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What should be the nature of the relationship between the business plan and the IS (information system) plan?
To be real honest, without the aid of our technology, I won't be able to know what a Business Plan and an IS plan is. Thanks to the Internet. But then in order to find the relationship of the two, knowing what PLAN (PLANNING) means would give a little help.
As Time-Management.com said, planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If you do it effectively, you can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal.
A plan is like a map. When following a plan, you can always see how much you have progressed towards your project goal and how far you are from your destination. Knowing where you are is essential for making good decisions on where to go or what to do next.
A plan can play a vital role in helping to avoid mistakes or recognize hidden opportunities. Preparing a satisfactory plan of the organization is essential. The planning process enables management to understand more clearly what they want to achieve, and how and when they can do it.
A well-prepared business plan demonstrates that the managers know the business and that they have thought through its development in terms of products, management, finances, and most importantly, markets and competition.
Planning helps in forecasting the future, makes the future visible to some extent. It bridges between where we are and where we want to go. Planning is looking ahead.
Now that I am able to give what planning is and its importance. I think what Business Plan is would be the next.
A Business Plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals.
The business goals may be defined for for-profit or for non-profit organizations. For-profit business plans typically focus on financial goals, such as profit or creation of wealth. Non-profit and government agency business plans tend to focus on organizational mission which is the basis for their governmental status or their non-profit, tax-exempt status, respectively—although non-profits may also focus on optimizing revenue. In non-profit organizations, creative tensions may develop in the effort to balance mission with "margin" (or revenue). Business plans may also target changes in perception and branding by the customer, client, tax-payer, or larger community. A business plan having changes in perception and branding as its primary goals is called a MARKETING PLAN.
Business plans may be internally or externally focused. Externally focused plans target goals that are important to external stakeholders, particularly financial stakeholders. They typically have detailed information about the organization or team attempting to reach the goals. With for-profit entities, external stakeholders include investors and customers. External stake-holders of non-profits include donors and the clients of the non-profit's services. For government agencies, external stakeholders include tax-payers, higher-level government agencies, and international lending bodies such as the IMF, the World Bank, various economic agencies of the UN, and development banks.
Business plans are decision-making tools. There is no fixed content for a business plan. Rather the content and format of the business plan is determined by the goals and audience. A business plan should contain whatever information is needed to decide whether or not to pursue a goal.
For example, a business plan for a non-profit might discuss the fit between the business plan and the organization’s mission. Banks are quite concerned about defaults, so a business plan for a bank loan will build a convincing case for the organization’s ability to repay the loan. Venture capitalists are primarily concerned about initial investment, feasibility, and exit valuation. A business plan for a project requiring equity financing will need to explain why current resources, upcoming growth opportunities, and sustainable competitive advantage will lead to a high exit valuation.
Preparing a business plan draws on a wide range of knowledge from many different business disciplines: finance, human resource management, intellectual property management, supply chain management, operations management, and marketing, among others. It can be helpful to view the business plan as a collection of sub-plans, one for each of the main business disciplines.
Meanwhile, Information Systems Planning, or Planning for information systems, as for any other system, “begins with the identification of needs. In order to be effective, development of any type of computer-based system should be a response to need--whether at the transaction processing level or at the more complex information and support systems levels. Such planning for information systems is much like strategic planning in management. Objectives, priorities, and authorization for information systems projects need to be formalized. The systems development plan should identify specific projects slated for the future, priorities for each project and for resources, general procedures, and constraints for each application area. The plan must be specific enough to enable understanding of each application and to know where it stands in the order of development. Also the plan should be flexible so that priorities can be adjusted if necessary. King (King, 1995) in his recent article has argued that a strategic capability architecture - a flexible and continuously improving infrastructure of organizational capabilities – is the primary basis for a company's sustainable competitive advantage. He has emphasized the need for continuously updating and improving the strategic capabilities architecture.” - Somendra Pant and Cheng Hsu.
From the definitions declared above, since that Information System Planning is a process for developing a strategy and plans for aligning information systems with the business strategies of an organization, and that business plan is formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons why they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. Both are essential to the development of an organization. It can make or break an organization. And as during our lectures, with proper business planning in lined with proper strategic IS plan, an organization may bloom. And as to what the both are naturally related with, well, both deals with proper Time Management and Planning for the betterment of an organization. Well, I hope I said it well and right.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_plan
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_information_system_plan
http://viu.eng.rpi.edu/publications/strpaper.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planning
http://www.time-management-guide.com/planning.html
Becoming a professional in every field you do is important. An IT professional must begin with a solid knowledge about personal computer, many basic applications, and ability to do troubleshoot using a logical explanation in fixing an error in computer system.
