Ewaste has been a major concern on the minds of many. In a recent study it found that 80% of Americans throw their old electronics in the trash. Every day Americans throw 350,000 cell phones, and 130,000 computers. This is the fastest growing part of United States garbage. Improper disposal of the electronics can cause lead and mercury to leak into landforms. Ewaste is expensive and is time consuming, and America ship most of their ewaste abroad. In the article the United States has refused to sign the Basel Convention. It is a 19 year old international treaty which regulates the export of hazardous material to developing countries.  The recent study also found that 43 U.S recycling firms would consider shipping broken monitors with cathode-ray tube to foreign countries. None of the 43 recycling firms obtained the proper permission from the EPA or Environmental Protection Agency.

Much of the ewaste ends up in Guiyu, China. Here peasants heat the circuit boards to recover the lead. Ewaste in this area has highest level of cancer-causing dioxins and higher miscarriage rates. Many of the environmental groups are pressuring the manufactures to take responsibility for their products afterlife.

I found this article interesting because it talks about how we are shipping our old electronic products to developing countries and letting them deal with the hazardous waste. We are trying to be environmentally friendly but we are hurting the environment. America is one of a small number of countries to not sign the Basel Convention and we will end up doing more harm than good.

Reference: Walsh, B (Jan. 8, 2009) E-Waste Not Time Magazine. Retrieved on November 19, 2009 from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1870485,00.html.

The largest retail store in America is going to begin out sourcing to India . Wal
-Mart has a shortlist of companies with a contract that has the potential to be worth up to $500 million dollars. The outsourcing is to move more back office activities and business applications to India . The company hopes to have the project fully functioning in six months. Wal-Mart has been testing outsourcing smaller projects to India . Wal-Mart has a few companies on its list, which include: TCS, Infosys and Wipro. Many companies use outsourcing to help bring down costs, but Wal-Marts outsourcing is more for globalizing its information technology. Wal-Marts reason behind this move is because it hopes to tap into the emerging India market. However many people fear that with this move to outsourcing it will cause Americans to loose jobs. Wal-Mart stated even though they will outsource they are planning to add 22,000 new jobs in the United States by adding 150 new stores to the existing 7900.

Outsourcing has its pro and cons. Wal-Marts decision to outsource a part of the company makes sense from a business standpoint. They are looking to save money in the long run by outsourcing. It also will help create a place in India that is better trained with certain tasks. Wal-Mart is able to put fears about losing jobs aside by insuring that it will create more jobs and open more stores. This also gives Wal-Mart an advantage in the access of advanced technology.

Reference: Mishra, P “Wal-Mart to Start Outsourcing More to India” Business Week. Retrieved November 12, 2009. http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2009/gb2009068_435509.htm

In this article found on pcworld.com it talks about how instant messaging increase the probability of theft danger. Zeus Trojans are responsible for hacking into bank accounts and stealing account information. There are some programs that can be able to block this Zeus Trojan. Zeus sends information to a remote server and then the information is sorted. The hackers used two Jabber accounts. They use one account to send information and the other account is setup to receive the information. Once they receive the information Jabber looks at the identification and looks for the identification at financial institution. As of September 1, 2009 about 3.6 million computers have been affected by this virus. They can catch this virus by not loading the latest security patches from your web browser and going to insecure websites. Zeus is believed to be a product of a Russian hacker who goes by the name A-Z. RSA is a security company that helps protect against the Zeus Trojan. According to RSA the hacker is immediately notified once they have gained control of the accounts.

Instant messaging is believed to be one of the safer ways to communicate. When you hear of viruses or trojans many believe that they come in through email. The Zeus Trojan is now being able to access the instant messaging part of the internet. This could harm businesses because if the hackers are able to get a hold of financial accounts it could hurt accounts that hold important information.

