Chapter 15- Utility Computing

According to Wikipedia, "Utility computing is the packaging of computing resources, such as computation and storage, as a metered service similar to a traditional public utility" (2008).

This is an interesting article I found today regarding the use of utility computing in a company. The article revolves around 3Tera's cloud computing technology made in place in Australia and New Zealand. According to the article, the AppLogic operating system, grid operating system for scalable web applications and services, is the first platform that is designed to create utility computing.

Furthermore, the author of the article indicated that cloud and utility computring allow the company to focus more on building its applications rather than modifying code, moving data and others.

According to the article, "the architecture of the AppLogic is unique in four important aspects:"

1. "AppLogic makes Linux and Windows an integral part of the infrastructure"
2. "AppLogic makes infrastructure an integral part of each application"
3. "AppLogic treats distributed applications as first-class objects"
4. "AppLogic is a grid operating system for web applications"

The following are links to what Applogic operating is all about and the article itself.

http://www.3tera.com/Technology/
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/268104/firstservis_launches_3tera_cloud_computing_technology_australia_new_zealand

Chapter 12- Voice Technologies

I stumbled on this article. The article is about voice technology. To be specific, the article talks about iPhone getting voice-powered search from Google. With this kind of application, users of iPhone will be able to conduct searches using their voices rather than using typing, something that is currently done by all iPhone users. The article talks about how the voice search application works. The detailed processes of how voice search application works is in the article.

The article also states that through a collaboration with Apple, Google is finally catching up with its existing competitors, that is, Microsoft and Yahoo. It's just interesting to know that Google continuously diversifies its line of products to compete with the aforementioned companies and stay competitive in the marketplace. I believe that this collaboration will help both Google and Apple gain competitive advantages in the business environment.

The link of the article is shown below: Have a nice time reading this article.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/11/iphone_gets_voi.html

Chapter 12- Artificial Intelligence

I found this article today regarding the use of artificial intelligence. Basically, the article states that artificial intelligence is near from perfectly mimicking a human, that is, in terms of allowing one to simultaneously speak with different people at the same. Although it's quite interesting that artificial intelligence makes a beneficial contribution to the companies as a whole through lower labor costs and increased efficiency, it somehow is detrimental to a number of employees within the company (i.e. laying off employees in exchange for automation).

Although artificial intelligence can never be a substitute to a human, artificial intelligence, for example in this article, can analyze vast amount of data, can reason out like human do, among others. I believe that the article was correct in claiming that in some parts, computers do better jobs at analyzing and understanding the needs of individuals. I totally agree with the article when it said that artificial intelligence has tremendously grown and advanced in the recent years and that it had gradually creeping in and becoming more integrated in the social fabric of the world.

If you want to read more about the article, or if you want the detailed information, please just click the link below:

http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/2008/nov/05/artificial-intelligence-reaching-new-heights/

MiniCase 1: Lexmark International Improves Operations with BI

4. How can the system improve customer service?
There are several ways that business intelligence can improve customer service. One of the ways is by having the right and updated information at the right time, thus allowing the customer service representative or the likes to provide timely, update and accurate services to the customers. With the use of BI system, the organization or the individual providing services to the (prospective) customers will have a clear idea as to what products are missing in the store, the inventory level of products, and others. By understanding such concepts or intricate information, the organization or representative of the organization will be able to best serve the needs of its customers.

5. Go to MicroStrategy's Web Site (microstrategy.com) and examine the capabilities of Retail IB system. Prepare a list.
In MicroStrategy's Web Site, two different business intelligence services and products are discussed: The MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Platform and MicroStrategy Business Intelligence Services.

Features of BI Platform
1. Unification of reporting, analysis and real-time business.
2. Simple initial implementation.
3. Low entry cost.

Features of BI Services
1. Maximization of organization's return on investment through the utilization of hundreds of professionals of Microstrategy.
2. Services provide include consulting and beta programs.

6. Go to the SAS Web Site (sas.com) and find their Retail Intelligence product (take interactive tour). Compare it with Microsoft's product. Also, compare it with Oracle Retail (oracle.com/retek).

SAS' Retail Intelligence, Microsoft Intelligence Products, and Oracle Retail
SAS Retail Intelligence:
-provides right information, at the right time and at the right format.
-fast, simple and complete system.
-provides capabilities that are appropriate in different skills within the organization.
-allows users to see relationships among data, documentations that are not easily available in manual or non-usage of BI system.
-provides services like reporting, office integration, query and analysis, OLAP, business visualization and integrated analytics.

