The Positive and Negative Impacts of Technology on Family Life

“Is technology tearing apart family life? Text messaging, social networking, and online video are changing the way parents and children see the world—and each other. ” There are many technologies in today’s world that are widely used not just as a want, but as a necessity of life.

This term paper will focus on relationship between family life and computer technologies, which have become the most widely used technology in the world due to its variety of functions including SNS, mailing, online face-to-face video chatting, and assignment completing tools.

Computer technologies have both positive and negative effects on family life. As more and more families are beginning to own their own computers (computer internet users in North America reached to about “78. 3 %”), the effects of technologies on family life is becoming more easily identifiable. This term paper will come across both the benefit and negative effects of using technologies on family life. There are the negative effects which include the isolation of family members, and parents bringing their work home.

On the other hand, linking relatives together is one positive effect that technologies have on family life, and being instantly updated on other family members’ status is also a huge benefit. Overall, the benefits of using technologies outweigh the negative effects. One negative effect of computers on family life is less face-to-face contact between family members. In most families, each family member has their own computers or smart phones that are kept in their own rooms.

Nowadays, the functions of computers and smart phones are not just limited to internet surfing, and assignment tools. They are also widely used for social networking services (SNS), such as; Facebook, Skype, and Twitter just to name a few. As a result of the increasing time consumption of using the functions on computers, family members are now more isolated from each other and cannot talk to each other face to face as often as before when technologies were not as important in day to day living. Even when there is only one computer per family, there is an interruption with family life.

If one person is using the computer, then other family members do not want to just wait while the computer is being used, so they will go to a different room and each person will end up using the computers at their own leisure. The use of computer games is another thing that has reduced human contact between family members. Before computers were used in the home, if someone wanted to play a game, they usually had to find at least one other family member to play a board game or card game with them. That forced families to spend more time talking to each other.

Now if someone wants to play a game that requires more than one person, they can just go on the computer and either play online against another person, or they can play against the computer. Playing games on the computer makes it easier to be isolated from physical contact with other family members. Now that you don’t have to ask person in your family to play a game, most families don’t spend as much time talking to each other and learning about each other. Another negative cause that computers have on family life is that many people now bring their work home with them instead of leaving it at work the way they used to.

People’s work is now invading the privacy of their home. People find that it is easier and more convenient to work at home, so they bring their work home allowing it to invade their home. When people bring home their work, it separates families by causing parents to spend more time at home working, and less time with their family causing parents to not know as much about what is going on in their children’s lives. Bringing work home separates families, making them not as close knit as they would be if they spent more time together talking.

Computer technologies have not just had negative effects on families; they have also had some positive ones. The use of Social Networking Service (SNS) through computer is one of the positive effects that technologies have had on families. With the use of computer functions such as; e-mail, Messengers, Twitter, and Skype, families can take care of things that they would otherwise have to leave the home to take care of. Using SNS also allow families to communicate with other family members who might not live close by.

For example, I Skype (free online webcam chatting) my father in Korea at least twice a week. Without the use of SNS I wouldn’t be able to communicate with him nearly as much because phone bills would be too expensive for me to afford. So, because of SNS I am able to remain close to my father even though he is in Korea, and I am in Canada. A second positive effect that technologies have had on families is the use of instant texting service. This allows families to talk to each other and have a fairly normal conversation with each other even though they might not be in the vicinity.

I personally use instant text messaging services to talk to my parents, my sister, and my relatives regularly because it keeps them updated on what is happening with me on a daily basis. While I am at school, I am still able to stay in touch with everyone back home without having to call each one of them separately. For many people who are away at school, instant texting services allow them to stay in touch with friends and family even though they are not at home. A third positive effect that technologies have had on families is computer web pages (Facebook).

Web pages allow families to post pictures of themselves and other family members so that everyone in the family can go to the web page and view the pictures. My sister has a web page that explains things about her, and it has pictures of her and friends. One of my other uncles who lives in Korea also has his own web page. On his web page, he has pictures of his baby daughter. By going to my uncle’s web page, I have been able to see pictures of my baby cousin as she has grown and changed. Many other families have web pages similar to my families that they use to watch their families change even though they are not in the same country.

In conclusion, the negative effects of using technologies posed can essentially be overcome by use of SNS technology through computer or phone. When there is lack of human contact between the family members, then Skype can be used to perform online face-to-face chatting. The use of technologies also proved to be more efficient when each family member want to be updated on each others’ status. Without the use of technology, instant messaging system would not be possible, so the relatives or family members would not be able to interact with each other as easily.

APA 6th edition reference

  1. Miniwatts Marketing Group (MARCH 31, 2011). WORLD INTERNET USAGE AND POPULATION STATISTICS. Retrieved from http://www. internetworldstats. com/stats. htm
  2. Chris Barylick (June 21, 2001). Technology and Social Isolation. Retrieved from http://www. irchelp. org/irchelp/misc/tech. html
  3. Gary Small, M. D. (June 19, 2009). Is Technology Fracturing Your Family. Retrieved from http://www. psychologytoday. com/blog/brain-bootcamp/200906/is-technology-fracturing-your-family.

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Client Server Architecture

The term originally referred to the large cabinets that housed the central processing unit and main memory of early computers but as of today those cabinets are no longer cabinets but then powerful I high-end commercial machines which also are used in client server networking as servers and this has overshadowed most of the disadvantages of the old traditional mainframes that led to the many problems as like those faced by Hares company.

The disadvantages of the way Mainframes were used in the Good old days is that there was no flexibility as mix and matching was not accommodated but they only revered so-called dumb terminals on the users’ desktops meaning you had to be wired to the mainframe to access data, also software platforms were specific and maintenance and system management were costly as every component of the system needed to be maintained. Like any other company would have done to keep up with keep up with growing business demands, Hares implemented its first information system in 1987 purchasing a mainframe computer.

But then because of the revolution from the Good Old Days as explained above to the client [server they probably faces all the disadvantages pertaining to flexibility, maintenance and yester management, and it was difficult for them to connect with the outside world and so they had to also change their system to Client/Server . With Client Server advantages of flexibility gives a greater solution space than that which single computer models can achieve. Another advantage is the Openness as number of different platforms can be used in a network; all that is needed is some common protocol for them to communicate.

Openness also lives the freedom of choice the implementation at any of the ends It is also reliable and this can be accomplished by production of the same programs and data around a network; this meaner that when en server breaks down another takes over. Servers also can be created specifically for a certain service. Client/server computing is also Scalable as more servers can be added to a network depending on the increase of application demand in though the increase in power is not linear I. E number of servers. And this is what Hares Company is faces in the present proving that also there present problems are not unique as well.

The solution to this problem on the other hand is to increase hardware capabilities of the server and desktops. Another problem Hares faces is u to the configuring applications into client-server modules and in modifying the configuration in response to user feedback and this problem is Common in organizations using traditional (2-tier) client server in their business. 2. Suggest alternative architectures that could be used to overcome the problems faced by Hares’ current Client/Server technology An alternative Architecture that can over comer problems faced by current Client/ Server is the Three- tier model and N-tier model architectures.

