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Surrogates Movie Review

2011-03-13T09:12:00.000-07:00

The concept of the movie is fascinating. It illustrates the lives of people with robots as their surrogates. In a not so distant future, human used mind control robots to go on with their daily lives while they are sitting in a remote control chair at home. The robot or the surrogate goes to work, shop at malls, goes to school and everything that humans normally do. Because of the surrogates, crime are minimal until one day, a couple is gunned down in an alley and frying the brains of their users back at home. One of the victims is the son of the inventor of surrogates who is out of the company he founded. The FBI investigator named Greer hunts for the killer and led him to the edge of an anti-surrogates society.

It is difficult to identify the user of each surrogate for one can control several surrogates. At the end of the movie, Greer found out that the person behind all the killings is Canter, the inventor of surrogates. The movie was interesting but there are some blunt scenes. The movie itself, make us realize the effect of relying too much on technology specifically on robots. There is always a possibility that technology will over power humans if we keep on relying on them that will all make us worthless.

Eagle Eye Movie Review

2011-03-13T09:06:00.000-07:00

The movie was all about an unfortunate nobody who is caught in a complicated situation, leaving him no choice but to follow in order to save his life, his name was Jerry Shaw. Together with him was a mother named Rachel. Out of nowhere, someone is calling them, instructing on an unknown mission for an unknown intent. The caller controls everything, their cell phones, their escape from the NBI, and seemingly every technology on earth. At first, they are hesitate to follow orders from the caller but they have no choice because their lives and Rachel’s son is in danger.

At the last third of the movie, the twist started. Jerry and Rachel separate ways, Rachel tried to execute Jerry as what the caller instructed in change of her son’s safety, while Jerry ended up as a hero who save the lives of people specially the president. The movie was really great; it is truly a blockbuster thriller. It shows what technology can do if it is out of control, it can manipulate people and even kill human beings.

Pirates of Silicon Valley Movie Review

2011-03-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

It exposed the history and growth of personal computer industry. This movie is between Steve Jobs for Apple and Bill Gates for Microsoft, it illustrates the hardships and milestones of the two prominent companies in order to gain what they have today. The story started with IBM at the early 1980’s. The apple company which is founded by Steve Jobs and his friend ‘Waz’ started doing computers in a garage and reap the idea of graphical user interface from Xerox, a company who developed mouse and standard interface styles that we know today. Xerox let apple look everything they had and naturally, Apple stole everything they could.

On the other hand, Bill Gates formed his company called Microsoft who makes software like operating systems. IBM and Microsoft agreed that the new operating system called DOS will be used in all IBM machines, with this started the Microsoft dynasty. Apple and Microsoft became great rivals on the industry. The movie represents how technology evolves between friendships, Gates and Jobs who are friends became rivals because of their ambitions for their companies. But besides all of this, we should be still grateful for their inventions which we enjoy today.

I-Robot Movie Review

2011-03-13T08:14:00.000-07:00

Human seek for convenient, comfortable and easy life. People invent and discover new technologies to make work fast and upgrade our way of living. Machines and robots are some of these inventions, which are a great help in our day to day lives.

The movie was all about the interaction of humans and robots living on the same world. The story started in the year 2035 where is the time of ‘robotophobic’, which means era of robots. In this time, robots are assistants and workers of humans. Robots follow the orders of humans and they work for their human owner. To live together with no harm, there are these 3 laws that robots need to follow and these are the following: first, they cannot harm a human. Two, they must follow whatever they are told by a human being as long as it doesn’t affect law one. And third, they have to defend their selves as long as it doesn’t affect law 1 and 2. Because of an incident, the suicide of Dr. Alfred Lanning, Detective Del Spooner and his friends discovered that there is a killer behind this, and it is VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence).

Robots under VIKI started to harm humans and have a plan to dominate the world but through the help of a robot named Sonny, Spooner stopped the mad robots and brought back to their old program. In this movie, humans relied so much on robots that they haven’t expected that these would go against them. It is not bad to explore new technologies and use them for convenience but too much relying would also harm all the human beings as well.

Wall-E Movie Review

2011-03-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

The movie was all about a load lifter robot that was made by the Buy-N-Large Corporation. His name is WALL-E, short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class. Its job is to compress all the tons of trash that are caused by human consumption. Wall- e is so dedicated with his job that all his time is spent to it. The non-stop disposal of humans made the earth a place full of garbage and they rely too much on machines that does everything for them even the simplest work.

As a result, humans became fat and can’t able to walk while busy sitting and do virtual things. On the other hand, wall-e as garbage cleaner realized after a long time of doing what he was built for finally discovers what he meant for. Everything changes when he met the love of his life, EVE, a female egg-shaped robot that caught his heart and caused new insights for wall-e.

The movie was fantastic knowing that it extends its real essence to the audience even in the first part, dialogues are minimal. It portrays the effect on continuous dependency of humans on machine. It wants us to realize that technology is a great benefit for all mankind but too much relying on it would make us all worthless.

Assignment #9

2009-10-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

Identify an information environment of your choice and write an essay to address the following questions: (3000 words)• What should be your role within this environment?

• How can the principles of information organization and representation help you in performing this role?

• What are the challenges facing you in performing the role? How will you address these challenges?

Technology today is quickly evolving. The things that we don’t know will be known easily through the Internet and it is because of technology. In this assignment, my task is to identify an information environment of my choice and state my role as a student in this environment. In addition, I should be able to explain how the principles of information organization and representation help me in performing my role. Lastly, I will be able to know the challenges that I’m facing in performing the role and how I will address to these challenges, but before anything else, what is an Information Environment?

Information Environment is the aggregate of individuals, organizations, or systems that collect, process, or disseminate information; also included is the information itself. It helps people to access to electronic resources, new environments for learning, teaching and research, guidance on institutional change, and provide advisory and consultancy services.

There is now a critical mass of digital information resources that can be used to support researchers, learners, teachers and administrators in their work and study. The production of information is on the increase and ways to deal with this effectively are required. There is the need to ensure that quality information isn’t lost amongst the masses of digital data created everyday. If we can continue to improve the management, interrogation and serving of ‘quality’ information there is huge potential to enhance knowledge creation across learning and research communities. The aim of the Information Environment is to help provide convenient access to resources for research and learning through the use of resource discovery and resource management tools and the development of better services and practice. The Information Environment aims to allow discovery, access and use of resources for research and learning irrespective of their location.

The Information Environment that I have chosen is The Meta Information Environment of Digital Libraries. The meta-information environment of a library is the aspect of library structure that is likely to be most affected by Digital Library technology. It is important to design meta-information environments for Digital Libraries that simultaneously compensate for the loss of many of the services of librarians and take advantage of the ability to apply digital processing to information objects in the collection of Digital Libraries.

Meta-Information Environment of Digital Libraries

Libraries are organized to facilitate access to controlled collections of information. Traditional libraries (TL's) possess three organizational characteristics that, together, provide a basis for such access. These are the organization of information into physical information objects (IO's) such as books; the physical organization of the collections of IO's according to various attributes, such as subject matter and author; an organized information environment that facilitates direct access to the IO's based on such attributes as author, title, and subject matter, as well as a limited degree of indirect access to the information contained in the IO's.

This last characteristic of a TL typically involves multiple sources of information to support access, such as librarians, catalogs, and the manner in which the collections are organized physically. Since it involves information about information, we term this characteristic the meta-information environment of a library.

As currently conceived, digital libraries (DL's) are libraries in which the controlled collections are in digital form and access to the information in the collections is based almost entirely on digital technology. From a user's point of view, digital technology changes the three organizational characteristics of TL's. First, the organization of information into physical IO's is replaceable with a more flexible organization into logical IO's. Second, the single physical organization of a collection of IO's is replaceable with multiple logical organizations of IO's.

The third and most significant changes, however, occur in the meta-information environment of a library. In terms of advantages, having the IO's in digital form permits the use of digital technology in extracting information from the IO's. The extracted information may satisfy a user's ultimate need for information or it may be employed by “digital librarians'' in characterizing the IO's in the collection. In the latter case, this meta-information may be employed in providing access to the information encoded in the IO's. In terms of disadvantages, important interactions between librarians and users that occur in the meta-information environments of TL's may be lost with the near-automation of information access in DL's.

The term ``metadata'' has been applied in a large variety of contexts. For example, the topics of papers at a recent conference on metadata ranged from metadata in data dictionaries and its use in controlling the operations of database management systems; to metadata used for describing scientific datasets and supporting data sharing among scientists; to metadata used in DL's to support user access to information.

The concept of metadata, when applied in the context of current libraries, digital or traditional, typically refers to information that provides a (usually brief) characterization of the individual IO's in the collections of a library; is stored principally as the contents of library catalogs in TL's; is used principally in aiding users to access IO's of interest.

As an example of its use in the context of TL's, the term ``metadata'' is sometimes used to describe the descriptive cataloging that is specified by the Anglo-American cataloging rules and the MARC interchange format. Such information constitutes a major component of the cataloging information in most TL's. As an example of its use in the context of DL's, the term ``metadata'' has been used to describe the information of the ``Dublin Core'' and the associated ``Warwick Framework'' which is intended to support access to information on the World Wide Web. The Core specifies the concrete syntax for a small set of meta-information elements, and the Framework specifies a container architecture for aggregating additional metadata objects for interchange.

More generally, however, if one surveys the many contexts in which it has been applied, it becomes apparent that the concept associated with the term ``metadata'' is the principal focus of an emerging area of the information sciences whose goal is to discover appropriate methods for the modeling of various classes of IO's. Since a model of an IO is itself typically an IO, and since the concept that is generally associated with the term ``data'' is subsumed by the concept associated with the term ``information object'', it seems preferable to use the term ``meta-information'' and to define it as a model of an information object.

A Scenario for the Use of the Meta-information Environment in a Traditional Library

For the sake of concreteness, let us assume a user whose interest is in finding information on condor re-introduction programs in California. In order to access such information in a TL, the user may engage in a variety of activities. The four most important activities include consulting a librarian; consulting available catalog and reference materials; browsing through the open collections of the library; and processing the information that has been accessed.

Let us assume that the user begins a search by consulting a librarian, and indicates an initial interest in discovering whether programs for re-introducing condors from captive breeding populations have been a success. Several important processes may co-occur during these interactions. First, the librarian may build a ``cognitive model'' of the user that is employed in helping the user. As an example, the librarian may note the user's level of knowledge about the use of a library, and discover that the user does not understand the value of subject heading catalogs in searching for references to information on the decline of the condors.

Second, the librarian may build a cognitive model of the user's information requirements, or ``query'', typically in an iterative process during which the user may change the initial query. The librarian may discover, for example, that the user would like to know the locations of the release sites in order to visit them. Third, and depending on the context of the query, the librarian may also construct a model of the user's information processing requirements. In terms of our example, these might include estimating the time to hike to the release sites.

In conjunction with these emerging models of the user's knowledge base and information needs, the librarian employs a cognitive model of the library's information resources to determine an appropriate set of actions that will lead to the satisfaction of the user's information needs. Three classes of activities are worthy of note. First, the librarian may direct the user to meta-information, such as the subject catalog, that points directly to IO's of interest. Second, the librarian may guide the user to ``general'' meta-information that can be used in a less direct manner in finding IO's of interest. For example, the user may be directed to a gazetteer in order to find the geographical coordinates of the release sites, whose names the librarian may happen to know. These coordinates may then be used in accessing the appropriate maps from the library's map collection. Third, the librarian may suggest that the user browse in the ornithology section of the library to look for books that may be relevant to the topic of condors. In so doing, the user may assess meta-information in the form of titles and tables of contents.

