Accounting Data in Productivity Measurement and Strategic Decision-Making

Table of content: Page number Executive Summary—————————————————- 2 Introduction —————————————————– 3 What is Cost Accounting? ——————————————- 5 Importance of data collection —————————————- 6 Accounting data for productivity measurement —————– 7 Accounting data for decision making ——————————- 9 Identifying profitable segment’s using accounting————— 11 Managerial Accounting changes———â⠂¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 13 Conclusion —————————————————————- 14 Reference —————————————————————- 15 Executive summary:The report titled ‘Accounting Data in Productivity Measurement and Strategic Decision-Making’ provides an analysis and evaluation of how accounting data is used by companies to promote their profitability and to improve their productivity. Most of the data and information has been collected from online journals. The journals collected were written by renowned professors and researchers from established universities. The journals dealt with not only the importance of data collection for promoting profitable segmen ts but also on the recent change in accounting practices around the world with primary focus on developing countries.Results of the report suggest that data mining is an essential activity for firms who are committed to advance their productivity. The findings also suggest that such information allows for firms to obey their budgets. The report finds that more and more firms have recognized the importance of data collection for their organization and are finding new ways to promote efficient accounting practices. The report also investigates certain limitations of the journals used. The journals are often much generalized rather than using information about a certain organization.Moreover the data provided in the journals ranges over long periods of time through many different firms in many nations. Thus the findings may not be applicable for all firms. Introduction What is managerial accounting? Managerial accounting  is concerned with the provisions and use of  accounting info rmation to managers within organizations, to provide them with the basis to make informed business decisions that will allow them to be better equipped in their management and control functions. In contrast to  financial accountancy  information, management accounting information is: * primarily forward-looking, instead of historical model based with a degree of abstraction to support decision making generically, instead of case based * designed and intended for use by managers within the organization, instead of being intended for use by shareholders, creditors, and public regulators * usually confidential and used by management, instead of publicly reported * Computed by reference to the needs of managers, often using  management information systems, instead of by reference to general financial accounting standards.According to the  Institute of Management Accountants  (IMA)-Management accounting is a profession that involves partnering in management decision making, dev ising planning and performance management systems, and providing expertise in financial reporting and control to assist management in the formulation and implementation of an organization's strategy.Managerial accounting as practice extends to the following three areas: * Strategic management—advancing the role of the management accountant as a strategic partner in the organization. * Performance management—developing the practice of business decision-making and managing the performance of the organization. * Risk management—contributing to frameworks and practices for identifying, measuring, managing and reporting risks to the achievement of the objectives of the organization.The Institute of Certified Managerial Accountants (ICMA), states  Ã¢â‚¬Å"A managerial accountant applies his or her professional knowledge and skill in the preparation and presentation of financial and other decision oriented information in such a way as to assist management in the formu lation of policies and in the planning and control of the operation of the undertaking†. Managerial accountants therefore are seen as the value-creators amongst the accountants.They are much more interested in forward looking and taking decisions that will affect the future of the organization, than in the historical recording and compliance aspects of the profession. Managerial accounting knowledge and experience can therefore be obtained from varied fields and functions within an organization, such as information management, treasury, efficiency auditing, marketing, valuation, pricing, logistics, etc. (Managerial Accounting,2011, para:1-2) Importance of Managerial accounting for firms in generalManagerial accountants record financial information for their companies that is used by the organization’s management team to aid in the decision-making process. Managerial accountants develop budgets, perform asset and cost management, and create important reports used by the management team. Managers depend greatly on the information provided by managerial accountants to develop effective business strategies. Small business owners make most of the decisions within their company.The information presented by managerial accountants affects the owner’s ability to make sound business decisions. The two primary functions of managerial accounting in a firm are planning and controlling. Both of these help managers accomplish decision making. Managerial accountants have a dual reporting relationship. As a strategic partner and provider of decision based financial and operational information, managerial accountants are responsible for managing the business team and at the same time having to report relationships and responsibilities to the corporation's finance organization.The activities managerial accountants provide inclusive of forecasting and planning, performing variance analysis, reviewing and monitoring costs inherent in the business are ones that have dual accountability to both finance and the business team. Examples of tasks where accountability may be more meaningful to the business management team vs. the corporate finance department are the development of new product costing,  operations research, business driver metrics, sales management score carding, and client profitability analysis.Conversely, the preparation of certain financial reports, reconciliations of the financial data to source systems, risk and regulatory reporting will be more useful to the corporate finance team as they are charged with aggregating certain financial information from all segments of the corporation. In corporations that derive much of their profits from the information economy, such as banks, publishing houses, telecommunications companies and defense contractors, IT costs are a significant source of uncontrollable spending, which in size is often the greatest corporate cost after total compensation costs and property related costs.A fu nction of management accounting in such organizations is to work closely with the IT department to provide  IT cost transparency. Managerial accountants help drive the success of the business while strict financial accounting is more of a compliance and historical endeavor. The goal of managerial accounting in a firm is to provide information for internal decision making, primarily for planning and control purposes. The types of decisions made by managers rely substantially on accounting information.Because financial accounting information does not provide enough detail for internal decisions, it must be broken into more detail of the individual products or services provided by a company. Not only do managers need to know the cost of a product or service, they need the costs broken into smaller components so they are able to perform what-if analyses and forecasts for the future. Some types of decisions that managers often make include pricing products, dropping a product or produc t line, buying new equipment to replace old, evaluating the performance of managers or divisions of a company, or making rather than buying a part or product.What is Cost Accounting? Cost accounting  is a process of collecting, analyzing, summarizing and evaluating various alternative courses of action (Wikipedia, March 23, 2013, Revised Standard Version). It helps to find out the detailed information to the manager to control operation based on cost efficiency and capability. Managers made decisions for their own firm. So they need to manage the cost regarding productivity and strategic decision making. Cost accounting helps managers to control and manage resources.Strategic decisions based on cost reduction and rising costs are based on cost accounting. Basically the information is designed for managers as they take all the decisions for the organization. Important strategic decision making are made depending on the costs that the company can manage to pay for. Thus cost account ing is an important tool for the managers for productivity management and strategic decision making. Importance of data mining: Data mining is primarily used today by companies with a strong consumer focus.The application of data mining is ever-increasing in today’s business as in enables business to pull out hidden information from huge amount of data for better understanding of the consumers (Chopoorian et al. , 2001). The information is analyzed based on different perspective and summarize into useful data that can be used to increase revenue or cut costs. Although data mining is a relatively new term, but large companies are using it to find co-relation among huge amount of data in large database. The importance’s of data mining for modern business are given below: Data mining is used in restoration of hidden data which helps to extract the valuable information and construct practical analysis for decision making. * Data mining gives financial institutions informat ion about loan and credit reporting (â€Å"Zentut†, â€Å"n. d. †). * It also helps banks detect fraudulent credit card transactions to protect credit card’s owner (â€Å"Zentut†, â€Å"n. d. †). * It is being used ever more for understanding and forecasting consumer buying actions, buying tendency, customer profile and industry analysis (â€Å"Articlebase†, July 18, 2009). Data mining can be used as decision making tools in market research, industry research and competitor analysis which made it more beneficiary for the business industry. * It can manipulate large database swiftly and effectively accomplishes entire data analysis process. * Data mining helps government agency by excavating and scrutinizing records of financial transaction to build molds that can identify money laundering or criminal activities (â€Å"Wordpress†, December 5, 2006). * It can be used in every sector like science, business and others and it is cost effec tive.Limitation: Data mining has uncountable benefits and importance in today’s modern business but it has some limitations. Most of them are based on technological advancement, which is considered as the foremost advantage of data mining. Additional limitations are discussed below: * Security concern: One of the major limitations of data mining is the security issue. Most of the businesses accumulate their customers’ social security number, payroll etc. Hackers can easily go across their accounts and steal such sensitive data of the customers (â€Å"Zentut†, â€Å"n. . †). Thus customers do not feel safe to share information through data mining. To avoid the unwanted security concern, companies ought to take several crucial precautions so that the customers can trust them with no trouble. * Privacy concern: The misuse of internet has threatened the privacy concern among its users. People are afraid to share any of their personal information as it can be collected and used in unethical ways. Customers’ do not prefer to buy goods online in apprehension of getting any information revealed (â€Å"IT Law WIKI†, â€Å"n. . †). As business has to collect many of the information, they must take care about the privacy policy so that the information cannot easily disclose. * Inaccurate information: Unethical businesses or people might use information that is given in data mining for some other purposes or can inequity against some other people. Moreover the information or the assessment published in data mining is not absolutely accurate if the data has been entered wrong. Thus people cannot reliance completely on data mining. Possible benefits:Data mining is useful for modern business today as particular user will be looking for a pattern not for complete data in the database, it is better to read wanted data than unwanted data. There are some other benefits. They are: * Data mining technique is required pattern will be drawn from database with in short time * Data mining software is easy to use and does not require complicated statistical acquaintance and data preprocessing (Chen and Sakaguchi, 2000) * Data mining tools are programmed in such ways, it automatically present data analysis with visual charts and table to assist understandingImportance of Accounting Data in Productivity Measurement: According to Kaydos (1991), â€Å"Productivity and subsequently performance measurement has become more important and has been regarded as a prerequisite for continuous improvement† (as cited in Phusavat & Photaranon, 2006). Accounting data is important for measuring productivity to provide a systematic and comprehensive explanation of changes in profitability. Productivity measurement is one of the criterions for performance analysis of a firm.According to Sink (1985), â€Å"Productivity is simply