Case Study 2BTMI

CHAPTER 3

TECHNOLOGY HELPS STARBUCKS FIND  NEW WAYS TO COMPETE

1.  Analyze Starbucks using the competitive forces and value chain models?

The following case study given the competitive force that had in the passage were Starbucks offers unique experiences, high-end specialty coffees and beverages, friendly knowledgeable servers and customers       friendly shop. The traditional competitive of the Starbucks were McDonald and Dunkin’s Donut. In the         economic downturn, many coffee drinks went in search of cheaper alternatives from McDonald’s and     Dunkin’s Donuts for their coffee fixes.

After that, Starbucks realize the third customers are active user of the smartphones. The company set out     to implement several features and improvement that would appeal to this segment of its customer base.         First, Starbucks implement a technology that allows customer to pay using a smartphone application. The     application integrated with the Starbucks card system, which allow regular customer to pay with pre-paid     and rechargeable card at any Starbucks branch. The customer report that paying using application is             available, for all major smartphone operating system, is must faster that traditional form of payment.             Beside that, Starbucks set out to streamline the business processed used in each of its scores so that             baristas no need to bend down to scoop coffee, cutting down on idle time while waiting for coffee to             drain and finding ways to reduce the amount of each employee spends moving a drink.

Make this fast food more lower prices, it is also allowing the company to improve its customer                     engagement. By 2011 Starbucks has returned to profitability. Beside that Starbucks launched the                 Starbucks Digital Network” when majorities of their customer also use mobile devise to connect to the in     store Wi-Fi networks Starbucks customers using the site will receive free wall street journal access select     free iTunes downloads and wide variety of other content. This arrangement will allow users to check in         and receive awards points using Starbucks site. For the suppliers the Starbucks Digital Network site was     developed in partnership with Yahoo and function as a content portal.

As we know, the Starbucks has applied a few value chains in their business. The primary activities that         they use were related to the production and distribution of the firm’s product and services. Firstly,                 Starbucks implemented a technology that allows customers to pay by using a smartphone application.           Next, Starbucks had decision to made concerted effort to become more efficient, to reduce waste and         use time save to provide better customer services.

The Support activities are needed to make the delivery primary activities possible and consist of                   organization infrastructure an do others. That will be shown when the Starbucks were implemented a           technology. The Starbucks implement a technology that allows customers to pay with pre-paid and               rechargeable card at any Starbucks branch. This application allowed the regular customer displayed the       bar code in the smartphone then the cashier will only scan bar cod and the resulting sale is charged into         the customer’s Starbucks account.

Beside that Starbucks increases the effort to be more efficient by set out the streamline the business             process used in each of its stores so that baristas do not need to bend down the scoop coffee, cutting       down idle time while waiting for coffee to drain, and finding ways to reduce the amount of time each           employee making a drinks.

Starbucks making the benchmark that at 2011, Starbucks had returned to profitability and continuing         growth, with plans to open 500 new stores, in large part because of the success of each these change         Starbucks offering price reduce specials, cost, reduction from procedures changes made it possible for.

2.  What is Starbucks business strategy? Assess the role played by technology in this business strategy.

Starbucks business was to continue serving high end specialty coffee and improve the customer services       so that consumer did not feel like they were visiting a local fast food chains. Besides that Starbucks also       using a several different strategies simultaneously. First, the company has revamped it in store technology     and sought to integrate its business process with wireless technology and the mobile digital form.                   Starbucks pursued more aggressive product differentiation strategy intended to emphasize the high quality     of its beverages and efficient and helpful customer services. It also focuses on becoming ‘lean’ like many       of its competitors eliminating inefficiency wherever possible. 

The company implements several features and improvement. The Starbucks implement the technology that     allows customers to pay using a smartphone application. The application was integrated with the                   Starbucks Card System, which allow regular customer to pay with pre-pay and rechargeable card at any       Starbucks branch. This application, the customer only shown the cashier the bar code at the screen of           smartphone and the cashier will scan and get the resulting sale in the customer’s Starbucks Account.

Beside that, majority of the customer also use mobile device to connect to the in store Wi-Fi network.           Starbucks launched what is calling the “Starbucks Digital Network” a portal design specifically for mobile   devices as opposed to tradition web browsers. The site is optimize for all major smartphone operating           system (ions, Android, and Blackberry) and responds to the multi-touch capability of devices like an             iPods.  

The Starbuck Digital Network site was developed in partnership with Yahoo as content portal. Starbucks     customers using the site will receive free wall street journal access, select free iTunes downloads.                   Starbucks has opted to offer the site free of advertising, hoping and striking deals with contain provider         will make profitable venture. They also made a concerted effort to become more efficient. They set out the     streamline the business process that used in each of store, so that cutting down on idle time while waiting       for coffee. Starbucks also can attract more customers with that budgeting save time.

