Film Comparison Battle of Algiers and Culloden - 968 Words

Many films based on historical events set out to not only inform the viewer of the details surrounding that event but also provide them with the feeling of being a part of it. Directors often accomplish this by using such techniques as character development and narration; as a result they provide an insight into what many of the characters are personally experiencing. While both films, Battle of Algiers (Igor Film, 1966) and Culloden (BBC, 1964) explore themes of European Colonialism and the resistance to end it, the films address these issues using differing methodologies. The purpose of my paper will be to discuss these similarities and differences to provide the reader with an understanding of the various approaches the directors have taken in portraying similar themes. Gillo Pontecorvo, director of Battle of Algiers was an Italian filmmaker who began his career as a photojournalist. During his time as a journalist he developed an understanding of the power that images can hold. Pontecorvo eventually transitioned to making documentaries focusing mainly on politically themed topics. It was during his time as a young documentary film maker that he began assistantships with other more established film directors; including Yves Allà ©gret whose claim to fame was creating noir style films. These differing film styles, to which Pontecorvo was exposed in his earlier life, are conveyed in many of his later works, including Battle of Algiers. Pontecorvo’s iconic work Battle

Moral Human Spiritual Values in Children - 1451 Words

Moral human spiritual values in Children Moral Versus Spiritual Values Scientific Achievements : As you know, in science we have made many extraordinary and incredible achievements. We have split the atom, and now we are trying to solve the microstructure of matter. In space, we have landed on the moon, and we have made space probes as far as the distant planet of our solar system. Through communication, we can watch the globe on the TV screen, and the television brings to us instant coverage and analysis of distant parts of the globe. In medicine, in the operating room, we are now transplanting a pulsating heart. Sixties and Hippieism : On the other hand, there are a few who would deny degradation, deterioration and the†¦show more content†¦Mencius stresses that if man’s nature, that is moral values, was left uncultivated, he would become like that of the animal. And Confucius believes that in conflict between reason and desire, the moral faculty should be arrayed on the side of the rational principles. Moral Values and a Compass : Moral values in our lives could be compared with a compass. As the compass directs the ship through the storm, at sea, moral values direct us through challenges in life. But why do people not like to follow their conscience and moral values? There are several reasons but perhaps the most important of all is a craving and a strong desire towards freedom without responsibilities. People throughout the world like freedom and they fight for it. They are against anything that would interfere with their sense of freedom. Uncontrolled Freedom : But according to one of famous eastern philosophers, uncontrolled freedom is of the animal. Because animals operate on instinct. They don’t have choices, therefore we cannot expect responsibility from them. 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Hierarchical Couplings in Management Control †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about the Hierarchical Couplings in Management Control. Answer: Introduction The performance and the change is the main factor for the success and development of the organization. There are various aspects, which results in the change in the organization and organization change will have to be implemented from the upper level to the lower level of the organization. There are lots of issues, which affect the production and operations of the organization and that is the sole reason that change management and development is required to mitigate these issues. When it is seen that the intensity and the frequency of the issue are increasing at a rapid rate then it can be considered that the change management and development is required to mitigate the in competencies in the organization (Hayes, 2014). The organization that has been chosen for the report will require a change in the process and structure of the organization. Therefore, due to the issues in the change management there is a need for amendment in the organizational structure and process. However, the i nternal and external problems can give rise to the problems in the change management process. In this current study, the problems in change management process are developed from the internal problems, which are developed from the various incompetence and the structure of the organization. This report will deal with the case study of B. R. Richardson Timber Products Corporation where the issues in the change management has been identified and analyzed to find out the suitable solution for managing change(Doppelt, 2017). The case study has been critically analyzed to identify the issues in change management in the organization named B. R. Richardson Timber Products Corporation. There are some major issues related to the structure and the business processes of the organization, which has affected the people, and the operations of the organization. Although there are many problems in the organization, the following major issues that need immediate attention has been identified. As communication is considered to be one of the major factors for success in organization, B. R. Richardson Timber Products Corporation is facing many issues in this aspect. Established lines of communication assist the organization to convey their goals and the objectives to their respective employees, which will help in aligning the goals of the organization with that of the personal goals of the employees. However, in this scenario there is a big gap in the communication, which has led to problems such as overtime issues and payment issues (Yousif et al., 2017). Communication is essential for effectively managing change processes as the employees can only be engaged by presenting the need and logic behind the change initiative. Moreover, the change management plan of action should be developed to execute the plan succesfully. Job satisfaction The analysis of the case study shows that the employees of the organization are not pleased with the job and management of the organization. The employees have made complaints about their job satisfaction and the management of the organization (Yousef, 2017). There is vagueness in the management, which has led to the lack in satisfaction regarding their job. Motivation and job satisfaction is an important factor for improving the employee turnover of the organization. The employees in B. R. Richardson Timber Products Corporation are not satisfied with their job profile and the management of the organization. This has increased the attrition rate of the employees in the organization (Li et al., 2016). This is affecting the entire workforce of the organization and at the same time is increasing the cost in the cost structure of the organization. Thus, it is affecting the overall reputation of the organization and hampering the performance. The case study has provided with instances, which shows that the organization is facing problems with the health and safety of the employees in the organization. The case study highlights that the organization is using poor health and safety standards in the organization. The management of the organization is not complying with the required health and safety guidelines (Sivakarthigeyan et al., 2016). It is seen that there are large number of employees in the organization with back pain, broken fingers and other disabilities, which is the result of several accidents in the workplace. The management of the organization has ignored such serious issues which is a creating a negative image of the organization among the employees. Available Interventions in the Organization The intervention in the organization includes the implementation of the organized and planned activities to change the current activities and policies of the organization. The change development is entailed by the external consultants to propose the necessary changes and plans in the organization. The interventions that are available in the organization will assist in change management and development of the organization (Cameron Green, 2015). The major thing that will change the overall organization is the strategic intervention and implementation of the change management will be done with the help of this strategic management practices. The strategic intervention will include data that will predict the future opportunities and present changes required in the various processes. The next intervention that should be used by the organization is conducting of meeting. The meeting between the management of the organization and the employees will enable to have a conversation and discuss the issues. This will help the management of the organization to identify and analyze the present issues in the organization operations and structure. The organization will be able to identify the needs of the employees, which would be useful for the change management policies. These interventions will be useful in transforming the organization so that they could address the issues that their workforce is facing to improve the performance of the organization. Selection of appropriate intervention There are various issues that have been mentioned in this report in the organization named B.R. Richardson Timber Products Corporation and the intervention will help in solving those issues so that the organization can perform in a better way. The intervention will help to amalgamate all the components of the policies, strategies and programs to transform the organization and mitigate all the issues faced by the organization. The interventions include better execution of the policies, improvements in the health and safety environments and educational programs (Goetsch Davis, 2014). This may also include health promotion campaigns for promoting the safety and health measures in the plant. There are lot of different kinds of issues in the organization so a single method will not be enough for transforming the organization so intervention which has multiple strategies have to be used. The multiple strategies are reliable and effective as it will help to transform the organization in a better way. These strategies will bring about a change in the organization which will last for a long time and will be able to make sure that the outcomes are positive and will help in maintaining the sustainability of the organization in an effective manner. The intervention is targeted to a large group of audience and this why various approaches are used to make effective contribution. Team building is an intervention, which should be used for the management of the processes and the people of the organization. The organization will be setting up a lamination plant, which should consist of proper infrastructure. The inspection plan shows that the plant was very noisy for the workforce and glue kept on dripping accompanied by the dust. Moreover, the aisles in the plant disappeared due to the pile of tools and dust. The cleanliness of the plant has never been maintained and the employees were provided less remuneration. Moreover, there were the safety and the health issues in the organization (Lozano, Ceulemans Seatter, 2015). These interventions will help to improve the skills and beliefs of the workforce by providing the employees with a social support. This will help in the formation of supportive environment which will enable to impro ve the coordination of the workforce so the desired strategy can be executed and achieved. The intervention will include programs which will be used for the development and bring about a change in the organization. The consultant and the client will have to collaborate to make sure that all the procedures of the organization changed according to their needs. This will help to maintain the consistency in the decision of the organization and will eventually help in the formation of an effective business model (Matos Marques Simoes Esposito, 2014). The intervention will help to improve the human resources of the organization; the policies will help in team building which will help to improve the motivation level and the performance of the organization. This will enable the overall transformation of the workforce and realization of the goals and objectives of the organization will become easier. This will create an organizational culture which motivated and is based on team bonding and activity. This would help in the better management of the people in the organization and wi ll focus on the various role of human resources in the organization. This would help the organization to gain more knowledge about the human resources which in turn will help in the improvement of the structure of the organization. The managers will be able to manage the task in a better way which will help in building a relationship with the teams and improve the processes in the organization. The intervention among the groups will help to coordinate the tasks which will help in the formation which help to improve the processes. Thus, the goals and objectives of the organization will be realized if they are able to work as a team. This intervention will help to manage and coordinate activities in the organization but it may give rise to issues such as conflicts which will lower the motivation level of the overall workforce. However, this intervention will help to improve the communication in the organization which will consist of a two-way communication system which will help to keep the goals and objectives of the organization in alignment (McCalman, Paton Siebert, 2016). This will also help to provide training to the human resources of the organization so that they can improve their skill level and at the same will help in growth of the workforce. This will help the workforce to perform in a better way and ensure that there will be no accidents in the plant. This will h elp in increasing the engagement of the employees in the organization which in turn will increase the motivation level of the employees. The responsibilities and roles of the employees will be clarified which will help in the smooth and the effective execution. Thus, the intervention related to team building and human resources will be the most appropriate and effective intervention. Necessary actions to implement the recommended strategy The strategies have been mentioned which will be used for change management and transform the organization in to something different. However, in order to fulfill the goals and objectives of the organization, various actions will have to be taken. The time scope of the organization will have to be realistic and feasible so that the implementation of the strategy is effective (Van der Kolk Schokker, 2016). The workforce and the management of the organization have to be aware of the changes that is being made and this will help in the effective and smooth execution of the processes. The business model will have to be integrated where continuous evaluation of the process will ensure that the organization so improvement in the organization is not stagnant. This will ensure that the organization is growing and improving their business model on a regular basis. A third party is required who will act as a mediator between the organization and the employees so that they can come to a consensus. This would create an effective workforce and coordinate the work among the people and the resources. Conclusion: Thus, it can be concluded that B.R. Richardson Timber Products Corporation was facing lot of issues in their organizational structure, structure and processes. However, the change management issues that has been mentioned if executed in an effective manner will be able to mitigate all the problems in the organization. The organization consists of interventions and other resources which can be used to bring about a transformation. Thus, the report effective suggest all the activities and strategies that will has to be applied to apply change management. however, there are certain issues which could arise due to these strategies so the organization will have to monitor all the processes effectively. References: Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications. Cameron, E., Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers. Chang, J. F. (2016). Business process management systems: strategy and implementation. CRC Press. Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, M., Hasan, N., Al Mamun, C. A., Hasan, M. N. (2017). Factors affecting employee turnover and sound retention strategies in business organization: a conceptual view. Clegg, S., de Matos, J. A. (Eds.). (2017). Sustainability and organizational change management. Routledge. Doppelt, B. (2017). Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for business, government and civil society. Routledge. Downes, P. E., Kristof-Brown, A. L., Judge, T. A., Darnold, T. C. (2017). Motivational Mechanisms of Self-Concordance Theory: Goal-Specific Efficacy and PersonOrganization Fit. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(2), 197-215. Goetsch, D. L., Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson. Hamraz, B., Caldwell, N. H., Clarkson, P. J. (2013). A holistic categorization framework for literature on engineering change management. Systems Engineering, 16(4), 473-505. Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan. King, R. (2016). Safety in the process industries. Elsevier. Li, J. J., Lee, T. W., Mitchell, T. R., Hom, P. W., Griffeth, R. W. (2016). The effects of proximal withdrawal states on job attitudes, job searching, intent to leave, and employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(10), 1436. Lozano, R., Ceulemans, K., Seatter, C. S. (2015). Teaching organisational change management for sustainability: designing and delivering a course at the University of Leeds to better prepare future sustainability change agents. Journal of Cleaner Production, 106, 205-215. Matos Marques Simoes, P., Esposito, M. (2014). Improving change management: How communication nature influences resistance to change. Journal of Management Development, 33(4), 324-341. McCalman, J., Paton, R. A., Siebert, S. (2016). Change management: a guide to effective implementation. Sage. Reason, J. (2016). Managing the risks of organizational accidents. Routledge. Schein, E. H. (2017). Organization development: A Jossey-Bass reader. John Wiley Sons. Sivakarthigeyan, J., Dheenathayalan, T., Srinivasan, P. S. S., Visagavel, K., Sakthivel, D. (2016). Occupational health and safety management in power plant construction. Advances in Natural and Applied Sciences, 10(9 SE), 62-66. Van der Kolk, B., Schokker, T. (2016). Strategy implementation through hierarchical couplings in a management control package: an explorative case study. Journal of Management Control, 27(2-3), 129-154. Yousef, D. A. (2017). Organizational Commitment, Job Satisfaction and Attitudes toward Organizational Change: A Study in the Local Government. International Journal of Public Administration, 40(1), 77-88. Yousif, L. M., Alsamahi, M. A., Alkaabi, W. R., Alnaqbi, W. A., Castillo, F. G. (2017). Communication barriers in a multi-diversified workplace: the case of Fujairah International airport. European journal of economics and management sciences, (2).

