This is a blog that had been created in order to fulfill the project requirement of the Subject Management Information System which is creating a blog and uploaded all the case study that our group, Tech-away, had done in the early of the semester.
We have included the case study from Chapter 3 to Chapter 12 which had included the answer.
Tech_awaY
Monday, 16 December 2013
Thursday, 5 December 2013
Chapter 12: iPhone Become iTrack
Chapter 12: Ethical and Social Issues in
Information System
Question
1:
Why
do cell phone manufacturers (Apple, Google, and BlackBerry) want to track where
their go?
The
main purpose for the cell phone manufacturers to track down where they go is
because the data that they had collect is for advertising and marketing
purpose. Mobile technologies based on the smartphone make it there’s a
possibility to locate user’s throughout the day, to report thereabouts is
information to corporate data base, retain and analyze the information. When
the information has been analyzed, the cell phone manufacturers sell the
information they acquired to advertisers and others. There’s few number of firm
have adopted this kind of business models based on the ability of smartphone to
report on your whereabouts, it doesn’t matter whether you choose to so or not.
Other than that, law enforcement agencies certainly have an interest in knowing
the whereabouts of criminals and suspects, also the course divorce lawyers
usually want a obtain the information where the spouse locate over a long
period of time. The location data from cell phone users has extraordinary
commercial values, this is because the advertising company can send you
advertisement, coupon and other related things based on where the users
located. The market for location-based services in 2011 is expected to be $2.9
billion, and will rise to $8.3 billion in 2014 according to Gartner. This is
why cell phone manufacturers want to track where their go.
Question
2:
Do you think cell phone customers should be able to turn tracking off? Should customers be informed when they are being tracked? Why or why not?
Do you think cell phone customers should be able to turn tracking off? Should customers be informed when they are being tracked? Why or why not?
In my opinion, I think
that there should be a feature to turn the tracking system off in order to
protect users’ privacy. This system should make it more flexible to its
consumers. In this modernized society, most people especially teenagers would
like to have their own privacy and would like to find some space to express
their emotions. In fact, other than teenager’s, most of the VVIP personnel
would not like to be tracked as well. This is because their daily routine and
schedule would not like to be exposed to anyone including the cell phone
manufacturers as most of these people will have their own private invitation or
private ceremony to attend. It will expose any security weakness to the users
and it might lead to criminal case for those VVIP.
The notification
feature should implement to notify the users when they are being tracked by the
devices as well. For instance, if a user is being tracked by someone, he or she
will be in danger if he or she is being tracked by a robber or kidnapper without
being notified will actually ease these people to commit crime.
Question
3:
Do
you think cell phone tracking is a violation of a person’s privacy?
Indeed, cell phone
tracking system is an invasion of privacy. It is an inevitable fact that there’s
no one would like to be tracked by someone else, regardless who they are.
People tend to seek a private space for themselves whenever they are having
their personal problems and it is surely that they do not want their secret
share with others. The users will have the feeling of unsafe and uncomfortable
if such system had been installed into a cell phone. Furthermore, it will
violate one’s privacy if his or her whereabouts are being exposed or being
known by someone else. Cell phone tracking system will eventually exposed the
secret or privacy of those VVIP personnel. They would not like to be followed
by others as their secret or privacy may be brought into media. This is
actually a harassment and disturbance to their daily life. This case will
become worst if it leads to crime. In conclusion, privacy should be the major
concern to the implementation of this system; same thing should go to personal
safety.
Chapter 11: DST Systems Scores with Scrum and Application Lifecycle Management
Chapter 11: DST Systems Scores with
Scrum and Application Lifecycle Management
1.
What
were some of the problems with DST Systems’ old software development
environment?
The problems include the managers unable
to decide the way of resources allocation, and also the project managers or employees
were working on certain projects and status of specific assets. The group
development had used various tools processes and source code control systems
without any unified repository for code or a standardized developer tool set.
Besides, I think DST must be modified or innovated by new method in order to
improve the efficient and function of the old DST system.
2.
How
did Scrum development help solve some of those problems?
