Compare Essay Vietnam an Australia Essay

In recent years, there are many Vietnamese students who want to study in other countries as Australia, Singapore, or USA. Because they think that the education system in these countries is better than the system in Vietnam. They will have plenty opportunities after graduating in international college or university. Nevertheless, others have the opinion that the quality of education in both countries is similar. Australian and Vietnamese education systems are very similar in school ages. We can easy to see that both of their education system have kindergarten level and twelve grades which for children from the ages of 3 to 18. After finishing general education, most of students in Australia move on their studying at TAFE or colleges or universities, and so do Vietnamese students. Moreover, both of them have public schools which boys and girls can join equally in class. In spite of the similarities, these two educations have several differences in system division, timetable and the way students can apply to university. The first difference between two education systems is the system division. In Vietnam, public kindergartens frequently admit children from the age of 18 months to 5 years old. They usually study in primary school at 6 years old for 5 years (grades 1 – 5), secondary school at 12 years old for 4 years (grades 6 – 9) and high school for 3 years (grades 10 -12). In contrast, there are preschool and preparatory (also called kindergarten), which started when you are five. Then, primary school goes from grade 1 to 6 and secondary school from grade 7 to 12. Furthermore, they still are difference in timetable. Australian students have to go to school Monday to Friday, from 8:45 am to 3 pm, with breaks for lunch and snacks. Also they have extra activities after school hours such as piano classes, dance classes, etc. Even though, students in Vietnam just have 5 minutes break between two lessons (45 minutes for a lesson), every day from Monday to Friday. The Vietnamese classes usually started at 6:45 am and finished at 11:45 am for morning session or 12:45 pm to 5:15 pm for afternoon session. Another striking difference between education system in Australia and the system in Vietnam is the way students can apply to university. All of grade 12 students in Vietnam who must to pass the High school Graduation Examination to graduate and take the University Examination to study in university. On the other hand, you need to show: Evidence of English knowledge, Evidence of  study as High school Certificate if you want to apply to any universities in Australia. All things considered, while the two education systems offer similar the ages to go to school, they differ widely in the system division, timetable and the way students can apply to university. Study in Australia is the best choice for students who not only want to be more active, more confident but also improve themselves-study and English skill, enlarge their knowledge and create a great working chance.

Harding Plastic Molding Company

On January 11, 1975, the finance committee of Harding Plastic Molding Company (HPMC) met to consider eight capital budgeting projects. Present at the meeting were Robert L. Harding, President and founder, Susan Jorgensen, comptroller, and Chris Woelk, head of research & development. Over the past five years this committee has met every month to consider and make final judgment on all proposed capital outlays brought up for review during the period. Harding Plastic Molding Company was founded in 1954 by Robert L. Harding to produce plastic parts and molding for the Detroit automakers.For the first 10 years of operations, HPMC worked solely as a subcontractor for the automakers, but since then has made strong efforts to diversify in an attempt to avoid the cyclical problems faced by the auto industry. By 1970 this diversification attempt had led HPMC into the production of over 1000 different items, including kitchen utensils, camera housings, phonographic and recording equipment. It a lso led to an increase in sales of 500 percent during 1964 to 1974 prod. As this dramatic increase in sales was paralleled by a corresponding increase in production volume, HPMC was forced, in late 1973, to expand production facilities.This plant and equipment expansion involved capital expenditure of approximately Rs. 10. 5 million and resulted in an increase of production capacity of about 40 percent. Because of this increased production capacity, HPMC has made a concerted effort to attract new business, and consequently, has recently entered into contracts with a large toy firm and a major discount department store chain. While non-automotive related business has grown significantly, it still only represents 32 percent of HPMC’s overall business.Thus, HPMC has continued to solicit non-automotive business, and as a result of this effort and its internal research and development, the firm has four sets of mutually exclusive projects to consider at this month’s finance committee meeting. Over the past 10 years, HPMC’s capital budgeting approach has evolved into a somewhat elaborate procedure in which new proposals are categorized into three areas – profit, research and development and safety. Projects falling into the profit or research and development area are evaluated by using present value techniques.Assuming a 10% opportunity cost, those falling into the safety classification are evaluated in a more subjective framework. Although research and development projects have to receive favorable results from the present value criteria, there is also a total dollar limit assigned to projects of this category, typically running about Rs. 750,000 per year. This limitation was imposed by Harding primarily because of the limited availability of quality researchers in the plastics industry. Harding felt that if more funds than this were allocated, â€Å"We simply couldn’t find the manpower to administer them properly†.The bene fits derived from safety projects, on the other hand, are not in terms of cash flows; hence, present value methods are not used at all in the evaluation. The subjective approach used to evaluate safety projects is a result of the pragmatically difficult task of quantifying the benefits from these projects into dollar terms. Thus, these projects are subjectively evaluated by a management worker committee with a limited budget. All eight projects to be evaluated in January are classified as profit projects. The first set of projects listed on the meeting’s agenda for examination involves the utilization of HPMC’s precision equipment.Project A calls for the production of vacuum containers for thermos bottles produced for large discount hardware chain. The containers would be manufactured in five different size and colour combination. This project would be carried out over a three-year period, for the sales. Project B involves the manufacture of inexpensive photographic eq uipment for a national photography outlet. Although HPMC currently has excess plant capacity, both of these projects would utilize precision equipment of which the excess capacity is limited.Thus adopting either project would tie up all precision facilities. In addition, the purchase of new equipment would be both prohibitively expensive and involve a time delay of approximately two years. Thus making these projects mutually exclusive. (The cash flows associated with these two projects are given in exhibit-1) Exhibit 1: CASH FLOWS |Year |Project-A |Project-B | |0 |-75,000 |-75,000 | |1 |10,000 |43,000 | |2 |30,000 |43,000 | |3 |100,000 |43,000 | |Year |Project-C |Project-D | |0 | -8,000 |-20,000 | |1 |11,000 | 25,000 | Exhibit 2: Cash FlowsThe second set of projects involves renting, computer facilities, over a one-year period to aid in customer billing and perhaps inventory control. Project C entails the evaluation of a customer billing system proposed by Advanced Computer Corporat ion. Under this system, all of the bookkeeping and billing presently being done by HPMC’s accounting dept. would now be done by Advanced. In addition to saving cost involved in book keeping, Advanced would provide a more efficient billing system and do a credit analysis of delinquent customers, which would be used in the future for in-depth credit analysis.Project D is proposed by International Computer Corporation and includes a billing system similar to that offered by Advanced, and, in addition, an inventory control system that will keep track of all raw materials and parts in stock and reorder when necessary, thereby reducing the likelihood of material stock outs, which has become more and more frequent over the past three years. (The cash flows for these projects are given in exhibit-2).Exhibit 3: Cash Flows |Year |Projects-E |Project-F | |0 |-30,000 |-271,500 | |1 |210,000 |100,000 | |2 | |100,000 | |3 | |100,000 | |4 | |100,000 | |5 | |100,000 | |6 | |100,000 | |7 | |1 00,000 | 8 | |100,000 | |9 | |100,000 | |10 | |100,000 | The third decision that faces the financial directors of HPMC involves a newly developed and patented process for molding hard plastics. HPMC can either manufacture or market the equipment necessary to mold such plastics or they can sell the patent rights to Polyplastics Incorporated, the world’s largest producers of plastic products. (The cash flows for project E and F are shown in exhibit-3). At present, the process has not been fully tested, and if HPMC is going to market it itself, it will be necessary to compute this testing and begin production of plant facilities immediately.On the other hand, selling these patent rights to Polyplastics would involve only minor testing and refinements, which could be completed within the year. Thus, a decision on the proper course of action is needed immediately. The final set of projects up for consideration revolved around replacement of some of the machinery. HPMC can go in on e of the two directions. Project G suggests the purchase and installation of moderately priced, extremely efficient equipment with an expected life of 5 years; project H advocates the purchase of a similarly priced, although less efficient machine with life expectancy of 10 years.The cash flows for these alternatives are shown in exhibit-4) As the meeting opened, debate immediately centered on the most appropriate method for evaluating all of the projects. Harding suggested that since the projects to be considered were mutually exclusive, perhaps their usual capital budgeting criteria of net present value was inappropriate. He felt that, in examining these projects, perhaps they should be more concerned with relative profitability of some measure of yield.Both Jorgensen and Woelk agreed with Harding’s point of view, with Jorgensen advocating a profitability index approach and Woelk preferring the use of the profitability index would provide a benefit-cost ratio, directly impl ying relative profitability. Thus, they merely need to rank these projects and select those with the highest profitability index. Woelk agreed with Jorgensen’s point of view but suggested that the calculation of an internal rate of return would also give a measure of profitability and perhaps be somewhat easier to interpret.To settle the issue Harding stated that the NPV, PI and IRR approaches would necessarily yield the same ranking order. EXHIBIT-4: Cash Flows |Year |Project-G |Project-H | |0 |-500,000 |-500,000 | |1 |225,000 |150,000 | |2 |225,000 |150,000 | |3 |225,000 |150,000 | |4 |225,000 |150,000 | |5 |225,000 |150,000 | |6 | |150,000 | |7 | |150,000 | |8 | |150,000 | |9 | |150,000 | |10 | |150,000 | From here the discussion turned to an appropriate approach to the problem of differing lives among mutually exclusive projects E and F and projects G and H.Woelk argued that there really was not a problem here at all, that as all of the cash flows from these projects can be determined, any of the discounted cash flows methods of capital budgeting will work well, Jorgensen, on the other hand, argued that although this was true, she felt that some compensation should be made for the fact that the projects being considered did not have equal lives. HARDING PLASTIC MOLDING COMPANY QUESTIONS 1) Was Harding correct in stating that the NPV, PI and IRR necessarily will yield the same ranking order? Under what situations might the NPV, PI, and IRR methods provide different rankings? Why is it possible? ) What are the NPV, PI and IRR for projects A and B? What has caused the ranking conflicts?Should project A or B be chosen? Might your answer change if project B is a typical project in the plastic molding industry? For example, if projects for HPMC generally yield approximately 12 percent is it logical to assume that he IRR for project is of approximately 33 percent is a correct calculation for ranking purposes? (Hint: Examine the reinvestment assumption rate ) 3) What are the NPV, PI and IRR for projects C and D? Should projects C or D be chosen? Does your answer change if these projects are considered under a capital constraint?What return on the marginal Rs. 12,000 not used in project C is necessary to make one indifferent between these projects under a capital rationing situation? 4) What are the NPV, PI and IRR for projects E and F? Are these projects comparable even though they have unequal lives? Why? Which project should be chosen? Assume these projects are not considered under a capital constraint. 5) What are the NPV, PI and IRR for projects G and H? Are these projects comparable even though they have unequal lives? Which project should b e chosen? Assume that these projects are not considered under a capital constraint.

