Strategies for Utilising IT in Business Operations

Strategies for Utilising IT in Business Operations EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Carsem founded in the year 1972 and had been acquired by Hong Leong Group in the year 1984. Carsem had been allocating most of its revenue in the research and development to maintain its position in the market. The main objective of this report is to understand how Carsem utilize it available information technology (IT) infrastructure in operating the daily business processes associate with the challenges it faced. Analysis carries out enable the challenges to be group into three categories which are management, organization and technology perspective. In the generation of this report help had been provided by Mr. Chai and Mr. Koay (IT engineer from Carsem IT department) in the investigation of Carsem IT infrastructure and the challenges its faced in the maintaining of those infrastructure. Apart from that this report also evaluates and proposes on the cloud computing which will help to minimize and overcome challenges identified. Clouding had been recognized as a latest delivery model and provides comprehensive services which allow Carsem to compete in the market without the needs to spend an excessive investment in which this investment may be channel for organization products and services research and development. Cloud computing comes with a list of benefits and costs in which Carse needs to analyze and weight to which extend the clouding is needs in ones organization business processes. An organization that had decided to adopt clouding need to realize the cost associated with the implementation and come out with a series of strategy to transform those costs to benefits to be further competitive advantage in the industry. Parts of the benefits associate with clouding are: Reduced in the IT infrastructure investment. Automated system and application updates Allow IT to shift focus in the development of new program Highly secure infrastructure by the vendors Parts of the costs associate with clouding are: Organizational changes which lead to organization culture shock Information security issue Control issue over the data and information stored in cloud 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Carsem Carsem, a leading provider of turnkey packaging and test services to the semiconductor industry, and offers one of the largest package and test portfolios in the world with recognition of one of the largest in unit volume production in the industry. Carsem have proved to be one of the six largest independent semiconductor sub-contract assembly houses in the world. As a member of the Hong Leong Group (Appendix 2), the company has been operate in the assembly and test services for over 25 years with over 10000 employees and assembles in excess of 100 million units each week with 65 percent of this volume is fully electrically tested product. Carsem has three high-technology manufacturing factories (as shown in Appendix 5). Carsem organizational structure as shown in Appendix 3. 1.2 Carsem Strategy To be competitive in the industry and establish a long term relationship with customer, Carsem need not only compliance with Moores Law, which stated that device complexity doubles about every 18months (as shown in Figure 1 Appendix 4); but also to responses progressively to the Moores Second Law, which stated that cost increase on a semi-log scale (as shown in Figure 2 Appendix 4). To coherent with the Moores Laws, Carsem Technology Center (CTC) had been established as a Research and Development department in drive for the cost competitive and technology advancement. The role of the CTC as stated below and Carsem latest technology solutions such as system in package (SiP), copper wire bond (Cu WB), etc (as shown in Appendix 6) are some of the effort by CTC. Re-invest existing products for cost and efficiency Develop new capabilities in processes and equipment to push existing design envelopes Introduction of new materials per assigned material roadmap Drive towards a center of excellence for Semiconductor Subcontractor Packaging Provide a platform for the Nurturing and Education of Carsem Engineering Graduate Program 1.3 Carsem Services and Products Carsem incorporated with highly sophisticated equipment to ensure that the services stated below meet with the quality standards (as shown in Appendix 7) set by the automotive, telecommunication, computer and consumer electronics industries. Carsem is not only a world leader in manufacture of the MLP package with over 12 billion units shipped worldwide but also excel in the services of designing modeling of new package and process. Carsem offering a full range of turnkey test services for RF, mixed-signal, linear, digital and power devices. Product groups for each factory are shown in Appendix 5. Services: Packaging and Assembly Test Services 1.4 Carsem Vision and Mission Carsem employees strive to improve in quality, productivity, delivery, services and cost in order to be competitive and profitable in lieu with Carsem Vision and Mission shown in Table 1. The homepage URL of the Carsem Semiconductor is: http://www.carsem.com/. 1.5 Semiconductor Industry Semiconductors, or microchips, are tiny, powerful devices that control electrical current. They work like electric switches, either blocking or conducting the flow of electrical current. The best known semiconductors element is silicon. As per the Wikipedia, the semiconductor industry is the aggregate collection of companies engaged in the design and fabrication of semiconductor devices, or microchips. Semiconductor industry had been considered as a high-technology industry by where the companies allocate a large sum of their revenue to research and development. The industry is recognized as a key driver for economic growth in recent years by where the development of new semiconductor products, manufacturing technologies and applications has lead to the development of other important industries, such as computers, telecommunications, and consumer electronics. The industry consists of four main products as shown in Table 2. In year 2009, Intel still remains as the market leader for 18 consecutive years despite the global semiconductor revenue decline on year 2009. Mean while as per the source from iSuppli Corporation, the global semiconductor revenue on year 2010 had growth to $304 billion with a growth of 32.5 percent compare to year 2009. Top 20 semiconductor suppliers ranking recorded by iSuppli Corporation such as Intel, Samsung, Toshiba, etc as shown in Appendix 8. 