Information Technology Professionals or also known as IT professional handle a wide range of computer related duties like, INSTALLING SOFTWARE, UPGRADING HARDWARE, and some, MAINTAINING COMPUTER NETWORKS. 10 years from now, I would love to see myself doing those tasks.
IT professionals work on behalf of many different companies, handling all the computer and technological issues that occur for a business. These workers ensure that all hardware and software function properly in addition to making sure that networks run smoothly. Career InfoNet, notes that IT professionals regularly identify and solve technological problems. Typically, IT professionals work together on a team and split up the necessary tasks among themselves. Other technological job duties may occur for experts in this field depending on their role and position.
I have not dreamed yet of becoming famous in IT field, I even ask myself why am I pursuing this field anyway. But then, given enough chance to become successful, I would like to be an IT CONSULTANT.
As according to Common Impact, the IT Consultant is a unique, exciting position that will allow you to use and develop a number of different skillsets.
-An excellent problem solver and critical thinker who can synthesize information, ask
insightful questions, and spot trends quickly. You should feel comfortable in situations where you are simultaneously interviewing a client, taking notes, summarizing information back to the client, anticipating the next question you’ll ask, and reflecting on how you’ll use the information once you return to the office.
-A self-starting, energetic leader who elicits the respect and trust of staff and external
partners. In this position, you’ll get to work with everyone from a director of a two-person nonprofit to a C-level executive of a Fortune 500 company. We are looking for someone with a strong sense of good consulting practices, who knows how to lead client meetings to successful outcomes, and who has at least three years of direct experience doing comparable work. (In your first year, this position will likely not require you to travel or supervise other employees, although as you grow, such opportunities may arise.)
-An independent worker who can juggle a wide range of simultaneous projects. Each
Consultant works with 10 to 15 nonprofit clients over the course of a year, each of which may be at a different point in our consulting process. We’re looking for a successful project manager who is organized, who is able to keep track of many small details, and who can handle projects with $competing priorities.
-An excellent verbal and written communicator who is able to translate technology into
layman’s terms. Some of our nonprofit clients do not have anyone on staff who is formally trained in technology. Thus, clear and simple verbal communication is critical for this position.
-Knowledgeable about a diverse range of technologies. Common Impact and its clients use a wide range of technologies including: Salesforce.com, open source web content management systems, HTML, Java, ASP.NET, Microsoft Office (including Access), and a Windows Server 2003 environment. While we do not expect the IT Consultant to have experience with all of these technologies, knowledge in these areas is a plus.
-Committed to working with diverse communities.
-Enthusiastic for the mission of Common Impact.
Challenges for an IT CONSULTANT:
As the IT Consultant, you will be responsible for:
• Identifying high-performing nonprofits. You will field questions and read proposals from interested nonprofit applicants, select a subset of organizations from the initial applicant pool, conduct second round interviews, and make final selections to determine our client portfolio.
• Devising solutions to nonprofits’ technology challenges. You will be responsible for working with 10 to 15 nonprofit clients each year and developing technology strategies for those clients.
You will understand each client’s business process, determine what projects would be of greatest benefit, and write requirements documents for your recommended solutions. Our assessments typically cover topics such as information systems, CRM, use of the web, and IT staffing.
• Facilitating successful relationships between nonprofits and employee-volunteer teams. Common Impact offers many different projects to corporate employee-volunteers: someone can join a day of service project, a six-month team project, or act as a coach or mentor to a nonprofit.
You will be responsible for managing these teams as they build projects like databases orwebsites, and for overseeing the entire implementation to ensure that the project goes smoothly.
• Supporting the growth of Common Impact’s services. Common Impact currently runs a full service site in Boston and is building sites in New York and Richmond. As we continue to grow our new sites into full-service operations, you will work closely with our Managing Director to build systems that facilitate this growth. This includes:
o Designing Common Impact’s IT strategy. You will oversee our internal IT systems including the development of our project management and CRM platform, facilitating connectivity between remote offices, and managing our IT support vendors. (Specific technologies are listed below.)
o Modeling growth and expansion opportunities. You will work cross-functionally with other Common Impact staff to understand current sales opportunities in our pipeline, analyze current staff workloads, and ensure that staff members are allocated on an optimal number of projects. You will also model our work in new cities to determine when we should hire staff in these geographies.
o Helping to expand our services. The IT Consultant will play a critical thought leadership role as we develop, refine, and grow our services to scale.
• Enhancing the organizational culture at Common Impact. At Common Impact, we strongly believe that the spirit in which we do our work is as important as the work itself. We pride ourselves on excellence, innovation, fostering collaboration between groups that might not otherwise interact, and a willingness to have fun with our work. A successful candidate for this position will also hold these values.
Years from now, after college, I would still love to study any IT related field because If given the chance to be an IT consultant someday, I want it to be done in a more professional manner. If you'd ask me in what way, I cannot tell. 