Post ww2 fiction and film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Post ww2 fiction and film - Essay Example In The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie similarly damaged people are considered, particularly the title character who draws a few to her but rejects many others. A Clockwork Orange portrays a nightmarish future world, taking several features of 1950’s/1960’s life to their logical conclusions. The title is suggestive of all these works: the people appear to be alive on the outside, but are â€Å"clockwork† (dead) within. The extent to which novels and films can reflect actual problems within society versus the fact that they are reflections of an individual author’s/filmmaker’s view of the world is one that can never be entirely resolved. In reality, novelists and directors live within societies and are thus influenced by them, yet at the same time they are portraying their individual perspectives. Three very distinct novels, such as The Prime of Miss Jean Brody, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and A Clockwork Orange, reflect often nightmarish versions of society. A common theme among all three of them is the place of the individual within society. That is, how far can the individual act in a purely independent manner versus the need to conform? Each novel tackles this question in a different manner and comes to contrasting conclusions. The main characters in each novel are indeed â€Å"individualistic†, in the fact that they follow their own course (often counter to what â₠¬Ëœsociety’ wants for them), and their often difficult fates illustrate the dangers of being an individual. The issue of conformity versus eccentricity is as relevant today as it was in post-war British society, and thus can inform a discussion of problems that are being faced today. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is set in Scotland during the 1930’s. As such it represents a consideration of the interwar rather than the post-war period., but many of its themes resonate to the latter period. The teacher of the title is determined to actually teach the young women at her

DETECTING MEDIA BIAS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

DETECTING MEDIA BIAS - Essay Example There was even a story about a toddler who was found in a car seat but whose connection to the previous story remained unclear. Since there was very little information to go by at the time of the reporting, I firmly believe that this article lacked the depth and breadth of an accurate news report. It reported unconfirmed information and relied on hearsay rather than verified data from the police and mall authorities. It would appear that the facts as reported in the story were only based upon the little information that the reporter could either verify from the authorities or heard from some witnesses on the ground. Therefore, it is hard to say if the writer actually had an inclination to report the story in one particular way or if he had intentionally or unintentionally misreported facts in the story. There were certainly questionable assumptions made within the story as the reporter questioned a particular witness about what he thought he heard and saw prior to and during the suicide. I find it disturbing that he took the word of an untrained bystander when reporting about the kind of gun and bullet that was used in the successful suicide attempt. He took the witnesses word for it when he said that there was little to no blood on the scene. The man was simply having a meal at McDonalds when the event occurred. He was not identified as any sort of medical professional, coroner, or member of the police force who had the authority to make such pronouncements about the victims. The emphasis of the story was supposed to be on the double suicide that took place. The news reporting was so scattered that it was really difficult for readers to identify what story the beat reported was trying to tell. He ended up maximizing his word count without informing the readers about what really happened, who those people where, why they committed suicide, and if they were related to the abandoned child that was

Interior Design Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Interior Design - Assignment Example With the fascinating variety of experiences, but textural and cultural to dip into, there has never been a better time to be an interior designer, or interior architects as we are often known as. The first and most noticeable challenge that our profession faces is control over the gradual but inexorable dominance of technology. The curricula in colleges are software specific, to the extent that in cases the act of design itself is limited by what can be designed then displayed with the available software. Design firms use colleges like training grounds for their own recruitment, by encouraging instruction in software and technology used by their firm. The use of technology in all its forms is a boon without a doubt, but the challenge is the need to propagate the use of technology as a tool, rather than as a set of design-defining parameters. Another challenge that is faced by the field of interior design is the corporatization of the field, where a relatively small group of design firms amass the resources and the means to dominate every aspect of the profession.. To deal with this, Interior designers have to redefine themselves and the way they project their skills and their profession, so as to enable their potential clients to see the innate value in personal interaction.

What Do ERP Systems mean Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

What Do ERP Systems mean - Research Paper Example From this paper it is clear that the above departmental processes are comprised of characteristics which have similarity and differences on various aspects. These characteristics are based upon the definition, order, customers, emdeddedness, cross-functionality and value-adding. In regards to the definition, the processes have well defined boundaries, inputs as well as outputs. Business processes operate on one or more functional units. The enterprise processes are either based internally or externally unlike the inter-enterprise process which is non-centralized. Next to ordering, the processes consist of ordered work activities based on their position in terms of time and space. In any process there must exist a recipient that receives the outcome of the process. Both enterprise and inter-enterprise process are not exceptional to this. They have targeted customers for whom they produce and deliver their products and services to. Another feature of these processes is embeddedness. Th is means that processes cannot survive alone and must be embedded to the structure of the organization/department. Further to cross-functionality, processes are expected to perform several functions. Finally, processes are characterized by transformations either upstream or downstream aimed at adding value to their products/services and their recipients at large. For the past 20 years, the detonation in the use of ERP systems across the world has proved a major factor in the advancement of business operations, services and the overall quality of products. This paper basically discusses how the ERP system operates, its elements and history. Customer intelligence identified as vital for it brings out the customers buying habits.  

