Software Piracy:

 

A Worldwide Problem Software piracy is defined as the illegal copying of software for commercial or personal gain. Software companies have tried many methods to prevent piracy, with varying degrees of success. Several agencies like the Software Publishers Association and the Business Software Alliance have been formed to combat both worldwide and domestic piracy. Software piracy is an unresolved, worldwide problem, costing millions of dollars in lost revenue. Software companies have used many different copy protection schemes. The most annoying form of copy protection is the use of a key disk. This type of copy protection requires the user to insert the original disk every time the program is run. It can be quite difficult to keep up with disks that are years old. The most common technique of copy protection requires the user to look up a word or phrase in the program’s manual. This method is less annoying than other forms of copy protection, but it can be a nuisance having to locate the manual every time. Software pirates usually have no trouble “cracking” the program, which permanently removes the copy protection. After the invention of CD-ROM, which until lately was uncopyable, most software companies stopped placing copy protection in their programs. Instead, the companies are trying new methods of disc impression. 3M recently developed a new technology of disc impression which allows companies to imprint an image on the read side of a CD-ROM. This technology would not prevent pirates from copying the CD, but it would make a “bootleg” copy differ from the original and make the copy traceable by law enforcement officials (Estes 89). Sometimes, when a person uses a pirated program, there is a “virus” attached to the program. Viruses are self-replicating programs that, when activated, can damage a computer. These viruses are most commonly found on pirated computer games, placed there by some malignant computer programmer.

Thirty-five percent of all software installed on the world’s personal computers is pirated, according to a global study by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and IDC . The biggest offender is Vietnam, where IDC estimates that 92 percent of the software installed on PCs hasn’t been paid for. The United States ranks lowest in the study, with a 21 percent piracy rate. According to the topic, the rates are highest in countries with developing economies, where the population of computer users is growing.  These  consumers may not be aware of intellectual property laws, or “maybe they don’t understand the impact of what they’re doing. They think it’s a victimless crime.” Educating consumers about copyright laws and tougher law enforcement helps reduce piracy, the study says. Many developing countries have “less mature” intellectual property laws than the United States and Europe, says Blank, so it’s more difficult for software vendors to enforce their copyrights.

         There is a clear clash of interests between the developed and developing world over intellectual property rights: software copyright has proven to be a tough sell in developing countries, while the West is accused of being an “unholy alliance” controlling culture and information. The threat of sanctions under TRIPs is enough to bully almost every developing country into complying with TRIPS, or to at least make an effort to “[engage] in good faith negotiations or [make] significant progress in negotiations to address these problems. Developing countries will continue to be bullied into complying until these countries begin developing their own software industries that will benefit from intellectual property protection.

 

 

All businesses have access to an extensive pool of knowledge – whether this is their understanding of customers’ needs and the business environment or the skills and experience of staff. The way a business gathers, shares and exploits this knowledge can be central to its ability to develop successfully. This doesn’t just apply to huge multinational companies. Knowledge management can benefit everyone from a local newsstand to a manufacturing firm. This guide explains the basic sources of knowledge available to your business, how you can best harness and exploit this information and how to create a knowledge strategy for your business. Knowledge Management is one of the hottest topics today in both the industry world and information research world. In our daily life, we deal with huge amount of data and information. Data and information is not knowledge until we know how to dig the value out of it. This is the reason we need knowledge management. Unfortunately, there’s no universal definition of knowledge management, just as there’s no agreement as to what constitutes knowledge in the first place. We chose the following definition for knowledge management for its simplicity and broad context. Knowledge Management (KM) refers to a multi-disciplined approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge. KM focuses on processes such as acquiring, creating and sharing knowledge and the cultural and technical foundations that support them. knowledge management is in a state of high growth, especially among the business and legal services industries.  As the performance metrics of early adopters are documenting the substantial benefits of knowledge management, more organizations are recognizing the value of leveraging organizational knowledge.  As a result, knowledge management consulting services and technologies are in high demand, and knowledge management software is rapidly evolving.