Before leaving the library, the user may employ the relevant maps to estimate the time it would take to hike to the condor release areas.

A Characterization of the Meta-information Environment of a Traditional Library

The preceding example, which is by no means artificial, emphasizes the fact that the meta-information accessed by users of TL's in satisfying their information needs is not restricted to the meta-information in the author, title, and subject catalogs. In particular, the scenario was devised to emphasize that, during search, a user may conceivably employ as meta-information almost all the information sources in a library. Such sources range from the librarian's general knowledge of the world to information encoded in the IO's on the stacks.

An analysis of the preceding and similar usage scenarios suggests that one may further characterize the meta-information environment of a library in terms of a simple model involving sets of services for
coordinating user interactions with the meta-information environment, exemplified in the above scenario in terms of the user's interactions with the librarian; constructing models of the user, the user's query, and the user's workspace requirements, exemplified in our scenario by interactions with the librarian; providing access to models of IO's, exemplified in our scenario by use of the subject catalog and browsing among the stacks; making matches between the model of user queries and models of IO's, exemplified in our scenario in part by actions of the librarian and in part by actions of the user in relation to such library resources as the subject catalog; extracting information from retrieved IO's, exemplified in our scenario by the computation from the maps of the time it would take the user to hike to the release sites. creating models of IO's which, although an important service of the meta-information environment of libraries, is not exemplified in the preceding scenario.
The scenario emphasizes the key role played by librarians in providing services in the meta-information environment of many TL's.

Knowledge Representation Systems in the Meta- information Environments of Libraries

In order to analyze further the manner in which the preceding sets of services provide support for user access to information, it is useful to introduce the concept of knowledge representation systems (KRS's). We argue that an important component of the functionality of the six sets of meta-information services in TL's is provided by a diverse set of KRS's. This conceptualization in terms of KRS's provides a useful theoretical framework for the design and analysis of DL's.
A KRS may be defined as a system for representing and reasoning about the knowledge in some domain of discourse, and is generally comprised of: an underlying knowledge representation language (KRL), whose expressions are intended to represent knowledge about some domain of discourse;
a semantics that gives meaning to the expressions of the KRL in terms of the domain of discourse;
a set of reasoning rules that may be employed in inferring further useful expressions from a given set of expressions; a body of knowledge about the domain of discourse expressed in terms of the KRL.
Concepts similar to the concept of a KRS that have been used by other researchers in relation to meta-information include formal systems with interpretations and semi-formal systems.

In general, we may view the KRS's of a library as providing a diverse set of services that are of particular value in the modeling of both IO's and user queries. They are, for example, of particular significance in supporting the modeling of IO's in terms of their content, since, in principle, the content of library materials may refer to any representable aspect of our knowledge.
In order to gain further insight into the nature and significance of KRS's, we provide examples of their use in supporting key sets of services in the meta-information environments of TL's.

KRS supporting the User Query and IO Modeling Services
Thesauri are an important class of KRS's that are employed in constructing models of the subject matter (or ``content'') of IO's for the catalog systems of TL's. The motivation for the use of thesauri is the difficulties that arise from using a KRS based on natural language (NL) in this context. These difficulties arise from the syntactic and semantic complexity and the high levels of ambiguity that are typically associated with general expressions in NL. The KRL of a thesaurus, on the other hand, is designed to possess a restricted syntax and semantics that permits the representation of restricted domains of discourse in an unambiguous manner. These restrictions result in the construction of many domain-specific thesauri, which in essence represents a ``divide-and-conquer'' approach to building unambiguous representations of a complex world.

For the present purpose, we may use a highly-simplified view of a thesaurus that is abstracted from the ANSI-NISO standard for thesauri.

The KRL of a thesaurus may be viewed as specifying the terms of a simple language and a few relations (or predicates) defined on the terms. These predicates include the three ``broad term/narrow-term'' predicates, the ``related term'' predicate, and the ``synonymous term'' predicate.

In relation to the semantics associated with its KRL, a term defined in a thesaurus is intended to denote a single concept. Typically, terms represent classes of entities, although class instances are permitted. Ambiguity arising from synonymous and homonymous terms is effectively removed. The mapping from terms to concepts is provided informally by the cognitive processing of the reader of the terms.

With respect to reasoning procedures, the use of the basic inference rules of logic (such as ``if A and A implies B are both true, then B is true"), together with axioms involving the various predicates (such as ``if A is a narrow term for B, and B is a narrow term for C, then A is a narrow term for C''), it is possible to carry out simple reasoning that is interpretable in terms of the concepts being represented in the KRL.

In terms of viewing a thesaurus as representing a body of knowledge about some aspect of the world, the terms and predicates of a thesaurus represent a set of concepts and their relations that model some aspect of the world.

Large numbers of thesauri are currently employed in library contexts. The representation of the content of IO's is typically achieved by choosing a relatively small number of terms from some domain-specific thesaurus.

Another important research issue concerns the construction of semantic mappings between the KRL's of different KRS's. It is possible to employ different sets of KRS's for modeling user queries and for modeling IO's. There is therefore a need for translation during the application of matching services. One approach to constructing such mappings involves the use of human experts working in a top-down manner, which is likely to be a time-consuming and controversial process. An approach that is promising in terms of automation involves bottom-up techniques based on empirical analyses of the use of language.

As a student, I do research most of the time. Through digital library, I don’t need to go to the library, refer to the card catalog and find the book to get the information that I need. I will just simply refer to the digital libraries over the Internet. It is my responsibility to use this technology advantage well for better, but still don’t forget to give credits and importance to traditional library and its ways.

Assignment #8

2009-10-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

What is outsourcing? What is in-source? Which is better outsource or in-source? Before anything else and before I state my stand on this topic, let us be acquainted with outsource and in-source, and what are their advantages and disadvantages.

Outsourcing is an arrangement in which one company provides services for another company that could also be or usually have been provided in-house. Outsourcing is a trend that is becoming more common in information technology and other industries for services that have usually been regarded as intrinsic to managing a business. In some cases, the entire information management of a company is outsourced, including planning and business analysis as well as the installation, management, and servicing of the network and workstations.

Outsourcing can range from the large contract in which a company like IBM manages IT services for a company like Xerox to the practice of hiring contractors and temporary office workers on an individual basis.

Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider. The client organization and the supplier enter into a contractual agreement that defines the transferred services. Under the agreement the supplier acquires the means of production in the form of a transfer of people, assets and other resources from the client. The client agrees to procure the services from the supplier for the term of the contract. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities, real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions like telemarketing, CAD drafting, customer service, market research, manufacturing, designing, web development, print-to-mail, content writing, ghostwriting and engineering. Offshoring is the type of outsourcing in which the buyer organization belongs to another country.

Outsourcing and offshoring are used interchangeably in public discourse despite important technical differences. Outsourcing involves contracting with a supplier, which may or may not involve some degree of offshoring. Offshoring is the transfer of an organizational function to another country, regardless of whether the work is outsourced or stays within the same corporation/company.

Multisourcing refers to large outsourcing agreements. Multisourcing is a framework to enable different parts of the client business to be sourced from different suppliers. This requires a governance model that communicates strategy, clearly defines responsibility and has end-to-end integration.

Strategic outsourcing is the organizing arrangement that emerges when firms rely on intermediate markets to provide specialized capabilities that supplement existing capabilities deployed along a firm’s value chain. Such an arrangement produces value within firms’ supply chains beyond those benefits achieved through cost economies. Intermediate markets that provide specialized capabilities emerge as different industry conditions intensify the partitioning of production. As a result of greater information standardization and simplified coordination, clear administrative demarcations emerge along a value chain.

Due to the complexity of work definition, codifying requirements, pricing, and legal terms and conditions, clients often utilize the advisory services of outsourcing consultants or outsourcing intermediaries to assist in scoping, decision making, and vendor evaluation.

The competitive pressures on firms to bring out new products at an ever rapid pace to meet market needs are increasing. As such, the pressures on the R&D department are increasing. In order to alleviate the pressure, firms have to either increase R&D budgets or find ways to utilize the resources in a more productive way. There are situations when a firm may consider outsourcing some of its R&D work to a contract research organizations or universities.

Reasons why a firm could consider outsourcing are:
-new product design does not work
-project time and cost overruns
-loss of key staff
-competitive response
-problems of quality/yield.

Here are some reasons why companies prefer outsourcing:

Cost savings. The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.

Focus on Core Business. Resources are focused on developing the core business. For example often organizations outsource their IT support to specilaised IT services companies.

Cost restructuring. Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from fixed to variable cost and also by making variable costs more predictable.

Improve quality. Achieve a step change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement.

Knowledge. Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.

Contract. Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.

Operational expertise. Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.

Access to talent. Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in science and engineering.

Capacity management. An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier.

Enhance capacity for innovation. Companies increasingly use external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for product innovation.

Reduce time to market. The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.

Commodification. The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services and application services enabling businesses to intelligently buy at the right price. Allows a wide range of businesses access to services previously only available to large corporations.

Risk management. An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.

When done for the right reasons, outsourcing will actually help your company grow and save money. There are other advantages of outsourcing that go beyond money and here are some of them:

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.

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.

Reduced Overhead. Overhead costs of performing a particular back-office function are extremely high. Consider outsourcing those functions which can be moved easily.

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.

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.

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.

Along with its advantages are the disadvantages and criticism of the public about outsourcing. Here are some of them.

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.

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.

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.

Quality Risk is the propensity for a product or service to be defective, due to operations-related issues. Quality risk in outsourcing is driven by a list of factors. One such factor is opportunism by suppliers due to misaligned incentives between buyer and supplier, information asymmetry, high asset specificity, or high supplier switching costs. Other factors contributing to quality risk in outsourcing are poor buyer-supplier communication, lack of supplier capabilities/resources/capacity, or buyer-supplier contract enforceability. Two main concepts must be considered when considering observability as it related to quality risks in outsourcing: the concepts of testability and criticality.

There is a strong public opinion regarding outsourcing (especially when combined with offshoring) that outsourcing damages a local labor market. Outsourcing is the transfer of the delivery of services which affects both jobs and individuals. It is difficult to dispute that outsourcing has a detrimental effect on individuals who face job disruption and employment insecurity; however, its supporters believe that outsourcing should bring down prices, providing greater economic benefit to all.

In the area of call centers end-user-experience is deemed to be of lower quality when a service is outsourced. This is exacerbated when outsourcing is combined with off-shoring to regions where the first language and culture are different. The questionable quality is particularly evident when call centers that service the public are outsourced and offshored.

Outsourcing sends jobs to the lower-income areas where work is being outsourced to, which provides jobs in these areas and has a net equalizing effect on the overall distribution of wealth. Some argue that the outsourcing of jobs (particularly off-shore) exploits the lower paid workers. A contrary view is that more people are employed and benefit from paid work. Despite this argument, domestic workers displaced by such equalization are proportionately unable to outsource their own costs of housing, food and transportation.

On the issue of high-skilled labor, such as computer programming, some argue that it is unfair to both the local and off-shore programmers to outsource the work simply because the foreign pay rate is lower. On the other hand, one can argue that paying the higher-rate for local programmers is wasteful, or charity, or simply overpayment. If the end goal of buyers is to pay less for what they buy, and for sellers it is to get a higher price for what they sell, there is nothing automatically unethical about choosing the cheaper of two products, services, or employees.

Social responsibility is also reflected in the costs of benefits provided to workers. Companies outsourcing jobs effectively transfer the cost of retirement and medical benefits to the countries where the services are outsourced. This represents a significant reduction in total cost of labor for the outsourcing company. A side effect of this trend is the reduction in salaries and benefits at home in the occupations most directly impacted by outsourcing.

