Mgt 311 Learning Team Reflection Week 4

Organizational Development Team D Learning Team Reflection December 3, 2012 This week we learned about the influence of how organizational structure is on behavior. Also we learned how to analyze and influence an organizational culture on behavior. Then there is how power and politics influence people’s behavior. We talked about mechanistic structure and organic structure. When talking about mechanistic structure, the employees know how to present themselves, why there is no room for them to mess up. (Robbins & Judge, 2011).When people are at work they have to act one way compared to the way they act at home. If the business does not put into place a strong organizational culture, then there could be a lot of unethical behavior in the place of business. This would show the people that work at the place of business and the customers that there is a low organizational structure. All work places of some kind of influence of power and politics. Without the right kind of power and politics in the place of business this could cause discord for people that work in the business.If this kind of behavior is not watched it could cause other people in the business to feel left out or not appreciated in the right way. In week four we took a look at power and leadership, here we contrasted the two. Power is the influence someone has over another person and leadership uses power to attain goals. It is important that one does not have to be a leader to have power. Many people have the power to coerce others without having the leadership role. We could relate to formal power and compare it to the workplace. We use the different formal powers; coercive, reward, and legitimate powers every day.When our employees fail to comply with company goals they can get written up which could result in termination. We also use rewards for employees who exceed goals. Exhibit 13-2 in chapter 13 was very humorous; it gave political labels and compared it to effective management. For exam ple, the political label ‘passing the buck' is known as ‘delegating authority' for effective management. The things we learned that made us think more was about virtual organizations. Some of us did not know what the full term meant and now we can say that the company one of us works for is one of the utsourcing companies from a virtual organization. Some of the leading companies have the profit that they do because of the flexibility and low overhead. Organizational behavior is here for the people to have a better understanding of the people they work with. The more that we know our surroundings and the people that work in the place we are able to know how to influence the individual or group. This will help each person to feel a part of the team and in return the business will run better because the people working there will not mind doing the work.

Organizational Performance Essay

1) Explain how organizational structure can impact organizational performance. Structures of any kind is important in any situation or career field. Structure provides a sense of accountability to individuals. Rules and guidelines are enforced and adhered to for the purposes of not only attaining control of the workforce but to also ensure every team member has total understanding of their role. Employees are assured their efforts are important to the overall goal of the organization. Structure equates discipline; discipline as well as stern communication is key of any successful business. (Green, 2015) 2) Discuss how organizational culture is shaped and how it influences organizational performance. Organizational structure refers to the way that an organization arranges people and jobs so that its work can be performed and its goals can be met (Droege, 2015). Management should be able to motivate subordinates, and understand each employee’s characteristics. This Intel’s mainly on strengths and weaknesses of an individual. By management understanding the workforce this action enriches the morale of the organization and reinforces positive organization performance. : http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Ob-Or/Organizational-Structure.html#ixzz3SaRfcWdA 3) Discuss the benefits and consequences of organizational politics. Organization politics is dangerous and toxic as any other politics. The motives are perceived as positive but yet somehow yield negative results. This could be brought upon because of many selfish schemes to progress individually or even personal propaganda in which leaves a lot of issues of the people unattended to. Benefits could be of simple nature. Depending upon the complex of the problem, and how many employees it could potent effect. According to†organizational politics can be a nasty business where people promote their own self-interests at the expense of company goals. It can also be secretive, and it can cause us to doubt the intentions of other people† (Witt, L.A. (1998) Witt, L.A. (1998) Enhancing Organizational Goal Congruence: A Solution to Organizational Politics. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83(4), 666-674. www.businesspsych.org

How far is it acceptable for technology to be used only for financial benefits Essay

?The inexorable development of technology has indeed become an integral part of our lives. Evidently, we often involve technology almost in every aspect of our lives. As a result, business in technology area seems very enticing for most people as they can potentially generate a lot of profit from this field. Hence, more and more people start to invest in it. However, as people are getting indulged in profit maximisation, problems concerning ethics and societal welfare start to arise from technology. Some argue that the usage of technology only for financial benefit is acceptable because such benefit can be redistributed to the less privileged ones to improve their welfare. However, others claim that it is unacceptable to do so because people, more often than not, may pursue such benefit at the expense of others. I, personally, am more inclined to the latter stand as the sole usage of technology for financial benefit will deal a fatal blow to the global society. It is acceptable to use technology for financial benefit only because it can indirectly contribute to the societal welfare. This is because some of the profit gained from the selling of such technology is used to help those in need. Hence, money earned is, in a way, redistributed to the poor to boost their welfare. A case in a point is the Gates Foundation in which Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, channels some of his profit from his business in the computer field to build this foundation to empower the needy to lead a better life. his is obviously unacceptable because every person has the right to have fair wages and enjoy conducive working environment. Thus, the use of technology only for financial benefit is still unacceptable, regardless of such benefit that may be used to help the last and the least, if some groups are being made worse off in the process. Furthermore, focusing only on financial benefit when we harness technology will make technological development shifts towards the favour of rich people only. Rich and poor people certainly have different kind of needs; while the rich aims, mostly, for self-enhancement, the poor are still struggling to survive. Hence, since the rich’s demand seems to be more lucrative for many investors because self-enhancement, like plastic surgery, is indubitably extornionate and, hence, generates a lot of profit, they will just invest their money for technological development in this area. As a result, more rudimentary aspects of technology, such as the mass production of food using food technology, are neglected. The poor will then suffer even to a greater extent than before. Another concern from this shift is that the widening of chasm between the rich and the poor will be more pervasive. Such result entails even worse implications in our society as social unrest may occur. Hence, given the dire consequences of the ill-use of technology, utilisation of it for financial benefit solely is unacceptable. Finally, the sole use of technology for financial benefit may corrupt our intrinsic values and virtues as human beings. Paradigm shift on our attitudes towards technology -more accepting and dependent – has made commodification of technology more successful. Thus, more and more people are focusing in this area and if their only goal for the use of technology is on monetary reward, they will do anything to its commercialisation to be even more successful. This includes the addition of elements in the technology itself to allure more people to use it. Unfortunately, those elements sometimes blemish our values as responsible humans. A case in a point would be the advent of violent video games (gaming technology) that distort the values of people, especially the teenagers and children. If they are exposed by the wrong principles throughout their stages of life, they will, most likely, not grow to people whom the society wants them to be. Hence, since the use of technology only for financial benefit results in such a case, I believe that it is unacceptable. In conclusion, it is unacceptable if technology is only used for financial benefit because others aspects concerning global welfare are most likely to be neglected. Therefore, a holistic approach should be adopted in harnessing the technology, so that multifarious fields in human lives are benefited. Hence, â€Å"technology is a social product† encapsulates the essence in the usage of technology as it should act as a representation of the fundamental needs of our society.

Observe a special needs childs activity (autistic child) when the Essay

Observe a special needs childs activity (autistic child) when the child tries to learn some information. Create a learning environment for this child - Essay Example One of the most common conditions in the category of developmental disorders is called autism. Autism is characterized by different kinds of improvement in the verbal and non-verbal communication mastery, social interaction, self help and playing skills as well as academic (intellectual) and cognitive skills. Other observable traits include limited repetitive and extreme patterns of behavior (Boyd, R.D. & Corley, M.J. 2001, 19). It is therefore imperative that the curriculum as well as other aspects of learning the designed in such a manner as to wholly meet the needs of these children. This section examines the learning needs of an autistic child and the theories that form the basis of select learning environments with the view of creating a most apt learning environment for specific special needs of a child. There are several groups of children with special learning interaction and communication needs. These conditions may include inherent conditions such as Autism, Aspergers syndrome, Down syndrome (Autism Spectrum disorders) and various physical impairments that include, hearing disorders, blindness and dumbness. Children who are born with or who develop these conditions are faced with a myriad of challenges in relationships as well interpreting, understanding the world around them. They lack the ability to communicate effectively. Autistic children seem to be in a world of their own and are not able to make out meanings of verbal and non-verbal communications such as gestures, facial expressions, physical contacts and even words spoken by people. (Anderson et al 1987, 352-366). Their semantic skills are disoriented and they seem to be indifferent about what is going on around them and even the people who are trying to interact with them. Their behavior does not match their feelings and interacting or relating with other people becomes very difficult

Family Structure Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Family Structure - Essay Example As the study outlines   from among all these, the newborn baby is the one who is least affected in the new structure because he or she is the one taken cared for while everyone starts being responsible for him or her. Speaking of the new parents, the mother and the father are affected greatly by their newborn child not only in terms of the physical demands they should fulfill such as not getting enough sleep and having to tolerate the constant crying but at the same time cause a change in their lifestyle, the dreams they pursue, responsibilities, purchase behavior, and even how they interact socially. This is because of the fact that a newborn poses a lot of responsibilities not only financially but at the same will require a lot of sacrifices such as re-managing one’s priorities to achieve a balance between providing for one’s family’s needs and at the same time giving oneself a little leeway for a little fun time. This paper highlights that what is unique to mothers of a newborn would be the fact that they usually feel neglected or perhaps feel like they are missed out a lot in life because of the routine activity she is confined in from not only taking care of the baby but at the same time her other children if there are and of course, we cannot miss out on her responsibility to her husband which makes her lose time and energy to pamper herself. On the other hand, fathers constantly face the pressure to work longer hours and earn more to be able to provide for his family’s increasing needs. A newborn baby would greatly affect their siblings as well. This is because of the fact that children have the tendency to be possessive with their parent’s attention and time especially when they were used to being the only one.  