Three-tier architecture meets the requirements of large scale Internet and intranet client/server applications. It is more scalable, robust and flexible and can integrate data from multiple sources. This can solve the problem the company is facing of difficulty in configuring applications into client-server modules and in modifying the configuration in response to user feedback as the scalability is wider and the multiple sources of were data can be integrated make it easily possible for user feedback. Three-tier model is also easier to manage and deploy on the network as most of the code runs on the servers.

Network interchange between applications is also minimized as abstract levels of service are created were instead of interacting erectly with the client calls business logic on the server. It is the business logic that accesses the database on behalf of the client. Three- tier as compared to tier 2 being used by Hares is less complex but can be centrally managed on the sever as application programs are made visible to standard system management. Security is also high, performance is Better and application reuse is excellent. N tier client server architecture is wider than the 3 tier though the 3 tier can also be considered as an N tier.

The N tier has no limits and is able to the growing in number of applications that have spilled over in to the world and is able to meet the challenge of the requirement poised buy these Intergalactic applications. This is because N tier clients frequently combine Middleware tier components within a single business transaction and a component can call other components to help in request and this could be very useful in Hares looking at the problem of user feedback they have as the requesting system will be much better than the one in place. 3. NNE of the suggestions proposed by Hares’ IS department is the use of intranet web technology.

Examine the pros and cons of such an idea. Intranet is an internal organizational network that uses Internet Protocol technology to share information, computing services and operational systems. This can be a company’s internal network or a broader part of the organization’s technology structure, and can be composed of multiple local area networks. The idea behind this is to organize different user’s desktops in the organization at a low cost, also saving time and effort to be more productive, There are so many things that are good about having a functional intranet and that’s why the IS department proposed the use of it.

Pros of Intranet Single information source-Because data and information are kept in one place in an organized way it reduces on confusion of where information has begin kept and it can be easily accessed when needed as people will always know where to look thus saving on time. Common corporate culture is promoted: The ability for every user to view the same information within the Intranet makes it easy for an organization not to have different information which on the same things.

Updates are Immediate: live coverage of changes to your audience is made possible by Intranets and keeping them up to date thus limiting the company’s liability. Time: information to employees is distributed on an as-needed basis. Employees can also access information at their convenience, rather than receiving electronic mail that may distract them indiscriminately. Business management and operations: The Intranet platform is begin used for developing and deploying applications that support business operations and decisions across the world wide web.

Cost-effective: Saving on the hustle to maintaining physical documents, users can still view information and data via web-browser and this can save the business money used on printing/ duplicating comments and also maintenance of produced documents. CONS of Intranet Security: It’s easy for individuals to have unauthorized access in to the intranet network and they may abuses materials. Software/Hardware incompatibility problems: because of the evolving technology upgrades are needed to keep up with the worlds demands otherwise a lot of problems in functioning of the intranet are faced.

Availability of access to all employees: Some of the desks of employees may not have desktops and so it would make it difficult for them to access the intranet at their convenience. Information overload: As time moves on and information is posted n the intranet the presentation and design that helps users to filter out what they don’t need, and get only the information that they really want becomes difficult and this begins to consume time thus undermining the advantage of intranet in time. Moderation: In case objectionable content is posted on to the intranet network someone has to clean up the mess.

And this is very possible because all users have access and security is not strong so it is prone to cyber crime and so content that is objectionable can easily be posted. 4. Do you think the popularity of intranet software and the Internet pose threats to rotational Client/Server systems? Intranet software is the software that runs on servers and provides service facilities such us HTTP publishing like world which is the worldwide web, searching and indexing and FTP file retrieval facilities.

Web browsers are the software used by clients to access pages on the web and because the protocols used by the intranet are the same as those by the web in makes it standard for users to use any web browser that is tested and these can be acquired free of charge or paid for at small cost. The internet is like a gold mine of anything one can need in connection with intranet footwear as one can get everything they need to the proper functionality of intranet networks.

And the modern intranet has been able to come out of one building and via the internet basically do the exact thing client/server architecture is all about. In other words intranet software and the internet are a modern client server type of system. Intranet software and the internet are able to create true intranet applications by employing existing client/server applications and also it is able to integrate applications in the Web browser that normally don’t work and play well together.

The Intranet then makes it possible for information to become available on the Internet from the same application environment and interface. Because of flexibility of Intranet software to operate on the internet many companies have flown that direction to save cost rather than implementing the traditional client server architecture. It is difficult and costly to spread the traditional client over geographical areas and because the internet makes this easy eliminating the hardware and is more effective the popularity of intranet software has increased and continues to be ore of preference to big organizations today.

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Swot Analysis of the Green Directory

SWOT Analysis Of The Green Directory Strengths: –The Green Directory (“GD”) allows unlimited access for all users and no fee is required. –The relevant information is available to all visitors. –GD recommends and presents only classified, selected and specialised companies –Website presentation is clearly structured and designed. –Provides ‘one-stop service’ website, as well as the leading ‘green’ guides within Australia.

–Easy to find directory – GD provides direct links to its partners, sponsors and advertisers. -Wide range of services and products as well as topics has made the website easy for user to find anything related ‘Green’. Weaknesses: — Unclear information on the support and recommendations by the Australian Government. — GD is just facilitator which means that interested visitors have to contact the listed companies directly. –The benefits for advertising are not clearly shown in the website. –Online enquiry form is not available – Interested visitors in ‘green’ products and services have to contact the listed companies directly. -Certain information provided in the web page is not up to date.

–Poor maintenance of the website as there are few missing links found in the website. –Limited information about local events, fairs and exhibitions. –No contact number or hotline number for customer enquiry Opportunities: –Increase the profile of GD by cooperation with nationwide and regional publishers (such as Yellow Pages, newspaper, magazine) as well as popular ‘green’ institutions. -It is a green awareness happening all over the world and it’s about social responsibility and ethic of environmental friendly. –Further enhance the website by placing more latest offers and products photos to attract more users. –Send frequent e-mail to users to keep them updated with the latest information. –Provide a hotline number to handle real-time customer call-in enquiry to improve the customer service –Provide hardcopy brochure when requested by user so as not only limit the usage to internet users only Threats: -People without internet access have not the opportunity to receive the requested information.

–Unavailable/ inaccurate information to users due to the missing/ outdated contents might cause reputational risk to the GD. –Easy to copy by competitor to create new business/ competition. –Green products price usually higher than normal product that would cause very big investment to the users. Thus there is a challenge in convincing user to purchase without much attractive promotion/ offer. –Data security is not clarified and this might affects customer confidence.

