Group Assignment: Post # 5

Businesses and individuals must be aware of the information security and ethical issues that come together with their dependence and frequent use of information systems.

Not knowing or caring about these issues may bring about loss of confidential information and lasting damage to their business reputation. In this post, you will talk about the following:

1) Think of 2 to 3 ways in which businesses may violate privacy or ethical rights without realizing it.

Answer:

Search Engines
Search engines is the most popular ways that search the information in the internet, but the businesses may violate privacy or ethical rights without realizing it, the search engine store the IP addresses [of searchers] for so long .Even if the search engines cannot identify the person behind every IP address, people do leave behind their names and other personal information that make it possible to track who they are, what kinds of thing we are searching in, what we are interesting in.

Billing and Shopping Online by Public Computer
Even we are checking email, shopping online, banking, stocks transaction by using public computer at café shop, restaurant, library that already cased the risks to release our personal information, (e.g., credit card number, login passwords), sometimes this also leaves this personal information to the next users

2) How can the violations mentioned in the previous question be avoided or minimized ?

Answer:

Some ways to be avoided or minimized
- Avoided to shopping online, banking, stocks transaction which involve the banking account or credit card account by using public computer.
- After using, must totally logout, and remember delete all the surfing record, cookies, temperate file, account and password information
- Using the personal computer to do the above activities at home.
- Do not use the share file software (e.g. FOXY) to avoid release the personal information to the internet.
- Do not post the personal information on Facebook
- Do not save the information in the email account to avoid the web hacker
- When using the computer through WI-FI, the security settings are necessary.
- If the web site which asking for the personal information, be careful to handle.

Group Assignment: Post # 4

Logistics companies such as FedEx and UPS no longer merely carry goods from one place to another. Some of them also provide supply chain planning and management services to their customers and help them manage their supply chain information.

Investigate the web site of FedEx OR UPS to see how these companies’ services may be used for supply chain management. Then, answer the following questions:

a) What supply chain processes can each of these companies support for their clients ?

Answer: United Parcel Service, Inc., commonly referred to as UPS, is the world's largest package delivery company. UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 200 countries and territories around the world.

UPS' primary business is the time-definite delivery of packages and documents worldwide. In recent years, UPS has extended their service portfolio to include less than truckload transportation and supply chain services. UPS reports their operations in three segments: U.S. Domestic Package operations, International Package operations, and Supply Chain & Freight operations.

Supply Chain & Freight
Supply Chain & Freight includes UPS' forwarding and contract logistics operations, UPS Freight, and other related business units. UPS' forwarding and logistics business provides services in more than 175 countries and territories worldwide, and includes worldwide supply chain design, execution and management, freight forwarding and distribution, customs brokerage, mail and consulting services.

Ship with UPS
The shipping process doesn't need to be complicated. Whether shipping online at ups.com or with another UPS shipping system, well show how to complete a shipment quickly and easily.

Tracking Support
UPS uses tracking numbers to identify and trace every shipment as it moves through the UPS system to its destination. A tracking number is automatically assigned to the shipment, whether use an online shipping system or a paper-based method (UPS Waybill, etc.). The customer can use this number to track, locate, and verify the arrival of shipment, and keep track of other pertinent shipment details.

Return Shipment
The UPS Returns® suite of services streamlines and simplifies the returns process and provides customers with a cost-effective means to manage returns efficiently and satisfy customers' need for fast and easy returns.
Once the process is in place, the returns packages can be given to any UPS service provider, or dropped off at any UPS Drop Box or other locations that accept UPS packages for shipment. The customers can also arrange to have returns packages picked up by contacting a UPS Office.

Business Solution
The UPS provide the business solution including Shipment Delivery, Return Shipment, Technology, Logistics, International Trade and Financial to the customer that what problem the customers will face when they use the service through UPS.