The Travel and Tourism Sector in the UK in Response to Changes in the Assignment

The Travel and Tourism Sector in the UK in Response to Changes in the Industry and Society - Assignment Example The paper tells that in 2012, the United Nations World Tourism Organization reported that 1.035 billion international visits were made in 2011, resulting in expenditure in excess of $1 trillion.In the UK, 134 billion Sterling pounds were spent on tourism. This figure represented an increase of 6.9% in 2011. Demand for tourist goods and services in the UK has increased substantially during the past few decades. The growth has been so steady that even in the aftermath of the worldwide economic downturn of 2008, tourism earning grew by 6.9% to reach 134 billion Sterling pounds in 2012, compared to 2011 earnings. In absolute terms, the sector earned 9 billion pounds more than it did in 2011. This amount of money is enough to create 180,000 new jobs in the UK. The following paragraphs explain the factors behind this growth. Growing disposable incomes: The disposable of the average British worker has grown tremendously since the Second World War. Disposable income is the income that an ind ividual or a household is left after paying taxes and meeting their basic needs. With more disposable incomes, more and more people can now afford a vacation once in a while. Changing perceptions: Until recently, many citizens of the UK saw tourism as a luxury product that was reserved for the rich in society. This perception has since changed. More and more Britons are coming to appreciate tourism as a basic necessity of today's life. Of course, tourism has not reached the same level of necessity as food, shelter, education, and healthcare. Nevertheless, increasingly more Britons are embracing tourism. Government tourism policy: In 2011, the government of the United Kingdom enacted a tourism policy. The policy seeks to promote domestic tourism. The goal was pursued out of the realization that most Britons are more likely to travel abroad for a holiday rather than spend it in the country.

Economic Questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Economic Questions - Assignment Example For instance, if an individual requires to judge whether a holiday is a better option or buying a DIY set is a better option (based on their economic condition), then the benefits of both need to be weighed and based on this the individual can make a more informed decision. Consumers need to ensure that their money is invested into an area which had a higher return and proves to be more beneficial based on their economic condition and for that period of time. Hence opportunity costs allow consumers to make more informed decisions (McConnell, Brue, & Flynn, 2008). While understanding the concept of Production Possibility curve, it is essential to learn in detail the possible outcomes and combinations that need to be produced within the economic resources that are available in the period. This can be clearly noted as the PPC tends to provide the maximum outcomes which helps give a clearer idea of the law of diminishing

The Domino Pizza Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Domino Pizza Company - Essay Example In the same year of 1985, they also opened another store in Tokyo, Japan. They continued expanding their locations in 1995, they had succeeded opening 1000 international locations worldwide, and they can open up to five stores in a day across five continents (Saxena, 2009, p. 67). From 2007 and 2012, the domino company has established in India with at least 1000 locations Products and Services After a period of 44years being held as a private company, Domino began trading in the New York stock exchange under the ticket symbol of DPZ. It also added other locations such as those found in Huntley, Illinois, Panama. Its history was that of hitting a target of three million dollars per year. In September two thousand and six, domino had 8238 stores wild wide totaling to a gross income of 1.4 billion dollars. In the year 2007, the domino came up with a new program of Veterana Delivering the dream franchising, and rolled out its earlier one of online and ordering sites. In 2008, it launched an online Pizza tracker which allows customers to view their status in a simulated real time. There is also another dining room opened in Stephenville which gives customers an opportunity to either eat their pizza or take it home. In the year 2012, the company removed the word Pizza from its logo. It introduced a new logo which removed the blue triangle and the text under the domino in the l ogo; it changed the all-red domino to blue on the side with two dots and a red on the side with one dot. The Domino Pizza has a variety of menu which it offers to customers. Traditional, specialty ad custom pizzas are available in many styles and toppings. It has launched an artisan style pizza which offers a blend of rich flavors. Other additional entrees include pasta, bread bowls and the oven-baked sand-wiches; it also offers chicken side dishes, breadsticks as well as the beverages and desserts (Pradhan, 2009, p. 459). The menu expansion occurred in 1989 after discovering that customers prefer thick crusts. It entered the market trend in relation to bite size foods with spicy Buffalo Chicken Kickers which are similar to the chicken fingers. They are packed in a designed box with two sauces; heat up and the cool down chicken. In the year 2010, the company launched a national 2 year partnership with Make-A-wish foundation of America. Following the September 11 attacks, the 12000 p izzas were able to relief workers. They also partnered with hospitals such as the St. Jude research hospital, participating in the thanks giving campaign. Mode of operation of Domino Pizza Company In august 2003, Dominos announced a new pizza, the Philly cheese steak pizza. It began

The State and the Individual Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The State and the Individual - Essay Example The recent passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act created legal issues about whether the Federal government has the power to make it mandatory for individuals to buy healthcare insurance and whether states can opt out or nullify such provisions. The Constitution of the USA does not provide citizens with an explicit right to healthcare. The Supreme Court has held that as per the Constitution, individuals can seek healthcare services at their own cost from the available service providers. (Swendiman, 2010, p.2). It has also held that there is no provision that guarantees government health care for those that cannot afford it. At the same time, many states in the US have constitutional state provisions relative to providing healthcare services to citizens. As compared to the Federal government, the constitutions of states have more expansive provisions relative to health care because federal rights require states to comply with minimum standards (Bayer, 2007, p.1). Th e issue that arises in this regard is the extent to which states can legally restrain the freedom of individuals in serving the common good of the entire population. In addition, the question arises about the extent to which public welfare can be protected in justifying government actions relative to curtailing or eroding fundamental rights. Such issues form the basis of controversy and long drawn debates relative to public health in the US. The Supreme Court has described inter-state commerce as being amongst economic activities that impact the country’s economy. Given that the health care sector impacts the country’s economy, it becomes implied from this argument that the federal government has the right to control health care through legislation. Although the US Supreme Court and Constitution do not acknowledge the constitutional right to healthcare for people unable to afford it, a number of statutes have been enacted by the Federal government, such as the Children ’s Health Program, Medicaid and Medicare, which describe and establish the precise rights of individuals relative to receiving healthcare services from the state. A major element of several healthcare entitlements from the government is the funding for healthcare facilities that are provided under the law. Majority of these provisions were enacted following recognition of the Federal government’s authority to enact laws that are necessary for carrying out its authorization for providing towards the general welfare of individuals. This authority to spend on healthcare is considered to be a broad grant of authority vested to the Federal government by the country’s Constitution. The Supreme Court gives significant regard to the legislative decisions taken by the Congress for making provisions for healthcare budgets in keeping with the objectives of public welfare (Garrett, 2000, p.216). However, there are a number of tensions about the scope of public health and th e extent to which it can be accepted, especially in terms of the original issues relative to fighting infectious diseases during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The issue attained more significance at the end of the 20th century because of efforts to resolve the chronic patterns that

International Banking Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

International Banking - Research Paper Example Majority of the people use international banking services to protect their money from their native countries estate taxation and income. Other people use the international banking as a means of investing in the better world economies to make substantial profit than when they only stick to their home countries. A good number of individuals keep their treasure in offshore banks and other similar entities to avoid lawsuits. This does not incriminate these people at all; their main reason is to avoid encountering any loses or economic uncertainties. Exploring about International Banking helps us understand how this entity works, the benefits of International banking, globalization and common challenges facing international banking. In addition, focusing on international Banking reveals more on factors driving it as well as the effects of international banking. Each element gives satisfactory information, guiding us in understanding the whole practice of international banking. Moreso, it is through a thorough analysis of these factors that the impact of the global economic situation is determined. The wealth of information regarding international banking further enhances the understanding of social and political effects not only to individuals but also to business companies. This also supports the argument that virtually all environmental factors affect the direction of an individual has or company’s economic growth and stability This part focuses on possible ultimate propellers of internationalization of banking that include economic, political, legal, and technological changes that significantly influence the ability to maximize on profit. Global macroeconomic, regulatory, and financial environment fuels the need for international banking. Many countries have embraced international trade a factor that has promoted economic integration. Most countries no longer impose restrictions on foreign banking as a way of boosting

-Cell phone usages and Radiation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

-Cell phone usages and Radiation - Essay Example The technology of cell phone has eliminated the factor of geographical distances and made the general population more socially connected. The acceptance rate of the cell phone technology can be realized by the fact that from the year 1990 up till 2011, the worldwide cell phone subscriptions raised from 12.4 million to over 6 billion, penetrating nearly 87% of the world population (MobiThinking). Cell phone technology may not be all that safe. Amidst the life of convenience offered by cell phones, the potential threat the cell phone technology may have to the health of humans can get ignored. On October 19, 2012, the Supreme Court in Rome (Italy) gave a ruling wherein a â€Å"causal link† was found to exist between the mobile phone and the illness of an Italian Company’s Director Innocente Marcolini, 60 (Routers, 2012). Marcolini was diagnosed to have developed a tumor (neurinoma affecting a cranial nerve) on the side of the head that he held his mobile phone to for 5-6 hours a day for 12 years. Cell phone technology works by emitting radiations. Whether these radiations are harmful to human health or not is a debate that has been pursued by many medical and environment bodies. This paper presents an overview of the radiations emitted by the cell phones and the safety standards set by the agencies. The possible impact on these radiations on human health and some safety tips to avoid the possible threats are also presented in the paper. Cell phones use a type of electromagnetic energy called radiofrequency (or simply RF) energy for communication. RF are the radio waves and microwaves. On the electromagnetic spectrum (shown in Figure 1), where the energy ranges from ones that have extremely low frequencies with long wavelengths to those that have extremely high frequencies with short wavelengths, the radio waves and microwaves lie between the two extremes. In the RF region, the frequencies are in the range of 3KHz to 300GHz.

