Business by Smartphone Smartphones are taking the business world by storm. Every businessperson today has the ability to check, monitor, and receive instant updates about their business by touching the screen of their phone. The most popular smartphones that you see on the market today are the Blackberry and iPhone. Both have similar capabilities and functions, but differ in the way they can be applied to business. Blackberry has its advantages in business due to the different type of software it uses. Microsoft is the producer of this technology and with its strong security and synchronizing abilities, many businesses chose this phone. Apple on the other hand has a larger share of the non-business market, but has its potential and functions for business as well. With comparable 3G networks, both companies are on the cutting edge of revolutionizing business. Smartphones allow individuals to work on the go and have every bit of information they need at the swift move of a finger. The ability to buy and create applications to suit each users needs, smartphones are beginning to transform the way business is conducted forever. Many phone companies allow people and business to create personalized applications to suit their needs. For example, Break Down Way, a guitar lesson learning application, allows people to download the application and immediately access thousands of different lessons from their iPhone. The creator of this application, David Wolf, plans to give people a free sample of his application so that people can see the advantages of learning guitar without an actual instructor. Subscribers of the application can view and study different lessons by various artists such as Jorma Kaukonen from Jefferson Airplane and Michael Falzarano from Hot Tuna. While Wolf awaits his application approval from apple, he hopes to join the application buying frenzy and stay in touch with the vast expanding possibilities of technology. These technological advances of Smartphones and applications are affecting the business world at an alarming rate. Business are now using the capabilities of their smartphones and developing ways that increase the efficiency of their operation and communication. Now business people are able to access more personal information than every just by accessing their handheld phone. This allows employees and executives to closer manage and monitor their operations and find problems as soon as they occur. The integration of Smartphones into business would not be possible if it wasn’t for the application creating software that allows businesses to construct, test, and use applications that are solely created for their particular use. These types of applications are beneficial to large and small business, but give small business the ability to do things that only large operations were able to do before. Simple applications not only allow companies to improve internal operations and communication, but more important with the customer. Many companies have application that allows customers to view their accounts, inventories, sales, and much more from the creative application that the company created. These applications allow customers to stay informed and up to date with current news and information from their Smartphone. According to an online source, “Apple sold 1.5 billion apps during the App Store’s first year and 5.2 million iPhones during the company’s fiscal third quarter”(Ransom 2009). The application and smart phone craze is catching on so rapidly for many reasons. Individuals want to have all of their information at the touch of their fingers, and all of those who refuse to conform to the consumers want and needs, they will have an insecure future compared to those who jump on the application/smartphone bandwagon. Technology is transforming the way we live our lives every single day. In business and in our every day lives, Smartphones are rapidly finding new and clever ways to keep us informed and connected to the world at all times. The future only holds more possibilities for the Smartphone’s capabilities and only time will tell how well it will all work. Business is imminently being transformed to adapt to the times, it is up to each business to keep on the cutting edge of consumer wants and needs so that they can become sustainable throughout the future.
Resources:
Jason Hiner. “Sanity check: Five upgrades that make the iPhone 3G enterprise-ready”. July 11th, 2008. http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=781&tag=content;leftCol
DIANA RANSOM. Smartphone Apps Fuel Business. August 20 2009. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125071635069144197.html
Mobile Phone Wallet:
The culmination of convenience
Researches say that within the next five years, our mobile phones will have yet another use; doubling as a wallet for the ultimate convince. Countries that are usually ahead of the United States in technology, such as South Korea and Japan, are already making these futuristic phones into a reality. These mobile wallets will have various uses such as electronic payments, downloading event tickets, opening doors, accessing subways, fast paying on turnpikes, clipping coupons, and acting as another form of identification. Other functions for this growing product are to include bank cards, credit cards, house keys, company access control IDs, electronic cash, and train tickets. This idea seems foreign to us now, but the concept is further examined by how the mobile phone wallet works, common concerns, the benefits to society, and the future for the wallets.