Music & the Liturgy Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Music & the Liturgy Paper - Essay Example The Psalms feature strongly, prefiguring the life of Christ, and particular festivals bring into focus scenes such as the Nativity and the Passion of Christ which were then the subject matter of hymns and sequences. The major festivals of Christmas and Easter create the setting for the composing of new sacred music, and many of the great composers produced multiple settings of the same texts, giving the world a rich collection of variations which, when compared, give an insight into the subtle changes in Christian musical and religious sensibility through the ages. This paper considers in particular three settings of one of the world’s favourite Latin hymns known as Stabat Mater Dolorosa. The origins of the text itself are obscure, but scholars date it to the thirteenth century. The essence of its meaning is a reflection on the sorrowing figure of Mother of Christ, standing beneath the cross and weeping for the death of her son. The subject matter is emotive, and yet in its li nkage of suffering with the path to salvation, it has a positive message for believers, encouraging them to bear their troubles bravely and look to a blessed future with Christ in Paradise. This text has been reworked many times, using elements of secular music through the ages to enhance its relevance in successive generations. The reasons for the diverging approaches to Church music in different parts of Europe are linked to the cataclysmic events surrounding the Reformation. At the heart of this debate lay fundamental differences in the way that the Biblical text was perceived. In the protestant parts of Europe there was a growing desire to centre the literal text of scripture as the source of fundamental truth, and to place human additions such as preaching, music and the use of other devotional aids including the liturgy as secondary aids to the interpretation of this main truth. Polyphony in this context was an opportunity to explore hidden meanings in a text, having different voices express different aspects of its message for example. Emphasis and amplification could be achieved in this way. In the Roman Catholic tradition, on the other hand, the holy scripture was combined with apostolic traditions as the source of truth, leading to a higher status for the liturgy and a tendency for musical contributions to become bearers of the doctrine as much as the readings from the Bible itself. It is this emphasis on the importance of the liturgy that caused the Roman Catholic Church to clamp down on secular influences creeping into worship. The lively motet tradition, with its celebration of secular and even bawdy themes was seen as a negative influence, and this is why a return to the purity of Gregorian chant was advocated by the Church authorities. The role of the Stabat Mater was a cause of much debate in the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries because it was at the same time much loved by the population but also clearly non-Biblical in content. It became pa rt of the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows at in 1413 at the Council of Cologne and this hymn became part of the liturgy in Northern Europe from that time onwards. In the south, however, the piece was sporadically performed, but did not become such a firm part of the liturgical programme. It has been noted also that some such pieces were performed on the edge of the formal

Small Business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Small Business - Assignment Example Because of the failure South African economy has lost more than R68 million over the period of 1997 to 2000. A study also in Canada shows that 68 % of small and medium enterprises with fewer than five employees, failed within five years. The reason for failure of businesses includes the following areas of concern: The above reason will be our focus in making the business plan for a period picture framing and small craft workshop for furniture. Creating a business plan is essential for small business to be able to develop a path for a strong business. Our business plan for picture and framing woodcraft furniture includes the capital, market selection and business and management skills. Our marketing report shows that since we are producing a furniture and picture frame at not so low price, therefore we are offering our furniture to those whose accept the fact that it is hard to produce a very low price furniture with quality. We are marketing our product to high and medium class people of Kent as well as throughout London. As described in our marketing report and analysis a proper strategy will be implemented to market the furniture. Working capital is important in starting a small business. From here you will be able to start your business by selecting materials which are cheaper but of quality. The company wants to develop a quality furniture for our customer but it has an inadequate working capital. This may cause a failure of the business if we were not able to manage the cash well. Small business failure can inevitably be related to poor or careless financial management (Berryman, 1983; Peacock, 1985). Businesses can increase their capital by looking for a material which would not cost them a lot, or by looking for a lending company with a low interest to be able to have enough capital for the business. The advantage of these actions is that it is beneficial to the company since they have an additional capital but it could be a disaster if they were not able to manage their capital well. Other encourages small businesses owner-managers to install and use accounting information systems (McMahon and Holmes, 1 991). Breen and Sciulli (2002) report that, in order to reduce the cost burden on small business, a number of mechanisms were put in place.. All of this was to encourage small business to utilize computerized technology. However to be able to use the computerized technology proper training and seminars should be conducted for employees. Chittenden and Bragg (1997) report that when a small business is suffering from late payment there is an increase in short-term bank borrowing, or delay in payments to creditors. When this occurs small business then has to over commit themselves which leads to the next two comments that "There is a definite down turn since GST. Money is very much tighter. In an arts and craft business experiencing very much reduced turnover" and "I spend a lot more time monitoring cash flow, with more work and less cash" sums up what the small business owner-manager is experiencing. Petzke and Murphy (2001) reported that the introduction of the GST and consequent rep orting requirements had put stress on marriages and 'ruined some small businesses with red

English literature paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

English literature paper - Essay Example â€Å"A prudent leader, however, will be able to anticipate problems long before they actually arise, using virtà ¹ to forestall what would otherwise be great difficulties† (Kemerling). Machiavelli describes a business principle here which I would utilize as a leader of an organization in the future in order to select among the best alternatives. Machiavelli through virtue is describing the business function known as forecasting. Forecasting involves planning for the future by predicting future outcomes and choosing the best possible option. Virtue is going to provide lots of positive outcomes. By creating a clear understandable path the followers receive adequate instructions on how to proceed. Another quality of leadership describe by Machiavelli is the need for the leader to acquire a good reputation while doing whatever wrong see necessary in the circumstance (Kemerling). According to Machiavelli a good leader must be able to make touch decision and always stand by them. For example in the future as a corporate leader I might have to make some tough decisions, I might be the person responsible for firing 3000 employees. If that is the best business decision that will bring the greater benefit for the company I have to stand by my action and show confidence in front of others when discussing this business move that affected the lives of so many people. Another important principle of management mentioned by Machiavelli is that the ruler will need the assistance of advisors. This principle can be converted in the 21st century as the need to work in team settings. In our society a good leader recognizes he / she can not do the work alone and participation of others is necessary. In our times a good leader also seeks the advice of experts in certain situations to gather better information before making a decision. For example when working on a project a l eader may seek advice from an outside consultant in order

Chronic illness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Chronic illness - Essay Example As a continuum, palliative care addresses the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the patient and family which cannot be handled by one single agency lest it would cause fragmentation of care. It therefore follows multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary (integrative) care is the backbone of palliative care. With the integration of inputs from various disciplines in accordance with stage of the disease progression, pain and other symptoms, psychological state of patient and family, social and practical requirements and available resources, palliative care becomes a multifaceted care with the involvement of primary care and specialist doctors, nursing staff, social worker and many others in a coordinated manner ensuring continuity of care (Mitra & Vadivelu, 2013, p. 17). Thus, palliative care has been defined as the patient and family-centered one seeking to optimize their quality of life by treating their suffering which includes anticipation and prevention of the suffe ring by addressing their â€Å"physical, intellectual, emotional, social, and spiritual needs† (NCP, 2013, p. 12) throughout the continuum of illness â€Å"ensuring patient autonomy, access to information and choice† (NCP, 2013, p. ... e, its physical aspects, psychological and psychiatric aspects, social aspects, spiritual, religious and existential aspects, cultural aspects, care at the end of life and ethical and legal aspects. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act 2010 (PPACA) also has mandatory provisions for both hospice and curative care under Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). It emerges therefore that philosophy and delivery of palliative care has the following characteristics. 1. Provision of care through coordination by an interdisciplinary team. 2. Care needs are determined by collaboration and communication among the patients, families, palliative and non-palliative care providers. 3. Concurrent availability of services along with curative or life-prolonging care. 4. Provision of support to patient and family throughout the period of illness, dying process, and after death (NCP, 2013) The NCP guidelines were revised in 2009 and 2013. The ten year working of the NCP has witnessed 47 % increase in the number of hospice programs and 148 % increase in non-hospice palliative care programs. It has been reported that in the United States about 1,059,000 deaths out of 2,513,000 deaths occurred under the care one of over 5,000 hospices in the year 2011. That is, 46 % of deaths have been under the care of the hospices. It is also claimed that hospices help reduce Medicare program expenditures. One study reveals that cost for the terminal year of life was reduced by an average $ 2309 per patient under the care of hospice. (NCP, 2013). Integrative care Authors interchangeably use the terms â€Å"interdisciplinary† and â€Å"multidisciplinary† but they do not mean the same though they represent contributions from variety of disciplines for individual patient care.

