CatherineKong's Blog

Case 2-2

lokinkong — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 19:15:56 +0000

The case study is about a case that the Ministry of Foreign Afairs of a West African country failed to computerize its internal services and ocmmunications through the use of Information Technology. One of the reasons of the failure is that the features of new information systems conflict with the need and desires of important user groups. The computerization threatened the perquisites of diplomats. If the Information Technology came to take over the operation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, diplomats would lose the revenue by claiming travel compensation and the opportunity to trade goods. I think to prevent this kind of problem, a company should do a survey how employees think before implementing a new plan. Every plan should be designed according to not only the need of a company, but the needs and desire of users. When a conflict unavoidably arises, the company may redesign the plan or find an alternative way to fix the problem.

Question: Who is in a position to resove the conflict–the development team? The business users? Someone else?

Class on 10/26/09 (Chapter 7)

lokinkong — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:07:48 +0000

In class, we talked about the value chain model and how the value is added when going along the chain. We discussed it before in Chapter 3, but this time we went deeper, explaining each primary activity. We also talked about the difference between functional system and integrated system.
I have more understaning of the model and learn that the model is flexible. The model shown in the textbook is for general buiness. For accounting buiness company, it would be a different model but with same kind of idea. The primary activities would be replaced by accounting activities. And also the order of primary activities can be alerted according to the case and the need. Whatever the change is, the basic idea remains the same. The value is added when the buiness includes one more primary activity. And the support activities are used to support the process of primary activities. Margin finally is resulted.

Question: How does functional systems compromise with intergrated systems?

Chapter 7

lokinkong — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:00:17 +0000

This chapter is about how organizations gain a competitive advantage using IS inside the organization. There are three fundemantal yupes of IS within orgaizations: calculation systems, functional systems, and cross-functional systems. The chapter focuses on the two latter ones since calculation systems are antiquated today. Functional systems facilitate the work of a single department or function; however, the problem with this system is its isolation which cannot oridyce productivity and efficiency. Integrated systems, therefore, were developed to overcome the problems. They integrate the activities in an entire business process instead of facilitating the work of a single department or function.

Question: 1. Cross-functional systems can overcome the problems of functional systems. Why do some of the companies still keep using functional systems instead of corss-functional systems?
2. Most organizations today are a mixture of functional and integrated systems. How can those companies compromise and integrate these two systems?

Class on 10/23/09

lokinkong — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:41:49 +0000

I went browsing the data.gov website. It contains a lot of data in different fields, such as business, health, and education. It is an useful website. There are a lot of data out there on Internet, but they are usually unorganized. Unorganized data are only numbers and satistics. They does nothing to us. Therefore what readers have to do is to analyze them, put them in an organized way and link relationships among those data. Then information is created, which is more helpful than just data. These kind of website is useful when people want to have a study of a specific field, such as doing a research and finding a job.

Question: Is there any websites which provides information, not just data?

Case 2-1

lokinkong — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:23:28 +0000

It is interesting that there is no isgnificant difference regarding survival for passengers seated in the front or the rear of the plane. In Figure PC2 1-3, there are 20 rear, 11 front, and 5 center marked as the safest location. Comparing 20 rear and 11 front, there is no big difference. However, center has way low number. That means seating in at the center is the most dangerous. Actually this makes sense. Wherever an accident takes place on a plane, the center part has the highest chance to be affected.

Moreover, there does seem to be a difference between the number of accidents and the phase of the flight. Landing obviously has the highest count, then take-off, and the lowest is en route. Knowing of this does not help us to prevent the accident, but it helps pilots. The airline companies can focus more on the training of landing, and make sure good maintenance of landing equipments. What we can do is only to make sure we fast our seat belts.

Database is a powerful tool to store and organize data. By analysing the data, we can get useful information which can benefit the company or society, and also can understand more the issue.

Question: Why is there no isgnificant difference regarding survival for passengers seated in the front or the rear of the plane?

Class on 10/21/09

lokinkong — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:51:57 +0000

In class, we went through the application exercises 2. I feel an hour is not enough to discuss the exercise. It was a little hard to follow the instructions since I had to look at the screen and do typing at the same time. Sometimes I got lost. However, the exercise has improved my Acess skill and knowlege. From the homework, I can see the difference more clearly how a spreadsheet differ from a database, and understand what a single theme means and what a multiple themes is.