Quality of service
Quality of service is measured through a service level agreement (SLA) in the outsourcing contract. In poorly defined contracts there is no measure of quality or SLA defined. Even when an SLA exists it may not be to the same level as previously enjoyed. This may be due to the process of implementing proper objective measurement and reporting which is being done for the first time. It may also be lower quality through design to match the lower price.

There are a number of stakeholders who are affected and there is no single view of quality. The CEO may view the lower quality acceptable to meet the business needs at the right price. The retained management team may view quality as slipping compared to what they previously achieved. The end consumer of the service may also receive a change in service that is within agreed SLAs but is still perceived as inadequate. The supplier may view quality in purely meeting the defined SLAs regardless of perception or ability to do better.

Quality in terms of end-user-experience is best measured through customer satisfaction questionnaires which are professionally designed to capture an unbiased view of quality. Surveys can be one of research. This allows quality to be tracked over time and also for corrective action to be identified and taken.

Staff turnover
The staff turnover of employee who originally transferred to the outsourcer is a concern for many companies. Turnover is higher under an outsourcer and key company skills may be lost with retention outside of the control of the company.
In outsourcing offshore there is an issue of staff turnover in the outsourcer companies call centers. It is quite normal for such companies to replace its entire workforce each year in a call center. This inhibits the build-up of employee knowledge and keeps quality at a low level.

Company knowledge
Outsourcing could lead to communication problems with transferred employees. For example, before transfer staff have access to broadcast company e-mail informing them of new products, procedures etc. Once in the outsourcing organization the same access may not be available. Also to reduce costs, some outsource employees may not have access to e-mail, but any information which is new is delivered in team meetings.

Failure to deliver business transformation
Business transformation has traditionally been promised by outsourcing suppliers, but they have usually failed to deliver. In a commoditised market where any half-decent service provider can do things cheaper and faster, smart vendors have promised a second wave of benefits that will improve the client’s business outcomes. According to Vinay Couto of Booz & Company “Clients always use the service provider’s ability to achieve transformation as a key selection criterion. It’s always in the top three and sometimes number one.” Often vendors have promised transformation on the basis of wider domain expertise that they didn’t really have, though Couto also says that this is often down to client’s unwillingness to invest in transformation once an outsourcing contract is in place.

Productivity
Offshore outsourcing for the purpose of saving cost can often have a negative influence on the real productivity of a company. Rather than investing in technology to improve productivity, companies gain non-real productivity by hiring fewer people locally and outsourcing work to less productive facilities offshore that appear to be more productive simply because the workers are paid less. Sometimes, this can lead to strange contradictions where workers in a developing country using hand tools can appear to be more productive than a U.S. worker using advanced computer controlled machine tools, simply because their salary appears to be less in terms of U.S. dollars.

In contrast, increases in real productivity are the result of more productive tools or methods of operating that make it possible for a worker to do more work. Non-real productivity gains are the result of shifting work to lower paid workers, often without regards to real productivity. The net result of choosing non-real over real productivity gain is that the company falls behind and obsoletes itself overtime rather than making investments in real productivity.

Security
Before outsourcing an organization is responsible for the actions of all their staff and liable for their actions. When these same people are transferred to an outsourcer they may not change desk but their legal status has changed. They no-longer are directly employed or responsible to the organization. This causes legal, security and compliance issues that need to be addressed through the contract between the client and the suppliers. This is one of the most complex areas of outsourcing and requires a specialist third party adviser.

Fraud is a specific security issue that is criminal activity whether it is by employees or the supplier staff. However, it can be disputed that the fraud is more likely when outsourcers are involved, for example credit card theft when there is scope for fraud by credit card cloning. In April 2005, a high-profile case involving the theft of $350,000 from four Citibank customers occurred when call center workers acquired the passwords to customer accounts and transferred the money to their own accounts opened under fictitious names. Citibank did not find out about the problem until the American customers noticed discrepancies with their accounts and notified the bank.

I already mentioned some advantages and disadvantages of Outsourcing, and in addition I will site what Insourcing and its advantages and disadvantages.

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.

The opposite of outsourcing can be defined as insourcing. When an organization delegates its work to another entity, which is internal yet not a part of the organization, it is termed as insourcing. The internal entity will usually have a specialized team who will be proficient in the providing the required services. Organizations sometimes opt for insourcing because it enables them to maintain a better control of what they outsource. Insourcing has also come to be defined as transferring work from one organization to another organization which is located within the same country. Insourcing can also mean an organization building a new business centre or facility which would specialize in a particular service or product.

Organizations involved in production usually opt for insourcing in order to cut down the cost of labor and taxes amongst others. The trend towards insourcing has increased since the year 2006. Organizations who have been dissatisfied with outsourcing have moved towards insourcing. Some organizations feel that they can have better customer support and better control over the work outsourced by insourcing their work rather than outsourcing it. According to recent studies, there is more wok insourced than outsourced in the U.S and U.K. These countries are currently the largest outsourcers in the world. The U.S and U.K outsource and insource work equally.

If I were to choose between Outsorcing and Insourcing, my stand would be with Insourcing. On my own opinion, it is much better if the school will do insourcing due to the following reasons: the university has the capable individuals that can perform the task regarding the information system, it is safer for the university to let its own employee manage the system than letting others manipulate it, and it is also cheaper to insource because free resources are abundant nowadays. While in ousourcing, 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.

Assignment #7

2009-10-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Sona or the State of the Nation Address is delivered every year by the President of the Republic of the Philippines to report the status of the nation. SONA is given by the President before a joint session of both houses of Congress, pursuant to Article VII, Section 23 of the 1987 Constitution, which reads: “The President shall address the Congress at the opening of its regular session. He may also appear before it at any other time.”

As what I have understood from the full text of the state of the nation address of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, I have I identified three areas that are related to ICT and here are the following:

· Telecommunications
· Development of BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)
· Formation of Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT)

Telecommunications
“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.”

Philippines is one of the texting capitals in Asia, almost of the Filipinos in the urban area even in the rural area own a cellular phone. It is part of living of several Filipinos, telecommunications has always been tough and strong in helping the growth and development of the economical conditions especially in modernization and in technology. The telecommunication networks are most likely to be blamed since they are the ones which distribute cell phone loads. Fortunately, the government has found ways to prevent this further. If Telecommunication companies will reduce their rates, it will be a great help in minimizing the expenses of the people.

BPO (Business Process Outsourcing)
“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 $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity.”

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. BPO is 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. Frequently, BPO is also referred to as ITES -- information technology-enabled services. Since most business processes include some form of automation, IT enables these services to be performed.

Formation of ICT
The House of Representatives has approved on second reading a bill seeking to create a Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT). The bill must also be passed by the Senate and signed by President Arroyo before it becomes law.

After the DICT is created, all offices of the Department of Transportation and Communications dealing with communications and information technology would be transferred to the new department. These include the National Telecommunications Commission and the Philippine Postal Corp. The National Computer Center, which is attached to the Department of Science and Technology, would also be transferred to the DICT.

Catanduanes Rep. Joseph Santiago, chairman of the House information technology committee, said a DICT must be created because the DOTC’s administrative and jurisdictional foundations can no longer cope with the rapid advances in ICT. “(The new DICT would) ensure the provision of strategic, dependable and cost-efficient ICT infrastructure, systems and resources as instruments for nation-building and global competitiveness,” he said. It would also promote a “policy environment of fairness, broad private sector participation in ICT development and balanced investment between high-growth and economically depressed districts,” he added.

Santiago’s committee, together with the committees on appropriations and government reorganization, has endorsed the DICT bill. Santiago listed other objectives of the proposed department:
• Ensure universal access and high-speed connectivity at fair and reasonable cost; provide ample ICT services in areas not sufficiently served by the private sector;
• Promote the widespread use and application of emerging ICT; and
• Establish a strong and effective regulatory system.

In the bill ICT is defined as “the aggregate of all electronic means to collect, store, process, and present information to end-users in support of their activities.” ICT consists of computer systems, office channels and consumer electronics, as well as networked information infrastructure, the components of which include telephone systems, the Internet, and satellite and cable television.

If ICT will be successfully formed, the development of Information technology in the Philippines will continue. It will give more jobs to the people and will bring more knowledge regarding the continuous evolution of Technology.

Assignment #6

2009-10-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

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

If I were hired by the University President as an IT consultant, I would suggest innovation in order for the internet connectivity be improved since Internet connection is an important factor for communication. It is really relevant to the students and also for all the people inside the campus. It is the fastest way to communicate, send files, and work within the campus. So why I would suggest innovation? Innovation refers to a new way of doing something. It may refer to incremental and emergent or radical and revolutionary changes in thinking, products, processes, or organizations.

Working online nowadays has a far wider meaning than just surfing to while away your time. There are a lot more reasons to log on to the internet and be in touch with the rest of the world. This stresses the importance of good connectivity all the more. It is important to compare broadband deals which are available so as to obtain the most suitable deal with the best connectivity to suit your needs. The necessity of being net-savvy has grown manifold in the past years. People of every country all over the world have started to expand their horizons by connecting to the internet. To keep track of all such developments in the world of technology, it is important that you too keep in touch too. Getting cable or DSL connections for the net can be a task which involves many hassles.

The best way to be net savvy now is to obtain broadband internet which provides you superb bandwidth and great downloading speed too. By comparing all the deals that are available, you can make sure that only the best deal is secured by you. This will help you get the best connection to log on to the net with good speed and bandwidth and that too at the lowest of prices. Compare broadband deals on the internet itself and choose the one which suits you the best. With the increase in the provision of broadband services that it becomes all the more necessary to compare broadband deals which are available. Internet, phone and television connections are made available by the same provider and the cost too is low. It does not mean that a cheap cost service provider will get you the best of connectivity. This is what the consumers have to compare before taking up the broadband deal and make sure only the services of the best in the industry are obtained. Compare broadband deals online and only then make a decision of the service provider for internet. The right choice of the service provider will make it easier for you to always keep in touch.

Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just broadband, is a high data rate Internet access—typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56k modem.Dial-up modems are limited to a bitrate of less than 56 kbit/s (kilobits per second) and require the full use of a telephone line—whereas broadband technologies supply more than double this rate and generally without disrupting telephone use.Although various minimum bandwidths have been used in definitions of broadband, ranging up from 64 kbit/s up to 2.0 Mbit/s, the 2006 OECD report is typical by defining broadband as having download data transfer rates equal to or faster than 256 kbit/s, while the United States (US) Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as of 2009, defines "Basic Broadband" as data transmission speeds exceeding 768 kilobits per second (Kbps), or 768,000 bits per second, in at least one direction: downstream (from the Internet to the user’s computer) or upstream (from the user’s computer to the Internet). The trend is to raise the threshold of the broadband definition as the marketplace rolls out faster services.
Programs of organizational innovation are typically tightly linked to organizational goals and objectives, to the business plan, and to market competitive positioning.
For example, one driver for innovation programs in corporations is to achieve growth objectives. As Davila et al. (2006) note, "Companies cannot grow through cost reduction and reengineering alone . . . Innovation is the key element in providing aggressive top-line growth, and for increasing bottom-line results"

In general, business organisations spend a significant amount of their turnover on innovation i.e. making changes to their established products, processes and services. The amount of investment can vary from as low as a half a percent of turnover for organisations with a low rate of change to anything over twenty percent of turnover for organisations with a high rate of change.
The average investment across all types of organizations is four percent. For an organisation with a turnover of say one billion currency units, this represents an investment of forty million units. This budget will typically be spread across various functions including marketing, product design, information systems, manufacturing systems and quality assurance.
The investment may vary by industry and by market positioning.

