Financial Mgmt.

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Analysis of Financial Statements
Determine why it is sometimes misleading to compare a company’s financial ratios with those of other firms that operate within the same industry. Support your response with one (1) example from your research.
Remarks: Please be detailed, clear and concise and ensure that references are cited using the APA format.
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Managing and Using Information Systems:

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Managing and Using Information Systems:
A Strategic Approach – Sixth Edition
Keri Pearlson, Carol Saunders, and Dennis Galletta
© Copyright 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Chapter 5 IT and Business Transformation

Sloan Valve
•What was wrong with their Product Development Process?
•What did Sloan do? What is NPD?
•Did it help?
•Are all enterprise system implementations this successful?
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 3

© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc.
SILO PERSPECTIVE VERSUS
BUSINESS PROCESS PERSPECTIVE
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Silo (Functional) Perspective
• Specialized functions (sales, accounting, production, etc.
• Advantages: • Allows optimization of expertise. • Group like functions together for transfer of knowledge.
• Disadvantages: • Sub-optimization (reinvent wheel; gaps in communication;
bureaucracy) • Tend to lose sight of overall organizational objectives.
Executive Offices CEO
President
Operations Marketing Accounting Finance Administration
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 5

The Process Perspective
• Examples of processes: • Fulfill customer orders • Manufacturing, planning, execution • Procurement (see below)
• Processes have: • Beginning and an end
• Inputs and outputs • A process to convert inputs into outputs • Metrics to measure effectiveness
• They cross functions
Receive Requirement for Goods/Services
Create and Send Purchase Order
Receive Goods Verify Invoice Pay Vendor
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 6

Cross-Functional Nature of Business Processes
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 7

How to Manage a Process
• Identify the customers of processes (who receives the output?)
• Identify the customers’ requirements (how do we judge success?)
• Clarify the value each process adds to the organizational goals
• Share this perspective so the organization itself becomes more process focused
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 8

Comparison of Silo Perspective and Business Process Perspective
Silo Perspective Business Process
Perspective
Definition Self-contained functional units such as marketing, operations,
finance
Interrelated, sequential set of
activities and tasks that turns
inputs into outputs
Focus Functional Cross-functional
Goal
Accomplishment
Optimizes on functional goals,
which might be suboptimal for
the organization
Optimizes on organizational
goals, or the “big picture”
Benefits Highlighting and developing core competencies; functional
efficiencies
Avoiding work duplication and
cross-functional communication
gaps; organizational
effectiveness
Problems Redundancy of information throughout the organization;
cross-functional inefficiencies;
communication problems
Difficult to find knowledgeable
generalists; sophisticated
software is needed

What do you do when things change?
•Dynamic and agile processes
•Examples: • Agile: Autos are built with wires and space for
options • Dynamic: Call centers route incoming or even
outgoing calls to available locations and agents • Software defined architectures (see chapter 6)
•IT is required to pull this off well
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 10

Techniques to Transform a Static Process
•Radical process redesign • Also known as business process reengineering
•Incremental, continuous process improvement • Including total quality management (TQM) and
Six Sigma
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 11

Incremental Change • Total Quality Management
• Often results in favorable reactions from personnel • Improvements are owned and controlled • Less threatening change
• Six-Sigma is one popular approach to TQM • Developed at Motorola • Institutionalized at GE for “near-perfect products”
• Generally regarded as 3.4 defects per million opportunities for defect (6 std dev from mean)
Time
Improve- ment
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 12

Radical Change
• Business Process Reengineering (BPR)
• Sets aggressive improvement goals.
• Goal is to make a rapid, breakthrough impact on key metrics in a short amount of time.
• Greater resistance by personnel.
• Use only when radical change is needed.
Time
Improve- ment
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 13

Comparing the Two
Improve- ment
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 14

Key Aspects of Radical Change Approaches
• Need for quick, major change
• Thinking from a cross-functional process perspective
• Challenge to old assumptions
• Networked (cross-functional organization)
• Empowerment of individuals in the process
• Measurement of success via metrics tied to business goals and effectiveness of new processes
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 15

Workflow and Mapping Processes
• Workflow diagrams show a picture of the sequence and detail of each process step
• Objective is to understand and communicate the dimensions of the process
• Over 200 products are available to do this
• High-level overview chart plus detailed flow diagram of the process
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 16

