The case taken here is about the firearm act passed in Canada .The strictest gun-control legislation in Canadian history, receives Senate approval. It calls for harsher penalties for crimes involving the use of guns, creates the Firearms Act 1955 and requires that gun owners be licensed and registered. Thee country gun lobby opposed the act by giving the statement that the money involved in this project could be used for other better perpouse such as fighting against crime. The government answered the cost will be offset by licensing and registration fee.

Some how the government was forced to assume total responsibility for the project. And to create a new agency to manage the program. The new agency along with the registration have to keep track of all the violent incidents reported to police which involve tapping into the computer records of every police agency which is a tough job.

As a solution to the problem an application was developed which offers a form which can be used by the people in order to register ,but the gun lobby which was against the act forced developers to change the application more then 1000 times in the name of rules and other issues.

They also encourage people to fill up out forms incorrectly in order to put down the idea. Later because of some problems the government was forced to cut the registration fee this was a very big reason why the application was such a big failure.

Questions :-

• Discuss the problem of information requirements determination and scope creep in this case.

When the federal government decided that they will have a separate body which will look after the registration of the firearms .It was thought that the database will not have the serial no and specifications of the of the gun owner but will also have all criminal and violent incidents reported by the police which will be useful in further reviewing of a license application. This needs tapping in to the computer records of every police agency in the country which is a big problem cause all such criminal activities has to be put in to a new database by the police in order that the registration body can access the data for there use.

• Should the government abandon the project.

• Was it a good idea to build this system in the first place.

I will take bout the questions together the above case which is taken has more political aspects involved in it then actually the flaws in the application it self. As we go through the case we come across these points.

The application so developed was a good IT solution to the problem faced by the government at that time. But was strongly opposed by the gun lobby they forced the developers to make many changes to the applications ,encouraged people to fill out forms incorrectly etc.

The reports in 2000 given on the same tells :-

• Major backlogs in registration, largely as a result of firearm owners waiting until the last minute to apply.

• General increase in costs.

• Fee waivers for early applications.

• High error rates in applications submitted by firearm owners.

By looking at the above report we can say the government should abandon the project but as we look at the points we cant say that the project is fail just because of the technical inefficiency of the application but more of a political oppose that the information system has to face.

by:- Yukteshwaraditya singh parihar
1MS07IS120 Read More

Background
1. 1 billion throw away lenses sold every year by the company throughout the world.
2. 25,000 stock keeping units for its product.
3. 15,000 orders per day around the world.
4. 20 excel spread sheets manually imported at the end of every month to a log book.

NEED
1. To standardize the way it handled orders around the globe.
2. Absolute speed in transaction.

OBJECTIVE
1 distribution center
1 manufacturing facility
1 customer interaction center
1 order taking system, for the whole of Europe.




Q1. Why did Vistakon need a new ordering system?

Its quite evident from the presently given scenario, wherein the new ordering system is still not/yet to be installed is very chaotic in nature. Things are distributed and a lot of middle men are involved.
There are a substantial number of places where the company can face losses. Few, which i could think of are listed below.

1. To employ such a large number of employees.
2. To audit such huge financial data.
3. The speed of transaction is slowed down by the involvement of middle men.
4. There are chances of manual errors being made in entering the financial reports from the balance sheets(excel sheets) to the manual log book.
5. Supervising so many number of units is a big and tough ask.

Any little problem in any of the above mentioned cases can leave the company 'red-faced' and 'embarrassed'. The company's reputation is at stake which the company will never like to gamble with. After all, its the reputation that counts in this huge industry and financial market. Reputation goes hand-in-hand with the 'Brand-value'.

The new ordering system would eliminate all most all the middle men and give a very clean,easy to maintain order processing system, which is centralized.
Since controlled centrally, any changes to be made wont appear relatively all that cumbersome and not much data space is required since redundant data is not existing much.