One survey across a large number of manufacturing and services organisations found, ranked in decreasing order of popularity that systematic programs of organizational innovation are most frequently driven by:

-Improved quality
-Creation of new markets
-Extension of the product range
-Reduced labor costs
-Improved production processes
-Reduced materials
-Reduced environmental damage
-Replacement of products/services
-Reduced energy consumption
-Conformance to regulations

These goals vary between improvements to products, processes and services and dispel a popular myth that innovation deals mainly with new product development. Most of the goals could apply to any organisation be it a manufacturing facility, marketing firm, hospital or local government.

There are two fundamentally different types of measures for innovation: the organizational level and the political level. The measure of innovation at the organizational level relates to individuals, team-level assessments, private companies from the smallest to the largest. Measure of innovation for organizations can be conducted by surveys, workshops, consultants or internal benchmarking. There is today no established general way to measure organizational innovation. Corporate measurements are generally structured around balanced scorecards which cover several aspects of innovation such as business measures related to finances, innovation process efficiency, employees' contribution and motivation, as well benefits for customers. Measured values will vary widely between businesses, covering for example new product revenue, spending in R&D, time to market, customer and employee perception & satisfaction, number of patents, additional sales resulting from past innovations. For the political level, measures of innovation are more focussing on a country or region competitive advantage through innovation. In this context, organizational capabilities can be evaluated through various evaluation frameworks, such as those of the European Foundation for Quality Management. The OECD Oslo Manual (1995) suggests standard guidelines on measuring technological product and process innovation. Some people consider the Oslo Manual complementary to the Frascati Manual from 1963. The new Oslo manual from 2005 takes a wider perspective to innovation, and includes marketing and organizational innovation. These standards are used for example in the European Community Innovation Surveys.

Other ways of measuring innovation have traditionally been expenditure, for example, investment in R&D (Research and Development) as percentage of GNP (Gross National Product). Whether this is a good measurement of Innovation has been widely discussed and the Oslo Manual has incorporated some of the critique against earlier methods of measuring. This being said, the traditional methods of measuring still inform many policy decisions. The EU Lisbon Strategy has set as a goal that their average expenditure on R&D should be 3 % of GNP.
The Oslo Manual is focused on North America, Europe, and other rich economies. In 2001 for Latin America and the Caribbean countries it was created the Bogota Manual

Many scholars claim that there is a great bias towards the "science and technology mode" (S&T-mode or STI-mode), while the "learning by doing, using and interacting mode" (DUI-mode) is widely ignored. For an example, that means you can have the better high tech or software, but there are also crucial learning tasks important for innovation. But these measurements and research are rarely done.

A common industry view (unsupported by empirical evidence) is that comparative cost-effectiveness research (CER) is a form of price control which, by reducing returns to industry, limits R&D expenditure, stifles future innovation and compromises new products access to markets Some academics claim the CER is a valuable value-based measure of innovation which accords truly significant advances in therapy (those that provide 'health gain') higher prices than free market mechanisms. Such value-based pricing has been viewed as a means of indicating to industry the type of innovation that should be rewarded from the public purse. The Australian academic Thomas Alured Faunce has developed the case that national comparative cost-effectiveness assessment systems should be viewed as measuring 'health innovation' as an evidence-based concept distinct from valuing innovation through the operation of competitive markets (a method which requires strong anti-trust laws to be effective) on the basis that both methods of assessing innovation in pharmaceuticals are mentioned in annex 2C.1 of the AUSFTA.

I also suggest that the university will use high end computer devices to perform the task faster. Upgrade the speed of the internet, or change the internet connection to a better one.

The Internet is a worldwide network comprising government, academic, commercial, military and corporate networks. The Internet was originally used by the US military, before becoming widely used for academic and commercial research. Users accessing the Internet can read and download data from almost anywhere in the world. You can communicate across the Internet using Internet e-mail.In order to connect to the Internet, use e-mail and access the World Wide Web you must obtain and set up a modem. This allows the PC to access the Internet over a telephone line, or obtain a LAN Modem to provide WAN access to several people simultaneously on your LAN. This will allow several PCs to share a single connection to the Internet. Obtain an Internet account from an Internet Service Provider or ISP. An ISP is a company that can provide access to the Internet and give you an Internet e-mail address. You then access the Internet by using your modem to dial into the ISP server. Obtain and install a web browser. This allows you to view web pages as well as send and receive e-mail.For High speed internet connection the university must subscribe a net connection in form of broadband, DSL type of connection with the highest speed feature. Broadband is the transmission capacity with sufficient bandwidth to permit combined provision of voice, data and video. According to ITU report, it refers to DSL and cable modem services with band width greater than 128kbps in at least one direction. In determining the speed connection we should determine the bandwidth of internet type subscribe by the university. Bandwidth is the range of frequencies available to be occupied by signals. In analogue systems it is measured in terms of Hertz (Hz) and in digital systems in bit/s per second (bit/s), the higher the bandwidth, the greater the amount of information that can be transmitted in a given time. High bandwidth channels are referred to as broadband which typically means 1.5/2.0 Mbit/s or higher. So if the connections int the laboratories increases more bandwidth is needed.

The first versions of Ethernet used coaxial cable to connect computers in a bus topology. Each computer was directly connected to the backbone. These early versions of Ethernet were known as Thicknet, (10BASE5) and Thinnet (10BASE2).10BASE5, or Thicknet, used a thick coaxial that allowed for cabling distances of up to 500 meters before the signal required a repeater. 10BASE2, or Thinnet, used a thin coaxial cable that was smaller in diameter and more flexible than Thicknet and allowed for cabling distances of 185 meters.The ability to migrate the original implementation of Ethernet to current and future Ethernet implementations is based on the practically unchanged structure of the Layer 2 frame. Physical media, media access, and media control have all evolved and continue to do so. But the Ethernet frame header and trailer have essentially remained constant. The early implementations of Ethernet were deployed in a low-bandwidth LAN environment where access to the shared media was managed by CSMA, and later CSMA/CD. In additional to being a logical bus topology at the Data Link layer, Ethernet also used a physical bus topology. This topology became more problematic as LANs grew larger and LAN services made increasing demands on the infrastructure.The original thick coaxial and thin coaxial physical media were replaced by early categories of UTP cables. Compared to the coaxial cables, the UTP cables were easier to work with, lightweight, and less expensive. The physical topology was also changed to a star topology using hubs. Hubs concentrate connections. In other words, they take a group of nodes and allow the network to see them as a single unit. When a frame arrives at one port, it is copied to the other ports so that all the segments on the LAN receive the frame. Using the hub in this bus topology increased network reliability by allowing any single cable to fail without disrupting the entire network. However, repeating the frame to all other ports did not solve the issue of collisions. Later in this chapter, you will see how issues with collisions in Ethernet networks are managed with the introduction of switches into the network. By the way, Ethernet was invented by Xerox Corporation and developed jointly by Xerox, Intel, and Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) and is a widely used LAN technology.

To innovate the LAN Technology is also a great help for the University...

Assignment # 5 - Barriers in IT Implementation

2009-10-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

In every move, in every implementation barriers are unavoidable. Sometimes it is for the improvement of the performance but most of the time it’s a hindrance in implementing something. Organizations are as alike and unique as human beings. Similarly, group processes can be as straightforward or as complex as the individuals who make up the organization. It is vital to successfully launching a new program that the leaders understand the strengths, weaknesses, and idiosyncrasies of the organization or system in which they operate. Try to anticipate barriers to implementation so that you can develop strategies to minimize their impact or avoid them altogether.

The following list of common barriers can be used to help your leadership team identify potential obstacles. The list of essential elements for change can help the team brainstorm possible solutions. The lists are a good starting point for a planning session that will be most effective if it also takes into account the organizations unique.

In our adapted company, the technical department head point out few of the barriers that they encountered on IT implementation, one of them is the resistance of their employees. This resistance of employees is due to lack of knowledge and ability to adapt to changes, that’s why they are having a difficulty on implementing a new system or to change their system.

Common Barriers:

-Studying the problem too long without acting
-Trying to get everyone's agreement first
-Educating without changing structures or expectations
-Tackling everything at once
-Measuring nothing or everything
-Failing to build support for replication
-Assuming that the status quo is OK
-More Barriers to Change
-Lack of such resources as time and commitment
-Resistance to change
-Lack of senior leadership support or physician champion
-Lack of cooperation from other agencies, providers, departments, and facilities
-Ineffective teams
-Burdensome data collection
-Essential Elements for Change Effort
-Define the problem
-Define the target population
-Define effective treatment strategies and establish procedural guidelines
-Establish performance measures; set goals
-Define effective system changes and interventions
-Develop leadership and system change strategy

A barrier is an obstacle which prevents a given policy instrument being implemented, or limits the way in which it can be implemented. In the extreme, such barriers may lead to certain policy instruments being overlooked, and the resulting strategies being much less effective. For example, demand management measures are likely to be important in larger cities as ways of controlling the growth of congestion and improving the environment. But at the same time they are often unpopular, and cities may be tempted to reject them simply because they will be unpopular. If that decision leads in turn to greater congestion and a worse environment, the strategy will be less successful. The emphasis should therefore be on how to overcome these barriers, rather than simply how to avoid them. ECOCITY provides a useful illustration of the ways in which such barriers arise, and of how obstacles have been overcome, in case study cities.
Many information systems projects take considerably longer than originally planned. State-local projects, with their added layers of legal and organizational complexity are especially vulnerable to this problem. Since so many different organizations are affected by them, time delays lead to serious difficulties in planning for and adjusting to changes in operations.

Existing state-local systems suffer from the lack of a ubiquitous, consistent computing and communications infrastructure. This makes it difficult or impossible to operate technology supported programs in a consistent way from place to place and organization to organization. It also slows and complicates communication among state and local staff involved in joint programs. New York State is currently embarking on a statewide networking strategy called the NYT that will help solve this problem for future systems.

What are the principal barriers?
In our work in PROSPECTS, we grouped barriers into the four categories listed below. More recent work in TIPP has demonstrated that failure to adopt a logical approach to the process of strategy development can also impose a barrier to effective planning. This Guidebook is designed to help cities avoid this happening. TIPP also provides a set of recommendations.

1) Legal and institutional barriers
These include lack of legal powers to implement a particular instrument, and legal responsibilities which are split between agencies, limiting the ability of the city authority to implement the affected instrument. The survey of European cities in PROSPECTS indicates that land-use, road building and pricing are the policy areas most commonly subject to legal and institutional constraints. Information measures are substantially less constrained than other measures.

2) Financial barriers
These include budget restrictions limiting the overall expenditure on the strategy, financial restrictions on specific instruments, and limitations on the flexibility with which revenues can be used to finance the full range of instruments. PROSPECTS found that road building and public transport infrastructure are the two policy areas which are most commonly subject to financial constraints, with 80% of European cities stating that finance was a major barrier. Information provision is the least affected.

3) Political and cultural barriers
These involve lack of political or public acceptance of an instrument, restrictions imposed by pressure groups, and cultural attributes, such as attitudes to enforcement, which influence the effectiveness of instruments. The surveys in PROSPECTS show that road building and pricing are the two policy areas which are most commonly subject to constraints on political acceptability. Public transport operations and information provision are generally the least affected by acceptability constraints.

4) Practical and technological barriers
While cities view legal, financial and political barriers as the most serious which they face in implementing land use and transport policy instruments, there may also be practical limitations. For land use and infrastructure these may well include land acquisition. For management and pricing, enforcement and administration are key issues. For infrastructure, management and information systems, engineering design and availability of technology may limit progress.