Microsoft Business Intelligence:
- breaks down its business intelligence by personal BI, team BI and organizational BI.
-provides services like data warehousing, data integration, OLAP, reporting, analysis, predictive analytics, scorecards and dashboards, planning and budgeting, delivery, and enterprise research.
-BI services provides the needed services in different business roles, industry, and segment.
-Microsoft has four different kinds of BI products: SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, 2007 Office System, and PerformancePoint Server 2007.
www.microsoft.com/bi

Oracle Retail
- It monitors business processes or activities in real-time and alerts staff members to exceptions or the next business process.
- It enhances product cycle managmeent and improves supply-chain management.
- It increases productivity.
- Improved uniformity of business operations.
- Oracle Retail has different products. These products include not only Retail Intelligence but also Oracle Database, Oracle Retail DataWarehouse, Oracle Retail Business Intelligence Accelerator, Oracle Retain Extract, Transform and Load, Oracle Retail Integration Bus and Oracle Retail Integrator.
http://www.oracle.com/applications/retail/bi/index.html

Some More Info about Knowledge Management

This is a website where you can find additional information about knowledge management. The pieces of information found in this website are not found elsewhere in the book we're using. I found it quite informative and hope you find it informative too. Just like the reasoning of the author of the article, I believe that in most of the organizations, if not all, there needs to have some forms of technology to support the organizations' knowledge management activities.

According to the article, in order for an organization to mitigate risks innate within and out of the control of the company, and to get the best possible project outcomes, organizations needs to abandon the use of the term knowledge management system (KMS). According to the author of the article, "the use of KMS is likely to cause considerable when evaluationg potential solutions."


http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/cmb_kmsystems/index.html

10.8 Ensuring Success of KM Efforts

Knowledge Management System (KM System) refers to a system for managing knowledge in organizations, supporting creation, capture, storage and dissemination of information (Wikipedia, 2008).

Organizations are able to gain substantial from the adoption and implemention of the knowledge management system or strategy. The following are the benefits of, causes of failure of, the factors leading to the success of, and the potential drawbacks of knowledge management systems.

Knowledge Management Valuation
- Asset-based approach. This approach starts with the identification of intellectual assets and then focuses on the organization's management's attention on increasing their value.
- Links knowledge to its applications and business benefits. It uses variants of a balanced scorecard, where financial measures are balanced against customer, process and innovation measures.

Types of Measures for Assessing the Effectiveness of a KM Initiative
- Results-oriented. This is financial in nature and might include such things as increase in goods sold.
- Activities-based. It considers how frequently users are accessing knowledge or contributing to knowledge.

Financial Metrics. Though traditional accounting measures are incomplete for measuring KM, they are sometimes being used to justify KM effort.
Nonfinancial Metrics. When one needs to evaluate intangibles, the following are the different ways to view capital.
- External Relationship Capital. Links with its partners, suppliers, customers, and others.
- Structural Capital. Work processes and systems that leverage competitiveness.
- Human Capital. This include the capacity and abilities of individuals.
- Social Capital. Relationship with the larger society.
- Environmental Capital. Relationships with the environment.

Causes of KM Failure
There are a number of reasons why knowledge management cause to fail. It is estimated that KM failure rates from 50 to 70 percent. These causes include but not limited to the following:
1. Too much information that is not easily searchable.
2. Inadequancy/Incompleteness of information in the system.
3. Inability to capture and categorize knowledge.
4. Lack of Commitment.
5. Overemphasis on technology at the expense of larger knowledge and people.
6. Lack of inadequate staff and resources.
7. Lack of clear understanding of KM benefits.
8. Overambitious scope of the KM effort.

Factors Leading to KM Success
The following steps are critical for every organization wishing that its organization to have a successful knowledge management systems.
1. Assess the strategic need for knowledge management in the first place.
2. Determine the current process of dealing with organizational knowledge is adequate and the organization's culture is ready for procedural changes.
3. Have an effective managerial influence in terms of control and measurement, project management and others.
4. Have key resources such as financial resources and cross functional expertise.
5. Take advantage of technological opportunities.
6. A knowledge-friendly culture leading directly to user support.
7. A link to a firm's economic value, to demonstrae financial viability and maintain executive sponsorship.
8. A level of process orientation to make a knowledge management effort worthwhile. In other words, new, improved work methods can be developed.

