CHAPTER 12: ETHICAL AND SOCIAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS

•       What concepts in the chapter are illustrated in this case? What ethical issues are raised by radiation technology?

There are three basic concepts that can be applied in ethics in an information society that is responsibility, accountability, and liability. The concept that illustrated in this case is accountability. Accountability can be defined as the responsibility to someone or for some activity. In this case hospital need to find the mechanism to identify the responsible parties for the radiation therapy kills. The research of New York City hospitals found that the key of this problem cause by the combination of the malfunctions and user error that cause the patient were exposed to excessive dosages of radiation in his body.

One of the ethical issues that raised by radiation technology is machine malfunction. Machine malfunction happens when technician was coding certain code of treating their patient; the machine was doing the other things. Moreover, human error is one of the ethical issues that rose by radiation technology. The technician had failed to notice error massage on the machine screen indicate that there is an error regards on the radiation therapy treatment.

Moreover, human error also is one of the ethical issues. This is because when technician wrongly setting the machine, it will affect the patients health. For example, as a result of the careless of the technician, Mr. Jerome-Parks receives an overdose radiation that make him experiences deafness and near-blindness, ulcers in his mouth and throat, persistent nausea, and severe pain. This will make the patient suffer because of the carelessness of the staff who in charge the machine.

Besides that, eethical issues that are raised by radiation technology is when scientist is finding ways to use radiation therapy to destroy cancerous cells while making sure that healthy cells are not being harmed. An incident occurred where Mr. Jerome-Parks “experienced deafness and near-blindness, ulcers in his mouth and throat, persistent nausea, and severe pain.” 

Organizations did not take the time to properly train doctors and medical technicians therefore incidents like Jerome-Parks happens. The machines that are used to ‘cure’ patients are not being appropriately updated and watch carefully. In this case study we can see that the technicians are not being fully responsible and being careless, and doctors that are not getting the full training for operating the machine. His concepts of ethics are illustrated in this chapter. Ethics is a concern of humans who have freedom of choice.

In this case we see that the carelessness or laziness of the medical technician, the lack of training in the handling of the equipment (software), also of the maintenance of the updates of the software can cause the life a person. These errors cause by humans or machines can be prevented: if software had some type of safeguards that control the amount of radiation that they can deliver, if the technician or machine operators were more aware of the message errors, that appear on the screen, and if the hospitals had given the proper training to their staff. Technicians, hospital and the software manufacturer all need to collaborated with each other to create a common set of safety procedures, software features in order to prevent this to happen, all of them are responsible. Each of them had the capacity to prevent this type of things to happen and they all decide to blame each other for their own mistakes.

The use of a central reporting agency could reduce the numbers of radiation therapy errors in the future because this enables the state to identify trends and exposures that may create safety concerns. If I were to design electronic software for a linear acceleration, I will certainly put some type of safeguards that control the amount of radiation that they can deliver, by this way trying to prevent the overdose of radiation.

•           What people, organization, and technology factors were responsible for the problems           detailed in this case? Explain the role of each.

People factors responsible for the problems detailed in this case are they lack of training of the staff. They failed to provide extensive training for doctors, technicians, and machine operations as well as insufficient staffs. The hospitals rarely able to adjust their staffing to handle those workloads or increase the amount of training technician receive before using newer machines. Medical technicians incorrectly assume that the new systems and software are going to work correctly, but in reality they have not have not been tested over long periods of time. They should have thought of creating a mandatory checklist for employees each time the machine was being used.

Next are organization factors. The organization doesn’t have the implementation an internal incident reporting system. The complicating issue is the fact that total number of radiation-related accidents each year is essentially unknown. There is no national medical patient medical record system, and doctor does not know how much radiation their patient has received in the past. No single agency exists to collect data across the country on these accidents, and many states don't even require that accident be reported.

The lack of knowledge on the machines, the lack of reporting these incidents for future references instead the doctors and technicians do not troubleshoot the problem unless it is serious and by that time the patient(s) is already injured.

Last but not least, technology is a factor that responsible for the problems detailed in this case. Technology factors are another responsible for the problems detailed in this case that is software glitches. The machines were not well designed, there was software glitch and “the complexity of new Linear accelerator technology has not been accompanied by with appropriate updates in software”.

•     Do you feel that any of the groups involved with this issue (hospital administrators, technicians, medical equipment, and software manufacturers) should accept the majority of the blame for these incidents?

I feel only the groups that involved with this issue there are machinery, hospital administration, technicians, government agencies should accept majority of the blame for these incidents. First errors caused by machinery complexity. When these highly complex machines used to treat cancers go awry, it results in suffering worse than the ailments radiation aims to cure.

Second is a hospital administration error. Medical machinery and software manufacturers claims that hospital that provide with radiation treatment should be responsible for training their staff to correctly operate radiological equipment.