Marketing Management for Shoes of Prey-myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss aboutt theMarketing Management for Shoes of Prey. Answer: Targeting strategy of Mazda Mazda Australia is using differentiated targeting strategy for several market segments in order to attract the customers and fulfill their needs. For providing different models for psychographic and geo-demographic market segment in order to satisfy the wants of the customers in those segment, Mazda tailors its efforts of advertising in getting align with the local cultures (Hyun et al., 2015). Through this, the company makes sure that its customers are feeling familiar with its brand, establishing different stories through its localized commercial that is different in lifestyles, cultural assumptions and languages. Targeting strategy of Shoes of Prey The Shoes of Prey sees a lot of traction in the places where the people are particular and specific with their needs and those of their specific needs could either be a specific size or that of a foot. It might also be a specific occasion such as wedding. The Shoes of Prey takes this thing into its consideration. The customers of this company are mainly the people who generally love being able to gain what they exactly want. It is also disrupting the former retail model by giving the women an opportunity to design a product according to their needs online (Lapolla, 2014). References: Hyun, K. H., Lee, J. H., Kim, M., Cho, S. (2015). Style synthesis and analysis of car designs for style quantification based on product appearance similarities.Advanced Engineering Informatics,29(3), 483-494. Lapolla, K. (2014). ModCloth: A case study in co-creative branding strategies.Global Fashion Brands: Style, Luxury History,1(1), 85-102.

The Republic Of South Africafrica Essays - , Term Papers

The Republic Of South Africafrica The Republic of South Africa By John Wendell September 27, 2000 The Republic of South Africa has had an interesting history. The country gained it's independence from Great Britain on May 10, 1910. At that time the country was a struggling agricultural nation, and now it is a semi-industrialized nation. South Africa is slightly less than twice the size of Texas and has a population of 43,421,021 person, With about 15 million economically active in the work force, the unemployment rate is about 30%. The country started of as predominately agricultural with 1,219,912 sq. km of land. They use 67% of the land as pastures, 10% is arable land, 1% is crops, and 7% is forests and woodland. The environmental hazards are that there are prolonged drought which can be very devastating to the economy and to the people because of starvation. A main natural concern is that South Africa has a lack of important rivers and lakes which require extensive water conservation and control measures. The land is rich in mineral resources such as chrome, platinum, uranium, coal, manganese, phosphates, and iron. South Africa leads the world in production of gold, gem diamonds, antimony, and vanadium. The climate of South Africa has an effect on the crops which the country can grow. The climate is mostly semiarid, and it is subtropical along the east coast. The main agricultural products are corn, wheat, sugarcane, fruits, and vegetables. The main livestock products are beef, poultry, mutton, wool, and dairy products. The economy of South Africa is pretty good for a developing nation. The country is middle income, with an abundant supply of natural resources. The household income or consumption by percentage shows that the lower 10% account for 1.4% of the people, and the higher 10% account for 47.3% of the people. The country has a well developed legal, communications, financial, energy, and transportation section. It also has a stock exchange that ranks in the top ten largest in the world. Also it has a modern transportation infrastructure that is uses to transport goods to the many major urban centers throughout the country. The county has gone through some major industrialization over the years. The countries industrialization was fueled by the discovery of gold and then diamonds. The GDP (Gross Domestic Production) is divided such as 5% is agricultural, 35% is industrial businesses, and 60% is service businesses. South Africa exports such commodities as gold, diamonds, other metals and minera ls, machinery and equipment. Over all, South Africa has come a long way from the way it was in 1910. The standard of living is increasing and the people are doing better for themselves. Geography

Destruction of the Buddah essays

Destruction of the Buddah essays This week we talked about the Taliban destruction of the Buddha's and we heard a lecture from a local artist professor. I wasn't all that impressed with the lecture that we had from Mark Emerson. Oh, his art was interesting, but I would have liked to have asked some questions regarding the thought processes that go into creating art. It seems that it would be very similar to the process that I go through when I step into the lab to perform an experiment. There is a lot of creativity in my deciding how to conduct an experiment and often times, I have to change my technique, materials and methods mid-stream. Also, like one of the paintings that Mr. Emerson showed in class, much of scientific discovery is trial and error and accident. I was really disturbed by some of what my classmates had to say in regards to the destruction of the Buddha's. There were a couple of people that felt that because the Taliban were in control of Afghanistan, that meant that they had the right to destroy the Buddha's. On one level, you could make the case that the Taliban had the right to destroy the statues, but was it right to destroy them? Several of my classmates seem to have thought that it was OK to do so. I think that this whole debate has implications for much of what is taking place here in the United States since September 11, 2001. Yes, the government is in "control" of the land and on some level, the people, but do they have the right to monitor and record our cell phone calls? Does the government have the right to dump nuclear waste products at Yucca Mountain, Arizona? What I am saying is that I wish that my classmates would think in these terms before deciding if some action is right or wrong. There was this cartoon t hat I saw in a magazine 12 or 13 years ago that sums it up perfectly. In it, this chef was about to place a lobster in a pot of boiling water and as he was doing this, he was apologizing to the lobster and saying that he had no ...