the relationship between the outputs (goods and services) generated from a system and the inputs pro vided to create those outputs† (as cited in Phusavat & Photaranon, 2006). It is very important that accounting data collected should be correct and reliable otherwise productivity measurement would be inaccurate which will lead to incorrect forecast of cost and profitability data. Both technical and managerial aspects should be recognized in order to ensure successful and sustainable productivity measurement.For this purpose, strong database management is essential in order to ensure timely provision of accounting data for productivity measurement. It is essential to timely collect production-related data and report performance information by the database management to ensure better performance-analysis. According to Harper (1984), â€Å"It is vital for an organization to become continuously more productive in order to sustain its growth† (as cited in Phusavat & Photaranon, 2006). The productivity measurement based on accounting data divides production inputs into five categories such as capital, labour, energy, materials, and services.Productivity also includes unit cost, price, factor proportion, cost proportion, product mix, and input allocation (Phusavat & Photaranon, 2006). Accounting data consisting of integration between productivity, financial performance (i. e. profitability) at the operational level, and features such as opportunity gain/loss is used for productivity and performance measurement. Management report on opportunity gain/loss is useful for future monitoring and evaluation. Accounting data such as concepts of the opportunity gain/loss and the dynamic/static ratios in both single and partial formats are essential for performance measurement.Accounting information such as value-added labor productivity and ROA are also included in measurement technique. More comprehensive analysis of entity by measurements requires more accounting data to be aggregated (Phusavat & Photaranon, 2006). Importance of Accounting in Strategic Decision making: Accounting is essential in managing business performance and the accountants helps to improve decision making by offering strategic and practical advice, by managing risk, and by supporting key decisions at all stages of the decision making process for enhanced productivity and profitability measurements.An accountant can help significantly in the areas of budgeting, investigating, interpreting and communicating results for use by both internal and external decision makers. For example, at the problem recognition stage, they may be the first to detect an opportunity or approaching threat. At the ideas stage, they can help to provide creative solutions (â€Å"Improving strategic decision making†, n. d. ). Profitability is consequence of adopting a market orientation and plays important role in decision making (as cited in Inglis & Clift, 2008).Market orientations is composed of three behavioral components, such as customer orientation, competitor orientation and inter functional coordination, and two decision criteria, long-term focus and profitability (Narver and Slater, 1990). Customer orientation component of a market orientation and profitability acts as decision criterion (Inglis and Clift, 2008). There is an identified requirement for accounting information about the costs involved in providing a range of customer product-attributes which help businesses to choose most profitable market segment.According to Gray and Hooley (2002), within the market-orientation, customer value, customer product-attribute needs and accounting information are interrelated conceptually from a managerial and economic perspective (Gray and Hooley, 2002). McNaughton et al. (2002) stated that accounting function develops a sense of those attributes of greatest value to customers and in this way they may provide link between customers, value and profitability (as cited in Inglis and Clift, 2008). According to Inglis and Clift (2008), creating value for customer thr ough product attributes requires accounting information very much for decision making.Function cost analysis and interrelated techniques of value analysis are integral to target costing (TC) which seeks to reduce the life-cycle costs of products while ensuring all customer requirements are met (Shillito and De Marle, 1992; Kato, 1993). According to Inglis and Clift (2008), the accounting function may interact with customers in managing payment procedures and terms for a richer understanding of how to differentiate its business in the market place and assist in creating value for the customer (Inglis and Clift, 2008).Importance of using ABC Method to avoid the problems faced by firms providing financial services According to Hussain and Gunasekaran (2001), activity based costing (ABC) has become highly essential to overcome shortcomings faced by traditional accounting method, in terms of validity, accuracy, completeness, consistency, understanding and relevance. It helps management t o make internal decisions and formulate plans to provide new services, improve existing services and measure performances in order to achieve overall competitive strategies and advantages of organizations.The approach further provides a more factual basis for decisions by identifying truly profitable and truly unprofitable products, eliminating unnecessary costs, identifying and distinguishing between true value-add activities and non-value add activities, and pricing products so as to achieve acceptable margins. It is a powerful tool in achieving competitive advantages and in providing operational and discretionary project cost data (Hussain and Gunasekaran, 2001).Activity based costing in service costs in bank demonstrated by Hussain and Kock (1994) showed unit time is a more complex calculation involving work measurement processes (as cited in Hussain and Gunasekaran, 2001). Once information obtained the bank can calculate the profitability of various segments, retain highly prof itable segments and transform unprofitable segments into profitable ones through actions on pricing, product features, operating improvements and technology introduction (as cited in Hussain and Gunasekaran, 2001).West and West (1997) demonstrated the need of activity-based costing implementation in services . . . for financial survival without which managers cannot make effective decisions involving long-term captivated contract profitability (as cited in Hussain and Gunasekaran, 2001). Harr (1990) reports activity-based accounting approach for budgeting and financial performance reduces the costs without losing either the timeliness or the quality of its services.In spite of the advantages, however, ABC costing does not solve all the problems involved in decision making as management might overlook basic analysis needed for customer adaptation, flexibility and economies of scope (Hussain and Gunasekaran, 2001). It is important to constantly focus upon customers' total perceived se rvice quality and to maintain relationships to profitable customers. ABCM can then be accepted as a real tool for management to make strategic decision, formulate plan and operate control (Hussain and Gunasekaran, 2001)Using Target costing to identify profitable segments and maintaining productivity: In the journal ‘Target Costing’ (1995) the authors have stated that ‘product innovation is one of the keys to a company’s survival and competitiveness’ (p. 1). Thus Management accounting and cost accounting play an important role as they help in the creation of new products which attracts customers while maintaining low costs and ensuring profitability. As the effects of globalisation becomes more apparent companies are forced to reconsider their accounting practices, more specifically there management accounting practices.This is where target costing comes in. Target costing has been defined in the book Managerial Accounting (2012) ‘the process of determining the maximum allowable cost for a new product and then developing a prototype that can be profitably made for that maximum target cost figure’ (p. 763). In other words a desired profit margin is deducted from the selling price and a new target cost is determined for the new product. Implementing Target Costing: The different departments of the firm run a cost analysis to develop a target cost for the new product.If the manufacturing cost for the new product is equal or below the target cost then the product can be introduced in the market. Finally the target cost is deducted from the selling price. Thus target costing not only helps find a profitable segment in the market but also makes sure that product is being produce in its most productive capacity. The target profit process has been summarised in Figure 1 (see appendix). The journal further states that the companies that benefit the most from Target costing (p. 6) are: 1. Firms involved in assembly production style. 2.Firms involved in product diversification thus need target costing to determine a profitable market segment. 3. Firms whose product life cycle is relatively short (less than 3 years). 4. Firms wanting to reducing costs during the planning, design and development stages of a product’s life cycle. Managerial Accounting Changes: Research shows that Managerial Accounting has under gone changes in the last decade. According to the journal ‘Managerial Accounting Change in South Africa’ (Waweru, Jan 2004) this is especially true for developing nations. The case study considers four retail firms in South Africa.This helped them to find out the exact changes in Management Accounting Practices and the reasoning behind such changes. The journal reports that the main reason for such transformations can mainly be attributed to three main reasons. They are: 1. Increased Globalisation-This has made sure there is increased competition between the countries of the world . Thus necessitating for changes to take place in the managerial accounting world. 2. Huge variations in Information Technology-Technological advancements in the last decade has revolutionized the way world does business.The introduction of supercomputers has made sure that decision making process is faster and also made information more freely available. 3. Recent economic recession-The recession which has gripped the world since 2007 has made businesses reassess their managerial practices. Thus the journal has found that in order to deal with such challenges the businesses have evolved and so has their accounting practice. In developed nations more and more firms are now involved in Target Costing, Activity Based Costing (ABC), Product Life-cycle costing and finally Quality Costing.It should again be mentioned that these changes has only been noticed in developing nations and not so much in developed nations around the world. However the paper cautions regarding such changes by st ating that no one accounting system is universally appropriate for all firms. But rather that it varies from company to company. Thus the factors a firm should consider are (Waweru, 2004): 1. Size and type of the firm 2. Foreign competition 3. Economic restrictions 4. Technological advancements 5. Political and Social ConsiderationsHence we can conclude from this journal that Management practices evolves slowly in developing countries where it is greatly aided by government reforms/deregulations and globalisations and technological improvements. Conclusion: Thus we can say that accounting data has a strong effect on productivity and strategic decision making for firms. Since the data’s collected, both time series and cross sectional data, provides an insight into what has increased output for firms over the years and all the possible actions firms can make to engage in efficient production. Data’s are also used to make important decision.Time series accounting data giv es a good understanding of the profitable segments of the firms and the different sectors the firm can further expand into. Hence we can conclude by saying that accounting data are extremely vital for management accounting practices. Reference: 1. So,S and Smith,M. (2003). Managerial Auditing Journal. The impact of presentation format and individual differences on the communication of information for management decision making. 18 (1), p1-3. 2. Farag,M and Elias,R. (2012). Public Accounting Firms' mix of service revenue and average productivity. Evidence using revenue per person. 7 (8), p1-5. 3. Phusavat,K and Photaranon,W. (2006). Productivity/Performance measurement. Case application at the government pharmacuetical organisation. 106 (9), p1-16. 4. Waweru,N and Hoque,Z. (2004). Management Accounting Change in South Africa. Case studies from retail services. 17 (5), p1-30. 5. Inglis,R and Clift,R. (2008). Market Oriented accounting:information for product level decision. Market ori ented accounting. 23 (3), pg1-15. 6. Liu,s and Chen,J. (2009). Using data mining to segment healthcare markets from patients’ preference perspectives. Using data mining to segment markets. 22 (2), p1-18. . Hussain,M and Gunasekaran,A. (2001). Activity-based cost management in financial services industry. Managing service quality. 11 (3), p1-11. 8. Gagne,M and Discenza,R. (1995). Target Costing. JOURNAL OF BUSINESS & INDUSTRIAL MARKETING. 10 (1), p1-7. 9. None. (2012). Management Accounting. Available: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Management_accounting. Last accessed 12th April 2013. 10. None. (2009). Improving strategic decision making. Available: 10. http://businesscasestudies. co. uk/cima/improving-strategic-decision-making/introduction. html#axzz2QEPImiLQ . Last accessed 12th April 2013.

