Week Twelve - Project Management

Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.

The triple constraint refers to the assessment and making time, scope and cost of project changes. The value to project management is that it helps a person to comprehend on how resources are to be assigned in bigger view. 

 Fig 11.4 Project management interdependent variables

Describe the two primary diagrams most frequently used in project planning

Two primary diagrams that are frequently used include:
 A PERT chart which shows the tasks and relationships of a project. The PERT chart comprises of two things: a dependency and a critical path.
The other diagram is a Gantt chart where it is a chart that shows when each task is due to completed. The names of tasks are placed on the vertical side of the chart and the time in which the task is to be completed is placed horizontally.

  http://hsc.csu.edu.au/ind_tech/design/3291/computer_applications.html

Figure 11.8 A PERT chart example

Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success

When ensuring success a project manager must focus on:
• Managing People
• Managing Communications
• Managing Change

Outline 2 reasons why projects fail and two reasons why projects succeed.

Week Ten - Customer Relationship Management and Business Intelligence

What is your understanding of CRM?                                           
 Customer relationship management (CRM) is that it's a widely implemented strategy used by companies  to gain insights into customer's shopping and buying behaviours, in order to:
- To increase customer loyalty and retention
- Identify the best and worst customers
- Individualise services to cater more interactions with customers

Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.
The two primary components of a CRM strategy are operational CRM and analytical CRM. Operation CRM supports traditional transactional processing for day to day front office operations or systems that deal directly with the customers. While, Analytical CRM supports back office operations and strategic analysis and includes all systems that do not deal with the customers

Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments
Marketing CRM technologies for marketing help the enterprise identify and target potential clients and generate leads for the sales team. Three marketing operation CRM technologies:

1.       List generator – compiles customer information from a variety of sources and segment the information for different marketing campaigns

2.       Campaign management system – guides users through marketing campaigns

3.       Cross-selling and up-selling

·         Cross-selling – selling additional products or services

·         Up-selling – increasing the value of the sale

Sales CRM technologies involves using software to streamline all phases of the sales process, minimizing the time that sales representatives need to spend on each phase. This allows a business to use fewer sales representatives to manage their clients. Features include:

·         Calenders to help plan customers meetings

·         Alarm reminders signalling important tasks

How could a sales department use operational CRM technologies?
By using list generators sales department can use . List generators are able to provide information on precise features of an organisation e.g. a marketing campaign would have list of customers in a geographic area and it can to arrange the lists of each customer in an area. Other strategies include campaign definition, planning and systems and cross sell or up sell.

Describe business intelligence and its value to businesses
Business Intelligence refers to the tools and analysis that provide access to data for strategic decision making in an organisation, e.g. data mining. Business intelligence has a value to an organisation in many different ways and can be used for many different aspects such as PivotTable on Microsoft Access. Business Intelligence is used for any tool that gives a longer length assortment of decision making and encourages types of decision making such as patterns and trends, e.g. allows business to do a SWOT analysis, identifying strength and weakness and competitor's strength and weakness to gain a competitive advantage.
http://etl-tools.info/en/bi/datawarehouse_concepts.htm

Explain the problem associated with business intelligence. Describe the solution to this business problem
If there is too much data an organisation may have limited knowledge on where data is or who their competitors may be. Hence may be unable to make the best strategic implementation due to insufficient tools to back up data and support decision making to their strategic goals. The solution approach that they could take is business intelligence where it helps an organisation make decisions. Functional areas of an organisation can make decisions where they can be able to see more data analysis and reduce the latency of information in making good decisions.

What are two possible outcomes a company could get from using data mining?
The two possible outcomes a company could get from data mining are that it can increase profits, improve sales and confined resources. Another two outcomes include cluster and statistical analysis. Cluster analysis is the searching of equal or non equal but alike data in the many types of databases. However to undertake the cluster analysis, behavioural traits need to be clearly identified through physically separating the individual information into set groups. Statistical analysis assesses the data trends through the assistance of a regression analysis and statistics. Statistical analysis gives opportunity to workers in an organisation a large variety of statistical capabilities in order to construct things such as statistical models. Through examination of the models, companies can extend to forecasting, prediction, validity and the comparison and contrasting the number of models to identify which is the better alternative for an issue within an organisation.

Figure 9.8 Cluster analysis example

Baltzan, Phillips, Lynch, Blakey. 2010. Business Driven Information Systems. McGraw Hill. Sydney, Australia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics#Key_terms_used_in_statistics

 Week Nine - Operations Management and Supply Chain

Define the term operations management

Operations management is the management of systems or processes that convert or transform resources (including human resources) into goods and services.


Visit the link to gain further information about operational management
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LeeTy3YaMu0

Explain operations management’s role in business

Operations management role in the business is to manage the core processes used to manufacture goods and produce service. There is a range of interrelated activities the OM team must do in a business, in order to add value to their products These activities:

·         Forecasting

·         Capacity planning

·         Scheduling

·         Managing inventory

·         Assuring quality

·         Motivating and training employees

·         Locating facilities

Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology

Managers can use IT to heavily influence OM decisions, including :

·         What: What resources will be needed and in what amounts?