3.  How much has technology helped Starbucks complete? Explain your answer.

Technology helped Starbucks complete by integrated Starbucks Card System, which allows regular             customer to pay with a pre-paid and rechargeable card at any Starbucks branch. When customer make a     purchase using the application, a cashier scans a bar code displayed on the phone and the resulting sale is     charged to the customers Starbucks Card account.

Beside that, Starbucks launched what it all the “Starbucks Digital Network”, a portal designed specifically     for mobile devices as opposed to traditional web browsers. Starbucks also has opted to offer the site free     of advertising, hoping that striking deals with content provider will make it a profitable venture. Starbucks       district manager use the in store wireless network to run store operations and to connect to the company’s     private corporate network and system.

AUTOMAKERS BECOME SOFTWARE COMPANIES

1. How is software adding value to automakers product?

Software adding value to automakers product by not invest so heavily in new vehicle Production. For           example, Ford Motor Company takes two and one-half years to plant, design and build a new car.               Design and production including metal stamping equipment and assembly line setup, must be finalized           long before the car rolls off the line. But the automakers can create a new software interface for car             within months and update it again and again over the life of the car without much lead time. This enables         Ford and other automaker to significantly improve the passenger experiences and add new features to           cars years after they are built.

Beside that, Ford make MyFord Touch Software is an in dash touch screen that available for select               vehicles with control for navigation, music, phone integration and temperature. Ford also has upgrade this       interface and the sync software behind the interface, adding tablet and smartphone integration and better       voice response. Next, in 2010, Ford added support for the online music streaming service Pandora.             This update enables drivers to connect their tablets and smartphones to the sync system to access music       and other apps using voice commands.

2. How are the automakers benefiting from software- enhanced ears? How are customers benefiting?

Ford is perhaps the automakers doing the most to innorate with software and application. Ford has               upgraded the interface and the sync software behind the interface, adding tablet and smartphone                   integration and better voice response.

Technology of software might help car to avoid traffic jams, to reserve parking spaces in advance, and         possibly to even drive themselves. To manage vehicles, by software car  need to be connected to rome         kind   of central system, which would coordinate with public transit or other transportation, cars need to       be equipped with software that can monitor and enhance vehicle function at the most basic level. Thought     their system would be to minimize highway congestion, industry standard which does not exist or of yet.       Ford has doubled its investment in vehicle-to-vehicles communication technology.

The customer benefits to thought the Ford is grappling with the best way to roll out software upgrade to its     customer. The upgrade also contains code that will upgrade system speed and improve the interface             based-on common criticism from Ford owner which is the technology in their cars remaining constant             throughout the life of the cars, newer cars are poised to change all of that.

3. What value chain activities are involved in enhancing cars with software?

Ford has hired “human-machine interface engineers, “whose job is to analyze how their customer interact       with the software in their cars. These engineers use customer feedback to make changes to the software.       Customers complained that too much information was available on each screen of the interface, so Ford       moved the most commonly used features to more prominent positions on screen and increased their font       size, relegating the rest to submenus. Ford has also asked dealers to dedicate more time and personnel to     hands on technology training to help customers master its interface.

GM, Daimler and other companies are all developing new features for their cars that operate online in the       cloud. Users will be able to remotely track their cars and diagnose problems with the car, like low tire           pressure or the need for an oil change. Corporations will be able to track employee use of company cars       by interpreting car sensors and engine readouts. Manufactures will be able to aggregate and analyze the       data from customers’ cars to identify quality problems and, if necessary, quickly issue recalls. GM will           allow its app function, which raises a familiar set of privacy concerns. Automakers are hoping that younger   customers who have grown up using Facebook are less likely to care about privacy, and features that           collect highly targeted information about a car’s locations and driving habits.

BMW is also investing a whopping $100 million in mobile apps, hoping to market them to other customer     as “ premium services”. Some analysts are skeptical of the decision to invest that much money, but BMW     believes that mobile apps will become an increasingly attractive selling point for customers of its BMW I       electric and hybrid cars.    

4.  How much of a competitive advantages is software proving for automakers? Explain your answer?

The automobile industry have Ford, BMW and other automobile companies are enhancing their vehicles       with onboard software that improves the customer experience and the auto industry is working on                 technology that will allow cars to be managed via the cloud.

GM, Daimler and other companies are all developing new features for their car that operate online in the       cloud. Manufacture will be able to aggregate and analyze the data from customers cars to identify quality       problem. Chairman Bill Ford Jr. has championed the use of software to alleviate urban congestion by             inresting in technology that responds to the problem created by traffic in the biggest cities. BMW is also         continuing to develop ways for vehicles to communicate with one the road to avoid collisions.  

CHAPTER 4

SHOULD YOU USE YOUR iPHONE FOR WORK?