Question: What is an update action query? Are there any other types of queries?

Class on 10/19/09

lokinkong — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:57:38 +0000

In class, we mainly focus on databases for different fields, such as accounting, human resources, international business management and marketing. Databases varies from a field to another. They are specifically designed for that field according to the needs of the field. For instance, databases for marketing foucus on data that can be analysed to provide infomation of potential customers while databases for human resources emphasize employees’ personal information, training and payrolls.
Besides, there are many databases for one field. They have different emphasis and focus. Therefore, choosing the right database for a company is important. Before porchusing a database, think what the need of the company is and do some researches to figure out which database is the best for the company. A company may customize the database to fit the needs.

Consider Your Net Worth 2 & Career Assignments 2

lokinkong — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 10:54:17 +0000

Consider Your Net Worth 2

2. I would use a spredsheet to show simpler data sets or information with a single theme or really large amount of data. However, when there are multiple users, or I want to show data with multiple themes, I would use a database.

For personal DBMS, it cannot handle more than 100 users, and neither complicated database application. For enterprise DBMS, it takes more time to build, and it is more complicated to operate. Therefore, the company may need IS people to create it and keep it running, and employees may need traning to use it.

When a user simply want to read, insert, modify, delete data, present data in a meaningful context, and find a record in a quick way, a database with forms, reports, and queries are enough. He, however, want more than standard functions, for example an atomatic backorder is generated when an order more than the number of the invertory of a company is placed. When that is the situation, the user would need to hire someone to develop database application programs.

Career Assignments 2

5a. I did databases for Human Resources. What I found out is that an HR database can centralize all HR-related information for management and easy access, and can increase accuracy of infoamtion. It also maintains employee records, job-related data, HR reports and business information as well. Its query funtion can help search for specific information quickly.
When you purchase HR datbase software applications, consider the following: accessibility, security, and special features or customization needed for your business.
The following are the steps when purchasing:
1. Let size determine your needs
2. Choose comprehensive human resources database programs
3. Select server-based HR database software for multiple locations
4. Customize human resources if your company needs
5. Get database training from the vendor

5b. Human Resources Generalist — performs a variety of tasks associated with the administrative support of the human resources department. Computes wages and records data for use in payroll processing. Coordinates grouplife insurance, medical insurance enrollment and eligibility.
Compensation and Benefits Manager–Provide consulting support in the area of reward and recognition including progra design, implementation and communication.

5c. The knowlege of IS can help me know how to make a good integration of IS and IT with the business. My familiarization with hardwares, softwares, and databases can create a competitive advatage over other hob applicants by saving extra trainings provided by companies.

5d. Contact the department to ask for the contact information of the professional, or search online to find a professional in this field. Another way is to contact magazine companies in your field because magazine companies usually have this kind of information and maintains relationships with those professionals. I can talk to one of the professionals in HR, I can know what kind of person or what kind of qualifications HR deparments are looking for when hiring. Also, the professional can tell me the trend of the field, and what job opportunities are out there.

Class on 10/16/09 (Chapter 6)

lokinkong — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 11:12:45 +0000

We discuss computer network, focusing on how a message is transmitted through a network and the two different types of network, LAN and WAN. When we were talking about how the optical fiber cable works, it recalls what I learned in my Physics class. I remember when light is projected at or less than a certain angle on a glass, it is totally reflected. The phenomenon is called tatal internal reflection. By using this nature of light, the signal can be completely kept in the cable line, and be transmitted to a really long distance without dying or losing any energy.

I know the whole world is connect by Internet. I was, however, still amzed when the statistics was told. I was also surprised that some Internet companies spent so much money to build undersea cables. It was an unbelivable project. The internet network is going beyond our imagination. And it will be interesting how Internet network will develop in the future.

Question: How deep should I be required to know about this chapter for this course?

Chapter 6

lokinkong — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:11:24 +0000

Chapter 6 contanins lots of new terms which make me feel a little bit overwhelming. Although I heard those terms before, I did not really kown the meanings of theirs and how they work. The chapter is about computer network. There are two computer networks which are LAN and WAN. Since using WAN is pretty costly and needs license approved by the government, most companies choose to use an alterntives instead. I remember in Hong Kong only a few companies use WAN. Most of them are media companies, such as phone companies, Internet service providers, and TV companies.

Question: I do not really understand what public switched data network is and what the difference between it and Internet.