2. CARSEM INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE 2.1 Computer hardware platform Carsem engaged with Dell and Acer on it client machines; meanwhile Dell, Sun and Hewlett-Packard (HP) had been chosen in the support of it Server machines. The reason behind the choice is none others that cost related decision and the after sales service support and maintenance. 2.2 Operating system (OS) platform Carsem had been adopting in Microsoft Windows (Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows NT4) for years in managing the resources and activities of the client machines. Linux, inexpensive and robust open-source software; Microsoft Windows Server 2008, most flexible and robust OS had both need the choice of Carsem for it server OS. Sun Solaris is also another OS by Carsem in managing it server machines. The need to control and reduce IT spending and license cost had been the main factors for above OS selection. 2.3 Enterprise software application Carsem had been attached with Oracle and Microsoft for years such as Oracle Database, SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange 2010, Microsoft Office, etc for it enterprise software application. The interrelationship between OS and enterprise software application had make Carsem to make such a decision with the consideration of Carsem needs. 2.4 Data management and storage Carsem selected Dell Equalogic Storage area networks (SANs) network-based storage technologies which connect multiple storage devices on a separate high-speed network dedicated to storage. The SAN with it huge storage capacity and stable performance is suitable for Carsem business processes. 2.5 Networking and telecommunication platform, Internet platform Carsem wide area network (WAN) had been attach with Telekom Malaysia (TM) providers for years due to the provider able to provide Carsem with a customized package pricing. Apart from that, WAN network equipment such as network termination unit (NTU) circuit, Cisco router is provided by TM as well. Carsem had been using Cisco router and switch for it local area network (LAN) for years for it is a market leader. Mean while as per management direction Dlink Wireless AP had been the choice in support Carsem wireless local area network (WLAN). To further align with management direction cost related, Carsem had been deploy with Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) under Asterisk for the recent years. 2.6 Consultants and system integrators Carsem maintain a continuous consultation contract with it providers such as Microsoft, Dell, Cisco, and TM due to providers able to provide a consistence and prompt service as needed. Providers professional skills and experiences on the infrastructure often give a handy solution to Carsem in a timely manner to minimize the factory losses due to the IT infrastructure down time. 2.7 Choice of Carsem In general the factors affecting the selection of IT infrastructure in Carsem including the management direction, business processes, budget, licenses, ease of use, life span, support, maintenance, associated partnership gain and etc. Take one examples, in choosing the brand of client computer hardware, there might be a number of vendors offering the same specification. But due to the product life span and in house supporting, Carsem had chosen Dell. Reason for engaging with Dell for years is due to the redundant to change by where the organization will need to go through a total change and adopt all necessary. Although the process is onetime deal but if the change does not generate a great improvement and additional benefits there is no value to make the change. This potential changes will also resulting in significant increase of the company cost. Another factor that is affecting the selection would be on the cost basis, by where the selected providers able to provide the infrastructure is a relatively low price compare to its competitors. This point is also applied to the maintenance cost. Dell solid reputation proven to be a reliable and prompt support services provider and that is another reason of Carsem choice. Dell also provides complete solution through its partnerships with software vendors such as Microsoft. As per Ratnam (Carsem former group IT Manager), Carsem manage to get Microsoft licensing through Dell so that the servers and desktops supplied to Carsem arrive with pre-installed software, all within one purchase order. For examples, in selecting an OS platform, Microsoft is preferable over others due to the system is more flexible and robust by where it can support a wide range of application included a third party software. 2.8 Carsem challenges in managing IT infrastructure Carsem faced with a legacy IT infrastructure that could not be accommodate the expanding manufacturing orders, the organization wanted to consolidate its server environment. The larger Carsem user base, the more diverse the environment, the greater the challenge will be. Some of the challenges are as per Table 3. Table 3: Challenges in managing IT infrastructure 3. CLOUD COMPUTING 3.1 Cloud computing Cloud computing, ‘a new delivery model; refers to style of computing in which various resources servers, applications, data, and other often virtualized resources are integrated and provided as a service over the Internet (Australian Government, Department of Finance and Deregulation, 2011). Cloud provides virtual server, software, store and secure immense amounts of data, application, which is accessible only by the authorized applications and users. Cloud computing eased the integration of photos, maps, and GPS information to create a mash up in customer Web browsers. As per professional like US National Institute of Standards and Technologys (NIST) and Sun Microsystems, 2009, cloud computing is pay-per-use networking computer with a minimal management effort and service provider interaction. Visual of NIST working definition cloud computing as shown in Appendix 9. 