1.  What are the advantages and disadvantages of allowing employee to use their personal smartphone for work?

ADVANTAGES	DISADVANTAGES
Company can enjoy all of the same benefits of a mobile workforce without spending their own money on there device	Using personal device for business passes difficult problems for companies, including security, inventory management, support, integrating mobile device into pre-existing it function and system and measuring return on investment
It is easier for companies to keep track of each mobile device and roll out software upgrades or fixes	Firm need on efficient inventory management  system that keep track of which devices employees are using, where the device is located, whether it is being used and what software it is equipped with. For unprepared company, keeping track of who get access to what data could be nightmare
The company controlled and protected from outsiders by using a proprietary software and networking platform	The variety of phones and operating system available is difficult to provide adequate technical support for employee

2. What people, organization, technology factors should be addressed when deciding whether to allow             employee to use their personal smartphone for work. 

This company must allow their workers to use smartphone as a medium interaction because as an                 employee the technology was very important things that they need to do their work. Nowadays, it is the         trend of people to have a smartphone for each person. When employee are not able to access critical data     or encounter other problems with their mobile device, they will need assistance from the information               system department. With this smartphone also, the specs and operating system, making a technology             support so much easier by using smartphone, it easy to handle the complexity of each technology support.

The next factors, the organization of the firm must update their technology to make the employee easy           making their work, so the firm software development teams can get benefit from having the specifically         focused on ensuring that new application, it will be easily usable and useful smartphones. With this                 application, the core IT functions can integrate the mobility function. Existing of IT platform, it makes the       mobility expert can help company leverage mobility more effectively.

Besides that, they must aware that technology they used, because there are significant concern with the       securing company information accessed with the mobile devise. It will be a nightmare, if that devise is           stolen or companies companies and need ways to ensure that sensitive of confidential information isn’t           freely available everyone. The bad things about the technology is when the device was stolen, it cannot be     used.   

3. Allowing employee to use their own smartphone for work will save the company money. Do you agree?        Why or why not?

Agree, because when employee uses a smartphone, company can save the money. The employee can           use freely wireless connection so it can save the budget the company by use their own wireless line of the       own employee. Next, company no need to buy or provide a laptop for the employee because their have       a good smartphone to accesses the data during work hour at the work place. Other then that, employee       can using a application that provide in the smartphone to communicate with the client or customer                 without using a phone that provide by the company, so it can reduce the bill of every month. For                   example weChat, and the other application to make easier deal with the client or customer. Nest is, can         reduce the cost of paper that use to print a document, when employee can send the document by                   using a smartphone with the application such as email and ect. 

CHAPTER 5

LEGO: COMBINING BUSINESS INTELLINGENCE WITH A FLEXIBLE INFORMATION SYSTEM

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

            

SAP’s business suite is based on a flexible three tier client-server architecture that can easily be                     adapted to the new Service-Oriented Architecture ( SOA ) available in the latest versions of the software.     In the first-tier ,it is a client interface which is a browser-type graphical user interface ( GUI ) running on         either a laptop, desktop, or mobile device. This software submit’s users’ requests to the application               server. The second tier in the system is receive and process clients’ requests. These application servers         send the processed requests to the database system. Next, the third tier which consists of one or more           relational databases. SAP’s business suite support database from different vendors, including those               offered by Oracle, Microsoft, MySQL, and others.

2. Explain why distributed architectures are flexible.

The history of current LEGO® Architecture series can be traced back to the beginning of the 1960s when     the LEGO brick’s popularity was still steadily increasing. Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, the then owner of       the company, began looking for ways to further expand the LEGO system, and asked his designers to         come up with a set of new components that would add a new dimension to LEGO building. Their                 answer was as simple as it was revolutionary: five elements that matched the existing bricks, but were             only one third the height. These new building ‘plates’ made it possible to construct more detailed                   models than before.This greater LEGO flexibility seemed to match the spirit of the age; where                       modernist architects were redefining how houses looked, and people were taking an active interest in           the design of their dream home. It was from these trends that the LEGO ‘Scale Model’ line was born           in early 1962. The name itself was a direct link to the way architects and engineers worked, and it was         hoped that they and others would build their projects ‘to scale’ in LEGO elements. As with LEGO               Architecture today, the original sets were designed to be different from the normal brightly colored LEGO     boxes, and also included An Architectural Book for inspiration. Though the five elements remain an               integral part of the LEGO building system today, the ‘Scale Model’ line was phased out in 1965–it would     be over 40 years before its principles would be revived in the LEGO Architecture series we know today.

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

SAP’s software products include a variety of applications designed to efficiently   support all of a                 company’s essential functions and operations. LEGO chose to implement SAP’s Supply Chain                     Management ( SCM ) , Product Life-cycle Management ( PLM ) , and Enterprise Resources Planning (       ERP ) modules.

There are some of the business intelligence features included in SAP’s software product. Firstly, SCM           module includes essential features such as supply chain monitoring and analysis as well as forecasting,             planning, and inventory optimization. Next, the PLM module enables manager to optimize development         processes and systems. Lastly, The ERP modules includes among other applications which is the Human       Capital Management ( HCM ) application for personnel administration and development.

