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Chapter 11 1.

SAUCEY FNU

Planning is a useless endeavor because developments in e-business and e-commerce and in the political, economic, and societal environments are moving too quickly nowadays. Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why? I personally do not agree that planning is a useless enterprise. Some of the benefits of planning are listed below to support my argument on why planning is important. Planning is important to an organization for several reasons. It provides a framework for making decisions by establishing goals, objectives, and strategies. It is oriented toward the future and involves an awareness of how today's decisions will affect tomorrow's opportunities. Planning is essential for achieving both shortand long-run organizational goals, and successful managers are continuously planning. Planning makes optimum utilization of all available resources. It helps to reduce wastage of important resources and avoids their duplication. It aims to give highest returns at the lowest possible cost. Planning thus increases the overall efficiency. Planning helps to forecast business-related risks and facilitates proper coordination. It also helps to take the necessary precautions to avoid these risks. Planning means an organisation will head in right direction. The prime reason for companies to employ into a planning development is that they develop a plan for their organization that formally expressive the actions that they believe are necessary in order to achieve their goals. A working plan becomes the action statement. Plans lead to actions, actions produce results, and part of planning is learning from the results in order to make modifications and adjust if it does not generate the required results. Therefore, planning overall helps to: Increases efficiency Keeps good control Reduces business-related risks Helps to achieve objectives Facilitates proper coordination Motivates the personnel Aids in organizing Encourages creativity and innovation Gives right direction Helps in decision making

2. Planning and budgeting processes are notorious for their rigidity and irrelevance to management action. How can planning be made relevant to the challenges facing a business? Planning and budgeting doesnt have to be measured as processes that are inflexible and irrelevant to management action. As changes happen in the internal and external environments, modifications must be made to any organizational plan and budgetary process. The idea of planning is to extend a formal proposal to ensure that all parties know what the mission of the company is. A budget can be useful in setting standards of performance, motivating board and staff members, and providing a tool to measure results fulfilling the organization's mission is the main goal, and budgeting makes it possible. As software and hardware needs become more urbane, yearly budgeting is a must. Budgeting for technology requires organizations to realize that since computers must be replaced essentially every three years, it makes sense to budget replacing one third of the computers each year. Unless planning ahead and include the costs of technology changes in the budget, it can be seen that organization going without the benefits of technology or expending significant amounts of money in order to upgrade their technology. The components of an organizational planning process consists of: Team building, modelling, and consensus. Evaluating what an organization has achieved and the resources it has acquired. Analyzing their business, economic, political, and societal environment Anticipating and evaluating the impact of future developments Building a shared vision and deciding on what goals they want to achieve Deciding what actions to take to achieve their goals.

3. Refer to the Real World Case on IT/Business Alignment in the chapter. Companies where IT is an important part of their product offerings presumably also have a sales force that is well versed in technology. Why is it then necessary to take the CIO along on customer visits? Discuss. If the sales force is not well versed with its IT innovation technology; then the products that they offer will difficult to deliver to its customers. IT has scheme along those businesses adapting to its technologies to contain then in the technology thrust environment. CIO.com provides an excellent source of current articles about transformational IT and a variety of IT management issues, initiatives, successes, and failures. The overhaul included: Aligning IT with overall strategy Agile project management Incorporating Web 2.0 technologies Improved governance Improved information sharing Improved collaboration Challenges included: The need for absolute security Overcoming organizational culture Lack of user sophistication (at least 5 years behind corporate counterparts) Keys to success: Top management support (Gen. Hayden) Direct involvement from each directorate CIO's authority to make decisions when no consensus exists Close contact between intelligence analysts and developers A resilient IT staff accustomed to change The results have included: Reducing information silos (enabling greater sharing) Cost savings by virtualizing over 1,000 servers. Increased success rate in delivering applications

CIOs can ensure that their organization meets expectations by providing a single location for business users to submit all service requests, and by prioritizing those requests based on pre-defined business priorities. Without a single point-of-service request, it is difficult to manage resources to meet agreed-upon service levels.

