E Business at Cisco Essay

Introduction Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells networking equipments around the globe which is considered as the giant in networking. Cisco headquarters locate in San Jose, California, United States. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make these networks possible, giving individuals, companies, and countries easy access to information anywhere, at any time. Cisco has pioneered the use of the Internet in its own business practice and offers consulting services based on its experience to help other organizations around the world. Cisco was founded in 1984 by Leonard Bosack and Sandy Lerner, a married couple who worked as computer operations staff members at Stanford University. Richard Troiano joined later with them. The stock was added to the Dow Jones Industrial Average on June 8, 2009, and is also included in the S&P 500 Index, the Russell 1000 Index, NASDAQ 100 Index and the Russell 1000 Growth Stock Index. John Chambers is the current Chairman and CEO of the Cisco. Company revenue was US$ 46.061 billion in 2012, while its operating income was US$ 10.065 billion. Net income US$ 8.041 billion 2012 while it has US$ 91.759 billion 2012 of total assetsand total equity of US$ 51.301 billion in 2012. E – Business Innovation at Cisco Cisco’s e-business innovation has begun in early 1990s. Cisco’s annual revenues increased from $1.5 million to $340 million in 1992. Their market share rose from 50% to 85%. It was a big challenge to meet the high demands generated by rapid growth of their sales. In order to serve their customers they had to †¢Hired engineers as quickly as possible, growing the engineering staff at over 160% per year. †¢Extended telephone support hours. †¢Invested in a system to prioritize calls. †¢Built the technology to remotely diagnose problems customers had with their products. †¢Offered training courses and consultations services to customers. During early 1990s companies invest a fixed portion of their annual budget on IT. It was 0.75% in Cisco 1993. In 1994 board of directors approved to invest on implementing $15 million Oracle ERP system. It was 2.5 % of 1993 revenues and more than 3 times the previous year’s IT budget. Company also approved total budget exceed $100 million to upgrade IT in the company. That upgrade integrated all of Cisco’s systems, and provided the company with a centralized information source. Cisco tried to use information technology to overcome the issues involve with high demand. It launched an official Internet site Cisco.com, primarily dedicated to company and product information as a result of that in 1991. It also launched the Cisco Connection Online for Cisco’s customers, which include a Technical Assistance Center where customers could easily solve their technical problems, and a list of product faults and remedies for faults. It also set up electronic bulletin boards. These initiatives forced online technical assistance which simplifies the burden on Cisco’s engineers and customer service representatives. Customers could download software updates, check manuals and email Cisco employees with questions by the 1993. Cisco E-Business Models Cisco involve in Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce as well as the Business-to-Consumer (C2C) e-commerce. B2B Businesses can gain significant financial returns, can attract and retain customers, reduce their expenses and uplift their reputation, brand name and corporate identity with favorable return on investment with the use of the Internet and e-business strategies. It helps to increase employee productivity, support for decision-making etc†¦ B2B facilitate electronic transactions to happen between businesses. The Internet and business’s dependency on other businesses for their supplies, utilities, and services has enhanced the popularity of B2B e-commerce. Extranets are the most commonly used for B2B operations in recent time. Extranet can be consist of at least 2 intranet or more than that. B2B e-commerce allows dynamic interaction between business partners. Cisco uses extranet with their Web based EDI to coordinate among their suppliers and manufactures via the Cisco Supplier Connection (CSC) which was formally known as manufacturing Connection Online. CSC was launched in June 1998. Registered users can access this through the Cisco website. CSC has integrated Cisco’s first-tier suppliers such as Ariba, Great Plains, J.D. Edwards, Lawson, NetObjects, NetSales, OneCore, PeopleSoft, QuickMarketing, and Works.com to Cisco’s ERP order fulfillment systems and inventory databases. This provides Cisco the opportunity to respond to their customer requests in real time. Orders are check with Cisco’s current production schedule, and at the same time their first-tier suppliers get inform of any deviations from production forecasts by automatic postings on the extranet as soon as a customer place an order. Suppliers can respond immediately to requests for supplies since they get informed real time with actual orders. Since Cisco is keeps inventories CSC also keep track on inventories and transfer inventory between different manufacturers to respond to component shortages. Other than that all the purchase orders and invoices are processed electronically with the help of CSC. Cisco uses their CSC at new product introduction processes as well. It helps to share information between engineering, procurement, manufacturing, and marketing sections in each sub processes such as design, prototyping, ramp-up, quality assurance and product specification. Overall cycle time to market new products gets reduce due to this collaboration. Cisco also developed a system for automatically testing products to ensure they were up to Cisco’s specifications and ready ship. If there are failures in an assembly line or auto test, Cisco get alert immediately by the manufacture. This prevent whole batch of products get affected by a common fault. FedEx, Cisco’s shipping partner get automatically alert as soon as order ready for shipment. Then the order assign a shipping number, pick up at the manufacturer, and deliver by FedEx to the customer. Direct fulfillment is also a part of Cisco’s B2B e-commerce. It automates all the required information in-order to support direct shipping of products which are configured by suppliers, directly to customers without going through Cisco. Cisco’s B2B processes also uses Dynamic replenishment, which allows market demand information to flow directly to manufactures without any delays. B2C Cisco is not a company which implemented B2B e-commerce, they are also practicing B2C e commerce as well. They have implemented Cisco Connection Online (CCO) in-order to handle the B2B and B2C e-commerce activities. In early ages customers had to talk with a sales rep if they wanted to buy something. Due to the mistakes by sales reps and complexity of product line only about 75% of orders were entered correctly. Other 25% had to be re-entered. Cisco has introduced their e-commerce site as a solution for this. Cisco was able sold $75 million worth of products on the Internet within first 4 months. Cisco was able to overcome the issue of 25% error rate in customer orders with the introduction of their website. 27% of all orders were placed using the Internet in 1997. It was said that there were 70,000 registered users in that time and they were accessing website 700,000 times per month. This not only minimizes the error s in customer orders but also it helped Cisco to save $150 million per year by delivering technical support through the website. It increases Cisco’s customer satisfaction ratings and Cisco’s productivity was improving rapidly. Cisco upgrades their CCO regularly with the help of consulted groups known as Internet Commerce Advisory Boards (ICABs), it consist both Cisco employees as well as their customers. This is also use to do global market researches. Cisco provided localization to their first few page levels of their website since August 2000. All prices were quoted in the appropriate currency, based on an accurate exchange rate with the localization. Cisco Connection Online – CCO CCO is a portal. It consist information in Cisco’s ERP systems, databases, legacy systems, and client-server systems. CCO connects with Cisco’s extranets which they are using for their suppliers and partners. This consist of 5 modules 1.Market Place 2.Technical assistance and software library 3.Customer service 4.Internetworking Product Center 5.Cisco supplier connection (CSC) Market Place is the front-end virtual shopping center describe in above, where customers can purchase items online. It also includes equipment configuration details, prices of products and purchase requisition tools. Customers can use purchase requisition tools if they want to take print out for submission of company purchase orders. Resellers and distributors are also using this module to place their orders online. Technical assistance and software library consist of an open forum which enables customers and business partners to get online answers to their technical questions. Users also can download driver updates and utility software through this. It also includes tools provide technical assistance to identify issues in Cisco equipments and take needed preventative or repair measures. Cisco was able to save millions of dollars spending on CD burning and shipments with the introduction of software library. Technical assistance forum led users to post their questions and search for answers, interact with networking experts who are willing to offer their help. This simply creates a virtual community of technical experts and it led Cisco’s experts only to focus on critical and urgent issues. Customer service provides non-technical assistance to consumers who are looking for details like product status, price catalog, latest releases, and their service order status. Internetworking Product Center is an application use for handle order processing. This can advise users if there is any missing information in product configuration when users are placing their orders online. Therefore reworking is minimized. Since this application connects with Cisco’s order management system to its scheduling system, customers and partners can access information about the current status of their orders. E-Business Types at Cisco Cisco has implemented more than one business types in their online presence. Cisco successfully running store-front model as well as the portal model through their web presence. Other than the above 2 models they also implemented B2B e commerce and EDI as a part of their E-Business initiative since early 1990s. Store-Front Model This is the most popular e-business model in the current context. It allows users or consumers to do their shopping online without going to a physical shop. According to the statistics about 60% of