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Case Analysis: Michael Eisner has More Problems than He Can Face

Eisner’s Mousetrap Disney’s CEO says the company has a lot of varied problems he can fix. But what if the real issue is something he can’t face? By Marc Gunther Reporter Associate Carol Vinzant September 6, 1999 FORTUNE Magazine) – Michael Eisner, the famously hands-on CEO of Walt Disney, is up to his old tricks. Last night he screened a rough cut of Dinosaurs, Disney’s big animated movie for next summer; he loved the story but complained that some jokes were stale. Today he’s holding a four-hour brainstorming session about Mickey Mouse, looking for ways to keep the 71-year-old rodent relevant. One idea: a skateboarding Mickey. ) Later, he’ll watch Peter Jennings’ newscast on Disney-owned ABC and surf the Internet to see how the company’s Websites stack up. Is this any way to run the world’s most troubled entertainment giant? After all, as Eisner sweats the details, earnings are dropping, top executives are defecting, and Disney stock is plunging like a ride down Splash Mountain. “Maybe I’m crazy,” Eisner says, “but I don’t consider this a crisis. I don’t think our problems are in the fabric of our company. And I don’t have my head in the sand. Sitting down for a two-hour interview, he admits mistakes. He says, for instance, that he should have settled former studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg’s suit against the company earlier to avoid a “parade of horrors” (see box). And he concedes that the company has sustained real damage: “It’s like a train wreck, only nobody got killed. ” But Eisner denies that he has lost his touch. “The criticisms of me and Disney today,” says the 57-year-old chief executive, “are as shortsighted as were the praises of me and Disney in the high economic times. Sunday nights on ABC, Michael Eisner–celebrated CEO, business magazine cover boy, and author of his own life story–still hosts The Wonderful World of Disney. The rest of the week, life is not so sweet in the Magic Kingdom. Certainly shareholders have reason to feel grumpy, with the stock trading at about 37% below last year’s high. There’s no quick fix in sight either. Tarzan, the $160 million summer blockbuster, won’t have much impact on earnings; the movie cost too much to make and isn’t selling enough T-shirts and toys because the market’s glutted with Star Wars stuff.

That’s one of the scary things about today’s Disney: The company has grown so big and its problems are so far-reaching–ranging from the phenomenon of “age compression” to the explosion of media choices–that they can’t be fixed by a couple of hit movies or TV shows or more Disney stores. The other scary thing is this: Disney seems less able than ever to cope with adversity. That’s because Eisner, for all his creativity and charisma and grand plans, presides over an insular–some say arrogant–corporate culture where decision-making is hierarchical, centralized, and slow.

It’s an utter mismatch for the Internet age. “This isn’t Mickey’s house anymore,” says a former Disney insider. “It’s a multibillion-dollar company. ” Eisner does have a plan. He is cutting costs and reengineering a company that got bloated with success. He’s making overseas growth a top priority. He wants Disney to be an Internet giant, taking on Yahoo and America Online. And, yes, he’ll keep on tweaking theme park rides and screening ABC pilots and driving subordinates up the wall with his meddling, because he fervently believes that if you demand high quality and develop synergy, financial results will follow. The interesting thing about our company,” Eisner says, “which I think is extremely flattering, is that everybody takes for granted that we make good products. They think, Oh, the Disney cruise ship, they take a wand and a little pixie dust and all of a sudden you revolutionize the cruise industry from floating Vegas hotels to romantic ocean liners. There are zoos all over the world, and up comes the Animal Kingdom. Or Tarzan, or the Lion King on Broadway–people say, ‘They have no trouble with the creative thing. Well, it’s the creative thing that turns the company around. ” Besides, he declares, a bit impatiently: “We are the most profitable media company in the world. We’re being buried a little prematurely here. ” He’s right about the bottom line. Last year Disney reported revenue of $23 billion, operating income of $4 billion, and net income of $1. 9 billion–its net was far more than that of Time Warner (owner of FORTUNE’s parent), News Corp. , and Viacom combined. For the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 0, Disney’s revenue is expected to reach $24 billion. But all other key indicators are down, some shockingly so. For the first nine months of fiscal 1999, excluding a one-time gain from an asset sale, Disney reported declines in operating income of 17%, net income of 26%, and earnings per share of 27%. Some Wall Street analysts have cut their fiscal 1999 earnings estimates as many as five times since last summer, and 13 of 25 analysts have a “hold” on the stock, according to Zacks Investment Research.

The company has simply stopped growing, and it isn’t a momentary dip either: Operating income fell slightly last year too, and Disney isn’t expected to match its fiscal 1997 earnings until 2001 at the earliest–a startling comedown for a company that, for a decade after Eisner took over in 1984, delivered annual profit increases of 20% and a return on equity of 20%. Return on equity, a key benchmark that has been sliding ever since Disney’s 1996 merger with Capital Cities/ABC, has slipped below 10%, estimates analyst Laura Martin of Credit Suisse First Boston. Some people have the impression that Disney still is what it was–an animation company that generated great returns on capital,” Martin says. “But that may be over. ” Until recently Disney was propelled by a handful of big ideas that were executed almost flawlessly. First, Disney released its library of beloved animated films on video just as VCRs took off; nine of the ten bestselling titles of all time are Disney movies, and most, like Snow White and Cinderella, were paid for long ago.

Second, Eisner and Katzenberg revived Disney animation with instant classics like Aladdin and The Lion King, which made big profits at the box office and on video and spawned even bigger ancillary revenues from licensing and merchandising. Third, Disney built more than 700 retail stores in the U. S. , Europe, and Asia. Finally, the company embarked on a vast expansion of Walt Disney World, creating and updating dozens of attractions and building an astonishing 15,000 hotel rooms since 1988. (They called the strategy “Put the heads in the beds. ) Disney’s market capitalization soared from about $2 billion before the Eisner era to $85 billion at its peak in April 1998. Thanks to the rising stock price, Eisner got fabulously rich too, exercising accumulated stock options that gave him pretax gains of more than $500 million since 1992. He still holds 12. 7 million shares, according to Disney’s latest SEC filings, worth about $330 million at today’s prices. So what’s gone wrong? Start with the fact that all the businesses that powered Disney, with the exception of the theme parks, are slumping.

Home-video earnings have tumbled, partly because consumers now have shelves filled with Disney animation. Revenues from licensing and merchandising are down, partly because of the economic downturn in Asia, and sales and profits from the Disney Stores have declined because product lines have grown stale. “How many Mickey Mouse T-shirts can you sell? ” asks Christopher Dixon, entertainment industry analyst for Paine Webber. Altogether, Disney’s all-important Creative Content segment, which includes movie and TV production, home video, licensing, merchandising, and the stores, saw its operating income fall from $1. billion in 1997 to $1. 4 billion in 1998; it decreased by another 42% during the first nine months of fiscal 1999. If that were a movie, they’d call it Honey, I Shrunk the Earnings. In Eisner’s view, the problems are unrelated. “A lot of things happened together to make our earnings slide,” he says. Disney is attacking each concern, slashing costly production deals in the movie business, releasing fewer live-action movies, resting its classic video titles longer between releases to rekindle demand, and merging overseas distribution forces for film and video.

