Thursday, October 31, 2019

Explain what you believe to be the 3 biggesrt reasons why the price of Essay

Explain what you believe to be the 3 biggesrt reasons why the price of a gallon of gasoline has fallen so much in the last few momths - Essay Example or the decreased price is the decreasing oil demand based on that numerous countries have been developing oil reservoirs that can sustain their internal industry. In the United States, the production of oil has increased significantly since 2008. The increase has been influenced by the more advanced drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil production from the United States has increased the supply to the international market. In addition, different from oil from the Middle East, the price for American Oil is relatively cheaper (Plumer 1). This is based on that the United States has decreased its purchase level of expensive international oil. The impact of the strategy has been consumer friendly. In the global market, more oil from the United States and other suppliers the supply is relatively high. This decreases the monopoly of production from the Middle East (Plumer 1). Moreover, with high supply the demand in in major oil producers decreases. To sustain their production, oil producers decrease the oil prices with the objective to retain relevance in the global market. This changes has significantly influenced the decreasing gasoline prices. The consumer ability to purchase cheap oil is directly influenced by the general drop in the price of crude oil. The fall being attributed to high supply and low demand of the product. On a daily basis, the United States millions of barrels of oil to supply to the large global oil economy. The slightest decrease on the price of crude oil has a significant effect on the retail price quoted for the gas. From 2013, the price of crude oil has decreased significantly. The projection of the decrease depict even more relatively low prices by the end of 2015. The fall of global prices was also influenced by the decision by OPEC not to manipulate oil prices and oil production (Plumer 1). Previously, the oil body would determine the prices of oil from its producers. The body has in its control the largest producers of global oil. With

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

See work below in description Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

See work below in description - Case Study Example Achieving a 20% price decrement is a challenge that can lead to closure of a firm if not well planned for. Givaudan management ought to come up with various strategies that focus on reducing its overheads in the production line. For instance, adopting automation in its production system may assist the firm in achieving this objective. Both automated handling and inventory systems are effective ways of reducing labor overheads. They allow a faster and a shorter production line as they eliminate much of human involvement in the production line. Second, ERP system in the line of production is an essential aspect that allows easy, faster and less costly tracking of a firms resources and its production capacity. It also allows the firm process and communicate its information with all stakeholders at the minimum cost. A third strategy is to eliminate any brokerage aspect in the supply channel between Givaudan and Tastyco to reduce the cost of supply (Rukstad, 2014). Merging deal with the competitor is another key alternative that can deliver Givaudan from the dilemma. This entails approaching the competitor in the same business line and sign an agreement to merge the two firms to a new firms based on common securities. The deal must be a friendly, horizontal and mutual one that benefits both firms. This eliminates the competition between Givaudan and Nan Ya. In any consideration of the strategic supplier, the new merged firm will scope the position. All the benefits accrued to one firm will be mutually benefiting the two firms (Rukstad, 2014). The reduction of the overhead costs has highlighted various strategies that can help Givaudan realize the objective. An automated system in both manufacturing and handling activities requires fewer workers to operate the system. This eliminates a substantial number of workers hence reducing labor costs (Rukstad, 2014). ERP system eliminates the cost of

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Shaping of Online and Offline Social Relationships

Shaping of Online and Offline Social Relationships INTRODUCTION Technically speaking internet is a global network of interconnected networks. All most all of these networks holds files such as web pages, that can be accessed by all other networked computers. Every computer or any device like cell phone etc which is connected to internet have the ability to send and receive files in the form of emails or another file extensions over the internet. And thus the people all over the world are connected always. If we place internet in the historical context and then critically examines the effect of internet use on the social relationships then we could see that the effects of internet use are largely depended on particular goals such as self-expression or competition. In 1998, Kraut and his colleagues cited a correlation between the internet use and declines in social relationships. After years the same group of people did a study on the original sample group and founded out that the negative effects of using internet had dissipated and also it sugges ted that the internet had a very positive effect on social and psychological wellbeing of the modern people. Here my aim or objective is to critically analyse the work done by Bo