the internet users involve in online shopping activities. This model allows merchants to sell their products on the Web. Online transaction processing, security, online payment, information storage should be mainly considerable factors in this model. Cisco’s storefront model include †¢Online catalog of their products †¢Order processing system †¢Secure payment system †¢Timely order fulfillment system This allows Cisco to conduct their business 24 by 7 in 365 days of the year. A shopping cart allows Cisco to display photos and descriptions their products by category (routers, switches, servers, etc†¦). Consumers are allow to browse through those categories and its’ items then selects items that they want to buy and puts them in their cart. Consumers can the check out what they have selected and those orders are sent to Cisco. (90% of these orders are directly sends to Cisco’s suppliers. Orders are process in just in time based.) According to the Cisco CEO nearly 90 % of orders placed on Cisco’s website, the Cisco Connection Online (CCO), and nearly 80% of all products were built and shipped from a supply partner, without Cisco ever physically taking possession. This shows how Cisco has utilized their e-business strategies in-order to give a better customer satisfaction. Portal Model Cisco portal model provide their consumers the chance to find almost everything relate to internetworking. Cisco provides a vertical portal. It consist information from simple switches to Data Center Management and Automation, from Routing Services to Data Center and Virtualization Services, from home consumers to ISPs. It also consists of all the information relates to examinations conduct by Cisco such as CCNA, CCNP etc†¦ EDI – Electronic data Interchange Cisco handles B2B e-commerce via the applications which are implemented for its consumers. These solutions allow Cisco to sell its’ products and services and manage their customer and supplier/partner relationships over the Internet. Cisco use their e-business strategies as a model of how to use the Internet as co-operation tool to increase the productivity and efficiency of a company by utilizing and transforming their manual process with the help of information technology. As mentioned early customers can browse product specifications and make orders via Cisco.com. That information then directed Cisco’s suppliers without any intervention of Cisco. Products are produce only after they are ordered (just in time). Therefore the amount to spend on warehouses to store products is very much little. Cisco doesn’t like to obtain many B2B relationships with the technology and the infrastructure that they work, because they consider suppliers as a time and labor intensive expense to them. Cisco has created the demand for products that can ease and speed up B2B transactions with the implementation of their Global Network Business model. Cisco tried to cut down almost all the intermediaries in-order to increase their profit margins as well as to get competitive advantages with introduce of Electronic Data Interchange in 1997. EDI helped Cisco to †¢Gained real-time access to its supplier information. †¢Experienced lower business costs in processing orders (an estimated $46 per order). †¢Improved the productivity of its employees involved in purchasing (78% increase). †¢Reduced overall order cycle time. Cisco saved $250 million per year in business expenses through their new e-business initiatives in 1997. E-Business Categories at Cisco We can categories Cisco’s e-business initiatives under few main categories. e – Procurement, e – HR, e – SCM. E – SCM All the internal information systems of Cisco can be access by all the suppliers and other partners who are in Cisco’s supply chain. This system can be identified as a distributed knowledge management system since the employees have the same access rights to information as Cisco employees. Cisco was able to integrate all collective capabilities of supply chain partners and integrates all supply chain activities with this system. This system standardizes and streamlines all the internal processes with Cisco Employee Connection (CEC). It also streamlines external processes by seamless integration with suppliers and customers in terms of Manufacture Connection Online (MCO) and Cisco Connection Online. Materials and inventory position, product availability, price information, purchase orders and changes, vendor receipt/acceptance, Invoice payments and status reporting information are all visible among partners, including design-related information and sales forecasts. Since lack of mutual trust and unwillingness to share information among the partners appear to be the greatest obstacles in the way of e-collaboration, Cisco formed strategic alliances and long-term partnerships with their suppliers and customers, based on mutual trust and win-win strategy. e- HR with Cisco Employee Connection CEC was initially launched in 1995 and it was designed to store company information. But when HR department was in trouble with handling a various HR tasks manually, Cisco tried to move their HR processes to the CEC. As a result of that Cisco successfully launched expense reporting system first. With the success of that sub system Cisco started to digitize all their HR activities. CEC provides details and many interactive tools which can be use to facilities, travel arrangements, technical documentation, human resources, training, sales and marketing, and financial matters. Other than the standard categories like products, business functions, and company and employee information, CEC also provide some other categories for specific tasks. One category is for their new recruitments. It provides details about the company and also it consists of frequently asked questions. Professional staff category provides job-specific tools relating to sales, engineering, management, and system engin eering. Cisco’s Customer Base In early ages Cisco sold router products to corporations for corporate LANs and WANs. But with the rapid growth of the Internet since mid of 1990s, Internet service providers (ISPs) became an important market for the Cisco. Due to the technological advancements in the telecommunication industry, data and voice networks has gained speed. Therefore local exchange carriers and traditional telephone companies also become important segment in Cisco’s customer base. In the present company have differentiate its customers into four major segments those are 1.Enterprises. 2.Service providers. 3.Small/medium-sized businesses. 4.Home consumers. All categories of customers having their own complex challenges, when it comes to implement and maintain global data networks, since the technology that they are dealing with rapidly change over the time. Charles Giancarlo says that â€Å"it takes an unusual level of dedication, effort, and focus from both sides in order to build some of these networks. Both sides must make an inordinate investment in order to be first to market.† When it comes to service providers or the corporate market Cisco deals with consumers who know what to do and how to do. Therefore Cisco can’t manage them as normal home consumers. These relationships are more complex that normal consumer relationships. They decide from where to buy equipment based not only the quality of the products but also factors such as companies who are willing to supply their financing and other services. Sometimes they consider firms who are assisting them in dealing with government to acquire rights of way for wiring. Therefore Cisco started to consultative, partnering role with Telco customers. Cisco trying to assists them with everything. It spread from networking products and installation to financing, support services, even up-to business-model planning. It is not enough to merely offer them a new service that can enhance quality on their network. Cisco must also advise them on how best to profit from it. Strengths / Positive Aspects When it comes to the discussion of the positive aspects of the E business module, it can be accomplished after analyzing these three types. The benefits of e-commerce can be seen to affect three major stakeholders’ organizations, consumers and society. Cisco market place became that an international marketplace without any influence, single physical marketplace located in a geographical area has now become a borderless marketplace including national and international markets. By becoming e-commerce enabled, businesses now have access to people all around the world. In consequence all e-commerce businesses of Cisco have become effective multinational companies. Operational cost saving is a big advantage because of this. The cost of creating, processing, circulating, storing and retrieving paper-based information has reduced. E-commerce has transformed the way consumers buy goods and services. The pull-type processing allows for products and services to be customized to the cust omer’s wants. Enables reduced inventories and overheads by facilitating ‘pull’-type supply chain management this is structured on collecting the customer order and then delivering through JIT (just-in-time) manufacturing. This is particularly valuable for companies in the high technology sector, where stocks of components held could quickly become obsolete within months. No more 24-hour-time constraints. Businesses can be contacted by or contact customers or suppliers at any time. Consumers can gain access to the websites on anytime, 24 in 7.Makes it possible for customers to shop or conduct other transactions 24 hours a day, all year round from practically any location. Checking balances, making payments, obtaining status and other details are some important characteristics which we can see because of using this kind of E business module, but also an international selection of suppliers, Price comparisons can be done. Customers can ‘shop’ around the world and conduct comparisons either directly by browsing different sites, or by visiting a single site where price ranges are aggregated from a number of providers and compared. Delivery processes can be improved. An environment of competition where significant discounts can be founder value added, as different retailers vie for customers. It also allows many individual customers to aggregate their orders together into a single order presented to wholesalers or manufacturers and obtain a more competitive price. This system enables more adaptive enough working practices, which enhances the quality of life for a whole host of people in society, enabling them to work from home. Not only is this more effortless and offers happier and less stressful working environments, it also potentially reduces environmental pollution as fewer people have to travel to do their ordering and other stuff. Enables people in developing countries and rural areas to enjoy