To boost demand for consumer goods, the company will try to coordinate marketing in big retailers such as Wal-Mart. “We’d like to have a Disney boutique to sell the T-shirt, the lunchbox, the sheets and towels,” says Peter Murphy, Disney’s self-assured 36-year-old head of strategic planning. Suppose, though, that the declining sales of videos and merchandise reflect a more fundamental issue–weakness in the Disney brand. This notion is such heresy inside Disney that everyone, including Eisner, dismisses it out of hand. We have research on our brand in 20 or 30 countries, and we are almost without exception the No. 1 or No. 2 brand,” Eisner says. Disney executives say that if the brand were in trouble, Disney’s theme parks would be suffering along with the rest of the company; as it is, they’re thriving–even the one in France. In the theme parks and resorts segment, revenues and operating income grew by 10% and 13%, respectively, in 1998, and they’ve grown by 14% and 13% so far this year. “We have as many kids lining up to see Mickey Mouse as ever,” says Paul Pressler, 43, the president of Walt Disney Attractions. And our merchandise has done great. ” Disney World has reached beyond its core audience of young families to beckon convention-goers, older people, and “pre-families,” which is Disney-speak for single people. And it’s capturing more money from visitors who stay in all those new hotels. Sure, Disney’s theme parks rule–it’s parents who decide on family vacations–but the brand isn’t holding up as well in crowded arenas like videogames and cable TV, where kids are more autonomous. Disney’s interactive unit is an also-ran in the booming videogame business.

On cable, the Disney Channel ranks a poor third in viewing among kids ages 2 to 11, behind market leader Nickelodeon and the Cartoon Network. Both Nick and Cartoon, relative newcomers to the kids’ business, exploited Disney’s vulnerabilities. “The Nickelodeon opportunity was to get inside the lives of today’s kids,” says Nickelodeon President Herb Scannell. “We’ve been contemporary. They’ve been traditional. ” While Disney characters are drawn from myths, history, and storybooks–just about every big Disney animated feature could begin with the phrase “long ago and far away”–Nickelodeon’s TV shows and movies tell stories about real kids.

Today the Viacom unit captures more than 50% of the audience of all children’s TV programming. When Disney tries to exude a hipper aura–think of the bestselling Phil Collins soundtrack from Tarzan–the company is more likely to speak to baby-boomer parents than to their offspring. Here’s where that idea of “age compression” comes into play. Kids grow up faster these days, the experts say, and start emulating teenage behavior when they’re 9 or 10. They rebel against their parents and shy away from a “good for you” brand like Disney.

Ten-year-old boys who watch wrestling or South Park on cable and 9-year-old girls who love Ricky Martin think Disney is for little kids. “They’ve never gotten past the problem that their core audience is girls 2 to 8 and their moms,” says a former Disney executive. And even among young kids, the hot properties lately are Nickelodeon’s Blues Clues, PBS’s Tele-tubbies and Nintendo’s Pokemon, now a hit TV show on the kids’ WB, yet another new kid-vid network. The cluttered kids’ marketplace points to another fundamental problem facing Disney–competition on a scale the company hasn’t faced before, across all its businesses.

Warner, Dreamworks, and Fox do feature animation. Universal just opened a second Florida theme park. Fox Sports is taking on ESPN. Can you begin to see why managing Disney today is harder than it was a decade ago? What changed everything, of course, was Eisner’s boldest stroke as CEO: his $19 billion merger with Cap Cities. That deal, cheered at the time, still appears strategically sound–the idea was to marry Disney content with ABC’s broadcast and cable distribution. The problem has been execution. While ESPN and other cable properties have grown, no unit of the company is as besieged as ABC.

It will lose money this year for the first time in a decade, despite a fantastic advertising marketplace, because audiences are splintering and programming costs keep climbing. (Disney agreed under competitive pressure to spend $9. 2 billion–that’s right, billion–for NFL rights for ABC and ESPN through 2008. ) Operating income for the company’s broadcasting segment, which includes ABC, its TV stations, 80% of ESPN, the Disney Channel, ABC Radio, and stakes in Lifetime, A&E, the History Channel, and E! Entertainment, grew by just 3% last year; it’s down 18% so far this year, mostly because of ABC. I’d be the first to say the results of the ABC television network, particularly in prime time, have been disappointing since the merger,” says Robert A. Iger, 48, the lifelong ABC executive who is chairman of ABC Inc. While Iger’s bailiwick extends way beyond the network, he keeps a close watch on programming and told FORTUNE in 1997, “Prime time is my No. 1 priority. ” Since then, ABC’s ratings for its 18- to 49-year-old target demographic have fallen by another 13%, leaving the network No. 3, behind NBC and Fox. Oops. Wait, it gets worse. Remember how the merger was supposed to marry content and distribution?

That’s not working well either. Owning and broadcasting a hit, then selling the reruns, is the best way to make big money today in television. Just ask Rupert Murdoch, whose Twentieth Century Fox TV studio not only owns the biggest hits on Fox–The Simpsons, The X-Files, and Ally McBeal–but also produces The Practice and Dharma & Greg for ABC, as well as key shows for NBC, CBS, and the WB. By contrast, Disney’s Touchstone Television production studio has failed to develop a prime-time hit for ABC or anyone else since creating Home Improvement in 1991.

Out of sheer frustration, Eisner last month merged the Touchstone studio into ABC; the idea is to save money and force the two units to cooperate. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to reengineer the way television is done,” says Lloyd Braun, the studio president who co-chairs the merged unit with ABC’s Stu Bloomberg. Like a movie studio, ABC Entertainment now will develop, own, finance, and distribute more of its own content. The trouble is, the new model could seal ABC off from the rest of the television world. While ABC executives say they’ll still buy shows from studios like Warner Bros. nd Fox, the studios worry about doing business with the new, vertically integrated ABC. “You’re going to have to demonstrate to me in tangible ways that I’m going to get a fair shake,” says Sandy Grushow, president of Fox’s Twentieth Century Television. The other networks, meanwhile, suspect that any show they get pitched by a Disney entity will be an ABC reject. Beyond that, the merger adds another layer and the prospect of infighting at ABC Entertainment, now run by a posse that includes newcomer Braun, programmers Bloomberg and Jamie Tarses, network President Pat Fili-Krushel, ABC Inc. resident Steve Bornstein, and Bob Iger, who still reads scripts of key ABC shows on weekends. Nor is Eisner shy about weighing in; he helped shape the fall lineup and ordered ABC to negotiate tougher deals with its affiliates and program suppliers, which are not happy. This management by committee has never worked in television, and it’s not working at Disney-ABC. There is much more at stake here than the unwieldy operation of the TV unit. The new ABC structure is emblematic of what may be Eisner’s thorniest problem, if only because he doesn’t seem to recognize it: It’s Disney’s corporate culture.