The Mobile Phone Wallet uses a technology called near-field communication (NFC), which allows any enabled device to communicate through a secure radio frequency. NFC is a type of wireless technology that allows devices to exchange small amounts of data across short distances – approximately four inches. Also needed is a special chip, otherwise known as a microchip-laden or “smart card” placed in the phone, with another radio frequency antenna to communicate. Devices equipped with this built-in NFC and smart cards can facilitate m-payments, simply by holding the devices close to each other. To pay for items you simply wave your cell phone within a few inches of a special display that can be found in stores, restaurants and vending machines that also have the NFC technology. You can also make m-payment for quick and easy exchanges of money between individuals. When your purchase is being deducted from the embedded chip, using radio-frequency ID technology, you will hear a fairy-like tinkling sound indicating payment.
A common concern with the mobile phone wallet is that the probability of theft could increase. Some computer experts have suggested that hackers could develop a way to pickpocket the mobile phone wallets by simply getting close to people’s handsets. This has not happened yet, but researchers are looking into applications and ways to prevent and establish a good defense against possible theft. Another problem is the issue of what to do if you were to lose your mobile phone wallet, which possibly could contain all of your most valuable information. If this were to happen, the phone can be locked and no one else can use it for calls or be able to add or subtract money to the cash-dispensing chip. For some, another concern is that the government could possibly find out too much about your spending proclivities and your physical movements.
There are many benefits of the Mobile Wallet phone. As they enter new industries, such as the payment and credit card field, which represents major innovation and could possibility cause trouble for already previously established industries, such as credit cards. Since “going green” and being more environmentally friendly is increasing in popularity, the mobile phone wallet signifies a very attractive benefit for the eco-system. With the development of these phones, all transactions will become paperless with no need for printing receipts and bank statements. We can also eliminate the use of plastic used for credit cards and paper used for cash. When a phone is enabled with near-field communication technology, shoppers can load bank and credit card information onto their phones and then scan them to buy goods.
Samsung is one of the companies looking into further expanding into this market by joining forces with Philips to bring this concept into a reality to the United States. “Joining forces with Philips for the further development of NFC-enabled devices is part of Samsung’s commitment to change the way information and services are paid for, distributed and accessed by all consumers,” said JK Shin, senior vice president of the research and development team at Samsung.
The future for the mobile wallet phone looks promising. Currently, in Japan there are over 9,000 establishments that accept this form of payment, and this number is quickly increasing. To make this concept take off in the United States, more stores and businesses need to incorporate this type of payment as well. Gartner Inc., a technology research company, issued a report in May saying mobile payments will increase 70 percent in 2009, to 73 million people worldwide. Since almost all phones have email and Internet connection, the concept of the mobile phone wallet becoming the new, standardized way of payment seems very likely in the near future.
Bibliography:
James Strootman
Nov 30, 2009
I chose my research paper topic on smart advertisements. I chose this topic because I believe that this is going to change the advertisement industry for the better. The whole process is really quite exquisite. All you need is an idea and a computer (Advertising Trends…). Do not get the idea that there are zero flaws in this operation, but I believe that the pros outweigh the cons. Now let me go into more detail about what kind of advertisements I will be talking about. I would first like to give information about the ads themselves. The ads that I am talking about are the LED (Light-Emitting Diode) Signs. What this is, is a billboard that is replaced by the old vinyl traditional boards (The New Digital… ). The great thing about this is that there is no one that needs to come and strip the old advertisement and put the new one up. The other astonishing thing about this is that ads can be very target oriented to fit a specific audience. Now, advertisements can change instantly from one sale a company might have to the next in a matter of minutes. Another magnificent feature is that these signs can also capture radio frequencies that can change the advertisement based on what a potential customer is listening to on the radio. This also goes for many other ways for the billboard to recognize different things such as face recognition and car identifying (Digital billboards…).