Potential Drawbacks To Knowledge Management Systems
1. Adaptability. Inability to deliver the expected performance outcomes.
2. Usability: Some users are not capable enough to use automated tools to get required information.

For more information about Knowledge Management visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_Management_System

Appendix 9A. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)- is a communication standard that enables the electronic transfer of routine documents such as purchase orders, between business partners. It reduces the costs, delays, and errors inherent in a manual document-delivery system.

Major Components of EDI
1. EDI Transistors. Converts data into a standard format before it is transmitted; then, the standard form is coverted to the original data.
2. Business transaction messages. These messages include but are not limited to purchase orders, confirmations and others.
3. Data formatting standards. Because EDI messages are repetitive, standards need to be formatted. These standards are formatted based on ANSI X.12.

The Benefits of EDI
1. Data entry errors are minimized. Because human has a limited role in entering data and that only one entry and an automatic check by the computer are done, the errors in data entry are substantially minimized.
2. Increased productivity. With minimization of data entry and of paper usage, employees within the organization are able to devote their time in more productive and effective ways. In short, they are able to use their time to different tasks and responsibilities that may not be possible without the adoption and utilization of EDI.
3. Minimized paper usage. Because data are stored in a computer system, the use of paper is minimized.
4. Increased customer service. Because all data are stored in a computer system, or in this case, EDI, customer service representatives are able to pull up information to effectively provide service to customers.

Limitations of Traditional EDI
1. Only about 100,000 companies out of several million businesses adopt the traditional EDI.
2. Due to its costs, only a few businessess utilize EDI.
3. Inflexibility of traditional EDI system.
4. Business processes of organizations need to be restructured to fit EDI requirements.

Benefits of Internet-based EDI
1. Accessibility. Because internet is easily accessible anywhere and has only a limited geographical constraints, Internet-based EDI is also easily accesible anywhere, thereby giving organizations more rooms for doing business instead of just doing such business in one room/building.
2. Reach. Because of internet's ability to reach wider demographics and geographical locations, organizations that are utilizing internet-based EDI can reach more trading/business partners.
3. Cost. Because internet-based EDI has lower costs than traditional EDI, more and more businesses are utilizing this type of EDI and fewer businesses use traditional EDI. With internet-based EDI, organizations will not necessarily have to pay for network transport, transalation and routing of EDI messages that companies using traditional EDI utilize.
4. Ease of Use. Because internet-based EDI are done using the internet, it is easier for employees to this type of EDI since almost everyone is familiar with the use of web browsers, search engines and others.
5. Added functionalities. The benefits of internet-based EDI includes collaboration, workflow and search engines capabilities.

Types of Internet-Based EDI
1. Internet e-mail can be used to transport EDI messages in place of a VAN.
2. EDI creates an extranet that enable trading partners of the organization to enter information into a Web form.

The Prospects of Internet-Based EDI
The following are excellent examples of the benefits of internet-based EDI:
1.Rapid Growth at CompuCom. When the organization adopted the use internet-based EDI and abandoned the use of traditional EDI, the organization was able to average 35,000 transactions.
2. Recruitment at Tradelink. When tradelink switched to internet-based system, it registered thousands of new companies to the systems.
3. Better Collaboration at Atkins Carlyle. When the organization moved to an internet-based EDI, the company was able to collaborate with more business partners.

Most pieces of information contained in this specific blog were obtained from Information Technology for Management Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy 6E by Turban, Leidner, McLean and Wetherbe

8.9 Managerial Issues

8.9 Managerial Issues
This section delineates the managerial issues that organizations may face in their efforts to employing supply chain management in their respective organizations.

1. Ethical Issues- It is true that conducting or employing supply chain management project in an organzation may result in the need to lay off, retrain and or transfer employees. Although, in general, supply chain management helps an organization streamline its operation, cut costs and increase overall company productivity, SCM results in activities mentioned above. Is it ethically justifiable to employ such project when a number of employees will be terminated? Is it just to share personal information in order to create an effective SCM? The answer to these questions is no.

2. How much to integrate?- Integration of supply chain segments may result in failure. This failure may include but not limited to the difficulty of utilizing and understanding technologies, inability of the technology to simplify processes that customers would be able to know easily, cost of maintaining such technology and among others. Instead of integrating the technologies of the company, the company itself may just want to connect any activities to ensure that each single activity is separate from each other and that each single activity is understandable and user-friendly for the users and customers.

