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The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley is a film based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger. The film was narrated by Steve Wozniak, co-developer of the Apple computer. The movie took off with Steve Jobs talking in a melodramatic way to the audience, it seems but as the angle of the scene shifts, it was shown that he was actually talking to a director and that they were currently in the middle of shooting a commercial which is for the Apple Computer.
The scene then changes showing Steve Jobs talking about some sort of alliance formed between Apple Computer and Microsoft with Bill Gates in the screen (details of this scene was showed later on in the film). Then the film featured a flashback on the younger days of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak where they are shown to be caught up in a riot between students and police officers and running in the opposite direction of the tide of people.
The movie then proceeds to narrate the events that led to the development of the first Apple computer. The film also features the nerd character of Bill Gates who was then a nobody and even got ignored by Steve Jobs in a computer expo. The story then narrates how competition flared between the two leading companies and how they strived to outwit each other and finally, concluding in the scene where Steve Jobs and Bill Gates announced that they are good together.
In my opinion the real protagonist of the story was Steve Jobs not only because he got featured more in the film but also I admire his determination to uplift the name of Apple. Sure, he got some attitude problem going on but he did become successful, right? He also had flair in talking people into something but you really would not want to cross him when he’s angry or everything will just come exploding. The character of Bill Gates was quite hard to understand and I just kept seeing him as that nerdy kid who is nuts about computers.
The movie Pirates of Silicon Valley is a film based on the book Fire in the Valley: The Making of the Personal Computer by Paul Freiberger. The film was narrated by Steve Wozniak, co-developer of the Apple computer. The movie took off with Steve Jobs talking in a melodramatic way to the audience, it seems but as the angle of the scene shifts, it was shown that he was actually talking to a director and that they were currently in the middle of shooting a commercial which is for the Apple Computer.
The scene then changes showing Steve Jobs talking about some sort of alliance formed between Apple Computer and Microsoft with Bill Gates in the screen (details of this scene was showed later on in the film).
Then the film featured a flashback on the younger days of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak where they are shown to be caught up in a riot between students and police officers and running in the opposite direction of the tide of people. The movie then proceeds to narrate the events that led to the development of the first Apple computer. The film also features the nerd character of Bill Gates who was then a nobody and even got ignored by Steve Jobs in a computer expo.
The story then narrates how competition flared between the two leading companies and how they strived to outwit each other and finally, concluding in the scene where Steve Jobs and Bill Gates announced that they are good together.
In my opinion the real protagonist of the story was Steve Jobs not only because he got featured more in the film but also I admire his determination to uplift the name of Apple. Sure, he got some attitude problem going on but he did become successful, right? He also had flair in talking people into something but you really would not want to cross him when he’s angry or everything will just come exploding. The character of Bill Gates was quite hard to understand and I just kept seeing him as that nerdy kid who is nuts about computers.
Also tried to put everyone down who are in the same business even though Microsoft at first was an underdog. Still, he survived and also made Microsoft as a threatening counterpart to Apple.
Moreover, the movie highlighted on how Apple grabbed the idea of the Graphic User Interface from Xerox, how Microsoft purchased the first Disk Operating System from an underground programmer, and how Bill Gates developed Windows behind Steve Jobs’ back.
For these reasons, the revolutionaries were depicted by the title movie itself as the Pirates of Silicon Valley. Through this, they become the two richest men in the world.
What was really amazing about the film was that the two contenders actually worked together until Steve Jobs realized that Bill Gates developed Windows using the software that Apple had programmed for their computers.
The movie is really interesting for it caters the audience not only the development of the two largest computer companies nowadays but also the dramatic story behind it.
The mastermind of the plot, turned out to be a top secret supercomputer system, called "Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst" referred to as Ariia tasked with gathering intelligence from all over the world. Ariia can control virtually anything electronic. In short, nothing can escape her surveillance. At the beginning of the movie, Ariia recommended aborting a mission due to the difficulty to prove a terrorist’s identity, but the President of the USA ignored the warning and ordered the attack to be carried out anyway. It turned out that the order was a mistake and all killed were civilians. Ariia then acted on her own, decided that the executive branch was a threat to public good and must be eliminated. She called the operation: Guillotine.
Well, I am not going to tell the whole story. You have to watch it yourself. What intrigued me is the title, Eagle Eye. Yes, this supercomputer system did have an eagle’s eye. Nothing electronic can escape her surveillance. She became such great power that was hard to defeat. Yet, her decision was not always right. When she acted on her own, conducted the solution she thought the best for the nation, she only caused destruction and chaos.
I come to know another “Eagle Eye”. Fortunately, this Eagle Eye never fails, nor has false judgment. His decision is always for the best, even when what I see is the contrary. Often times, my little brain just can’t comprehend His wisdom and timing. Technology, how sophisticated it is, may fail, but His guidance and plan always, I really mean ALWAYS, bring goodness to those who really believe and rely on Him and His never ending love. So, whenever you face the storm in your life, always remember that there is an Eagle Eye who watches closely over you, not only watching, the owner of the eye is also providing comfort and peace, the strength you need to overcome the storm.
Well, I am not going to tell the whole story. You have to watch it yourself. What intrigued me is the title, Eagle Eye. Yes, this supercomputer system did have an eagle’s eye. Nothing electronic can escape her surveillance. She became such great power that was hard to defeat. Yet, her decision was not always right. When she acted on her own, conducted the solution she thought the best for the nation, she only caused destruction and chaos.
I come to know another “Eagle Eye”. Fortunately, this Eagle Eye never fails, nor has false judgment. His decision is always for the best, even when what I see is the contrary. Often times, my little brain just can’t comprehend His wisdom and timing. Technology, how sophisticated it is, may fail, but His guidance and plan always, I really mean ALWAYS, bring goodness to those who really believe and rely on Him and His never ending love. So, whenever you face the storm in your life, always remember that there is an Eagle Eye who watches closely over you, not only watching, the owner of the eye is also providing comfort and peace, the strength you need to overcome the storm.
iRobot shows what happens when this sort of thinking is applied in real life and taken to an extreme. The central robot, VIKI , is bound by the three laws. One of these laws is that a robot will not allow harm to come to a human if the robot can do something to stop it. VIKI's analysis concludes that humanity is in imminent danger and there is only one course of action that can save mankind. The danger is mankind's own desire to control themselves. Throughout history mankind has destroyed itself and seems to be on a course for total self destruction. VIKI's solution is to control and dominate mankind "for their own protection". To this end VIKI enables a large robot army to attempt to establish marshal law.
Of course the humans rebel and fight back. And finally, when confronted by the humans VIKI can't understand the problem with her (the computer has a female voice so I'll call her "her") analysis. She can't be reasoned with. As a last resort the humans have to destroy her in order to preserve their own freedom.
The lesson seems pretty clear and illustrates what many critics of the post-modern loose interpretation method have been saying. When there is no grounding in truth then people will naturally gravitate towards control and domination. Removing truth from a society eventually removes freedom and brings oppression. The example from Asimov's robots helps to make this point clear.
The movie is not showing in theaters anymore or I would recommend seeing it on the large screen. It is definitely a good rental. And yes, you can just turn off your brain and enjoy the movie. But then you wouldn't have anything interesting to talk about. :-)
Of course the humans rebel and fight back. And finally, when confronted by the humans VIKI can't understand the problem with her (the computer has a female voice so I'll call her "her") analysis. She can't be reasoned with. As a last resort the humans have to destroy her in order to preserve their own freedom.
The lesson seems pretty clear and illustrates what many critics of the post-modern loose interpretation method have been saying. When there is no grounding in truth then people will naturally gravitate towards control and domination. Removing truth from a society eventually removes freedom and brings oppression. The example from Asimov's robots helps to make this point clear.
The movie is not showing in theaters anymore or I would recommend seeing it on the large screen. It is definitely a good rental. And yes, you can just turn off your brain and enjoy the movie. But then you wouldn't have anything interesting to talk about. :-)
In 2009, Hollywood gave audiences the latest example of the “future police procedural,” Jonathan Mostow’s Surrogates, starring Bruce Willis. Based on the 2005-2006 graphic novels by Robert Venditti, the movie adaptation is an 88-minute actioner packed with both intriguing ideas and insightful social commentary on the direction the human race may be heading. Specifically, the film involves the widespread use of avatars…uh, I mean surrogates.
In the near future (2017), ninety-eight percent of the human population makes use of robotic surrogates on a regular, daily basis. This means that the “real” person sits at home in a “stim chair” while his or her better-looking, virtually-indestructible surrogate engages with the world outside.
It is the perfect surrogate who commutes to work (thus cutting down on car accident fatalities). It is the perfect surrogate who engages in sexual intercourse (thus cutting down on the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases). And it is the perfect surrogate who fights our foreign wars (thus cutting down on military fatalities.) But there's a dark underside to this technology as well, as the movie quickly points out.
Indeed, it’s not a stretch to read the whole surrogate phenomenon/revolution as a comment on two specific components of our contemporary 2009 society. First, the anonymity of life (and work) on the Internet. And second, our society’s increasing and even dangerous obsession with youth, beauty and physical perfection.
On the former front, an obese bald man may have a surrogate out in the real world who is a drop-dead gorgeous blond woman. So when you have sex with her, are you really having sex with her? Or with the obese bald man?
Similarly, when we choose a name or “avatar” on the Internet, it may or may not reflect our true identities (including age, sex, nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs, or even physical appearance). In other words, our Internet and Surrogate personalities may be but vainglorious fiction. In aggressively living this fiction, this fantasy, the film asks, what do we leave behind in the real world?
In the film, surrogates indeed offer human beings a chance to build an entirely new identity, one outside the constraints of our biological blueprint. In one sense, this is extremely freeing and empowering: we can literally be anybody online (or in Surrogates, in the outside world). Interestingly, the film notes that racial discrimination has diminished in the world of surrogate robots. This is because you "choose" your identity. You can choose to be black, white, Asian, straight or gay, based on your desires, not your biology. in this future world, skin color and sex are just fashion statements.
Yet oppositely, the film suggests there’s at least some level of deception and perhaps even cowardice involved in recasting yourself as someone entirely "new" and "different" I mean, why hide behind the blanketing wall of anonymity if you really believe in yourself, your abilities, and your words? Why pretend to be something you aren't?
One possible answer is that the motives of the hidden "concealer" are impure. When cloaked in anonymity, we can vociferously criticize other people with no possibility of being personally attacked in return. Consider: when an anonymous source attacks a political opponent, is it because the attack is truthful, or because that anonymous attacker is paid to do so, or even already ensconced in an enemy camp? We just can't know. When an anonymous source reviews a movie or book savagely and viciously, is it because the anonymous author was beaten-up as a snot-nosed kid by the author or filmmaker in question? Again, there's just no way to know. Motives become opaque; words can't be taken at face value. Trust is lost.
So anonymity proves itself both a shield and a point of deception: How can we accurately judge the real value of persons' words if he or she won’t even stand behind his or her real name. Or behind his or her true appearance?
Piersanti notes that the character Eve “looks like a machine designed by Apple and carries within her the seed of life.”
“The new woman, Eve, is not only beautiful and perfect but also has time to fall in love, save the world and restore the life of her boyfriend: an absolute revolution in Hollywood’s imaginary cinematography,” he added.
The male character in the movie is left with the task of finding a place for poetry and beauty in a world “without life, covered in trash and awaiting the return of humans who wander in a giant spaceship to again repopulate the earth,” Piersanti wrote. “The robotic Adam and Eve have the task of restoring to man the place that awaits him.”
While the film does not present an openly religious perspective, he continued, Wall-E does inspire reflection. This robot, “in his own way, loves and seeks out beauty. He is moved upon observing the stars. Eve and the other rebel robots disobey orders in light of a higher morality, one that is unique and not relative [to them]: the salvation of life.”
Piersanti notes that in the film, mankind hopes that Eve will bring meaning back to life because “they are prisoners of the technology that surrounds every detail of their lives. They have become obese and cannot walk with their own legs, and they have lost contact with those around them.”
“This is the real reason for the fascination with this movie,” he stressed. “In a world that is cold and covered with the trash of our technological gods, we can only re-encounter dignity and beauty by following the heart, only by seeking out beauty. While seeing this film one cannot help but think of the Scripture passage that says: ? “If the Lord does not build the house, in vane do its builders labor. If the Lord does not watch over the city, in vain does the watchman keep vigil.”