Montecarlo Simulation Essay Example for Free

Montecarlo Simulation Essay Economy is the necessity of the consumers as well as to gain the utmost credit for it. In that way our superlative innovation of â€Å"VIVO† light has its own personal history which has originated the greatest solution for the community these times. By this time, all should have been aware of the outrageous news about the ‘rising of electric bill’. One could hardly expect anyone to accept the situation. Especially people who live in areas where there’s neither electricity nor power supply. There are people who often go for adventurous trips where they are greatly in need of light. Lighting with less capacity is always not an effective way to hold the light. There lies the problem but not without a solution which is a simple one. In this situation our team had a technical advanced resource that came up with the solution. It is none other than the â€Å"VIVO†- LED rechargeable light itself. It has the power of luminescence which will continuously last long hours. As we have just incorporated the company, the business is in the infant stage. Further we hope to identify it as legal soon 2. 2 Vision Statement â€Å"We develop the solutions beyond your expectations based on cutting edge technologies interlinked with economy and ecology. † 2. 3 Mission Statement â€Å"To be the leading integrated system and lights supplier to the global to the micro electronics industry and to offer complete energy saving solutions to customers for their lighting needs and prov iding total customer satisfaction with our highly innovative and cost-effective products. † 2. 4 Business Model We focus to produce one of the essential products to the customer with a standard product design and size. We have a bunch of knowledgeable and talented team to produce our initial set of production. At the mean time we target to market our products through direct marketing tool. Because we believe Door Step marketing would facilitate us to approach each and every customer individually. We mainly concentrate our product with high quality and the relationship with our customers by providing better service. Also we hope this will create a primary value for our firm. In future we hope to spread our product to Sri Lanka, island wide. 03. PRODUCT PLAN 3. 1 Features The product will be designed based on the emerging technology of Light Emitting Diode (LED). Currently the Sri Lankan market for this type of product is dominated by imported Lamps from China, which mostly contains a florescent tube lamp inside. As per the market research the problem with these type of lamps are; these will provide light usable for maximum of one hour, even if the rechargeable battery inside is charged fully for more than three hours. The main contributor for this inefficient performance is the florescent tube lamp used. This lamp will consume more power than LED lamps. And the brightness will also be lower than a five watts Light Emitting Diode (LED). The target customers of the company’s product are unable to use these imported lamps for the purpose of studying, working and adventurous travelling. So their needs will be satisfied with this product since the proposed product will be designed by using large number of LEDs and a rechargeable battery which is compatible and portable. It is efficient to the extent that, it will provide more hours lighting with the charging time of only few hours and more charging time will increase the usage time. . 2 Key Attributes Company is planning to incorporate two functions in the product using the LED units. That is the unit will have an Active mode and a Bright mode for convenience of the user. Bright mode: This mode is the differentiating feature of the company’s product from other lamps. This is where the unit will be supplied with more power, to the extent that the LEDs will function with its full capacity. So the lamp can be used for studying, cooking or travelling in night purposes. Active mode: This is where the Light emitting diode will be supplied with low power using a small circuit with a help of a switch. This will result in the lamps, emitting light at a lower capacity than its full capacity. This mode can be used to place the lamp in a hall area where you don’t need too much bright. This will significantly reduce the power consumption and increase the operating hours of the unit while the durability of the LED will improve and the battery life will also increase. 3. 3 Enhancements The firm is planning to enhance its product to the extent that, it will charge itself using solar panel technology. Currently the firm is unable to incorporate this technology, because it is not having sufficient financial aid. But once it is established in the market place it will be possible to get additional bank loan or any other sources of financing. Then the firm will be able to produce more number of units with additional features. After the incorporation of this new technology the product may be subject to a price revision and this may increase the piece. The product is made up with light emitting diodes, this means that there is low probability that this unit will fail due to the failure of this LEDs. But the riskier part is the rechargeable battery, where the average life of a battery is around two years, so that in order to be more cautious, company is expecting to give a one year warranty for its customers. 3. 4 Product Strategy The opportunity identification suggests that, the people who suffer with the increased electricity tariffs and who are trying to reduce their electricity expenses are expecting some other forms of lighting. On the other hand there are certain areas of the country that do not supplied with the power by the electricity board, in order to carry out the native’s chores. So this Market Gap analysis helped the emergence of the efficient rechargeable LED lamps. Initially the target segment of the firm is the consumers who live in the North and in the up country of Sri Lanka as the company has small distribution channels to market the products in these areas. After wards within the next three years it will expand the target market and company will sell the product to at least 50% of the consumers in Sri Lanka covering Eastern, Western, Sabaragamuva, Central and Uva Provinces. Currently the product strategy is to produce the rechargeable LED Lamps which could be used for lighting purpose at houses, working places and for travelling purposes. But in future after establishing the product in the market place it will use a product mix which will include more technological products such as solar power lights and etc. The product is differentiated to attract customers, through its unique feature of brightness which could be used to light and cover a vast area (more than 500 square feet) and the efficiency where the power saved for half an hour can be used for more than five hours. The current products in the market are less efficient and it cannot be used for the purpose of lighting a vast area, as most of the products related to this technology are small portable torch lights. The major risk of introducing a technological product is the emergence of new technologies. So company should be aware of the emerging new technologies and based on the consumer requirement, a continuous Line extension, Market Development, Product Development and Diversification strategies will be required to succeed in the business. According to this, it has planned to introduce a self charging unit in the forth coming periods. The introduction time of this new product will not be defined at present, in order to avoid product proliferation. 3. 5 Benefits of the Product The objective behind the firm’s strategy is to make business that satisfies the customers who do not have proper and adequate electricity facilities in their region. So the target customers are the people who are in the remote areas, mainly in hill countries and north and eastern province. Based on the preliminary study conducted, on target customers, it was identified that the main concern is lack of electricity facility and the amount of money that they can afford to obtain electricity facility through other means. The following benefits of the company’s product will full fill the above requirements and it is believed that, this is a competitive advantage of the firm compared to the other players in the industry. ? Compatibility and convenience: The product is designed with the intention that the users should be able to carry it easily where ever they go. So the weight of the unit will be less and the size is also reduced up to the maximum. ? Expensiveness: The product incorporates the emerging new technology of LED. This has helped the company to substantially reduce the production cost. So the final output of the product will be priced in accordance with the market price, while the firm can also reduce the distribution cost, import expense and intermediation cost. Because when a company import and sell a product, the producer, distributer and ultimately the importer has to make profit from the same unit. So the product normally will have more selling and distribution cost than the manufacturing cost. This huge disadvantage is purely eliminated from our product because it is a Sri Lankan product. So in this context the company will set the price well below the market price. So the customers can get a good quality product at a lower cost. ? Efficiency and durability: The main competitive advantage of the product is the efficient use of the product that is 30 minutes of recharge ime will enable the user to operate the unit for 300 minutes, which is comparatively high usage when comparing with other similar products in the industry. The other benefit is that we have incorporated two options to satisfy the customer needs, which is bright mode and active mode. This will further enhance the usage. ? Warranty claims: The Company will provide a one year warranty for the product. That is our company will bear all the repair and maintenance expenses of the product which is returned to us within one year from the sales date. It increases the reliability of the product among customers. ? Customer Support: In this industry normally after sales services are not a popular facility provided by the producer. So the company has planned to provide technical support to customers after the sales regarding the usage and warranty claims. This will be done through the telephone conversation and through the business agents. So this service provides an additional comfort with the company’s product. 3. 6 Trade Secrets and Patent Rights This is a very important area to be considered. But the firm is protected in this area because according to the initial market research there are very few Sri Lankan companies producing this type of products by importing the partly finished components and doing the latter part of the production (Assembling) in Sri Lanka. So there is no direct competitor for the firm in the current context. Bur the product may face Reverse Engineering in future. But this type of risks is common in this business area, so it is very difficult to protect this. But if the marketing team of the firm communicate the customers clearly, then it will be easier to promote the original products. The firm is sure that it has unique knowledge and skills about its product and the business, so this is the strongest competitive advantage of the firm and, it may not disclose it to others. As many would expect, this approach has its own issues like disclosure requirement, but many ventures have competed successfully this way. 3. 7 Stage of Development The product is in the prototype stage and the company has successfully completed the previous two stages of conceptual and design stages. It will be ready for marketing once it has started the business activities. And it is possible for the firm to grab the first mover advantage of this type of LED technology. 