Martin Luther King speech Essay Example for Free

Martin Luther King speech Essay I think Martin Luther King’s speech make the strongest argument when Martin Luther King once said, I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. This saying rang towards the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the eager, listening ears of people who wanted reform. August 28, 1963, marked the day when Martin Luther King Jr. had changed more than just Washington. More than America. He had envisioned a life where everyone would be considered equal, and everyone would prosper. He had begun to change the world. This historic event took place 48 years ago, and many alterations in society have occurred since then. If Martin Luther King Jr. had never been born, however, racism and segregation would still exist and even burgeon. Martin Luther King Jr. was the exemplar for civil rights, the paragon of justice. Without him, life would be malevolent for me, an Indian from the hot, arid land where the Ganges runs free and nature is all-abundant. There would be no variety in America. The majority would constantly rule over the minority and tensions would erupt. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the minority a voice of reason and hope. When King spoke, he reached peoples hearts and minds at the same time. He dug down deep into issues of racial discrimination and presented alternatives of love and equality. Racists struck down his ideas, but others were moved and worked to better society as he wished. King was a loving man, one that wished people would listen and follow him but he did not force them. If Martin Luther King had never been born we would have never been able to, as a nation, act as a role model to help these countries on their quest to become industrialized nations. America would become full of arrogance, and we would not participate in national affairs with an open mind. The Declaration of Independence, a document which we hold in our hearts so fervently, summarizes Martin Luthers Kings purpose in life: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. Today, all men are indeed created equal, but would that have been recognized without this man who went against the norms of society and rose in the ranks

An analysis of Laurence Sternes The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Essay Example for Free

An analysis of Laurence Sternes The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Essay In this essay my aim is to demonstrate how the author parodies the different narrative techniques, how he uses the time-shift device, how he introduces the relationship between the narrator and the reader, how he addresses the reader and how he makes use of the hobby-horses. For an introduction I would like to mention some aspects of the novel and its reception. Sterne is best known for his novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, for which he became famous not only in England, but throughout Europe as well. Sterne wrote Tristram Shandy between 1759 and 1767. It was published in nine volumes, the first two appearing in 1760, and seven others following over the next ten years. According to a literary webpage it was not always thought as a masterpiece by other writers such as Samuel Johnson who said in a critique from 1776 that nothing odd will do long. Tristram Shandy did not last; but in opposition to that European critics such as Voltaire and later Goethe praised the book, clearly superior. (www.sparknotes.com/lit/sterne). The novel may have been for Sterne and his contemporaries an excitingly new form, but Sterne manages to bring home to the reader what a novel could not do as well as what it could. (Ricks,15). According to Andrew Sanders this novel is: the one that is freest of insistent linearity, the one that makes the most daring bid to escape from the models established by the epic or by history. It glances back to the anecdotal learning of Burtons The Anatomy of Melancholy, to the bawdy ebullience of Rabelais, and to the experimental games of Swift and the Scriblerians, but it is ultimately an unprecedented, and still unrivalled, experiment with form. (Sanders, 317). In this novel, Sterne broadens the possibilities of the novel form, and yet unlike most novels, it is concerned explicitly with reminding us that there are things which you cannot expect a novel to do. The greatness of Sterne is that, with humour, and sensitivity, he insists all the time that novels cannot save us. (Ricks, 13) To begin my analysis, first I would like to look at how Sterne parodies the different narrative techniques. According to Jeffrey Williams the novel demonstrates an extraordinary form in novelistic sense due to the fact that the narrative of Tristrams autobiography and the history of the Shandy family are incomplete and intermitted. The arrangement of the plot is quite exceptional concerning the conventional plot forms because it is disorganised and has a non- linear schema. (Williams, 1032) An essayist, namely Viktor Shklovsky, gives the answer to that unique form that the disorder is intentional; the work possesses its own poetics. (Shklovsky, 66) Following the previous statement from Jeffrey Williams, the narrated events are often interrupted by Tristram who calls for the importance of narration. He explains that Tristram Shandy is an embedded narration, which means that the interrupted parts and comments make a linear narrative. The main character is the narrator, Tristram Shandy, who tries to acquire the best he can when recounting the history of the Shandy family from 1695 till 1711. (Williams, 1033) As Shklovsky puts it, Tristram Shandy is the most typical of novels because it so overtly inscribes its own narrative, its own act of narrating. (Shklovsky, 66). To continue with this theme, the time of narrating is worth mentioning. In an essay by Jeffrey Williams, Genette Gà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½rard distinguishes four types of narration according to temporal position and places this novel into the simultaneous form, meaning narrative in the present contemporaneous with the action. (Williams, 1036) From this explanation it turns out that Tristram Shandy, as part of Tristrams autobiography, is a narration in the past. The other basic device Sterne uses is the time-shift technique which brakes whatever action may seem to be developing (Shklovsky, 67) To illustrate what Shklovsky means by the time-shift device, he takes an example from the book. In the first volume, Sterne tells us about the interruption of a sexual act (in which Tristram was begot) by Mrs Shandys question. The anecdote is figured out as the following: Tristrams father sleeps with his wife only on the first Sunday of each month; the same evening he winds up the clock in order to get out of the way at one time all family concernments, and be no more plagued and pestered with them the rest of the month. As a conclusion, an irresistible association of ideas became established in his wifes mind; as soon as she heard the clock being wound up, a totally different matter came to her mind, and the other way around. That is the reason for her question, Pray, my dear, []have you not forgot to wind up the clock? (Shklovsky, 67; also qtd by TS. , 35) and the interruption of Tristrams fathers activity.. (Shklovsky, 67). He pointed out in his essay that this anecdote is presented into the book through different steps. The initial step is the comment about the irresponsibility of parents, then the mothers question without a reason for its significance. The reader may think that the question interrupted what the father was saying but this is only Sternes trick which aims at our misconception: - Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly question? (T.S.; 36 also qtd. by Shklovsky). This device determines the novel from the beginning. Shklovsky states that Sterne mentions the purpose only after the actions, which is his constant device. Following the time-shift technique, another device Shklovsky presents is the usage of sewing together the novel from different short stories. Sterne seems to manipulate and expose the novels very structure: formal devices and structural relations made perceptible by violating their ordinary employment, which make up the very content of the novel. Sterne permitted actions to take place simultaneously, but he parodied the development of the subplot and the intrusion into it of new material. The description of Tristram Shandys birth is the material developed in the first part, occupying many pages, almost none of which are devoted to the account of the birth itself. What is developed, in the main, is the heros conversation with Uncle Toby. (Shklovsky, 68-69) ____ I wonder whats all that noise, and running backwards and forwards for, above stairs, quoth my father, addressing himself, after an hour and a halfs silence, to my uncle Toby, ___ who you must know, was sitting on the opposite side of the fire, smoking his social pipe all the time, in mute contemplation of a new pair of black-push-breeches which he had got on;___ What can they be doing, brother?