Of-course,the initial investment on the software may seem very costly, compared to the wage given to all of its employees for the period of two years where the company is still making its IT investment recovery, financial calculations indicate that in the long run the software would be very profitable to the company. Also, keeping the scalability factor of the new software in view,'Speed' factor cab be fairly increased as and when necessarily required under the budget parameters, as per the contract details listed in the SRS document signed prior to the contract agreement with the software provider SAP.



Q2.Describe the implementation precess for the new system.

Once the Vistakon bought the new software from SAP in 2003, an efficient implementation of the software for the underlying business was very essential.The company came up with a few strategic moves.

• For a period of one month,the members of several teams working in the company were trained to use the new procedure in the newly adopted software.
• Only then, after completion of a thorough training process for its employees, the systems were turned on and will be open to public transactions in full-fledge.

The employees were split up into project teams such as, teams to handle

1. technology and finance
2. to convert order into cash
3. issuing requisitions and making payments
4. getting products into stocks
5. converting data into a form the new system could use

Because of all such immaculate and thorough implementation, Vistakon has not had to deal with any major system failures until now and has finally been able to achieve its goal of:-

1 distribution center
1 manufacturing facility
1 customer interaction center
1 order taking system, for the whole of Europe.


SHREYAS.D
1MSO5IS067
ISE,VI-B Read More

1. Kodak is implementing three IT strategies to compete in the digital economy. Do you think they ll work? Why or why not?

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1. How should traditional realty companies compete in the digital economy?

The New economy or Digital Economy based on new Technology has almost changed the way in which people used to buy or sell their properties. The competition in the realty industries getting increased because of lower margin of profits and faster delivery. Now websites and Credit cards are doing the role of real estate agents. It’s very difficult to survive here for the Traditional companies, however internet do not provide all the needs to the customers. The traditional companies have to take those limitations of internet as their competitive advantages.

· New economy reduced cost of doing business. Traditional companies also should reduce their profit margin (commission).

· Internet provides less customer Service. So providing good Customer Service can improve the sales.

· Internet is anonymous and lack of security is also a major drawback.

2. As the commission rates fall due to pricing pressure, what the real estate industry will look like in five years? Can the industry survive in the present form? If not what might replace the industry.?

The study of the case examines the way the real estate may become in future due to drastic fall in commission rates.Real estate using technology such as internet & e-commerce eliminates the job of middleman.The customers can find out their actual requirements easily online.But the major hurdle of privacy & safety is always there in internet.

People still prefer to negotiate a deal in presence of middleman as a matter of trust.After 5yrs or so, people may use internet to find their needs or keys of interest, but still like to have a deal done manually ( face to face ) in presence of a mediator.There has to be a bigger change in internet's security, safety & privacy which can change the overall picture of "Real Estate" , other than as it is now.

Yes, I personally feel, real estate still retains it's image as of it is now. Only a dramatic change in internet's safety in online trading may influence a change in real estate.

Raghavendra K C

1MS07IS074

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Case 2.5 Here Come The Robots

Question 1: What will be the impact on employment as robots take over more and more tasks previously performed by humans?

Answer: The related case study brings to our attention that it will have a huge impact on the employment rates. Robots till now have been used mostly for dangerous or dirty jobs. But as an over-consumptive, highly apathetic, button-bred generation rein in the markets, we see robots taking a more active role in everyday life. I seriously believe technology gives birth to opportunity; opportunity to learn from, to grow. Yes, we cannot turn a blind eye to the fact that there is going to be a radical shift in the present work patterns but didn’t stop the industrial revolution. How many people resisted the computers when they first arrived in our way of working? How many people fought for their identity in the society which was basically defined by their jobs? But now how many possibilities has it created. Why don’t we think of the number of jobs that the robot industry will create? If Samuel Morse or Alexander Graham Bell had thought at their time of inventions that they would jeopardize the job of a postman, then where would we stand right now. Robots ensure that humans are not employed in unfavorable conditions. Consider that a child working in the firecrackers industry is replaced by a robot; now the same child can obtain educational facilities and enter a field of his or her choice. The idea behind using a robot is to increase productivity and hence it is not completely necessary to replace the employees. The most important thing is to strike a balance between preserving tradition (and traditional ways of working) and accepting new and modern methods.