Write a brief explanation why you think you would be a good candidate Essay

Write a brief explanation why you think you would be a good candidate for this position - Essay Example currently looking for Aviation after School Program, I got thrilled and energized that I can finally work with children who are interested in learning and exploring. I can assure you that I am a good candidate for this position because I am highly knowledgeable about the science and engineering concepts involved in aviation. I am currently studying Bachelor of Science in Aircraft Operations Minor in Air Traffic Control, and I expect to complete my college education in May 2013. At present, I work for Dynamic Airways as a flight attendant, and possessing knowledge about proper and effective managing of passengers and ensuring their safety are fundamental requirements of my job. As a flight attendant, I am also expected to deliver outstanding customer service and make sure that all passengers are assisted appropriately. As an individual, I characterize myself as someone who is highly motivated and possesses a happy disposition. I am always inspired to work and exceed expectations. I work well with children, especially when we have kids in the plane. I understand what children need to keep them busy and interested while learning at the same time. I am also a very hard-working person who is constantly willing to learn new

Technologies for Treating Hazardous Waste Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Technologies for Treating Hazardous Waste - Essay Example Sanitary landfill is the used of an area as an isolation place of the solid waste until the danger of the waste is reduced. This kind of treating solid waste can be successful if the area is large and the isolation is good (â€Å"Solid Waste,† n.d.). Gasification on the other hand is the exposure to high temperature/extreme heat with the use of oxygen to decompose the waste. It has the advantages of lessening the size of waste and makes the transportation of waste easier. This is a type of incineration that has no contribution to air pollution. Composting is one of the oldest ways to treat solid waste. It is used specifically to solid wastes that decompose. It makes the area of decomposition very appropriate to the waste, so that decomposition occurs faster (â€Å"Solid Waste Management† n.d.). From the said technologies, gasification is the best. It can be observed that it has more advantages. It lessens the volume of waste in a shorter time because it reduces the waste on the spot. It also does not contribute pollution to nature especially to air unlike other thermal treatment. It brings back energy. And lastly it demands less space compared to sanitary

Fibre Optics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Fibre Optics - Essay Example One of the modern and commonly used applications of fibre optics is high resolution visuals (HDTV) which has enabled us to view broadcasts at 1080p screen resolution which is a result of FTTc and FTTh (fibre to the curb) network. Satellites making use of fibre optics do not have to undergo lessening (fibreopticsinfo). There are generally six theories of light from which the theory of optical fibre has evolved. The relevant theories to optical fibre are emission theory, corpuscular theory, wav theory, electromagnetic theory and quantum theory. Reflection and refraction of light are vital elements in optical fibre. These two properties have been explained by Newton in his laws. Another very important property relative to fibre optics is the critical angle of light. Critical angle is defined as the minimum angle which can allow total internal reflection to take place. This is governed by Snell’s law. There are two theories which explain the propagation of light through optical fi bres. The first theory is the ‘Ray Theory’ under which light is considered to be a simple ray of light and the propagation properties are relevant to that. This theory explains the accepting and guiding behavior of light inside a fibre (Sathish Kumar). The second theory is the ‘Mode Theory’ or the ‘Wave Representation’ approach. According to the Mode Theory, light is an electromagnetic wave and acts like an electromagnetic wave inside a fibre. This theory explains the phenomenon of absorption and dispersion of light inside a fibre as well as its attenuation (The Theory of Optical Fibres). Fibre optic cables are the source of transmission of light using the fibre optics technology. Fibre optic cables enable light to be transmitted along them from one point to another and there is no significant loss in the intensity of light which passes through fibre optical cables. The construction of a fibre optic cable has three main parts: A central core, c ladding and a Plastic Jacket surrounding both the core is present at the centre of the cable which acts as a buffer. It is composed of fine quality thin transparent glass polymer or a dielectric. The refractive index of the core is ?1 and the diameter of the central core ranges from 10 ? to 100 ?. surrounding the central core is a jacket layer of plastic or glass called Cladding. The refractive index (?2) of the cladding has to be smaller than that of the central core so that the light stays inside the core due to total internal reflection (?1 > ?2). Safety and strength are provided to cable by surrounding the cladding and the central core with a plastic jacket or the buffer (Loremate). The transmission of light by fibre optics has the same basic components as the normal wiring transmitting devices. The system comprises of a transmitter, a medium through which the signals are propagated and a receiver. The propagating medium is a cable in case of fibre optics. The transmitter has an ability to emit light with the help of either a light emitting diode or a laser. The user inputs data into the transmitter in the form of audio, video or other data. The encoder or modulator used in the transmitter to convert electrical signals to optical signals is AM, FM or