Third is a technician. Technicians claim that they are understaffed and overworked and that there are no procedures in place that would check accuracy of their work.

Next is medical equipment. Hospitals on the other hand, claim that manufacturers should be doing better job providing radiation equipment with fail-safe mechanisms.

Last is a government agency. State government as a regulator and controller of groups involved in radiation therapy and the one who is majorly responsible for medical errors associated with radiological mistreatment. Industry Response: ASRT (American Society of Radiologic Technologists) members believe solution lies in the Consistency, Accuracy, Responsibility and Excellence in Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy (CARE S. 3737) bill before the          House. FDA (Food and Drug Administration) sent a letter in 2010 to manufacturers recommending they attend Public Workshops concerning these matters.
Timothy E. Guertin, Varian’s president and chief executive, said in an interview that after the accident, the company warned users to be especially careful when using their equipment, and then distributed new software, with a fail-safe provision.

•        How would a central reporting agency that gathered data on radiation-related accidents help reduce the number of radiation therapy errors in the future?

In the study case as we known the U.S. does not have a Central Reporting and Regulatory agency to report radiation technology errors. But, with using Utilize raw data like reporting techniques and consultation services they can make report radiation technology errors. Using the reporting techniques the hospitals can record the data about total number of radiation-related accident each year, national medical patient and the doctor know how much radiation their patients have received in the past. For consultation service the hospitals can get data about their patients and errors machines, from the National Radiology Data Registry (NRDR).Using the both of technique it will aid to change policy and procedures Managers within the MIS Complying with federal & state reporting mandates R&D of unique techniques that reduces personnel time and related costs in processing data, personnel, including mid-level management, senior to junior programmer analysts, provides 24-hour, 7-day support for communications network that will reap the benefits of technological change by building an economical, efficient, and salable and integrated computer system.

•       If you were in charge of designing electronic software for a linear accelerator, what are   some features you would include? Are there any features you would avoid?

If I were in charge of designing electronic software for a linear accelerator, the electronic software that I will include is check list on screen, fail-safe mechanism and program the system that need to be able to simultaneously include the technicians so they are aware of what is happening at all times. First, I would include is a check list on the screen. The check list on the screen that allows the technicians to double check and guarantee they would monitor the screen when necessary.

Second, a fail-safe mechanism should be put in place. Include an automatic alert that allows the system to shut down when it exceeds a radiation level that can cause harm to the human body.

Last but not least, program the system to have every crash sent back to the manufacturing/management firm. As we known in the case of Scott Jerome-Parks and Alexandra Jn-Charles, both patients in NYC hospitals, suffered terrible deaths due to carelessness of technicians, complex use of software, faulty machines, and poor state regulations. Mr. Jerome-Parks was treated for tongue cancer by using a newer linear accelerator which was the multi-leaf collimator. Due to the software's crashes, the medical physicist thought the saved radiation treatment plan was updated when it fact it was not. Mr. Jerome-Parks had 7x the prescribed amount of radiation and the multi-leaf collimator was wide open, exposing his whole neck.

Mrs. Jn-Charles was treated for breast cancer and had 28 sessions with a device known as a "wedge." For the first 27 sessions, technicians failed to notice an error message that the wedge was missing, which lead to radiation overdose.Using the check list on screen, fail-safe mechanism and program the system can avoid this problem in features.

CHAPTER 11: JETBLUE AND WESTJET: A TALE OF TWO INFORMATION SYSTEM PROJECTS

CHAPTER 11:

JETBLUE AND WESTJET: A TALE OF TWO INFORMATION SYSTEM PROJECTS

•              How important is the reservation system at airlines such as WestJet and JetBlue. How does it impact operational activities and decision making?

Airlines such as WestJet and JetBlue promote low-cost and high-efficiency carriers by giving extremely competitive fares and outstanding customer service. Reservation system for these airlines are so important that when these companies need to make sweeping IT upgrades, their relationships with customers and their brands can be tarnished if things go awry. This can be seen when in 2009, both airlines upgraded their airline reservation systems, SabreSonic CSS was launch, customers struggled to place reservations, and the WestJet Web Site crashed repeatedly. WestJet’s call centers were also overwhelmed, and customers experienced slowdowns at airports. This delay provoked a deluge of customer dissatisfaction. In addition to the increase in customer complaint calls, customers also took to the Internet to express their displeasure. Angry flyers expressed outrage on Facebook and flooded WestJet’s site, causing the repeated crashes.

These problems impact both of the airlines operational activities and decision making to change their initial carrier which had started out as a system designed for smaller start-up airlines to a better carrier. Other than that, both airlines needed more processing power to deal with a far greater volume of customers. They also needed features like the ability to link prices and seat inventories to other airlines with whom they cooperated. Both JetBlue and WestJet contracted with Sabre Holdings to upgrade their airline reservation systems. The differences between WestJet and JetBlue’s implementation of Sabre’s SabreSonic CSS reservation system illustrate the dangers inherent in any large-scale IT overhaul. It also serves as yet another reminder of how successfully planning for and implementing new technology is just as valuable as the technology itself.

