Apple’s iTunes service could be considered by many as a model that could be replicated by other entertainment companies because it made downloading convenient and easier than downloading through other (illegal) methods. But a Duke University study found that cost was the major factor that drives college students to illegally copy entertainment content. Researchers there found that the lower the students’ income, including their parents’ income, the more likely they were to opt for free, illegal options.

The study’s authors suggested that universities consider making licensing agreements to address the issue of cost, with services that sell entertainment content so that these young people could get a discount. In the other hand, some bands such as Radiohead are using their songs to build a following and entice people to pay to see them in concert and, once there, to buy their merchandise. The song becomes the advertisement. A movie on the small screen becomes the driving force for a line of merchandise or drives the wish to see it again on a big screen in 3-D or at a special theater event. A free clip from a TV show seen online draws viewers to the show. Music companies already take a cut of money made from concerts, merchandise and endorsements, so it can already be an offset of the cost of the recorded music to consumers, who’ve been increasingly willing to pay big prices to see artists live. Another possible approach: licensing agreement with online services. For instance, paying a fee to content-makers so they can provide it to consumers for free or for a monthly subscription fee. Well-known options, so far, include online music streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora. Others point to movie and TV services such as Netflix. Whatever happens, the entertainment industry has to realize that people aren’t likely to change their piracy habits, even with the threat of more serious punishments that Congress is considering. The Internet community in general have proven they can influence the entertainment industry, whether it likes it or not.

-Evan

According to Reynolds, Knowledge Management (KM)  “is a practice concerned with increasing awareness, fostering learning, speeding collaboration/innovation, and exchanging insights.” The organization’s intellectual assets are codified and shared with others to devise best practices. In other words, the goal of KM is to improve the creation, retention, sharing and reuse of knowledge. Organizations make use of KM to deliver real benefits by nurturing innovation, leveraging the expertise of people across the organization, and capturing the expertise of key individuals before they retire.

                (1) “Free flow of ideas.” Innovation offers an opportunity for organizations to evolve, grow, prosper and stay fit. Organizations implement KM projects to foster innovation and collaboration among member and business partners. This benefits of this collaboration are discovery of new opportunities, increase in revenue, decrease in costs, or creation of new products and services.  (2)”Sharing and building on one another’s experience and expertise.” This process could speed up learning and familiarity of employees to new job positions, prevent mistakes from being repeated and promote effective collaboration. (3)”Capturing expertise of retiring key individuals.” Many organizations employ KM to capture valuable expertise before it simply walks out of the door and is simply lost forever. The value of intellectual capital behind physical goods outweighs factories and infrastructure.

                Knowledge management has its own share of “barriers”. Some experienced employees or experts may not readily and fully share and impart their knowledge to others probably because of advantage and competition. Others only develop their expertise through a considerable duration of time and they are sometimes unable to document it. On the receiver’s end, some employees are resistant to the changes brought about by the more innovative and knowledgeable employees.

Yet, the organization must also invest in technology (e.g. IT equipment with its corresponding software) as a means to codify, store, manage and update all the knowledge gathered overtime. An ineffective IT implementation will surely yield ineffective KM.

                “Knowledge is power yet knowledge sharing is empowerment.” Not everyone in the organization is a genius, intellectually-superior, fast learner, innovative and the list goes on. :). But given the benefits that KM can offer in organizations, particularly in the information sharing and collaboration part, everyone has a shot to be more effective, efficient and knowledgeable.

-Evan

                For some of us, businesses or business-related activities are already a regular part of our everyday lives. In fact, the majority, if not all, has gone through the process of doing business may it be buying, selling or trading. Some of us go through the more sophisticated and complex rigors of the ins and outs of business activities.

The experience of dealing and managing this complexities require us to understand and embrace “Business Intelligence”; being defined as a set of theories, methodologies, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information for business purposes¹. The information age has offered us the tools to deal with business intelligence and they are called “Business Intelligence Tools”; which is an application software designed to retrieve, analyze and report data for business intelligence². Many organizations and firms employ business intelligence for the reason of predicting future conditions and making adjustments in staffing, purchasing, financing and other operational areas to better meet forecasted needs³. The keyword for business intelligence is prediction. If a business is doing well (or not), it has to adjust and evolve through time and events in order for it to remain or stay on top of competition. The use of business intelligence tools also present risks and disadvantages, if not benefits. These sophisticated software application, first and foremost, may be costly to develop and maintain and there is also data security threats and privacy issues⁴. Yet, the key to effective use of these tools depend on the level of understanding and cooperation of the members/personnel of the organization/firm. It takes time, but with the correct and proper implementation and training, everybody will be encouraged to embrace it. A rewards program would be more appropriate for personnel because everybody knows that people respond well to incentives and a pay raise would be nice.