A Case Study In IBM Services Information Technology Essay

A Case Study In IBM Services Information Technology Essay Improving customer relationships is the deployment and management of the customers CRM application. Outsourced call centre services are delivered by an IBM business partner. Customers choose the CRM application components that fit their needs: Marketing, Sales and Customer Service. Balancing cost, the customer experience and revenue enhancement are truly differentiate the contact centre (Pritchard, 2004). The contact centre environment has changed dramatically in recent years. Early call centres were cost centres, built to take advantage of the telephony technology of the time. Typically confined to one physical location, they relied on interaction-based, frontline support and had little financial justification of costs. Frequent handoffs among agents created inconsistencies, as did paper-intensive processes and product-based structures. Today, contact centres are becoming increasingly customer-focused and are gearing up to solve problems and generate revenue. A proliferation of channels is giving companies a variety of opportunities to communicate with their customers. And with more opportunities for up-selling and new ways to cut costs, the contact centre is transforming into a profit centre. As organizations make this transformation, they are faced with identifying areas for change, reducing service costs, providing a differentiated service, increasing sales, supporting a multichannel customer experience and leveraging technological advances. The challenges, coupled with increasing customer expectations, have created a renewed focus on transforming the contact centre (Pritchard, 2004). IBM Regional Contact Centre (RCC) exemplified what an ideal contact centre should be; a single contact point which provides effective, efficient and improved service to partners and clients through the consolidation of resources and services. The centre serves as a strategic component of IBMs own on-demand initiatives. Organizations are taking a new look at governance of contact center functions and the way calls are handled. Traditionally, contact centers have been organized by geography and business unit. Advance in telephony technology presents new opportunities for streamlining call handling and routing. Virtual contact center queues route calls to the appropriate agent, regardless of geography or department, allowing calls to be handled based on factors such as customer need, the type of transaction or function, the value of the customer or the particular customer segment. This can help boost cost-effectiveness and bring more value to callers, since theyll deal with the best-qualified agent for their particular issue. Leading companies are also adopting a cross-functional approach to the organizational structure of contact center operations. In addition to geography-based service delivery functions, companies are developing global Centers of Excellence for self-serve programs, customer data management, workforce forecasting and scheduling, metrics and reporting, and global queuing and call routing. These Centers of Excellence manage key processes globally, identify opportunities for improvement and work with the operational service delivery functions to implement transformation-related change programs (IBM Business Consulting Services, 2004). IBM Values Dedication to every clients success: IBM employees are passionate about building strong, long-lasting client relationships. This dedication spurs IBM to go above and beyond on its clients behalf. IBM sells products, services and solutions, but all with the goal of helping its clients succeed, however they measure success. Innovation that matters for our company and for the world: IBM employees are forward thinkers. IBM believes in progress, believes that the application of intelligence, reason and science can improve business, society and the human condition. IBM loves grand challenges, as well as everyday improvements. Whatever the problem or the context, every IBM employee seeks ways to tackle it creatively to be an innovator. Trust and personal responsibility in all relationships: IBM employees actively build relationships with all the constituencies of its business including clients, partners, communities, investors and fellow IBM employees. IBM builds trust by listening, following through and keeping its word. IBM Mission To Drive Client Loyalty and Profitable Growth through Service Delivery Excellence IBM Vision To be the IT Service Provider of Choice in Asia Pacific IBM Commitments Growth Client Referenceability Drive client satisfaction by aligning IBMs efforts to its clients business imperatives, priorities and challenges Delivery Service Excellence Protect its clients business through a strong controls posture and operational discipline Provide competitive high quality service through standardization and automation Enable IBM Team for Growth Develop and nurture IBM people to play an active role in the globally integrated enterprise IBM Goals Excel in delivering competitive, high quality and efficient IT services to its clients Meet and exceed all IBM financial objectives Achieve and exceed IBM Quality targets Protect the IBM brand by maintaining Satisfactory control posture and delivering with integrity Promote a culture where IBM work as One Team and promulgate best practice Equip IBMs employees with skills and knowledge to deliver quality services to its clients and make the right investment in training and certification Accelerate the development and growth of IBM leadership talent Foster communications to IBM staff and ensure key messages are delivered in a timely and consistent manner Literature Review Today, IT departments are pressured into doing more with less, and that this will require innovative approaches to management and operating staff. Innovations in technology are also supporting this, as silos within operations, and between operations and the service desk and application development, are slowly being bridged by innovative management and monitoring software solutions designed for modularity, cohesiveness and automation. Currently, IT services are delivered through a mix of structured and unstructured work activities. Structured activities rely primarily on standardized processes, procedures, and tools. In IT service support and delivery, an increasingly popular standardization effort is embodied by Information Technology Infrastructure Libraries (ITIL) which prescribes processes for capacity management, availability management, service-level management, financial management to achieve high quality IT service (Bailey, Kandogan, Haber, Maglio, 2007). As IT departments pl an to bridge this divide, it is important to keep in mind that the automation can empower us to become more efficient, but we will be sacrificing some of the gains if we are not willing to leverage the advantages of automation as a transformative, cultural and process catalyst because they are interdependent. Definition of Terms There are many terms involve in implementing Call Centre as an outsource business to the company and for IT outsource, it has its own standard to follow. For example, IBM conducts IT service delivery (ITSD) based on Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) standards. IT service management (ITSM or IT services) is a discipline for managing Information Technology (IT) systems, philosophically centered on the customers perspective of ITs contribution to the business. ITSM stands in deliberate contrast to technology-centered approaches to IT management and business interaction. Feldman (2007) mentioned that Providers of IT services can no longer afford to focus on technology and their internal organization, they now have to consider the quality of the services they provide and focus on the relationship with customers. The Service Delivery Structure describes accumulations of the customers accumulated in the system. The derivative between flow-in, customer flow rate, and flow-out, service completed rate, determine stock level. The dynamics of service delivery management will be comprised of four feedback structures: labor structure, capacity structure, cost structure, and service delivery structure. Service backlog or work in process, the stock of the service delivery structure, depending on customer flow or order rate and service completed rate or order fulfillment rate. Accumulations of stock stem from derivative of flow-in and flow-out at the points of time (Phoomphuang S., 2004). Service Desk is the place where exist the receipt and resolution of service requests, technical guidance, communication, etc. The central contact point between users and IT staff (Steel, 2008). Also it is the first place that the customer contacts when they have a problem or any request. Service Level Management (SLM) ensures that the agreed services are delivered when and where they are supposed to be delivered. SLM is a very important concept concentrating on value which is an intangible concept. If this value is destroyed by breaching any part of the Service Level Agreements (SLAs), it can have some negative consequences for the service provider as the customer will be dissatisfied. Information Technologies Infrastructure Library (ITIL): ITIL best practices were first developed in the 1980s by the British governments Office of Government Commerce (OGC) formerly called the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency. ITIL is a collection of best practices that have become widely observed in the IT service industry and a detailed framework of a number of significant IT practices, with comprehensive checklists, tasks, procedures, and responsibilities that are designed to be tailored to any IT organization. ITIL suggests that any IT operation should have some form of help desk where users of IT can ask questions or resolve problems. ITIL describes recommended best practices such as how to investigate and solve reported problems called into the operations help desk. These are the best practices and processes that are necessary for IT to process its applications in an efficient, controlled environment (Moeller, 2008). ITIL and IBM Service Delivery Process IBM has its own implementation of ITIL for IT service management. The service starts as soon as the contract is signed between the customer and IBM. Service delivery and service support team take control after contract is signed. IBM uses its own processes in order to deliver the services agreed contractually. IBM staff has to be familiar with these processes in order to deliver the services without any problem. These processes are standard and consistent across the globe for IBM and they are collected under different folders at IBM. These can be thought as related processes defined in ITIL collected under different titles. IBM procedures are confidential and cannot be described (Nazimoglu Ozsen, 2010). In business, the fit between the business strategy with respect to products and services provided to external customers and the internal structure of the enterprise is critical for economic performance and efficiency. Henderson and Venkatraman (1993) had concluded that the strategic alignment fits between external and internal business and IT strategies. Business strategy can drive IT strategy as well as the organizational and IT infrastructure, but IT strategy can also enable new and enhanced business strategies. Functional integration of business and IT makes IT a source of Competitive advantage. Environment The IBM Regional Contact Centre (RCC) has empowered IBM Malaysia to be more responsive, variable, focused and resilient by enabling the company to respond with flexibility and speed to any customer demand, market opportunity or external threat. The RCC is the sixth regional centre that IBM has established in Malaysia, after the Asia Pacific South Regional Administrative Support Centre, the Asean/ South Asia Regional Technical Sales Support Centre, the Asean Regional Support Centre for Integrated Technology Services, the Asia Pacific South Accounting Centre, and the IBM Global Financing Regional Centre for Asean/ South Asia, Greater China and Korea. The RCC supports four prime business functions: Teleweb marketing suport services, backoffice customer support services, and integrated technology support services, which cover the Asean region. The fourth business function is the strategic outsourcing helpdesk which supports the Asia Pacific region. The RCC is the latest of the companys 11 regional shared-services centres and is equipped with a multilingual workforce that caters for nine languages, including Tagalog, Japanese, Korean and Thai. Organization IBM has eleven regional centres located in Malaysia to support the IBM Corporation globally. Six of these centres are Operational Headquarters (OHQs), a status awarded by the Malaysian Industrial Development Authority (MIDA) to companies serving their offices regionally and globally. Located in Plaza IBM, headquarters in Bandar Utama, these centres are: IBM Asia Pacific Accounting centre: Provides accounting services for IBM in Asia Pacific, such as costs and revenues, Inventory/PIMS, DSW Software Accounting, monthly financial closing and reporting, expense accounting, APSC, WTAC, IGF accounting, services accounting, business control, SOX, statutory accounts and country accounting operations. IBM Asia Pacific Competency centre: Provides end-to-end administrative services, such as customer records, loading of customer orders, contract preparation, scheduling (negotiating with various plants in the world for supply to meet customer requirements), inventory management, billing, accounts receivable collection, systems controls and testing. Asia Pacific IBM Global Financing centre of Excellence: Manages most of the administrative and back-office tasks for the whole of the Asia Pacific region, such as contract creation, lease inception and booking of contracts into a lease portfolio system. Supports contract management, fulfillment, pricing, financial planning and internal controls. It also centralized financial management information and planning support to IBMs country leaders and management teams across the Asia Pacific region. Other areas of support include administration, forecasting, budgeting and financial analysis. IBM World Wide Competency centre: Delivers efficient, global common processes, tools, and applications with standardization, simplification, and automation, in order to accelerate IBMs positioning as a global integrated company. ASEAN Regional Technical Sales Support centre: Provides pre-sales technical support and technical enablement to ASEAN, Asia Pacific and other parts of the world which cover IBM hardware and software offerings. IBM Regional Contact centre (RCC): Provides integrated technology support services, pre-sales technical support and strategic outsourcing help-desk for the ASEAN region. Offers technical assistance in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korea, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia, Vietnam and Thai. IBM is a company that strives to lead in the creation, development and manufacture of the industrys most advanced information technologies (IT), including computer systems, software, networking systems, storage devices and microelectronics. The companys business in ASEAN/SA is primarily comprised of sales and distribution of services, hardware, and software. These offerings are bolstered by IBMs research and development capabilities. IBM can also provide financing depending on its customers needs. The fundamental strength of this model is IBMs ability to assemble the optimal mix of these