LINKS USED:
http://www.effiharyanti.com/becoming-an-it-professional/http://www.technology-colleges.info/index2.htmlhttp://www.commonimpact.org/pdf/IT_Systems_Architect.pdf
Yahoo!2nd semester at last. Im kinda excited and thriiled. Who won't be? I feel like a car hanging on a cliff that would be fallen when I make a wrong move. My college life won't be that relaxing though. Knowing that, WE MUST NOT FAIL EVEN JUST ONE SUBJECT or else it would be the end of our world. Kinda hard right? But I know we're gonna make it. :DI just have to step out of my shell. Make much effort, if having no sleep means that I can comply all the necessary things to pass, then, NO SLEEP IT IS. But know what, I'm loving and enjoying every pressure I feel now. It makes me realize more how hard it is to live. (naks! :D)Now that semester is starting, much pressure is expected. More bloggings to look forward to. Especially MIS stuff and all. But this time, I'm taking things more seriously. Break a leg for me and my colleagues! :D
TOPIC: Identify an information environment of your choice and write an essay to address the following questions: (3000 words)
• What should be your role within this environment?
• How can the principles of information organization and representation help you in performing this role?
• What are the challenges facing you in performing the role? How will you address these challenges?
To identify what information environment I will discuss, first I will define what is environmental information or information environment.
What is environmental information?
The definition of environmental information is very wide and is defined in the EIRs as information which relates to:
• The state of elements of the environment – such air, water, soil, land, landscape and natural sites, flora and fauna, including cattle, crops, GMOs, wildlife and biological diversity – and it includes any interaction between them
• The state of human health and safety, conditions of human life, the food chain, cultural sites and built structures, which are, or are likely to be, affected by the state of the elements of the environment and the interaction between them
• Any factor such as substances, energy, noise, radiation or waste, including radioactive waste, emissions, discharges and other releases affecting, or likely to affect, the state of the elements of environment or any interaction between them
• Measures and activities affecting, or likely to affect, or intended to protect the state of the elements of the environment and the interaction between them. This includes administrative measures, policies, legislation, plans, programmes and environmental agreements
• Emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment
• Cost benefit and other economic analyses used in environmental decision making
Environmental information covers a broad range of topics, such as:
• the environment itself, including air, water, earth and the habitats of animals and plants
• things that affect the environment, such as emissions, radiation, noise, and other forms of pollution
• policies, plans and laws on the environment
Examples of environmental information are:
• levels of chlorine in swimming pools
• water-quality and air-quality test reports
• genetically modified crops
• air-conditioning systems in public buildings
Regulation 2(1) ‘Environmental information’ has the same meaning as in
Article 2(1) of the Directive, namely any information in written, visual, aural,
electronic or any other material form on —
Information can therefore include or be found in:
•Documents, leaflets, reports, books, notes, data sets, memos, meeting notes,
post-its, the back of an envelope - in fact, anything written.
•Pictures, maps, plans, designs, models, video, posters, diagrams, sketches,
graphs, illustrations.
•Tape recordings, answer phone recordings, recorded presentations,
Dictaphone tapes, compact discs.
•Any type of computer file, word-processor file, database, spreadsheet,
computer models (including 3D models), specially written bespoke programs,
calendars, emails, archived webpages/sites, temporary or cached files, still
images, video images, computer-generated images.
•Any other material form – that is, other forms not widely available, or not yet
developed or invented.
However, it does not include information that does not yet exist but that could
be created by the manipulation of existing information. In other words authorities are only obliged to release information held and are not required to
research or manipulate data to create new information. Example: If an authority is asked for a graph of air quality for the last 12 months, but it only
holds the raw data and no graph has been created, they would only be required to release the data, and would not be required to create a graph.
Information is not restricted by geographical location
A. The state of the elements of the environment, such as* air and
atmosphere, water, soil, land, landscape and natural sites including
wetlands, coastal and marine areas, biological diversity and its components,
including genetically modified organisms, and the interaction among these
elements;
*Note use of ‘such as’ – this indicates that the elements listed here are purely
representative, and are not the only things which should be considered as
elements.
The state of the elements – this includes the physical, biological and
chemical characteristics. It is not limited to current conditions but includes past
and predicted future conditions.
Air and atmosphere – the atmosphere is the collection of gases that
surround the earth and that are retained by the earth’s gravitation. The
atmosphere extends up to approximately 660km in altitude. The distinction
between air and atmosphere suggests that air refers to air within buildings and
structures, underground, indoors, in the workplace and elsewhere where it is
confined in some way. Air and atmosphere should not always be taken to mean
‘air’ as a whole and in its entirety. The gases which make up the atmosphere
and air are also included separately: for example, carbon dioxide, oxygen etc.