3.2 Cloud computing characteristic and types In general there are five essential characteristics that promote the cloud model included on-demand self service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity and measured service. In detail cloud computing enable user to adopt and devise various resources as ones requirement without interaction with the services providers at any available clients platform such as laptop, mobile phones or PDAs. User gathers necessary resources through clouding in a flexible manner without the awareness on the resources location in a pay-per-use method. Detailed descriptions of each characteristic are shown in Appendix 10. Cloud computing can be on public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud depending on an organization requirement (Appendix 11). Temporary application may be deploy in a public cloud due to cost censes and likewise a dedicated application should adopt a private or hybrid cloud. 3.3 Cloud computing services models Cloud computing providing a comprehensive services from hardware to applications and all this services may be grouped into three categories: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) as per Appendix 12. Organization will choose a cloud service based on the organization specific business, technical, and operational requirements. SaaS is a model that offers software as service over the internet. SaaS eliminates the need to install and run the application on the client hardware. PaaS providing a computing platform as service which compliance of cloud infrastructure and cloud applications. IaaS services deliver a virtualization platform for computer infrastructure. The top cloud computing providers such as Amazon, Google, 3Tera, etc are shown in Appendix 13. 3.4 Cloud computing trends Could computing isnt a new technology or a new architecture; its a new delivery model. This model is still an evolving paradigm. As per NIST, cloud computing definitions, use cases, underlying technologies, issues, risks, and benefits will be refined in a spirited debate by the public and private sectors. These definitions, attributes, and characteristics will evolve and change over time. In general cloud computing is like weather, full with uncertainty but a trend can be observed through it grow. The top ten cloud computing trends of current clouding are as stated below (Appendix 14). 3.5 Cloud computing solutions 3.5.1 Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Amazon EC2 is a specialized IaaS by where it provides a sizeable computing capacity to an organization through clouding. Amazon EC2 with the pay-per-use concept allow an organization to scale up and down as per the latest computing requirement by only paying for capacity the organization actually use. It saves the needs for an organization to spend heavily on its IT infrastructure in order to operate its business processes. Amazon EC2 allows an organization to have complete control over the selected combination of instances, operating systems and software. With the highly reliable environment and numerous securing mechanisms, Amazon EC2 providing an assurance service to an organization. With the Amazon CloudWatch, an organization can had an overview of its resources utilization and performance at own pace. This solution is suitable to be adopting by Carsem as it coherent with the business processes and environment requirement. 3.5.2 Google App Engine With its specialties in PaaS, Google App Engine enables an organization to develop and host applications on the cloud platform without the needs for the organization to hold any server. With no set-up costs and recurring fees, an organization will only need to pay on the resources such as storage and bandwidth that are used by organization to support those applications. Google App Engine with its ability to automatic scaling enables an organization to scale up and down according to its current needs. 3.6 Cloud computing benefits and costs Clouding able to reduces organization hardware and overall IT expenses, apart from the benefits of pay-per-use. With the scalability of the clouding, organization may choose to expand its storage without the needs to pay an expensive price for the hardware and the programs. The availability of Cloud solutions enables an organization to run project at own ease and increase the deployment of new products. There is no payment needed by the organization on the future updates due to clouding provide automate updates services. Clouding reduces IT focus on system administration work such as manage servers and application upgrades and channel their skills in integrating the legacy system with the new cloud solution. The availability of templates allows the implementation and deployment of cloud services is much easier and minimizes the needs of IT. Clouding also enable users to access and updates information anywhere as their own convenience. Data are being managed and protected by the skilled vendors and the amounts of infrastructure needed had been the responsible of the cloud providers. This will ease the pain of an organization in deciding on the purchasing and the maintenance of the infrastructure base on the rapidly increasing workload. With the high secure infrastructure by the cloud providers, an organization is being relief off the infrastructure disaster such as power lines cut off, flooding, fire, security, etc. Clouding able to reduce the run time of an applications and enable the batch jobs to be completed in a short time frame so that management able to make a prompt decision. As the cloud services is provided via internet, internet service loss may result an organization unable to perform its business processes or unable to make a prompt decision. Due to the physical infrastructure locations is unknown to the organization, the data and information might run at risk of not be compliance with local privacy requirements. Apart from that organization might run at a risk that the data being expose to others users especially for public cloud which might had hundreds to thousands user. Organization might loss of control over its storage due to had no insight of cloud provider contingency procedures whether there are any backup, restore and disaster recovery. Organization might run into cloud providers that are using different application programming interface which resulting both application unable to synchronize. Below table summarize a list of benefits and costs in running cloud computing. 4. CLOUD COMPUTING ADOPTION Carsem need to take into consideration forces such as market demand, business strategy, IT department strategy, IT assessment and competitors IT infrastructure related services in the implementation of cloud computing. 