Using knowledge in your business isn’t necessarily about thinking up clever new products and services, or devising ingenious new ways of selling them. It’s much more straightforward. Useful and important knowledge already exists in your business. It can be found in: the experience of your employees, the designs and processes for your goods and services, your files of documents (whether held digitally, on paper or both), your plans for future activities, such as ideas for new products or services. The challenge is harnessing this knowledge in a coherent and productive way.

You’ve probably done market research into the need for your business to exist in the first place. If nobody wanted what you’re selling, you wouldn’t be trading. You can tailor this market knowledge to target particular customers with specific types of product or service. Your files of documents from and about customers and suppliers hold a wealth of information which can be invaluable both in developing new products or services and improving existing ones. Your employees are likely to have skills and experience that you can use as an asset. Having staff who are knowledgeable can be invaluable in setting you apart from competitors. You should make sure that your employees’ knowledge and skills are passed on to their colleagues and successors wherever possible, e.g. through brainstorming sessions, training courses and documentation. Your understanding of what customers want, combined with your employees’ know-how, can be regarded as your knowledge base. Using this knowledge in the right way can help you run your business more efficiently, decrease business risks and exploit opportunities to the full. This is known as the knowledge advantage.

 

Consider the measurable benefits of capturing and using knowledge more effectively. The following are all possible outcomes: An improvement in the goods or services you offer and the processes that you use to sell them. For example, identifying market trends before they happen might enable you to offer products and services to customers before your competitors. Increased customer satisfaction because you have a greater understanding of their requirements through feedback from customer communications. An increase in the quality of your suppliers, resulting from better awareness of what customers want and what your staff require. Improved staff productivity, because employees are able to benefit from colleagues’ knowledge and expertise to find out the best way to get things done. They’ll also feel more appreciated in a business where their ideas are listened to. Increased business efficiency, by making better use of in-house expertise. Better recruitment and staffing policies. For instance, if you’ve increased knowledge of what your customers are looking for, you’re better able to find the right staff to serve them. The ability to sell or license your knowledge to others. You may be able to use your knowledge and expertise in an advisory or consultancy capacity. In order to do so, though, make sure that you protect your intellectual property.

In order to manage the collection and exploitation of knowledge in your business, you should try to build a culture in which knowledge is valued across your business. One way to do this might be to offer incentives to staff who supply useful market news or suggest ways customers can be better served. You can use these knowledge management practices throughout your organisation to build better processes. As part of your knowledge management, you should also make sure that any intellectual property that your business holds is protected. This means that you have the right to stop competitors from copying it – and also allows you to profit by licensing your business’ knowledge. Protecting and exploiting your knowledge base will be more effective if you develop efficient systems for storing and retrieving information. Your files – whether stored digitally or on paper – contain knowledge that you can use to make your products, services, systems and processes better and more customer-focused. Keep knowledge confidential. Your employment policies play a central role in this. For example, you might get staff to sign non-disclosure agreements (also known as confidentiality agreements) when they join the business as this ensures that they understand the importance of confidentiality from day one. Employment contracts can be written to reasonably limit your employees’ freedom to quit and work immediately for one of your rivals (restraint of trade clauses) or set up a competing business to yours in the vicinity (restrictive covenants).

 

If you want to get the most from your business’ knowledge, you need to take a strategic approach to discovering, collating and sharing it. This is done via a knowledge strategy – a set of written guidelines to be applied across the business. If your strategy is to be effective, you must make sure your senior managers are committed to it and are fully aware of the benefits it can bring. Discuss with them the best ways of collecting and using knowledge. You may decide to appoint a senior manager as knowledge champion for your business. For more information see the page in this guide on how to make knowledge central to your business. When you’re drawing up the strategy you need to: consider how effective your business currently is at using its knowledge analyse your internal processes for gathering and sharing information – are there successful ways of generating ideas and do staff have a good grasp of what’s happening? make sure that knowledge management, acquisition and distribution is a continuing process, so that it becomes central to your business’ strategy. You should also identify the value of knowledge to your business. Think of ways you could exploit your knowledge for financial gain – perhaps by gaining a larger market share, developing new products, or selling or licensing your protected intellectual property to others. Ensure this fits in with your overall business plan.