“This is what we are seeing as the third millennium dawns. Locked in a hyper-technological society,” Piersanti said, “we look to the future with anxiety, or worse, with indifference. The little robot Eve speaks to our hearts and makes us open our eyes again. She makes us think again about our whole lives with a light of hope that we thought we had lost,” he said.
“How is this much different than the way we live our lives now?” This illustrates perfectly the uni-mind mentality of those who become sucked into the web of media messages from television, video games, cell phones, movies, and other sources which are a part of our everyday reality here in current-day Planet Earth. As our intellect levels disintegrate, our consuming nature takes over everything we do each and every day, and our planet becomes more and more filled with garbage and waste. We are too busy to prepare healthy meals, so we purchase packaged, convenience foods which provide little to no nutrition. After work and obligations are completed, we are too tired to exercise and engage with real people so we flop down in front of the television or video game and spend hours allowing our minds to escape into some alternative reality that bears no resemblance to real life. We spend our “spare” time in movie theatres, shopping malls, and in front of computer screens while neglecting the relationships with others and beauty of nature and outdoor life.
So obsessed are we with technology, products, and activities that allow us to become more absorbed in this lifestyle, we forget why we are here. Are we here to hoard and acquire and become fatter from eating engineered materials that taste good but fill up our bodies with toxic chemicals? Dear God, I sincerely hope not. But that is what humanity has been reduced to, and it is shocking and sad. Our existences are nothing like our ancestors who had to work hard each and everyday to make clothes and put meals on the tables for their families, make sure farm animals were fed and cared for, and who sat together at meal times and gave thanks for the few important things they had.
Some of us lament that we don’t have enough, but the fact is, we have so much and it means nothing to us. All we can think about is having more and more. In the United States, the average person living in poverty today still has more than many poor people throughout history. But by today’s standard of living, still, it’s not enough. What do people believe they need to make themselves happy? A bigger car, a bigger house? More clothes, more furniture? And when people get those things, does it make them happy?
When you take a look around you at the life you have created for yourself, stop and think: really think. Is this the kind of future we want for ourselves and our children, or do we want something better? Are you making an effort to live more naturally and be concerned with things that really are important? Or are you wrapped up in a life synthetic?
Why do we need to study technology?? A mind bugling inquiry that makes me realizes the true worth and existence of technology. First of all, technology is the need of the day. The technological encroachments have made society take a leap towards success. Technology is an absolute need we cannot escape from. We can say it has a very big function in diverse aspect of our lives. In other words, it retort to the most dilemmas of humanity. Across centuries technology evolves. Most likely, the importance of technology is aiming for comfort of use in whichever form it is. It always directs for easiness and convenience in our daily life.
In my 20 years of existence, technology exists all around. I think it is innate in a country to embrace technology to advance different aspects. Technology advances abruptly. More to the point, we should have study technology so that we have know-how on the progress and keep track on its development. From scratch to the final touch. It is very crucial because our society is bombarded with different technologies. Moreover, our knowledge can be better which brought and assimilated by the technology.
More to the point, every innovative invention in technology is a pace towards progress of mankind. There were some intelligent minds who dared to dream of such revolutionary discoveries and they made the 'impossibles' possible. We are fortunate enough to lead a life of luxury and comfort which is a one of the advantage brought by the promulgation of technology implemented in our society.
Furthermore, our theoretical knowledge must be updated that’s why we must also study the technology realm since technology is deviating. Nothing is constant except CHANGE. Everything changes! We have to deal with it, whether we like it or not!
It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. ~Albert Einstein
Relative to your answer in Assignment 1 .... what's your take on the design of the enrollment system?
On the assignment 1, i have cited different things that needs revisions based on my observations.
First of all, conceptualizing new design or modifying existing system is very crucial one must study first the flow of the current system. Thorough discussion must be initiated first then deliberation of ideas to the administration.
We should also consider the resources(financial, manpower, etc.) that are essential in modifying the system.
Basing on the points that i have raised on the previous assignment, it must be addressed since it exposes some of the weak points of the system. Those transactions that are superfluous must be deleted.
Some of the transactions can be merged so that process time can be minimized and the waiting queue can be also minimized. Instead of long transactions and many papers involved we have to cut-it down or normalize it so that we can save not only on time, energy but also in money. These will greatly contribute to the academia.
Moreover, proper dissemination or documentation of the process of the system must be observed. Since it is expected that there are still students that has no background on technology or maybe even on computers. Instructions must be clear and understandable.
With the modified system there will be great benefit to the university.
On the assignment 1, i have cited different things that needs revisions based on my observations.
First of all, conceptualizing new design or modifying existing system is very crucial one must study first the flow of the current system. Thorough discussion must be initiated first then deliberation of ideas to the administration.
We should also consider the resources(financial, manpower, etc.) that are essential in modifying the system.
Basing on the points that i have raised on the previous assignment, it must be addressed since it exposes some of the weak points of the system. Those transactions that are superfluous must be deleted.
Some of the transactions can be merged so that process time can be minimized and the waiting queue can be also minimized. Instead of long transactions and many papers involved we have to cut-it down or normalize it so that we can save not only on time, energy but also in money. These will greatly contribute to the academia.
Moreover, proper dissemination or documentation of the process of the system must be observed. Since it is expected that there are still students that has no background on technology or maybe even on computers. Instructions must be clear and understandable.
With the modified system there will be great benefit to the university.
Interview your university network specialist. Ask how various parts of the system communicates with each other throughout the university. (Q) Given the chance to redesign the existing setup, enumerate and discuss your keypoints for an effective and efficient network environment ideal for the university.
(at least 3000 words)
In this assignment we are tasked to interview the university network specialist Mr. Ariel Roy Reyes. We have submitted questionnaires. But before going to the point, let us first discuss what is NETWORK and a NETWORK SPECIALIST.
NETWORK
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of computers and devices connected by communications channels that facilitates communications among users and allows users to share resources with other users. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics. This article provides a general overview of types and categories and also presents the basic components of a network.
NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR/SPECIALISTS
Network administrator is a modern professional responsible for the maintenance of computer hardware and software that comprises a computer network. This normally includes the deployment, configuration, maintenance and monitoring of active network equipment. A related role is that of the network specialist, or network analyst, who concentrates on network design and security.
The Network Administrator is usually the level of technical/network staff in an organization and will rarely be involved with direct user support. The Network Administrator will concentrate on the overall health of the network, server deployment, security, and ensuring that the network connectivity throughout a company's LAN/WAN infrastructure is on par with technical considerations at the network level of an organization's hierarchy. Network Administrators are considered Tier 3 support personnel that only work on break/fix issues that could not be resolved at the Tier1 (helpdesk) or Tier 2 (desktop/network technician) levels.
Depending on the company, the Network Administrator may also design and deploy networks. However, these tasks may be assigned to a Network Engineer should one be available to the company.
The actual role of the Network Administrator will vary from company to company, but will commonly include activities and tasks such as network address assignment, assignment of routing protocols and routing table configuration as well as configuration of authentication and authorization – directory services. It often includes maintenance of network facilities in individual machines, such as drivers and settings of personal computers as well as printers and such. It sometimes also includes maintenance of certain network servers: file servers, VPN gateways, intrusion detection systems, etc.
Network specialists and analysts concentrate on the network design and security, particularly troubleshooting and/or debugging network-related problems. Their work can also include the maintenance of the network's authorization infrastructure, as well as network backup systems.
The administrator is responsible for the security of the network and for assigning IP addresses to the devices connected to the networks. Assigning IP addresses gives the subnet administrator some control over the personnel who connects to the subnet. It also helps to ensure that the administrator knows each system that is connected and who personally is responsible for the system.
Questions:
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, am 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Network hardware
This section discusses network hardware issues to consider when introducing Caching Proxy functionality into your network.
Memory considerations
A large amount of memory must be dedicated to the proxy server. Caching Proxy can consume 2 GB of virtual address space when a large memory-only cache is configured. Memory is also needed for the kernel, shared libraries, and network buffers. Therefore, it is possible to have a proxy server that consumes 3 or 4 GB of physical memory. Note that a memory-only cache is significantly faster than a raw disk cache, and this configuration change alone can be considered a performance improvement.
Hard disk considerations
It is important to have a large amount of disk space on the machine on which Caching Proxy is installed. This is especially true when disk caches are used. Reading and writing to a hard disk is an intensive process for a computer. Although Caching Proxy's I/O procedures are efficient, the mechanical limitations of hard drives can limit performance when the Caching Proxy is configured to use a disk cache. The disk I/O bottleneck can be alleviated with practices such as using multiple hard disks for raw cache devices and log files and by using disk drives with fast seek times, rotational speeds, and transfer rates.
Network considerations
Network requirements such as the speed, type, and number of NICs, and the speed of the network connection to the proxy server affect the performance of Caching Proxy. It is generally in the best interest of performance to use two NICs on a proxy server machine: one for incoming traffic and one for outgoing traffic. It is likely that a single NIC can reach its maximum limit by HTTP request and response traffic alone. Furthermore, NICs should be at least 100 MB, and they should always be configured for full-duplex operation. This is because automatic negotiation between routing and switching equipment can possibly cause errors and hinder throughput. Finally, the speed of the network connection is very important. For example, you cannot expect to service a high request load and achieve optimal throughput if the connection to the Caching Proxy machine is a saturated T1 carrier.
CPU considerations
The central processing unit (CPU) of a Caching Proxy machine can possibly become a limiting factor. CPU power affects the amount of time it takes to process requests and the number of CPUs in the network affects scalability. It is important to match the CPU requirements of the proxy server to the environment, especially to model the peak request load that the proxy server will service.
Network architecture
For overall performance, it is generally beneficial to scale the architecture and not just add individual pieces of hardware. No matter how much hardware you add to a single machine, that hardware still has a maximum level of performance.
The section discusses network architecture issues to take into consideration when introducing Caching Proxy functionality into your network.
Web site popularity and proxy server load considerations
If your enterprise's Web site is popular, there can be greater demand for its content than a single proxy server can satisfy effectively, resulting in slow response times. To optimize network performance, consider including clustered, load-balanced Caching Proxy machines or using a shared cache architecture with Remote Cache Access (RCA) in your overall network architecture.
• Load-balanced clusters
One way to scale the architecture is to cluster proxy servers and use the Load Balancer component to balance the load among them. Clustering proxy servers is a beneficial design consideration not only for performance and scalability reasons but for redundancy and reliability reasons as well. A single proxy server represents a single point of failure; if it fails or becomes inaccessible because of a network failure, users cannot access your Web site.
• Shared cache architecture
Also consider a shared cache architecture with RCA. A shared cache architecture spreads the total virtual cache among multiple Caching Proxy servers that usually use an intercache protocol like the Internet Cache Protocol (ICP) or the Cache Array Routing Protocol (CARP). RCA is designed to maximize clustered cache hit ratios by providing a large virtual cache.
Performance benefits result from using an RCA array of proxy servers as opposed to a single stand-alone Caching Proxy or even a cluster of stand alone Caching Proxy machines. For the most part, the performance benefits are caused by the increase in the total virtual cache size, which maximizes the cache hit ratio and minimizes cache inconsistency and latency. With RCA, only one copy of a particular document resides in the cache. With a cluster of proxy servers, the total cache size is increased, but multiple proxy servers are likely to fetch and cache the same information. The total cache hit ratio is therefore not increased.
RCA is commonly used in large enterprise content-hosting scenarios. However, RCA's usefulness is not limited to extremely large enterprise deployments. Consider using RCA if your network's load requires a cluster of cache servers and if the majority of requests are cache hits. Depending on your network setup, RCA does not always improve enterprise performance due to an increase in the number of TCP connections that a client uses when RCA is configured. This is because an RCA member is not only responsible for servicing URLs for which it has the highest score but it must also forward requests to other members or clusters if it gets a request for a URL for which it does not have the highest score. This means that any given member of an RCA array might have more open TCP connections than it would if it operated as a stand-alone server.