•      Evaluate the risks of the projects to upgrade the reservation systems of WestJet and      JetBlue and key risk factors.

Upgrading reservations systems carries special risks. From a customer perspective, only one of two things can happen: either the airline successfully completes its overhaul and the customer notices no difference in the ability to book flights, or the implementation is botched, angering customers and damaging the airline’s brand.

The key risk factors that should be considered are the project size, project structure, and experience with technology. The project size is indicated by cost, time, number of organizational units affected, and issue of organizational complexity.

For WestJet, the critical issue that they face was the transfer of its 840, 000 files containing data on transactions for past WestJet customers who had already purchased flight, from its old reservation system serves in Calgary to Sabre servers in Oklahoma. The migration required WestJet agents to go through complex steps to process the data. Since WestJet had not anticipated the transfer time required to move the files, they had failed to reduce its passenger loads on flights operating immediately after the charge over.

Next key risk factor is the project structure. It is structured, defined requirements run lower risk. Hundreds of thousands of bookings for future flights that were made before the charge over were inaccessible during the file transfer from Calgary to Oklahoma. The files still cannot be access for a period of time thereafter, because Sabre had to adjust the flights using the new system.

Last but not least, they need to have experience with technology to deal with the risk. JetBlue learned from WestJet’s mistakes, and built a backup web site to prepare for the worst case scenario. JetBlue made sure to switch its files over to Sabre’s serves on a Friday night, because Saturday flight traffic is typically very low. JetBlue also sold smaller numbers of seats on the flights that did take off that day. JetBlue experienced a few glitches- call wait times increased and not all airport kiosks and ticket printers came online right away. But compared to WestJet, the company was extremely well prepared to handle problems and risk such as these.

•   Classify and describe the problems each airline faced in implementing its new reservation system. What people, organization, and technology factors caused those problems?

Both WestJet and JetBlue previously used a system designed for start-up airlines with simpler needs. As the carries grew, they needed more processing power to deal with increasing numbers of customers. They also wanted additional functions, such as the ability to link their prices and seat inventories to other airlines with whom they might wish to cooperate.

WestJet and JetBlue independently selected a system offered by Sabre holdings Corp. the system sells seats and collects passengers payment but it also controls much of the passengers experience: shopping on the airlines web site, interacting with reservation agents; using airport kiosks; selecting seats; checking bags; boarding at the gate; rebooking and getting refunds for cancellations.

The over might transitions of WestJet 840, 000 files didn’t go well. This is because the migration required WestJet agents to go through complex steps to process the data, making matters worse, WestJet didn’t reduce the number of passengers on the flights operating after the cutover, nor did it tell customers of its upgrade plans until the day of the switch. Westjet’s customer loyalty scores tumbled as a result of long waits and booking difficulties. The airline sent apology letters, offered flight credits to customers and bolstered call center with temporary staffers.

On the other hand, JetBlue make its switch on Friday night because Saturday traffic tends to be low. It also sold low numbers of seats on remaining flights with WesJet’s crashing web site issue, JetBlue develop a backup site to counter the crashing web site problem. However, there are still glitches call wait times increased and not all of the airport kiosks and ticket printers came online right away. But JetBlue had also experienced similar customer service debacles in the past. In February 2007, JetBlue tried to operate flights during a blizzard when all other major airlines had already canceled their flights. This turn out to be a poor decision, as the weather conditions prevented the flights from taking off and passengers were stranded for as long as 10 hours. JetBlue had to continue canceling flights for days afterwards, reaching a total of 1,100 flights canceled and loss of $30 million. JetBlue management realized in the wake of the crisis that the airline’s IT infrastructure, although sufficient to deal with normal day-to-day conditions, was not robust enough to handle a crisis of this magnitude. This experience, coupled with the observation of WestJet’s struggles when implementing its new system, motivated JetBlue’s cautious approach to its own IT implementation.

                                                                                     

•   Describe the steps you would have taken to control the risk in these projects?

The steps to control the risk / managing project risk involves identifying nature and level of risk of project; each project can then be managed with tools and risk-management approaches geared to level of risk; managing technical complexity which involves internal integration tools.

