SOFTWARE UKAY-UKAY

Software companies operate in the prospect of gaining profit which in turn will be used to develop better software products. Without this prospect of profit and continued inflow of income, these companies that develop and create softwares that we are so eager to use to a point that we brave breaking the law, specifically Intellectual Property Rights will not be able to defer their expenses, recover their capital and eventually close down. So to use the old saying do not “bite the hand that feeds you” these pirated software consumers are actually killing the companies that make these software products that we use day to day even to a point of necessity.

Is it reasonable to blame them? My answer is a resounding yes. It is basic that one should not enrich themselves at the expense of another. Sad to say that piracy actually benefits the pirate and the buyer but none at all goes to the companies that make them.

My business proposal to these companies would be to lower the prices of these products to avoid the need of piracy. At current market pricing most

of the software products cost a lot because the company has to recover all the cost from selling the software one time which is usable for a life time. One idea could be to offer these products on subscript for a lower price.

I think there are already established laws against piracy in our country but the problem is always the implementation. Selling pirated products are rampant and evident even in well-known business establishments. We could hear time and time again from operations of government agencies against the selling and production of pirated products but I think this is not enough to eradicate the problem.

Acquiring pirated products is quite easy through the internet in our country. This is another thing that the government should look into. In countries such as Japan and United States, the regulation and control of online piracy is very stringent which hinders the users from committing such illegal acts.

The government should put some more effort on the imposition of its laws against piracy in order to minimize it if it’s impossible to eradicate.

Knowledge: The Thing We All Desire

     With the advent of computer technologies and its increased usage in almost all organizations, it became a vital asset of a company. The importance of computer in organizations even gave way to a fairly new executive position called Chief Information Officer (CIO) which is in the same level as Chief Executive Officer (EO) or Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Similar situation has also happened with the practice of Knowledge Management (KM) in organizations. This is a relatively new discipline that was institutionalized in 1990s and this gave way also to a new executive position called Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO). 

     There is no doubt that together with the increasing practice of KM, its importance has also been appreciated by organization over the years. KM being used by management in capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using organisational knowledge is a very efficient tool that helps organizations to achieve their goals and objectives. Organization uses its wide range of knowledge tools, techniques, and approaches to drive change and development in their operations. Knowledge can also provide many competitive advantages to both the employee and the organizations.

     However, despite the advantages of KM, many organizations has yet established it in their organizations. One reason for this might be the trouble of implementing KM. KM is a difficult task and there are several processes to take. To add to the difficulty of the process are some attitude problems of employees towards knowledge sharing. Some employees are not open to sharing knowledge for they might lose their competitive advantage over the other employees. Some are hesitant because they just don’t fell like sharing and it’s not part of their work in the first place. Some employees are just simply selfish of their knowledge.

     What organizations should do is to let their employees realize the importance of KM. They could device some way to encourage people in the organization to share their knowledge. Incentive and other benefits could be used as motivations for this. They could also incorporate this as part of their succession planning.

     It is a common view that knowledge as power. When we were still in school, especially at our younger age, we are all ears to our teachers. We respect them not only because of their age, but also they know a lot more than us. But as we advance in our education and learn a lot more until we graduated in the university, we feel that we are now at the same level of our teachers. The respect is still there but somehow we feel that we are now equal with them. We are empowered because of the knowledge that we have gained over the years. This is also the same with the situation within the organization. Employees must be encouraged to share their knowledge in order for the organization to more forward and grow.

BI tools: helps you do it best

Business Intelligence (BI) can be defined as the ability to extract actionable insight from data available to the organization, both internal and external, for the purposes of supporting decision-making and improving organization’s performance. When asked what BI tools they use to measure their organizational performance, the common response by organizations might include Excel spreadsheets, report writers and canned reports.

But not all persons in an organization recognize the importance and benefits of using BI tools in doing their job. One reason could be is that they are already satisfied of the current practice. That they are still performing their work without utilizing BI tools.

One thing that an organization can do is to make employees realize that they are at an advantage when using the BI tools than not. We can compare this to the discovery of fire by man. Man is doing okay before his discovery of fire. They eat their food raw, they survive the cold nights and they continue to live. But when they discovered fire, they realized that they can use this tool for more comfortable living. Tastier cooked food, sleeping warmly at night and they still continue to live, this time comfortably. Like the discovery of fire, it is important to let the employees know how they will be better off using BI tools in their work.

Business Intelligence (BI) can be defined as the ability to extract actionable insight from data available to the organization, both internal and external, for the purposes of supporting decision-making and improving organization’s performance. When asked what BI tools they use to measure their organizational performance, the common response by organizations might include Excel spreadsheets, report writers and canned reports.