04. MARKET AND INDUSTY ANALYSIS Industry analysis and market analysis are two different ways to look at the environment in which a business competes. Although related, these two types of analysis differ in their scope. The purpose of the market and industry analysis is to identify the market opportunities for our product, LED rechargeable lights. LED lights are the next generation of lighting solutions which going to emerge in coming years. Therefore there will be a good opportunity for our product in future. 1. Market Analysis In todays technological world, we find a challenging and ever-expanding marketplace for almost any product or service. The role of the market analysis is to help guide the process of better understanding of the most important market segments, how fast the opportunity is growing, what are the key sustainable differentiations and why are these important. In this section we are going to discuss the following components: †¢ Target market segment strategy †¢ Market needs †¢ Market trends †¢ Market segmentation Overall market The lighting industry is in the early stages of shifting away from established technologies – fluorescent, incandescent, and high-intensity discharge (HID) lighting – toward light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Adoption rates of LED lighting are expected to grow in the coming years as the efficiency and quality of LEDs surpass those of competing technologies and as the price is low. Not only the quality and low price of LED rechargeable lights, people not having the comfort of using the electricity, especially like a country like Sri Lanka, also makes way for us to make a market appearance. Our market would be mainly based on North and central provinces as those areas have no regular and proper supply of electricity. Over the past few years the market for LED rechargeable lights has shown a growing trend and it is likely that the current trend will continue. Future development of the northern and eastern provinces may decline the demand for LED rechargeable lights in those areas as they may get the regular supply of electricity. But the increase in the price of electricity makes the market opportunity for LED rechargeable lights outshining as more people opt for cheap lighting systems. In future, growth in the market for LED rechargeable lights is highly anticipated and it will be made possible by rapidly decreasing LED prices, ever-increasing efficiencies and improved quality of light. Therefore the revenue is expected to increase and the future looks bright for LED rechargeable lights in the coming years. Addressable market Although our overall market covers northern, eastern and central provinces our main focus would be on the rural areas of these provinces, where there is no electricity facility or the supply of electricity is interrupted often. People who are in search of a way to minimize their cost for electricity will be also included in our addressable market. Segmentation We have identified our market segment as follows, †¢ Groups of customers: Our main customers would be people who have no regular access to electricity, low income earners and people who want to minimize their spending on electricity. †¢ Geography: First we would introduce our product in the local market giving more attention to northern, eastern and central provinces. †¢ Product features: Our LED rechargeable lights give more brightness with less power consumption. Benefits: Saves power, money and time. †¢ Prices: Our strategy would be cost leadership. We would produce the lights at a very low cost, add a profit margin to that and price our product at a low price. †¢ Distribution channel: We would distribute our product using direct distribution methods. There won’t be any intermediaries in our distribution chain. Entry point Our main target is to cater the people who have no electricity and people who are in search of an alternative to fulfill their need for light, with a proper lighting system. This would become an entry point for us as there are many people in Sri Lanka searching for a proper lighting system. And the recent hike in electricity prices has made many people seeking for a cheaper electricity solution as our product is cheap and power saving, this opportunity would pave the way for us to enter the market. 2. Industry Analysis Industry analysis is a vital part of the decision-making process in a business. A comprehensive industry analysis helps to take an objective view of the underlying forces, attractiveness, and success factors that determine the structure of the industry. Understanding the businesss operating environment in this way can help to formulate an effective strategy, position the business for success, and make the most efficient use of the limited resources of the small business. We are going to discuss the following sections in the industry analysis: †¢ Industry Description †¢ Industry Trends †¢ Industry Size and Attractiveness †¢ Profit Potential †¢ Target Market †¢ Competitive Position Industry analysis on LED Rechargeable Light The industry for LED rechargeable lights is very small with few manufacturers, therefore the competitors of our proposed product would be less and as a result of this, it is possible enter easily and cater the market need with cost effective, efficient solution. Another significant advantage over the product is there are no other manufacturers in Sri Lanka, who produce LED rechargeable lights. The prevailing competitors compete mainly on price and the technologies used by the competitors are relatively similar. The degree of competition is lower in the industry therefore the probability of success is comparatively higher for a new entrant in this market. Industry organization Majority of LED Rechargeable lights available in Sri Lanka are produced in Japan, China, Taiwan and India and there are few small assemblers in Sri Lanka. The products are mainly distributed via supermarket channels, LG Abans, Singer and small retail electronics shops and distribution is extensively made in main cities such as Colombo, Kandy, Galle suburban areas. There is less number of distribution points in Northern and Central Province and only the customers in the capital city are purchasing LED rechargeable lights. Value is created to the proposed product via operations, sales and marketing, service and usage of advanced technology. The competitive firms mainly use the above value adding activities to improve profit margin. Competitive Environment The competitive firms compete mainly on price and quality, and the introduction of new products is in a lower rate. Products are differentiated from one another mainly based on the number of LED bulbs used in light and priced accordingly. Customer support is given in the mean of quality warranty; in average one year service warranty is given by the competitive firms. Number of firms prevail in the market is very few, since the degree of rivalry is also low. A new entrant should compete mainly based on Quality (efficiency), Price (cost effective), and service excellence (Warranty) in order to survive and to attract more customers in the market. Since the market is dominated by imported goods the response to new entrants is slow and LED rechargeable lights are not sold many dealers in Sri Lanka. Market is highly fragmented and the competitors are traditional and old. There is high demand for Nippon products but its price extensively higher than other similar products The problems faced by the target customers due to the competitors’ products are a. Since the distribution channel is not well established in the target customers’ geographical area (Northern and Central Province), it is difficult for the customer to find the dealers to repair the product if any fault is identified in the product. b. Similar products available in the market are less efficient in case of electricity consumption (high electricity consumption when charging), charging life is lesser than mentioned in the product catalogue, and the power is lesser than expected. c. Price of the product is high and the target customer segment find it difficult to purchase LED rechargeable light even though they have a need of it. Barriers to Entry When a new venture enters into the LED rechargeable lights industry it has to mainly face the following barriers from its competitive forces. a. Competitors such as Nippon, Kanchen are well established firms in the international market and equipped with advanced technologies therefore these firms will enjoy economies of scale and at the initial stage our firm has to incur comparatively more costs for technology, product designing and manufacturing. Therefore at the initial stage product efficiency and manufacturing efficiency is vital. b. There are some well established brands in the market and customers are loyal to those brands but the price of those brands are relatively higher therefore target customers may not be able to afford that higher price. c. Distribution channel of the product is not well established in the target geographical area therefore there are no competitors who have control over the channel. d. Switching cost for the proposed product relatively higher since the current market price of the competitors’ product. Even though there is an opportunity for the new entrants since the distribution channel of existing products is not reached to the target customer segment. Control over industry Competition of LED rechargeable lights are mainly based on price therefore pricing should be made in the way of value adding and it is important to set price lower than industry average. The bargaining power of customers is higher since they prefer cost effective solution. Suppliers of the raw material have more power since at the initial stage the production volume is low therefore it is difficult to obtain discounts from the supplier by bargaining. Competitive advantage can be gained only through effective production process. Existing competitors are mainly using indirect channels to distribute; it would be successful if proposed product adopts direct means of distribution. Competition prevailing in the industry. There is no aggressive competition in the market and proposed product is the pioneer locally produced product in the industry. The direct competitors in LED rechargeable light industry are Nippon, Kanchan and Orbit and few small importers. a. Nippon LED Rechargeable Lights Nippon LED rechargeable lights are the products of Nippon Electric Company (NEC), Japan. It is a well reputed brand in Sri Lanka and the products are imported by Nippon Lanka (pvt) Ltd. The distribution of products made via its showroom in Bambalapitiya and through super market chains (Arpico, Keells Super), customers are loyal to the product since they perceive it has good quality than the products available in the market. Nippon Lanka doesn’t have sellers in the Central and Northern Province. b. Kanchan Rechargeable Lights Kanchan is an Indian product and price is relatively cheaper than Nippon but the technology used by Knachan is different since the major technology used is Fluorescent Bulbs and these bulbs are comparatively inefficient than LED. The main mean of distribution is online selling and it is not reached in the rural areas of Sri Lanka. c. Orbit Star LED Rechargeable Light Orbit Star is a product from Orbit and it uses online selling as a major source of distribution to reach the target customer (www. anything. lk and www. topshop. lk), the accessibility of internet is poor in Central and Northern Province. Indirect competitors of LED rechargeable light would be the producers of Solar Power Lights, Kerosene, Dynamo, Bio gas but the above substitutes are inefficient and expensive than proposed product. Future potential competitors would be the producers who are using advanced technologies such as NANO and OLED. Opportunity Based on the market and industry analysis there is a need for efficient, environmental friendly, cost effective, environmental friendly LED rechargeable lamp especially in Northern and Central Province. The weakness of the competitors will be used as an additional feature in order to capture the market via prevailing opportunities.

