Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Chapter 10 Blog Post - Section 03

For the Chapter 10 blog post, read the Interactive Session - Organizations, Twitter Searches for a Business Model, on pages 385-386. Then, in a detailed post, answer case study questions 1-4.

1. Twitter's business model looks pretty solid. They get around 60,000 tweets an hour, which equals almost 1,500,000 tweets a day. Due to their success, Twitter can continue to be a reliable source of information and socialization across the world.

2. Twitter's revenue model would have to be their real-time tweets. Big business such as Amazon and Starbucks use Twitter's tweets to see how many people like a certain product. This helps the companies decide what to market or increase in price.

3. Twitter's most important asset is their free usage. Everybody likes anything that is free because they do not lose anything to get it, like money. The main reason so many people use Twitter is because they can. That is the benefit if freedom.

4. People like popular things. It is pretty much a universal law. If you hear someone say something is cool, you become curious as to whether they are telling the truth or not, especially if you do not have any prior knowledge to the activity. Twitter's free usage allows you to try it out and make your own opinion on it. If you do turn out to enjoy Twitter, you will tell another nonbeliever and the cycle will just continue on.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Chapter 9 Blog - Section 03

For the Chapter 9 blog, read the interactive session on pages 357-358, Enterprise Applications Move to the Cloud. In a detailed response, answer the case study questions 1-3 on page 359.

1. The companies most likely to adopt cloud-based CRM and ERP software services are small business. This is because they lack the financial resources to maintain their own CRM or ERP applications on there own. Large-scale companies should not use cloud-base software in the chance that rival companies might stubble upon their data while it is being rerouted.

2. An advantage of using cloud-based enterprise applications is having an easy way to deliver information. A disadvantage, however, is that your data is not always available when you need it. Companies cannot always guarantee their data will be available when needed.

3. All companies and businesses need to be addresses the pros and cons of using CRM or ERP systems over cloud-based version.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Chapter 8 Blog Post - Section 03

For the Chapter 8 blog post, read the Interactive session on pages 321-322, How Secure is the Cloud. In a detailed response, answer questions 1-4 on page 322.

1. It is almost impossible to track unauthorized activity when using cloud computing. Another problem is that it is distributed all over the world. Cloud computing does not run 24/7, therefore some companies are denied access to important data and applications.

2. First to blame for cloud computing problems would be the electric companies. Due to power outages across the world, many people could not access their sites for business or personal information. Even the applicants have too many contracts that indirectly limit a customers data usage.

3. Cloud computing is not secure at all. It uses data centers across the world to accomplish work efficiently. The only problem is that the original customers does not know who is in possession of their data or even which country or continent that data is currently in.

4. I would first like to know where my data could be recovered from if I ever needed to do so. I would have to do research on that location before trusting them with sensetive data.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Chapter 7 Blog Post - Section 03

For this blog post, read the Interactive Session on page 266, Monitoring Employees on Networks: Unethical or Good Business?, and answer questions 1-3. Remember to give a detailed response.

1. Managers should monitor employee e-mail s and Web use to ensure that employees are actually due their jobs. As it says in the article, we lose $650 billion per year due to employee Internet surfing during the business hours. Personal use of the Internet should be done during break hours or after work hours. Truthfully, managers should not have to resort to monitoring their employees email and computers. An employee should be doing anything they could to increase work output, not using their time to update their Facebook status.

2.Employees should have at least two email addresses: one for work business and one for personal business. That way employees do not get distracted by emails for family or friends when they go online to look up important business emails. A good Web use policy would be to have all business computers block sites such as Facebook and Youtube during business hours and/or have a separate room with separate computers for break hours so the employees can do what they want when they are not on the clock.

3.Managers should let their employees know they their computers are being monitored. This ensures that the employees were given a warning about using business hours to check on personal business. The employees will then not be able to use the excuse 'I didn't know'. While monitoring employees computers reveals secrets the employees do not want managers to find out about does not mean the manager gets to keep secrets from the employees. There should not be any secrets in a workplace.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Chapter 6 Blog Post Section 3

For the Chapter 6 blog post, I would like you to read the interactive session Credit Bureau Errors: Big People Problems. Then, in a detailed response, answer questions 1-4 on page 233.

1. Assess the business impact of credit bureaus' data quality problems for the credit bureaus, for lenders, and for individuals.

The data quality problems most credit bureaus experience cause problems for everybody. The credit bureaus themselves are forced to make guesses on the information the receive because the information is inaccurate. Therefore, lenders and individuals who originally requested the data are given denied the data because the bureaus do not have the correct information.

2. Are any ethical issues raised by credit bureaus' data quality problems? Explain your answer.

Credit bureaus are responsible for setting a date on which you must pay back a loan or mortgage. If they input the wrong day, the individual who has to pay is left confused. They would then not pay by the due date.

3. Analyze the management, organization, and technology factors responsible for credit bureaus' data quality problems.

Management and organization go hand in hand. They have to process over 30 million credit reports a day, so some reports will get lost without a doubt. Technology cannot process each credit report fast enough so that technology will skip some report to make up time.

4. What can be done to solve these problems?

Credit bureaus should sent up several different branches by the first letter of the last name or something similar.