SAP’s ERP-HCM module includes advances features such as “ Talent Manager “ as well those for             handling employee administration, reporting, and travel and time management. These features allow               LEGO’s. HR personnel to select the best candidates, schedule their training, and create a stimulus pelan to   retain them. In addition, using this feature will help LEGO’s manager to track employee’s leadership             potential, develop their careers, and forecast the recruiting of new employees with certain skills. SAP’s         business software suite includes support database from different vendors, including those offered by             Oracle, Microsoft, MySQL, and others.

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

Advantages	Disadvantages
Managers can easily use the SAP query tool to obtain reports from the database, because it does not require any technical skills.	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.
The distributed architecture enables authorized personnel to have direct access to the database system from the company’s various locations, including those in Europe, North Amerika, and Asia.	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.
The relational database contain the table that store data on LEGO’s products, daily operations, the supply chain, and thousands of employees.	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.
Include advanced features such as “Talent Manager” as well those for handling employee administration, reporting and travel and time management. Using this advanced features, together with tools from other software vendors, LEGO’s managers are able to track employees’ leadership potential, develop their careers, and forecast the recruiting of new employees with certain skills.	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 labour costs to manage and maintain the local DBMSs and the underlying network.

CHAPTER 6

THE  BATTLE  OVER  NET  NEUTRALITY

1. What is network neutrality ? why has the internet operated under net neutrality up to this point in time 

Network neutrality is the idea that internet service providers must allows customers equal access to               content and applications regardless of the source or nature of the presently the internet is indeed neutral ,       all Internet traffic  is treated equally on a first –come , first serve basic by Internet backbone owners .The     Internet is neutral because it was built on phone lines, which are subject to ‘common carriage ‘laws.             These laws requires phone companies to treat all calls and customers equally . They cannot offer  extra         benefits to customers willing to pay higher premiums for faster or clearer calls, a model knows as tiered         service.

2. Who’s the favor of the network neutrality? Who’s opposed? why?

Those in favor of network neutrality include organizations like move on.Org, the Christian Coalition , the       American Library Association , every major consumer group , many bloggers and small businesses, and     some large Internet companies like Google and Amazon. Some members of the U.S Congress also               support network neutrality . Unit cerf , a co. inventor of the internet Protocol also favors network                 neutrality saying that variable access to content would detract from the Internet’s continued ability to             thrive . This group argues that the risk of the censorship increased when network operators can                   selectively block or slow access to certain content . Others are concerned  about the effect of slower           transmission notes on their business models if users can’t download or access content in a speedy                 fashion.

Those who oppose network neutrality include telecommunications and able companies who want to be         able to charge differentiated prices based on the amount of bandwidth consumed by content being               delivered over the internet. Some company report that 5 percent of their customers use about half the           capacity on local lines without paying an more than low usage customers. They state that material pricing       is “the fairest way “ to finance necessary investment and its network infrastructure. Internet service               providers point to the upsurge in piracy of the copyright materials over the internet as a reason to oppose     network neutrality. Comcast reported that illegal file sharing of copyrighted material was consuming 50m       percent of its network transmission rates were slower for this type of content, users would be less likely to     download or access it.

3. What would be the impact on individual users, businesses, and government if Internet providers switched        to a tiered service model?

Proponents of net neutrality argue that a neutral Internet encourages everyone to innovate without                 permission from the phone and cable companies or other authorities. A more level playing field spawns         countless new businesses. Allowing unrestricted information flow becomes essential to free markets               and democracy as commerce and society increasingly move online. Heavy users of network bandwidth         would pay higher prices without necessarily experiencing better service. Even those who use less                   bandwidth could run into the same situation.

Network owners believe regulation like the bills proposed by net neutrality advocates will impede U.S.         competitiveness by stifling innovation and hurt customers who will benefit from ‘discriminatory’ network         practices. U.S. Internet service already lags behind other nations in overall speed, cost, and quality of           service, adding credibility to the providers’ arguments. Obviously, by increasing the cost of heavy users of     network bandwidth, telecommunication and cable companies and Internet service providers stand to             increase their profit margins.

4. Are you in favour of legislation enforcing network neutrality? Why or why not?

Student answers will vary. Some components and principles to consider in answering this question include:

• Price differentials: How much more would heavy bandwidth users pay than those who consume less       bandwidth?

• Speed: How much faster would network transmissions be with a tiered service model?

• Stifle innovation: Would a tiered service model stifle innovation by charging more for heavy bandwidth       use or would it free up bandwidth thus allowing more innovation?

• Censorship: Would telecommunication and cable companies and Internet service providers increase censorship of content transmitted over networks?

• Discrimination by carriers: Would the end of network neutrality be the beginning of more discrimination?

CHAPTER 7

INFORMATION SECURITY THREATS AND POLICIES IN EUROPE

1. What is a botnet ?

A 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 computers. Once a computer is infected       it becomes part of a network of thousands of “zombies,” machines that are commanded to carry out the       attack.