3. Role of IT- SCM projects use information technology. Without IT, SCM efforts do not succeed. Oftentimes, technology plays the primary role in an organization rather than a supportive role, which should not be the case. However, without information technology, SCM efforts would not succeed. In short, there tends to be a problem as to what the role of IT truly is. The organizations must ensure that they recognize the fact IT takes the supportive role. This is because if for some reasons the information technology side of the company fails, the company itself fails as well.

4. Organizational Adaptibility- Because organization processes must conform to the software, not the other way around when it comes to adopting enterprise resources planning (ERP), some companies may have a difficult time adjusting when a new software is used. This is where dilemma exists. Some organizations have the capacity to adjust to new software changes, and some are not. Some organizations will be willing to adjust in order to utilize better software and some are not.

5. Going global- EC provides an opportunity to expand market globally. However, going global means that a company has to comply with different rules and regulations or laws set forth by different countries. This means that a company may have different kinds of operations in different countries. This also means that the costs associated with complying with the set laws might be high, which can create the organization's overall profitability and viability in the marketplace.

6. The customer is king/queen- It is always said that customers are always the top priority of organizations. Therefore, the organizations must ensure that even the smallest change of technology or adoption of it is easily understandable and beneficial to the customers. After all, it is the customers that make an organization survive in the globally-competitive marketplace. The organization must ensure that even though they are taking advantage of the benefits of the digital age, they must be aware that the end product must be customer-friendly.

7. Set CRM policies with care- In practicing CRM, a number of companies may give priority to more valuable customers (e.g. frequent buyers). Since frequent buyers are more of avid customers of the organization, the organization tends to give these customers discounts, coupons, and others. However, people may see this as a form of discrimination. People may think that customers should and must have equal opportunities that others get. Therefore, the organization must place care with its CRM policies to ensure that individuals are treated equally.

5.1 Overview of E-Business and E-Commerce

DEFINITIONS AND CONCEPTS

Although people think that e-commerce and e-business are the same, technically, e-business refers to a broader definition of e-commerce.

E-commerce (EC)- describes the process of buying, selling, transferring, servicing or exchanging products, services, or information via computer networks.
E-business- refers not only to buying and selling of goods and services, but also servicing customers, collaborating with business partners, conducting e-learning and conducting electronic transactions within an organization.

EC can take several forms depending on the degree of digitization. The degree of digitization can relate to: (1) the product (service) sold, (2) the process, or (3) the delivery agent (or intermediary). In traditional commerce, all three dimensions are physical. Purely physical organizations are referred to as brick-and-mortar organizations. If there is at least one digital dimension, then it is called partial EC.

TYPES OF E-COMMERECE TRANSACTIONS
The common types of e-commerce transactions are the following:
1. Business-to-business (B2B)- both sellers and the buyers are business organizations. (e.g. Dell and ASUS)
2. Collaborative commerce (c-commerce)- business organizations/partners collaborate electronically. (e.g. airline companies)
3. Business-to-consumers (B2C)- sellers are organizations and the buyers are individuals. (See http://appstatebryce.blogspot.com/) (e.g. Pizza Hut and us)
4. Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)- individuals sells products or services to other individuals. (e.g. EBay)
5. Business-to-business-to-consumers (B2B2C)- business sells to a business but delivers the product or service to an individual consumer. (e.g. Amazon)
6. Consumers-to-businesses (C2B)- consumers make known a particular need for a product or service, and suppliers compete to provide the product or service to consumers. (e.g. Priceline)
7. Intrabusiness (interorganizational ) commerce- organization uses EC internally to improve its operations. (e.g. company's website where you can do your supply request, etc.)
8. Government-to-citizens (G2C) and to others- government entity provides servicesto its citizens via EC technologies. (e.g. USPS, FAFSA, etc.)

MAJOR BUSINESS MODELS OF EC
1. Value-chain integrators- Integrators aggregate information and package it for customers, vendors, or others in the supply chain.
2. Online auctions- Businesses conduct online tendering, requesting quotes from suppliers.
3. E-classified- presentation of items for sale at fixed prices. Popular sites are craiglist.com and classifieds2000.com.
For more major business models of EC, visit www.digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html.