Generally, lack of key skills and expertise can be a significant barrier to progress, and is aggravated by the rapid changes in the types of policy being considered.

How should we deal with barriers in the short term?
It is important not to reject a particular policy instrument simply because there are barriers to its introduction. One of the key elements in a successful strategy is the use of groups of policy instrument which help overcome these barriers. This is most easily done with the financial and political and cultural barriers, where one policy instrument can generate revenue to help finance another (as, for example, fares policy and service improvements), or one can make another more publicly acceptable (for example rail investment making road pricing more popular). These principles are discussed more fully in. A second important element is effective participation, as outlined in ,which can help reduce the severity of institutional and political barriers, and encourage joint action to overcome them. Finally, effective approaches to implementation can reduce the severity of many barriers, as discussed in.

How can we overcome barriers in the longer term?
It is often harder to overcome legal, institutional and technological barriers in the short term. There is also the danger that some institutional and political barriers may get worse over time. However, strategies should ideally be developed for implementation over a 15-20 year timescale. Many of these barriers will not still apply twenty years hence, and action can be taken to remove others. For example, if new legislation would enable more effective instruments such as pricing to be implemented, it can be provided. If split responsibilities make achieving consensus impossible, new structures can be put in place. If finance for investment in new infrastructure is justified, the financial rules can be adjusted. TIPP makes a number of recommendations for longer term institutional change. Barriers should thus be treated as challenges to be overcome, not simply impediments to progress. A key element in a long term strategy should be the identification of ways of resolving these longer term barriers.

The need for the improved implementation of information technology (IT) has been identified in both empirical and highly structured research studies as being critical to effective innovation and development at an industry and enterprise level. This need is greater in the construction industry as it has been relatively slow to embrace the full potential of IT-based technologies.
Beany & Gordon (1988) researched the barriers that exist to successful introduction of IT systems (in this case CAD/CAM) and reported that they fall into three categories, structural, human and technical. Structural barriers are those factors inherent in the organisations structure or systems that are not compatible with the new technology.This can include communication, authority flows and planning systems, and reflect how the organisation has traditionally done things. A failure to perceive the strategic benefits of the investment, a lack of co-ordination and co-operation due to organisational fragmentation, and a perception of high risk are all symptoms of organisational problems. Human barriers include psychological problems that arise in most periods of change, such as uncertainty avoidance, and resistance to loss of power or status. Technical barriers, they noted, were factors in the technology itself, such as lack of system compatibility.

Functional barriers relate to information and work flows and include identification of strategic information needs. Technical factors relate to the need for flexibility and information handling capacity, with the dangers of disjointed islands of automation being created which limit information flow. Human factors are the need for job redefinition and the resistance to change which lead to a lack of company wide flexibility or commitment. Other authors have confirmed that the key barriers to IT implementation tend to be organisational, rather than technical, and that these barriers are often understated. Galliers, for instance, focused on general management problems in successful planning of strategic information systems and concluded that key factors were the attitude, commitment and involvement of management: the current sophistication of IS within the company: the ability to measure and justify the benefits of strategic IS: and the justify the benefits of strategic IS: and the integration of IS into business strategy. While the perception of the importance of these barriers is likely to change over time.

Assignment # 2 - Risk associated with business and IS/IT change

2009-10-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

Based on the organization(s) that you visited, what do you think are the risks associated with business and IS/IT change? (1000 words)

Change is inevitable in any aspect of life. When it comes to business and IT, change is constant. According to the company that we have interviewed which is Concentrix, undergoing change is not that easy. A feasible study should be done first before modifying their system and according to their MIS Manager the probable risk are the following:

Security
System failure
Loss of data
Cost

In organizations without a formal information technology (IT) change management process, it is estimated that 80% of IT service outage problems are caused by updates and alterations to systems, applications, and infrastructure. Consequently, one of the first areas to address to improve service reliability is to track all changes and systematically manage change with full knowledge of the risks of the change and the potential organizational impact. While tracking change events is fairly well understood and is a common practice, consistently and reliably predicting the impact of change requires a disciplined, standards-based approach to assessing risk and likelihood of impact, a technique not usually found in off-the-shelf change tracking tools.

The automated process for determining composite risk assessment is broken into two standardized evaluations: the organizational criticality of the system to be changed and the likelihood of adverse impact resulting from the change. First, on an annual basis, the criticality of the system is appraised in order to establish its relative value to the enterprise. The standardized criteria for this assessment are:

Number of users that could be impacted by a service interruption
Financial impact of an extended service outage or unrecoverable loss of data

Likelihood that a system/service failure could result in:
-Disclosure of sensitive information that needs to be protected
-Misuse of client-owned resources
-Malicious interruption of services or research operations
-Possibility that a system/service failure could result in an event or condition that may have adverse safety, health, security, operational, environmental, or mission implication
-Potential future impacts based on prior system/service interruption experiences

Secondly, when a change is proposed, each request is graded against the following criteria:
-How many users will be visibly affected by the proposed change?
-What is the anticipated difficulty for user and support personnel to learn the new or modified system/service?
-What is the stability and supportability of the technology or vendor products utilized by the system?
-In the event the change implementation fails or adversely impacts other systems or services, what will be the impact of executing the implementation contingency plan?
-Based upon past experience, what is the likelihood of failure or adverse problems resulting from the change?

The criticality appraisal blends with the change risk evaluation to produce a composite risk assessment that is used to pre-populate an automated release plan that guides the implementation of the change. Depending on the level of the composite risk, requirements of the release plan such as testing rigor and end-user communications are strengthened to mitigate higher levels of risk. Conversely, a lower risk score results in a reduced scope of change implementation requirements.

In an era of dynamism the only thing that remains constant is change. Organizations execute change programmes to implement strategic, regulatory and other such business drivers. Whatever the organization and in whichever sector it exists in, be it Public or Private, and howsoever it may be structured, it has to witness and face an ever increasing rate of change. These business transformation changes can be implemented and managed effectively by using Programme Management methodologies. As is inherent within any organizational activity successful delivery of these Business Change Programmes lies to a large extent in successfully managing the risks that are being faced while executing the programme.

The paper attempts to focus on the Risk Management activities that need to be considered in such a Programme environment. It tries to present a framework that could be tied into the practices of Programme Management to effectively manage the loose ends presented by Risks.
Risk is defined as the uncertainty of outcome, whether positive opportunity or negative threat, of actions and events. The risk has to be assessed in respect of the likelihood of something happening, and the impact, which would arise if it actually happens. Risk management includes identifying and evaluating risks and then suitably responding to them. Risk management enables informed decisions. Managers at all levels in an organization such as programme managers, project managers, general managers and executive managers make multiple decisions each day as a primary function of their jobs. Apart from having access to factual information, knowledge of potential risks faced can improve the decision process by allowing the decision maker to weigh potential alternatives or trade-offs in order to maximize the reward/risk ratio.

Risk management brings a level of predictability to the dynamic environment within which programmes of business change operate. By understanding and bounding various uncertainties faced by the programme, the programme manager is able to manage the risks effectively.

(i) Risks that would lead to Programme not being implemented. These would be risks to Strategy that initiated the Business Change. These could also be risks to Operations that would undergo this change depending upon the type and criticality of change.

(ii)Risks created by the programme. These are Business Change Risks that need to be mitigated by proper planning at Strategic Level and fed back into the same Programme by changing its scope or another Business Change Programme in case it’s related outside the scope of current change.

(iii)Risks to the programme itself. These are risks internal to the Programme and could be due to one or more of the projects that fall under the umbrella of programme or any other transformational activity that the programme is undertaking.

With the interview that we had and all the articles that I have read, I’ve learned that “You have to risk it, to take the biscuit”. Just like in IT and any organization, it won’t grow and develop unless you try and take the possible risk.

COMDDAP Experience..

2009-10-13T12:30:00.000-07:00

Last July 2, 2009, COMDDAP DAVAO EXPO was held at Grand Ballroom, Apo View Hotel, Davao City. As part of our MIS subject, we went there to take part on the said event and attend a seminar regarding the different technology. It was a 3 days affair, participated with several companies, advertisers, teachers and students.

To attend and have a chair for the seminar, days before we registered ourselves as one of the participants in their official event site. There are different speakers and scheduled time, and some are by invitation only, so I took the same schedule with my classmates.

COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS DISTRIBUTORS AND DEALERS ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES (COMDDAP)

COMDDAP is an association of the country's top information technology businesses. Its primary objective is to promote the sustainable development of the of the country's information technology industry through voluntary collaboration of its member companies.

On the day of Seminar

I arrived late, so I was little shy to enter the convention room alone. Some of my classmates are inside the room already, but some are still on their way, so I decided to wait for them. As I was waiting, I roam around and observe the exhibit. Several new gadgets, computers, and technology were exhibited there. The people were so accommodating and very eager to promote their products to everyone. The students, especially, are having a good time trying and discovering something new. People are free to use the Internet, explore the displayed notebooks, claim several freebies, and educate themselves with the new knowledge in the exhibit brought by COMDDAP.

When we my classmates and I entered the convention room, it’s HP turns to promote and talk about their product, and it was Thin Client. According to my classmates, the previous speaker was from Jupiter Systems Incorporated. He talked about Enterprise Resource Information and Control (ERICDMS) Brilliant Dealer Management System. Jupiter Systems, Inc. is a 24- year old software company and one of the members of the ERP systems of the Philippines. The Jupiter Systems’ has also Service Management General Features which are the following:1. Advance bookings or Customer appointments 2. Operation maintenance or FLAT rates3. Repair orders4. Repair Estimates5. Customer Service History6. Technician Time-in or Time-out7. Parts requisitioning and picking8. Service invoicing9. Warranty claims and processing10. Field Service Actions(Campaigns)

The next speaker is a Market Development Manager of HP Company. This time we are already inside, sitting and ready to listen. He discussed about Linux, CE, and XPe and the following topic:Key Growth Drivers 1. Data security, reliability,- easier 2. Management- 3. Remote PC alternatives- 4.- Virtualization 5. Lower TCO- 6. Broadband and- relatedChallenges for IT Professionals1. Provide information security2. Deployment and maintenance3. Total cost of ownership (TCO)

HP is one of a very small list of companies that offers technology in every category of the Kusnetzy Group Model. So, one could see thin client devices and the related access virtualization, application virtualization and processing virtualization technology as being the window either into an organization’s IT infrastructure, in-house cloud or, in some cases, external computing resources. HP today introduced an affordable new mobile thin client, as well as hardware and software portfolio enhancements to its thin client portfolio, to help companies improve security and productivity while reducing resource consumption.

The company also announced HP desktop thin clients that meet the new version 5.0 ENERGY STAR® specifications – an industry first. Select HP thin clients include the HP t5145, HP t5540, HP t5545, HP t5630 and HP t5630w models and offer customers a range of performance options and choice of Windows® CE, Windows Embedded Standard and Linux operating systems.

They promoted thin client, a device that provides enhanced security access to server-based computing and reduces IT workloads while still providing the mobility of a reliable notebook. The speaker also discussed the benefits we can get from thin client and how it makes our daily tasks easy. After the lecture, he asked some questions and gave rewards to those who can answer. For those students who have fast hands, they got a Flash drive as a prize.

The next presentor was from Spinweb Productions, Incorporated. The speaker discussed about Open Source for business applications and talked about the goodness of open source. They promoted open source and discussed briefly its advantages.