Under Capital Cities, ABC was run in a determinedly decentralized way; executives were given authority and responsibility as long as they exercised fiscal discipline, and the company was generally well run. The Disney approach reflects different values: centralized control, an obsession with synergy at the expense of individual business units, a suspicion of outsiders, and a muddying of responsibility. The results speak for themselves. Writing about the Disney culture is tricky because knowledgeable critics are unwilling to speak on the record; the company’s just too powerful.

But talk to enough people and you hear similar complaints. One persistent theme: Eisner insists on making too many decisions himself, which clogs the decision-making process. So do the roomfuls of strategic planners who analyze everything. A second complaint: Eisner’s too tough. Working with Disney is notoriously difficult, so much so that a group of partners, including Coca-Cola, AT;T, Delta, and Kodak, used to meet informally to trade tips on how to cope. A related point about Eisner: In spite of his affability, he doesn’t really value other people.

That’s one reason the death of his longtime second-in-command, Frank Wells, in 1994, was a seminal event. Wells commanded Eisner’s respect like no one else, told him when he was off-base, and deftly softened his edges. They were a great team. Eisner tried to replace him with Michael Ovitz, a crucial error at just the wrong moment. Ovitz’s management got the ABC merger off to a dismal start, and his 16-month tenure scarred the company. Since then, strong executives have left, among them former CFOs Stephen Bollenbach and Richard Nanula, Internet guru Jake Winebaum, and former ABC executives Geraldine Laybourne and Steve Burke.

Finally, the critics say, the company has simply grown too big to be run from the top down. Eisner’s approach worked for the old Disney, where the focus was on a single brand; he could gather a cadre of executives at his Monday lunches and get things done. Now Disney must manage multiple brands in a world where speed counts and partnerships are vital. A respected ex-Disney executive told me, “The company has changed and the world has changed, but Michael hasn’t changed. Now he’s got to change. ” Eisner and his lieutenants bristle at the criticism from unnamed sources, and you can’t blame them.

Yes, they say, Disney is tough, but so are GE and Microsoft–which, by the way, lose lots of executives, too, because they have an abundance of talent. To the charge that he meddles, Eisner pleads guilty with an explanation: He wants Disney to excel. (Even his detractors say he has great instincts. ) When he heard from a friend that the cast members at Disneyland Paris weren’t as helpful as those at Walt Disney World, he recommended better training. “Is that meddling or is that insisting on a high standard of excellence? ” Eisner asks. “If there’s an area where I think I can add value, I dive in.

Yes, at certain times I paralyze people. I’m never satisfied. It gets people crazy, I know that. ” But Eisner also says he leaves his best executives, like theme park chief Pressler, alone. “There’s no brain drain,” he says. “We have unbelievably strong management. ” Eisner’s turnaround strategy focuses not on Disney’s culture but on operations, fiscal engineering, and growth. Consolidation and cost cutting are already under way across the board, with the movie division leading the way. Studio chief Joe Roth has already cut spending by about $550 million annually, by making fewer movies. It focuses everyone much more closely on the films at hand,” Roth says, “and ironically, I am quite sure that–for the fifth time in six years–we will be No. 1 in market share again this year. ” Disney is also looking to sell Fairchild Publications, a magazine company. Sources say Disney also expects to write off a big chunk of the $9. 2 billion NFL deal. In a move that should please Wall Street, CFO Thomas O. Staggs is reworking Disney’s compensation system so that executives will be evaluated on cash flow and return on equity as well as on reported earnings; that’s designed to encourage business units to use capital more efficiently.

The theme park segment, in particular, has been a huge consumer of capital, but it will use less after new parks open near Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland in 2001. Disney’s best growth opportunity probably lies overseas. Right now, the company gets about 21% of its revenues from abroad, less than other global brands like Coca-Cola (63%) or McDonald’s (61%). That’s why Bob Iger’s recent promotion to president of Walt Disney International puts him in a crucial role, spearheading what Eisner calls “a monumental change in the way the company is structured. Iger has begun to overhaul all of Disney’s operations outside the U. S. , which grew up haphazardly as each business–film, TV, the stores, cable, or theme parks–built foreign outposts that reported back to the home office. Now those businesses will also report to regional executives in charge of continents or key countries; each territory will also get its own CFO and brand manager. That may sound like more Disney layering, but Iger says it offers major advantages. First, the company will save money through consolidation, whether in renting office space or buying advertising.

Disney also expects to do a better job of tapping into local trends. Iger cites a revealing example: “It’s having someone in Japan who would see the Pokemon phenomenon at an early stage and have the clout, really, through me, someone who has a seat at Michael’s table, to be able to raise the consciousness level of the company about that potential quickly and effectively. ” Interestingly, the idea is not to delegate authority but to shorten the distance between the rest of the world and Eisner. Eisner’s other major focus is the Internet.

Here, too, centralization is the watchword. Last month Disney agreed to combine its Internet assets with Infoseek, a search engine and portal company that it is buying outright; the properties, including the Go portal, ABCNews. com, ESPN. com, Disney. com, Family. com, and others scattered in five locations on both coasts, will operate as a single unit under a CEO to be named later. “This is to consolidate the Internet assets so that we can have them under common management with one agenda and one vision,” says CFO Staggs, the 38-year-old architect of Disney’s Internet strategy.

The company will then issue a tracking stock called go. com that can be used as acquisition currency and a way to compensate talent. Disney’s assets should make it a force online. Its ESPN. com and Disney family sites are category leaders, and the company has unparalleled promotional platforms in ABC and ESPN. In a matter of months, they helped make Go the fifth-ranked portal, behind AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Lycos. And all the Disney Websites should sing when high-speed access makes it easier to watch video online. “As bandwidth expands,” Eisner says, “content becomes more important.

You must have sports and news and entertainment, or you are going to be a Western Union messenger in a fax world. ” He envisions a universe in which ABC News clips, ESPN game highlights, and movies like Aladdin are distributed online, cutting out middlemen like cable operators or Blockbuster Video. “I believe the entire company’s product will mostly be distributed through the Internet,” Eisner says. He’s a passionate Internet user too, peppering his web guys with suggestions. Says Staggs: “The only person I get more e-mail from than Michael is my mom. ” The strategy sounds smart. Of course, buying ABC sounded smart too.

