Week Twelve

1. Explain the triple constraint and its importance in project management.

The above diagram shows the variables in triple constraint - Cost, scope and time. This is important in project management as all projects are limited by their constraints but still need to be clear and understandable.

If any of these variables change, it will affect at least one other immediately. For example when the scope of the project has been altered, the cost/resources of the project need to be reallocated as does the time (as it may be pushed further back). These three variables need to be balanced in order for the project to be successful.

2. Describe the two primary diagrams most frequently used in project planning

The PERT Chart (Program Evaluation and Review is a graphical network model depicting all the tasks of a project which need to be and have been taken, and the relationships within it. 

The other primary chart is the Gnatt Chart which shows the tasks which need to be finished in a simple bar graph against a calender form. This allows for time frames and are identified easily. 

3. Identify the three primary areas a project manager must focus on managing to ensure success

a) People management: Employees need to understand the goals of the project and the tasks that they need to complete. It needs to be managed and controlled by the project manager to ensure that it is done correctly and on time as the project is exposed to human error.


b) Communications management: All communication needs to be given to the correct employees, as vital information may be needed to successfully implement the project.


c) Change management: Changes are due to arise during implementation of the project. Managers need to deal with these accordingly as the diagram in question 1 explains that changes can arise due to the change in scope, time or resources. 

4. Outline 2 reasons why projects fail and two reasons why projects succeed


Why projects fail: This mainly consists of when the goals of the project are not in line with the goals of the organisation. The project would then be a 'stand alone project' which is difficult to gain wide support for. Due to poor communication management, projects may fail as the employees may not fully understand the task at hand and thus will not be able to fulfill the objectives of the project. 


Why projects succeed: If the executive level of the organisation supports a project, the rest of the organisation is likely to follow resulting in employee input and thus improvements which may not have occurred without higher support. Another reason is when a good decision making structure has been implemented as it avoids inconsistencies in decisions.

Week Ten

1. What is your understanding of CRM?

CRM refers to customer relationship management. This relates to a business strategy allowing a company to manage their interactions with clients and other sales prospects. 

1. Compare operational and analytical customer relationship management.
2. Describe and differentiate the CRM technologies used by marketing departments and sales departments
3. How could a sales department use operational CRM technologies?
4. Describe business intelligence and its value to businesses
5. Explain the problem associated with business intelligence. Describe the solution to this business problem
6. What are two possible outcomes a company could get from using data mining?

Week Nine

1. Define the term operations management

Operations management refers to the background or operational tasks which turn inputs into outputs. 

2. Explain operations management’s role in business

Operations managers have a number of roles. Some include the forecasting of products etc in order to reach the demand of consumers, they make sure that there is enough inputs for production to meet demand, quality control is also a major role as is making the cost of the goods sold lower so the firm is more profitable (even though this is a more strategic role)

3. Describe the correlation between operations management and information technology

Visibility is increased as dead stock or too much inventory is reduced due to better integrated systems. This occurs as they can see the purchases in "real time".

4. Explain supply chain management and its role in a business

Supply chain management is the series of steps that goods or services go through, from upstream to downstream. Thus it is the flow of goods, information and finances. When there is a good supply chain, it creates a barrier to entry for other organisations trying to get into the market. It also allows organisations to supply demand more accurately. Below is a link explaining the supply chain in more detail.

http://www.conveyorss.com/supply-chain/

It is important for firms to manage their supply chains as it allows firms to keep track of their inventory.

5. List and describe the five components of a typical supply chain

- Supplier: provides the manufactuer with goods and services in order for a product to be made. 
- Manufacturer: makes products for a businesses.
- Distributor: usually a company (but can be a person) who delivers goods to a retailer such as David Jones. 
- Retailer: The company who sells the product to consumers e.g. David Jones. 
- Customer: A person who consumes a product after purchase from the retailer. 

6. Define the relationship between information technology and the supply chain

IT allows organisations to properly forecast for demand, provides greater visibility so organisations are able to see the stock present and can automatically resupply retailers due to "real time" purchases, organisations can see what times of the year have an increase or decrease in the demand for a product and can also reduce industry spikes. 