BPM
• Information systems tools used to enable information flow within and between processes.
• Comprehensive, enterprise software packages.
• Most frequently discussed: • ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), • CRM (Customer Relationship Management), • SCM (Supply Chain Management)
• Designed to manage the potentially hundreds of systems throughout a large organization.
• SAP, Oracle, Peoplesoft are the most widely used ERP software packages in large organizations.
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 17

BPM Architecture
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 18

Standardization vs Integration
Business Process Standardization
Low High
B u
si n
e ss
P ro
ce ss
In
te gr
at io
n
High Single face to customers and suppliers but standards not enforced internally
High needs for reliability, predictability, and sharing; single view of process
Low Decentralized design; business units decide how to meet customer needs
Tasks are done the same way across units, but there is little need for business units to interact
Source: J. Ross “Forget Strategy: Focus IT on your Operating Model,” MIT Center for Information Systems Research Briefing (December 2005)
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 19

Enterprise Systems (Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP)
• Seamlessly integrate information flows throughout the company.
• Reflect industry “best” practices.
• Need to be integrated with existing hardware, OSs, databases, and telecommunications.
• Some assembly (customization) is required
• The systems evolve to fit the needs of the diverse marketplace.
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 20

ERP Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages • Represent “best practices”
• Modules throughout the organization communicate with each other
• Enable centralized decision-making
• Eliminate redundant data entry
• Enable standardized procedures in different locations
• Enormous amount of work
• Require redesign of business practices for maximum benefit
• Require customization if special features are needed
• Very high cost
• Sold as a suite, not individual modules
• Requires extensive training
• High risk of failure
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 21

ERP II
• Makes information available to external stakeholders too
• Enables e-business applications
• Integrates into the cloud
• Includes ERP plus other functions (see Figure 5.8)
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 22

ERP and ERP II Functions
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 23

Customer Relationship Management
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a natural extension of applying the value chain model to customers.
• CRM includes many management activities performed to
• obtain, • enhance relationships with, and • retain customers.
• CRM can lead to better customer service, which leads to competitive advantage for the business.
24© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc.

CRM
•Common systems are: • Oracle • SAP • Salesforce.com (web-based cloud system)
•Oracle and SAP integrate into their ERP systems
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 25

Supply Chain Management (SCM)
• An enterprise system that manages the integrated supply chain
• Translation: processes are linked across companies
• The single network optimizes costs and opportunities for all companies in the supply chain
• Every part of the supply chain has the latest information about sales expected and inventories from source materials at all stages
• Bullwhip effect occurs when the supplier at each stage adds a small “buffer” for it’s suppliers in case demand is higher than expected
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 26

Difficulties in Integrated Supply Chains
• Information integration requires agreement of what information to share, how to share it, and the authority to view it.
• Trust must be established
• Planning must be synchronized carefully
• Workflow must be coordinated between partners to determine what to do with the information they obtain
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 27

Advantages and Disadvantages of Enterprise Systems
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 28

The Adoption Decision
• The enterprise system sometimes should drive business process redesign when:
• Just starting out.
• Organizational processes are not relied upon for strategic advantage.
• Current systems are in crisis.
• It is inappropriate for the enterprise system to drive business process redesign when:
• Changing an organization’s processes that are relied upon for strategic advantage.
• The package does not fit the organization. • There is a lack of top management support.
© 2016 John Wi ley & Sons, Inc. 29

Managing and Using Information Systems:
A Strategic Approach – Sixth Edition
Keri Pearlson, Carol Saunders, and Dennis Galletta
© Copyright 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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The post Managing and Using Information…

Monitoring And Controlling A Project Portfolio

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Monitoring and controlling a project portfolio is an on-going process. How and when it is performed is determined by the needs of the organization. One way that monitoring and controlling a project portfolio is different from establishing it initially is that the process includes evaluating on-going projects and rebalancing the portfolio. The evaluation of on-going projects involves determining if the project continues to support the objectives of the portfolio in terms of alignment with organizational strategy and project performance. The criteria used to assess the continued alignment of the project to organizational strategy are typically the same as when the project was first proposed for funding. The assessment of project performance against expected time and cost parameters is done using quantitative techniques, such as Earned Value Management.
For this Discussion:

Why is it important to monitor and control a project portfolio on an on-going basis? What are the risks of not doing this?
What is category balancing? What is triple constraint balancing? Provide examples of each.
Can category balancing and triple constraint balancing be used concurrently? Why or why not?
What is Earned Value Management (EVM)? How is it used in monitoring and controlling a project portfolio? Provide an example.