Next, inventory can also help control risk. The step is to inventory the situation. That is, identify all of the risks possible in the project. The inventory should include all internal factors for the project such as resource changes, assumption failures, and sponsor availability. It should also include all external factors such as a change in company direction or a change of technology direction. Most of all, however, it should include the things that are new in the project. If the project is working with a new technology, is using a new development methodology, or even if there are new, relatively unknown team members, these need to be listed as potential risks to the project. The purpose of the inventory phase isn’t to classify the risk or identify its importance. That step happens later. The goal is to collect all the risks. Once a list of potential risks is completed, it’s time to evaluate them. Each risk should be evaluated based both on its probability and on the impact that it would cause if it happens. The loss of a key team member may have a low probability; however, the impact to the project can be great. Some people struggle with the evaluation step because both of the numbers, percentage and impact, are guesses. They recognize that even subtle changes in the values for these numbers can have a huge impact on the total risk of the project. However, in general, the objective here isn’t to come up with a single number that represents each risk. The objective is to develop a framework for evaluating the various risks against one another. Although precision in the estimating process is useful it's not essential. The other factor to evaluate when looking at a risk is its duration--how long that it can have a potential impact on the project. For instance, the loss of a subject matter expert early in the project is a risk because their input is still needed.  However, later in the project they may not have much input and therefore aren't a risk if they leave. The risk of a functional analyst leaving is greatest in the initial phases of the project when they are intensively interacting with the customer. Later on in the project, the loss of the functional analyst has a smaller potential impact for the project. In order to get a consistent number for all of the risks, multiply the probability which should be per interval of duration by the impact and finally multiply that by the duration. The resulting number is a single number, a risk quotient, which can be used to prioritize risks within the project. For instance, if the probability of the risk happening in a given week is 10%, the number of weeks the risk may happen is 10 weeks, and the impact is $1000, the overall risk is $1000.  (.10*10*1000 = 1000)

Prioritize

Now that risk quotient for the various risks is identified, it's possible to prioritize the risks for the project. It’ll give a clear vision of what the risks are and which ones that’ll ultimately need to be concerned about. This is also a part of the process that typically helps validate the estimates made above. For instance, if the greatest risk is personnel turnover (as it usually is) then, the probability may have to be evaluated more objectively. If the average person stays at the organization for three years it can be assume a probability of them leaving in a given week is 1/156 (3x52 weeks/year) which is a 0.00641 percent chance.

Control and mitigate

Once the risks are prioritized, go through the list and identify which risks are controllable, which risks are things that can be mitigated, and which risks must be accepted. For instance, the risk of losing key personnel can be mitigated by providing completion bonuses or even just monitoring their happiness more closely. Technical risks can be controlled by moving them forward in the project so that they are proven out nearly immediately. In general, the fastest way to reduce the overall risk quotient for a project is to tackle the controllable risks early in the project. The more quickly the risk associated with an item to be validated the more quickly the risk is no longer a risk (so its probability can be zeroed out.) Focusing on controllable risks won't completely eliminate risk but it will quickly cut it down. The next step is to develop mitigation strategies for those risks that can’t be controlled. Completion bonuses are a routine way that organizations which are closing down operations mitigate the risk that the people participating will leave before the project is ready to let them go. Not every mitigation strategy needs to involve money. Simply getting a verbal, personal commitment to finish the project is often enough to further reduce the probability that a person will leave during the project. Most people value their own sense of self-worth and they believe that their ability to meet their personal commitments is a part of the admirable part of their self.

CHAPTER 10: IMPROVING DECISION MAKING AND MANAGING KNOWLEDGE

CHAPTER 10: IMPROVING DECISION MAKING AND MANAGING KNOWLEDGE

COLGATE-PALMOLIVE KEEPS MANAGERS SMILING WITH EXECUTIVE DASHBOARDS

1.    Describe the different types of business intelligence users at Colgate-Palmolive.

Colgate had been a global SAP user since the early 1990s, but it was running five separate ERP systems to serve its different geographic regions. Over a period of time, disparities in the data developed between different geographic regions, and between the data used at the corporate level and the data used by an individual region or business unit.

Colgate chooses a single global data repository using SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse, SAP’s analytical, reporting and data warehousing solution. Colgate’s regional ERP systems feed their data to the warehouse, were the data are standardized and formatted for enterprise-wide reporting and analysis. This eliminates differences in data across the enterprise.

Colgate’s information systems specialist then implemented SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator to speed up data loads and improve user perception and adoption, and they implemented SAP Business Object Web Intelligence provides a powerful, intuitive interface that enables business professionals to ask spontaneous questions about their data.

2.       Describe the “people” issues that were affecting Colgate’s ability to use business intelligence.

The “people” issues that were affecting Colgate’s ability to use business intelligence for example, every time a sales report was run, it should different number for orders and shipments Colgate wanted more useable data to drive business decisions and all of its managers and business units worldwide to work with the same version of data and also for one of the output of the warehouse for senior manager is daily HTML table that showing series of financial and operational metrics for the day compared to the previous month and quarter. However the data were not being used enough employees in their decision making to have an impact on business benefit. Eventually Colgate’s senior managers and other casual users began requesting deeper access to the warehouse data in a more timely and user-friendly format. They wanted reports that were easier to run where the data could be interpreted faster. Senior management requested customizable. 