Reference: Kirk, J Instant Messaging Speeds up Data Theft Danger, PC World Retrieved November 5, 2009 from htttp://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/171200/instant_messaging_speeds_up_data_theft_danger.html

The Disney Company is offer an iPhone application to iPhone users to help people interact with the company; Disney is offering this free app to deepen fan relation with Disney Characters. Some of the characters included are from the movies: “Up,” “G-Force,” “Ratatouille,” and “Wall-E”. You can take cell phone pictures of the characters on your phone. If you take the picture with your phone they character will become animated in the user’s hand.  This will allow you to access different video and content from the website.    Right now the app only allows users to surf the disney.com website but in the future they hope to expand the application to allow customers to shop at the Disney Store online. Another thing that Disney is hoping to do with this application is to link the customers’ via Global Position Sensors. When the customer is close to anything in relation to Disney they will be notified on their phone. Disney later hops to have this application which sells for $4.99 wrap Disney’s 17 other apps into one place.

This article shows that Disney is working to increase both contact management CRM systems and their opportunity management CRM opportunity systems. Disney is using the apps to help lure customers to Disney products. They are customizing the app to try and link it towards personal preference. Opportunity management CRM systems is also used to help target new customers to use the app. Disney is hoping that the app will allow customer’s easier access to some of the companies features.

Reference:

NAKASHIMA , R. (2009) Disney iPhone app makes photos the key to content Retrieved October 29, 2009, from Business Week.
WEB: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/tech/D9BJS4M00.htm

International Business Machines or IBM has found and new was to do supply chain managing. The Carbon Tradeoff Modeler is used to help take an integrated look how to reduce carbon emissions. It also helps the business with inventory level and on-time shipping. Enviromental policies have become important to the business world. According to IBM by taking action to reduce CO2 emissions it can influence the supplier’s behavior. The modeler can help find the fine line between the reduced emissions and the business requirements. The molder can analyze shipping frequency, inventory replenishment policy, and routing process. The modeler also looks at the impact on transportation requirements, costs, and on-time delivery charges. IBM is trying helping decrease it carbon footprint and increase its efficiency.
This article shows that IBM trying to make the supply chain more efficient. The delivery speeds may effect the purchasing decision. IBM is using the Supply chain management or SCM to help gain the upper hand. The supply chain strategy is the strategy for managing all resources to meet customers demand for all products and services. Supply chain partners help IBM deliver the finished products, raw materials, and services that include pricing and relationship. Supply chain operation is the schedule that IBM must stick to which includes preparation of delivery. The supply chain operation includes the measurement component for quality and productivity. The supply chain logistics involves orders, warehouses, carriers, defective products returns, and invoicing. SCM software is used to generate efficiencies to help improve the information flows.

Reference: Broersma, T. IBM Shows the Way to Greener Supply Chain. Retrieved. October 15, 2009. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/146226/ibm_shows_the_way_to_greener_supply_chain.html

Items tagging is the next big thing heading towards retailers. The RFID industry is expected to be able to do this. Radio Frequency Identification tag usage is expected to climb over the next 10 years. Within the 10 year forecast it is expected that the RFID tags will be able to have sensors, displays, and power.

Within the next ten years it is expected that chipless tags (tags without a silicon chip) will be able to be printed right on the product. The benefit to this is that the printing on the packaging will have an impact on the way we shop. With the cost being only .1 cents it will replace millions of barcodes. RDIF tags offer are more reliable and versatile for retailers to use.

There will be an increase in mainstream and chipless RFID tags. The prediction is that by 2019 there will be 624 billion tags being sold worldwide. The value of the chipless and printed versions will rise as well, from $5 million in 2009 to $3.93 billion in 2019. The analysts expect that in 2019 that an average price of a tag will cost 1 cent. The cost of a chipless RFID will cost less because it is being printed on the packaging. There will only be a few chipless tags that are getting printed on the product in 2019.

I found this article interesting because the outlook on RFID tags has a big impact on their industry. RFID tags have also become cheaper with more features as time has progressed. Cheaper tags also include new technology such as printing the tags directly on the product.

