"tHis iS it!"

Eagle Eye

2011-03-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

Eagle Eye is more of a story about Jerry, a young man, along with Rachel whom he strangely met, and their adventures as they were brought together and chased by a mysterious phone call from a woman they have never met. Threatening their lives and family, she pushes Jerry and Rachel into a series of increasingly dangerous situations, using the technology of everyday life to track and control their every move. The woman was actually an artificial intelligence computer in Pentagon who wants to eliminate the President and its cabinet to pursue her other plans.

She is a top secret supercomputer, called "Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst" (ARIIA) tasked with gathering intelligence from all over the world.
ARIIA is housed in Pentagon, and Jerry learned that his late twin brother, Ethan, worked as a technician for the computer and locked it down to prevent ARIIA from carrying out her plan. Jerry and Rachel arrive at the Pentagon and are led to the supercomputer, where ARIIA forces Jerry to impersonate Ethan and use his own biometrics to override the lockdown, allowing her to go ahead with the plan but couldn't go with it. She was threatened that her son who is in his way to play in a band recital during the President's speech be killed. ARIIA had coerced some agents to make an explosive device into a necklace of which its sound-based trigger is put inside Sam's trumpet.

The movie actually gave us a significant lesson of how technology that is developed by mankind to give us security and convenience can be threats to our own safety. The supercomputer ARIIA made a lot of chaos by remotely controlling any networked device and with the technology we have right now, there are a thousand chances that supercomputer machines like that that is housed in Pentagon will be used with us in our everyday work. So it is just necessary for humans to not depend everything on computers especially if they can control other computers because they can impose danger to human life.

Pirates of Silicon Valley

2011-03-23T22:39:00.000-07:00

This film is all about the history and experiences of the people behind the two popular companies Apple and Microsoft. It narrates how these people faced their struggles to create the two empires of the big-time computer companies.

Pirates of Silicon Valley tells more of the comparison of how these two had their start in their business. It tells much of their operations and differences in their founders' management and operations with the company business.

The story also narrates misadventures that happened between meetings of these two rivals who gained popularity among the public due to their inventions in technology. There were some pirated software schemes between the two and of course, they were not good terms of business deals. The story was amazing because it gives the viewers the idea of how technology changed the way life like it is now as it had when these two popular computer companies began and rose in their business.

SURROGATES

2011-03-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

SURROGATES

Surrogate is a movie where humans live isolation and only interact through remote-controlled artificial bodies that serve as surrogates. Surrogate defines as one that takes the place of another; a substitute. This movie happens when the world has overrun with robots. Many human beings have chosen to have a replica or surrogate of themselves. Humans are able to remotely control their other self and send it to the world to do for them what they normally would have done with themselves. Thus, the world becomes peaceful wherein there is no crimes, and no pains. However, there are several humans gets killed when his surrogate is destroyed, a cop who where plays by Bruce Willis investigates the crimes through his own surrogate.

This movie has brought a lesson to us humans who are too dependent on the technology. It teaches us that there is nothing wrong with getting older. We live and we die, and that is how were brought up to learn. In reality, just like in this movie, many people hiding behind their internet persona to upper better that they are instead of meeting people face-to-face to socialize. If we are to remember, the initially intention of the creation of robots were to allow disabled people to experience things that only physically normal individual could, not to gives humans reason to leave their house just like what is being portray in this movie. Another is the development of chat rooms, where it purposely serve as a communication line to bring people together when real interaction or physical interaction is not possible, not to act as a permanent substitute for daily in person interaction. It only shows that the real purpose was lost in both cases which somehow change the way people live their lives.

WALL-E

2011-03-04T23:47:00.000-08:00

WALL-E

The movie situates on the year of 2700 where the world has long been uninhabitable. Humans have abandoned the earth because it has been covered with trash and waste which causes devoid of the plants and animal life. All human beings where continue their life in the outer space while the earth is preparing to its restoration. For how many years, only one robot remains on cleaning the earth, that is Wall-e. Wall-e (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is the garbage collecting robot that has left to clean the mess of the earth.

Watching the movie, made me realized how the earth will be looked like when people act as an irresponsible human being throwing all their trash that leads to destroying the mother earth. Wall-e as a garbage collector robot has expending years to clean up the garbage left by uncaring and selfish people who are enjoying their lives in the spaceship Axiom. They have just waiting for the day when the earth is ready and available to be inhabitable. The movie is reminding everyone of us we might end up just like what is in this movie. We might headed to the same direction in which making our world inhabitable. As what we observe to our surroundings today, we have effectively polluted the land, water and air supply. Here in the movie, people are not worried on what happened to the earth and even thinking of learning to conserve it. However, we can never blame them because everything they do is cared by the machines. We all know we are too much dependent on technology since it makes us to save time and become efficient. Unfortunately, our dependency with those machines have isolated us from one another. The movie stresses out the rampant commercialism in Axiom. In the spaceship where people are aboard everything is being provided. Even if those things are not needed. For the Big and Large Corporation everything is provided that given them away to profit. As you observe on the people on Axiom, they are all suffering from obesity. Obesity has become the epidemic on the people on board to the spaceship because everything is cared of by the machine in which walking and standing became useless activities to humankind. They don't have time to have some exercise because they are comfortable of having hover chair in doing everything all day. With this movie, it makes us realized that yes technology is a great help us, it make things easier but too much reliance of those might as well give disadvantage to us.

2011-03-01T19:59:00.001-08:00

iRobots

The story of the movie takes place in the year of 2035, which the part of technological revolution. It is futuristic scenery where the world has filled with millions of servant robots. These robots have used to do all the manual labor. They are the perfect helper to the society. Humans are free to enjoy their lives without the stress. Robots have been hardwired with the said three laws (The Three Laws of Robotics) that make them incapable of harming the society. Yet there is murder happen to one of the robotics science who is a friend of Will Smith in this movie. Will Smith plays the role of Detective Spooner who has distrust of the robots because of the incident in his past. It is believed that his friend has committed suicide which Spooner does not consider. Spooner suspicion on the incident falls to Sonny, the unique robot who has dreams and emotions.

With this movie, it leaves me a question to me if could robots will take over the world. Definitely, robots is really has a great help to the society. We all know automation has currently exists in many areas, in our house, at our work and even to the new technologies that have invented. Exoskeleton is the external skeleton that would help disabled people to move and making them less dependency with other people. One of the advantages of robots will be a replacement human in the areas of security, surveillance and defense, such soldiers and armies which will result be less human deaths. But having robots will bring drawbacks to the society. If robots will carry out all the labors tasks in the company, industry or all human workloads surely unemployment will arise might as well poorly paid workers. I cannot truly justify if robots are a great help or would be a destruction to human existence.

FUTURE TECHNOLOGY - Assignment 1

2010-12-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

Why do we need to study technology?

Before when technology is being mentioned one thing comes in my mind are the gadgets and machines around us. Later on I realized, technology starts in people’s simple way of living. In the simple process technology is there without the usage of machine in which it has been improved by applying the knowledge of people on the things around them. Because of the innovative mind of people they have developed things that improve the way they live. And because of the needs of the society, technological development has drastically changed the way people live.

Today, we are bombard of high technology gadgets and machines that are created to make tasks easier for us to do. Technology has the great impact of the society. With this technology, it creates shortcuts in everything we do. In today’s modern technology, many areas of our lives have been improved. These are in telecommunication, transportation, and most especially in medical aspects. But why there is a need to study technology, simply because everything is changing and with that change we have to adopt and embrace that change. We all know nothing is constant in this world, everything changes together with that is improvement of everything around us. We must go on the flow of the development and not to ignorant of things around us for our betterment.

SAD 2 Assignment 3

2010-08-02T17:44:00.001-07:00

Computer hard and software are the components that comprise the computer network. These are maintained by a network specialist. Since our university has a system that is networked, we have a network specialist that responsible for the network design and security. He has to insure the system condition, network connectivity throughout the university’s system infrastructure. Network specialist is focused more particularly on troubleshooting and/or debugging network related problems.

Now, since we have to examine the system deployed in our university knowledge on networking is indeed what we need. So, we arranged an interview with our network administrator and/or a network specialist. Engr. Ariel Reyes. Unfortunately, due to his tight schedule we were not able to conduct interview and discuss with him our questions and concerns. With that, we were able to create and formulate questions that we want to know. Below are the questions that had been forwarded to the network specialist.

Q and A:

1. In system development, how various parts of the system communicate with each other throughout the university? In what way?

 Regarding System Development, the best person to ask is our University Programmers, Mr. Fortich and Dr. Mercado.

2. What are the components involved in the system(s) in the university? (hardware, software, technology, etc.)

• I am not in the right position to discuss the details of the software components used as there are other assigned personnel for such job. However, talking about hardware component and technology used, basically I, assigned as the network administrator, is entrusted to maintain our different servers to run 24/7. Currently, we have our Web Server hosted here in our University in our HP ProLiant ML350 Server. Its an old but stable server set-up here in our Networks Office and has been active since Engr. Val A. Quimno , not yet a dean, was appointed as the Network Administrator. The said server has the following specification:

• Intel Xeon 3.0 GHz, 3.2 GHz, or 3.4 GHz processors (dual processor capability) with 1MB level 2 cache standard. Processors include support for Hyper-Threading and Extended Memory 64 Technology (EM64T)
• Intel® E7520 chipset
• 800-MHz Front Side Bus
• Integrated Dual Channel Ultra320 SCSI Adapter
• Smart Array 641 Controller (standard in Array Models only)
• NC7761 PCI Gigabit NIC (embedded)
• Up to 1 GB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM with Advanced ECC capabilities (Expandable to 8 GB)
• Six expansion slots: one 64-bit/133-MHz PCI-X, two 64-bit/100-MHz PCI-X, one 64-bit/66-MHz PCI-X, one x4 PCI-Express, and one x8 PCI-Express
• New HP Power Regulator for ProLiant delivering server level, policy based power management with industry leading energy efficiency and savings on system power and cooling costs
• Three USB ports: 1 front, 1 internal, 1 rear
• Support for Ultra320 SCSI hard drives (six hot plug or four non-hot plug drives supported standard, model dependent)
• Internalstorage capacity of up to 1.8TB; 2.4TB with optional 2-bay hot plug SCSI drive
• 725W Hot-Plug Power Supply (standard, most models); optional 725W Hot-Pluggable Redundant Power Supply (1 1) available. Non hot plug SCSI models include a 460W non-hot plug power supply.
• Tool-free chassis entry and component access
• Support for ROM based setup utility (RBSU) and redundant ROM
• Systems Insight Manager, SmartStart, and Automatic Server Recovery 2 (ASR-2) included
• Protected by HP Services and a worldwide network of resellers and service providers. Three-year Next Business Day, on-site limited global warranty. Certain restrictions and exclusions apply. Pre-Failure Notification on processors, memory, and SCSI hard drives.
Aside from it, our mail server running under Compaq Proliant ML330 Server, our oldest server, is also hosted here in our Networks Office. Together with other Servers, such as Proxy and Enrollment Servers, both proxy and our enrollment servers are running in a microcomputer/personal computers but with higher specifications to act as servers.

 REACTION:
As I search the net about the HP ProLiant ML350 Server that is used to the university’s as a server, I learned that this technology is described as DUAL. It has Dual Socket, Dual Core, and Quad Core Intel, Dual-redundant hot plug power supplies, dual redundant fans and the smaller, lighter and quitter dual-purpose chasis and many more. With this specification, this server has a good and flexible server. This kind of server is designed for reliability, expandability, performance and environmental features.

3. How do these communicate with one another? (topology, network connectivity, protocols, etc.) – may include data flow/ UML diagrams to better explain.

 All Servers are connected in a shared medium grouped as one subnetwork. In general, our network follows the extended star topology which is connected to a DUAL WAN Router that serves as the load balancer between our two Internet Service Providers. All other workstations are grouped into different subnetworks as in star topology branching out from our servers subnetwork as in extended star topology. At present, we are making use of class C IP Address for private IP address assignments. Other workstations IP assignments are configured statically (example: laboratories) while others are Dynamic (example: offices). All workstations are connected via our proxy servers that do some basic filtering/firewall to control users access to the internet aside from router filtering/firewall management. So, whenever any workstation has to connect to the internet, it has to pass through software and hardware based firewall.

 REACTION
Since our network is connected with the DUAL WAN Router (which is stated above), I guess it is good to use this technology. This router is for fail over, when one connection is down the other one will automatically pick up and continue the job. And according to my research, using a DUAL WAN Router will add up total bandwidth, with this the throughput or performance in computer network is increased.

4. What are the processes involved in the communication (each system to other systems)?

 As mentioned above, in item 3, all workstations are connected via a proxy server. It means that whenever a workstation is turned on, it requests for an IP address from the proxy server (for dynamically configured IP address) and connect to the network after IP address is acquired. As connection is established, each system can now communicate and share resources within the same subnetwork and to server following the concepts discuss in your Computer Network Class.

5. How do you go along with the maintenance of the system?
 Basically, our servers are expected to be in good condition since it is required to be up 24/7. Daily, during my vacant period, monitoring on the servers are observed that includes checking logs, checking hardware performance such as CPU health, etc. If problems are observed, remedies are then and then applied. Once in a week, regular overall checkup is observed as preventive maintenance to ensure not to experience longer downtime if possible.

 REACTION:

As I mentioned in my introduction, one of the task of the network specialist is to insure the networked system’s condition, with that it needs to have a regular check up on and proper maintenance since some components must run 24/7 such as the servers.

 For maintaining the network system, one good method or practice is to develop a PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE plan. It refers to performing proactive maintenance in order to prevent possible systems’ problems.

The following are the reasons why should have to develop a PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE Plan.

Preventive Maintenance Saves Money: Avoiding problems with your PC will save you money in the long run. By preventing a problem from occurring, you will no longer need to spend money on new components or repair jobs.

Preventive Maintenance Saves Time: Preventive maintenance saves time because it saves you the inconvenience and disruption of system failures and lost data. Most preventive maintenance procedures are quite simple compared to troubleshooting and repair procedures.

Preventive Maintenance Helps Safeguard Your Data: For most people, the data on the hard disk is more important than the hardware that houses it. Taking steps to protect this data therefore makes sense, and that is what preventative maintenance is all about.

Preventive Maintenance Improves Performance: Some parts of your system will actually degrade in performance over time, and preventive maintenance will help to improve the speed of your system in these respects.

This will benefit us so as to have secure and steady computer systems.

there are two types of Preventive Maintenance:

Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is a schedule of planned maintenance actions
aimed at the prevention of breakdowns and failures. The primary goal of
preventive maintenance is to prevent the failure of equipment before it
actually occurs. It is designed to preserve and enhance equipment
reliability by replacing worn components before they actually fail.
Preventive maintenance activities include equipment checks, partial or
complete overhauls at specified periods, oil changes, lubrication and so
on. In addition, workers can record equipment deterioration so they
know to replace or repair worn parts before they cause system failure.
Recent technological advances in tools for inspection and diagnosis have
enabled even more accurate and effective equipment maintenance. The
ideal preventive maintenance program would prevent all equipment failure
before it occurs.

Value of Preventive Maintenance
There are multiple misconceptions about preventive maintenance. One such
misconception is that PM is unduly costly. This logic dictates that it
would cost more for regularly scheduled downtime and maintenance than it
would normally cost to operate equipment until repair is absolutely
necessary. This may be true for some components; however, one should
compare not only the costs but the long-term benefits and savings
associated with preventive maintenance. Without preventive maintenance,
for example, costs for lost production time from unscheduled equipment
breakdown will be incurred. Also, preventive maintenance will result in
savings due to an increase of effective system service life.

6. Does the system follow a specific standard? Explain Please.

 As I was appointed as the Network Administrator, everything was already in place except for some minor changes. Basically, different networking standards was already observed such as cabling standards, TIA/EIA 568A-B, different IEEE standards as discussed in your Computer Networks Subject, etc.

 We all know that all networking technologies have standards associated with them. One standard used to our system is the TIA/EIA 568B,. It is a set of three telecommunication standards from the telecommunication Industry Association. For structural cabling system ,this standard is used that enable the for its design and structure.

7. How is the security of the system? Are there any vulnerabilities? Risks? Corresponding mitigation techniques? Access control?

 As I have mentioned, we have implemented both software and hardware based filtering/firewall. Basically, Risks or vulnerabilities and different mitigation techniques were considered to increase security in our network. Aside from filtering/firewall, constant monitoring on networks activity also increases the security of the system.

REACTION:

We all know what a firewall is. According to WIKI :
A firewall is a part of a computer system or network that is
designed to block unauthorized access while permitting authorized
communications. It is a device or set of devices which is configured to
permit or deny computer applications based upon a set of rules and other
criteria.
Firewalls can be implemented in either hardware or software, or a
combination of both. Firewalls are frequently used to prevent
unauthorized Internet users from accessing private networks connected to
the Internet, especially intranets. All messages entering or leaving the intranet pass through the firewall, which examines each message and blocks those that do not meet the specified security criteria.

For HARDWARE firefall, i would like to suggest Adaptive Security Appliance. This is the new product of CISCO in security.One of the advantages of hardware firewalls is the ASIC modules. These
modules perform tasks such as VPN and IPS and relieves the box's main
processor from performing such functions.
Adaptive Security Appliance
CISCO ASA 5500 Series adaptive security appliances are purpose-built solutions that combine best-of-breed security and VPN services with the innovative Cisco Adaptive Identification and Mitigation (AIM) architecture. Designed as a key component of the Cisco Self-Defending Network, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series provides proactive threat defense that stops attacks before they spread through the network, controls network activity and application traffic, and delivers flexible VPN connectivity. The result is a powerful multifunction network security appliance family that provides the security breadth and depth for protecting small and medium-sized business and enterprise networks while reducing the overall deployment and operations costs and complexities associated with providing this new level of security. The Cisco ASA 5500 Series delivers a powerful combination of multiple market-proven technologies in a single Cisco Self-Defending Network is one of the known for Network Security in which the firewall, router and switches play a role in implementing the network security.

8. Are there any interference? During what (most) times do these occur? Explain their effects especially with regards to the business of the university?
 Major Interferences are normally encountered as an effect of unforeseen and beyond our control events such as black outs, and the like. The said interference would of course affect University’s day-to-day businesses for obviously this will paralyze all our activities that rely on electricity and further this might cause damage on our network devices, etc. that may later be the reason for longer downtime. Problems encountered by our providers such as connection to the National/International Gateway also affect University’s business such as correlating to University’s Business Partners outside and within the country.
==these questions were not answered====
9. What are the current trends in network environment ideal for the university?
10. Based on your experience, can you enumerate and discuss your key points for an effective and efficient network environment that is ideal for the university?
11. Can those key points apply to the current trends for the university’s network environment? How it works?
12. Can you draw the general network architecture of the university?
13. On your own opinion, are the users satisfied with the current network setup?
14. What network architecture is used in the university?
15. What are the drawbacks that you found in the existing system? How would you treat these drawbacks?
16. On you own opinion; are there any changes that you want to change in the existing network architecture?
17. How would you see the university few years after implementing the newly developed system?

http://www.nitconnect.net/network_maintenance.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisco_PIX#Performance_specifications

SAD 2 Assignment 1

2010-08-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

Assuming you were tapped by the university president to evaluate the new enrollment system implemented this semester, enumerate your observations/comments and suggest possible areas and ways where improvements can be made. Your observations/suggestions should be properly validated with facts and literatures...(you may start with the diagrams posted in the strategic locations of the university)...

I have been here in this university for five long years in which every start of the semester has to undergo of enrollment procedure. Never did I enroll myself that accomplish in one day time. It really a battle for every student the enrollment process of the university. Students always experience long queue in advising, cashier, registrar, book keeper, and even in encoding. We also had to experience long hours of standing because of lack availability of the facilities for chairs. Students and parents suffered a lot in his kind of process.

Yes, every year enrollment procedure changes so as to improve the system in enrollment. And yet improvements are not that visible. I know the administrator has planned for better system on enrollment to improve the current system. Also, they aim to make the enrolment process fast.

The following are the enumeration of 0my observation during the enrollment process.

• Local Council Payment Centers
During enrolment, first you have to do is to pay all the students accounts such as the local council account, Head Light, CCO and others. But as I observed sometimes our local council collectors were nowhere to be found. And with this it caused delays to every student since they were not able to undergo advising if all local payment is still unpaid.

• Incomplete Grade for Advising
This is other burden to the old student since they have to complete the grades before they have to go on advising. During enrolment, some professors are not around to comply and get the grades. Students need to complete their grade for them to be advised by the faculty in charge.

• Encoding of Subjects enroll
Encoding process is also a headache to us students. With the number of student versus one or two encoder, it takes time for us to have our COR so as to proceed to the book keeper. Sometime, there is an error on the codes and conflict with the time of some subjects.

• Paying Tuition Fees at the Cashier
The number of cahier windows available I guess is not enough to cater the number of the students enrolling. Hence, it is a wasted time for student to fall in line in a long queue.

• Registrar
This is the final destination of the student enrollee and same with the cashier’s situation it is a long line. Students reach the second floor in falling in line.

Suggestions
Enrollment is a long process to undertake of every students and I guess we need find ways that might lessen the burdens of everyone. These are my suggestion that might improve the enrollment process.
• Assigned students collector for Local Council fees. Also, they should permanent place where student can pay their fees.
• Allow students have their evaluation grade so as to complete their grades and use it for advising.
• I guess we need to add encoders during enrollment to lessen the queue.
• We also need additional cahier during enrolment for fast service.

Improvements
Yes, they have some improvements implemented during the enrollment procedure.
• Assisting the student in falling in line to the cashier and the registrar. With this, students are more disciplined and fair in service.
• They provide facilities like the tables and bleacher for the students to seat on while waiting their turns.
• As you observe the enrolment procedures posted in the wall are illustrated in a diagram. Before instructions in enrolment are written in words. Compare it today, it is easy to understand

Yes i believe the administration finds its way to better improve the enrollment procedure. THey even migarted from outsourcing to in-house in which i guess one of the best moves for improvements..

SAD- Assignment 2

2010-07-24T22:26:00.001-07:00

Relative to your answer in Assignment 1 .... what's your take on the design of the enrollment system?

The enrollment system of our university has always been a concern of every student. Every semester it has always been a burden to students and parents most especially to the new student applicants. There are numerous steps and procedures to be under go to be enrolled. Yes, the university has changed or improved the process of the enrollment system. As you can observe during enrollment, steps of enrollment process are posted in the wall of every college. In the previous year, step or instructions for the enrollment were written in words in which sometimes misunderstood by most of the students and they even get confused. Now, just this enrollment we have observed they use the diagrams to illustrate the instruction of the enrollment.

Using and implementing diagram to illustrate the flow of the enrollment system, it adds clarity on the procedure undergo by the students during enrollment. With this it is more easier to understand and follow the procedures. But if you have to observe the diagram in enrollment procedures there some flaws and ambiguity on the process in which some might misunderstood it.

One part of the diagram that I get baffle to interpret is in the step number 5. Although I have already know the process of the enrollment but we have to consider the new student applicant. In this part of the procedure, scholar students do not need to go to cashier and must directly present their encoded subject to the student account or the book keeper but it was not presented in the diagram.

I suggest in every process or step, it must be studied and know the persons involved. With that the administration would create a better design on the enrollment process.