BRIEF HISTORY OF EC
1. Early 1970s- EC applications began in the early 1970s with such as innovations as electronic transfer of funds (ETF). Then came along electronic data interchange (EDI).
2. Early 1990s- EC applications expanded rapidly, following the commercialization of the Internet and the introduction of the Web.
3. Over the last 12 years- EC has continuously added products and services.

THE SCOPE OF EC
1. People- e.g. sellers, buyers, intermediaries and any external participants.
2. Public policy- legal and other policy and regulating issues that are determined by the government and by international agreements.
3. Marketing and Advertising- EC requires the support of marketing and advertising, like any other business.
4. Support Services- Many services, ranging from payments to order fulfillment, are needed to support EC.
5. Business partnerships- joint ventures, e-marketplaces and business partnerships are common in EC.

BENEFITS OF E-COMMERCE
The following are the benefits of e-commerce. Note that the information delineated below are just few of the many benefits that e-commerce offers.

To Organizations
1. Shortens or even eliminates marketing distribution channels, making products cheaper and vendors' profits higher.
2. Enables companies to procure material and services from other countries, rapidly and at less cost.
3. Help some small businesses compete against large companies.

To Customers
1. Makes it possible for people to work and study at home.
2. Makes possible electronic auctions that benefit buyers and sellers.
3. Retrieves relevant and detailed information.

To Society
1. Allows some merchandise to be sold at lower prices, therby increasing people's standards of living.
2. Enables individuals to work at home and to do less traveling, resulting in less road traffic, less energy use and less air pollution.

LIMITATIONS OF E-COMMERCE
As we all know there is always two sides of a coin. In the e-commerce example, though there are benefits attached to the use of e-commerce, there are also limitations/disadvantages attached to e-commerce. The following are few of the many limitations of e-commerce.

Technological Limitations
1. Insufficient telecommunications bandwidth.
2. Still-evolving software.
3. Need for special Web servers in addition to the network servers.
4. Lack of unversally accepted standards for quality, security, and reliability. 5. Some websites require softwares/application programs that are not readily available on a standard browser.6. Limitations of access using, dial-up, ISDN, cable or wireless connections.

Nontechnological Limitations
1. Some unresolved legal issues
2. Some unresolved ethical issues
3. Perception that EC is expensive and unsecured.
4. Many sellers and buyers waiting for EC to stabilize before they take part.
5. An insuffficient number of sellers and buyers exists for many EC products and services. 6. People's resistance to change especially when change comes with acquiring new knowledge for such specific change.
7. Information is limited to what is posted on the website. People may want more or they may ask for more information.
8. Wrongful use of personal information.

Most pieces of information contained in this specific blog were obtained from Information Technology for Management Transforming Organizations in the Digital Economy 6E by Turban, Leidner, McLean and Wetherbe

Boeing and the Virtual Collaboration

Everybody knows that Boeing is in the business of manufacturing airplanes. But not so many of us know that in 2007, it partnered with over 40 agencies from all over the world to develop a groundbreaking project known as the "787 Dreamliner". What's interesting about this project is that all agencies including Boeing did not need to meet in a single location. Some people may think that it is impossible. The truth is, with information technology anything is possible. They certainly work I.T. in their advantage. They explored and utilized "VIRTUAL COLLABORATION" to realize this project. They certainly adopted it with such perfection.

http://www.designnews.com/article/13616-Boeing_s_Global_Collaboration_Environment_Pioneers_Groundbreaking_787_Dreamliner_Development_Effort.php

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In its effort to create a groundbreaking project called “787 Dreamliner”, Boeing collaborated with Alenia Aeronautica, Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., Aerosystems Inc., and some other 40 global partners. These companies participated in a virtual development world where all aspects of the plane are designed, created and tested digitally before anything physically moved into production. Although it may seem impossible and/or tedious to develop such revolutionary project in the eyes of some individuals, with the advancement in information technology, nothing is impossible and everything is bound to happen. In this case, information technology works itself under the disguise of what is called as virtual collaboration.

With the use of virtual collaboration, Boeing and other partner companies were not only be able to decrease the costs of communicating with and gathering people around the world, it also helped them to gather the best set of individuals from different parts of the globe who had the knowledge and the capabilities to make this groundbreaking project possible. According to Wikipedia, virtual collaboration taps into a global network of intelligence. In short, with virtual collaboration, it is inevitable to gather the right people, with the right skills and right experiences at the right time. With virtual collaboration, Boeing and the other companies would be able to avoid any possible errors and/or unforeseen difficulties that would inevitably occur when these companies exchange information between different CAD tools. As Fowler said in the article, virtual collaboration was one way to ensure that the global team of partners would have access to the same product definition data and be able to collaborate effectively on a 24/7 basis from their various locales.

