IS 130

Chapter 8: Operations Management and Supply Chain Management

2009-10-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

ArrowStream is a supply chain solutions provider for foodservice. They made a respectable name for themselves since being founded in 2000. Many companies have looked to them for their expertise such as Wendy’s, Steak and Shake, and now Einstein Noah Restaurant Group (ENRGI). The ENRGI is a casual restaurant that is located primarily under the Einstein Bros. and Noah’s New York Bagels brands (ProQuest, 2009). At the moment there are 600 restaurants within 36 states and the District of Columbia.

ENRGI has just gone into an agreement with ArrowStream On Demand to strengthen their supply chain in their operations component. They have hopes that this will give them greater savings and efficiencies (ProQuest, 2009). “According to Scott Harvey who is the SVP Manufacturing and Supply Chain for ENRGI, their main goal is to reduce category spending, control price variance, better control costs, and implement improvements” (ProQuest, 2009).
ArrowStream hopes to achieve this for ENRGI by centralizing all their supply chain information. ENRGI is confident in their services due to the fact that 80% of their partners are receiving similar services from ArrowStream. ENRGI can also benefit from their large Network of 2,300 manufactures. ArrowStream is confident in their capabilities of enhancing ENRGI’s management process.

According to our textbook, Business Driven Information Systems by Paige Baltzan and Amy Phillips, supply chain fundamentals are crucial to an organization’s success. Being able to embrace in technologies that make it easier for managers to oversee their supply chains ables them to fix problems more efficiently and gain a competitive advantage. Updating technology advances in the supply chain components can drastically change improvement.

ProQuest. (2009, October 13). Retrieved October 14, 2009, from Einstein Noah Restaurant Group, Inc. Chooses ArrowStream Supply Chain Management Solutions to Gain Efficiencies, Savings: http://proquest.umi.com.hmlproxy.lib.csufresno.edu/pqdweb?did=1878712461&sid=3&Fmt=3&clientId=17845&RQT=309&VName=PQD

Chapter 7: Networks, Telecommunications, and Mobile Technology

2009-10-08T21:35:00.000-07:00

The article, VTech Use of Bluetooth to unite landlines and cell phones, introduces VTech Communications new DS6321-3 product that will hit stores this month. The DS6321-3 is the first cordless phone system of its kind. VTech aims to use this system to unite the separate mobile office and home landline worlds. Basically, the system will enable the use of both land line telephones and cellular phones at the same time, in addition to the use of a cordless headset with a land line phone. This has been made possible with the help of Bluetooth technology (ProQuest, 2009).

The blending of both Bluetooth technologies with use of land line phones will benefit users by avoiding dropped calls, low battery life and poor audio clarity. The system will also be able to upload up to 6,000 addresses from user’s cellular phone books to a landline database. VTech is making the DS6321-3 available to consumers in Best Buy stores this month for the affordable price of $100. If you ask me, a hundred dollars is money well spent for the freedom and luxury this product has to offer (ProQuest, 2009).

In chapter seven we discuss how Bluetooth, though being liberating in hands free and cordless, it does have its limitations that restrict users to a shorter range of usage. Another issue with possible Bluetooth devices is their size. Most people want smaller devices which I too am a fan of but they can be difficult. I have washed and lost my Bluetooth many times. Hopefully, thanks to VTech not having to bounce from a land to cell and cell to land will help me keep track of my tiny, helpful device (Baltzan & Phillips, 2009).

VTech(R) Converges Cellular, Landline Worlds With the First Cordless Phone System Equipped to Download Cellular Phone Directories :DS6321-3 Delivers the Best in Home Communication with Advanced BLUETOOTH(R) Wireless and DECT 6.0 Technologies to Enable Cellular Call Reception on the Home Phone System. (28 September). PR Newswire, Retrieved October 7, 2009, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1867659201).