4. What planning methods would you use to develop business/ IT strategies and applications for your own business? Explain your choices.

I would use the Competitive forces model for planning of my own business. The reasons for choosing the above stated model is that: competitors, customers, suppliers, new entrants, and substitutes.

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Porters_five_forces.PNG)

Porters Competitive forces model will help to overcome traditional competitors and any new entrant in the same business field. It also helps to maintain the old customers and as well as attract newer ones. This competitive force strategy also helps to have a good relationship with the suppliers and thus gaining the overall competitive advantage over the competitors. Existing competitors Widens market, increasing competitors, reducing differences, pressure to compete on price New entrants Reduces barriers to entry (e.g. need for sales force declines), provides technology for driving business processes Substitute products and services Facilitates creation of new products and services Customers bargaining power Bargaining power shifts to customer Suppliers bargaining power Procurement over Internet raises power over suppliers, suppliers can benefit from reduced barriers to entry and elimination of intermediaries Cost Leadership Strategy Becoming a low-cost producer of products and services in the industry or finding ways to help suppliers or customers reduce their costs or increase the costs of competitors. Differentiation Strategy Developing ways to differentiate a firms products and services from those of its competitors or reduce the differentiation advantages of competitors. This strategy may allow a firm to focus its products or services to give it an advantage in particular segments or niches of a market. Innovation Strategy Finding new ways of doing business. This strategy may involve developing unique products and services or entering unique markets or market niches. It may also involve making radical changes to the business processes for producing or distributing products and services that are so different from the way a business

5. What are several e-business and e-commerce strategies and applications that should be developed and implemented by many companies today? Explain your reasoning.

Some of the several e-business and e-commerce strategies and applications that should be developed and implemented by many companies today are: Channel mastery use the Internet as a sales and service channel. This model supplements rather than replaces, the existing physical business offices and call centres. Channel reconfiguration use the Internet as a new channel to directly access customers, make sales, and fulfil orders. This model supplements, rather than replaces, physical distribution and marketing channels. Supply chain innovator use the Internet to streamline the interactions among all parties in the supply chain to improve operating efficiency. Transaction intermediary use the Internet to process purchases. This transaction model includes the end-to-end process of searching, comparing, selecting, and paying online. Infomediary use the Internet to reduce the search cost. Offer the customer a unified process for collecting information necessary to make a large purchase. Self-service innovator use the Internet to provide a comprehensive suite of services that the customers employees can use directly. Self-service affords employees a direct, personalized relationship. Market creator use the Internet to define a new market by identifying a unique customer need. This model requires you to be among the first to market and to remain ahead of competition by continuously innovating. 6. Refer to the Real World Case on Centene, Flowserve, and Shaw Industries in the chapter. Where is the value in the approach taken by Flowserve to reaching consensus on their massive project? Discuss. In the case study, the strategies that made the Centene, Flowserve, and Shaw Industries successful was the building up of team work. The IT department and the high level managers worked together hand in hand to tackle the problems faced to complete the project. Instead of pointing fingers at each other; the IT and the finance team worked together to recover the lost time. Good relationships between IT and business partners, project managers and IT staff, and the project managers and stakeholders keep IT project on track, say IT leaders and project management experts. The project was viewed as a business impact which gave the scope of the project. They also had a mutual trust between them. When the trust is not there then the possible problems in the project wont surface and thus end up into a serious problem later. The managers also played their part by making faster decision for the IT staffs. They also used the agile development together with Scrum and Agile force interactions on a more frequent basis. According to Livingston better collaboration results in better value for the business.