The benefits of using open source applications are:
1. reliable-
2.- widely used
3. highly scalable-
4. proven performance-

After the technology talk, I feel full, full of new knowledge and experience and it is because of COMDDAP. I feel grateful and proud to participate in this kind of event. Hoping to attend next year’s event too.

major paper update..

2009-10-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

September 28, 2009 – Second Interview

We went back to our adapted company to get the questionnaire and unluckily, he didn’t able to answer even one query on the questionnaire and said just come back Tuesday afternoon. We are running out of days so we really tried to get answers from him and gladly, we made it. He answered some of our guide questions on SWOT and STEEP analysis. He also told us that if possible, we won’t post anything about their company on any forum. It’s a sad thing for us, but we respect their rules and we need to abide with it.

major paper update..

2009-10-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

September 26, 2009 – First Interview

Few hours before 6 pm, we went to our adapted company and talked to the head of technical department. We tried to convince him and explained to him that it would be a big help if they would grant our request to conduct an interview and assess their information system, and fortunately, this time he agreed. We immediately presented the possible questions then he answered promptly some of it. For our other questions, we left a hardcopy of the questionnaire and he told us to get it back on Monday. So we had our first interview…

major paper update..

2009-10-02T11:38:00.000-07:00

September 23, 2009 – Verification if the letter was approved or not

One week after we submitted the letter to our adapted company, we personally go to their office and verify if the request was approved or not and unfortunately it was disapproved. The head of the technical department said that their boss didn’t approve our request because their programmers are working on the inventory system and they are too busy to entertain us. But he said he would recommend us to one of their business partners and would meet with him on September 26 at 6 o’clock in the evening for they will have a business meeting. We were depressed that time but still hoping that they would change their minds and we will be recommended to their said business partner.

major paper update..

2009-10-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

September 16, 2009 - Submission of letter to the company

On this day, we seek our instructor’s approval on our NEW company, whose name is not allowed to publish on any forum or blog. After the company was approved and the letter was signed, we went to the head office of our adapted company to be, at San Pedro Street. We presented our letter to them and luckily they entertained us. One of their personnel asked about our purpose and what information do we need from their company. Then he told us that he needs to ask permission first from the vice president before granting our request. Before we left their office, we gave him our contact number with the hope that they will accept and allow our request.

major paper update..

2009-10-02T11:26:00.000-07:00

September 9, 2009 - one last time

They won't share their business operations, their IT Manager resigned... but still we submitted a questionnaire to our adapted company.. why? because we're thinking that we can still work on our major paper with their answers, but unfortunately we're wrong. Their answers are not enough for us to assess their information system and to comply our requirement..(

major paper update..

2009-10-02T11:19:00.000-07:00

September 4, 2009 - What a bad news!!!

It feels like starting again from scratch.. wew!!.. The IT Manager of our adapted company resigned... (sigh)...

I think this it. We really have to find another company, as soon as possible. It's less than a month before the submission of our major paper, we are running out of time.. tik tak tik tak :(

major paper update..

2009-10-02T09:56:00.000-07:00

August 31, 2009 - still hoping..

Even our adapted company said that they won't share anything about their operations, we still tried to get information from them. Since their IT manager is busy, we are thinking of submitting a set of questions for him to answer.

major paper update..

2009-08-31T06:54:00.000-07:00

seeking company's approval is not that easy.. i called almost everyday and it's like waiting forever.. >> sigh :(

Last august 19 to 21, our group reviewed the modules and formulated guide questions for our first interview, since our adopted company scheduled us on 27th of august for the interview..

We we're glad that finally they gave a date for the interview but the sad part is, the day of our interview (august 27, 2009), I called an hour before the scheduled time to make sure that everything will be fine and the answer was .... "sorry we are not allowed to share our company's operations"...>> another sigh :(

Is this a sign that we should give up on them and find another company??? help!! huhuhuhuhu...

under construction

2009-08-08T23:13:00.000-07:00

this blog is under consturction.. :)

Green Campus Computing

2009-08-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

What is Green campus computing? In my own understanding, it is a widely promoted campaign on saving the environment from technology’s fast evolution and reducing the power consumption of computers. There are articles over the Internet that discuss about green campus computing and some of the best solutions to apply this said campaign. Currently, several Universities and Colleges are putting into practice these possible ways. Does University of Southeastern Philippines can also achieve green campus computing?

http://chronicle.com/free/2009/01/10296n.htm

This article talks about the conference held by University of California at San Diego. “Greening the Internet Economy” is the aim of the conference. The event, offered a sampling of a new generation of technologies that promise to help colleges make their IT departments more competent. Relocate a college's server computers next to a solar-power generator. Replace AC power with DC power. Cool the servers only where they get the hottest. Put the servers in the ocean and power them with waves were some of the ideas discussed in the conference. They introduced a device called the Green Light Instrument. This device will deploy sensors and software to measure the energy use, humidity, and other variables in various parts of a Sun Modular Data Center, a popular, self-contained complex of servers. Its goal is to encourage engineers to try different computing strategies to reduce electricity consumption.

If our school will adopt these things, it will be a great help to the environment. But I don’t think if our school can afford this kind of technology. One best alternative for this is to supply energy from solar cells or other sources of DC power. In this way, the school can save on electricity bills.

http://www.theorion.com/2.691/green-campus-pushes-energy-saving-program-1.3253

It talks about a computer program that would save energy and reduce greenhouse emmissions. Power Save is the computer program created by the software company Faronics. It put computers into a low energy consuming stand-by mode and it measures how much energy is being used and saved. The said program will be installed on each computer and it reports back to a central-control server that synchronizes the whole Power Save setting process and makes it a lot easier than setting one computer at a time.

If Power Save will be implemented in USEP, the school’s emission will be reduced and of course it can save its budget on energy. But before implementing this kind of program, the teachers, staff and also the students should be oriented about it. The university can benefit from this program as well as the environment.

http://greencampus.winserve.org/greencampus/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=40

This article is about putting your computer to sleep and how it can save energy and help the environment. When your computer is in sleep, it is on low power mode and it will be easy to wake up whenever you want to use your computer again. To make sure that you consume less energy, you can set your computer to automatically sleep when not in use in a specified amount of time.

If the university will apply this strategy, energy consumption will be reduced and it can lessen environmental concerns. The computers, especially on laboratories and in the library should be maintained and set a specific time to sleep when not in use. It is also better to use CRT monitors and CPUs, for it consume less energy. The management may also consider thin client computing or using more environmentally friendly consumer packaging models. These strategies will not only save the school from power consumption, but it will also provide great experience for students and staff.

The dramatic increase in energy consumption and costs has caused a renewed interest in the effective management and use of computing throughout the campus. Every time we leave computers on without regard for energy conservation and planned use, we potentially waste electricity, which means wasting money and polluting the environment. But there several ways on preventing this, lets all support green campus computing.

Automated Election for 2010???

2009-08-08T01:48:00.000-07:00

Is automated election the answer for a clean and honest election? Is it credible? Is Philippines ready for it?… These are some of the queries whirling inside my mind when automated election brought into topic. Elections in the Philippines have always been a manual process with the results for national positions often being announced more than a month after election day, but this coming May 2010 it will shift into automated election. An attempt to rectify this was done by the Commission on Elections by automating the process of counting the votes.

What is Automated Election System?

Automated election system (AES) is a system that uses appropriate technology to accomplish and aid such tasks as voting, counting, consolidating, canvassing, and transmission of election result, and other electoral process. Republic Act No. 9369, which is the Amended Elections Automation Law provides for the use of two forms of AES. The first is a paper-based election system defined as “a type of automated election system that uses paper ballots, records and counts votes, tabulates, consolidates, canvasses and transmits electronically the results of the vote count.” It uses the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) Technology. Here, the voters have to shade the oval which corresponds to their candidate of choice using pencil in a specially scanned paper ballot. It is composed of 2 Laptops, 2 Digital Scanners, 2 card readers, 1 hub and 1 printer. The votes in the shaded ballots will then be scanned and counted using an Automated Counting Machine (ACM). This kind of technology is pretty much familiar in the Philippines.
The second form is the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE). It is defined as “a type of automated election system that uses electronic ballots, records votes by means of a ballot display provided with mechanical or electro-optical components that can be activated by the voter, processes data by means of a computer program, records voting data and ballot images, and transmits voting results electronically.” voters are provided with a Voting Pad where the photos of candidates can be selected by pressing on the desired picture. Once the vote is final, a receipt is generated after pressing ‘BOTO‘. However, DRE Technology can only be deployed in areas where communications is available and reliable. These technologies proved that IT in the Philippines is fastly growing and developing.

Who will provide?…

This new system of voting will not be implemented without the technology need to run the whole system. The Smartmatic, a world-class leading supplier of electoral solutions and services, won the bid to carry out the 2010 Election project in the Philippines. The contract was worth approximately $150 million, that Smartmatic is to deploy 82,200 SAES1800 voting machines across a sizable proportion of the 7,107 thousand islands comprising the territory of the Philippines, and transmit all results electronically to over 1,700 canvassing and consolidation centers. Smartmatic has successfully deployed its electronic voting technology in multiple electoral processes in the United States, Latin America, the Caribbean and Asia, accurately counting over 150 million votes, always with the provision of an auditable paper trail, and open source-code reviews. Last year, the Smartmatic electoral technology was used in the election in the ARMM region in the Philippines, an event the COMELEC regarded as very satisfactory, and first of its kind in South East Asia. Smartmatic is a multinational company that designs and deploys technological solutions aimed at helping governments fulfill, in the most efficient way, their commitments with their citizens. It is one of the largest cutting-edge technology suppliers, with a wide and proven experience in the United States, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Automated election has several advantages, some of these are: Financial Savings, though automated elections deal with computers and will cost large amount of money, it will still cut the cost, like labor cost. Since computer will do the counting, it means fewer laborer needed. Another advantage is, increased speed and effiency of electoral task and results. Using computers would make the voting and the counting faster and acccurate than manual process of election. It has also improved capacity to identify and prevent frauds., tampering of votes will prevented and the integrity of the election would be higher. There are so many advantages but the question is, Are Filipinos ready for this?

Even automated election provide high security, there are still computer geeks that can bombard the whole system or hack the computers and manipulate the results. There is also a possibility that cheaters would come from the people who developed the system. And wee can’t deny the fact that some Filipinos doesn’t know how to use computers especially in the rural area, will they be able to adapt this new process? In my own opinion, the main problem with automated election is “transparency”. People won’t able to see the actual process of counting the votes and several will doubt if the results are really correct.

Our country might be a long way to go from being industrialized and fully prepared to reap the benefits of Information Techbology in every major part of our everyday lives, but the conduct of the 2010 automated elections is a still a big step forward towards the achievement of a truly democratic and honest elections and the closure of the digital divide as a whole. Our infrastructures might not be at par to other countries and our people might not be fully informed and trained yet, but these shortcomings can be greatly remedied if we are equipped with the willingness to learn and adapt to our ever-changing world.

Assignment #1

2009-07-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

The assignment 1 is to discuss the best IT/IS practices of the company(s) that you have visited. Together with my classmates, we visited 3 companies and these are: Callbox, Global Connect e-Solutions and Concentrix, so let me tell you what and how it happened…

Its just yesterday, we realized that we really have to visit the company that we intend to share their best IT/IS practices. Sir Gamboa said, we are obliged to show evidences that we have interviewed the company and asked permission from them for we are going to post the MIS facts of their company on our own Blogs.

