the death penalty, while the poor must receive state appointed counsel. What makes matters worse is the lack of skilled counsel willing to work on Capital Punishment leads to a continued rise in the backlog of unrepresented sentenced prisoners. (Gray, 2011) The second example of unfairness results from geographic location. In some states, a felony murder is a Capital crime, Maryland is one. While other states, like New Jersey, need aggravating circumstances before the death penalty is given. Also, between the years of 1976 and 2004 more than 700 executions took place. 82% were a product of these ten states: (AL, AR, FL, GA, LA, MO, OK, SC, TX and VA) With Texas and Virginia accounting for half of these nationwide executions. (American Civil Liberties Union, 2002) There are no significant data showing a higher rate of violent crime in those states. So I must infer that, on a nationwide level, the Capital Punishment is unjust or at the very least unbalanced. The third unjustness of the Capital Punishment system stems from its racial disparities. Bias manifests itself in two ways. One, the even though â€Å"Latinos are the largest ethnic minority group in the United States† they still only comprise between 8% and 13% of defendants on death row in the 1990s. (Baik, 2012) now compare that to African Americans who, in the same time period, represented nearly 40% of all death row inmates in the US.(Greenfield, 1991) one case that highlights all three examples of unfairne ss in the Criminal justice system can be found in the 1972 trial of Furman v. Georgia. This was a case of a poor, black, man from a southern state that was prone to issuing the death penalty. The outcome of this trial was a de facto moratorium between 1967 and 1977 where no executions were conducted in the United’s states during this time (Schmalleger, 2011). Deterrence is exaggerated and also obtainable through other ways. There are two possible ways to examine deterrence. First, it can  be viewed the same way that most people understand it by; the Punishment of one criminal will deter multiple others from committing similar gruesome acts. This view has been brought up in a couple of study’s: the 2001 study by Hashem Dezhbakhsh and Paul Rubin at Emory University who concluded that on average one single execution results in 18 fewer murders; an earlier study was conducted by Viscusi in 1993 which pegged the average deterrence at 14. Most of the fundamental testing and deterrence hypotheses used leading up to the present were produced by Isaac Erlich between 1975 and 1977. (Erlich 1975) although a valiant attempt to survey something as complex as this topic, most of these types of data analysis are proven false due to factors such as, failure to include states that do not carry a death penalty; and that some studies have just been methodologically flawed. I would have to agree with the late US Supreme court justice Thurgood Marshall, LLB who said it best at the 1972 trial of Furman v. Georgia, â€Å"Despite the fact that abolitionists have not proved non-deterrence beyond a reasonable doubt, they have succeeded in showing by clear and convincing evidence that Capital Punishment is not necessary as a deterrent to crime in our society.† inconclusive studies and overall popular dismissal, have resulted in arguments in favor of these types of studies to start decreasing over time. As Federal prosecutor Donald Heller put it, â€Å"When someone kills, theyre thinking of satisfying whatever [made them] decide to kill. They never think about the ultimate Punishment.† (Heller, 2011) Second, deterrence, also called incapacitation, can be viewed as a permanent solution to the issue of â€Å"Future dangerousness†, which is, â€Å"the threat an offender will be likely to pose in the future.†(William W Berry, 2010). In William berry’s report, he goes on to say that future dangerousness is the strongest determinant of whether an individual receives the death penalty. This is harmful because studies show that juries tend to over-predict the presence of future dangerousness. In addition, â€Å"between 21% and 32% of jurors stated that their deliberations focused on the issue of future dangerousness extensively even when the prosecution failed to raise the issue.†(William W Berry, 2010) In fact, even practicing physicians have a very low probability of predicting future dangerous so it’s hard to see how a jury can do it accurately. This view of deterrence as in regards to Future dangerousness, compared with the first, has a more tangible way of  proving right or wrong. For instance, in the ring v. Arizona trial, Justice Breyer shared the following reasons why incapacitation could not justify the use of Capital Punishment: â€Å"Few offenders sentenced to life without parole (as an alternative to death) commit further crimes†. She also goes on to cite two studies proving her point; (1) â€Å"studies find average repeat murder rate of .002% among murderers whose death sentences were commuted; † and (2) â€Å"of the Furman-Commuted Inmates: 98% did not kill again either in prison or in free society.