SAD2- Assignment 1

2010-07-24T22:23:00.000-07:00

Assignment 12-SAD

2010-03-11T18:20:00.000-08:00

ERP
Enterprise Resource Planning

(Enterprise Resource Planning) An integrated information system that serves all departments within an enterprise. Evolving out of the manufacturing industry, ERP implies the use of packaged software rather than proprietary software written by or for one customer. ERP modules may be able to interface with an organization's own software with varying degrees of effort, and, depending on the software, ERP modules may be alterable via the vendor's proprietary tools as well as proprietary or standard programming languages. An ERP system can include software for manufacturing, order entry, accounts receivable and payable, general ledger, purchasing, warehousing, transportation and human resources. The major ERP vendors are SAP, Oracle (PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards), SSA Global (Baan) and Microsoft. Lawson Software specializes in back-end processing that integrates with another vendor's manufacturing system.

Rebecca Gill, vice president of Technology Group International says:

"For almost twenty years we have had people ask for demonstration copies of our ERP software, so they may play with it at their leisure. For years we have said no and we've done so with good reason. An ERP package is an advanced system. It isn't Microsoft Office and it isn't an iPhone. You can't simply turn it on and expect it to run without training."

Why ERP is Vital to Productivity and Profitability

In today’s business environment, installing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software package and the systems needed to support it are requirements for a well-functioning enterprise. Although some organizations attempt to design and maintain a business model based on “Best Practices,” they rarely have the discipline to execute business process improvement (BPI) without an ERP software in place. Sometimes, companies attempt to create best-of-breed systems, selecting and integrating pieces of functionality to mirror the results of a single ERP package. Yet, unless you have in-house staff with the technological expertise to logically knit together disparate business systems, it’s better not to go down that path. While it’s generally understood that most manufacturing and distribution companies will eventually need an ERP system to function optimally, when evaluating solutions and their potential return-on-investment (ROI), it helps to truly understand how an ERP system contributes to both productivity and profitability.

S A P

For successful SAP ERP implementations past go-live, involve business side
By Courtney Bjorlin, News Editor 19 Jan 2009 | SearchSAP.com

Successful SAP ERP implementations hinge on getting the business side involved not only during the project but long after go-live, according to SAP customers. Making sure business ownership is within business units, not the technology teams, and including the business side in training and ERP-related business process improvements will help ensure success, according to David Edwards, divisional vice president of business transformation at Coldwater Creek. The women's clothing and accessories retailer is currently completing an SAP ERP implementation that includes financials, human resources, merchandise management, sales order management and sales audit functionality. Ignoring the business side during the implementation would have been a fatal flaw, Edwards said.
"[It's] the biggest mistake I've seen in 24 years. This is not a tech project, it's not an IT thing. It is a business, moving-needle thing," said Edwards, who was one of four SAP retail customers who spoke about their SAP projects at the National Retail Federation expo in New York last week. "The lesson I would pass on to people is treat it that way."
Stick to governance model Other retailers agree. Sticking to a strict governance model will help ensure that the project aligns with, and meets, its initial ERP business drivers, according to John Baldino, senior director of business transformation at Wawa Inc. The primary business drivers for the Pennsylvania-based grocery store chain were increasing its revenue, improving category management and getting a centralized view of what's in hundreds of its stores. To make sure Wawa met its goal during its ERP implementation, there was a role on the project organization chart called "benefit realization." This was a finance person who worked with the project team to validate that decisions were consistent with the business case benefits that Wawa expected, Baldino said. During the project, Baldino and the ERP implementation team were in front of the board of directors every six months to talk about project status and how it was tracking to its timeline. They also met monthly with executives. And even though they finished the implementation project at the end of last year, they're still in front of the board twice a year to discuss where to make ERP-related business process changes, he said. One of the benefits Wawa realized right off the bat resulted from developing a direct product profitability model for the food service area. Now, Baldino said, Wawa can figure out whether the products it's putting in its delis are making any money. Business team involvement critical But when the project was complete, Baldino thought they made a mistake by not making the business team part of post go-live monitoring. Now, they're working with the business side every day to figure out ways to leverage the system to get more value out of it, not only with individual functions but across all functions. In the last 12 months, they've been focusing on building up a lot of data inside the SAP system in order to do store clustering and efficient item assortment. Business involvement has been a critical success factor. "[It's] business ownership while it's a program and you're implementing it, but post the go-live ... the business can't walk away," he said. "Those 100 people that worked on this SAP project had to go back into their business areas and now become the change agents for how to use and leverage SAP to get more out of it. We kind of patted them on the back … and we left them alone, which I think was a mistake for us. Now we're … getting back more into staying in touch." Other retailers reiterate that collaboration is key, which means drawing on IT's implementation experience to scope and deliver a project that meets business requirements in a timely, cost-effective way. For Hastens and Reliance Retail, a successful SAP implementation meant getting the systems up and running quickly, and that involved avoiding the temptation to customize the SAP software too much. "We just want to run best practices," said Dominic Luzi, CIO of Hastens, a Swedish luxury bed company. "So our implementation was all best-practices based, very quick. We changed the business rather than the software." No hard line between business, IT Reliance Retail, a retailer that serves India, relied on management to keep it on track, CIO Timothy Kasbe said. "It's been the leadership saying, 'Not too many customizations,' and sticking to it," he said. "For the sake of speed, there wasn't a hard line between business and IT. Some of the business things, my guys just did -- commercial-oriented work, we just went and did it." With its SAP ERP implementation, Reliance Retail has been able to derive a very different kind of ROI as it enables more farmers to sell goods. Reliance's goal is to build up the distribution and the supply chain of India -- enabling communities to take part in rapidly evolving markets. "What we have seen is that suicide rates have gone down in the farming communities when these rollouts have happened, and they have been able to sell to us and also buy some of our products," Kasbe said. "It's really a different scale and different way we look at this whole business issue."

Top manufacturing ERP best practices for project planning
11 Dec 2009 | Catherine LaCroix, Contributor

When it comes to manufacturing ERP, there are a number of best practices that are key to a successful implementation. These include picking the right project team, an open mind, time to migrate data, training, data management know-how and a process for continuous improvement. 1. Pick the right project team. Be sure to include members from relevant business operations as well as Information Technology. This cross-functional team will greatly improve decision-making as you design, implement and manage ERP system across multiple sites, said Simon Jacobson, research director at AMR Research. 2. Be open to new processes. During ERP planning for a roll out, companies often believe that how they set up accounts receivable or schedule their factory floor is absolutely critical to the way they do business. They think that they must have the same setup in ERP as they had before. No so, according to Bob Parker, group vice president for research at IDC Manufacturing Insights. "Don't fall in love with your own processes," he warned. 3. Schedule enough time to migrate your data to the new system. Where projects get behind most often is in the process of mapping the existing system to the new system, said Parker. You also need to build in time to scrub the data to make sure it's accurate before migration. This is an area that almost always takes longer than people think. 4. Budget generously for training over the long term. What typically happens in ERP planning is that there is a lot of training at the implementation stage. But when personnel changes, new employees don't get nearly the same level of attention and support. Make sure you've got plans that cover training not just at the front end, but throughout the lifecycle of the new system. 5. Understand that the value of ERP is in the aggregation of the information. At the end of the day your executives and knowledge workers are going to get value out of using the information not how it's produced. When you think about rolling out ERP, think about what sorts of decisions are going to be made and give that more of a priority than the production of the information itself. 6. Create center of excellence. What tends to happen in most ERP planning is that business and IT work hard at the outset but neglect to ask how the ERP will meet goals for the long term. That question needs be considered, according to Parker. One solution to this common oversight is putting a support organization in place -- sometimes called a center of excellence -- to track how a system is actually used after implementation and then make recommendations for continuous improvement.

How to avoid manufacturing ERP implementation failures
17 Dec 2009 | Catherine LaCroix, Contributor

To avoid costly manufacturing ERP implementation failures, companies need to plan for five critical areas lacking in most stand-alone ERP manufacturing systems: data modeling, specialized functionality, the user interface, data integration and customization, said Scott Jacobson, research director at AMR Research. "The challenge that companies face is that when they try to extend ERP into manufacturing they realize that one single data model from ERP can't support all those individual lines," Jacobson said. That's because manufacturing applications are designed for specific manufacturing styles, scenarios and environments. ERP implementation failures often occur when manufacturers are running a mixed environment and the ERP application can't handle multiple diverse lines -- such as metal stamping, high-speed data capture and a more manual job shop are some examples Here are five issues manufacturers need to watch in order to steer clear of ERP failures:
1. Data modeling. The data model of an ERP application is very materials and cost focused. It's very difficult to model more of the complex processes like exception handling or corrective action. 2. Functionality. ERP applications are focused on the mass market. That means ERP vendors can't afford to add specialized manufacturing functionality unless it's for a really large company. 3. User interface. The typical ERP user interface is complex and forms-heavy while "the actual factory operator is not the most computer savvy," Jacobson said. It is better for manufacturers to develop a simpler UI so users will spend less time entering information. 4. Data integration. There's really no automated data collection integration in ERP systems so manufacturers will need complex scripting and an interface to perform simple data collection tasks. These need to synchronize with other processes in the plant. 5. Implementation and customization. Companies that want to extend ERP into the shop floor must realize that their current deployment could be flawed in terms of how it's blueprinted to handle manufacturing. Solving this problem could lead to a costly customization or a re-implementation.

resources:
http://www.gordiantransformationpartners.com/upload/pdf/ERP%20is%20a%20Tool,%20Not%20a%20Solution.pdf
http://www.ctsguides.com/why-buy-erp.asp
http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=ERP&i=42727,00.asp
SAP
http://searchsap.techtarget.com/news/a
http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid193_gci1376706_mem1,00.htmlrticle

systems development models

2009-12-24T20:46:00.000-08:00

Identify and discuss at least 3 systems development models .. discuss each phases ... (at least 3000 words)

System Development Models or System Process Models

What is a software process model?
A software process model is an abstract representation of a software process. Each process model represents a process from a particular perspective so only to provide partial information about the process. Models, by their very nature, are simplifications, so a software process model is an abstraction of the actual process which is being described. Process models may include activities which are part of the software process, software products and the roles of the people involved in software engineering.

Software development activities

Planning

The important task in creating a software product is extracting the requirements or requirements analysis. Customers typically have an abstract idea of what they want as an end result, but not what software should do. Incomplete, ambiguous, or even contradictory requirements are recognized by skilled and experienced software engineers at this point. Frequently demonstrating live code may help reduce the risk that the requirements are incorrect.
Once the general requirements are gleaned from the client, an analysis of the scope of the development should be determined and clearly stated. This is often called a scope document.
Certain functionality may be out of scope of the project as a function of cost or as a result of unclear requirements at the start of development. If the development is done externally, this document can be considered a legal document so that if there are ever disputes, any ambiguity of what was promised to the client can be clarified.

Implementation, testing and documenting

Implementation is the part of the process where software engineers actually program the code for the project.
Software testing is an integral and important part of the software development process. This part of the process ensures that bugs are recognized as early as possible.
Documenting the internal design of software for the purpose of future maintenance and enhancement is done throughout development. This may also include the authoring of an API, be it external or internal.

Deployment and maintenance

Deployment starts after the code is appropriately tested, is approved for release and sold or otherwise distributed into a production environment.

Software Training and Support is important because a large percentage of software projects fail because the developers fail to realize that it doesn't matter how much time and planning a development team puts into creating software if nobody in an organization ends up using it. People are often resistant to change and avoid venturing into an unfamiliar area, so as a part of the deployment phase, it is very important to have training classes for new clients of your software.

Maintenance and enhancing software to cope with newly discovered problems or new requirements can take far more time than the initial development of the software. It may be necessary to add code that does not fit the original design to correct an unforeseen problem or it may be that a customer is requesting more functionality and code can be added to accommodate their requests. It is during this phase that customer calls come in and you see whether your testing was extensive enough to uncover the problems before customers do. If the labor cost of the maintenance phase exceeds 25% of the prior-phases' labor cost, then it is likely that the overall quality, of at least one prior phase, is poor. In that case, management should consider the option of rebuilding the system (or portions) before maintenance cost is out of control.

Bug Tracking System tools are often deployed at this stage of the process to allow development teams to interface with customer/field teams testing the software to identify any real or perceived issues. These software tools, both open source and commercially licensed, provide a customizable process to acquire, review, acknowledge, and respond to reported issues.

Traditional Process Model Software

Waterfall Model

The Waterfall model is one of the most used model of 70’s. It was proposed by Royce in 1970 as an alternative to Build and Fix software development method in which code was written and debugged. System was not formally designed and there was no way to check the quality criteria.

This takes the fundamental process activities of specification, development, validation and evolution and represents them as separate process such as requirements specification, software design, implementation, testing and so on.
This model, known as the waterfall, is an approach to development that emphasizes completing a phase of the development before proceeding to the next phase. In conjunction with certain phase completions, a baseline is established that "freezes" the products of the development at that point. If a need is identified to change these products, a formal change process is followed to make the change. The graphic representation of these phases in software development resembles the downward flow of a waterfall.

The principal stages of the model map onto fundamental developmental activities:

Requirements analysis and definition

The system’s services, constraints and goals are established by consultation with system users. They are then defined in detail and serve as system specification.

Requirements analysis phase focuses on understanding the problem domain and representing the requirements in a form which are understandable by all the stakeholders of the project i.e. analyst, user, programmer, tester etc. The output of this stage is a document called Requirements Specification Document (RSD) or Software Requirements Specification (SRS). All the successive stages of software life cycle are dependent on this stage as SRS produced here is used in all the other stages of the software lifecycle.

System and Software Design

The system design process partitions the requirements to either hardware or software systems. It establishes overall system architecture. Software design involves identifying and describing the fundamental software system abstractions and their relationship.
System design phase translates the SRS into the design document which depicts the overall modular structure of the program and the interaction between these modules. This phase focuses on the high level design and low level design of the software. High level design describes the main components of software and their externals and internals. Low level design focuses on transforming the high level design into a more detailed level in terms of a algorithms used, data structures used etc.

Implementation and Unit Testing

During this stage, the software design is realized as a set of programs or program units. Unit testing involves verifying that each unit meets its specification.

Implementation phase transforms the low level design part of software design description into a working software product by writing the code.

Testing phase is responsible for testing the code written during implementation phase. This phase can be broadly divided into unit testing (tests individual modules), integration testing (tests groups of interrelated modules) and system testing (testing of system as a whole). Unit testing verifies the code against the component’s high level and low level design. It also ensures that all the statements in the code are executed at least once and branches are executed in all directions.

Additionally it also checks the correctness of the logic. Integration testing tests the inter modular interfaces and ensures that the module drivers are functionally complete and are of acceptable quality. System testing validates the product and verifies that the final product is ready to be delivered to the customers. Additionally several tests like volume tests, stress tests, performance tests etc., are also done at the system testing level.

Integration and System Testing

The individual program units or programs are integrated and tested as a complete system to ensure that the software requirements have been meet. After testing, the system software is delivered to the customer.
Operational and Maintenance
Normally (although not necessarily) this is the longest life-cycle phase. The system is installed and put into practical use. Maintenance involves correcting errors which were not discovered in earlier stages of the life cycle, improving the implementation of the system units and enhancing the system’s services as new requirements are discovered.

After each step is finished, the process proceeds to the next step, just as builders don't revise the foundation of a house after the framing has been erected.

There is a misconception that the process has no provision for correcting errors in early steps (for example, in the requirements). In fact, this is where the domain of requirements management comes in, which includes change control. The counter argument, by critics to the process, is the significantly increased cost in correcting problems through introduction of iterations. This is also the factor that extends delivery time and makes this process increasingly unpopular even in high risk projects.
This approach is used in high risk projects, particularly large defense contracts. The problems in waterfall do not arise from "immature engineering practices, particularly in requirements analysis and requirements management."
Often the supposed stages are part of review between customer and supplier; the supplier can, in fact, develop at risk and evolve the design but must sell off the design at a key milestone called Critical Design Review (CDR). This shifts engineering burdens from engineers to customers who may have other skills.

~~Waterfall model problems~~

Inflexible partitioning of the project into distinct stages makes it difficult to respond to changing customer requirements.

Few business systems have stable requirements.

Appropriate only when the requirements are well-understood and changes will be fairly limited during the design process.

Applicability:
For large systems engineering projects where a system is developed at several sites.
Advantages and disadvantages of the Waterfall model are listed below:
Advantages
Easy to understand even by non-technical persons i.e., customers

Each phase has well defined inputs and outputs e.g., input to system design stage is Requirement Specification Document (RSD) and output is the design document.

Easy to use as software development proceeds

Each stage has well defined deliverables or milestones.

Helps the project manager in proper planning of the project

Disadvantages

The biggest drawback of Waterfall model is that it does not support iteration. Software development on the other hand is iterative i.e., while designing activities are being carried out, new requirements can come up. Similarly while product is being coded, new design and requirement problems can come up.

Another disadvantage of Waterfall model is that it is sequential in nature. One cannot start with a stage till preceding stage is completed e.g., one cannot start with the system design till all the requirements are understood and represented.

Users have little interaction with the project team. Their feedback is not taken during development.

Customer gets opportunity to review the product very late in life cycle because the working version of product is available very late in software development life cycle.

Model is very rigid because output of each phase is prerequisite for successive stage.

The Waterfall model also has difficulty in accommodating changes in the product after the development process starts.

Amount of documentation produced is very high.

The model in no way supports delivery of system in pieces.

The model is not suitable for new projects because of uncertainty in the specifications.

Incremental Model

The incremental model divides the product into builds, where sections of the project are created and tested separately. This approach will likely find errors in user requirements quickly, since user feedback is solicited for each stage and because code is tested sooner after it's written.
The incremental model performs the waterfall in overlapping sections attempting to compensate for the length of waterfall model projects by producing usable functionality earlier. This may involve a complete upfront set of requirements that are implemented in a series of small projects. As an alternative, a project using the incremental model may start with general objectives. Then some portion of these objectives is defined as requirements and is implemented, followed by the next portion of the objectives until all objectives are implemented. But, use of general objectives rather than complete requirements can be uncomfortable for management. Because some modules will be completed long before others, well-defined interfaces are required. Also, formal reviews and audits are more difficult to implement on increments than on a complete system. Finally, there can be a tendency to push difficult problems to the future to demonstrate early success to management.

Incremental development advantages
1.Customer value can be delivered with each increment so system functionality is available earlier.
2.Early increments act as a prototype to help elicit requirements for later increments.
3.Lower risk of overall project failure.
4.The highest priority system services tend to receive the most testing.

Advantages

As product is to be delivered in parts, total cost of project is distributed.

Limited number of persons can be put on project because work is to be delivered in parts.

As development activities for next release and use of early version of product is done simultaneously, if found errors can be corrected.

Customers or end users get the chance to see the useful functionality early in the software development life cycle.

As a result of end user’s feedback requirements for successive releases become clearer.

As functionality is incremented in steps, testing also becomes easy.

Risk of failure of a product is decreased as users start using the product early.

Disadvantages

As product is delivered in parts, total development cost is higher.

Well defined interfaces are required to connect modules developed with each phase.

The model requires well defined project planning schedule to distribute the work properly.

Testing of modules also results into overhead and increased cost.

Spiral Model

The spiral model emphasizes the need to go back and reiterate earlier stages a number of times as the project progresses. It's actually a series of short waterfall cycles, each producing an early prototype representing a part of the entire project. This approach helps demonstrate a proof of concept early in the cycle, and it more accurately reflects the disorderly, even chaotic evolution of technology.
The incremental model can be viewed as a spiral model. The spiral view illustrates one strength of the incremental model: resources can be held constant but the system size grows. The spiral size corresponds to system size, while the distance between the coils of the spiral indicates resources. In Figure 3, the distance between the coils does not change, which indicates that the amount of the resources being used is not changing.

Each loop in the spiral represents a phase of the software process. Thus, the innermost loop might be concerned with system feasibility, the next loop with system requirements definition, the next loop with system design and so on.

Each loop in the spiral is split into four sectors:

Objective Setting

Specific objectives for that phase of the project are defined. Constraints on the process and the product are identified and a detailed management plan is drawn up. Project risks are identified. Alternative strategies, depending on these risks, may be planned.

Risk Assessment and Reduction

For each of the identified projects risks, a detailed analysis is carried out. Steps are taken to reduce the risks. For example, if there is a risk that the requirements are inappropriate, a prototype system may be developed.

Development and Validation

After risks evaluation, a development model for the system is then chosen. For example, if the user interface risks are dominant, an appropriate development model might be evolutionary prototyping. If safety risks are the main consideration, development based on formal transformations may be the most appropriate and so on. The waterfall model may be the most appropriate development if the main identified risk is sub-system integration.

Planning

The project is reviewed and a decision made whether to continue with a further loop of the spiral. If it is decided to continue, plans are drawn up for the next phase of the project.
The important distinction between the spiral model and the other software process models is the explicit consideration of risk on the spiral model. Informally, risk is simply something which can go wrong.
A cycle of the spiral begins by elaborating objectives such as performance, functionality, etc. Alternative ways of achieving these objectives and the constraints imposed on each of these alternatives are then enumerated. Each alternative is assessed against each objective. This is usually results in the identification of the sources of projects risk.
The next step is to evaluate these risks by activities such as more detailed analysis, prototyping, simulation, etc. Once risks have been assessed, some development is carried out and this is followed by a planning activity for the next phase of the process.
There are no fixed phases such as specification or design in the spiral model. The spiral model encompasses other process models. Prototyping may be used in one spiral to resolve requirements uncertainties and hence reduce risks. This may be followed by a conventional waterfall development. Formal transformation may be used to develop those parts of the system with security requirements.

Advantages

The model tries to resolve all possible risks involved in the project starting with the highest risk.

End users get a chance to see the product early in life cycle.

With each phase as product is refined after customer feedback, the model ensures a good quality product.

The model makes use of techniques like reuse, prototyping and component based design.

Disadvantages

The model requires expertise in risk management and excellent management skills.

The model is not suitable for small projects as cost of risk analysis may exceed the actual cost of the project.

Different persons involved in the project may find it complex to use.

Spiral model is generally used for large projects with medium to high risk because in small projects it is possible that cost of risk analysis may exceed the actual cost of project. In other words, Spiral model is a practical approach for solving large scale software development related problems.

This can also be used if requirements of the project are very complex or if the company is planning to introduce new technologies. Some areas where Spiral model is successfully used are decision support system, defense, aerospace and large business projects.

role of system analyst as project manager

2009-12-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

Discuss the role of a systems analyst as a project manager. (at least one thousand words) .... you need to interview an analyst/project manager ..

Discuss the role of system analyst as project manager.

Role of System Analyst

The system analyst is the person (or persons) who guides through the development of an information system. In performing these tasks the analyst must always match the information system objectives with the goals of the organization.

Role of System Analyst differs from organization to organization. Most common responsibilities of System Analyst are following:

1) System analysis

It includes system's study in order to get facts about business activity. It is about getting information and determining requirements. Here the responsibility includes only requirement determination, not the design of the system.

2) System analysis and design:

Here apart from the analysis work, Analyst is also responsible for the designing of the new system/application.

3) Systems analysis, design, and programming:

Here Analyst is also required to perform as a programmer, where he actually writes the code to implement the design of the proposed application.

Due to the various responsibilities that a system analyst requires to handle, he has to be multifaceted person with varied skills required at various stages of the life cycle. In addition to the technical know-how of the information system development a system analyst should also have the following knowledge.

Business knowledge:
As the analyst might have to develop any kind of a business system, he should be familiar with the general functioning of all kind of businesses.

Interpersonal skills:
Such skills are required at various stages of development process for interacting with the users and extracting the requirements out of them

Problem solving skills:
A system analyst should have enough problem solving skills for defining the alternate solutions to the system and also for the problems occurring at the various stages of the development process.

I have here added information about software project manager and I think it can be relate to this topic.