Automation in insurance underwriting processes

Automation in insurance underwriting processes Abstract Underwriting is one of the important processes in insurance operations. The applicants information, including various kinds of medical information, must be evaluated before the insurance company can decide to accept the application. These activities are usually supported by process automation facility. However, the support of exception handling mechanism and the monitoring of turnaround time in those process automation solutions are usually inadequate. This results in a low efficiency of the underwriting operations or even loss of business opportunities. To address the problem, this paper presents an Alert-enhanced Underwriting System (AUS), which handles the exception events and monitors the turnaround time with the concept of alerts. We further illustrate how Web services facilitate workflow integration and process communications. 1. Introduction Life insurance provides protection against the economic loss caused by the death of the person whose life is insured [1]. Because of its popularity, it is a business where many insurance companies allocate many resources in order to gain more market share. A life insurance policy defines the terms and conditions for the prospective client, particularly the situations under which the insurance company promises to pay a benefit upon death [2]. Since life insurance products can provide a stable cash inflow for an insurance company, there is a trend that insurance companies market various life products, such as investment-linked life products, savings life products and critical illness protection, in order to attract more customers with different needs. Although life insurance business can generate financial benefits to the insurance company, the company still needs to bear financial responsibility to pay the insured under some agreed conditions, e.g., the insured dies during a specified period. The insurance will face the consequence of financial loss if the company accepts prospective clients, who present extremely high risks and when some of these insured persons die soon after policy issuance. High quality processes are necessary to assess the degree of risks associated with each application of life insurance. Underwriting (which is also known as new business) is a process of assessing and classifying the degree of risk represented by a prospective client and making a decision to accept or decline the insured. The world of electronic collaboration is developing rapidly, introducing new technology and new ways of collaboration. The success of collaboration often depends on the ability of a corporation not only to make sure that their applications are dynamic, but also to maintain a high degree of interoperability with collaboration partners. In this paper, we present an Alert-enhanced Underwriting System (AUS) as a collaboration platform for streamlining the workflow of insurance underwriting processes. AUS makes use of an Event-Condition-Action (ECA) collaboration model [13] to manage event handling, process integration, and alert/exception management for the process flow of the underwriting operations. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses some related work and background requirements. Section 3 describes system design and implementation for our AUS. Section 4 concludes our paper with our continue research work that look forwards to possible enhancements. 2. Background and Related Work Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) essentially defined the technology of electronic collaboration in the past. However, EDI is an expensive solution, due to its high cost of network infrastructure and system integration. In addition, security issues of EDI also limited corporations from directly accessing the computing resources of its trading partners, which used firewall-unfriendly protocols. Therefore, developers start to find other technologies which have a low cost, flexible software solution that allows corporations to build new applications in response to changing business needs while adhering to a defined electronic business standard [10]. Recently, numerous vendors have offered solutions to support both XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and EDI formats for collaboration. One of the solutions is the transformation of information between companies: XML-to-EDI. Transformation is critical to an edge integration strategy that brings together B2B collaboration and enterprise application at the boundary of an enterprise in order to enable the back-end connectivity and workflow required to support a complete business process [11]. In the XML world, e-Business XML (ebXML) [12] is a modular suite of specifications which are initiatively designed for electronic interoperability. The strength of the ebXML architecture is that it provides a framework for electronic business collaboration. The architecture enables businesses to work together to specify business process, discover one another, negotiate collaboration agreements, and execute business processes. However, although ebXML implementations are already being announced, the rate of deployment of ebXML is not quickly accelerated. Many companies are taking a wait-and-see approach until ebXML becomes a mainstream in the market. 2.1. Key Processes and Integration Figure 1 illustrates a typical underwriting process, which usually consists of the following four key activities: Performing field underwriting, Reviewing the application for insurance, Gathering additional information to make a sound decision, and Making an underwriting decision on the case [3] However, before a new case is sent to an underwriter for processing, there are other activities involved: Packing application forms and other documents from the agent Initial premium payment through the cashier entry system Data entry of new application in a branch or zone office Scanning documents into images for workflow processing Quality Check (QC) and Indexing on the scanned documents Release of the validated and scanned documents images into workflow engine for further processing In the traditional way of performing the activities 1 to 5 without any automation processes, it incurs high cost in human resource, storage cost, and paper work, together with a high turnaround time. That means it causes the underwriter to spend a long time to handle a new application. This affects the insurance companys reputation and may further induces financial losses or even legal penalties. With the advent of information technology, most of the above activities are linked together to streamline the workflow for processing a new business, starting from receiving documents from an agent, ending at the underwriter getting the case from workflow system and issuing new policy if approved. Some benefits accrued to the business for automating the entire underwriting processes: Improvement of the service quality (such as turnaround time) Reduce of the risk of losing submitted documents during delivery Transfer of applications to the next step of the process immediately Better control of risk management such that some cases (i.e., excess of coverage limit) can only be approved by senior underwriters The key integration of the processes between the agents and the underwriters are as follows. Images and Data Transfer Process This activity is an automated process and does not involve any manual operation unless the sub-system is down or errors / inconsistency occurred during the transfer. The purpose of this process is to transfer the scanned images and indexed data from a branch or zone office to the central office for importing into the workflow system. If the network linkage between a branch or zone office and the central office is a private connection (i.e., leased line), the operation is just a simple transfer of document images into the file server in the central office with an XML file including all the indexed data. If the network connection between both sides is public (i.e., the Internet) and it is not a Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection, then the interactions require other security measures as described in later sections. Import Robot and Workflow Engine They are located at the central office of an insurance company. The engine waits for the image files and XML data to be uploaded from the branch or zone office and verify the XML data integrity with the appropriate XML Schema. The imported document images and indexed data are installed into the existing workflow routing engine for case assignment to appropriate underwriters for further case approval. 2.2. Requirements Overview of Stakeholders In automated underwriting processes architecture, a workflow engine (e.g., eistream [9]) is deployed at the central office. This engine can efficiently route job assignments to appropriate underwriters. The processing performed with the workflow engine is usually referred to as post-processing of the workflow. There are many pre-processing activities, which must be completed before those new insurance applications can be imported into the workflow engine for further underwriting. Figure 2 depicts a use case diagram of the underwriting process. The key stakeholders involved are discussed as follows. Agent He/she is an authorized representative to sell insurance products on behalf of an insurance company. The agents have the responsibilities to perform a simple check first by gathering initial information about prospective clients and screening applications who have requested coverage [4]. They have to gather required documents (such as health certificate) from the prospective client in order to speed up the underwriting process. Email access or Internet portal are the prompt means for agents to communicate with an insurance company. Cashier Entry For a new application of life insurance, the prospect client is required to pay the initial premium in the form of cash or check. The amount of premium is also dependent on the payment mode of the proposed policy. The agent has to submit the initial premium with the application. The cashier entry will collect the initial premium and put a premium receipt record in a Premium Collection System. The Cashier Entry also files the application forms and documents for data entry. Data Entry A user in branch/zone office enters the information recorded on the application form, such as the policy owner information, proposed insured information or medical information, etc., into the underwriting front-end input system. Scanning Officer When a scanning officer receives the documents, including application form, from an agent, he/she will try to sort and classify the documents into different document types (such as health certificates, identity proofs), and then scan them into images for auditable backup as well as indexing and quality check (QC). The application form is scanned just for auditable backup because the data has already been entered. Index and QC Officer After the submitted documents have been scanned into images, the index and QC officers (it may involve two individuals) will try to index the fields on several regions of a scanned image and save the indexed data into the database, so that the indexed data can be adhered with the corresponding images and imported into the workflow system. If the index officer discovers that the image quality of scanned document is not good, the document must be rescanned until the image quality of the document is acceptable for indexing. Underwriter An underwriter is assigned with a case (new or pending case) by the workflow engine. The underwriter carries out an assessment process by considering the submitted documentations, medical information, other personal factors like age, driving history, tobacco use, career nature, and financial factors of the potential client, etc. Then, the underwriter will determine whether the application is approved, pended for additional proofs or documentation, counter-offered to the applicant, or rejected. 2.3. Alert and Exception Handling Although most of the activities starting from submitting documents in branch or zone office to the back-end underwriting processes are automated, there are still many events, both business-oriented and technology-oriented, must be handled in order to streamline and speed up the entire underwriting process. Exceptions are events that can drive not only reactions performed by business parties [6], but also information exchanged within an organization, across physical boundaries (e.g., departments located in different geographical areas) or within (e.g., underwriting department and printing service department located in the same building) individual organizational boundary. In order to handle the exceptions and monitor the exception handling process, (especially those important and / or with urgency requirements), Chiu et al. [6] proposed the use of alerts to model and implement this. The key differences between alerts and exceptions are that alerts represents messages sent to a target, usually with time and urgency constraints, and that alerts are monitored and tracked. That means, to handle an exception, an Alert Management System (AMS) sends an alert message to a handler (human or system) and keeps track of the process until the handling job is finished. In this application, the main objective of applying alerts is the concern about the turnaround time in the insurance application process. Some key exceptions and alerts generated by the main stakeholders are listed as follows. Agent Cancellation of an insurance application can trigger an alert to the central office so that the workflow system can change the application status (if it has been imported into workflow engine) into pending status and no more human resource will be wasted on this application. The application will ultimately be cancelled after the cancellation form is scanned and imported into the workflow system. The AMS can therefore make sure that the case is closed within a reasonable time limit. Cashier Entry An alert can be generated when the agent submits an initial premium payment for the new applicant but only part of initial premium has been settled. The alert can notify the central office underwriter to solve the application case if the case has been pended for the reason of insufficient premium. Scanning Officer Exceptions can be generated if the agent submits unknown type of documents or forms. If the workflow automation system does not know how to handle the unknown type documents or forms, then unknown document alert can notify the corresponding agent about this issue and urge him/her to fix this within a certain period. Index and QC Officer A Document Rescan alert can be generated to the scanning officer if the index officer finds the document image quality is too poor to be indexed. A QC officer can also generate a Reindex alert if he/she found that an index officer did not correctly index the fields on document images. QC officer can also trigger Document Rescan alert if he/she found the quality of document image is unacceptable even the index officer has accepted the quality of document image. Underwriter An Insufficient Initial Premium alert can be generated so that the agent can be notified that the initial premium must be settled before the policy can be issued even all the underwriting checks are passed for the case. This situation may occur when the client paid the initial premium with check but the check could not be cleared. On the other hand, exceptions and alerts can be generated by automated processes, such as the following: Images and Data Transfer Process A Transfer exception can be triggered if the transfer process of images and XML data to the central office file server is not completed or failed/aborted at some points (because of the stability of network connection). An alert can then notify the MIS staff in the branch or zone office to investigate the root cause of transfer failure and resume the transfer process as soon as possible. An alert can be triggered after the transfer process of the branch or zone office is completed successfully, so that the import robot resided on the workflow engine can start the data verification process and import the images and data into workflow system. This helps to shorten the total time for processing of new applications and monitor pending cases. Import Robot and Workflow Engine A Data Inconsistency alert is sent to the agent if the import robot checks that the XML data uploaded from the branch or zone office contains inconsistency after validating with XML schema. This alert urges the agent to repeat or fix the images and data upload process. Workflow Engine An Application Pending alert is triggered to the agent who submitted an application for his/her client when the underwriter changes the new application status to pending because additional documentation is required. This alert urges the agent to contact its customer for the relevant documents before he receives an official document request letter from the insurance company, as applicants may need time to present documents, like health certificates or financial statements issued by banks. 