Group Assignment: Post # 3

Try any one of these decision support systems and describe two examples of decisions which they may help to support. For each decision, describe whether the decision would be made by operational, middle or senior management levels :
Break-even Calculator
Online Customer Lifetime Value Calculator (from Harvard Business School)
Hong Kong Yellow Pages Online Map
HSBC Mortgage Planner

Answer:

1. Hong Kong Yellow Pages Online Map

This system provided a lot of information to us, such us:
a. Buildings, Streets
b. Business address (e.g. Bank address, Cinema Address)
c. MTR Station, Bus stop

Senior Management makes decisions based on internal business information but also external industry and society changes; decisions affect long-term and strategic goals and the firm’s objectives.
And you can found that the YP pages information can get the customer information thought the data-base while the users are doing searching on YP pages.

2. Next, try out the different modules within the OpenBravo ERP demo. After you've familiarized yourself with these tools, identify which module can be used to handle each step within the Order-to-Cash business process below:
- Accept/Enter Order
- Order Acknowledgement
- Purchase Materials
- Receive Materials
- Production
- Packing
- Shipping
- Invoicing and Collection

Answer:
Below module can used to handle each step within order to cash under ERP system:

Accept / Enter Order - Sale management
Order Acknowledgement - Sale management
Purchases Materials - Procurement management
Receive Materials - Procurement management
Production - Production
Packing - Warehouse management
Shipping - Warehouse management
Invoicing and Collection - Financial management

3. Which departments need to coordinate from start to finish of the Order-to-Cash business process ? Describe how the ERP software makes their work easier. Also explain why ERP software can serve as the foundation or platform for decision support systems.

Answer:

IT department and supply chain department need to coordinate from start to finish of the Order To Cash business process because the business flow from sales order to invoice to customer lead by supply chain department and work with related department. IT department need to support and fulfill the requirement what they need in the system.

ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning is a well known term in business of today. An ERP system is used in a company to manage administration of the business such as finance, sales, distribution, human resources and manufacturing. A well integrated ERP system streamlines business processes and control costs through the entire supply chain. ERP software is automate and integrate the majority of its business processes, it can share common data and practices across the enterprise, it also allows the same data to be used by multiple functions and business processes. The result of ERP solution integration in a company should result in the following improvements and make their work easier :

1. Optimization of production planning and scheduling to improve manufacturing efficiency
2. Reduced inventory costs and better management of the supply chain and cash flow to reduce interest payments to factors for collateral borrowing.
3. More efficient distribution and tracking of customers orders, greater leverage over distribution centers and retailers.
4. Improved order fulfillment and delivery rates for higher satisfaction.
5. More accurate forecasting for improved short- and long-term planning
6. Integration of order flow and customer service information between sales and production to facilitate more effective marketing strategies and sales tactics.
7. Higher quality day-to-day information on overall business performance for better strategic decision making, particularly as related to capital and cash flows.
ERP supports integration since the business uses a common set of applications, supported by a centralized and integrated database. ERP allows real time shareing and monitoring of information across organization, so the same version of the transactions such as purchases order and sales order can see by different department, as soon as it is entered into the system. ERP systems is also offer better accessibility to data so that management can have up to the minute and provide the platform access to information for decision making and managerial control.

Group Assignment: Post # 2

Internet sale by customer report
Dimensions : products, period and customer
Measures : Internet sales
Evaluate the sale performance for each product and customer; company can design the sale strategy such as advertising and promotion.










Order count by product line by customer report
Dimensions : , products, period and geography
Measures : Order count
Analyze number of order for each product and geography and design the plan and assign the resources for each location.










Sale by geography by employee report
Dimensions : geography, period and employee
Measures : Internet sale
Analyze number of employee for each location can generate how much sale, company can design the resources, improve the cost saving and increase process efficiency

Group Assignment: Post # 1

This week we looked at several Internet Marketing methods. Together with your groupmates, find a specific example of how a company is using each method below:
1. Blog
2. Interactive advertisement
3. Search engine
4. Online partnerships or affiliate marketing
5. RSS feeds
6. Social networking
7. Gadgets
By the way, the examples you find do not all have to come from the same company. In your group blog, list all the examples you find, together with links to each example. Also provide a description of the effectiveness of each example.