Life Insurance

.. TABLE OF CONTENTS STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN DEFINES SALES SUCCESS IN TWO LEADING LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY Target companies: AVIVA Life Insurance Pvt Ltd. 1] Executive summary: The research is to be conduct how each company has performed in sales and the improve effectiveness of selling process. Research objectives and aims are to compare the performance of the AVIVA and HDFCSLI. As this research studying based on the Indian market, the research is proceeding in Bangalore, which is one of the main city in India. Research mythology is proceeding under collecting data of the current status of the both company and from the people to know the brand awareness and the purchasing behaviour when buying life insurance policies. THE BACKGROUND OF THE INDUSTRY Companies rating can be identified as follows:- A++,A+ are superior companies. A or A- good companies B. is growing company C- means position is not good. D is below the standard (minimum). E rate is company is taking the help from the state to run the business. LITERATURE VIEW Sales management and customer satisfaction: Influence of Advertising on Sales: This is a very important fact in life insurance industry as, their most of sales advertising by the salespersons. Draw back of a company can be happen due to the lack of communication and the problems in communicating with the consumers. Influence of Sales promotions on sales Sales promotions has taken an increasing share of the marketing budget, at the expense of advertising,because promotion can achieve a measurable increase in short term sales , which advertising cannot. There is a tension between the short term effects of promotion and the long term effects of advertising. This results in confusion in marketing community. How ever, there is a desirable effect on sales market from promotions. The main intention to promote sales is to attract the customers attention. Doing promotions in life insurance industry is can be following To extend the user base To reward and retaining existing customers To introduce trail of new product and by cashing and on the establish brand To counter competitor’s offer To clear inventory To enhance brand value To survive under the high pressure of competition, companies tend to do more and more creativity on their sales promotions by adding promotion tools. Promotions tools which can be use in life insurance industry are, Games and contests Lucky draw Gifts Attractive offers for the policies RESEACH PROBLEM: *STUDY AIMS AND OBJECTIVES*: To analyze the potential of Life Insurance in Investment Industry. To get the better understanding of various Life Insurance Product. To compare the performance of the AVIVA and HDFC To evaluate various need of customers for Life Insurance and their To study the brand awareness of the AVIVA and HDFCSLI The levels of trade support achieved, such as point of sales display. IMPORTANTS OF THE STUDIES RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY Research Design: Research Design that is followed in this report is sampling which is the most appropriate technique because Bangalore is a big city. The sample numbers were not overlapping in areas & then these selected with ultimate sample consisting of all units whole Bangalore 10 potential areas ere selected and are picked randomly from these area. Thus the total sample of 300 was taken and analyzed. Research Methodology: Research methodology is mainly concentrating following questions. Evaluating the sales and marketing methods, personnel sellings , telephone selling ,postal orders, etc , that each of the retailer’s used , as well as determining the effectiveness of these sales methods. Determining how effective these methods w ere in supporting and communicating each company’s product and company image Determining who are the customer and potential customers in each company. This is to establish their perception of the company , as well as their attitudes to its image in comparison to those of its competitors. Determining the intermediaries in the market place This is to establish why these intermediaries selected the company and its services, rather than the services of its competitors. In addition, the research evaluated how the company image enhanced the over all sales processes , through all the company communications. Contact with head office, agents and inspectors , promotional material sent to intermediaries , and information on new products , proposal forms , company information, etc Determining the insurer’s own agents and sales force This was to determine whether those members of the sales team were communicating the right image and sales message effectively. In addition, this research is designed to determine whether their sales techniques and methods were ‘synergistic’ with other aspects of the marketing mix, such as advertising and promotions All the findings are based on the survey research method. Data Collection Methods: 1. Primary Data: Questionnaire Detail analysis of data collected through questionnaire: To evaluate various need of customers for Life Insurance and their Purchase behaviour. To know the level of brand awareness of the company among the Consumers. Limitations of the study As this research is focussed on limited group and a limited area space it is not enough to study the production success of the world wide company. Sales rofit can be different according to the area , culture and people. As it is not possible to cover the whole india and also whole Bangalore, results could be limited. Richard M SwILSON , Colin Gilligan with David pearson (1992) David jobber, Geoff Lancaster – 7thedition ‘’ selling &sales management’’ Carl McDaniel , Roger Gates (1999) ‘’ marketing research’’ Robin Birn (1992) ‘’The effective use of marketing research (1992) David jobber ‘’ selling & sales s trategy ‘’ Gorden wills (1974) ‘’ strategic issues in marketing ‘’ Colin Mclver (1984) ‘’case study in marketing’’ Journal of marketing (2009) volume 25 Cunliff bolling (1969) ‘’sales management’’ Giep Franzen (1999) ‘’Brand & Advertising’’ William G. Zikmund (2003) ‘’ Exploring marketing research Bill Donaldson (1998) ‘’ sales management’’ Martin lindstrom (2005) ‘’ Brand sense’’ Bill Donaldson (1988) ‘’ sales management’’ Terence A. Shimp ‘’ Advertising and promotion’’ www. AVIVA. co. in www. hdfcsli. co. in Google search

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Relationship Marketing and Customer Service - Article Example Repeat orders will go to those sellers who have done the best job or nurturing these relationships." The changes in the global business environment necessitates relationship marketing in order for business organizations to compete more efficiently, attract potential, and retain current customers. According to the words of the marketing guru Philip Kotler (2005), the current business arena is turning "hypercompetitive" characterised by the presence of more intense competition among industry rivals and more bargaining power from customers. Thus, in order to survive and succeed in their markets, companies are required to rethink and revamp their current strategies and put their customers into center (Kotler 2005). These trends and developments in the market put strong pressure on companies and put into spotlight relationship marketing. Relationship marketing is an idea which dates back as far as 1960s evolving from direct response marketing during the period. Its reemergence in the 1980s is prompted by the initial research done by Leonard Berry and Jag Sheth at Emory which states that, "What is surprising is that researchers and businessmen have concentrated far more on how to attract customers to products and services than to retain them" (Pressey and Matthews 2000, pg. 272) Relationship marketing has been elaborated and broadened by the marketing theorists Theodeore Levitt in 1983. Relationship marketing is defined as "a philos... Relationship marketing thereby marks a transition from the traditional marketing approach of finding more customers for a product. In essence, relationship marketing is in recognition that a customer contributes to an organization his lifetime purchases of the company's product if it is able to design marketing strategies which can cultivate loyalty and develop good relationships (Kotler 2005). From its origin, relationship marketing has introduced a radical change on how business organizations think and conduct their operations. Traditionally companies have focused on attracting customers thereby facilitating only one-time transactions. However, the loyalty of a customer for a product and brand will facilitate repeat sales transactions thereby enhancing the firm's total profit and revenue. Thus, it becomes imperative for companies to long-term relationship with customers rather than on individual transactions by understanding the needs of the current customer as they go through their life cycles (Relationship Marketing 2007). Developing strong relationship with customer is strongly dependent on ensuring the delivery of satisfaction and delight. Levitt likens company's relationship with its customers into marriage: "The sale, then, merely consummates the courtship at which point the marriages begins The quality of marriage determines whether there will be continued or expan ded business, or trouble, or divorce" (Berger 2006). The expansion and facilitation of this new strategic approach to marketing can be directly credited to the advancement in technology specifically the establishment of customer relationship

Article review and summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Article review and summary - Essay Example Conceptual model have been proposed to evaluate the performance of the CFO for making compensation decisions. Earlier it considers the quantitative financial performance measures and the managerial duties of the CFO but now it also considers fiduciary duties of the CFO in the post Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) era towards the judgment of CFOs compensation. Conceptual model also takes into account two interactive factors and that are governance oversight and costs of firm of financial statement misreporting. Hypothesis tests, control variables, correlation matrix, robustness test and a look back analysis have been conducted to show the relationship between ICMW and the CFO compensation. Thus this paper focuses on the various threads of literature in judging the CFO compensation. Summary of Article Under the SOX Act of 2002, the CFOs and the CEOs i.e. the chief executive officer are required to maintain, establish and assess the effectiveness of internal control and also required to report o this assessment in both annual and quarterly financial statements. In the post SOX period CFOs have been more responsible for their actions as they play primary role in the oversight of internal control fulfillment. ... to reward attainment of firm annual objectives and long term mechanisms are designed to encourage sustainable growth of the firm and to align the management interest with those of shareholders. Different proxy statements state that along with the compensation committees, CEOs also plays an important role in deciding the CFO compensation. The discussion suggests that in the current year i.e. year t, with the disclosure of ICMW, CFO compensation has resulted a decline in comparison to previous year. Managerial duties of CFO involve adding towards operational decisions which influences the financial performance and fiduciary duties include maintaining top quality internal controls. Prior research has not observed the association between internal quality control and the CFO compensation because compensation of executives was earlier based on financial performance measures only but now it depends on nonfinancial performance measures also. It is expected that ICMW disclosure has resulted a decrease in CFO compensation. The conceptual model expresses two factors that influence the relationship between the CFO compensation and the ICMW disclosures. First is governance oversight and the second factor is costs of firm of financial statement misreporting. Agency theory stresses on the disagreement between shareholders and managers. The conflict is that though the shareholders employs the managers to take actions on their behalf but sometimes the manager’s interest are not aligned with those of the shareholders. There are certain difficulties associated with financial performance measures so, nonfinancial measures are considered more important in evaluating agent’s performance and also regarded as the key drivers of the firm value according to the prior research. Internal

Light Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Light - Lab Report Example I used five different colors in the experiment. According to Timmermans, (2010) different colors of light have a significant effect on growth of plants, where the amount of energy obtained is different. However, it depends on other conditions, such as temperature, light intensity among others. In this experiment, the researcher has four variables in place. They include independent variables (photosynthesis rate), dependent (effect of wavelength) and factors that are in control and those that were not in control. Control favors included number of leaflets, volume of NaHCO3, concentration of NaHCO3, size of disc used and power of the light that was used. On the other hand, uncontrolled factors were the room temperature that the experiment was carried in. The Hedera Helix discs (leaflets) in our experiment responded differently to different colors of light. The hypothesis of the study is that the rate of photosynthesis varies in different colors of light. The blue color was expected to show the highest rate and yellow color the least effect to the rate of photosynthesis. The requirements for carrying out this experiment successfully include a syringe and beaker/containers. Others incldued leaves (the Hedera Helix discs (leaflets)), holes cutter, NaHCO3 and source of light (colored light bulb). I set up the five sources of colored light in an enclosed system and allowed it to warm up so as to attain equilibrium. I left the Hedera Helix Plant exposed to different light colors for 1.5 hours (90 minutes) using an analog-digital clocks to record the time elapses. This ensured that all the leaves were exposed to light equally. Using the prepared leaves, I prepared the NaHCO3 solution from 0.60g of sodium bicarbonate by diluting it with 300ml of distilled water in a 500ml beaker and added I added one drop of soap. I stirred the mixture gently ensuring that it does not form froth. First I cut small holes into the leaves to obtain numerous

Job application summary of qualifications (Personal statement) Personal Statement

Job application summary of qualifications ( ) - Personal Statement Example I believe that with my skills in requirement analysis, and extensive experience as a Sr. Business analyst, I will be able to perform this task to the optimum level. I have managed several projects in the past including the implementation of E-commerce for fund-raising, gathering and eliciting requirements, documentation of testing plans and have excellent written and oral communication experience with tasks such as participating and communicating with stakeholders and different departments within an organization. Since I have worked in a variety of scenarios in the past from web development to electronic payment systems as well as several business management tasks, I have an integrated familiarized approach to all these fields and can function well in a variety of working situations. With my extensive knowledge of database management systems, query languages, web development tools and electronic systems, I can function well and understand the issues that are faced by extreme ends of the software development team to the middle/senior management.

