Delivering Business Value with IT at Hefty Hardware Essay

The mini-case starts with â€Å"IT is a pain in the neck,† which is a wrong notion that most of the business managers have in an organization. The history of IT-business relationships in most of the organizations shows that there is a huge gap between both sides which is getting better over a period of time. Today, managers know the fact that it is the people, technology and information that realizes the value of a company and everytime IT cannot be blamed for everything. The days have gone when IT was looked at as the sole responsibility for a company’s growth or downfall. IT processes along with the ability of the organization to manage information and people’s faith and behavior decide the actual value. Shortcomings of business and IT The partnership between business and IT at Hefty hardware is not so good and each side thinks that the other side doesn’t really understand what their actual requirements and problems are. The business thinks that they are unnecessarily pouring millions of dollars into IT and not getting a real value for it. They think that the IT is so self-absorbed with their work and problems that they really don’t get what the business is trying to do. The VP, Cheryl O’Shea and the COO Glen Vogel believe that the IT doesn’t know the basic functions of business and as part of the higher-level management, they think that it’s their responsibility to take the IT folks onto the field to really make them understand the business operations at all the Hefty stores. The IT has a total different perspective on this. The CIO, Farzad Mohammed and chief architect, Sergei Grozny refer to this whole idea of going onto the field as ‘Boondoggle’ which shows they be lieve that this would bring no value to the work they do and consider it as a waste of time. They think that going to the field would not help them much in understanding the business. Instead, they are only focused on planning the strategic IT architecture for the Savvy stores initiative and other high priority projects. Also, they think that they can send the IT folks onto the field once they are done with the planning and budget cycle. But, little do they  understand here that it would be of no use sending the IT people after the planning as things to be changed as early as possible in a project life cycle. The more delay in the changes, the more complex and expensive the project would be. The IT folks couldn’t communicate properly with the business about their ideas and strategy that confused the business and made them reject the ideas that were actually worth trying. In the market today, business is showing growing interest to partner with IT to make sure they get the value for investing huge in technology. But, still there is a gap between the two departments and the IT folks think that they do not have enough support from the business to ensure the value is realized for the organization. A good example of deep integration of IT and business is the recent firing of the Apple maps chief. The ill-fated Apple maps was the failure of both the IT folks who couldn’t develop an efficient app for maps and also the business who couldn’t gather all the requirements and couldn’t manage the project to achieve the desired output. As a result, the Apple exec Richard Williamson was blamed and fired for the disastrous project and humiliation for the organization. In the past, a good amount was spent by companies in new technological deployments. During this time, there are no returns. Post-deployment, there would be some value realization due to the initial efficiencies but this would be only for around six months. But, after this due to the increase in use, complexities increase which increase the costs. This may lead to losing belief in the initiative but if the faith is carried on, value can be realized by applying people, information and technology more efficiently and simplifying business. Hence, the organization can achieve real long-term if they religiously follow this. Plan for IT and business collaboration for Savvy Store Success The business and IT, both are right in their place but wrong in the complete picture and both need to work on their shortcomings and start working together as a team to achieve the desired value. It should not be a â€Å"you-us† but â€Å"we† oriented efforts and there should be a blurred line between the two. As thought by Jenny, each hold the pieces of the future picture of business. From the business perspective, they need to really understand how to express and explain what it really wants from IT. Also, they need to link the IT value to the business model so that it becomes easy for the IT to really understand what is expected of them and where does their work fit in the  whole picture. The business should seek commitment to all the projects in IT which would increase the efficiency of the overall process. Also, the business needs to get the right people involved in the organization that not only have the technical skills but also can listen and understand the business perspective. So, T-shaped professionals who not only are experts in their own discipline but also can understand other disciplines are required. The IT strategies and budgets need to be reviewed more frequently and the business needs to revisit the business model at regular intervals and make the required changes instead of expecting overwhelming efforts from the IT that not only leads to poor quality of work but also can spoil the reputation of the company. From the IT perspective, they need to increase their knowledge on business and its functions. IT folks need to understand the overall organizational goals and objectives, business requirements, ideas and success factors. This would help them to work towards the organization success and avoid problems with business. From the scenario of not sending the top IT folks onto the field not only reflects the disinterest of IT to actually getting to know the real scenario but also reflects the bitter truth that there is a lack of resources and the associates are getting overloaded. Instead of adjusting with the number of resources and ignoring the important aspects of business, IT needs to express to the business that they need more resources to concentrate on all the areas of work. The IT staff needs to put tremendous effort on communication since that is one of the biggest hindrances between IT and business. They need to work more on their way of expression and simplify things to make the business understand how the initiatives serve the business purposes. They need to understand organizational dynamic and be more professional in what they do. The dedication of IT towards business should increase and it should serve as a trusted advisor to business. A prioritization rubric needs to be maintained by both the departments and needs to be revisited and updated frequently. The client and corporate values need to be incorporated in all the IT work. This gives a clear picture of what needs to be attended right away and what can be postponed. Also, there is a lack of governance structure to manage the overall strategies and identify the interdependencies between business and IT. The business and IT should trust each other and be clear at their expectations  and accountabilities in order to avoid conflicts in the future. References: McKeen, James D; Smith, Heather (2012). IT strategy: Issues and practices (2nd ed.). Boston: Prentice Hall. Kindle Edition.