____ quoth my father, we can scarce hear ourselves talk. I think, replied my uncle Toby, taking his pipe from his mouth, and striking the head of it two or three times upon the nail of his left thumb, as he began his sentence,____ I think, says he: ____ But to enter rightly into my uncle Tobys sentiments upon this matter, you must be made to enter a little into his character, the outlines of which I shall just give you, and then the dialogue between him and my father will go on as well again. (TS., 87; also qtd. by Shklovsky, 69) As the former example demonstrates, the technique of intrusion is used by Sterne constantly, and it is obvious in his funny remembrance of Uncle Toby. He not only recognizes the hyperbolic elaborations of his development, but plays with that development. This method is for Sterne the canon. (Shklovsky, 70). The next topic relating to the novel is how the relationship of the narrator and the reader is presented. For this matter, I will use an Internet source, namely an essay by Aimed Ben-hellal. According to Aimed Ben-hellal, in the beginning of the novel Tristram Shandy declares that Writing, when properly managed, (as you may be sure I think mine is) is but a different name for a conversation () (T.S., 127, also qtd. by Ben-hellal). This statement will determine his writing all the way through the book. Tristrams speech defines the continuous dialogue between narrator and reader. In the above example the reader is addressed in an informal and communicative way. Tristram tries to lure the reader from the beginning of the novel and tries to get as much of his attention as he can, which means that the reader is brought on the stage to become the true character of the book (Ben-hellal, 1). In the opening chapter of the book, Tristram addresses the reader as the following: ___ Believe me good folks, this is not so inconsiderable a thing as many of you may think it () (T.S, 36, also qtd. by Ben-hellal). In this quotation, the narrator attempts to catch the attention of his reader to point out his understanding of the sad circumstances of his destiny. The heros life and his adventures are presented to the reader in order to get to know him. The narrator manages to establish the first contact. The appellation good folks is usually indicative of the distance which initially separates the actor from his spectators. (Ben-hellal, 2). Three chapters later this distance lessens: I know there are readers in the world, as well as many other good people in it, who are readers at all, __ who find themselves ill at ease, unless they are let into the whole secret from first to last, of every thing which concerns you. ( T.S, 37, also qtd. by Ben-hellal, 2). Ben-hellal states that Tristram invites different kinds of people, occasional readers or literature addicts to try to deal with the unfolding of the narrative. Tristrams story begins ab Ovo (from the egg), in defiance of the Homeric epic tradition that begins stories in the middle of things and then allows the background to unfold along with the action. The alternative, seemingly, would be to begin with the beginning; Tristram takes the possibility to an almost ludicrous extreme by beginning from his conception rather than his birth. (www.sparknotes.com/lit/sterne) Tristram tries to select the kind of readers that will best understand him due to the fact that a novel crucially depends on a reader. (Ben-hellal, 2) The following quotation clearly illustrates that: To such readers, however, as do not choose to go so far back into these things, I can give no better advice, than that they skip over the remaining part of this Chapter; for I declare before hand, tis wrote only for the curious and the inquisitive. (T.S, 38; also qtd. by Ben-hellal,2) As Ben-hellal pointed out in chapter six, volume one, the narrator and a reader become much closer to one another. In the novel this intimacy referred to as you, Sir, or my dear friend and companion. The personal pronouns, I, and you, emphasize the informality of the conversation. As you proceed further with me, the slight acquaintance which is now beginning betwixt us, will grow into familiarity; and that, unless one of us is in fault, will terminate in friendship.() then nothing which has touched me will be thought trifling in its nature, or tedious in its telling (T.S, 41, also qtd. by Ben-hellal, 3). This chapter turns out to be the beginning of intimacy and sociability. The narrators main concern is to be friendly with the reader, and to sympathise with the unfortunate hero. (Ben-hellal, 3) Tristrams frequent addresses to the reader draw us into the novel. From Tristrams perspective, we are asked to be open-minded, and to follow his lead in an experimental kind of literary adventure. The gap between Tristram -the- author and Sterne-the-author, however, invites us not only to participate with Tristram, but also to assess his character and his narrative. (www.sparknotes.com/lit/sterne) A quotation quoted by Ben-hellal illustrates the number and frequency of apostrophes, which indicates that Tristrams relationship with his readership become quite intimate. Tristram addresses the reader approximately three hundred and fifty times during the course of the book as My Lord, Jenny, Madam, your worship, Julia, your reverences, gentry,(). It is as though the reader has invaded the book and Tristams confidence in a single statement rest on determining the unknown readership. (Ben-hellal,3) This considered, we might safely infer that the concept of readership is significantly manipulated in Tristram Shandy. Tristrams behaviour differs according to changes in the identity of his imaginary reader. From chapter six on, the type of reader identities becomes wider and more varied. ( Ben-hellal, 3). The following passage will best illustrate how the narrator addresses the reader: Your son! __ your dear son, ___ from whose sweet temper you have so much to expect. ___Your Billy, Sir! ___ would you, for the world, have called him Judas? ___ Would you, my dear Sir, he would say, laying his hand upon your breast, with the genteelest address () ___Would you, Sir, if a Jew of a godfather had proposed the name for your child, and offered you his purse along with it, would you have consented to such a desecration of him? (TS, 78; also qtd. By Ben-hellal, 4). Pleading in favour of his fathers theory about the influence of names on the destiny of new-born children, Tristram addresses the reader in the liveliest manner. Exclamation and question marks punctuate the whole passage to convey an impression of lively exchanges. As he tries to demonstrate the validity of Walter Shandys viewpoint, Tristram humorously implicates the reader and the readers son Billy. To make his point the narrator stages a tailor-made reader (and his son), for the space of a single representation and asks him if he would have accepted to christen his hypothetical son with the name of Judas (Ben-hellal, 4). The most comical dialogues in the novel are when the imaginary female reader is addressed by Tristram. ___How could you, Madam, be so inattentive in reading the last chapter? I told you in it, That my mother was not a papist. ___ Papist! You told me no such thing, Sir. Madam, I beg leave to repeat it over again, That I told you as plain, at least, as words, by direct inference, could tell you such a thing. ___ Then, Sir, I must have missd a page.___ No Madam, __ you have not missd a word. Then I was asleep, Sir.__ My pride, Madam, cannot allow you that refuge.___ Then I declare, I know nothing about the matter.___ That, Madam, is the very fault I lay to your charge; and as a punishment for it, I do insist upon it, that you immediately turn back, that is, as soon as you get to the next full stop, and read the whole chapter over again (TS, 82; also qtd. By Ben-hellal, 4). According to Ben-hellal, the female reader is introduced because the narrator wants to discipline her and the reason lies in the act of reading. Punctuation is again present, showing the concept of conversation. Reading through the quotation, Tristram resembles as an authoritarian narrator, who instructs the Madam what to do and how to do things. The narrator accuses her of not reading attentively. (Ben Hellal, 5) In Chapter twenty, Tristram says: I wish the male-reader has not passed by many a one, as quaint and curious as this one, in which the female-reader has been detected. I wish it may have its effects; __ and that all good people, both male and female, from her example, may be thought to think as well as read. (TS, 84) In the above quotation, the narrator tries to highlight the importance of thinking and reading. He points out the example of the Madam to others, in order to learn from it. The last topic I would like to touch upon is how the reader is associated with the idea of the hobby-horse. There is nothing inherently sinister about these hobby-horses; most people have them, and Tristram confesses readily to having a few of his own. (www.sparknotes.com/lit/sterne) In an article about the idea of the hobby-horse, the writer, namely Helen Ostovich, deals with the reader-relationship between the narrator and a female reader, Madam. Tristram usually treats Sir ___ his male reader ___with casual indifference, and showers his mighty or fashionable readers , whether secular or clerical __ your worships and your reverences __ with genial contempt. He lumps the male readers together with other good, unlearned folks in his conception of the collective reader as recalcitrant hobby-horse. (Ostovich, 156) The female reader represents a special kind of hobby-horse to Tristram. Madam is in comparison with the Spanish horse, Rosinante. She is, like Rosinante, the HEROs horse a horse of chaste deportment, which may have given grounds for a contrary opinion () __ And let me tell you, Madam, there is a great deal of very good chastity in the world, in behalf of which you could not say more of your life. (TS, 47-48; also qtd. by Ostovich, 156) According to Ostovich, this quotation suggests that the horses physical appearance and the riders imagination are related. Man and hobby-horse are, in Tristrams opinion, are similar to body and soul: long journeys and much friction create electric charges between the two that redefine both, so that ultimately a clear description of the nature of the one may form a pretty exact notion of the genius and character of the other. (T.S, 99; also qtd. by Ostovich, 156) By getting on a horse and riding it well means a good experience. This happens in the case of the writer; if he writes with pleasure, the reader will bear him so the experience provides its own answers. (Ostovich, 156) To conclude my analysis of Tristram Shandy, one can say that this novel is not a conventional one due to its most noticeable characteristics; its time-scheme and its discursive style. Works Cited 1. Ostovich, Helen. Reader as Hobby-Horse in Tristram Shandy. In: New, Melvyn, ed. Tristram Shandy. (Contemporary Critical Essays). London: Macmillan Education Ltd, 1992. 2. Sanders, Andrew. The Short Oxford History of English Literature. Oxford: Oxford UP Second Ed., 1994. pp. 317-318. 3. Shklovsky, Viktor. A Parodying Novel: Sternes Tristram Shandy. In: O Teorii Prozy. Moscow, 1929. 4. Sterne, Laurence. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. London: Penguin Group., 1967. 5. Williams, Jeffrey. Narrative of Narrative. (Tristram Shandy). Modern Language Notes. 105(1990): pp. 1032 1045. 6. www.sparknotes.com/lit/sterne 7. www.univ-mlv.fr/bibliotheque/presses/travaux/travaux2/benhellal.htm

