Globalization, Innovation and 21st Century Organizational Trends

12.1 Explain the cultural, political, and geoeconomic challenges facing global businesses.
The global business environment is competitive market to compete in that faces several challenges in order to be successful. These challenges include cultural, political and geoeconomic challenges. The cultural business challenges deal primarily with language barriers, cultural interests, religions, customs, social attitudes and political philosophies. It is important for business to oblige to cultural preferences and be considerate to cultural differences that can occur. Political challenges that can be faced include guidelines and regulations concerning data transfers. Specific data, such as personal information, tax implications, hardware and software importing and exporting, as well as trade agreements is data political businesses must take into account as security measures. Global geoeconomic business challenges discusses the effect of geography on the economic activities of international business. There are many geographical differences such as labor supplies, cost of living, and labor costs also differ among various countries.

12.2 Describe the four global IT business drivers that should be included in all IT strategies.

The four global IT business drivers that should be included in all IT strategies include global customers, global products, global collaboration, and global operations and resources. Global customers refer to the customers that travel worldwide and companies that involve global operations that provide fast convenient, consistent service. Worldwide marketing, sales, and quality control that global IT can manage with the same products worldwide are the global products drivers.  Global IT systems also assist in the organization of the communication between associates to share knowledge and collaboration. Global operations and resources include the capital, facilities, and people that are managed by IT and monitors shared resources, geographic flexibility, operations and global supply chains.

12.3 Describe governance and compliance and the associated frameworks an organization can implement.

Global strategies are driven by governance and compliance. Governance is a system for management and control. Compliance is agreeing, accepting and yielding. Shareholders and customers put pressure on these two business strategies as they are driven by financial and technological regulations. There are several different IT governance frameworks organizations can follow. The first framework is CoBIT: Information Systems Audit and Control Association that provides guidelines and tools that are used by by auditors and companies that sustain IT technology to control and meet specific business requirements. The next framework is Information Technology Infrastructure Library that is implemented by the government of the United Kingdom and provides eight management procedures, service delivery, service support, service management, information and communication technology infrastructure management, software asset management, business perspective, security management and application management. The Committee of Sponsoring Organizations is a business-general framework that evaluates human resources, logistics, information technology, risk, legal, marketing and sales, operations, financial functions, procurement and reporting. The final framework is the Capability Maturity Model Integration method that aids with application development, life cycles issues, and improving product delivery through the 22 process areas.

12.4 Identify why an organization would need to understand global enterprise architectures when expanding operations abroad.

In order to support global business operations, organizations must manage the global enterprise architectures through many cultural and political applications. The internet and World Wide Web are primary providers to the international business processes. The internet provides business advantages through the expansion of markets, reducing costs, and improving profit margins. It also enhances customer communication through data exchange with all of those involved with the international organization. Other global enterprise operations that need to be taken into account include the software choices whose standards might not be compatible with other countries. There also might be challenges with communication and operational expenses

12.5 Explain the many different global information issues an organization might encounter as it conducts business abroad.
The biggest concern business face as business is conducted abroad is security. Networks and applications are constantly being opened to customers, partners and suppliers can pose a threat to be hacked or interrupted in some way, unless the access control and authentication is monitored. Inadequate security results in lost revenues, lost market share, or loss of the entire business.  Information privacy is also a global information issue that must meet United States and the European Union privacy requirements.

12.6 Identify global system development issues organizations should understand before building a global system.

Global systems development issues are far more severe than domestic systems development issues. The main issues are the global standardization of data definitions. Language, cultural, and technological differences make sharing information difficult among the parts of an international business. There needs to be a common database with definitions and business processes that all business can follow. Organizations also face challenges with developing

Systems Development and Project Management

11.1 Identify the business benefits associated with successful software development.
Successful software development can benefit a business by ensuring reliability to drive business operations or to ensure the products work. The successful implementations of software encourage management of software development risks. Understanding this process and the implementations with help organizations avoid any possible software development consequences and ensures success.