In my opinion, the benefits of utilizing virtual collaboration by Boeing and its partners truly outweigh the drawbacks that this collaboration may present (e.g. expenses, training of people in using this technology). I believe that for a company, like Boeing, that values time or understands the costs associated with delayed projects, virtual collaboration seems to be the perfect solution. Taking into account all the statements aforementioned earlier, it is clear that virtual collaboration avoids any delays, miscommunication among parties, among others. I believe that in a globally competitive and fast-paced environment of airline manufacturing, virtual collaboration is one of the best decisions that Boeing has ever made.

Photo (right) was taken from http://airlineworld.wordpress.com/2007/07/09/787-dreamliner-revealed/
Photo (left) was Lufthansa Technik's proposed master bedroom for a Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The photo was taken from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/17megajets%255B1%255D.xlarge1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/archives/2006/11/justification_for_a_higher_edu_1.html&h=300&w=600&sz=50&hl=en&start=16&um=1&usg=__8x-YUj_Z-jPtWbi0hXkfmuvwE_Y=&tbnid=B2JwbqQaj6VdsM:&tbnh=68&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dboeing%2B787%2Bdreamliner%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

Minicase 2.2

1. What were the major reasons the company had to use SOA?
A. The company wanted to maintain competitive advantage by adopting an application that can:
a. Support 50,000 simultaenous users
b. Improve application response time to less than a second
c. Be made in 90 days or less

2. In what ways did they gain competitive advantage by using SOA?
By using SOA, the company was able to quickly and easily collect and analyze data from multiple sources.

3. What specific services can you identify in a business like this?
In a business like this, the kind of services that can be identified is a service that offers consumers credit reporting, credit scoring and related financial services on both its own and its partners' Websites.

4. Why is it so important to serve 50,000 simulatenous users?
I believe that it's important to serve 50,000 simulatenous users because of the fact that everyday, every single hour and every single minute thousands of people are requesting services like credit reporting, credit scoring and other things of that nature. Because of this, the company needs to ensure that there is a sufficient amount of available users supply to serve the consumers. It is a fact that when access to a server is limited to small number of users, the server or system tends to process slow, which would create backlog and problems for the company, would create complaints from customers and other concerns. In truth, no company would want to experience these problems.

5. Classify this application using the material in Section 2.2.
I would classify the application as communication and collaboration system, a system where employees and customers can interact and work together more efficiently. I would also classify this as document management system, where electronic documents, in this case the credit reports, scores, etc., can easily be obtained for the consumers.

DUKE ENERGY- PART II.B (The Essay)

Out of all the companies I've known, only Duke Energy seems to be straightforward and simple with its goal(s). Many companies tend to have a dozen of goals, but Duke Energy has only one, yet this one goal clearly speaks what the company is all about and what it is made of. This goal is "to build our bridges to a low-carbon future". This is where less-is-better principle applies. There's no doubt that its goal is related to its operational, managerial and strategic activities.

The Goal and The Operational Activities- Duke energy is in the operation of providing electricity to its consumers. It is a fact, though many people may not believe, that the adverse effects of providing electricity are the by-products of providing electricity itself (i.e. greenhouse gas(GHG), carbon dioxide (CO2). This is why I believe that its goal is directly related, without a doubt, to its operational activities.

The Goal and The Managerial Activities- The way I see Duke Energy's managerial activities is by looking at its efforts in investing and building new generation plants, developing its talent base and engaging with stakeholders to understand all viewpoints and find the best path to suistanable carbon reduction. I believe that the goal is related to the managerial activities because all the activities delineated above will inevitably result in having a low-carbon future. It will result in a low-carbon future because it is investing in generation plants that produce low-carbon, developing a workforce that can succesfully transition to a low-carbon future and communicating with stakeholders for recommendations and other actions to achieve a low-carbon future.

The Goal and The Strategic Activities- Duke Energy takes a different route in terms of achieving its goal by implementating a number of revolutionary strategic activities. Its strategic activities not only include investing in technologies and its people but also shaping the country's public policy and taking the stand that the sooner it starts, the greater the benefits. Duke Energy, as a strategy to achieving its goal, is pursuing passage of federal carbon legislation that will give electric utility industry the time it needs to make the transition to low carbon generation, without severe damage to the economy and customers. This, I believe, is how its goal is related to its strategic activities.