4.1 Market demand for Carsem services Semiconductor industry had been growing in a pace and face constant demand for products. In order to maintain its position in the market, Carsem needs to ensure that its customers, suppliers and employees are satisfied with the services provided. Currently Carsem facing with the challenges of maintain a good rapport with its customers by where queries unable to be attended on time and customers facing a hard time in getting a real time product status via extranet established by Carsem. Apart from that suppliers also having difficulty in monitoring the raw materials inventory level for a prompt replenish due to no inventory tracking system established. There is no real time data shared with the oversea sales team which will enable the team to make an on time potential sales decision due to the data are locked away with the factory. Mean while information availability to the in house employees to make an immediate disposition is an existing challenge, as the information is only made available to a specific level of employees with granted access right. 4.2 Carsem business strategy Carsem goal of maintaining as a leading semiconductor sub-contract assembly house by providing zero defects products in a reasonable pricing achievable through a series of strategy such as maintaining a good relationship with the customers, continuous improvement system towards zero defects, quality control measurement, on-going research and development of high-technologies products and comprehensive monitoring system. In order to maintain a good relationship with customers, on time delivery and products information visibility need to made available. To further impress the customers, Carsem employees will need to be able excel in operational, services and technology delivery. A good monitoring system will ensure that the product deliver on time with zero defects, never the least ensure that Carsem inventories is in a healthy state. Continuous improvement system such as employee suggestion system (ESS) or operators advancement training program will ensure that the employees equipped with needed information for their job. 4.3 Carsem IT department strategy IT department is a crucial department in driving Carsem business strategy to meet with market demands. The department prior tactic is to conduct a throughout analysis by department basis to understand each department requirements and access needs towards the use of information system. The result will enable the IT department to create a fitting system to drive the business strategies smoothly to achieve information sharing and better decision making. Therefore total cost ownership (TCO) analysis is needed to justify to which extend an investment is needed. TCO included direct costs and indirect costs such as software and hardware acquisition cost, setup cost, maintenance cost, infrastructure cost, downtime cost, space and energy cost associate with non other the hiring cost. Management will be able to make a wise decision base on the TCO analysis. 4.4 IT assessment IT department strategy will lead to the need of IT assessment, as an appropriate IT tools are key to IT strategy success. IT assessment will be consisting of an inventory check on the current IT infrastructure available in house in comparison to IT infrastructure needed in association of the IT strategy drawn. The assessment will also need to take into consideration whether the IT infrastructure compatible with individual department needs. Apart from internal assessment, external assessment is also critical. A comparison also need to be carry out between IT infrastructure suppliers to enable a better choice; taking into consideration the factors such as cost, support, standard, licensing etc. IT department need to ensure that there is a database information available persistence to customers IT infrastructure so that Carsem data and information successfully directed to customer. The most common systems used in today market included ERP system, data mining system, information sharing system, reporting system to resolve current challenges faced by Carsem effectively with future expansion therefore cloud computing will be the optimum environment to run above mention system. 4.5 Competitor services and investment In terms of the hardware platform, Carsem nearest competitor is engaged with Dell and conducting with dos system for its software. In general, Carsem and its competitor are offering the same standard of services to its stakeholders. To a certain point, Carsem competitor had a better system by where they had establish a share point system by where it allows employees to upload and share documents thru share point portal. In term of the operation system support, Carsem is gaining an advantage as Carsem had engaged with MES system compare to its competitor which still yet to develop to the MES. 5. CONCLUSIONS 5.1 Recommendations Carsem should go for cloud computing to be at the edge of competitive advantage. Cloud computing solutions such as Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Google App Engine are suitable to be adopted by Carsem. The stated clouding solution will ease off the burden such as managing issues, financial costing, and maintenance problem and in the mean time promote a secure environment for data storage and enable the user to access whenever and wherever they like. 5.2 Summary of findings Carsem had been rapidly growing to achieve competitive advantage in the semiconductor industry. Through the competitive forces model, it is get to know that Carsem is facing with the problem of satisfying its stakeholders due to the incompetence IT infrastructure. Carsem will also need to ensure that both its business strategy and IT strategy are aligned to meet with the markets demand. Additional knowledge of its competitors services and IT infrastructure investment are some essential forces in determining Carsem success. Challenges identified associate in managing Carsem IT infrastructure can be grouped into three categories which are management, organization and technology perspective. Carsem need to realize that information system is the key for solving business problems. As such information system needs to be managed wisely to gain competitive advantage in the market. Information delivers on time will save up time and in turn resulting in cost saving.