Software Project Manager
A Software Project Manager has many of the same skills as their counterparts in other industries. Beyond the skills normally associated with traditional project management in industries such as construction and manufacturing, a software project manager will typically have an extensive background in software development. Many software project managers hold a degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or another related field and will typically have worked in the industry as a software engineer.
In traditional project management a heavyweight, predictive methodology such as the waterfall model is often employed, but software project managers must also be skilled in more lightweight, adaptive methodologies such as DSDM, SCRUM and XP. These project management methodologies are based on the uncertainty of developing a new software system and advocate smaller, incremental development cycles. These incremental or iterative cycles are time boxed (constrained to a known period of time, typically from one to four weeks) and produce a working subset of the entire system deliverable at the end of each iteration. The increasing adoption of lightweight approaches is due largely to the fact that software requirements are very susceptible to change, and it is extremely difficult to illuminate all the potential requirements in a single project phase before the software development commences.
The software project manager is also expected to be familiar with the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This may require in depth knowledge of requirements solicitation, application development, logical and physical database design and networking. This knowledge is typically the result of the aforementioned education and experience. There is not a widely accepted certification for software project managers, but many will hold the PMP designation offered by the Project Management Institute or an advanced degree in project management, such as a MSPM or other graduate degree in technology management.

What does the project manager do?

A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers can have the responsibility of the planning, execution, and closing of any project, typically relating to construction industry, architecture, computer networking, telecommunications or software development.

A project manager is the person accountable for accomplishing the stated project objectives. Key project management responsibilities include creating clear and attainable project objectives, building the project requirements, and managing the triple constraint for projects, which are; cost, time, and quality (also known as scope).

A project manager is often a client representative and has to determine and implement the exact needs of the client, based on knowledge of the firm they are representing. The ability to adapt to the various internal procedures of the contracting party, and to form close links with the nominated representatives, is essential in ensuring that the key issues of cost, time, quality and above all, client satisfaction, can be realized.

Below are the common responsibilities of a project manager:
• Developing the project plan
• Managing the project stakeholders
• Managing the project team
• Managing the project risk
• Managing the project schedule
• Managing the project budget
• Managing the project conflicts

Characteristics of a Project Manager

First and foremost they like managing projects. Managing projects is not something people are neutral about. They either like it or they don't. Why would anyone want to do a job in which you can all too obviously fail spectacularly and if you succeed people will shrug their shoulders and say you just did your job? Others relish the challenge and like the feeling of accomplishment, of getting something done that may not have happened without them.

Good project managers:

• manage rather than co-ordinate, preside or spectate
• are natural planners
• don't like surprises, so they plan thoroughly to try to prevent them
• are effective fire-fighters - when the inevitable surprises do occur they sort them out quickly and decisively
• reward and punish - not dealing with someone who isn't pulling their weight can destroy team morale
• are good motivators, good team builders
• address conflict rather than leaving things to fester
• do not hide in an office, they walk around and ideally sit physically in the middle of the team so they are approachable
• get consensus whenever possible but dictate when necessary

Most of all, good project managers MANAGE. They do not just get swept along by the current. They grab the project by the scruff of the neck and manage it.
However, it is sometimes the case that project managers do not feel sufficiently empowered to manage and control the things/people they need to manage and control in order to be successful. This problem has a solution.

--interview—
For this topic I still adopt our last interview with the two of system analyst of EMCOR Bajada. In which, they were able to discuss about their role in the company. They were able to share to us some of their responsibilities. And it really not easy to an analyst in whom sometimes they do multitasking, one person does all duties. According to the them, the project manager has to be careful in every decision he does. Every project that he manages must be supervised. He needs to have constant communication with the team involves of the project. Leadership skill is important to a project manager that should possess, because working with a project especially in huge project is created by a team who has its own task.

references:
http://www.statefarm.com/about/careers/it/it_careers/proj_manager.htm
http://misallabouts.blogspot.com/2009/12/systems-analyst-as-project-manager.html
http://www.processimpact.com/articles/be_analyst.pdf

skills and characteristics of a systems analyst

2009-12-24T20:33:00.000-08:00

nterview a Systems Analyst and ask what skills and characteristics must a systems analyst develop in order to be more effective in any design modeling process [include in your answer evidences (pix, ltrs, etc)]? at least 2000 words excluding your evidences.

Interview
I had interviewed a system analyst twice. It was way back last semester that I had met the system analyst of EMCOR.

EMCOR is one of the fast-growing companies here in the Philippines. In the world of business, they have to be in the competitive edge, with this they employ technologies in their operation so not to be left behind. I have always chosen EMCOR as a subject to my assignments and reports. They have opened their company to us student who would like to know more in our field in the real scenario. It is nice to know that they are happy to share their knowledge and some information about their company. I never felt to be an interruption to them every time I asked for an interview. Never did they reject us, but instead they have so accommodating.

So much for that, fortunately for the second time around, I had our interview again by their system analyst. With that I have able to gather information about his filed of work and also I have the idea to answer this assignment. (joke)

As what had he impart to us they just like liaison, he is the link of the end-users and the developers/programmers. Because analyst is the one who write user request into technical specification. He is the link between the users and the IT professionals. He needs to know the business operation and activities.

He has different tasks portrays in the company. He is the one who interacts with the users to know their requirements and also to the designers of the project for them to be able to convey the possible interface of the software. The company’s coders and developers are guided and interacted by him during the development of the software. He performs the testing of the system and it is with a live data. He also prepares documentation of the system.

According to the analyst that I had interviewed, he needs lots of patience with the end users who do the request in which sometimes changes occur. During the design modeling, the analyst needs to inline it with the end-users needs and requirement. He has to insure that the interface design of the software is a user friendly environment and looks. He must be creative in a way he will able to create an interface that fits the functionality of the software.

System Analyst

A systems analyst is a business professional that uses analysis and design techniques to solve business problems using information technology and is responsible for researching, planning, coordinating and recommending software and system choices to meet an organization's business requirements. The systems analyst plays a vital role in the systems development process. A successful systems analyst must acquire four skills: analytical, technical, managerial, and interpersonal. Analytical skills enable systems analysts to understand the organization and its functions, which helps him/her to identify opportunities and to analyze and solve problems. Technical skills help systems analysts understand the potential and the limitations of information technology. The systems analyst must be able to work with various programming languages, operating systems, and computer hardware platforms. Management skills help systems analysts manage projects, resources, risk, and change. Interpersonal skills help systems analysts work with end users as well as with analysts, programmers, and other systems professionals.

What skills analyst should acquire?
Analytical skills
Analytical skill is the ability to visualize, articulate, and solve complex problems and concepts, and make decisions that make sense based on available information. Such skills include demonstration of the ability to apply logical thinking to gathering and analyzing information, designing and testing solutions to problems, and formulating plans.
To test for analytical skills one might be asked to look for inconsistencies in an advertisement, put a series of events in the proper order, or critically read an essay. Usually standardized tests and interviews include an analytical section that requires the examine to use their logic to pick apart a problem and come up with a solution.
Although there is no question that analytical skills are essential, other skills are equally required as well. For instance in systems analysis the systems analyst should focus on four sets of analytical skills: systems thinking, organizational knowledge, problem identification, and problem analyzing and solving.
It also includes the way we describe a problem and subsequently finding out the solutions.

Management Skills

Management in all business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Resourcing encompasses the deployment and manipulation of human resources, financial resources, technological resources, and natural resources.
Management can also refer to the person or people who perform the act(s) of management

Interpersonal Skills

"Interpersonal skills" refers to mental and communicative algorithms applied during social communications and interaction to reach certain effects or results. The term "interpersonal skills" is used often in business contexts to refer to the measure of a person's ability to operate within business organizations through social communication and interactions. Interpersonal skills are how people relate to one another.
As an illustration, it is generally understood that communicating respect for other people or professionals within will enable one to reduce conflict and increase participation or assistance in obtaining information or completing tasks. For instance, to interrupt someone who is currently preoccupied with the task of obtaining information needed immediately, it is recommended that a professional use a deferential approach with language such as, "Excuse me, are you busy? I have an urgent matter to discuss with you if you have the time at the moment." This allows the receiving professional to make their own judgment regarding the importance of their current task versus entering into a discussion with their colleague. While it is generally understood that interrupting someone with an "urgent" request will often take priority, allowing the receiver of the message to judge independently the request and agree to further interaction will likely result in a higher quality interaction. Following these kinds of heuristics to achieve better professional results generally results in a professional being ranked as one with 'good interpersonal skills.' Often these evaluations occur in formal and informal settings.
Having positive interpersonal skills increases the productivity in the organization since the number of conflicts is reduced. In informal situations, it allows communication to be easy and comfortable. People with good interpersonal skills can generally control the feelings that emerge in difficult situations and respond appropriately, instead of being overwhelmed by emotion.

What does a computer systems analyst do?

Computer systems analyst is a blanket term for a computer professional that solves computer issues and uses technology to meet the needs of the company. These professionals might be employed under different titles: IT consultant, IT specialist, programmer analyst, business systems analyst, system architect and computer specialist, to name a few. These highly-trained professionals plan, design and expand new computer systems as well as configure software and hardware. They update/upgrade current computer systems and modify them for new or expanded functions. They are frequently charged with preparing cost reports for management.
Computer systems analysts usually collaborate with other professionals in the information technology field, such as programmers, network security specialists, and software engineers, and will sometimes specialize in specific systems such as accounting, business, engineering, financial, or scientific systems. Click here to find out how to become a computer systems analyst.

What kind of training does a computer systems analyst need?

Computer systems analysts are typically required to have a degree of at least bachelor level. Many employers may require a higher graduate level degree, as well as experience in the field for more complicated jobs and senior-level positions. Computer systems analysts have many different degrees, but typically, they have degrees in computer science, information technology, and management information systems. Click here to get a list of programs to get your management information systems degree online.
Qualifications vary by employer, but general qualifications include: broad computer systems knowledge, experience in employer’s field, specific computer system knowledge, logical thinking skills, great communication and interpersonal skills, and sound problem-solving and analytical skills. Internships are appropriate for students ready to graduate, as they do not usually require any experience.

What does a system analyst really do?

I had also read an article about a system analyst, she narrate her life during her two years of career. With that she gave me an idea of what does analyst do on his job. She received a job offer from a large petroleum company during her senior year in college. Her first assignment was on a development team to replace the entire accounting and operating system for the company. There were 70 people on the project, divided into various sub-groups based on business functions, such as accounts receivable, inventory control, accounts payable, general ledger, chart-of-accounts, etc. In this team, she worked on the inventory control subsystem. But she does other duties; she was the data dictionary coordinator. That meant that as project teams started identifying new data items, she had to give them a valid name and enter it into the dictionary. She also provided reports for the database design team who had to logically order all these data fields.

She is also the security request coordinator. Every time someone wanted access to a data set, she had to verify that they have a legitimate need to either read or read/write to a dataset. Fortunately, she passed the paperwork to the Security Administrator.
Her two years as a systems analyst for her were very exciting. In which she spent most of my time talking with users to understand the business and to other analysts to ensure compatibility between subsystems. She did a lot of design work, and created documentation for these designs, including reports, input forms, and programming specifications. She coded some of the programs myself (in COBOL and PL/1). For her 2 year of a system analyst was full of challenges in which she face it with chin high. She is able to adjust herself to people she interacts with.

--evidence--

SYSTEM ANALYST- SAD (ass-1)

2009-12-24T20:19:00.000-08:00

Based on your learnings of chapter 1, identify and discuss some charateristics you have as a good Systems Analyst. (at least 2500 words)

SYSTEM ANALYST

The first topic that had been discussed was about the System analyst, this chapter was being reported by our group. We were a
able to interview a syestm analyst at EMCOR. Currently, EMCOR has one system analyst but fortunaly we were able to meet the two of their system anlyst, their recent analyst and the former analyst, they were able to share to us the nature of their work and the skills that they should possess. With the sahring we had, I had able to imagine myself I could be able to be a SYSTEM ANALAYST someday!

Below are the following information that I have to use to know what characteristics of a system analyst posses that i have.

What is a SYSTEM ANALYST?
According to WIKIPEDIA;
A systems analyst is responsible for researching, planning, coordinating and recommending software and system choices to meet an organization's business requirements. The systems analyst plays a vital role in the systems development process. A successful systems analyst must acquire four skills: analytical, technical, managerial, and interpersonal. Analytical skills enable systems analysts to understand the organization and its functions, which helps him/her to identify opportunities and to analyze and solve problems. Technical skills help systems analysts understand the potential and the limitations of information technology. The systems analyst must be able to work with various programming languages, operating systems, and computer hardware platforms. Management skills help systems analysts manage projects, resources, risk, and change. Interpersonal skills help systems analysts work with end users as well as with analysts, programmers, and other systems professionals.

What do systems analysts do?

The rapid spread of computers has generated a need for highly trained workers to design and develop new hardware and software systems and to incorporate technological advances into new or existing systems. Job titles used to describe the broad category of computer-related occupations evolve rapidly, reflecting new areas of specialization or changes in technology as well as the preferences and practices of employers. Although many narrow specializations exist, this professional specialty group is commonly categorized into computer scientists, computer engineers, and systems analysts.

Far more numerous than do computer scientists and computer engineers, systems analysts use their knowledge and skills to solve computer problems and enable computer technology to meet the individual needs of an organization. They study business, scientific, or engineering data processing problems and design new solutions using computers. This process may include planning and developing new computer systems or devising ways to apply existing systems' resources to additional operations. Systems analysts may design entirely new systems, including both hardware and software, or add a single new software application to harness more of the computer's power. They work to help an organization realize the maximum benefit from its investment in equipment, personnel, and business processes. Most systems analysts generally work with a specific type of system depending on the type of organization they work for for example, business, accounting or financial systems, or scientific and engineering systems. Companies generally seek business systems analysts who specialize in the type of systems they use.

Analysts begin an assignment by discussing the systems problem with managers and users to determine its exact nature. Much time is devoted to clearly defining the goals of the system and understanding the individual steps used to achieve them so that the problem can be broken down into separate programmable procedures. Analysts then use techniques such as structured analysis, data modeling, information engineering, mathematical model building, sampling, and cost accounting to plan the system. Analysts must specify the inputs to be accessed by the system, design the processing steps, and format the output to meet the users' needs. Once the design has been developed, systems analysts prepare charts and diagrams that describe it in terms that managers and other users can understand. They may prepare cost-benefit and return-on-investment analyses to help management decide whether implementing the proposed system will be financially feasible.

When a system is accepted, analysts determine what computer hardware and software will be needed to set it up. They coordinate tests and observe initial use of the system to ensure it performs as planned. They prepare specifications, work diagrams, and structure charts for computer programmers to follow and then work with them to "debug," or eliminate errors from the system.

In some organizations a single worker called a programmer-analyst is responsible for both systems analysis and programming. (The work of computer programmers is described elsewhere in the Handbook.) As this becomes more commonplace, these analysts will increasingly work with Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools and object-oriented programming languages, as well as client/server applications development, and multimedia and Internet technology.

Many others specialize in analysis, application, or design of a particular system or piece of the system. Network or systems administrators, for example, may install, configure, and support an organizations systems or portion of a system. Telecommunications specialists generally are involved with the interfacing of computer and communications equipment. Computer security specialists are responsible for planning, coordinating, and implementing an organizations' information security measures. These and other growing specialty occupations reflect the increasing emphasis on client-server applications, the growth of the Internet, the expansion of World Wide Web applications and Intranets, and the demand for more end-user support. An example of this is the growing number of job titles relating to the Internet and World Wide Web such as Internet and Web developers, or Webmasters.

How do you prepare to become a systems analyst?

While there is no universally accepted way to prepare for a job as a systems analyst because employers' preferences depend on the work to be done, a bachelor's degree is virtually a prerequisite for most employers. Relevant work experience also is very important. For some of the more complex jobs, persons with graduate degrees are preferred.

Regardless of college major, employers generally look for people who are familiar with programming languages and have broad knowledge of and experience with computer systems and technologies, strong problem-solving and analysis skills, and good interpersonal skills. Courses in computer programming or systems design offer good preparation for a job in this field. For jobs in a business environment, employers usually want systems analysts to have a background in business management or a closely related field, while a background in the physical sciences, applied mathematics, or engineering is preferred for work in scientifically oriented organizations. Since employers generally look for experience, entry-level employees enhance their employment opportunities by participating in internship or co-op programs offered through their schools.

Systems analysts must be able to think logically and have good communication skills. They often deal with a number of tasks simultaneously; the ability to concentrate and pay close attention to detail is important. Although many computer specialists sometimes work independently, they often work in teams on large projects. They must be able to communicate effectively with computer personnel, such as programmers and managers, as well as with users or other staff who may have no technical computer background.

Systems analysts may be promoted to senior or lead systems analysts with experience. Those who show leadership ability also can advance to management positions, such as manager of information systems or chief information officer.

Many people develop advanced computer skills in other occupations in which they work extensively with computers, and then transfer into computer occupations. For example, an accountant may become a systems analyst or computer support specialist specializing in accounting systems development, or an individual may move into a systems analyst job after working as a computer programmer.

--not yet done---more info will be added
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_analyst
http://www.math.utep.edu/mathmajor/system/home.html#how

Assignment 2

2009-11-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS plan? (at least 2000 words)

Before I have to discuss the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the Information System plan, I prefer to make a distinction between the two. This will help me to understand the subject matter.

Business Plan

Why does a company or a business need to have a business plan?

A business plan is just like a blue print of a business. It just like a building a house, you would not walked over an empty lot and just start nailing boards. Therefore, it is foolish of you to start a business without having a business plan. This serve as a “road map” of a company.

In reality, having a business plan for any businesses will change over time as the business develops, and any particular business may have multiple business plans as its objectives change.

A business plan is the cornerstone of starting a business as well as a significant tool for monitoring the progress and growth of a company. With this, having a business plan is essential to the company or business with this following reason:

To test the feasibility of your business idea. Writing a business plan is the best way to test whether or not an idea for starting a business is feasible, other than going out and doing it. The business plan is a business safety net. Writing a business plan can save a great deal of time and money, if working through the business plan reveals that your business idea is unsustainable. With this you can test if having your idea business is feasible, and if not this help freeing you to move on to a new and better idea.
To give your new business the best possible chance of success. It is vital to the success of the business. Writing a business plan will ensure that you pay attention to both the broad operational and financial objectives of your new business and the details, such as budgeting and market planning. Taking the time to work through the process of writing a business plan will make for a smoother startup period and fewer unforeseen problems as your business becomes established.

To secure funding. To start a business, it needs to have both operating and start up capital. Some business has their capital from financial institutions such as banks in which they expect that business has a developed business plan. And established businesses usually need money for their business operations. With this, the role of having a business plan will at least gives you an assurance and chance to keep the business operating or maybe an expansion.
To make business planning manageable and effective. A business plan is essential if you're thinking of starting a business, but it's also an important tool for established businesses. The company's original business plan needs to be revised as new goals are set, to adopt the changes in business industry. Reviewing the business plan can also help a company or corporation see what goals have been accomplished, what changes need to be made, or what new directions to a company's growth should take.
To attract investors. Having a solid business plan, this is a plus factor to the company in which investors pull towards the company to invest. A company business plan will be the basis of the investor to do some background checks to the company.

Conclusion
Writing a business plan is time-consuming, but to have a successful business it is vital and essential to survive the start up phase of the business. The process of writing a business plan can do wonders to clarify where you've been and where you're going, thus this will serve as a company guide to the success.

Information System Plan

Today, most organizations in all sectors of industry, commerce and government are fundamentally dependent on their information systems. Thus, organizations or companies are increasingly looking toward the application of technology not only to strengthen existing business operations but also to create new opportunities that provide them with a source of competitive advantage.

Planning for information systems, as for any other system, begins with the identification of needs. In order to be effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need--whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. Such planning for information systems is much like strategic planning in management.

Relationship between the Business Plan and the Information System Plan

Before, the relationship between the business strategy or plan and the information function was not made interest and awareness of the Top Management of the companies or firms. At that time, information systems were thought to be synonymous with the company data processing and were treated as some back-room operation in support of day-to-day ordinary tasks.
In the 80’s and 90’s, however, there has been a growing realization of the need to make information systems of strategic importance to an organization. As a result, strategic information systems planning (SISP) is a important issue. In many industry surveys, improved SISP is often mentioned as the most serious challenge facing by the Information System managers.

With this, strategic information system planning is the analysis of a corporation’s information and processes using business information models together with the evaluation of risk, current needs and requirements. The result is an action plan showing the desired course of events necessary to align information use and needs with the strategic direction of the company. Also, an article has emphasized the need to note that SISP is a management function and not a technical one. This is consistent with the earlier distinction between the older data processing (this was first era of three-era model information system application of John Ward) views and the modern strategic importance view of Information Systems. SISP thus is used to identify the best targets for purchasing and installing new management information systems and help an organization maximize the return on its information technology investment. A portfolio of computer-based applications is identified that will assist an organization in executing its business plans and realize its business goals. There is a growing realization that the application of information technology (IT) to a firm’s strategic activities has been one of the most common and effective ways to improve business performance.

The task of strategic information systems planning is difficult and often time organizations do not know how to do it. Strategic information systems planning is a major change for organizations, from planning for information systems based on users’ demands to those based on business strategy and plan.

Reference:
http://www.tn.gov/finance/oir/planning/ispprocess.pdf
http://viu.eng.rpi.edu/publications/strpaper.pdf

Assignment 1

2009-11-25T07:38:00.000-08:00

Think about yourself worthy to be called as IT professional, how do you see yourself 10 years from now, what are your strategies to get there? (at least 3000 words)

"A DREAM without PLAN is a NIGHTMARE!"

These questions bother me so much. It makes me realize what really my goals here in Institute of Computing in which I am enroll in Information Technology course. I was thinking what made me decide taking this field, how did I came up with this decision.

Way back in my fourth year in my high school when everybody was planning to their path in college and busy thinking of what course to choose to their dream career . Also, they were preparing on taking up of entrance exams in different universities. It was the time I really got confuse and baffle with what course to take up. (Wheew! Honestly I had really had the hard time to think at that time.) Before I was left out with my classmates I just took several entrance exams offered by different schools but still I had not make my mind up on what course should I took up. Many of my classmates encourage and recommend me to take entrance exam in University of Southeastern Philippines and chose Information Technology as our course. Fortunately, I got passed with the entrance exam and preceded with an interview with one of faculty staffs. I had remembered that I was asked by my interviewee on what would my future career once I finish my degree and why I had choose IT as my course, I just answered IT is in demand here and abroad (where you can earn dollars, jejeje) and might end up as a call center agent or IT staff/professional (funny, I was not even know what kind of job it is) etc. With the different level I was into I try my best to be here. Luckily, I was one of the lists ready to enroll in Institute of Computing.

I had decided to pursue to stay here at the university and took IT because USEP offer the lowest rate per unit in tuition fee compared to other colleges here in Davao aside from University of Philippines. And being enrolled in one of the State Universities here in Philippines is an achievement to me and it surely made me proud of myself. In my first semester in my college days it was quite fine, I was able to pass the subjects. But in my second semester, I got failed in one of my major subjects and it was my first programming language, Turbo C++. Maybe I was not able to prepare and plan my college which was different to high school. Because the failure I made, I realized if I had to pursue this course that I chose. Instead of giving up, I had given it a second chance if I really belong to an IT world.

I started to appreciate this course when I took the second time in Turbo C++ with one of the best professor of Institute of Computing, she really good in teaching. It fascinated me how coded words create a simple computer program. It enhanced my logical analysis in making simple programs. With this, I made up my mind to continue and pursue this field which I had already started to love and to adopt. I admittedly not really good in this field I chose, but I had to. I did not have any choice. What I have realized is that we can able to learn to love everything, you just need to put effort on it and perseverance, and maybe you might win it in the end if you have determination.