Water – will mean water in all its forms (vapour, ice, liquid) and is not limited
by scale (from oceans to the smallest droplet). It includes water underground or
on the surface, water in natural settings (rivers, lakes) and man-made settings
(canals, ponds).
Soil – soil can be taken to mean the
unconsolidated mineral or organic
material top layer of the earth’s surface in which plants grow.
Land – land was described in the guidance for the 1992 EIR as: all land
surfaces, buildings, land covered by water, and underground strata. By
including underground strata the implication is that land covers natural minerals
and deposits such as salt, coal, limestone, slate, iron etc.
Landscape – Landscape is defined by the European Landscape Convention
2000 as ‘an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the
action and interaction of natural and/or human factors’. A more technical
definition may be of more use when attempting to ascertain what landscape will mean in terms of environmental information. A specialist environmental
definition of landscape is ‘the traits, patterns, and structure of a specific
geographic area, including its biological composition, its physical environment,
and its anthropogenic or social patterns. An area where interacting ecosystems
are grouped and repeated in similar form’ (from EPAGLO).
Natural sites, including wetlands, coastal and marine areas – ‘natural
sites’ recognises the importance of protected areas such as Sites of Special
Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).
However, a site will not need to have been designated to qualify as a ‘natural
site’. All natural sites that are ascribed a specific value, local value, special
natural or historic value can be taken to be a natural site. ‘Natural’ does not
necessarily mean devoid of human interference, and the management of a site
will not preclude it from being classified as natural. Wetlands, coastal and
marine areas were included specifically (Amendment 15) by the European
Parliament as they thought that ‘natural sites’ did not make it clear that these
types of areas were also to be considered.
Biological diversity and its components – Article 2 of the Convention on
Biological Diversity 1992 defines the term as ‘the variability among living
organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other
aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this
includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems’. The
components of biodiversity then must be taken to mean: genetic diversity – the
genetic composition of a species (genes, DNA, RNA, etc.); species diversity -
every living thing, every single species (plant, animal, bacteria, viruses etc);
ecosystem diversity – all habitats whether natural or man-made (from arctic
wilderness to urban sprawl). In addition, biological diversity and its components
should not be limited in time; for instance, it will include dead and extinct
individual organisms and species.
‘Genetically modified organism’ (GMO) – UNECE describe GMOs as ‘any
organism with the exception of human beings that possesses a novel
combination of genetic material obtained through the use of modern
biotechnology’. In addition, the European Community has used the following
definition: ‘genetically modified organism (GMO) means an organism, with the
exception of human beings, in which the genetic material has been altered in a
way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination’.
Please note: definitions for ‘modern biotechnology’ and ‘micro-organism’ are
available if required, please consult the reference listed in note 3.
the interaction among these elements – this recognises that no one aspect
of the environment can be fully understood in isolation and that the interaction
between the elements is just as important as the elements themselves.
...CONT 
B. Factors, such as substances, energy, noise, radiation or waste, including radioactive waste, emissions, discharges and other releases into the
environment, affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment referred to in (a);
•Factor – factor in this sense should simply be taken to mean something that has an effect on an element of the environment.
It is important to note at this stage that it is possible for an ‘element’ to be a ‘factor’, for instance, water will become a ‘factor’ in an incidence of
flooding. Equally, a ‘factor’ may also be an ‘element’.
•Substances – includes all material/matter, natural or synthetic, for example chemicals, pharmaceuticals, hormones, antibiotics, oil, particulates, gases, liquids. A European definition of substances states: ‘substances means any chemical element and its compounds, as they occur in the natural state or as produced by industry, whether in solid or liquid or gaseous form’
•Energy – can be expressed in traditional scientific language, as thermal, chemical, electrical, kinetic, potential, light, and sound. Common usage for the term centres on power generation, oil-fired, coal-fired, gas-fired, nuclear and renewable energy (wind power, solar energy etc). However, energy is not restricted to large-scale power plants and electricity generation. It also includes heat (heat, in the form of hot water emitted into a river for example, can have a drastic affect on the plants, animals and fish living in the vicinity). Energy will include sunlight, geothermal energy, radio waves, microwaves etc.
•Noise – although noise is itself energy, it is included here separately. It was also specifically mentioned in the original European Directive on Environmental Information in 1990 (1990/313/EEC) and in the original UK EIR in 1992. Noise is subjective, localised and transient. A simple dictionary definition of noise is ‘a sound, especially one that is loud, unpleasant, or disturbing’. Noise also includes vibrations (Environmental Protection Act, 1990, s79(1)(g)). Many different laws and standards in the UK relate to noise. Examples include construction noise, transport noise, noise from aircraft, noise from premises, occupational noise, noise-making equipment, day time noise, evening noise, night-time noise.