Johannes Vermeer: the Procuress and Woman Holding a Balance

Johannes Vermeer: The Procuress and Woman Holding a Balance Johannes Vermeer was born in 1632 in the Dutch city of Delft where he lived his whole life. His early childhood has not been documented; however, he was the son of a silk worker. It is suspected that at an early age, Vermeer took apprenticeship under a man named LeonartBramer, a local artist. Vermeer created his first painting in 1656called, The Procuress,Oil on Canvas,which appears hanging on the wall in some of his later paintings(Wheelock).In his twenties, Vermeer was wealthy enough to own a large house with an attached inn, he probably sold paintings here. When his father died in 1952, it is assumed that Vermeer inherited his father’s business (National Gallery of Art). Vermeer was married in 1653 to a woman of the Catholic religion, Catharina Bolenes. It is suggested that Vermeer might have converted to Catholicism in order to marry the young woman. Vermeer was raised as a protestant by his parents as he was bapt ized in 1632 in the Reformed Church of Delft (Konig).It might have also been a possibility that the parents of the maiden convinced Vermeer to become Catholic in order to marry their daughter to him. A particular painting called, The Allegory of Faith. Oil on Canvas, was a very religious painting made by Vermeer in approximately 1670. Having 14 children by his wife, four of them died at birth(Wheelock). Vermeer painted approximately 35 paintings his whole career. Most of his paintings were interior style paintings with people portrayed in them. His first paintings were mainly historical paintings.Later on in his life, he produced mostly interiors with just one or two people contained in them, mostly women. Most of these paintings featured either a woman alone by herself completing some sort of everyday task or a very symbolic painting such as Woman Holding a Balance. c. 1664. Oil on Canvas, which will be discussed later. Often the light enters Vermeer's paintings from a window. He w as quite a well-organized artist when it came to the way light is depicted as bouncing off of the objects contained within his paintings(National Gallery of Art). Vermeer became a member of the local guild in 1653; a guild is a sort of lub or apprenticeship program for painters in the early modern Europe region. Some of Vermeer’s first works were historical or religious in nature when he first joined the local guild (Wadum). It seems that Vermeer’s style changed a few years after joining the guild into what we now know his works as, interior paintings of figures. Vermeer was highly recognized in Delft as a well-established artist, however, he was sparsely known elsewhere while he was still alive(Scottish National Gallery). In the final stages of Vermeer’s life, he was heavily in debt.This was probably attributed to the invasion of the Dutch Republic, in which, Delft was located, by the French. This sent the economy into a downward spiral and many people did not have the money or the need to buy art. The lack of sales of his artwork made Vermeer and his wife become heavily indebted. In 1675, probably induced by the rough economic times, Vermeer died and was buried in Delft, he was 43 years old (National Gallery of Art). Vermeer’s wife auctioned off a couple of his paintings after his death in order to pay for the debts that the family owed. Mrs.Vermeer also filed for bankruptcy so that she could recover from the heavy debt burden which was left from her husband. The ending to Vermeer’s life seems like a sad story, however, centuries later his work went recognized globally(Liedtke). Many of Vermeer’s paintings were not even credited to him until 200 years after his death. A French critic in 1866 declared most of the 35 paintings we know to be created by Vermeer today as his originals. It seems that Vermeer’s paintings never left the small town of Delft until a couple hundred years after his death(Wheelock).Today, one may recognize Vermeer’s paintings all around the world and we celebrate his delicate balance of light and tones to create mostly quiet and peaceful paintings. The Procuress. c. 1656. Oil on Canvas,was one of Vermeer’s first paintings and it is also one of the most controversial because many scholars believe that Vermeer himself is pictured in this painting because of the style in which the smiling young man is inserted into the painting. The figure of a smiling young man seems to be inserted into the left hand side of a sort of provocative scene, this figure is assumed to be Vermeer.The setting seems to be in a dimly lit room with the background having a cave or tavern like appearance to it. The background is gray and sort of blurred with one dimly lit light that radiates out of the background from behind a person. One person is dressed in black with a hood wrapped around his head and appears both between the background and in the foreground adding the feel of dept h to the painting. It is hard to tell what this person’s gender is except that he seems to be gawking at a woman across the painting, therefore, one may assume the person must be male.There are four people that appear in this painting. The people, starting from the left side of the painting are: first, the supposed Vermeer himself, second, the man dressed in black in the background behind everyone else, third, a man who may have been in the military and lastly, a woman upon whom all the men, except Vermer, are gawking. The theme of the painting seems to be a drunken scene in which men are paying a woman to perform provocative things. The man dressed in red appears to be in the military because of his hat and the fact that most people in the military during this time wore red.His long brown hair is covered by a hat which appears either dirty or is colored brown. The hat seems to have a ribbon wrapped around it and a feather sticking from it; it seems to be one of the typical D utch hats of this era. The man’s long flowing red coat has a gold stripe which runs down each sleeve. As one’s eyes follow down this man’s sleeve, which seems to be the natural flow of the painting,one may reach the center or focal point of the painting. The man in the red coat is holding out a golden coin in the kind of hand gesture that indicates that he is about to flip the coin out of his hand.Then, one may follow the view down below the centered coin and see a woman, who is sitting in front of the red coated man, holding out her hand as if she is about to receive the golden coin that the red coated man is about to flip out of his hand. Looking at the woman, she is wearing a bright yellow sweater and a white bonnet. Her right breast is being handled by the man wearing the red coat. The man is either paying the woman to fondle her breast or for some kind of later services. In the woman’s right hand she is holding a glass, probably containing some kind of alcohol, due to the nature of the scene.Immediately next to the woman’s glass, sits a fancy looking vase or pitcher of some sort. In the foreground, is a fancy carpet with painted leaves of gold, flowing red lines and black symbols appear to be draped over a rail which covers all of the figure’s legs. Over this carpet, on the left side, directly in front of Vermeer is someone’s long overcoat