7. How can a company use change management to minimize the resistance and maximize the acceptance of changes in business and technology? Give several examples. Any new way of doing things generates some resistance from the people affected; therefore to overcome this resistance from the affected people, any new change to the working environment needs to be thoroughly discussed with the everyday users. Some of the things that need considerations are: Requires involvement and commitment of top management and a formal process or organizational design. Involves human resource management. It includes activities such as developing innovative ways to measure, motivate, and reward performance. Also included is designing programs to recruit and train employees in the core competencies required in a changing workplace. Involves analyzing and defining all changes facing the organization, and developing programs to reduce the risks and costs, and to maximize the benefits of change. 8. Many companies plan really well, yet few translate strategy into action. Do you think this statement is true? Why or why not? In modern day business and this changing and competitive business strategies; planning in essential for every business and the plan should be in action in order for the business to be successful; therefore I totally disagree with the above statement. Organizations that do not properly plan, document, implement, or control plans through feedback and modification efforts will quickly fall by the wayside. The window of opportunity is smaller today than ever before, and technology advancements close the window very quickly. There is little opportunity for companies to survive in fierce and global competition. 9. Review the real-world examples on user resistance and involvement in the chapter. What else would you recommend to encourage user acceptance in both cases? Explain your recommendations. End user resistance can be minimized through formal technology realization where the end user managers and IT advisors can build up to encourage user acceptance and productive use of reengineered industry processes and new information technologies. Some keys to solving problems of end user resistance include: Proper training and education of End-User of the organisation. The End-Users should have the good relationships with IT staff in terms of communications. The End users should be involved in the development and implementation of new systems. The top management and all other business stakeholders should also be engaged with the implementation of the new system. Direct end user participation in systems development projects before a system is implemented is especially important to reducing the potential for end user resistance. The involvement helps of end users in the new e-business systems allows them gage and judge the new system, which is designed to meet their needs. Change Management: People and processes are a major focus of organizational change management. Change management includes activities such as: Developing innovative ways to measure, motivate, and reward performance. Designing programs to recruit and train employees in the core competencies required in a changing workplace. Analyzing and defining all changes facing the organization, and developing programs to reduce the risks and costs and to maximize the benefits of change. Change experts recommend: Involve as many people as possible in reengineering and other change programs. Make constant change part of the culture. Tell everyone as much as possible about everything as often as possible, preferably in person. Make liberal use of financial incentives and recognition. Work within the company culture, not around it.

10. What major business changes beyond e-business and e-commerce do you think most companies should be planning for in the next 10 years? Explain your choices. I believe that companies should start planning and investing on M-Commerce. Mobile Commerce can be described in simple words as, business transactions that are made via mobile devices. There are a plenty of mobile commerce applications on the industry so far with which we are getting benefited in many ways. Apps that favor mobile banking, location maps, news, mobile shopping, ticketing and mobile file sharing are on the higher demands, as for now. Society will become more concerned with privacy issues, and companies will be processing and storing even larger amounts of data. Information processing needs will increase, and so will the levels of health stress as organizations demand more and more. All of these issues will become major business challenges in the next ten years.

Chapter 12 1. Why has prototyping become a popular way to develop business applications? What are prototypings advantages and disadvantages? Prototyping makes the development process faster and easier for IS specialists and business professionals. Prototyping makes the development process faster and easier, especially for projects where end user requirements are hard to define. Thus, prototyping is sometimes called rapid application design (RAD). Prototyping has also opened up the application development process to end-users because it simplifies and accelerates systems design. These developments are changing the roles of end users and information systems specialists in systems development.
Advantages of Prototyping Model