System Analysis Design Essay Example for Free

System Analysis Design Essay This chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, the objectives of the study with its two type’s general and specific objectives, hypothesis of the study, scope and delimitation of the study, the significance of the study and the definition of terms. INTRODUCTION In part of human life, there are occasions that are traditionally being celebrated by people. Occasion’s that serves already part of them like for example birthdays, debut, weddings, reunion, conference and many more. This occasion’s or celebrations represents important for once life but it would be look more astonishing if this bunch of event were be held simple but with glamour and elegance as how the celebrant or the event wanted to see or look forward to by the people who are involve with it. That’s why there are these Organizing Companies who are out in the Market to serve people to make those events look more even better and possible. World are now getting technologically progressing and there are this Internet’s and gadget’s nor devices make people work easy and faster. This very much useful and helpful for the Companies to advertize their business throughout Internet and serve as advantage for those who are in online businesses especially for those Event’s and Organizing Companies to publish such very accommodating, friendly and unique website for the company but most importantly is how this website work in for your business if how this can serve people to satisfy not just for your business but as well to the costumer who are inquiring to you. Handling such particular event and organize it is not an easy work it took a lot of effort, time but most importantly the preparation. And well, it will cost you fair enough. Booking are very particular to us, it is also look like a reservation if the customer is willingly wanted to hire you’re company to serve them. But what can make it better if you can do it booking systematically and technologically oriented? Well, there are big differences between manual and systematic approach especially the part of how it works.  And that this study serves to look out what can this do to make your Event and Organizing Company productive, demanding and knowingly unique, accommodating but also industrious. And through that we would like to introduce to you the Online Booking System with it’s freely way. Online Booking System can help to keep transactional record of the client orderly and safe, manage it wittily by the person who has the direct access with the system. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Originated on year 2010, Event Avenue is an event organizing company that caters multiple events in any type of, it would be for corporate, debut, wedding and etc. their office located right at Pioneer, General Santos City beside near Rosver. Event Avenue has this virtue â€Å"we can work within your budget† will it very true by just your budget it come out to like elegant. By the way, it has three (3) staff working on field and one (1) left in the office. However, they are small in numbers of employee but the company was very rich having the complete equipment for any events that they venture. Event Avenue was founder by two (2) siblings Jhoanna Jane and Nerisa S. Javier. The sisters live somewhere in Lagao, Generaal Santos City. The sisters were raise by a Christian Family. The Business could be affected having a Christian owner to establish a very trustworthy company to dwell by the customer. One thing one the Event Avenue they not very particular of the profit they could gain in the business. They believe honest and trustworthy could lead them more into success for just being appreciated by their customer through their hard work. This would be make a difference having a great virtue in them believing things you do right can make an output of righteous also. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The study will be directed towards the end of the result which solves the following problems, impediments and difficulties encountered with the manual approach: Can the proposed system manage the record of the clients? Will the proposed system able to secure and keep the records of client transactions? How reliable and accurate was the proposed system compared to manual service of booking? Will the proposed system able to generate hard copy reports? OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The main point of study is to create a system which can give specific recommendations of the clients and also to have manageable and organized systematic reference of transactions table. This will enumerate in the following general and specific objectives. GENERAL OBJECTIVE To develop an online systematical system that can organized booking with ease which prove the beneficial in safekeeping of customer records and suits the need of the users. SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES The study’s main point is the following: To create a unique commercialized system that let the employees manages and organized the transactions event and put into timetable. To create instant retrieving of transaction regarding through the registered client. To create online booking system that market the products show off the menu packages online with possible descriptions. HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY These are the following Alternative and Null Hypothesis of the proposed system which intended to be made. Alternative Hypotheses In conducting the study, the proponents would like to show how the system works and resulted to: That the system can be good at accommodation and easy to manage and very productive for the company. That the system brings organize output transaction and keeps records orderly. That the system contributes descriptions of specified want/need of the client. Null Hypotheses The proponents differentiate and find evidence to the result of the system consistency to the following: The system can be inoperative if the internet connection is slow and the same with computer used if it’s lagging; it may unsatisfied the client. The specification of output data is just based on what given information but this will be conflicted whether the client backing on the terms or give incorrect information. The system will gone out productive, particular if the client is minimal. SCOPE AND DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY The following below are the scope and delimitation regarding the proposed system, if how does will work regardless any limitations. SCOPE The following are scopes of the study: It focuses on the online booking of the customer. It covers the manageable timetable and presents the transaction at once. It only focuses to managing and saving transaction of registered client. DELIMITATION These are the following delimitations of the study: Only the administrator or else the person in-charge could see the transactions, can manipulate the any transaction regarding the registered client. The study does not cover the other department such as stock inventory or the user payroll system. Outside from the procedure propose the system cannot operate the other needs of the user. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY The study goal is to have a manageable and organize transaction regarding by the event that the company will catered. This is to build a wise and strategic marketing plan to attract customer, quite easily to interact with the client and produce upgradable system as the benefit of the company. To give a categorize transaction of record for company which be materialize by them, helping to contain transaction without difficulty and can easily to determine the ways and need depends the ways the client demands. This is for  the innovation of the company processing on the events giving them system to be use and the same time knowledgeable impartation of others gaining the idea and skills to use with. DEFINITION OF TERMS The following terms below help you to understand more regarding the study. 1. Online Booking System It is a web base system which helps to store data given by the client. 2. Administrator Refer as â€Å"watchman† of the system whom have the full access of the system, person that can only can see and manipulate the transact data of the system. 3. Client Also called as the secondary user, the person who give the data regarding the services given or offered and whom the system is mainly expected to use system. 4. Wamp Software application serve as our database server that loads the entire client transact data. 5. Hosting It is a web internet application helps us to publish the system to the web. 6. Php It is a web language helps us to develop the structure and the design of the system. 7. Dreamweaver It is a web developer application where we used to edit the whole design and form of the system. CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE This chapter presents various articles, write-ups and other related case studies that will serve as guide to the proposed study which is Booking System for the Organize First; an Events and Organizing Company. These concerned about the indulging and forming of the proposed study. FOREIGN LITERATURE Building system needs paraphernalia’s to modulate and equip the system functions and to understand how it goes. That’s why we need references for any kind of research. However, there is system function in different industries. The following are foreign literature and this will help us to understand more often our study. Wherever, there are technological advances for individual who in the networking market industries are very much popular and beneficial as well very useful. CHECKFRONT INCORPORATED Check front Inc is an emerging global leader in e-business tools for schedule based businesses. They strive to build smart, intuitive and powerful cloud based tools that help organizations centralize their business, improve customer engagement, market and sell their services online. Operating in 22 countries, their customers cover a wide range of service based businesses with the majority in the tourism, hospitality, event and rental industries. Many of their customers have come to them to replace legacy technology, or when looking to scale an existing business. Since their earliest release, or customers have driven our development road map, and continue to shape the product today. In June 2010, after a very successful beta, we launched version 1.0 of their booking platform. Checkfront utilizes the best of cloud based technologies to offer a state of the art, powerful and flexible application. They has secure back-office management application allows you to manage your business anywhere, and our self-service booking system integrates seamlessly into any website. There are a favorite among development and design agencies due to their ease of integration, adaptable configurations and extendibility. (http://www.checkfront.com/) BOOKINGBUG CORP. The Team behind BookingBug are experienced developers and designers who want  to help businesses make the best use of the internet. BookingBug was founded by Glenn Shoosmith who is based in the UK and Gregory Bockenstette who is based in the US giving us a cross-atlantic founding team. They built BookingBug to help the hundreds of thousands of small service businesses who need to manage their time and to reach their customers more efficiently. By building BookingBug as an embeddable and affiliate driven system from the outset, theyve allowed many directory sites, social networks, portals and community sites to not only help service-orientated businesses, but to also helps themselves, creating content and potential revenue. They are always pleased when clients contact them to talk about their specific requirements. If BookingBug cannot already meet your needs, then they would be happy to discuss a customized solution to suit your business. They are always looking for new features that could benefit the widest range of customers. http://www.bookingbug.com/ Direct Commerce Technology Co., Ltd. (DCT), The owner and operator of Calypso System, has established itself as the Distribution Network of the Travel Industry. As the technology backbone for all travel related business, Calypso System connects travel operators to distribution partners, handling and processing the supply chain using e-commerce, including e-distribution, e-payment gateway, and online reporting system. The company started business on January 1st, 2000. Their management and their talented customer service team have vast knowledge in the hospitality travel industry. Their professional technical team has comprehensive experience in network computing, programming, the Internet and e-commerce industry. Their Mission: Bring the most benefits to the travel industry and the travelers. As a hub for travel products, Calypso System provides powerful interface, instant online reservation system, and international distribution channel.  