•Radiation or waste, including radioactive waste – radiation can be natural (sun, cosmic rays, radioactive minerals), or man-made. There are two main types of radiation: ionising and non-ionising. Ionising radiation is either particulate (alpha, beta, neutrons) or electromagnetic (x-rays, gamma rays).
Non-ionising radiation consists of electromagnetic radiation from extremely low frequency (ELF) to ultraviolet (UV).
•Waste – waste can be broadly interpreted to mean anything discarded. This would include household waste, industrial waste and commercial waste (which are collectively described as Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)); construction and demolition wastes; mining and agricultural wastes; sewage sludge and dredged spoils; and Special Waste, hazardous, toxic waste. The waste sector is highly regulated and the definition of waste can be controversial. For instance, if ‘waste’ is to be used to generate power through incineration, it has been argued that this therefore allows it to be categorised as fuel as opposed to waste (at the time of writing, it is classified as waste until full recovery, i.e. combustion, is complete).
There are many categories of waste, and special rules/prohibitions apply to transboundary movement of wastes (Basel Convention, 1992). The Environment Agency regulates waste in the UK and has a good section on its website if further information is required.
•Radioactive waste – radioactive materials are used in many situations, settings and industries and are more widespread than you might think.
Radioactive materials are used in common products such as the luminous dials on watches,ceramic glazes and smoke detectors. Radioactive waste is generated by hospitals, pharmaceutical industry, research establishments, and of course the nuclear power generation industry. Radioactive waste is
categorised as either High-level Waste (HLW), Intermediate-Level Waste (ILM), Low-Level Waste (LLW) or Very-Low-Level Waste (VLLW). VLLW is disposed
of in landfill or by incineration; LLW is disposed of at a facility at Drigg, near Sellafield. ILW and HLW are both stored on-site, and there is currently no
government policy for the disposal of ILW and HLW.
•Emissions, discharges and other releases – a common, widely quoted definition of emission comes from the European IPPC Directive: ‘emission shall mean the direct or indirect release of substances, vibrations, heat or noise from individual or diffuse sources (…) into the air, water or land’. ‘Discharges’ is not expressly defined in legislation; however, common usage of the term in this context suggests it is generally reserved (although not exclusively) for liquid releases into water. A definition for ‘releases’ is available from the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which states, ‘…release includes – (a) in relation to air, any emission of the substance into the air; (b) in relation to water, any entry (including any discharge) of the substance into water; (c) in relation to land, any deposit, keeping or disposal of the substance in or on land…’
•affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment referred to in (a) - information about the factor will not be environmental information unless the factor is affecting or likely to affect the elements of the environment, although it is hard to imagine when a factor would not have such an effect. There is no indication that the effect must be detrimental or large scale, so it may be minimal or negligible. The test for ‘likely to affect’ is that the effect must be substantially more than remote. However, it need not be more likely than not.
“The definition of environmental information should be clarified so as to encompass information in any form on the state of the environment, on
factors, measures or activities affecting or likely to affect the environment or designed to protect it, on cost-benefit and economic analyses used within the
framework of such measures or activities and also information on the state of human health and safety, including the contamination of the food chain,
conditions of human life, cultural sites and built structures in as much as they are, or may be, affected by any of those matters.”
References:
http://74.6.239.67/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=what+is+information+environment&fr=yfp-t-157&fp_ip=PH&u=www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/environmental_info_reg/introductory/eirwhatisenvironmentalinformation.pdf&w=information+environment+environmental+environmentalist&d=Gjp4rd29Tcbt&icp=1&.intl=us&sig=7sVXvDCMWaE8vLyA2mkYBA--
http://74.6.239.67/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=what+is+information+environment&fr=yfp-t-157&fp_ip=PH&u=www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/environmental_info_reg/introductory/what_is_environmental_information.pdf&w=information+environment+environmental+environmentalist&d=XYhn2t29Tdep&icp=1&.intl=us&sig=NWnCbGok3Ru_26958ElaGA--
http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/Law/EIRs/EnvironmentalInformation.asp
Now, the information environment that I chose is the WORLD WIDE WEB.
What is the WorldWideWeb anyway? As according to Wikipedia, a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks. Using concepts from earlier hypertext systems, English physicist Tim Berners-Lee, now the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium, wrote a proposal in March 1989 for what would eventually become the World Wide Web. He was later joined by Belgian computer scientist Robert Cailliau while both were working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1990, they proposed using "HyperText [...] to link and access information of various kinds as a web of nodes in which the user can browse at will", and released that web in December.
Connected by the existing Internet, other websites were created, around the world, adding international standards for domain names and the HTML. Since then, Berners-Lee has played an active role in guiding the development of Web standards (such as the markup languages in which Web pages are composed), and in recent years has advocated his vision of a Semantic Web. The World Wide Web enabled the spread of information over the Internet through an easy-to-use and flexible format. It thus played an important role in popularizing use of the Internet. Although the two terms are sometimes conflated in popular use, World Wide Web is not synonymous with Internet. The Web is an application built on top of the Internet.