With the technology which allows an organisation to do this, they can gain a competitve advantage as Walmart has in the U.S. This is because of their supply chain management as their IT systems automatically replenish what has recently been purchased .

Week Eight

1. Explain the business benefits of using wireless technology.


Firstly, wireless technology or communication is the transfer of information without the use of 'wires' (hence the name wireless). 


the benefits include access to information on a universal level, allows for business to be conducted at all hours of the day every day of the week and also allow for 'real time' transactions to be made. 

2. Describe the business benefits associated with VoIP


VoIP relates to voice calls occuring over the internet. Businesses are thus then able to communicate with their partners overseas and for businesses to expand internationally. It increases the speed in which things are done as communication between two parties is easier and quicker and also minimises costs due to online conferencing for example through Skype. 


3. Compare LANs and WANs


LANs refer to Local Area Networks where as WANs refer to Wide Area Networks. LANs allow people to connect a group of computers in a local area for example a house (if many computers are used) or a university. WANs are needed though for a state or country as it often connects smaller networks together. 

4. Describe RFID and how it can be used to help make a supply chain more effective.


RFID is Radio Frequenced Identification technologies which use chips to store unique identifiers. It can reduce costs as not as many employees are needed to scan items, and can check the progress of an item (for 
customers) which is going through the supply chain. 

5. Identify the advantages and disadvantage of deploying mobile technology

Advantages include ubiquity (smartphones can be used to surf the internet at any time and at most places), convenience (consumers are able to attain real-time data), instant connectivity (boot-up processes are not associated with mobile phone and their connectivity to the internet and thus it is not a problem), and customisation (this is easy as products or websites can be customised due to place and preferences)

Week Seven

1. List, describe, and provide an example of each of the five characteristics of high quality information. Accuracy relates to the values and whether or not they are correct. So for example, whether the names of the candidates correct, and if thee are any spelling errors. Completeness relates to any missing values such as missing house numbers or street names Consistency refers to the summary information which is in agreement with detailed information. One example would consist of be is the total fields are equal to the true total of the individuals fields. Uniqueness refers to each transaction, entity and event and whether they are represented only one time in the information. So in other words, are there duplicate customers?  Timeliness relates to how current the information is in regards to the busines requirements. So is it updated daily, weekly or fortnightly. 2. Define the relationship between a database and a database management system. Databases consists of information regarding various types of objects such as inventory, transactions, people such as employees and places such as a warehouse.  Database management systems are programs used to manage a database and query a database. 3. Describe the advantages an organisation can gain by using a database. Databases allow organisations to: Increase flexibility: databases deal with changes quickly and easily Increased scalability and performance: adapting to increased demand  is important and organisations are able to do this trhough the use of a database as it can quickly process transations etc.  Increased information security - Many security functions are available including passwords and access controls which means that unauthorised people are not able to use the database.  4. Define the fundamental concepts of the relational database model. A relational database stores information in a two dimensional table. For example: The main concepts in this include entities (which are persons, places, things, events or transactions), attributes (which are the characteristics of an entity), keys (which is a field that uniquely identifies an entity in the database) and relationships (which is the foreign key that allows a user to search large amounts of data with one query). 5. Describe the benefits of a data-driven website. Development: The website owner is able to make any changes at any given time without (or with little) training in regards to updating the website. Content management: a static website is problematic mainly because the middleman (the programmer) is needed to make any updates to the data-driven website, slowing any changes which need to be made. Future expandability: The site is able to grow quickly when comparing a static website to a data-driven website Minimisation of human error: All information entered is correct due to "error tapping" Stability is increased: content cannot be lost and thus the data-driven website is a lot more stable. 6. Describe the roles and purposes of data warehouses and data marts in an organisation Both data warehouses and data marts are important to organisations as they are storage facilities for the large amount of data which is generated each business day. The warehouses keep information in a single repository allowing employees easy access to the data which will help them make a better informed business decision.The information is already sorted into the manner in which they need.