Xie on the topic The mutual shaping of online and offline social relationships. The author of this topic is Dr. Bo Xie, (PhD, Rensselaer Polytechnic ) Assistant Professor in college of information studies under the University of Maryland. She has published a number of books on information management. Her Research Interests are in Health informatics; older adults learning and use of computers and the Internet; computer literacy; lifelong learning; civic engagement; volunteering; social relationships; social support; online communities; health and well-being (http: //terpconnect.umd. Edu/~ boxie/).As a conclusion of my critical analysis I came to know that internet has both positive and negative effects on the social relationships in the modern world.Some of the positive effects are like online chatting, whic h will create new friendships and relationships which also helps in behind in touch with old friends .The same chatting could be the demerit when it creates wasteful relationships between people while chatting in the net for long hours. The positive effects of the internet on the social relationships may be crucial but the demerits of using internet might be destructive METHOD OF EVALUATION In the method of evaluation of the research author had interviewed thirty three participants from OldKids organisation whom falls under old age group and different educational backgrounds. Here the author tries to point out two culture specific groups. First -informed by anthropologists on the observation that the ageing experience difference over cultures and these participants were not selected by age but by self identification. It contained Chinese citizens. Second-retired Chinese participants. In the research the author speaks about the social relationships in the internet age and the social relationships in the later life. She says that the use of internet in this age reduces social relationship and increases the social isolation. The studies reveal that this concept was accepted before years but now the online relationships are more reliable ,realistic, low cost and easy reachable than in older days. She describes that the digital world or the internet age is completely indepen dent on on the offline or the physical world. This is a true fact and the two worlds are entirely different from each other with their own advantages and disadvantages.The virtual world helps each person to overcome from the embodied constraints such as sex, age , race and nationality and gives a quite environment from the outreach of the physical world. But there is also a chance of getting attracted more towards sexy relationships as the online users could pass their message shamelessly as they are not seeing each other face to face. The use of online relations also creates stage frightness in children. The virtual world creates the same situations prevailing in the physical world. This hypothesis is right from my point of view as well.Now we could do any thing in the virtual world that is happening in the physical world expect from the point of physical contacts. More recently the computer people had created even virtual bingos were a user could make a profile with a a character and that character could interact with the other characters whom are created by other users. From the evidences and the references the author argues that the social relationships created or formed and maintained through email are perceived by individuals are less valuable than the relationship created by the one to one face to face and telephonic relationships. This hypothesis is not completely acceptable as there are many evidence of people getting more and more engaged in relationships which is created through internet.But the hypothesis is acceptable from the point of view that people even cant remember even the names of their online friends. The supporting nature of the friendship is very less or rarely visible in online relationship.Evidences shows that friendship is more attached in the later life of older adults. The virtual online friends tries to meet and mingle in the physical world of relations. Thus online friends tends to meet their friends physically face to face TECHNIQUES USED FOR GATHERING DATA AND ANALYSIS The techniques used for the collection of datas to support my observations were absolutely secondary that is by reading the books, journels and and also surfing in the internet as the nature of the assignment is to critically analyse. As we analyse the datas available we could say that the research done by Dr.Bo Xie had some few limitations. The first one is that it has concidered only the people from china as the samples. The use of internet for making relationships in china may be different from other parts of the world. As China is technologically forward than many other countries the online relations could be more in China than in other countries.Second one is that the research selected only thirty three participants which is not sufficient for a good research to be conducted. But the technique used was random sampling which could provide with better results. The data collection would be better if it could do an online sampling which includes the people from other parts of the wo rld were there use of internet is not so common. Third one is that the samples contained only old people and it completely avoided the new generation which definitely would create a break through in the research. The data analysis for this study was controlled by grounded theory where the data collection and analysis occurs simultaneously to ensure the coevolution of the data and the theory.After interview with each person the author writes a short description about the feed back