and access products, services, information and other people which otherwise would not be so easily available to them. It encourages delivery of public services. When we analyze about the strengths thoroughly, and when we consider it as organization vise that site saved Cisco time and reduced the need to hire. Customers welcomed the opportunity to browse a website and solve problems on their own rather than dialing into a busy support line. Seeing the cost advantage of selling online Cisco began to provide its network products for sale on its websites and web sales grew rapidly until they accounted for the majority of Cisco’s sale. Cisco also began to look for other ways to take advantage of its website. The sales force complained that they were always asked by customers to perform routine tasks, such as re-printing a customer invoice. Cisco widened the online offerings and allowed customers to reprint invoices, ch eck the status of service orders, and even maintain and price products. In addition to making life easier for customers, Cisco employees were able to escape much data entry. Cisco soon made much more customer information available online by linking customers to the Oracle ERP system. The IT department of Cisco began to investigation with other ways to leverage the power of the Internet. The department’s efforts guided to three separate Internet initiatives: Cisco Connection Online (CCO, for customers), Cisco Employee Connection (CEC), and Manufacturing Connection Online (MCO). In those days, customers still had to talk with a sales rep whenever they wanted to make an order. In part due to the complexity of Cisco’s product or service line (all orders were in importance custom orders), only 75 percent of orders were entered correctly; the remaining 25 percent had to be re-entered. As a result, Cisco started to consider about how it could use technology to improve the purchasing procedure. An e-commerce site was completed and launched in July 1996. The site was simple but advanced enough to ensure products were precisely set up. As a result, Cisco was able to drop its customer-order error rate from 25 percent to 1 percent. Even though Cisco believed that the site was not as user-friendly as it could be, 60 percent of Cisco’s technical support was now delivered automatically via the web, Cisco’s customer satisfaction ratings were rising, and Cisco’s productivity was improving considerably as was their customers. The Cisco Employee Connection (CEC) was Cisco’s intranet site. Initially, it was deliberate to hold company info and act as an internal newsletter. It consisted only of a bulletin board of information, simple search engines, and email. But as the CCO grew in popularity and function not long after, the team tried to update the process of expense settlement. The team faced many challenging technical problems, such as linking expense app rovals with the American Express corporate card systems, and was met with significant internal resistance to change. Senior executives, who were responsible for approvals, demanded that any new system prove easier to use than the old paper-based system. Consequently, many approvals were eliminated. Cisco’s software engineers were forced to design the program internally because there were no regular programs that could handle the task. They succeeded. Cisco employees were able to submit expenses online and get refunded by direct deposit within a few days. Cisco’s Manufacturing Connection Online (MCO) was crucial in allowing Cisco to grow. Just as Cisco had problems hiring enough engineers and customer service reps, it also had long been affected by problems expanding its manufacturing operations quickly enough to meet the surging demand for its products. Faced with a choice of restricting growth or outsourcing manufacturing, Cisco chose to outsource. Originally, Cisco outsourced only a portion of the manufacturing process. Cisco still warehoused components and performed final assembly and testing before shipping finished goods to its customers. Soon, however, in order to cut costs and improve delivery times, Cisco wanted deeper relationships with its partners. They asked partners to incorporate their IT systems with it. The result was an automated order fulfillment system known as the Manufacturer’s Connection Online (MCO). The MCO allowed Cisco’s partners direct access to customer information, sales projections, and product specifications. Partners could also alert Cisco to work stoppages, part shortages, and other issues. Once a customer placed an order on the Cisco.com site, the manufacturing partner was immediately notified electronically. The manufacturer’s network immediately transmitted the order to the actual assembly line. Later, Cisco developed a system for automatically testing products to ensure they were up to Cisco’s specifications and ready to ship without the product ever leaving their manufacturing partner’s premises. Once an order was ready for shipment, Federal Express, Cisco’s shipping partner, was automatically notified, the order was assigned a shipping number, picked up at the manufacturer, and delivered by Federal Express to the customer. In the event of an assembly line problem or auto test concern, the manufacturer immediately alerted Cisco through the MCO, which then alerted the customer. Because the MCO and the CCO were integrated, customers could check on their order’s status at any time. In addition to the Cisco Connection Online, the Cisco Employee Connection, and the Manufacturing Connection Online Cisco’s accounting and HR departments featured an amazing level of automation. Cisco executives could view up-to-the-minute sales figures from around the world at any time. Additionally, Cisco was able to close its books within a day. Automated functions within HR included the capability to accept job requests online and to review and sort applicants by crucial variables, such as skill level or former employer. Flexibility was as critical as functionality to Cisco’s e-business systems. These all the capabilities are rewarded to the Cisco because of the E-business module. Weaknesses / Negative Aspects There was much hype surrounding the Internet and e-commerce over the last few years of the twentieth century. Much of it promoted the Internet and e-commerce as the solution for all ills, which raises the question. Limitations of e-commerce to organizations Lack of sufficient system security, reliability, standards and communication protocols, and security holes in software. It leads to confidential client information growing to be available to all. Rapidly evolving and changing technology, so there is always a sense of trying to ‘catch up’ and not be left behind. The simplicity with which business models can be copied and emulated over the Internet increases that pressure and curtails longer-term competitive advantage. Facing increased competition from both national and international competitors often leads to price wars and subsequent unsustainable losses for the organization. There is no real control of data that is collected over the Web or Internet. Data protection laws are not universal and so websites hosted in different countries may or may not have laws which protect privacy of personal data. Physical contact and relationships are replaced by electronic processes. Customers are unable to touch and feel goods being sold on-line or determine voices and reactions of human beings. There is no good faith between the two parties, because they are bonding with faceless computers. As people become more used to communicating electronically there could be an erosion of personal and social skills which might eventually be detrimental to the world we live in where people are more comfortable interacting with a screen than face to face. There is a possible threat that there will be enhance in the social divide between technological haves and not’s. So people who do not have technical skills become unable to secure better-paid jobs and could form an underclass with potentially dangerous implications for social stability. When we turn towards the Cisco, while the decentralized system, combined with an emphasis on staying close to the customer, had been incredibly successful for Cisco so far, it was not without problems. First, as the company grew, it became more complex, and the advancement process became more puzzled. Much of the organization was impacted when new initiatives were introduced. A major challenge was simply staying connected maintaining employees throughout the organization cognizant of current initiatives and the significance of those initiatives. In addition, it was corporate for different business units to follow initiatives that were substantially the same. Conflicts or duplications often had to be resolved by the IT department as various endeavors were implemented on Cisco’s website. There were also questions about the types of initiatives produced under the decentralized system. Because they were often influenced by customer feedback, these initiatives tended to be of the incremental, short-term variety. It was not clear how much effort was being devoted to creating true breakthrough approaches, nor was the appropriate level of effort clear. Moreover, it was becoming clear that there were opportunities to co-develop, co-design, and co engineer new e-business processes with external organizations, including clients and partners, but it was not clear exactly how to approach these possibilities or how to make them routine. Opportunities Traditional supply chains which are involving in product development, production, distribution, and sales cycles are not capable of dealing with dynamic customer demand in the current context. Businesses need to run parallel activities and higher level of flexibility in their operations in order to co-up with the rapid changes in demand. Procurement, inventory management, production and distribution are getting affected due to this nature. Businesses can accommodate e-business models deal with those demands. Cisco is also using the e-business to handle parallel activities in order to archive their business targets. 1. Cisco TAC service This is an online service, where users with a valid service contract can, get Cisco’s engineering services by describe their issues and attach files to the service request, and those requests will route the appropriate engineer as soon as possible. Users can get the help of tools that are available on Cisco.com in order to do these requests. In this way Cisco is able to manage their support calls and cases very quickly. Cisco TAC engineers are attending to the case very quickly and they even login to the faulty device using Cisco WEBEX sessions in critical issues. Cisco provides their warranty items in least amount of time to make sure the zero down time of the network. Customer satisfaction is main advantage of this service, reputation of Cisco networks are increased due to this process. By using these kinds of techniques Cisco makes their tasks very easy to manage. Cisco has great opportunity to attract more consumers and retain their existing consumers with the help of this kind of services. 