 3.      What people, organization, and technology factors had to be addressed in providing business           intelligence capabilities for each type of user?

Colgate’s senior managers and other casual users on the other hand, did not feel comfortable running ad hoc reports or drilling down into the layers of data to answer questions the data brought to light.

Eventually Colgate’s senior managers and other casual users began requesting deeper access to the warehouse data in a more timely and user-friendly format. They wanted reports that were easier to run where the data could be interpreted faster. Senior management requested customizable, real-time dashboards that could be more easily used to drive performance improvement. Colgate’s information systems specialist then implemented SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator to speed up data loads and improve user perception and adoption and they implemented SAP Business Object Web Intelligence to build customized reports.

 4.      What kind of decisions does Colgate’s new business intelligence capability support? Give                 three examples. What is their potential business impact?

For Colgate’s, better reporting tools that can support different kinds of users have greatly expanded the use of business intelligence throughout the company currently about 400 users interact with Colgate’s SAP system daily, but this number is expected to expand to 15,000 or 20,000 users in the future. People who are accustomed to seeing reports stuffed with numbers are finding that they can use the information presented in dashboards to make faster decisions.

For example, managers can determine positive or negative financial conditions by simply looking for where dashboard reports use the color green, which reflects improvements in Colgate’s financial position.

CHAPTER 7: Summit Electric Lights Up With a New ERP System

BUSINESS PROBLEM_SOLVING CASE

Summit Electric Lights Up With a New ERP System

1.      Which businesses processes are the most important at Summit Electric Supply? Why?
The businesses processes that are most important at Summit Electric Supply would have to be ERP software from SAP. Also SAP’s Net Weaver BW data has also became important to Summit Electric Supply. These processes are important because it helped Summit Electric stayed more organize and be able to control how much was needed to be produced and distributed. The system was able to connect over 19 locations. Summit had to advance these processes to satisfy their business requirement. They would had to do updates on a daily bases instead of weekly due to the fact that if they did weekly it would cause delays. The “Batch management” was also a process that became important as well. The process was able to track that how much a supply was being needed as a batch instead of a single product making it easier to know how much was being sold.   These processes pretty much modify and made Summit Electric more significant.

2. What problems did Summit have with its old systems? What was the business impact of those problems?

There were a few problems that Summit went through with when they still used their old systems. The few problems they with coming across with was the fact that the old system cause them to have delay with their supplies. Also the system was complicated because the system would separate different categories where it made it difficult to combine when needed. The business impact from the problems it had was that the system was not able to keep up with the business. It limited the business where it was only able to handle a few range of numbers and location as well. It caused delays and time consuming task that was not needed to take as much time as it did. 

3. How did Summit’s ERP system improve operational efficiency and decisions making? Give several examples.

Summit’s ERP system improves operational efficiency and decisions making by advancing operations. It made it faster to build and distributed their supplies on time. With the old system the Summit had to do a huge amount of manual work. The employees would have to go into details with customers just to find specific manufactures to identify a product. Once they have done that they would have to put it into Microsoft excel spreadsheet. The old system made it too time consuming. For example collecting and reviewing all the invoices would take up to a month and Summit would have stacks of papers of the copies of the invoices to give to their vendors. Now the new system has improved it where they are able to produce more quickly and they are able to view them more often. In return once the vendors are done and response back their chargers would already be two to three months old. Also this cost lost revenue for Summit. The ERP system has helped provide tools to help the company evaluate the sales channel with what-if scenarios. For example, now that the company uses this tool, they are now able to evaluate profitability by the branch, sale person, customers, and manufacture. Now they are to view things more easily from the system on how its operations and now it is simpler on making decisions off of it.

4.         Describe two ways in which Summit’s customers benefit from the new ERP system.

One way that the Summit’s customers are benefitting from the new ERP system is that they can rely on the company for their needs and products. The company is now more efficient with the new ERP system. The company wants that customers to feel that they can provide that they have produced products the customers want and sent to them in a short time period. Also customers can track how much wire they order and which manufacture it came from. Large customers that have long-term job sites are benefitting from the new system as well. The company built temporary warehouses on-site to supply the customers with its electrical products. They create what they call parent-child warehouse relationship to be able to work with the customers. That means that if a Summit’s office has more than a few temporary on-site warehouses than the warehouse can be controlled like subparts of the main Summits warehouse. With this system, it helps to prevent anybody from selling the consigned inventory into the warehouse.