I believe that most of the burden in ensuring that activities are implemented accordingly are the executives and the managers. I believe that to make a sound decision, one needs to know the activities from the past up to the present. As for me, I believe that the best way by which they can effectively fulfill their roles is through the application of business intelligence. Because business intelligence, as a form of information system,can provide historical and current data, situations and performance, it will be able to provide the managers and the executives the valuable insights so they can make better decisions, which would affect the activities described above.

Some information were obtained from the website of Duke Energy.

WALMART- PART II.A (The Essay)

I've come to realize that mother Earth is not getting any better. I've come to realize that companies should not be only focusing with profits but also thinking of things that they can do to save the ailing world, a world that cries for help and that begs for consideration. Through the help of my teammates and without their knowings, we've chosen two companies that care or started to care for the environment: Walmart and Duke Energy.

Be shocked but don't be cynical. Walmart is going green for good. Like people, companies change for the better and Walmart is starting to do that. The goals seem to be far-fetched and idealistic but nevertheless, these are the kind of goals that the world's biggest retailer wants to achieve. One question remains: How do Walmart's goals relate to its operational, managerial and strategic activities? I believe that the following are the answers:

Operational Activities and Walmart's Goals- Walmart is attached to almost anything from electronics to school supplies. Its goals are related to its operational activities in that this company's operations or the arrays of goods and services it provides directly tie back to its goals. For example, Walmart is known for transporting goods by land using trucks, which are a part of its current goals. Walmart provides a variety of natural products, which are obtained from the environment, which is the primary focus of the current goals.

Managerial Activities and Walmart's Goals- Though many people are unaware or simply do not care, Walmart has been investing approximately $500 million annually in technologies and innovation to fulfill its store goals. Walmart has also indicated that it is adoptiong a stting and construction policy in the next 12 months that addresses environment, social and historical considerations. In my opinion, these are two of the many decisions that reflect managerial activities of Walmart, decisions that play a vital role in achieving its goals.

Strategic Activities and Walmart's Goals- Walmart's goal is related to its strategic activities in a way that Walmart is taking strides or actions that are environmentally sound and safe. Walmart indicated that it has been looking at innovative ways to reduce greenhouse effects gas emission and it is taking responsibility for its actions (e.g. if its trucks are inefficient from a fuel standpoint, it'll pay for that at the diesel pump). These are the kinds of strategic activities that, I believe, will not only positively affect the way the corporate world views Walmart but will also help it to achieve its internal goals.

Walmart is worth more than $228 billion based on market capitalization and to effectively support all the aforementioned activities means that the kind of information technology that needs to be instituted are the very large and special systems. This allows each department to have its own system in placed (e.g. accounting department will utilize accounting information and operations department will utilize operational decision support system). This will allow departments to fully and effectively utilize systems that are exclusive for them. In then end, the performance of the departments will likely increase with the help of the information technology and in turn, will effectively and efficiently support the activities of the company.

Some information were obtained from http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/05/its_getting_har.php

Duke Energy and Walmart. PART I (Mission & Goals)

It took our group almost ten minutes to pick the two companies that we would want to discuss and we ended up with the notorious and the always-in-discussion "Walmart" and the silent yet essential in every business' business "Duke Energy."

WALMART
Mission- To help people save money so they leave better.
Goals:
1. Environment
A. To be supplied 100% by renewable energy.
B. To create zero waste.
C. To sell products that sustain our resources and environment.
2. Trucks
A. To increase fleet efficiency by 25% over the next 3 years and double it within ten years.
3. Stores
A. To reduce greenhouse gases at our existing store, club and DC base around the world by 20% over the next 7 years.
4. Waste
A. To reduce solid waste from U.S. stores and clubs by 25% in the next 3 years.
B. To work with suppliers to create les packaging overall, increase product packaging recycling and increase use of post-consumer material.
C. To replace PVC packaging for our private brands with alternatives that are more sustainable and recyclable within the next 2 years.

DUKE ENERGY
Mission- We make people's lives better by providing gas and electric services in a sustainable way. This requires us to constantly look for ways to improve, to grow and to reduce our impact on the environment.
Goals:
1. To build our bridges to a low-carbon future.

Does I.T. matter?