2. New inventions Early 2006 Cisco introduced new product called Cisco TelePresence which has the ability to communicate with the broader community of Cisco TelePresence users with Life-size, high-definition video and CD-quality audio in a premium room environment using Collaborative tools such as presentation sharing and high-definition document cameras Services available by the hour in easily accessible public business-class locations. Recently Cisco introduced new data center family switches named as â€Å"Cisco nexus† in 2008 which will meet customer demands for next-generation mission-critical data centers. The Cisco Nexus 7000 Series, the flagship data center-class switching platform combining Ethernet, IP, and storage capabilities across one unified network fabric. Also nexus family virtual switches were introduced by Cisco to enhance the network virtualization. â€Å"Nexus 1000 V† is a virtual switch that can be used to control the data traffic among virtual machines in a data ce nter environment. Cisco nexus, Virtual switches, Cisco Techwise TV, Datacenters and clouds Virtualization, Virtual desktop infrastructure are some of the new areas that Cisco working in these days. Cisco has very good opportunity to have very good market share and profit through their new products. Ability of expand Cisco’s business in vertical and horizontal is one of Cisco’s biggest opportunities. Cisco already created the need for networking solutions to the world. They can continue on that way. They have the opportunity to introduce a complete network solution, with all the network equipments and software that need. Cisco has the ability to offer a much wider range of products since they have already acquired lot of network equipment companies. Cisco also can involve in data mining. The amount of data in the world is exploding. As more data becomes available, the ability to handle them in fast and efficient manner is so much important. Therefore Cisco can use do research work on how to use their network infrastructure to utilize that. Demand for the Cloud Computing is another opportunity. Since it is relatively new dimension and not that much competitors in that arena Cisco can play a big role in that segment. Wi-Fi Home Calling Mobile phones, Mobile Broadband are some other areas where Cisco has opportunities to increase their current market share as well as to capture new market segments. Threats Though Cisco dominates the router market, if they does not consider about the competitors they may lose the market, because small companies can take over a specific niche market. Keep implementing many changes to the Cisco e-business infrastructure is another treat. Employees, suppliers take considerable time period to get use to the new systems. Therefore if changes are happening quite often then people may get fed up with those changes since they have to adopt their work according to the new systems. Cisco’s high dependability on their suppliers is another treat. If one or many suppliers get refuse to supply the products due to some reasons then Cisco can’t deal with the demand, since more than 90% of the orders are directly fulfill by the suppliers without intervention of Cisco. Some other treats are †¢Cost of managing highly interconnected complex systems, software systems and managing customer centers/call centers is very much high. †¢Separate partnerships for borderless networking, data center and virtualization and collaboration can leads to disputation. †¢Since Cisco doesn’t sell directly to end customer, they cannot contact Cisco directly. This may leads to customer dissatisfaction. Recommendations Cisco is highly depend on their e-business strategies that are been implemented since last two decades. Those initiatives lead Cisco towards being the giant in internetworking industry. Company has automated almost all their processes with the help of IT. This is very effective and efficient in terms of time saving and cost reduction but on the other hand Cisco will be in trouble, if some issues occur in their systems. Therefore they should have alternative methods to continue their businesses even in that kind of scenario. In general it is very hard to think of alternatives when everything works smoothly enough with the power of IT, but with the rapid growth of security vulnerabilities in the internet, it is always nice to have at least a single way to continue the business processes without getting affect by those vulnerabilities. In 2001 Cisco’s stock price collapse dramatically. They lost nearly $400 billion in market value. There was lot of arguments about the company’s management, and of the inability of its information systems to anticipate and respond more effectively. An information system is only as good as the data entered into it, and if the people gathering the information fail to pick up on market signals or are unwilling to be the bearers of bad news, then the system won’t provide the warning signs that might mitigate the impacts of a major market shift. Therefore Cisco must implement a way to respond to the market changes very quickly, unless they may lose their market. Cisco’s competitors such as 3Com, AT&T provide interfaces to connect their equipments with the 3rd party vendors. But some of the Cisco equipments can’t connect like that with the 3rd party vendors. This is a drawback for them. There is a possibility of consumers may turn to some other tools due to that. Therefore Cisco should provide the facility to their equipments to interface with other vendorâ €™s. Another thing that Cisco can do is provide facility to directly communicate with Tellab’s devices. At the moment Cisco nodes can’t directly communicate with Tellab’s nodes without in-between bridge because auto generate magic numbers aren’t matching. Consumers need to have a more than average networking and technical knowledge in order to implement Cisco systems, unlike other vendors’ network equipments. Consumers who are not having appropriate knowledge about the implementation and maintenance should get help from others when they are dealing with Cisco products. This may leads consumers to go for other vendors who are producing products which can be use much easier than Cisco products. Therefore Cisco must provide easy configurations for their products or they should assist their consumers free of charge in those incidents. Then Cisco can retain their existing customers and customers will not get frustrated when working with their products. One of the main concerns is that Cisco doesn’t sell their products directly to the home users. If a home user wants to buy a Cisco product he/she must contact a Cisco partner and get the product through that partner. This should be changed. Cisco must provide all direct buying facility to all of its’ consumers, not only for the B2B consumers. Cisco can enhance their online presence in order to serve home consumers so they can directly buy Cisco products through their website. Cisco can get more sales by direct sales to home consumers since direct sales leads Cisco to promote their new products to those consumers through online marketing and promotion campaigns. They can also motivate their sales partners to attract more consumers by providing special discounts schemas for partners who are bringing more sales to the company. If we consider about Cisco’s website it has some issues in search facility. Most users are unable to search what they want through the provid ed search functionality in the website. Cisco should carefully study about what users really searching for in their website. Then company should upgrade or rework on their search functionality so user can experience more accurate search results. Cisco doesn’t provide support for the products that they no longer produce. They only provide support until after 1 year they stop the production. In networks 1 year old equipment is almost like a new product. Normally standard network equipment can be use for about 3 – 5 years. Therefore consumers who are having relatively new products can’t get Cisco support when they are having issues in their products. Sometimes Cisco completely stops support for some business units. Then consumers who are belongs to that unit will not get any patches, updates or technical assistance. If Cisco can provide patches, updates and technical assistance to all their products without eliminating any products or business units that would make consumers to believe that they are always look after by Cisco. Therefore consumers’ perception about the company will grow. Another major issue with Cisco products is that existing Cisco products can’t be upgrade easily. Consumers have to consider about various factors when they want to upgrade their existing equipments. They can’t easily replace existing node with another node. If they do so whole system can get affected due to compatibility issues. Most of the times if a network consist of Cisco equipments and there is an issue in single point it simply can’t be replaced by another same type product from another vendor. Users always have to replace it by a Cisco product. It is true that it brings sales to Cisco but on the other hand users may get fed up. Sometimes users may want to replace some nodes with some other vendors’ products due to some reasons. Therefore Cisco must think about that kind of incidents and provide necessary solutions. Cisco always tries to go with their proprietary protocols rather than open standards. This leads collision in communication between thei r products and other products. Since Cisco is not the one and only player in the network industry, Cisco should provide their consumers the facility to connect Cisco equipments with any other products without compatibility issues. This can be achieved by in lining Cisco products with open standards. The alternative to the current decentralized system was some sort of centralized organization that focused on innovation. But there were any number of ways in which the charter of this new organization could be configured. What specific activities would it be responsible for? Who would staff it? How would it be funded? How would it be evaluated? Could it be configured in such a way that efficiencies and elusive â€Å"white space† opportunities were captured without destroying the innovative spirit at Cisco or its decentralized culture? Losing either could outweigh any benefits of centralization. Cisco can consider about a Technology Research and Training Team that can study about emerging technologies and keeps business managers informed of what would soon be possible.

