News Blog 8

What I learned from class:

In classes this week, I leared about Supply Chain Management in auto industry. Especially, Covisint was discussed. Covisint is a global enabler of interoperability solutions and services for organizations of any size, connecting people and systems across industries. Covisint supports over 275,000 users, representing more than 30,000 organizations in over 96 countries in the global automotive and healthcare industries; is essential for anto companies.

Relevant Article:
Compuware Covisint Provides Secure Interoperability and Real-time Collaboration
http://www.clinicitmanager.com/magazine/news_h19895_compuware_covisint_provides_secure.html

Health care has been slow coming to the vast world of communication technology, bogged down by privacy concerns and monolith organizations resistant to change. So “More must be done”. Covisint seeks to bring disparate healthcare entities together, regardless of their size, geography or technical sophistication. Evidence shows that it has done a lot. Covisint securely connects hospital and affiliate members, enabling real-time collaboration, automation and the visibility to ensure the best outcomes for clinicians and patients. Besides, Covisint is uniquely positioned to mitigate the cost of entry and accelerate the time-to-value for key healthcare initiatives with this hosted service. In a word, Covisint provides a collaborative healthcare framework, physician portals, messaging, unstructured-data management and security services. Combined, these capabilities will help healthcare entities--regardless of size, location or technical sophistication--collaborate and communicate effectively.

Individual Assignment Blog 3

If you are a manager of a bookstore would you choose to
operate only online, only offline or both? Why? Outline some of the advantages and disadvantages of the approach that you chose?

Electronic commerce is making a huge impact on the way business is managed. With the new dawn of online booksellers, traditional retailers have been forced to go online in order to compete. So if I am a manager of a bookstore, I would choose to operate it online. The reason for my choice is that there are more advantages of online bookstores than those of traditional bookstores.

First, unlike traditional “bricks and mortar” book stores, for very little set up costs online bookstores are able to reach millions of customers. Also, you don't have the cost of producing, making and distributing bulky catalogues. Products can easily be added and removed from the web site with very little extra cost. Mover, the medium of the HTML is a lot richer than print - listen to extracts of music as well as experience other multimedia enhancements not otherwise available. Products can have a list of items that the shopper might also like. In addition, shoppers’browsing patterns can be easily tracked and analyzed in much the same way the loyalty cards have allowed the Supermarkets to do.

Of course online bookstores have their own disadvantages. First, it is possible to visit a bookstore and leave with a book. But for online shopping, physical products need to be delivered and delivery costs time and money. Secondly, on-line companies have little or no face-to-face interaction, while traditional bookstores can provide the friendly service and helpful advice. Thirdly, on-line booksellers don’t own physical building where they trade business. However, physical bookstores are able to impress the customers through environmental enhances, such as comfortable seating and cafeteria areas.

In sum, in my opinion, even though traditional bookstores have their own benefits, I would choose to manage an online bookstore for its overall competitive advantages.

How does your choice depend on how specialized your bookstore is?
As far as I am concerned, to choose to open an online bookstore, or traditional bookstore or “click and brick” bookstore depends almost totally on what type the bookstore is. If it is a small bookstore and its core business is mainly collecting and selling used or rare books around the country, it is best to operate it online. For big companies like Barnes & Noble, they may seek both online and offline business. For a small corner bookstore, physical space would be enough for it to attract customers by providing some pleasant places to read and relax.

Try to sell books online?

News Blog 7

What I learned from class:

I learned more about AI in our team's presentation: handwriting recognition. Handwriting recognition is the ability of a computer to receive intelligible handwritten input. I also got to know more about AI systematically from our professor: neural networks, game trees and etc. And I totally agree with the comment that" AI is not so mysterious. It is just about mathematics".

Relevant Article:
Massive Software and Mental Images announce Mental Ray support within Massive
http://digitalproducer.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=169489

The two Academy Award winning applications, Massive Software and Mental Images, had announced native support for Mental Ray in Massive. Mental Ray support within Massive is available with Mental Ray 3.6 and coincides with the new Version 3.0 of Massive. Undoubtedly, this move by those two companies was stimulated by the estimation that there are lots of people who would like to use the two applications together as the use of Massive becomes more and more prolific among facilities. Native support for mental ray within Massive, "will give customers additional options for rendering Massive scenes and allow them to optimize workflow for applications and pipelines that rely on the quality and realism of Mental Ray". Apparently, Digital Production companies are happy to see this move happen.