11.2 Describe the seven phases of the systems development life cycle.
The systems development life cycle consists of planning, analysis, design, development, testing, implementation and maintenance. Planning is the more critical stage in systems development because it determines project goals and a detailed plan of the projected project. In order for an organization to be successful it must carefully plan the activities. The analysis phase evaluates the set of business requests that systems must meet in order to have success and processes project goals into functions and operations of a system. The vision of features and operations of a system is described through the design phase. All these design documents from the design phase are then translated into the actual system.  In order to ensure the business meets all system requirements all aspects of the project must be untied in a special testing environment in the testing phase. Assembling the system in order for users to perform business operations is performed in the implementation stage. The final stage in the systems development life cycle is maintenance, which implements changes, corrections, additions, and upgrades to ensure the system meets business goals. This phase is maintained throughout the life of the system because as business is constantly evolving the system must be maintained to evolve with the business.  

11.3 Summarize the different software development methodologies.
Different software development methodologies include the traditional waterfall methodology and agile software development methodology that are primarily broken into rapid application development methodology, extreme programming methodology, rational unified process methodology and SCRUM methodology. The waterfall methodology is the least efficient methodology based on the sequential movement through the systems development life cycle. The agile software development methodology provides fast and efficient results with fewer features at a lower cost. Rapid application development is a fast approach that focuses of a creating a prototype that resembles the desired system by involving users in the analysis, design and development processes. Extreme programming methodology divides the project into phases that must be completed sequentially. Rational unified processes provide a blueprint for dividing the software development into four gates, inception, elaboration, construction and transition. Scrum methodology includes small teams that each produces pieces of software within 30 day intervals in order to achieve the goal.

11.4 Define the relationship between the systems development life cycle and software development.

The systems development life cycle are specific steps and procedures that need to be followed as the base of all systems development methodologies. Software development is specific to the software and systems used.

11.5 Compare the waterfall methodology and the agile methodology.

 Different software development methodologies include the traditional waterfall methodology and agile software development methodology that are primarily broken into rapid application development methodology, extreme programming methodology, rational unified process methodology and SCRUM methodology. The waterfall methodology is based on the sequential movement through the systems development life cycle. This methodology is very specific to following requirements of what will not change. Waterfall is expensive, inflexible and follows the steps in the process. This is not an adequate systems development methodology.  The agile software development methodology provides fast and efficient results with fewer features at a lower cost. Through continuous delivery of useful software components this methodology achieves customer satisfaction. This method introduces functionality by supporting quick feedback. Accountability is maintained through this method as well as the measurement for satisfaction of end users.

Enterprise Resource Planning and Collaboration Systems

10.1 Compare core enterprise resource planning components and extended enterprise resource planning components.

Core enterprise resource planning components focus mainly on internal operations of an enterprise resource system. Extended enterprise resource components center on external operations that comply with organizational requirements.

10.2 Describe the three primary components found in core enterprise resource planning systems.

Core enterprise resource planning is composed of accounting and finance, production and materials management and human resources. The accounting and finance component manage these specific processes. When a product is made a production schedule follows, when a product is purchased a materials plan must follow. Employee information is managed through human resources. 

10.3 Describe the four primary components found in extended enterprise resource planning systems.
Extended enterprise resource planning is composed of business intelligence, customer relationship management, supply chain management and ebusiness. Business intelligence manages information by collecting, organizing and analyzing the data in order to ease management decisions. Customer relationship management enhances customer loyalty, security, and increasing the organizations profitability. Maximizing the effectiveness and profitability of the supply chain by the management of information throughout steps in the supply chain is supply chain management. Ebusiness is the process of conducting business processes online. 

10.4 Explain the business value of integrating supply chain management, customer relationship management, and enterprise resource planning systems.

Business systems such as supply chain management, customer relationship management and enterprise resource planning systems are all the foundation to a successful company. Integration of these systems makes information accessible always. There are too many organizational requirements for a single retailer to meet which is why these systems must be put together.

10.5 Explain how an organization can use a balanced scorecard to measure ERP success.

A balanced scorecard is the management tool to a management system that determines their goal and how it will be obtained. Strategic performance and results are improved because the balanced scorecard offers responses to internal business processes and what the results will be.  This scorecard develops metrics specific to the strategic plan. This measurement technique provides clear instruction to what companies should measure in order to balance the financial perspective.