·         When: When should the work be scheduled?

·         Where: Where will the work be performed?

·         How: How will the work be done?

·         Who: Who will perform the work?

Explain supply chain management and its role in a business

A Supply Chain management (SCM) involves the management of information flows between and among stages in a supply chain to maximise total supply chain effectiveness and profitability in the business.

It's role in a business is to "design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_management#Importance_of_supply_chain_management

List and describe the five components of a typical supply chain

A supply chain is a network of organizations and facilities that transforms raw materials into products delivered to customers. A typical supply chain is a made out of five components which includes:

1.        Supplier - provides the resources, raw material to manufacturer

2.        Manufacturer – creates the product

3.       Distributor – Distributes the product to the retailers/ sellers

4.        Retailer -  Orders product from distributers and sell to consumers

5.       Customer - Consumer who purchases the product. 

Supplier > Manufacturer> Distributor>Retailer>Customer

Image1: illustration of a typical supply chain
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_company%27s_supply_chain_(en).png

Define the relationship between information technology and the supply chain.

 Organisations must technologies that can effectively manage and oversee their supply chains. Business have started using information technology in their SC to create integrations or tight process and information linkages between functions within an organisation. Business also taking advantage of the technology advances in the five SRM components have significantly improved companies’ forecasting and business operations. Thus, provide companies with greater visibility over the supply chain inventory levels.

Figure 8.10 Factors driving supply chain management

Week Six - Enterprise Architectures

What is information architecture and what is information infrastructure and how do they differ and how do they relate to each other?

Information Architecture is a field and approach to designing clear, understandable communications by giving care to structure, context, and presentation of data and information. Particularly refers to websites and intranets, including labelling and navigation schemes. An information technology infrastructure however, is the base or foundation for the delivery of information to support programs and management (of an agency for example). The infrastructure contains elements upon which an agency's information technology activities are dependent. An agency must therefore define, implement, and manage these infrastructure elements to successfully employ information technology.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_an_information_architecture_and_an_information_technology_infrastructure

Describe how an organisation can implement a solid information architecture 

Enterprise information architecture should focus on:

1.       Backup and recovery

2.       Disaster recovery

3.       Information security

A single backup or restore failure can cost an organisation more than time and money; some data cannot be recreated, and the business intelligence lost from that data can be tremendous.

Chief information officers (CIO) should have enough confidence in their backup and recovery systems that they could walk around and randomly pull out cables to prove that the systems are safe. The CIO should also be secure enough to perform this test during peak business hours.

•          A Hot Site - a separate and fully equipped facility where the company can move immediately after a disaster and resume business.

•          A Cold Site - a separate facility that does not have any computer equipment, but is a place where employees can move after a disaster.

List and describe the five requirement characteristics of infrastructure architecture. 

Infrastructure architectures- includes the hardware, software and telecommunications equipment that, when combined provided the underlying foundation to support the organisation's goals

Five primary characteristics of  solid infrastructure.

1.      Reliability- ensuring all systems are functioning correctly and all information provided are correct

2.      Scalability- how well a system can adapt to increased demands

3.      Flexibility- systems must be flexible enough to meet all types of business changes

4.      Availability- addressed when systems can be accessed by users

5.      Performance- measures how quickly a  system performs certain process or transaction 

Describe the business value in deploying a service oriented architecture 

Service oriented architecture (SOA) is a business-driven IT architectural approach that supports integrating a business as linked, repeatable tasks or services.

SOA ensures that IT systems can adapt quickly, easily and economically to support rapidly changing business needs. Businesses can use existing applications, and re-use applications (services) many times for different tasks, making development cheaper and more flexible

Figure 5.9 The service oriented architecture

What is an event? 

Event  is an electronic message indicating that something has happened, it detect threats and opportunities and alerts those who can act on the information

What is a service?

Service contains a set of related commands that can be re-used, it is more like a software product than they are a coding project

What emerging technologies can companies can use to increase performance and utilise their infrastructure more effectively?

 Companies can use emerging technologies such as; Grid computing which connects different IT resources  to coordinate them across a network, allowing them to function as a virtual whole to deliver improved performance, higher quality of service, better utilization and easier access to data.

- Improving productivity and collaboration of virtual organisations and respective computing and data resources. eBay is using grid computing to deliver online auction services to millions of users.

- Allowing widely dispersed departments and businesses to create virtual organisations to share data and resources for instantaneous, buyers of eBay have access to a range of goods and service that have being placed online to be sold.

-Building strong and infinitely flexible and resilient operational architectures

-Providing instantaneous access to massive computing and data resources

-Leveraging existing capital investments, which in turn help to ensure optimal utilization and costs of computing capabilities.