Niche Company/Urban Outfitters

The purpose of this report is to investigate the challenges of setting up a business and the difference between the major forms of business; particularly, niche markets as compared to the larger mainstream markets. Define three (3) challenges when setting up a business. Explain why they are challenges. The three main challenges when setting up a business are: cash flow, product supply and demand, and human resources. Depending on the type of business, you will have the initial cost of beginning the business prior to any income derived from that business. What type of product are you selling and is there a consumer demand for the product. Finally, staffing the business is also a major concern. Depending on the type of business, there will often be an initial cash investment. Property will have to be acquired from which you will operate the business. The cost will depend on the location, where you product will be in demand, whether you are purchasing the property or renting; and the amount of square footage needed. The property needs to be decorated in order to display the product and there is also the expense of the inventory; labor is also involved with decorating and stocking the inventory. Are you able to do this yourself or will individuals need to be hired? Also, do you as the business proprietor have enough cash flow to sustain your living expenses during this time, when there is no or little income available? Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a business. 2 The business began with an idea or product and the question must be answered as to whether or not it is in demand. Consumers must want the product in order for the business to succeed; if the consumer does not want the product, the business will fail. Therefore, one must ask if the product ill be in demand in the area where the business will be located; for example, snow sleds would not be in demand on a tropical island. Beginning a business requires an enormous amount of time and help is often needed. Unless you limit your hours of operation, it would be impossible for a single proprietor to fulfill all the hours needed. At first, one may have family and/or friends willing to invest their time, bu t this will only last for so long. Hiring employees is a difficult task; one must make sure the person is well suited for the position. The individuals you hire will be representing your business. Define what a niche product is. Give at least three examples of niche products. A niche product is designed to appeal to individuals with specific interests, needs, and price range. A few examples of a niche product would include: plus size woman’s clothing, import automobile repair service, and ethnic foods. Explain why a niche product might have an advantage in a market. Would price necessarily be an advantage? Explain why or why not. Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a business. 3 Niche products or services are specialized and serve a smaller segment of the market. A niche market masters a product specifically, designed to serve only one type of individual in the market. The advantage is the niche company can focus on one group of consumers. Price may possibly be lower; marketing to a smaller group of individuals is often more efficient and cost effective. However, producing a lesser quantity with a high demand would have the potential of raising the price. For example, an imported car owner desires a mechanic specializing in imported car repair. There is not a high demand for this type of repair service; therefore, the price for this service would be higher. The higher price would not be concern for the imported car owner because his main concern is having his car repaired correctly. Identify and explain three reasons why customers would pay more for exclusivity. 1) An exclusive product gives the impression that it is special; therefore, individuals are willing to pay more for something that is unique or special. 2) An exclusive product could be considered hard to find or purchase because of availability making it more special. Individuals want what someone else may not be able to obtain. 3) Individuals are willing to pay more for an exclusive product in order to impress others. The person that is impressed would find value in that item. Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a business. 4 Explain how a niche player chips away at a larger competitor’s base. Give three examples of retailers who have done this. There are three areas in which a niche player can chip away at a larger competitor’s base: go after a different way of delivering a product; provide a premium product or service; and specialize in a one product line. Barnes and Noble Bookstores deliver their product in a specialized way. This bookstore offers a wide variety of books for the reader; it would be very rare for a customer to be unable to find a particular book. One can sit in a living room type atmosphere read their purchase while having a cup of cappuccino or espresso. Second Hand Books is a chain offering pre-owned books at a greatly reduced price. This is a very generic way of shopping for books since there is no reasoning to where the books are shelved and coffee is unavailable. Coach stores offer very expensive limited design handbags priced in the hundreds of dollars. A customer walking into the store is made to feel as if they are the only person there. Individual attention is there for the asking making each customer feel that her business is truly appreciated. Macy’s, a large department store, also offers Coach handbags; however, selection is limited since the store also offers other designer handbags. Starbuck’s provides gourmet coffee; their mission statement is to provide the best cup of espresso. They do not offer a food menu; their only product is the gourmet coffee. McDonald’s now offers cappuccino and other coffee drinks along with their burgers and other menu items. Although their coffee drinks are less expensive, it is well worth the price of a Starbucks to have a good cup of Java. Urban Outfitters Continuing Case Study: Creating a business. 5 Summary: Giant businesses consider niche marketing to be less profitable. However, for small scale businesses, which have just started off with their business ventures, it can be very profitable. By targeting a group of people with a specialized demand your income can soar. You are not competing with the larger mainstream provider. Therefore, you will obtain more profit with a lesser effort by limiting yourself to that specialized niche market.