including the time and location of the interview.Its a long process of making a research which takes much time but helps to include each and every minute details of the observation. Then the analysis showed that the need to meet offline is in relation with the need to know more about computers and also to mingle with the friends in the same age group in the physical world. It also resulted in formations of some clubs as well. Internet helped the people to connect with the peers who were physically far away who were not in reach to the old people. This is also an acceptable fact but we should concider one point that internet is not available in rural parts of most of the world. LITERATURE REVIEW Greater use of the Internet was also associated with small, but statistically significant declines in social involvement as measured by communication with the family and the size of peoples local social networks, and with increases in loneliness, a psychological state associated with social involvement. ( Kraut et al,1998) A second study was then done on new purchasers of computer and televisions, and it also showed that the internet had a positive effect on social and psychological well-being. Unsurprisingly, this was more pronounced for extroverts and more socially connected people. (Kraut et al) Results of a new three year study are the first to reveal the social consequences of living in a highly-wired, broadband neighborhood. This research addresses recent interest in the effects of Internet use on relationships with friends, relatives and neighbors. The key finding is that living in a wired neighborhood with access to a high-speed local network encourages greater community invo lvement, expands and strengthens local relationships with neighbors and family, and helps maintain ties with friends and relatives living farther away. (Prof. Keith Hampton and Prof. Barry Wellman ) MAIN ARGUMENTS Main argument gives the strength and weakness of the research. Strengths The research has well explained how the online relations helped older people in finding their old peers and making new friends who are physically too far away from them. The theory used for the research that is the ground theory has strongly supported the findings and observations of the author. The interviews were conducted in depth and it has taken down all the points without any miss at the time of the interview.The analysis is so clear that every one could understand it without much difficulty.The research clearly mentions how the internet helped the old people in making a new online world of their own.The resarch gives references to many great books and authors to make it more reliable.It discusses the topic with a story which the make the readers more entertained. Weakness The research discusses only the positive aspects of old people using internet.The survey done was not a random survey which decreases the accuracy of the research. The number of persons selected for the research were very less like thirty three and also the members were selected from China only.The research did not give any individual details of the interviewees and it just give only an outline of a broader topic.The internet is mostly used by students teenagers etc who were not involved in this research.So there is a chance of getting inaccurate or even wrong dimensions to the research.It also not mentions about what happens in the other parts of the world where there is only a limited access to internet. DISCUSSION AND EVALUATION This research topic is more relevent to the modern world while evaluating deeply and is a must discussed topic.Firstly the use of internet to make peers for the old people is a topic which accurate to the modern world of stress and tension. Due to the increase in number of internet users the world becomes familiar to each individual.The topic is important because in near future nobody might be there who doesnt know how to work with internet. The evidences put forward by the researcher are all valid and the theory and the situation used are very supportive.The conclusion or the outcome of the research is sufficient in giving the idea of the topic. The research is transparent that the techniques used are quite appropriate and is been justified. Though the analysis was good the data collection was not upto the mark but also resulted in better outcome. The methodology is widely accepted type and sounds proper to the prevailing situation.Critically examining is the best way to interpret a research and also it helps in producing better outcomes and a modified future to the stakeholders CONCLUSION This critical review comes into the conclusion that the research has a positive attitude towards the online relationship at the same time it accepts the physical relationship as well. The aim of the research was to differentiate between online and offline relationship and it has done its job with perfection. The research is reliable, acceptable and adds value to the future world. The findings are based and built on theories so they are accurate .the theory shows that the number of people attracted towards online relationship is increased due to its positive aspects. Though online relation creates a virtual distance between the people it creates an awareness that we are one. The most polished quality of the topic falls in the relevant nature of the hosen topic. The results obtained can be used in most of the countries though it cannot be used in some of the rural parts of the world. The limitations of the research are overcome by the relevance and importance of the topic. The research gives great contribution to the modern world of computer. So the validity of the topic is very high.