Week Eight - Networks, telecommunications and mobile technology

Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology.

There are four key benefits of wireless technology that can benefit a business, these are:

1.       Increased efficiency - improved communications leads to faster transfer of information within businesses and between partners/customers.

2.       You are rarely out of touch - you don't need to carry cables or adaptors in order to access office networks.

3.       Greater flexibility and mobility for users - office-based wireless workers can be networked without sitting at dedicated PCs.

4.       Reduced costs - relative to 'wired', wireless networks are, in most cases, cheaper to install and maintain

http://www.is4profit.com/business-advice/it-telecoms/wireless-communications/the-benefits-of-wireless-communication.html

Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP

Voice over IP allows the internet to carry voice in digital format, call cost have dramatically decreased as the internal are now internet connections. VOIP enables phone calls, faxes, voice mail, e-mail and Web conferences over digital networks.
Business benefits associated with VOIP include:
- Reduce the cost
- Reduce the complexity associated with delivering these services
-Improving response and restoration time

Example of residential network including VoIP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Voip-typical.gif

Compare LANs and WANs

LANS and WANS are two of three basic types of networks, that connects via communications media so  that media so that can be transmitted among them.

The three basic types of networks are:
- Local area networks (LANs) which connect computers that reside in a single geographic location on the premises of the company that operate the LAN.
- Wide area networks (WANs) connects computers at different geographic sites
- The internet- a global network

Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) technologies use active or passive tags in the form of chips or smart labels that can store unique identifiers and relay this information to electronic readers.

Passive RFID – no internal power,  can pick up the very faint signal from an antenna, power up just enough to transmit data back to antenna. Can also store small amount of EPROM data.

Active RFID – have power and transmit much stronger and accurate data.

RFID tags can cut costs by requiring fewer workers for scanning items; they also can provide more current and more accurate information to the entire supply chain.  Retailers use RFID to help keep track of physical assets purchased by the consumers, This is like creating a personal log of past purchases, shopping patterns and behavioural patterns. The information can be used to their advantage to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their supply chain.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FasTrak_transponder.jpg

An RFID tag used for electronic toll collection.

Identify the advantages and disadvantage of deploying mobile technology

Advantage of deploying mobile technology include:
- Multi-function devices become cheaper and more versatile- due to intense competition and margin pressure, they have become affordable for a wide range of users

-Access to internet

-Allows social networking getting mobilised- constant access to social networks such as Facebook, Skype and Google

- Improve communication, as people can reply faster

Disadvantage of deploying mobile technology include:

- Wireless security - mobile technology is much more vulnerable to hackers, viruses and data loss  due to the

Week Seven - Databases and Data Warehouses

List, describe, and provide an example of each of the five characteristics of high quality information.

The Five common characteristic of high quality information are:

-Accuracy- database need to have correct information. E.g. is the name spelled correctly
-Completeness-having all necessary or normal information, to allows users to access the full capability of the database. E.g. is the address complete including street, city, state and postcode
-Consistency- the summary of information is in agreement with the detailed information. E.g. do all total fields equal the true total of the individual fields?
-Uniqueness- Each transaction, entity and event represented only once in the information.
E.g. students data is stored in one section and use for many different purposes

-Timelessness- the information is current with respect to the business requirements E.g. is information updated weekly, daily or hourly?

                                                                  

Define the relationship between a database and a database management system.

Database is a system intended to organise, store, and retrieve large amounts of data/ information so it can easily be accessed, managed and updated.

Database management system (DBMS) is the software through which users and application programs interact with a database

http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.com/definition/database

Describe the advantages an organisation can gain by using a database.

Database advantages a business can gain from databases include:

—  Increased flexibility

—  Increased scalability and performance

—  Reduced information redundancy

—  Increased information integrity (quality)

—  Increased information security

Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model.

The relational database model is a type of database that stores information in the form of logically related two dimension tables each consisting of rows and columns.

Table 1 An example of a relational database model

http://en wikipedia.org/wiki/ File: Relational_Model_2.jpg

Describe the benefits of a data-driven website.

A data- driven website is an interactive website kept constantly updated and relevant to the needs of its customers through the use of a database

 Data- driven websites advantages include:

-Development: which allowed the website owner to make changes any time, without having to rely on a developer or knowing HTML programming

-Future expandability: enables the site to grow faster than it would be possible with a static site

-Minimising human error: data-driven website will have 'error- trapping' mechanisms to ensure that required information is filled out correctly and that content is entered an displayed correctly. More efficient and improve stability: when updating or adding new areas into the website, the chance of 'breaking' some part of the site is greatly reduced. Thus assuring that the content is never lost when the site is being updated.

Describe the roles and purposes of data warehouses and data marts in an organisation

Data warehouse is a logical collection of information, gathered from any different operational databases, that supports business analysis activities and decision- making task.

A data mart is the access layer of the data warehouse environment that is used to get data out to the users.