Chapter 6: Database & Data Warehouse

2009-09-30T18:11:00.000-07:00

The article that I choose to represent chapter 6, Database & Data Warehouse, is article Beam Global Spirits & Wine Raises the Bar with Netezza and Aperity. Netezza is a company that gives services of data warehousing and analytic appliances. They are well known around the country for their service to companies. Beam Global Spitrits and Wine is the holding company for brands like Sauza(R) Tequila, Canadian Club(R) Whisky, Courvoisier(R) Cognac, Whisky DYC(R), Teacher's(R) Scotch Whisky, and Knob Creek(R) Bourbon (ProQuest, 2009). Aperity is a company similar to Netezza as it provides advanced analytics.
Beam Global Spirits and Wine (BGSW) decided to provide themselves with Netezza and Aperity’s services to give them a more competitive advantage in the market due to being able to have forecasted plans and analysis. Because Netezza can warehouse BGSW’s information they will be able to analyze and predict decisions and activities, through Aperity, for about 500,000 outlets. Before BGSW had the services of Netezza and Aperity they were not making the most efficient and effective decisions they are now. For example, price cuts, reactions to promotions, and differences in seasonality purchases have been some of the things they have changed to progress due to the services (ProQuest, 2009).
This article grabbed my attention because I felt like it gave a good example of what a data warehouse could provide a company with. When there are multiple stores it is important that a company is able to compare the sales, promotions, and prices. When these things aren’t looked at it keeps the company from moving forward if they are not meeting competitive and market standards.

Beam Global Spirits & Wine Raises the Bar with Netezza and Aperity. (24 September). Business Wire, Retrieved September 30, 2009, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1866033221).

Chapter 5: Enterprise Architectures

2009-09-24T12:25:00.000-07:00

The article that I choose to touch on is “IDrive Updates IDrive Lite, the Online Backup App for iPhone and Blackberry”. This article caught my attention since I am an apple and blackberry user. To summarize, a service by the name of IDrive Lite just announced an upgrade on their application. “IDrive is a free service of Pro Softnet Corp” (IDrive Updates IDrive Lite, the Online Backup App for iPhone and Blackberry, 2009). The application provides online backup for Macs and Windows. It lets users backup up information such as contacts to“cloud storage”. Cloud storage is an area on the internet that holds files. Here is where your information is “filed” away. You can access this information from any computer that has access to the web and update any information at any given time. This application is great incase of a lost or stolen phone. The best part about this application is if you keep the same account and you change to a Blackberry from an iPhone or vice versa the contacts are still transferable.
Currently IDrive is working on enhancing device compatibility to have their service expand to other makes. They are also working on expanding the application to hold calendar and note information.
I personally have had problems with transferring information from one phone to another. My last phone was a windows phone and I have recently changed to a blackberry. I had my contacts from the windows phone saved to my outlook express and I had to convert the information to the blackberry application. Most of the information transferred but not all. Maybe if I had known about this online service, IDrive, I would have been able to save time and information.

IDrive Updates IDrive Lite, the Online Backup App for iPhone and Blackberry. (16 September). PR Newswire, Retrieved September 23, 2009, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1860381021). (IDrive Updates IDrive Lite, the Online Backup App for iPhone and Blackberry, 2009)

Chapter 4: Ethics and Information Security

2009-09-16T22:51:00.000-07:00

The article that I decided to discuss is “Twitter Hacked, Secrets to be revealed?” The article discussed the situation Twitter had during the summer with getting hacked by a French hacker that goes by the name of Hacker Croll. He was reported to have hacked into Twitter’s employees personal accounts and distributing detailed lists of employee’s information to blogs and news sites. The hacker also sent a compressed file to TechCrunch so that some of the documents could be published. This then became an ethical question for TechCrunch. Is it ethical to publish “stolen” goods? They decided not to publish a vast majority of the documents that they have possession of because of “ethical” reasoning. But, those documents that they felt have news value will be published. An online poll for users was taken to judge if what TechCrunch was doing was ethical. Out of 622 users 56% of them said that it was unethical, 32% said that it was fine and the rest said they didn’t care.
One thing that was purposed was that the hacker may have a goal to teach Twitter a lesson on security. The article went on to explain the importance of password email security.
My feeling towards TechCrunch’s decision is that it is unethical to publish Twitters information. I am a firm believer on what goes around, comes around. I don’t think TechCrunch would appreciate it if personal information was stolen about its employers and then published on the internet. Because so many businesses are in the same boat when it comes to difficult situations they should find ways to ally with one another so that situations don’t become damaging.