Portal and travel websites earn benefits from our user-friendly instant online reservation system. Hotel and chain hotels can greatly leverage our sophisticated state-of-the-art technology designed for back office as well as for website visitors. Agents and tour operators benefit from being in e-marketplace where potential buyers have access to them in anywhere at any time. Calypso System is not a virtual provider. They have their own hardware, software, and networks and the manpower to support the entire system on a global basis. Their professional Technical Support team will ensure that your operation is constantly performing at its best. Their dedicated Customer Service team will cater to your need and provide you with detailed information on all aspect of their system. (http://www.calypsosystem.com/) LOCAL LITERATURE The following are other set of various local literatures. Likewise, to the foreign literature this also serves as reference to determine and scrutinize the ideas between different parties of dignified literature an industry. TNT EXPRESS PHILIPPINE In the Philippines, TNT Express Worldwide remains the only undisputed business-to-business express service provider. The company began its seminal operations in 1982 with a small office situated in the country’s financial district of Makati. In 1997, the company moved to a 4,300 square meter prime cargo centre adjacent to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The current office has an available warehouse of 1,200 square meters, more than 300 employees, 83 vehicles and at least 115 flights per week. TNT Express Philippines has 2 satellite offices in Makati and Shaw. MANILA, Philippines — TNT Express Philippines’ innovative online import booking system has expanded its worldwide coverage and now allows regular importers to conveniently and quickly arrange the collection of a document, parcel or pallet from over 170 countries in the TNT network. Previously, the online service that enables importers to directly control how  their shipment is collected, delivered and billed covers 168 countries. The expanded Express Import service, which also allows importers to choose the exact hour or day of delivery based on his budget to control shipping cost, now covers 99 percent of the global economy. Importers can use the market-leading tool just by enrolling in the service at TNT’s website (www.tnt.com) for free. Express Import is live for receivers in 57 countries and is available in 55 languages. The delivery can also be tracked online – and in real-time. Complementing the online import booking service is TNT Express Philippines’ flexible billing scheme. The importer does not need to send money directly to the supplier abroad to pay for the pickup. Instead, TNT bills the importer in the Philippines in local currency. Aside from billing in the importer’s own currency, communication in the customer’s preferred language and visibility of cost up-front, the Express Import system provides users only one account number for import and export. The exclusive account is accessible only to importers ensuring confidentiality of import details. Furthermore, Express Import users do not need to deal with different time zones, unlike in the traditional cross border booking or over-the-phone booking. All messages are relayed directly to the sender and receiver via e-mail and not dependent on TNT acting as a third party. The introduction of the new service shows TNT’s commitment to the Philippines’ export-import foreign trade. (http://www.tnt.com/express/tl_ph/site/home.html) (http://www.mb.com.ph/node/316173/tnt-online-booking-) PROVAB TECHNOSOFT COMPANY PROVAB, an organization providing value to business, realizes the importance of customization of web services with respect to the client’s requirement. By providing best in class web services in the area of website design development, web application development, ecommerce solutions, portal development and search engine optimization, PROVAB also strives to improve  the client’s capability, thereby helping them achieve their objectives. Being a leading travel technology company, we provide innovative solutions like online booking system and travel booking system to customers across the globe. By providing best in class web development services seo services, we also strive to improve the clients capability, thereby helping them achieve their objectives. Global Distribution System, as GDS is called, connects millions of providers to provide a common platform for bookings (flight, hotel, packages and cars) to users across the globe. As a leading Sabre GDS integration company, we work on GDS systems and low cost air carriers to provide our clients the comprehensive flight booking system. Whether you have signed for with Sabre, Amadeus, Galileo, Travelport or you don’t have IATA agency and want to work with GSA’s or published fares, we offer the best of the solutions to our clients. After GDS integration with B2B, B2C and Admin modules in place, client would have a robust online travel booking system and would be able to do live bookings of flights, hotels, holiday packages, cars and would also be create agents as well. IAWEB INTERNATIONAL PHILIPPINES IT and Hospitality professionals from 5 different countries founded IAWeb in 1997 to emphasize on the Internet solutions for the Asian Hospitality Travel Industry. The company now has grown to include offices in Hong Kong, the Philippines and China. This melting pot of experience, fresh ideas, unconventional approach to challenges, and an understanding of your hospitality business needs gives us the competing edge to assure your success with IAWeb International. This is frequently referred as Global Distribution System (GDS). Our service is an enterprise-wide central reservation system, which maintains a single  real time database environment, accessed through all Reservation Channels, may it be Travel Agent, Hotels website, Partner websites and other Online Distribution Channels. It is driven by the originating source within the Channel, and is easily managed by the hotel management via the Internet. GDS connectivity lists your hotel with the worlds travel agencies, online via the Internet or directly on the Travel Agent terminals. Customized listing on all 4 GDS (Galileo, Amadeus, Worldspan and Sabre) and as well on the Pegasus online data distribution. Your hotel will have the best booking potential. The fastest and most reliable CRS available rates and availability update in seconds. Our support team completes initial set up of your hotels GDS listing with industry approved descriptions and rate plans. We custom load your photos and ensure that your rate plans and room codes match the requirements of each GDS channel. Once live, your reservations staff can easily manage the database via the Internet with easy to use menus. Our support team is as well available to assist during business hours. The Global Distribution Systems (GDS) have long been the main tool for travel agents bookings in the world. Today these systems do much more than supply content rates and hotel inventory to thousands of On-line Travel websites (OTA). When you visit a Travel Agent you will see consultants working at their PCs finding and booking flights, hotels, resorts, car rental and much more. All from the one computer screen. Distribution systems (GDS) continue to be the backbone for travel agents, in-house corporate travel departments, and many of the Internet distribution systems like Travelocity. They deliver rates and availability information for travel covering air, hotel, car rentals and many other travel products. The information is delivered to the travel agent, so that it appears on their desktop computer using special software to search, display rates and book. (http://www.iaweb.net/) (http://www.iaweb.net/global-distribution-systems/central-reservation-system.html) CHAPTER III MATERIALS AND METHODS This chapter presents the explanation of the research method that are used; the research methods and instruments, the procedures of how it will conducted and gathering all information data needed in the case study, and the respondents of the study. This may also present the system Data Flow Diagram (DFD) and Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD). RESEARCH AND DESIGN The Research and Design is consists of information from the company we proposed in. As the completion of the study to apply in our proposed system we’ve interviewed the staff to get information using the methods given through surveys and interview. Prior to the development of the system, we conduct research through online, planning, brainstorming; sharing the ideas we have in mind to determine the best and effective idea to use for the development of the system. RESEARCH METHODS AND INSTRUMENTS The researcher used several of following methods and instruments in gathering the information data for the study: Brainstorming – the method that we use to gather the information and ideas from the other people who have knowledge and ideas regarding about our system. Choosing title, we bit confused of what title we should choose but prior to all prospected themes of systems we come up to choose car wash inventory and online booking. Yet we fall out in online booking system; the system approved by. Letter – for able to invite the prospected company to be the subject of the case study and able to have the approval of the prospected company, we use letter to make it formal and perfectly proper just to show respect but among other things is to be responded also by through letter. Interview – this way conducting interview to the prospected company for the sake of proposed system will be beneficial to the researcher to gain related informational data that can be used t o the proposed system. The researcher bought with him a pad which contained questions talking about the company’s history that will soon serve as bases in designing the study. Online Research – these serve as the main source of  gathering information data in constructing the making of the system because along the way of creating the system we need other references that will give bases and that are related in the study. Survey Questionnaire – it is a chain that full of questions used and given to several individuals who has direct connection to the company; this will help gather information data that will serve as guide to meet the satisfaction of the prospected company of the proposed system. Documentary Analysis – The proponent studied the transactional records of the company, the preceding records and the performances of the active employees. RESEARCH PROCEDURE The following are the step by step procedure in conducting our research: First, the researchers discussed by sharing their own ideas to make title proposals. Second, the researchers deliver it to the teacher and make him choose the made titles. Third, the selected title must have a prepared proposal letter and to be submitted to the companies related on the study and wait for their response that they are approving. Fourth, the researchers must prepared some guide questionnaires and survey questionnaires as a tool to gather initial data to a company that will approve the proposal. Fifth, the researchers must start doing the documents about the company that was approved with them. Sixth, the researcher must start designing the system forms and windows according to their objectives. Seventh, the researchers starts putting a codes to the design for it to function well and can store data that the hospital neede. Eighth, the researcher tests the proposed system if it runs well or has a pro blem. Ninth, if the system experiences an error the researchers must start debugging the program and start testing again until there were no more bugs in the system. RESPONDENTS OF THE STUDY On our study, they were four respondents that approved our study. First, the respondent whom is the person-in-charge in the operation of the company and so the person we’ve explained about the goal, objective and other concerns of the system studied, followed by the other three staff which are the people in-charge in the field operation like person in-charge in technical, production and designing which are the persons we asked through surveying  and