This all sounds great but, like I said there is imperfection in this new age of advertisements. Someone in the greater Los Angeles area has hacked into the computer systems and put an ad of his own up there. It is somebody known as skullphone (Melanson, Donald). He is just a pirate taking over time slots that were paid for by companies. Another affliction of these great ads is that from any moment to another the sign would generate a different advertisement. What this means is that no company has full reign over a certain region of advertisements (Zita Torok). A company buys time slots, not locations anymore. So if a driver is at a traffic light and is exposed to thirty seconds of advertisement, and on average an ad last seven seconds the audience would have seen about four ads. So potentially the consumer would miss many other ads that should have been seen. This is not a good thing for the advertisers paying money to have people see their ads. This is another faulty issue that a company will have to address when considering this. The throughput will tell if the money was worth the initial payment up front.
Now as radio frequencies are accepted from each vehicle, information is gathered and puts up an ad that is target specific. A good example of this is say if I was driving and listening to a country station then an ad may pop up concerning great deals on new four wheel drive trucks. This happens because studies say that if a person listens to country music that they must drive a truck or in the market to get one. This is very helpful to companies and keeps the target audience very specific. It also gives instant information to a potential buyer, say for example how much that truck is or what kind of financing is available to them. My last source came out and said that from cameras on the billboard it can recognize individual cars and advertise to them as well. Such things in the article mention oil that is specific to a car make and model. What this does is inform the driver of discounts that would apply to his/hers vehicle (Digital billboard…).
In conclusion I think that this new wave of billboards is the future and that the old ones will be obsolete in a few years. Companies won’t waste their money to engage in a lifeless advertisement.
Advertising Trends: Digital Billboards. The Marketing Spot. 4 May 2009 http://www.themarketingspotblog.com/2009/05/advertising-trends-digital-billboards.html
Digital billboard ads recognize individual cars. Screensmedia. 22 Sept. 2009. http://www.screens.tv/article/11833/Digital_billboard_ads_recognise_individual_cars.html
Jay Ehret. “Advertising Trends: Digital Billboards”. The Marketing Spot. 28 Oct. 2009
http://www.themarketingspotblog.com/2009/05/advertising-trends-digital-billboards.html.
Zita Torok. The New Trend in Outdoor Billboard Advertising.2009. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-New-Trend-in-Outdoor-Billboard-Advertising&id=622779
Melanson, Donald. Skullphone decides to speak, probably shouldn’t have. 28 Mar. 2008. Engadget. http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/28/skullphone-decides-to-speak-probably-shouldnt-have/
According to the article posted on Businessweekly.com food banks all over the country are currently have a “high-tech revolution”. They are adopting advanced databases, GPS tracking, using bar codes, and other such technologies. The new technologies have help food banks come a long way from past years of passing out canned food and macaroni. The new innovations will allow food banks to supply much more people because hunger has become a never-ending problem. The effort is led by the organization Feeding America which currently is having such food banks from Seattle and New York test a $60 million effort to supply the needy. The Athena Project is the name of the effort by Feeding America.
“The Athena Project, which started rolling out this summer, will let food banks upgrade and standardize accounting, inventory and donor software, take full advantage of the Internet, and manage pickups and deliveries much the same way FedEx or UPS track packages.” Feeding America which is based in Chicago is installing the systems at no charge. The result will hopefully provide local food banks with more of the much needed food to feed people. The project is set to be completed in about five years and will save food banks millions of dollars that would go to cost of operating tasks. The money that is saved from the innovations will go to buy more food and provide more services. Some of the benefits of the new innovations are GPS tracking, inventory management systems, generating food list, and common software and back up servers which will help food banks around the world provide better services and more food.