Finally, multiple corporate databases will merge into large, integrated, multidimensional knowledge bases that are designed to support competitive intelligence and organizational memory.   These centralized knowledge repositories will optimize information collection, organization, and retrieval. They will offer knowledge enriching features that support the seamless interoperability and flow of information and knowledge. These features may include: the incorporation of video and audio clips, links to external authoritative sources, content qualifiers in the form of source or reference metadata, and annotation capabilities to capture tacit knowledge.  Content will be in the form of small reusable learning objects and associated metadata that provides contextual information to assist KM reasoning and delivery systems.  Moreover organizations are realizing that intellectual capital or corporate knowledge is a valuable asset that can be managed as effectively as physical assets in order to improve performance.  The focus of knowledge management is connecting people, processes and technology for the purpose of leveraging corporate knowledge.  The database professionals of today are the Knowledge Managers of the future, and they  will play an integral role in making these connections possible.

Technology is introducing a lot of change in the business world. Companies are struggling with security and cost strategies for  mobile applications, deciding which applications and processes to move to the cloud, ensuring effectiveness in business intelligence and Big Data solutions, incorporating social media data for a holistic customer view and implementing a collaborative environment.

Before we start our topic we have to know about what are business intelligent tools? Business Intelligence tools provide companies reliable information and true insights in order to improve decision making and social collaboration and produce better company results. These tools provide the means for efficient reporting, thorough analysis of data, statistics, analytics and dashboards displaying the relevant indicators. By using business intelligent tools on your company data you are able combine, analyze, report and visualize all that data very easily. It helps organizations to better understand how things are going and eventually where things are going wrong. They give employees and managers the possibility to improve their business processes on a daily basis by using correct information. Most of the time, business intelligence tools are standalone tools or suites of tools that are targeted to a specific industry. Business intelligence is basically just getting important business information to decision makers when they need it , in a way that they can actually use it. It’s a matter of figuring out what data you need, collecting it in a way that it’s meaningful, analyzing in a way that’s usable, and storing it in a way that you can keep referring to it in the future. If you’re familiar with business intelligence tools at all, you’ve probably heard of at least one of the main makers of business intelligence tools out there: Oracle, Microsoft, SAS Institute, SAP, or Tableau.  But even if you haven’t heard of these business intelligence tools, you’ve probably used one of the most common business intelligence tools around: Microsoft Excel, Open Office Calc, Apple Numbers, or Google Docs Spreadsheets . That’s right: a simple spreadsheet is most definitely a business intelligence tool.  And when it comes to using this data, visualizations and infographics are some of the best ways to present the data.

Someone who is interested in increasing the IT-smarts of his organization to help ensure success, we encouraged the CIO to approach the effort in a way that respects that change is driven from psychological, not just logical, forces. With this in mind, we identified eight steps to smarter IT. At this point in the process, the CIO has identified the high-impact opportunities and is ready to translate his strategy into specific tactics by doing the following:

Target people who like change. Accelerate adoption of IT-smart behaviors by targeting people who love new technology and those who are frustrated by the status quo (IT’s most vocal critics) and work with them to implement IT-smart programs, such as the “IT Gate” program discussed in this blog. When surveyed, business leaders say they want to learn more about how to  get the most out of the systems in place and what current technology can do and where it is headed,  make IT-enabled strategy and invest responsibly,  deliver complex solutions, and  learn how to work with IT. Define an education approach that communicates the critical concepts as quickly and painlessly as possible, engages business leaders, and promotes the application of the concepts in the real world.