The Art of Jihad Documentary - 1598 Words

Name: Ossama El Garhy ID: 900113710 Section: 19 Date: 1/11/2011 â€Å"The Art of Jihad† Documentaries have a huge impact on one’s thoughts and beliefs. The Art of Jihad is one of the most interesting documentaries I have ever seen. It is about three American artists discussing the stereotypes about Islam especially in USA, and how they try to reveal the actual meaning of Islam through their works. Non-Muslim people, especially non-Arabs, do not know the real meaning of Islam. These people always misjudge Muslims and think that Islam tells us not to be peaceful. This happens because of the corrupted media as it displays the wrong stereotypes of Islam. But after watching this documentary I found out that there are still some educated†¦show more content†¦He displays a Muslim taxi driver, †Mahmoud†, who argues about the fact that they made him a taxi driver, and says that they displayed him as a taxi driver because he is Muslim. Sandow uses the character â€Å"Mahmoud† to combat the stereotype that Muslims are poor and ignorant. Mahmoud a lso says that prophet Muhammad is a good guy just like Jesus, and they should not misjudge him. This brings us to the main purpose of this film; Sandow made this film to tell people that prophet Muhammad is not the evil or ignorant person who was depicted by Dante’ 400 years ago. So this film was to clarify the real personality of prophet Muhammad and his message. And to combat the bad stereotypes of Islam displayed by Dante’ years ago. He purposely chose not to show Muslims wearing any traditional clothes or outfits in order to show that Muslims are not ignorant and savages, and they do not live in the dessert and ride camels, but they are just like any other person living in the western society. Therefore, Sandow uses his works in media to try to combat this stereotype about Muslims. Also El Dajani focuses on that part and thus, he shows a part from â€Å"Dante’s Inferno† in his documentary to catch people’s attention in this part. Also this coul d change in children’s perceptions. Because children always watch cartoons, and this film was a graphical film. So children might watch something like this graphical film, which will affect their perceptions about Islam. So I thinkShow MoreRelatedGp Essay Mainpoints24643 Words   |  99 PagesScience/Tech a. Science and Ethics b. Government and scientist role in science c. Rely too much on technology? d. Nuclear technology e. Genetic modification f. Right tech for wrong reasons 3. Arts/Culture a. Arts have a future in Singapore? b. Why pursue Arts? c. Arts and technology d. Uniquely Singapore: Culture 4. Environment a. Developed vs. Developing b. Should environment be saved at all costs c. Are we doing enough to save the environment? d. Main reasonsRead MoreOne Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.163893 Words   |  656 Pagesopportunities available to them at different times and in diverse settings. She places special emphasis on the important but often overlooked roles they played in politics, particularly those associated with resistance movements, and their contributions to arts and letters worldwide. Drawing on the essay collections and series on women in world history that she has edited over the past decade, Smith’s fully global perspectives make clear that even though gender parity has rarely been attained in any society

It’S Easy Being Green. People And Especially Scientists

It’s Easy Being Green People and especially scientists are worried that if America continues to allow garbage, plastic, pollution, and waste into the environment, that would result to a lot of problems and troubles in the future concerning the ecosystem and nature across the world. This originally was recognized as a problem when people around the world have found a large garbage island right in the middle of the pacific ocean. These are just what they sound like, a large area of plastic, waste, and other garbage floating around. These are created by lost cargo from ships or debris from various things. Our lazy and selfish ways will lead to disasters in animal population and the healthiness and robust to†¦show more content†¦Remissive recycling contributes to this problem, too. Researchers have found dozens of recyclable objects like aluminium, plastic bottles, newspapers, cardboard, and steel cans in landfills, which could have been prevented if those people took one more second to throw their unwanted things in the proper place. Another source from lasvegassun.com showed that The American Lung Association states, â€Å"the â€Å"State of the Air† report, released today, gave Las Vegas-Henderson a failing grade and ranked it as the 10th worst among 277 metropolitan areas in the country for ozone pollution.† (Taylor, Pg. 1) Why is Las Vegas known to be one of the most polluted areas? Due to the . These problems can lead to adults, teenagers, and even toddlers are at risk to obtaining lung diseases, asthma, or heart diseases. Many fears and concerns that are really concentrated for garbage and plastic is the the ocean water. It is shown that thousands of garbage and plastic have been found in the middle of the ocean. And that it is causing decreasing numbers in the marine population. The article (For Ocean Animals, ‘Death By Plastic’ Could Be Occurring More Frequently) said that â€Å"The whale discovered in the Netherlands is only the fifth whale confirmed to have died from ingesting plastic. This might be because some are able to process it better than others, or there could be more that never made it to shore and therefore couldn’t be reliably counted.Show MoreRelatedObesity : The Average Percent Of People Getting Obese1646 Words   |  7 PagesThe average percent of people getting obese is increasing daily. Jay Zagorsky, a scientist at Ohio State University writes that the rate of obesity in USA increased from 13% in the 1960s to 35% (Vanderkam). The people who are getting obese are different genders, but Jay Zagorsky stated that women who receives public assistance have a higher possibility of getting obese than who don’t (Vanderkam). 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The Censorship Of The Hip Hop Culture - 887 Words

The Oppressive Language Leading to the Degradation of Woman via The Hip Hop Culture Today There’s a powerful source brainwashing young minority women today, specifically the language expressed in Rap lyrics which is often embraced by the Hip Hop Culture recently. These young gems are being conditioned to value their worth centered around hollow, vain, and degrading measures. The lead directors of these measures are strong, empowered, talented men who come across as if they detest woman. They disclose and describe detail stories of lifestyles involving â€Å"model chicks† who degrade themselves for acceptance, money, and opportunity. Consequently, this behavior leaves impressions for young ladies to follow after; because most young ladies of minority tap into the hip hop culture as a guide for social behavior. Although, the Hip Hop culture allows a window into the challenges faced by the black community it has also been the lead contributor to the desensitization of exploitation towards women due to the negative messages and images portrayed in music lyrics a nd music videos today. Symbols of Sexuality Gone Wrong Adams and Fuller(2006) define‘‘misogyny as the hatred or disdain of women. It is an ideology that reduces women to objects for men’s ownership, use, or abuse. This ideology is widespread and common throughout society’’ (p. 939). The devaluation of young minority women through the hip hop culture is an epidemic. The word choices conveyed inShow MoreRelatedHip-Hop Culture Essay987 Words   |  4 Pages Hip-hop culture began to develop in the south Bronx area of New York City during the 1970s. It had a significant influence in the music industry. Hip-hop music generally includes rapping, but other elements such as sampling and beatboxing also play important roles. 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A study on Key Leadership Qualities of a Project Manager Free Essays

string(140) " the point that some cancer patients will come with other diseases which will need to be treated at the same hospital for practical reason\." Origin of the Report This report idea was initiated by the honorable course instructor of ‘Project Management’ as a part of course completion of MBA program at the Institute of Business Administration, Gangrening University. Specific guidelines were provided by the instructor to conduct the study for academic purpose. 1. We will write a custom essay sample on A study on Key Leadership Qualities of a Project Manager or any similar topic only for you Order Now Objectives of the Report The primary objective of the study was to fulfill the requirement of the course module as per the guideline by the instructor that leads to attaining the following specific objectives. Identify and evaluate the project performance in terms of time, cost and performance. Identify different key aspects of the project manager’s characteristics that influence the project success. 1. 3 Methodology This report has been developed in context of exploratory research. To prepare this report, both qualitative and quantitative methods have been used. Personal interview with the project manager with the help of a semi structured questionnaire was key instrument. Therefore the sample size was comprised of one single individual, the project manager. Personal observation has been one of the key methods that applied o analyze the data accumulated. 1. 4 Source of Data Both primary and secondary data have been used for analysis in this report. The data sources are described as follows. 1. 4. Primary Data Semi structured questionnaire interview with the project manager was conducted where different aspects of the project were mentioned and asked about to evaluate the specific aspects of project accomplishment in terms of meeting the quality standards required. Moreover a structured questionnaires based on five point scale was used to evaluate the project manager’s leadership role in accomplishing the project successfully. 1. . 2 Secondary Data The se condary data was collected from the website of related entities. Some previous publications and Journals in the related field have been used as a guideline to develop the context. 1. 5 Scope of the Report This report was an outcome of extensive group work that will provide guidelines for future related works. As the work was unique in nature and the aspect is specific, it is expected to provide a guideline for the evaluation of performance of a project and the project manager in future. 1. 6 Limitations Different limitations were tackled during the report preparation and the collection of ATA. Some of them include, Limited time to prepare the whole report Facing difficulties to manage the appointment with the project manager As the project was accomplished earlier team members were spitted and not available together Getting the financial was another challenge as per the restrictions by the policy of the parent organization Chapter 2: The Project Details 2. 1 The Project Detail 2. 1. 