† (William W Berry, 2010) The fact that very little criminals that have been released from death row actually kill again, coupled with the poss ible replacement with the less controversial Life without the possibility of parole(LWOP), can make for a great rational for the abolishment of Capital Punishment. The rising cost of Capital Punishment. The cost of placing one person through the Capital Punishment system in some states like California can be as high as 100 Million Dollars. That same person could have been placed in a regular cell for 40 years and the state would still come out ahead. (schmalleger, 2011) Also in some states where the death penalty is not in use the state are still paying millions of dollars In taxes towards the death penalty. With the rising cost of prisons due to overcrowding and lack of funding, it may be only a matter of time before the death penalty becomes too expensive to implement. It would pay dividends to the local law enforcement, community based reform programs, and the economy as a whole if we abolish the death penalty and adopt the sentence of LWOP in its place. Conclusion To progress as a civilized nation and fully comply with international human rights laws. We need to stop murdering our civilians. Even if there was a way to eliminate all risk of erroneous executions of innocent people, we would still be committing murder by executing the criminal. The government takes the responsibility of these deaths away from the executioner and the physicians, but the government is just the culmination of the will of the people, so in turn, we the people are murdering our neighbors if we let this continue. Also, the system is terribly imbalanced. A majority of the nation’s death sentences come from a handful of counties. In turn, someone could commit the exact same type of murder on opposite sides of a state’s  borders, and one will receive the death penalty while the other will be free in about 40 years. There is also a high level of racial disparity amongst the death penalty. A person is more likely to receive the death penalty if they murder a white man, as opposed to a black man. Also, we covered deterrence and future dangerousness. The outcome found no weight in studies showing some decrease in crime resulting from the implementation of Capital Punishment. Furthermore, future dangerousness should be completely taken out of the equation because of the implementation of LWOP mixed with solitary confinement addresses that concern. Finally, the issue of cost is addressed. Cost should never be a deciding factor in whether someone lives or dies, but in our current troubled economy, the death penalty may enter the chopping block in due to the high costs associated with it. I would much rather see it being abolished all together than to see someone’s trial get improper handling due to cutting previously slim corners. Bibliography Baik, E. (2012). Gender, Religion and National Origin: Latinos’ Attitude toward Capital Punishment. Journal of Social Sciences (15493652), 8(1), 79-84. Science Publications. Retrieved from http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=truedb=a9hAN=74485107site=eds-live Ehrlich, I. (1975), â€Å"The Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment: A Question of Life and Death,† American Economic Review 65: 468-474. GavrilÃ… ¡, A. N. (2011). SHOULD THE DEATH PENALTY BE ABOLISHED? ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE CENTURIES-OLD PUNISHMENT. Journal for Communication Culture, 2(2), 82-98. Institute for Communication Culture. Retrieved from http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=truedb=ufhAN=68630937site=eds-live Gray, J. P. (2011). ESSAY: FACING FACTS ON THE DEATH PENALTY. Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, 44(3), S255-S264. Loyola of Los Angeles School of Law. Retrieved from http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=truedb=a9hAN=67352324site=eds-live Greenfield, L. A. (1991). Capital Punishment 1990, 15. Retrieved from http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=131648 Hayes-Harb, R., Masuda, K. (2008). Development of the Ability to Lexically Encode Novel Second Language Phonemic Contrasts. Second Language Research, 24(5), 5-33. DOI: 10.1177/0267658307082980. Heller, D. (2011, July 06). NEW VOICES: Author of Californias Expanded Death Penalty Law Now Supports Repeal. Retrieved from Death Penalty Information Center: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-voices-author-californias-expanded-death-penalty-law-now-supports-repeal Roko, E. (2010). FINALITY, HABEAS, INNOCENCE, AND THE DEATH PENALTY: CAN JUSTICE BE DONE? Washington Law Review, 85(1), 107-129. Washington Law Review. Retrieved from http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=truedb=a9hAN=48871624site=eds-live Schmalleger, F. (2011). Criminal Justice Today. Upper saddle river: prenice hall. William W Berry, I. (2010). Ending Death by Dangerousness A Path to the De Facto Abolition of the Death Penalty. Arizona Law Review, 52, 889. Copyright (c) 2010 Arizona Board of Regents. Retrieved from http://vlib.excelsior.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=truedb=edslexAN=edslexF5E3C687site=eds-live Viscusi, W.K. (1993), â€Å"The Value of Risks to Life and Health,† Journal of Economic Literature 31: 1912-1946. Weber, A., Cutler, A. (2004). Lexical competition in non-native spoken-word recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 50, 1-25. DOI: 10.1016/S0749-596X(03)00105-0. Furman v. Georgia 408 U.S. 238 (1972).