A Critique of Data warehousing in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

A Critique of Data warehousing in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems INTRODUCTION General Background There are different ways in which companies have collected and accessed the data in order to support and enhance the business. Since 1990s, with the emergence of the concept of business data warehouse, companies have been instituting data warehousing for data mining, data analysis, reporting and other business intelligence purpose (Matthias et al., 2003). Bill Inmon in 1990, defined data warehousing as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a subject-oriented, integrated, non-volatile, and time-variant collection of data in support of managements decisions. He also stated that the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“data warehouse contains a very useful source of data for the explorer and data miner. The data found in the data warehouse is cleansed, integrated, organized. And the data is historicalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Inmon W. H, 2002). Data warehouse is also defined as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“architecture used to maintain critical historical data that has been extracted from operational data storage and transformed into formats acce ssible to the organizations analytical communityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Anne Marie, 2009). In the same decade, with the success of Material Requirements Planning 2 (MRP II) and its evolution to Enterprise resource planning (ERP), various companies implemented ERP software as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“integrated suitesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  that automate core corporate activities and helps the corporate managers to coordinate the common functions of an enterprise (Gibson et al., 1999). ERP can be defined as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“techniques and concepts for integrated management of business as a whole from the viewpoint of the effective use of management resources to improve the efficiency of enterprise management. ERP packages are integrated (covering all business functions) software packages that support these ERP conceptsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Alexis Leon, 2008). For every critical business decision taken, information is the foundation. To facilitate this, all functional areas of the organization are integrated using ERP (Chou, 2005). Most ERP vendors have an integrated business suite containing busi ness intelligence (BI) tools to access their data modules directly. However, data warehousing in ERP system is a complicated task that requires the use of various types of inputs like the historical data, and the information that are external to the ERP system (Peng and Nunes, 2008; Chaudhuri et al., 1997). Although ERP systems can integrate all business transaction data into their master databases for organizational planning, it may not be a solution for data analysis and decision support process. Selection of ERP, implementation and integration with BI is the costly and risky processes in the companys life span (Baki et al, 2005). This paper reviews the value of data warehousing in ERP systems. It identifies the power and the capabilities ERP and Data Warehousing. And, reviews the claims made by ERP vendors about their integrated BI solution. The conclusion is provided in the last section. Research Objectives The paper presents the study of features and claims by ERP vendors on its ERPs efficiency of the data warehousing in ERP system. This study attempts to critically review and question the claims by ERP vendors on their efficiency of Data warehousing in ERP systems. Research objective is also to identify those issues that occur in Data warehousing in ERP systems, and then map them in the research framework, perhaps with more detail related to the dimensions that are found. The issues are defined with the viewpoints of vendors and consultants. This paper will provide an overview of the issues and challenges that the intersection of these two IS concepts are creating. Research Design An overview of the importance of the information technology sector and a synopsis on enterprise resource planning systems are presented first, followed by a discussion on the research problem and the academic and practical motivations for undertaking the present study. The study is a review of literature, and claims made by prominent ERP vendors on the data warehousing in ERP system. Critical Literature Review The research design of this study consists of theoretical risk ontology through a critical literature review. A critical literature review was conducted by first searching for the appropriate literature. Initial phase of the literature research attempted to search and retrieve the secondary literature sources like journals, books and newspapers that are directly related to data warehousing in ERP, and data mining. In this process it was identified that current research studies on data warehousing in ERP system focus mainly on ERP selection, implementation, integration with data warehouse, and business intelligence (Chou et al, 2005; Shehab et al, 2004; Davenport, 1998; Themistocleous et al, 2006). The process involved a search of prominent Publisher of journals in information services like ACM Portal, Emerald, Wiley Interscience and Web search engine Google Scholar and IEE Explore. Journals and databases were searched by generating key words and search terms with initial reading and brainstorming. I decided to focus my study on articles that discuss the ERP and particularly the integration with BI. This paper presents the critical literature review about the data warehousing in ERP systems. ERP SYSTEMS Definition of ERP ERP system is a software package that integrates the flow information through the company, including financial, accounting, human resources, supply chain, and customer information. Yen et al (2002) defined ERP system as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a business management system that integrates all facets of the business, including planning, marketing and manufacturingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . An integrated ERP system can cover wide range of functionalities like reporting, planning, budgeting, forecasting, strategy management, scorecards, and risk management (SAP, 2009) and integrate them into one unified database. It automates core corporate activities by incorporating best practices to facilitate rapid decision making, cost reduction, and greater managerial control (Holland et al, 1999). For example, functional modules such as manufacturing, warehouse management, human resources, finance, customer relations management, supply chain management were all once stand alone software applications, typically having its own database and network (tech-faq, 2009). Best practices are incorporated as a result of the long development history of the ERPs. ERP market is led by companies like SAP AG, Oracle Corporation, Sage Group, Microsoft Corporation and Infor Global Solutions (Wikipedia, 2009). Importance of ERP An important reason for implementing ERP is that, it can help companies re-engineer their business process and compete in the market. Davenport (1998) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“for managers who have struggled, at great expense and with great frustration, with incompatible information systems and inconsistent operating practices, the promise of an off-the-shelf solution to the problem of business integration is enticingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Following are the benefits of ERP systems over the distributed stand alone departmental systems (Yen et al, 2002): * Business process automation a unified enterprise view of the business that encompasses all functions and departments. Improvement in the supply chain via the use of e-communication and E-commerce. * Timely access to management information an enterprise database where all business transactions are entered, recorded, processed, monitored and reported There are many reasons why organizations find ERP system very attractive. The primary reasons focus on the frustrations in using the existing stand alone systems. Convincing reasons for a purchasing ERP system may include (Chen, 2001): * Efficiency of the current system Inability of the existing stand alone systems to support organizational needs * Failure in the distributed system The use of multiple points of input using multiple application which leads in duplicated effort of capturing and storing the data in existing system * Maintenance overhead in the current system The requirement of extensive resources (man and machine) for maintenance and support of the system. * Competition Competition in the global market and the desire to reengineer its business process * Company growth The growth of the enterprise and subsequent incompatibility of several legacy information system * E-commerce Inability of employees to respond easily to questions or information requested by key customer or suppliers ERP systems provide a common platform and business practices across the enterprise that allows the real-time access. According to Davenport (1998), ERP solutions are designed to solve the fragmentation of information in large business organisations, and integrate all the information flowing within a company. ERP failures ERP system implementation can either reap huge benefits for successful companies or it can be disastrous for organizations that fail to manage the implementation process (Holland et al, 1999). The selection and acquisition of ERP software is a risky and challenging task. And a wrong purchase may adversely affect the organization. Themistocleous states many reason for the failure of ERP system. For example, * Resistance from the employs against the change in the system * Differences between organisations and consultants as a result of cost overruns and projects delays. * Non-flexibility in ERP software forces organisation to abandon their way of doing business * Conflict with the business strategy of the organization Selecting ERP and implementation In-house software system development is generally expensive, time consuming and often covered by uncertainties and integration of various incompatible software systems may not function well with each other. If different software packages are being used, data may not be consistent. On the other hand purchasing off-the-shelf ERP software packages can solve problem. Holland et al (1999) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the companies are radically changing their information technology strategies by purchasing pre-packaged software instead of developing IT systems in-houseà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . There are different strategic approaches to ERP software implementation. It can be implemented with either a minimum deviation from the standard settings that the ERP vendor provides or with the customization of a system to suit local requirements (tech-faq, 2009). As discussed by Yusuf et al (2004) in the case study about the implementation of ERP in Rolls-Royce in partnership with Electronic Data Services (EDS), ERP implementation is a complicated task. The project implementation problems faced while implementing are * Cultural Problems Some of the functions and processes of the new system did not receive full appreciation from the employee. So, the implementation team had to resolve this by illustrating the improvements made to the company as a whole. Also extensive trainings were provided to the employees of Rolls-Royce. * Business Problems Because of the rigidity in the business structure of SAP R/3 ERP, employees of Rolls-Royce adjusted their working practices in order to fit SAP. * Technical Problems As the system required the retrieval of old data from legacy system which were in de-normalized form, Rolls-Royce had to run legacy system in parallel with the ERP until the expensive process of extracting the old data from legacy system was normalized, screened and stored in a sensible data format in the new database. Implementation of ERP and planning of the resources required to run the enterprise is not the end of the road for ERP. Organization will realize the full potential of ERP when it is used and properly managed (Yusuf et al, 2004). One of the main difficulties experienced by ERP implementations have been the costly development of additional software to summarize and retrieve the information for generating the reports (Themistocleous et al, 2001). A company that plans to invest into ERP needs to have a good strategy and a clear idea about the cost of ERP system. Implementation slowdowns the routine works within an organization. Customization is costly and time consuming (Yen et al, 2002). As outlined by Peng and Nunes (2009), reasons like insufficient user training, loss of in-house IT experts, bankruptcy of system vendor and barriers like inefficient communication between functional divisions can cause ERP post implementation failures Analytical and forecasting functions of ERP: Business managers will have different information needs for planning and decision making (Peng and Nunes, 2009). Decision support system can reduce the time, cost and improve efficiencies. Analytical and forecasting functions are the skills, processes used to support decision making and forecasting. Analytical and forecasting features of ERP can be accessed by managers using an interface such as web-based or graphical interface via the internet or intranet (Marnewick, 2005). If an organization does not take advantage of decision support systems, it cannot take complete advantage of the data and may lose its competitive edge. Most ERP systems today have highly integrated databases and business intelligence (BI) tools to access their data modules directly (Chou, 2005). ERP vendors, data warehousers, and third-party tool vendors have numerous products and solutions for using the ERP data. There are 3 major solutions for ERP data (searchSAP, 2009): 1. Solutions from third-party vendors that analyze data within ERP systems 2. ERP-based solutions that analyze data within ERP systems 3. ERP-based solutions that build data warehouses outside their ERP systems An ERP-based data warehouse is a classical, external data warehouse or data mart built with tools offered by an ERP vendor (Russom, 2007). ERP reports are generated using the existing ERP schema as the foundation for building the standard reports. Integrated business intelligence system pulls the data from ERP systems to a data warehouse and enables to perform data analysis and deliver superior reporting for making timely and accurate decision (Chou et al, 2005). Closer integration of corporate wide data warehousing data with ERP data potentially enhances companies return on their ERP and data warehouse investments (Wiley, 2009). ERP contains a set of analytical tools to facilitate sales planning. Yen et al (2002) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“many companies deploy data warehouses for facilitating the data analysis in ERP. They will buy packaged analytic applications that include a data warehouse, analytical tools, and predefined data models to accelerate the data analysis in ERPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . But, in spite of deploying ERP and an integrated data warehousing and BI, there is no guarantee that the forecast generated is up to the accuracy. As discussed by Peng and Nunes, one of the reasons for inaccurate forecasting is due to inherent difficulties in predicting the fluid market. This results in significant impact in companies. ERP systems are usually designed to record business transactions data, make changes to existing data, reconcile data, keep track of business transactions, run predefined business reports, and manage business transactions. In contrast, analytical systems are designed to examine large volumes of data and then to generate essential information for decision-making. There are five major software vendors offering ERP solutions to business worldwide. According to reports from Gartner Dataquest, quoted by destinationcrm (destinationcrm, 2006) SAP is the market share leader in ERP, followed by Oracle, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics and SSA Global Technologies. DATA WAREHOUSING AND DATA MINING Data Warehousing Bill Inmon (2002) says that the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“data warehouse contains a very useful source of data for the explorer and data miner. The data found in the data warehouse is cleansed, integrated, organized. And the data is historicalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . To