Sunday, May 17, 2009

Chapter 12 Article: Search and SaaS Unite for IT Management

Conry-Murray, A (2009) Search and SaaS Unite for IT Management. Information Week, 30.

A new start up by the name of Paglo is combining the search with software as a service to make IT management easier to set up and use. The product they offer is called Pagalo Crawler. The software can be downloaded and installed by an IT team. The crawler discovers the network and connected assets and then reports this information to Pagalo’s data center. An IT administrator can access this information from a Web browser. Pagalo also has a search capability that allows someone to query an index and search what software is installed in the PC or how much free disk space is available on the server. The software can also be used to monitor vital statistics, such as system memory, CPU usage and asset inventory.
This related to chapter twelve because they discuss DSS which is utilized to help collect current or historical data from various applications or groups into centralized data to simplify management reporting and assist management with business decisions. Pagalo is an example of a decision support system that can be used as a centralized area to collect all of the data within a company.

Chapter 12 Case Study: Does Compstat reduce crime?

1.What management, organizational, and technology factors make CompStat effective?
They have structured their organization to have officers report to a commander and a commander reports to the police headquarters. The commander is responsible for reducing the crime that goes on within the district they oversee. This is an effective way to make sure that they are doing their job because they are held accountable if the crime goes up. The commander is responsible for deploying their officers to the appropriate areas within their district based on the crime map provided by CompStat. CompStat assists the commander to properly manage their officers effectively and efficiently so that as a team they can reduce crime. These combined efforts make CompStat an effective tool that police departments can use to fulfill their goal.
2.Can police departments effectively combat crime without the CompStat system? Explain your answer.
No, I don’t think they can effectively combat crime without CompStat. CompStat collects and tracks crime complaints, arrests, crime patterns and police activities. This provides valuable information that would be hard to capture from paper. CompStat can determine what area within a district has an increased amount of activity. The police department can view this on the map and send more officers to patrol this area. Police officers are sent to the proper areas rather than sending officers to an area that has very little crime activity. CompStat is a guide that the police department can use so that they can patrol the neighborhoods more effectively.

Chapter 10 Case Study: The Allure of MySpace

1. How do businesses benefit from Myspace? How do Myspace members benefit?
Businesses benefit from Myspace because they can advertise and also retrieve information from these users so that they can target and better serve their market. The businesses can advertise to a particular set of individuals who fit their target market. They can also retrieve their potential user’s age, location, martial status, language, gender, etc. to analyze what types of individuals may be interested in their products. Myspace members benefit from Myspace because they can network with millions of people who also utilize the service. They can do job searches, blog, play games and e-mail.
2. Does Myspace create an ethical dilemma? Why or why not?
Myspace does not create an ethical dilemma because all of its users subscribe by choice and therefore consent to the sites agreement.
3. Do parent and schools’ objections to Myspace have any merit? Should a site like Myspace be allowed to operate? Why or why not?
I do believe parents and school objections should be valued. They object Myspace because they are trying to protect children from being hurt by individuals who misuse this site. Although some people object this site, I believe that Myspace should be allowed to operate. There are a lot more positive aspects to this networking site than negative ones. Myspace is listening to the concerns and doing the best they can to protect individuals who could be a target to sexual predators. It is also the parents responsibility and not Myspace’s responsibility to protect and watch their children.

Chapter 10 Article: SAP’s Smartphone Plan Goes through Sybase

Weir, M.H. (2009) Should SAP’s Smartphone Plan Goes Through Sybase Information Week, 22.

SAP is using Sybase to make it easier for employees who carry smart phones so that they can have access to SAP applications. Both companies are working together to integrate Sybase transaction management and other mobile middleware with SAP software such as CRM and human resources. SAP indicates that this will improve its NetWeaver Mobile development environment which will broaden their mobile applications. The software is supposed to launch later on this year.
This article relates to chapter ten because SAP is developing software so that employees have access to these enterprise systems. The chapter discusses limited access from websites because not all phone have 3G networks. This definitely limits the customer because if they need access to information that exceeds the devices capacity they will be unable to view the data they need. Although most phone have 3G network access and avoid this problem, many can’t access SAP applications which may be essential for an individual who frequently travels on business trips. This software they are developing would allow these employees to access SAP applications efficiently and lessen the times they have to take out their laptop which may be an inconvenience when traveling.