Question 2: What additional function do you think robots will perform in the future??

Answer: Personally, I think robots will be able to do most of the jobs that humans are presently doing. There is a human need to challenge and better present circumstances which will lead to better machines. I believe, the robots, in the near future, will affect

-war zones where there is high human casualty

-space exploration, deep sea exploration, mining, volcanic findings where there is unfavorable human conditions

-weather monitoring as it is highly time consuming

-rescue efforts (this is one area that I am personally interested in)

-education

-retailer, nannies, gardening and even as an alarm clock

In most of the above situations the initial steps have already been taken, but I believe there is going to be a bigger impact in the near future. The possibilities are immense; it is just required that we wake up to them.

My point of view:

Bill Budge once said,”Robots... I think that is a hot topic.” And I for one agree with him. Robots in one way or the other have held our fascination for a long time and as they are increasingly becoming parts of our lives, we are bound to evaluate the changes they are likely to bring about. If there is an easier, more convenient option then why not use it. If it provides more time to live a healthy, fulfilling life then why not give it a chance. I agree there maybe the remotest of possibilities that we are replaced by what we create, but there is also the likelihood that it gives us a chance to develop something better; and that is chance we as a society should be willing to take. Does anybody remember The Jetsons? I used to be mesmerized just by the idea of such a world and I can’t even begin to comprehend how many others have been inspired. So what is so wrong in living life that way?

RAKSHITA SHETTY

1MS07IS079

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How IT can save a company and its customers from suffering from a disaster can best be understood in this column. It was the meticulous planning, skilled staff and use of IT for data recovery and backup that Cantor-Fitzgerald was able to not only sustain the wounds of the attack on its office at WTC but also become fully operational in less than 48hours.
At the end of this column the authors pose two questions infront of the readers, one would like to answer both one after the other and press on the reasons as well.

A1. The practice of POP QUIZ may bring down the productivity mainly because of two reasons:
a) being a huge financial institution the company operates around the world round the clock[1]. Thus the disruption of services as part of the drill in one part of the world might affect its operartions in another.
b) again the drill might shutdown a crucial work being carried out at the datacenter or might disrupt or slow the speed or efficiency of the datacenter thereby affecting the company's productivity.

A2. Cantor has taken a very military like disaster managment approach which had helped it earlier and is a very novel manner of data backup and recovery. Other company's should also follow this method with one thing to care of :
1) the company's day to day operations should not be affected and its customers should not suffer.
The major advantages of this policy are:
1) the company's prepardeness for the time of disasters of any kind is much better
2) the data backup is much robust
3) the employees are much more psychologically prepared for such situations
The major disadvantage of this policy is:
1) the company's day to day operations might be affected


[1] http://www.cantor.com/public/aboutus

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Using eBay to Fence Stolen Goods

c3.3

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• Property management system of the ship is designed which contains the database of the passenger travelling in QM2.
• Passengers are provided smart cards which can be used as their room keys and for purchase purposes on the ship as well as for the identification of passengers
• QM2 also contains an inter connected television systems which provide e-mail service to passengers, order on demand and provide many more services
• QM2 provides a wi-fi link to all their passengers and staffs.

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1. Are demon customers necessarily a bad thing for retailers ? support your answer
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• Prepared for disaster.
• Security systems of organisation are up-to-date.
• Instils confidence in stalkholders.
• Able to manage the worst case scenario.
• Prevents the demise of an organisation with the ability to rebound for worst case scenario.
  

• Cost involved in rebuilding.
• Time spent in rebuilding.
• Seriousness about the disasters among the staffs decline due to frequent calls.
• Not all firms can afford for this due to budget constraints.
• Workforce on employees.

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Your boss is watching

Monitoring here may refer to anything such as monitoring an employee’s work or his exact location or his computer usage etc...I believe monitoring the work of employees is important so that they will work according to company strategy and standards and will get motivated if they know their performance is monitored.