When prototype is shown to the user, he gets a proper clarity and 'feel' of the functionality of the software and he can suggest changes and modifications. This type of approach of developing the software is used for non-IT-literate people. They usually are not good at specifying their requirements, nor can tell properly about what they expect from the software. When client is not confident about the developer's capabilities, he asks for a small prototype to be built. Based on this model, he judges capabilities of developer. Sometimes it helps to demonstrate the concept to prospective investors to get funding for project. It reduces risk of failure, as potential risks can be identified early and mitigation steps can be taken. Iteration between development team and client provides a very good and conductive environment during project. Time required to complete the project after getting final the SRS reduces, since the developer has a better idea about how he should approach the project. Disadvantages of Prototyping Model: Prototyping is usually done at the cost of the developer. So it should be done using minimal resources. It can be done using Rapid Application Development (RAD) tools. Please note sometimes the start-up cost of building the development team, focused on making prototype, is high. Once we get proper requirements from client after showing prototype model, it may be of no use. That is why; sometimes we refer to the prototype as "Throw-away" prototype. It is a slow process. Too much involvement of client is not always preferred by the developer. Too many changes can disturb the rhythm of the development team. 2. Refer to the Real World Case on Microsoft, SiCortex, and Others in the chapter. Does the ability of virtualization technology to provide developers with multiple combinations of operating systems and applications mean that companies should be required, or expected, to support all possible ones? Discuss. Virtualization is the process of running several virtual machines on a single physical machine. The virtual machines share the resources of one physical computer, and each virtual machine is its own environment. Huge companies--the ones with dozens, even hundreds, of servers--use server virtualization to consolidate the number of machines theyre running while making them work more competently. Few smaller-sized companies have the number of servers needed to make server virtualization a cost-cutting item. Virtualization can help small businesses by enabling them to maintain less equipment, get better use from that equipment, and make backup and recovery more reliable. One server, many operating systems such as Windows and Linux. Once the virtual server configured, it can use the same configuration to set up new virtual servers, which takes just a few minutes. Comparing it with a physical server which takes hours to configure Server virtualization technologies are quickly gaining ground with companies of all sizes.

Disaster recovery- Taking regular snapshots--as often as you want--of your server. Then, you can use any one of those snapshots to return your server to a particular configuration from a particular point in time. Virtualization is the best way for smaller companies to use virtualization to save money and time. A thin client workstation costs just a few hundred dollars, and you can get years of use from one. Minimum install, maximum usage. With a VDI, you only have to deal with the server on your network. So, when you want to install a new program, you install it just once on the server. All of your users then access the application through their thin clients. This is a huge time and money saver over installing new software on many individual PCs. 3. Review the real-world example about Wal-Mart and Others in the chapter. How could these companies prepare for the unexpected changes in demand that brought down their Web sites? Explain your reasoning. Businesses such as Wal-Mart have efficient supply chain management and Customer relationship management, because if there is a change in demand, they are able to quickly communicate with its supplies and fulfill customers need. They need to focus on building and rebuilding supply chains to deliver goods and services to consumers as quickly and inexpensively as possible. 4. What are the three most important factors you would use in evaluating computer hardware? Computer software? Explain why. i. To evaluate the computer hardware we need to look at the following: Performance. Ergonomics. Costs. Connectivity. Reliability Scalability. Compatibility. Software. Technology. Support. ii. And to evaluate the computer software we need to look at the following: Quality. Maintenance. Efficiency. Documentation. Flexibility Hardware. Security. Other factors (see hardware factors Connectivity. above).

5. Assume that in your first week on a new job you are asked to use a type of business software that you have never used before. What kind of user training should your company provide to you before you start? I would expect to go through: User training which should formal training on the specific functions of the software Gaining experience with a knowledgeable employee who is very familiar with the software A scheduled training time allocated over a number of days or weeks Sitting with the senior person and do hands-on job training Working on the software program while under top level supervision The company should provide me with full training on this software before I even begin to work on it. Without the proper training, mistakes will be made, frustration will mount , and both the organization and individual will suffer because of this. Proper end user training is crucial for the success of all parties.