2. Describe some of the main points of the Digital Agenda for Europe?

The European Commission has recently launched the Digital Agenda for Europe. The goal of this initiative     is to define the key role that information and communication technologies will play in 2020. The initiative       calls for a single, open European digital market. Another goal is that broadband speeds of 30Mbps be           available to all European citizens by 2020. In terms of security, the initiative is considering the                         implementation of measures to protect privacy and the establishment of a well-functioning network of           CERT to prevent cybercrime and respond effectively to cyber attacks.

3.  Explain how a cyber attacks can be carried out.

In 2007, Estonia suffered a massive cyber attacks that affected the government, the banking system,             media, and other services. The attacks was performed using a variety of techniques, ranging from simple       individual ping commands and message flooding to more sophisticated distributed denial of services (           DDoS ) attacks. Hackers coordinated the attacks by using a large number of compromised servers             organized in a botnet distributed around the world.

The cyber attacks on Estonia started in late April 2007 and lasted for almost 3 weeks. During this period,     vital parts of the Estonia Internet network had to be closed from access from outside the country, causing     millions of dollars in economic losses. At around the same time, Arsys an important Spanish domain             registration company, was also targeted by international hackers. Arsys reported that hackers had stolen       codes that were then used to insert links to external servers containing malicious codes in the Web pages       of some of its clients.   

4.  Describe some of the weaknesses exploited by malware.

A sophisticated malware threat targeting industrial system was detected in Germany, Norway, China,           Iran, India, Indonesia, and other countries. The malware, known as Stuxnet, infected Windows PCs             running the Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition ( SCADA ) control system from the German               company Siemens. Stuxnet was propagated via USB devices. Experts estimate that up to 1,000                   machines were infected on a daily basis at the peak of the infection. The malware, hidden in shortcuts to         executable programs ( files with extension. Ink ), was executed automatically when the content of an             infected USB drive was displayed. Employing this same technique, the worm was capable of installing           other malware. Initially, security experts disclosed that Stuxnet was designed to steal industrial secrets           from SIMATIC WinCC, a visualization and control software system from Siemens.

However, data gathered later by other experts indicates that the worm was actually looking for some             specific Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) devices used in a specific industrial plant, a fact that             points to the possibility that the malware was part of a well-planned act of sabotage. Even though none of     the sites infected with Stuxnet suffered physical damage, the significance that such a sophisticated threat         represents to the industrial resources in Europe and other of the world cannot be underestimated.

CHAPTER 8

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT HEADS TO THE CLOUD

1. What types of companies are most likely to adopt cloud-based CRM software services? Why? What            companies might not be well-suited for this type of software?

The traditional enterprise software vendors like Oracle are using their well established position to grad a       share of the cloud-based application market; newcomers like Right Now, Compiere, and Sugar CRM           have found success using some different tactics. Because most companies that are interested in cloud

computing are small or midsize and lack the know-how or financial resources to successfully build and           maintain ERP and CRM applications in-house. However, the large companies have made the switch to         cloud. Company officials were hoping to eliminate maintenance and administrative costs, but not at the           expense of a storage system that meets their requirements, were never out of service, and worked perfectly.

Types of companies which are most likely to adopt cloud-based ERP and CRM software services will         be companies that want to cut IT staff cost. With CRM and ERP, a business can be up and running with       the software quickly which less need for in-house IT staff or high levels of technical skills, and things like       security and upgrades are looked after by the vendor. This is because the difference between cloud and on-premise is that cloud-computing makes your software an operational expense rather than a capital spend. There’s usually little or no financial outlay in terms of hardware and IT infrastructure, and you pay a monthly fee to use the product, which is based on the number of users you have. Some businesses prefer a capital spend and to ‘own’ the software.

Others prefer an operational cost, as with the cloud. For cloud-based applications, you also need a               reliable internet connection, and in some sectors there can be issues with the geography in which the               data is actually held. Many mainstream business software vendors are working to transfer their                       traditional on-premise applications in to the cloud. From a technical point of view, it is not as                         straightforward as it may first appear. Once it has achieved, the results are arguably superior to                     applications that have been developed as purely cloud-based applications. 

Next, companies which might not be well-suited for this type of software are those companies from               small to middle-sized companies. These companies have senior finance professionals and they concern           about security and the lack of information and understanding about cloud technology which are the main         reasons for organizations are staying away from cloud ERP. For the vast majority of businesses,                   modern commercial cloud applications provide exceptionally high levels of security, including data                 protection and back-up, and are usually more secure than the majority of on-premise applications.

2.  What are the advantages and disadvantages of using cloud-based enterprise applications?

While traditional enterprise software vendors like Oracle are using their well-established position to               penetrate the cloud-based application market, newcomers like RightNow and SugarCRM have found         success, even among larger companies. The cloud-based advantages as it attempted to merge information     from different sources, and many smaller companies have taken advantage of a new type of cloud               computing. For example, cloud-based applications can merge customer data 25 disparate sources and         applications into a single system. Disadvantage is that company officials were hoping to eliminate                   maintenance and administrative costs, but not at the expense of a storage system that met their                     requirements, was never out of service,    and worked perfectly and they will cost a lot of money from       enterprise.