IT does matter
The number of evidences pointing out to the importance of IT is insurmountable. The number is so many and strong that it would take even the greatest minds a hundred years to write down all its positive effects. Below are some of the fundamental or basic important effects of IT.

1. Leveling the playing field across the globe. With information technology, people can have access to the same information that may be 5,000 miles away from their area. Businessmen from Pakistan can have access to the information from the United States of America and vice-versa. With IT, people have the opportunity to gain knowledge and current information that were not easily available before the advent of the information technology. With IT, the world has become smaller and flatter than ever before and IT made it possible for everybody to compete at the global market at the same level.Gone are the days when these people only used outdated books, publications and other reference materials to fulfill their fields of interests and to improve their understanding of and competitiveness in various aspects of the business. With information technology, everybody is equal and has the capacity to be better each passing day.

2. Security. With information technology, individual information whether personal, medical and/or business are protected from possible thieves, fraud users and others. Since many of the information are now electronically saved or input, IT professionals have a number of ways to protect the person's information and they also have ways to track down those people who have engaged in fraudulent activities. With information technology, people and their information are safer than ever before. It is true that price of being in a developed society is that everyone or anybody has the capacity to steal individual's information but with IT, individuals' information are safe (most probably) at all times.

3. Efficiency. With IT, job responsibilities can now be completed faster than ever before, some in less than 1 hour and some in just one click of a button. The efficiency resulting from IT extends across all divisions of a company, like operations, finance, medical records, among others. One great example is in the accounting field. Accountants used to perform and complete journal entries and prepare financial statements using paper. But with the use of accounting softwares like Peach Tree and QuickBooks, accountants can easily enter transactions in the system and print out statements in a couple of minutes (based on my personal experience working in an accounting office). In a nutshell, the use of IT in everyday work helps companies decrease labor costs and increase company productivity and output. On the other hand, the use of IT helps individuals increase their competencies, productivity and time that they can use for other business purposes.

IT does not matter
It is true that a coin has two sides and the same concept applies to IT. Though IT has some of the most innovative and world-changing positive effects, it has negative effects as well, negative effects that are overshadowed by the positive effects, but nevertheless, exist. Below are some of the negative effects.

1. Utilization Cost of IT. The cost of utilizing IT for a company is not always the best course of action especially for those small businesses. In reality, small companies do not have the sufficient amount of resources (i.e. funds) to engage in information technology activities nor have the time and money to train their employees on IT. Nicholas G. Carr said, in his article entitled "IT doesn't matter?", that corporate IT spending consistently show that greater expenditures rarely translate into superior financial results. In fact, as he said, the opposite is true. Instead of spending funds for IT, small companies can use them in more important and profit-generating activities like business/product marketing, business development and research and development. Even if the companies or small companies have already invested time and money on IT, IT in itself needs to be maintained and updated from time to time. In my perspectives, with regard to the small companies, the costs borne by IT far outweigh its benefits.

2. Ethical Concerns attached to IT. Nowadays, a number of employees are being displaced from their jobs by machines as cheap and effecient alternative workers. These machines are the products of IT. Corporations, whose main responsibility is to maximize profit, would replace manpower with machine power to lessen labor costs and the taxes attached to them. Is it ethically reasonable to replace individuals with machines as workers? The simple answer is no. Why is it that nowadays, countries experience higher unemployment rates than ever before? It is partly because machines displace individuals as workers. This is the result of IT. Closer examination of the negative effects of IT would reveal that not only are workers geting affected but also the economies of every affected country in the form of high unemployment rate, lower purchasing power, decrease in demand versus supply, among others. In the end, it is not the corporations that get hurt, it is both the economy and the individuals.

3. Training. Instituting IT in the workplace requires employee training. The reality is that, unfortunately, not everybody has the ability to understand IT especially those who don't like IT or do not have background at all. Although some will learn and continue to show productivity and competitiveness, some will fall behind and will never recover. Since companies' workforce goal is to elevate the ability of their employees, instituting IT and training them would go against their goal. It will create more than just division of IT competitive individuals from the ones that are not. It will create animosity, difficulty, among others.

Whether we think that IT matters or not, we can all agree that the true importance of IT is seen and felt only by each individual. When Peter Pan stole food from Captain Hook to feed the homeless people, some said that what he did was wrong and some went the opposite way. Just like Peter Pan's choice of action and as I said earlier, there are always two sides of a coin and I believe that this time, the benefits of IT far outweigh the negative effects.