Group Assignment: Post # 5 (Answer)

Internet privacy consists of privacy over the media of the Internet: the ability to control what information one reveals about oneself over the Internet, and to control who can access that information. Many people use the term to mean universal Internet privacy.

Cookies-are tools which are sometimes used for user-tracking, a common concern in the field of privacy.

Data logging-Many programs and operating systems are set up to perform date logging of usage. This may include recording times when the computer is in use, or which web sites are visited. If a third party has sufficient access to the computer, legitimately or not, the user's privacy may be compromised. This could be avoided by disabling logging, or by clearing logs regularly.

To avoid cookies and data logging , we can use opt out model , business can collect personal information until the consumer specifically requests that the data not be collected.
Also blocked the cookies in the browsers and privacy policy. When after using the computer , remember to delete the cookies.

Group Assignment: Post # 5

Businesses and individuals must be aware of the information security and ethical issues that come together with their dependence and frequent use of information systems.

Not knowing or caring about these issues may bring about loss of confidential information and lasting damage to their business reputation. In this post, you will talk about the following:

1) Think of 2 to 3 ways in which businesses may violate privacy or ethical rights without realizing it.
2) How can the violations mentioned in the previous question be avoided or minimized ?

Group Assignment: Post # 4 (Answer)

a)Supply Chain is a network of organizations and processes for procuring raw materials, transforming them into products, and distributing the products.

FedEx is continuously developing cutting-edge e-solutions that give you the ability to succeed in today's new economy.

An integrated series of eSupply Chain Tools is now available to ensure the seamless flow of goods along the complete supply chain - from sourcing to order processing, shipping, tracking, invoicing and return management.

Inventory-FedEx EC-Inventory Visibility allows you to utilize the Internet to access and maintain inventory and warehouse management information. The system also offers shipping and tracking functions, empowering you with complete visibility of where your goods are throughout the supply chain.

Manufacturing-FedEx EC-Manufacturing Visibility represents an innovative solution to manage one's inbound supply chain. It enables you to track inbound shipments of components and raw materials via the Internet. The system also allows for data management, forecasting of lead times, and comparison of forecast versus ordered products.

Warehouse Management-FedEx EC-Warehouse Management is a Java-based system that provides inventory and warehouse management. This system offers the complete functionality including reporting and administration features. EC-Warehouse Management possesses Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) capabilities, allowing flexible data exchange between systems.

Return Management-FedEx EC-Return Management builds customer confidence and satisfaction by providing an Internet-based post-sales system for handling returns, repairs and replacements with a superior level of after-sale service.

b)Supply Chain Management means the process of planning, implementing and controlling the operations of the supply chain with the purpose to satisfy customer requirements as efficiently as possible.

The new customer can visit FedEx Supply Chain Solutions web site and register as a member. then they can enjoy the services include Warehouse management, Order processing and distribution

Customers can check the track, take order though the website by using the solutions. It can save the time for customers.

Group Assignment: Post # 4

Logistics companies such as FedEx and UPS no longer merely carry goods from one place to another. Some of them also provide supply chain planning and management services to their customers and help them manage their supply chain information.

Investigate the web site of FedEx OR UPS to see how these companies’ services may be used for supply chain management. Then, answer the following questions:

a) What supply chain processes can each of these companies support for their clients ?b) How can customers use the Web sites of each company to help them with supply chain management ?

Group Assignment: Post # 3 (Answer)

a)Hong Kong Yellow Pages Online Map, supported by Geographic Information System (GIS) includes creating sales and service territories, calculate routes which the decision made by operational management levels.

e.g. 1: Search for the schools

e.g. 2: Search the public facilities

b)Here is the module can be used to handle each step within the Order-to -Cash business process:

Accept / Enter Order - Sale management

Order Acknowledgement - Sale management

Purchases Materials - Procurement management

Receive Materials - Procurement management

Production - Production management

Packing - Warehouse management

Shipping - Warehouse management

Invoicing and Collection - Financial management

c)Sales and Marketing, Accounting and Finance and Production Planning and Manufacturing Department need to coordinate from start to finish of the Order-to-Cash business process.

ERP software makes their work easier because it replaces traditional, disconnected information systems,reduces incompatible data. It also minimizes response time to customer and suppliers, and allows real-time sharing and monitoring of information across organization. Besides that, it can standardizate the data and business processes.

Group Assignment: Post # 3

1. Try any one of these decision support systems and describe two examples of decisions which they may help to support. For each decision, describe whether the decision would be made by operational, middle or senior management levels :

o Break-even Calculator
o Online Customer Lifetime Value Calculator (from Harvard Business School)
o Hong Kong Yellow Pages Online Map
o HSBC Mortgage Planner

2. Next, try out the different modules within the OpenBravo ERP demo. After you've familiarized yourself with these tools, identify which module can be used to handle each step within the Order-to-Cash business process below:

o Accept/Enter Order
o Order Acknowledgement
o Purchase Materials
o Receive Materials
o Production
o Packing
o Shipping
o Invoicing and Collection

3. Which departments need to coordinate from start to finish of the Order-to-Cash business process ? Describe how the ERP software makes their work easier. Also explain why ERP software can serve as the foundation or platform for decision support systems.

Group Assignment: Post # 2 (Answer)

Online analytical processing, or OLAP, is an approach to quickly answer multi-dimensional analytical queries. OLAP is part of the broader category of business intelligence, which also encompasses relational reporting and data mining. The typical applications of OLAP are in business reporting for sales, marketing, management reporting, business process management (BPM), budgeting and forecasting, financial reporting and similar areas. The term OLAP was created as a slight modification of the traditional database term OLTP (Online Transaction Processing). Databases configured for OLAP use a multidimensional data model, allowing for complex analytical and ad-hoc queries with a rapid execution time. They borrow aspects of navigational databases and hierarchical databases that are faster than relational databases.