Traffic type considerations
Major contributions to improved performance stem from Caching Proxy's caching capabilities. However, the cache of the proxy server can become a bottleneck if it is not properly configured. To determine the best cache configuration, a significant effort must be made to analyze traffic characteristics. The type, size, amount, and attributes of the content affect the performance of the proxy server in terms of the time it takes to retrieve documents from origin servers and the load on the server. When you understand the type of traffic that Caching Proxy is going to proxy or serve from its cache, then you can factor in those characteristics when configuring the proxy server. For example, knowing that 80% of the objects being cached are images (*.gif or *.jpg) and are approximately 200 KB in size can certainly help you tune caching parameters and determine the size of the cache. Additionally, understanding that most of the content is personalized dynamic pages that are not candidates for caching is also pertinent to tuning Caching Proxy.
Analyzing traffic characteristics enables you to determine whether using a memory or disk cache can optimize your cache's performance. Also, familiarity with your network's traffic characteristics enables you to determine whether improved performance can result from using the Caching Proxy's dynamic caching feature.
• Memory versus disk cache
Disk caches are appropriate for sites with large amounts of information to be cached. For example, if the site content is large (greater than 5 GB) and there is an 80 to 90% cache hit rate, then a disk cache is recommended. However, it is known that using a memory (RAM) cache is faster, and there are many scenarios when using a memory-only cache is feasible for large sites. For example, if Caching Proxy's cache hit rate is not as important or if a shared cache configuration is being used, then a memory cache is practical.
• Caching dynamically generated content
Caching Proxy can cache and invalidate dynamic content (JSP and servlet results) generated by the WebSphere® Application Server dynamic cache, providing a virtual extension of the Application Server cache into network-based caches. Enabling the caching of dynamically generated content is beneficial to network performance in an environment where there are many requests for dynamically produced public Web pages that expire based on application logic or an event such as a message from a database. The page's lifetime is finite, but an expiration trigger cannot be set in at the time of its creation; therefore, hosts without a dynamic caching and invalidation feature must designate such as page as having a time-to-live value of zero.
If such a dynamically generated page will be requested more than once during its lifetime by one or more users, then dynamic caching provides a valuable offload and reduces the workload on your network's content hosts. Using dynamic caching also improves network performance by providing faster response to users by eliminating network delays and reducing bandwidth usage due to fewer Internet traversals.
REFERENCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_administrator
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v7r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.edge.doc/concepts/concepts11.htm
(at least 3000 words)
In this assignment we are tasked to interview the university network specialist Mr. Ariel Roy Reyes. We have submitted questionnaires. But before going to the point, let us first discuss what is NETWORK and a NETWORK SPECIALIST.
NETWORK
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of computers and devices connected by communications channels that facilitates communications among users and allows users to share resources with other users. Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics. This article provides a general overview of types and categories and also presents the basic components of a network.
NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR/SPECIALISTS
Network administrator is a modern professional responsible for the maintenance of computer hardware and software that comprises a computer network. This normally includes the deployment, configuration, maintenance and monitoring of active network equipment. A related role is that of the network specialist, or network analyst, who concentrates on network design and security.
The Network Administrator is usually the level of technical/network staff in an organization and will rarely be involved with direct user support. The Network Administrator will concentrate on the overall health of the network, server deployment, security, and ensuring that the network connectivity throughout a company's LAN/WAN infrastructure is on par with technical considerations at the network level of an organization's hierarchy. Network Administrators are considered Tier 3 support personnel that only work on break/fix issues that could not be resolved at the Tier1 (helpdesk) or Tier 2 (desktop/network technician) levels.
Depending on the company, the Network Administrator may also design and deploy networks. However, these tasks may be assigned to a Network Engineer should one be available to the company.
The actual role of the Network Administrator will vary from company to company, but will commonly include activities and tasks such as network address assignment, assignment of routing protocols and routing table configuration as well as configuration of authentication and authorization – directory services. It often includes maintenance of network facilities in individual machines, such as drivers and settings of personal computers as well as printers and such. It sometimes also includes maintenance of certain network servers: file servers, VPN gateways, intrusion detection systems, etc.
Network specialists and analysts concentrate on the network design and security, particularly troubleshooting and/or debugging network-related problems. Their work can also include the maintenance of the network's authorization infrastructure, as well as network backup systems.
The administrator is responsible for the security of the network and for assigning IP addresses to the devices connected to the networks. Assigning IP addresses gives the subnet administrator some control over the personnel who connects to the subnet. It also helps to ensure that the administrator knows each system that is connected and who personally is responsible for the system.
Questions:
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, am 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Network hardware
This section discusses network hardware issues to consider when introducing Caching Proxy functionality into your network.
Memory considerations
A large amount of memory must be dedicated to the proxy server. Caching Proxy can consume 2 GB of virtual address space when a large memory-only cache is configured. Memory is also needed for the kernel, shared libraries, and network buffers. Therefore, it is possible to have a proxy server that consumes 3 or 4 GB of physical memory. Note that a memory-only cache is significantly faster than a raw disk cache, and this configuration change alone can be considered a performance improvement.
Hard disk considerations
It is important to have a large amount of disk space on the machine on which Caching Proxy is installed. This is especially true when disk caches are used. Reading and writing to a hard disk is an intensive process for a computer. Although Caching Proxy's I/O procedures are efficient, the mechanical limitations of hard drives can limit performance when the Caching Proxy is configured to use a disk cache. The disk I/O bottleneck can be alleviated with practices such as using multiple hard disks for raw cache devices and log files and by using disk drives with fast seek times, rotational speeds, and transfer rates.
Network considerations
Network requirements such as the speed, type, and number of NICs, and the speed of the network connection to the proxy server affect the performance of Caching Proxy. It is generally in the best interest of performance to use two NICs on a proxy server machine: one for incoming traffic and one for outgoing traffic. It is likely that a single NIC can reach its maximum limit by HTTP request and response traffic alone. Furthermore, NICs should be at least 100 MB, and they should always be configured for full-duplex operation. This is because automatic negotiation between routing and switching equipment can possibly cause errors and hinder throughput. Finally, the speed of the network connection is very important. For example, you cannot expect to service a high request load and achieve optimal throughput if the connection to the Caching Proxy machine is a saturated T1 carrier.
CPU considerations
The central processing unit (CPU) of a Caching Proxy machine can possibly become a limiting factor. CPU power affects the amount of time it takes to process requests and the number of CPUs in the network affects scalability. It is important to match the CPU requirements of the proxy server to the environment, especially to model the peak request load that the proxy server will service.
Network architecture
For overall performance, it is generally beneficial to scale the architecture and not just add individual pieces of hardware. No matter how much hardware you add to a single machine, that hardware still has a maximum level of performance.
The section discusses network architecture issues to take into consideration when introducing Caching Proxy functionality into your network.
Web site popularity and proxy server load considerations
If your enterprise's Web site is popular, there can be greater demand for its content than a single proxy server can satisfy effectively, resulting in slow response times. To optimize network performance, consider including clustered, load-balanced Caching Proxy machines or using a shared cache architecture with Remote Cache Access (RCA) in your overall network architecture.
• Load-balanced clusters
One way to scale the architecture is to cluster proxy servers and use the Load Balancer component to balance the load among them. Clustering proxy servers is a beneficial design consideration not only for performance and scalability reasons but for redundancy and reliability reasons as well. A single proxy server represents a single point of failure; if it fails or becomes inaccessible because of a network failure, users cannot access your Web site.
• Shared cache architecture
Also consider a shared cache architecture with RCA. A shared cache architecture spreads the total virtual cache among multiple Caching Proxy servers that usually use an intercache protocol like the Internet Cache Protocol (ICP) or the Cache Array Routing Protocol (CARP). RCA is designed to maximize clustered cache hit ratios by providing a large virtual cache.
Performance benefits result from using an RCA array of proxy servers as opposed to a single stand-alone Caching Proxy or even a cluster of stand alone Caching Proxy machines. For the most part, the performance benefits are caused by the increase in the total virtual cache size, which maximizes the cache hit ratio and minimizes cache inconsistency and latency. With RCA, only one copy of a particular document resides in the cache. With a cluster of proxy servers, the total cache size is increased, but multiple proxy servers are likely to fetch and cache the same information. The total cache hit ratio is therefore not increased.
RCA is commonly used in large enterprise content-hosting scenarios. However, RCA's usefulness is not limited to extremely large enterprise deployments. Consider using RCA if your network's load requires a cluster of cache servers and if the majority of requests are cache hits. Depending on your network setup, RCA does not always improve enterprise performance due to an increase in the number of TCP connections that a client uses when RCA is configured. This is because an RCA member is not only responsible for servicing URLs for which it has the highest score but it must also forward requests to other members or clusters if it gets a request for a URL for which it does not have the highest score. This means that any given member of an RCA array might have more open TCP connections than it would if it operated as a stand-alone server.
Traffic type considerations
Major contributions to improved performance stem from Caching Proxy's caching capabilities. However, the cache of the proxy server can become a bottleneck if it is not properly configured. To determine the best cache configuration, a significant effort must be made to analyze traffic characteristics. The type, size, amount, and attributes of the content affect the performance of the proxy server in terms of the time it takes to retrieve documents from origin servers and the load on the server. When you understand the type of traffic that Caching Proxy is going to proxy or serve from its cache, then you can factor in those characteristics when configuring the proxy server. For example, knowing that 80% of the objects being cached are images (*.gif or *.jpg) and are approximately 200 KB in size can certainly help you tune caching parameters and determine the size of the cache. Additionally, understanding that most of the content is personalized dynamic pages that are not candidates for caching is also pertinent to tuning Caching Proxy.
Analyzing traffic characteristics enables you to determine whether using a memory or disk cache can optimize your cache's performance. Also, familiarity with your network's traffic characteristics enables you to determine whether improved performance can result from using the Caching Proxy's dynamic caching feature.
• Memory versus disk cache
Disk caches are appropriate for sites with large amounts of information to be cached. For example, if the site content is large (greater than 5 GB) and there is an 80 to 90% cache hit rate, then a disk cache is recommended. However, it is known that using a memory (RAM) cache is faster, and there are many scenarios when using a memory-only cache is feasible for large sites. For example, if Caching Proxy's cache hit rate is not as important or if a shared cache configuration is being used, then a memory cache is practical.
• Caching dynamically generated content
Caching Proxy can cache and invalidate dynamic content (JSP and servlet results) generated by the WebSphere® Application Server dynamic cache, providing a virtual extension of the Application Server cache into network-based caches. Enabling the caching of dynamically generated content is beneficial to network performance in an environment where there are many requests for dynamically produced public Web pages that expire based on application logic or an event such as a message from a database. The page's lifetime is finite, but an expiration trigger cannot be set in at the time of its creation; therefore, hosts without a dynamic caching and invalidation feature must designate such as page as having a time-to-live value of zero.
If such a dynamically generated page will be requested more than once during its lifetime by one or more users, then dynamic caching provides a valuable offload and reduces the workload on your network's content hosts. Using dynamic caching also improves network performance by providing faster response to users by eliminating network delays and reducing bandwidth usage due to fewer Internet traversals.
REFERENCES:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_administrator
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/wasinfo/v7r0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.websphere.edge.doc/concepts/concepts11.htm
In this assignment, we are tasked to evaluate and comment on the new enrollment system that was implemented on the university and suggest possible revisions to improve the system.
As the new semester approaches, enrollment day is the very hassle part. When I entered Obrero Campus (since I spend my first year and second year in Tagum Campus) I was really amazed of the ambiance and the people around. I experienced many different things on the new environment. Since it was enrollment day at that time I was amazed of the “tarpaulins” posted on different locations on the university. it is very eye-catching since it is very big that anyone could notice. In the tarps, it has different instructions pertaining to the new enrollment system procedures. Moreover, it is my first time to experience the new way of enrolling in the university.
Hence, the new system implemented is improved than the previous system. If we are going to compare the old and the new enrollment system, the new system brought many advantages to speed up the process. On the old system, enrolment and registration have always been annoying, especially for those new students. The old system has long queues and long waiting times in encoding the PRF and in different transactions. Based in my experience, the waiting time to pay is about an hour because of long queues and long process time.
Now the new system has implemented, I was very happy to adopt the system and it is also made by the faculty of the Institute of Computing namely Mr. Cagape and Dr. Mercado. On the new system, it is more organized than the old one. Proper dissemination of information was practiced by posting some print-outs and tarps within the vicinity.
