CHAPTER 11 - Building a Customer-Centric Organization (Customer Relationship Management)

  Why is it important for any company to use CRM strategies to manage customer information?

~ CRM technologies can help organizations answer tough questions such as who are their best customers and which of their products are the most profitable.

~ CRM solutions make organizational business processes more intelligent. This is achieved by understanding customer behavior and preferences, then realigning product and service offerings and related communications to make sure they are synchronized with customer needs and preferences. If you do not know and understand your customers then they might not be your customers for long.

 If the virtual world is the first point of contact between a company and its customers, how might that transform the entire shopping experience?

~ The virtual world could become the first point of contact between companies and customers and could transform the whole experience, writes Jo Best on Silicon.com.

~ Some companies believe Second Life could one day become a first point of contact for customers. Like many other big brands, PA Consulting has its own offices in Second Life and has learn that simply having an office to answer customer queries is not enough. Real people, albeit behind avatars, must be staffing the offices – in the same way having a website is not enough if there isn’t a call centre to back it up when a would-be customer wants to speak to a human being. In future, the consultants believe call centres could one day ask customers to follow up a phone call with them by moving the query into a virtual world and hanging around in Second Life is more fun than being stuck on hold. 

~ However, currently Second Life and its imitators remain relatively niche in usage terms and have their own technology boundaries – not all consumers, particularly the older community, have the tech savvy or indeed the hardware necessary to make use of virtual worlds.

Chapter 10: Supply Chain Management

Chapter 10: Supply Chain Management

Learning Outcomes

List and describe the components of a typical supply chain.

Supplier’s Supplier, Supplier, Manufacturer, Distributor, Retailer, Customer,  Customer’s customer.

Define the relationship between decision making and supply chain management.

SCM enhances decision making. Collecting, analyzing, and distributing transactional information to all relevant parties, SCM systems help all the different entities in the supply chain work together more effectively. SCM systems provide dynamic holistic views of organizations.  Users can “drill down” into detailed analyses of supply chain activities in a process analogous to DSS. Without SCM systems, organizations would be unable to make accurate and timely decisions regarding their supply chain.

Describe the four changes resulting from advances in IT that are driving supply chains.

Although people have been talking about the integrated supply chain for a long time, it has only been recently that advances in information technology have made it possible to bring the idea to life and truly integrate the supply chain. Visibility, consumer behaviour  competition, and speed are a few of the changes resulting from advances in information technology that are driving supply chains.

Summarize the best practices for implementing a successful supply chain management system.

The following are the SCM industry best practices: 

Make the sale to suppliers - A large part of any SCM system extends beyond the organization to the suppliers.  Since the organization has very little control over anything external to itself, these pieces are typically the most complicated.Be sure suppliers are on board with the benefits that the SCM system will provide to ease SCM implementation difficulties.

When employees off traditional business practices - If the organization cannot convince people that using the SCM software is worthwhile, the employees will probably find a way around using the software.

Ensure the SCM system supports the organizational goals - Be sure to select SCM software that supports organizational goals and strategies.

Deploy in Incremental phases and measure anD communicate success - Designing the deployment of the SCM system in incremental phases is the most successful deployment method.The BIG BANG approach – implementing everything at once – fails 90 percent of the time.Be future oriented - An SCM system, like all systems, must scale to meet future demands.

HALLO HALLO! 
NOW DAH MASUK CHAPTER 9 : DECISION MAKING

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Four most common categories of AL include :

• Genetic Algorithms - An artificial intelligent system that mimics the evolutionary, survival of the fittest process to generate increasingly better solutions to a problem. It essentially an optimizing system, its finds the combination of inputs that give the best outputs. Useful when search space very large of too complex for analytic treatment. In each iteration ( generation ) possible solutions or individuals represented as strings of numbers.
• Intelligent Agents - is an autonomous entity which observed through sensors and acts upon an environment using actuators and directs its activity towards achieving goals. Intelligent agents may also learn or use knowledge to achieve their goals. They may be very simple or very complex. a reflex machine such as thermostat is an intelligent agent, as is a human being, as is a community of human beings working together towards a goal.
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• Expert system - in the financial field is expert system for mortgages. Loan departments are interested in expert systems for mortgages because of the growing cost of labour, which makes the handling and acceptance of relatively small loans less profit able. They also see a possibility for standardized, efficient handling of mortgages loan by applying expert system. Appreciate that for the acceptance of mortgages there are hard and fast rules which do not always exist with other types of loans.
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• Neutral Networks - consider a real estate appraiser whose job is too predict the sale price of residential houses. As with the Bank Loans example, the input pattern consists of a group of numbers. For example number of bedrooms, number of stories, floor area, age of construction, neighborhood prices, size of lot, and distance to schools. This problem is similar to the Bank Loans example because it has many non-linearities, and is subject  to millions of possible inputs patterns. The difference here is that the output prediction will consist of  calculated value the selling price of the house. It is possible to train the neural network to stimulate the opinion of an expert appraiser, or to predict the actual selling price.