2.4. Relationship management requirements Alerts and exceptions are not only dedicated to handling abnormal or unexpected events. These can be used to enhance the relationship between insurance company and potential customers (B2C). For example: Applicants can be notified by email with the progress of its life insurance application. On the other hand, the agent can contact his applicants promptly after he receives an acknowledgement email. Reminder alerts can be sent to the agent in the form of SMS to remind him/her to contact his/her applicant to collect required additional documents to process a pending application. This helps reduce the risk of insurance application being cancelled after an application has been pending for some time. This is because the customer may not know that insurance company requests more additional documents from him in case the agent does not contact him. This also reduces the chance of giving a negative image to the potential customers of poor services. 3. System Design and Implementation In this section, we present the system design and implementation for our AUS, which includes the system architecture, various system components, Web services security, and an example scenario. 3.1. System Architecture Figure 3 shows the overall system architecture for our AUS. We add on top of the existing enterprise information systems four main components in the backend AUS: Web Services Agent, Message Server, Alert Management System (AMS), and Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules database that defines the actions to be triggered under some predefined conditions. We discuss the functionalities of these components in the following subsections. One of the main problems in the current process automation is the effectiveness of communication among different stakeholders and systems involved in the entire process of underwriting. Based on the above discussions, we design an AUS based on exceptions and alerts as the unifying communication platform within the entire underwriting processes. On this platform, we choose to use Web Services with SOAP protocol for the communication and Message Server (such as Microsoft MSMQ [8]) for the underlying message (exceptions and alerts) processing. The reasons why we choose Web services with SOAP protocol in our platform are as follows: Web services can be invoked over the Internet or intranet, within or outside the firewall. For example, some processes like document scanning or image indexing may be located in the central office or outsourced to other service providers. Less development time is required to deploy Web service features from existing application, especially with the tools and libraries provided. It supports synchronous (RPC) and asynchronous messaging. SOAP has been implemented on many different hardware and software platforms. SOAP can be protected under the Web Service security [7] standard. 3.2. Web Services Agent In our system, Web services technology is chosen to support the communication between the AUS backend systems and other front-end, sub-systems in branches and zone offices, as well as external agents and clients. The Web Services Agent transforms the incoming messages, which are in the form of XML data embedded in SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) [14], into native message formats that can be sent into the queues of the central message server. The Web Services Agent also transforms the alerts and exceptions from the form of native message format into the XML/SOAP format and uses HTTP protocol to send the XML message to the branch/zone offices systems through respective Web services. A sample SOAP messages from a client system is shown in Figure 4. This message describes the indexed data and images to be uploaded to the file server in the insurance headquarter after scanning operations have been performed on the submitted documents in branch and zone offices. Figure 5 shows a response message from the AUS that describes an alert from the Transfer Module in a branch or zone office and notifies the MIS staff to handle the exception. 3.3. Message Server The message server comprises of application queues and system queues and the server manages the received data (i.e., incoming XML/SOAP messages, internal MSMQ messages from other enterprise systems, and alert messages from the AMS and routes the messages to the target (subscribed) parties. For example, when the Transfer Module sends a Web service message to the AUS, the message is put into two waiting queues: one for the Import Robot and another for the AMS (so that the AMS can monitor the progress of the Import Robot). When the Import Robot has verified the integrity of uploaded data and images, it sends a message to inform the AMS of job completion, or a Data Inconsistency alert in case of data inconsistency. These messages triggers events so that the AMS issues new alert/exception messages upon on the conditions in the event repository database to related parties for further actions (as discussed in Section 2.3) based on the ECA rules defined by the administrators. The reasons why we choose the Message Server as a core component in managing data communication are as follows: Most of the message servers support Web service functionality. Message servers support guaranteed message delivery. Asynchronous message communication as well as publish-and-subscribe can be supported. 3.4. Alert Management System (AMS) The main role of the AMS is to manage the alerts. It also captures the events and exceptions (i.e., MSMQ native message format) submitted by other parties. Alerts are generated based on the ECA rules specified in database to the appropriate parties. It further transforms the alerts into a MSMQ message and put it on the waiting queue for Web Services Agent for the delivery. Further details of the mechanism of the AMS, including descriptions of the ECA rules, can be found in our earlier paper [6]. We apply the same AMS module except that we include a message server component to further increase the messaging reliability. 3.5. Example Scenario In this subsection, we use a scenario to illustrate the system flow in our AUS. Figure 6 depicts the process flow for this scenario. First, a Scan Station prepares a XML data file which contains the policy number and other indexed data for the scanned documents. When the XML file is ready, the Transfer Module uploads the XML file and document image files into the central file server. Upon completion, the Transfer Module generates a SOAP message, which details the uploaded data to Web Services Agent in order to notify the Import Robot to verify the integrity of uploaded data and images. After the verification, the Import Robot generates the verification result event and the AMS captures the data uploaded event from the Transfer Module together with the event generated by the Import Robot, and returns the appropriate events back to the Scan Station and Scan Officer based on ECA rules processing. 3.6. Web Service Security Web services integrate applications inside and outside the organization. However, distributed computing always has a challenging set of security issues. Identities and messages are two of the greatest security challenges brought on by Web services. Web services transport potential unknown entities into your organization and messages are transported from one place to another place through an unsecured channel, the Internet. Therefore, actions must be taken to safeguard the information exchanged among the authenticated parties. XML Encryption and XML Signature are used to address the protection of sensitive data and the identification of identity of data sender respectively [15]. Figure 7 shows an unprotected SOAP message that contains payment information for an insurance policy. Figure 8 shows how encrypted messages and signature are put in a SOAP envelop. The element block contains the encrypted form of payment information. The element contains the XML signature for payment data. In general, a shared key must be provided so that receiver of the messages can decrypt the protected data. However, it is a bad idea to include the key in the SOAP message (i.e., the element block) because unauthorized parties could just get the key and decrypt the protected data. AgreementMethod is a protocol for safely communicating a secret key. This key agreement protocol, like the SSL secret key agreement protocol, is used to generate the encryption key along with the key material necessary to repeat the encryption key generation on the recipients side [15]. 4. Discussion and Summary Process automation by integrating existing enterprise information systems with workflow software has proved to increase the staff productivity, thus turns out to generate more business values in terms of more revenue and less expenditure. However, if the process flow within a business workflow from one step to next step is not smoothly executed (e.g., failure of transferring complete XML data to workflow engine and servers but no further resend action is done), then the next step may not be able to proceed until the problem is detected and fixed. This kind of situations significantly wastes human resource and time and should are not expected to occur in automated processes. Therefore, by integrating the AUS with the existing workflow infra-structures can bring the workflow automation into full play because the errors or unexpected events can be detected and relevant parties or processes are notified with alerts to rectify the problems. The following tangible benefits can be achieved with the AUS, mainly through the enhanced monitoring and tracking through the AMS with a service-oriented architecture. For example, the turnaround time taken to rescan documents, which have been identified as poorly scanned, is shortened. If the scanning officer is not notified properly, the poorly scanned document will probably be rescanned after the scanning officer triggers to print out a report on listing those document rescan requests, thus resulting in longer processing time in some cases. This benefit is also applicable to the process of Document Reindex for the index officers. Moreover, the AUS helps maintain data integrity in uploading data into the centralized file server. If the XML data is inconsistent and the import robot still proceeds to import the inconsistent data into workflow engine, it will result in unexpected or serious consequences. The consequences may be a delay in processing applications or even a wrongly underwritten insurance application that could put financial risk to insurance company. On the other hand, more attributes can be added to measure staff performance. Since the alerts generated to officers and agents are monitored by the AMS, the time spent on handling the exceptions and alerts can be calculated based on the time recorded in database. For example, if a scanning officer receives a document rescan alert, then he must rescan the requested documents and relevant records within the document update time. The performance is logged into database and reports for staff can include this kind of attributes to measure the staff performance. So, the workload on investigating problems related to the entire operation flow can be reduced as detailed information about the problems can be found from the exceptions and alerts well managed by the AMS of the AUS. In addition, the following intangible benefit can be achieved with the AUS. Customer satisfaction can be improved. The document processing and flow are smoothly controlled and executed. This can shorten the entire processing time for new case applications and thus result in issuing and sending policy to policy owner within a shorter period of time. This can enhance the insurance companys professional image as well because the short processing time of new insurance application can impress its customers and improve the customers confidence in insurance company. This might led to more business opportunities in the future. This paper has presented an overview of underwriting process in an insurance company and the automated facilities incorporated into the underwriting process to drive the entire underwriting. A Web-service based alert-enhanced underwriting system has been presented in this paper to overcome most of the existing problems of the underwriting process workflow implementation. We expect this approach is suitable to other business processes that involve human approval together with the need for maintaining documents for auditing and legal purposes, such as loan and credit card approval. After finishing the AUS platform prototype, we shall then proceed to study the benefits of adopting the platform in existing workflow infra-structures in the insurance companys perspective through questionnaires to collect user feedback. Although the proposed platform obviously facilitates the handling of most problems or events in the process flow of underwriting, there are still some unexpected events that are hardly to be detected or tracked. Further studies should be carried out on this topic. Future works include the extension of AUS platform to support artificial intelligence in handling the exception events as well as agent-based assistance to internal staff and external users. We are also interested in empirical measurements of the improvement of staff performance and customer satisfaction. References Miriam Orsina, Gene Stone, Insurance Company Operations (2nd Ed), pp.3, LOMA, 1999 Harriett E. Jones, Dani L. Long, Principles of Insurance: Life, Health and Annuities (2nd Ed), pp. 8, LOMA, 1999 Jane Lightcap Brown, Kristen L. Falk, Insurance Administration, (2nd Ed), pp. 22, LOMA, 2002 Jane Lightcap Brown, Kristen L. Falk, Insurance Administration, (2nd Ed), pp. 67, LOMA, 2002 Miriam Orsina, Gene Stone, Insurance Company Operations (2nd Ed), pp.243