Above are tarpaulins and print-outs that were posted within the university premise. In the picture we can see the step by step actions of the new enrollment process for the new students and transferees. There are also instructions pertaining to the old students and shifters. Here I have the list on the different procedures of the new enrollment system.
Enrollment Procedure for New students and Transferees
STEP 1 – Go To the University Guidance And Testing Office
o Encoding of Student Information.
o Identification No. Assignment.
STEP 2 – Office Of Student Services ( For Scholars Only)
o Scholarship Application.
o Releasing of Scholarship Card.
STEP 3 – ROTC/CWTS
o Registration and Sectioning of ROTC/CWTS.
o Releasing of ROTC/CWTS slip.
STEP 4 – College
o Present enrollment requirements.
o Advising / Pre-Registration.
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fee, Obrero Campus Student Council fee, collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding - Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.
STEP 5 – Student Accounts (For Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.
STEP 5 – Cashier (Paying Students
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.
STEP 6 – Registrar
o Submit enrollment requirements.
Form 138 (High School Card).
Photocopy of NSO Birth Certificate.
USEPAT Entrance Exam Result.
Admission Slip.
Medical Certificate.
Certificate of Good Moral (Original).
2 pcs. 2x2 recent ID picture.
Prospectus of the enrolled course.
1 pc. Long brown envelop.
Official receipt of tuition and other fees.
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.
Enrollment Procedure for Old Students
STEP 1 – Student Accounts
o Check students’ accounts.
o Check balance.
o Clearance signing.
STEP 2 – College
o Advising / Pre- Registration
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fees , Obrero Campus Student Council fees, Collegiate Headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding.
o Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.
STEP 3 – Student Accounts (For Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.
STEP 3 – Cashier (Paying Students)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.
STEP 4 – Registrar
o Present Clearance.
o Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.
Enrollment Procedure for Shiftees
STEP 1 – Student Accounts
o Check students’ accounts.
o Check balance.
o Clearance signing.
STEP 2 – Go to Former College
o Request to shift.
o Recommendation to shift.
STEP 3 – Proceed to New College
o Acceptance of Shiftee
o Advising / Pre- Registration.
STEP 4 – Go to University Guidance And Testing Office / Office Of Student Services
o Student Profile Updating
STEP 5 – Go back To New College
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fee , Obrero Campus Student Council fee, Collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding.
o Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.
• STEP 6 – Student Accounts (For Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.
• STEP 6 – Cashier (Paying Students)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.
• STEP 7 – Registrar
o Present Clearance.
o Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.
:!: Things that need to be improved
As I have evaluated the new system I have noticed different flaws that need improvements.
First, is the charts being posted in the university is ambiguous and very improper. In doing different diagrams there are different standard or corresponding symbol to be used (in different processes, flow, database and etc.).
Second, the student find the process very difficult when they fall in line in the cashier and registrar. There is a long queue and more time is wasted during the process. Sometimes the students are being cut-off especially when it reaches 5pm or 12nn that the cashier or registrar needs to close.
Third, the waiting area is not comfortable and very hot. Since the chairs and benches are only limited.
Fourth, the students are migrating to another window after the cashier or after any transaction. Why not make it only one in validating the COR and the Library.
Fifth, the windows are only limited which causes overflow of students that the line are extended up to the outside of the building.
:!: My perception to improve the system…
• Proper markings must be used so that the students will not be confused on the different steps in the tarpaulin and in the print-outs. Correct and standard markings must be observed.
• More windows must be open to cater the students. Since there are only a limit of days allocated for each year level.
• Provide more chairs and benches so that the students can sit and allows cozy waiting position. There must be an additional unit of electric fans to provide proper ventilation and comfort.
• Some transactions must be merged so that the time consumed in the process is trimmed down. Such as, the paying of different organizational fees must be merged to the cashier so that there would be one collection officer to handle such student’s accounts. Advising and encoding, and library card verification and registrar’s verification must be also encapsulated.
As the new semester approaches, enrollment day is the very hassle part. When I entered Obrero Campus (since I spend my first year and second year in Tagum Campus) I was really amazed of the ambiance and the people around. I experienced many different things on the new environment. Since it was enrollment day at that time I was amazed of the “tarpaulins” posted on different locations on the university. it is very eye-catching since it is very big that anyone could notice. In the tarps, it has different instructions pertaining to the new enrollment system procedures. Moreover, it is my first time to experience the new way of enrolling in the university.
Hence, the new system implemented is improved than the previous system. If we are going to compare the old and the new enrollment system, the new system brought many advantages to speed up the process. On the old system, enrolment and registration have always been annoying, especially for those new students. The old system has long queues and long waiting times in encoding the PRF and in different transactions. Based in my experience, the waiting time to pay is about an hour because of long queues and long process time.
Now the new system has implemented, I was very happy to adopt the system and it is also made by the faculty of the Institute of Computing namely Mr. Cagape and Dr. Mercado. On the new system, it is more organized than the old one. Proper dissemination of information was practiced by posting some print-outs and tarps within the vicinity.
Above are tarpaulins and print-outs that were posted within the university premise. In the picture we can see the step by step actions of the new enrollment process for the new students and transferees. There are also instructions pertaining to the old students and shifters. Here I have the list on the different procedures of the new enrollment system.
Enrollment Procedure for New students and Transferees
STEP 1 – Go To the University Guidance And Testing Office
o Encoding of Student Information.
o Identification No. Assignment.
STEP 2 – Office Of Student Services ( For Scholars Only)
o Scholarship Application.
o Releasing of Scholarship Card.
STEP 3 – ROTC/CWTS
o Registration and Sectioning of ROTC/CWTS.
o Releasing of ROTC/CWTS slip.
STEP 4 – College
o Present enrollment requirements.
o Advising / Pre-Registration.
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fee, Obrero Campus Student Council fee, collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding - Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.
STEP 5 – Student Accounts (For Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.
STEP 5 – Cashier (Paying Students
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.
STEP 6 – Registrar
o Submit enrollment requirements.
Form 138 (High School Card).
Photocopy of NSO Birth Certificate.
USEPAT Entrance Exam Result.
Admission Slip.
Medical Certificate.
Certificate of Good Moral (Original).
2 pcs. 2x2 recent ID picture.
Prospectus of the enrolled course.
1 pc. Long brown envelop.
Official receipt of tuition and other fees.
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.
Enrollment Procedure for Old Students
STEP 1 – Student Accounts
o Check students’ accounts.
o Check balance.
o Clearance signing.
STEP 2 – College
o Advising / Pre- Registration
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fees , Obrero Campus Student Council fees, Collegiate Headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding.
o Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.
STEP 3 – Student Accounts (For Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.
STEP 3 – Cashier (Paying Students)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.
STEP 4 – Registrar
o Present Clearance.
o Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.
Enrollment Procedure for Shiftees
STEP 1 – Student Accounts
o Check students’ accounts.
o Check balance.
o Clearance signing.
STEP 2 – Go to Former College
o Request to shift.
o Recommendation to shift.
STEP 3 – Proceed to New College
o Acceptance of Shiftee
o Advising / Pre- Registration.
STEP 4 – Go to University Guidance And Testing Office / Office Of Student Services
o Student Profile Updating
STEP 5 – Go back To New College
o Payment of other fees (Local Council fee , Obrero Campus Student Council fee, Collegiate headlight fee and Insurance).
o Encoding.
o Assessment of fees.
o Temporary Certificate of Registration Printing.
• STEP 6 – Student Accounts (For Scholars Only)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Posting of Accounts.
• STEP 6 – Cashier (Paying Students)
o Submit Temporary Certificate of Registration.
o Payment of Matriculation.
o Official Receipt Printing.
• STEP 7 – Registrar
o Present Clearance.
o Present Official Receipts (Tuition and other fees).
o Printing of Official Certificate of Registration.
:!: Things that need to be improved
As I have evaluated the new system I have noticed different flaws that need improvements.
First, is the charts being posted in the university is ambiguous and very improper. In doing different diagrams there are different standard or corresponding symbol to be used (in different processes, flow, database and etc.).
Second, the student find the process very difficult when they fall in line in the cashier and registrar. There is a long queue and more time is wasted during the process. Sometimes the students are being cut-off especially when it reaches 5pm or 12nn that the cashier or registrar needs to close.
Third, the waiting area is not comfortable and very hot. Since the chairs and benches are only limited.
Fourth, the students are migrating to another window after the cashier or after any transaction. Why not make it only one in validating the COR and the Library.
Fifth, the windows are only limited which causes overflow of students that the line are extended up to the outside of the building.
:!: My perception to improve the system…
• Proper markings must be used so that the students will not be confused on the different steps in the tarpaulin and in the print-outs. Correct and standard markings must be observed.
• More windows must be open to cater the students. Since there are only a limit of days allocated for each year level.
• Provide more chairs and benches so that the students can sit and allows cozy waiting position. There must be an additional unit of electric fans to provide proper ventilation and comfort.
• Some transactions must be merged so that the time consumed in the process is trimmed down. Such as, the paying of different organizational fees must be merged to the cashier so that there would be one collection officer to handle such student’s accounts. Advising and encoding, and library card verification and registrar’s verification must be also encapsulated.
What does Google do?Google is a global technology leader focused on improving the ways people find and use information. It maintains the world's largest online index of websites and other content and, via automated search technology, makes this information freely available, nearly instantly, to anyone with an Internet connection.
Google primarily generates revenue by delivering relevant, cost-effective online advertising. Businesses uses AdWords program to promote their products and services with targeted advertising. In addition, the thousands of third-party websites that comprise Google network uses Google AdSense program to deliver relevant AdWords ads that generate revenue and enhance the user experience.
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. The first step toward fulfilling that mission came when our founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, working out of a Stanford University dorm room, developed a new approach to online search that quickly spread to information seekers around the globe. Google is now widely recognized as the world's largest search engine -- a free service whose utility and ease of use have made it one of the world's best-known brands almost entirely through word of mouth from satisfied users.
Business model
“Google’s not a real company. It’s a house of cards,”
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer allegedly said recently. His jealous remark is at least half true. What is it about Google that so mystifies every group that tries to analyze it? Google has a truly revolutionary business model, and are the most visible pioneers of the emerging 21st century Gift Economy. Microsoft, and the irresponsible brokers who keep flogging overpriced stocks based on unsustainable growth promises, and everyone else who owes their living to the Ponzi scheme that is the modern growth/market economy, should be very afraid.
Google’s foray into the wireless handset arena is creating a stir. Google is by far the biggest search engine destination, content provider and advertising destination in the world. It has launched a series of new programs such as Google Scholar, Wave and other applications, designed to influence its customers to use Google as its first source of multimedia content. Google’s primary business is advertising revenue. It is expanding into areas that it believes are important to maintaining that revenue stream. There is a hidden gem in this business model.
Traditionally customers have needs, wants, and nice-to-haves. Needs they will pay 'market' value for. Wants they will pay modestly for, especially if they're bundled with needs. Nice-to-haves they will not pay for at all, but they'll take them, and may make differential purchase decisions based on them (if the needs and wants of two vendors are indistinguishable). The market economy is focused on needs, since they are the corporation's bread and butter, the only source of reliable revenue and growth, and hence profit.
Now enter Google. They fulfill needs, wants, and nice-to-haves, all free. So those of us on the leading side of the digital divide gratefully take all three, and we don't even really differentiate between them (unless some of the nice-to-haves unduly complicate the application, in which case we don't want them). Those on the other side of the digital divide get none of them, widening the divide to a chasm. The market understands none of this behavior, since it doesn't conform to any accepted business model. Google doesn't really seem to care. They're too busy doing what they do so well -- delighting customers with valuable, intuitive, boldly innovative and expansive new products, on a scale that is the envy of every entrepreneur.
Some say Google doesn't improve its search results by removing spam pages because Google earns money from the ads that run on some of these pages. Others say their websites were removed from Google's index (or penalized) to buy AdWords ads.