Reference: Tibbits, George. (2009). The Associated Press. Food banks go high-tech to feed the hungry. Businessweek. Retrieved from: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9C7T37O0.htm
This week’s chapter reading is on Globalization, Innovation and the 21st Century Organizational Trends, and one of the biggest trends in this current time is social networking sites. According to an article on PC World, Facebook is dominating the social networking sites. I have always been a fan of the Facebook social networking site, especially when it first started out as as site just for college students to connect with one another from different campuses. During that time, you had to have a campus email address to prove that you were a college student to be able to sign up for membership. About a year or two ago, Facebook opened its doors to the greater world and allowed membership to just about everyone and anybody. Since then, Facebook has been a growing site with millions of members globally. Other sites like Myspace, Hi5 and Bebo are known in different countries and are huge in different parts of the world. Myspace is well known in the United States, Hi5 is very well known and huge in Latin America, while Bebo is highly used in Europe and its residents. Facebook, however, remains the one site that is being used everywhere gloabally. For businesses that are trying to get their brand names and products well known to the world, Facebook is a great way to get the word out. Many organizations use Facebook to talk about issues and events that are approaching and it has proven to be very successful. Other sites like Orkut are losing a lot of its members in India to Facebook, so to help businesses become more successful, they should look into creating a page or profile on Facebook to further the mission of their business.
The article can be found here: http://www.pcworld.com/article/174293/facebook_dominates_global_social_nets_for_now.html
You can’t just throw your electronic waste away. It contains several toxins and a number of reusable metals and plastics. In fact, in California it is illegal to simple toss the old computer/VCR/DVD player/etc into the trash bin. So what do you do to comply with the law? You keep your ear to the ground and listen for the drum of a “free e-waste” event in town. You take your e-waste and dump it off and thats the last you see of it. Or you visit a site like http://www.myboneyard.com/ and mail off, free of charge to you, your ewaste. But what happens to it? I cannot speak for myboneyard.com but it is apparent that much of the waste gets dumped off in developing countries like Vietnam, as shown in the recent Amazing Race 15 show, or India. Workers, earning as much as 3 dollars a day, squat all day long pulling apart electronic devices. While the Amazing Race show down played the hazards of working in this type of environment it was easy to see the immediate dangers. Workers hands are constantly being cut and scraped by sharp edges and thin sheet metal. I regularly have my hands inside of a computer case and can atest to the razor blade sharpness of thin sheet metal usually found, but not limited to, cheaply made cases. With out these desperate workings tearing apart all of our e-waste most of the worlds e-waste would go un-recycled. A better means of e-recycling must be found. Nokia is attempting to mitigate the waste its products produce via their Take Back program but its only a step in the right direction and not a solution.
BBC World Service. (2009). Hazardous conditions for India’s e-waste workers. Retrieved November 20, 2009 From http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8379010.stm
Gmail is a free email service offered by Google. Businesses use this free email service. A subscription can be purchased which offers additional services. Google, which offers Gmail, is new to the clouding industry.
Electronic Mail (email) has become increasingly integrated into businesses. Mail, reports, memos, and newsletters are steadily being sent by email. A business can buy and maintain its own email service or it may use an email service from a third party.
Clouding refers to companies that offer email and other services. Gmail offers email and other services such as apps. Apps is short for applications and these offered apps are subscription based.
Businesses can either house and maintain their own email and/or other services such as apps or get them from the cloud. Clouding is new and many businesses are skeptical of its reliability and do not like the idea of having less control of an integral component of their business. For example, email systems offered by clouding have downtime every month but so do email systems housed and maintained by companies. So what a business must do is make a trade off. The two main proponents being reliability and cost. Gmail claims they do a better job of maintaining reliability and at a lower cost than housing and maintaining done in house by a business.
Ebusiness is what Google is doing more of these days. Gmail which is beginning to offer more services will make a lot of money for Google. Mostly, making money is what ebusiness is all about.
I like that Google is expanding its Gmail services. As it is I use Gmail all the time and I can’t wait to see what else Google comes up with to offer businesses.
