Chapter 7

As I read the ethics Guide, Dialing for Dollars, it made me think about Enron. From my understanding what they did was set up offshore fake companies that would buy their products and take their debt. When Enron could No longer cover up the fact that they were doing this is when they went bust. Running a company ethically will do two things, it will allow you to receive divine guidance and it will eliminate backlash problems like the one explained in this ethics guide.

How can you create a system that monitors how ethical your employees are?

October 26th

I am not sure what I need to write on today. So I guess I will comment on the test. I appreciate that fact that I really have learned something thus far in the class. i had no clue wha tto try and get out of the first month but after going over the test a little I can see that there are quite a few things that I have gained a better understanding of.

Class Oct 23, 2009

I often wonder why it cost so much to implement a basic IT system but when you really begin to break it down it is understnadable. I think case 2-2 is a good example of this. A large part of why it failed is due to underfunding but in part there are more substantial reasons. The characteristics of the leaders and there habbits were a large part of why the new IS system was not implemented corectly. Another reason is that there were just not enough computers to go around. It is extremely hard to cordinate one computer among many people.

Class Oct 19, 2209

My thoughts on last class were that we spent about 40 minutes talking and signing up for the test this Saturday and after all that was said and done I realized that I have to be at the Laie service project. I guess that is how life goes some times. Pick one there are two right places to be.

When can we have another practice test?

Career Assignment #5

With international business management as my field of study it is going to be very important for me to know how to do business online. The cost of flying around the world is far more than just getting on the computer and chatting by email or having a video conference. My ability to use all forms of IS will help me to have a competitive advantage over the competition. If I do not have the ability to use some of the more complex databases and internet activities it would greatly decrease my value in the job field

Consider Your Net Worth #2

One problem that often faces businesses is that they start off with just the most basic thing then when the time comes to upgrade it is a very hard step to change over to the newer system. With that in mind, if I ever felt that something had the potential to grow beyond the basics of a spreadsheet I would do my best to just start it off in a database. That would save a lot of effort if you ever did have to convert it from a spreadsheet to a database.
There are two ways to do everything and to play devil’s advocate, by starting off with a basic spreadsheet the startup cost would be far less and the ability to upgrade to a database is always an option in the future when it is really necessary. In this way, you would never have more than you needed and your information would grow in proportion to your need to upgrade your database.

Class oct 16, 2009

If I am not mistaken, phone lines use electricity and fiber optic cables use light. I suppose that a less effective way to move information through cables would be sound seeing how we already have two other options covered. The fastest thing that we know about is light and that is already in use by fiber optic cables so my though during class was what is going to be the newest and fastest thing after fiber optics. I am sure that something will come but I don’t know what it is going to be.

Chapter 6

As I read these chapters I am always asking myself how is this going to apply to me in business. The thing I think most often is that I will need to know the vocabulary more than anything else. If I am running a company and my IT personnel need to communicate with me then I had better have an understanding of what they are saying. One thing that I did not know before this chapter was the distinction between internet and Internet. I know have a better understanding of what they are. My question is when am I going to be able to use me laptop, cell phone, printer etc. as one unit without having to set up a network? That would be nice.

Chapter 5

If there is one thing that I would love to learn that I dont know anything about it is using a database. I can really see how that would be beneficial to me in the buisness world. I think that I fall into the same category as many people in that I would just rather open an excel sheet and imput my information that way.

Class October 12, 2009

I like how we talked about what a manager needs to know about IS. I know that I am looking at going into some type of management and I really have no interest in going into IS but I am beginning to realize how having a little more than a basic understanding of IS will give me an advantage in the workplace.
Another random thing that came to my mind during this class was how far away are we from having a completely sold state (no moving parts… I think that is called solid state) computer? It seems like that would last longer and break less and be faster

Chapter #4

My favorite part of chapter 4 was the Churn and burn. It makes so much sense. I was thinking about a few people who I know back home who own their own business. A few of them were the latest and greatest type of people. They always have the newest and nicest things. Then there are a few other people who are not like that. They get something and use it till it does not work anymore. When the recession began those few people who were the use it till it beaks type of people are still in business while those who were the latest and greatest are now out of business. I am pretty sure I am going to keep my laptop for a really long time after reading this section.