Once again, it’ll come down to execution. Patrick Keane, a Jupiter Communications analyst, likes Disney’s web assets but worries that “diversified media companies move at glacial speed when it comes to the Internet. ” Disney can’t be as focused on new media as people at AOL and Yahoo are every day. And the straitlaced Mouseketeers will have to learn to live in an unbuttoned Internet culture, says new-media consultant Gary Arlen of Bethesda, Md. “Have you ever been to Disney World? ” he asks. “You walk out of a ride and land in a place that sells souvenirs. They’d like to manage the Internet that way. Even with perfect execution, Disney’s Internet investments need time to pay off; in the meantime, they’ll dilute earnings. Time is what Eisner needs too. Time for the cable and phone companies to help make his broadband Internet vision a reality. Time to build overseas. Time for DVD to take hold and provide another chance to resell the library. Time to create the next Tarzan and a hit for ABC, time for new theme parks to open, time to reinvent Mickey once more. Time, perhaps, to appoint a strong second-in-command with clout, whether it’s Bob Iger or Paul Pressler or a dark horse who has yet to emerge.

Because he enjoys the support of the Disney board, Eisner can be patient. “We’re in a transition period,” he says. “I would rather have every quarter be up. It was for 13 years. Everybody loves you. [But] you can’t manage a company like ours quarter to quarter, maniacally, so that the media will write good things about you. ” He likes to quote Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway, at last count, owned 51 million Disney shares: “I close my eyes and think about what a company’s going to look like in ten years before I invest. Paine Webber’s Chris Dixon says Disney’s assets are top-notch: “It may take time, but we believe the values are there. ” Other investors won’t wait. They note that despite the earnings downturn, Disney is still priced as a growth stock; it trades at about 35 times this year’s projected earnings, a 25% premium to the S;P 500. The Capital Research ; Management Group, whose entertainment industry investments are managed by respected media analyst Gordon Crawford, used to be Disney’s largest institutional shareholder, with 41 million shares as recently as last year.

Crawford has sold them all. So be it, says Eisner. “You can always tell your friends through the rough times,” he says. He still gets to go to the movies, test-drive theme park rides, surf the Net, and call it work. And maybe it’s just his turn to suffer in the media doghouse. After all, CEOs Gerald Levin of Time Warner and Sumner Redstone of Viacom fell out of favor when they struggled to get their arms around companies engorged by big acquisitions. Such mergers aren’t easy.

The challenge for Eisner is to learn from experience, show a little humility, seize the opportunity to shake up his company, and, perhaps, change his own stripes and let go a little. That’s a lot to ask of anyone who’s been as successful as he has for so long. But this isn’t the old Disney. And the old Disney magic just isn’t working anymore. REPORTER ASSOCIATE Carol Vinzant http://money. cnn. com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/09/06/265291/index. htm

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Social Movements Critical Analysis

It can be argued that communication networks are not only present in all social movements, but, are in fact essential to their formation and emergence. As Manual Chattels argues in Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements In the Internet Age, social movements all throughout history could not have been possible without the communication networks formed by Individuals who had a common purpose and goal that challenged the norm of society.

Social movements, regardless of how different each may be, are always a response to some form of Injustice, whether It be ultra, economic, political or social, this Injustice Incites those being mistreated to stand up against the dominant power In their society and collectively act to try and change It. However, this collective action that challenges the dominant power In society Is not possible without first establishing a certain togetherness among the Individuals who wish to oppose the norm.

It Is through communication networks that people are able to unite and create the sense of togetherness that turns thoughts, feelings and emotions into actual collective action. Just as the government and elites hat too often hold the power in society use communication networks to attain the consent of individuals, those who are the counterpoise use communication in the same way for the production of dissent. Governments and corporations use the various outlets of media to communicate their values and interests in order to influence individuals into accepting their power without resistance.

Communication therefore is as essential to power and consent, as it is to dissent and social movements. Chattels states, “the way people think determines the fate of the institutions, norms and values on which societies are organized” (p. ), so once individuals form communication networks where they can exchange information of their shared feelings of discontent and injustice, they will begin to think not of the elite’s interests, but their own interests, and this is when dissent arises and social movements are formed.

It is through communication networks that individuals are able to turn their emotion into action, because once they are together they are able to overcome the fear that prevents them from resisting the dominant power In society. “Overcoming fear is the fundamental threshold for individuals to cross In order to engage in a social movement” and once fear Is no longer a factor, enthusiasm and hope move a social movement forward (Chattels, p. 10).

Communication networks offer a space where Individuals can exchange Information and organize themselves as a united force of dissent. With the emergence of the Internet and the advance In technological communication, social movements have greatly transformed. Not because the fundamentals have changed, communication networks are still the space for emotions to be shared, dissent to form and action to arise, but because communication between Individuals has been greatly facilitated.

Take for example the recent Arab Spring, a social movement arose because Individuals were able to communicate and organize themselves through social media and cellophanes where before it would have been very difficult to come together in will continue to advance, as Castles argues, communication networks will also continue to be absolutely necessary for the development and emergence of social movements. It is only through communication, and the togetherness it creates, that individuals dare to stand up against the norms of society and fight for a reconstruction of it.

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Essay about Managerial Accounting

Alternative to an EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) in performing data conversion and coordination, application communication and messaging services and access to the application interfaces are the following : First, for data conversion and coordination and all related to capturing data, a business can use a POS (point of sale) with a huge size of server as an alternative of EAI while for the communication and messaging services, a business can use the SEC (Enterprise Collaboration yester) as an alternative tools in enterprise collaboration. 7. How can Internet technologies be involved in improving a process in one of the functions of business? Choose one example and evaluate its business value. Internet technologies has helped on improvements in capturing data to include conversion and coordination and also improvements in communication and messaging services. In our company, an example of this is the creation of dealer’s portal. Dealer’s portal consists of all related information of the dealer.

This includes the online placing of orders, monitoring their deliveries, statement of account, online filing of technical request, training request and the status of all their reimbursements. In this improvement, this would reduce the communication chain and enable the real time transactions of request of each dealers. CHAPTER 8 #1 . Should every company become a customer-focused business? Why or why not? Yes, a company is nothing without a customer. They are the bread and butter of the company. However, there are some companies that focuses for two main customers the internal (employee) and the external customers.

They include internal because hey consider their employees as their customers to gain their loyalty and for them to work harder which in result is customer satisfaction. #2. Why would systems that enhance a company’s relationships with customers have Reasons for high rate of failure : 1 . Poor coordination and communication prior to the release of the new system 2. Not properly implemented 3. Poor cooperation with some of the employees #4. How could some of the spectacular failures of ERP systems have been avoided? Things to consider to avoid failure of ERP systems : 1 . Proper planning and coordination prior to the implementation 2.

Planning should consider the possible problems that may be encountered during the implementation. 3. Proper training to all employees who will be using the system #7. How can the problem of overenthusiastic demand forecasts in supply chain planning be avoided? Things to consider to avoid the problem of overenthusiastic demand forecasts in supply chain planning: 1 . Submission of moving dashboard (sales forecast) on a quarterly basis. 2. Assign a point person for each department involved 3. Weekly meeting to update activities for each department involved. 4. Proper analysis on the market trend

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Introduction of E-commerce

Commerce (the trading of goods) has been a major impetus for human survival since the beginning of recorded history and beyond. The mass adoption of the Internet has created a paradigm shift in the way businesses are conducted today. The past decade has seen the emergence of a new kind of commerce: e-commerce, the buying and selling of goods through human-computer interaction over the Internet. Traditional physical trading of goods and currency is becoming increasingly unpopular and more businesses are Jumping on the e-commerce bandwagon.