Friday, October 25, 2019

The American Dream of Love and The Great Gatsby Essay -- The American

There is a special someone for everyone. Every man (or woman) hears this at least once in their life. They go through life searching for this special someone, sometimes destroying their own lives along the way. It can be a person 3000 miles away, or it can be the next door neighbor. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby has a second chance at the love of his life. As he stands next to the love of his life, Daisy Buchanan, the light across the lake that shines her house is now covered by the mist, sealing away his life’s darkness of being alone. However, there are just too many obstacles standing in the way of this relation ship which include Daisy’s child and husband and even possibly her obsession for money. As Gatsby’s fantasy comes closer to him, the chance of this dream becoming reality fades away. Jay Gatsby is in love with Daisy for five years. However, the war makes him go to fight, leaving Daisy behind. When he is leaving her, he promises to himself that he will come back to Daisy as an opulent man and win her heart. It is easily assumed that Jay never stops to think about her during the war, college, or at any other point in his life. Even five years later, when Daisy is already married, Jay reveals his obsession with her: "Look at this," said Gatsby quickly. "Here’s a lot of clippings -about you† (93). This quickly shows the reader that even though he was separated from Daisy by distance, he can never separate her from his heart. However, even if Daisy did truly love him, it could never be a realistic relationship as Gatsby finds out for himself. â€Å"Afterward he kept looking at the child with surprise. I don’t think he had ever really believed in its existence before† (117) is the first time that ... ...completely overwhelmed by Gatsby’s money because it makes her husband’s fortune look like nothing. From the looks of her expressions, it seems that money is her driving force to be with Gatsby even though she â€Å"put her arm through his abruptly† (93) suggesting some sort of a romantic interest. Gatsby has found the love of his life again. However, Daisy’s intentions have changed since the last he saw her. Not only is she married with a family, but her greed for money may also represent an obstacle. Jay thinks that he has finally dimmed the light that separates the two forever. However, Daisy clearly has other plans. Jay’s lack of ability to see past the beautiful smile of Daisy just may lead to the greatest disappointment of his life. Works Cited Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Ed. Matthew J. Bruccoli. Toronto: Simon & Schuster Inc, 1995. Print.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Steve Jobs

According to this chapter, plus what you have learnt in the course on Marketing, what are the FIVE most important things to do in Marketing Management? Explain why each of the above five ideas is so important. 1. Creating brand image campaign Steve Jobs wanted to focus on creating brand image campaign, and not on a set of advertisements featuring products. One of the most important objectives of doing this is to create awareness, improve image, be memorable and reinforce brand loyalty.It's very important to plan campaign by creating ideas, develop content and execution. They come up with this brilliant idea, â€Å"Think Different†, it was creating a lifestyle brand in tech industry. Jobs was focused on market segments and costumers by identifying the special features and was making brand identified through its name, logo, color, design and slogan. This campaign creates emotional relation of society to Apple's image and brand. Even now when people buy Apple's products they dec ide to do this by emotional reasons more than rational reasons. 2.Market segmentation Jobs focused on identification and characterization of users groups. Changing from retailers to costumers needs. The product review revealed how unfocused Apple had become. The company was churning out multiple erosion of each product because of bureaucratic momentum and to satisfy the whims of retailers. One of the most important objectives is to develop mix that is focused on and matches the needs/wants of targeted segments. He defined two segments professionals and consumers. Then he understand segment customer's needs, wants and resistances.He selected target markets and set of solution to each of it than was focused on user behavior market segmentation parameters. 3. Customer's characterization Jobs realized that Apple had a dozen version of the Macintosh, each with a efferent confusing number, from 1400 to 9600. To figure out what the special characterization it took weeks to explain. Jobs fi nally was confusing by asking the question â€Å"Which ones do tell my friend to buy? When he was not getting a simple answer he decide to slash away at models and products. To do this he first of all started to understand what customer's characterization.Apple got an access to its database of customers when it reach a deal with Power Computing to relinquish its license. What type of costumers, what are there functional needs, what are their present solutions? The answer to these questions Jobs understand that the market do not buy products, customers buy solutions. Jobs created brand relationship and encouraged the customers to feel involved with Appeal's brand. 4. Product line review Deciding what not to do is important as deciding what to do. When Jobs defined the segmentation and costumers he put it in a four-squared chart.Here's what we need† Consumer pro Desktop Imax Power Macintosh GO Portable book Power Book GO The purpose is to make four great products one of each qu adrant. Jobs was features for the products as desired functionality, performance, quality and liability. Jobs paid attention on customer's benefits through their needs/ wants. When the brand was strong and related to lifestyle in tech industry, customers knew that they buy the best product which provide them good feeling and emotional and performance benefits, additional for product specification and functionality.By focusing in this four products Jobs cut 70% of existing Apple's products and models of Macintosh. This resulted by massive layoffs. The good engineers, including some whose projects were killed, were appreciative. Jobs wanted to relocate good minds for essential evildoing of main products. 