CHAPTER 8

1.Describe the roles purpose of data warehouse and date marts in an organization


1.The roles of data warehouse is a logical collection of information gathered from many different operational databases that support business analysis and decision-making tasks.The primary purpose of a data warehouse is to aggregate information throughout an organization into a single repository in such a way that employees can make decisions and undertakes business analysis activities. 

    -data marts-contains a subset of date warehouse information and to distinguish between    data warehouses and data marts,think of data warehouse as having a more organizational focus and data marts as having focused information subsets particular to need of given business unit such as finance or production and operations.

2.Compare the multidimensional nature of data warehouse with the two-dimensional nature of databases. -data base contain information in a series of two dimensional tables which means that you can only ever view two dimensional of information at one time.A relational database contains information in a series of two dimensional tables.A dimension is a particular attribute of information In a database warehouse and data marts information is multidimensional it contains layers of columns and rows.Each layer in a data warehouse or data marts represents information according to an additional dimension.Dimensions could such things as products,promotion,stores,category,region.stock price,date,time and even the weather.The ability to look information from different dimensions can add tremendous business insight. 

3.Identify the importance of ensuring the cleanliness of information throughout an organization. - It maintain high quality data in the data warehouse or a database warehouse or data mart is extremely important.A process is  that weeds out and fixes or discards inconsistent,incorrect,or incomplete information,contact information in an operational system, standardizing customer name from operational system,information cleansing activities and accurate and complete information quality management. 

4.Explain the relationship between business intelligence and data warehouse. -business intelligence is the information that people use to support their decision-making efforts.It a business started automating more and more systems,more and more information become available.  http://www.informationbuilders.com/business-intelligence 
     
     -data warehouse a logical collection of information- gathered from many different operational databases-that supports business analysis activities and decision-making tasks.  can refer to this.


   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_warehouse

thank youuuu :)

Chapter 7

Assalammualaikum :)


1. Describe two primary method of integrating information across multiple database ?.
⊙ The primary method integrating information across multiple database is a forward integration takes information entered into a given system and sends it automatically to all downstream systems and process. Secondly, a backward integration takes information to all downstream system and process.


2. Describe the benefit of data-driven web site ?.
⊙ The benefit of data driven website is to allow the website owner to make changes any time, a status website requires a programmer to make update. It useful to when sites offers a greats deal of information, products or services. A static website is requires a programmer to makes updates. This adds an unnecessary layer between the business and its web content, which can lead to misunderstanding and slow turn around and desired changes.


3. Define the fundamental concept of the rational database model ?.
⊙ Fundamental concept of rational database model that have two type , firstly entities and attributes. Entities in the rational database model is the person, place, thing, transactions or event about which information is stored. Attributes also called fields or columns are characteristics or properties of an entity class. Secondly, keys and relationships.


4.Evaluate the advantages of the rational database model .
* Firstly increase flexibility, increase sociability and performance. It database tend to mirror business structures and good database can handle changes quickly and easily. It reduced information redundancy. Redundancy is the duplication of information, or storing the same information in multiple places. Besides, increase information integrity ( quality ) and increase information security.

http://www.teach-ict.com/as_as_computing/ocr/H447/F453/3_3_9/database_design/miniweb/pg8.htm

5. Compare operational integrity constraints and business critical integrity constraints ?. Operational integrity constraints are rules that enforce basic and fundamental information based constraints and Business critical integrity constraints are rules that enforce rules vital to an organization success and often require more insight and knowledge than operational integrity constraints.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/B28359_01/server.111/b28313/constra.htm

CHAPTER5 : Organizational structure that support strategic  initiative

1. Differentiation between chief information officer (CIO), chief technology officer (CTO), chief security officer (CSO), chief privacy officer (CPO), and chief knowledge officer (CKO).

CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER

• Responsible for overseeing all uses of information technology and ensuring the strategic aligment of IT with business goals and objectives.
• Ensure the delivery of all IT project on time and within budget.
• Ensure the strategic vision of IT is in line with the strategic vision of the organization.
• Advocate and communicate the IT strategy by building and maintain strong executive relationship.

CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

• Develop and approve the DISA net-centricity and IP convergence strategy.
• Review and approve detailed net-centricityion and IP converge plans develop by Program and Service Manager
• Conduct technical review of all solutions, products and service to determine compliance with overall DISA strategy and evaluate soundness of technical approach.
• Conduct technical reconnaissance to identify and recommend innovative engineering technique, technology and products that may be of use to DISA.
• Represent DISA at senior level technical exchanges, conference, panels, etc.
• Advice the director and vice director on all aspect off technology relevant to DISA effort.