I have been here in this university for five years, I have already invested so much and I think I must finish what I have started. I just merely have to sacrifice and face one and half year of suffer and pains and everything would be paid off. At this point I want to explore more to gain more knowledge. And if I get a hold with my bare hands of my diploma (because I promise to have it!!! Bongga..) I can able to use everything I learned and gained here in my course to my career someday. I might not good but I know I can able to share and to contribute what I have learned here.

One of my possible end point careers after college, it might be to be an IT professional. With this I am still wondering what the roles of this are in the real IT industry. With this I am able to research who is the IT professional for me to be able to visualize my self to be as one.

According to my research below:

Who is the IT professional?

For the purpose of this discourse, the key areas are those that relate to the Attitude, Skill and Knowledge of the IT professional. Interestingly these are the same areas of change that training focuses on. Training seeks to close or fill any gaps that an individual has in these areas. However, it must be noted that simply going for training programs does not make one a true and complete professional.

Are you meeting Expectations

To be a competent IT professional, you must know what the expectations of your colleagues, your industry, your clients and the general public are. Meeting these expectations is what qualifies you to call yourself a professional, and what gives you recognition as a professional.

In today's world the role of the IT professional is crucial. IT has become an essential resource for most organizations. The evolving scenario is one of a growing complexity of computer systems and businesses dependence on them. Qualified and competent IT professionals are needed to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of computers.

The Diverse Nature of IT

Professionals work in areas such as Programming, Engineering, Database Administration, Networking, Web development and E-Commerce.

IT professionals create, operate, maintain and program computers. An IT professional must have the skills and knowledge required to carry out specialized tasks in a recognized field of IT. This is the minimum requirement. But IT skills demand far outstrips supply. Current IT skills shortage worldwide is enormous

With this I am able to know how can able to achieve my aspiration to be an IT professional.

To be worthily called an IT professional I think I must attain the following which I based on my research in which I actually become conscious.

Knowledge
Training and Certification
Experience
Lifelong Learning
Ethics

Knowledge

This aspect is important, it able us to perform well in our chosen field. With the learning from our more than four years in college we are able to gain and to expand the knowledge we already have.

To define what knowledge should acquire to be capable in this field.

Knowledge (intellectual and conceptual) can be acquired through formal education sources such as private training institutions, colleges, institutions of higher learning, as well as E-learning on the Internet. The focus is on the intellectual, i.e. understanding concepts, generating ideas.

Skills however, can be acquired and improved from work experience and practical training. The most effective form of skill building is through practical exercises.

Training and Certification

Training and certification assists in improving skills, increasing knowledge and gaining recognition. Certification exams identify the necessary skills for an individual to perform their job competently and most important, successfully. For example, A+ certifies the competency of service professionals in the computer industry. Anyone who wants an internationally recognized credential as a competent computer service professional can take the A+ examination.

Because Certification is becoming the vogue in the IT industry today, more and more potential and working IT professionals want to get certified. It makes sense. Certification gives an IT professional, a valued credential that is recognized in the IT industry. Not only that, it is a powerful tool for providing job and business opportunities and for meeting challenges on the field. Improved income and enhanced professional credibility are powerful motivators for becoming IT certified.

Does having a popular certification make you a competent and recognized IT professional? Is certification part of your career development plan? If it is, this must be based on a solid understanding of what certification entails and how certification fits into your personal work / career goals.

But as noted earlier, certification is only one way of ensuring you have the required skills and knowledge for IT professionalism. Formal education and Work experience, i.e. practical and relevant work experience, are also essential for IT skill and knowledge achievement.

Lifelong Learning

IT professionals must also address is the issue of currency. Professionals must find ways of staying current on IT and IT related issues. This requires continuous self-development on the part of the IT professional. Simply because you are certified, or you have many years of experience, does not mean you should go to sleep. The IT field is one of the fastest developing fields worldwide. You cannot afford to be outdated or allow your skills to stagnate. You cannot serve your clients or employers well if you only have outdated ideas and information. As an IT professional, you cannot be relevant to your society if you are not current.

Luckily with the digital age, there are many information, and learning opportunities available for serious and career-minded IT professionals. The Internet can be used for education and continuous self-development. Other tools that can be utilized for staying up to date include: books, publications, training, software, etc. But the presence of all these tools is not enough; as a professional you must have the ability and desire to update yourself on a continuous basis. We must never stop learning. This is especially crucial in IT. There must be a readiness and hunger to learn. Yesterday's knowledge may not be able to handle today's opportunities and challenges.

Ethics

This should acquire and attain by every IT Professionals because this is your attitude towards your work, your client and people around you. This factor can truly make you worthily called an IT Professional, aside from having IT expertise.

However, does having superior IT skills, knowledge and certification make you a true professional? "Administrators and network engineers do not live by Windows 2000 alone. " I have personally come in contact with IT certified individuals who I cannot dare to call professionals. Or what would you call an individual who has no regard for ethics and is ever ready to sacrifice professionalism at the altar of money? As a professional what is your attitude to the public, your work, your colleagues, or your clients?

What is your attitude towards business ethics? In today's fast and slick business environment, how relevant is ethics when you can take the easy way out? Everybody wants to be "fast and smart". To a professional, money is important but it is not everything. Money should not be your master. To maintain this attitude can sometimes be difficult, with the attendant daily pressures. But that is no excuse. If you want to be a true professional that is the price you must pay. IT professionals need to ask themselves: "Am I in IT for quick, short profit or am I in IT for the long distance?" The choice is yours.

----Just think of this paragraph below-----

Is the CCNA certified individual who defrauds his employers an IT professional? What about those who use their skills and knowledge for anti-social and destructive activities? Are they professionals too? The most notorious are hackers and Virus developers. These are highly skilled individuals but what they use those skills for are not in the interest of society. The same goes for IT fraudsters. If you have all certifications in this world and you use your knowledge and skills to steal and destroy you are nothing but a thief.

The right attitude also extends to how you treat your clients or employers. Are you dependable and trustworthy? There are many examples of so-called professionals who talk down to clients, and who cheat their clients or employers.

Is it truly ethical, for example, for a professional to take longer than necessary to perform a job? To say that he/she is sick in order to take a day off for leisure? To fail to report rule violations by a co-worker?

The public expects the IT professional to be socially responsible and disciplined and should be a role model for the youth.

Conclusion

In conclusion, one can state that IT professionalism does not end with getting certified and earning a fat pay. It isn't simply about being a skilled expert. Just as professionalism is about skills and knowledge, it is also about responsibility and duty. It is about using your skills and knowledge in a responsible and humane manner. It is about using your privileged status to bring about positive change in society.

And what ever skills and knowledge we attain, we should use it in a way we can help others.

10 years from now…..

What would I be ten years from now? What would be my status in an IT arena?

At this point of my college, this is the time I really need to do my career planning. I have to take a look ahead and create my future. It isn’t always easy, but it is better that just sitting back and taking whatever comes my way. I know it is not too late for me to do it. With this, doing some assessment in require for me to be able to know what I really want and desire in my life. Ten years from now I always dream to be one of in the field of IT professions.

Self-assessment

Career self-assessment requires to you ask and answer questions that relate to your career and life expectations. You must know who you are. Period! How can you know what you want if you don’t know who you are? What makes you tick? Know yourself – what is your passion? You must ask yourself the questions: What sort of working life do you want? What type of work or activity makes you happy? What are your career goals? What are your ambitions, personal or lifestyle preferences?

In terms of career satisfaction what is important to you? It is essentially about the direction you want your life to go. What matters? What is your purpose? Your love of IT is not enough. You should have a big picture. What is your purpose? What is your vision? Where are you going? Not where is everybody going? George Bernard Shaw had this say “Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.” What is your WHY?

Generally, the areas you should consider are: Nature of work, Work interests, Recognition, Security, Income (Salary and benefits), Personal / Family life, Opportunities for growth and Responsibility. What gives you career satisfaction in each of these areas? Which areas are of top priority, which are unimportant, which are you indifferent to? Through this you can identify IT jobs and computing environments that interest you. And getting answers isn’t like instant coffee.

Getting answers may not be immediate. Answers may also not be obvious. Use reliable resources available to help you learn more about your areas of interest. You may have to dig deep and be resourceful. Ask questions, talk to people in the field, network and attend professional and career forums.

It helps to state your goals in black and white. You may need to write down your professional short- and long-term goals. Be descriptive and edit them over and over until you are sure these goals are what you desire.

A valuable career self-assessment is one that is honest. Lying to yourself will not help. Also you need to drop the get-rich-quick mentality. Approach your IT Career like a marathon, not a short sprint. Be Wise. If immediate results are what you are after, then the IT field might not be for you.

Be realistic in your expectations. Fulfillment is a function of expectations. Don’t copy others. Don’t run with the goals of other people. Too many people set goals and take jobs not because they really want them but because they believe that’s what others expect of them. They want to be part of the in-crowd. Whose plan is it, anyway? Career planning is very much about choosing the direction that you want to take in your life. You must own your plan, you must own your goals. Understand, and be happy, with what you want to do.

Situation assessment

Next you need to do what I would call a career situation assessment. What is your current career situation? You know where you want to get to, but how near or far are you? What stage are you at in your career? What is your current situation with respect to your work or profession? Are you in a job that will take you to your ideal situation?

If you are out of work, what is your background? Are you self-employed? Or are you a student? Again you must use the criteria you used for your career self-assessment to assess your current career status.

Are you currently meeting your expectations in terms of Nature of work, Security, Income (Salary and benefits), Personal / Family life, Opportunities for growth, Responsibility, etc? This involves assessing your current skills and experience to identify what you must learn, or experience you need to acquire to excel. What practical knowledge do you have? What are your academic qualifications? Do you have a sound technical background? How relevant are your present skills and experience to your goals? Where are you in relation to where you want to go?

Which areas require improvement? Since you know your career goals it should be easy for you to identify your career gaps.

IT Professions and Career profile

I done some research of different IT Professions and career profile for me to able identify and indicate the area or field that suites me.

The IT industry offers a wide range of positions that vary in their requirements and expectations. To start an IT career, I should have a reasonable idea of the requirements of the area of my interest.

The following are the different IT Professions and Career profile.

THE ENGINEER

The Engineering profession is one of the oldest in IT. Engineering specifically has to do with designing and supporting Computer Hardware. Computer hardware covers a wide range including: Computer Monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, Multimedia. Engineering is not limited to the PC world. Minicomputers and Mainframe computers are included too. Furthermore, in the IT environment, engineering equipment includes Power Protection equipment such as Stabilizers, Surge protectors and Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS).

The Engineer designs the different parts that make up the computer equipment. Design is the major function of the Engineer - design of microprocessors, integrated circuits and circuit boards used in computer equipment. Design is complex, challenging and definitely intellectually stimulating. It is for the creative minded. The creative ability must usually be complemented by research and study efforts. It is the design aspect of engineering along with research that accounts for most of the innovations and new products in Hardware technology. Design requires a solid intellectual background, logical thinking, attention to detail and the ability to focus for long periods.

Another important function of the Engineer is Technical Support. Common titles of Tech Support personnel include: Technical Support Representative, Systems Engineer, Customer Service Representative, Help Desk Support, PC Support Specialist, PC Maintenance Professional, Sales Support Technician, Maintenance Engineer.

Technical support involves the installation, configuration, maintenance and troubleshooting of computers and related equipment. To effectively carry out preventive and curative measures, logical skills and a real understanding of how the equipment works will come into play here.

It involves a fair amount of human interaction. Tech support therefore requires patience, as well as problem-solving and strong communication skills.

THE SOFTWARE PROFESSIONAL

Software professionals develop software that drives the hardware. Popular titles are Programmer, Systems analyst or System Developer. These individuals create, manage and maintain software programs. To create such programs you need to learn and master the art using programming languages (code). Popular programming languages are Visual Basic, C++ and Java. It involves gathering requirements, coding and testing.

Programmers create software products based on identified market needs, and or specific user requirements. This allows a lot of room for creative ability and innovative thinking while working to specifications and standards. In performing systems analysis, you interact with users, observe their workflow and attempt to create models that will satisfy the user. It means a certain degree of conceptualization is required. To give the user what the user wants, the analyst must know the working requirements of the user, sometimes to the minute details. You need to love paying attention to details.

Analysts in some organizations may not necessarily start out with a computing background. Often people bring their previous job experience to work with the programming team in understanding user requirements. A programmer may be involved in analysis, or may strictly focus on programming, or both. This depends entirely on the working environment.

Programming, just like engineering design requires logical thinking, attention to detail and the ability to focus for long periods. Although programming routines tend to be more predictable than jobs with a fair amount of troubleshooting, it can be quite intensive with regard to self-development. You must be ready to keep learning programming languages/tools/updates because of continuous enhancements in the way programs are written.

THE NETWORK SPECIALIST

With the growth of the Internet, driven primarily by the merging of Communications and Computers, there is a growing demand for individuals skilled in the technical aspects of this unique convergence. Networking is an area of IT that is developing rapidly, especially with new developments in wireless and mobile computing. No wonder the fastest growing sector in IT now is that of Wireless networking.

Networking encompasses Local Area Network (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN) and Internet. Networking facilitates communications and the sharing of resources using IT. Just like the Engineer, the Network Engineer is involved in the design, maintenance and troubleshooting of all aspects of the Network environment - Network equipment, the physical Network, Network connections, Network management and Network Software. Popular Networking names and products include Microsoft Windows, Novell Netware, Banyan, US Robotics, Appletalk, Cisco, Agere, Orinoco, 3COM and Linux.

The Network professional not only deploys networks but must also ensure reliability and consistency of the network by handling problems efficiently, and reducing the risk of network failure. You're also expected to keep abreast of the latest in computers and network technology. The job can therefore be quite demanding as you should not only be flexible enough to provide service at any time, but as a network professional you should be expect to work long hours, weekends inclusive. This is a good position for those with problem-solving and analytical thinking skills.

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT / ACADEMICS

Research and Development is about carrying out scientific and technological investigations that contribute to knowledge for the benefit of society. Design is closely related to Engineering design mentioned earlier. However, research here is not limited to the engineering aspect of IT. Discoveries based on research are useful in virtually all spheres of human endeavour. Research in IT could be useful for mass production of scarce drugs, assisting in finding cures for diseases, Telecommunications, business optimization, Oil, Sports, etc. Today’s modern tools, which are now valuable everywhere are the results of years of research.

Research can be extremely satisfying for those who want to “create” or contribute to, knowledge. But a researcher must be extremely dedicated and persistent. Research can be very challenging, as results don’t usually come fast. It isn’t for “rapid results” people. Research requires patience and focus. A researcher must always realize that research is not an end in itself. Research must be of value to the society. Research obviously requires a solid intellectual background.

Most researchers are also Academics. Academics are involved in teaching and assessing students in all fields of IT. The academic is usually the first expert, aspiring professionals will encounter as they begin their career. Research can be flexible, and could be combined with office, business or industrial work. Obviously, the Researcher must enjoy studying, learning, testing and experimentation.

DATABASE ADMINISTRATION

In the digital world we all depend on databases for vital information. Popular database products are Oracle, Microsoft’s SQL Server, IBM’s DB2 and Sybase. Database experts make sure that these databases are secure, robust and functional for effective business performance.

The role a database administrator (DBA) plays is essential and can be quite complex. DBAs maintain the information the company needs to carry out its business and be successful. DBAs are responsible for setting up and maintaining corporate databases. It is the DBA’s duty to ensure availability, backup, security and efficiency of the database.

Common tasks of the DBA include report generation, backup management, security management, and performance monitoring and tuning. A Database administrator is more of a data facilitator – making sure data is secure, available and is used productively.

Do you love responsibility, planning and attention to detail? Maybe you should consider becoming a DBA. Database administration requires planning and organizational skills as well as a programming background.

THE SOFTWARE PROFESSIONAL

THE NETWORK SPECIALIST

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT / ACADEMICS

DATABASE ADMINISTRATION

INTERNET / WEB DESIGN

Web sites are coming up all the time all over the world. Web professionals develop and maintain web pages and web sites on the Internet. Internet design and development is a combination of two skill sets: Programming as well as art/graphic design. Web development can be regarded as a special form of programming. Web developers are involved in creating models, graphic designs, web page designs, testing and troubleshooting.

Popular Web development tools include HTML, Macromedia’s Dreamweaver and Microsoft’s Frontpage.

Web development requires creativity and attention to detail. Although programming skills are important, it is also vital that the Web developer has a flair for presentation and aesthetics. Web development in addition involves a fair amount of testing and problem solving.

With the enumerated career in an IT arena, I am able to have some overview IT professions. As you can see, in an IT world there really are wide varieties of positions available to us. But, it up to me to find a ---category of work that fits on my background, passion and personality.

According to my research that choosing a career path is not all that you need to succeed in IT. Attitude, knowledge and experience are all key success factors.

While there are opportunities in all areas of IT, Technical support is usually regarded as the best area for a beginner to gain a good working knowledge of the basics of the IT profession. Hands-on experience gained especially in the area of problem solving is invaluable for starting an IT Career. PCs can be seen in every sphere of life now. What this means is that it is easier for a newcomer in tech support to get experience and get a foot in the door, as opportunities are virtually limitless. This is quite unlike a newcomer with skills in more complex applications that are not commonplace.

In making decision in choosing a career in Information Technology I have here some tips help me out to choose. This will give me a better view of what I need to consider in making a career choice in IT.

10 Tips for making a Career Choice in IT

Considering a career in Information Technology (IT) - beginner, fresh graduate, enthusiast or career changer? What is your reason for choosing a career in IT? Your motive may differ from mine, but does it make sense? Not all reasons people give for wanting to go into IT are reasonable. It is always in your interest to make your career choice for the right reasons.

Here are some suggestions of what you should consider in making a career choice in IT.

1. There is financial reward in IT but don’t choose your career simply for the money. IT is financially rewarding when you choose the right field, make sensible career choices and work hard. Although the economic factor must come into play when making a career decision, it shouldn’t be the sole determining factor.

2. Avoid the “bandwagon effect”. Don’t jump on anybody’s bandwagon. What is good for Lagbaja may not be good for Tamedun. For some it has been described as the “Feel Good, Rave of the moment or Go with the flow” factor. Everybody seems to rush for the hot career choices.

3. With specific reference to IT, don’t jump on IT because IT is the in thing. There is no doubt that the scope of IT is quite wide. In a world ruled by fads and trends, IT may be the “reigning champion”, but the significance of IT is more than that – IT adds value. Do you really appreciate the power of IT or are you simply pursuing the latest craze?

4. First and foremost, you must answer the “Who Am I” question. Understand yourself. Sincere self-evaluation is a necessity for quality career management. Knowing who you are helps you in determining what you want and don't want in a career, and in providing career direction.

5. With specific reference to IT, what is your interest? Do you want to create, provide or use IT, or create with IT? Are you the sort of person who wants to know how IT itself works, i.e. the inner workings and how you can be an IT creator, or you are more interested in how to get results using IT?

6. You desire an IT career because IT is not boring. Note that we perceive things differently - what may be fun to you may be boring to me. This has to do a lot with your perspective, your values. Does the idea of an IT career appeal to you? Many come into IT because of the stimulating opportunities and rewards.

7. Do you want to work in IT because it is a well-respected profession? The IT profession is respected globally because of the impact Information Technology (IT) has on society. It is certainly a field where if you make the right impact you can get the respect you deserve.

8. The sheer diversity is what attracts many to IT. The diverse nature of IT offers many professionals the opportunity to work in different areas over time, and sometimes even on an ongoing basis.

9. IT is a field that emphasizes knowledge and contribution. Individuals in IT need knowledge and skills as noted previously in (3).Do you want the power of knowledge? Do you enjoy and hunger to learn new things?

10. It should be obvious that your passion is key. You need to have a huge passion for IT and how it works. Be honest and sincere with yourself: how passionate and committed are you to a career in IT?

But before anything else I first plan to finish my college and be able to proceed on a field that suites me.

What are your strategies to get there?

“A dream without a plan is a nightmare".

Make a career planning.

Planning helps me focusing and organizing myself. Get my priorities right. Sometimes we do things right but focus helps me to do the right thing. With this I need to do is to develop a step-by-step plan. This will make me do everything as organize. The essence of a career plan is in knowing what you want and determining how to get it.

Consider the challenges and obstacles that I might encounter.

The road might be thorny and rocky. Nobody said it would be easy. Don’t avoid challenges. Some roadblocks could actually be opportunities in disguise. Attitude is key when challenges come to our way. A strong Why will carry you through such situations. But which other resources can you muster to overcome each obstacle?

Identify the time to achieve my goals.

Time to achieve my goals is a serious issue that I must consider. I need this to have a means of measuring my progress. Like what happen right now, I am here in college for five years in which I never planned but because I had not make some plan before my college this is the result.

Decide on the step-by-step process.

I must also decide on everything on a step-by-step process to achieve my ultimate career goal.

I should do other things that will still assist me in moving forward. And keep on doing things that contribute positively to my growth. Be creative and display initiative. Invest in other useful areas and be creative. But make sure I should focus on things that matter.

Motive my self.

In everything I do for me to achieve it I need to do some motivation. I should think why I need to reach my goals. To whom I dedicate my all achievement.

Have Faith.

With the great faith and belief to our Creator, this will make me more strong for what ever comes to my way to attain all my dreams.

http://www.jidaw.com/article2.html

http://www.jidaw.com/certarticles/career2.html

Introduction!

2009-11-25T07:36:00.000-08:00

Good day Sir!!!

Again, Im Ma. Ann Kristine S. Tomada. This is the third time I am under with you. With my expectation to MIS II, it would be more tougher this time. Therefore I should be more prepare. Hope we learn more from this subject and be able to use it in the real world!(char!)

and hope we can pass this subject!...

God bLEss to us...

SMiLe aLwAys...

new Semester..

2009-11-25T07:35:00.000-08:00

Yehey...

new semester again..

good luck to all of us!!!!

God bless...

----i will persist until i succeed!----

:p

Major Paper JOURNAL

2009-10-16T07:29:00.001-07:00

Information System Needs Assessment
Social Security System

June 29 –July 02 2009

Group decided to start on seeking for probable company to be adopted for this project.

July 03 2009
The group had decided to ask the permission to SSS if we can conduct study and to be our adopted company.

July 06 2009
Monday
We went to SSS and we were able to entertain by Mr. Jesulito Flores, one of the IT support staff of Regional Information System Support Department. He advised us to present a letter address to the branch manager, Mr. Manolito Tagalog.

July 07 2009
After we had drafted the clearance letter, we immediately signed it to our facilitator together with OSS Director and the Dean.
We went back to SSS and present the letter to Mr. Jess. He personally gave it to the branch manager. Unfortunately, Mr. Tagalog, branch manager was not there so, he told us to return in Monday.

July 13 2009
We returned to SSS to verify if our letter was approved by the branch manager. Fortunately, it was granted.

July 15-17 2009

Group Discussion
Planning for Information System Assessment Content
Tentative IS Assessment Content

Introduction
Purpose, Scope And Objective of the Study
Company Profile Definitions
Legislative History
Vision, Mission and Goal
Company Operation
SWOT Analysis
Finding and Observation
Parameters (IT Technology)
Process Work Diagram
Recommendation

July 20-28 2009

Group Activities:
Research - for references
Topics:
SWOT Analysis
Assessment Tool
Related on Hardware
Related on Software
Review of Modules
Formulations of Guide Questions
Aug 26 2009
The group had decided to present the formulated questionnaire to the RISS Department Head.
We were told they cannot accommodate us by this month because of the busy schedule they had. So, the group decided to leave the questionnaire for them to answer it in their vacant time for our initial data gathering.