5.         Diagram Summit’s old and new process for handling charger backs.    

The old process for handling charger backs had flaws in it where the company was losing money and sometime barely making any profit. When processing charger back, you have to compare the sales to contract. This means that a distributor can have up to hundreds maybe thousands of contracts. They have to identify the charger back and which manufacturer with enough documentation of the contract. There was a lot of manual work involved. The would have to go through the customers invoices for detailed manufacturers to identify which charger back they can claim. They would have to put the charger back in Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. The new process for handling charger backs was more efficient. It automactically review Summit’s billing activity for the day and the compares it to all charger backs agreements loaded in the SAP system by the end of every day. Anytime there is a match in the system they are able to claim. The system is then able to create a separate charger back document outside the consumer invoice. The systems is able to process charger back more quickly and are able to be review in the same day. Since it is fully automated, the company increased its claim by 118 percent over the old system.

CHAPTER 6: Apple, Google, and Microsoft Battle for Your Internet Experience

STUDY CASE

Apple, Google, and Microsoft Battle for Your Internet Experience

1.      Compare the business models and areas of strength of Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

      Although they have different business models and strength, Apple, Google, and Microsoft are three major companies who seek to dominate the internet user’s experience. They come with their own proprietary strengths.

      In looking at business models Apple business model focuses on the consumer bringing them a personalized web experience through their hardware (Ipod, Iphone, Ipad and  imacs), their own major OS system: Mac OSX and TOS, and through the internet. Although their model limits what type of software customers can access, they offer over 250,000 apps through their IOS app store.

      Next, with their browser and search engine, Google Centers on advertaising and democratizing information where they gain most of their profits. Through the companies Android platform they are increasing their market shares into the mobile market. Google seek a market of open nonproprietory  plat forms where consumer can freely surf the web and openly enjoy the innovation of apps across services.

    Finally, Microsoft business model concentrates on creating user friendly operating systems, which 95% of all computers use. They have worked to make technology accessible to everyone. However, they are moving towards services and breaking into the search advertising market. Likewise, in the struggle to dominate new technology, the three internet titans come with their own strengths backing them. In addition, they manufacture their hardware, run devices with their own software, and retail their own products. These devices have become very popular with Iphone bringing in 30% of the company’s revenue.

    Google’s main areas of strength it’s on search and advertising services. It has the most efficient search engine and good capability in supplier-buyer integration. Microsoft is still the leader in pc operating system and desktop productivity software, but has failed miserably with smart phone hardware and software, mobile computing, cloud-based software apps, its internet, portal, and even its game machines and software. But this contribute only 5% its revenue, and network software. Windows is still operating system on 95% of the world 2 billion Pcs.

    Microsoft strength are operates through regional subsidiaries. Microsoft is the world’s largest software company with global name recognition and strong. Their company and it product are staples for businesses and consumer looking to improve their productivity with computer-based tasks. While it is trying to expand its presence on the internet, it still must try to keep customers bound to the desktop computer.

    The strength for Apple are mobile devices, such as iphone and tablets. These devices combine and contribute 52% of apples business. They already have a head straits on the mobile phone industry where they have over 250,000 applications. Apple controls 27% of the mobile market and the iphone is the highest grossing cellphone ever. Apples has a very loyal user base that has steadily grown and most likely will stay with Apple products in the future.

2.      Why is mobile computing so important to these three firms? Evaluate the mobile platform offerings of each firm.

    Apple’s and Google’s Android are both the key dominant players in the mobile computing market, and Microsoft fails in the mobile computing market. When the internet exploded in size and popularity, it made increase in Apple’s revenue. Apple’s has loyal user base that has steadily grown and it’s very likely to buy future products offerings.

    Google is as strong as the size of its advertising network. When Google acquired Android, it was adding features to Android that Apple’s offering lacked such as the ability to run multiple apps at once. IOS 5 is the latest version of the world’s most advanced mobile operating systems, includes over 200 new user features, and update software development kit with over 1,500 new application programming interface and powerful new development tools.

     Apple IOS Android 4.0 (ice cream sandwich) is the latest version of the android platform for phones. It builds on the things people love mostly about Android easy multitasking, rich notifications, customizable home screens, resizable widgets, and deep interactivity and adds powerful new ways of communicating and sharing.

      Google android windows phone 7 is the latest version and where Microsoft offers a new user interface. This features its design langue called Metro, integrates the operating system with third party service and other Microsoft services, and sets minimum requirements for the hardware, on which it runs. Window phone is primarily aimed at the customer market rather than the enterprise market.

3.      What is the significance of mobile applications, app stores, and closed versus open app standards to the success or failure of mobile computing.

      Apps greatly enrich the experience of using a mobile device, and without them, the predictions for the future of mobile internet would not be nearly as bright. Whoever creates the most appealing set of devices and application will derive a significant competitive advantage over rival companies.

      Apple make money on each app sold through its app store. That’s worth billions of dollars to the company. Even if an app is free, apple still has an advantage because users must visit Apple’s App store and the company is betting consumers will buy something else. Other apps or entertainment service while visiting the store. However, app developers have complained that making money is too difficult. Apple has blocked some apps from its mobile devices, namely Google’s voice mail management program, Google voice. Apple claimed it violated user privacy.