6. Refer to the Real World Case on WestJet, JetBlue, and Others in the chapter. In general, is it a good idea for companies to make major software upgrades public beforehand? What are the advantages and disadvantages of doing so? Do they have an ethical responsibility to tell their customers? Discuss. Yes, it is a good idea for companies to make major software upgrades public beforehand because it will ensure the business has a new and upgrades version of the software, which will ensure and increase productivity and also improve customers needs. Yes, that does have an ethical responsibility to inform their customers on new upgrades, because if something goes wrong in the upgraded software, customers can sue the business. This will also gain competitive advantage over the competitors. On other hand, cost will be one factor, such as upgrading and training cost of users. Also the promised enhancement software should be take place else the customers faith in the company will ease and thus a company might end up losing customers. 7. What is the difference between the parallel, direct, phased, and pilot forms of IS conversion? Which conversion strategy is best? Explain why. Parallel conversion operates both the old and the new system for a limited time Phased conversion changes to the new system in phases, introducing some of the new applications while still using some of the old applications, or converting some departments or locations at a time. Pilot conversion lets one department or location try out the new system, while the rest of the organization continues with the old system for a while. The best conversion strategy depends on the specific application and environment. Parallel conversion poses the least risk, but is also very expensive. 8. Review the Google real-world example in the chapter. How might you change the user interface of Googles search pages and those of some of its other products on the Web? Defend your proposals. According to Shneiderman (1998), designers have five types of interaction styles from which to choose when designing a user interface: command language menu selection form fill-in natural language direct manipulation (graphical/visual) Some of the changes that I recommend to Google search interface are that, the Main Search page should also include menu selection, have columns that show news, current time, latest trends on the internet. 9. Review the real-world example discussing the factors involved in project failure in the chapter. If these are well-known, why would companies choose to ignore them over and over again? What could be the reasons behind such behavior? Companies are ignoring project failure again and again, because a project failure means that the projects goals and objective has not be advise, so once a project failures, companies do not feel like to review that project again, because that have already wasting a look of time, cash, capital and resource on that particulate project before. The principal causes of information system failure are: Insufficient or improper user participation in the systems development process Lack of management support High levels of complexity and risk in the systems development process Poor management of the implementation process. There is a very high failure rate among business process reengineering and enterprise system projects because they require extensive organizational change. Customer relationship management and supply chain management system projects as well as system changes resulting from mergers and acquisitions are also difficult to implement successfully because they usually require fundamental changes to business processes.

10. Pick a business task you would like to computerize. How could you use the steps of the information systems development life cycle as illustrated in Figure 12.3 to help you? Use examples to illustrate your answer. The business task which I want to computerize is to build an online school Library using the Management information system and System development Life Cycle. The library will display books online and a user needs to register by paying monthly subscription in order to access the library books. The payment method can be both manual or through credit cards. First of all relevant information needs to be collected, analysis and business plan to be laid out. The Project plan will focus on how to develop an online system for online library, after wards design, testing, implementations and maintenance needs to be followed.

Reference
1. Jim Riley ,Sunday 23 September, 2012, Porter's Five Forces Model: analysing industry structure. http://www.tutor2u.net/business/strategy/porter_five_forces.htm 2. Michael E. Porter, January 2008, The five competitive forces that shape strategy, Harvard Business Review 79. http://www.asec-sldi.org/dotAsset/292822.pdf 3. Meridith Levinson, August 6, 2007, Centene, Flowserve, and Shaw Industries: Relationships, Collaboration and Project Success,CIO.com. http://ambarwati.dosen.narotama.ac.id/files/2012/04/C14.pdf 4. Monica Kumar, Susan Roberts, Chris Kawalek, October 2010, The Most Complete and Integrated Virtualization: From Desktop to Datacenter, An Oracle White Paper ,Oracle Corporation World Headquarters, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065, U.S.A. http://www.oracle.com/us/technologies/virtualization/virtualization-strategy-wp-183617.pdf 5. Mehdi Khosrow-Pour,2005, System Conversion: Teaching verses Reality, Idea group Inc, 701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200, Hershey PA 17033, USA. http://www.irma-international.org/viewtitle/32550/ 6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Porters_five_forces.PNG