draped over the rail and the carpet. As we come back to the supposed figure of Vermeer, appearing on the left side, we notice in his hand a glass filled with alcohol.We can come to the conclusion that the glass contains alcohol because he is holding his glass up as if giving a toast. His smile seems to be like that of happy drunken man. He must be enjoying the company of the woman pictured across the painting and also his alcoholic beverage. He seems to be the narrator of the painting as he is the only figure starring directly at the viewer (Wheelock). All lines and shape s of this colorful, yet dark back grounded painting seem to be flowing outward in all directions from the center point or core of the painting.The core of the painting is the golden coin being transacted into the woman’s hand as all objects seem to flow from it. As Vermeer’s first painting, The Procuress. c 1656. Oil on Canvas, is very flowing and action-packed. The last painting the writer will discuss is also by Johannes Vermeer. Woman Holding a Balance. c. 1664. Oil on Canvas, contained in the text book on p. 65 (Getlein). This quiet, sort of still, painting seems very simple at first glance. A woman in a dark room appearing to play with a scale and the only light coming through a small window makes for a sort of calm, peaceful painting.However, it is not as quiet and peaceful as it appears at first glance. The jeweler’s balance is the core of the painting as it is in the dead center of the painting with a small amount of light reflected off its metal edges f rom the window. The jeweler’s balance is also the object of the theme of the painting which is a question of life’s vanities balanced against the coming judgment(Getlein). After taking one’s eyes off of the jeweler’s balance,one may follow down to the table beneath and see the light reflected off of golden or pearl necklaces and other types of jewels.On the left side of the painting,one may see a mirror with light reflected from it directly, in front of the woman. If she looked up she would be able to see herself. Than we see the window’s light flow in onto the woman, and also a painting hanging on the wall behind the woman. The painting is very dark looking, but upon further examination, it is the seen to be the Last Judgment and Jesus in the painting is depicted as directly over the woman’s head. The woman is either fat or pregnant. According to Getlein, her form is that of a pregnant woman and the writer agrees. Her face and arms are oo s kinny in proportion to her body, if she were just overweight. She is wearing a black and white garment that looks similar to a winter coat with a hood over her head. She is wearing this coat over her long, flowing dress. The lines of this painting flow from the window to the jeweler’s balance, down to the jewels, up to the woman’s face and beyond to the painting of the Last Judgment. The background of this painting contains a grey wall with the painting of the last judgment contained on it and the light from the window shining across both the wall and the painting.One may barely notice the painting contained within this painting at first glance, except for, the slight glimmer of light upon the right side of the frame. The darkness of this painting may indicate to the viewer that the coming judgment encroaches upon a person quickly and that one may do well to notice the object of the painting, within the painting, which is the coming Savior. The foreground of the painti ng is the pregnant woman; a table and jewelslayingon the table and in front of it, represent the objects of vanity.The idea of the painting is supposed to be birth, death and the balancing of objects of vanity against things that matter like one’s ultimate judgment by Christ. The mirror also reveals a personal evaluation. This mirror is symbolic of one’s self-knowledge, the writer supposes that this self-knowledge is the knowledge of what a person knows is right and wrong and their choice between the two. The writer believesthe ultimate message of this painting to be that one must balance their everyday lives and not get too caught up in the everyday riches of life.Things which are eternal and unseen matter more than the objects one sees glimmering in the sunlight of the window, at any given moment. The way that the room appears totally dark, except for, the small amount of sunlight shining through the window, the way that the light reflects upon the woman and shines o ff of the jewels and the frame of the Last Judgment, the way that the light scatters throughout the painting makes this one of the most interesting and captivating works by Vermeer.The way Vermeer makes the picture appear dark at first glance, but then, gently and with flow, one is able to see all the objects contained within. A delicate balance of light and dark truly brings the theme of this painting to life out of its overall gloominess. In conclusion, the writer has chosen this artist because he was impressed with Vermeer’sWoman Holding a Balance. c. 1664. Oil on Canvas. He was impressed with the symbolism of the painting, the flow of it and the realistic nature it presents.He then chose another interesting work by Vermeer and analyzed it and became impressed with Vermeer’s The Procuress. c. 1656. Oil on Canvas. Upon further study of Vermeer, the writer is glad he has chosen such a talented artist of this era. The writer is amazed with the progression of skill that Vermeer seemed to have accomplished from his first painting, The Procuress. c. 1656. Oil on Canvas to one of his latter day paintings Woman Holding a Balance. c. 1664. Oil on Canvas. The progressions of symbolism as Vermeer’s life had matured are reflected in his paintings.The writer has noticed that in the early stages of Vermeer’s career, he tended to paint more provocative styled works, whereas, as he matured his paintings became gentler, quaint and often had religious themes. It is interesting to note that like Vermeer’s life, one often finds their own life to be progressing into maturity as the years move on. The writer is glad that Vermeer has documented his maturity, unknowingly, through his works of art. Works Cited Getlein, Mark. Living with Art, 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. pp. 64-65 Koning, Hans. 1977. The World of Vermeer.Time-Life Books, New York Liedtke, Walter. â€Å"The Cambridge Companion to Vermeer (Cambridge Companions to the History of Art). † 2001. Essential Vermeer. com. 11 September 2012 ;http://www. essentialvermeer. com/cat_about/christ. html;. National Gallery of Art. Vermeer- Biography. n. d. 04 September 2012 ;http://www. nga. gov/feature/vermeer/bio. shtm;. National Gallery of Scotland. Johannes Vermeer Biography. n. d. 01 September 2012 ;http://www. artbible. info/art/large/169. html;. Scottish National Gallery. â€Å"The Young Vermeer. † n. d. National Galleries. org. 05 September 2012