On-line Demand for Products and Services Assignment

On-line Demand for Products and Services - Assignment Example As the growth witnessed in the online shopping arena continues exponentially, various firms are acquiring new wealth focused on new market opportunities for footprint coverage. Therefore, stores are able to subsequently cater to the vast and continuously growing offshore markets in terms of service requirements and market demands. This is because of the growing influence of the Internet where online consumers need both Internet connectivity and valid payment methods to sustain a complete transaction (de Kare-Silver, 2000:48). In most cases, once a particular item has been identified on a website or in another online platform, an online retailer subsequently uses available shopping cart software. These subsequently allow consumers to continue buying products by way of accumulating multiple items, in addition to being able to adjust the quantities acquired. Through the existing ‘checkout’ processes, payment and delivery information is acquired. Here, some stores allow the customers to sign up for permanent online accounts. This is important because of the need for constant information gathering during an online transaction. This involves sensitive information (Sheth, 2003:23). Online accounts are more secure and hence the preferred choice for frequent online shoppers. As such, information should only be entered once. Some of the dominant online accounts include Shopify, Shopgate, and PrestaShop, osCommerce, Magento, and nopCommerce. High-end solutions can also be bought or rented in the version of stand-alone programs (Huang, 2000:339). This may also work as an addition to an existing enterprise program on resource planning. In the event that a transaction is successfully implemented, online shoppers usually receive e-mail notifications. A less sophisticated avenue involves a process where consumers use email or phones to order their products.  

Response to The Lottery Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Response to The Lottery - Essay Example Many in the story could not remember the exact detail of the ritual. A similar traditional ritual today is prayer only for sickened individuals. Several times a year, reports of children dying of treatable diseases because their parents believed in prayer alone can be read in the newspaper. This is a traditional ritual that needs to be dropped, with the exception of a consenting adult. For example, a woman was in a car crash, with a massive amount of blood loss. Since she was a Jehovah Witness, she refused a blood transfusion. As a result, she died. That was her right as an American. On the other hand, children need treatment because they are not old enough to consent. Another traditional ritual that needs to be rethought is the running of the bulls in Spain. The bulls can be hurt. People are gored and even killed. The tradition has become antiquated. Men and women no longer need to prove their courage in this fashion. Tradition is the only reason this even still occurs, because it could not be rationality. Another traditional ritual that needs dropped is a woman automatically taking a man’s last name upon marriage. Women are allowed in today’s society to keep their own name, but are normally looked down upon for not taking their husband’s last name. Women that keep their own last names do not love their husbands, are too independent, or even considered witches. The tradition started centuries ago, when women were considered a man’s property. Women should be free to choose whether or not to take their husband’s last name. The reason to change the above tradition rituals vary. The reason to ban prayer alone healing is in order to save life. Believing in God is a good thing, as is prayer, but God gave humans brains to think with. An answer to prayer could be a medication created by a God created scientist. God does not always answer prayers the way humans want. It could be instead of instantly making a person whole,

CAREER RESEARCH PAPER 10TH GRADE LEVEL TOPIC CHOOSEN IS ZOOLOGIST

CAREER 10TH GRADE LEVEL TOPIC CHOOSEN IS ZOOLOGIST - Research Paper Example The study originated in the work of a number of writers and theorists. Like a number of contemporary subjects of knowledge such as ethics, Aristotle is regarded as one of the first thinkers to distinguish the study of animals as a distinct subject of investigation. Other early thinkers include Al-Jahizz in Asian, whose Book of Animals is regarded as a precursor to Charles Darwin’s theories of evolution. However, it wasn’t until 16th century Europe that zoology became an official scientific field of investigation. The science progressed at a gradual rate until the 19th century when the investigation of the microscope and Darwin released the Origin of the Species, which detailed his theory of natural selection, that the study of zoology was truly revolutionized. (Hickman 2007) Today zoology as a variety of subfields and types of scientific investigation. One of the main roles of the science of zoology is that of developing systems of classification for animals. This is referred to as morphography. Other subfields include the fields of comparative anatomy, which studies the anatomy of animals in relation to other animals; descriptive zoography, which investigates animals and their behavior; molecular biology is greatly concerned with the internal biological and evolutionary functions of animals and is close in contact to the study of evolutionary biology; and paleontology is the study of prehistoric life. While these subfields of zoology cover a broad spectrum of the scientific field, they are no means comprehensive, as the study of zoology is a diverse and complex as the very animals that the function to investigate. (Hickman 2007) One of the most famous zoologists in recent times and one of the individuals I am most interested in is Steve Irwin the ‘Crocodile Hunter’. While Irwin gained famed for his television show where he daringly confronted dangerous animals, he was also a