Knoll Inc . presentation

When I was listening to the presentation about Knoll Inc. the one thing that came to mind was how important there research was. I am sure that Knoll has lots of information on what people want in an office. They probably understand that as good as any other company and that is why they would be willing to spend so much time on one product, in this case the chair. They also spend millions of dollars in promoting this chair in an effort to convince people that the office needs to be a place of comfort and not just a show up and work type of thing. While they make it sound like the office is a game room for most companies they are not 100% correct but in their effort to make it sound like that they probably make a lot more money

Case 1-2

This is interesting. I started working in the Honors Program and I got my own office. It is very nice when I need to sit down and get things done but it sure can be really quiet some times. This is a little off subject but some software that has made my office experience great has been Pandora. I love their whole music concept. Thinking about my office and the furniture that is in it is interesting. I assume that the files I have on my computer save me about five or six full size filling cabinets. That certainly allows for a prettier, more inviting looking office.

Class Oct 7th

One of the questions I had during the presentation on Gety Images was how they control international infringement of their images? I suppose it is no different than Microsoft or Adobe. There is very little they can do to control copyright infringements out of their jurisdiction. Just that fact alone would keep me from wanting to get to deep into this company with my own money. I just don’t see it getting as big as Microsoft. There are also way too many companies that could potentially be better competiers in this market.

Case 1-1

I had never heard of this company until I read this case study. It is a great idea and of course one of those things that I wish I would have thought of. The amazing thing is how little it really requires to run such a profitable company. The overhead is very low and it will grow more profitable for a lng time around its certain fixed rates.

Class Sep. 30, 2009

When I was doing the Career Assignment I was not too sure what the point was. Now that we spoke on it I think I have a clearer understanding of what the purpose was. One of the things that stood out to me was how it is so true that employers are looking for people who already know what to do. That is my goal in college. Get the knowledge I need to benefit my employer right away.

Career Assignment

There are two jobs that seem interesting. One is Sr. Account Manager for Intertech and the other is IT sales executive for kinetic. Both jobs have very similar qualifications; Experience with previous sales, good prospecting skills, good communication skills, Microsoft office capabilities, a college degree and so forth. Cientic Media has an internship in New York just for computer sales. They are looking for someone who has a few years in college and has taken a number of computer courses. Any job that allows you to work with basic operating systems and programs such as Microsoft office can be beneficial to getting a future job. As with most jobs the final outcome the company desires is to be more profitable so if you are able to work in a situation that allows you to watch and work with money it is beneficial.

Consider Your Net Worth

I have been going to school now for 18 years now. Of course that includes everything from elementary school to the present. I have though long and hard for the last five or six years what I want to do the rest of my life as my chosen career field and one common them keeps coming up. I want to go into network marketing. The reason I have chosen IBM as my major is to help my understanding of what it takes to do business worldwide. I want to understand all the implications of doing business outside of the United States. As I take this class there are many things that are potentially relevant to what I am going to do for business after school. The understanding of future IT and IS upgrades will allow me to access many international things like laws, treaties, patents, etc. Having a good knowledge of these things will help me to edge the competition and make more money. If I were interviewing for a job I would tell them that I have learned how to use some of the programs we need to know for our company. I would explain my knowledge of the value chain and how to eliminate friction.

Class Discussion September 28,2009

I found it interesting that we talked about Wal-Mart and Apple today. I don’t like either company that much. Both because they seem to use two distinct weaknesses people have in their human nature. First, Wal-Mart uses cheep junk to get peoples attention. They focus on people that have to shop at their store because they can’t afford anything else. Apple uses the whole pop culture to draw in their crowd. Whether I like them or not it makes very little difference because their understanding of the value chain is amazing. They both do an amazing job eliminating friction from the buying process.

Case #3 and Chapter 3

On Page 42 there is an example of Horizon Healthcare Services in New Jersey. The article talks about how this Healthcare provider was losing customers and revenue due to the fact that there call system was very inefficient. When you called, it took too long and you had to be transferred to many times. The company implemented a new IT system that did many things to help reduce their cost. In this case, they automated more of their system and they also unified how they were working together. This allowed them to cut cost and improve performance.

The Question I have for this example is how is it possible to make a system or to train employees so that you never have to be transferred? How much work would that be and is it even plausible because I hate being transferred at all when I make phone calls?