3. What people, organization, and technology issues should be addressed in deciding whether to use a               conventional CRM system versus a cloud-based version?

Nikon found that not only Right Now had the capability to implement that system, but also it had an array     of other useful services. When Nikon discovered that it could combine outbound e-mail, contact                   management, and customer records into a single system in Right Now’s cloud, it made the move,                   expecting     to receive a solid return on the investment. However, more customers found the information       they needed on the Web, call response times dropped by 50 percent, and incoming e-mail dropped by         70    percent. While Nikon still hosts its SAP ERP system internally due to its complexity, Nikon                 switched    its entire CRM system to Right Now. Companies that manage their CRM apps with a                 cloud infrastructure have no guarantees that their data will be available at all times, or even that the               provider will still exist in the future.

CHAPTER 9

E- COMMERCE: DIGITAL MARKETS, DIGITAL GOODS

1.  Assess the people, organization, and technology issues for using social media to engage with customers.

We can assess the people, organization and technology issues using social media such as Facebook and twitter to engage with customer.

Ø  Powerful tolls for engaging customer and asses the people, organization, and technology issues

Ø  Companies are rolling out ads that capitalize on the social media features of Facebook to achieve greater    

     visibility

Ø  Twitter has developed many new offerings to interested advertisers, like Promoted Tweets and Promoted  

    Trends

Ø  Facebook targeting capabilities to determine which type of people respond to the various ads it has 

     created.

Ø  Many companies are running online ads that focus less on pitching their product than on promoting their 

    Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.

Ø  The ads feature menu tabs and allows users to click within the ad to see a brands Twitter messages or 

     Facebook wall posts in real time, or to watch a brands video content from YouTube-all within the Web 

     page where the ad appears

Ø  Even if the Facebook or Twitter postings in ads show brands apologizing about missteps or customers  

    complaints, advertisers may still benefit.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising, brand building, market 

     research and customer service?

Advantages:

·   Building Brand Awareness

    One of the most obvious reasons for using Social Media Marketing is to build brand awareness and it   

     certainly does if used correctly

·   Reach a large Audience

    Using social media to market our business online will without a doubt help us reach a larger audience. In 

    a way, the more people we reach the better brand awareness we have but with social media, there is  

    lot of noise. We need to make sure we use a tool like Hoot suite so we can eliminate all of the noise and 

    focus on reaching the people who want to engage with us.

·    Greate for SEO

    Social Media or even more specific, Google +  is greate for boosting our SEO. Google is picking up on  

    how much activity each business is doing on social media and will rank our business accordingly. The 

    more active and fresh content we are posting on our business will rank on Google and it really is, as 

    simple as that.

·    Cost Effective

    Social Media Marketing doesn’t cost you a penny, unless you want it to. You can market on Twitter, 

    Facebook, Google+, Pinterest and any other social network for free. If we want to run competitions for 

    use a few select third party tools, we may end up have to pay small fee but on the whole, social media 

    marketing is very cost effective.

Disadvantages:

·   Understanding on how it work

   We need to understand how social media works, when and how to use it and which channels to focus on   

   depending on our end goal of using social media in order to get its full effects

·   Commits illegal crime

    Social media may open possibility for hackers to commit illegal crime such as fraud, spam and virus 

    attacks. People falling prey to online scam may also increase, resulting in data or identity theft

·     Viral social disadvantages

     This may damage one’s reputation. The wrong online brand strategy could put us on this

·     Negative effects on workers productivity

     Results in lost productivity and employees may use social media to attact the companys reputation. 

     Instead of working in their time of work, they can waste such valuable time using social media channels 

     such as Twitter and Facebook. This may results in negative comments from employees use these sites to 

     view objectionable, illicit or offensive material.

·      Distraction

     Most people who suffer from this are students. Instead, of doing their homeworks they tend to fail their  

     academis endeavours because of using social media in the wrong way

·      Serious detriminal outcomes on individuals health

     When social media is used in a wrong way, it may have a negative effect on both mental physics health of

      individual

3. Should all companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service and advertising ? Why or why not?    

    What kinds of companies are best suited to use these platform?

Nowadays, people are not call up a company and complain or tell their feedback. Now, they are more likely to head to tell the world how a product is. That’s why social media platform like Facebook, Twitter is important for customer service.Example of company which use Twitter for customer service:

-          JetBlue  Excels in Responsiveness. Airline delays are one of the most common causes of customer  

      frustration. JetBlue ensures they are responsive to their customers because they understand its important 

      for continued customers loyalty. They engage with happy customers , but they also responds to and help 

      frustrated customers as quickly as possible.

-         JetBlue is to be extremely responsive to customers mentioning their brand

      Whether they send public a reply or a private DM to answer a question, they are quickly to interact. As 

      seen in the picture above, they reached out to their frustrated customer within the hour. Social media is a 

      channel where customers get quick responses. Social media platform help companies to response 

      quickly to customer. Many companies dedicate full- time employees to the task of responding to 

      customers on social media. Social media help to satisfy customer needs. Moreover, social media help 

      find all this things.