But not all persons in an organization recognize the importance and benefits of using BI tools in doing their job. One reason could be is that they are already satisfied of the current practice. That they are still performing their work without utilizing BI tools.

One thing that an organization can do is to make employees realize that they are at an advantage when using the BI tools than not. We can compare this to the discovery of fire by man. Man is doing okay before his discovery of fire. They eat their food raw, they survive the cold nights and they continue to live. But when they discovered fire, they realized that they can use this tool for more comfortable living. Tastier cooked food, sleeping warmly at night and they still continue to live, this time comfortably. Like the discovery of fire, it is important to let the employees know how they will be better off using BI tools in their work.

Organizations can make use of different strategies on how to influence their employees to use BI tools. When I first joined a company I admit I wasn’t that skilful at computers nor the usage of BI tools such as excel spreadsheets. Luckily the company that I joined already institutionalized the usage of BI tools for recording and reporting purposes. I was coached by the person vacating the position I was hired for. This is part also of the succession process of the company to impart all the necessary knowledge to the incoming employees.

By using BI tools we are able to combine, analyze, report and visualize all that data very easily. It helps organizations to better understand how things are going and eventually where things are going wrong. They give employees and managers the possibility to improve their business processes on a daily basis by using correct information.

Because BI tools are very helpful especially when you are working under time pressure, organizations can implement strict deadlines on reports. This way the employees will utilize all the tools available to them including BI tools.

Another best way for organizations to encourage their employees to use BI tools is by conducting training or seminar on BI tools. This will be a good venue for employees to learn and appreciate the benefits of BI tools. It may take 2 or 3 days of office time, but the benefits of this could be great especially to the overall improvement of the organization.

shop.com

 

     The electronic commerce or e-commerce as it is popularly known today has changed the game when it comes to shopping. It has evolved to a business that is commonly accepted today that many businesses have made use of e-commerce in their operation. It also provided an equal playing field for all businesses, regardless of the size of the company, to market their products and services

     If you ask online shopping aficionado why they prefer online shopping from traditional shopping, most of them will answer “because it is more convenient” and I think they are correct. This could be the primary advantage of online shopping. We can have the stuff that we want in just a few clicks. Shoppers can save their time in traffic jam and save gas as well. We can now spare ourselves from trouble of going out to shopping malls and lining up in long queues to buy things. We can do our shopping in the convenience of our home. Online shopping has also offered us a variety of goods to choose from. Shoppers can now look for the things that they want even if it’s not available in their local area. Indeed the technology that we have at present has given us convenience in our way of life.

     But online shopping is not without a hitch. Some shoppers are hesitant of buying products online. One reason could be is that we could not inspect the actual product itself until it is delivered. We are hindered of examining and scrutinizing the product that we are ordering. Related to this is the after sales service of online shopping. Shoppers will find themselves in a problematic situation if they realize that they are not satisfied with the product after it was delivered. Another reason is the exposure of shoppers to theft when ordering online. Consumers need to be reassured that credit card transactions are secure and that their privacy is respected when shopping online.

     Personally online shopping is very appealing to me. I always buy my plane tickets online. I don’t need to go to different airline company just to get the prizes of fares and compare it to each other. I also buy stuffs over the internet which I am already familiar with or know the specific model such as watches and running accessories. It is very satisfying to see the models that you want online that are not available in local stores. I don’t have second thoughts in buying these products over the internet.

     However, it is a different story when it comes to buying things such as clothes, jeans and shoes. These are the things that I need to try on before buying. I always see to it that I feel comfortable and of course look good on these apparels before buying them. For this reason I am quite hesitant of buying these stuffs online.

     High value items such as jewelries, real estates and insurances are the products and services that I would never buy online. Jewelries are best acquired at a local, well-known and trusted jewelry stores. Careful scrutiny is required before purchasing them. Real estate dealers are also thriving over the internet to market their products. But just like purchasing jewelries, inspection of the real estate is needed before paying for it. Some of the things that need to be done before buying the real estate is to visit the actual estate, check tax records and check the available utilities. These things are not available to the consumers when buying online. And lastly I will not consider buying insurances online. Insurances are not easy to acquire even the traditional way. You need to discuss many things with an insurance agent before you can finalize a single insurance policy. Things such as the coverage needed, assessment of the policy, comparison of different kinds of policies, the premium payments and others crucial stipulations are best discussed in person rather than talking online.