help managers and decision makers retrieve information they need from tremendous amount of data reside in database, many enterprises have built system environments focusing on data warehousing technology, deployed that as an integral part of a decision support systems (DSS). Data warehouse is responsible for providing information needed for supporting executive decision making. As a result, data warehousing technology has been integrated into ERP systems (Zhang et al, 2006). Yusuf et al (2004) defines Data warehouse as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“an integrated collection of data. The data is stored centrally and is extracted from operational, historical and external databasesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Data warehouses are used for decision support. Historical, summarized and consolidated data is more important than detailed, individual records. Data Mining Data mining is the study and extraction of patterns from a large set of data. It can be defined as the process of analyzing data from different viewpoints and summarizing it into useful information for planning and increase revenue. It allows users to analyze data from many different dimensions or angles, categorize it, and summarize the relationships identified (Anderson, 2009). Data mining can also be defined as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“practice of automatically searching large stores of data to discover patterns and trends that go beyond simple analysisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Oracle, 2009). Data mining uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to slice the data and evaluate the probability of future events. The key properties of data mining are (thearling, 2009): 1. Automatic discovery of patterns 2. Prediction of likely outcomes 3. Creation of actionable information Data Mining is widely used in applications such as product analysis, demand and supply analysis, understanding consumer research marketing, investment trend in stocks real estates, telecommunications, e-commerce and so on (Chou et al, 2005). However, a database which is new and which has only a current piece of information is not suitable for data mining as it can never detect trends and long term patterns of behaviour. Historical data is very essential for data mining as historical data contains valuable chunk of information hidden in it. Mature data is crucial for understanding the seasonality of business and the larger cycles of business to which every corporation is subject (Inmon, 1996). Data mining uses data from data source in order to provide users with meaningful indicators. Data from ERP systems is used as data source. Modern ERP systems provide advanced BI tools out of the box, avoiding the hassle of connecting a stand-alone BI system, and lowering the cost which is a critical capability to consider ERP for midsize companies, with limited staff and resources to maintain multiple systems (Newcomer, 2009). After implementing the ERP system in organizations, they tend to concentrate more on the return on investment (ROI). Chou et al (2005) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“In order to justify their return-on-investment (ROI), more and more organizations are turning to BI tools that make data collected by ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), and other data-intensive applications meaningfulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Since a BI system includes technologies for reporting, analysis, and sharing information, many ERP vendors have integrated these solutions with ERP systems to truly maximize the ROI of ERP. The integration of BI and ERP systems can strengthen corporate decision-making capability through utilizing the analytical capability of BI system and data managerial capability of ERP system (Chou et al, 2005). Business Intelligence (BI) can help in competition analysis, market research, economical trends, consume behaviour, industry research, and geographical information analysis and so on. Business Intelligence using data mining helps in decision-making (Naxton, 2006). ERP VENDOR CLAIMS Modern ERP systems may provide advanced BI tools, avoiding the hassle of connecting a stand-alone BI system, and lowering the cost. Integrated business intelligence contains a broad category of analytical applications that help companies in making decision based on the data in their ERP systems (Moller, 2005). Oracle and SAP are currently the only major ERP vendors with such offerings. Analytical applications can be broadly classified as follows: Financial Analytics Financial analysis refers to an assessment of the viability, stability and profitability of a business, sub-business or project (Wikipedia, 2009). It is concerned with optimising the profitability of the business. When used effectively it can provide a competitive differentiator. Financial analytics helps the business focus on the most important customers and the most profitable products and services (Brook, 2009). It helps them to (Schroeck, 2001): * Understand the overall performance of the organization * Identify ways to measure and maximize the value of intangible assets (eg. Services) * Effectively manage enterprise-wide investments and reduce operating costs * Forecast variations in the marketplace, * Optimize the capabilities of information systems, and * Business processes improvement. Integrated analytics allow organizations with an ERP infrastructure to facilitate reporting and tools required for decision-makers. Oracle E-Business Suit (EBS) is one suite of applications that contains ERP and integrated BI. Oracle says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Oracle Financial Analytics helps front-line managers improve financial performance with complete, up-to-the-minute information on their departments expenses and revenue contributionsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . SAP Business Suite is a range of software modules with an integrated Business Intelligence. SAP states that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“SAP ERP provides powerful analytic software that enables powerful financial analysis to help you analyze your business, develop business plans and budgets, and track performance during execution.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (SAP AG, 2009). Few of the features and functions that support financial analytics as stated by SAP are * Financial and management reporting Providing a set of tools to meet the financial and management reporting needs. * Planning, budgeting, and forecasting Support traditional budgeting, rolling forecasts, and collaborative planning, such as cost center planning. * Working capital and cash flow management Optimize cash flow, including cash flow calculations and middle- and long-term planning. Sales Analytics Sales analytics is a procedure involving the gathering, classifying, comparing, and studying of company sales data. It may simply involve the comparison of total company sales in two different time periods. Or it may entail subjecting thousands of component sales (or sales-related) s to a variety of comparisons, like comparison with s for earlier periods of time (Wikipedia, 2009). SAP says that the SAP sales analytic help the organization to obtain the data necessary to proactively address trends and measure success and revenue shortfalls. Oracle states that analytics solutions provided by its E-business suite dramatically improve the effectiveness of sales people by providing real-time, actionable insight into every sales opportunity at the point of customer contact. With more accurate sales forecasts and enhanced identification of potential problems and opportunities, Oracle Sales Analytics helps close business faster and increase overall sales revenue. It lists the following benefits: * Resource allocation Identifying critical opportunities so that executives can assign the appropriate resources to increase the chance of winning * Sales forecasts Analyzing pipeline opportunities to determine actions required to meet sales targets. Provide the information about sales documents, such as opportunities, sales orders and sales contracts. Thus, help in future revenue forecasting. Integrated sales planning and analysis enables sales managers to understand the financial status and overall effectiveness of the sales organization quickly and easily. These scenarios help users obtain the data necessary to proactively address trends, measure customer retention and revenue shortfalls, and assess future opportunities (SAP, 2009). Operational Analytics Operational analytics is a process that facilitates delivery of the in-depth and focused analysis of the performance of each key operational area of the business. Operational Analytics try to provide comprehensive and focused analysis of every aspect of the operational area of a company (Information Management, 2007). Oracle says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Oracles Business Intelligence Suite delivers real-time operational analytics that enable you to make better business decisions fasterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Operational analytics is also a part of SAP business suite. SAP says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“SAP ERP provides features and functions for operational analysis to help you optimize the entire supply chain, improve revenues, and increase customer satisfactionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Few of the features and functions that support financial analytics as stated by SAP are: * Manufacturing reporting Provides various standard reports and analyses detailing production-related information. * Customer service analysis Used for monitoring financial trends, costs, and revenues per customer, as well as service contracts and operations. * Sales planning Used for opportunity planning and analysis and partner planning. * Sales analysis Provides an accurate overview of current sales performance and an overview of sales force effectiveness. Workforce Analytics Workforce Analytics is a powerful decision-making platform using business intelligence tools that offer to the management at every level the right and timely information at point of decision making process for a better visibility and accountability in regards to workforce-related issues (Information Management, 2007). Workforce Analytics is used by HR professionals, and line managers. It provides an analysis option that gives real-time insight into your workforce. They can identify trends at an early stage and make well-informed decisions, enabling you to manage your human capital more effectively, predict human-capital investment demands, and track workforce costs and the ROI associated with HR projects (Wikipedia, 2009). The focus is to analyse current and historical employee data to identify key relationships among variables and use this to provide insight into the workforce they need for the future. Oracle says that Oracle workforce analytics in the e-business suite à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“provides the strategy management and performance tracking needed to measure the effectiveness of HR initiatives. It helps to evaluate and communicate company performance, staffing, turnover, HR readiness, compensation, and competencies.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Managers need information that will help guide your strategic decisions. Implementing an Enterprise Resource System (ERP) that integrates all the information and processes into one coherent environment is a first and major step towards improved decision-making. But capturing and processing data is not sufficient to give the insight into the business that decision makers need today. Only when coupled with a business intelligence system can your ERP software enable users analyse and act on that data quickly and effectively. IT industrial leader, Microsoft quotes that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Forecaster for Microsoft Dynamics ERP helps you manage financial performance through accurate budgeting and planningà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Microsoft, 2009). A CRITIQUE OF VENDOR CLAIMS Data Warehousing In todays ever-competitive business climate, the ability to understand business conditions and gain timely insight into business performance is essential for survival. Business users have long faced the challenge of being unable to easily analyze business data in their enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment. Oftentimes, the reporting tools available are too complex for business users to utilize effectively, and IT experts do not have the business background to sufficiently understand business users analytical needs. The delay in IT departments turnaround time can quickly render information irrelevant and outdated by the time it is available to business users. ERPs serve as transaction engines in many organizations. It provides mission-critical operational workflow but do not support decision support systems (DSS) directly (Inmon, 2000). Therefore, the need to source a data warehouse from the ERP system and other legacy systems is obvious. Many organisations are now discovering that the solution to leveraging investment decisions in and retrieving useful data from, an ERP system is to undertake a Data Warehousing initiative in conjunction with the implemented ERP system. But, the harsh reality of ERP systems implementation, to the expense of those organisations that invested resources in the initiative, is that ERP only gets data into the system, it does not prepare data for use and analysis (Inmon, 2000). ERP systems lack certain functionality and reporting capabilities. It has been realised that ERP systems are good for storing, accessing and executing data used in daily transactions, but it is not good at providing the information needed for long term planning and decision making (Radding, 2000) as ERP systems are not designed to know how the data is to be used once it is gathered (Inmon, 2000). Consequently, in the post-implementation phase organisations are often dismayed to find that they havent improved their an alytical and decision support capabilities (Inmon, 2000; Radding, 2000) as ERP systems do not provide an environment for decision support activities such as analysing historical trends, drawing conclusions, scenario building and planning. Business Intelligence using Data Warehouse built on ERP System Analytical and forecasting features are provided by the business intelligence tools that are linked to the data warehouse. Some of the common functions of Business Intelligence technologies are reporting, analytics, data mining and benchmarking (Wikipedia, 2009). Integration of ERP and BI can provide a consolidated analysis of the data and user-friendly reporting capabilities and help users make and correct decisions and gain advantages over their competitors. Financial analytics, sales analytics, operational analytics and workforce analytical, may provide the facility to analyze relationships and understand trends that ultimately support business decision. However, few of the challenges faced by data warehousing in ERP systems are in its capability of providing a valuable and accurate reporting service, data analysis and forecasting. Chou et al says (2005) says à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Organizations recognize the wealth of information within ERP systems, the challenge lies in the ways of min ing themà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . The lack of historical transaction data in the database containing the data from ERP is the most significant obstacle in successfully implementing a BI on ERP system. One of the key elements in accurate forecasting like trend reporting is the need for historical data. Most of the ERP vendors claim that the reports and forecasts generated by ERP or a BI that is integrated with ERP environment are of high accuracy. Zhang et al (2006) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“although ERP system is powerful, a serious challenge is how to make use of previous experiences and knowledge to support managerial decision makingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Still the research has to be carried out to know the accuracy of the reports as ERP system does not contain the historical data in the enterprises data warehouse. Traditionally, the enterprise data warehouse needs historical data. When a large amount of historical data starts to stack up in the ERP environment, the ERP environment is usually purged, or the data is archived to a remote storage facility. When an enterprise data warehouse needs to go back in time and bring in historical data that has not been previously colle