My classmates and I had a brainstorming of different IT companies; first on the list was Callbox, for it is the nearest call center from our school. But before going to Callbox, we had our letter printed and we’re ready…

….Callbox…

Callbox is a call center, which occupies the 9th floor of LandCo building along JP Laurel Avenue. At first, we were doubtful if they are willing to entertain us because as we tiptoed inside their office, no one was there so we went back outside and went to the ladies room (except john) to finalize our questions. Suddenly one of their employees approached us and asked what we need, so we went back inside their office and gave them our letter. One of the MIS guys, said maybe we can write down our questions and come back Friday, with this, our eyes widened..lol.. for we need the information as soon as possible (not so demanding). The guy suggested we just have to leave our email address so that they can send it at around 6 pm, so since me and john have an internet connection at home we wrote down our email addresses, we were relieved at last. When I got home, I stayed online until 2am but got no email. So unlucky…

…Global Connect e-Solutions…

This morning after our class, we decided to interview another company since Callbox haven’t sent an email yet. We went to Global Connect e-Solutions office, the company where I worked for 5 months last semester. I am so confident that we will be successful this time, since I personally know some of the MIS staff. Unfortunately, they are having a meeting that time, so Sir Rhyan Diansay the Company Programmer of Global, asked for the questions and instructed us to come back at 12:30 noon. So I went back, and had this statements from Sir Rhyan…

* How do you define MIS in your company?
According to Sir Rhyan, a management information system is a subset of the overall internal control of a business covering the application of people, documents, technologies and procedures by management accountants for solving business problems.

*What is the function of MIS in your company?
Sir Rhyan said MIS includes software that helps in decision-making, data resources such as databases, the hardware resources of a system, decision support system, people management and project management applications and any computerized processes that enable the department to run efficiently.

*What are the best practices in IT/IS in your company?
For Sir Rhyan, a best practice is the belief that there is a technique, method, process, activity, and incentive as reward that is more effective at delivering a particular outcome than other techniques. He also added that shared knowledge and group performance are their best practice.

At Global Connect e-Solutions, Sir Rhyan Diansay is the main programmer and the rest are technicians who do the troubleshooting and minor programs and databases. In addition, Global also use a Biometrix System which is exclusive on their company.

While waiting for the Global’s answers, we proceed to Concentrix, which is 1 km away from Global. Luckily, this time we had interview their MIS Supervisor with the help of our friend Leo who works at Concentrix.

...Concentrix...

Concentrix, a Synnex Company Corporation is a call center that offers technical and customer support. SYNNEX offers product distribution, relatedlogistics services, business process outsourcing and contract assembly andworks with the leading industry suppliers of IT systems, peripherals, systemcomponents, software and networking equipment.

Mr. Christopher Lim is the MIS Supervisor of Concentrix and according to him, MIS department is the core of the company for the reason that it is a technical call center. They develop their own system and its exclusive for their company. They offer services not only locally but also globally. Concentrix servers are accessible in different locations and they have 30 servers here in Davao. Sir Lim discussed to us the basic functions of their MIS department and these are the following:

Level 1 – help desk
Individuals in this level repair, install and troubleshoot. They are also responsible for the networking, user configuration, the access and the different restrictions.

Level 2 – Network Specialist
They manage the deeper aspect of troubleshooting and they serve as mentor for level 1.

Senior Network Specialist
They are responsible for configuration of servers, telephone companies, management of all the access. In addition, they are the ones who suggest whether they need to upgrade or not.

Supervisor
This person is the leader of MIS department. He/she does the decisions for the changes and does the recommendation for all accounts.

Mr. Lim said that the MIS department best practice is teamwork, there constant evolving and more.

First Day Learnings on MIS 1...

2009-06-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Our first meeting on MIS (Management Information System) was fine..(really??) and as expected, we have to use our critical thinking to answer the critical questions of the one and only, Dr. Randy S. Gamboa..

As usual, Sir RSG started the class on time, at exactly 1:00 pm.. not 1:05 but 1:00.. :lol!: Sir RSG was our teacher on HRM last year, so i'm quite used to his overflowing research, assignments, and the blog thing (but im not a good blogger). First, sir welcomed the transferees from usep-tagum and asked them to sing one by one, which served as an initiation to all virgins.. :cheers: .. (welcome to usep-obrero, welcome to hell.) :lol!:

To start the discussion, sir rsg asked what does MIS stands for and what is management.. Some answered in chorus, "it is the act of managing"..hahahaha..ofcourse. For us to understand more, sir rsg mentioned and explained the 4 keys of management which are planning, directing, organizing and controlling (PDOC). He emphasized that a person can not be managed by another person, but can be led and can be guided. From his statements about this, I realized several things and so far agree with him. He also discussed the components of IS which are software + hardware + peopleware. So from this, a query which confused us was constructed, "Is the subject name Management Information System correct?"... oh my, his deadly questions are here again..
For now, im a little bit confused but im gonna try to give my points of view on the next post..

I know all of us gonna shed blood on this subject , but i definitely believe that knowledge and new learnings will overflow. We will learn a lot from sir, from each other and of course from our adopted company. I tell you, its not that boring...

studyante mode again!!!

2009-06-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

waaahh dis is it!!!

here it comes again...

blog, blog, blog...

hope to enjoy and learn more this time...

wew....

be good with us sir...

lol.

good luck to all of us :)

2009-05-30T23:18:00.000-07:00

Crazier

by Taylor Swift

I've never gone with the wind

Just let it flow, let it take me

Where it wants to go

Til you opened the door

There's so much more

I'd never seen it before

I was trying to fly, but I couldn't find wings

Then you came along and you changed everything

You lift my feet off the ground, spin me around

You make me crazier, crazier

Feels like I'm falling and I am lost in your eyes

You make me crazier, crazier, crazier

I watched from a distance as you

Made life your own, every sky was

Your own kind of blue

And I wanted to know

How that would feel and you made it so real

You showed me something that I couldn't see

You opened my eyes and you made me believe

You lift my feet off the ground, spin me around

You make me crazier, crazier

Feels like I'm falling and I am lost in your eyes

You make me crazier, crazier, crazier

Baby, you showed me what living is for

I don't want to hide anymore

You lift my feet off the ground, spin me around

You make me crazier, crazier

Feels like I'm falling and I am lost in your eyes

You make me crazier, crazier, crazier

Crazier, Crazier

2008-10-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

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

President Gloria Arroyo stated her yearly SONA last July 28, 2008.
“Lalong lumakas ang tiwala ng mga investor dahil sa VAT. Mula P56.50 kada dolyar, lumakas ang piso hanggang P40.20 bago bumalik sa P44 dahil sa mga pabigat ng pangdaigdigang ekonomiya.”

**In this statement of President Gloria Arroyo, we can see that peso is in good condition compared to the previous year. If this will continue, for sure several investments will come and of course several jobs for Filipino people.

“Noong Hunyo, nagpalabas tayo ng apat na bilyong piso mula sa VAT sa langis-dalawang bilyong pambayad ng koryente ng apat na milyong mahihirap, isang bilyon para college scholarship o pautang sa 70,000 na estudyanteng maralita; kalahating bilyong pautang upang palitan ng mas matipid na LPG, CNG o biofuel ang motor ng libu-libong jeepney; at kalahating bilyong pampalit sa fluorescent sa mga pampublikong lugar.”

**Through these things, Filipinos will benefit a lot especially the poor. The payments for electricity will be reduced, several youth will be given the chance to go to school, and it will lessen the burden of the people when it comes to economic expenses.

“Ginagawa nating labor-intensive ang paggawa at pag-ayos ng kalsada at patubig. Noong SONA ng 2001, naglunsad tayo sa NCR ng patrabaho para sa 20,000 na out of school youth, na tinawag OYSTER. Ngayon, mahigit 20,000 ang ineempleyo ng OYSTER sa buong bansa. In disaster-stricken areas, we have a cash-for-work program.”

**The number of unemployed Filipino will decrease. Several out of school youth will have a better future and in their young age, they will learn to earn a living, this might help them to become a responsible and independent person someday. These programs will not just provide jobs for the people, but will provide them a better life.

......It's better than late, than never......

updates..

2008-10-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

our first revision is ready,..
we are just waiting for the right day to come..
the right day??..yeah.. the right day that sir will entertain us..hehehe..
2nd consultation???..when will you come??

last october 8, i went to school around 7 am, hoping that we can have our consultation..
we waited the wholeday, but got nothing..

"naa mo,wala ko..naa ko, wala mo.."
hahay...that's life...

updates...

2008-10-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

September 25...

Finally, we had our first consultation..wew!!..

mmmm...but it means, another work to do...hahay...

after our consultation, we went to pag-ibig to have a counter-sign and interview Ms. Lobo about our assignment..hahahaha.. she was surprised because she thought, she will just counter-sign our proposal...wise kids..hehehe..

updates..

2008-10-06T10:01:00.001-07:00

September 24...

Supposedly, we will have our first consultation on this day...

but because of our boboness, we still have to edit our interface..

and lucky for us, Sir Gamboa said "ugma na lang pra sure"...yehey!!!!

I think he's in the mood that day... and guess what??..

We had a picture taking with him... hehehe..

Thanks Sir!!!!!

updates...

2008-10-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

September 22-23...

Waaaaaahhhh!!! we had fun.., making the major paper is not that boring...hehehe.

We're almost done with our first draft and I think we are ready for our 1st consultation...hehehe..

I thought making this major paper is too boring, but as days passed by, me and my groupmates are having fun. One day before our first consultation, we decided to change our working environment. We stayed at the 5th floor of eng'g building for our finalization, and along with us is a bunch of junkfoods..hehehe.. We spent the whole afternoon eating, laughing, picture taking and a little bit of brainstorming...hahahaha..

Assignment #9...

2008-10-03T09:48:00.000-07:00

Human Resource Management and Personnel Management

*Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.

-Susan M. Heathfield-
http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossaryh/f/hr_management.htm

...Yes, this definition is precisely true. Human Resource Management deals with issues concerning the most vital element of an organization, the people.

*Personnel management is the responsibility of all those who manage people, as well as a description of the work of specialists. Personnel managers advise on, formulate, and implement personnel policies such as recruitment, conditions of employment, performance appraisal, training, industrial relations, and health and safety. There are various models of personnel management, of which human resource management is the most recent.

http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/Personnel+Management.html

...In this definition of personnel management, it shows that human resource management is a model of personnel management. For me, they are somewhat similar, both manages humans or the people of an organization.

*Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business.

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

...I definitely agree with this statement, without the people who contributed to a company’s success, everything is useless. Human Resource Management is the heart of an organization and it plays a significant role in motivating the employees to become professionals and to bring out the best in them.

*When it comes to handling all the responsbilities associated with maintaining a workforce, personnel management has the most legal and financial responsibilities of the whole organization, without which the overall success of the business is at risk.

http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php/Personnel_Management

...The overall success of an organization depends to its people or personnel. The nicer they are managed, the better the work. In this way, employees are encouraged to do the best they can for the organization.

*Human resource management is responsible for how people are treated in organizations. It is responsible for bringing people into the organization, helping them perform their work, compensating them for their labors, and solving problems that arise (Cherrington, 1995, p. 5).

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

...Humans are an organization's greatest assets; without them, everyday business functions such as managing cash flow, making business transactions, communicating through all forms of media, and dealing with customers could not be completed. In order to maximize organizational effectiveness, human potential—individuals' capabilities, time, and talents—must be managed.

updates..

2008-09-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

September 18-19..

We started our introduction and the methodology...
At first, we can't come up with even a single paragraph, but with the use of brainstorming, ideas came out and then poof!! it became coco crunch..hehehe...

Our intro was not that long because we are on the state of boboness at that time..hehehe..

updates..