Aug 29 2009
Company Background
Data Gathered:
Guide Book for SSS Members
Social Security Act of 1997
SSS Forms
Visits Web Site www.sss.gov.ph

Aug 30 2009
The group started the documentation of the company background:
Company / Legislative History
Vision, Mission and Goals
Organizational Chart
Read the given Company references:
Guide Book
SSS Booklet

Sept. 17 2009
We were able to conduct an interview to Mr. Jesulito Flores.
Here are the informations he imparted to us:
Regional Information Service Support (RISS) Department
-supports SSS with relates to IT problems
-total control of all systems in Regional Southern Mindanao Branches:
Davao
Toril
Digos
Kidapawan
Tagum
Gensan
Tacurong
Coronadal
Mati
-the first line of Defense
-ICT of Southern Mindanao
-Technical Support to ICT problems
Social Security System
-social support to private company
Service Systems:
-web sites : online inquiries
-Info Kiosk
-main office located in Manila
Network Operating Systems
-Windows Base, currently using XP version
Hardware maintenance
-twice a year
-warranty of hardware purchased
System Problems:
-Electrical Fault
-Internet Connection
Internet Service Provider
-Globe Tel. and PLDT
-RASS (Remote Access Service Search)
Software Proprietary
-SAP
-ORACLE
Departments in main office:
-ADM 1-3 (Application Dev. Management)
-SSA (System Software Administration)
-TRD (Technical Research Dev.)

Sept. 28 2009
This was our second interview with the RISS Department Head and Mr. Jesulito Flores , an IT support.

Sept 30 09
We went to PLDT & Smart Company at Ponciano St. Davao City. We had inquired about upgrading Internet Connection from T1 to T3.
We were entertained by Mr. Rolando R. Cadabas SME Area Sales Head of Mindanao together with his colleague who was a graduate of ECE of USEP. They gave us the idea about cost of upgrading internet connection and the probable cost for installation.

information environment

2009-10-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

Identify an information environment of your choice and write an essay to address the following questions:

• What should be your role within this environment?
• How can the principles of information organization and representation help you in performing this role?
• What are the challenges facing you in performing the role? How will you address these challenges?

As I am doing this assignment I got confuse on how to answers the following questions. With the aid of the internet I was able to understand its meaning. It also made me realize what might I become after I graduate here in this university, what would be my possible career. This makes me realized that I was never dreamed to an IT student or to be here enrolled at this university. But because I got not choice or maybe guts to change my course I just end up loving it and trying to adopt it. But I got no regrets with it; I have learned many things with this course. I may not good at every thing like programming but what matters I have learned.

So much for that, I am going to discus the meaning of information environment and its principles. Also, I have included the principles of effective information management.

What is information Environment?

An Information Environment can be describe as the set of network or online services that support publishing and use of information and learning resources. At the moment online services providing digital resources tend to operate in a stand-alone manner. The user is therefore required to navigate a complex set of different websites with different search interfaces in order to locate relevant resources. Similarly the resources offered tend to be characterized by a lack of mediation to provide vital signposts to explain context and relevance to the user. It has been recognized that this is one of the key features limiting take up of digital resources.

In other words Information Environment is an environment where you can find the information you need in the fast and easiest way.

The information environment is the aggregate of individuals, organizations, and systems
that collect, process, disseminate, or act on information. The actors include leaders, decision makers, individuals, and organizations. Resources include the materials and systems employed to collect, analyze, apply, or disseminate information. The information environment is where humans and automated systems observe, orient, decide, and act upon information, and is therefore the principal environment of decision making. Even though the information environment is considered distinct, it resides within each of the four domains. The information environment is made up of three interrelated dimensions: physical, informational, and cognitive.

What should be your role within this environment?

As a student specifically an Information Technology (IT) student there are many things I want to know about the vast changing technology. If you observe there are lots of technologies that are presented in the market. An Information Environment services can help me in my goals because here I can find the answers to my questions. With just one click information is presented to you. With my teachers that gives us many electronic assignment researches its hard for me to research in an environment that so confusing. Information Environment could be a great help not just for me but to all students who will going to use it. It allows us to gain knowledge and to advance our mind to things that we are not aware of.

But I can be a source of information to others. Form what I have learned in a classroom with my teachers with this I can able to share it to others by posting.

What are the principles of information?

Principles

The value of information is directly linked to how it helps decision makers achieve the organization’s goals.

Computers and information systems are constantly making it possible for organizations to improve the way they conduct business.

Knowing the potential impact of information systems and having the ability to put this knowledge to work can result in a successful personal career, organizations that reach their goals, and a society with a higher quality of life

System users, business managers, and information systems professionals must work together to build a successful information system
Information systems must be applied thoughtfully and carefully so that society, business, and industry can reap their enormous benefits

I have also included the 10 (ten) principles of effective information management because ‘Information management’ is an umbrella term that encompasses all the systems and processes within an organization for the creation and use of corporate information.

Information management

Improving information management practices is a key focus for many organizations, across both the public and private sectors.

This is being driven by a range of factors, including a need to improve the efficiency of business processes, the demands of compliance regulations and the desire to deliver new services.

In many cases, ‘information management’ has meant deploying new technology solutions, such as content or document management systems, data warehousing or portal applications.

These projects have a poor track record of success, and most organizations are still struggling to deliver an integrated information management environment.

Effective information management is not easy. There are many systems to integrate, a huge range of business needs to meet, and complex organizational (and cultural) issues to address.

This topic draws together a number of ‘critical success factors’ for information management projects. These do not provide an exhaustive list, but do offer a series of principles that can be used to guide the planning and implementation of information management activities.

From the outset, it must be emphasized that this is not an topic about technology. Rather, it is about the organizational, cultural and strategic factors that must be considered to improve the management of information within organizations.

In terms of technology, information management encompasses systems such as:

web content management (CM)
document management (DM)
records management (RM)
digital asset management (DAM)
learning management systems (LM)
learning content management systems (LCM)
collaboration
enterprise search
and many more…

Information management is, however, much more than just technology. Equally importantly, it is about the business processes and practices that underpin the creation and use of information.

It is also about the information itself, including the structure of information (’information architecture’), metadata, content quality, and more.

Information management therefore encompasses:

people
process
technology
content

Each of these must be addressed if information management projects are to succeed.

10 (ten) principles of effective information management

recognize (and manage) complexity
focus on adoption
deliver tangible & visible benefits
prioritize according to business needs
take a journey of a thousand steps
provide strong leadership
mitigate risks
communicate extensively
aim to deliver a seamless user experience
choose the first project very carefully

Principle 1: recognize (and manage) complexity

Organizations are very complex environments in which to deliver concrete solutions. As outlined above, there are many challenges that need to be overcome when planning and implementing information management projects.

When confronted with this complexity, project teams often fall back upon approaches such as:

Focusing on deploying just one technology in isolation.
Purchasing a very large suite of applications from a single vendor, in the hope that this can be used to solve all information management problems at once.
Rolling out rigid standardized solutions across a whole organization, even though individual business areas may have different needs.
Forcing the use of a single technology system in all cases, regardless of whether it is an appropriate solution.
Purchasing a product ‘for life’, even though business requirements will change over time.
Fully centralizing information management activities, to ensure that every activity is tightly controlled.

All of these approaches will fail, as they are attempting to convert a complex set of needs and problems into simple (even simplistic) solutions. The hope is that the complexity can be limited or avoided when planning and deploying solutions.

In practice, however, there is no way of avoiding the inherent complexities within organizations. New approaches to information management must therefore be found that recognize (and manage) this complexity.

Organizations must stop looking for simple approaches, and must stop believing vendors when they offer ’silver bullet’ technology solutions.

Instead, successful information management is underpinned by strong leadership that defines a clear direction (principle 6). Many small activities should then be planned to address in parallel the many needs and issues (principle 5).

Risks must then be identified and mitigated throughout the project (principle 7), to ensure that organizational complexities do not prevent the delivery of effective solutions.

Information systems are only successful if they are used.

Principle 2: focus on adoption

Information management systems are only successful if they are actually used by staff, and it is not sufficient to simply focus on installing the software centrally.

In practice, most information management systems need the active participation of staff throughout the organization.

For example:

Staff must save all key files into the document/records management system.
Decentralized authors must use the content management system to regularly update the intranet.
Lecturers must use the learning content management system to deliver e-learning packages to their students.
Front-line staff must capture call details in the customer relationship management system.

In all these cases, the challenge is to gain sufficient adoption to ensure that required information is captured in the system. Without a critical mass of usage, corporate repositories will not contain enough information to be useful.

This presents a considerable change management challenge for information management projects. In practice, it means that projects must be carefully designed from the outset to ensure that sufficient adoption is gained.

This may include:

Identifying the ‘what’s in it for me’ factors for end users of the system.
Communicating clearly to all staff the purpose and benefits of the project.
Carefully targeting initial projects to build momentum for the project (see principle 10).
Conducting extensive change management and cultural change activities throughout the project.
Ensuring that the systems that are deployed are useful and usable for staff.

These are just a few of the possible approaches, and they demonstrate the wide implications of needing to gain adoption by staff.

It is not enough to deliver ‘behind the scenes’ fixes.

Principle 3: deliver tangible & visible benefits

It is not enough to simply improve the management of information ‘behind the scenes’. While this will deliver real benefits, it will not drive the required cultural changes, or assist with gaining adoption by staff (principle 2).

In many cases, information management projects initially focus on improving the productivity of publishers or information managers.

While these are valuable projects, they are invisible to the rest of the organization. When challenged, it can be hard to demonstrate the return on investment of these projects, and they do little to assist project teams to gain further funding.

Instead, information management projects must always be designed so that they deliver tangible and visible benefits.

Delivering tangible benefits involves identifying concrete business needs that must be met (principle 4). This allows meaningful measurement of the impact of the projects on the operation of the organization.

The projects should also target issues or needs that are very visible within the organization. When solutions are delivered, the improvement should be obvious, and widely promoted throughout the organization.

For example, improving the information available to call centre staff can have a very visible and tangible impact on customer service.

In contrast, creating a standard taxonomy for classifying information across systems is hard to quantify and rarely visible to general staff.

This is not to say that ‘behind the scenes’ improvements are not required, but rather that they should always be partnered with changes that deliver more visible benefits.

This also has a major impact on the choice of the initial activities conducted (principle 10).

Tackle the most urgent business needs first

Principle 4: priorities according to business needs

It can be difficult to know where to start when planning information management projects.

While some organizations attempt to priorities projects according to the ’simplicity’ of the technology to be deployed, this is not a meaningful approach. In particular, this often doesn’t deliver short-term benefits that are tangible and visible (principle 3).

Instead of this technology-driven approach, the planning process should be turned around entirely, to drive projects based on their ability to address business needs.

In this way, information management projects are targeted at the most urgent business needs or issues. These in turn are derived from the overall business strategy and direction for the organization as a whole.

For example, the rate of errors in home loan applications might be identified as a strategic issue for the organization. A new system might therefore be put in place (along with other activities) to better manage the information that supports the processing of these applications.

Alternatively, a new call centre might be in the process of being planned. Information management activities can be put in place to support the establishment of the new call centre, and the training of new staff.

Avoid ’silver bullet’ solutions that promise to fix everything.

Principle 5: take a journey of a thousand steps

There is no single application or project that will address and resolve all the information management problems of an organization.

Where organizations look for such solutions, large and costly strategic plans are developed. Assuming the results of this strategic planning are actually delivered (which they often aren’t), they usually describe a long-term vision but give few clear directions for immediate actions.

In practice, anyone looking to design the complete information management solution will be trapped by ‘analysis paralysis’: the inability to escape the planning process.

Organizations are simply too complex to consider all the factors when developing strategies or planning activities.

The answer is to let go of the desire for a perfectly planned approach. Instead, project teams should take a ‘journey of a thousand steps’.

This approach recognizes that there are hundreds (or thousands) of often small changes that are needed to improve the information management practices across an organization. These changes will often be implemented in parallel.

While some of these changes are organization-wide, most are actually implemented at business unit (or even team) level. When added up over time, these numerous small changes have a major impact on the organization.

This is a very different approach to that typically taken in organizations, and it replaces a single large (centralized) project with many individual initiatives conducted by multiple teams.

While this can be challenging to coordinate and manage, this ‘thousand steps’ approach recognizes the inherent complexity of organizations (principle 1) and is a very effective way of mitigating risks (principle 7).

It also ensures that ‘quick wins’ can be delivered early on (principle 3), and allows solutions to be targeted to individual business needs (principle 4).

Successful projects require strong leadership.

Principle 6: provide strong leadership

Successful information management is about organizational and cultural change, and this can only be achieved through strong leadership.

The starting point is to create a clear vision of the desired outcomes of the information management strategy. This will describe how the organization will operate, more than just describing how the information systems themselves will work.

Effort must then be put into generating a sufficient sense of urgency to drive the deployment and adoption of new systems and processes.

Stakeholders must also be engaged and involved in the project, to ensure that there is support at all levels in the organization.

This focus on leadership then underpins a range of communications activities (principle 8) that ensure that the organization has a clear understanding of the projects and the benefits they will deliver.

When projects are solely driven by the acquisition and deployment of new technology solutions, this leadership is often lacking. Without the engagement and support of key stakeholder outside the IT area, these projects often have little impact.

Apply good risk management to ensure success.

Principle 7: mitigate risks

Due to the inherent complexity of the environment within organizations (principle 1), there are many risks in implementing information management solutions. These risks include:

selecting an inappropriate technology solution
time and budget overruns
changing business requirements
technical issues, particularly relating to integrating systems
failure to gain adoption by staff

At the outset of planning an information management strategy, the risks should be clearly identified. An approach must then be identified for each risk, either avoiding or mitigating the risk.

Risk management approaches should then be used to plan all aspects of the project, including the activities conducted and the budget spent.

For example, a simple but effective way of mitigating risks is to spend less money. This might involve conducting pilot projects to identifying issues and potential solutions, rather than starting with enterprise-wide deployments.

Principle 8: communicate extensively

Extensive communication from the project team (and project sponsors) is critical for a successful information management initiative.

This communication ensures that staffs have a clear understanding of the project, and the benefits it will deliver. This is a pre-requisite for achieving the required level of adoption.

With many projects happening simultaneously (principle 5), coordination becomes paramount. All project teams should devote time to work closely with each other, to ensure that activities and outcomes are aligned.

In a complex environment, it is not possible to enforce a strict command-and-control approach to management (principle 1).

Instead, a clear end point (’vision’) must be created for the information management project, and communicated widely. This allows each project team to align themselves to the eventual goal, and to make informed decisions about the best approaches.

For all these reasons, the first step in an information management project should be to develop a clear communications ‘message’. This should then be supported by a communications plan that describes target audiences, and methods of communication.

Project teams should also consider establishing a ‘project site’ on the intranet as the outset, to provide a location for planning documents, news releases, and other updates.

Staffs do not understand the distinction between systems.

Principle 9: aim to deliver a seamless user experience

Users don’t understand systems. When presented with six different information systems, each containing one-sixth of what they want, they generally rely on a piece of paper instead (or ask the person next to them).

Educating staff in the purpose and use of a disparate set of information systems is difficult, and generally fruitless. The underlying goal should therefore be to deliver a seamless user experience, one that hides the systems that the information is coming from.

This is not to say that there should be one enterprise-wide system that contains all information.

There will always be a need to have multiple information systems, but the information contained within them should be presented in a human-friendly way.

In practice, this means:

Delivering a single intranet (or equivalent) that gives access to all information and tools.
Ensuring a consistent look-and-feel across all applications, including standard navigation and page layouts.
Providing ’single sign-on’ to all applications.

Ultimately, it also means breaking down the distinctions between applications, and delivering tools and information along task and subject lines.

For example, many organizations store HR procedures on the intranet, but require staff to log a separate ‘HR self-service’ application that provides a completely different menu structure and appearance.

Improving on this, leave details should be located alongside the leave form itself. In this model, the HR application becomes a background system, invisible to the user.

Care should also be taken, however, when looking to a silver-bullet solution for providing a seamless user experience. Despite the promises, portal applications do not automatically deliver this.

Instead, a better approach may be to leverage the inherent benefits of the web platform. As long as the applications all look the same, the user will be unaware that they are accessing multiple systems and servers behind the scenes.

Of course, achieving a truly seamless user experience is not a short-term goal. Plan to incrementally move towards this goal, delivering one improvement at a time.

The first project must build momentum for further work.

Principle 10: choose the first project very carefully

The choice of the first project conducted as part of a broader information management strategy is critical. This project must be selected carefully, to ensure that it:

demonstrates the value of the information management strategy
builds momentum for future activities
generates interest and enthusiasm from both end-users and stakeholders
delivers tangible and visible benefits (principle 3)
addresses an important or urgent business need (principle 4)
can be clearly communicated to staff and stakeholders (principle 8)
assists the project team in gaining further resources and support

Actions speak louder than words. The first project is the single best (and perhaps only) opportunity to set the organization on the right path towards better information management practices and technologies.

The first project must therefore be chosen according to its ability to act as a ‘catalyst’ for further organizational and cultural changes.

In practice, this often involves starting with one problem or one area of the business that the organization as a whole would be interested in, and cares about.

For example, starting by restructuring the corporate policies and procedures will generate little interest or enthusiasm. In contrast, delivering a system that greatly assists salespeople in the field would be something that could be widely promoted throughout the organization.

Conclusion

Implementing information technology solutions in a complex and ever-changing organizational environment is never easy.

The challenges inherent in information management projects mean that new approaches need to be taken, if they are to succeed.

This has enumerated ten key principles of effective information management. These focus on the organizational and cultural changes required to drive forward improvements.

This also outline a pragmatic, step-by-step approach to implementing solutions that starts with addressing key needs and building support for further initiatives. A focus on adoption then ensures that staff actually uses the solutions that are deployed.

Information management challenges

Organizations are confronted with many information management problems and issues. In many ways, the growth of electronic information (rather than paper) has only worsened these issues over the last decade or two.

Common information management problems include:

Large number of disparate information management systems.
Little integration or coordination between information systems.
Range of legacy systems requiring upgrading or replacement.
Direct competition between information management systems.
No clear strategic direction for the overall technology environment.
Limited and patchy adoption of existing information systems by staff.
Poor quality of information, including lack of consistency, duplication, and out-of-date information.
Little recognition and support of information management by senior management.
Limited resources for deploying, managing or improving information systems.
Lack of enterprise-wide definitions for information types and values (no corporate-wide taxonomy).
Large number of diverse business needs and issues to be addressed.
Lack of clarity around broader organizational strategies and directions.
Difficulties in changing working practices and processes of staff.
Internal politics impacting on the ability to coordinate activities enterprise-wide.

While this can be an overwhelming list, there are practical ways of delivering solutions that work within these limitations and issues.

Information management issues can be overwhelming.

---Improve internet connectivity---

2009-10-16T06:58:00.000-07:00

If you were hired by the university as an IT consultant, what would you suggest (technology, infrastructure, innovations, steps, processes, etc) in order for the internet connectivity be improved?

One of the problems the students of this university is the slow and crawling internet connection. It takes a long time for us student to surf in internet for our projects, assignments, researches and references for our reports. The students are really affected with this, searching is time consuming. If you are to think students are paying php 200+ for internet fee during enrollment but they never make use of this internet access account because of slow connection that they end up wasting time. Instead, they choose to go outside the campus and search for and internet café that are affordable. If the university hired me as an IT consultant, to address this problem with the internet connectivity I would suggest that the university should thoroughly plan whatever solution that the university is planning to the improvement of the internet connection of the computer present to the university. This would benefit to all student who do their school works. The first thing that the university takes on consideration is the monetary fund. We definitely need for budget to address this dilemma. With this, for the university won’t bother on putting large amount of money to be spent for the budget. I would suggest this steps I have searched that would improve the connection of internet in our laboratories.

Below are some simple troubleshooting and steps to boost the internet connection.

1. How to Speed Up an Internet Connection
Some of the following suggestions can be tried on the spot; others are more complex. a Step 1 Configure your browser so it won't display graphics, animations, sound, video or other multimedia content . Step 2 Use your cache effectively. "Cache" refers to storage space where your recently visited Web sites are saved. You may need to resize your cache allotment, or you may need to purge your cache periodically. Look through your browser's menus for items named Cache, Temporary Internet files and so on. Step 3 Upgrade your modem. 56.6 kb/s modems are the fastest telephone modems available. Step 4 Consult with your service provider to ensure that your modem is configured correctly. Step 5 Replace your telephone modem with a fast-access connection such as wave, ISDN, DSL, satellite, a cable modem and so on.

2. How to Fix a Slow Internet Connection
A slow Internet connection can be extremely frustrating especially to us student when we are working online. If happens, the university would contact a computer technician, but they will most likely charge the university a large amount of money to just look the computers. To avoid repair costs, there are some simple tricks that can be imparted to the students and can try on their own to fix a slow Internet connection. Step 1 Run a virus scan on your computer. If your virus and spyware protection are up-to-date, the scan will detect any offenders and remove them from your computer. Step 2 Unplug your modem and wait a minute. Many times resetting a modem will fix the slow Internet connection. Step 3 Perform a system restore on your computer. This allows you to undo any harmful changes that you have made to your computer that could be causing the slower Internet. Step 4 Free up space on your hard drive. Routinely removing temporary Internet files and programs that you no longer use will help keep your computer running efficiently. Step 5 Test your connection. Many Internet providers will allow you to use their site to check to make sure that there is not a problem with your connection.

Tips & Warnings
• You can also try a new Internet browser to improve your Internet's speed. Many people have found that switching to Mozilla Firefox from Internet Explorer has helped. • Contact a computer technician if none of these steps have fixed the problem
3. How to Make Your Internet Connection Faster
Try these following steps help in order to speed it up Internet connectivity. Step 1 Some websites like to install cookies or save their webpages to your computer for later access. Sometimes, these cookies or saved pages can actually slow down your internet. To clean these off your computer, click on the tools tab and find "internet options." Delete all offline content, and you should hopefully see a marked increase in speed. Step 2 The next step is to remove spyware and adware that could be slowing down your computer. Find any free spyware program online and install it. Run it once, but make sure that you update the definitions every time you use it. Otherwise, it becomes out of date and doesn't recognize new spyware. Step 3 If your internet is still really slow, you could try disabiling graphics on your browser and just view the text of webpages. Websites won't look the same, but all the data will still be displayed. Load times will be greatly reduced, but so will visual quality. 4. To Maximize the Speed of Internet Connection How you can maximize the speed of your internet connection speed without using any wen accelerators:

Steps:
• Do some basic maintenance on your PC. Run Disk Defrag, a scan disk, a virus scan, a malware scan, and clear your recycle bin. An unusually slow Internet connection experience is often the only sign that your computer is infected with viruses or other malware. • Delete old files and temporary files. • Never allow the free space on your C: drive to be less than 10% of the total size or twice the installed RAM. • Sometimes restarting your home network if you have one will drastically increase the speed of your connection. • Optimize your cache or temporary Internet files. These files improve your Internet connection performance by not downloading the same file over and over. When a web site puts their logo graphic on every page your computer only downloads it when it changes. If you delete the temporary files it must be downloaded again. if you disable the cache, it must be downloaded every time you view a page that uses it. • Never bypass your router. Most routers include a firewall that is very difficult for hackers to defeat. If you don't need to use Wireless then hook your computer directly to your router. • Check on your phone and camera, if it's 900Mhz then it's fine. If it says 2.4Ghz or 5.8Ghz then it could be the cause of your slow connection speed while they're in use. • Upgrade your computer. If your computer is slow, it doesn't matter how fast your Internet connection is, the whole thing will just seem slow. • Replace your old cable modem. As it gets older, signal to noise ratios will go down, and the number of resend requests for the same packet will go up. • Often your connection speed is slow because other programs are using it. So check the unwanted programs in Process Tab in Task Manager. With the suggestions and tips if all users of the internet laboratory would know this basic knowledge on trouble shooting in internet connection problems they would apply it and able to fix it on their own. Next topic i would discuss is about the causes of internet connection to disconnect. With this issue we are able to address this problem.