interviewing them, introducing to them the proposed system. We start conducting our interviews and surveys the things about what are the things we need to do and the things which are they suggest to put on the system just to be effective. DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION This chapter talks about the design implementation of feasibility of the study, operational feasibility, technical feasibility, economic feasibility of the propose system. The benefit of this design implementation is to impart knowledge to all the users to aware the software and hardware capability implementations of the propose system. This system implementation could help the Events Avenue to have their transaction upgrade and manage orderly. FEASIBILITY STUDY The feasibility of the study is all about online booking process introducing it through the company Event Avenue bringing upgrade their transactional process manual into systematic approach to how it will do manages and organize their any transaction. OPERATIONAL FEASIBILITY The main objective of the study is to develop a system which can give a big benefit into the Events Avenue in terms of their services through making their transaction become systematic by keeping their data manage orderly and can be helpful to the clients and the same time to the employee of the company having a transaction online and keep the record safely without hassle to input it manually. TECHNICAL FEASIBILITY These are the factors that could affect and relates the performance of the system that must be considered. The hardware and software were the main consideration for the functionalities of the system to avoid such difficulties and malfunction of the system. The following technical requirements must be met in order for the effective work of the system and the error may be lessened: PROPOSE HARDWARE SPECIFICATION Recommended Requirements Processor Intel – Core 2 Duo – 3.0 GHz Hard Disk SATA 500GB RAM 2GB DDR3 Video Card Mobile Intel ® 4 Series Express Chipset Minimum Requirements Processor Intel – Core 2 Duo – 1.0 GHz Hard Disk SATA 250GB RAM 1GB DDR3 Video Card Ati radeon PROPOSE SOFTWARE SPECIFICATION Software Requirements Software Name Specification Operating System Windows 7 or any OS Front End Firefox or Google Chrone Back End MySQL Server 5.5 Server Cpanel ECONOMIC FEASIBILITY The Economic feasibility of the study is to estimates the corresponding and possible amount that should state while implementing this proposed system while working out on it from the designing, documenting and to implement it in the company chosen. COST AND BENEFITS ANALYSIS The cost of the system was simplified based to the resources while making the project and the benefits identifies that using this computerized system it can give options of services and cater multiple user/client using the internet and could initialize transact records easily that may help the employee identify their suppose task ahead. Both can help the client and employees; for the client may just use its internet to access and the employees it can lessen their work and effort. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS CASE MANUAL COMPUTERIZED Meeting with the clients. 5 hours consumed 1 hour consumed Search for the recorded files. 15 minutes consumed 5 minutes consumed Closing with the deal with the clients. 10 minutes consumed 5 minutes consumed COST ESTIMATION Particulars Cost Estimate Web page design/coding/debugging(42days) (42x 500) Php 21,000.00 Finalization of site(22 days) (22500) Php 11,000.00 Total Php 32,000.00 PROSPECTIVE USER This part of the proposed study discuss about the prospected user of the project which later may use the simple online booking with its transactional data usage, to perform to managing and organized transactional event. There are two distinct prospective users and that are the following stated below: Prospective Client User. – The prospective Client User it is refers to the client whom will register for the service of the company. Administrator –The Administrator it is refers to the person who is in-charge to the position to update the transaction form and can have the full access to manipulate in the website. IMPLEMENTATION For enable to produce an effective and very useful product implemented to Event Avenue pioneer, General Santos City, the proponent put up a various procedures to let this study successfully implemented. The proponent considered the internet which it was acted the main point or the main base of this study and network connection which this study will work. PROGRAM SPECIFICATION In order for the system to run, it needs WAMP acted as the database of the system or the system memory and as well the back end of the system and also Dreamweaver a web developer application where we edited or made our system design using the PHP language and also hosting to publish the system in the internet. TESTING The testing is the process where you could check your system before its implementation. Through this kind of process we could identify the flaws of the system. This is one of the requirements needed to specify for a quality output of the project. PERFORMANCE TESTING Testing is very important securing the implementation of the study to  checking up looking for various threats of errors. And scrutinize it if the program runs as it is which it base is was in the internet before it being uploaded and use. MAINTENANCE AND SUPPORT We strictly suggest and are reminded about the hosting of the system for it will run online and check up your computer for viruses and you must back up the file of the transaction of events for the safety proper of not losing data to secure transaction from malicious malware or any viruses. Curing is better than prevention and to cure failure and other future and other difficulties always check your data print it and back up it for avoiding the record lose. CHAPTER V SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION SUMMARY The proponent conducted interviews, surveys, went to research, surfing to internet to gather data information regarding to the information must need by making the study. Also, proponent takes some advises and suggestions from the adviser added to the needed data for the study. On the way of planning the study, we undergo so many stages of steps and methods such as the background of the study, statement of the problems, objectives, importance, significance, scope and delimitation of the study. As well, taking some related literature regarding about the proposed study. After all of this methods the testing are followed for the implementation of the system thereby for if the study is whether successful to implement. The proponent used Dreamweaver PHP and WAMP machinery for the making of the study. Upon after installing the various systems, we abruptly build the form of the study and the needed attachment for the implementation. This will be the basis of the proponent to determining succ essful implementation. And also, the proponent not just talks about the outcome of the study but also the possibility of encountered errors by implementing the study successfully. As the proponent trying our best to produce a better outcome for even though it  is not that quite easy. CONCLUSION In regards to all the data that gathered especially from the data surveys along with the questionnaires in the respondent Event Avenue – Pionner, General Santos City, therefore, we conclude that the Study can give the Administrator an easily operation and knowledgeable outcome of better manageable transactions, that the study can give the Event Avenue a better and convenient work regarding to how the operation going for newly approach of systematic process that the technology can give, that the study will give Event Avenue a profitable and beneficial process that certain IT industry can modify and upgrade. We as the proponent want that this online booking system become upgradable and well develop so many can benefit through this kind of system and so many will be satisfy by it works and lessen the hardship regarding the manual transaction with the clients. However, it should need the personal interaction with the clients. RECOMMENDATION As the proponent of the system, we intend to have a system which is beneficial to the users and helpful in terms of transacted records. To improve the quality and performance of the system and as well the security and the reliability of the system can give to the users. This propose system can be improve by developing its features and its transactional data recorded, creating more sequence regarding the design and transaction handle or catered by the system letting the user enjoy the capability and fullness of the system.

Pros & Cons of Television Essay Example for Free

Pros Cons of Television Essay For most people, watching television Is an enjoyable way to spend time. It Is an undemanding activity that passes the time and there are very few families that dont own at least one television. Since so many people now own a television, there has been a proliferation in the number of channels available and shows to watch, so that you can quite easily find yourself spending hours in front to the television. Consequently, you may neglect other activities that need doing. Thus, although television may help to ease boredom. Here are also some negative aspects associated with watching television. Breaking news shown live on your TV Global news network allows the latest global events to be aired worldwide and beamed directly to your living room. Examples (from top-left, clockwise) include September 1 lath attack, 2004 Tsunami in Indonesia, 2008 HINDI outbreak and 2011 earthquake In Japan. Pros of watching television The positive aspects of watching television include that you have something to talk to friends and relatives about. There are certain programs which are more popular than there and If you watch them you feel Included and that you have something In common with the people around you. Television can help to foster a sense of national identity, since a significant proportion of the population will be exposed to the same kinds of news programs and television shows, so that people feel that they belong to a wider community. Plus, television can also be Informative and educational, opening peoples eyes up to the world outside. Educational TV programs Educational TV programs provide priceless information that not only educate but also pens up your mind. Most of these programs teach and educate people on subjects that you may otherwise will not know and are never taught in schools. Non-educational TV programs However, there are also a lot of television shows that are not very educational, and could even be considered trash. Reality shows, for Instance, offer nothing of any worth to the audience. Yet people still tune in. People get hooked on shows which are poorly produced and concentrate mostly on issues of sex and violence. Although here is no conclusive evidence that watching violence on television makes children tofu people would become desensitizing to it, and that this could make it easier for children to engage in violent activities. Watching too much TV can lead to weight gain, poor social skills and lower academic results Unsupervised children spending too much of their time in front of a TV can have a big impact on their life. Obesity, lack of social skills and poor academic results are Just some of the effects TV have on children. Some psychologist believe that too such TV time can have a major effect in the psychology of the child. Children are suppose to interact and play, not sit and watch. Poor parenting and weight gain It is also evident that many people spend too much time watching television, so that parents dont bother to spend any time playing or talking with their children. It is far easier to stick them in front of the television, rather than taking them to the park. It cant be a coincidence that so many people are now overweight when they spend much more time watching television than they would have done years ago. People seed to be a lot more active, but now television is the most convenient way for individuals to keep themselves occupied. Thus, they burn hardly any calories while most probably consuming an excessive amount of calories. Its addictive Even though there are many negative aspects associated with watching television, many people enjoy television far too much to reduce the amount they watch or to avoid watching television altogether. People enjoy not having to think for themselves and to be able to sit down and watch something that helps them to relax, so why would they change?