Class Discussion Sep 25, 2009

I cannot say either way as to whether Automation is a good or bad thing. I believe that is what we were talking about in class. There must be a happy medium. During our discussion one thing that came to my mind was the movie "Wallie". In the movie everyone had to leave earth because the pollution was growing so poor. They were unable to live on earth anymore so they made a ship to carry them around the universe until earth became inhabitable again. The Ship they were on was completely automated. They didn’t have to walk, make food, work or do anything at all. After a certain amount of time they became almost completely incompetent. I think sometimes that we are becoming that way, but not all of it is bad. The fact that I need my calculator to do some of my Math problems means that I am not completely self reliant but it also means that I can to more complex problems that I would not have been able to do without it.

Problem 1-5 on pg 19

1.By placing the responsibilities on the shoulder of the business units it created two things. First, the business units would feel personally responsible for the successful outcome of the new IT updates. Secondly, The IT personnel know how to create the new programs but they need to always communicate with the people who are going to use the new programs. Having The individual Units in charge means that there is no other choice but to have them always communicating.

2.The Units were in charge of scope because they needed to be responsible for the final outcome of the new programs. They also are the people who know what things will help make the audits more efficient so it was their job to make sure that all of these things made it into the final product.

3.I would try to do three things to make sure that the future of our Schools IT upgrade went successfully. The first thing I would do when drawing up a new plan is to look at what had already been done and find the mistakes so that they would not be repeated. Second, I would make sure that there was a clear responsibility and expectations in place from all parties. I would not proceed to the actual work until the first two steps were in place. The last thing I would do is make one person in charge of any potential changes. If IT or the faculty wanted to make any changes I would require them to go through one person to help alleviate any possible miscommunication.

4.I would just get rid of the whole income tax portion of the IRS. OH, but seriously, because the IRS is so large I would set a clear plan out and not change it! Some things may be lost that would have been beneficial but at least the most important things would have been done. Any changes to the system would be done only after the new system is up and running perfectly.

5.There are a number of reasons to update. Security, efficiency, maintenance cost, and an unknown future. The system works now but it is possible that in the near future it will be so complex and complicated from all the changes it has faced over the last 30 years that it could self destruct.

Chapter 1

This class is starting to remind me of my economics class last semester. We spent about three weeks studying why people believed that the new economy was going to work and then we spent another three weeks pointing out reasons why it didn’t. The reason I say that Is330 reminds me of economy is because we started off studying something that was in opposition to the traditional ideas of it, and now we are going to talk about why it is all so important. While reading chapter one the thing that really stuck out to me was the basic structure of IS; Hardware, software, data, procedures, and people. It is a very simple yet clear definition of what IS really is and the book does a good job of defining each one of those things.

What could be a sixth part of the IS structure to help IS be more efficient or more cost effective?

Cody Teeples

I am Cody Teeples from Phoenix, Arizona. I lived in the same house in Phoenix from the time I was born until I left on my mission to Chile Santiago. I loved my time there. I was the Presidents Secretary for about six months and I jsut loved it. I have been in Laie for about a year now. I am an IBM major still trying to decide which track to go on. I have about two years of school left and I am just all kinds of excoted to be back at BYUH. I dont really know what I am going to get out of this class, I would really like to learn how to use access better. I dont know much about it.

IT doesnt matter Cody Teeples

It has always been my opinion that after a certain amount of time anything in the business world will become a necessity and not an advantage. The first person to own a horse had an advantage over the person who had to walk or run. I.T. is just that same principle on a greater scale. In the article he explains that It started off as an advantage to the few companies that were able to harness its power. The problem is that after a certain amount of time the amount of intel needs to expand or it will become obsolete. The only way for an individual company to expand its IT without spending way to much money is to share what it has with others. That means that after a certain amount of time everyone will have access to virtually everyone else IT. When that happens it is no longer an advantage. It is a necessity to stay alive in a very competitive world economy.

http://www.smallbusinessnewz.com/topnews/2008/10/29/survey-looks-at-it-importance-and-small-businesses

We have established that after a certain amount of time anything in the buisness world tha starts off as having a competative advantage will after time become a nessesity so after IT what is the next competative advantage going to be? What will be the next wheel, motor, or computer?