But Google's co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, wrote something even harsher in The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine (1998):
"Currently, the predominant business model for commercial search engines is advertising. The goals of the advertising business model do not always correspond to providing quality search to users. For example, in our prototype search engine one of the top results for cellular phone is "The Effect of Cellular Phone Use Upon Driver Attention", a study which explains in great detail the distractions and risk associated with conversing on a cell phone while driving. This search result came up first because of its high importance as judged by the PageRank algorithm, an approximation of citation importance on the web. It is clear that a search engine which was taking money for showing cellular phone ads would have difficulty justifying the page that our system returned to its paying advertisers. For this type of reason and historical experience with other media, we expect that advertising funded search engines will be inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the needs of the consumers."
Google doesn't accept money for a better ranking, the sponsored links are clearly labeled. But it's interesting to see that even Google's co-founders didn't trust the soon-to-be Google's business model.
Who are their competitors?Google is one such name in the Technology arena that is well poised to rule. Talking of past decade, it’s been all the way up for Google and undoubtedly they have been ruling the internet economy. Google have had its impact in the industry with more than 150 products and will continue to grow with its ever increasing portfolio of products. This is likely to happen but for these 10 companies which have poised some serious competition to Google.
1. Apple Being from partners to rivals, Apple is one of the stringent opponents for Google in the year 2010. Today, Apple and Google have been locking their horns in the field of Smartphone, Mobile App Store, OS, Mobile Ad, and Online Music and so on. Likewise, Apple is more than up to the task of battling Google in these areas as well as browsers, where Google Chrome competes against Apple Safari. But battle between will intensify, as the market for the digital music and SmartPhones is all set for growth in 2010. Google’s music search along with its partner MySpace and Pandora are looking to compete with Apple’s iTunes, which was the No 1 music retailer in United States in 2009. Further, Google’s Android will have tough time as Apple’s iPhones continues to grab hold of the market all round the globe.
2. MicrosoftMicrosoft is a company that have had one of the most dominant impacts in the IT industry. So without a doubt it is Google’s biggest adversary in 2010 and these two giants will be locking their horns for market supremacy in areas such as search, collaboration tools and browsers. Talking of these two giants, Google has reigned as leaders in search, but with release of BING in May 2009, Microsoft has raised few questions amongst in Google’s management team. With features such as ranking search results based on relevancy to other users, Microsoft has inked Bing-related deals with Twitter, Facebook and Yahoo.
3. AmazonIn 2009, Google’s effort of scanning millions of out-of-print books and incorporating them in online search did gain up some momentum and helped themselves to publish over 500000 digital books for free to customers of Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook, which is due in January. Further, there claims of opening up Google Editions, an e-book store, has opened up new rivalry with Amazon.
4. FacebookFacebook, probably the most popular stuff in the internet right now, has attracted 350 million active users in just six years and is subject of interest for the guys at Google too. In 2010, Google and Facebook rivalry is likely to heat up based on question that where will people find there information in future in Search or Social Network? With ever increasing use of social networking and the rise of Facebook, Google’s worry seems to a viable one. So, in 2010 Google with its ORKUT will be in battle with Facebook.
5. TwitterNo doubt if Facebook is in rise, than it’s no difference with Twitter. If social networking is the way to go, then Google will certainly find Twitter in its way. Twitter, a micro-blogging site, has in a way revolutionized the way we communicate these days.
6. MozillaWith release of Google Chrome, Google has stepped into ever so popular browse battle. Mozilla has been in the markets for years and now this step from Google is likely to create the conflict of interest between these two.
7. YahooWhen it comes to search, one of Google’s biggest competitors besides Microsoft is Yahoo. Yahoo has been in the market with variety of products in areas of email, Messenger, News, Search and Analytics services. So without doubt it will be a fearsome competitor for Google. In 2009, Yahoo made some improvements in 2009 by integrating search with its rich content. Users can watch videos or stream music straight from the Yahoo search results page.
8. CiscoGoogle definitely has a tough challenge against Cisco. With years of experience on web based collaborative platform, WebEx, and superior VOIP service, Cisco poses a threat to Google’s Wave and Voice. In addition to this, Cisco also is looking to enhance its video conferencing quality by focusing on collaboration through internet video, desktop video and consumer Telepresence.
9. IBMBy now it’s quite crystal clear that 2010 will the year where big internet giants will be trying to gain whole lot of market share that will be up for grab in areas of collaboration tools. So, 2010 is likely to reopen Google’s rivalry with IBM with the release of new collaboration tools such as Google Wave. Google has stepped into the battle field with its low cost hosted collaboration tools such as Google Apps. Google will compete against IBM’s Lotus Lives, which has attracted more than 2 million businesses in the last two years.
10. NokiaToday, Nokia has had grab hold of the mobile phone market with 4 out of 10 mobiles sold. With increase in use of smart phones, means the IT giants Google will be in rivalry with Nokia in periphery of operating systems for Smartphones. Symbian Open source operating system will be competing with Google’s Android. Nokia with recent deals with Microsoft is all set to bring Office Mobile to Symbian devices. With claim of releasing improved version of Symbian in 2010 means Google Android will have to face off tough battle. But, Google’s Android is poised for major developments in 2010 and with commitments from Acer, Sony Ericcson, HTC and Motorola this will be a worthwhile battle to watch in 2010 and years to come.
Google's Competitive Advantages
1. Free SEO LaborGoogle's work force is not limited to their PhDs and 15,000 talented employees in Mountain View, New York and Dublin. SEOs from all around the world can be considered a free labor force for Google. In order to get their sites promoted on the world's number one search engine, SEOs optimize their sites according to Google's rules, register their sitemaps and ping Google's services whenever a new page is created. This gives Google a huge advantage over the other search engines, because other engines don't have the same level of feedback. Google caters to this crowd very well too, because it offers SEO friendly tools and advise.
2. Extra data - Google Co-op, Image Labeler, etcWith its customized search service, Google Co-op, users don't only create vertical a search engine - they also give Google very valuable domain-specific information.
Also, by tagging images on Image Labeler and Picasa, you help perfect Google's Image Search.
3. Google knows everything about your siteGoogle made a very smart acquisition back in 2004. They bought Urchin and converted it to a free traffic analysis add-on for your site, Google Analytics. Today many sites use it to get a better understanding of their traffic. But a side effect of this tool is that it potentially gives Google access to important data about your site. Indeed if all sites had Urchin installed, Google would no longer need to compute pageranks, as it would have the most accurate access to site popularity possible! Obviously not all sites use Google Analytics, but still it is not an insignificant amount that do.
The recently acquired FeedBurner also serves the same purpose. It's not only a great advertising channel for Google, but yet another way of measuring site popularity.
4. Google knows a lot about you - PersonalizationGmail, Google Toolbar, Google Docs and others. They all give clues about your personality, your interests, likes and dislikes. Consequently, you end up with more personalized search results. For example: if you are the type of person who searches for programming info in Google Search, discuss KDE's latest bugs on GTalk and Gmail, visit Freshmeat and Sourceforge all day and long with your Google Toolbar-powered Firefox -- well then Google will not consider your Python, Tomcat, Apache queries as zoological, but programming related
5. Google offers UNIVERSAL searchGoogle does not only crawl the Web, blogosphere, press releases and books. It also crawls the real world with Google Earth. And Google Map's Street View lets you drive around big cities like New York and San Francisco, from your browser. Now with Universal Search, you can reach all of these services with a simple Google search.
6. Google has psychological dominanceThe fact that Google is such a widely discussed topic makes you think that it is indispensable. Psychologically, you feel that you lack it when you try other search engines. Especially if your query is indefinitely motivated - e.g your purpose is more about researching than finding - then you always want to try your search on Google as well, even if you were already satisfied with other results elsewhere.
7. Google is everywhereOK, let's say you decided to switch search engines. You still have obstacles, such as:
• If you use one of the Google network services, like Gmail, you always have Google top of mind;
• If you go to CNN.com, you have Google in the toolbar (on the US version at least); so why bother with entering a new URL for search?
• If you use Firefox, Safari or Opera, then Google is your default search provider, home page and feed subscriber.
I could go on, but the point is - there's no escape from Google. This is not merely the success of algorithms, but also the success of Omid Kordestani and the whole business development team.
8. Google has looooooots of ca$hAs of today, Google's market valuation is more than $150 Billion. They have lots of cash reserves (although not as much as Microsoft) and their profit margins are very high. In other words, Google is financially very healthy and they have the power to snap up any innovation developed externally. Just as they did with FeedBurner, Kaltix and Urchin.
The IT Strategy That Makes It WorkA unique mix of internally developed software, open source, made-to-order hardware, and people management is the secret behind the search engine.
Google is different. And it's different not only because its thinking is original and its applications unique--witness search queries morphed into a lobby display of bursting color--but because the company's unconventional IT strategy makes it so.
Commodity hardware and free software hardly seem like the seeds of an empire, yet Google has turned them into an unmatched distributed computing platform that supports its wildly popular search engine, plus a burgeoning number of applications. We used to call them consumer applications, but Google changed that. Businesses also use them because, well, Google is different.
Ten things we know to be true
"The perfect search engine," says co-founder Larry Page, "would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want." When Google began, you would have been pleasantly surprised to enter a search query and immediately find the right answer. Google became successful precisely because we were better and faster at finding the right answer than other search engines at the time.
But technology has come a long way since then, and the face of the web has changed. Recognizing that search is a problem that will never be solved, we continue to push the limits of existing technology to provide a fast, accurate and easy-to-use service that anyone seeking information can access, whether they're at a desk in Boston or on a phone in Bangkok. We've also taken the lessons we've learned from search to tackle even more challenges.
As we keep looking towards the future, these core principles guide our actions.
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow.
2. It's best to do one thing really, really well.
3. Fast is better than slow.
4. Democracy on the web works.
5. You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer.
6. You can make money without doing evil.
7. There's always more information out there.
8. The need for information crosses all borders.
9. You can be serious without a suit.
10. Great just isn't good enough.
New services
1. New Storage ServiceGoogle Inc has announced its very own cloud-based online storage service which will allow Google Docs users to upload any type of file of up to 250 MB while they will have access to a total storage capacity of 1GB.
(14 January, 2010, by Desire Athow)
2. Google Nexus OneYesterday Google wasn’t in the business of selling mobile phones. Today, they are. The Nexus One smartphone has arrived and on sale at Google.com/phone.
(January 5th 2010 by Michael Arrington)
3. Google Click-to-Call (Billing) in Ads on Mobile DevicesGoogle sent out notification to its AdWords advertisers that this month “your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click-to-call your business just as easily as they click to visit your website. You’ll be charged for clicks to call, same as you are for clicks to visit your website.”
(Jan 5, 2010 at 7:59am ET by Greg Sterling)
4. Google GogglesA new service that promises to make searching the internet as easy as taking a photo. The application, which will premier on Android devices, will let a user snap a photo of anything and then Google will deliver search results based on that image.
(December 7th, 2009 by Stefan Constantinescu)
5. Free DNS ServiceGoogle just released their newest service which is public DNS. DNS is one of the most important services when it comes to using the internet. The main reason to use the service is reliability, speed and increased security. Google has put in other measures to help with overall security.
(December 5th 2009 by serverguy)
What makes Google unique?Since the beginning of Google Inc. in 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin's creation has grown to unreal proportions. Starting with over 10,000 daily searches during its beta stage, Google seemed a worthwhile investment. After only a few months, PC World named them one of the Top 100 Search Engines...and Google hadn't even taken the beta label away yet.
About one year after launching, the beta came off as they topped 3 million searches per day.
Although known mainly for being a popular search engine, Google has many other features that make it unique, such as Gmail, the web-based e-mail that offered 1 gigabyte of e-mail storage.
This limit has recently increased to over 2.6 Gb. The idea behind it is that people really don't need to delete their e-mails because it would take many e-mails to hit this limit, and users can search through their old e-mails through a special search feature.
Another Google application is GoogleMaps, which is similar to Mapquest. Users can search for places or get driving directions. Also, they can switch between "Map" view (simple drawings of streets), "Satellite" view (the pictures from the satellite but without roads labeled), or "Hybrid" view (satellite view with roads and road names drawn in).
Also, a new Google Video store offering movies for downloading and viewing on a Google Video Player has been released. Filmmakers can set the price of the movie and the "copy protection" level in order to give viewers more variety than was previously available.
What makes the Google search special is the unique advertising on each search page. After entering a search query, the AdWords program pops up relevant ads on the side of the results. For example, if someone searched "formal dresses," the right side of the results page would have a list of ads that contained the word "dress" in them to attract the user to their sponsors' sites.