1 Construction of the MACH Building Dacha Shania Mission as part of the total project took the initiative in 2001 to open a Cancer detection Treatment Center at Murmur, Dacha. In course of its progress it is owe a 42 bed Cancer Hospital with required operation facilities, Chemotherapy, X-Ray and Imaging facilities. A team of experienced and dedicated cancer specialists and general physicians are working there to provide health service at a reasonably low cost. Here free services are offered to poor and ultra – poor patients. In the year 2008 the hospital continues to provide health care services, specially to cancer patients, with some additional facilities. Ultimately the dream materialized into reality and a plan was made to construct a 500 bed Cancer Hospital at a staggering cost of 2. 56 billion take (SIS$ 36. 7 million). The thirteen story hospital designed by a US based architectural firm â€Å"Design Alliance f Baltimore†, got started its construction with foundation laid by the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Begum Chalked Aziza, on 10th July 2004 on a 3 acre land at the bank of the river Tutor in Attar Model Town in the Capital. T he location is about 5 Km from Aziza International Airport and the construction in full gear started on 16th July 2005. This 450,000 square feet 13 storied hospital is expected to open in late 2009 with about 200 inpatient beds, Outpatient department with about 40 Examination/consultation Rooms, Medical Imaging, Pathology, Surgical Suite, Radiotherapy Department, non-international Cardiac and Neuron Diagnostics, Day Care and the requisite support services. By 2010 all 500 beds are expected to be operational. At that time, based on beneficial utilization, Shania Mission Cancer General Hospital is projected to provide over 160,000 days of inpatients care and cater to over 180,000 outpatients annually saving approximately SIS$ 13 million annually. 30% services of the hospital will be available free for the poor patients. DAM is raising funds from general public as well as from the corporate sector. There are special provisions for potential donors to sponsor sundry components of the hospital. One can donate to have in his/her own name or dear one’s name to name a bed/beds, a ward/wards, a cabin/cabins, operation theatres. There are specified rates for each type of dedicated areas of inscription which will be inscribed distinctly as per wish of the donor. Keeping in line with Dacha Shania Mission’s dedication to Divine and Humanitarian services Shania Mission Cancer and General Hospital will be a big leap forward to provide service to humanity by redressing the suffering of the ailing patients, especially cancer patients. International Hospital Group (GIG), a I-J based consulting firm with vast experience in medical equipment consultancy has been entrusted with the Job to furnish the equipment schedule IEEE equipments and furniture plan floor and room wise of AMIGA to cater to the need and suitability of the patients and users. Considering the huge cost of modern quality treatment for cancer and our commitment to provide with poor and needy patients 30% treatment facilities free of cost, deep thought has been given to make Shania Mission Cancer and General Hospital a viable and cost- effective project with the motto of ‘No-profit-No-Loss’. Due consideration has also been given to the point that some cancer patients will come with other diseases which will need to be treated at the same hospital for practical reason. You read "A study on Key Leadership Qualities of a Project Manager" in category "Papers" Also considering the reality to keep specialist doctors including ambitious and career conscious young doctors there is possibly no other alternative other than opting for building a Medical College in future. In consideration of this vital factors, provision for general treatment facilities have been kept at AMIGA. Moreover, there is a plan to establish a Nursing Institute in future. Building on the ideas of the founder Suffix Saint Hazard Khan Buddha Channels (Ramshackle Awhile), Dacha Shania Mission embarked on establishing a modern cancer hospital where world-class treatment will be available. Shania Mission Cancer and General Hospital is one of major projects to fight cancer in Bangladesh. So far, super-structures of thirteen storey plus two basements of this fifteen-storey hospital building have been completed. The construction of Radiotherapy Vault and other essential works are now going on for inaugurating the first phase of the hospital with 160 beds by the end of 2013. However, the POD, Radiation Therapy Unit, Day Care Centre and Diagnostic Facilities have been scheduled to start functioning at the end of 2012. Location Plot#3, Sector # 10, Embankment Driveway Attar Model Town, Dacha-1230, Bangladesh. Land Area 3 Acres Project Cost US$. 47. 29. O Gob. Approval Obtained Architect Design Alliance, 1921 York Road, Baltimore, MD 21093 USA Email:design_alliance@yahoo. Com Cons. Period 2005- 201 5 Started July, 2005 Expected Completion Phase I with 175 beds by end 2013 and complete with 500 beds in 2015. The POD, Radiation Therapy Unit, Day Care Centre and Diagnostic Facilities have been scheduled to start functioning at the end of 2012. A modern cancer care hospital building is under construction at present. The building has been designed by Architect Mr. Tare Lam, a professional hospital architect registered in the USA . 2. 2 Overview of the Construction Company The project was accomplished by Associated Builders Corporation (BBC) Limited, a private limited company established in 1972, which designs and constructs industrial projects, bridges, Jetties, harbor, roads and buildings of all types. The company has gained considerable reputation in tackling Civil Engineering Projects which require peccadillo experience and up-to-date technical knowledge in the respective field since its incorporation. 2. 2 The Project Budget and Actual Cost Chapter 3: Evaluation of the Overall Project Performance 3. 1 Analysis of Background and Scheduling Ultimately the dream materialized into reality and a plan was made to construct a 500 bed Cancer Hospital at a staggering cost of 2. 56 billion take (SIS$ 36. 97 million). The thirteen story hospital designed by a US based architectural firm â€Å"Design Alliance f Baltimore†. The location is about 5 Km from Aziza International Airport and he construction in full gear started on 16th July 2005. This 450,000 square feet 13 storied hospital To construct such a large project Shania Mission needed an expert constructor who has experience in such large public project. In 2009 Shania Mission asked for open tender for the project where most of the country’s largest Civil Constructors Joined. By evaluating the proposal the project goes to Associated Builders Corporation Ltd (BBC) for the Civil Contract. The Contract was awarded in two phase. First, one was the construction of basement and first 4 stories. And the est. of the 13 stories of the building were constructed in the second phase. The electrical and wiring was also included in the project. 3. 2 Evaluation the Project in terms of Cost This section should provide a comparison of the actual costs of the external consultancy with the agreed contract value. Where there is a variation (upwards or downwards) between agreed contract value and actual costs DIP must be informed. In cases where the actual cost exceeds the cost approved by DIP an explanation must also be provided. Initial Approval Cost BIT. 650000000 Contract Award Cost BIT. 800000000 Actual Cost BIT. 00000000 Percentage Variation between Contract Award Cost Actual Cost 38% Explanation of variation in costs The reason behind the over running the initial planned cost was due to change of the price of material most notably Steel, Rod, Cement and other raw material for the construction project. The reason behind increased steel price was due to global over demand of steel b ecause of Beijing Olympic. The cost over running created a hamper in project progress. The cost proposal had to be overwritten and renegotiated. This also created budget deficit for Shania Mission as well profit minimization of BBC Corporation Limited. 3. 3 Evaluation the Project in terms of Performance 3. 3. 1 Assessment of Deliverables This section should provide detail on what was delivered by the consultants. The extent to which projected deliverables, as outlined in the Terms of Reference, were met by the consultants, and the quality should be assessed. On behalf of Shania Mission a project in-charge was appointed whose Job was to monitor and supervise the construction project as a overall basis. His Job actually was limited to Consultancy and supervision On behalf of BBC a project Engineer is appointed. He has the executive duties of overall project. Apart from technical aspects, he had to oversee costing human resource management inside the project. The assessment of project used to take place week wise. Upon the approval of Shania Mission engineer Bill is paid monthly basis. 3. 3. 2 Assessment of Benefits The original date of completing the project was revised several times mainly because of the funding issues on behalf of Shania Mission. Reasons of delays usually occurred due to payment issues. Apart from that some tactical delays at engineering works were not uncommon. Both cases the responsible party has to adjust the agitation The purpose originally intended the consultancy assignment were to do the Job efficiently and effectively. Because of the BBC Construction Limiter’s effective role the contract was extended for second phase. Chapter 4: Analysis of the Project Manager’s Leadership Role 4. 1 The Role of Project Manager in Contemporary Organizations In brief we need to understood project monitoring role of the PM. Actually, the role responsibilities of a Project Manager is little complex and needs to be explained elaborately in clear terms for each project. Let us list down few important roles responsibilities of a Project Manager. * The Project Manager is the person responsible for managing the project. *The Project Manager is the person responsible for accomplishing the project objectives within the constraints of the project. He is responsible for the outcome (success or failure) of the project. *The Project Manager is involved with the planning, controlling and monitoring, and also managing and directing the assigned project resources to best meet project objectives. The Project Manager controls and monitors â€Å"triple scope, time and cost(quality also)-?in managing competing project requirements. The Project Manager examines the organizational culture and determines whether project management is recognized as a valid role with accountability and authority for managing the project. *The Project Manager collects metrics data(such as baseline, actual values for costs, schedule, work in progress, and work completed) reports on pro ject progress and other project specific information to stakeholders. *The Project Manager is responsible for identifying, monitoring, and responding to risk. The Project Manager is responsible to the project stakeholders for delivering a project’s objectives within scope, schedule, cost, and quality. *The reporting structure of a Project Manager depends on organizational structure. He may reports to a Functional Manager or to a Program Manager. In a bit exaggerating terms, Project Manager is the ‘God’ of his project and he is the one who decides the success of the project. 