Operations Management and Supply Chain Management

8.1 Define the term operations management.

Operations management is the administration of the procedures that transform resources into goods and services

8.2 Explain operations management's role in business.

Operations management is responsible for forecasting, capacity planning, scheduling, managing inventories, assuring quality, motivating employees, facility location decisions, along with others. Forecasting includes predicting future demands and estimating future growth and reduction. Capacity planning maintains cash flow and increase revenues. Schedules are set routines that must be maintained.  Inventory is managed by recording and managing products relevant to the business. Quality is a key component to customer satisfaction and business priority. Employees must be trained and motivated to perform the job to the best of their ability. The location of the facility is crucial to target specific customers as well as to the success of the business.

8.3 Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology.

Operations management is effected by information technology with regards to decisions such as productivity, costs, flexibility, quality, and customer satisfaction. The goals of the organization can be influenced by the aid of information technology for operations management to make operational decisions. These well informed decisions are crucial to the outcome of the organization as a whole.

8.4 Describe the five characteristics of competitive priorities.

Competitive priorities consist of cost, quality, delivery, flexibility, and service. When customers make purchasing decisions, cost is one of the main factors that influence which product to choose.  There are two forms of quality, product quality and process quality. The level of quality depends on the projected market. Therefore, organizations must focus on the market in order to produce the appropriate product quality. Process quality is implemented in order to produce flawless products. In turn, this results in stronger customer relationships and higher revenues.

8.5 Explain supply chain management and its role in a business.

Supply chain management organizes information flows throughout the supply chain in order to maximize effectiveness and profitability by supply chain strategy, partners, operation and logistics. Supply chain strategy is the method of meeting customer demand for products by managing all resources. The partners in the supply chain are responsible for delivering finished products, raw materials, and services such as pricing, delivery and payment. Supply chain operation is measured by productivity and quality for production activities. Supply chain logistics is the product delivery processes. If all the processes in the supply chain are managed effectively an organization will benefit from increasing supplier power, efficiencies and switching costs. An organization can also decrease the buyer power, reduce threat of substitute products and threat of new entrants by creating entry barriers.

Customer Relationship Management and Business Intelligence

9.1 Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.
Operational customer relationship management is comprised of day-to-day activity that deals with customers directly. Analytical, on the other hand, is specific to back-office operations that do not deal directly with customers.

9.2 Explain the formula an organization can use to find its most valuable customers.
For an organization to find its most valuable customers, they use the recency, frequency and monetary value formula. Recency is related to how recent a customer has made a purchase. Frequency deals with how often a customer has made a purchase. How much a customer spends on each purchase is also known as the monetary value.

9.3 Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by sales departments and customer service departments.
The customer relationship management technology the sales department uses is sales management, contact management and opportunity management. Sales management technology aids sales representatives synchronize and manage all accounts. Contact management sustains and customer contact information and determines future potential customers. Seeking new customers and companies for future sales opportunities is a function of opportunity management. Customer service departments use CRM technologies such as contact center, web-based self-service, and call scripting. Contact centers ensure consistency with customer service representatives by maintaining a high level of customer support. This technology answers customer inquiries and react to problems through various customer touch points. Web-based self-service provides all customer answers and solutions when a problem or question has arisen. Call scripting systems handle similar problems and automatically generates details for the CSR who will deliver the solution or answer to the customer.

9.4 Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments.
The marketing department uses three main CRM technologies that differentiate from the sales department technologies. The marketing department technologies include list generators, campaign management and cross-selling and up-selling. List generators use various sources in order to collect customer information for various marketing campaigns. Campaign management performs all tasks crucial to marketing campaigns including campaign definition, planning, scheduling, segmentation and success analysis. Cross selling is the act of selling additional products or services to a customer. Up-selling is increasing the value of the sale. The customer relationship management technology the sales department uses is sales management, contact management and opportunity management. Sales management technology aids sales representatives synchronize and manage all accounts. Contact management sustains and customer contact information and determines future potential customers. Seeking new customers and companies for future sales opportunities is a function of opportunity management.