Neuropsychological Patterns of Learning Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Neuropsychological Patterns of Learning - Essay Example Learning disabilities have remained uniquely linked to individual theoretical models. The methodology of assessing learning disabilities utilizes several factors in explanatory models and various levels of analysis. The objective of this analysis is to review the patterns of variations in learning for children with learning disabilities. The purpose for this analysis is to provide a scholarly critique regarding the patterns of learning of children with disabilities. According to a research conducted by Robert-Jay Green (1990, p. 145), he formulated two hypotheses in investigating the impact of family interaction and structure on information processing deficits of children with learning disabilities. The first hypothesis by Green seeks to research into the relationship between thought orders of schizophrenic children and parental communication. The study employed the use of a scoring manual designed to measure nonconformity in communication. The study highlighted the parent’s i nterpersonal linguistic skills in categorizing, naming, directing shared attention, and explaining world concepts to the children of different age groups and different chores. Green, however, indicates that family communication would have minimal effect on the long run on the child. Further, an environment based on uneven and unstructured communication styles would experience persistent cognitive disorientation and confusion. Hence, this leads to the impairment of a child’s ability to process and keep new information at school. The findings proposed a strong and reliable relationship between deviations in parental communication and diagnosis of schizophrenic and marginal conditions of children. This relationship would be associated to families with cognitively confused schizophrenic children. The analysis revealed a high rate of communication deviance for 87% of parents with children of learning disabilities (Green, 1990, p. 145). The second hypothesis focused on how an under organized family structure would enhance or maintain the attention deficits of children with learning disabilities. It utilized the method of interviewing families of children with learning disabilities and rating them. These children also labeled as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or Conduct Disorder displayed an inability to maintain a focused attention. Clinical research indicated that certain features of families hinder a systematic flow of ideas in communication. For instance, erratic and unfocused parental control styles, abrupt topic changes, conflict resolution through threats, deficient communication in words and reasoning, and disciplinary based on moods. These families would be considered chaotic, under organized and detached. Thus, the two hypotheses established an association between family characteristics and children with learning disabilities (Green, 1990, p. 146). However, these two studies failed to establish the direction of impacts between parent and ch ild characteristics, and the role of environment and heredity in the emergence of these family patterns. Hence, the findings do not provide any results on the four etiological models; the genetic, environmental, ecosystem and stress models. Their research assumes that each model would fit only certain subtypes of learning disabilities. It would be recommended that further large-scale longitudinal research be conducted on parents diagnosed as learning disabled

Mediation Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Mediation - Research Paper Example Man is also a social being. Because he belongs to the civilized society, man is expected to interact with his fellow human beings and form a variety of relationships like friendship. When man is required to make decisions, he may or may not solicit his friends’ opinions. â€Å"†¦in making decisions, people often consider all relevant information...† (Goodell, 2009) For man, a rational and social being, friends are important and so are their opinions which usually form part of man’s consideration. Since it is not a perfect world, man may have altercations with others. These can be trivial ones and/or serious fights. Whatever the dispute is, some form of mediation comes into play. In mediation, a neutral third party works with the people involved to resolve their dispute. (Kline, n.d.) â€Å"Unlike a judge or arbitrator, a mediator has no decision-making authority†¦[he] acts to facilitate the parties reaching their own solutions.† (Mediation v. Litigation, page 1) In mediation, the decision-making authority rests with the parties. (The Mediation Process, page 1) Thus, it is very important for the parties to take note of every variable before reaching an agreement. As mentioned earlier, being a social being as well as a rational one, it is common nature for man to hold his peers’ opinions as one of those variables. These people, who are not actually sitting around the table, can have a deep effect on mediation. (Rosenthal, 2009) One wonders just how strong a man is influenced by his peers’ opinions. Already, the strength of peer influence has been recognized and researched as evidenced by the studies done on peer mediation. In one article, researchers shared the results of their project â€Å"designed to investigate the effectiveness of a school-wide conflict resolution curriculum and peer mediation program.† (Daunic, et. al., 2000) The research was done in three middle schools.