CHIEF SECURITY OFFICER

• Ensuring the confidentiality  of sensitive information processed by, stored in, and moved through information systems and application belonging to the enterprises. Example of sensitive information processed by enterprise include personally identifiable information and other privacy ACT protected records, per-release economic statistic, information provided by companies and individuals under the assumption of confidentiality, and pre-award contract financial information.
• Ensuring the integrity of enterprise information such that decisions and actions taken based upon the data processed by, stored in, and moved through enterprise information system can be made with the assurance that the information has not been manipulated, the information is not subject to repudiation, the source of the changes to information can be determined as best as possible.
• Ensuring the availability of enterprise information system and applications during routine operations and in crisis situation to support the enterprise mission.
• Responsibility for ensuring and developing strategy and IT safeguards again attacks from hackers and viruses.
• CSO process detailed knowledge of networks and telecommunication because hackers and viruses usually find their way into IT system through networked computers.

CHIEF PRIVACY OFFICER

• Responsibility fr ensuring the ethical and legal use of information within an organization.
• CPO are the newest senior executive position in IT.
• Lawyer training enabling them to understand the often complex legal issue surrounding the use of information.

CHIEF KNOWLEDGE OFFICER

• Responsible for collecting, maintain and distributing the organization knowledge.
• CKO designs program and system that make it easy for people to use knowledge.
• Can contribute directly to the organization button line by reducing the learning curve for new employees or employees roles.

Chapter 4 
                                      Measuring the success of strategic initiatives
                  The interrelationship of efficiency and effectiveness It metrics





THE INTERRELATIONSHIPS OF EFFICIENCY AND EFFECTIVENESS IT METRICS

Efficiency IT metrics focus on technology and include :

- Throughput    - amount of information that can travel through a system at any point in time.
- Speed            - amount of time to perform a transaction.
- Availability   - number of hours a system is available.
- Accuracy      - extent to which a system generates correct results.
- Web traffic   - includes number of page views, number of unique visitors, and time spent on a Web
                          page.
- Response time - time to respond to user interactions.

Effectiveness IT metrics focus on an organization's goals, strategies, and objectives and includes :
 
- Usability - the ease with which people perform transactions and or find information.
- Customer satisfaction - such as the percentage of existing customers retained.
- Conversion rates - number of customers an organization " touches " for the first time and convinces
                                to purchase products or services.
- Financial - such as return on investment, cost benefit analysis, etc.

The security is an issue for any organization offering products or serives over the internet.
It is inefficient for an organization to implement Internet security, since it slows down processing time. However, to be effective it must implement internet security.
          - secure internet connections must offer encryption and Secure Sockets Layers ( SSL denoted by the lock symbol in the lower right corner of a browser ).

Customer metrics - assess the management of customer relationships by the organization and include : - Market share
               - Customer acquisition
               - Customer profitability

SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT ( SCM )

CHAPTER 3

4 basic components of supply chain management

Production

Production is a key element of supply chain management. This element focuses on what products the market is demanding and what products customers want. In the element of production, many aspects are considered. A company first decides what products to make. The company then determines how many to make and what aspects of production will be outsourced.

1. Supply and Inventory

   • The second key element of supply chain management is supply. This element focuses on the abilities and capacities of the company's plant operations. The company determines how much is economically and efficiently feasible to produce. This is where the company begins looking into outsourcing. Many companies outsource a portion of the production needs to other companies. This occurs when it is determined that this is the most feasible option. Within this element, companies also begin finding suppliers to provide raw materials for production. In choosing a supplier, many attributes are compared including the cost of the goods and the quality.

   Location and Transportation

   • Location and transportation are elements of supply chain management that work together. An organization determines the best locations to produce the desired goods. The company focuses on the best methods for producing, stocking and distributing the goods produced. This decision is based on the available resources and current customers. If a huge customer is located near one of the company's plants, the company may choose to manufacture the goods that company purchases, at the plant located nearby. Other factors included in this decision are the location of suppliers. Within this element, companies decide what methods of transportation are most suitable for delivering goods. Some options include using air transport, sea or rail. The company tries to choose the method that would provide the smoothest distribution of goods as possible.

   Information

   • The final element of supply chain management is information and how it is used. Companies utilizing supply chain management must implement methods of recording and passing information that are effective and accurate. This includes using computerized software and linking all computer systems together.
     