Paul, I. (2009, July 15). Twitter Hacked, Secrets to be revealed? Retrieved September 16, 2009, from PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/article/168462/twitter_hacked_secrets_to_be_revealed.html

Chapter 3: Ebusiness

2009-09-10T00:29:00.000-07:00

Chapter three discussed the types of services provided by the internet, the ebusiness model, a business’s success, benefits, and challenges. There are three types of services that the internet provides; internet service providers, online service providers, and application service providers. Through using these internet providers there must be an approach to conducting the business on the internet; this is called ebusiness (Baltzan & Phillips, 2009). Some examples of ebusiness models are business-to-business, business-to-customer, consumer-to-business, and consumer-to-consumer. When conducting ebusiness you should measure the business’s success. There are so many users and other websites that are in competition with your business that customer loyalty becomes very important. A company can track the effectiveness of the website through interactivity and clickstream data. There are many benefits and challenges to this. Some benefits include being able to operate 24/7, comparing prices on goods and services amongst stores, and the ability to be able to reach new markets. The challenges of an ebusiness include being capable of protecting your online customers and integrating existing systems to new ones in a way that wont disturb functions.

There are many areas of the internet that businesses take advantage of to further their growth. These areas include marketing/sales, financial services, procurement, customer service, and intermediaries. The area that I will be focusing on is marketing. Marketing through the internet runs 24/7. There are advertisements like pop up ads and digital billboards. This marketing is low in cost and high in effectiveness.

At my place of work (Chevrolet and Toyota dealership) we use online marketing. We have our own website that shows our most recent promotions and sales and has pictures of some of our finest vehicles. Also on general Chevy and Toyota sites we have pop up ads that will take customers straight to our website when clicked on.

Baltzan, P., & Phillips, A. (2009). Business Driven Information Systems. New York : Ducham, Paul.

Chapter 2: Strategic Decision Making

2009-09-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

The article that I chose for chapter two is “RMI sings New-Five-Year Agreement with BNSF Railway.” RMI is an independent rail information services that process carloads regularly for railroads. They were in a contract with BNSF for the past five years. BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation) operates rail networks throughout 28 states. Just Recently, RMI renewed their contract with BNSF Railway for another five years. BNSF Railway provides RMI with a software called OASIS for the operational control in their intermodal terminals. “OASIS is a comprehensive decision support system that provides intelligent automation of intermodal terminal operations using sophisticated algorithms for solving logistical problems that arise in intermodal railyards” (RMI Signs New Five-Year Agreement with BNSF Railway, 2009). The software OASIS also has an interface that provides the company with real-time visibility of intermodal operations. According to our text, Business Driven Information Systems by Baltzan and Phillips, a decision support system creates an analysis or models, with the information given, to help managers make decisions on problem areas. BNSF is able to provide RMI with this information which makes RMI more efficient and dependable.
An new operating system named I CAN (Intermodal Crane Automation Network)that was created by BNSF and OASIS was just designed to automate equipment tracking, container stacking optimization, and railcar assignment ( (RMI Signs New Five-Year Agreement with BNSF Railway, 2009). As you can see, RNSF has continued to create software programs to better their clients. They didn’t just stop with OASIS even though that program is successful.
Having a decision support system that keeps track of your company’s main areas is important. These models can help with efficiency, commitment and progression. As you see BNSF provides its clients with exactly this. That is why they are used across the nation and in this case received a renewal contract like.

RMI Signs New Five-Year Agreement with BNSF Railway. (18 March). Business Wire. Retrieved September 2, 2009, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1663133591).

Chapter 1: IS in business

2009-08-29T20:16:00.000-07:00

On August 17th the Cayman Island’s emergency service introduced a fleet management system that will help save seconds within an emergency vehicle response. The system uses the new GPS (Global Positioning System) technology to detect where units are located. The program will have technical support by its company provider Sat-Trak. And the capability of a detailed map that can even show the number to houses is available. There is also an option to be able to print out historical data. Because of this technology, the ability to be able to distribute emergency calls out to the most effective unit is now possible. At this point the system is being monitored and is so far receiving positive results.
This article on the Cayman Islands emergency service is a great example of operational excellence. Today, many businesses are always trying to find new ways to improve their efficiency and operations. And like these other businesses the Cayman Island’s emergency service is trying to find more efficient ways to helping others and saving lives.
But even if the business isn’t an emergency service it is still very important that a business keeps its operations updated. For instance, at my place of employment (car dealership) we are always looking for new ways to be efficient. Due to the troubling economy the car industry was hit rather hard and making sure that our operations are top notch can either keep us on the market or have us shut down. Through our online customer relations data we are able to hear customer responses and take into account what can be done to make sure every customer has a satisfying experience purchasing a vehicle or taking one in for service. Having an efficient customer data base can also help us with giving customers appreciation letters and coupons.

GPS technology installed to boost emergency services. (27 August). McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Retrieved August 30, 2009, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1847475391)