offerings to design tailored solutions for customers. IBMs operations in ASEAN/SA cover countries including Singapore, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. IBM in Malaysia is a wholly-owned onshore subsidiary of IBM World Trade Corporation. In IBM Malaysia, there are a few thousand employees of diverse backgrounds and talents serving in professional and support function roles, including regional positions. IBM Malaysia is committed to playing a major role in cultivating the use and development of IT in Malaysia, a mission that mirrors the Governments objective of making the country a regional and global hub of knowledge-based industries. IBM Malaysia is to be completely local organization in terms of expertise, 52% of our employees are women. The company is also heavily involved in developing local capability through a string of alliances (Are you an IBMer, 2010). Moreover, IBMers collaborate every day with their over 390,000 colleagues with growing networks of clients, advocates, experts and peers and with our neighbors, local organizations and millions of people they have never met and never will meet. This is simply how business is done in a globally integrating economy (About IBM, n.d) to support the integration of processes and operations; IBM has Globally Integrated Enterprise (GIE) governance. It puts the focus of decision makers on end users, productivity, standards, and integration to achieve maximum value from business transformation investments (BT/IT Governance, n.d). Furthermore, the GIE governance system emphasizes cross-functional and cross-unit team. Leadership and management roles are designed to pro vide clear ownership of the end-to-end business model and create a means to coordinate processes and transformation initiatives across organizations (BT/IT Governance, n.d). IBM has chosen Malaysia for its regional contact centre to serve the Asean region amid keen interest shown by other nations to have one here. The IBM Asean Regional Contact Centre (RCC) is due to start operation in Cyberjaya in the middle of the year 2003. The RCC, to be managed by some 60 staff, would provide support services to IBM business units, business partners and customers in five Asean countries namely Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia. Currently, the numbers of IBM clients have increased and the support countries among Asia Pacific have also been added China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India and Australia. Thus, the numbers of IBM RCC staff now have been increased to more than 100 including both local and international staff to support clients based on native languages offer. The support services include tele-sales and tele-marketing, customer support operations, and so on. Locale IBM Malaysia Sdn Bhd is investing RM 8 million to set up its Customer Support Operation (CSO) center in Malaysia that would operate as a hub for end-to-end order procurement covering 17 countries in Asean and South Asia. The CSO allows electronic ordering from IBMS manufacturing plants, receiving orders from its customers and business partners, collaboration among co-workers through e-mail and supporting of IBM Asean and South Asia business units and partners (IBM Malaysia to Spend RM8 MLN on Customer Centre, 2000). The location of IBMs CSO is in Cyberjaya. This department provides integrated technology support services, pre-sales technical support technical enablement, strategic outsourcing help-desk for the ASEAN region which cover IBM hardware and software. This department also provides post sales technical support and services and also remote technical support for all IBM hardware and software. A customer support representative also will assist the clients about their contract enquires, invoice enquires. IBM CSO Offers technical assistance in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia, Korea, and Thai. The case study was conducted at IBM Regional Contact Centre (RCC), Cyberjaya. The company is focusing on IT outsourcing which offering IT support; service desk or helpdesk to IBMs clients. There are only three main departments at RCC; Human Resource Recruitment, Financial and IT department. There are many sub departments under IT department, each department has its own name based on the client or project that their handle such as IGA (IBM Global Assistance), Merk, Maxis, Michelin, DBSchenker, Singapore Airline, BMW, Lenovo, JLL, DOW, Celestica, Philips, Affin Bank, and etc. Each department or team may have some different application based on clients application, but there are some applications and software that most of the team have such as Windows XP, Microsoft Office, Lotus notes, Sametime, Citrix (Mainframe), AS400 and others. The team will have their own Knowledge Management and Knowledge Based which provided by IBM databases, so they can find their source of knowledge, better understanding and solve the problem within short period of time. IBM provides IT outsources to the clients based on Service Level Agreement (SLA) and Service Level Objectives (SLO). In IBM RCC, one manager and one agent can handle more than one projects, at least one person should support two projects based on Global Delivery Framework (GDF) standards. Both teams that an agent or manager handle may have some different and similar applications to support. Protagonists The case was conducting at IBM, Cyber Jaya. We made an appointment with one of Transition managers to be our interviewee. His name is Trevor Thum and his position is under Integrated Technology Delivery (ITD), End User Support. Trevor is a young manager who handles many projects. He started working at IBM RCC as first level support; service desk. After few months, he had become Windows support for Affin Bank project. Two years later, he has been promoted to be a manager. During the interview session, there was a weakness; most of IBM information are confidential and cannot be disclosed. However, he provided us some guidance for our reference. Referring to the organizational chart of a team, it will consist of manager, focal manager, team leader, and agents. The agents will be more than five depends on customers request and how large the project is. Moreover, if there is any issue from customers such as complaint, an agent will raise it to Team lead, then team leader will discuss with focal manager. Later on, both of them will have a meeting with Trevor and he will decide what should the team handle this complaint and prevent it in the future. If he cannot find the solution, he will propose it to his manager or upper level for finalize and explain to the customers for the mistaken or any other reasons. Furthermore, when there is an additional application requested by clients, manager will have a meeting for more information and explain to team leader to train all agents to ensure that everyone is educated and ready to support users before it launches. In addition, if there is a new client registered to IBM RCC, the top manager will assign the project to one of team manager who deserves for the project, then the team manager will have meeting with client for SLA, SLO, and other requirements based on customers request. After that the team manager will start to hire new agents to support customers and handle the call. For recruitments, the team manager will cooperate with Manpower on staff hiring. Once Manpower got a new candidate with qualification, they will make an appointment with team manager for interview session. Then the team manager will decide whether hire this candidate or not. If IBM team manager decide to hire that agent, the agent will be first trained by Manpower staff and proceed with the training of particular project mentors by team leader and other experience agent. After one month of training, the team leader will do test call with the agent to make sure that the agent is expert enough to handle users calls and re ady to Go Live (the date of project begins with IBM starting from the day that has been signed on SLA contract. The team performance will be depended on SLA and Key Performance Indicator (KPI). However, IBM will decide either to increase agents salary or monthly incentive amount based on agents daily performance, compliment from customers, and team contribution. Figure 1. Team Organization Structure Situation Nowadays, nobody disputes the IT importance as the backbone for commerce. IT implementation helps company to reduce operational cost and increase revenue and profit significantly, although some of company not so well in utilizing IT resources. Beside many good stories from some of company, others also have the failure story in adopting IT capabilities caused by collaboration or implication on high investment, structure complexity, dependencies, changes of trends, dynamic environment, etc. Arguably, it affected the strategy direction of some company with IT and business alignment concept was proposed to improve marketplace competitiveness and increase financial performance. The concept comes at the picture to bridge the gaps of the difference between IT capabilities and business value whereby some organization fail to exploit the full potential of IT investment, adaptable infrastructure and service integration into their environment. Most company stayed still to look which product cou ld be accepted by customer significantly and then come up with clone product with achievable or imitable capabilities like the first one. It happened because the high competition in the market place to locate, not only what product customers want tremendously but also satisfaction and prestige point as well as the consideration. It involves high risky IT investment that might lead the financial become unbalanced so some organization became really careful to make decision, better wait rather than as the pioneer. The trend of IT and business alignment such as virtual office, electronic transaction, off shoring, utilizing private cloud, clone product, high tech consumption, etc. IBM, HP and Dell see other opportunities in renting their knowledge in technical solution as the service to other companies. For IBM, the service delivery optimization is not only about cost savings. IBM views optimization as the process of producing the highly efficient and dynamic infrastructure in exploiting full potential business value from IT investments, and of course emphasizing the responsive improvement and return on investment. IBM approached with holistic and client centre by the reduction of architectural complexity, integration and automation of IT process, business innovation support, customer expectation satisfaction and scale more effectively. IBM has gone through hundred processes engaged various customers across industries in the two decades, these experience and knowledge should be treated as the cr itical asset of the organization or as the intellectual capital consists of solution templates and reference architectures. In short, IBM didnt learn service delivery optimization from a book; IBM is writing the book. By establishing a clear understanding of an organizations optimization objectives and goals, IBM can help to ensure that IT investments are in alignment with the overall business strategy so that subsequent projects can provide real value. The evolution of IT from a technology to a business focus consider various factor drivers those are the compliance, complexity, speed of change and cost. The need to evolve IT should involve the three key ingredients at the heart of service delivery optimization as well, which are IT governance, operating model and funding management while a deficiency in any of these areas will alter and disrupt the outcome significantly. Before the evolution takes the step closer, the identification of IT environment also necessary for opportunities and optimization those are application and data, network, computing and storage, finance and process. For example, the business strategy of one company need to integrate the decentralize data store into centralize data warehouse that need, its the chance to be utilized to remain competitive. Meanwhile, the different culture in organization might be consideration too, that make the difference in priorities, assets and process. IBM will elaborate the stan dard approach with the end-to-end solution that applies the industrys best practice in the reference architecture concepts. Figure 2: IBM Strategic IT Model The strength of the relationship between customers (business side) and service providers (IT organization) decide the direction of success in service management. Beginning in 1997 and 2007 (IT optimization as a source, 2007), IBM started optimizing its own complex, far-flung environment, reaping substantial benefits in operational cost savings as the figure 1 depicted. Its important for the IT organization to provide the lowest-cost operation, but its not sufficient to support business strategies and planning. IT needs to develop other strengths out of efficiency in costs, such as supporting business customers have optimistic view to compete in the markets as well as faster the operation scalability. In this case, figure 2 shows the significant changes happened in IBM company that chose to have a proven, pragmatic and holistic view that even reduce the number of manager inside the organization with the most experience person as well as single source funding by consolidating infrastru cture and application at competitive rates. The level performance is also a point of developing the maturity of the service management capabilities, which drive the operation model of the technology organization. The organizations faces the dreadful challenge of increasing the quality and quantity of services provided to the business such as cloud computing and clone products, while addressing rising technical complexity, cost pressures and tension, faster trend changes and compliance issues at the same time. However, with traditional resources and system management approaches, its clearly impossible to provide effective support for the business and efficient use of technology resources. In the end, IT service management has evolved as the standard for managing effective service delivery optimization that requires: Enable comprehensive business capabilities to support the complete service life cycle from service design to service optimization. Differentiates the value of what you offer, on what terms and in what form, so that it surpasses what customers consider as alternatives. Building a clear understanding of the uncertainty, risks, change and trends. Gather both business and technology stakeholders to define the common goals and future goals. Decide the important priorities and sequence opportunities to improve the financial performance. Competitive payment terms and single-contract simplicity to increase the flexibility. Identifying, articulating and gaining executive management support. End-to-end solutions supported by a worldwide knowledge network as the minimum standardization for supporting business plan. Reduce complexity and cost as well as improve value-added service to meet service levels. Promote customer satisfaction and internal efficiencies to obtain innovativeness and creativeness. In the easiest way, IBM tries to do approach by translating into four elements IT value in meeting with business planning which consist of enablers, improvement, reduction and promoter. The main issues in this case regard the service delivery is how to maintain the service delivery as the competitive advantages in relation with other similar offered-service company that could accommodate right solution matching with latest situation in the environment. The approach to service delivery optimization