Jessi, H. (2009 September 3). Retreived November 25, 2009. Is Gmail ready for business? Fortune Brainstorm Tech. http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/09/03/is-gmail-ready-for-business/
Holidays are and time of giving is among us. Giving to those who are in need is important. It shows that people care about others. One group of people are very caring, they donated money to charities and did so in an unconventional way. The group of people is the online users, specifically SecondLife users. Four years ago, visitors from SecondLife.com staged a marathon that raised $5,000 for the American Cancer Society. SecondLife users had their avatars walk around in loops to raise money, a virtual marathon for charity. This year, the same event raised an astonishing $270,000. In addition to the virtual marathon, users bought clothes, shoes, and hair for their avatars. It was incredible, real money was raised in a virtual world.
There were other forms of raising real money through the use of virtual worlds. In the winter of 2008, PayPal allowed users of Facebook to regift a fruitcake and send it to their friends. Each time the fruitcake was sent to another friend, PayPal donated one dollar to one of six charities. By the end of the duration of the event, PayPal donated a total of $122,000 to six charities in forty days. The success of the operation was due to the ease of participating. Target also donated money to charity through the use of Facebook. Target donated 3 million dollars to the charity that got the most votes from Facebook users. St. Jude Children Hospital was the beneficiary of the donation with over 77,000 votes. The American Red Cross was a close second, falling short of a couple hundred votes. They received donations from Target as well. Charities from Target’s operations received exposure as well as donations. Charities that did not have the highest votes saw their fan base grow significantly. Sony participated as well. Everquest is an online role playing game that is similar to World of Warcraft. Everquest users who donated five dollars to Child’s Play, a charity that sends games to children’s hospitals, received an ornament for their character. It raised $21,000.
It is nice to see that charities are benefitting from online and virtual world users. It shows that these users care about the real world as much as they do the virtual world. These donators do not receive anything in a physical form and this display even more about their generosity.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/giving/12VIRTUAL.html?_r=1&scp=7&sq=Virtual&st=cse
“HHS Delegates Authority for the HIPAA Security Rule to Office for Civil Rights”
This article is about the HIPPA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and how it will need to be more productive in keeping patient’s personal information confidential. The rule was sent to the OCR, Office for Civil Rights to be discussed upon. Because the OCR enforces HIPPA, the new electronic medical record system must maintain the security for private information. This article also mentions how both, security and privacy, go together when it comes to protecting patient information and complying with HIPPA at the same time.
In relation to Chapter 12, there is a section in information privacy which discusses the limits to exchanging certain information. It also describes how different countries impose their own security system and follow the proper protocol.
Working at a Health Clinic, I have experienced working and complying with the HIPPA regulation and maintaining patient medical records confidential. While going to the hiring process, all health industry employees, like myself, are asked to sign recognition of the meaning of the HIPPA rule. It is so critical in our field that it can cause immediate termination when violating such rule. Not only does it become unprofessional to violate such rule but it also leads to legal terms. Sharing or exchanging personal information to an unauthorized person can also lead to a lawsuit for disclosure of confidential documents. What is also involved in such rule is that if a person wants their own records, even after proving with an identification card that it is that person, he or she must sign off that they are who they represent and those records can be released to themselves. However, even when those records are about other people, the records themselves are still property of the health facility.
HHS Delegates Authority for the HIPAA Security Rule to Office for Civil Rights. (3 August). Business Wire. Retrieved November 24, 2009, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1815836121).
Innovation deals with the application of new methods, technologies, and equipment. The result of innovation is often an invention. Time decided the 50 best inventions of 2009. The invention the topped the list was Nasa’s Ares Rocket. It makes us able to travel farther than ever thought possible in space becasue of its light design. The third best thing invented was by Philips, it is a lightbulb that could save enoug power in the United States to power an additional 15 million homes. It used ten watts instead of the usually sixty, and last five time longer as well. It could alos help reduce power usage fees for offices and businesses. The AIDS vaccine also is close to the top of the list at eightth. It is not completely successful, but thiry one percent more successful than any methods used before. Another item high on the list in a knee for people missing limbs, or that are needing a replacement. This knee is only twenty dollars, instead of old titanium ones that could run for around ten thousand dollars. It is lower quality for the money, but for low income users it is stable and strong enough for most people. Hopefully this will eliminate the amount of people with walkers, canes and wheelchairs and get people back on their feet. Another interesting device was a smart bullet. it is capable of being programmed so that it can explode without having to hit anything. Bullets currently do not do anything unless they hit their traget dead on.