      Apps for the Android system used on non-Apple devices are available from many different sources. Google has worked very hard to increase the number off apps available for Droid-based mobile devices by encouraging developers to increase the number of apps. Google also makes money by embedding advertising in some of the apps used on Droid-based devices.

4.      Which company and business model do you think will prevail in this epic struggle? Explain your answer.

     The company and business model will prevail in this epic struggle is Apple because it would struggle to remain competitive in this environment. Apple has kept the garden closed for a simple reason, you need Apple device to play there. Apple has the edge in the selection and quality of apps, but while sales have been risk, developers have complained that making money is too difficult. Roughly a quarter of the apps available in the app store are free, which makes no money for developers or for Apple, but it does bring consumers to the Apple marketplace where they can be sold other apps or entertainment service. The type of Apple such as Imac, Ipod, Iphone have all contributed to the company’s enormous success in the internet era, and the Ipad has followed the trend of probability set by these previous products. Apple has a loyal user base that has steadily grown and is very likely to buy future products offerings.

5.      What difference would it make to a business or to an individual consumer if Apple, Google, and Microsoft dominated the Internet experience? Explain your answer.

  In the current struggle, three firms are trying to make to dominate the customer experience on the internet. Each firm brings certain strength and weakness to fairy. It’s too early to tell if a single firm will “win” or it all three can survive the contest for the customer internet experience, and in early contest it was typically a single firm that rode the crest of new technology to become the dominant player and also can make domain of the internet router market. Example, include IBM’s dominance of the main frame market.

Information Security Threats and Policies in Europe.

1.     Botnet is a network of autonomous malicious software agents that are under the control of a bot commander. The network is created by installing malware that exploits the vulnerabilities of web servers, operating systems, or applications to take control of the infected computer. Once the computer is infected it becomes part of a network of thousands of “zombies” machines that are commanded to carry out the attack.

2.     There are four main points of Digital Agenda for Europe. Firstly, they want to define the key role that information and communication technologies will play in 2020. Secondly, they took initiative calls for a single, open European digital market. Besides that, Digital Agenda for Europe has goal which is that broadband speeds of 30 Mbps be available to all European citizens by 2020. Lastly, they initiatives is considering the implementation of measures to protect privacy and the establishment of a well-functioning network of CERT to prevent cyber crime and respond effectively to cyber-attacks.

3.     Initially the cyber- attacks can be carried by remotely or proximately. For example, some viruses such as Conficker, spread through a network of computers by exploiting holes in the network security or by attaching an infected USB drive to computer. Secondly, the denial of service attacks. This cyber-attack occurs when an attacker attempts to prevent legitimate users from accessing information or services. This is typically accomplished when the attacker overloads a system with requests to view information. Next is the Spearphising is another simple method by which an attack may gain access to a computer system or network.  Once the some information about the target is acquired, an e-mail is sent purporting to be forma legitimate company asking for information such as usernames and passwords to banking websites or network login. Lastly, tampering with basic electronics is a simple type of cyber-attack. It is also possible that such software or even hardware could be installed into electronics by the original manufacturer.

4.     The weakness is lack of security, vulnerable points through which a system's security may be compromised.

CHAPTER 5 LEGO: Combining Business Intelligence with a Flexible Information System

STUDY CASE

LEGO: Combining Business Intelligence with a Flexible Information System

1.      Explain the role of the database in SAP’s three-tier-system

·         First tier – client interface (client appreciation): It’s a browser type graphical user interface (GUI) running on laptop, desktop, or mobile device that submit user’s request to the appreciation server.

·         Second tier – appreciations server – appreciations server: Receive and process client requests. Send the processed requests to the database system.

·         Third tier – one or more relations database (data sources): SAP’s business suite supports database from different vendor, including those offered by oracle, Microsoft, My SQL, and others. The relational databases contain the tables that store data on LEGO’s products, daily operations, the supply chain, and thousands of employees.

2.      Explain why distributed architecture are flexible.

·         Distributed architecture are flexible because it does not require any technical skill to obtain reports from the databases. It also enables authorized personnel to have direct access to the database system from the company’s various locations, including those in Europe, North America, and Asia.

3.      Identify some of the business intelligence features included in SAP’s business software suite.

·         Business intelligence: tools for consolidating, analyzing, and providing access to large amounts of data to improve decision making.

·         The business intelligence features included in SAP’s business software suite a SAP’s supply chain management (SCM), product life cycle (PLC), and Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) modules.

-          SCM modules includes essential features such as supply chain monitoring and analysis as well as forecasting, planning, and inventory optimization.

-          PLM modules enables managers to optimize development processes and system.

-          ERP modules includes The Human Capital Management (HCM) applications for personal administration and development.