Ø  Social listening ( listening for conversations about your company, competitors or other topics of interest)

Ø  Social conversation ( finding and responding to conversations online – engaging with others in social media)

Ø  Social  marketing ( launching and running campaigns and promotions in social media )

Ø  Social analytics ( measuring and analyzing results of social media efforts across various platforms )

Ø  Social influencer ( identifying and engaging with influencers that are relevant to your company or industry )

Social media platform is a cheaper than traditional marketing and advertising methods. Promote a

product using social networking sites by determining where their customers and potential customers are,

and getting their product visible on those sites.

Facebook page

Companies product can have its own page, where people can like it, comment on it, leave reviews and

even link to your website so they can buy it. Companies can offer incentives such as coupons and

discounts. Invite people to share company page with their friends so company community can grow.

Twitter account

Companies can set up an account on Twitter foe their product and promote it by attracting followers.

Companies have to come up with brief messages that describe and promote their product. Follow

people, brands and companies that might be interested in their product. The more people a company

follow, the more followers that company have a chance of attracting. In our opinion all companies are

best suited to use social media platform. At the same time, the company should figure out what they

want to accomplish via Social Media. Moreover, what are their human resources, and how many

people can work on their social media efforts.  Finally, how long is their project going to be.

CHAPTER 10

ALBASSAMI ‘S JOB IS NOT FEASIBLE WITHOUT  IT

1. What systems are described here ? what valueable information do they provide?

Systems are described is the shipping information system. The valueable information they provide is Albassami maintains all the sender information such as the sent car, the truck number, the sender and receiving branches, and it also sends an SMS to the client acknowledging the arrival of the car. The system also records the client’s data, and holds maintenance information. Linking the data of vehicle maintenance centers with the transportation service helps to enhance company performance and achieve better customer service. The system also enables standard reports to be provided to top management and head sectors about the productivity of each branch, resulting in accurate identification of needs for different regions and thus proper budget allocation. In addtion, the system allowed a better audit on all drivers behavior by using the output of the vehicles tracking information. Proper performance monitoring resulted in adequate employees appraisals and consequently loyal staff.

2. What values did the IT/ IS investments add to Albassami?

Albassami, the company used the system that based on clustered Dell servers running Windows 2003 and connected to over 270 Windows XP clients. The database management system, used as the backbone of the system, is Sybase Adaptive server, whereas clients use SQL Anywhere. There is replication between the server at headquarters and the clients’ branches. Throughout the replication, branches’ data is sent to the server and aggregated to create the most updated database version, and then sent back to the branches. This means every branch has the most recent version of the client list, trucks’ availability, and new shipping contracts so that any customer is able to deal with any branch at any time.

3. How did implementing the Shipping Information System address the business needs and information requirements of Albassami?

Implementing the shipping information system address the business needs and information requirements of Albassami is the recipient branch will create a receipt entry on the system upon arrival of the truck and then and Short Messaging Service communication (SMS) is created and sent to the customer, who will then go to the destination branch to receive the car. In addition, Albassami maintains all the sender information such as the sent car, the truck number, the sender and receiving branches, and it also sends an SMS to the client acknowledging the arrival of the car. The system also records the client’s data, and holds maintenance information. Linking the data of vehicle maintenance centers with the transportation service helps to enhance company performance and achieve better customer service. The system also enables standard reports to be provided to top management and head sectors about the productivity of each branch, resulting in accurate identification of needs for different regions and thus proper budget allocation. In addtion, the system allowed a better audit on all drivers behavior by using the output of the vehicles tracking information. Proper performance monitoring resulted in adequate employees appraisals and consequently loyal staff.

 CHAPTER 11

DST SYSTEM SCORES WITH SCRUM AND APPLICATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT

1. What were some of the problems with DST Systems’ old software development environment?

DST Systems is a software development company whose flagship product, Automated Work Distributor, increases back-office efficiency and helps offices become paperless.DST was founded in 1969 and its headquarters are in Kansas City, Missouri. The company has approximately ten thousand employees,1200 of whom are software developers. DST faced many of the challenges common in today’s changing global markets. For this cases, we found two problems faces by DST Systems’ old software development environment. Firstly, DST struggling with unresponsive two-year waterfall cycles, their teams were directed to cut costs and improve delivery of its software products. But internal and external teams were using multiple and disconnected processes and tools for project, requirements and test management. Then, in the waterfall model of software development, progression flows sequentially from one step to the next like a waterfall, with each step unable to start until the previous step has been completed. Secondly, The business, IT management and development teams were unable to effectively trace functional specifications and product tests to original requirements. The situation was made more difficult by the need to adhere to strict requirements in their regulated industry.