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Transportation Logistics Management

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Please Follow directions or I will dispute!!!
Please answer original forum with a minimum of 250 and respond to both students separately with a minimum of 100 words each
Page 1 Original Forum with References
Page 2 Mason Response with References
Page 3 Micheal Response with References
Original Forum
Reflect on your learning:
Create a reflection post describing the future of transportation.
Provide a summation of how you will use these lessons in the future.
Student Response
Mason
The advent and development of technology have introduced different changes to our daily lives including the area of transportation. Technology, for example, has made it possible for users to hail private cabs using mobile phones. Hybrid vehicles that run on petrol and electricity have also come into existence. Fast forward ten or even twenty years from now, there is a prediction that driverless cars will become a hallmark of transportation in the country (“The future of transportation”, 2019). In addition, cutting edge technology will also herald in unprecedented improvements to the public transport. For example, there are reports suggesting that a form of technology known as magnetic levitation will be more commonly used to power trains at an extreme high speed, just as the system that is currently being used in China and Japan (“The future of transportation”, 2019). More countries including India, Malaysia and the United States have also expressed their interest of adopting such technology to enhance transportation in the future.
Despite the various benefits that technology will bring to the realm of transportation, there is a corresponding need to ensure that adequate security system is put in place to safeguard the operation of the technology. Among other things, it is instructive to note that there are increased threats to cybersecurity and the likelihood of cyber attacks remain concerning because any such attacks, if not successfully curtailed, can wreck a toll on the entire transport system of a country (Singer & Friedman, 2014). In addition, it is foreseeable that a large volume of consumers’ personal data will be collected for the purpose of enjoying public transport system in the future. Any security risks will also mean that the confidential data of consumers can be potentially leaked (Singer & Friedman, 2014). Thus, while efforts are being channeled into modernizing current and future transportation, attention should also be devoted into strengthening the IT security systems too.
 
References
Singer, P. W., & Friedman, A. (2014). Cybersecurity: What everyone needs to know. OUP USA.
The future of transportation. (2019). Retrieved 17 August 2019, from https://thefutureishere.economist.com/transportation/blogs-future-transportation.html
Micheal
The future of transportation over the next several decades will be dictated by carbon footprint reduction and the necessity of a green supply chain. Six distinct pressures have been identified which move the market toward decarbonization including a growing emphasis on corporate responsibility, brand reputation, competition, pressure from stakeholders, governmental regulations, and increasing costs of energy (Coyle, Novack, & Gibson, 2016). Of these six factors, most can be summarized as either economic or regulatory in nature. Although some corporate leaders have genuinely good intentions in terms of environmental stewardship, events such as the 2015 Volkswagen carbon emissions scandal prove that corporations cannot be trusted on their own to be environmentally responsible (Hotten, 2015). Environmental problems have consequences which extend well beyond matters of business and economics, and the above evidence indicates that firms will participate in the most economically profitable activities regardless of long-term environmental impacts. Thus, it is necessary for public expectations around the world to be enforced by tighter governmental controls.
These lessons must be applied in the future with respect to both the global environment and sovereignty among nations. To achieve this, a coalition must be formed among those nations who wish to be environmentally responsible in more ways than simple lip service. Plans should be developed and agreed upon between coalition nations with joint inspection and enforcement criteria. Those members agreeing to participate should subject themselves to such rules as determined appropriate, while trade with those nations refusing to take part should be subject to penalties ratified by the coalition. In this way participating nations will retain their sovereignty while forming an international authority more effective than those currently in place. This system would help negate the tendency among some global corporations to ignore the greater public interest in environmental issues.
 
References
Coyle, J., Novack, R., & Gibson, B. (2016). Transportation: A global supply chain perspective (8th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Hotten, R. (2015, December 10). Volkswagon: The scandal explained. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-34324772
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