4.      What are the main advantages and disadvantages of having multiple database in a distributed architecture? Explain.

Advantages:

·         Reflect organizational structure.

-          Many organizations are naturally distributed over several location. For example, Flextronics has plants in Mexico, Hungary, and Czech Republic. It is natural for database used in such an application to be distributed over these locations. The service company may keep database of each brand office containing details such things as the staff that work at that location, the account information of customer etc. The staff  at branch office will make local  inquires of the database. The company headquarters may wish to make global inquires involving the access of data at all or a number of branches.

·         Improved share ability and local autonomy

-          The geographical distribution of an organization can be reflected in the distribution of the data; users at one site can access data stored at other sites. Data can be placed at the site close to the users who normally use that data. In this way, users have local control of the data, and they can consequently establish and enforce local policies regarding the use of this data. A global database administrator (DBA) is responsible for the entire system. Generally, part of this responsibility is assigned the local level, so that the local DBA can manage the local DBMS.

·         Improved availability

-          In a centralized DBMS, a computer failure terminates the applications of the DBMS. However, a failure at one site of a DDBMS, or a failure of a communication link making\ some sites inaccessible, does not make the entire system in opera bite. Distributed DBMSs are designed to continue to function despite such failures. If a single node fails, the system may be able to reroute the failed node's requests to another site.

·         Improved reliability

-          As data may be replicated so that it exists at more than one site, the failure of a node or a communication link does not necessarily make the data inaccessible.

Improved Performance

As the data is located near the site of 'greatest demand', and given the inherent parallelism of distributed DBMSs, speed of database access may be better than that achievable from a remote centralized database. Furthermore, since each site handles only a part of the entire database, there may not be the same contention for CPU and I/O services as characterized by a centralized DBMS.

·         Economics

-          It is now generally accepted that it costs much less to create a system of smaller computers with the equivalent power of a single large computer. This makes it more cost effective for corporate divisions and departments to obtain separate computers. It is also much more cost-effective to add workstations· to a network than to update a mainframe system.

The second potential cost saving occurs where database are geographically remote and the applications require access to distributed data. In such cases, owing to the relative expense of data being transmitted across the network as opposed to the cost of local access, it may be much more economical to partition the application and perform the processing locally at each site.

·         Modular growth

-          In a distributed environment, it is much easier to handle expansion. New sites can be added to the network without affecting the operations of other sites. This flexibility allows an organization to expand relatively easily. Adding processing and storage power to the network can usually handle the increase in database size. In a centralized DBMS, growth may entail changes to both hardware (the procurement of a more powerful system) and software (the procurement of a more powerful or more configurable DBMS).

Disadvantages of DDBMS

There are following disadvantages of DDBMSs:

·         Complexity

-          A distributed DBMS that hides the distributed nature from the user and provides an acceptable level of performance, reliability, availability is inherently more complex then a centralized DBMS. The fact that data can be replicated also adds an extra level of complexity to the distributed DBMS. If the software does not handle data replication adequately, there wi1l be degradation in availability, reliability and performance compared with the centralized system, and the advantages we cites above will become disadvantages.

·         Cost

-          Increased complexity means that we can expect the procurement and maintenance costs for a DDBMS to be higher than those for a centralized DBMS. Furthermore, a distributed

DBMS requires additional hardware to establish a network between sites. There are ongoing communication costs incurred with the use of this network. There are also additional labor costs to manage and maintain the local DBMSs and the underlying network.

·         Security

-          In a centralized system, access to the data can be easily controlled. However, in a distributed DBMS not only does access to replicated data have to be controlled in multiple locations but also the network itself has to be made secure. In the past, networks were regarded as an insecure communication medium. Although this is still partially true, significant developments have been made to make networks more secure.

Integrity control more difficult

Database integrity refers to the validity and consistency of stored data. Integrity is usually expressed in terms of constraints, which are consistency rules that the database is not permitted to violate. Enforcing integrity constraints generally requires access to a large amount of data that defines the constraints. In a distributed DBMS, the communication and processing costs that are required to enforce integrity constraints are high as compared to centralized system.

·         Lack of Standards

-          Although distributed DBMSs depend on effective communication, we are only now starting to see the appearance of standard communication and data access protocols. This lack of standards has significantly limited the potential of distributed DBMSs. There are also no tools or methodologies to help users convert a centralized DBMS into a distributed DBMS.

·         Lack of experience

-          General-purpose distributed DBMSs have not been widely accepted, although many of the protocols and problems are well understood. Consequently, we do not yet have the same level of experience in industry as we have with centralized DBMSs. For a prospective adopter of this technology, this may be a significant deterrent.

·         Database design more complex

-          Besides the normal difficulties of designing a centralized database, the design of a distributed database has to take account of fragmentation of data, allocation of fragmentation to specific sites, and data replication.