What Causes High Speed Internet Connections to Disconnect?

Nothing can be more frustrating than having problems connecting to the Internet with your high speed connection. We will find that there are common issues that can affect your connectivity, and most are usually resolved with some basic troubleshooting. If we continue to suffer disconnection issues frequently, contact our high speed Internet service providers to determine how to fix the problem.

IP Address Issues

If your IP address is not configured correctly to work with your high speed ISP, you can have problems getting on the Internet. In Windows, you can type "ipconfig /all" into the command prompt in order to view the IP address assigned to your computer. This number should match the one provided by your Internet service provider. If it does not, this could be the reason you are experiencing the connection problems.

Internet Connection Disabled

Another common cause of disconnection when using a high speed Internet service is the connection has been disabled on your PC. To determine if this is the issue, open "Network Connections" from the "Control Panel" on your Windows OS. You can view your different Internet connections on this page. If your broadband connection displays a status of "Disabled," right click on the icon. Select "Enable" from the menu to restore the connection.

Ethernet Cable and Card Problems

If you receive an error message that states "Network Cable Unplugged," this indicates that the PC cannot detect the connection to your broadband router. Try a different Ethernet cable to see if your current one is faulty. Resetting the modem can also sometimes help resolve this issue. A malfunctioning Ethernet card can also cause high speed Internet connection issues.

Router Issues

A problem with your broadband router can also cause you to disconnect from the Internet. Any type of red indicator light appearing on the router lets you know that the connection has been interrupted. Check all of the cables leading into the router, as well as reset the device to determine the problem.

Considerations
Although we may experience high speed Internet connection issues, dial up connections are more likely to disconnect frequently from the web. Dial up modems take longer to access a connection, and can often experience problems if they are unable to detect a dial tone.

What Causes Slow Internet Service?

Regardless of the type of service that is used to connect with the Internet, there are several factors that can bring even the most robust connection to a crawl. Here are some examples of elements that can produce slow Internet service, as well as some solutions for these factors.

A. Computer Viruses

Perhaps the most common situations that can result in slow Internet service is the present of a virus on your hard drive of computer here in our university. Computer viruses can be transmitted in a variety of ways, most commonly through an attachment to an email. The computer virus will integrate into key programs on the hard drive and silently use up a great deal of resources. By diverting some of the resources to running the virus, an Internet service slow down is inevitable. Fortunately, installing virus protection and removal software will help to remove viruses from the hard drive, as well as prevent new ones from infecting the system. As part of the task of preventing slow Internet service from occurring, it is important to make sure the antivirus software is updated regularly. Along with viruses, there is a wide range of programs created to grab control of software on the hard drive and use it without the knowledge of the system owner. Programs of this type are often referred to as Trojans, since they can creep in before they are ever detected. Along with worm viruses, Trojans use up resources and create an Internet slow down that will be noticeable. The typical Trojan is acquired by opening email attachments, allowing the program to grab the address book and begin to send out more infected attachments to every email address on the hard drive. Antivirus software updates usually identify new Trojans and viruses, and can remove them from the system, provided that the Trojan is not configured to shut down the system if removal is attempted.

B.Spyware and Adware

Spyware and Adware are relatively innocuous programs that silently download when web sites are visited and are used to track the Internet activity of the user. The collected data is normally used in developing marketing campaigns and creating email texts. Unfortunately, spyware and adware also use up resources that can slow the system down a great deal. Removing the programs will reverse the incidence of slow Internet service, and make it easier to enjoy a more robust speed.

C. Internet Service Provider

Not all reasons for slow Internet service are due to clandestine programs and viruses infecting the hard drive. In some cases, the ISP is the origin of the Internet slow down. Routers and servers used to provide the service may be overloaded or experience a technical issue that temporarily slows down the speeds provided by the Internet Service Provider. This is true for high-speed solutions as well as for dialup service providers.

D. Local phone connection
At other times, the origin of the slow Internet service may be the local phone connection. Depending on the number of connections that the local phone company multiplexes on the wires that make up the system, there may simply not be many resources available to establish the connection. This is often the case in rural areas, where there are limited options when it comes to Internet connectivity.

E. Level of Traffic Volume to the Site
One final reason for a slow loading of a web site will have nothing to do with the speed of the connection or the programs running on the hard drive. If the current level of traffic volume to the site is very high, and the server hosting the site cannot handle the traffic, the perception is often that of slow Internet service. However, this is not really a case of a slow Internet connection, but an overwhelmed server. Generally, if the user will simply back off and visit the site at a later time, the site will load much faster on the follow up attempt.

Boosting the speed of University Internet Connection
The internet connection speed is something which is dependent on many factors other than your PC. However, We can always try to optimize the parameters in our hand to get the most of our Net Connection. We have posted new information and resources about making your internet connection faster Lets first start with the operating system. Before you continue, make sure that your PC is clean.
Firstly, I recommend a good browser like Firefox.

Firefox
The following is the features of firefox. It would my basis why I recommend this browser.

----Security & Privacy -----

Instant Web Site ID

Want to be extra sure about a site’s legitimacy before you make a purchase? Click on a site favicon for an instant identity overview. Another click digs deeper: how many times have you visited? Are your passwords saved? Check up on suspicious sites, avoid Web forgeries and make sure a site is what it claims to be.
Private Browsing
Sometimes it’s nice to go undercover. When this feature is enabled, you won’t leave a single browsing fingerprint behind for others to discover. You can slip in and out of private browsing mode quickly, so it’s easy to return to what you were doing before as if nothing ever happened (you can also browse privately all the time).

Forget This Site
Having second thoughts about having visited a certain Web site? With this feature, you can remove every trace of that site from your browser—no questions asked!

Anti-Malware

Firefox protects you from viruses, worms, trojan horses and spyware. If you accidentally access an attack site, it will warn you away from the site and tell you why it isn’t safe to use. Firefox checks every part of a Web page before loading it to make sure nothing harmful is sneaking in the back door.

Parental Controls

Enforce parental control settings you’ve entered on Vista—stop unwanted downloads and more.

Clear Recent History

Clear all your private data or just your activity over the past few hours with a few quick clicks. You have full control over what to delete, and then your info is gone for good—on your own computer or the one at your local library. It’s that easy.

Anti-Virus Software

Firefox integrates elegantly with your antivirus software. When you download a file, your computer’s antivirus program automatically checks it to protect you against viruses and other malware, which could otherwise attack your computer.
Pop-Up Blocker

Banish pop-ups (and pop-under windows) from your surfing experience once and for all. Or, find a happy medium—choose to view blocked pop-ups or create an “allow” list of sites whose pop-ups you’re okay with seeing.

Automated Update

Our open-source security strategy lets us find—and fix—security issues in record time, making Firefox the safest way to surf. Install upgrades when you receive automatic notification or wait until you’re ready.

Customized Security Settings

Control the level of scrutiny you’d like Firefox to give a site and enter exceptions—sites that don’t need the third degree. Customize settings for passwords, cookies, loading images and installing add-ons for a fully empowered Web experience.

Add-ons

Firefox looks for a secure connection before installing or updating add-ons, 3rd party software, and Personas.

Password Manager

We’ve seamlessly integrated this feature into your surfing experience. Choose to “remember” site passwords without intrusive pop-ups. Now you’ll see the “remember password” notification integrated into your view at the top of the site page.

Anti-Phishing

Shop and do business safely on the Internet. Firefox gets a fresh update of web forgery sites 48 times in a day, so if you try to visit a fraudulent site that’s pretending to be a site you trust (like your bank), a browser message—big as life—will stop you.

------Performance------

Smaller Memory Footprint
Short and sweet, Firefox uses less of your computer’s memory while it’s running.

Memory Management

With a new management function in place, Firefox keeps memory usage under control. The XPCOM cycle collector continuously cleans up unused memory. Plus, hundreds of memory leaks have been remedied.
Faster Page Load
A redesigned page rendering and layout engine means you see Web pages faster—and in the way they were meant to be seen.

Color Profile Support

The colors in your online photo albums will be sharper and more brilliant than ever, thanks to improvements to our graphics engine
Super Speed

Lot of other resources for improving our University internet connection speed (before we apply it to our computer system, first me must check it performance)

Fasten your seatbelt: Firefox 3.5 includes the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which gives the browser dramatically better performance than ever before. Firefox has always been fast, but this is the fastest Firefox ever (more than twice as fast as Firefox 3, and ten times as fast as Firefox 2), meaning Web applications like email, photo sites, online word processors and more will feel snappier and more responsive.
Another decent resource on Internet Accelerators,

Meticulously developed by a professional programming team, these solutions proved to be the only optimization programs available that successfully accelerated and stabilized the Windows XP and Vista operating systems. The links below go to free scans which will show you (truthfully) if your PC can benefit from the acceleration routines or registry cleaning.

SpeedUpMyPC 2010 : Accelerates your PC & Internet Speed

SpeedUpMyPC works with Windows VISTA, XP, and all Internet connections including Broadband, DSL, and ANY Dial-Up connection. Accelerates and boosts your Internet, program startups, shutdowns, and overall processing speed to the fastest levels possible through advanced programming routines. You will experience extreme speed increases to everything you do on your PC - this can save you hours of frustration every single day. While the speed increases will vary for each individual PC, you will certainly notice the quick and crisp web page delivery and program startups.

RegistryBooster 2010 : FREE Registry Scan - Cleans, Repairs, and Defrags your Registry

RegistryBooster will perform a complete repair of your PC system in minutes. Cleans and defrags your Windows Registry to stabilize performance. Puts and end to the errors that over time will create slow and sluggish computer performance. Better than a Windows re-install to repair your PC - without the loss of all of your installed software, games, data, pics, website bookmarks, start page, email settings, login passwords, and customized settings.

NetSuperSonic is a software application designed to optimize your internet connection in relation to your Windows Operating System. This program, by tweaking the Windows 95/98/Me/NT or 2000 Registry, can greatly enhance your bandwidth.

Okoker Internet Accelerator is a internet toolkit, which accelerates your connection speed.You can easily optimize your windows settings and can get a very fast internet or TCP/IP connection.

Network Mechanic optimizes your Internet connection up to 300%, providing faster download speeds and fewer delays while browsing. It acts as an accelerator for your network connection. It works with MSN, AOL, and all private ISP hosts.

These program uses a new way to make the internet faster it's made a protocol to make the internet faster and it not just make surfing the internet faster but also other programs like torrent and file sharing programs too.
references:

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features/#performance
http://www.windowsreference.com/firefox/tweak-to-speed-up-firefox-for-faster-internet-browsing-1/
http://www.trap17.com/index.php/Internet-Faster-500-Times-33_t39199.html
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features/#performancehttp://www.daniweb.com/forums/forum64.html?gclid=CK3__tKwuZ0CFR4UagodMyD4jQ
http://www.softplatz.net/software/optimize-your-internet-connection/

Outsource or In-house

2009-09-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

Outsource or In-house

I really had the hard time to decide if I should go on outsource or in-house the information systems functions of the school. So I had to search on-line to help me out with topic.
Before anything else let’s me first define in-source and out-source. And enumerate the advantages and disadvantages to help me to come to a decision.

What is Outsourcing?

Outsourcing began in the early eighties when organizations started delegating their non-core functions to an external organization that was specialized in providing a particular service, function or product. In outsourcing, the external organization would take on the management of the outsourced function.

Most organizations choose outsourcing because outsourcing offers a lot of advantages. When organizations outsource to countries like India, they benefit from lower costs and high-quality services. Moreover organizations can concentrate more on core functions once they outsource their non-core functions. Outsourcing can also help organizations make better use of their resources, time and infrastructure.
In outsourcing, the outsourcer and the outsourcing partner have a greater relationship when compared to the relationship between a buyer and a seller. In outsourcing, the outsourcer trusts the outsourcing partner with vital information. Outsourcing is no longer confined to the outsourcing of IT services. Outsourcers in the US and UK now outsource financial services, engineering services, creative services, data entry services and much more.
Most organizations are opting to outsource because outsourcing enables organizations to access intellectual capital, focus on core competencies, shorten the delivery cycle time and reduce costs significantly. Organizations feel outsourcing is an effective business strategy to help improve their business.

Outsourcing is an arrangement by which one organization provides a service or services for another organization that chooses not to perform them in-house.

What is Insourcing?

The opposite of outsourcing can be defined as insourcing. When an organization delegates its work to another entity, which is internal yet not a part of the organization, it is termed as insourcing. The internal entity will usually have a specialized team who will be proficient in the providing the required services. Organizations sometimes opt for insourcing because it enables them to maintain a better control of what they outsource. Insourcing has also come to be defined as transferring work from one organization to another organization which is located within the same country. Insourcing can also mean an organization building a new business centre or facility which would specialize in a particular service or product.
Organizations involved in production usually opt for insourcing in order to cut down the cost of labor and taxes amongst others. The trend towards insourcing has increased since the year 2006. Organizations who have been dissatisfied with outsourcing have moved towards insourcing. Some organizations feel that they can have better customer support and better control over the work outsourced by insourcing their work rather than outsourcing it. According to recent studies, there is more wok insourced than outsourced in the U.S and U.K. These countries are currently the largest outsourcers in the world. The U.S and U.K outsource and insource work equally.

To make it shot, insourcing is a common approach using the professional expertise within an organization to develop and maintain the organization's information technology systems.

Below are the benefits we might gain from outsourcing:

• Outsourcing your non-core activities will give you more time to concentrate on your core business processes
• Offshoring can give you access to professional, expert and high-quality services
• With outsourcing your organization can experience increased efficiency and productivity in non-core business processes
• Outsourcing can help you streamline your business operations
• Offshore outsourcing can help you save on time, effort, manpower, operating costs and training costs amongst others
• Outsourcing can make your organization more flexible to change
• You can experience an increased control of your business with outsourcing
• Your organization can save on investing in the latest technology, software and infrastructure as your outsourcing partner would be investing in these
• Outsourcing can give you assurance that your business processes are being carried out efficiently, proficiently and within a fast turnaround time
• Offshoring can help your organization save on capital expenditures
• By outsourcing, your company can save on management problems as your offshore partner will be managing the team who does your work
• By outsourcing, you can cater to the new and challenging demands of your customers
• Outsourcing can help your organization to free up its cash flow
• Sharing your business risks is possible with outsourcing
• Outsourcing can give your business a competitive advantage as you will be able to increase productivity in all the areas of your business
• Outsourcing can help your organization to cut is operational costs to more than half.
In addition to the above mentioned benefits on outsourcing, I have here some to take on consideration:
• Ability to focus on core competencies. By handing over noncore activities to a trusted third party, a company can concentrate on activities central to its value proposition and increase its competitive positioning.
• Faster and higher-quality service and improved efficiency. Vendors’ economies of scale, combined with service level guarantees, translate into increased operational efficiency for a company. For
example, outsourcing vendors typically offer service level agreements (SLAs) for availability of at least 99.9%, and many include financial penalties for downtime. Along with higher-quality service, many
outsourcers claim to reduce cost of management by up to 25%.
• Access to new skills and technology. Outsourcing gives a company access to resources not available internally, such as modern, up-todate technology and skilled human capital.
• Greater flexibility. The flexibility gained through outsourcing helps a company react quickly to changing market conditions, fluctuating demand cycles, and increased competition.
• Staff reallocation. Personnel whose job responsibilities are reduced or eliminated by outsourcing can be reassigned to other, more strategic tasks.
• Lower long-term capital investments. In a typical IS outsourcing contract, the vendor takes ownership of and responsibility for managing all or part of the client’s IS operations or infrastructure, thus eliminating the client’s ongoing investments in computer equipment. The capital funds previously allocated for computer equipment are freed for spending elsewhere.
• Improved predictability of costs. Outsourcing provides a company with predictable yearly costs for the management of all or part of the IS infrastructure.
• Assistance with organizational changes. A third-party IT service firm can help build new infrastructures or merge two existing infrastructures during or shortly after a merger, acquisition, or
joint venture.
• Assistance with globalization. A company looking to move into international markets can rely on a global outsourcer for assistance in broadening infrastructure and operational reach.

The Disadvantages of Outsourcing

• At times, it is more cost-effective to conduct a particular business process, rather than outsourcing it
• While outsourcing services such as payroll processing services and tax preparation services, your outsourcing provider will be able to see your company’s confidential information and hence there is a threat to security and confidentiality in outsourcing
• When you begin to outsource your business processes, you might find it difficult to manage the offshore provider when compared to managing processes within your organization
• Offshoring can create potential redundancies for your organization
• In case, your offshore service provider becomes bankrupt or goes out of business, your organization will have to immediately move your business processes in-house or find another outsourcing provider
• The employees in your organization might not like the idea of you outsourcing your processes and they might express lack of interest or lack of quality at work
• Your outsourcing provider might not be only providing services for your organization. Since your provider might be catering to the needs of several companies, there might be not be complete devotion to you and your company
• By outsourcing, you might forget to cater to the needs of your valuable customers as your focus will be on the business process that is outsourced
• In outsourcing, you may lose your control over the process that is outsourced
• Outsourcing, though cost-effective, might have hidden costs, such as the legal costs incurred while signing a contract between companies. You might also have to spend a lot of time and effort in getting the contract signed
• With outsourcing, your organization might suffer from a lack of customer focus
• There can be several disadvantages in outsourcing, such as, renewing contracts, misunderstanding of the contract, lack of communication, poor quality and delayed services amongst others.

Below are the benefits we might gain from intsourcing:

Low risk is perhaps the primary advantage of insourcing: Direct control over the resources doing the work permits better control over the results. An internal LPM directly coordinates and manages each activity with resources that can be in nearby offices. In this model, the people doing the work also directly coordinate it.

Direct control over the localization resources can produce noticeable cost savings. At one point when employing the total out-sourcing model, we discovered we were paying for as many as six levels of management and coordination on a project—the files, instructions, and other information passed through six other people on the supplier end before reaching the linguist
doing the translation. One can easily understand why messages were so different by the time the worker received them. Direct control of the resources also allows greater flexibility over such factors as resource utilization, staff selection, and labor cost. For example, paying a higher
wage to linguistic resources may result in lower workforce turn-over, higher quality, and a greater ROI (return on investment).

Factors to consider include:

• Reduce recurring costs associated with managing a Help Desk including staffing and training
• Improve service levels and increase professionalism among Help Desk staff
• Realign your staffing as necessary
• Take advantage of existing Help Desk infrastructure and recent call management software implementation
• Predictable monthly service charge for service

• Scalable
• Company retains control
• Company owns technology and data
• Direct knowledge transfer of best practices to your company
Pros
• Scalable
• Company retains control
• Company owns technology and data
• Direct knowledge transfer of best practices to your company
• Allows 2nd Level Support to focus on more difficult technical problems

The Disadvantages of In-housing

A potential major disadvantage is the sheer volume of personnel needed to meet the localization requirement. This model can be perfectly viable when localizing into
just a few languages but becomes less so—if not economically infeasible—when localizing products into many languages.

Factors to consider include:

• Work frequency in each language – in-house personnel must have enough work on a regular
basis to remain cost effective.
• Infrastructure – in-house personnel need offices, computers, telephones, office supplies, and so forth to function properly. The key to success is keeping these resources utilized on value-add activities. Under-utilization means excess capacity that can quickly consume the savings that insourcing provides over out-sourcing.

• Will require significant staff changes
• Must invest time in management of insourcing company
• Investment in technology and process
• Facility and technology must be provided and managed by your company

Cons
• Will require significant staff changes
• Must invest time in management of insourcing company
• Investment in technology and process
• Facility and technology must be provided and managed by your company

What is best for our organization or school?
Here are some tips for us to be able to decide on what to choose: insource or outsource.

• If your organization has a number of non-core processes which are taking plenty of time, effort and resources to perform in-house, it would be wise to outsource these non-core functions. Outsourcing in this case, would help you save on time, effort, manpower and would also aid you in making quicker deliveries to your customers.

• If you require expertise services in areas which do not fall under your core competency, then outsourcing will be a good option as you can get access to expertise services. For reducing costs and making faster deliverables, outsourcing is again a good option.

• If your work involves production, then it would be more ideal for your organization to opt for insourcing, as you can save on transportation costs and exercise a better control over your project.

Hybrid Model

As I had doing my researches with this topic I had discover that we can do three approaches to project resourcing; out-sourcing (using external agencies), insourcing (using internal resources), or a combination of the two, we can called the hybrid model. Intel IT has adopted a hybrid model that combines the advantages of both out-sourcing and in-sourcing. But Intel IT uses this approach for large corporations whose documents require localization. This approach may not applicable to our school as it stated above it is used in large corporation or big organizations or companies. But I just want it to include to this topic.

Hybrid Model

Historically, large corporations often vacillate between total out-sourcing and total in-sourcing. While these shifts may seem appropriate based on changing economic factors, constant switching adds costs and delays the return on the investment each time it occurs. Intel IT has adopted a successful hybrid approach that has helped break this cycle. A hybrid model combines in-sourcing and out-sourcing and is configured to meet the localization project’s specific needs. We constructed the Intel Linguistic Services (ILS) as part of our localization effort. ILS consists of a large, worldwide network of freelance linguists covering over 30 languages. ILS also maintains a few in-house linguists for the core (high demand) languages. Translators, editors, desktop publishers, and so forth populate the freelance base according to language specific needs. Most freelancers reside in the target countries to ensure their work conforms to the latest vocabulary and cultural adaptations. The small number of in-house linguists provides overall direction, consistency, consulting, and advanced expertise in their respective languages.

Advantages

Advantages to this hybrid model include:

• High resource utilization – freelance base works on an as-needed basis, avoiding the possibility of large amounts of excess capacity sitting unused.
• Competitive cost – freelance base is PPV and allows us to directly contact the workforce, saving middle-man costs.
• Managed risk – direct access gives us greater control of the quality and timeliness of our deliverables. We use a simple database to track all of these efforts. Our LPMs use the database to access individual name, language, contact information, quality rating, and other data. For payroll issues, we hire individual freelancers through sponsoring suppliers that handle most of the payroll activities.

Disadvantages

Managing individual assignments for so many workers is certainly more effort for the project manager than under a total out-sourcing model. Internal localization teams are responsible for understanding and handling such factors as individual availability and the no-work holidays of specific countries. This duty requires a more intensive ability and overall discipline to organize and track data than out-sourcing requires. Managing a network of freelancers also requires in depth skills in mass communication and management. At times, style guides, encryption keys, and other kinds of non-project specific information must go out to the entire network. In a large corporate environment, a company has three models for completing its localization projects. Intel IT developed and adopted a hybrid model that combines in-house linguists with a worldwide network of freelance resources. This combination optimizes risk management, resource utilization, and cost savings. Depending on the scope of work and number of target languages, this model may be well suited for implementation at other large companies whose content requires localization.

Conclusion:

There is a big discussion or ponder going on at the moment and people are constantly arguing whether or not it is better to outsource or to insource. Even me I still get confuse with is best and preferable to apply in our school. We can mention a lot of good reasons and bad reasons for both (which I have enumerated above) but at the end of the day what is important stand in our own personal needs. If we have to look on the stated above, the biggest benefit that insourcing has stands in the fact that you get a very close contact with the person you are hiring. And our school has the faculties and staffs that can work it on. This can create a very good working environment but at the same time it does bring in some negative aspects that we have to think about. Unfortunately sometimes we can not find what we are looking for through insourcing. This basically means that what we want done can not be found locally. Such a fact shows us the biggest advantage why outsourcing is preferred in a comparison with insourcing which has a wider set of choices. We are basically moving everything towards a much larger scale. It is not necessary to choose outsourcing over insourcing or vice versa. Our school or organization can outsource and insource at the same time (if we can, if the school can be able to sustain that). By outsourcing and insourcing simultaneously, we can have the best of what both offers and our school can get a competitive advantage. But of course we need to take in consider the resources and budget if we have enough.