5. Getting the company out of other business such as printers and servers Jobs couldn't understand why company going to ship a million and not make money on these. He proposed that he will get out of printer business and just let to HP do it.He also cancelled the Newton, the personal digital assistant with the almost good handwriting-recognition System. The ability to focus on main products saved Apple. The laid off more than three thousand people, which salvage the company's balance sheet. It's also very important to concentrate on best companies products and to improve brand image by letting the costumers to feel that the company does the best solution in Operation System and provide the best product which including all customers' needs and wants. The brand name is associating with high quality and great design computers.What other ideas about Marketing Management did you find in this Chapter, and why do you think was each one of them less important? 1 . Choosing the right agency for integrated marketing communications. Apple was going through a review to select a new agency, and Jobs was not impressed by what he had seen. So he wanted Slow and his firm, by then called In my opinion, this is one of main ideas but not an important because Steve Jobs had his own vision and touch of marketing strategy that could be implemented by different good agencies. . Narration Choosing well-known and popular person to make a narration of Apple brand promotion. Richard Dressers was chosen for this. There was an offer to use Steve Jobs voice for this campaign but Steve told â€Å"If people find out they will say it's about me. It's not. It's about Apple†. It's important to choose the right person in ad campaign to promote Apple's brand but it's less important as to hose the right product for costumer's needs and wants. 3. Ad campaign Television commercials and print campaigns.It's important when company create brand image but it will be hard to do when products not fit to customers' needs. Before doing it more important to understand who is your costumers and what theirs need/wants. 4. Killing the clones It was one of the great debate about Apple was whether it should have licensed its operating system more aggressively to other computer makers. When Apple allowed licensing out the Macintosh SO it turned out to be a dubious business strategy. The clones cannibalized the sales. Steve Jobs According to this chapter, plus what you have learnt in the course on Marketing, what are the FIVE most important things to do in Marketing Management? Explain why each of the above five ideas is so important. 1. Creating brand image campaign Steve Jobs wanted to focus on creating brand image campaign, and not on a set of advertisements featuring products. One of the most important objectives of doing this is to create awareness, improve image, be memorable and reinforce brand loyalty.It's very important to plan campaign by creating ideas, develop content and execution. They come up with this brilliant idea, â€Å"Think Different†, it was creating a lifestyle brand in tech industry. Jobs was focused on market segments and costumers by identifying the special features and was making brand identified through its name, logo, color, design and slogan. This campaign creates emotional relation of society to Apple's image and brand. Even now when people buy Apple's products they dec ide to do this by emotional reasons more than rational reasons. 2.Market segmentation Jobs focused on identification and characterization of users groups. Changing from retailers to costumers needs. The product review revealed how unfocused Apple had become. The company was churning out multiple erosion of each product because of bureaucratic momentum and to satisfy the whims of retailers. One of the most important objectives is to develop mix that is focused on and matches the needs/wants of targeted segments. He defined two segments professionals and consumers. Then he understand segment customer's needs, wants and resistances.He selected target markets and set of solution to each of it than was focused on user behavior market segmentation parameters. 3. Customer's characterization Jobs realized that Apple had a dozen version of the Macintosh, each with a efferent confusing number, from 1400 to 9600. To figure out what the special characterization it took weeks to explain. Jobs fi nally was confusing by asking the question â€Å"Which ones do tell my friend to buy? When he was not getting a simple answer he decide to slash away at models and products. To do this he first of all started to understand what customer's characterization.Apple got an access to its database of customers when it reach a deal with Power Computing to relinquish its license. What type of costumers, what are there functional needs, what are their present solutions? The answer to these questions Jobs understand that the market do not buy products, customers buy solutions. Jobs created brand relationship and encouraged the customers to feel involved with Appeal's brand. 