Scrum relies on self-organizing, cross-functional
teams supported by a ScrumMaster and a product owner. The Scrum exist software
development tools and experienced strong results. Scrum development help in
solving some of these problems by accelerating its software development cycle
from 24 months to 6 months and developer productivity increased by 20%. What
the scrum development pretty much acted like, was the coach for the team. This
is how the Scrum development helped solve some of these problems.
3.
What
other adjustments did DST make to be able to use Scrum more effectively in its
software projects? What management, organization and technology issues had to
be addressed?
Other adjustments DST was able to make
and use Scrum more effectively in its software projects. It is setting up a project
evaluation team to identify the right development environment. DST wanted the
ability to use the new software without significant training and software, they
could quickly adopt without jeopardizing AWD’s development cycle. After
considering, DST settled on CollabNet’s offerings. CollabNet specializes in
software designed to work well with agile software development methods such as
Scrum. Its core product is Team Forge, it used to centralize management of
users, projects, processes and assets. DST adopted Collabnet's subversion
product to help with the management control of changes to project documents,
programs, and other information stored as computer files. DST’s adoption of
CollabNet’s products was fast, just requiring 10 weeks. Besides, the adjustment
allowed DST to complete all of their work within the ALM platform.
For the part of management, organization
and technology issues had to be addressed, Jerry Tubbs, the systems development
manager at DST systems, says DST was successful in attempts to revamp the
software group because some factors.
1.
Looked for simplicity rather than complicated
2.
Much cheaper than some of the alternatives
3. Involved developers in the decision
making process to ensure that change to be greeted enthusiastically
4. Allow for the developers to adopt ALM
software on their own.
The company was successful because they selected the
right development framework as well as the right software to make that change a
reality and skillfully managed the change process.
Chapter 10: Albassami's Job Is Not Feasible Without IT
Albassami's Job Is Not Feasible Without IT
1. What systems are described here? What valuable information do they
provide?
Robust
computerized system and Information system.
Both systems have replication between the servers at headquarters and
the client’s branches. Interaction between both parties allows the data
aggregate to create the most update database version. The most recent version
of the client list, new shipping contracts and truck’s availability will be
shared during the transmission message. Thus, the customer is allowed to deal
with any branches at any time. Furthermore, the recipient branch will create a
receipt entry on the system upon arrival of the truck and then a Short
Messaging Service communication (SMS) is
create and sent to the customer, who will then go to the destination branch to
receive the car.
2. What value did the IT/IS investment added to Albassami?
Information
Technology/Information System investment help Albassami to conduct all the
business processes. The shipping information system will trigger the
transmitting of the information from all the branches to the HQ and then the
information will be shared and sent back to all branches. Management team will
then extracted the knowledge from the central database and enabled them to make
sound investment and operational decisions. Therefore, the business is able to
be maintained its success and leadership in the Kingdom.
3. How did implementing the Shipping Information System address the
business needs and information requirements of Albassami?
Shipping
Information System which includes information about the output of the vehicle’s
tracking information that
allowed a better audit on all drivers’ behavior. Moreover, the system also provides standard
reports to top management and head
sectors about all the productivity branches, more accuracy to identify the need
for different regions and thus proper budget allocation. On the other hand,
linking the data of vehicle maintenance centers with the transportation
services helps to improve company performance and customer service. Lastly, the
Shipping Information System used at Albassami also maintains all the sender
information such as the sent car, the truck number, the sender and receiving
branches, and it also send an SMS to the client acknowledging the arrival of
the car. In a short word, Shipping Information System is essence to all the
company, the cooperation and interaction between employees is needed whenever
conduct this system.
Chapter 9: Social Commerce Creates New Customer Relationships
QUESTION
1
Assess
the people, organization, and technology issues for using social media to
engage with customers.
Firstly,
people normally use social media to engage with their friends, to keep in touch
with friends and to let them know what they are doing. Next, for the
organization social media have become powerful tools for engaging customers. In
addition, some companies have opportunity to shape the perception of their
brands and to solidify relationships with their customers. Moreover, assess of technology media social
has help to track their location to loyal followers and fans. Besides that, appointment based businesses
can easily tweet or post cancellations and unexpected openings. Larger
companies run sweepstake and promotions.