Analysing and Studying knowledge management to help the organization - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1923 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Management Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Abstract: Knowledge is the most valuable gift that a person can receive, said Indra Nooyi, the chairman of PepsiCo, one of the most successful corporation in the world. This is so true that knowledge is very important not only for individual but also for organizations. It is the invisible tool to change the human community. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Analysing and Studying knowledge management to help the organization" essay for you Create order Thats why most of the organizations have been trying to manage their knowledge asset in order to maximize their profitability. In this report, readers will be presented a clear understanding about what knowledge is, types of knowledge, how it benefits to organizations plus their employees, leadership style and managerial skills required for Chief Knowledge Officers. In order to describe more about Knowledge Management Cycle in the real life practices, the last part of this report will be a case study took from my internship project, which is about BrandBox Company and how it applied the Wiig Knowledge Cycle to manage its own knowledge. Table of contents: Introduction Analysis Type of knowledge Tacit knowledge Explicit knowledge Knowledge Management benefits for organizations Leadership and managerial skills required for knowledge manager Case study Conclusion References Introduction: Knowledge is a very important property that everyone has, in general; and especially for organizations to manage it in order to develop themselves. Knowledge management is the key factor to be developed, productive, and to be successful in the business market. Every organization has its own knowledge assets to be managed and mastered. In the rapid changing environment and competitive market nowadays, organizations need to understand clearly the importance of knowledge management so that they can survive and succeed. This report will show the readers the clear understanding about what knowledge is and how important knowledge management affects companies. Analysis: First of all, lets discus about knowledge. In this booming information technology world these days, there are many definition about what knowledge is. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi, knowledge is justified true belief, and it is different from data and information. There are many more definitions from many others, but they still have the same basic concept which is the experiences, awareness that people had received from their past experiences. Knowledge is conducted by data, which is raw material such as numbers, words, unprocessed materialÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ etc. and information, which is created by filtered data. For examples, students enrollment to Raffles International College: when the students fill the form of enrollment, they have to put their names, phone numbers, address, email addressÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ all of these are data. And after that, Raffles gets the number of enrolling students for the new term; these are information that conducted fr om the previous data. Thus, we can come to the figure  [1]  of transferring from data to knowledge like following: Meaning to say, knowledge can be created by combining all these processes, or it can also be conceived through real experiences, communication, practices. Type of knowledge: Although knowledge is a huge resource, but there are still existing two types of knowledge: tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge: Tacit knowledge is intangible. In the field of knowledge management, the concept of tacit knowledge is referred to a knowledge that is known by an individual and it is difficult to communicate to others  [2]  . For examples, to ride a motorbike or to drive a car, a person needs to practice with a motorbike or a car in order to be able to drive it; this cannot be learned from a book or from another person without practicing. If an individual only reads a book, he/she just knows how to drive in theory, and this knowledge is considered tacit knowledge. This is true when an individuals thought is difficult to be explained to other people or to be drawn, written down into documents. Tacit knowledge can be conceived through an individuals practices, learning, or working experiences  [3]  . We can have a simple example as you read a document or a book, are you even aware of the character? The answer is not, you probably skimmed over the words without any notice how they grouped ; because you already know what that meant. That is tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge In contrast with tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge is tangible; normally it is contented in documents, files, books, images, movies, magazinesÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ etc. it is easy to share and communicate with the others. In an organization, explicit knowledge exists in the forms of documents such as contracts, customers information, policies of the companyÃÆ' ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦ etc. and it can be built, used, and shared by the employees in the whole organization. In an organization, in the same case with the same tacit knowledge, each employee will have different way to solve the problem; as everyone has their own knowledge, experiences and different perspective so that they can have their own advantage and also for the whole organization. Thus, it is very important for them to manage the knowledge in order to maximize productivity and profitability. Knowledge management benefits for organizations: There are many questions pop up in the managers, CEO, CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer) when their company does not working properly, underperforming or the role of Knowledge Management is not considered as important such as Why do many corporations fail when they face continuous changes? How to improve the performance of the company? Or even How to motivate the employees? The important factor here is how to manage the different knowledge of the whole organization from both tacit and explicit knowledge, and then they can take full advantage of the knowledge in order to maximize the organizations productivity. That is why managing knowledge plays a very important role in the company. There are many definition of knowledge management, according to Debowski  [4]  , knowledge management is the process of identifying, capturing, organizing and disseming the intellectual assets that are critical to the organizations long-term performance. When Knowledge is well managed in an organi zation, the result will have much positive effect to the organizations profitability, improving productivity, decreasing the unexpected problems and also the employees. It will create more chances for the employees to improve and also motivate them to have more effort into work. In addition of the COP (community of practice) for the organization, employees can share their knowledge, working experience, skills about the jobs and also to create a better working environment. Leadership and managerial skills required for knowledge manager (CKO): As knowledge plays a very important role in the organizations, and managing knowledge is also an important job for the managers. To convert the employees tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge or into the organizations knowledge so that everyone can share it that requires