1. Blog
Further to our group discussion, Blog can provide business opportunities for the beginners which interest in the sales. They can through Blog to spread their business which isn’t need to pay any money; introduction the business and company background to the new client; the client can write some good comments in your blog to let everyone which is the first time to visit your blog to have a good impression. The example of it is http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/monday868

2. Interactive Advertisment
Elements (www.elementshk.com/) is one of the most interesting website we had seen before. After you entered the website, you will see there had some mini games for you to play and guide you walking around the shopping mall on internet. You will see the power of the interactive advertisment. The mini games keep enhance interest in browsing the shopping mall. It make you know more about the shopping mall such as shops, restaurant, cinema, etc.

3. Search Engine
Open Rice (http://www.openrice.com/restaurant/index.htm) is our first selection to on behalf of the search engine. Open Rice can search the different kind of restaurant and comment in HK, through this search engine we can know that restaurant is good taste and good services or not. So when I go outside for dinner with my friend I must go to search about it.

4. Online partnerships or affiliate marketing
http://www.ebay.com.hk/ Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts. And we found that ebay and paypal had a relationship with there business. You can saw a paypal logo on ebay wedsite. The PayPal is the safer, easier way to pay and get paid online. The service allows anyone to pay in any way they prefer, including through credit cards, bank accounts, buyer credit or account balances, without sharing financial information. For the advantage of paypal, it attract a lot of people to shopping on ebay that which is concern the security of paying money through internet.

5. Rss feeds
http://www.apple.com/rss/
RSS (abbreviation for Really Simple Syndication) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. When you subscribe to Apple's feeds, you can get the updated product news from the rss.


6. Social networking
Douban.com http://www.douban.com/
Douban.com , established on March 26, 2005, is a Chinese Web 2.0 website providing social network service and online database for movies, books, and music. In 2008, it has about 1.2 million registered uses, and ranks the 74th most popular website in China according to Alexa Internet.

Douban allows users to rate movies, books, and music. Its user-generated top books are cited by some leading Chinese news media such as Beijing Youth Daily
The site are provide a platform to give the register to share the film, music, book what they want to see, seeing recently, and give the comment for it
Ryan’s reference http://www.douban.com/people/ryanleung/

7. Gadgets
Google Desktop is desktop search software made by Google for Mac OS X, Linux, and Microsoft Windows. The program allows text searches of a user's e-mails, computer files, music, photos, chats, Web pages viewed, and other "Google Gadgets."
After initially installing Google Desktop, the software completes an indexing of all the files in the computer. And after the initial indexing is completed, the software continues to index files as needed. Users can start searching for files immediately after installing the program. After performing searches, results can also be returned in an Internet browser on the Google Desktop Home Page much like the results for Google Web searches.
Google Desktop can index several different types of data, including email, web browsing history from Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, office documents in the OpenDocument and Microsoft Office formats, instant messenger transcripts from AOL, Google, MSN, Skype, Tencent QQ, and several multimedia file types. Additional file types can be indexed through the use of plug-ins. Google Desktop allows the user to control which types of data are indexed by the program.
One unfortunate aspect for users with large hard drives: Google Desktop only indexes 100,000 files per drive during the initial indexing period. If you have more than 100,000 files in a particular drive, Google Desktop won't index all of them during this initial period. However, Google Desktop adds files to your index during real-time indexing when you move or open them.










A prominent feature of Google Desktop is the Sidebar, which holds several common Gadgets and resides off to one side of the desktop. The Sidebar is available with the Microsoft Windows version of Google Desktop only. The Sidebar comes pre-installed with the following gadgets:

Email - a panel which lets one view one's Gmail messages.
Scratch Pad - here one can store random notes; they are saved automatically
Photos - displays a slideshow of photos from the "My Pictures" folder (address can be changed)
News - shows the latest headlines from Google News, and how long ago they were written. The News panel is personalized depending on the type of news you read.
Weather - shows the current weather for a location specified by the user.
Web Clips - shows recent posts from RSS news feeds.
Google Talk - If Google Talk is installed, double clicking the window title will dock it to one's sidebar.

Owner

Here's the Blog for Group No.7


Leader : Lai Kin Ho (Dan)

Group Member:
Leung Chi Kit (Ryan)
Kerry Wong
Jesty Wan