     To conclude e-commerce is beneficial to both the companies and the individual consumers. It makes transactions fast and convenient. But just as most technologies, it has its own drawbacks. It is important that we use caution in such transactions.

 

IT Security: Importance, Risks and Advantages of Outsourcing

          To an ordinary citizen, we don’t hear so much about cases of data breaches to company data not unless the organizations involved are government agencies in which case are highly publicized and instantaneously reported by the media. Data breaches are high stakes, high drama crimes. Not only do they impact the target companies, but millions of innocent consumers can have their personal information and even financial records turned inside out as a result of one breach.

          According to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (PRC), 27.8 million records have been compromised in the year 2012 alone with 637 breach cases reported. This figure lowered down last year to 10.6 million records and 483 cases reported. Although there are some improvements in the security of data, this is from perfect.

          With the foregoing, it is clear that security of information technology (IT) must be prioritized by companies because the threats are real and the stakes are high. The issue now is how capable are these companies OF establishing a foolproof IT security.

          IT Security is extremely hardware- and capital-intensive. The investment in IT infrastructure, hiring of IT specialists and the continuous training and updates in IT security trends and threats may be financially challenging for most of the companies specially the smaller ones. Therefore, companies that have to handle other important business processes may opt to leave IT security matters to the specialists through outsourcing. Security service providers, having the economies of scale, offer lower costs rather than maintaining internal IT security. A company can have the security expertise that it needs without hiring a team of 5 or maybe 10 person.

          At the onset of outsourcing IT security, the company should first know what aspect of its security that they want to outsource. In the survey made by the Computer Security Institute in 2007, only 5% of all the respondents had outsourced more than 60% of its IT security functions. This means that most of the companies don’t outsource all its security functions fully. One reason could be is that the companies are apprehensive of the risks involved in outsourcing totally its IT security. Some functions are best retained by the company to lower the risks involved with outsourcing. Management of the IT security is best left to the control of the company. Firewall implementation and monitoring, vulnerability scanning and anti-malware functions are some functions that could be outsourced.

          Like the benefits IT outsourcing promises, there could be a lot to lose also when availing the services. Selecting the wrong security service provider could lead to financial and legal implications for the company. It is important to choose the best provider that offers the best deal. The lowest bidder may not always give you the best service. An excellent way to find a good service provider is to ask around. According to Warren Buffet,” it takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it”. These service providers are making sure that they give the best quality service that they can in order to maintain the image of their company. Investigating the track record of your prospective provider will lead you to the best one.

          Once the company has chosen their security provider, it should formulate a good contract and stipulate a strong service level agreement that clearly detail legal liability responsibilities and consequences. One specific stipulation perhaps is the realistic boundaries between the responsibilities of the company’s IT staff and that of the service provider. The IT staffs of the company are more familiar with the functionality and operations of the IT being protected and therefore should always be in control and should lead and coordinate with the provider regarding IT security matters and not the other way around. Some other stipulations that should be made clear before perfecting the contract are regarding the uptime, response time and escalating procedures.

          To wrap up, IT security is a very important business function of a company and should be on the top of its priority especially if its business handles many sensitive information. The company should evaluate if it is capable of establishing its own foolproof IT security. If not, it should consider hiring IT experts through outsourcing.

IT and Me

I can still remember my first academic experience with a personal computer in my high school computer class. The day was forever immortalized in the pages of my high school diary. We were all excited to have computer classes back then. Having hands on an IBM computer with the basic computer peripherals mouse and keyboard was quite an experience. I can still remember the floppy disk storage device of files before which I presume will be unrecognizable anymore to the young people nowadays. Seeing a big thick monitor on top of a big thick CPU is nostalgic and reminds me of not only the computer classes but the old times way back in our high school days.

As years passed by, many developments in information technology unveiled before my eyes. All the computer parts that we knew back then took several makeovers. The big thick computer monitor became thin and the resolutions improved dramatically with the help of LCD or LED technology. The bulky CPU of before became smaller that it could even fit in a small space. The mouse and keyboards became cordless.  These are just the hardware changes in personal computers that took place in years. This is not mentioning the more remarkable improvements in the software. Processing data are much faster than it was decades ago.  These hardware and software improvements of PC benefit the users the most. Convenience is the primary thing it resulted to.

Computer has become an integral part of my profession and social life. I use it to encode the information, analyze data and prepare reports. It also allows me to communicate with my family and friends from all over the world. It has made my life more convenient.

When I grow old, this is one of the few things that I could share to my grandchildren. I will tell them how information technology has evolved and how it has transformed the world.