Marketing Management Assignment At Tescos Business Commerce Essay

Marketing Management Assignment At Tescos Business Commerce Essay The biggest private supermarket Tesco has more than 360000 employees all over the world .More than 80% of total sales are from England. Tesco runs more than 2,300 supermarkets, hypermarkets, and convenience stores in the UK. Tesco is the market leader in grocery. Tesco also provides the facilities of online market. They are promotion their business with the help of television and other retail based education centre. Tesco operates more than 10 countries including Korea ,China and Japan .They have recently opened their branches in Us .They have expanded their market in four kind of storage range which are Tesco metro which is established in big city and town. Where we can buy a lot of food items. Tesco super store, which is wide range of non- food items Tesco extra is generally food and non food items including the seasonal items. Now days, Tesco is a market leader in UK supermarket sector. Tesco express has located small areas where we can buy fresh local food. Swot analysis Swot analysis is the most important and first stage of planning. It is a feedback mechanism to make new strategies for any organisation. Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats are the four components of a swot analysis. Weaknesses and Strengths are correlated and examine the internal part of the business analysis whereas Opportunities and Threats deal with the external environment of business operation. Weaknesses and strengths refer to aspect of marketing, finance, manufacturing or organisational structure. Swot analysis helps clarifies the objectives of the organisation. Strength of Tesco Good reputation among the costumer. Strong financial support. Good and healthy environment and low cost policy. Awareness of brand. Global market and same production but different quality base on diversity stake holders. Global leader in online grocery sales. Diverse range product and 24 hour open. On line shopping and Diversification Weakness of Tesco International brand and local competitors. Lack of enough self services. Lack of experiences on local market. Not good location. Lack of good quality. Opportunities of Tesco A strong customer demand and good services. Arrival of new technologies. International expansion. Increases stakeholders and globalizations market.. Low cost market. Threats of Tesco Strong competitive market. New regulations and increased trade barrier. High Competition for customers and resources. Changing social trends. Marketing Objective of Tesco The biggest supermarkets might have the following objectives. More than 20% target in market share. More than 10% target in terms of operations margin. Customer sponsorship and encouragements. Employee motivation and performance management. Respected corporation(the number of stakeholders who respect Tesco) Tesco manager must ensure that its sets SMART marketing objectives, which are measurable, timely limited, attainable and relevant. Marketing Strategy of Tesco After the market research Tesco manager applied retail strategy to find who their customers are in each market and what they want now and in the future. Tesco execute all the retail process system and trade system of government that enables them to express to the customer. Tesco manager wants to find out the customer needs and satisfaction and he give it to them. Tesco manager helped to extend a succession of supermarket from being an unbeneficial also ran to being market leader with a 33% market share and a 4% base line. Tesco manager keep together teams of consultant that had developed all the strategies that Tesco and the worldwide leading retailers supermarkets. Tesco flow the retail strategy into their market to find out who their customers are, what they want, but above all can actually deliver consistently to the customer. . Tesco has a clear strategy, with growth being pursue from four areas; The core UK grocery business, Non-food, International expansion and Retailing services such as financial services packages. Essentially, Tesco is using its heavy firm core to maintain the business instant over as it forge new riskier areas of growth. Pushing further into non-food in the next phase Lidl and Aldi are currently destroying the bazaar by selling the products lower cost price. Therefore, Tescos basic strategy will have to be cost leadership, unless Tesco manager can successfully differentiate their line of clothing so that they can charge a premium price. Tesco have adopted an environmental open policy. It will assist them to attain a more environmentally conscious representation .They have continued to lower prices and raise their manufactured goods ranges year on year. That is an example of Tesco cost-leadership strategy as well as capability to lock in customers any marketing strategy will involve analysing the markets, customer needs and satisfaction, and which products to offer. These strategies are implemented through marketing plans, which involve detailed decisions about factors such as the price and the way of product distributed. So Tesco must decide on its model of entry in terms of, own stores, Internet selling or joint venture with an existing national retailer. Strategic Analysis of Tesco Tesco managers face so many obstacles in trying to find out the environments and its threats. First obstacle is environment of Tesco. Environment creates many different influences and it makes sense of this diversity in a way which is direct concern and contributes to make strategy decision. The second difficult is changing new technology and speed of global communication, for analysing the environment we have to auditing the environmental influence on business. It is important that what kind of environment influence have been face in past. And the extent to which can make only of these more or less significant in the future for any employers and their competitors. In past analysis we have to analyze its factor and influence on an organization. Such kind of influence is a growing trend of organization towards globalisation and possible future of organization. It helps to consider the existing strategic which might need to change. Pest analysis Political/legal Political factors can have a direct impact on the way business operation. In political factors includes governments regulations and legal issues which defined formal and informal rules Governments tax policy. Health and safety law. New governments law and policy. Political situation and governments stability. Employment law, politician trade and labour union. Economic factors It is true that all business is affected by economic factors of country. Economics factors affected the purchasing power of customers. Per -Capita income and interest rate. Trade union and economic condition of nation. Government lone, money supply interest rates. Economic crisis. Unemployment rate of country. 3) Socio cultural factors Social factors include the demographic and cultural aspects. Social factors direct affected customer and needs and size of customer in potential markets Mobility of society. New remarkable change in human life style. Education level and different culture and society. Different attitudes and social trends. Social transfer, Tradition perception and new globalization world. 4) Technological New changeable technology is being more challenging for any organisations and it is changing the way business operates. Some technological factors that direct related to Tesco are: The rate of changing technology. New scientific attitude and miss use. Nuclear innovation, its fear and effect on globalization market. The Rates of obsolescence and Government investment and focus on technology effort. In 2008 Update on Tesco UK Online Market Share was: Tesco 27.1% Asda 10.1% Aldi (which doesnt sell online) 9.5% Sainsburys 6.9% Waitrose / Ocado on 4.2% The above table shows that Tesco is more successful and market leaders organization in UK (in terms of market share) Business scorecard of Tesco We can define the business scorecard as performance management tool, which began as a concept for determine whether the first scale outcomes in terms of Tesco vision and strategy. It helps to Tesco for define the value, mission and SWOT analysis. The business scorecard is base on for perspective; Financial status of the Tesco. The internal process of the Tesco. The level of customer satisfaction of Tesco. Education and development process of Tesco. The main area of financial perspective is return on investment, cash flow, return on capital employees and financial results of Tesco. Internal business process shows that number of activities per function, duplicate activities across function, process arrangement and process bottlenecks. In customer satisfaction level we can define quality and delivery performance to customer, customer satisfaction and retention rate and customer overflow in market. Job satisfaction, employee turnover, learning opportunities and accurate level of skill for the job are the area of education and development process. The implementation of business scorecards The business scorecard must consequence in: Enhanced process of Tesco. Encouraged workers. Improved information system. Monitored development. Huge customer approval. Improved monetary convention. l l Conclusion Any marketing strategy will involve analysing the markets, customer needs and satisfaction, and which products to offer. These strategies are implemented through marketing plans, which involve detailed decisions about factors such as the price and the way of product distributed. So Tesco must decide on its model of entry in terms of, own stores, Internet selling or joint venture with an existing national retailer Tesco is the marker leader in food retail on the current market situation. It more than 2000 supermarket, hypermarkets and convenience store in the UK, Ireland, central Europe and Asia. The objective vision and strategy of Tesco are cleared. Especially the case study is focus on Tesco strategy and its business scorecard, which determine the performance management tools. Business scorecard helps to Tesco for define the value and its four prospective. Tesco has the different marketing strategy; Tescos basic strategy will have to be cot leadership and growth. Tesco want to be a bet supermarket in its stakeholder perception so it complies with law and ethnical standard. Tesco maintain clean organized culture and respect to customers. We can found that Tesco plc marketing strategy is different and sample then other local supermarkets. They flow different policy and management process in each store.