9.5 Compare customer relationship management, supplier relationship management, partner relationship management, and employee relationship management
Customer relationship management increases customer loyalty and retention by managing all aspects of a customer relationship with an organization. Supplier relationship management satisfies suppliers by evaluating and categorizing suppliers for various projects. Partner relationship management is specific to vendor satisfaction by providing customers with optimal sales and managing partner and reseller relationships. Employee relationship management uses a web browser in order to provide employees with CRM applications.

Networks, Telecommunications and Mobile Techonology

7.1 Compare LANs, WANs, and MANs.
LANs are also known as local area networks. This unites computers near the same range of computers. This includes in schools or offices or even in a home, areas that are locally connected. WANs, or wide area network, is exactly what it stands for. This is a network that can connect computers over a large distance such as a whole state or country. WANs can also connect multiple smaller networks including LANs.  Wide area networks include the internet. Metropolitan area networks, or MANs is a network that stretches across a city.

7.2 Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP.
Voice over IPs cover long distance telephone lines. Business benefit from the 10% of phone calls that are trasmitted by VoIPs. They provide easier development and incorporates applications through certain standards. These standards provide more options and new applications that are cheap. They gain through saving on costs, at the same time, improving productivity and services. To ensure business security, VoIPs monitors traffic.  

7.3 Explain the difference between a VPN and a VAN.
Virtual private networks, or VPNs is secure service offered to access networks by using the public telecommunications. Value added networks, on the other hand, has a high connection that information is transferred through privately.

7.4 Identify the advantages and disadvantages of broadband technology.
Broadband technology  provides many different services that can benefit or harm a corporation. The advantages of broadband technology would include increasing the speed of the business. Broadband offers high speed internet.

7.5 List and describe many of the network security problems.
Networks can experience problems with security in various ways. A focus on network access approval, network control and data protection are important to the security of the site. Firms should monitor who can access the network and limit their control to modify the data.

Telecommunications Basics

C.1 Compare LANs, WANs, and MANs.
LANs are also known as local area networks. This unites computers near the same range of computers. This includes in schools or offices or even in a home, areas that are locally connected. WANs, or wide area network, is exactly what it stands for. This is a network that can connect computers over a large distance such as a whole state or country. WANs can also connect multiple smaller networks including LANs.  Wide area networks include the internet. Metropolitan area networks, or MANs is a network that stretches across a city.


C.2 List and describe the four components that differentiate networks.
Networks can be differentiated by four major aspects, architecture, topology, protocols, and media. Architectures are defined by two major networks, peer-to-peer networks and client/server networks. Topology are networks that are assembled according to certain rules. Protocols

C.3 Compare the two types of network architectures.
Architectures are defined by two major networks, peer-to-peer networks and client/server networks. Peer-to-peer networks allow computers in the network to access files located on a public central server. Client/server networks are used by clients to communicate with users on the front end processing, while on the back end servers search databases.

C.4 Explain topology and the different types found in networks.
Topology is networks that are assembled according to certain rules. There are five different network topologies. Bus is a network topology that is all centered on the cable all devices are connected to. These are cheap and easy for smaller networks. Star topologies are also connected to a central cable. These are also easy to install and control. When devices are interconnected in a closed loop shape it is a ring topology. It is shaped this way so they can connect directly to two other devices on both sides. Although they are inexpensive, offer high bandwidth and can cpan large distances, they are still difficult to set up. Hybrid topologies are connected in a line bus backbone cable, hybrid of a bus and star topology. Last is a wireless topology that is connected by a transmitter to a card that communicates signals between a computer and a server.

C.5 Describe TCP/IP along with its primary purpose.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol connects the internet and private networks. The purpose is to provide flexibility with regards to lower-level protocols. It is flexible to changes in data transfer and flexible to adjustments to slower devices and any other possible encounters.

C.6 Identify the different media types found in networks.
There is wire media and wireless media found in networks. Wireless media limits the signal path while wireless media utilizes the environment to carry electrical signals.