Today, the line between e-commerce and traditional commerce is becoming more blurred as more businesses start and continue to integrate the Internet and e-commerce technologies into their business processes. 1. 2 DEFINITION OF E-COMMERCE The e-commerce can be defined as a modern business methodology that addresses the needs of organizations, merchants, and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of goods and services and increasing the speed of service delivery, by using Internet.

It differs from the traditional electronic commerce (e-commerce) in he way that it enables the trading of goods, money and information electronically from computer to computer. Business is done electronically and there is no longer a need for physical currency or goods to conduct business. 1. 3 EVOLUTION OF E-COMMERCE Evolution of e-commerce can be attributed to a combination of regulatory reform and technological innovation. Though Internet (which played an important role in evolution) appeared in the late sass, e-commerce of today took off with the arrival of World Wide Web and browsers in early sass.

The liberalizing of the electrification sector and innovations such as optic fiber, DSL etc. (which has helped to expand the volume and capacity of communications) have helped in the process of that rapid growth. As a result the barriers to entry and engage in e- commerce have fallen rapidly. A brief timeline of evolution is as follows: 2 E-COMMERCE 1. 4 1969 Internet/Apparent 1989 WWW HTML invented at CERN 1991 NSF lifts restrictions on commercial use of Internet 1993 Mosaic browser invented at University of Illinois, Urbana Champagne, is released to public 1994 Netscape releases Navigator browser 1995 Dell, Cisco, Amazon etc. Gang aggressively to use Internet for commercial transactions The growth of Internet has a special significance in the growth of e-commerce. It has the potential to involve general people into the process thereby increasing its reach far beyond large companies. CONDUCTING BUSINESS ONLINE (E-COMMERCE) Doing business online is electronic commerce, and there are four main areas in which companies conduct business online today: 2. 3. 4. Direct marketing, selling, and services. Online banking and billing. Secure distribution of information. Value-chain trading and corporate purchasing. 4. 1 Direct Marketing, Selling, and Services Today, more websites focus on direct marketing, selling, and services than on any other type of electronic commerce. Direct selling was the earliest type of electronic commerce, and has proven to be a stepping-stone to more complex commerce operations for many companies. Successes such as Amazon. Com, Barnes and Noble, Dell Computer, and the introduction of e-tickets by major airlines, have catcalled the growth of this segment, proving the reach and customer acceptance of the Internet. 1. 4. 2 Financial and Information Services

A broad range of financial and information services are performed over the Internet today, and sites that offer them are enjoying rapid growth. These sites are popular because they help consumers, businesses of all sizes, and financial institutions distribute some of their most important information over the Internet with greater convenience and richness that is available using other channels. For example, you have: ; Online banking Online billing Secure information distribution 1. 4. 2. 1 Online Banking Consumers and small businesses can save time and money by doing their banking n the Internet.

Paying bills, making transfers between accounts, and trading stocks, bonds, and mutual funds can all be performed electronically by using the Internet to connect consumers and small businesses with their financial institutions. ELECTRONIC COMMERCE-?TECHNOLOGY AND PROSPECTS 3 1. 4. 2. 2 online Billing Companies whose bill can achieve significant cost savings and marketing benefits through the use of Internet-based bill-delivery and receiving systems. Today, consumers receive an average of 23 bills per month by mail from retailers, credit card companies, and utilities. 1. 4. 2.

Secure Information Distribution To many businesses, information is their most valuable asset. Although the Internet can enable businesses to reach huge new markets for that information, businesses must also safeguard that information to protect their assets. Digital Rights Management provides protection for intellectual and information property, and is a key technology to secure information distribution. 1. 4. 3 Maintenance, Repair, and Operations (MR.) The Internet also offers tremendous time and cost savings for corporate purchasing of low-cost, high-volume goods for maintenance, repair, and operations (MR.) activities.

Typical MR. goods include office supplies (such as pens and paper), office equipment and furniture, computers, and replacement parts. The Internet can transform corporate purchasing from a labor and paperwork-intensive process into a self-service application. Company employees can order equipment on websites, company officials can automatically enforce purchase approval and policies through automated business rules, and suppliers can keep their catalog information centralized and up-to-date. Purchase order applications can then use the Internet to transfer the order to suppliers.

In response, suppliers can ship the requested goods and invoice the company over the Internet. In addition to reduced administrative costs, Internet-based corporate purchasing can improve order-tracking accuracy, better enforce purchasing policies, provide better customer and supplier service, reduce inventories, and give companies more power in negotiating exclusive or volumetrically contracts. In other words, the Internet and e-business have changed the way enterprises serve customers and compete with each other, and have heightened awareness for competing supply chains. 1. 4. 4 Value-Chain Integration

No other business model highlights the need for tight integration across suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors quite like the value chain. Delays in inventory tracking and management can ripple from the cash register all the way back to raw material production, creating inventory shortages at any stage of the value chain. The resulting out-of-stock events can mean lost business. The Internet promises to increase business efficiency by reducing reporting delays and increasing reporting accuracy. Speed is clearly the business imperative for the value chain. 1. 5 ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTING ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

Although it is simple to describe their benefits, it is not nearly as easy to develop and deploy commerce systems. Companies can face significant implementation issues: ; Cost Value 4 Security Leveraging existing systems Interoperability 1. 5. 1 cost Electronic commerce requires significant investments in new technologies that can touch many of a company’s core business processes. As with all major business systems, electronic commerce systems require significant investments in hardware, software, staffing, and training. Businesses need comprehensive solutions with greater ease-of-use to help foster cost-effective deployment. 5. 2 value Businesses want to know that their investments in electronic commerce systems will produce a return. Business objectives such as lead generation, business-process automation, and cost reduction must be met. Systems used to reach these goals need to be flexible enough to change when the business changes. 1. 5. 3 security The Internet provides universal access, but companies must protect their assets against accidental or malicious misuse. System security, however, must not create prohibitive complexity or reduce flexibility. Customer information also needs to be protected from internal and external misuse.

Privacy systems should safeguard the personal information critical to building sites that satisfy customer and business needs. 1. 5. 4 Leveraging Existing Systems Most companies already use information technology (IT) to conduct business in unlettered environments, such as marketing, order management, billing, inventory, distribution, and customer service. The Internet represents an alternative and complementary way to do business, but it is imperative that electronic commerce systems integrate existing systems in a manner that avoids duplicating functionality and maintains usability, performance, and reliability. 5. 5 Interoperability When systems from two or more businesses are able to exchange documents without manual intervention, businesses achieve cost reduction, improved performance, and more dynamic value chains. Failing to address any of these issues can spell failure for a system’s implementation effort. Therefore, your company’s commerce strategy should be designed to address all these issues to help customers achieve the benefits of electronic commerce. Your company’s vision for electronic commerce should also be to help businesses establish stronger relationships with customers and industry partners.