What should be your role within this environment? The terms Internet and World Wide Web are often used in every-day speech without much distinction. However, the Internet and the World Wide Web are not one and the same. The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. In contrast, the Web is one of the services that runs on the Internet. It is a collection of interconnected documents and other resources, linked by hyperlinks and URLs. In short, the Web is an application running on the Internet.
As a student and so exposed with the applications roaming all around the Internet, I should be aware of what are the advantages and disadvantages of over usage of it. By that, my role in the World Wide Web is to bring the user and the applications closer by telling my peers the compensation of duelling the web, as vice versa, I should also be able to tell my peers the drawbacks of excess usage in the web. The Web can be a great partner especially those times when we are bored, we can easily sit down on our chairs, turn on our computers, and browse the internet, and then we can surf all the web applications that finds our interests. In addition, as an Information Technology student, I can use my field of study to spread information using blogs, social network applications, and the like so that people will be aware of the happenings every now and then.
How can the principles of information organization and representation help you in performing this role? In performing this role, I should be quite observant enough. As based on the facts above, Information does not stop on geographical location. To be honest, it is not that easy for me to get in touch always in the web for the reason that there are much important things that needs my concern rather than to browse the web. I may have not stated explicitly all the principles that could help me in performing the roles, yet , I do know that the ‘hidden’ principles would be an advantage for me to help me represent my field of study.
What are the challenges facing you in performing the role? How will you address these challenges? First challenge for me, if I were to convey information on the web, is the lack of time to research the true story of a certain event. I am not a web user addict, but I find myself leaning on it especially on ‘nothing-to-do’ times. To address this, obviously, I must spend my time gathering inputs first before posting it on my personal web journals. Also, information can be gathered not just by surfing the internet, I can also make use of the broadcasting technology for me to congregate more necessary inputs. And secondly, if I were to convey infos, another challenge, is my sense of consistency. You can not gather data in just one sitting, you must be steady enough for you to finish congregating data.
The web is so transparent nowadays. I myself can sometimes gain news from browsing different web applications especially yahoo. But still, vigilance is always the best tool for everything.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Www
TOPIC: As a student, you were invited by the Dean of the Institute of Computing to attend a seminar-workshop on information systems planning with some of the faculty members. In one of the sessions, a discussion of outsourcing came up. You have been asked to present your evaluation about outsourcing the information systems functions of the school.
Required:
You are to take a position- outsource or in-source and justify your position. (3000words)
I actually go for OUTSOURCING. Reasons are, paying an IT personnel to maintain your website for example would be costly than keeping someone who would be in charge of your site in a contract manner. I mean, there would be a big difference. If you actually go for customization all the time, then you must go insource. But if your budget is limited, outsourcing would be a great deal.
So, what is outsourcing? Outsourcing is contracting with another company or person to do a particular function. Almost every organization outsources in some way. Typically, the function being outsourced is considered non-core to the business. An insurance company, for example, might outsource its janitorial and landscaping operations to firms that specialize in those types of work since they are not related to insurance or strategic to the business. The outside firms that are providing the outsourcing services are third-party providers, or as they are more commonly called, service providers.
Although outsourcing has been around as long as work specialization has existed, in recent history, companies began employing the outsourcing model to carry out narrow functions, such as payroll, billing and data entry. Those processes could be done more efficiently, and therefore more cost-effectively, by other companies with specialized tools and facilities and specially trained personnel.
Currently, outsourcing takes many forms. Organizations still hire service providers to handle distinct business processes, such as benefits management. But some organizations outsource whole operations. The most common forms are information technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO).
Business process outsourcing encompasses call center outsourcing, human resources outsourcing (HRO), finance and accounting outsourcing, and claims processing outsourcing. These outsourcing deals involve multi-year contracts that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Frequently, the people performing the work internally for the client firm are transferred and become employees for the service provider. Dominant outsourcing service providers in the information technology outsourcing and business process outsourcing fields include IBM, EDS, CSC, HP, ACS, Accenture and Capgemini.
Some nimble companies that are short on time and money, such as start-up software publishers, apply multisourcing -- using both internal and service provider staff -- in order to speed up the time to launch. They hire a multitude of outsourcing service providers to handle almost all aspects of a new project, from product design, to software coding, to testing, to localization, and even to marketing and sales.
In all cases, outsourcing success depends on three factors: executive-level support in the client organization for the outsourcing mission; ample communication to affected employees; and the client's ability to manage its service providers. The outsourcing professionals in charge of the work on both the client and provider sides need a combination of skills in such areas as negotiation, communication, project management, the ability to understand the terms and conditions of the contracts and service level agreements (SLAs), and, above all, the willingness to be flexible as business needs change.