Religious Faith vs Science and Reason :: Essays Papers

Religious Faith vs Science and Reason Throughout history, conflicts between faith and reason took the forms of religion and free thinking. In the times of the Old Regime, people like Copernicus and Galileo were often punished for having views that contradicted the beliefs of the church. The strict control of the church was severely weakened around the beginning of the nineteenth century when the Old Regime ended. As the church's control decreased, science and intellectual thinking seemed to advance. While the people in the world became more educated, the church worked harder to maintain its influential position in society and keep the Christian faith strong. In the mid-nineteenth century, the church's task to keep people's faith strong became much harder, due to theories published by free thinkers like Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, David Friedrich Strauss, and others. These men published controversial theories that hammered away at the foundation on which the Christian church was built. As the nineteenth century progres sed, more doubts began to arise about the basic faiths of the Christian church. The impact these men had on religious thought was tremendous. Some of them are the starting points for many of the controversies existing today. Of all the scientists, historians, and philosophers in the nineteenth century, the most influential and controversial was Charles Darwin. Born in 1809, Charles Darwin always had an interest in the nature, so he chose to study botany in college. His strengths in botany led him to become the naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle. On a trip to South America, he and the rest of the crew visited the near by Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was there he noticed many different variations of the same general plants and birdshe saw previously in South America. He also observed ancient fossils of extinct organisms that closely resembled modern organisms. By 1859, all of these observations inspired him to write down his theories. He wanted to explain how evolution had occurred through a process called natural selection. In his published work, On th e Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, or On the Origin of Species for short, Darwin stated that, "new species have come on the stage slowly and at successive intervals."(1) He also said, "old forms are supplanted by new and improved forms," and all organisms play a part in the "struggle for life. Religious Faith vs Science and Reason :: Essays Papers Religious Faith vs Science and Reason Throughout history, conflicts between faith and reason took the forms of religion and free thinking. In the times of the Old Regime, people like Copernicus and Galileo were often punished for having views that contradicted the beliefs of the church. The strict control of the church was severely weakened around the beginning of the nineteenth century when the Old Regime ended. As the church's control decreased, science and intellectual thinking seemed to advance. While the people in the world became more educated, the church worked harder to maintain its influential position in society and keep the Christian faith strong. In the mid-nineteenth century, the church's task to keep people's faith strong became much harder, due to theories published by free thinkers like Charles Darwin, Charles Lyell, David Friedrich Strauss, and others. These men published controversial theories that hammered away at the foundation on which the Christian church was built. As the nineteenth century progres sed, more doubts began to arise about the basic faiths of the Christian church. The impact these men had on religious thought was tremendous. Some of them are the starting points for many of the controversies existing today. Of all the scientists, historians, and philosophers in the nineteenth century, the most influential and controversial was Charles Darwin. Born in 1809, Charles Darwin always had an interest in the nature, so he chose to study botany in college. His strengths in botany led him to become the naturalist on the H.M.S. Beagle. On a trip to South America, he and the rest of the crew visited the near by Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It was there he noticed many different variations of the same general plants and birdshe saw previously in South America. He also observed ancient fossils of extinct organisms that closely resembled modern organisms. By 1859, all of these observations inspired him to write down his theories. He wanted to explain how evolution had occurred through a process called natural selection. In his published work, On th e Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, or On the Origin of Species for short, Darwin stated that, "new species have come on the stage slowly and at successive intervals."(1) He also said, "old forms are supplanted by new and improved forms," and all organisms play a part in the "struggle for life.