2008-09-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

September 15-17..

... we didn't able to follow the schedule...
...we are so busy with our exams...
...and as usual, nosebleed..hahay...
...do i deserve this kind of life??..(char!)

Assignment #8...

2008-09-26T09:20:00.000-07:00

Our group planned to interview the HR manager of our adopted company, which is PAG-IBIG, but an interview means another letter and several days to wait for approval… (Sigh). So when Mr. Gamboa said, that the interface of our HRIS proposal should be countersigned by PAG-IBIG, our chance came. We telephoned Ms. Laarni Lobo and asked if we can go to their office for them to approve the interface proposal. She said that she’s so busy and she can entertain us probably after 2 weeks, but because of our convincing powers, she said the magic word “OK”.

After the telephone conversation, we immediately went to PAG-IBIG. We presented the interface of our HRIS proposal and explained the flow of the proposal. She consulted their programmers and luckily, they approved. She countersigned it and it’s done. But before we left, we asked her about the assignment and what’s her concept about it. At first, she can’t find any answer to that query because she’s not prepared. But because of my eagerness to have an answer from her, I rephrased the question. I asked her opinion about human resource management and there, we got something from her.

Ms. Lobo said that human resource is a vital element of any organization; human resource department is the heart of the company. According to her, to be an HR manager is not that easy, she has to deal with more than 100 different souls. Her role and the role of the human resource department is to bring out the best of their employees and professionalism should be seen from all of their employees, for them to serve and offer the quality service that their clients need.

I agree with what Ms. Lobo answered and her concept as an HR manager is similar to the management of her company. It is definitely true that human resource is really the heart of the company. An organization can’t stand long if not because of the people behind it. It is really a vital factor of any organization, because it depends to them the downfall and the success of their organization.

2nd interview..yeah!!

2008-09-16T00:53:00.000-07:00

September 12, 2008..

At long last we have all the data that we need...wew!!
we can now start with our major paper...
....Goodluck to us....

BPO Job fair and Forum..

2008-09-06T20:00:00.000-07:00

Last August 30, 2008, a job fair was held at the Sangguniang Panglusod and at the same time, a forum was conducted. I went there around 2pm so I didn't have the chance to listen to some of the speakers, but according to my classmates, speakers from Cybercity oriented them about call center industries and conducted a seminar for teachers on how to guide their students on pursuing a career in the BPO industry. A speaker from MTC discussed about being a medical transcriptionist and how he became one.

The next speaker is from e-telecare (I was there na..), she shared to us her story on how she became a recruitment officer of e-telecare. She imparted to us some tips on how to practice our english and inspired us to gain confidence. We asked some questions and she answered them politely. A recruitment officer also from suRecruit tackled the process on how to be a technical support or a customer support representative.

The speakers were really good and I learned a lot from them...

Afraid of Karma? Don't do this--->

2008-07-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

A girl should be thankful for being single, or should she?

This is something which is inevitable during adolescence. Truly, one should be more thankful if she has suitors, especially if you get your share of roses in which you could put up your own flower shop, and the chocolates. But surprisingly, some teens now toy with the usual courtship and is getting fun out of it.

The saturation of suitors is truly an annoying scene to some. But to others, who deem it as something entertaining, a new kind of game had sprung, inspired by the 2003 movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 days. This game, along with its simple rules and easy game play, is the new revolution in the traditional courtship. Gone were the days when girls play peek-a-boo; behold, the newest game, How to Lose a Guy.

To play this game has its own requirements. It requires a girl who is femme fatale, battle-hardened, true heiress of a bloodline of man-haters, and possesses the determination to wreak havoc on men’s lives, whether they be gentlemen, or just the usual boy in the neighborhood. The success lies solely on the player’s skills. Actually, there are a thousand-and-one ways to lose a guy, but the ones enumerated here are a surefire way in achieving your goal:

1. Call him in times when he’s so busy. Since he’s so busy, entertaining you would be such a burden for him.

2. Never show up on your scheduled dates with him. He’d probably get tired and just give up the wait.

3. Pamper him to the point that it’s so sweet that it actually sucks. In this way, he would probably get sick of you acting like his mom.

4. Ask for something which is way too expensive for him. He’d think you’re such a high-maintenance girl and brood over his shortcomings.

5. Wear the clothes he doesn’t like you to wear. He might never go out with you again.

6. Pester him with frequent mood swings. Never give him a hint that you’re just making it up. Show disinterest in everything he says. Make sure it’s complete with all the facial expressions, especially the part where you roll your eyes.

7. Tell him you want his hair shaved off; otherwise, you’ll leave him. He might cry and pray you change your mind.

8. Tease him as a momma’s boy. He just might get sick of you making fun of him. If he asks you if you love him, reply with “Nope, but I bet your mom does”. He might get teary-eyed because you just broke his romantic moment.

9. Belittle him in front of his friends. He’d probably be too embarrassed to talk anymore. Beat him at his favorite video game, and call him “loser”. Tell the world what a sucker he is.

10. Deny that you’re his girlfriend whenever someone asks if the two of you are a couple. You might get shocked of his reaction after saying this.

11. Go out with another guy. This might get a little out hand, but don’t worry, you’ll never get hurt, but the two guys will.

The last and the most important thing you should remember:

12. You should never, ever fall in love with any of the guys you were supposedly toying with. If this happens, the game is over. The result would be chaotic, and you’ll just find yourself hurt and your heart bleeding.

Following these guidelines would ensure your success, but one should be ready for any dire consequences that might occur if the situation goes a little bit out of hand. And just like any games we usually play, this has also its own downside which is sometimes hard to evade: falling in love…

Assignment #6

2008-07-12T09:09:00.000-07:00

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

How can an organization stand without human beings? Yes, it's definitely true that human beings are the most important, potent and critical resource of an organization. An organization is composed of people, these people are responsible why an organization was made and why it's still alive.

World is in a constant change, and people also do. As time pass by, we people also undergo changes and one of these changes is our attittude. There are times that we became so moody that it affects our perfomance and the relationship we have with others, in here applies the truth that human beings are least understood and the worst managed. Each of us are unique, we have our own opinions, ideas and different personalities that sometimes causes conflict.

Human beings are the best and worst part of an organization...

Why HRM included in IT/CS Curriculum?

2008-07-10T19:07:00.000-07:00

In my own point of view, HRM was included because it is very necessary for us to broaden our knowledge on how to deal with people and to know deeply how human resource affects a company. Since Human resource is a significant factor in a company, people working on that company should know how to manage their relationship towards their co-worker. The subject HRM, will also help us prepare ourselves to face the real challenge after we graduate.

As what Mr. Gamboa said, "IT people will be the cause of company's progress or failure". From this statement, an idea sparked on my mind that as technology evolves, companies also goes up to a higher level that's why they need a computer expert or US IT people to run the company's system. But it is also up to us on how we manage our job, whether we make the company progressive or put the company down. That's why, this subject needs a deep understanding and analysis to have a clear idea why human resource is important.

21st Century Corporations

2008-07-08T22:22:00.000-07:00

21st Century is already here, along with this is the evolution of technology. Technology, which is the major factor why we have all these things today. Because of technology, several things had change and develop, and a corporation is one of them. A corporation is the most common form of business organization , and one which is chartered by a state and given many legal rights as an entity separate from its owners.

Today, as we live in the 21st Century, corporations have gone far and start to take on a role of greater social responsibility. It is clear that this increase in power brings with it greater responsibility. I have observed nowadays that corporations are very competitive and have greater social participation in terms of its “civic” involvement. They provide value for the entire society in which it functions with initiatives that are not just limited to its strict area of activity. Human Resources are very significant to a corporation today, because it's the head and the hand that runs the whole corporation.

Assignment #3

2008-06-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

Downsizing- In a business enterprise, downsizing is reducing the number of employees on the operating payroll. Some users distinguish downsizing from a layoff , with downsizing intended to be a permanent downscaling and a layoff intended to be a temporary downscaling in which employees may later be rehired. Businesses use several techniques in downsizing, including providing incentives to take early retirement and transfer to subsidiary companies, but the most common technique is to simply terminate the employment of a certain number of people.

McClatchy Plans to Cut 1,400 Jobs, 10% of Workforce

June 16 (Bloomberg) -- McClatchy Co., owner of the Miami Herald and 29 other daily newspapers, will cut about 1,400 jobs, or 10 percent of its workforce, to save $70 million annually after a record drop in industrywide advertising sales.
The reductions are part of a plan to cut costs as much as $100 million in the next four quarters, Sacramento-based McClatchy said today in a statement. The Miami Herald plans to eliminate 250 positions, or 17 percent of its staff, and the Charlotte Observer will cut 123 positions, or 11 percent, the newspapers reported.
Tribune Co. and New York Times Co. have also reduced staff to save money as companies that historically advertised in newspapers shift their spending to the Internet. Newspaper print ad sales slumped 14 percent in the first quarter, the most on record, the Newspaper Association of America said June 13.

Causes of downsizing:
*Ad sales at McClatchy, which also publishes the Sacramento Bee, fell 17 percent in May after a 15 percent decline in the first quarter.
*The company was hurt by the housing market slump in California and Florida, where it owns eight daily newspapers.
*McClatchy fell 11 cents to $8.04 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares have declined 36 percent this year.
*The stock has lost 84 percent of its value since the company announced plans in March 2006 to acquire Knight Ridder Inc., the second-largest U.S. newspaper chain at the time, for $4.1 billion.

The job cuts will come through attrition, employee buyouts and firings.

Reference:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aeB.8az79vQA
http://www.bitpipe.com/tlist/Downsizing.html

Assignment #2

2008-06-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

5 online job services

1. Computer graphic artist
> Skilled professional that design ads at an agency and uses graphic design skills in the world of Web Design.

2. Online Consultant
> An experienced individual that offers an online consultation, trained to analyze and advise a client in order to help the client make the best possible choices.

3. Customer service and support
> It is part of a company's customer relationship management (CRM) department that interacts with a customer for their immediate benefit, including components such as the contact center, the help desk, and the call management system.

4. Network Administrator
> A computer expert who is responsible for the maintenance of computer hardware and software that comprises a computer network. It is also related to network specialist and network analyst. The administrator is responsible for the security of the network. Their work can also include the maintenance of the network's authorization infrastructure, as well as network backup systems.

5. Web Developer
> Is responsible for programming the functionality of a website. A web developer is a software developer who is specifically engaged in the development of World Wide Web applications, or distributed network applications that are run over the HTTP protocol from a web server to a web browser. Developers often specialize in either front-end or back-end work.

Source: http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/dictionary/definition/what-is-customer-service-and-support.html
http://www.mariosalexandrou.com/definition/web-developer.asp
www.wikipedia.com http://www.google.com.ph/search?hl=en&q=web+developer+definition&meta

>>Among the 5 online jobs that I have mentioned, I really appreciate the job of a network administrator. According to my research, the responsiblities of a network administrator are not that easy, he/she should be an expert to excel on this field. But I prefer to be a web developer because it's much related to my course and I hope I can apply my learnings with this job someday.

Human Resource Managenent assign #1

2008-06-14T05:44:00.001-07:00

Job: Web Developer

Description: seeking talented, experienced, and creative online community developers with a minimum of 2 years experience in website development and familiar with social networking websites (friendster, myspace, facebook, etc.)

Needed Qualification:
*proficient in HTML, CSS, and Javascript
*can implement web pages using mockups/prototypes/templates

Personal Qualifications:
*someone open minded, professional, respectful of himself/herself and others
*excellent communicator
*organized, honest, ethical, and a hard worker

Salary: PHP 25000