References:
http://www.cyfuture.com/pro-and-cons-of-outsourcing.htm
http://www.outsource2india.com/why_india/articles/outsourcing-versus-insourcing.asp
http://www.offshoringtimes.com/Pages/2007/offshore_news1444.html
http://www.webspacestation.com/it-outsourcing-news/articles/outsourcing.html
http://www.answers.com/topic/insourcing
http://dictionary.bnet.com/definition/insourcing.html

http://www.searchenginepanel.com/top-five-advantages-to-in-house-link-building/
http://www.outsource2india.com/why_outsource/articles/benefit_outsourcing.asp

State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 27, 2009

2009-09-14T18:16:00.000-07:00

State of the Nation Address

Investment and Trade

Investment. The investment climate created by the Arroyo Administration’s fiscal consolidation and establishment of strong macroeconomic fundamentals continued to support investment inflows in the country.

In 2001, the institution of the Investments Relations Office (IRO) under the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) developed and improved a coordinated approach to the dissemination of timely and comprehensive economic information for the use of analysts and investors in making investment recommendations and decisions.

Additionally, the Administration’s policy to simplify investment registration procedures, such as the establishment of the National Economic Research and Business Assistance Centers (NERBACs), helped improve investment transactions in the country. From 2007 to May 2009, fifteen (15) NERBACs were established nationwide to facilitate investment promotion in the regions and assist Investment Promotion Units (IPUs). It also enhanced the system of linkages and networking between and among government agencies in tackling investment-related issues and concerns affecting foreign and local investors in the Philippines, among others.
As a crucial component to improve industry competitiveness and reduce cost of doing business, investors’ concerns on modernizing infrastructure facilities in the country were addressed by prioritizing projects in the construction and rehabilitation of toll roads (e.g. Daang Hari-SLEX Link Road Project), expressways, among others.

BOI-PEZA Approved Investments
(Board of Investments-Philippine Economic Zone Authority)

• Investments approved by the Board of Investments-Philippine-Export Zone Authority (BOI-PEZA) grew almost three-fold from PhP182.84 billion in 2001 PhP443.15 billion in 2008. Some of the top investors from 2001 to 2008 include GN Power Ltd. Co., Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd., Globe Telecom, Emerald Energy Corporation, PNOC Petrochemical Development, JG Summit, Smart Communications Inc., Global Business Power Corp., Cebu Air, and Texas Instruments Philippines. The Manufacturing Sector remained to be the leading source of employment opportunities.

• The telecommunications industry gained momentum in 2001 when telecom giants such as Globe Telecom, Smart Communications and Digitel Communications poured in their investments which ventured towards Short Message Service (SMS) or commonly known as text messaging.

• In 2007, Texas Instruments (TI), considered as the world’s biggest mobile chip maker, invested US$1 billion worth of expansion project in the country. Described as one of the single biggest investments in the Philippine’s economic history, this gave signal that the country had found its niche as one of the best investment destinations in Asia.

• The continued expansion of the services sector is largely due to the rising investments in the call/contact centers and business process outsourcing (BPO) particularly in the areas of Software Development, Animation, Medical Transcription, and outsourcing services in Human Resources, Customer Service and Procurement, among others.

• From four (4) call centers operations with 2,400 employees in 2000, the industry remarkably grew in 2008 to 191 call centers in major areas in the country, generating 227,000 in local employment. Top contact centers in the country include Sykes, Convergys, Ambergis, and People Support. Moreover, companies that have set-up internal BPO operations in the country include HSBC, AIG Business Processing Services, Chevron Texaco, Procter and Gamble Asia Pt. Ltd., Shell Services, among others.

• Being significant drivers to growth and employment, the BPO and information technology-enabled services (ITES) sectors were prioritized in the government’s Investment Priorities Plan (IPP). Under the IPP, investors enjoy fiscal incentives such as income-tax holidays, exemption from taxes and duties on spare parts, among others.

The government also provided non-fiscal incentives to ICT investors, which include employment of foreign nationals in supervisory, technical, or advisory positions; simplified customs procedures; and, duty-free importation of consigned equipment.

Reaction:
Through an investment strategy of the government, strengthening and sustaining our global competitiveness is among the priorities of the Arroyo Administration to open more economic opportunities and create more jobs for the benefit of the Filipino People. With this more investors had invested in our country which the country was able to cope with effects of the global crisis.
Many had invested that helps improve the quality of Filipinos lives. We had foreign direct Investment, foreign portfolio Investment, and investments approved by the Board of Investments-Philippine-Export Zone Authority (BOI-PEZA). Investments approved BOI-PEZA, many of the top investors came from the Telecommunication companies with were the source of employment opportunities.

Also, the worlds’ biggest mobile chip maker invested of billion of expansion project in the country which describe as one of the single biggest investment in the Philippine’s economic history. This gave our country a signal that we can be the best investment destination in Asia.

And because of the rising investment in call/contract centers and business process outsourcing, the industry of call centers operations grew remarkably from four number of call centers in 2000 it made 191 in 2008 which gave more opportunities and employment to more Filipinos.

Transportation and Communication Services

Communication Services

The Administration also improved the country’s competitive advantage in information and communications technology (ICT), which resulted to the robust economic activities in the ICT industry with gross revenue of US$17.934 Billion and total employment for 371,965 individuals from 2004 to 2008. Notably, it was during the Arroyo Administration that this significant growth in the ICT industry was realized. (Annexes D and E)

Centers of information technology and business processing outsourcing (IT-BPO) services all around the country have been connected. Aside from Metro Manila and Metro Cebu which have already been considered as “ICT Centers of Excellence”, the Administration has been promoting the top 10 “Next Wave Cities” to be the destinations of ICT industry outside Metro Manila and Metro Cebu:

• Metro Laguna (Sta. Rosa, Calamba, Los Banos, San Pablo)
• Metro Cavite (Dasmarinas, Bacoor, Imus, Cavite City)
• Iloilo City
• Davao City
• Bacolod City
• Pampanga Central (Angeles/Clark, Mabalacat, Dau)
• Bulacan Central (Baliuag, Marilao, Meycauyan)
• Cagayan de Oro City
• Bulacan South (Malolos, Calumpit)
• Lipa City

Policies were implemented promoting systematic and accelerated ICT advancement.

• Removed barriers and allow full competition in the provision of high-speed networks and connectivity.
• Allocated radio frequencies to allow broadband wireless access network.
• Liberalized the telecommunications environment/ industry to allow the entry of more players, ie, the telecommunication operators (TelCos).
• Authorized the retail-pricing for local telephone lines by allowing local exchange carriers to design price packages.

Reaction:

The administration had improved the information and communication technology, it increases the gross revenue and employment to our country. Many policies were implemented that gave advantages to us. One of this was the reduction of cost of local internet connection. If you could remember way back on 2000 you had to pay 30 php per hour in internet café which reduce to hour rate ranges to 5 – 15 php in 2008. It really gives us advantage most especially to us student, because we browse and search in internet most of our assignment, paper works, and researches and many more.

We can say communication services are really improved nowadays. Majority of the Filipinos are now mobile telephone subscribers who are connected to 14,506 cell sites nationwide. We have also 11 international gateway facilities operators who can provide international long distance calls for us to be able to contact our family and love ones outside the country.

Cyber Corridor

The Cyber Corridor, which aims to create an information and technology-based knowledge economy through facilities that enhance interconnectivity and research and development initiatives, traverses all four geographic super regions from Baguio to Cebu to Davao.
The Cyber Corridor is being developed through public and private investments in the areas of ICT, education, and training.
The pilot-testing of a major ICT project, the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) Revenue Watch Dashboard prototype system, was completed in May 2009. This web-enabled revenue monitoring tool aims to provide real time collection figures from the national level down to the Revenue District Office level.

Aside from the priority infrastructure projects in the Cyber Corridor, the Government also pursued other Information and Communication Technology-related projects that supported the development theme of the Cyber Corridor. The Government has established public calling stations, telecenters and community e-centers to address the uneven distribution of fixed telephone lines in the regions.
By 2008, the Administration has installed facilities to areas without communication channels yet, such as 875 telegraph stations for telegraphic transfer and social telegram; digital telephone exchanges in 103 localities; 538 public calling stations which serves people who cannot afford to subscribe telephone services and areas not covered by fixed line facilities; 1,422 Telepono sa Barangay (TSB) stations; and a Regional Government Telephone Service in Cauayan, Isabela.

Reaction:

Cyber Corridor is one of the Administration’s priority projects in which under the super regional development strategy of the Administration. This aimed at linking up the nation’s countryside with its growth centers through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the knowledge economy.

The Administration has been harnessing information and communications technology through the Cyber Corridor to promote e-governance to simplify and expedite transaction of frontline services.

References:

http://www.gov.ph/sona/2006sonatechnicalreport.pdf
http://elitestv.com/pub/2009/07/philippines-reactions-to-the-9th-state-of-the-nation-address

Barriers in Implementation of Information System

2009-09-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Barriers in Implementation of Information System or Information Technology in the Organization

“One of the biggest mistakes you can make in life is to accept
the known and resist the unknown. You should, in fact, do exactly
the opposite. Challenge the known and embrace the unknown.”
Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder Apple Computer, Inc., 1996

In the organization that I had visited and interviewed, most of them mentioned some barriers in implementing to their Information System or technology. And some mentioned risks in having their Information System changed.
Barriers are severe, unexpected and not planned for problems in Business Reengineering projects. Barriers increase the impact of project risk factors. For example increases middle management resistance against the objective of introducing self-directed work teams the political project risk.

Barriers hinder implementation efforts such that without intervention the project falters or may even fail altogether. There are other problems which are not considered barriers, because their impact on the project is not as dramatic. They may present obstacles to overcome on a day-to-day basis. These problems may surface in most other organizational projects as well. Among them are illness of project members, malfunction of computer equipment, etc. These problems are not further considered in this report.

Barriers have to be eliminated, because they take away much needed energy from the project team and the people affected. The energy for and against the barrier is not injected into the project steps and thus is lost to the project`s outcome. It is the author´s experience that endless meetings, and associated frustrations detriment the potential positive results of a Business Reengineering project. Therefore it is highly recommendable not to pitch success factors hard against barriers, but rather to prevent the development of barriers right from the beginning of a project. It is not advisable to perform a Business Reengineering project on high pro and contra energy consumption basis.

If we have to discuss barriers, we may categorize those as hard barriers and soft barriers.

Hard barriers are those, which have to do with things and regulations. Soft barriers are people problems.

Hard barriers can be further broken into Information Technology problems, resource problems and legal obstacles.

Information Technology software and hardware, which are not suited to support a process based organization can evolve as a barrier. This barrier is typical for organizations that want to keep their high investments in hardware and software, hoping that the existing legacy systems will serve the process requirements as well. The Information Technology suppliers on the other hand where overwhelmed by the run for process oriented solution and have only just recently directed their research and product development towards process based Information Technology solutions. A number of vendors though have not been able to protect their investments and faltered.

One typical resource problem is missing space for a work team to get together on a regular basis. Team-members, that are physically separated should have easy access to electronic communication equipment, such as teleconferencing.

On the other hand, soft barriers are people problems. People resist organizational changes. Resistance to Business Reengineering change can be further differentiated into internal individual resistance, internal group resistance and external resistance.

They had also included the risk in implementing IS project to their company. Below are risks they had enumerated:

• Financial Risks
The project does not yield the high Return-of-Investment expected.
• Technical Risks
Business process oriented Information Technology solutions either are not available or not working.
• General Project Risks
The organization is looking for solutions outside its competence or the project team is not performing.
• Functional Risks
The organization is confronted with a reorganization plan, which is not applicable to the kind of business the company is in.
• Political Risks
People confront the project (resistance), or the project gradually loses commitment by upper management

The following areas are suspicious of generating barriers to Business Reengineering implementation success:

1. Project Related Causes

The Business Reengineering project setup may lead to barriers, which have to be dealt with. Project contents and project management can be of such nature, that both hard and soft barriers evolve.

Project contents are represented by project objectives, the selected business processes and the introduction of new Information Technology. The project contents may lead to considerable resistance and hard barriers. The project contents are particularly the source of many barriers, when the haven't been properly and understandably defined.
Project management can be a source of severe barriers, if the road to travel by, remains unclear to the people affected. If confusion reigns, doubt and sometimes fear develops. Doubt and fear lead to failing projects, because people who doubt or fear, do not take action towards attaining the project objectives. Not recognizing people's issues in project management leads to project failure.

2. People Related Causes

People affected by the organizational change are the richest source of potential barriers. This is true for people on all levels in an organization. Managers may resist a change, which jeopardizes their job, workers may fear unemployment by being replaced through a computer system, etc. People's behavior is based on their personality and norms of the groups they belong to.

Some top-managers/owners believe that operative people are the worst resisters, yet this is mostly not the case. Managers often resist change more intensively, because sometimes having sacrificed their lives (and that of their family) to their jobs, they have a lot to loose. Thus, many managers in Business Reengineering situations pay lip service to the change, but behave in old autocratic ways, to not suffer any personal drawbacks from the change. Workers in contrast, mostly want to be told, what is exactly expected from them. They typically do not play with words, and do not engage in micropolitics, as opposed to many managers.

3. Organization Related Causes

The organizational structure may cause barriers by being inflexible towards a drastic change in operations. In particular large bureaucratic organizations tend to wither changes which potentially destroy the existing structure. The embedded culture of the organization is another reservoir for potential barriers, in that culture unconsciously influences the thinking, decisions and actions of people working in a given company. Thus culture may dictate inability to escape the past, and inability to invent the future A number of Business Reengineering efforts derail because the strategic context in which the project was positioned changed significantly - rendering the new process design worthless.
4. Environment Related Causes

The environment of an organization, which is undertaking a Business Reengineering project may yield barriers to implementation success, by withstanding through the means of laws, regulations, and public resistance. The organization's business partners , i.e. vendors and customers, may resist consciously or unconsciously the objectives and contents of a Business Reengineering project the organization undertakes. Lastly the environment may rapidly change in a way, that makes the Business Reengineering project redundant.

I had included here my research of some typical root causes to information technology barriers. It shows the relationships between potential barriers to Business Reengineering implementation success and areas, which hold causes of these barriers. The relationship between barrier and underlying cause are not one on one, but rather several root causes may yield one particular barrier. Vice versa, one root cause may yield several barriers of different nature. We will not cover all relationships between potential barriers and root causes. Using Information Technology barriers and individual resistance as examples, we will explore several root causes. The root cause analysis process presented can easily be applied to other barriers and the root cause domains of individual, groups, organization and environment.

Root Causes to Information Technology Barriers

Information Technology is an important enabler of Business Reengineering. Only through the introduction of Information Technology, innovative business processes become available. Consider the case of a virtual bookstore. Customer related processes would not be possible without using the capabilities of the world-wide-web. On the other hand, Information Technology can has the potential to evolve as a barrier to Business Reengineering implementation. Information Technology barriers represent severe problems with the Information Technology infrastructure (hardware, software and networking). These problems typically emerge in the implementation phase of Business Reengineering projects.

Barrier 1: Selected Software-Solutions are not Process-Oriented

Example Manufact Inc.

1. Situation
Manufact Inc. produces and sells custom plastic injection machines. The company starts a Business Reengineering project. The main objective is to increase customer satisfaction by setting up self-directed work teams. These work teams are responsible for the delivery of plastic injection machines of high quality, low cost and fast delivery speed. The teams are supplied with an application software package meant to help in performing the new processes better than in the past. The chief information officer of the company selected the package, based on recommendations of other manufacturing companies.

2. Barrier
The Team, being responsible for the whole process from customer inquiry to delivery, compares the software functionality with the process steps it has defined. The team finds out that processing an order from start to finish requires more than eighty terminal transactions. Filling out ten different screen templates alone are required for defining a new customer order. Additionally the team finds out that the software cannot be configured to support the whole process they are responsible for. The team concludes that the software must have been developed for a different than a process oriented environment.

Underlying causes can be looked for in the areas of project content, project management, and partner (supplier) responsibility:

Root Cause 1: Unsatisfactory Selection Process

The software selection process may involve errors of project content and project management. Content errors are given, if it had not been properly defined, what criteria the software should adhere to. Among the criteria for process oriented software are workgroup computing and database-integration requirements (Tapscott/Caston, 1993). A typical error in project management was, that the selection process was not properly performed. A proper selection would have required from the vendor to respond to the process related criteria. Instead the company purchased the software based on the recommendation of another company. This company's organization and requirements could have been different.

Root Cause 2: Delivery Problems

Depending on the correctness of the RFP (request for proposal) which the company send to the software supplier, the supplier eager to book a much needed new software order, could have promised software functionality which in reality was not there. The company lost time and money by concentrating on a software not suited to their process needs.

Barrier 2: Users Do not Accept System

Example Media Partners

1. Situation
Media Partners produce print-media clippings. They observe German and Swiss papers and magazines on a daily basis, using key words provided by their customers. The company employs ninety readers that scan the print media, as well as ten clippers, that clip the traced articles with scissors. Forty percent of their income is based on the number of clippings they produce monthly. All clippings are sent to the customers by mail on a daily or weekly basis. All business processes are done manually. Media Partners plan to change that. They plan to introduce Information Technology to support the reading process and replace the manual clipping process through an electronic clipping service. The company expects additional revenue by setting up an externally searchable clipping database.

2. Barrier
After the first training hours with the new Information Technology equipment the readers find that they will be less productive with the computer. They fear their income will decrease. The clippers fear to loose their jobs.

Underlying causes can be looked for in the areas of project content, project management, people, organization and public.

Root Cause 1:Wrong Information Technology Configuration

The Information Technology Configuration can be faulty. For example too large keyboards could hinder the process of fast reading papers and keying in at the same time. The terminal dialogue could be too slow or too cumbersome. The hardware and network processes could be too slow or not be able to handle the workload. The system might not allow all readers to work in parallel with the new system.

Root Cause 2: Not Enough Test-Runs

A completely new computer application system has to be tested thoroughly (Lullies/Bollinger/Weltz, 1990). Volume-tests, performance-tests and availability-tests have too be planned for carefully. It is necessary to test the entire process. It might well be, that the readers are not satisfied, yet other affected personnel are happy with the new system. The overall results are important.

Root Cause 3: Knowledge and Skill Level Too Low

Missing knowledge and skills regarding computers and computer applications might be severe reasons for non-acceptance. In particular older people might be afraid to touch the keyboard since the fear to demonstrate their missing computer skills to the younger ones. It is necessary to take away fear by thoroughly explaining the new system to all those affected. Also ample room should be given for unsupervised training sessions.

Root Cause 4: Resistance

Resistance may develop out of missing knowledge or skills. Some people believe that the introduction of new technology is always accompanied by resistance. This may or may not be true, since new technology is often accompanied by curiosity for the new. Connor/Lake trace people's resistance to a lack of understanding, a missing will to accept the change and missing skills (see root cause 3) or resources to carry out the change (Connor/Lake, 1994).

Root Cause 5: Micropolitics

Micpropolitics describe power-games in an organization. The introduction of a new information technology often changes the complex power structure in an organization (Lullies/Bollinger/Weltz, 1990). This is particularly true for organizations undertaking global Business Reengineering projects, such as Media Partners. Experienced readers may fear to lose the seniority status to younger, more efficient colleagues.

Root Cause 6: Mistrust

If the system is accessible from outside the organization, people within the organization may mistrust the system. Media Partners plan to have her customers to access the clipping database. Errors may immediately be traced back to the individual reader. There is a potential for mistrust.

Barrier 3: Decentralization not attainable

Example Trading Inc.

1. Situation
Trading Inc. plans to replace its centralized information management system by a decentral client/server solution. The objective is to give more responsibilities to their store managers. They are expected to operate as if they were owners of their stores. This is very different from current processes, where store managers receive direct orders and close supervision from Trading Inc. headquarters. For example did the central marketing department decide about local pricing by downloading article prices to the store PC`s. Now it is expected that store managers fix their own local prices and improve profitability at the same time.

2. Barrier
182 stores are switched over to the new decentralized system. It is planned to have the old centralized system in operation as long as the new client/server system is not up and running. During implementation a large number of store managers claim that the new system is not properly thought through. They maintain to having not enough time anymore to pursue their original job of increasing local sales. They express concerns that headquarters puts more pressure on them by assigning more clerical work to the stores. Trading Inc´s top management considers putting a hold to the project.

Underlying causes can be looked for in the areas of project content, people, and culture.

Root Cause 1: Vague Project Goals

The project has not been properly explained to the store managers. They believe to be forced to take additional load on to their daily work-load. Top management did not share the real intentions with the store-managers. These call for more individual freedom for decision-making, more opportunities for personal development, etc. If the store managers knew the real project objectives, they would actively pursue project activities on their part.

Root Cause 2: Missing Discipline

In the past, the store managers were always told what to do. Expect from keeping the store operations moving, keeping the store clean and care about personnel, they had no major decisions to take. The new decentralization concept requires more openness from them, more risk taking, more involvement, more training, and more teaching. Those store managers, who are not accustomed to organizational changes of that nature miss the discipline necessary to make the project a success.

Root Cause 3: Strong Control Culture

The Business Reengineering project requires a new culture within Trading Inc. Away from the strong centralized bureaucracy, with the virtue of efficient decisions and operations towards a more collaborative culture, with the virtue of situational decision making based on local customer care. There is a large difference between both types of culture (Schneider, 1994). The store managers may think that headquarters will not really make the move and will eventually return to law and order thinking and practices. So they may think it is not worth the effort to get too heavily involved in the project. It might even be dangerous for one's own career within the company, once the old control culture will be reestablished.

Some Root Causes of Internal Individual Resistance

The second area we are looking at is individual resistance (of type A) against project contents and project management. Next to Information Technology problems, this area is most often mentioned by practitioners when asked for Business Reengineering Implementation problems. It is also the area of most wrong decisions within a Business Reengineering project. When asked to give a reason for individual resistance, managers responsible for effective Business Reengineering, often act as lay psychologists by reading people´s character as being too rigid or too negative. On the other hand, affected people act the same: „This manager will never be able to change himself". often prevail misunderstandings and prejudices. There is ample room for improvement in changing the views of project teams and people affected in the organization regarding one another.

Firstly, individual resistance can be broadly differentiated into constructive and destructive resistance to Business Reengineering success. Constructive resistance is always positive towards the objectives of the project. Yet there is resistance against the ways and means, and sometimes people´s behavior, who run the project. Destructive resistance is meant to stop the project. Both types of resistance can be overt or covert. Open means, one can hear and see the resistance. Covert means, the resistance is not noticeable from the outside. Definitely dangerous for the success of a Business Reengineering project is covert destructive resistance, particularly in tense implementation situations.

Five Roles of Resisting Behavior

• The Behavior of the Critic

The critic communicates openly and demonstrates constructive behavior towards the project goals. She is not in line with various aspects of the project approach. She adds ideas to the project contents. Critics are valuable individuals for the projects successful outcome. It is important that the project initiator and the project team take the critic into close consideration.

• The Behavior of the Skeptic

The skeptic demonstrates a similar behavior to the critic. She does not tell everybody though. She is doubtful about various aspects of the project content and project management, yet talks only when asked. She is a valuable source of ideas towards the projects outcome.

• The Behavior of the Terrorist

The Terrorist seems to constantly warn everybody regarding a negative outcome of the project. She demonstrates openly her distaste of the project objectives and the way the project is run. Often the terrorist announces her own actions against the project. These should be taken seriously, since in all likelihood the terrorist makes her announcement true (Watzlawik, 1976).