Empower people to fulfill their IT-related needs on their own. IT can help the other parts of the business fulfill many of their day-to-day needs on their own.  Provide incentives for the right behavior. Make it easier to do the right thing than to do the wrong thing. This involves taxing undesirable behaviors as well as incenting desired behaviors. For example, establish light governance over projects that align with standards and heavy-handed governance for projects that are breaking the rules. Provide self-sufficiency tools at no cost and charge for services that users continue to delegate to IT (a reader of the previous blog required users who refused to use the business intelligence tools to “pay for the time of the IT people they were jerking around.“) In addition, leverage peer pressure by helping key influencers uplift their IT-smarts and broadly telegraph their accomplishments. As Seth Godin articulately stated in a recent blog, “The only real help is self-help. Anything else is just designed to get you to the point where you can help yourself.” With IT promoting self-sufficiency in all they do and deliver, business leaders will be able to drive IT-enabled innovation without day-to-day support from IT. It may take 10-15 years, but once business leaders can help themselves, the capacity for IT-enabled innovation will increase exponentially.

The Importance of Rewarding Your Team and employers

Although the idea of rewarding workers beyond their pay and benefits package seems obvious, some leaders avoid the practice, perhaps because they feel that showing appreciation undermines their authority, perhaps because they want to avoid stirring up jealousy in other members of the team, perhaps because they feel they don’t have the time to do it, or perhaps because they feel embarrassed praising people openly.

This is a shame, because these attitudes reduce their own performance, and all of these problems can or should be avoided. The most successful leaders are those who recognize and reward their team’s efforts. This not only builds trust, but it strengthens loyalty as well. Turnover is often much lower in teams that have a strong bond with their leader, and this impacts a company’s bottom line.

You should also remember that, for the most part, the world’s talent pool is shrinking – mostly due to declining birth rates, which leads to an aging workforce. This means that it’s becoming harder for organizations to find the people they need. Finding and keeping talented people is a key issue, and the companies that figure out how to do this now will likely be the ones that succeed far into the future. One of the best ways to keep these people is to make sure that their hard work is appreciated. If finding the few minutes needed to recognize people is a problem, just think how much time you’d have to spend replacing them!

Appropriately rewarding team members for something they’ve done takes some effort on your part. If you don’t put much thought into what you’re doing, then you may just upset the people you’re trying to thank. This is why you should sit down with your team and find out how they’d really like to be rewarded. There are a lot of creative ideas to consider for showing appreciation to your team and employers. One of the best and effective an idea is say “Thank you”. Your team members and your employers  will likely work much harder if they feel that what they’re doing really makes a difference, and that their efforts are noticed by those with “power”. Thank you gifts don’t have to be extravagant or costly.  A punitive program somehow connotes negativity. Motivating the employees through imposing punishments for failing to use business intelligence tools is, personally, an off. It is still much better to adopt a reward system for it exudes a positive attitude and willingness on the part of the concerned employees towards learning and actually espousing these tools.

Importance of Pay

Pay represents by far the most important and contentious element in the employment relationship, and is of equal interest to the employer and employee.

• to the employer because it represents a significant part of his costs, is increasingly important to his employees’ performance and to competitiveness, and affects his ability to recruit and retain a labour force of quality;

• to the employee because it is fundamental to his standard of living and is a measure of the value of his services or performance;

• to the government because it affects aspects of macro-economic stability such as employment, inflation, purchasing power and socio-economic development in general.

While the basic wage or pay is the main component of compensation, fringe benefits and cash and non-cash benefits influence the level of wages or pay because the employer is concerned more about labour costs than wage rates per se. The tendency now is towards an increasing mix of fringe benefits, which therefore have an important impact on pay levels. In industrialized countries, and sometimes in countries with high personal tax rates, the non-pay element of executive compensation has substantially increased in recent years.

                 In the 21st century, you can do anything at the click of a button. There is little to no need for human to human interactions when we can just do everything we need with a computer. Most of our interactions with computers are done via the internet. We can do everything from social networking, to business, to school. We can even shop online. From Amazon and eBay to department stores like Macy’s and Target, items can be purchased online with a computer and a few clicks of a button. In today’s world, shopping online is the preferred way to shop.