Reference: Reportlinker Adds Printed and Chipless RFID Forecasts, Technologies & Players 2009-2019 Report. Retrieved: October 8, 2009. Business Wire. Web Site: htp://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20091007005522&newsLang

Google is testing a new type of database that will compete against Oracle. Google is working on creating a Cloud-based database. Google will use fusions tables, which are designed to eliminate limitations of a conventional relational database. Fusion tables are built to help simplify operations that can be found confusing in a relational database. The fusion tablets will also be able to collaborate with larger data sets. Google is also offering the data to be able to sync with Microsoft Outlook. Fusion tablets are expected to put relational database into the dark. Data-spaces technology is used to solve the problem of multiple data layers. Different data formats and types that are within an organizations. Organizations have to have to scrub and cleanse information to make it valuable to the company. Fusion tables will help innovate Google as it moves towards its third and fourth dimension, which includes real-time updates like in twitter.
According to the article this, by Google using its cloud-based database it creates problems for Oracle, IBM, Microsoft. “If you’re IBM, Microsoft and Oracle, your worst nightmare is now visible.” (Perez,1) eal-time information is important to many companies. Google is offering this service to many businesses. By using fusion tables it will put IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle in danger of losing share of the market.

We have learned about databases in class and about it can help businesses succeed in their respected industry The article also talks about cleaning the data and making is suitable to use in the business. This includes using data scrubbing and cleansing to help make the information collected more useful for the company.

Reference: Perez, J. Watch Out, Oracle: Google Tests Cloud-based Database Retrieved: October 1, 2009 from PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/166558/watch_out_oracle_google_tests_cloudbased_database.html

Google outage caused chaos to all gmail users all around the world, and helped Microsoft show that you need to have stability in a network, and office applications. Google is attempting to prove that office applications are cheaper and easier to maintain rather than running a PC-based client user. Gmail went down for about 100 minutes after the problem was discovered. The technicians were notified of the problem seconds after it occurred and began fixing the problem right away. The problem was said to be related to Google pulling a small fraction of there Gmail server’s offline to perform offline routine upgrades. The Gmail engineers linked to insufficient capacity. This helped Microsoft prove that web based applications are not secure and reliable enough to use on a regular base. In order for Microsoft to keep its edge in the office world all they need to do is how that Google’s web based office applications are unstable. It would cause downtime in the business so Microsoft can point out that there office applications are stable and sound.

This an example of the enterprise architectures faltered with a glitch in the system. The Infrastructure Architecture includes flexibility, scalability, reliability, availability, and performance. The article shows that Gmail still struggles with reliability and availability. To help get the problem under control Gmail brought in extra flexibility to help bring the servers back online quickly. Gmail showed that the scalability of their company was weak. Gmail and Google must improve to prevent these problems from reoccurring.

Reference: Gralla, P Microsoft Gains at Google’s Lost Day Retrieved: September 24, 2009. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/171359/microsoft_gains_at_googles_lost_day.html

Windows users are being given free antivirus protection. Windows is now taking anti virus to the next level. Microsoft the owner of Windows tries to make their operating systems safe. But, hackers can still figure new was to get around these security features. Microsoft tried selling their version of business security called OneCare. Since then Microsoft has been giving the product away. It protects for malware and checks files from external drives and downloads. The article also discussed that free security protection is not new to the technology field. AVG is just one of many free downloadable programs to protect you from harmful files. However, Internet Explorer 8 and Mozilla Firefox 3.5 offer defense against phishing and malware. There are different types of internet and virus protection available to the public however, they cost money. By Microsoft offering free antivirus protection they are hoping to make the internet safer for everyone.

This ties in to the chapter about how technology is being used to protect the internet users. Microsoft is trying to make the internet safer so there are fewer problems. This ties into the chapter because by offering protection there will hopefully be less identity theft, which also leads to fraud. With free use of the Microsoft OneCare it gives you more content filtering which will help users protect their information from being hacked. It also gives you a tougher malware, worm, Denial-of-service attack (DOS), and Trojan-horse virus. By adding virus and internet protection this well create more security which will allow for less downtime will cost less money.