1) Internet Sales Amount by Geography by Product by Date by Sales Channel

Measure: sales amount both internet

Geogharpy: united states

Date: financial year:04, 05

Product: category(bikes, accessories, clothing)

Report 1: According to the shown report, we can saw the different between total of the financial year 2004 and 2005. It separates into several items and each item show its own total. It helps the company to find out the balance from each item. And set up some relevant policies to deal with.

2) Reseller Gross Profit by Reseller by Promotion by Customer by Date

Measures: reseller gross profit

Reseller: specialty bike shop, value added reseller, warehouse

Promotion: new product

Date: financial year 04,05

Customer: united states

Report 2: As the Grid shown to us, we can see the reseller from United States that the new product promotes. It shows us the gross profit between the new product and the regular products. It helps us to know the effective and efficiency of the product promotion.

3) Order Count by Ship Date by Geography by Product by Date

Measures: order count

Ship date: financial year 04, 05

Product: bikes

Geography: united states

Date: financial year 04,05

Customer: united states

Report 3: Base on the Grid, classify with date, product and geography. It shows all the products with detail information. Moreover, the Grid helps to find out the most efficiency suppliers and contractors.

Group Assignment: Post # 2

This week we learned how B.I. tools (business intelligence) allow businesses to get more value and insight out of their databases.

1. Visit the OLAP Service Online Demo and design three different grid reports using at least three dimensions per report. Each report must have at least one measure which is being analyzed along the chosen dimensions.

o You may choose from any of the dimensions found along the left-hand side of the demo: Customer, Date, Employee, Delivery Date, Product, Reseller, Employee, etc.
o You may choose from any of the measures under Internet Sales, Reseller Sales or Sales Summary (found along the left-hand side of the demo).

2. Post the following content on your blog regarding the grid reports you've designed:

o A screen capture of a section of the report which shows the included dimensions and measure(s);
o An explanation of the insights contained in the report and how these insights can be used by the company to understand their performance or make better decisions;

3. Describe the benefits of allowing users to query a data warehouse in the form of an OLAP cube through their Web browser.

Group Assignment: Post # 1 (Answer)

Blog:
A blog (a contraction of the term weblog) is a website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Headline: http://www.hkheadline.com/blog/index.asp

• Headline is a stage which classify various catagoriesbloggers to express their opinion of the news. It has online shops, videos, articles and other recommendation from different members and analysts.
  

Anytime: http://www.hkanytime.com/hkanytime/blog.php

• Anytime is a online retail shop which is selling fashion products mainly from Japan. For examples: shoes, T-shirts, handbags, etc. The blog also provides update fashison news.

Interactive advertisement:
Interactive advertising uses online or offline interactive media to communicate with consumers and to promote products, brands, services, and public service announcements, corporate or political groups.

Burger King: http://www.subservientchicken.com/

• It is a promotion website from Burger King. The main purpose is to make awareness for the visitors throught the funny advertising. If you type the command " jump", the chicken will follow the instrustion to jump as well.
  

Search Engine:
A search engine is a tool designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are usually presented in a list and are commonly called hits. The information may consist of web pages, images, information and other types of files. Some search engines also mine data available in news books, databases, or open directories. Unlike Web directories, which are maintained by human editors, search engines operate algorithmically or are a mixture of algorithmic and human input.

Wikia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

• Wikia Search is a free and open-source web search engine and a part of Wikia operated by Wikia, Inc., a for-profit company founded in late 2004 by Jimmy Wales and Angela Beesley. This roll-out version of the search interface was widely criticized by reviewers in mainstream media. The "public alpha" was launched on January 7, 2008

Online Partnerships or Affiliate Marketing:
Online partnerships or Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's marketing efforts.

Bauhaus: http://www.bauhaus.com.hk/

• Bauhaus is a well-known retail shop selling different brands. They have partnership agreement with some of the brands, such as "TOUGH", "SALAD", etc.
  
  
  
  
  

RSS Feeds:

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's URI into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.

Oriental News: http://on.cc/rss_index.html

• RSS feeds (Oriental News) will automatic send updated news to our email or blogs who want to subscribe to timely updates.
  
  
  
  
  

Social Networking:
A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Tencent QQ: http://qzone.qq.com/

• Tencent QQ, generally referred to as QQ, is the most popular free instant messaging computer program in Mainland China, and the world’s third most popular IM service. The program is maintained by Tencent Holdings Limited, owned in part by Naspers. Since its entrance into Chinese households QQ quickly emerged as a modern cultural phenomenon, now being portrayed in popular culture. Aside from the chat program, QQ has also developed many subfeatures including games, pets, ringtone downloads, etc.

Gadgets:

A gadget is a small technological object that has a particular function, but is often thought of as a novelty. Gadgets are invariably considered to be more unusually or cleverly designed than normal technological objects at the time of their invention. Gadgets are sometimes also referred to as gizmos.

Hong Kong Jockey Club: http://www.hkjc.com/chinese/index.asp

• The Hong Kong Jockey Club is one of the oldest institutions in Hong Kong, founded in 1884 to promote horse racing. In their website have a function to calculate the odds. It is very convience and effeciency.

Group Assignment: Post # 1

This week we looked at several Internet Marketing methods. Together with your groupmates, find a specific example of how a company is using each method below:

Blog
Interactive advertisement
Search engine
Online partnerships or
affiliate marketing
RSS feeds
Social networking
Gadgets

By the way, the examples you find do not all have to come from the same company.In your group blog, list all the examples you find, together with links to each example. Also provide a description of the effectiveness of each example.