La Vida de un Imigrante :: essays research papers

La Vida de un Imigrante   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  La dificultad de la vida de un imigrante es inmensa. Las razones por la cual migren pueden ser por mejorar su situatcià ³n social, econà ³mica, 'o acadà ©mica. Nunca es fà ¡cil adaptarse a otro sistema cultural. El Lenguaje y la forma de vida son algunas transecciones que es necesario hacer.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Alberto es uno de los muchos Dominicanos que deciden migrar a los Estados Unidos. Su situacià ³n en la Repà ºblica Dominicana era muy desgradable, y la paciencia de esperar por sus papeles fueron disminuyendo. Con esto en mente el decide hacer en viaje a Puerto Rico por via del canal de la Mona. Para muchos Dominicanos esto significa la mitad del camino. Al estar en la isla de Puero Rico el esperava movimiento del mercado bajo para papeles 'o matrimonio para la misma razà ³n. Despuà ©s de sietà © mesà ©s Alberto llegà ³ ha los Estados Unidà ³s con papeles ilegales.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Su vida aquà ­ le a salido muy difà ­cil. Su mayor problema ha sido conseguir trabajo. La situacià ³n de empleo en este paà ­s esta en malos momentos, pero para un imigrante es el doble de peor. El no puede conseguir un trabsjo que no seà ¡ en una factoria 'o de limpeza. La razà ³n principal es porque no domina el Inglà ©s al nivel que hay que diminarlo.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Su dominià ³ del Inglà ©s es su segundo problema. No solà ³ lo impidà © en obtener empleo, pero tambien de conozer otras personas en genà ©ral. El me decà ­a que el se desesperaba, pero no se volvà ­a loco. La mayorà ­a del tiempo se la pasaba en the computadora, y viendo la televicià ³n. Con el tiempo encontro refugio en su familia, pero todavà ­a despuà ©s de tanto tiempo sin salir, el se sentà ­a aislado.

My Future in The Intelligence Community of the U.S. Navy Essay

Introduction As a student and a midshipman at University, my college life has been divided into two responsibilities; one, being a student majoring in Mathematics and two, a midshipman training to become an officer in the U.S. Navy. During my freshman year here in University, having these two roles put me in a very difficult situation. It was difficult, in the beginning, because I was torn between wanting to become a Mathematics teacher someday and wanting to be a part of the military. However, after three years of training and learning more about the military, it became easier for me to decide as to where I want to be; and that is, to serve in the military. The more I learn about the U.S. Navy, the more I want to become a part of it. There are many different communities in the Navy, and the community that I am hoping to become a part of is the intelligence community. Technology and Intelligence Community of the U.S. Navy Technology plays a big role in the military. One of the primary reasons technology changed and became so advanced in the military, nowadays, is because of the role that the wars played in the past and the tragic events that have occurred recently such as the attacks in 2001. Wars in the past changed the military’s technology because the military had to adapt and learn from the mistakes from the past to find better ways to protect the nation’s and everyone’s safety. For instance, during the War of 1812, the U.S. Navy used certain technological advances that made it difficult for the Royal Navy to attack. ("War of 1812:," ). â€Å"In the 200 years since the war of 1812, technological innovation has been an essential component in the ships, aircraft, sensors, and weapons that have contributed to victories by America... ...sourcing affect workforce stability. Retrieved from http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/templates/Signal_Article_Template.asp?articleid=1440&zoneid=222 Pappas, A., & Simon, J. (June). Central intelligence agency. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article05.html Stanovov, A. (2010, May 05). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20100505/158882709.html War of 1812: The navy & technology. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://ourflagwasstillthere.org/why-commemorate/the-navy-a-technology.html Image/Video (2010). Navy reserve intelligence officer. (2010). [Web Video]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEW2EVFrtec (n.d.). WWII: The war that changed the world. [Web Photo]. Retrieved from http://en.rian.ru/images/15888/28/158882814.jpg

Heinz Case Study

Company made a corporate move that framed the course of their future business model. In order to increase their competitiveness, Heinz had to come up with a business strategy that would rival competitors. According to the case study, the dominant corporate strategy has been Identified as a directional strategy, which was based on analyzing the company's orientation toward growth. It was noted that the company needed to: 1) cut back on operations by simplifying their business model, 2) diversify the business to increase growth, and 3) grow nationally and globally through a merger which would also reduce debt.The first step in the strategy included streamlining their product selection which would refocus the company's business model, while also offering more flexibility. Heinz had decided to allow their two main food platforms to be the highlight of the company: meal enhancers (which included condiments of all types) and meal and snacks (including frozen and shelf-stable goods and the same made for the food service industry). In doing so, they could focus more attention to detail on their successful products such as packaging and quality, Instead of spreading themselves thin by splitting powerless with struggling products and brands.The second strategy Included Increasing growth by diversifying business. Heinz did so by engaging In concentric diversification with the Del Monte Company. By creating a synergistic relationship with a like-minded food company, Heinz was able to take stock of their product lines, figure out strengths and weakness of each, and identify which of the products would benefit from a strategic fit with Del Mote's input regarding approach and knowledge in production, marketing and/or sales. This allowed both companies to converge, growing both individually and together, thereby increasing profits and company growth.In fact, it was expected that as Whine's revenue increased by twenty percent, Del Mote's company would double in size. Lastly, th e business merger of Heinz with Del Monte Foods has not only Increased wealth, but It has reduced the debt. By allowing Its shareholders to assume a 0. 45 share of stock In Del Monte for every share that they owned In Heinz, this also allowed Del Monte to acquire twenty percent of Whine's debt. This essentially made those shareholders the majority owners in the new Del Monte. Additionally, more debt was alleviated when Heinz was able to condense dividends by thirty-three recent, which generated extra monetary flow.By 2004, Heinz was able to change its organizational structure which showcased its horizontal growth. They were able to venture into new markets through their band acquisitions from Del Monte, and created a strong presence in the following markets: North America, U. S. Foddering, Europe, Asia/Pacific, and smaller markets in Latin America, Africa, India, and the Middle East. Across the board, this resulted in profitable diversification In revenue. The appropriateness of thi s directional strategy seems to have worked In the Heinz Company's favor.Instead of continuing to be weighed down by debt, and an over-bloated portfolio of products (all of which were not profitable), the merger helped to alleviate most of the problems. If they had chose to only focus on a of debt acquired by Del Monte. Also by not choosing a parenting strategy, they allowed for more of a partnership between companies instead of a one holding more power than the other. The directional strategy seemed to offer the best combination (portfolio attention and a synergy relationship) of the latter two strategies, which worked best for the goals that Heinz Company had in mind for their own personal growth.