2. How did Scrum development help solve some of those problems?

In order to solve the problems, the development group started exploring Scrum, a framework for agile software development in which projects progress via a series of iterations called sprints. Sprint is a timeboxed iterations no more than a month long. Team members commit to delivering some number of features that were listed on a project’s product backlog at the start of sprints. The features include coded, tested, and integrated into the evolving product or system. At the end of sprints, a sprint review allows the team to demonstrate the new functionality to the product owner and other interested stakeholders who provide feedback that could influence the next sprint. Next, Scrum also help manage their distributed teams by providing a centralized cloud-based service around which its business stakeholders and development teams could collaborate, regardless of geographic location. CollabNet’s ability to implement hybrid development processes for different projects enabled DST’s diverse development teams to adopt the platform at the pace required by the market cycles of the individual project teams and their customers. For those teams implementing Scrum, they held regular stand up meetings to discuss progress and manage their development in regular iterations. DST combined these management methods with a modern agile and continuous integration process that their developers felt was easy to integrate, adopt and rollout by leveraging the TeamForge ALM platform. In a short time, DST was able to realize a 75% reduction of development cycles and a 20% productivity improvement of its valuable development resources. Ultimately, by using a centralized development platform and Scrum methods, DST is now able to combine software-code contributions from internal and external development teams, regardless of location, with a development process that is extremely responsive to the changing needs of its market and its customers. Scrum also relies on self-organizing, cross-functional teams supported by a ScrumMaster and a product owner.

3. What other adjustments did DST make to use Scrum more effectively in its software projects? What people, organization, and technology issues had to be addressed?

There are other point of adjustments did DST make to use Scrum more effectively in its software project. Firstly, the company accelerated its software development cycle from 24 to 6 months and developer productivity increased 20 percent.DST merge with ALM product that would unify its software development environment.DST set up a project evaluation team  to identify the right development environment for them. This factor includes cost-effectiveness, ease of adoption and feature effectiveness. Next, CollabNet specializes in software designed to work well with agile software development methods such as Scrum. DST adopted CollabNet’s Subversion product to help with the management and control of changes to project documents, programs and other information stored as a computer files DST’s adoption of CollabNet’s products was fast, requiring only 10 weeks, and DST developer’s now do all of their work within this ALM platforms. The CollabNet TeamForge platform provides an integrated set of development, collaboration and project management tools with a secure, centralized on-demand delivery model integrated to enable true collaborative development in a global business environment. Essentially, application development in the enterprise is becoming Agile, Distributed and “Multi-Source.” As a result, enterprises are searching for an open (any process, technology, APIs) ALM platform that scales from the workgroup to the enterprise to collaboratively link globally distributed teams—project managers, business analysts, developers, testers and deployment engineers. Increasingly, companies are looking for this platform to be centrally available in a secure public or private cloud, thereby enabling large scale cost reductions and development efficiencies. By leveraging shared software lifecycle assets, team members can collaborate within and across groups and projects– regardless of their location. At CollabNet, we call this “Agile ALM in the Cloud”.

CHAPTER 12

IFE ON THE GRID : IPHONE BECOME ITRACK

1. Why do cell phone manufacturers (Apple, Google and BlackBerry) want to track where their customers go?

A new technology based on smartphones can identify where you are located within a few yards. Mobiles technologies based on the smartphone make it possible to locate people thoughtout the day, to report this information to corporate data bases, retain and analyze the information and then sell it to advertiser and others. The company discovered that both Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android phones were collection personal, private location data, for a variety of reasons. The manufactures of cell phone like Apple, Google and BlackBerry want to track where their customers go because the location data has extraordinary commercial value because advertising companies can send to the customer advertisements, coupons, and flash bargains, based on where the customer located. Next, the smartphone apps that provide location-based services are also sources of personal, private, and location information based on the smartphone GPS capability. Foursquare, a 2009 start-up is a popular mobile social application that allows users to check in to a restaurant or other location, and the apps automatically lets friends on Facebook and other programs learn where you are. Foursquare has a widely accepted loyalty program.

2.  Do you think cell phone customer should be able to tracking off? Should customers be informed when they are being tracked? Why or why not?

No, because when the customer tracking off the cell phone the owner of company cannot detect the customer where they are and cannot help when they in trouble situation. The  customer need to be informed when they are being tracked because the company of cell phone will trace the customer and will find the data on the apps of cell phone. However, most cell phone users are unaware that their location and travels are readily available to law enforcement agencies thought a simple e-mail request, and without judicial review, and at the expense of the carries. The number of such requests is not know or published.

3. Do you think cell phone tracking is a violation of a person’s privacy?

No, because the privacy experts asked if consumers knew they were sharing their location information and what kind of informed consent was obtain. However, android phones transmit consumer’s location data continuously. Apple’s files on the iPhone device can be stored for many months. Both Apple and Google say they do not share the information with the third parties , deny the information can identify individuals (as opposed to cell phones) and claim the information is being used only to identify the location of cell phones for Wi-Fi connected phones, and to improve the customer experience of location-based services.