Rise and Fall of Standard Pricing

Rise and Fall of Standard Pricing The Rise and Fall of Standard Pricing and Its Effect on Everyday Operations For European and American Firms The overall purpose of this paper and study is to investigate cost or lean accounting within the operations management realm and how its unpredictable rise and fall allow organisations to continuously learn and utilize knowledge management as a core value. It was also important to use a larger organisation that has history of outstanding operations and customer centered focus upon services. This investigation will require an in-depth study of work processes, communication and leadership with regard to knowledge management as a value within the team construct while looking at how this reflects leaning accounting principles. What tools are available and what kind of evolution is Nestle undergoing in order to remain competitive in a changing economy? How does this change knowledge management and communication company wide? What this study argues is that accounting practices are changing due to the evolving business plan. This is a movement toward modern accounting and it is important to see the relationships between costing accounting, its fluctuations and how they impact the health of the organisation as a whole with regard to productivity and job satisfaction. How an organisation applies methods of costing into its framework for accounting of expenses and its direct rise and fall over the time period of the product life cycle, directly influences the production, operation, distribution and employee retention of the global company. In fact changes in accounting practices have led to many tried and true business models to no longer exist. Costing and its rise and fall can have a direct relationship with success and competitive advantage in the market place. However the purpose of this study is to explore and reflect upon how accounting practices change operations management and the supply chain management model as a tool of managers and team members alike. Really it is how accounting practices have changed business practices because of new legislation focusing on global companies in Europe and the United States. Accounting costs, expenses and losses reflects the health of the organisation and with change comes confusion. This study argues th at with such changes comes a lack of defining the company’s value within the market but also the value it has for its employees, as they become active participants and investors. GENERAL OVERVIEW How corporate accounting is handled is changing worldwide. How each expense is accounted for within an organisation’s financial sheets has been evolving. Such a proposal for change has received much commentary from not only the financial community and corporate America but also key members of Congress, European union leaders and the public. Such a response results from the uncertainty that such change will benefit businesses and economic growth. It is feared that such change will have the opposite effect and cause world leaders to lose its competitive edge in the global market. Still this has not stopped the fuel of the fire as the American Financial Accounting Standards Board (also referred to as FASB) has struggled for an answer to such a dilemma. The urgency for a solution has only been stressed recently in light of such debacles like Enron and Tyco. It is believed that companies do need to account honestly for expenses but at what price to its employees, the public and the economy? Part of the issue with current legislation to change the practice of accounting for employee stock options is that there is no real way to value their worth. This creates an unsettling feeling among investors and employees struggling to understand this benefit. ACCOUNTING OVERVIEW What this truly means for any corporation functioning globally or even locally this that effective cost accounting because a volatile issue for management to consider. One could argue that such rise and fall of how costing/pricing pays a part in the entire operation has a negative effect upon how the company’s valuation is seen on the open market. Costing at every step of the product life cycle plays a huge part in how this valuation is decided from inventory at the shop floor level, to everyday operations management, to an employee’s value with the company and their net worth personally. Changes within the global economy in the recent years the disappearance of tried and true business models leaves many with a poor taste in their mouths because one must understand how efficiency, affordability and effective leadership come into play. Effective pricing or costing of routine operations and corporate behaviours must be tracked and studied in order to carve the fat. This s tudy aims to look at exactly what the rise and fall of pricing or costing means to a global organisation conducting business on many levels. For the purpose of proving the argument that such changes in accounting practice has a negative effect on the organisation, one will look at examples from the shop floor to the employee’s estimated value with the company in the form of job satisfaction. Accounting for such expensing and pricing correctly is what makes the organisation strong but also accurate in valuation. With this in mind, traditional business models like Wal-Mart and Nestle are discussed because these are globally operating corporations. Debates about whether or not the fair value of the employee and the company stock options should be expensed on the income statement continue to rage among industry representatives, politicians, and pundits. Expense recognition of stock options can have significant impacts on net income and earnings per share, so this is a debate worth having. But many of those who analyze companies consider operating cash flow a better performance metric than income. One reason is that operating cash flow is thought to be free from the infection that makes income grossly weakened. In the case of employee worth and stock values, however, there is proof that this assumption is flawed. Option exercise affects operating cash flows in ways that analysts need to understand. Repurchasing shares to fund option exercise also results in financing cash outflows. The net cash flow impacts of options are often negative, but can be quite volatile from year to year. LITERATURE REVIEW STANDARD PRICING AS ACCOUNTING PRACTICE It can be difficult to assess why a product has a certain cost or price to the consumer. How is it that companies arrive at certain amount for a product or service? What are the factors that play into this amount and do they change over time while in the market? Mish defines clearly, price as being â€Å"the value or worth; the quality of one thing that is exchanged or demanded in barter or sale for another† (2004, p. 985). A mistake that happens to many companies is they allow the market to manage the price of the product and avoid strategic management of pricing in general. What is usually done according to Nagle is â€Å"they list the prices based on their own needs and then adjust transaction prices to based on what customers say they are willing to pay. Only a few companies question why someone is willing to pay no more that a particular amount or how that willingness could be changed† (2002, p. 1). In order to be strategic in pricing, a company must confident and understand that â€Å"pricing involves managing customers’ expectations to induce them to pay for the value they receive† (Nagle 2002, p.1). Fortunately, when it comes to financial products, many customers remain in the dark about product and services. Sometimes a service oriented company such as the Bank of England can take advantage of such undulation but as more information becomes available due to the Internet, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for a company to set the pace this way. More than not, more companies especially financial ones that rely on customer relationships, allow for a value-based price structure that is contingent on the customer paying when value is delivered. This type of pricing system relies heavily on segmentation of the demographic when it comes to offering promotions and incentives to buster customer loyalty. Much of this applies to financial type products that are well defined for the consumer either through education or these pr oducts are a must in life like the credit or loan product. Keeping this in mind, many financial products consist of high quality products and add-ons that when offered by one company allows that company to diversify and establish the price. The table here below aids in illustrating this point. Table 1: Pricing Strategies (Anderson Bailey 1998, p. 2) It is also important for a company to keep in mind demand for the product or service. This is why diversification and globalization are quickly becoming elements of strategy as companies look for new ways to target consumers and enter new areas where their original product has a new life cycle. This is a matter of economics but important for understanding marketing strategy with regards to cost switching or price switching. â€Å"The greater the price elasticity, the closer the company can price products to similar competitive products and vice versa† (Allen 2002). In an industry like the mortgage industry where homeownership is more prevalent in Western nations, elasticity is high and therefore, it is fair to remain competitive with other companies. Also a company like Nestle can bet that charging less may lead to more food products created as customers find they get more service for less money. In this respect elasticity can work either way. It really depends on degree of ri sk one company is willing to take. Still it remains to be found if such a tactic even works when it comes to customer loyalty, as this will be explored in greater detail later. However, it remains to be seen if price loyalty does exist. It seems â€Å"the key to effectively competing for loyalty is ensuring the quality of the customer experience, not the quantity of customer rewards or discount prices† (Compton 2005, p.1). However, the price needs to be adjusted for what the customer expects. It can be a cycle that changing continuously depending on the product or service. Carmona, and et al (2004), writes of the origin of activity based costing method of accounting or ABC that came into vogue in Europe during the 1920s. What ABC does specifically as Carmona, and et al (2004) speak of Vollmers’s work as: Deployed significant efforts to account for distribution and marketing costs, which ‘tend to be ignored today.’ This first event is then taken as record of the origin (both in terms of time and space), from which the new practice mainly spread both temporally and spatially. (p. 36) This is the start of a movement toward the double entry system and this saw delay and many weaknesses because it did not present a clear, complete picture of accounting. Its weaknesses were found in inefficiencies with charges and discharges. As a result, early double-entry systems were seen as unreliable and not useful to big business. It would not be until later that advanced book keeping procedures would take into account advanced operating processes in production. Carmona, and et al (2004) found these systems although not perfected were used in England and the Colonies as early as 1760 (p. 37). It seems this was the trend as no real streamlined, conforming system would be adopted until modern business practices came into place in the United States. Move to a global arena and model of production purposes and a more refined system is needed because a lot more is at stake. Global business is all about the details. It became common practice more investment applied, the more generally accepted accounting practices became as a diffusion of new technology. Accounting practices became more generally accepted behaviours as businesses became bigger and more prominent in communities across the world. Practices are implemented as Abu-Raddaha, and et al (2000) surmises the following: The information provided by accounting should facilitate international trade and capital flows, not hamper them. It should inform, not just report. More importantly the information demands of both domestic and international financing and other commercial relationships, have to be satisfied. (p. 19). Everything must remain in balance or presented as a well-oiled machine. How does an organisation get to this point of transformation with its accounting practices? Modern accounting asks for more participation and optimisation from the start to finish by the corporate accountant. The actions of the corporate accountants must change as the movement toward lean functioning continues to take place. It should not be a painful process but one of creativity, flexibility and growth. There is a concern that lean accounting requires one to turn off creativity and be boxed into one function or thought process. This will be explored late as a post-modern viewpoint of business where each person has a function within the total quality management or TQM perspective. Modern business may use this as a framework but the modern business model has evolved beyond this fixed view. The truth of the matter is that modern accounting practices could not be further from this view of being boxed in but rather goes beyond breaking the box and creating a different mindset where thin king is seen differently than before. Accounting is seen differently as not having finite possibilities but infinite reasoning. Traditional methods are flawed as proposed by Van Der Merwe and Thomson (2007), â€Å"the direct costing approach doesn’t absorb any overhead or even fixed costs†¦resource consumption accounting or RCA makes no arbitrary assignments at all† (p. 29). A lean, effective method allows for a more detailed account of capacity costs and a basic approach to data collection. Modern times call modern values and thought processes with regard to business seamless behaviour across the production floor. The lean method maintains a â€Å"one-touch flow system† (Van Der Merwe Thomson 2007, p. 29) for information diffusion across the life cycle. This one-touch flow system can be integrated with a supply chain easily and reflects this value added element as a method for better, honest accounting. OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT A most important factor for facilities management to recognize is the use of Total Quality Management (TQM) or a variation of TQM. TQM according to David Steingard is â€Å"a set of techniques and procedures used to reduce or eliminate variation from the production process or service delivery system in order to improve efficiency† (Steingard 2002, p. 2). TQM fits with the facilities management way of doing things as many of their functions require repetition or constant monitoring of daily, weekly and monthly items. Because this is a modernist concept and the modernist movement believed in certainty and static methods of looking at the world, there is not much room for the uncertainty that change creates in today’s workplace using strictly TQM. Therefore either change in this environment must be controlled change or a variation of TQM must be used for the process to work and involve new technologies. Otherwise, TQM alone invents a work environment reminiscent of Franz L ang’s Metropolis and dehumanizes the employee. A variation TQM can be used in facilities management to aid defining team member responsibilities as it sees the whole team as a â€Å"machine creates a system of interlocking parts each with clearly defined use, centralized authority and high degrees of worker discipline culminating with the goal of routinised, efficient and predictable system performance† (Steingard 2002, p. 2). Each