QUESTION
2
What
are the advantages and disadvantages of using social media for advertising,
brand building, market research, and customer service?
Advantage
|
Disadvantage
|
1.
Bring people together.
·
Facilitate to open communication and
enhancing information discovery and delivery.
·
Everyone can find new people, meet
their friends and communicate to their love ones all over the world.
·
Examples Levi’s was the first national
brands to use Facebook and Twitter to allow consumers to socialize and share
their purchases with friends.
|
1.
Understanding on how it works
·
You need to understand how
social media works, when and how to use it and which channels to focus on
depending on your end goal of using social media in order to get its full
effects.
|
2.
Breadth of knowledge
·
People can experience the broadness of
knowledge and connectedness through social media use.
·
It is easier
for them to know or find out different information or something about almost anything
in the world through a connected media.
·
For examples, Best Buy used “ Twelp Force” to answer questions and
respond to complaints.
·
Moreover, they generate feedback on
social network and related sites, the company uses text mining to gather
these data and convert them to useful information.
|
2.
Commits illegal crime
·
Social media may open
possibility for hackers to commit illegal crime such as fraud,
spam and virus attacks. People falling prey to online scan may also increase,
resulting in data or identity theft.
|
3.
Technology Literacy
·
Help to develop some sorts of simple
skills.
·
Mostly, relies on advanced information
and communication technologies that work to build and support technological
literacy for people.
·
For example, many Facebook ads feature
the ability to “Like” a brand, send a virtual gift, answer a poll question,
or instantly stream information to your news feed.
|
3.
Viral social disadvantage
·
This may damage one’s
reputation. The wrong online brand strategy could put you on this.
|
4.
Opportunity to widen business
·
It could
always be a fun and creative method of doing your business because it not
just allows employees to discuss and share ideas, ask questions, post news
and share links but it minimize the use of advertising to businesses and
improves business reputation.
·
It also creates a more
competent and reliable business.
·
For examples, Starbucks run
contests on twitter regularly and uses the service to spread free product
samples.
|
4.
Negative effects on worker productivity
·
Results in lost productivity
and employees may use social media to attack the company’s reputation.
·
Instead of working in their
time of work, they can waste such valuable time using social media channels
such as Twitter and Facebook.
·
This may result in negative
comments from employees about the company or potential legal consequences if
employees use these sites to view objectionable, illicit or offensive
material.
|
5.
Attracts attention
·
Aside from
building loyalty and long-term relations to your audience, social media can
attract attention to your site, product or services.
·
For example,
Rosetta Stone has used Facebook’s targeting capabilities to determine which
types of people respond to various ads it has created.
·
Rosetta
Stone designed a series of advertisements for its language- learning products
with Webtrends, Inc., and launched the ads on Facebook.
|
5.
Distraction
·
Most people who suffer from
this are students.
·
Instead of doing their homework they tend to
fail their academic endeavors because of using social media in the wrong way.
|
QUESTION 3
Should all
companies use Facebook and Twitter for customer service and advertising? Why or
why not? What kinds of companies best suited to use these platforms?
No, because there are companies which
cannot carries out an online business. Hence, some companies only who expert
and suitable for the online business. Here is the list of companies that suitable for the media
social business.
Firstly, Martell Home Builders is
an Atlantic Canadian custom homebuilder. In the past, Martell relied heavily on
realtors to keep their business moving forward. However, once they embraced
social media, they were able to create a direct-to-consumer model where they were no
longer reliant on an middleman to bring them business.
Secondly, Zappos is an online retailer that sells
shoes, clothing and accessories. They’re known for the enormous emphasis they
put on creating real relationships with their fans and customers.
Thirdly, Giantnerd is a company
that sells outdoor equipment for outdoor activities like hiking, biking and
snowboarding. This company represents one of the best examples of social media
integration seen online today. Their emphasis is on giving their customers the
most value possible while becoming friends with them in the process.
Next, Ford has brought the social experience to
the forefront of their marketing efforts. Each time they add a new blog post,
they pull in the image, headline of the post and the comments from readers onto
the front page of their website. Those new to the site or those browsing for a
new car get to experience the company and its culture from a social viewpoint
right from the start.