4. Product line review Deciding what not to do is important as deciding what to do. When Jobs defined the segmentation and costumers he put it in a four-squared chart.Here's what we need† Consumer pro Desktop Imax Power Macintosh GO Portable book Power Book GO The purpose is to make four great products one of each qu adrant. Jobs was features for the products as desired functionality, performance, quality and liability. Jobs paid attention on customer's benefits through their needs/ wants. When the brand was strong and related to lifestyle in tech industry, customers knew that they buy the best product which provide them good feeling and emotional and performance benefits, additional for product specification and functionality.By focusing in this four products Jobs cut 70% of existing Apple's products and models of Macintosh. This resulted by massive layoffs. The good engineers, including some whose projects were killed, were appreciative. Jobs wanted to relocate good minds for essential evildoing of main products. 5. Getting the company out of other business such as printers and servers Jobs couldn't understand why company going to ship a million and not make money on these. He proposed that he will get out of printer business and just let to HP do it.He also cancelled the Newton, the personal digital assistant with the almost good handwriting-recognition System. The ability to focus on main products saved Apple. The laid off more than three thousand people, which salvage the company's balance sheet. It's also very important to concentrate on best companies products and to improve brand image by letting the costumers to feel that the company does the best solution in Operation System and provide the best product which including all customers' needs and wants. The brand name is associating with high quality and great design computers.What other ideas about Marketing Management did you find in this Chapter, and why do you think was each one of them less important? 1 . Choosing the right agency for integrated marketing communications. Apple was going through a review to select a new agency, and Jobs was not impressed by what he had seen. So he wanted Slow and his firm, by then called In my opinion, this is one of main ideas but not an important because Steve Jobs had his own vision and touch of marketing strategy that could be implemented by different good agencies. . Narration Choosing well-known and popular person to make a narration of Apple brand promotion. Richard Dressers was chosen for this. There was an offer to use Steve Jobs voice for this campaign but Steve told â€Å"If people find out they will say it's about me. It's not. It's about Apple†. It's important to choose the right person in ad campaign to promote Apple's brand but it's less important as to hose the right product for costumer's needs and wants. 3. Ad campaign Television commercials and print campaigns.It's important when company create brand image but it will be hard to do when products not fit to customers' needs. Before doing it more important to understand who is your costumers and what theirs need/wants. 4. Killing the clones It was one of the great debate about Apple was whether it should have licensed its operating system more aggressively to other computer makers. When Apple allowed licensing out the Macintosh SO it turned out to be a dubious business strategy. The clones cannibalized the sales.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Fundamentals of Business System Development

Fundamentals of Business Systems Development Human Resource Refigure ration Theron A. Wilson December 12, 2007 University of Phoenix BSA/375 Chloris Wright Riordan Manufacturers are looking for the redesigning of their Human Resource department. This will involve the transferring of their legacy system into a more advance human resource networking system. The company is asking for a proposal that will describe the techniques that will be used in order to gather the information that will be needed for the transformation. Also, the proposal will give a detail analysis that will be included in the design methods that will be involve in the configuration of the new system. Within the proposal, there will be a listing of the key factors that reinsure the organization that the information that was obtained was gathered successful. And as the conclusion, an explanation of the scope and feasibility of the project will be exhibited. The process will be implemented a collaboration of phases within the systems development life cycle. The initial process begins with the developing a team that will be design to handle any situation that may come during the course of the project. This part of the process is prudent in order to accomplish the goal of the project; in which is the successfully redesigning the H & R department of Riordan. Therefore, with the collaborated efforts of the team and Riordan's I. T. department, the process will be implemented in a collaboration of phases that is established by the systems development life cycle. The beginning of the cycle involves the planning phase. Defining the problem will be the first agenda that will be address in the proposal. Riordan's Human Resource department is the problem domain. It is currently composed of independently-filed paperwork that is maintained by each managerial personnel. Managers are also responsible for the tracking of FMLA absences. A change to any employees' information is submitted onto special forms by the employee's manager and process by the payroll clerk. Training and developmental files are established on an Excel spreadsheet and is maintained by the training and development specialist. Records about the workers' compensation are maintained by an independent contractor. Each recruiter maintains applicant information for open positions. Resumes are filed in a central storage area, and an Excel spreadsheet is used to track the status of applicants. The compensation manager keeps an Excel spreadsheet with the results of job analyses, salary surveys and individual compensation decisions. Employee relations specialists track information about complaints, grievances, harassment complaints, etc. in locked files in their offices. The problem that exists within the human resource department is the absence of an automated networking system. Second, there is not limitation set on those who should be included in dealing with these confidential