• The Behavior of the Saboteur

The saboteur demonstrates an extremely negative behavior. Communication is overt. The project team has to carefully watch out for saboteurs. Saboteurs should have no chance to covertly destroy the outcome of the Business Reengineering project. Typically only very few people turn out to be saboteurs.

• The Behavior of the Undecided

The undecided does not show clear signals of being covert or overt, constructive or destructive. That makes this behavior dangerous to the projects outcome. When the project turns to the positive side though, the undecided tend to be constructive.

Examples of barrier:

Barrier 1: Constructive Resistance

Both overt and covert constructive resistance can be traced back to the domains of project management, the individual person and the culture of the organization.

Root Cause 1: Project Management Approach

Constructive behavior of affected people is very much based on the way, the project is being managed. If the project team asks for openness and behaves itself in a way that people can communicate without fear, than it may be expected that people freely discuss their thoughts about the projects content.

Root Cause 2: Personalities of People Affected by the Project

Well educated non-destructive personalities, mostly express themselves in ways that truly help a projects outcome. People are often known for their character. They seem to be not easy, yet valuable members of the organization.

Root Cause 3: Former Experiences

Former experiences with organizational projects forms the behavior of people. If the experience is negative, than the behavior towards the new Business Reengineering project may be negative. If the experience was positive, the behavior towards the project is positive. Thus the behavior of new people to the organization may collide with behavior of incumbents. Former success may breed resistance in a way that people believe there is no need for change.

Barrier 2: Destructive Behavior

Both overt and covert destructive resistance can be traced back to the domains of project content, project management, the individual person, the groups, and the structure of the organization, which affects the culture in turn, and the public.

Root Cause 1: Project Objectives

The approach the project team is taking, decides to a large extent about the development of destructive behavior. If the project objectives do not take the people side into consideration, and solely push the project towards technological goals, destructive behavior evolves as a consequence. Psychologically people resist against objectives they do not accept as their own. Therefore it is necessary to align personal goals with the project goals. This is particularly true for those Business Reengineering projects which are set up to downsize the organization.

Root Cause 2: Missing Change Momentum

A Business Reengineering project changes the way a company operates on a daily basis. This change forces everybody affected to change her working style. As long as the working style is considered new, management has to keep pressure, to keep the change momentum up. If this is not the case, there is a tendency to go back to the old style.

Root Cause 3:. Destructive Personality

Managers of Business Reengineering projects explain destructive behavior often with alleged destructive personality. Yet, as psychotherapist Erich Fromm pointed out, while on the one hand destructive behavior is increasing in the world of today, on the other hand, only a minority of people has a destructive personality. He claims it is the society, which for a large part is responsible for destructive actions, people take (Fromm, 1973). Society can allow destructive personalities under the „right" circumstances. Therefore, before a person is accused of having a destructive personality, it should be checked, whether circumstances in the organization support destructive behavior.

Root Cause 4: Group Pressure

Group pressure may yield destructive behavior. Group norms may force the group member to behave destructively, even if as an individual, the group member would have behaved otherwise.

Root Cause 5: Loss of Power over People

People, who lose power over people, may react with destructive actions. For example lost a supervisor power, with the introduction of self-directed work teams. He reacted by covertly sabotaging the team's working results. It is necessary to give the person a new role with a new responsibility, that is not to be identified with a loss of power.

Root Cause 6: Loss of Acceptance

Often the loss of power over people is a loss of status in the world outside the work-place. This feeling of loss by the affected person can influence her decisions and actions in destructive ways.

Conclusion

Business Reengineering is an approach to organizational renewal, that begins with customer needs and then moves to the work itself (Nadler/Shaw/Walton, 1995). As a result it tends to take a reductionist approach, in that proponents of Business Reengineering or IT/IS change may believe, everything else (structure, culture, people's behavior and motivation) will fall in place, once the reengineering has been done. This engineering mentality offers tremendous benefits through crisp and clear cut application of logic to the design of business processes, but also has a down side.

A large majority of Business Reengineering efforts begin with the redesign of processes and focus on the people side (members of the organization and customers likewise) only to the extent needed to ensure that the technical design can be implemented by humans.

The management of barriers, in particular regarding resistant behavior, is a new task that should complement the management of Business Reengineering implementation projects. The traditional approach to the management of barriers within Business Reengineering projects, masterminded by a top-down attitude to „people problems", has to give way to a Change Management oriented approach of recognizing people's valid concerns. Processes, systems, and structures can be adjusted mechanistically, but it`s people who are the critical success factor in making the new business processes work (Burlton, 1995).

Therefore it is necessary to review the people and culture oriented Change Management literature for intervention models, applicable to Business Reengineering projects. In Chapter 6 we will incorporate the findings in a framework of barrier management, that should be added to or replace the linear and technically oriented traditional approaches to Business Reengineering project management.

References:

http://informationr.net/tdw/publ/papers/1989ISstrat.html
http://74.6.146.127/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=Management+Information+System+Project+Management+for+the+Coral+Gables+Fire-Rescue+Department&vm=r&fr=yfp-t-152&fp_ip=PH&u=www.usfa.dhs.gov/pdf/efop/efo27900.PDF&w=management+information+system+project+management+coral+gables+fire+rescue+department&d=C1TQjd29TXFm&icp=1&.intl=us

Green Campus Computing!

2009-07-15T07:30:00.000-07:00

Green Computing

~the study and practice of efficient and eco-friendly computing resources.

URLS:

http://www.uoregon.edu/~recycle/GreenComputing/GreenCompGuide_text.htm
http://green.wikia.com/wiki/Green_Computing
http://www.foursquareinnovations.co.uk/software_development_and_ebusiness_articles/green_computing_tips.html
http://www.uoregon.edu/~recycle/GreenComputing/GreenCompGuide_text.htm
http://www.foursquareinnovations.co.uk/software_development_and_ebusiness_articles/green_computing_tips.html

“Think Green”

Change your computer habits to use less energy and save money.

The growing use of computers has caused a dramatic increase in energy consumption especially in our school. Here in our University every office, colleges, library and laboratory have computers and printers. More and more computers are purchased and put to use, but it’s not just the number of computers that is driving energy consumption upward. The way that we use computers also adds to the increasing energy burden.

As you observe here in our school, computers are continuously running even if it isn’t in use. In our computer laboratory, not all the time all computer units are used but you can see it is on even no one uses it.

Every time we leave computers or lights on we waste electricity. Burning fossil fuels generates most of our electricity and it also emits pollutants, sulfur, and carbon dioxide into the air. These emissions can cause respiratory disease, smog, acid rain and global climate change.

Common Computer Myths:

Myth: It is bad to turn off the computer.
Truth: Computers are now designed to handle 40,000 on/off cycles. This is considerably more cycles than the average user will initiate in the computer’s 5-7 year life span. Turning your computer off helps reduce heat stress and wear on the system.

Myth: Turning your computer off uses more energy than leaving it on.
Truth: The surge of power used by a CPU to boot up is far less than the energy used by the unit when left on for over 3 minutes.

Myth: Screen savers save energy.
Truth: Screen savers were originally designed to help protect the life span of monochrome monitors which are now technologically obsolete. Most screen savers do not save energy unless they actually turn off the screen or, in the case of laptops, turn off the back light.

Myth: Network connections are lost when a PC goes into low-power/sleep mode.
Truth: Newer computers are designed to sleep on networks to prevent loss of data or connection. CPU’s with Wake on LAN (WOL) technology built-in to network cards can be left in sleep mode overnight to wake-up and receive data packets sent to the unit.

Tips and Tricks to Green Computing

Power off your monitor when not in use instead of using screensavers
Enable the standby/sleep mode and power management settings
Power computers down on weekends and evenings
Turn off all devices until you are ready to use them (scanners, speakers, printers)
Don’t power your computer on until you are ready to use it
Select dark backgrounds for your screen display. Do not use bright displays, which consume more power
Review documents and emails onscreen instead of printing them out
Use double sided printing functions

Create a “Green” Machine:

Enable Power Management Features:

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

Select Start> Settings> Control Panel> and Display.
Select the Screen Saver tab. Choose a predominantly black screen saver and set it to wait for 5 minutes
Click on Settings or Power to reach the power management settings
Click the Shut Off Monitor box and set for 10 minutes
Click Ok or Apply.
Set Turn off hard disks for 15 minutes (or less)

· Set System standby for 30 minutes (or less)

· Click Ok or Apply.

The computers we all use day in and day out are huge energy wasters, unless we know how to manage them responsibly. It is simple way that we can help and suggest to apply to our University is by using sleep mode, avoiding screensavers, and remembering to always shut down your computer when you aren’t using it for an extended period of time, are all small actions that have big benefits.

Our school computer users should activate sleep mode on a regular basis. Sleep mode does no damage to the computer; it simply turns off your monitor after a period of inactivity. Pressing a key or clicking the mouse reactivates the monitor. Additionally, screensavers do not save energy, contrary to popular myth. In fact, screensavers can actually use twice as much energy as the computer would use without a screensaver. These screen saver programs also involve system interaction with your CPU that results in additional energy consumption. A blank screen saver is slightly better but even that only reduces monitor energy consumption by a few percent, but still it benefits us. And don’t forget to turn your computer off when you aren’t returning to it soon!

We have common misconception that a computer’s life is shortened by turning it on and off has led some to leave computers on all the time. Others are hesitant to switch their computers on and off a couple times during their workday despite only using this equipment or unit.

Computers generate heat and require additional cooling which adds to energy costs, that’s why most of our computer laboratory has air-condition which contribute for energy consumption. I encourage all computer users to enable their Power Management Features. And lets thanks to the U.S. Environment Protection Agency (EPA), personal computer systems purchased today can be easy on energy. These “Energy Star” computers and monitors can be programmed to automatically “power-down” to a low power state when they are not being used. These efficiency gains can be achieved without any sacrifice in computing performance.

The EPA has estimated that providing computers with “sleep mode” reduces their energy use by 60 to 70 percent – and ultimately could save enough electricity each year to power Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, cut electric bills by $2 billion, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the equivalent of 5 million cars.

How Much Energy Does Your Computer System Use?

A typical desktop PC system is comprised of the computer itself (the CPU or the “box”), a monitor, and printer. Your CPU may require approximately 100 watts of electrical power. Add 50-150 watts for a 15-17 inch monitor, proportionately more for larger monitors. The power requirements of conventional laser printers can be as much as 100 watts or more when printing though much less if idling in a “sleep mode.” Ink jet printers use as little as 12 watts while printing and 5 watts while idling.

We also suggest to do some Campus E-Waste Recycling in our school, in which the University of Oregon done to their campus.

Campus E-Waste Recycling:
Do you have old and unused electronics stored away? Our University should now recycles:
· CPUs, Monitors, and Printers · Floppy Disks and Compact Discs · Toner Cartridges and Ink Jets · Cell Phones, Palm Pilots (PDA’s) · 2-Way Radios/Beepers/Pagers · Audio and Video Tapes

Think about this:

A desktop computer left on for a full year would release 1500 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It would take up to 500 trees to offset that amount of carbon. Just by changing your computing habits, you can save significantly on pollution and energy costs. (According to the Harvard Green Campus Initiative)

A computer left continuously running will emit 2161 pounds of CO2 in a year and cost $45 a year to power at $0.0372 per kWh. A major cause of global warming.

Turning a computer off at night so it runs only 8 hours a day computes to a reduction of 810 kWh per year, or a 67% yearly savings.

Some specific suggestions that we can implement to our school:

Unless you require immediate access to e-mail or other Internet services, break the habit of turning on all your computer equipment as soon as you enter the office each day.
If practical, informally group your computer activities and try to do then during one or two parts of the day, leaving the computer off at other times.
Avoid using the switch on a power strip to turn on all your equipment.
If you use a laser printer, don’t turn your printer on until you are ready to print.
Turn off your entire computer system (CPU, monitor and printer) or at least your monitor and printer when you go to lunch or will be out of office for a meeting or an errand.
For “computer servers” which must be on to serve network functions, explore ways to turn servers off at night.
If monitors are not needed for “servers” to operate, keep server monitors off. If server monitor is needed during the day, at least turn it off at night and weekends.

The energy saving suggestions listed above are appropriate for many campus PC users, some of the suggestions may be inappropriate for certain computer applications or work situations. To come up with the good planning to Green Computing to our University, staffs and all computer users should discuss possible energy conservation measures to determine which steps can be taken without harming productivity.

Our energy conservation program will not work without everybody’s help. Let’s all be an energy educator and gently remind our classmates and instructors to save energy by changing their computer habits.

Other Green Computing Practices that can be adopt to our School:

You can take a giant step toward environmentally responsible or “green” computing by conserving energy with your computer. But green computing involves other important steps as well. These pertain to paper use, toner cartridges, disposal of old computer equipment and purchasing decisions when considering new computer equipment.

Reducing Paper Waste
Rather than creating a paperless office, computer use has vastly increased paper consumption and paper waste. Here are some suggestions for reducing waste:

Print as little as possible.

Review and modify documents on the screen and use print preview. Minimize the number of hard copies and paper drafts you make. Instead of printing, save information to disks.

Recycle waste paper.

You may use the back page of the paper as a draft.

Buy and use recycled paper in your printers and copiers.

From an environmental point of view, the best recycled paper is 100 percent post consumer recycled content.

Save e-mail whenever possible and avoid needless printing of e-mail messages.
Use e-mail instead of faxes or send faxes directly from your computer to eliminate the need for a hard copy.

When you must fax using hard copies, save paper using a “sticky” fax address note and not a cover sheet.

On larger documents, use smaller font sizes (consistent with readability) to save paper.
If your printer prints a test page whenever it is turned on, disable this unnecessary feature.
Before recycling paper, which has print on only one side, set it aside for use as scrap paper or in printing drafts.
When documents are printed or copied, use double-sided printing and copying. If possible, use the multiple pages per sheet option on printer properties.
When general information-type documents must be shared within an office, try circulating them instead of making an individual copy for each person. This can also be done easily by e-mail.

Above this tips and practices can be adopt to in our school. We are not focus on how we save energy but also in paper waste. All colleges use printers for printing purposes. And we all know some of the staffs irresponsibly use paper when doing printing which causes in paper wastages. I think we should implement this, it really benefits us.

We as a student, with this information stated above and our own little way to save the environment is in our hands. Lets work together to save mother earth!

2010 Automated Election

2009-07-10T01:28:00.000-07:00

AUTOMATION ON 2010?

Philippine Election 2010 Computerization is one of the subject that has been discussed today. And as read articled and search the I had knew that the COMELEC has received 7 proposal from different companies with their technical and commercial offer. And now the question that I have in mind is, are we Filipinos ready for the Philippine Election 2010 Computerization?, Some may say “Yes, we can.” and some may argue that we cannot do it. But I believe that we have to make it on a level by level approach. As an example the COMELEC should implement it first with Luzon or either NCR, just to make trial for this kind of system. I don’t think it will be easy to make it in the whole country with in the remaining time which is less than a year of preparation. I know that there are no such perfect program that cannot be hacked (we, as an IT student should already knew that.). As of this time it is still impossible to have a perfect system. But at least they can make the system with high security that it will be impossible for a hacker to do it on a specified time. For my opinion, the government should try to do the automation and be automated. We are already in the computer stage; let’s make use of the technology for our benefits. I would prefer to have a computerized election and counting rather than having a manual counting that will take weeks just to know the winner. The implementation of the automated polls in 2010 will definitely make the election faster, easier and more accurate, if it done properly. However, we have yet to prove its effectiveness and efficiency upon its implementation. Thus, we need to consider some points. First, it must be implemented with safeguards against anomalies. Second is the accessibility of the technology to all. Third, the process of submission and retrieval of data must be confidential and confined to the proper officials who will cast the votes. I may support for any type of poll automation as long as it would reduce fraud and speed up the election. Also we might prevent the manipulation of the votes. If you just think there is always a possibility of fraud in any whichever system they prefer to use, either in manual or automated elections in 2010. With automation, we will drastically minimize the impact of human intervention in the process. And the automation will definitely speed up the electoral process. Election in the precinct level counting done within an hour, at the local level are expected to come out within a day and those at the national level would be known in about two days only. The government had already spent money for this automation project. The COMELEC has asked for Php 11.3 billion for the cost of funding this project. But how can we make this system easy to use. Many countries had gone with this kind of election system and they experience some problems implementing this. In Florida they had designed a voting machine which led to 13%not casting their vote for their desired representative. The touch-screen interface was inconsistent, leading to confusion and a phenomenon known as “banner blindness” (def. The tendency of web visitors to ignore banner ads, even when banners contain information visitors are actively seeking.). In Finland, the lack of clear instructions and once again, a poorly designed process led to 232 voters (out of 12,234) not finishing the voting process. These voters failed to notice that they had to “validate” their votes after making their picks. These numbers may not seem significant. But if you’re running a nationwide election, with millions of votes to process, these errors will increase in scale. Imagine the situation here in the Philippines, as election sore losers and naysayers have yet another reason to keep the new officials from simply getting down to business. Although, we automate the elections it does not mean all problems on manual system will go away. However, if we look at the experience of the United States and other countries who automated their elections, the old problem still persists and new problem crop up. An election watchdog has urged the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to conduct an audit of the results of the August 11 poll in the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), which is the first to be automated in the history of the COMELEC. They said the use of optical mark readers (OMR) and direct recording electronic (DRE) voting machines in the ARMM election does not guarantee an error-free electoral exercise. Errors in automated elections systems : Machine problems cited in the EIRS database include uninitialized machines, uncounted/lost votes, candidates/choices reverses, contests not counted, wrong winner comes out, voting more than once, votes exceeding total number of voters, negative votes and unauthorized software replacement. Also software errors, hardware errors, environmental stresses, human errors, poor/flawed design and even malicious tampering could account for the persistence of errors in automated elections systems. • Uninitialized machines - meant voting machines failed to produce "zero count" printouts when the polling places opened. This is the electronic equivalent of ballot boxes stuffed with ballots even before the voting has started • Uncounted/lost votes - votes were simply "lost" or uncounted while in some cases, whole contests were not being counted. To minimize errors in the actual count, vendors (such as Smartmatic-SAHI) should use technology to enhance the transparency of the counting process by printing hard copies of the election returns. Precinct results should be posted on the Internet while maintaining the public count at the precinct level. COMELEC should consider using double-entry accounting methods for election tallies, which is usually used by businesses to balance its books. He said using double-entry accounting methods during elections would be more expensive and time-consuming but would also allow post-election auditing and help authorities detect canvassing fraud more easily. Automation will minimize problems usually encountered during elections, it does not guarantee a fraud-free election. More than a technological problem, election fraud is really a social problem and therefore calls for social solutions, supported by technological means. The only effective social solution to fraud in elections is eternal vigilance and punishment for the cheats. I really up to us if this coming automated election would work. We also need to cooperate for us to secure our votes are counted!

http://www.ask.com/bar?q=automation+of+election+in+philippnes&page=1&qsrc=0&ab=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Ftechnogra.ph%2F20090303%2Fsections%2Feditorial%2Fhow-the-philippines-can-in-lead-election-automation%2F
http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/banner_blindness/

COMDDAP 2009

2009-07-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

COMDDAP Davao
creating IT… growing IT… winning IT…
July 2-4, 2009

COMDDAP Davao held at Apo View Hotel. This said event promotes new technology in the market. Also, they had sessions that help IT people, web developer etc. gain new ideas and knowledge in their fields. I had attended 3 of their sessions or seminars; HP Thin Client, Windows Server 2008 and Open Source for Business Application.
I was pretty amaze with this new technology HP (Hewlett Packard) presented, The Thin Clients. In this session, the speaker was Leonard Zapa, the Market Development Manager in Remote Client Solutions Group. Actually he was promoted this HP new contraption, what its functions and how will it benefits the buyer for its purpose. Thin Client is a computing device desktop and a solid state device. It does not have hard drive on it. According to the exhibitor, it is more reliable, stable and last longer compare to the thick desktop we usually have.
With its structure, it is thinner compare to our desk top. It has 8 USB ports, 2 of its port is place inside of it for the purpose to secure USB cannot be detached by accident. What good with this is that you don’t need for anti-virus because once it is detected it automatically shuts downs and reboots and remove viruses.
Below are the benefits that Thin Clients offers:
Enhance Security
Easy Manageability
Environment Friendly
Lower Over-all Cost
Thin Client saves power consumption, 80% lower of your energy expenses. Users can save up to 11watts to 20 watts. It has minimal heat generated which requires less cooling that’s why Thin Client does not have fan inside of it. And because of its thin structure it really saves space.
Here below are the factors to be considered in analyzing the total cost of ownership in which Mr. Zapa mentioned:

Hard ware cost
Power consumption
Heat dissipate
Space saving
You really find this pretty amazing because of the features it offers.

Next session that I had attended was the Windows Server 2008. The exhibitor of this seminar was Lee L. Gorospe, a Technical Trainer of EDUPRO Inc. He discussed the following area in Windows Server 2008:
Active Directory Roles
Active Directory Rights Management Service
Read Only Domain Controller
Hyper V
Network Access Protection
Server Core

AD RMS (Active Directory Rights Management Service) is an information protection technology that works with AD RMS-enabled applications. This is to help safeguard digital information from unauthorized use. AD RMS is used as to restrict access to an organization’s intellectual property, limit the actions users can perform on content of the data or information and limit the risk of content being exposed outside the organization.
The good thing with this AD RMS is that if you want to protect sensitive files on MS Word, MS Excel or in MS Power Point it has features to set the rights to view, change or edit and print a particular file. You can even set its validity period. File can be set its expiration for its protection. Also in e-mails in the MS Outlook, you can restrict it from being sent it to the Internet and from being taken outside of the company especially the confidential e-mails of a company.

RODC (Read Only Domain Controller) is an option for deploying a new Domain Controller. This is recommended for Sites that are lacking IT personnel and security. Also this is the solution for Sites/Office that has no or poor physical server security.

Virtualization (Hyper V) is used to reduce costs, increases hardware utilization, optimizes the infrastructure and Improves server availability. It has the capabilities to bit locker (seamless, secure data encryption), live backup (Volume Shadow Service integration) and support for full or Server Core installations.
NAS (Network Access Protection) is a platform that enforces compliance with health requirements for network access or communication by the use of Internet Protocol security (IPsec). With this security to an unauthorized access would restrict.
Server Core, we need this to reduce the attack and servicing surface area. And it increases reliability and security and servers are optimized by role are easier to manage and maintain. It really benefits us by minimal server installation. This requires less disk space. It also saves money and time and assures more secure servers.

The last session I had attended was the Open Source for Business Application. Ben Aligre, a Project Manager of Spin Web, was the lecturer of this session. In this session we were just few, most of the people were web developer or IT people. He gave a situation to them on how many days would be able to create web site for ANCHOR recipe and how much it would cost for the to make this site. But before they gave their answer, Sir Ben started the discussion. Open Source is an approach to the decision develop, it is no vendor lock in the source is open and free to use. It is license software that is free for distribution and access to the source. I was confused the difference by the Free Software to Open Source, but one of my friends who had already enrolled the subject of FOS or Free Open Source explained it. According to her, there was confusion with the word of “free”. Because when you heard the “free software” they find it as cheap, worthless and useless. And that’s why they change it to Open Source. There are softwares that are non-proprietary or do not need license. These softwares are Lime wire, Transmission, Ubuntu, Open Office, Mozilla Fire fox, Thunder Bird, Pidgin, Gimshop, VLC and many more. After the discussion, they had talked the situation; many had answered 30 days or more but for Sir Aligre and company assumed that they can make it within 15 days with less expenses. It because no need for you to purchase software instead you just have to use open source software.