Convince & Convert is
a social media strategy firm with clients across North America. Its founder,
Jay Baer, is a social media expert and co-author of the new book titled The Now Revolution.
Moreover, Cree is a
business-to-business company that sells energy-efficient, environmentally
friendly, industrial LED lighting. When you think of social media marketing,
you wouldn’t think that an industrial lighting company that sells LEDs to
grocery stores would be shining; however, Cree is extremely social-savvy.
Emmy’s Closet
is an online store that sells accessories for children. They’re a great example
of infusing social media with ecommerce. Emmy’s Closet is an extension of the
popular arts and crafts ecommerce site, Etsy.com. On the site they use an application created by Etsy
that allows you to browse and purchase directly through Facebook
Besides
that, San Chez
Bistro is a tapas bistro and restaurant in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Just
like Martell Home Builders, they’ve taken social media and infused it with the
needs and preferences of their local audience. San Chez encourages their patrons to use Twitter to reserve a seat at
their restaurant. They
call it “Tweet-Ahead Seating” and it’s a great use of social media local
marketing. Once you tweet your interest in a reservation, the online hostess
tweets you back with a message similar to this: “Great, you’re on the list. See
you in a little while.”
Lastly, Cranium,
a game by Hasbro, takes board games to the next level by including fun
activities like drawing, singing, acting and trivia questions.To make their
experience more social, Cranium does a great job of using content from the game
to engage with their fans. They often post factoids that can be found in their
game, such as the one about Einstein’s theory below. They know their audience
well and therefore know that these fun factoids will attract them.
Chapter 8: Customer Relationship Management Heads to the Cloud
1) What
types of companies are most likely to adopt cloud-based CRM software services?
Why? What companies might not be well-suited for this type of software?
Types
of companies that may want to adopt cloud may be any company wanting to
consolidate multiple services or applications into one, mainly to reduce
electricity, personal or operating costs. Companies that need a Service level
agreement or sense of data security would not want to invest into a cloud
system. Companies who struggling with a lot of data to be store also prefer to
use this. Cutting cost companies are also recommended to use this system.
Cloud-based
CRM would help these companies to achieve operational excellent and customer
intimacy and released from fixed and operational cost. Not only that, it also
allow them to subscribe and cancel without losing large up-front software
license and hardware investment.
Some
companies are not suit with this software services. Those companies made large
investment on solutions that already work, concern about security issues and
control of their data are the examples not encourage to use such software.
Companies which might independent on their provider also not prefer to do
so.
2) What
are the advantages and disadvantages of using cloud-based enterprise applications
Advantages:
1. Easy Implementation Cloud hosting allows businesses
to retain the same applications and business processes without having to deal
with the backend technicalities. Readily manageable by the Internet, a cloud
infrastructure can be accessed by enterprises easily and quickly. Another
advantage is a lesser cost for in-house IT infrastructure maintenance. While
some providers may say cloud hosting allows companies to save money by taking
away the need for an IT support and management team, the opposite is true. We
at Stratosphere Networks believe redundancy is key. While a backup can be an
extra cost, it can be worth it in the event of a technical failure within the
cloud.
2. Accessibility Access your data anywhere,
anytime. An internet cloud infrastructure maximizes enterprise productivity and
efficiency by ensuring your application is accessible from any place anytime,
allowing collaboration and sharing among users in multiple locations.
3. No Hardware Required A physical storage center is no
longer needed as it is hosted in the cloud. Again, a backup could be worth
looking into in the event of a disaster that could leave your company's
productivity stagnant.
4. Cost Per Head Overhead technology costs are
kept at a minimum with cloud hosting services, enabling businesses to use the
extra time and resources for improving the company infrastructure.
5. Troubleshooting, installation and
configuring Cloud
hosting provides easy, optimal utilization and management. In addition to
24x7x365 monitoring, Stratosphere Networks will install, troubleshoot and
configure your cloud software and handle any customization and upgrades your
enterprise may need.