1. Describe how would you feel to be monitored at work with an RFID tag?

Monitoring the work with RFID tag: Basically RFID tag is applied into a person for identification and tracking using radio waves. I believe it’s not overly intrusive. Because there are several fields where RFID tags are used to monitor different jobs. For example, if I consider library jobs, we think of barcodes on library items. But now a technology has been introduced where these barcodes can be replaced by RFID tags. This information can be read by RFID reader which replaces barcode. . It has certain negative effects too as it uses radio frequency for the communication between tags and readers.


2. Would monitoring your e-mails and internet usage be overly intrusive?

Monitoring e-mails and internet usage of an employee: I believe sometimes there are plenty of legitimate reasons to monitor an employee’s computer usage such as the contacts he has maintained and details of what all they do over internet. But it also has negative side to employee monitoring. Because the employee may feel that boss has power over him to stop them from communicating with upper management. It becomes intrusive when the personal mails are also checked for security reasons.


3. Would you feel differently about monitoring your location and your computer usage?

There is difference between monitoring location and computer usage of a person. We need perfect software to be installed that monitors the computer usage and this is perfectly legal. Similarly we can trace out the work location of an employee which in turn makes way to find the computer usage and the utilization of the legal privileges.





Rashmi Kamat
1MS07IS080

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1. Process is very expensive.
2. It takes too much time to update infoamtion each time there is an updation.
3. May run into delay.
4. Requires a separate team to look over this process.
5. Mainting servers may be complex.

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• Dominance in the Retail Market
• Expansion in the U.S. and International Markets
• Creation of Positive Brand and Company Recognition
• Branch Out into New Sectors of Retail

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1.  Wal-Mart are implementing well advanced technologies[RFID tagging] to track their products and hence increase their niche.
2. They have well built foundation and by the time Sears holdings come up with the new integrated systems and plans its strategy, Wal-mart can come up with new innovations and attract the customers.
3. By implementing synergy in technology Wal-mart can make sure that they don't loose their regular customers and can have strong hold in the market.

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1st question is: Do you think universities should have the same stringent information security controls that corporations do? Why or why not?

Yes the universities should have the same stringent information security controls that corporations have. Its because there are different transactions in any organization, institution, business, etc. Universities deal with mainly the following three transactions. They are:

1. Financial Transactions: They are similar to transactions in any other financial institutions.
2. Privacy Transactions: contain personal data that need to be logically and physically secured in order to ensure data protection.
3. Information Transactions: They are primarily requests for information , such as curriculum, subject description etc.

The first two transactions are similar to the ones in different corporations. For the proper and secure execution of these transactions there should be information security controls in universities also.

2nd question is: Should universities segregate student networks?

The answer is again yes. The information in academic networks is sensitive. It should be kept secured and out of the reach of every other system or individual. The idea of segregation in the case study given is an excellent idea as I believe where the student residential networks are able to connect to the academic server but the connection can be quickly terminated by them.

I would like to add one more point in this regard that any network that is not under direct control of IT department should be treated as untrusted. Students networks should be firewalled. They can be then given a level of trust.

3rd question is: What security measures does your university require?

Our university, VTU is one of the biggest Technological Universities in India, having 144 colleges affiliated to it. The intake at UG level is about 45000 students and at the PG level it is about 7500 students. So naturally out of so many students there are many “Budding Hackers” which do activities that violate.

The security measures that should be taken are:

1.  Proper firewall for a secured network such as cyberoam used in our college
2.  Most of the students using the network “Eat up” the bandwidth as they keep their downloading of content involving images, sound and videos. So a check should be maintained on particular system of student who downloads large content.
3. Students those who want to use extra bandwidth must be charged additional to the tuition fees.
4. use of peer to peer(p2p) softwares must be banned and a check can be kept.
5. A check on accessing inappropriate content must be done inside the network.

Uttamani Hitesh
1MS07IS110 Read More