The challenges of outsourcing become especially acute when the work is being done in a different country (offshored), since that involves language, cultural and time zone differences.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
The competitive pressures on firms to bring out new products at an ever rapid pace to meet market needs are increasing. As such, the pressures on the R&D department are increasing. In order to alleviate the pressure, firms have to either increase R&D budgets or find ways to utilize the resources in a more productive way. There are situations when a firm may consider outsourcing some of its R&D work to a contract research organizations or universities. Reasons why a firm could consider outsourcing are:
• new product design does not work
• project time and cost overruns
• loss of key staff
• competitive response
• problems of quality/yield.
The key drivers for R&D outsourcing are emerging mass markets and availability of expertise in the field. In this context, the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, provide huge pools from which to find talent. Both countries produce over 200,000 engineers and science graduates each year. Moreover both countries are low cost sourcing countries. Other strategic drivers for outsourcing R&D are access to expertise and intellectual property, filling gaps in the capabilities of the R&D function, managing risk better, reducing the time to market, and focusing on the core competence or activities of the firm.
REASONS FOR OUTSOURCING
Organizations that outsource are seeking to realize benefits or address the following issues:
• Cost savings. The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.
• Focus on Core Business. Resources (for example investment, people, infrastructure) are focused on developing the core business. For example often organizations outsource their IT support to specialized IT services companies.
• Cost restructuring. Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from fixed to variable cost and also by making variable costs more predictable.
• Improve quality. Achieve a step change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement.
• Knowledge. Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.
• Contract. Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.
• Operational expertise. Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.
• Access to talent. Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in science and engineering.
• Capacity management. An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier.
• Catalyst for change. An organization can use an outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be achieved alone. The outsourcer becomes a Change agent in the process.
• Enhance capacity for innovation. Companies increasingly use external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for product innovation.
• Reduce time to market. The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.
• Commodification. The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services and application services enabling businesses to intelligently buy at the right price. Allows a wide range of businesses access to services previously only available to large corporations.
• Risk management. An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.
• Venture Capital. Some countries match government funds venture capital with private venture capital for startups that start businesses in their country.
• Tax Benefit. Countries offer tax incentives to move manufacturing operations to counter high corporate taxes within another country.
QUALITY RISKS OF OUTSOURCING
Quality Risk is the propensity for a product or service to be defective, due to operations-related issues. Quality risk in outsourcing is driven by a list of factors. One such factor is opportunism by suppliers due to misaligned incentives between buyer and supplier, information asymmetry, high asset specificity, or high supplier switching costs. Other factors contributing to quality risk in outsourcing are poor buyer-supplier communication, lack of supplier capabilities/resources/capacity, or buyer-supplier contract enforceability. Two main concepts must be considered when considering observability as it related to quality risks in outsourcing: the concepts of testability and criticality.
Quality fade is the deliberate and secretive reduction in the quality of labor in order to widen profit margins. The downward changes in human capital are subtle but progressive, and usually unnoticeable by the out sourcer/customer. The initial interview meets requirements, however, with subsequent support, more and more of the support team are replaced with novice or less experienced workers. India IT shops will continue to reduce the quality of human capital under the pressure of drying up labor supply and upward trend of salary, pushing the quality limits.
Such practices are hard to detect, as customers may just simply give up seeking help from the help desk. However, the overall customer satisfaction will be reduced greatly over time. Unless the company constantly conducts customer satisfaction surveys, they may eventually be caught in a surprise of customer churn, and when they find out the root cause, it could be too late. In such cases, it can be hard to dispute the legal contract with the India outsourcing company, as their staff are now trained in the process and the original staff made redundant. In the end, the company that outsources is worse off than before it outsourced its workforce to India.
PUBLIC OPINION
There is a strong public opinion regarding outsourcing (especially when combined with offshoring) that outsourcing damages a local labor market. Outsourcing is the transfer of the delivery of services which affects both jobs and individuals. It is difficult to dispute that outsourcing has a detrimental effect on individuals who face job disruption and employment insecurity; however, its supporters believe that outsourcing should bring down prices, providing greater economic benefit to all. There are legal protections in the European Union regulations called the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). Labor laws in the United States are not as protective as those in the European Union. On June 26 2009, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, called for the United States to increase its manufacturing base employment to 20% of the workforce commenting that the U.S. has outsourced too much and can no longer rely on consumer spending to drive demand.
LANGUAGE SKILLS
In the area of call centers end-user-experience is deemed to be of lower quality when a service is outsourced. This is exacerbated when outsourcing is combined with off-shoring to regions where the first language and culture are different. The questionable quality is particularly evident when call centers that service the public are outsourced and offshored.