                   Four components of supply chain management
     
     

     
     
     Supply chain strategy  

     
     
     

     Company must know what customer needs and find a way to achieve needs (satisfy customers)

     
     

     
     Supply chain partner

     
     

     Example : company partner > supply :develop , identify partnership 

     
     

     
     Supply chain operation

     
     

     Determine when to buy the customer goods from supplier

     
     

     When we want to buy things ( customer)

     
     

     Supply chain logistics 

     
     

     Involve delivery , transportation

     
     

     
     

     

     
     

CHAPTER 2 CASE : SAY " CHARGE IT " WITH YOUR CELL PHONE.

Questions : jeng jeng jenggggg!!!

1. Do you view this technology as a potential threat to traditional telephone companies? If so, what counterstrategies could traditional telephone companies adopt to prepare for this technology ?

2. Using Porter's Five Forces describe the barriers to entry for this new technology ?

3. Which of Porter's three generic strategic is the technology following ?

4. Describe the value chain of the business of using cell phones as a payment method.

5. What types of regulatory issues might occur due to this type of technology ?

YEaah that's my Answer :)

1 :)

It is a potential threat to the company because this new technology can make the existence company loss their customer. So, the existence company have to use differentiation strategy to adapt to this new changes that happen in the world today. By doing that,company create competitive advantages by differentiate their cell phone on 1 or more important features to the customer. These specials features also may give them price advantages and stimulate demand.

2 :)

Barriers to entry is the threat of substitute products or services. Customer might think that these new modern telephone company may have more expertise in this new technology. So, easily they can change to new cell phone, and the old fashion technology can loss customer.

3 :)

The Three Generics Strategies in the new technology is Differentiation. This strategies may allow the company to put a higher price because of the special features they have in their products. Based on this case, as the traditional company already have name, so, they just need to step up their game by putting this new technologies into their new coming product.

 4 :)

For example, a girl buy a new bag from TOMMY HILFIGER using direct debit transaction. So, the bank will directly deduct the money from our account and pay Tommy Hilfiger that  certain amount of money. The bank may charges a few ringgit for the service provided to the customer. from that, they can gain some profit through online payment. Once Tommy Hilfiger get the money, they will deliver the products to the customer.

 5 :)

Fraud can happen from internet payment is fraud by the customer and by the company itself. customer may use others account to do payment or use different identity. So, if no payment is made, the company can't trace them. 

terima kasih ^______^ 

MICHAEL PORTER'S FIVE FORCES MODEL

is the useful tool to aid organization in challenging decision whether to join a new industry or industry segment.

tadaaa !!!!

BUYER POWER

• high - when buyer have many choices of whom to buy.
• low - when their choices are few.
• it to reduce buyer power and create competitive advantage.
• best practices of IT based on loyalty program in travel industry example reward.

the competitive environment 

bargaining power of customers

• customer can grow large and powerful.
• many choices of whom to buy from
• low when come to limited items
• example: tesco card

SUPPLIER POWER

• high - when buyer have a few choices
• low - when their choices are many.
• example : b2b marketplace 

THREAT OF SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS & SERVICES

The existence of products outside of the realm of the common product boundaries increases the propensity of customers to switch to alternatives. Note that this should not be confused with competitors' similar products but entirely different ones instead. Contohnya la kan, tap water might be considered a substitute for Coke, whereas Pepsi is a competitor's similar product. Increased marketing for drinking tap water might "shrink the pie" for both Coke and Pepsi, whereas increased Pepsi advertising would likely "grow the pie" (increase consumption of all soft drinks), albeit while giving Pepsi a larger slice at Coke's expense.

ting ting ting!!!

• Buyer propensity to substitute

• Relative price performance of substitute

• Buyer switching costs

• Perceived level of product differentiation

• Number of substitute products available in the market

• Ease of substitution. Information-based products are more prone to substitution, as online product can easily replace material product.

• Substandard product

• Quality depreciation

TREAT OF A NEW ENTRANTS

Profitable markets that yield high returns will attract new firms. This results in many new entrants, which eventually will decrease profitability for all firms in the industry. Unless the entry of new firms can be blocked by incumbents, the abnormal profit rate will tend towards zero (perfect competition).

• The existence of barriers to entry (patent) The most attractive segment is one in which entry barriers are high and exit barriers are low. Few new firms can enter and non-performing firms can exit easily.
• Economies of product differences
• Switching costs 
• Capital requirements
• Access to distribution
• customer loyalty to established brands
• Absolute cost
• Industry profitability; the more profitable the industry the more attractive it will be to new competitors.

RIVALRY AMONG EXISTENCE COMPETITORS

For most industries, the intensity of competitive rivalry is the major determinant of the competitiveness of the industry.

• Sustainable competitive advantages through innovation
• Competition between online and offline companies
• Level of advertising expense
• Powerful competitive strategies
• Flexibility through customization, volume and variety

arigato kozaimas !