Assignment #7

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

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

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

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..

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.