¹http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence#History

²http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_intelligence_tools

³Reynolds, G.W. (2010) Information Technology for Managers. US. CENGAGE Learning, Inc.

⁴http://www.cio.com/article/40296/Business_Intelligence_Definition_and_Solutions#1

“Happy Valentine’s Week!”

-Evan

Thanks to cash-on-delivery, that’s how I first jumped the world of “online shopping”. I’m a cash-kinda-guy meets private-dude who is sooo not into social media until I needed to advertise via online my small services business. OK. So everybody wants to…buy something. If you have something that you desire so much (or just simply need it), if you got the bucks, then you buy it! Today, the World Wide Web has affected our lives so much that it offers us a gazillion options to get or buy stuff. Everybody knows that. I recently bought some electronic equipment from the internet and it went 90% well. I gave it a ninety because I waited for a week before it got delivered to my doorstep. But pretty much, the equipment was A-OK and I didn’t have to pay extra from the payment that was agreed upon. Check. The whole online shopping experience was positive for me because of the discount and because I didn’t have to go out of my house to window shop and eventually buy it. What didn’t appeal to me was the waiting time. If I wanted to buy online again I wouldn’t probably hesitate to get electronic equipment, bags and books. But then again, under the assumption that I’ve heavily researched on the prices and I’m sure I’ll get the best bargain. In other words, doing the math thing. I wouldn’t buy jewelry, really-expensive (for me, really expensive is PHP 30,000.00 and up and yours might be different) home appliances and second-hand equipment. For now, I probably won’t buy online if it entails a huge amount of cash.

-EVAN

Hi everyone! It’s me again. All systems go! I’ve (kinda) read the articles this time around. (grin) <-Afraid of heights…but still rode the zip line.
1)      Should an organization outsource IT security?

Why not? Outsourcing, in the first place, is a management strategy that benefits the organization/firm in terms of cost reduction/stabilization, and improvement on focus (such as core competencies), services and capabilities. Although organizations may acquire benefits from outsourcing, these gains do not come without problems, probably in (a) quality; (b) business and partner relationships and satisfaction; (c) exposure to legal liabilities; and data and security breaches. There are pros and cons to outsourcing, yet if the organization decides to outsource IT security, several potential issues must first be addressed so that it (organization) could be aware of the issues and develop solutions for them. An example of a solution could be that the organization must see to it that the outsourcing partner puts limits on additional outsourcing and subcontracting.

 2)      What are the issues involved when you turnover security to an outside organization?

a)      Data security and integrity issues;

b)      Important technology issues;

c)       Intellectual property rights.

Stances on the protection of corporate data, trade secrets, patents and copyright widely vary in one country and another. Another issue is whether a particular country has laws that protect one organization/firm’s intellectual property and if the laws are enforced effectively. Important issues that also have to be considered are the level of system availability and network uptime. Because business processes have to be executed on a timely basis without significant service interruptions, IT must always be available, reliable and efficient.  

3)      In case there is a need to outsource, what stipulations would you include in a service level agreement with an IT security outsourcer to ensure that it did not exploit the openness of your systems and steal strategic and sensitive information?

• Limitations on additional outsourcing and subcontracting;
• Requiring of nondisclosure agreements with employees of the outsourcing firm;
• Requiring of high-level of system availability and network uptime for the outsourcing firm, and a guarantee that all processing applications operate efficiently and reliably. 

There you have it. I’ve based my answers from the book of Reynolds, Information Technology for Managers. It’s a good book & Chapter Four is very interesting. ‘Til next time!

Count your blessings, Life’s full of it!

– Evan

Hi guys! The holidays has put me in a state of hibernation and it really feels heavy all over. Brain and motor functions at 50% capacity. Haha! The good thing about blogs is that there are no rules on how and what to blog about. Fast forward to what I’m supposed to be blogging about, information technology and yours truly. For me, I.T. is pretty much the life we are experiencing right now. I wake up every day to the alarm of my Smartphone and it’s funny to know that I check my emails first before I brush (it’s pretty obvious that the right sequence is the other way around). Ahh! The things I do with an I.T. tone to it. When I get to work, I still deal with computer stuff. Things like “PCs”, networking,  software and all other things this I.T. is all about. I’m a computer technician, by the way. After my daytime job, I continue my dose of I.T.-ish activities in my private computer repair shop fixing broken I.T. objects. Again, when I get home, I’ll probably check my Facebook and Google + before dinner and a good night’s rest. This routine cycles through the week, and before I know it, it’s already a long time. And sometimes, it feels like everything else is I.T.-ish and automated. Yup. That’s I.T. and me.

Evan

“Count your blessings, Life’s full of it!”