files. Next, there is not a centralized hub established that can maintain all of the records that need to be kept about the employees for Riordan. Third, the contracting of a third party provider to maintain confidential records of each individual that work for the Riordan Manufacturers is probably is not the best alternative to maintaining the security of the individuals' information within the organization. The production of a project schedule will be the produced to document the design of the project; the guidelines that they will follow; and the timeline that will be executed in order to meet their goals. The project will begin with the evaluation of Riordan's I. T. department. This information is required to gain information about the company's computer and database system in order to see that system can use or handle the upgrades that will be necessary in order to update the H & R department. In order to establish this goal, the staff will be used to gain information in order to guarantee the successfulness of the project. Information will be gathered by way of completing questionnaires that will be given to users of the system. Once the questionnaires have been evaluated, the team will proceed with determining what will be needed with the H & R department. Once this part of the plan has been executed, the team will developed a proposal to present to Riordan Manufacturing. Once the previous steps has been initiated, there would be a meeting with the corporation is in order to determine the budget for the needed recommendations as well as to determine the length of time the corporation is requiring for the team to be able to finish the proposed upgrades. This is crucial because this will determine the set budget that the team will be obligated to use during the transformation; in which the proposed budget for this operation is set at $150,000. The proposed time will set at three months. The next step is the documenting of the project plan at this stage of project development will help team members adhere to the established strategy, schedule, budget, and definition of quality during the course of a project. The records will reflect the project overview. Within the project overview, there will be a detail description of the project scope and technical information. Then the team will record the project's strategy, schedule, budget, quality definition, and compile the information into a management plan that will be distribute amongst the team member. Once the previous stages of the cycle have been met, the team will decide if the scope of the project, and in conjunction with the set innovation budget established by Riordan, is feasible to achieve the renovations that are required for the H & R department. The team has established that need for the renovation is relevant for Riordan Manufacturing. Second, the team have established that the proposed renovations will is definite a need for the Riordan. A simulation of the proposed system is suggested to be carried out to predict the outcome before the actual project starts. Now the team will develop a written quotation that will acknowledge the quotes from the suppliers and technicians to guarantee that the renovations will not exceed the set budget. Once these conditions have been met, the team will instruct the manufacturer that the conditions have been met and set a date of which the operation will begin. To begin the next phase, the team will design an architectural design to establish the layout of the proposed plan. This process will give a detailed description of how the H's activities will be performed. The system analyst will also include a description of the information system's architecture in accordance of the data, processes, interfaces and network within his or her report. The system analyst's primary goal is to eliminate H&R's processes that is comprise mostly of paper forms or electronic files that scattered throughout different departments that do not link together. The goal is to put in place a fully automated HRIS that achieves improvement in the accuracy and currency of data. Also, the system will allow the tracking of individuals that are moving throughout the Riordan's system. Furthermore, the system will be able to quickly aggregate, analyze, and use data in more of a real-time transaction. It will be able to give projections of potential needs of the workforce; while decreasing the labor requirement that is currently employed within the H&R department. The system analyst's plan is to design the HRIS system using a distributed architecture. This particular architecture is design with the amenities that are required to develop a more centralized H department. The H central location will be at the corporate office. The corporate will be the site of the centralized mainframe computer that is server-based. This will allow user to access date concurrently within a secured environment. Data will be store on a centrally-based database unit. The database unit will allow easier updates, searching and analysis of information collected within the system. Another characteristic of the new system will include web-accessibility. Web-accessibility will allow the interactions amongst the Riordan's HRIS system to be access by way of the Internet. This will eliminate the installation of client applications to each users' individual desktop; and at the same time, reduces the time that is involve in deployment and training requirements. This procedure will allow immediate accessibility for anyone with an Internet or LAN connection. The new system will allow scalability and extensibility. A system of wireless devices will be installed in each location. This will allow the H department to network with the other facilities; hence, developing a LAN. Once this procedure has taken place, a Wan will be developing to connect all of the facilities to the corporate location. Any user or outside entities will have access to information through the Internet. An intranet