(11-22-09).”The Fifty Best Inventions of 2009.” Time Magazine. Retrieved from: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1934027,00.html
How to build a (strong) virtual team
This article written by Anne Fisher is about IBM’s experience building a virtual team. They have found that 90% of workers in the U.S. work somewhere away from their company’s headquarters and 84% work in locations other than where their bosses work. We are becoming an increasingly virtual society. In fact, there was an 800% increase in the number of virtual workers from 2003 to 2008.
A point of the article is that technology, though it makes virtual employees possible, does not lead to a good team. It got to the point at IBM that people started to call it an abbreviation for “I’m by myself”. The point is that people need social interaction to do their best work.
IBM is attempting to bring social activities back. They are bringing back the clubs that they used to have that brought people together. They have also created a social networking site for themselves at IBM called SocialBlue. People can do things like post photos and bulletins. It helps people within the company keep in contact with each other and fosters creativity.
This applies to the textbook’s section of Social Entrepreneurship: Going Green. Virtualization brings down energy costs, but it comes at the cost of social interaction. As society moves towards “green” energy, the technology has come to back it up. There needs to be a balance of virtualization and social connectedness. Technology is also helping bring people together, taking advantage of computers’ advanced capacity.
Fisher, Anne. (2009) How to build a (strong) virtual team. Fortune Magazine. Retrieved November, 19, 2009 from: http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/19/news/companies/ibm_virtual_manager.fortune/ index.htm
China has been the world’s largest exporter, now it changing its attention to globalization. According to the article, Beijing Automotive Industry has made a bid to buy Opel from bankrupt GM. This means that china companies are eyeing on other companies to expand themselves. The Chinese companies have had great success with two types of globalization. The first is conquering global markets via exports from China. The second is acquisition of natural resource assets in Africa, Australia, and Latin America.
The next wave of globalization by Chinese companies will be requiring smart acquisition of established companies in some of the world’s major economies. For example, USA and Europe countries. However, this will require skillful management of geographically dispersed marketing, manufacturing, and R&D operations.
Globalization will be a great challenge to China companies because of a few issues. First is the language and communication problem, most of the Chinese are not fluent in English, which is the world business language. Second is a majority of Chinese companies usually competes cost efficiency rather than differentiation, competing through differentiation remains a distant concept for them. Another major challenge is to pertained political sensitivity and barriers to potential acquisitions by Chinese companies in other developed economies. Most large corporations in china are state-owned and governments are reluctant to cede control over “strategic” assets to a foreign government.
I picked this article because I chapter 12 talks about globalization and this article talks about challenges China is facing when they try to globalize their companies. I am sure those corporations will find a way to solve their globalization problems and move forward into other countries.
Reference:
Anil K. Gupta and Haiyan Wang.July 10, 2009. Globalization Challenges Facing China Inc. BusinessWeek.
Retrieved from:
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jul2009/gb20090710_479130.htm
In the article, Facebook Issues Privacy Upgrade, PC Magazine writer Chloe Albanesius, explains Facebook’s new changes to it’s privacy control settings. Facebook was becoming concerned about the difficulty users were having accessing their control settings. Though the security settings offered by Facebook were very good they had become extremely complicated. In the old system users had to scroll from various menus to adjust each sections privacy settings. On the new system users will be able to access their security settings for all sections on one continuous page. This action was put into effect by Facebook’s CPO, Chris Kelly, and according to early test it sounds positive.
Facebook will originally trial 40,000 users in the US and eventually expand to 80,000 globally. Facebook then will establish which one of its six functional tools will be used as the new method of selecting security settings. Another benefit to the changes is users will suffer no security losses from the new system.