Effect of Information Technology on the Operations

EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 The Effect of Information Technology on the Growth of the Banking Industry in Nigeria P. A. Idowu Dept of Computer Science and Engineering Obafemi Awolowo University Ife-Ife Nigeria A. O. Alu Dept of Management and Accounting Obafemi Awolowo University Ife-Ife Nigeria E. R. Adagunodo Dept of Computer Science and Engineering Obafemi Awolowo University Ife-Ife Nigeria ABSTRACT The advent of Information Technology (IT) is rapidly changing the banking industry. In this study, the impact of IT on the banking industry in Nigeria is described.A questionnaire was employed to collect data from customers at five major banks in Nigeria on the extent to which customers believe that IT exerts an impact on banking services. The results of the study clearly indicate that IT has contributed immensely to the growth of the banking industry in Nigeria. Keywords: Information Technology, Banking, Nigeria. 1. INTRODUCTION A powerful force drives the world towards a converging comm onality, and that force is technology (Levitt, 1992). From the beginning of the human era, technology has been one of the most essential and most important factors for the development of mankind (Coombs et al. , 1987).During the last two hundred years, technological changes have often been related to economic growth in the form of new types of goods and services. Smith (1776) first wrote about technical changes in the form of new machines as one of the three important causes of increasing incomes more than 200 years ago. Information Technology (IT) can be defined as the modern handling of information by electronic means, which involves its access, storage, processing, transportation or transfer and delivery (Ige 1995). Research shows that IT affects financial institutions by easing enquiry, saving time, and improving service delivery (Alu, 2002).IT also provides solutions to the needs of modern societies in health care delivery, library services, education, and communication network s within organizations, etc. Some available telecommunication and information technologies which are presently being used in the banking industry in Nigeria are telephone, facsimile, wireless radiophone, very small aperture terminal satellite (VSAT), telegraphy, and computer systems (Ugwu, 1999). According to Alu (2002), some banks in Nigeria have LANs (Local Area Network) in most of their branches but none of the banks have deployed home banking applications. . BANKING IN NIGERIA As a result of the increased demand for customer deposits, Nigerian banks, especially the new generation banks, have realized the imperative of good and prompt customer service. Also, due to the fact that some customers lost their deposits in the erstwhile technically-insolvent or distressed banks, customers have now become wiser, more discerning, alert and sophisticated with regards to The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 2 hoosing where it is safe to put their money, and where they would be served promptly, preferably in a pleasant, courteous and friendly environment. Thus, they have started looking at the level of service and professionalism of the banks before depositing their funds. Proximity to the bank is no longer the issue: safety and the level of service, with regard to quality, speed and efficiency has become the major imperative. On the part of the banks, they have realized that one way in which they can provide quality service is through the use of technology.Hence, there is a growing rate of adopting new technologies in Nigerian banking operations. Moreover, there is growing evidence that customers have started associating quality of service in a bank with the bank’s possession of an online, real-time system. In fact, possession of such a system is now judged to be the sine qua non of a high quality banking service in Nigeria. So, for a bank to be perceived as providing high qualit y service, that bank has to have an IT system, which it uses to deliver services to customers in a more timely, friendly and considerate manner, at no extra cost to the customers.Despite the fact that many of the new generation banks base their marketing strategy on the possession of supposedly on line, real-time systems, they find that their systems’ links are down for about 50 percent of the time. Many customers feel cheated by this reality and complain about the incessant ‘downtimes’. They were promised an online, real-time system, only to find out that the banks’ systems are down at least half the time, and that the national carrier, NITEL (Nigeria Telecommunication), is to blame.Whilst the responsibility of NITEL cannot be denied, many customers still feel that it is the responsibility of the affected banks to take care of these problems, and that they should be given the nationwide, online, real-time banking service they were promised. Faced with thi s dilemma, many banks in the country are resorting to alternative personal solutions by using the Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite systems, for long distance electronic communication. For short distances, the MDS (Metropolitan Digital Services) system is often used.The problem here is that all the banks are trying to procure appropriate VSATs independent of one another. In other words, there is no collaboration between the banks in sourcing this very expensive technology and thereby providing a cost-effective solution to the problem. It would also be fair to say that Nigerian banks are generally imbued with an overly competitive mind -set, which tends to foreclose the benefits of synergy or collaboration in solving most of their common problems. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGYIn order to assess the perceptions of banking customers in Nigeria with respect to the quality of banking services, a questionnaire survey was conducted. A ‘grab sampling’ technique was used t o select the customers from the banks. Five commercial banks in Nigeria – Wema Bank Plc, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, Omega Bank Plc, Cooperative Bank Plc, and Access Bank Plc. – were selected for this sampling on the basis that they have branches in almost all the states in Nigeria and they make use of computers in almost all their branches.The researchers visited the banks during working hours and the questionnaires were given to the customers as they visited the banks. A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed in this way. 260 questionnaires were returned to the researchers, a response rate of 52%. The survey instrument can be found in the Appendix. In addition, the researchers conducted personal interviews with five bank managers and fifteen IT staff in order to gain an appreciation of what types of IT systems and electronic application services The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. jisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 3 were available in the selected banks. The responses were measured with a fivepoint Likert-type rating scale, where Strongly Agree (SA) = 4; Agree (A) = 3; Strongly Disagree (SD) = 2; Disagree (D) = 1; and Neutral (N) = 0, while the scores f r o negative items were reversed. 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 1 shows the IT systems that are being used in the selected banks. Telephone, Facsimile, Local Area Network, computer system, MICR (Magnetic Ink Character Recognition), were used in all the banks.Also Wema, Omega and Access banks used Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), and wireless radiophone. The researchers were able to identify IT devices available in the selected banks from personal interview conducted with the 5 branch managers and 15 IT staff in the banks. Table 1: IT systems and electronic application service in the selected banks Types of IT systems Wema Omega Union Co-op Access Telephone X X X X X Wireless radiophone X X X Facsimile X X X X X Computer X X X X X Electronic Mail VSAT X X XLocal Area Network X X X X X MICR X X X X X EFT X X X 4. 1 Effect of IT on Banking Services The effect of IT on an enquiry on a customer’s state of account, and services enjoyed by the customers from the banks as perceived by the banks’ customers, are shown in Table 2. Out of the 260 respondents, 86. 2% agreed that IT was really helping the bank they patronized, while 90. 8% agreed that IT made the enquiry about the state of their accounts faster. Also, 83. 1% agreed that IT had a great positive impact on the services rendered by the banks.The means of 3. 12, 3. 29 and 3. 07 respectively for the selected banks' respondents confirmed that IT has a positive effect on the enquiry of customers’ state of account and services enjoyed by the customers from the selected banks. Generally, the effects of IT on the enquiry of the customer’s state of account and services enjoyed by the customers from the banks have an appreciable influence on any bank. The use of a LAN and computer systems have ensured quick and improved services delivery to customers by the banks.But it may be important to state that the use and application of these electronic devices are hampered by the inadequacy of infrastructural facilities like power supply. 4. 2 Effects of IT on Customer Services Table 3 shows the response of customers from the banks with respect to the effect of IT on customer services provision. About 66. 5% disagreed that IT had no effect on services rendered by the banks. Also 82. 7% agreed that there is a need to improve on the services rendered by these banks. The means of 2. 77 and 2. 4 respectively confirmed that IT has effects on services rendered by these banks to their customers and about 83% of the respondents agreed that the banks need to improve on the The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 4 services rendered to the customers. This shows that the services the banks are offering now are not the best they can offer to their customers and that the banks should improve on these services to their customers. Table 2: Effects of IT on Banking Services Question SD IT/computer is really helping this 2. bank IT makes enquiry about the state 2. 3 of my account faster IT/computer has a great positive 2. 3 impact on the services rendered by this bank D 4. 6 N 6. 9 A 43. 9 SA 42. 3 Mean 3. 12 0 6. 9 36. 6 54. 2 3. 29 4. 6 10 37. 3 45. 8 3. 07 N 9. 7 A 18. 8 SA 5. 0 Mean 2. 77 10. 4 50. 4 32. 3 2. 94 Table 3: Effects of IT on Customer Services Question SD D I don’t think IT has any effect on 34. 6 31. 9 services rendered There is a need to improve the 0 6. 9 services rendered by this bank Table 4: Promptness and efficiency of services as perceived by the customers Question SD DN A SA Mean I enjoy prompt and efficient service 0 16. 2 9. 2 37. 7 36. 9 2. 93 delivery I was once delayed in the bank 16. 5 31. 5 6. 9 32. 7 12. 4 2. 38 because the computer was down IT does not increase prompt and 43. 1 42. 7 4. 6 7. 3 2. 3 3. 17 efficient service delivery 4. 3 Promptness and efficiency of services as perceived by the customers From Table 4, about 75% of the respondents agreed that they enjoyed prompt and efficient service delivery from the banks. The mean of 2. 93 shows that IT enables the banks to provide prompt and efficient services to their customers.Questions 3 and 7 (see Appendix) are similar, but the reaction of the respondents confirmed the conclusion above because about 85% of the respondents agreed that IT has increased prompt and efficient service delivery by the banks. Also, on the issue of delay due to computer down times, only 44. 9% of the respondents agreed that they were once delayed in the bank because the computer was down, though this might be due to the epileptic power supply and inefficient telecommunication infrastructure in Nigeria. The mean of 2. 93 conf irmed that most of the time, customers go to the bank when computers are not down. 4. Influence of IT on patronage as perceived by the customers Table 5 gives responses on the influence of IT on patronage as perceived by the customers. 70% of respondents agreed that based on the efficiency and effectiveness of services rendered, they could encourage their colleagues to patronize the banks they used. Also, 65. 8% of the customers agreed that the banks' use of IT encouraged them to patronize the banks they use. The means of 2. 47 and 2. 52 respectively show that IT encourages customers to patronize the banks. The The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. jisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 5 use of computers, telephone, VSAT, and EFT has contributed immensely to the growth of banking industry. In Nigeria presently, some banks are not making use of IT and those banks are being patronized by few customers, the majority of whom are illiterate and poor. This makes the turnover of these banks low. Table 5: Influence of IT on patronage as perceived by the customers Question SD D N A SA I can encourage my colleagues to 4. 6 5. 0 20. 4 47. 3 22. 7 patronize this bank IT/Computer encourages 2. 3 9. 6 22. 3 32. 7 33. 1 customers to patronize this bankMean 2. 47 2. 52 Table 6: Perception of customers on the ease of conducting banking transactions Question SD D N A SA Mean Saving or withdrawing money is 21. 9 36. 9 7. 3 31. 2 2. 7 2. 63 time consuming IT eases banking transactions 2. 3 2. 3 9. 6 50. 0 35. 8 3. 10 4. 5 Perception of customers on the ease of banking transactions Table 6 above shows that 58. 8% of customers disagreed that saving and withdrawal of money is time consuming. Also, 85. 5% agreed that IT eases banking transactions. The means for questions 6 and 13 (see Appendix) are 2. 63 and 3. 00 respectively. The mean of 2. 3 for question 6 (see Appendix) shows that some respondents agreed that saving and withdrawal of mon ey is time consuming despite the use of IT in those banks. Table 7: Effects of IT on the interaction between cashiers and customers Question SD D N A SA IT has reduced the interaction 15. 0 30. 4 17. 7 27. 3 9. 6 between cashiers and customers Mean 2. 15 4. 6 Effects of IT on the interaction between cashiers and customers Table 7 shows that 36. 9% agreed with the view that IT has reduced the interaction between customers and cashiers, 17. 7% are indifferent to the question and 45. 4% disagreed with the view with a mean of 2. 15. 4. 7Effects of IT on cashiers’ work The rates at which cashiers in the banks attend to their customers depend on the equipment available for the cashiers to work with. From Table 8, 83. 1% agreed that computer speeds up cashiers' work, while 10% disagree and 6. 9% are indifferent. The mean of 3. 12 confirmed that IT/Computer really affect the rates at which cashiers’ attend to their customers. Generally, the use of electronic devices like compu ter telephone, facsimile, etc. will go a long way to increase the speed of the cashiers’ work. Table 8: Effects of IT on cashiers’ work Question SD Computers really speed up 2. 7 cashiers’ work D 7. N 6. 9 A 37. 3 SA 45. 8 The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org Mean 3. 12 EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 6 4. 8 IT and bank’s productivity From Table 9, 81. 5% agreed that the use of IT increases bank productivity in that with the use of IT, the bank can attend to a lot of customers since IT speeds up cashiers' work. The mean of 2. 98 shows that IT has a positive effect on the growth and productivity of the banks. There is no bank that can make use of one or combination of two or more of the IT systems listed in Table 1, which will not have effects on the productivity of the bank.Table 9: IT and the productivity of the bank Question SD D IT increases the bank’s productivity 0 4. 6 5. N 13. 8 A 37. 3 SA 4 4. 2 Mean 2. 98 CONCLUSION The study has dealt with the effects of IT as perceived by customers on selected commercial banks in Nigeria, which make use of IT in their operation. The study revealed that IT has appreciable positive effects on the bank productivity, cashiers’ work, banking transaction, bank patronage, bank services delivery, customers services, and bank services.These affect the growth of the banking industry in Nigeria positively because customers can now collect money from any branches of their bank. Also customers do not need to move about with large sums of money, and customers are being attended to within a short period of time. The study also revealed that telephones, computer systems, LANs, and Facsimile services are available in nearly all the banks making using of IT in Nigeria while WANs (Wide Area Network), Electronic File Transfer, and wireless phones are available in some of the banks. This finding confirms Alu’s (2002) claims on the IT devic es available in Nigerian banks.Research has shown also that IT is really helping these banks, so other banks in Nigeria that are not making use of the IT are encouraged to do so. From the study, the major hindrance to the use of IT in the banking industry in Nigeria is inadequate electric power supply. Electricity supply is not regular because of the limitation of the machine that is supplying electricity to Nigeria. Furthermore, the Nigerian government is finding it difficult to equip the NEPA (National Electric Power Authority) while the demand for electricity is increasing daily.Therefore, the situation will continue to worsen until the Nigerian government funds NEPA appropriately. So, for this nation to be effective in the use of IT in the banking industry and to make the banking industry grow in an appropriate way, there is a need for the Nigerian government to find a solution to the epileptic supply of electricity throughout the country, since NEPA is owned by Nigerian governm ent and there is no private company in Nigeria that provides electricity. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 6. 7 REFERENCES Alu, A.O. (2000) Effects of Information Technology on Customer Services in the Banking Industry in Nigeria, M. B. A. Thesis in Management and Accounting, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. Coombs, R. , Saviotti, P. and Walsh, V. (1987) Economics and Technological Change, Macmillan: London. Ige, O. (1995) Information Technology in a De-regulated Telecommunications Environment, Keynote address, INFOTECH 95. First International Conference on Information Technology Management, Lagos, November 16-17. Levitt, T. (1992) The Globalization of Markets, in: Transnational Management: Text, Cases and Readings in Cross-Border Management.Richard D. Irwin. Smith, Adam (1776): The Wealth of Nations Ugwu, L. O. (1999): Assessment of Impacts of Information Technology on Selected Service Indust ries in South Western Nigeria, MSc. Thesis in technology Management, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. APPENDIX Dear Respondent, This questionnaire is designed for a research work from the department of Management & Accounting, OAU, Ife. Please, FILL IN correct information, all the information will be treated confidentially and the information will be used for this research work only. Thanks. Please tick [ ] or fill where appropriate.SECTION A 1. Sex : A. MALE [ ] B. FEMALE [ ] 2. Age: A. 18-25 ( ) B. 26-35 ( ) C. 36- 45 ( ) D. 46 & above ( ) 3. Educational qualification: A. WASCE( ) B. OND/NCE( ) C. Bsc/BA( ) D. Msc/PhD( ) E. Others Specify †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4. For how long have you been using this bank? A. 0- 2yrs ( ) B. 3-5yrs ( ) C. 6- 8 ( ) D. 9 & above( ) 5. What type of account do you operate? A. Current( ) B. Savings( ) C. Others specify †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 6. My Account here is mainly for A. Business( ) B. Salary( ) C . Others specify †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 7. For how many hours do you spend on queue ? A.Less than1 ( ) B. 1-2 ( ) C. 3-4 ( ) D. 5 & above( ). The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org EJISDC (2002) 10, 2, 1-8 8 SECTION B Strongly Disagree 1. 13. Agree IT increases bank productivity 15. Neutral IT/Computer is really helping this bank I don’t think IT has effect on the bank’s operation I enjoy prompt and efficient service delivery I will encourage my colleagues to patronize this bank IT does not increase prompt and efficient service delivery To save or withdraw money is time consuming I was once delayed in the bank ecause the computer was down IT makes enquiry about the state of my account faster IT/computer has a great positive impact on the growth of this bank IT/Computer has reduced the interaction of the Cashiers with customers IT/Computer encourages customers to patronize this bank Computer really speed up cashiers’ work IT improves transactions 14. Disagree There is a need to improve the services rendered by this bank 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, http://www. ejisdc. org Strongly Agree