Essay --

What is the director ultimately saying about the ways in which hope affects the individual? During the film Shawshank Redemption there is a very prominent theme of hope. Shawshank Redemption demonstrates positive and negative ways in which the main characters Andy, Brooks, Tommy and Red display hope. Through out the movie Frank Darabont gives us an insight to how each character connects to the theme of hope. Each character connects differently to hope. For example andy persevering through digging the tunnel, Red connects to hope by become friends with Andy, Tommy gets his high school diploma and finally Brook, although institutionalized became accustomed to being the librarian for many years of his life time in Shawshank prison The first example of a character connecting to hope is Andy, continuing to stay determined and pushing through abuse with â€Å"the sisters† he is still able to remand hopeful and ultimately escape. After serving almost twenty years in Shawshank prison Andy’s views began to change from hope being non existent to honestly believing that hope was real. After re...

President Woodrow Wilsons Fourteen Points :: american presidents, 14 points

President Woodrow Wilson was elected in the year 1912. He was over all a good president, however was not very familiar with foreign policy. His thought was that America should stay neutral and not get involved. This was true, America had enough problems of its own to worry about. Wilson was an honest man and wanted to keep the promises he made during his campaign. He began passing new laws including the Clayton Antitrust Act which made labor unions legal (Joseph, 19). World War I started in Europe in July of 1914. President Woodrow Wilson successfully handled his challenge of war because he declared war, made 14 points, and achieved peace between the countries. Wilson did not want to go to war, it was his belief that America should stay neutral. The war hadn’t begun in England but was going to very soon due to the tension between the countries. Wilsons â€Å"first order of business was to propose a pact of friendship among England, Germany, and the United States† (Osinski 60). However no agreements came from this peace operation. June 28, 1914 war was declared, at this time America didn’t have any reason to join in the war, or to take sides. Since the war had begun American business’s and financial companies wanted to know if they could loan money to foreign countries. American farmers and manufacturers wanted to not limit the restrictions of trade with them and Wilson had to allow Americans to sell goods and loan money to the any foreign country (Osinski 61). America had a part in the war, not directly, but unclearly America was part of the war. On April 6th, 1917 the U.S. declared war with Germany. This was wh at Wilson did not want to do, but good would eventually come of it. President Wilson was ready to present his plan for peace. He made his â€Å"Fourteen Points†, these were his 14 areas for correction and agreement. Some of these fourteen points include freedom of navigation, arms reduction, and forming an association of nations (Collins 96). During these fourteen points Germany was even noted, stating: â€Å"We wish her only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the world instead of a place of mastery† (Collins 96). The words Wilson used were carefully picked and simply stated. Wilson was applauded for his idea and newspapers wrote about him (Collins 96). In October German leaders told the United States that they wanted to sit down and discuss an end to the war based on Wilson’s fourteen points (Collins 97).