The reason I choose this article was for how closely it related to the first chapter. This ties in perfectly for an example of what a CPO does for an online networking company. When I first encountered the title CPO, I was confused about what it really meant. After reading the text, I had a hard time distinguishing the difference between a CPO and a CSO. Now that I have gotten the chance to see how a CPO uses his authority I feel I have a better understanding of the certain roles in information technology.
Albanesius, Chloe. Facebook Issues Privacy Upgrade. PC Magazine. July 7 2009. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2349615,00.asp
The article is based on recycling e-waste and who should be the one paying. There has been study done that “over 76 percent” of consumers see recycling as one of the way to reduce the world’s e-waste. There are still 37 percent of the people that do not think that. They think that recycling their e-waste should be a free service. People think consumers necessarily believe electronic manufacturers should be the ones picking up the tab. There was a survey done sampling 1,000 Americans. The result that came out was a bit surprising because many companies offer rebates on new items in exchange for recycled goods, “implying that there is already an e-waste recycle tax built into the price of products”. Thirty-five percent also thought there should be a convenient service where e-waste recycling is picked up at their curb, like they have for other trash.
The way this relates to the topic that I have chosen is based on energy consumption or in another ways going green. Recycling is one of the main and big ways to help the community. There many energy programs that relates with recycling. Even though recycling cans, bottles, and paper would help a lot. It saves energy by not making new things, but using the same old junk to make a new one, which is also helping the economy as well. The involvement of government is really helpful because some people don’t have to go recycle, but they have services which helps everyone to just do it from house rather than going to a place to recycle.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-10401450-54.html
In the article I discovered in businessweek the topic is globalization. The article talks about the airplane manufacturer Boeing and how globalization can be both positive and negative for companies. In this article Boeing is on the negative end of globalization. Boeing recently lost a $35 billion contract with the US Air Force to foreign companies called Northrop Grumman and the European Aeronautic Defense & Space. This is a huge contract for the American company and now the European companies will have it. This is a prime example for how outsourcing to foreign companies can seriously affect American business.
On the other hand, without globalization companies like Boeing wouldn’t be worth the $66 billion it is currently worth. This is because roughly 60% of all parts Boeing uses to assemble its aircraft are from foreign companies. Boeing is very upset about this contract because the contract it lost is not for commercial planes but for US military planes. Many belive contracts to the US military should go to American based companies. This topic was actually a key point in the Democratic party election between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The contract has brought about outrage by many American citizens and companies who fear losses like this could become a trend.
The article goes on to explain that globalization, especially in the airline industry is necessary. Airplanes require state of the art parts and for the most part to obtain them you must go overseas to acquire them. The article was very interesting about globalization and how necessary it is to business. We can thank globalization for many technological advances, it is what makes it all possible.
Epstein, Keith. Globalization Bites Boeing. Businessweek. March 13, 2008. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_12/b4076032773142.htm
Project management is an important part of business as we realize that stagnant business is dead business. In order for businesses to stay out of these stagnant areas businesses need to innovate their systems and products. In order for these innovations to take hold and increase efficiencies and profits businesses must assemble teams or project groups as well as obtain software that allows for the exchange of the software.
These teams maintain a very important role within companies and corporations because without these teams, innovation falls short and the business loses its competitive advantages and therefore profit margins drop. The way to create these teams is done by proper assessment from human resource management. But the software used by these teams are of great important because they allow project teams to innovate faster than competition and communicate very effectively. Without these efficiencies a company can fall back, making the point that the software used to collaborate information and communication in these teams are of extreme importance.
One way to increase the productivity of these projects is to reduce the amount of risk taken. If a project can be made to be less risky, it allows for a greater chance of success. Often the best way to decrease risk is by proper checks and balances that can be best attained through proper software analysis. The implementation of software like this allows companies to innovate faster with less risk and more efficiency. They are well worth the money and can be designed for each individual company.