6. Flexibility for Growth Easily scalable so companies
can add or subtract resources based on their own needs. As companies grow, the
need to expand their cloud infrastructure will also grow.
7. Efficient Recovery Cloud computing delivers faster
and more accurate retrieval of applications and data. With less downtime, it is
the most efficient recovery plan.
c Disadvantages
1. You are no longer in control When moving services to the
cloud, you are handing over your data and information. For companies who have
an in-house IT staff, they are unable to handle issues on their own by logging
onto a server. Instead they have to open a ticket like any end user. This may
be hard for clients to understand, especially an IT staff that is used to
handling tickets and internal technical issues internally. Stratosphere
Networks guarantees our 24/7 live help desk will rectify any problems
immediately - we are just one phone call away.
2. You may not get all the features Not all cloud services are the
same. Your cloud provider may not provide every feature or customization you
want as some tend to offer limited versions and enable the most popular
features. Before installation, make sure you know what your cloud service
provider offers before signing up.
3. Just because clouds require no
hardwire, doesn't mean you should do away with your servers Yes, you may have fewer servers
to handle which means less for your IT staff to handle, but in no way does that
mean you can let go of all your servers and your staff. While it may seem
costly to have datacenters and a cloud infrastructure, redundancy is key for
backup and recovery.
4. No redundancy A cloud server is essentially
not redundant nor is it backed up. As technology may fail here and there, avoid
getting burned by purchasing a redundancy plan. Although it is an extra cost,
in most cases it is well worth it.
5. Bandwidth issues For ideal performance, clients
have to plan accordingly and do not pack large amounts of servers and storage
devices into a small set of data centers.
3)
What
people, organization, technology issues should be addressed in deciding whether
to use a conventional CRM system versus a cloud-based version?
Difficult to understand for ill-trained
users, attempting to contain a large and complex group of data. Poor usability and low usage rates lead many
companies to indicate that it was difficult to justify investment in the
software without the potential for more tangible gains. Large investment to
build and maintain a customer database which requires computer hardware,
database software, analytical programme, communication links and skill
personnel. There was a risk assessment to the users because the using of this
cloud-based software server is not the owner of infrastructure privacy.
Dependability should be consider during the decision due to the issues of
storing data, difficult to export data, and dependent of provider.
Chapter 7: Information security threats and policies in Europe
1. What
is a botnet?
A bot is an autonomously operating software agent
which may be controlled by a remote operator to perform malicious tasks
typically installed onto a victim’s computer without the owner’s consent or
knowledge. Malware that exploits the vulnerabilities of the web servers,
operating systems, or applications is installed and created to take control of
the infected computers
2. Describe
some of the main points of the Digital Agenda for Europe?
Digital Agenda Europe used to define the key role that
information and communication technologies will play in 2020. It is to open the
digital market in European. Hence, broadband speeds of 30Mbps will be available
to all European citizens by 2020, and implementation of measures to protect
privacy and the establishment of a well-functioning network of CERT to prevent
cybercrime and respond effectively to cyber attacks.
3. Explain
how the cyber attack can be carried out.
There are 3 basic parts to a cyber-attack.
First of all, Access, a method to get inside or gain access to a network or system.
Secondly, Vulnerability, some part of the system that the attacker can take advantage of or
manipulate. Last but not least, Payload, the
purpose of the attack, namely, what exactly is the target and how significant
will the damage be
4 4. Describe
some of the weakness exploited by malware.
There are some weakness exploited by malware, one of
it is the security defects in software. Malware exploits defects in the sign of
the operating system, in applications or in browser pluggin such as Java and
Adobe Flash Player. Most systems contain bugs, or loopholes which may exploited
by malware.Not only that, insecure design or user error also one of the
weakness exploited by malware. Originally, PC had to be booted from floopy
disks. Until recently, it was common for a computer to boot from an external
boot device by default. This meant that computer would, by default, boot from a
floopy disk, USB flash drive, or CD and malicious boot code could be used to
install malware or boot into a modified operating system. Autorun or autoplay
features may allow code to be automatically executed from external disk drive
without permissions.Besides, over-privilleged users and over-privilleged code
cause malware allowed to modify internal structures of the system and subvert
the system.
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