will be established for those that are employees of Riordan. Password-protected login logarithms will be put in place for security stability. There also will be role-based accounts set up to prevent non-authorized staff from the viewing of confidential data that only should be access by upper management positions. The new system design will provide HRIS with total automation; thus, providing a standardization of all manual processes. The upgrades will be performed on the current network at all three facilities, chronologically, to ensure implementation of the system is accomplished without any issue. Now the design of the new H & R department has been established, the team will now begin the project. Riordan has approved the proposed plans and now it is time to begin the implementation phase of the project. During this process, the team will be implementing the proposed plan using a strict process that will allow them to be aware of any problems that they may face while executing the plan. The process will take an approximately 6 months, allowing the team to deal with the formalities of the process and the geographical areas that the team. This process involves six points of implementation: (1) coding, (2) testing, (3) installation, (4) documentation, (5) training, and (6) support. The application that is being installed will allow the H & R department to communicate by way of the Internet or Intranet. The team will begin at the corporate office first. The team with the collaborated efforts of Riordan's I. T. department, with begin initializing the new applications to one of the servers. This will allow the team and the I. T. department to analyze the performance of the new application within the system. Once the application has been tested, the team will direct the technicians to proceed onto the remaining servers. This process will be documented to assure that it was successful. Afterwards, the process of re figuring each of the desktops will be initiated. During this process, the team will be programming the computers to accept the new that was installed in the servers. A build and smoke test will be use by the programmers to eliminate any errors within the application. Once the programmers have acknowledged that the process has been tested and documented with no errors, then they will proceed onto the installation process. The installation process will involve installing wireless devices among their Ethernet connections. There are two benefits for the installation of these equipments. First, the Riordan organization will be establishing a WAN amongst their companies in America as well as Japan. Second, the processes of the H & R department could be executed through the company's Intranet cite. This process involves connecting the wireless bridge to where the current modem now resides. Afterwards, each computer will be program to accept the new signaling that will be established with the installation of the wireless devices. Once the previous process has been established, the team will finally begin the process of transferring of the legacy files onto the new system. The team will outsource this project. The outsourced team only job will be to gather all of the paper files and old data that was store in the server and apply them to the new application. This procedure will be somewhat timely, but will not exceed the budget. While trying to achieve the expectations of an utomated H & R department, the team will initiate a parallel operation. The team will is using this process to eliminate the risk of system failure and losing all the data that was inputted by the outsourced team. This process will last about two weeks to give the team to analyze and rectify any situation that may happen. The team will now begin to document the response of the new system. If the prev ious process goes according to plan, then the team will begin the training process. The team will train all the users of the new system, as well as some of the I. T. professionals that work for Riordan's corporate office. The training process will take approximately two weeks. The ultimate goal of the training is to allow the users to understand the new system. The employees will be trained on different areas such as setting their login logarithms, as well as the navigation of the website. These training will also be documented. The team with create a support staff for that will be trained for quick response time. The support staff will also be able to initialize performance tests. The staff will be on-call and also can be reached by way of email. Also users can fill out change request and error reports to the support staff. These requests will be evaluated and performed in a sense of urgency manner. Their will be quality assurance personnel embedded within the organization to assure the quality of the new system. The team will place an on-site technical support person to handle situations that may occur with the operation of the new system. Reference Kelly Ph. D. , John C. (2001). A comparison of Four Design Methods. Department of Computer Science, Furman University. Retrieved November 25, 2007 from www. furman. edu/computerscience. University of Phoenix. (Ed. ). (2004). Creating Satisfy Customers [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. American Marketing Association. Retrieved November 25, 2007 from https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/secure/resource/resource. asp. University of Phoenix. (Ed. ). (2005). Project Planning and Feasibility Analysis [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. AllenWeb. Retrieved November 25, 2007 from https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/secure/resource/resource. asp. University of Phoenix. (Ed. ). (1990). Qualitative Educating and Research Methods [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text]. Sage. Retrieved November 25, 2007 from https://ecampus. phoenix. edu/secure/resource/resource. asp. Human Resource Configuration