Ali, A., Anbari, F., & Money, W. (2008). Impact of organizational and project factors on acceptance and usage of project management software and perceived project success. Project Management Journal, 39(2), 5-33. doi:10
Global markets are creating new opportunities and challenges for businesses. These businesses really need to focus on the integration of their information to make sure proper decisions are enforceable. The speed of decisions becomes very important in these fast paced global markets. In order for businesses to make these quick and proper decisions proper integration needs to be in place. These integrations have been proven to allow businesses advantages within these new markets.
These integrations require new technological frameworks that are seamless and efficient. These frameworks allow businesses allow all portions of their global sales and delivery teams to coordinate on trends and business ideas. Even parts of the company like human resources allow these companies to maintain labor requirements as employee issues in a global setting. A problem with globalization is the fact that many countries have different taxes on sales or laws on labor and transportation. Seamless integration networks allow for these differences to be quickly understood and implemented.
Explosive Internet growth is pulling a lot of attention into these markets. As these markets gain greater profits, more competition enters into the playing field. With increased competition comes a lower profit margin. For companies to get around this competition and increase barriers of entry then need to increase their efficiencies. This style of software structure can create better economies in a number of countries and markets.
Corporations will continue to globalize and extend to new markets while attempting to increase efficiencies and profits. This idea of globalization is helping other countries receive business attention and increased productivity within these countries. All of this depends on corporations’ ability to create their systems and increase efficiencies.
Qureshi, K., & Dawood, M. (2007). Improving global business economics by seamless business integration framework. Human Systems Management, 26(4), 247-255. Retrieved from Business Source Premier datab
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.
According to BusinessWeek, SAP’s first significant foray into software provided over the internet and its performance is likely to influence the future of the company’s cloud strategy. However, senior VP of Business ByDesign, Rainer Zinow, announced that the company won’t make it available to all customers until the company has enough “referencing accounts” which is going to be used as part of SAP’s early adopter programme.
According to this article this technology is currently being used by approximately 90 businesses in countries such as China, France, Germany, India, UK, and the United States; although, SAP expects to bring more business in the future.
However, before SAP decides to launch its technology on a wider scale, the company wants more businesses in different countries to using its technology enough times before adopting it to use as case studies.
According to BusinessWeek, SAP launched Business ByDesign’s Feature Pack 2.0 in July. SAP announced that the next Feature Pack will be available in 2010. However, SAP anticipates to cut the total cost of ownership of the tech as well as to make it more available to the public.
Nevertheless, SAP sees the SaaS ERP tech as the significant part of its long term strategy.
Ferguson, Tim. (Sept. 10, 2009). SAP wants more software guinea pigs. BusinessWeek. Retrieved on November 18, 2009 from http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2009/gb20090910_030101.htm?campaign_id=yhoo
This week’s chapter reading in chapter nine revolves around business intelligence. With companies all around the world and chains developing more and more, it is difficult for many companies and restaurants to stay on top of what is happening within their workplace and to develop future plans for it unless they have access to business intelligence. For example, in the article I read in Business Week titled “Business Intelligence Software’s Time Is Now,” the restaurant Brinker International is a huge parent restaurant to many other chains and has stores opened throughout the country and along the coasts of other countries as well. With many chains open, it is hard to keep track of how many customers walk in and out of each restaurant and what customers purchase, and etc. It is difficult to sift through all the information and find out how to keep the restaurant profitable. “Using what’s known as business intelligence software, Brinker gets a better handle on consumer spending patterns to make a host of decisions, from altering staff levels to moving around menu items.” With business intelligence software, looking beyond today and tomorrow’s decisions is a lot easier and faster, and predicting what changes need to be made are also a lot faster and convenient. With business intelligence, companies can analyze what they have done in the past and run reports to predict what things they can change and implement for the future of the company. For 2009, business intelligence is one of the top technological developments within companies.
This article can be found on: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc2009032_101762.htm?chan=technology_ceo+guide+to+tech_green+computing