Reference: Wildstorm, S (2009). Microsoft’s Security Essentials Hits Back at Hackers retrieved September 17, 2009. Website: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_38/b4147076993366.htm

In this article New York’s biggest cable service provider is looking into deploying local hotspots through out New York. This is part of a plan to help fend off telecom carriers. Cablevision is the largest cable provider in the New York metropolitan area with 2.4 million in-home Internet-access subscribers. The numbers have risen 50% since autumn of 2008 and consumers have used the Wi-Fi hotspots more that one million times in the last year. The Wi-Fi service is provided over an infinite area. The antennas are strategically located hotspots allow for access over a larger region. It is however not an easy way to offset the telecom carriers that are allowing television services.

Wi-Fi is not a substitute for the coast to service that some carriers are able to provide. Wi-Fi does offer an effective and low-cost way to have cable companies help fight the telecom carriers. Some companies have offered only limited time offers for the Wi-Fi access. However, if the companies offer the service for free that there would be a decrease in customer turnover. Comcast has begun offering Wi-Fi at one hundred train stations in New Jersey and may offer more hotspots in the market later on.

This article has to do with wireless internet service provider. The internet service provider which in this case is Cablevision allows subscribers to access the internet in hotspots. Wireless hot spots allow people to access the internet from anywhere within the zone or range in which the antenna can reach.

Reference: BusinessWeek, HP Cablevision’s New Wireless Bid: Wi-Fi Hotspots. Retrieved September 9, 2009. from http://www.businessweek.com

The article “Taking Stock of Inventory Management”, take a closer look at Walking Equipment Co. located in Florida. Stephen Carroll company uses software from Stone Edge Technologies to keep track of inventory in the warehouse. It can also print purchase orders, shipping tag and pick lists automatically.

Carroll plan to upgrade to Stone Edge’s premium product, by purchasing the software it eliminates the need for data entry. The premium product will allow the company to notify the consumer when the product is backordered and can give the consumer a estimated delivery date. With the cost of storing unsold inventory so high the smaller the inventory on hand the less risk there is. Carroll divided the inventory into three categories: items domestically within four weeks; goods within eight weeks from overseas; and manufactured items specifically for him that can take up to five months to arrive. He has saved 5% and 15000 in labor. The article goes on to discuss the cost of using an inventory tracking system and how it may hinder some company performance.

Inventory management systems are as good as the people who use the system. The software system can not fix all of the inventory problems. The inventory systems do not make up for the lack of human planning. The article discusses the transactional processing unit. It shows how information is used within the company for a single process or unit of work. They use this information from the inventory system to help determine the amount of inventory to carry.

Reference: BusinessWeek, Taking Stock of Inventory Management Retrieved

September 1, 2009fromhttp://www.businessweek.com

Hewlett-Packard is shaking up the Japanese wireless market. Hewlett-Packard is releasing a computer that doesn’t require the consumer to sign an operator contract. The computers are touchscreen tablets that come with 100 free air time minutes and a pay as you go wireless system. With Hewlett-Packard operating as both a manufacturer and wireless operator posses a great deal the Japan’s three biggest wireless operators.

The computer giant Hewlett-Packard has set themselves up to succeed in the Japanese market. HP will rent spectrum use from a small Japanese based company named Japan Communications. Japan Communications rents its bandwidth from DoComo, which is one of the companies that could possibly be in trouble with Hewlett-Packard entering the wireless market. Hewlett-Packard has not ruled out the possibility of other technology. This may include the use of smart phones and web friendly digital cameras in the future.

Hewlett-Packard plans to offer the computers $50 to $100 more than those laptops without a broadband wireless feature. The laptops will cost from $500 to $900. Each computer has a removable SIM card that lets users buy more minutes. HP could seize control of the market, with the potential to ship more than 42 million notebooks. The one problem is that in Japan there are not too many hot spots available.

This just shows that the Japanese market has created the threat of new entrants. Japan has low entry barriers, which has allowed Hewlett-Packard to enter into this market. Hewlett-Packard is offering a new service which will allow the company to compete and survive.

Reference: BusinessWeek, HP Shakes Up Japan’s Wireless Market. Retrieved
September 2, 2009. from http://www.businessweek.com