team member plays a role in the functioning of the machine. Still much like today’s business environment where change is constant, this system requires continued adjustment, modification improvement of function. TQM as way of defining a work process cannot operate entirely in today’s global market because it succeeds at the expense of innovation and the growth of the employee. It also does not leave room to incorporate change and new ways of improving functions. Still a memory of pure TQM feeds the â€Å"modernist machine of c onsumer capitalism which encourages over-consumption, planned obsolescence, ecological damage and depletion of natural resources† (Steingard 2002, p. 4). This memory has also burdened management as the obsession for perfection, control, consistency, productivity and efficiency increases over time. In today’s facilities team, there must be a healthy medium to not only use past methods for increased productivity and efficiency but also to include modern tools and equipment to make the job easier. In order to remain competitive, technology cannot be ignored, the systems it provides must be implemented in order for logistics to remain seamless and keep up with demand and customer expectation. For instance failure to embrace logistics and technology results in inventory costing a company more money to store than it is worth. McCullogh writes, â€Å"Right now sitting around the globe is a bunch of inventory (worth an estimated) United States $1 trillion—United States $1 trillion of boxes of stuff is just sitting around a warehouse† (‘Warning: Don’t Snub Logistics’, p. 1). This has the potential to represent about 60 percent of the average company’s working capital. This is capital in limbo that is not maximizing its investment potential. A sign of successful shop floor operations is reliance on very little warehousing. In other words, warehousing is measured as the amount of days per month a product sits in the warehouse and if logistics is implemented effectively, this number will decrease and stabilize. The retail average storage of inventory is 26 days of investment not being utilized, profit being lost and daily expenses being incurred in an endless holding pattern. In order to reduce the amount of days inventory sits means companies must create tighter relationships with suppliers via the web or perfect a system of communication between resources to cut out warehousing all together. Instead of inventory remaining stored because of wireless communication and data collection, the product can go straight from the supply source to the retailer’s shelves via a distribution centre that acts much like mail sorting centre. This can work because technology enables a retailer to send data immediately to the supplie r of products that are moving off the shelves with a click of a button. From this electronic message, the supplier knows what the retailer needs, what products are popular, how much and sends then instantly to the retailer’s distribution centre. In organisations the size of Nestle or Wal-Mart, logistics strategy requires much forethought and planning, as there are many branches and divisions that are involved in the process. The idea is to reduce expenses and increase value to the organisation by making the company more productive and efficient. This needs to be done as seamlessly as possible to continue brand loyalty and customer relations while maintaining market share and competitive advantage. In many ways, implementation of this strategy creates a delicate balance. In order to have better Business to Business or B2B relationships, one must understand the connection. Robert Thierauf and Hoctor (2003) explain, â€Å"B2B is about connecting shared businesses and information processes of the extended trading networks, planning, shipping and logistics, inventory management and customer retention to name a few† (Thierauf Hoctor, p. 181). In other words, an optimized planning process can save millions dollars and allow a multination corporation to carry out its objective and gain market share. This means applying advanced technology such as i2 used by Dell Computers and typical ERP vendors. In today’s act of doing business, B2B exchanges are based on supply chain management or SCM technologies (Thierauf Hoctor, 2003, p. 182). This will mean considerable investment in such technology but the benefit of market share will prove it to be a valued investment over the long-run (Burn Hachney 2002; Scerbo 1999). Running these centres effectively certainly poses a challenge of management. Manufacturers must develop new skills and confront channel conflicts with dealers, distributors and independent operators. Leaders in these positions must have an understanding of managing the conflicts in these channels. But well-managed distribution centres would more than justify the risks, as it would save the organisation a significant amount of overhead. With operating expenses as the main cost, it is possible to make the distribution venture essentially self-funding. Facilities can be rented on short-term leases and surrendered if the location isnt successful within a year or two. The cost of goods and labour can be managed as volume grows. Companies should remember that a manufacturers original warranty work usually accounts for about half of the labour expenses and for as much as 20 percent of the total value of services rendered, but these costs are typically charged back to the business unit rather than borne by the company’s distribution. In markets poorly served by local dealers or other distributors, for instance, a centre should gear itself to its company’s end users or consumers by choosing a high-traffic retail site. Profits at these locations are generated largely through the sale of accessories and optional services to walk-in or mail order customers; outlets thus need appealing product displays or sales pr esentations. Different kinds of retail distribution centres pursue different economic models. Although gross margins on sales to end-users are higher, orders tend to be smaller. Locations that focus on distributors can achieve scale faster and be just as profitable. The largely similar economics of service centres vary only according to which customer segment is best served at each location. Companies run their own centres and tie management bonuses to profit and growth goals at each site. Either way, some support functions, such as marketing, human resources and information and financial systems, are best managed at the corporate level. Warehouses and distributions centres are caught in a squeeze between customer service demands and cost drivers. The challenge for most organisations is create a network that can deliver on customer demands while keeping costs down. This is the number challenge in supply chain management. Supply chain management presents a huge undertaking when it comes to overhead operating costs. Many of the tools have come down in price because usability has gotten easier. As a result, more and more companies are adopting a supply chain management philosophy for distribution and are re-evaluating its effectiveness every two years as opposed to before at every five years. Management members are interested to see if the efficiency of the centre matches its service level provided. Research has found a direct relationship between the number of distribution points, transportation costs and customer service targets. The network and its design are driven by improvements so that the cost of transportation can be offset. This may include reviewing an organisation’s transportation arrangements. Loading patterns should also be examined to find ways to cube out containers and trailers (Trunick, p. 1). What possibilities can be used to have a cost-effective outcome for the distribution centre? Does this mean consolidating shipments or a move to parcel and less than truckload shipments? Can shipments be combined to make greater use of truck cargo space? Can the organisation hire rail or air as better shipping alternatives to using company trucks over longer distances? In addition to examining loading can the routes used by the trucks be adjusted to be add to cost-efficiency? An organisation would benefit using their state’s transportation management system or a department of transportation, DOT to map out distribution volumes and patterns. This would help in providing dynamic routing options that can be flexible to change distribution needs in the network. This can benefit the fleet by reducing fuel supply needs and help control costs and usage. These efficiencies would result because the routes would decrease in mileage and also wear/tear on the vehicles and insurance costs. Efficiency inside the four walls of the distribution centre can also be improved. Relatively speaking the size of the average distribution centre has grown from 300,000 square feet to one million square feet (Trunick, p. 2). This is simply due to operating space needed to move inventory from point a to point b. But the real reason the distribution centre is larger today is mainly because organisations have seen the need to put all operations under one roof. By putting multiple facilities into one larger distribution centre improves the time it takes to transport inventory. Still the larger centre is made possible because of improved transportation systems but also implementation new technologies that not only enhance a brick and mortar store but also a virtual one. Plus, the organisation has the manpower under one roof. The company only rents one building and keeps the inventory in one place rather than moving it from warehouse to warehouse. This allows the company to provide better service to the consumer. Because of these factors, information systems are critical to the success of the larger distribution centre. Data has the need to travel from one area to another and that is why more and more companies are investing in radio frequency terminals both handheld and vehicle mounted. Investment of these RFID systems is not inexpensive and many retailers such Wal-Mart and Target are looking for ways to enrich the present technology and systems without implementing a whole new infrastructure into the walls of the centre. By being able to enhance present systems proves to be cost effective because not only is an upgrade cheaper but also it is easier to train employees to run. It is a company’s ability to effectively handle investment of new technologies that allows the centre to run better. Still as Trunick writes, the concern is not found in hardware but in data. â€Å"Databases have traditionally been structured to feed a number of different systems, but that’s not a long term architectural solution† (p. 2). Part of the problem a distribution centre faces with data storage is being able to provide the data in real time and allowing the data to remain clean and not crowd. As a result many companies are searching for better solutions than using RFID in supply chain management. It has not proven to be productive in the distribution centre setting not like 8 percent in the warehouse setting (Trunick, p. 2). One new technology that was introduced to the Nestle facilities management team in 2006 was the use of a computerized tracking system for client user orders. This system was implemented to better track the status of job orders among the team members. This system acted to alert a team member of potential deadlines and current job load status. It also allowed management to better track individual and team progress. This resulted in a monthly recognition program to signify when quotas had been met or when a team member received a client user compliment. This system also had the capability to record the negative such as being late to a service call or failing to complete monitoring of weekly items for inspection. The system would then e-mail the team member and the direct supervisor if such conduct occurred (Facilities Training Group 2007, p. 11). This system replaced the old process of â€Å"tracking† client user orders that consisted of logging each order into a spiral notebook. With the advent of the company’s intranet site, management hoped to improve communication between the facilities team and the client user by offering an electronic request system. This would reduce the amount of time the facilities team spent fielding phone called requested and allow for multi-tasking of various jobs. What management had hoped the system implementation would result in, did not happen mainly due to team member lack of communication and resistance to change due to a pre-existing TQM elements within the old process of handling client user orders. Management had hoped as the Business Open Learning Archive details, â€Å"automation would exploit available technology to speed up operations, make them more reliable and to reduce unit costs and their risks and costs. This would bring flexibility to the system already in practice† (Operations Technology 2005, p. 1). This type of new technology or just-in-time or JIT technology requires careful handling and extensive training. What facilities management team leaders had not prepared for was the team member response. Many of them despite being competent, responsible employees did not have knowledge of computer systems. Many of the team members had been with the company over twenty years and had been hired to the division. Many of thes e types, fall into the category of being older but also having a specific specialization in which they were in the field most of the time (Facilities Training Group 2007, p. 24) not requiring any other extensive skills. Another factor management had not anticipated was a considerable language barrier as many team members who had worked together for years, continued working in their native tongue of Spanish. A final aspect of the mixed response for the team had more to do with timing than anything. Management provided a three-day training session and then allowed two weeks for the new system to be adopted. The transitional period was too short and was met with much resistance from many members of the team. Many did not accept the change or completely understand the new system. Many did not check their email or use the tracking component. Finally, despite company wide advertisement of the new online request feature, most client users did not use it and continued to phone in requests. This resulted in not a decrease in time spent on the phone but due to the new system’s lack transition and rejection by some of the team, the group received three times as many calls in one week (Facilities Training Group 2007, p. 33). The team had to hire a temporary employee to aid in taking calls while team leaders provided on the job training and supervised walk-through of the new process. The period of six weeks it took the team to get back up to speed resulted in not only miscommunications among team members but also time lost to better serving the client users. As a result, many of the circulation systems did not receive their weekly maintenance and this negatively affected the climate control performance for the building’s seventh floor northwest corner (Facilities Training Group 2007, p. 39). With time the team members adjusted to the new technology with few still relying on the hand-written method. Still the process of introducing the system was not handled e ffectively and resulted in a period of adjustment where many processes met with negative results. OPERATIONS LIFE CYCLE Wal-Mart became a textbook example of managing rapid growth without losing sight of a companys basic values. In Wal-Marts case, the basic value was, and is, customer service. Still it was Wal-Mart’s ability to focus on multiple values that lends to its current success. As technologies changed, American social needs became more immediate d