the deliberate of the whole organizations system. However, to operate that system is not easy; thus, we can see the role of the Knowledge Manager (chief knowledge officer) is extremely important. A Chief Knowledge Officer is an organizational leader, he responsible for ensuring that the organization maximizes the value it achieves through knowledge. A CKO is also responsible for managing intellectual capital and the custodian of knowledge management practices in an organization  [5]  . His/her role is much broader than Chief Information Officer, besides creating, sharing, and developing knowledge in the organization; the CKO must use their knowledge first, then motivate the employees to contribute their kn owledge for the benefit of the whole organization. Moreover, in order to take that big responsibility, knowledge managers must have their skills through a wide variety of areas. They definitely have to be good at understanding the whole picture of the organizational situation, and also personal skills such as communication, interpersonal, negotiation skills, and listen to others to understand more about the employees then keep them motivated. Knowledge managers who can successfully combine these skills will help a lot in saving the time and cost for the organization and they will be excellent agents for the organization that they work for  [6]  . Case study: BrandBox is a small company located in Binh Thanh District, HCMC. BrandBox (used to be known as dLuxy) was found in 2008 and currently a member of worldwide partners Inc. (WPI), a worlds largest owner-operated agency network. Working and developing ideas with international standards, plus deep knowledge and understanding of the Vietnamese culture, BrandBoxs core business is to create and develop brand identity, advertising and graphics design. Services that the Company is delivering to customers are: Brand identity system, brainstorming advertising idea, and creative graphics design. Through 3 months of internship at the Company, I found that the structure of BrandBox is very simple: Due to its small size, therere only 3 departments are: Marketing, Design, and Human Resource that will report directly to the CEO. Marketing department is divided into many smaller groups. As many small size companies, BrandBox has their own knowledge to be managed. The CEO recruited mainly inter nship students; they are good students, young, smart, and creative from national or international universities. They were grouped together to work on the projects under Marketing department. There, the intern students will be responsible and take care of all the processes of the projects. Once a project received with the deadline given, all the groups have to brainstorm, looking for information, planning for the processes and then present to the CEO and other departments their ideas to get the project done with the most effective and efficient way. By doing this, BrandBox has saved a lot for the cost of hiring employees as most of internship students will be working without any payment. Furthermore, the results and information they received from the students are really good quality and relevant. For the students, although they wont receive any payment for all the work they have done, but they have learned a lot of things that they could never receive in school. As I mentioned above, the most effective way to share the knowledge is the Community Of Practice, by working together in groups, student can share the information, experiences, and knowledge with each other, also improve themselves in the same time. In my own opinion, as my assigned project worked out really well, I have learned a lot from the internship period and this is a great idea for the companies to recruit internship students, it not only benefits the companies but also the students as well. Experience, training, education. KM system, team brainstorming. In people, tangible forms. Use Pool Hold BuildIn the field of knowledge management, BrandBox can apply the Wiig Knowledge Cycle  [7]  as following: Work context, work process. fsfdsdffsfs In my opinion, the first step of the Wiig knowledge Cycle, Build Knowledge was applied successfully as the Company has some training courses for the new intern students to get used to the company policies, and to be familiar wi th the jobs. The companys size is small, then the employees can get to know others easier, then they can share their knowledge together. The other steps of the model was also well implemented, knowledge of the students and the employees is used properly, and in an effective way. Plus the teams and groups working environment is really an advantage for all the employees to brainstorm, share their knowledge, ideas, and experience with each other. Conclusion: In conclusion, throughout this report, Knowledge Management takes a really important place in an organization. If knowledge is well managed, it will bring benefit to both organizations and their employees, saving time, reduce cost, improve productivity, profitability and the human relationship as well. In addition, Knowledge Management is the key factor that affect directly to the organizations; any company that has good knowledge management system, it will survive and develop in this global competitive business world.

The Movie Nerve - 1687 Words

The movie Nerve depicts a game similar to truth or dare, but without the truth. When someone joins the game, they participate as either a watcher or a player. Watchers pay to gain access to live broadcasts of players performing dares, and for the ability to suggest dares. Players earn money for each dare they complete successfully, but can lose it all if they fail to complete a dare. The game operates on the dark web, shared with others via a special link and emphasizes not disclosing its operation to law enforcement. Nerve follows the story of high school senior and resident of Staten Island Vee Delmonico as she transforms from art school applicant to internet superstar in one night by joining the game and completing dares. She quickly†¦show more content†¦Not only does this illustrate how information gleaned from social media influences decisions, but it eludes to the idea that Nerve has few limits in regard methods for metastasizing its own user base and retaining existin g users. This opens discussion on how social media platforms use advanced algorithms to show users content that interests them and keep them coming back to the platform, almost as of addicted. Nerve proves that the influences are strong enough to create a romantic relationship, or interpreted more symbolically, the power to control major life decisions. Next, forcing players to compete in the public arena attracts a great deal of attention to the game. Curiosity causes people to investigate the game: if they join as watchers, they will likely want to share the game with their friends; joining as players may have the same effect, but could also create a more ubiquitous, version of the game, causing exponential growth purely through exposure. Nerve’s only purpose is to grow, because more users implies more money. Social media platforms in general exists to sell advertisements, and advertisers will pay more to reach a larger audience. 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