The public generally find linguistic features such as accents, word use and phraseology different which may make call center agents difficult to understand. The visual clues that are present in face-to-face encounters are missing from the call center interactions and this also may lead to misunderstandings and difficulties.
In addition to language and accent differences, a lack of local social and geographic knowledge is often present, leading to misunderstandings or mis-communications.
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Outsourcing sends jobs to the lower-income areas where work is being outsourced to, which provides jobs in these areas and has a net equalizing effect on the overall distribution of wealth. Some argue that the outsourcing of jobs (particularly off-shore) exploits the lower paid workers. A contrary view is that more people are employed and benefit from paid work. Despite this argument, domestic workers displaced by such equalization are proportionately unable to outsource their own costs of housing, food and transportation.
On the issue of high-skilled labor, such as computer programming, some argue that it is unfair to both the local and off-shore programmers to outsource the work simply because the foreign pay rate is lower. On the other hand, one can argue that paying the higher-rate for local programmers is wasteful, or charity, or simply overpayment. If the end goal of buyers is to pay less for what they buy, and for sellers it is to get a higher price for what they sell, there is nothing automatically unethical about choosing the cheaper of two products, services, or employees.
Social responsibility is also reflected in the costs of benefits provided to workers. Companies outsourcing jobs effectively transfer the cost of retirement and medical benefits to the countries where the services are outsourced. This represents a significant reduction in total cost of labor for the outsourcing company. A side effect of this trend is the reduction in salaries and benefits at home in the occupations most directly impacted by outsourcing.
QUALIFICATIONS OF OUTSOURCERS
The outsourcer may replace staff with less qualified people or with people with different non-equivalent qualifications.
In the engineering discipline there has been a debate about the number of engineers being produced by the major economies of the United States, India and China. The argument centers around the definition of an engineering graduate and also disputed numbers. The closest comparable numbers of annual graduates of four-year degrees are United States (137,437) India (112,000) and China (351,537).
SOURCES:http://www.sourcingmag.com/content/what_is_outsourcing.asphttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing
SONA 2009. PGMA envisions Philippines to become a strong republic. With regarding to the ICT community, PGMA just gave a little talk about having a department of ICT without elaborating much of it. Well, honestly, that soon-to-be department must be too far from being soon. Hehe. You know what I mean. Lol. 
“Kung noong nakaraan, lumakas ang electronics, today we are creating wealth by developing the BPO and tourism sectors as additional engines of growth. Electronics and other manufactured exports rise and fall in accordance with the state of the world economy. But BPO remains resilient. With earnings of $6 billion and employment of 600,000, the BPO phenomenon speaks eloquently of our competitiveness and productivity. Let us have a Department of ICT.” -PGMA
--That’s it. Department of ICT? That would be really great. But when? 10 years from now? When people start to ride a flying car? Hehe. Lol.
“Taxes should come from alcohol and tobacco and not from books. Tax hazards to lungs and livers, do not tax minds. Ang kita mula sa buwis sa alak at sigarilyo ay dapat gamitin sa kalusugan at edukasyon. Pondohan ang Philhealth premiums ng pinakamahihirap. Pondohan ang mas maraming classroom at computers.” -PGMA
-- I think this is somehow related to having a department of ICT. As what I can see, if this is really gonna happen or is happening now, the soon-to-be department of ICT’s job is to make sure that the taxes that come from alcohol and tobacco must be for the benefit of those school (especially public ones). Giving them new and efficient computer sets for the students to be more acquainted with the technology. Because it is known that some of the public school students are not computer literate. The soon-to-be department of ICT must make sure that the promises of PGMA must be done.
“In sum:
1. We have a strong economy and a strong fiscal position to withstand global shocks.
2. We built new modern infrastructure and completed unfinished ones.
3. The economy is more fair to the poor than ever before.
4. We are building a sound base for the next generation.
5. International authorities have taken notice that we are safer from environmental degradation and man-made disasters.” –PGMA
-- I am not on opposition side, in fact, I do like how PGMA is working on for the betterment of this country. But all I can read from her SONA was pure fallacy. I just don’t know where those big moneys are right now. This would be her last year if cha-cha is not pursued. It’s never too late for PGMA to make a move. I am aware that being a president is not as easy as being a classroom president. PGMA made sacrifices but only those on administration side saw it. There are so many intellectual giants living here. We, Filipinos are so intelligent that nothing can bring much contentment to us if we are not on power. Instead for fighting for the highest position, better help one another save this country. “We Filipinos are worth dying for”, that was according to Ninoy. But If I were him, I would not waste my life saving people who are not even worth it. See what I mean?
SOURCE:
http://quintessentialy.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/2009-sona-by-pgma-posted-on-inquirer-net/
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