                  Shopping online is more convenient than driving to a store. If you have a computer with the internet, you can shop online at any store with a website. When you live in a rural area and the closest mall is an hour away, why drive when you can just shop online? Nobody wants to wait in line to buy the one thing they drove so far to get or find out that the item they wanted is sold out. You can just buy it at home. There are plenty of advantages to shopping online. Convenience is just the icing on the cake.

                    Variety gives people more freedom to choose what they like. The freedom to choose or have more options is available online. You can shop online for just about anything from electronics to books, clothes to home décor, and appliances to vehicles. Some stores only exist online like Amazon. You can buy new and used things online. There are websites like Craig’s List and eBay that allow consumers to sell their used or handmade products directly to other consumers. When you shop online you can shop anywhere in the world from the comfort of your home. Literally, you can shop anywhere in the world. Some stores only exist in other countries. You don’t have to travel there to shop there. Just go online! Because of the numerous advantages and benefits, more and more people say they prefer online shopping over conventional shopping these days. It’s important to understand the psyche of the online shopper. Cater to this and you’ll have them flocking to your online store. Here’s what they say are important to them — and here’s how you can get a leg up by catering to these desires and fantasies.

            There are many reasons for online retailers to be sanguine about the future of online retail. Here are some reasons that I choose buying online, in my own experience:

             You don’t have to wait in a line or wait till the shop assistant helps you with your purchases. You can do your shopping in minutes even if you are busy, apart from saving time and avoiding crowds. Online shops give us the opportunity to shop. You can do shopping, even at midnight with your pajamas. All I want to say is shopping online is more convenience. Also I get cheap deals and better prices from online stores because products come to you directly from the manufacturer or seller without middlemen involved. Many online shops offer discount coupons and rebates. One can get several brands and products from different sellers at one place. You can get in on the latest international trends without spending money on travel; you can shop from retailers in other parts of the country or even the world without being limited by geographic area… These stores offer a far greater selection of colors and sizes than you will find locally. If you find that the product you need is out of stock online, you can take your business to another online store where the product is available. Many times when we opt for conventional shopping we tend to spend a lot more than the required shopping expenses, on things like eating out, traveling, impulsive shopping etc. In short, it is the most hassle free mode of purchase these days. In fact, online shopping has almost discarded the traditional way of shopping. While this sounds amazing to the ears, online shopping isn’t as good as it seems. It has its own share of cons which must be considered. Here are some disadvantages of online shopping. You have to wait for delivery. If you wish to shop for something and want it on the very same day, online shopping is not for you. When you order something online, it takes at least 3-5 days or even weeks to get your stuff delivered. Also you can not really feel the items you purchase. No matter how enticing an outfit looks on a shopping portal, you can never be sure that you’d receive the exact same piece if you buy it online. Besides that, size, color and pattern may vary so that the chosen dress may not suit you at all. This is the biggest disadvantage of online shopping. Your purchase may be mishandled during shipping. Moreover online shopping brings with itself a huge risk of purchased items being mishandled during shipping. What’s more, if the product is found to be mishandled by the courier person or the shipping company, you could not do anything about it. You will then be left with only one option – call the seller and convince them to change the product. If the seller agrees to it, your problem is only half resolved because you will still have to pay the shipping charges. If the seller does not agree to your say, it’s a big loss for you. So we have to be careful when we buy something using online shop.

1. Three products I would have no hesitation buying over the internet:

                –    Books

                –    Applications

                –    Buying plane tickets

 

 

Never hesitate when looking for a plane ticket, books that I want to read and applications which I want to use my iphone or laptop. The moment you find a good priced cheap ticket, buy it. Don’t wait on the chance that the price will come down.

1. Three products I might want to think about before buying:

–          I phone and laptop

–          Clothes

–          Shoes

No matter how enticing an outfit looks on a shopping portal, you can never be sure that you’d receive the exact same piece if you buy it online. Besides that, size, color and pattern may vary so that the chosen dress may not suit you at all. That is why before buying have to consider about it again. One time I bought a dress using online store. However I never wear because of quality. The dress does not look like when I purchased.