4. 2 Criteria of a Successful Project Manager 4. 2. 1 Leadership Leadership is identified separately from management, as leadership is more of a personality trait whereas management is a learned skill. I recognize this is not a common view as many people and companies espouse courses in teaching adhering. Here, I am identifying people who can motivate others as projects are long endeavors, which invariably have points where the success of the project falls to the project manager who can keep the team motivated and get them past the sticky problems observed on nearly every project. MS also have to instill confidence in both their teams and the manager(s) to whom they report. As stated before, projects are long and difficult endeavors, which have plenty of challenges. When these challenges arise, MS who are able to maintain the confidence of all interested parties have more success. When the confidence in the PM is shaken, executives tend to provide additional assistance to the teams that is a sure sign of lost confidence and adds additional effort to the project. The group of engineers will operate independently producing a fragmented solution. People in general bring a set of implicit assumptions. These assumptions are not typically in the forefront of their minds but exist due to their life experiences both personally and professionally. These assumptions then drive the set of solutions they are able to envision. When a PM is able to identify these implicit assumptions, validate their relevancy to the unique project, then challenge them if need be, better solutions to problems are identified. These better solutions may be quicker and less risky to implement, require fewer resources or less highly skilled resources, or have a better impact on the business. Leading refers to carrying out the project plan in order to achieve the project objectives. Leading the project is one of the more challenging aspects for new project managers because it involves a lot of â€Å"soft skills. Skills such as communicating clearly, team motivation, and conflict resolution. Some key duties for eating projects include, Setting team direction Coordinating activities across different organizational functions Motivating team members Assigning work personality trait whereas management is a learned skill. I recognize this is not a the busines s. 4. 2. 2 Management Skills On all projects, there is a finite amount of administration that occurs and this to me is the management of the project. The management component of project or program management requires multiple skills as well as traits. The traits include the ability to organize. Projects inherently have lots of moving parts from end users and pompons with thoughts, to technicians who have commercial applications to configure or code to write, to test teams and configuration managers who have plans and backbend support systems to bring on line. All of these disparate groups must be brought together and coordinated so the project can move forward and eventually complete. The ability to organize the multiple teams is a personality trait inherent is successful program and project managers. We also have to organize at a deeper level when dealing with the technology. The task of building a Work Breakdown Structure WEBS) is a feat in organization when done well. Not only do business and technical executives have to understand both the strategy and tasking but also the technicians who will perform the work. Laying out a structure that is understood by both disparate sets of people is difficult at best. Now include the capability to track progress in a meaningful way for both groups and the need for deep organizing trait is paramount. Closely related is the ability to plan, to foresee how a project will come together. Planning also includes what deliverables are needed, how and when to evolve test plans, how many test plans are needed, what metrics are needed, and which resources execute which tasks in conjunction with each other. All of these are unique to each situation as the Statement of Work (SOW) or Project Charter is unique as well as the scope undertaken and the resources assigned to the project. The ability to manage both your own time and the time of those working for you is critical. Projects have so many distractions making it very easy to head down a rabbit hole that derails the project. These typically happen during the development phases but can also occur at any phase. Contrary to popular belief, the highest risk time off project is the beginning and not the end. Many times I use an analogy of catching a wave for a surfer. This is analogous to setting the scope and planning phases off project. Once you catch the wave, the time to the beach is out of your hands as the wave is going at its own speed. You can make some moves that will have some impact on the timing but the base timing is already defined. Successful project managers take their time in planning and resist the temptation to get starting developing because time is short. Each project has numerous options on how to approach the work. It is this approach which is analogous to catching the right wave, that has the most dramatic impact on project timing and success. Setting the priorities for individuals and managing to those priorities becomes a main activity during the majority of the project. This requires the PM to handle multiple tasks at the same time. The moment the first task is delegated, the PM is multi-tasking. If an individual tries to handle all tasks themselves, a project of any size is at risk. On a typical commercial software implementation, I will have the following threads open: ) software configuration, 2) interface development, 3) conversion or data migration development, 4) custom software development, 5) communication with sponsors, 6) communications with consulting company management and sales, 7) project tracking and monitoring, and 8) potentially open core product issues or enhancement. The ability to manage your time, multi-task, and manage the team’s time is a critical skill. All projects include the use of teams. These teams include resources for which the PM has direct responsibility and other resources for which the PM does not have responsibility. All of these teams must come together and work toward the common goal of completing the project. The team will consist of not only these individuals but also the managers of the matrixes resources as they potentially have competing goals. The ability to create and motivate teams becomes a determining factor in the success of Ms. . 2. 3 Communication Skills The ability to communicate in both written and verbal form both up and down the management chain is a widely known required skill. In the previous paragraphs and going forward the implication of communication skills Jumps off the page. Let me delve into a couple of areas that are not as widely held. The first is with whom MS communicate. I have mentioned the need to discuss topics with business and technical leaders as well as the technicians but what is also needed is the ability to define or clarify technical or business problems to the opposite group. Many times on a project I will come across a particularly difficult technical issue that either impacts the dates or is a risk to those dates. Naturally, both the technical and business leaders want to understand the problem. Given it is a technical issue in his case, discussing technical issues with technical people is easier than helping a business leader understand why the web application crashes because of Java Virtual Machine OVUM) Heap is exhausted and why this is a problem given the SCOFF Just spend dollars increasing the memory on the application server. These are important topics for them to understand as well as the opposite. Helping the technicians understand why a good technical solution has dire consequences for the business side of the house. MS are also knowledge conduits. They should ensure that information from one team gets to all the other teams that need it. As project schedules get tight and the tension begins to increase, many people naturally focus on their tasks at hand to become more efficient and get their work done. A great thing for that individual task but what happens when the other teams need information from this one group and cannot get it. The other tasks naturally fall behind so the project falls behind. The PM that stays in touch with what all groups are going and moves the information between groups can more effectively keep all tasks moving and avoids disconnects when the â€Å"right† hand is not talking to the â€Å"left† hand. 4. 2. Foresight and Vision Some people have the innate ability to see the future. I am not talking about crystal balls or palm readers but a sense for the direction the project is headed and the ability to see risks and envision how all the elements of a project will come together in the end. I alluded to this concept in the planning section and it applies here as well. In conjunction with planning is the skill of defining goals for individuals that are in sync with the plan. In my post, â€Å"Staying on Schedule†, I spoke about intermediate milestones and mint-crisis as a mechanism for maintaining a schedule. The ability to foresee, define, and articulate these goals goes a long way toward staying on schedule and being successful. Risk management is a key aspect of successful projects and is in many instances not well received as an integral part off project. In many organizations and as an attempt to manage time, organizations only deal with issues and not risks. Many times, I have highlighted risks to be told we will deal with it when it becomes a problem. The personality trait to envision a risk and the capability to address the risk are key elements to success. 4. 2. 5 Pragmatic As MS we are constantly in the situation of making choices. Usually all day is spent making trade off choices between competing forces. There are times when we have to make a choice a deliverable is good enough, not perfect but good enough as it meets the business objectives. The prime example comes when dealing with the speed at which application pages are rendered. I routinely hear from end users and sponsors that I want the page to be as fast as possible. From a conceptual standpoint, this makes sense as speed of page rendering translates into efficiency of workers and eventually money. Fast as possible does not mean get 6 Cray super computers for my solution or that I want sub second response time on a page that is making two web service calls and returning a three table Join query. Clearly, neither is going to happen. What was meant was to increase the speed until it reaches a good balance between cost, time and speed. This is not a straightforward decision. The technician would ask for the performance requirements so they know the solution to build; the businessperson wants a reasonable cost so the PM is in the position to determine what is good enough. The balance point falls to the PM and ragtime is key. Conflict is also a common occurrence on projects. It can be between two technicians, the test team, developers, the business people, etc. The ability to work through issues and even decide on what issues to engage is something critical to success. People can be passionate about what they believe in so getting past these points of contention whether it be negotiating a resolution, facilitating the discussion or deciding which battles to fight becomes important to success. 