All of these features have made Google one of, if not the most, popular and profitable search engine of our generation.
References:
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/10/16.html
http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html
http://www.programmersparadox.com/2008/03/17/googles-unique-advantage/
http://tl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google
IS plan in the University: my personal perspective
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SAD
by florenzie
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
The Strategic Planning Process
In the 1970's, many large firms adopted a formalized top-down strategic planning model. Under this model, strategic planning became a deliberate process in which top executives periodically would formulate the firm's strategy, then communicate it down the organization for implementation. The following is a flowchart model of this process:
The Strategic Planning Process
Mission
|
V
Objectives
|
V
Situation Analysis
|
V
Strategy Formulation
|
V
Implementation
|
V
Control
This process is most applicable to strategic management at the business unit level of the organization. For large corporations, strategy at the corporate level is more concerned with managing a portfolio of businesses. For example, corporate level strategy involves decisions about which business units to grow, resource allocation among the business units, taking advantage of synergies among the business units, and mergers and acquisitions. In the process outlined here, "company" or "firm" will be used to denote a single-business firm or a single business unit of a diversified firm.
Mission
A company's mission is its reason for being. The mission often is expressed in the form of a mission statement, which conveys a sense of purpose to employees and projects a company image to customers. In the strategy formulation process, the mission statement sets the mood of where the company should go.
Objectives
Objectives are concrete goals that the organization seeks to reach, for example, an earnings growth target. The objectives should be challenging but achievable. They also should be measurable so that the company can monitor its progress and make corrections as needed.
Situation Analysis
Once the firm has specified its objectives, it begins with its current situation to devise a strategic plan to reach those objectives. Changes in the external environment often present new opportunities and new ways to reach the objectives. An environmental scan is performed to identify the available opportunities. The firm also must know its own capabilities and limitations in order to select the opportunities that it can pursue with a higher probability of success. The situation analysis therefore involves an analysis of both the external and internal environment.
The external environment has two aspects: the macro-environment that affects all firms and a micro-environment that affects only the firms in a particular industry. The macro-environmental analysis includes political, economic, social, and technological factors and sometimes is referred to as a PEST analysis.
An important aspect of the micro-environmental analysis is the industry in which the firm operates or is considering operating. Michael Porter devised a five forces framework that is useful for industry analysis. Porter's 5 forces include barriers to entry, customers, suppliers, substitute products, and rivalry among competing firms.
The internal analysis considers the situation within the firm itself, such as:
• Company culture
• Company image
• Organizational structure
• Key staff
• Access to natural resources
• Position on the experience curve
• Operational efficiency
• Operational capacity
• Brand awareness
• Market share
• Financial resources
• Exclusive contracts
• Patents and trade secrets
A situation analysis can generate a large amount of information, much of which is not particularly relevant to strategy formulation. To make the information more manageable, it sometimes is useful to categorize the internal factors of the firm as strengths and weaknesses, and the external environmental factors as opportunities and threats. Such an analysis often is referred to as a SWOT analysis.
Strategy Formulation
Once a clear picture of the firm and its environment is in hand, specific strategic alternatives can be developed. While different firms have different alternatives depending on their situation, there also exist generic strategies that can be applied across a wide range of firms. Michael Porter identified cost leadership, differentiation, and focus as three generic strategies that may be considered when defining strategic alternatives. Porter advised against implementing a combination of these strategies for a given product; rather, he argued that only one of the generic strategy alternatives should be pursued.
Implementation
The strategy likely will be expressed in high-level conceptual terms and priorities. For effective implementation, it needs to be translated into more detailed policies that can be understood at the functional level of the organization. The expression of the strategy in terms of functional policies also serves to highlight any practical issues that might not have been visible at a higher level. The strategy should be translated into specific policies for functional areas such as:
• Marketing
• Research and development
• Procurement
• Production
• Human resources
• Information systems
In addition to developing functional policies, the implementation phase involves identifying the required resources and putting into place the necessary organizational changes.
Control
Once implemented, the results of the strategy need to be measured and evaluated, with changes made as required to keep the plan on track. Control systems should be developed and implemented to facilitate this monitoring. Standards of performance are set, the actual performance measured, and appropriate action taken to ensure success.
Dynamic and Continuous Process
The strategic management process is dynamic and continuous. A change in one component can necessitate a change in the entire strategy. As such, the process must be repeated frequently in order to adapt the strategy to environmental changes. Throughout the process the firm may need to cycle back to a previous stage and make adjustments.
Drawbacks of this Process
The strategic planning process outlined above is only one approach to strategic management. It is best suited for stable environments. A drawback of this top-down approach is that it may not be responsive enough for rapidly changing competitive environments. In times of change, some of the more successful strategies emerge informally from lower levels of the organization, where managers are closer to customers on a day-to-day basis.
Another drawback is that this strategic planning model assumes fairly accurate forecasting and does not take into account unexpected events. In an uncertain world, long-term forecasts cannot be relied upon with a high level of confidence. In this respect, many firms have turned to scenario planning as a tool for dealing with multiple contingencies.
Rationale for an Information Systems Plan
Every year, $300-700 million dollar corporations spend about 5% of their gross income on information systems and their supports. That's from about $15,000,000 to $35,000,000! A significant part of those funds support enterprise databases, a philosophy of database system applications that enable corporations to research the past, control the present, and plan for the future.
Even though an information system costs from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000, and even through most chief information officers (CIOs) can specify exactly how much money is being spent for hardware, software, and staff, CIOs cannot however state with any degree of certainty why one system is being done this year versus next, why it is being done ahead of another, or finally, why it is being done at all.
Many enterprises do not have model-based information systems development environments that allow system designers to see the benefits of rearranging an information systems development schedule. Consequently, the questions that cannot be answered include:
• What effect will there be on the overall schedule if an information system is purchased versus developed?
• At what point does it pay to hire an abnormal quantity of contract staff to advance a schedule?
• What is the long term benefit from 4GL versus 3GL?
• Is it better to generate 3GL than to generate/use a 4GL?
• What are the real costs of distributed software development over centralized development?
If these questions were transformed and applied to any other component of a business (e.g., accounting, manufacturing, distribution and marketing), and remained unanswered, that unit's manager would surely be fired!
We not only need answers to these questions NOW!, we also need them quickly, cost effectively, and in a form that they can be modeled and changed in response to unfolding realities. This paper provides a brief review of a successful 10-step strategy that answers these questions.
Too many half-billion dollar organizations have only a vague notion of the names and interactions of the existing and under development information systems. Whenever they need to know, a meeting is held among the critical few, an inventory is taken, interactions confirmed, and accomplishment schedules are updated.
This ad hoc information systems plan was possible only because all design and development was centralized, the only computer was a main-frame, and the past was acceptable prologue because budgets were ever increasing, schedules always slipping, and information was not yet part of the corporation's critical edge.
Well, today is different, really different! Budgets are decreasing, and slipped schedules are being cited as preventing business alternatives. Confounding the computing environment are different operating systems, DBMSs, development tools, telecommunications (LAN, WAN, Intra-, Inter-, and Extra-net), and distributed hard- and software.
Rather than having centralized, long-range planning and management activities that address these problems, today's business units are using readily available tools to design and build ad hoc stop-gap solutions. These ad hoc systems not only do not interconnect, support common semantics, or provide synchronized views of critical corporate policy, they are soon to form the almost impossible to comprehend confusion of systems and data from which systems order and semantic harmony must spring.
Not only has the computing landscape become profoundly different and more difficult to comprehend, the need for just the right--and correct--information at just the right time is escalating. Late or wrong information is worse than no information.
Information systems managers need a model of their information systems environment. A model that is malleable. As new requirements are discovered, budgets modified, new hardware/software introduced, this model must be such that it can reconstitute the information systems plan in a timely and efficient manner.
Characteristics of a Quality ISP
A quality ISP must exhibit five distinct characteristics before it is useful. These five are presented in the table that follows.
Timely
The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned.
Useable
The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started.
Maintainable
The ISP must be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates, technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away.
Quality
While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly.
Reproducible
The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned.
Whenever a proposal for the development of an ISP is created it must be assessed against these five characteristics. If any fail or not addressed in an optimum way, the entire set of funds for the development of an ISP is risked.
The ISP Steps
The information systems plan project determines the sequence for implementing specific information systems. The goal of the strategy is to deliver the most valuable business information at the earliest time possible in the most cost-effective manner.
The end product of the information systems project is an information systems plan (ISP). Once deployed, the information systems department can implement the plan with confidence that they are doing the correct information systems project at the right time and in the right sequence. The focus of the ISP is not one information system but the entire suite of information systems for the enterprise. Once developed, each identified information system is seen in context with all other information systems within the enterprise.
Information Systems Plan Development Steps
Step Name Description
1. Create the mission model The mission model, generally shorter than 30 pages presents end-result characterizations of the essential raison d=etre of the enterprise. Missions are strategic, long range, and a-political because they are stripped of the Awho@ and the Ahow.@
2. Develop a high-level data model The high-level data model is an Entity Relationship diagram created to meet the data needs of the mission descriptions. No attributes or keys are created.
3. Create the resource life cycles (RLC) and their nodes Resources are drawn from both the mission descriptions and the high level data model. Resources and their life cycles are the names, descriptions and life cycles of the critical assets of the enterprise, which, when exercised achieve one or more aspect of the missions. Each enterprise resource Alives@ through its resource life cycle.
4. Allocate precedence vectors among RLC nodes Tied together into a enablement network, the resulting resource life cycle network forms a framework of enterprise=s assets that represent an order and set of inter-resource relationships. The enterprise Alives@ through its resource life cycle network.
5. Allocate existing information systems and databases to the RLC nodes The resource life cycle network presents a Alattice-work@onto which the Aas is@ business information systems and databases can be Aattached.@ See for example, the meta model in Figure 2. The Ato-be@ databases and information systems are similarly attached. ADifference projects@ between the Aas-is@ and the Ato-be@ are then formulated. Achievement of all the difference projects is the achievement of the Information Systems Plan.
6. Allocate standard work break down structures (WBS) to each RLC node Detailed planning of the Adifference projects@ entails allocating the appropriate canned work breakdown structures and metrics. Employing WBS and metrics from a comprehensive methodology supports project management standardization, repeatability, and self-learning.
7. Load resources into each WBS node Once the resources are determined, these are loaded into the project management meta entities of the meta data repository, that is, metrics, project, work plan and deliverables. The meta entities are those inferred by Figure 2.
8. Schedule the RLC nodes through a project management package facilities. The entire suite of projects is then scheduled on an enterprise-wide basis. The PERT chart used by project management is the APERT@ chart represented by the Resource Life Cycle enablement network.
9. Produce and review of the ISP The scheduled result is predicable: Too long, too costly, and too ambitious. At that point, the real work starts: paring down the suite of projects to a realistic set within time and budget. Because of the meta data environment (see Figure 1), the integrated project management meta data (see Figure 2), and because all projects are configured against fundamental business-rationale based designs, the results of the inevitable trade-offs can be set against business basics. Although the process is painful, the results can be justified and rationalized.
10. Execute and adjust the ISP through time. As the ISP is set into execution, technology changes occur that affect resource loadings. In this case, only steps 6-9 need to be repeated. As work progresses, the underlying meta data built or used in steps 1-5 will also change. Because a quality ISP is Aautomated@ the recasting of the ISP should only take a week or less.
Collectively, the first nine steps take about 5000 staff hours, or about $500,000. Compared to an IS budget $15-35 million, that's only about 3.0% to 1.0%.
If the pundits are to be believed, that is, that the right information at the right time is the competitive edge, then paying for an information systems plan that is accurate, repeatable, and reliable is a small price indeed.
Executive and Adjusting the ISP Through Time
IT projects are accomplished within distinct development environments. The two most common are: discrete project and release. The discrete project environment is typified by completely encapsulated projects accomplished through a water-fall methodology.