French News Vocabulary

French News Vocabulary The French you learn in classes and grammar books is not always enough when dealing with the real world. This list of French vocabulary related to current events will help you understand news in French. la une  - on the front page les achats de prà ©caution  -  panic buying lactualità ©, les actualità ©s  -  news affolà © (adj)  -  panic-stricken allà ©guà © (adj)  -  alleged un appel  -  appeal, call une arme  -  weapon, gun une arme blanche -  knife les armes de destruction massive -  weapons of mass destruction assassiner  -  to murder un attentat  -  attack un attentat-suicide  -  suicide bombing lavortement  -  abortion la banlieue  -  suburb un bilan  -  appraisal, assessment, death toll blessà © (adj)  -  injured, wounded une bombe  -  bomb la canicule  -  heat wave un cas de force majeure​  -  disaster (natural or man-made) les Casques bleus  -  UN peacekeeping forces un casseur  -  rioter une catastrophe aà ©rienne  -  air disaster une catastrophe à ©cologique  -  environmental disaster une catastrophe naturelle  -  natural disaster un cessez-le-feu  -  cease-fire le chà ´mage  -  unemployment un collecte au profit des sinistrà ©s  -  disaster fund un coup dEtat  -  coup detat, overthrow une coupure de courant  -  power outage le crime  -  crime un criminel, une criminelle  -  criminal une crise  -  crisis un cyclone  -  cyclone, hurricane des dà ©gà ¢ts  -  damage le deuil  -  bereavement, mourning un dà ©sastre financier  -  financial disaster un dà ©sastre politique  -  political disaster les drogues (fem)  -  drugs un à ©boulement  -  rockslide une à ©lection  -  election une à ©meute  -  riot une enquà ªte  -  investigation une à ©pidà ©mie  -  epidemic extrader  -  to extradite un feu  -  fire un flic (informal)  -  cop la garde vue  - police custody à ªtre mis/placà © en garde vue  - to be kept in custody, held for questioning le gaz lacrymogà ¨ne  - tear gas un glissement de terrain  - landslide une grà ¨ve (faire la grà ¨ve)  -  strike (to be on strike) la guerre  -  war la grippe aviaire  -  bird flu la grippe porcine  -  swine flu hexagonal  -  French lHexagone  - France un immigrant, un immigrà ©Ã‚  -  immigrant les impà ´ts (masc)  -  tax es un incendie  - fire une inondation  - flood inonder  - to flood un insurgà ©Ã‚  -  insurgent des intempà ©ries  -  bad weather IVG  - abortion​ le kamikaze  - suicide bomber la loi  - law la lutte (literal/figurative) - struggle, fight une manifestation  - demonstration le meurtre  - murder la mondialisation  - globalization une navette spatiale  - space shuttle un obus  - explosive shell opà ©ration escargot  - rolling blockade un ouragan  - hurricane une panne dà ©lectricità ©Ã‚  - blackout, power cut la peine de mort  - death penalty la pà ©nurie  - shortage, lack la police  - police un policier  - police officer la politique  -  politics, policy le politique  -  politician poursuivre en justice  -  to sue le pouvoir dachat  -  buying power prà ©sumà © (adj)  -  alleged un procà ¨s  -  trial le rechauffement de la planà ¨te  -  global warming la rà ©gion sinistrà ©e  - disaster area une rà ©plique  - after-shock, counter-attack la retraite  - retirement un scrutin  - ballot, election un sà ©isme  - earthquake, upheaval selon (prep) - according to un sinistrà ©, une sinistrà ©e  - disaster victim un soldat  - soldier un sondage  - po ll le suicide assistà ©Ã‚  - assisted suicide un syndicat  - union le systà ¨me de santà © publique  -  health care system un tà ©moin  -  witness une tempà ªte  -  storm le terrorisme  -  terrorism tirer (sur)  -  to shoot (at) les titres  - headlines, headline news une tornade  - tornado les transports en commun  - public transit un tremblement de terre  - earthquake une trà ªve  - truce tuer  - to kill un vaccin  - vaccine une victime  - victim (Note that this word is always feminine, even when referring to a man) voter  - to vote