1. Three products I would never consider buying over internet:

–          Jewelry

–          Perfume

–          Big items

 Jewelries, perfume, and big items which are car and house etc.. are just examples of products I would not try to resort buying online. These are products that can be deceiving when posted by their sellers over the internet. I could not assured that they will get exactly the one that I ordered. Because I have to see/ feel those items before I buy .

 

Organisations face the challenge of meeting the ever-increasing demands of customers and the marketplace with limited resources. Many have turned to outsourcing as one of their key organisational strategies. IT outsourcing refers to the contracting out of IT services or functions, which have previously been carried out by internal staff.

There are two driving forces when an organisation considers the option of outsourcing. One is the availability for specialists in external service providers to provide a more efficient and effective service than is possible within the organisation, and the other is the possibility of cost savings. By outsourcing non-core functions and processes, an organisation can devote more of its key resources to core business activities.

IT Outsourcing can cover a range of different services including application development and maintenance, network management, desktop management, IT helpdesk services and computer data centre management. IT Outsourcing can also be engaged on different scales, such as on a project basis or on a department-wide basis.

There have been reports of the leakage of sensitive or personal information around the world in recent years. These have imposed significant financial loss and damage of reputation on the organisations concerned. Apart from realising the tangible and intangible benefits to be gained through IT outsourcing, organisations need to become more wary of an outsourcing vendor’s security procedures for the protection of sensitive and personal information.

When a third party service vendor starts providing an outsourcing service, the vendor may be given access to internal information which can pose certain risks to the organisation:

1. the provider gains intimate knowledge of the people, IT infrastructure, procedures, approval channels, and even the weaknesses and limitations of systems (including both IT and non-IT systems) currently in place;

2. the provider may be processing and handling critical information, systems and assets, and hence have access to sensitive or personal information;

3. the provider may have valid user IDs and passwords with authorisation to access certain highly sensitive systems logically and/or physically.

Attackers and those with criminal intent may try to get hold of this internal operation information and use it for malicious social engineering activities. Together with the rapid advancement in technology such as email and the Internet, removable storage devices  and easy remote access to the organisation’s information system, the risks associated with misuse of the system and data theft  due to insider infiltration cannot be underestimated. In fact, untimely termination of systems accounts and revocation of access rights to staff who are leaving the organisation may introduce security loopholes. In the worst case, if the systems in place do not provide for accountability and proper logging procedures, fraud as well as data security and breaches of privacy can occur without any trace being left behind. The running and monitoring of a large-scale outsourcing project is not easy. Any failure in IT governance can have a substantial impact on business. While enjoying the cost savings or other benefits brought about by IT outsourcing, management should bear in mind that an organisation can only outsource its operations, but not its responsibilities. Security impact analyses and risk assessments should be started as early as drafting of the contract and cover the vendor’s IT environment as well as the organisation’s. On-going monitoring and regular reviews must also be conducted to ensure proper management  IT outsourcing project and service.

             

 

                          In 21^st century that we live in, we call it century of technology.  For me, When I was in high school I had a class which was teaching us how to use computer. That was my first encounter about computer.  My teacher taught us everything even how to create new account in yahoo which at that time seems so new to me. However our knowledge of computer was limited.  We can’t use computer anywhere and anytime as today because computer seemed to be a luxury thing for us to afford. We were all admired and struck by the all those things the computer can do.

                          Seeing how technology has changed since my high school days. Now we can do everything using computer plus internet. Also it is getting easier to use just a mouse click away, done.  Maybe those things are becoming important part of our life. Especially for me, since arriving here my laptop become my best friend. I am happy with the advance of new technologies. Technology makes up my everyday life. From morning while eating my breakfast  I listen to the  music. Then I check news feed of all my friends activities in Facebook and read tweets in Twitter. And checking some words using Google translator which I found when  I was listening to the music.  Even when I got a sick I search an information about my disease and try to mend myself.  Moreover , I can talk and chat through the Internet with my family and friends anytime I want. All I can do this because of technology.  That is why you can easily get technology is how much important to me.  So I realized Information Technology has already become a part of me and others too, not just because of I am living abroad because I truly understand how useful it is nowadays.