For example, a successful strategy for delivering this vision is described by three work-flow elements (platform, portal, and industry partners), each backed by comprehensive technology, product, and service offerings. 5 From self-service portals to transaction processing, a successful work-flow strategy can be the underlying engine delivering state-based, processed-focused control services for e-business applications. Human labor is expensive, and work-flow technology allows e-businesses to supplement, and in some cases eliminate, reliance on human supervision and intervention. . 6 HOW DO YOU WORK WITH E-COMMERCE? E-commerce is about setting your business on the Internet, allowing visitors to access your website, and go through a virtual catalog of your products/services online. When a visitor wants to buy something he/she likes, they merely “add” it to their virtual shopping basket. Items in the virtual shopping basket can be added or deleted, and when you’re all set to checkout, you head to the virtual checkout counter, which has your complete total, and that will ask you for your name, address etc. ND method of payment (usually via credit card). Once you have entered all this information (which y the way is being transmitted securely) you can then Just wait for delivery. 1. 7 COMPARISON BETWEEN TRADITIONAL COMMERCE AND E-COMMERCE In many cases business processes use traditional commerce activities very effectively, and these processes cannot be improved upon through technology. Products that buyers prefer to touch, smell, or examine closely are difficult to sell using electronic commerce.

For example, customers might be reluctant to buy high-fashion clothing and perishable food products, such as meat or produce, if they cannot examine the products closely before agreeing to purchase them. In the case of traditional commerce retail merchants have years of experience in creating store environments that help convince a customer to buy. This combination of store design, layout and product display knowledge is called merchandising. Sales people in course of time develop skills that allow them to identify customer needs and find products and services that meet those needs.

The arts of merchandising and personal selling can be difficult to practice over an electronic link. Through commerce branded products such as books or CDC can be easily sold. As one copy of a new book is identical to there copies and because a customer would not be concerned about freshness he would willingly order a title without examining the specific copy they would receive. The advantage of electronic commerce, namely the ability of one site to offer a wider selection of titles than even the largest physical bookstore, can outweigh the advantage of a traditional bookstore, namely the facility to browse.

Some examples of business processes are listed in the following table that suit to the e-commerce and traditional commerce respectively. Business processes well-suited to: Electronic commerce Traditional commerce ; Sale/purchase of books and CDC Sale/purchase of high-fashion clothing ; Online delivery of software ; Sale/purchase of perishable food products ; Advertising and promotion of travel services ; Small-denomination transactions ; Online tracking of shipments ; Sale of expensive Jewelry and antiques 6 1. 8 E-COMMERCE TECHNOLOGIES What technologies are necessary for e-commerce?

The short answer is that most information technologies and Internet technologies that we discuss throughout the book are involved in e-commerce systems, biz. – Customers must be provided with a range of secure information, marketing, transaction, processing, and payment services. Trading and business partners rely on Internet and extranets to exchange information and accomplish secure transactions; including electronic data interchange (DE’) and other supply chain and financial systems and databases. Company employees depend on a variety of Internet and intranet resources to communicate and collaborate in support of their SEC work activities. . 9 The Internet, intranets, and extranets are the network infrastructure or foundation of e-commerce. Information system professionals and end users can use a variety of software tools to develop and manage the content and operations of the websites and other SEC sources of a company. ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF E-COMMERCE Consumers are pushing retailers to the wall, demanding lower process, better quality, a large selection of in-season goods. Retailers are scrambling to fill the order. They are slashing back-office costs, reducing profit margins, reducing cycle times, buying more wisely, and making huge investments in technology.

They are revamping distribution channels to make sure that warehouse costs are down by reducing their average inventory levels and coordinating the consumer demand and supply patterns. In the push to reduce prices, more and more retailers are turning to overseas suppliers, in part because of cheaper labor costs. The effect of e-commerce can also be seen over the retail industry and marketing. 1. 9. 1 E-commerce and Retail Industry Retailers are in the immediate line of fire and are first to bear the brunt of cost cutting.

They are putting that pressure on the manufacturing and supplier end of the pipeline. At the same time, the quest for efficiencies has led to turmoil and consolidation within the retail industry. The pressure experienced by retailers and suppliers can be seen in the disappearance of Jobs, in mergers, and in the increase in business failures in the manufacturing sector. The problems are indeed serious. Electronic markets could provide a partial solution by promising customers more convenience and merchants greater efficiency and interactivity with suppliers to revivalist the troubled retailing sector. . 9. 2 E-commerce and Marketing Electronic commerce is forcing companies to rethink the existing ways of doing target marketing (isolating and focusing on a segment of the population), relationship marketing (building and sustaining a long-term relationship with existing and potential 7 customers), and even event marketing (setting up a virtual booth where interested people come and visit). Consider the case of conventional direct marketers, who devote some 25 percent of their revenues to such costs as printing and postages for catalogs.

Interactive marketing could help cut such expenses and may even deliver better results. Interactive marketing is accomplished in electronic markets via interactive multimedia catalogs that give the same look and feel as a shopping channel. Users find moving images more appealing than still images and listening more appealing than reading text on screen. Those are two powerful reasons why every text-based and still-picture-based interactive experimental-based service has ever generated anywhere near the volume of retail merchandise orders that televised shopping channels have achieved.

Maximum public acceptance will require that interactive catalog services have a more entertaining visual appearance than traditional text-intensive catalogs have had. Ideally, an interactive shopping program should produce full-motion demonstrations of selected products, but such a practical and economical technology has yet to be developed. 1. 10 INCENTIVES FOR ENGAGING IN E-COMMERCE A basic fact of Internet retailing is that all retail websites are created equal as far as he “location, location, location” imperative of success in retailing is concerned.

No site is any closer to its web customers and competitors offering similar goods and services may be only a mouse click away. This makes it vital that businesses find ways to build customer satisfaction, loyalty, and relationships, so customers keep coming back to their web stores. Thus, the key to e-commerce success is to optimize several key factors such as selection and value, performance and service efficiency, the look and feel of the site, advertising and incentives to purchase, personal attention, immunity relationships, and security and reliability.

The incentives for engaging in e-commerce are listed as follows: Selection and Value. Attractive product selections, competitive prices, satisfaction guarantees, and customer support after the sale. Performance and Service. Fast, easy navigation, shopping, and purchasing, and prompt shipping and delivery. Look and Feel. Attractive web storefront, website shopping areas, multimedia product catalog pages, and shopping features. Advertising and Incentives. Targeted web-page advertising and e-mail promotions, discounts and special offers, including advertising at affiliate sites. Personal Attention. Personal web pages, personalized product recommendations, web advertising, and e-mail notices, and interactive support for all customers.

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