News Blog 6

Two new things learned from class:

In the new ad format of InVideo ads, a translucent pane appears for 10 seconds on the bottom fifth of the video screen; click to see the ad, and the video pauses and the ad plays. When the ad is finished, the video picks up where it left off.

AdWords is Google's flagship advertising product and main source of revenue. AdWords offers pay-per-click(PPC) advertising, and site-targeted advertising for both text and banner ads.

Relevant Article:
How to Make the Most of Google AdWords
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/adwords-select-parts-1-4

This article tells Adword users that if if they use all the tools and tricks that AdWords provides, then they'll definitely save bundles of money. What they should do first is to generate the best keyword list for their target market and use simple techniques to vastly expand their productive keyword list. then they should create highly clickable copy for their ad and most importantly, precisely limit the distribution of the ad to only those prospects who are most interested. I think this series help Adwords users get started with a better foundation of great information learned through years of day-to-day experience with cost per click sites. The tips included in this article would place those Adword users well ahead of the competition in the quest for more sales and lower costs in Google AdWords. And of course this is only a beginning. Adword users will develop their own style, methodologies and secrets as they become more familiar with the Google AdWords product.

News Blog 5

What I learned from class:

There are two new terms that I never heard of before Team G and Team H’s presentation. The First is ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning System, which integrates (or attempt to integrate) all data and processes of an organization into a unified system. A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration. The other one is CRM, Customer Relationship Management, which is a broad term that covers concepts used by companies to manage their relationships with customers, including the capture, storage and analysis of customer, vendor, partner, and internal process information.

Relevant Article:

How Customer Relationship Management systems can be of benefit to your business
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/sme/article2615310.ece

CRM software is quickly becoming a mainstream business application due to its evident benefits. Practically any company that has customers can benefit from it. CRM makes salespeople more efficient, gives all staff that deal with client matters access to information to serve customers better, and gives marketing staff the tools to manage campaigns to their greatest potential. However, there is a critical requirement to guarantee success: the designation of a "CRM Champion" within the organization. The champion’s first job is to sell the concept internally and assure a smooth adoption. Without adoption, CRM fails. Also, companies are recommended to phase in implementation of functionality so that returns, while smaller, are more immediate.

Individual Assignment Blog 2

The city of Philadelphia wanted to provide universal wireless access to everyone in the city for free. Was this project implemented? Why or why not?

In 2004, Philadelphia announced that it would seek to build a Municipal wireless network (MWN) for free or at low cost. Despite considerable opposition and doubts about the project, by March 2007 a 15-squaremile proof of concept was completed and is available to use. I think there are two main reasons for implementing this plan. First, Philadelphia must embrace wireless if it is to remain a competitive location for businesses and organizations and stay attractive to knowledge workers. Secondly, the technology is here today and it is affordable. Individual Wi-Fi cells can be mounted on streetlights creating a self-organizing and self –healing wireless mesh. From 8 – 16 units will be needed per square mile and a single worker can install ten units per day. The wireless connectivity could be provided for the entire city for $7 to $10 million.

Who are the stakeholders and what was their response to the issue?

The Wireless Philadelphia Executive Committee identified the key stakeholders of the project as follows: City residents with access to and knowledge of the Internet and computers; City residents without access to and knowledge of the Internet and computers; City government of Philadelphia; Business community (large and small); Business visitors and tourists, etc. It was evident that stakeholders had contrary expectations and interests so they responded differently. For instance, some stakeholders believed that the city government should own the MWN, while others believed that it should be owned by the private sector. Similarly, some stakeholders believed that lower-income users should be allowed to use the service for free, whereas others believed that everyone should be made to pay for it.

What is your opinion of the final result?

The Philadelphia initiative is one of the largest and most ambitious wireless projects in the world. Was the wireless project in Philadelphia a good idea? My answer to this question is yes. The project was a good idea for the city because the digital divide issue is real and the technology is feasible and cost-effective. The project will also help businesses become more connected and competitive. Overall, the city did do a good job in getting the project approved and implemented.However, the project took much longer than expected to start the implementation. The universal wireless access doesn’t work as good as expected neither. (Check video below) Still, there are several long-term Sustainability problems to be considered. For example, the technology of municipal wireless networks will change. A change in technology does not necessarily remove the underlying rationale for MWNs. But future projects will need to plan around such developments and create structures that are focused on the underlying need of the municipality rather than the capabilities of the specific technology.

Wireless Philly:

You can also check this website for Wireless City

http://pbs-newshour.onstreammedia.com/cgi-bin/visearch?user=pbs-newshour&template=template.html&query=wireless+city&keywords=wireless+city&category=blank