4. 2. 6 Can do attitude In our world, there are people whose glass is half full and those whose glass is half empty. The perspective on adversity, challenges, and dealing with people GAO long way toward success in a work environment that typically includes strict deadlines, changing requirements, heavy budget pressure and big business impacts when the project does not go well. A can do and positive attitude is a personality trait that serves MS well dealing with adversity, the high-pressure situations, team building, and leadership. Finding this personality trait in a person serves them well in the profession of Program and Project Management. In addition to the above list of skills ND traits, I would add a personality trait of cool and thoughtful under pressure. Projects are intense, long, and difficult activities that have periods of time when the PM is under significant pressure due to impending deadlines, difficult issues, etc. People are also very passionate and so the PM is typically under a lot of pressure and must be able to think on their feet and remain thoughtful during the intense times. It is these times when PM can easily lose the confidence of management or their teams, lose control of scope, or any number of other occurrences that negatively impact the project. . 2. 7 Disqualifications There are three inputs above that would not agree with: 1. Being completely obsessed with the Client. Client focus to a degree is a very good thing. In situations where the project manager is also managing a team and a contract then a proper balance between these many times competing agendas enables the project manager to not only meet the client goals but also individual and company goals. In these situations, the project manager has multiple people and organizations to which they report and must meet he goals of each individual and organization simultaneously to be successful. . Being an extrovert Due to the need for extensive interaction with people, extroverts typically have these skills inherently. Individuals who straddle the introvert/extrovert category can also be successful as they can communicate and operate in the people centric situations. Strict introverts who prefer to work alone and on individual tasks will struggle in the PM role. 3. Displaying personal courage (lead from the front) In my previous post, we discuss the relative timing of leading from the front and jack. Different situations dictate assuming each style so both are needed and not just leading from the front. The personality traits and skills needed for project managers to be successful are varied. When interviewing PM candidates and identifying internal candidates for a PM role, these people centric traits and skills seems far more influential factors in the success of PM. What may be interesting to many people is the lack of technical expertise as a main contributor to success. Certainly, technical and business expertise is needed for a project to be successful How to cite A study on Key Leadership Qualities of a Project Manager, Papers

Impairment of Assets International Accounting Standard

Question: Discuss about the Impairment of Assetsfor International Accounting Standard. Answer: Introduction The essay describes about impairment of asset, the standard describing impairment of asset is AASB 136, which is amended by IAS 36. This standard is required to be adopted by each and every organization. This is done to be ensured that whether the Longreach limited has carrying value over its fair value. The asset values are shown in the financial statements by deducting impairment loss. Impairment of assets is done because of the decrement in fair value of asset, or obsolescence. If there is any impairment loss arises, it need to be mentioned in the Longreach limiteds financial records. But if there is an impairment gain that is carrying value is lesser than fair value, it need not to be recorded in the financial statements, as there is nothing like impairment gain (Deloitte, 2017). However in the given assignment, impairment of asset has been discussed by taking a case of Longreach ltd, which has undertaken an impairment asset. AASB 136 AASB 136 deals with impairment of assets. It is amended by international accounting standard (IAS). This standard applies to each and every entity which prepares its financial statements, by complying the rules and regulations of the corporations act. The objective of this standard is to impair those assets which are carried over its recoverable amount. An asset can be said to be as over recovered if the assets carrying value is more than its recoverable value which can be arose through its uses and sales. When an asset is impaired, the entity should recognize it in its financial statements. The scope of impairment of assets levies on inventories, assets held for sale, assets from contracts of construction, assets arising from employee benefits, deferred tax assets, apart from that it also applies on revalued assets such as plant and machinery, buildings, equipments. However investment assets, biological assets, and agricultural assets this standard is not applied (Australian governm ent, 2009). Here the carrying amount is the value which is arrived after subtracting any depreciation or amortization and impairment losses from the asset value. While value to be recovered is the difference between the fair value less costs and its value in use. The loss on impairment is a value in which amount carrying is greater than its value to be recovered (Choi Meek, 2011). Purpose of Impairment Test The objective for assets impairment is to get ensured that the values of assets are recorded at their fair value. It can be done by conducting a match between carrying value and recoverable amount that is carrying value of the assets is either equal or less than the value to be recovered. If the carrying value of assets is more than its amount to be recovered by sales or uses of the assets, in this case impairment of assets is required (Dagwell, Wines Lambert, 2011). Goodwill Affecting Impairment Assets Goodwill is the amount which arises in case of business combination. If the purchase price to be paid by the selling company is more than the value of its net assets, it is termed as goodwill. The valuation of goodwill is required to be done annually. It is to be done even when there is boom in the economic cycle or the valuation has not been changed. As goodwill is required to amortize its value over its useful life, hence sometimes accountants treat such amortized value or written down value as impairment. Hence applying this principle in the given case it is required to mention impairment in the Longreach limiteds income statement. However in case of Longreach limited the impairment of goodwill will not required until and unless the fair value of goodwill exceeds its carrying value, but if the fair value is lesser than the assets carrying value, the impairment needs to be recorded in the financial statements to the amount goodwills book value is exceeding its fair value (Accounting standard 28). The Basic Steps to be Followed in Applying the Impairment Test The recoverable values of the assets are required to be calculated annually whether there is an indication of impairment or not. According to the IFRS it is required for all cash generating units to be tested for impairment including goodwill. Here the assets whose value are required to be calculated in case of an intangible assets, or who has an identifiable life, or not used yet or not in a useful condition yet, or goodwill in case of a business combination. In business combination, goodwill is required to be computed as it generates future benefits and will lead to generate cash for multiple units (Ernst Young, 2011). However there can be some indications indicating impairment of assets through external and internal sources. In external sources it can be identified if the assets market value is declining, like there are some negative changes in economy, technology, or laws and if there is any indication of increase in interest rates, or the net assets are greater than the market capitalization value. However internal sources can be said as if there is any physical damage to the assets or obsolescence, or any part of the whole asset is held for disposal, or the performance of the asset is worse in comparison to expectation. However there can be other indications also. Under GAAP, impairment test of goodwill can be done in two steps: In Step 1, the goodwills fair value is calculated and it is matched with its carrying amount, in step 2nd if the goodwills fair value is lesser than the amount to be carried that is carrying value this step is required. For example if the carrying value of an asset is $800, and has a recoverable amount of $750 (Korosec, Jerman Tominc, 2016). Then the impairment loss would be $50 that is recoverable value is deducted from the carrying value of the goodwill ($800-$750). If there is any impairment loss arises it needs to be recognized in financial statements (ACCA). Conclusion After discussing about the impairment asset, it can be concluded that impairment of asset is a compulsion for each and every entity. It gives a better presentation to the financial statements, as all the assets in the financial records would be recorded at their fair value. References ACCA. Impairment of goodwill. Retrieved by https://www.accaglobal.com/my/en/student/exam-support-resources/fundamentals-exams-study-resources/f7/technical-articles/impairment-goodwill.html Accounting standard (AS) 28. Retreived at https://www.mca.gov.in/Ministry/notification/pdf/AS_28.pdf Australian government. (2009) Australian accounting standards board. Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved by https://www.aasb.gov.au/admin/file/content105/c9/AASB136_07-04_COMPjun09_01-10.pdf Choi,F,D,S Meek,G,K.(2011) International accounting. 7th edition. Pearson education inc. new jersey Dagwell,R. Wines,G Lambert,C. (2011) Corporate accounting in Australia, Pearson, Australia Deloitte,(2017) IAS 36: Impairment of assets. Retrieved by https://www.iasplus.com/en/standards/ias/ias36 Ernst Young.(2011) Impairment of long-lived assets, goodwill and intangible assets. Retrieved by https://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/ME_ImpairmentGoodwillandIntangible/$FILE/ME_ImpairmentGoodwillandIntangible.pdf Korosec,B. Jerman,M Tominc,P.(2016) The impairment test of goodwill: an empirical analysis of incentives for earnings management in Italian publicly traded companies. Economic research. Routledge taylor and fracins group, UK. Retrieved by https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1331677X.2016.1164923