In release environments, there are a number of different projects underway by different organizations and staff of varying skill levels. Once a large number of projects are underway, the ability of the enterprise to know about and manage all the different projects degrades rapidly. That is because the project management environment has been transformed from discrete encapsulated projects into a continuous flow process of product or functionality improvements that are released on a set time schedule. Figure 3 illustrates the continuous flow process environment that supports releases. The continuous flow process environment is characterized by:
• Multiple, concurrent, but differently scheduled projects against the same enterprise resource
• Single projects that affect multiple enterprise resources
• Projects that develop completely new capabilities, or changes to existing capabilities within enterprise resources
It is precisely because enterprises have transformed themselves from a project to a release environment that information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained on an enterprise-wide basis are essential.
There are four major sets of activities within the continuous flow process environment. The user/client is represented at the top in the small rectangular box. Each of the ellipses represents an activity targeted to a specific need. The four basic needs are:
• Need Identification
• Need Assessment
• Design
• Deployment
The box in the center is the meta data repository. Specification and impact analysis is represented through the left two processes. Implementation design and accomplishment is represented by the right two processes. Two key characteristics should be immediately apparent. First, unlike the water-fall approach, the activities do not flow one to the other. They are disjoint. In fact, they may be done by different teams, on different time schedules, and involve different quantities of products under management. In short, these four activities are independent one from the other. Their only interdependence is through the meta data repository.
The second characteristic flows from the first. Because these four activities are independent one from the other, the enterprise evolves by means of releases rather than through whole systems. If it evolved through whole systems, then the four activities would be connected either in a waterfall or a spiral approach, and the enterprise would be evolving through major upgrades to encapsulated functionality within specific business resources. In contrast, the release approach causes coordinated sets of changes to multiple business resources to be placed into production. This causes simultaneous, enterprise-wide capability upgrades across multiple business resources.
Through this continuous-flow process, several unique features are present:
• All four processes are concurrently executing.
• Changes to enterprise resources occur in unison, periodically, and in a very controlled manner.
• The meta data repository is always contains all the enterprise resource specifications: current or planned.
Simply put, if an enterprise resource semantic is not within the meta data repository, it is not enterprise policy.
• All changes are planned, scheduled, measured, and subject to auditing, accounting, and traceability.
• All documentation of all types is generated from the meta data repository.
ISP Summary
In summary, any technique employed to achieve an ISP must be accomplishable with less than 3% of the IT budget. Additionally, it must be timely, useable, maintainable, able to be iterated into a quality product, and reproducible. IT organizations, once they have completed their initial set of databases and business information systems will find themselves transformed from a project to a release environment.
The continuous flow environment then becomes the only viable alternative for moving the enterprise forward. It is precisely because of the release environment that enterprise-wide information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained are essential.
Improving information management practices is a key focus for many organisations, 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 organisations 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 organisational (and cultural) issues to address.
This article 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 emphasised that this is not an article about technology. Rather, it is about the organisational, cultural and strategic factors that must be considered to improve the management of information within organisations.
The key goal of this article is to help information management projects succeed.
Information management is not a technology problem
Exploring information management
‘Information management’ is an umbrella term that encompasses all the systems and processes within an organisation for the creation and use of corporate information.
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…
(For a brief overview of many of these systems, see the earlier article Definition of information management terms.)
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.
Information management challenges
Organisations 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 organisational 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
Ten principles
This article introduces ten key principles to ensure that information management activities are effective and successful:
1. recognise (and manage) complexity
2. focus on adoption
3. deliver tangible & visible benefits
4. prioritise according to business needs
5. take a journey of a thousand steps
6. provide strong leadership
7. mitigate risks
8. communicate extensively
9. aim to deliver a seamless user experience
10. choose the first project very carefully
Each of these is discussed in the sections below.
Future articles will explore additional principles and guidelines, as well as providing a concrete approach to developing an overarching information management strategy.
There are no simple answers to complex issues and needs
Principle 1: recognise (and manage) complexity
Organisations 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, standardised solutions across a whole organisation, 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 centralising 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 organisations. New approaches to information management must therefore be found that recognise (and manage) this complexity.
Organisations 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 organisational 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 organisation.
For example:
• Staff must save all key files into the document/records management system.
• Decentralised 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 organisation. 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 organisation.
The projects should also target issues or needs that are very visible within the organisation. When solutions are delivered, the improvement should be obvious, and widely promoted throughout the organisation.
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: prioritise according to business needs
It can be difficult to know where to start when planning information management projects.
While some organisations attempt to prioritise 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 organisation as a whole.
For example, the rate of errors in home loan applications might be identified as a strategic issue for the organisation. 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 organisation.
Where organisations 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.
Organisations 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 recognises that there are hundreds (or thousands) of often small changes that are needed to improve the information management practices across an organisation. These changes will often be implemented in parallel.
While some of these changes are organisation-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 organisation.
This is a very different approach to that typically taken in organisations, and it replaces a single large (centralised) project with many individual initiatives conducted by multiple teams.
While this can be challenging to coordinate and manage, this ‘thousand steps’ approach recognises the inherent complexity of organisations (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 organisational 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 organisation 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 organisation.
This focus on leadership then underpins a range of communications activities (principle that ensure that the organisation 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 organisations (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 staff 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.
Staff 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 organisations 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
• 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 organisation 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 organisational and cultural changes.
In practice, this often involves starting with one problem or one area of the business that the organisation 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 organisation.
Conclusion
Implementing information technology solutions in a complex and ever-changing organisational 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 article has outlined ten key principles of effective information management. These focus on the organisational and cultural changes required to drive forward improvements.
The 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 use the solutions that are deployed.
Of course, much more can be written on how to tackle information management projects. Future articles will further explore this topic, providing additional guidance and outlining concrete approaches that can be taken.
REFERENCES:
http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262
http://www.flint.umich.edu/~weli/courses/bus181/notes/chapter3.pdf
http://scm.ncsu.edu/public/facts/facs060329.html
http://www.talkingquality.gov/docs/section1/1_2.htm
In the 1970's, many large firms adopted a formalized top-down strategic planning model. Under this model, strategic planning became a deliberate process in which top executives periodically would formulate the firm's strategy, then communicate it down the organization for implementation. The following is a flowchart model of this process:
The Strategic Planning Process
Mission
|
V
Objectives
|
V
Situation Analysis
|
V
Strategy Formulation
|
V
Implementation
|
V
Control
This process is most applicable to strategic management at the business unit level of the organization. For large corporations, strategy at the corporate level is more concerned with managing a portfolio of businesses. For example, corporate level strategy involves decisions about which business units to grow, resource allocation among the business units, taking advantage of synergies among the business units, and mergers and acquisitions. In the process outlined here, "company" or "firm" will be used to denote a single-business firm or a single business unit of a diversified firm.
Mission
A company's mission is its reason for being. The mission often is expressed in the form of a mission statement, which conveys a sense of purpose to employees and projects a company image to customers. In the strategy formulation process, the mission statement sets the mood of where the company should go.
Objectives
Objectives are concrete goals that the organization seeks to reach, for example, an earnings growth target. The objectives should be challenging but achievable. They also should be measurable so that the company can monitor its progress and make corrections as needed.
Situation Analysis
Once the firm has specified its objectives, it begins with its current situation to devise a strategic plan to reach those objectives. Changes in the external environment often present new opportunities and new ways to reach the objectives. An environmental scan is performed to identify the available opportunities. The firm also must know its own capabilities and limitations in order to select the opportunities that it can pursue with a higher probability of success. The situation analysis therefore involves an analysis of both the external and internal environment.
The external environment has two aspects: the macro-environment that affects all firms and a micro-environment that affects only the firms in a particular industry. The macro-environmental analysis includes political, economic, social, and technological factors and sometimes is referred to as a PEST analysis.
An important aspect of the micro-environmental analysis is the industry in which the firm operates or is considering operating. Michael Porter devised a five forces framework that is useful for industry analysis. Porter's 5 forces include barriers to entry, customers, suppliers, substitute products, and rivalry among competing firms.
The internal analysis considers the situation within the firm itself, such as:
• Company culture
• Company image
• Organizational structure
• Key staff
• Access to natural resources
• Position on the experience curve
• Operational efficiency
• Operational capacity
• Brand awareness
• Market share
• Financial resources
• Exclusive contracts
• Patents and trade secrets
A situation analysis can generate a large amount of information, much of which is not particularly relevant to strategy formulation. To make the information more manageable, it sometimes is useful to categorize the internal factors of the firm as strengths and weaknesses, and the external environmental factors as opportunities and threats. Such an analysis often is referred to as a SWOT analysis.
Strategy Formulation
Once a clear picture of the firm and its environment is in hand, specific strategic alternatives can be developed. While different firms have different alternatives depending on their situation, there also exist generic strategies that can be applied across a wide range of firms. Michael Porter identified cost leadership, differentiation, and focus as three generic strategies that may be considered when defining strategic alternatives. Porter advised against implementing a combination of these strategies for a given product; rather, he argued that only one of the generic strategy alternatives should be pursued.
Implementation
The strategy likely will be expressed in high-level conceptual terms and priorities. For effective implementation, it needs to be translated into more detailed policies that can be understood at the functional level of the organization. The expression of the strategy in terms of functional policies also serves to highlight any practical issues that might not have been visible at a higher level. The strategy should be translated into specific policies for functional areas such as:
• Marketing
• Research and development
• Procurement
• Production
• Human resources
• Information systems
In addition to developing functional policies, the implementation phase involves identifying the required resources and putting into place the necessary organizational changes.
Control
Once implemented, the results of the strategy need to be measured and evaluated, with changes made as required to keep the plan on track. Control systems should be developed and implemented to facilitate this monitoring. Standards of performance are set, the actual performance measured, and appropriate action taken to ensure success.
Dynamic and Continuous Process
The strategic management process is dynamic and continuous. A change in one component can necessitate a change in the entire strategy. As such, the process must be repeated frequently in order to adapt the strategy to environmental changes. Throughout the process the firm may need to cycle back to a previous stage and make adjustments.
Drawbacks of this Process
The strategic planning process outlined above is only one approach to strategic management. It is best suited for stable environments. A drawback of this top-down approach is that it may not be responsive enough for rapidly changing competitive environments. In times of change, some of the more successful strategies emerge informally from lower levels of the organization, where managers are closer to customers on a day-to-day basis.
Another drawback is that this strategic planning model assumes fairly accurate forecasting and does not take into account unexpected events. In an uncertain world, long-term forecasts cannot be relied upon with a high level of confidence. In this respect, many firms have turned to scenario planning as a tool for dealing with multiple contingencies.
Rationale for an Information Systems Plan
Every year, $300-700 million dollar corporations spend about 5% of their gross income on information systems and their supports. That's from about $15,000,000 to $35,000,000! A significant part of those funds support enterprise databases, a philosophy of database system applications that enable corporations to research the past, control the present, and plan for the future.
Even though an information system costs from $1,000,000 to $10,000,000, and even through most chief information officers (CIOs) can specify exactly how much money is being spent for hardware, software, and staff, CIOs cannot however state with any degree of certainty why one system is being done this year versus next, why it is being done ahead of another, or finally, why it is being done at all.
Many enterprises do not have model-based information systems development environments that allow system designers to see the benefits of rearranging an information systems development schedule. Consequently, the questions that cannot be answered include:
• What effect will there be on the overall schedule if an information system is purchased versus developed?
• At what point does it pay to hire an abnormal quantity of contract staff to advance a schedule?
• What is the long term benefit from 4GL versus 3GL?
• Is it better to generate 3GL than to generate/use a 4GL?
• What are the real costs of distributed software development over centralized development?
If these questions were transformed and applied to any other component of a business (e.g., accounting, manufacturing, distribution and marketing), and remained unanswered, that unit's manager would surely be fired!
We not only need answers to these questions NOW!, we also need them quickly, cost effectively, and in a form that they can be modeled and changed in response to unfolding realities. This paper provides a brief review of a successful 10-step strategy that answers these questions.
Too many half-billion dollar organizations have only a vague notion of the names and interactions of the existing and under development information systems. Whenever they need to know, a meeting is held among the critical few, an inventory is taken, interactions confirmed, and accomplishment schedules are updated.
This ad hoc information systems plan was possible only because all design and development was centralized, the only computer was a main-frame, and the past was acceptable prologue because budgets were ever increasing, schedules always slipping, and information was not yet part of the corporation's critical edge.
Well, today is different, really different! Budgets are decreasing, and slipped schedules are being cited as preventing business alternatives. Confounding the computing environment are different operating systems, DBMSs, development tools, telecommunications (LAN, WAN, Intra-, Inter-, and Extra-net), and distributed hard- and software.
Rather than having centralized, long-range planning and management activities that address these problems, today's business units are using readily available tools to design and build ad hoc stop-gap solutions. These ad hoc systems not only do not interconnect, support common semantics, or provide synchronized views of critical corporate policy, they are soon to form the almost impossible to comprehend confusion of systems and data from which systems order and semantic harmony must spring.
Not only has the computing landscape become profoundly different and more difficult to comprehend, the need for just the right--and correct--information at just the right time is escalating. Late or wrong information is worse than no information.
Information systems managers need a model of their information systems environment. A model that is malleable. As new requirements are discovered, budgets modified, new hardware/software introduced, this model must be such that it can reconstitute the information systems plan in a timely and efficient manner.
Characteristics of a Quality ISP
A quality ISP must exhibit five distinct characteristics before it is useful. These five are presented in the table that follows.
Timely
The ISP must be timely. An ISP that is created long after it is needed is useless. In almost all cases, it makes no sense to take longer to plan work than to perform the work planned.
Useable
The ISP must be useable. It must be so for all the projects as well as for each project. The ISP should exist in sections that once adopted can be parceled out to project managers and immediately started.
Maintainable
The ISP must be maintainable. New business opportunities, new computers, business mergers, etc. all affect the ISP. The ISP must support quick changes to the estimates, technologies employed, and possibly even to the fundamental project sequences. Once these changes are accomplished, the new ISP should be just a few computer program executions away.
Quality
While the ISP must be a quality product, no ISP is ever perfect on the first try. As the ISP is executed, the metrics employed to derive the individual project estimates become refined as a consequence of new hardware technologies, code generators, techniques, or faster working staff. As these changes occur, their effects should be installable into the data that supports ISP computation. In short, the ISP is a living document. It should be updated with every technology event, and certainly no less often than quarterly.
Reproducible
The ISP must be reproducible. That is, when its development activities are performed by any other staff, the ISP produced should essentially be the same. The ISP should not significantly vary by staff assigned.
Whenever a proposal for the development of an ISP is created it must be assessed against these five characteristics. If any fail or not addressed in an optimum way, the entire set of funds for the development of an ISP is risked.
The ISP Steps
The information systems plan project determines the sequence for implementing specific information systems. The goal of the strategy is to deliver the most valuable business information at the earliest time possible in the most cost-effective manner.
The end product of the information systems project is an information systems plan (ISP). Once deployed, the information systems department can implement the plan with confidence that they are doing the correct information systems project at the right time and in the right sequence. The focus of the ISP is not one information system but the entire suite of information systems for the enterprise. Once developed, each identified information system is seen in context with all other information systems within the enterprise.
Information Systems Plan Development Steps
Step Name Description
1. Create the mission model The mission model, generally shorter than 30 pages presents end-result characterizations of the essential raison d=etre of the enterprise. Missions are strategic, long range, and a-political because they are stripped of the Awho@ and the Ahow.@
2. Develop a high-level data model The high-level data model is an Entity Relationship diagram created to meet the data needs of the mission descriptions. No attributes or keys are created.
3. Create the resource life cycles (RLC) and their nodes Resources are drawn from both the mission descriptions and the high level data model. Resources and their life cycles are the names, descriptions and life cycles of the critical assets of the enterprise, which, when exercised achieve one or more aspect of the missions. Each enterprise resource Alives@ through its resource life cycle.
4. Allocate precedence vectors among RLC nodes Tied together into a enablement network, the resulting resource life cycle network forms a framework of enterprise=s assets that represent an order and set of inter-resource relationships. The enterprise Alives@ through its resource life cycle network.
5. Allocate existing information systems and databases to the RLC nodes The resource life cycle network presents a Alattice-work@onto which the Aas is@ business information systems and databases can be Aattached.@ See for example, the meta model in Figure 2. The Ato-be@ databases and information systems are similarly attached. ADifference projects@ between the Aas-is@ and the Ato-be@ are then formulated. Achievement of all the difference projects is the achievement of the Information Systems Plan.
6. Allocate standard work break down structures (WBS) to each RLC node Detailed planning of the Adifference projects@ entails allocating the appropriate canned work breakdown structures and metrics. Employing WBS and metrics from a comprehensive methodology supports project management standardization, repeatability, and self-learning.
7. Load resources into each WBS node Once the resources are determined, these are loaded into the project management meta entities of the meta data repository, that is, metrics, project, work plan and deliverables. The meta entities are those inferred by Figure 2.
8. Schedule the RLC nodes through a project management package facilities. The entire suite of projects is then scheduled on an enterprise-wide basis. The PERT chart used by project management is the APERT@ chart represented by the Resource Life Cycle enablement network.
9. Produce and review of the ISP The scheduled result is predicable: Too long, too costly, and too ambitious. At that point, the real work starts: paring down the suite of projects to a realistic set within time and budget. Because of the meta data environment (see Figure 1), the integrated project management meta data (see Figure 2), and because all projects are configured against fundamental business-rationale based designs, the results of the inevitable trade-offs can be set against business basics. Although the process is painful, the results can be justified and rationalized.
10. Execute and adjust the ISP through time. As the ISP is set into execution, technology changes occur that affect resource loadings. In this case, only steps 6-9 need to be repeated. As work progresses, the underlying meta data built or used in steps 1-5 will also change. Because a quality ISP is Aautomated@ the recasting of the ISP should only take a week or less.
Collectively, the first nine steps take about 5000 staff hours, or about $500,000. Compared to an IS budget $15-35 million, that's only about 3.0% to 1.0%.
If the pundits are to be believed, that is, that the right information at the right time is the competitive edge, then paying for an information systems plan that is accurate, repeatable, and reliable is a small price indeed.
Executive and Adjusting the ISP Through Time
IT projects are accomplished within distinct development environments. The two most common are: discrete project and release. The discrete project environment is typified by completely encapsulated projects accomplished through a water-fall methodology.
In release environments, there are a number of different projects underway by different organizations and staff of varying skill levels. Once a large number of projects are underway, the ability of the enterprise to know about and manage all the different projects degrades rapidly. That is because the project management environment has been transformed from discrete encapsulated projects into a continuous flow process of product or functionality improvements that are released on a set time schedule. Figure 3 illustrates the continuous flow process environment that supports releases. The continuous flow process environment is characterized by:
• Multiple, concurrent, but differently scheduled projects against the same enterprise resource
• Single projects that affect multiple enterprise resources
• Projects that develop completely new capabilities, or changes to existing capabilities within enterprise resources
It is precisely because enterprises have transformed themselves from a project to a release environment that information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained on an enterprise-wide basis are essential.
There are four major sets of activities within the continuous flow process environment. The user/client is represented at the top in the small rectangular box. Each of the ellipses represents an activity targeted to a specific need. The four basic needs are:
• Need Identification
• Need Assessment
• Design
• Deployment
The box in the center is the meta data repository. Specification and impact analysis is represented through the left two processes. Implementation design and accomplishment is represented by the right two processes. Two key characteristics should be immediately apparent. First, unlike the water-fall approach, the activities do not flow one to the other. They are disjoint. In fact, they may be done by different teams, on different time schedules, and involve different quantities of products under management. In short, these four activities are independent one from the other. Their only interdependence is through the meta data repository.
The second characteristic flows from the first. Because these four activities are independent one from the other, the enterprise evolves by means of releases rather than through whole systems. If it evolved through whole systems, then the four activities would be connected either in a waterfall or a spiral approach, and the enterprise would be evolving through major upgrades to encapsulated functionality within specific business resources. In contrast, the release approach causes coordinated sets of changes to multiple business resources to be placed into production. This causes simultaneous, enterprise-wide capability upgrades across multiple business resources.
Through this continuous-flow process, several unique features are present:
• All four processes are concurrently executing.
• Changes to enterprise resources occur in unison, periodically, and in a very controlled manner.
• The meta data repository is always contains all the enterprise resource specifications: current or planned.
Simply put, if an enterprise resource semantic is not within the meta data repository, it is not enterprise policy.
• All changes are planned, scheduled, measured, and subject to auditing, accounting, and traceability.
• All documentation of all types is generated from the meta data repository.
ISP Summary
In summary, any technique employed to achieve an ISP must be accomplishable with less than 3% of the IT budget. Additionally, it must be timely, useable, maintainable, able to be iterated into a quality product, and reproducible. IT organizations, once they have completed their initial set of databases and business information systems will find themselves transformed from a project to a release environment.
The continuous flow environment then becomes the only viable alternative for moving the enterprise forward. It is precisely because of the release environment that enterprise-wide information systems plans that can be created, evolved, and maintained are essential.
Improving information management practices is a key focus for many organisations, 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 organisations 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 organisational (and cultural) issues to address.
This article 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 emphasised that this is not an article about technology. Rather, it is about the organisational, cultural and strategic factors that must be considered to improve the management of information within organisations.
The key goal of this article is to help information management projects succeed.
Information management is not a technology problem
Exploring information management
‘Information management’ is an umbrella term that encompasses all the systems and processes within an organisation for the creation and use of corporate information.
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…
(For a brief overview of many of these systems, see the earlier article Definition of information management terms.)
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.
Information management challenges
Organisations 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 organisational 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
Ten principles
This article introduces ten key principles to ensure that information management activities are effective and successful:
1. recognise (and manage) complexity
2. focus on adoption
3. deliver tangible & visible benefits
4. prioritise according to business needs
5. take a journey of a thousand steps
6. provide strong leadership
7. mitigate risks
8. communicate extensively
9. aim to deliver a seamless user experience
10. choose the first project very carefully
Each of these is discussed in the sections below.
Future articles will explore additional principles and guidelines, as well as providing a concrete approach to developing an overarching information management strategy.
There are no simple answers to complex issues and needs
Principle 1: recognise (and manage) complexity
Organisations 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, standardised solutions across a whole organisation, 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 centralising 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 organisations. New approaches to information management must therefore be found that recognise (and manage) this complexity.
Organisations 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 organisational 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 organisation.
For example:
• Staff must save all key files into the document/records management system.
• Decentralised 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 organisation. 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 organisation.
The projects should also target issues or needs that are very visible within the organisation. When solutions are delivered, the improvement should be obvious, and widely promoted throughout the organisation.
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: prioritise according to business needs
It can be difficult to know where to start when planning information management projects.
While some organisations attempt to prioritise 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 organisation as a whole.
For example, the rate of errors in home loan applications might be identified as a strategic issue for the organisation. 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 organisation.
Where organisations 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.
Organisations 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 recognises that there are hundreds (or thousands) of often small changes that are needed to improve the information management practices across an organisation. These changes will often be implemented in parallel.
While some of these changes are organisation-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 organisation.
This is a very different approach to that typically taken in organisations, and it replaces a single large (centralised) project with many individual initiatives conducted by multiple teams.
While this can be challenging to coordinate and manage, this ‘thousand steps’ approach recognises the inherent complexity of organisations (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 organisational 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 organisation 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 organisation.
This focus on leadership then underpins a range of communications activities (principle that ensure that the organisation 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 organisations (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 staff 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.
Staff 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 organisations 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
• 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 organisation 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 organisational and cultural changes.
In practice, this often involves starting with one problem or one area of the business that the organisation 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 organisation.
Conclusion
Implementing information technology solutions in a complex and ever-changing organisational 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 article has outlined ten key principles of effective information management. These focus on the organisational and cultural changes required to drive forward improvements.
The 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 use the solutions that are deployed.
Of course, much more can be written on how to tackle information management projects. Future articles will further explore this topic, providing additional guidance and outlining concrete approaches that can be taken.
REFERENCES:
http://www.tdan.com/view-articles/5262
http://www.flint.umich.edu/~weli/courses/bus181/notes/chapter3.pdf
http://scm.ncsu.edu/public/facts/facs060329.html
http://www.talkingquality.gov/docs/section1/1_2.htm
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- florenzie
- I have climbed high mountains, survived high waters and have been through lowest spirit. my faith in Him guided me through those difficulties, and the love of family strengthen me. my story and the stories i read that inspired and inspires me, will surely inspire people who is going through the path i have been through, and had survived.
